Anna Karenina was a hike to get through: 800+ pages of heavy reading, deep plot structures, and lots o’ Russian names. But honestly, it was a phenomenal read. The parallels you can draw between current romantic relationships (under the guise of societal structures), religious struggles, and even modern-day politics are striking, even though the book was written centuries ago in Russia. Relationships are tested and, interestingly, the decisions of women play a key role in the movement of the plotlines; something fairly unheard-of at the time. It was as if Tolstoy was one of the first to recognize the value of women’s emotions when it came to relationships, even though that struggle was clearly a reality at the time.
Summary: Work is hard. Romance is fluid. Suffering is inevitable. But at the end of the day, life can be truly beautiful.
30 Before 30 