3/50 The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The story follows a woman, Edna, in New Orleans at the turn of the century as she tries to reconcile her roles as wife and mother and the societal expectations of a proper woman with her own wants and needs. These are struggles that women still feel today, even after we have been "liberated". I believe we all feel certain failures in our expectations of ourselves, maybe even more so after we were taught that we could have it all, do it all, be it all. No one can meet all those expectations. We all have to choose, just as Edna does. This is a timeless and introspective read.