pickScorpionfish, by Natalie Bakopoulos (2020)
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Premise: A Greek-American woman returns to her family‘s Athens apartment, to find the city, country, and her friends changed.
Review: This is a quiet and subtle, yet profound reflection on big themes such as loss, identity, community, belonging, and place. While a small story of this one woman and her friends, the reverberations of global issues are loud. ⬇️
pickThis turned out to be so much more than I expected. Caveat: I've never seen the film. Yes, there is a romance, but that's not the whole story. The writing is beautiful, but fairly dense - this is not an easy beach read. Nor is the subject matter feel-good fluff. Perseverance is rewarded, this was, for me, an incredible reading experience. I learnt so much, I FELT so much...just wonderful!
🇬🇷♥️🇬🇷
pickWas also in the mood for some comfort reading this week (work has been a *lot* lately). So, Mary Stewart it is.
So many what ifs when it comes to the Roman conquering of Greece… If it wasn‘t for Rome, who knows what Greece or Europe could have looked like today… #history #europeanhistory #ancientgreece #ancientrome #romanempire #europe #normandavies #greece #syracuse #alternatehistory #moeriscus #Carthage #hannibal
Sat in a beach bar, trying to read, but I keep getting distracted...🇬🇷♥️🇬🇷
We learned some new terms in the end starting with Catastrophe Theory where math is used to understand how sudden, discontinuous changes can arise from smooth, continuous changes. #chaostheory #europe #normandavies #history #prehistory #cnossos #mycenae #thera #europeanhistory #volcano #volcanoceruptions #greece
pickA reread; I do like to do a reading deep-dive before holidays, so I‘m seeking out the 🇬🇷 stories. The writing was a bit more flowery and overdone than I remembered, but still a solidly good read.
#SummerCardSwap 2025
@kspenmoll your haiku is adorable, definitely gives a sense of summer!
pickDefinitely enjoyed this book. The author did a good job with examining the history, politics, and culture of ancient Athens. The book also examines Sparta to a lesser degree, as well as the relation between Athens and other city-states. Overall, it can serve as a good starting point for anyone interested in learning about Athens.
Bookish Pair: In different ways, both One Boat, by Jonathan Buckley (2025) and Perfection, by Vincenzo Latronico (2022) would be interesting pairings. 2d