7
Both of the two なければ's are conditional in form, but in actual effect neither really expresses any condition.
In constructions of such a form as「AもBれば、CもD」, 「れば」 can work more like a coordinating conjunction, like the examples below.
「彼女は顔も良ければ、頭も良い。」 "She is good-looking, and smart too."
「数学ができる人もいれば、そうでない人もいる。」 "Some people are good at math, (and) ...
6
「解放感{かいほうかん}もなければ、次{つぎ}の職{しょく}を探{さが}さなければという焦{あせ}りもなかった。何{なに}を思{おも}えばよいのかが、よくわからなかった。」
makes perfect sense.
Perhaps you have confused yourself by mistakenly thinking that the 「解放感もなければ」 corresponded with「次の職を探さなければ」. It actually corresponds with 「焦りもなかった」 in the double-も construct discussed in this Q&A.
Thus, this person had/felt neither A nor B.
...
5
「Phrase A + よう + Phrase B」
「Phrase A + ように + Phrase B」
In basic meaning, the two patterns above are identical.
The only difference is that the second one using 「ように」 is more casual and conversational than the first with 「よう」. For that reason, 「よう」 tends to be used more often in writing.
The sentence you have quoted sounds non-conversational; ...
4
You would need to use a relative clause to modify the "thing(s)" ("こと"). In case you did not know, the noun 「こと」 is placed after the relative clause in Japanese, which is the exact opposite of English.
English: "the things that I choose to do"
Japanese: 「自分{じぶん}がすると決{き}めたこと」
This big difference in word order must be the reason that we receive so many ...
4
This employment of present tense is called historical present (or 史的現在 in Japanese). I think Japanese novels tend to use it more often than English ones.
In Japanese novels, past tense and present tense are often mixed even within one paragraph. It's hard to generalize, but I have heard that past tense is typically used to "move the story forward" while ...
3
「のりまきみたいに くるまれば ふかふか ふとんに なるんだもん」
Since more context was definitely needed to discuss this sentence, I searched and found out here that this is about a girl with extremely long black hair. That piece of information is of much importance and the preceding sentence is:
「そとにだって ねられるの。」
Using kanji, we have:
「外にだって寝られるの。のり巻きみたいに包まればふかふかふとんにになるんだもん。」
...
2
So, as Micah has said, this と is indeed the quoting particle.
That said, Japanese is a lot more flexible with the grammatical concept of quotation and how it fits into sentences than English is. Quotes can attach to things that you wouldn't expect them to in English - like in this case, the noun 評判.
If you look here (and ignore all the examples involving ...
2
There is a clear difference in meaning.
「思いました」
means "(I) thought". You thought (or felt) something momentarily in the past (including the immediate past "just now").
「思っていました」
means "(I) have/had been thinking/feeling". The thinking lasted for some time. That time period could be quite short or it could be very long such as multiple years or ...
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