Today’s Top Ten Tuesday meme (hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and The Bookish) is pretty open! Basically, we pick ten characters who do something. So I thought all day about a characteristic that I’d really like to examine a bit more closely, and finally at 11pm my time, it came to me!
Top Ten Characters Who Inspire Me
- Emma Woodhouse (from Pemberley Digital’s Emma Approved) – A far more likeable modern version of my least favorite Jane Austen heroine, this Emma is all about the self-empowerment! She’s constantly encouraging (and sometimes forcing) every woman she meets to be the best they can be, without being someone they’re not. The most inspiring thing about Emma is that she’s always persistent when it comes to achieving a goal; nothing is impossible with hard work and the right attitude.
- Anne Shirley (from the Anne of Green Gables series) – Of course I would have to include my favorite fictional character in this list. I adore Anne’s creativity, open-mindedness, and her wild imagination. One of my favorite things she did was create a short-story club with her friends, where they would get together to share and critique their stories with each other. Plus she headed up I don’t know how many clubs and improvement projects. Definitely an over-achiever and take-charge kind of woman!
- Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë’s beloved heroine) – Although I in no way envy Jane Eyre’s life, I do admire and respect many of her wonderful qualities. The ones that inspire me the most are her unfailing talent to forgive those who hurt her the most, her unfaltering senses of morality and self-respect, and her revolutionary ability of knowing what she deserved out of life. For a mid-19th century lower class orphan, Jane Eyre never believed she didn’t deserve happiness, but she certainly wouldn’t sacrifice her self-respect to obtain it. She’s also extremely good-hearted and patient.
- Beatrice “Tris” Prior (from the Divergent series) – I’m late in joining the Divergent fan club, but I am happy to admit that I finally read the novels (just so I could see the movie–I’m one of those “I always read the book” first type of gals)! Although this isn’t my favorite series, as I felt there were many things missing from the novels, I did love all the strong female characters! I definitely respect this trend going on at the moment. I related a lot to Tris: I know without a doubt that I would be a Divergent just like her, and I also would choose the Dauntless faction. My current mantra is “be brave,” and I owe it all to Tris’s bravery for giving me the courage to conquer some of the difficult tasks I’ve had to face lately.
- Atticus Finch (from To Kill a Mockingbird) – Where to begin?! Atticus Finch is essentially the perfect parent. He’s intelligent, wise, patient, honorable, good, virtuous, AND he has a sense of humor. He leads by example and encourages his children to love and respect people, not the way the world would tell them to, but they way they deserve to be loved and respected. He doesn’t hide the ugliness of the world from his children, but he gradually opens their eyes to it in doses they can handle and come to terms with. Atticus Finch inspires me not only to be an inspiring parent one day, but he inspires me to be a good person each and every day.
- Scout Finch (from To Kill a Mockingbird) – I couldn’t pick just one member of the Finch clan. Scout is one of my all-time favorite narrators. I love her young and innocent perspective of the world because it is so inspiring. She sees through the hard and calloused exteriors of people to their real, vulnerable hearts. Scout lives during a time of extreme social and racial prejudices, issues that would generally anger and disgust me, but through the pure and unblemished eyes of Scout, I finished this novel completely awestruck and inspired to find people I could treat as nicely as Scout and her father and brother did.
- Joanna Robbins (from Karen Witemeyer’s Stealing the Preacher) – I enjoy reading Christian Historical Romances from time to time, but I’ll admit they’re usually pretty cheesy. Karen Witemeyer is my favorite author in that genre, though, and it’s because she creates plot lines that aren’t cheesy, and her characters are so strong and inspiring that I feel uplifted for quite some time after reading her books. A quality that I admired about one of her heroines, Joanna Robbins, was accepting our physical appearances as God-given and something we shouldn’t feel ashamed about. Joanna herself wasn’t too keen on her red hair. Now I have red hair but I’ve always loved it so I must be the odd carrot-top out ;) But there are plenty of other things about my appearance that I don’t like, and I felt inspired by what Joanna said when she found herself downcast about her unusual hair color; she reminds herself that it is a gift from God: “Don’t despise it because it is different. See the beauty in His gift.”
- Esther (from The Bible) – If you ask most Christian women who their favorite woman of the Bible is, most likely they will say Esther. But if you know her story you will understand why. Esther is bold, courageous, and full of faith, and in many ways she would be the perfect heroine in a YA dystopian novel. She risks her life to protect her family and to do the right thing, and in a dire situation she summons the bravery to speak one of the most inspirational lines in the Bible: “If I perish, I perish.” It just makes me want to run into battle to defend all the things I believe in!
- Anne Elliot (from Jane Austen’s Persuasion) – I seem to take a liking to literary heroines named Anne ;) This Anne is probably my favorite Austen heroine. I know most people would choose Elizabeth Bennet, and although I myself take after Catherine Morland from Northanger Abbey, good-hearted and pure Ms. Elliot just inspires me so much! She has a subtle yet much appreciated talent of bringing out the best in others (kind of like Emma, whom I mentioned at the top of this list, but not so much in-your-face), and there’s not a mean or malicious bone in her body. She thinks the best of everyone and is constantly looking for ways to serve others. Plus, she’s the type of person you would want near you in a crisis; she’ll be completely calm and manage to get everything done while the rest of the world freaks out or faints.
- Ginny Weasley (from the Harry Potter series) – My favorite Weasley :) I always admired Ginny’s strong will and fearless attitude. We don’t see much of her early on in the series, but in the last few books she becomes quite popular among the Dumbledore’s Army crowd, mainly because “she’s a beast,” as my old Cross Country pals would have said. I’d be afraid to face her in a battle or Quidditch game, but I’d love teaming up with her because I know she’d help me to be brave and bold when I’d naturally want to back down. Also, and spoiler alert for anyone who hasn’t read Harry Potter, but I don’t care what J.K. Rowling said recently; Harry belongs with Ginny, just like she wrote it, and not with Hermione.
There you have it! Which characters inspire you the most? Does anyone from my list make yours as well? I kept this list to literary characters, but there are plenty of screen characters who inspire me as well!
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell – “Hi, I’m the guy who reads your e-mail, and also, I love you . . . ” (from the official 
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill – I usually tend to stay away from Young Adult romances that aren’t of the sci-fi/dystopian genre because I tend to find them flat and shallow, but when I saw the lively and gorgeous cover of Meant to Be, I didn’t hesitate to throw my prejudices aside and give it a shot (I mean, look at how colorful and inviting this cover art is! PLEASE judge this book by its cover). This story is a coming of age tale about Julia, a bookish and athletic goodie-good whose high school field trip to London seems completely ruined when she is paired up with Jason, the attention-hogging class clown who seems only interested in partying and pushing every one of Julia’s nerves. But after Julia begins receiving romantic texts from an unknown number, she accepts Jason’s offer to help her win over her mystery guy in exchange for agreeing to break some rules along the way. Despite Jason’s irritating behavior, Julia finds herself both puzzled and challenged by his carpe-diem outlook on life and begins wondering if her own expectations in life are really meant to be.
The Last Best Kiss by Claire LaZebnik – This book was a welcomed breaker of my expectations. As already stated, I do not typically read Young Adult romances unless they come highly recommended (or if they have a captivating cover, like Meant to Be). LaZebnik’s other novel, Epic Fail sparked my interest when I heard it was an enjoyably modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice (my second favorite novel of all time), and maybe my expectations were too high because I was not too satisfied overall (to be honest, I was really into it but the last 1/3 was overly cheesy and clichéd). But still, I was determined to have modern Austen adaptations redeemed, and then I discovered The Last Best Kiss, a retelling of Persuasion (my third favorite novel). I read the book in less than a day and immediately wrote up a 
The Deserted Island (from The Lord of the Flies):
The Mental Hospital (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
Wonderland (from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
The Jungle (from The Most Dangerous Game)
Airstrip One (from Nineteen Eighty-Four)
Any place featured in Shakespeare’s tragedies (mainly the supernatural world of Macbeth)
Earth under alien attack (from The War of the Worlds)
Kingsbridge (from The Pillars of the Earth)
Westeros (from A Song of Ice and Fire series)
Avonlea, Prince Edward Island (from the Anne of Green Gables series)
Anne of Green Gables series – Let’s just start with the best (and my most favorite) on this list: Anne of Green Gables! I’ve written about my beloved Anne already on my blog, so I won’t repeat myself, but I do want to say that this is still my favorite book of all time, and I can’t wait to have my own daughter to share these stories with :)
Charlotte’s Web – What a lovely book. Some images from this book that still pop up in my mind from time to time are buttermilk baths for pigs and newborn baby spiders floating around everywhere (I hope that doesn’t discourage any would-be readers: it really is a wonderful book!).
Walk Two Moons – I honestly don’t remember much from this book except that I was enamored by it for months. I believe my best friend owned it and of course since she was a year older than me I looked up to her in so many ways (the reason I read Anne of Green Gables was because she read it first). I should reread this one day.
Harry Potter series – I tried narrowing this down to one Harry Potter book, but they all tend to blend together. I read the first three for a book report project in fifth grade and I remember not being able to put them down (I can still see myself sitting at our dining room table reading about the Chamber of Secrets). As is the case with most readers, I still love this series, although the last movie adaptation disappointed me. I’d like to reread Harry Potter sometime soon :)
The Giver – Another book I’ve talked about on this blog, but still one of my all-time favorites and a book I often recommend to my adult friends, The Giver is one of those novels that effortlessly forces you to think about how it applies to the real world. As an elementary school student reading it for the first time, I longed for my teachers to say, “When you finish your work you can read silently at your desk,” so I could finish following Jonah’s fascinating coming-of-age tale. And apparently there’s a movie version in the works!
Where the Red Fern Grows – Ahh, the first novel that made me cry my eyes out. My 3rd grade teacher read this out-loud to us every afternoon and right from the first chapter I was in love. [spoilers!!] When Old Dan and Little Ann died, all of the girls in our class–myself included!–were crying into our tissues, and I’m sure even the boys must have felt sad. I still love this book, though. I’m a big sucker for tear jerkers.
Rainbow Fish – I think what drew me to this book so much was the colorful and iridescent illustration on the cover, but the story has such a simple and meaningful moral to it that stuck with me as well. It is a very nice story that highlights the values of being different and sharing with others.
Sideways Stories from Wayside School – This is probably the most unique entry on this list, but there were several stories that stuck with me all throughout elementary school, most notably the one involving the hypnotist. I also enjoyed Louis Sachar’s other novels, Holes and There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom.
Black Beauty/Black Stallion – I do not believe I actually read Black Beauty, but my sister and I were both in love with the film. We watched it all the time growing up. But I did read several of the Black Stallion books.
Little House on the Prairie series – The first series I fell in love with. I especially loved reading these books outside in my backyard on a nice summer day :) I have not read this books since I was a child, and I would love to revisit them soon!
Stephen King – I know…he’s “The Master”. I honestly don’t know why I haven’t picked one of his novels up yet, but rest assured that there are plenty that I do want to read, including The Long Walk. One of his novels I don’t fancy myself reading is The Green Mile, because…tears. Although I haven’t read a single King novel, I’ve seen many movie adaptations, and The Green Mile is on my “Top 5 Movies That Make Me Bawl” list.
John Green – Only recently have I gotten into contemporary authors. I’ve always been more of a classics girl, but there are a few John Green novels I’d like to read someday. The Fault in Our Stars is on my TBR list, but I’m saving that for when I’m feeling rock-solid. I can already tell this is the type of novel that will just hang on me for weeks–maybe months–after reading, and though I do love tear jerkers, I don’t think my fragile heart can handle TFIOS at the moment.
Rick Riordan – Okay, I’m cheating a bit here. I have started the Percy Jackson series, but I didn’t even finish the first chapter, and not because I didn’t like it, but because I was trying to read it in French. I only learned this after starting the book, but there is a special tense in the French language called passé simple and it is used only in books or to tell specific types of stories. So it took well over an hour to read as little as I did because I had to keep looking up practically every verb. BUT, I will not be thwarted in my desire to read Percy Jackson. I’m just going to procrastinate a little until I learn passé simple…
Jodi Picoult – I don’t know why I haven’t read one of her novels yet, especially since I think I’d enjoy them. One in particular that I’ve had on my TBR list is The Storyteller. Does anyone recommend it?
Victor Hugo – Arguably the most famous French author, I have been putting Hugo off for multiple reasons, namely being the fact that I’d really like to read him in French, but my level is just not high enough to do that. One of my goals this year is to read Les Miserables in French, or at least attempt to, so hopefully I can cross Monsieur Hugo off my list soon! And then I can finally watch the latest Les Miserables film (yes, I am one of those book-before-movie people).
Leo Tolstoy – Another author on my TBR list for this year. I’m itching to read Anna Karenina and War and Peace, and I haven’t heard any mixed reviews for Tolstoy like I have for Hugo, so hopefully that compels me to dig into his novels sooner rather than later!
Kurt Vonnegut – I think the reason I have yet to tackle a Vonnegut novel is because he intimidates me for some reason. I think it’s the satire. But, one of my friends recently recommended him to me so I will take that as reason enough to read one of his novels…someday.
Oscar Wilde – If any Wilde books had been assigned reading for school I definitely would not have to include him on this list. But no The Picture of Dorian Gray or The Importance of Being Earnest for me. As a graduate of English Literature, however, I feel that Wilde is definitely a must-read. I know I’ve been missing out.
Carl Sagan – I’ve known about this beloved Sci-Fi author since I was a little girl. My dad loves him, and I personally adore the film Contact and can’t wait to read it one day.
J.D. Salinger – I’m not exactly sure why, but I have never been interested in reading Salinger. I will give The Catcher in the Rye a read one day though. It’s been on my TBR list for a while, but only because I’ve constantly seen it on must read book lists. Can anyone talk Salinger up a bit to make me more interested in reading him?
macarons & paperbacks 