A to Z Literary Ladies – Ginny Weasley

Ginny Weasley

 “The thing about growing up with Fred and George is that you sort of start thinking anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.” (Ginny to Harry)-J.K. Rowling, Order of the Phoenix

The basics:

Age ranging from 10 years to late teens through out the series; youngest child and only daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley; long  flaming red hair; brown eyes; athletic; quick witted and spirited; powerful witch.

Where to find her:

Ginny appears in all seven books of the Harry Potter series by J.K Rowling.

Why she made the list:

Through all the Harry Potter books, Ginny has always been my favorite female character. Ginny is strong and spirited (you have to be able to hold your own when you have five older brothers), and quite often has some of the funniest come backs in the book.

Ginny is responsible for holding the Quidich team together when Harry takes over as captain. She is the one who comes up the name forDumbledore’s Army, helps Nevil try to steal the sword of Griffendor and keeps the rebellion going at Hogwarts while Harry, Ron and Heromine are off chasing horcruxes. Even though it doesn’t always show, Ginny has Harry’s back through out the series.

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My A to Z Challenge theme this year is a celebration of literary females.

I don’t necessarily mean famous literature or famous women, just ladies from some of the many books I have read over the years, who have stayed with me for whatever reason. Some are main characters, some are not. Some are heroines, some are screw-ups and some are very, very naughty but, for me, they were the driving force in the story, the reason I kept reading or came back to read again.

Perhaps, if you haven’t already met these literary ladies, you’ll be inspired to, and if you have, we can compare notes and share opinions. I’d love to hear about your favorite female.

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A to Z Literary Ladies – Ermatrude Fanshaw

Ermatrude (Daphne) Fanshaw

The basics:

Thirteen years old;  a distant cousin of the British crown in the year 1860;  polite and kind; often refered to as “ghost girl” due to her fair coloring and her white clothing.

Where to find her: 

Ermatrude, who renames herself Daphne, is the main female character in the novel Nation (2008) written by Terry Pratchett of DiscWorld fame. The premises, according to Goodreads:

“Alone on a desert island — everything and everyone he knows and loves has been washed away in a storm — Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s completely alone — or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird, and gives him a stick that can make fire.
Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, that all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot, until other survivors arrive to take refuge on the island. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things (including how to milk a pig, and why spitting in beer is a good thing), and start to forge a new nation.”

Why she made the list:

Daphne is a girl who is able to find good in others and appreciate their differences. Raised as the girl whose father is “138th in line to the British throne” she is drilled on proper behavior and the importance of protocol, but when she finds herself stranded on the island, alone and totally without the skills to survive, she is open and ready to learn a new way.  Mau teachers her things that are weird and foreign to her but she respects his traditions and trusts that he and the other islanders know what is best.

She doesn’t try to change them, or teach them a “better” way and is always open to doing what ever is asked of her. Just the amount of effort Daphne puts in to communicating with Mau is enough to earn her a place on my list, but she is also funny and good natured and selfless.

In the end, when the island is invaded by pirates, it is Daphne’s willingness to accept the strange new customs that saves her life. The Pirates consider the islanders savages with no intelligence who are beneath their contempt. This turns out to be their undoing.

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My A to Z Challenge theme this year is a celebration of literary females.

I don’t necessarily mean famous literature or famous women, just ladies from some of the many books I have read over the years, who have stayed with me for whatever reason. Some are main characters, some are not. Some are heroines, some are screw-ups and some are very, very naughty but, for me, they were the driving force in the story, the reason I kept reading or came back to read again.

Perhaps, if you haven’t already met these literary ladies, you’ll be inspired to, and if you have, we can compare notes and share opinions. I’d love to hear about your favorite female.

An A to Z of Literary Ladies – Kate Erickson

Kate Erickson

“Kate moved quickly down the center rafter. Despite the height above the floor, she felt perfectly comfortable. The beam was six inches wide. Nothing to it. Hearing another gasp from the people below, she glanced back and saw Sir Guy step onto the center beam…” -Michael Crichton, Timeline

The Basics:

Short ash blonde hair; blue eyes; darkly tan; early twenties; originally from Colorado; a graduate student at Yale university spending the summer helping to excavate ruins in France along the Dordogne River.

Where to find her:

Kate Erickson is a secondary character in a 1999 novel by Michel Crichton entitled  Timeline. A science fiction thriller, Timeline tells the story of a group of historians who travel back to medieval France on a rescue mission. Anyone familiar with me knows that time travel is a favorite book theme of mine and this particular one is my favorite.

Why she made the list:

I can come up with a few reasons why I’m a fan of Kate’s. First of all, she has a cool job. She was originally an architecture major but switched to history, so in the book she’s been recruited to spend the summer in France studying the ruins of an ancient medieval castle. When they end up traveling back to 1357, she is the one who knows her way around the castle and even shows the others a few secret passages she had discovered.

I could also say that I appreciate her practicality and resourcefulness. Originally, when she goes back in time, she is fitted with typical female clothing from the time period, however, Kate quickly discovers how confining and constricting the long skirt is so she trades it in first chance she gets and spends the remainder of the time masquerading as a young squire. That gives her the physical freedom of movement that brings me to my most favorite reason…she likes to climb stuff!

Kate is an avid rock climber, something she did quite a bit back home in Colorado. At the site, she spends every Sunday climbing the rock cliffs along the Dordogne River and when we first meet her, she is hanging from a harness fifty feet in the air taking mortar samples from the chapel ceiling. I totally get this.

As a kid, I was always up in trees or at the top of the monkey bars. There is a certain freedom that comes with being high up and I loved to freak out my mom by dangling from my knees. Even as an adult, I enjoy heights and climbing. My favorite ride is the Ferris wheel and, if I can ever talk my husband into it, I would love to go up in a hot air balloon.

Near the end of the book, there is a really great chase scene that puts Kate’s climbing skills and her love of heights to very good use. In an attempt to get away from a very nasty knight she finds herself tiptoeing around up in the rafters of the castle’s great hall. Michael Crichton very kindly included some illustrations in the book including this one of the ceiling…

Does it look like fun to you? Kate thinks it is and, as she moves around quite nimbly from beam to beam the crowd below begins cheering her on. I don’t want to spoil the suspense by telling you exactly what happens but I will tell you, it doesn’t end well for the knight.😊

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My A to Z Challenge theme this year is a celebration of literary females.

I don’t necessarily mean famous literature or famous women, just ladies from some of the many books I have read over the years, who have stayed with me for whatever reason. Some are main characters, some are not. Some are heroines, some are screw-ups and some are very, very naughty but, for me, they were the driving force in the story, the reason I kept reading or came back to read again.

Perhaps, if you haven’t already met these literary ladies, you’ll be inspired to, and if you have, we can compare notes and share opinions. I’d love to hear about your favorite female.

An A to Z of Literary Ladies – Casey Singleton

Casey Singleton

     “Casey looked at his smooth face, smelled his cologne. The little bastard was enjoying this.  And in a moment of fury, of deep outrage, she suddenly saw another possibility.                                        From the beginning, she had tried so hard to do the right thing, to solve the problem of 545. She had been honest, she had been straight, and it had just gotten her into trouble.   Or had it?      “You have to face facts, here” Richman said.  “It’s over.  There’s nothing you can do.”   She pushed away from the sink.

“Watch me,” she said.  And she walked out of the room.

   -Michael Crichton, Airframe

The basics:

Thirty-six years old divorcee;  short brown hair; athletic body; mom to 7 year old Amanda; vice-president at Norton Air Craft; resides in Glendale, California.

Where to find her:

Casey is the main character and heroine in Michael Crichton 1996 novel “Airframe” a mystery/thriller involving a flight in which ninety-four passengers are injured, three are killed and the interior cabin virtually destroyed. Casey, who is in charge of quality control and public relations is thrown into the middle of the investigation and tasked with finding out exactly what happened on board TransPacific flight 545.

Why she made the list:

Casey Singleton is a no nonsense Midwest girl, a “straight arrow” as her boss at Norton calls her. She grew up in Detroit, earned a degree in journalism and began her career working for Ford Motors. Eventually she moved to California, trading cars for airplanes. She is smart and tenacious and very good at her job.

The entire novel takes place within a weeks time, a week in which Casey’s seven year old daughter is away with her dad and therefore removed from what becomes a dangerous situation. It is lucky, though, that she has experience dealing with her own child because most of the men she works with behave like children themselves! Apologizes to any male readers but Michael Crichton threw his own gender under the bus when he wrote this one. There are very few likeable male characters in Airframe and amid all the postulating executives and engineers, as well as one naive female TV producer, Casey is the sole voice of reason.

When Casey realizes that she has been set up by people who expect her to do as she is told, she instead figures out a way to do what is right. In the end,  she out thinks and out maneuvers the big shots and solves the mystery of flight 545 as well.

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My A to Z Challenge theme this year is a celebration of literary females.

I don’t necessarily mean famous literature or famous women, just ladies from some of the many books I have read over the years, who have stayed with me for whatever reason. Some are main characters, some are not. Some are heroines, some are screw-ups and some are very, very naughty but, for me, they were the driving force in the story, the reason I kept reading or came back to read again.

Perhaps, if you haven’t already met these literary ladies, you’ll be inspired to, and if you have, we can compare notes and share opinions. I’d love to hear about your favorite female characters too.

 

An A to Z of Literary Ladies – Lily Bard

Lily Bard

“Once upon a time, years ago, I thought I was pretty. My sister, Varena, and I had the usual rivalry going, and I remember deciding my eyes were bigger and a lighter blue than hers,…… I haven’t seen Varena in three years now. Probably she is the pretty one. Though my face hasn’t changed, my mind has. The workings of the mind look out through the face and alter it. “- Charlaine Harris; Shakespeare’s Landlord

The basics:

Middle thirties; short blonde hair, toned and muscular body; skilled in martial arts; resides in Shakespeare, Arkansas.

Where to find her:

Lily Bard makes her first appearance in Charlaine Harris’ mystery novel “Shakespeare’s Landlord“(2005), and in all the subsequent books in the series. Lily, who makes her living as a housekeeper, finds herself thrown into situations of murder and mayham where the intimacy that is achieved by cleaning a person’s home makes her the perfect sleuth.

Why she made the list:

Lily is a survivor. After suffering a life altering act of violence, she leaves her home and wanders for a bit until she finds herself poeticly drawn to the little town of Shakespeare. Here she quietly rebuilds her life and begins to heal both the physical and mental scars left from her ordeal.

I apprecialte a lot of things about Lily. Her simplistic, almost Spartan life style, her need for order,  her desire to take care of herself and her tendency to use humor or sarcasm in uncomfortable situations are all traits that I understand. Additionally, by choosing to make her living cleaning houses, she employs a form of therapy I use myself. When the world seems out of control, being able to clean, straighten and put some parts of it in order offers a certain sense of control.

Slowly, through out the series, Lily starts to open up and begins her healing process. She gets close to people and starts to trust again and, while she will never be her old self again, she learns to love the person she has become.

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My A to Z Challenge theme this year is a celebration of literary females.

I don’t necessarily mean famous literature or famous women, just ladies from some of the many books I have read over the years, who have stayed with me for whatever reason. Some are main characters, some are not. Some are heroines, some are screw-ups and some are very, very naughty but, for me, they were the driving force in the story, the reason I kept reading or came back to read again.

Perhaps, if you haven’t already met these literary ladies, you’ll be inspired to, and if you have, we can compare notes and share opinions. I’d love to hear about your favorite female characters too.