New Year, New 30 Day Book Challenge, Day 16

Day 16: Favorite Female Character

Liz:

Hey look! I get to go first today! Gianna's love connection attempts to find me a soul mate will have to wait at least a paragraph or two. (I've convinced friends to play board games with me for the first time in six months and need to finish my half of the post before Gianna's ready.) 

Today's topic is our favorite female character, and this one's easy for me. I'm going to reveal here for the first time that Stieg Larsson modeled his protagonist from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo after me.  Naturally I love myself.  Shall we look at the evidence?

Liz....beth.

1. Lizbeth Salander. It even sounds like Elizabeth Sullivan.
2. Lizbeth has a twin sister named Camilla. I have a twin sister named Kathryn.
3. Lizbeth is brilliant.  I know, this one's obvious.
4. Lizbeth is socially awkward and tends to behave outside the bounds of social norms. I once gave a presentation to nuns in which I discussed Harry Hole.
5. We have rage issues.
6. We are both single. Daniel Craig may or may not have been our true love.
7. Lizbeth has a dragon tattoo. The dragon is my Chinese Zodiac sign.
8. Lizbeth's heritage is dark, the daughter of a Russian mobster and prostitute. I grew up in East Texas.
9. Gianna is in love with Lizbeth. Gianna is in love with me.

I feel such relief. The truth shall set you free and all that. Please don't send me fan letters, though. I want to maintain my privacy. 

Gianna:

I try not to read books with female protagonists, so this category will be tough.  Okay the first few that come to mind, and I know Liz is going to totally make fun of mine, but she only makes fun of me because she has a not so secret crush on me. Also, I have not seen Liz’s picks yet, but twenty bucks says she picks Mrs. Dalloway. [wow....how wrong was I?]

Okay, you are a punk if you don’t love every single female character in Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café. Ruth, Idgie, Evelyn, Mrs. Threadgoode, and of course ‘secrets in the sauce’ Sipsey.

I love Lillian from one of my favorite novels, Away by Amy Bloom. I think Lillian is the kind of woman (or man, really) that I aspire to. She’s smart and fearless. She escapes Russia after the murder of her entire family, including her daughter. While in New York she meets a woman who claims Lillian’s daughter is still alive in Russia. Lillian is able to “negotiate” transportation all the way to Alaska, but with no other option she must walk the rest of the way along the Telegraph Trail toward Siberia. 

The last two thoughts in my head about awesome ladies are; Jo, from  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, and pretty much any woman that Margaret Atwood writes. If you have to ask why you’re in trouble.

Days of Love...and Lack Thereof, Day 4

Gianna:

I think that if you are making a list of romantic books, as devastating as she can be, you must include at least one Amy Bloom book. My Amy Bloom book is the epic tale Away.

Amy Bloom

Lillian Leyb’s parents, husband, and presumably her three-year-old daughter Sophie were brutally killed in Russia. Lillian escapes from Russia to New York in 1924 where she finds work as a seamstress in a Yiddish theatre. She soon becomes lovers with the lead actor of the troupe and his powerful father. After whispers that her daughter may still be alive and living in Russia, Lillian begins planning her trip back home. With little help, she begins an epic journey across the country: a train to Chicago, then to Washington, culminating with her walk across the Alaskan wilderness to find her daughter.  This novel is incredibly rich with full three-dimensional characters that you won’t be able to forget. Away is one of the most powerful, well-written novels I have read, yet completely accessible. This novel may not be romantic in a Valentine sort of way, but trust me, it is romantic in a bold way.

Side note: Away was inspired by Lillian Alling who attempted to walk home to Russia from New York in 1927. 

Liz:

Ah, Cormac McCarthy.  No one tells a love story quite like you.  You're a modern Jane Austen.  Who else could take a story of the bleakest post-apocalyptic world ever written and turn it into a love story?  The Road is full of beautiful writing, charming scenery like that basement full of half-dead zombie people, passionate interactions with roving bands of humans who love romantic dinners of humans (mmm....cannabalism....), and the most wonderful ode to a soda ever written.  Trust me, this novel is great.  At its center are a father and son walking along a road with only a gun and two bullets to save them from true horrors.  In spite of the bleak setting, The Road actually really is an uplifting story of parental love...even if you'll want to use that last bullet on yourself after reading it, it's just that upbeat.