GOTH ROCK RULZ

I stumbled across a book title that got me really, really excited: The Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder. ZOMG. Laura Ingalls Wilder shaped my girlhood, and Jane Austen shaped my teen years. Must. Read. This. Book.

But when I actually started reading it today, I didn't get far before I lost patience.

And nowhere is Lizzy's raucus, flawed, and decided sense of self more clear or more enticing than in the moments in which she does the exact opposite of what she is expected to do.

A nice thought, except raucus? Raucus, as in harsh or rough? (I looked up Wiktionary's definition, just to make sure I remembered the meaning right.) Raucus and Miss Lizzy in the same sentence? Wow, which version of Pride and Prejudice have I been reading? I'm sorry, but Elizabeth Bennet is not raucus, nor are her manners. Nor, even, is her "sense of self" as a connoisseur of human folly.

Reading further, the intense admiration for Austen is adorable, but the constant harping on self and sense of self drove me nuts. Is it really so hard to figure out who you are and who you want to be? It must be for some, though that's kinda hard for me to relate. For me, the hard part is letting other people figure out who you really are, because that requires a lot of trust.

This book (which has an AWESOME cover) starts out quite promising and engrossing, then grows a bit disturbing and annoying. It ends before it can redeem itself.

The first page introduces a battlefield charmingly:

Ravens! Always the ravens.

( Here is the rest . . . )