Tag: literature
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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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On slowing down and reading
Every January when I set reading goals for the new year, I tell myself that this will finally be the year when I slow down. I won’t care about how many books or pages I read. I won’t feel pressured to finish a book as fast as possible, or to rush through longer reads. Yet,…
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Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
“And wasn’t it sweet to be where you were and let it remind you of the past for once, despite the upset, instead of always looking on into the mechanics of the days and the trouble ahead, which might never come.” Claire Keegan’s short novel Small Things Like These is so easy to become enamored…
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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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December reading plans
It’s “stick season” as they say where I live, which means that all the leaves have fallen and the forests are like webs of bare branches. Mornings are frosty, days are short, and I’ve gone searching in my drawers for my favorite knit hat again. Downtown they’ve hung wreaths and lights from the lampposts and…
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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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