Music
October Passed Me By – girl in red
Spotify pointed me at this beautiful song about my favourite month in the world…
Snow on the Beach – Taylor Swift ft. Lana del Rey
A hymn to falling in love by two of the most talented singers in the music industry…
Louloudi Mou – Despina Vandi
An oldie that reminds me of childhood…
Cherry – Lana Del Rey
Lana Del Rey is a standard of each month’s favourites. This time I was hooked by Cherry, a melancholic tune about love and pain.
Heather – Conan Gray
Such an emotional song about watching your crush fall in love with another and the turmoil it brings…
Books
A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
Lucy has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her, until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George.
Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse. Will she ever learn to follow her own heart?
The Lost Queen of Egypt by Lucile Morrison
In the city of Akhetaten lived a princess, Ankhsenpaaten (later Ankhsenamon), who grew up in the royal household, one of six daughters of King Ahkenaten and Queen Nefertiti. We come to know and love this girl, called Small Bird by her family, through the events of her colorful childhood and her marriage to Tutankhaten, a boy of royal birth. Her efforts to save the kingdom from conniving priests and soldiers were gallant and dramatic.
While the fate of the Queen is unknown, in her story Lucile Morrison ventures to suppose a satisfying ending to the romance. An extraordinarily accurate, vivid picture of domestic and court life which will enrich any study of the culture of ancient Egypt.
Illustrations by Franz Geritz, done in the style of ancient Egypt, help set the mood of Ankhsenamon’s story as the clock is turned back more than three thousand years.
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace
Orphaned as a baby, nineteen-year-old Signa has been raised by a string of guardians, each one more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her remaining relatives are the elusive Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at Thorn Grove, an estate both glittering and gloomy. Its patriarch mourns his late wife through wild parties, while his son grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation, and his daughter suffers from a mysterious illness. But when their mother’s restless spirit appears claiming she was poisoned, Signa realizes that the family she depends on could be in grave danger and enlists the help of a surly stable boy to hunt down the killer.
However, Signa’s best chance of uncovering the murderer is an alliance with Death himself, a fascinating, dangerous shadow who has never been far from her side. Though he’s made her life a living hell, Death shows Signa that their growing connection may be more powerful—and more irresistible—than she ever dared imagine.
Movies
When Marnie Was There (2014)
A 12-year-old girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with long, flowing blonde hair. As the friendship unravels, it is possible that Marnie has closer ties to the protagonist than we might expect.
Amsterdam (2022)
In the 1930s, three friends witness a murder, are framed for it, and uncover one of the most outrageous plots in American history.
Tuck Everlasting (2002)
Winnie Foster has everything a young woman could desire. She comes from a well-bred, wealthy, and respected family. She dresses in the finest clothes and is afforded every opportunity to refine herself. But Winnie finds that the heat of summer is not nearly as stifling as her gilded cage. She longs for freedom, for adventure. She escapes one morning to explore the woods surrounding her family’s home, and encounters the Tucks, a close-knit family with a mysterious past that begs the question: If you could live forever, would you? And just when Winnie believes she has answered that question for herself, a mysterious man looking to profit from the source of the Tuck’s immortality that will have her question her life, her desires, and what is the right thing to do. And in the end, learns, that death is not what is to be feared, but an unlived life.
Shops
Vrysaki
📍Vryssakiou 17, Plaka, Athens.
Vrysaki is a cultural centre located in a picturesque detached house right beneath the Acropolis. Alongside its association with arts it provides a cosy little nook for a coffee or beer with friends and significant others alike.
