literature
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Planning my summer reading

Each season comes with its own reading pros and cons, but I think reading in the summer might be my favorite. I love reading outside, bringing books with me on long weekend adventures, and hearing the cicadas outside my open window as I turn the pages. With May nearly in the rearview mirror, it’s time Continue reading
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Mini Reviews: Productivity, priorities, and gardening

Yet another round up of some eclectic reads. Let’s go! The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing. I loved this book. It’s so many things at once: Laing’s relationship with gardening generally and a garden they recently started tending to; an exploration of the horrific colonial roots of so many famous gardens; a discussion of Continue reading
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Books that have August energy

I love pairing my books to the energy of the season. August is such an interesting month in this regard. Summer is still here, but autumn is peeking around the corner. At least where I live, the mornings and evenings are beginning to crisp, but the midday sun is still hot. I feel an underlying Continue reading
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Favorite books of 2024 so far

July! Somehow we are over halfway through 2024 already. There have been lots of ups and downs in my person life this year, but thankfully reading has remained a constant through it all. So far in 2024 I’ve read 40 books. Here are my favorites of the bunch, in the order that I read them. Continue reading
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The Waves by Virginia Woolf
“Like a ribbon of weed I am flung far every time the door opens. The wave breaks. I am the foam that sweeps and fills the uttermost rims of the rocks with whiteness; I am also a girl, here in this room.” Beautiful. Lyrical. Nostalgic. Devastating. Bittersweet. The Waves follows a group of friends from Continue reading
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Tortilla Flat and The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Steinbeck feels like such a summer author to me. This summer I read two of his novels: Tortilla Flat (1935) and The Pearl (1947). Although these aren’t my favorite Steinbeck novels that I’ve read so far — I just didn’t connect with the characters or story as much as I did when reading East of Continue reading
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Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
“If you think, from this prelude, that anything like a romance is preparing for you, reader, you never were more mistaken.” Jane Eyre is likely the most popular Charlotte Brontë novel, and perhaps for good reason: it has an iconic romance and main character, it is brilliantly told, and it raises so many interesting themes Continue reading
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5 books about time
I think time is one of the most interesting things to read about. Time feels inescapable, and yet can mean something different to each of us. Of course, there’s the classic time travel story (Doctor Who, anyone?), but lately I’ve enjoyed reading other takes on time: how we spend it, how it affects us, and Continue reading
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Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett
“The large-scale changes in fact were of no interest to me at all; it was the small things that remained constant which sort of attracted me.” We all have those books that we pick up and put down in the library or in bookstores — pick up and put down, time and time again, but Continue reading
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The Overstory by Richard Powers
“Until today, he has never planted anything. But Now, that next best of times, is long, and reunites everything.” There are good books, and then there are those that make you fall in love with reading all over again, that make you savor each word and feel for each character. The Overstory is one of Continue reading
About ME //

i’m holly — former english major, current twenty-something book lover, allergic to nuts. drop me a line at nutfreenerd@gmail.com or on instagram.
