“Ravens, Cream, solitude, sublimity”: Virginia Woolf on Literature & Inner Peace

How many of us, “congenial spirits” are left out there, as Woolf writes in The Voyage Out (1915), “feel[ing] intensely the delights of shutting oneself up in a little world of one’s own, with pictures and music and everything beautiful.” Continue reading “Ravens, Cream, solitude, sublimity”: Virginia Woolf on Literature & Inner Peace

In Search of Silence & a Life Worth Living: Etel Adnan’s Shifting the Silence

‘Shifting the Silence’ is raw and elusive, like the very reflection you’re reading here, but it will urge you to confront the incomprehensible. Continue reading In Search of Silence & a Life Worth Living: Etel Adnan’s Shifting the Silence

Finding Beauty ‘In Our Times of Greatest Love and Greatest Fear’: The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

Lefteri approaches her characters’ vulnerability in such a gentle, graceful way that the novel feels heart-warming and hopeful despite the horrifying reality millions of people worldwide face today. Continue reading Finding Beauty ‘In Our Times of Greatest Love and Greatest Fear’: The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri

‘What is Time?’: The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali |Iran

The Stationery Shop is not merely a love story; it is part of recorded history, a cautionary tale, if you will. Continue reading ‘What is Time?’: The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali |Iran

‘A more narrowly defined culture-bond syndrome’: Folklorn (2021) by Angela Mi Young Hur

Folklorn is a contemporary origin story that seamlessly weaves Korean folklore within a narrative of identity, migration, and home. Continue reading ‘A more narrowly defined culture-bond syndrome’: Folklorn (2021) by Angela Mi Young Hur