Five Favorite Books is a special feature at the LA Books Examiner in which our favorite authors share and discuss their five favorite books within a category. In this edition, author Shelly Rachanow discusses her five favorite books with fearless female characters. Shelly is the author of What Would You Do If You Ran the World? and If Women Ran the World Sh*t Would Get Done. Shelly also writes a blog called Celebrating the Wonderful Things Women Do.
Five Favorite Fearless Literary Women…At Least, This Month by Shelly Rachanow
I’ve been around strong, smart, sassy, amazing women my entire life. My grandmother raised four kids on her own and worked outside the home at a time when women weren’t supposed to do either. My mother routinely fought for better sidewalks, programs, and laws for the disabled while still managing to have time for her children (not to mention dinner on the table) every night.
Think for a moment about the women you know today. How many of them have baked, raced, ran, or walked for hours, days, or entire weekends for important causes and cures? How many have taken food to a sick neighbor, or sent money to help a poor child halfway around the world? How many have hopped on a plane and traveled there to help feed that child themselves?
Women are amazing in life and in books. And while it’s impossible for me to narrow down my list of favorite fearless literary females to just five, I can share my five favorites this month, given what I’ve been reading lately. Come September, I may very well have a new (or at least a bigger) list!
1. Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, Stieg Larrson (2009)
I heard about The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for nearly a year before I finally bought the book and read it, and I’m so glad I waited. Not because I didn’t like the book – I loved it, in fact I devoured all three books in the series. By starting the series a few months ago, I finished the first and second book after the third book was already released. Which is a good thing, because having to wait months for the third book would have been torture!
One of the central figures of the series is the girl with that titular tattoo, Lisbeth Salander, who is unlike most any female character I know of. A genius and high-level computer hacker, we learn early on that Salander’s childhood was traumatic, with a period that “all the evil” happened. Salander also suffers from Aspergers syndrome (or something similar) and that combination means she doesn’t trust or connect with many people (though the people who are loyal to her are fiercely loyal). Through all three books, Salander is resourceful, feisty, and has no mercy when it comes to taking revenge on people who have wronged her (like tattooing “I am a sadist, a pervert and a rapist” onto the stomach of one such person).
Despite her tactics, despite numerous actions against the law, I cheered her every step of the way, flipping hurriedly through sections wanting to make sure she succeeded. I’ve never felt more fiercely protective of a character in any book I’ve read…ever! Sadly, author Stieg Larrson passed away in 2004, with a fourth book nearly completed (rumor has it he had plans for ten books in the series). I will miss the chance to enjoy what would surely have been even more late-night page turners.
2. Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling (1998-2007)
How I wish the Harry Potter books were around when I was little – being a smart kid would have felt so much cooler! Hermione Granger is not just smart, she’s the smartest witch or wizard in her generation. But she’s also so much more than that. She’s a wonderful example of what it means to be loyal and compassionate towards others.
Along with Ron Weasley, Hermione is one of Harry Potter’s closest friends and throughout the seven books of the series she champions those who are less able to stand up for themselves (be it the house elves at their school in Hogwarts, Hagrid, Neville Longbottom, and many others). Hermione does so much more than bury her head in her books and ace her exams. She shows young girls that it’s cool to be smart, and it’s even cooler to stand up and make a difference.
3. Precious Ramotswe in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, Alexander McCall Smith (1998-2010)
Starting your own business is a challenge for anyone. Even more so for a woman in Botswana, Africa like Precious Ramotswe. But that didn’t stop her. Precious opened her country’s first (and only) female-owned detective agency. Why? Because she loved her country and the people there. As she says in the book, “It is my duty to help them to solve the mysteries in their lives. That is what I am called to do.”
And that she does, from helping a woman named Happy prove a man impersonating her father was a phony to finding a child feared killed by a witch doctor. In doing so, Precious says something that should be a motto for all of us: “There was so much suffering in Africa that it was tempting just to shrug your shoulders and walk away. But you can’t do that…. You just can’t.”
4. Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen (1813)
I know it may sound cliché, but Elizabeth Bennett has always been my favorite Jane Austin heroine, ever since I first read the book nearly thirty years ago. When I was little, I loved her because she loved books as much as I did and because she always had the perfect witty comeback for every situation (a talent I’ve longed for my entire life).
I love her still because of her fierceness, and also her stubbornness. I love that she doesn’t shrink in the face of Darcy’s aunt’s belief that a girl of inferior birth could ever attract her nephew. I love that she refused to marry Mr. Collins, the perfect example of not settling for less than what she knows she’s worth. And I love that she could see more for herself and for women than her circumstances allowed.
Today, in parts of the world, there are women like Elizabeth Bennet seeing the same for themselves and their friends, sisters, and neighbors. To me, she represents every woman who’s ever known we are more than any limit anyone tries to place on us. That is why Elizabeth Bennet will always have a spot on my list.
5. Elizabeth McKenna in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008)
Without giving too much of the story away, Elizabeth McKenna is a character we learn about through others. She’s a resident of the island of Guernsey (near England) during the German occupation in World War Two. Food was scarce and limited to things like turnips and potatoes during that time, but one night a group of friends was able to feast on pig for dinner, Elizabeth McKenna among them. With all the talking and eating, they’d forgotten about curfew until the chimes dinged.
As they headed home, a group of soldiers stopped them, asking them why they were out and why they had broken curfew. That’s when Elizabeth, ever fearless and despite the guns pointed at her, walked up to the officer, apologizing for breaking curfew but explaining that they “had been attending a meeting of the Guernsey Literary Society, and the evening’s discussion of Elizabeth and Her German Garden had been so delightful that we had all lost track of time. Such a wonderful book – had he read it?” She saved all her friends from arrest (or worse) and that’s how the society of the book’s title began.
But it’s not just that moment that earned Elizabeth a spot on my list. She sheltered and fed an escaped German prisoner who was ill and needed help. She came up with a plan for a Jewish friend to impersonate a Lord (even painting his picture) to save him from a possible terrible fate. When confronting needed to happen, she did so with gusto and pizzazz. When someone needed a shoulder, she offered that and more. She was the kind of friend everyone wants to have, the kind of person everyone wishes they were. She was brave, honest, loving, and compassionate and will forever be a beautifully written fabulous, fearless, literary delight!
I’d love to know who your favorite fearless literary females are. Email me yours at shelly@ifwomenrantheworld.com.
Shelly Rachanow is the author of If Women Ran the World, Sh*t Would Get Done and What Would You Do If YOU Ran the World?, two books that celebrate all the wonderful things women do. Visit her online at www.ifwomenrantheworld.com and www.WhatWouldYouDoIfYouRanTheWorld.com and read her interviews with women around the world who are doing amazing things at www.ifwomenrantheworld.blogspot.com.
Read Frank Mundo’s interview with Shelly Rachanow.
Read more Five Favorite Books
Frank Mundo, the LA Books Examiner, is the author of The Brubury Tales.
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