Gone with the Wind

As one of the slowest readers on the planet, I'm amazed to say I finally finished Gone with the Wind. I picked it up this summer as commute reading, but before long I became completely attached to the characters and plot. I'd seen the movie in high school, but remembered very little beyond the beauty of Clark Gable as Rhett Butler... which ended up serving me well. The plot is so dense that uncovering it all page by page was so satisfying (albeit emotional).

The best part about the whole reading experience was the coincidental timing, though. My year has had very strong feminist undertones that allowed the happenings of the book to really resonate with me. I am lucky that I can't relate to Scarlett's experiences on a personal level, but her perseverance and ability to destroy social norms left me so energized. Between my internship (which was super male-dominated) to classes with totally kick-ass professors, and of course this book, I have learned a lot about what it means to work around expectations and surprise people. Gone with the Wind was a phenomenal read that I'm sure I'll be revisiting within the next few years.