Category: Uncategorized
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Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
“Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point.” (“On Keeping a Notebook”) Starting off the new year with Didion felt like a breath of fresh air, an expanding of my chest, a clearing of space. Her writing is crisp, clear, striking. It fills me with all of the nostalgia I feel…
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Reading goals for 2023 (informed by Atomic Habits)
January has arrived with its usual buzz around New Year’s resolutions. So many of us are reflecting on 2022 and thinking of how we want to feel and what we want to achieve in 2023. I love this process of reflection and goal setting, but I’m always cautious about not setting the bar too high…
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Top ten books of 2022
I’m so grateful to have had a lovely reading year in 2022. Narrowing down a list of ten favorite books was difficult, but these are the ones that have stuck with me the most over the course of the past year. Here they are, in the order that I read them: 1. East of Eden…
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5 books to start off your new year
Somehow it’s that time of year again–my local grocery store is playing Christmas music, wreaths and lights have been hung all around downtown, and my tree is up and decorated in the living room. Along with planning for holiday gifts and festivities, I also like to think about what my first book of the new…
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Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
“It is the hour of the pearl–the interval between day and night when time stops and examines itself.” I’m obsessed with the atmosphere Steinbeck created in Cannery Row. It’s a sort of liminal space where thoughts, hopes, and dreams can run wild and judgment dissipates, if only for a brief while. I read this book…
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The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
“No, no–there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don’t know what I don’t see–what I don’t fear!” The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is such an underrated, under-appreciated autumnal read. This book…
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On reading seasonally
This fall I’ve been making a conscious effort to read seasonally, leaning into the moody, spooky, witchy vibes that these cooler months bring. And I’ve loved it. I’ve always been a mood reader, someone who reads based on whatever feelings I’m experiencing or craving. Yet for some reason, I’ve only occasionally synched up what I’m…
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The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“She had not known the weight until she felt the freedom.” I didn’t remember much about my first time reading Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter years ago. I recalled a bit of dense writing, a picturesque Salem setting, and the piercing image of Hester standing on the scaffold, emblazoned with an embroidered “A.” I began this…
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Autumnal reading plans
Autumn is my favorite season for reading. While I love the coziness of a snowy winter and reading under the summer sun, autumn always feels like the most energetic season to me. At least where I live, the leaves are turning into their fiery autumn colors. There’s a chill in the air, but the sky…
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THE SILMARILLION by J.R.R. Tolkien | Review
I did it: after of years of it taunting me from my bookshelf, I finally got around to reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I had the pleasure of buddy reading it with Mary Drover, which was a lot of fun. To be honest, I was a little intimidated by this book at first, so reading it alongside another…
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