Last week I tweeted “don’t get offended so easily, (most likely) the world isn’t out to get you”. That was a note to self - one that I really needed. Sometimes I have really good advice, I just need to follow it once in a while. I need to stop being so sensitive. I need to speak up. I need to be strong. I need to let some things slide. I need to just take a nap and get over things, forget them. I need to stop giving merit to other people’s opinions.

I need to be more like the main character in The Sweet Girl by Annabel Lyon.

Pytho is smart, educated, and unafraid to be different. She is the daughter of Aristotle and she lives in a time where a woman who can think, read, write, or swim is considered unlovely – well then heck I must be the most unlovely woman of them all! Imagine if we lived in a time like that, a time where only the gods valued women.

“‘ The gods value women.  They understand the power of women… In their world, the greatest women are a match for the greatest men. Thinkers, warriors, healers,” (page 15).

Not in Pytho’s world, where she’s called “sweet girl”. A term that made her skin crawl. An ‘endearing’ term synonymous with “obedient girl” and “good girl”. Pytho did what she wanted,when she wanted- she was a strong girl. If this novel does one thing, it’s reaffirm my faith in the fact that women have come a long way, that we can do anything that a man can do. I think the fuel behind my quick reading of this novel was Pytho’s character, her determination. I wasn’t expecting where this novel lead, which direction her character took but I enjoyed it (even if I was confused at times). I enjoyed it because of the strength in her character and even though it was also a historical fiction, it wasn’t as strung up on details as The Purchase. I don’t know which novel I liked better but I will say that the The Sweet Girl is great if you want a quick read that isn’t too light.

OH! I’m off to the Random House Canada Bookstragaganza event tonight and looking forward to checking out their Fall must-read books. I’ll be sure to let you know how it went . I’m also stopping in at Roots before heading downtown, I have a gift certificate with my name on it and a blog post to write!

Thanks Roots!!

Have a fantastic Tuesday and if it’s a little shitty, remember this;

‘”The worst never lasts long. Especially if you’ve thought through all the alternatives, and you have a plan.” – The Sweet Girl

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Love Always

Vanessa Xo

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Synopsis (from the Random House of Canada Limited website)

Pythias is her father’s daughter, with eyes his exact shade of unlovely, intelligent grey. A slave to his own curiosity and intellect, Aristotle has never been able to resist wit in another—even in a girl child who should be content with the kitchen, the loom and a life dictated by the womb. And oh his little Pytho is smart, able to best his own students in debate and match wits with a roomful of Athenian philosophers. Is she a freak or a harbinger of what women can really be? Pythias must suffer that argument, but she is also (mostly) secure in her father’s regard.

But then Alexander dies a thousand miles from Athens, and sentiment turns against anyone associated with him, most especially his famous Macedonian-born teacher. Aristotle and his family are forced to flee to Chalcis, a garrison town. Ailing, mourning and broken in spirit, Aristotle soon dies. And his orphaned daughter, only 16, finds out that the world is a place of superstition, not logic, and that a girl can be played upon by gods and goddesses, as much as by grown men and women. To safely journey to a place in which she can be everything she truly is, Aristotle’s daughter will need every ounce of wit she possesses, but also grace and the capacity to love.