ABOUT ME

“Earth seemed a desert I was bound to traverse, Seeking to find the old familiar faces.”

– Charles Lamb

My name is Joanna and this blog is dedicated to book reviews, everything related to literature, travel as well as reflections on art and slow living. My little vignettes are a meditative representation of books I love reading and which bring me comfort, and of places I visit to find calmness and solace, especially during anxious times. I hope you will find some interesting book recommendations here and you will be inspired to read more.

Also, I hope that these little vignettes from the world I inhabit will bring you some feelings of peace and comfort as well as they will have a calming effect on you by cultivating a loving, inclusive, and gentle space for all the readers.

“We are like books. Most people only see our cover, the minority read only the introduction, many people believe the critics. Few will know our content.”

– Emile Zola

As for my reading list it is very eclectic. I am trying to read from the East and the West; fiction and non-fiction. I read every genre and I particularly cherish books that I can connect with on an emotional level.

I love spending time in the nature, away from London city life.

I am an introvert who often needs time spent in solitude. Reading is one of the tools that allows me to go within in order to find peace and calmness. Being surrounded by the gentle glow of my inner world and the warmth of my thoughts brings me a lot of joy.

Literature allows me to put myself in the shoes of the “other”, to hear many different voices from all parts of the world and to meet people that I would not be able to meet otherwise. I am particularly interested in reading stories of people who have been forgotten, marginalised and who exist on the peripheries of the society.

Reading allows me to connect with the rest of humanity and my inner self as well as to apprehend Otherness outside my own existence.

I hope you will enjoy this blog and it will inspire you to read some of my favourite books and visit the places I love.

Two things that make me instantly happy are: a cup of Bergamot Earl Grey tea with a piece of lemon, cloves and cinnamon stick, and a cup of cardamom coffee with oat milk.

Some of my beloved books are: The Books of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa, The Emigrants by W.G. Sebald, anything by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Patrick Modiano, especially his Honeymoon, Istanbul and The Black Book by Orhan Pamuk, Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali, The Last Summer of Reason by Tahar Djaout, Stories of Sahara by Sanmao, Lucky Breaks by Yevgenia Belorusets, The Lost Shore by Anna Langfus, A House of My Own: Stories from my Life by Sandra Cisneros, Latecomers by Anita Brookner, Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, Brian by Jeremy Cooper and The Teacher by Michal Ben Naftali.

Some of my favourite movies are: The Man Who Sleeps (1974) by Bernard Queysanne and George Perec, Abbas Kiarostami’s Taste of Cherry (1997) and Close-up (1990), Lee Hyun-seung’s Il Mare (2000), Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma (2018), Victor Nunez’s ‘Ruby in Paradise’ (1993), Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue (1986), Krzysztof Kieslowski’s ‘Double Life of Veronique’ (1991), Wong Kar Wai’s ‘In the Mood for Love’ (2000), Agnes Varda’s Jean B (1988), all films by Andrei Tarkovsky, My Liberation Notes by Kim Seok-yoon, Ken Loach’s ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (2016) and Perfect Days by Wim Wenders (2023).

Music I like listening to: the Turkish folk singers: Selda Bagcan, Birsen Tezer, and Kâmuran Akkor, the Lebanese singer: Fairuz,the Swedish folk singer: David Norgern, the Israeli singer: Ofra Haza, the American artist singing in Spanish: Danit, the Mexican singers: Chavela Vargas, Silvana Estrada, and Carla Morrison, the Tuvan throat singer: Sainkho Namtchylak, the French-Armenian singer: Charles Aznavour, the French band: Noir Desir, the Burundian artist: Khadja Nin, the American artists: Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Jeff Buckley, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Norah Jones, Mazzy Star, and Kansas, the French singer: Sacha Distel, the Serbian artist: Goran Bregovic, the Polish artists: Marek Grechuta and Paktofonika, the Senegalese singer: Ismael Lo, the Spanish singer: Buika, the Italian artist: Ornella Vanoni, the Malian singers: Fatoumata Diawara and Rokia Traore, the Angolan artist: Bonga, the Venezulean artist: El Canserbero, the Cuban band: Buena Vista Social Club, the Algerian artist: Cheb Mami and the American-French artist: Josephine Baker.

Hugs!

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go be fore I sleep.”

– Robert Frost