Book picks similar to
Athens: The Monocle Travel Guide by Monocle


college-nonfiction
greece
library-adults-nonfiction

One Summer in Crete


Nadia Marks - 2020
    So when she’s sent to write a magazine article about the Greek island of Ikaria, it seems the perfect escape. The locals there are reported to be among the happiest and longest-living in the world. The island has a secret, one that Sophie is determined to uncover . . . Travelling to Crete, from where her family originates, Sophie begins to suspect there are more secrets closer to home. Her aunt Maritsa begins to recount the story of her own heartache as a teenage girl facing cruel hardships in rural Greece. A story of love, betrayal and revenge, it will change Sophie’s life forever. One Summer in Crete is a gloriously sunny book by Nadia Marks.

Beneath the Cypress Tree


Margaret Pemberton - 2017
    . . Summer 1935. Best friends Kate Shelton, Ella Tetley and Daphne St. Maur are on the cusp of a new life, having graduated with Classics degrees. Kate is desperate to start work on an archaeological dig straightaway and she is thrilled to be given a position at the famous Knossos palace site in Crete. However, she doesn't bargain for working with gruff site director Lewis Sinclair - nor for her own complex feelings towards him.In Yorkshire, Ella's family expect her to marry Sam, her steady friend who is training to be a doctor, but Ella too feels pulled to the Mediterranean by the promise of freedom. When she meets Christos, life as a country GP's wife seems even less appealing . . . Daphne however throws herself into London's high society, falling madly in love with diplomat and heir Sholto Hertford - but then his work brings them to Crete, and Daphne becomes enchanted by the island as well.Meanwhile, the threat of war rumbles on, as reports of Hitler's rapid expansion across Europe become impossible to ignore. It seems that nothing can touch the perfect, glittering sea and snow-capped mountains, but Kate, Ella and Daphne know that the island haven they now call home will never be the same again.

Girl Gone Greek


Rebecca Hall - 2015
    Girl Gone Greek is a novel about an Englishwoman’s experiences in rural Greece early in the millennium. Set against the breathtaking background of the Greek countryside and Athens, Rachel meets a colourful cast of eccentric characters, plants her feet deeply into the local soil and ultimately finds her true love – Greece.

The Thief's Tale


S.J.A. Turney - 2013
    Turney, the fate of Empire hangs in the balance… Istanbul, 1481:  The once great city of Constantine, a strange mix of Christians, Turks and Jews, now forms the heart of the Ottoman empire. The conquest, still a recent memory, means emotions run high; danger is never far away. Skiouros and Lykaion, sons of a Greek farmer, are conscripted into the infamous Janissary guards and taken to Istanbul. As Skiouros escapes into the Greek quarter, Lykaion remains with the slave chain, becomes an Islamic convert and guards the Imperial palace. But one fateful day Skiouros picks the wrong pocket and begins to unravel a plot reaching to the highest peaks of Imperial power... He and his brother are left with the most difficult decision faced by a conquered Greek: is the rule of the Ottoman Sultan is worth saving? The epic and unputdownable first book in S.J.A. Turney’s Ottoman Cycle, The Thief’s Tale is perfect for readers of Simon Scarrow, Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell.

A Greek Affair


Linn B. Halton - 2018
    Halton also writes as Lucy Coleman, the top ten bestselling author of Snowflakes Over Holly Cove! More than just a holiday romance? Her daughter, her job and divorcing her untrustworthy ex are Leah’s main priorities. She isn’t really bothered that her life might be missing a few things. But after winning a prestigious travel blogger award, she’s inundated with offers to review glamorous holiday destinations.Lying around drinking exotic cocktails and being paid for it … what could be better? Perhaps a romantic trip to idyllic Greece to find the one man who might make Leah risk her heart again… Readers love Linn B. Halton! ‘Perfect escapism … A superb book’ Karen, Netgalley‘Not quite what I expected, but better. Five stars’ Barbara, Netgalley

Advanced Level Physics


Michael Nelkon - 1977
    Nelkpn and Parker Advanced Level Physics Fourth edition Hardback! Second hand, but mint condition Buyer must pay postage

The Templars and the Grail: Knights of the Quest


Karen Ralls - 2003
    Did they bring their treasure to North America, as some legends say? This definitive work about the Templars and their presumed hidden knowledge addresses many such fascinating questions, with rare photos from the Rosslyn Chapel Museum (Scotland) included.

Blue Ribbons Bitter Bread: Joice Loch, Australia's Most Heroic Woman


Susanna de Vries - 2000
    She had the inspired courage that saved many hundreds of Jews and Poles in World War II, the compassion that made her a self-trained doctor to tens of thousands of refugees, the incredible grit that took her close to death in several theatres of war, and the dedication to truth and justice that shone forth in her own books and a lifetime of astonishing heroism.Born in a cyclone in 1887 on a Queensland sugar plantation she grew up in grinding poverty in Gippsland and emerged from years of unpaid drudgery by writing a children's book and freelance journalism. In 1918 she married Sydney Loch, author of a banned book on Gallipoli. After a dangerous time in Dublin during the Troubles, they escaped from possible IRA vengeance to work with the Quakers in Poland. There they rescued countless dispossessed people from disease and starvation and risked death themselves.In 1922 Joice and Sydney went to Greece to aid the 1,500,000 refugees fleeing Turkish persecution. Greece was to become their home. They lived in an ancient tower by the sea in the shadows of Athos, the Holy Mountain, and worked selflessly for decades to save victims of war, famine and disease.During World War II, Joice Loch was an agent for the Allies in Eastern Europe and pulled off a spectacular escape to snatch over a thousand Jews and Poles from death just before the Nazis invaded Bucharest, escorting them via Constantinople to Palestine. By the time she died in 1982 she had written ten books, saved many thousands of lives and was one of the world's most decorated women. At her funeral the Greek Orthodox Bishop of Oxford named her 'one of the most significant women of the twentieth century.'This classic Australian biography is a tribute to one of Australia's most heroic women, who always spoke with great fondness of Queensland as her birthplace. In 2006, a Loch Memorial Museum was opened in the tower by the sea in Ouranoupolis, a tribute to the Lochs and their humanitarian work.

The Olive Garden Choir


Leah Fleming - 2019
    Perfect for fans of Kate Furnivall and Julia Gregson. They have come to Santaniki for different reasons. Some with a dream of happiness. Some running from sadness and failure. But all of them have fallen in love with this most beautiful of Greek islands. When bossy retired bookseller, Ariadne Blunt, suggests that the English residents form a choir, she did not expect it would unleash quite so much drama. Secrets surface, old rivalries spring up, new friendships are formed and passions are rekindled. In this bittersweet tale of love and loss, people quite literally find their voices – showing that life can begin again when you let go of the past.

The Boy Looked at Johnny: The Obituary of Rock and Roll


Julie Burchill - 1978
    Book by Julie Burchill, Tony Parsons

America, America


Elia Kazan - 1961
    Nothing can stand in his way. AMERICA, AMERICA is about immigration, the tyranny of our ancestors' homelands and the obsessive drive that brought our families to this country. It is difficult for us to imagine the realities of our heritage, but Elia Kazan shows us how the America we know today emerged from our forefathers' drive for a life of greater freedom and opportunity.

George and Marina: Duke and Duchess of Kent


Christopher Warwick - 2016
    As a young man, voraciously addicted to drugs and sex, with men as much as women, marriage and parenthood for the impetuously wayward playboy prince, with his night-clubbing lifestyle and intimate liaisons, was seen as the only stabilizing influence. Enter the stylish and sophisticated Princess Marina, the cultured, artistic and multilingual youngest daughter of Prince Nicholas of Greece and his Russian-born wife, Grand Duchess Yelena Vladimirovna. As Duke and Duchess of Kent, George and Marina were the Crown’s most glittering representatives, not least in the aftermath of the Abdication of George’s adored elder brother, the briefly-reigned King Edward VIII; the man with whom he had not only shared both home and high-flying lifestyles, but who had helped cure him of his addiction to morphine and cocaine.On and off duty, the Duke and Duchess lived life to the full, and after George’s untimely death, Marina continued to do so during the twenty-six years of her widowhood. Revisiting his 1988 best-selling biography, George and Marina: Duke and Duchess of Kent, Christopher Warwick, in this revised and partly re-written study, tells their story anew.

Rack, Rope and Red-Hot Pincers: A History of Torture and Its Instruments


Geoffrey Abbott - 1993
    This bloodcurdling account of instruments of torture through the ages includes descriptions of cells too cramped to allow for lying down, skull crushers, the pendulum, the gridiron, and other gruesome devices.

Gaia


Monica La Porta - 2013
    Two years later, back in Rome, she should be enjoying college life; instead, the memories of his lapis lazuli eyes and Mona Lisa smile still haunt her. Gaia longs to meet him again and unwittingly sabotages her romantic life by refusing to move on. Only her anthropological studies about the mysterious Etruscans make her feel alive. A chance to breathe new air is presented to her when she wins a full scholarship to study abroad at the University of Washington. In rainy Seattle, Gaia finally meets the man of her dreams, but he proves to be... otherworldly. Meanwhile, in her field of studies, what starts as an interesting archeological finding about a six-fingered human image, soon evolves into the discovery of the millennium, but not where Earth is concerned. Although Gaia is a companion novel of Elios, you can read these in either order. They are both stand-alone stories from different points of view. You met Gaia and Elios in his book; now hear her story.

Harlot's Sauce: A Memoir of Food, Family, Love, Loss, and Greece


Patricia V. Davis - 2008
    This is just one of many wrong reasons why Patricia is all the more determined to do so. She even moves with Gregori to Greece, where he insists he must be in order to be happy. Once there, she discovers that though she might not save her marriage, she just might save herself. With vivid descriptions of life in beautiful, modern-day Greece, this memoir is both a tasty treat and an exhilarating sail on the Hellenic seas through xenophobia, dysfunctional family units, religious ravings, obsessive protocols, political disorder, European football, and fabulous food. As the Italians say, Buon Appetito! (Good Appetite!) As the Greeks say, Kalo Taxidi! (Good Voyage!)