Diaries, Biographies, and the Soundtrack of a Literary Life This is my oldest memory of classical music, Mozart’s piano concerto No 20 that became one of the soundtracks of my childhood. Music is a fascinating topic for me. There are…
Reading goals for 2022, a special winter tea and Nobel Prize Laureate Orhan Pamuk Here we are, a new year, an opportunity to make it better than the last. I always find the idea a fresh new start better when…
Advent Calendar Day 23 There is something quietly magical in turning the page on a short Christmas tale by Louisa May Alcott: a sense of home, of small kindnesses, of time suspended in gentle snow. As my Advent ritual nears…
I believe Canada is one of those countries that has a different representation depending on our imagination. For some, it’s all maple syrup and ice skating, for others it’s the US with more plaid patterns, a land of refuge for…
Advent Calendar Day 18 Perhaps it’s the gourmand in me speaking, but what can evoke the spirit of Christmas more efficiently than a beautiful cookbook? Not just any cookbook—one dedicated entirely to the season, filled with dishes that exist solely…
Advent Calendar Day 17 There’s something uniquely soothing about settling in for a dark December evening with Hercule Poirot by my side. While the world outside is wrapped in frost, I drift into Christie’s subtle labyrinths of manners, motives, and…
Advent Calendar Day 13 On this thirteenth day of our Holiday Rituals, I pause beside a quiet window, watching the rain fall as softly and mysteriously as a story unfolding – how I wish it were snow. It feels like…
I think I was about 10 or 11 when I first heard of the American South and its complicated history. I was presented with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and frankly I don’t know if I understood a gread…
Every culture has its own way of questioning reality. The western world speaks of a great illusion, like a mind trick played to all of us, and usually does not offer solutions or positive perspectives to this hypothesis. The eastern…
Isn’t it fascinating how books become classics ? Enchanted by a recently published novel, we tend to label it “a modern classic”. But who can really tell which ones are going to pass the test of time ? History proved…
