I like my heroines with a spiky side. Think Sarah Palin in camouflage and a ball cap, hunting caribou in Alaska, or Annie Oakley’s petticoat gently brushing against twigs and bushes in her native Ohio as she walked through the woods, shooting squirrels through the head. I like my heroines with a heaping portion of grit, like my grandmother in the Adirondack foothills, whose disagreeability was legendary among her townsfolk. I like reading the history of a female character alone in the forest, “skinny-dipping or slicking on pink lipstick as she ran a chainsaw.” This is how author Heather Hansman describes woodswoman Anne LaBastille in her new book, Fierce Country: The Untold Story of Three Women Who Ignited America’s Love for the Wild.