a guide to spring
a master list of books, films, fragrances, activities, recipes and more
hello.
spring has always felt soft and melancholic. when i was little, my mom and i would bake rhubarb pies and shortbread cookies with the changing of the seasons. we’d listen to the sound of rain while the scent of butter, vanilla, and jammy viscous rhubarb macerating on the stove wafted through the kitchen. a delicate mix of gourmand with petrichor and damp air near the window sills. we’d take long drives to the redwoods to visit my aunt and uncle, winding through misty roads where everything smelled like pine and earth waking up after a long sleep. their house always felt like a sanctuary nestled in the woods. a little cottage style home with high ceilings and big windows that felt like the forest was pouring in. trees stretched endlessly, the floor outdoors soft and damp. our days spent up north were filled with homemade crepes and orange juice in the morning, long walks in the woods, followed by trips to their local bookstore and good conversation. by evening, the house smelled of basil and olive oil as we gathered around the table for pesto pasta with garlic bread and the sound of rain and jazz records playing in the background.
this is the kind of spring i love. the one that lingers in the in between, where renewal feels slower, heavier, like a season that holds memories in its hands. fragrance, books, the sound of rain always bring me back to that feeling.
the way i envision my melancholic spring feels like violets pushing through damp earth, lace curtains billowing in a storm, a ghostly romance of victorian nightgowns and forgotten greenhouses that smell of moss and wet earth and leaves crushed between your fingers. it’s the season of rain streaked windows and soft candlelight where winter lingers, but so does the promise of something new.
in today’s letter, i want to share the things that make this season feel richer. the books, films, fragrances, recipes, and small rituals that turn daily life into something intentional. embracing the softness, finding comfort in the rain, and leaning into the kind of spring that feels more like a memory than a season.
books
here’s your spring reading list: lush, melancholic, a little gothic, a little enchanted. books for the in between season, when everything is blooming but still feels haunted by what came before.
a room with a view by e.m. forster
a novel about desire, freedom, and whether we have the courage to follow our instincts. lucy honeychurch is on the verge of settling for a life of polite english repression when a trip to italy shakes her world open. the light, the beauty, the passion. everything she’s been taught to suppress threatens to undo her. a perfect book for spring, full of golden fields, wild violets, and the longing to be something more.
perfume: the story of a murderer by patrick süskind
a novel that lingers like scent itself. decadent, unsettling, and darkly hypnotic. grenouille is born with an extraordinary sense of smell but no personal scent of his own. his obsession with capturing the perfect fragrance leads him to murder, distilling the essence of young women in an attempt to create something beyond human comprehension. lush and grotesque, a book that smells of violets, musk, and death.
the master and margarita by mikhail bulgakov
chaotic, strange, and magical. the devil arrives in soviet moscow with his demonic entourage, unleashing absolute mayhem. alongside this is the story of the master, a persecuted writer, and margarita, who loves him enough to sell her soul. it’s satire, philosophy, romance, and fantasy all at once. dark and absurd but shot through with beauty.
swann’s way by marcel proust
a novel that moves like memory. it’s soft, fragmented, and deeply sensory. childhood recollections, love, jealousy, and the passage of time unfold through proust’s obsessive attention to detail. famous for the madeleine scene, where taste triggers a flood of forgotten memories, but every page is filled with the ache of lost time, springlike in its ephemerality, the way it captures fleeting moments before they disappear.
the waves by virginia woolf
a novel that reads like the ocean, rhythmic, endless, constantly shifting. it follows six characters from childhood to adulthood, but it’s less about plot and more about the movement of time, the way identity dissolves and reforms. woolf’s most experimental work, dreamy and melancholic, filled with the light and shadow of spring.
villette by charlotte brontë
a novel meant for the seasons in between. it’s about solitude, longing, and unfulfilled desires. lucy snowe, plain and reserved, moves to a foreign country to teach, but beneath her surface, she burns with loneliness and suppressed passion. gothic and deeply psychological, full of candlelit rooms, ghostly figures, and the ache of wanting something just out of reach.
middlemarch by george eliot
a novel about ambition, the weight of marriage, and the tension between idealism and reality. dorothea brooke longs for a life of meaning and marries the wrong man in pursuit of it. around her, middlemarch is a web of interwoven lives, each filled with their own desires, disappointments, and small victories. thoughtful, profound, and surprisingly modern.
rebecca by daphne du maurier
the ultimate gothic novel. a young, nameless woman marries a wealthy widower and moves to manderley, a grand estate still haunted, figuratively and literally, by his dead first wife, rebecca. everything is damp, overgrown, and unsettling, from the oppressive rhododendrons to the eerie presence of mrs. danvers. a book that feels like spring in its most haunted form.
the age of innocence by edith wharton
society, repression, and the pain of wanting what you can’t have. newland archer is engaged to a perfectly respectable woman but falls in love with her cousin, the bold, scandalous countess olenska. set in gilded age new york, where rules are everything, and breaking them comes at a cost. elegant, tragic, and full of longing.
spring snow by yukio mishima
the first in mishima’s sea of fertility tetralogy, and arguably the most poetic. a novel of doomed love, political change, and the fleeting beauty of youth. kioyaki, the privileged son of aristocrats, falls for satoko, a woman just out of his reach. tender and tragic, with spring imagery that feels painfully fragile, a book about how nothing beautiful lasts.
maurice by e.m. forster
a love story ahead of its time. maurice, a young man in early 20th century england, realizes he is in love with men in a society that refuses to allow it. it’s tender, melancholy, and ultimately hopeful, a novel about self acceptance and love despite the odds.
lolly willowes by sylvia townsend warner
a woman escapes spinsterhood and oppressive family life by moving to the countryside and becoming a witch. a subversive novel about independence and the magic of solitude. soft, eerie, and strangely empowering.
the passion by jeanette winterson
history, fantasy, and desire tangled together in winterson’s signature poetic style. a soldier in napoleon’s army, a web-footed venetian woman, and a love story that feels like a fever dream. strange and deeply romantic.
the bloody chamber by angela carter
dark, sensual fairytales rewritten with sharp teeth. bluebeard, beauty and the beast, little red riding hood, transformed into gothic, feminist fever dreams. decadent, violent, and dripping with magic.
the wind in the willows by kenneth grahame
childhood nostalgia in its purest form. mole, rat, badger, and toad live along the riverbank, having adventures that feel both small and deeply meaningful. full of nature’s magic, a book that makes the world feel gentle and good.
the secret garden by frances hodgson burnett
a book about healing, loneliness, and the way nature can bring things back to life. mary, an orphan, moves into a gloomy estate and discovers a hidden garden that slowly transforms her world. spring in novel form.
alice’s adventures in wonderland by lewis carroll
nonsense and surrealism at its best. alice falls down a rabbit hole and enters a world of strange logic, bizarre characters, and dreamlike absurdity. playful, eerie, and utterly timeless.
the complete fairy tales the brothers grimm
all the fairy tales before they were softened. dark, strange, and beautifully eerie. woods filled with curses, children turned into birds, red shoes that dance until they kill you. fairytales as they were meant to be: wild, uncanny, and just a little dangerous.
let move on to films for when spring feels bright, and for when it feels haunted…
the rest of this newsletter is for paid subscribers.
i’m sharing a letter full of spring rituals, films, fragrances, recipes, and other activities to do as we prepare for this new season! lots of goodies for you below <3
if you’re curious about sampling you can use my link at scent split for a discount on all samples and full size bottles
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