Tag: Classics
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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
“Anna read and understood everything, but she found no pleasure in reading, that is to say, in following the reflection of other people’s lives. She was too eager to live herself.” What an incredible, incredible novel. I’d been intimidated by Anna Karenina for years, despite reading Tolstoy’s tome War and Peace a few summers back…
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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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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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November reading plans
My October was filled with cozy, spooky reads, from Frankenstein and The Scarlet Letter to Practical Magic and everything in between. I embraced reading seasonally and loved how much more connected it made me feel to autumn. I hope to read similarly in November. November has always felt like a sort of resting period to…
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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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Dear Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: a take on the Gothic novel
Dear Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: After a bit of an Austen drought for me, I decided to listen to the audiobook version of you. I have been slowly working my way through Austen’s novels for years (besides you, I have read Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion, and Emma), so I was excited to finally read…
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Dear A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce: Not what I expected
Dear A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce: I’ve always known that I have a bit of a strange reading taste. By strange, I mean that I generally enjoy a lot of books that most people don’t. William Faulkner’s novels are a good example of this–they are wordy and sprawling…
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A Classic Couple: AS YOU LIKE IT and TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE
Welcome to another Classic Couple: post! In this series, I choose a classic and a more contemporary read that I think resemble each other and discuss why I think they’re similar. Today I’ll be comparing and contrasting As You Like It by William Shakespeare (1599) and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny…
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