When Stephanie Staal first read The Feminine Mystique in college, she found it a mildly interesting relic from another era. But more than a decade later, as a married stay-at-home mom in the suburbs, Staal rediscovered Betty Friedans classic workand was surprised how much she identified with the laments and misgivings of 1950s housewives. She set out on a quest: to reenroll at Barnard and re-read the great books she had first encountered as an undergrad. From the banishment of Eve to Judith Butlers Gender Trouble, Staal explores the significance of each of these classic tales by and of women, highlighting the relevance these ideas still have today. This process leads Staal to find the self she thought she had lostcurious and ambitious, zany and criticaland inspires new understandings of her relationships with her husband, her mother, and her daughter.