Music
Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries by Rudy Vallee
A 1930s classic about life and how one should experience it best sung by the talented Rudy Vallee.
Radio – Lana Del Rey
Ride is a popular song in Instagram right now and rightfully so…
The Candy Man – Sammy Davis Jr.
Featured originally in the 1971 film ”Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” this version by Sammy Davis Jr. is sweet optimistic song full of chocolate and sunrise sprinkled with dew.
Books
You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao
Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes.
Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail.
And Sam picks up the phone.
In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.
Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.
As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.
Break Your Glass Slippers by Amanda Lovelace
Break Your Glass Slippers is about overcoming those who don’t see your worth, even if that person is sometimes yourself.
In the epic tale of your life, you are the most important character while everyone else is but a forgotten footnote, even the prince.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley’s seminal novel of the scientist whose creation becomes a monster.
Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien
The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.
Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal elf. Her father, a great elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.
Goodbye Mr. Chips by James Hilton
Mr Chipping is a quiet, unassuming teacher at Brookfield Grammar School. Wholly conventional, he never veers from his established routines. Until, that is, he meets Katherine, who charms him and his students and teaches Mr Chipping that education is about more than just the hours spent in the schoolroom. As his love for Katherine blooms, Mr Chipping develops a sense of humour and a broad view of his role as a teacher and a friend to his students, becoming the beloved ‘Mr Chips’ to generations of schoolboys.
The Nightingale and the Rose by Oscar Wilde
An allegorical fable of love, sacrifice and selfishness. As with all of Wilde’s short stories it embodies strong moral values and is told with an effervescence akin to that of the 1001 nights.
It is the tale of a lovestruck student who must provide his lover with a red rose in order to win her heart. A nightingale overhearing his lament from a solitary oak tree is filled with sorrow and admiration all at once, and decides to help the poor young man.
She journeys through the night seeking the perfect red rose and finally comes across a rambling rose bush but alas, the bush has no roses to offer her. However, there is a way to MAKE a red rose, but with grave consequences.
The Little Book of Cottagecore: Traditional Skills for a Simpler Life by Emily Kent
Unplug, relax, and return to the simpler life with these easy, step-by-step ideas for your favorite cottagecore activities including baking from scratch and easy container gardening.
Returning to the simpler life has never been easier. If you’re craving the aroma of freshly baked bread, spending more time in nature, or seeing the sunlight filtering through homemade curtains, then cottagecore is for you!
American Cozy: Hygge-Inspired Ways to Create Comfort & Happiness by Stephanie Pedersen
The wildly popular phenomenon of hygge gets a warm American twist with this gifty, illustrated guide from bestselling Danish-American author Stephanie Pedersen.
With their overscheduled lifestyles, Americans can’t always find time for the people and things they love. Enter American Cozy , which uses the Danish phenomenon of hygge —comfort, togetherness, and well-being—to bring coziness and ease to readers’ homes, work, and lives.
Filled with charming full-color illustrations, it explores organization and home décor, entertaining, cooking, creating a happier, more productive work life, de-cluttering, and slowing down.
Cosy: The British Art of Comfort by Laura Weir
The language of cosy is part of the English lexicon – ‘cosy up’, ‘cosy down’, ‘tea cosy’, ‘cosy toes’; cosy is a concept intrinsically connected to British culture; think cups of warm tea, crunchy toast, a great book, open fires, cosy clothes, wet and windy wrapped up walks, rain trickling on the window – it speaks to people who value comfort and tucking in, and never globally, have we been looking to feel more reassured.
The Book of Cosy is a wonderful, comforting acknowledgement and antidote to feeling overwhelmed in modern life – a celebration of our quaint and quirky traditions, habits and loves, new and old and an examination of why this zeitgeist is more relevant than ever.
Movies
A Haunting in Venice (2023)
In post-World War II Venice, Hercule Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, reluctantly attends a seance. But when one of the guests is murdered, it is up to the former detective to once again uncover the killer.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Harry and Sally meet when she gives him a ride to New York after they both graduate from the University of Chicago. The film jumps through their lives as they both search for love, but fail, bumping into each other time and time again.
Finally a close friendship blooms between them, and they both like having a friend of the opposite sex. But then they are confronted with the problem: “Can a man and a woman be friends, without sex getting in the way?”
Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
A Brooklyn writer of books on the futility of marriage risks his reputation after he decides to tie the knot. Things get even more complicated when he learns on his wedding day that his beloved maiden aunts are habitual murderers.
TV series
Gilmore Girls (2000-2007)
Thirty-two year old single mom, Lorelai, lives with her teenage daughter Rory in the small town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, with crazy neighbors and many ups and downs.
Shops
Le Grand Patron
📍Markou Botsari 20, Aigaleo, Greece
Le Grand Patron is a vintage cafe just a couple of minutes away form Aigaleo’s metro station. It’s retro decoration and relaxing music upgrade the customer’s experience into something really memorable.
Sisinely All Day Gastro Bar
📍23 Adrianou, Athens, Greece
With an incredible view of the majestic Acropolis, Sisinely combines minimalistic atmosphere with high quality beverages and dishes.
