O Pioneers! by Willa Cather

Alexandra Bergson has lived on the land and worked it since her father's death. Sixteen years later, she is the most prosperous landowner on the Divide, a valley that stretches across the Nebraska prairie. She has three brothers, a childhood friend, and a beautiful friend. Her love of the land keeps her through the hardships that come.

So sad! Cather makes everyone so real, and it is much worse when trouble comes to them than in average books. I spent a good fifteen minutes after I finished it staring at the wall, because I could see it in my head. Alexandra is the feminist, the woman who can stand on her own and prospers, but she is still human. Even Cather, who was a civil rights activist, could not say that when women were independent they were perfectly happy.