Erin M. Blakemore learned to drool over Darcy and
cry over Little Women
growing up in suburban San Diego, Calif. These days, her inner heroine loves roller derby,
running her own business and hiking in her adopted hometown of Boulder, Colo. The
Heroine's Bookshelf: Life Lessons, from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder (Harper,
October 19, 2010) is her first book.
On your nightstand now:
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. One of those "should-reads" that's turned into the book I push on others.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The entire Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I forced my mother to sew me period costumes and pressed my dog into service as an ox for my makeshift covered wagon.
Your top five authors:
In order of their appearance in my life: Charlotte Bronte, whom I read when I was far too small and whose steady words have far more to offer an adult me; Anne Frank, whose literary feats become more stunning over time; Margaret Mitchell, who put a flapper in hoop skirts; Wolfgang Borchert, a hellraiser with a hoarse voice; and Dorothy Parker, who went there.
Book you've faked reading:
To the Lighthouse. Could not deal.
Book you're an evangelist for:
Diana Vreeland's wild and completely unbelievable autobiography, D.V.
Book you've bought for the cover:
A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick. The cover's a pretty apt metaphor for the book, I'd say... pretty on the outside, sordid and lots of fun within.
Book that changed your life:
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Impossible to quantify except by gasps of recognition as I rediscover it for the thousandth time.
Favorite line from a book:
"They could not be forgotten, she thought, because now is now. It can never be a long time ago." --Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House in the Big Woods
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I'm not sure any book has a clearer view of what it means to grow up.