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Heena • london • books, arts, culture, travel & general musings

@hotlinelit

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i (mostly) read books & yap
💃🏽salonnière @salon.lit
📧[email protected]
🇵🇸radical texts, classics, history, myth, scifi & fantasy, lit fic & more

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Last week, we hosted our inaugural literary salon dinner at @evekensington, hosting the brilliant @profemilyhauser for an evening of shared dining and literary connection.

Guests met fellow Greek mythology and literary enthusiasts, discussed the lasting legacy of Homer’s epics and contemplated the role of literary retellings in rediscovering the classics through women’s voices. Our wonderful guest author Emily Hauser talked about the lasting legacy of Homer’s epics, how uncovering the real stories of history can help us understand the inspiration behind the epics and amplifying the voices of women through the ages in telling their own stories.

It truly was a wonderful evening, genuinely full of abundance and energy, and what we hope will be the first of more events to come.

Salon Lit takes inspiration from the literary salons of the past, and aims to take the connections we make online and cultivate them into something more real and lasting. Though we may no longer have the ability to host large private gatherings in our own homes, Salon Lit endeavours to reimagine what can still be possible today: an intimate literary dining experience that is purposefully curated and accessible to anyone who is willing to show up; repositioning cultural participation in the arts as not as luxury or exclusivity, but as something that is attainable and rooted in presence.

Thank you to all our guests for spending your time with us, and we hope to see you for our next event! taken in Eve Kensington by @hotlinelit

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4 days ago

These thoughts have been percolating for a while, as a result of spending a lot of time with art in the last few months, whether through visiting art galleries and museums or through literature and television. I wanted to put them down in one place and hope they’ll resonate with some of you too! If you did like this, please consider signing up to my very new substack and give me all the emotional encouragement I need to write more! by @hotlinelit

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4 months ago

Thoughts on Wuthering Heights….

MAY THIS KIND OF LOVE NEVER FIND ME. by @hotlinelit

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9 months ago

congratulations @salon.lit @hotlinelit on a brilliant inaugural event! there was so much thought put into the details and I love that I didn’t need to read the book before the event.

also featuring the gorgeous @sillylilbooks and her cannoli ✨

does this sound like a bit of you?

#bookish #bookishevents #salonlit taken in London, England by @hotlinelit

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3 days ago

“If we keep telling a story in which Penelope is always silent, then that’s how she’ll always stay - silenced. It’s time for her and all the others waiting in the wings to tell their stories.

So, Muse: tell me about a woman.”

Alongside reading the wealth of new classical retellings that uncover the voices of the often forgotten women in the classics, @emilyhauserauthor’s Mythica offers us an incredible insight into how to see the ancient world.

By uncovering the stories of the real women of the Bronze Age, Emily Hauser brings the stories behind the legends of Homer to life. The combination of archaeology, scientific DNA analysis and history comes together masterfully in this book to bring a new way of looking at the stories we thought we already knew.

Even without a basis in the classics or a degree, I found myself compelled to know more and learn more, and that’s because the style of writing is a beautiful blend of storytelling and academic insight - whether you’re a veteran of the classics or encountering the subject area for the first time, Mythica will teach you something new!

And if you are intrigued by this book, or you loved it and want to know more, come along to @salon.lit’s literary salon dinner in two weeks for a glorious evening of dining and discussion with the author!

Links to remaining tickets in bio! 💙 by @hotlinelit

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20 days ago

A very happy Hobbit day to those who celebrate!

And of course, a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BILBO AND FRODO BAGGINS! 💚

The Hobbit and LOTR came to me late in my life, but I believe that Tolkien’s work comes to you precisely when it means to.

Since I first read the entire series in 2022(!) it’s become such a source of joy and strength; and the people I’ve met through this? The ABSOLUTE best.

If you’ve never read Tolkien’s work before, I promise it’s not too late, it’ll change your life! by @hotlinelit

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10 days ago

everything feels a bit shit and like the entire game is rigged against us but there are lessons to be learnt everywhere, and inspiration to take from those who came before us and those fighting the good fight today. here are a few books that I turn to for both political education and to nourish my soul. by @hotlinelit

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23 days ago

Salon Lit presents Ancient Stories, New Conversations.

We are THRILLED to finally announce that our first and inaugural literary salon event will welcome the brilliant @emilyhauserauthor, award winning ancient historian and best-selling author of Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World through the Women Written Out of It, to join us for an evening of dining and discussion at @evekensington.

Tickets will include a full three course meal, soft drinks, a signed copy of Mythica and an evening dedicated to good conversation and even better company.

Link to purchase tickets is in our bio and seating is strictly limited. Bring your friends, your date, your mum - and anyone who would be interested in an night of discussing classics, Greek myth and the enduring legacy of the Odyssey.

We can’t wait to see you there!

❤️ taken in Eve Kensington by @hotlinelit

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a month ago

Oh Rebecca, what must it be like to be under pressure to compete against your own brilliance and your own backlist...

R.F. Kuang continues to be one of my favourite writers and Taipei Story certainly doesn’t take away from her talent as a writer, even if it’s not my favourite of her books to date.

In Taipei Story, we get RF Kuang’s most personal story yet. Lily Chen is a freshman in college, and takes the summer to study Chinese in Taiwan, hoping to connect with her own culture and family history. The book is largely about how Lily struggles to connect with her own family and mother tongue and this is her attempt to rectify that. It’s a standard coming of age lit fic novel and it follows the recipe for that sort of book, on the whole.

As an immigrant kid who lived abroad and had to be abroad for the death of grandparents, that part of the book did pack a punch, as it really was an internal commentary that many of us have felt in our own relationships with family and grandparents, especially when you are some form of Asian. I do wish RF Kuang had explored these relationships in much more detail as this was the absolute heart of the book.

Instead, we spend most of the book with a 19 year old kid bumbling around making mistakes and being slightly insufferable, and I mean, I get it, who amongst us wasn’t insufferable at that age? But she fails to be a character you root or particularly care about. The stakes don’t feel very high, there is no major conflict, it all feels a little dreary and monotonous. Even the inclusion of the israeli character, for all of its online discourse, felt like a choice that was just there for the sake of being there (which there is no way that is the case because RF Kuang is truly a brilliant writer) but there was no clear rationale to any of it.

The book was fine, perfectly readable - unlikely to read it again but it’s easy to get through and interesting enough. It won’t be my favourite of her books, but I will still read whatever Rebecca gives us next!

Thank you to @netgalley and @boroughpress for the arc. by @hotlinelit

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a month ago

@salon.lit is serving Mythica.

Come feast with @emilyhauserauthor and her fleet of companions in two weeks time, no ten-year Odyssey required. by @hotlinelit

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22 days ago

we’re so grateful for how many people have supported Salon Lit so far, thank you for helping us make this vision a reality!

Putting on book events isn’t easy, and especially in this economy! We know that it’s a tough economy out there and we are so grateful that you are choosing to put your hard earned money towards supporting authors we want to uplift and to spend time with good company.

In order to keep the event prices at a decently accessible price point, we take on a fair amount of risk ourselves - and that’s okay! We are excited to bring this to our local London community and we hope it’s the first of more to come. More events, more friendships, and most importantly, more uplifting authors and their brilliant books.

If you do want to help us make this a viable project and can’t attend our event, become an early supporter today! If you donate just £5, we will send you one of these limited bookmarks, signed by our guest author, and ensure you have first access to early bird ticket prices for our next event!

(uk only im afraid, I can’t afford these postal prices!) by @hotlinelit

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21 days ago

Last week, I was able to check out the brilliant Project a Black Planet exhibit at @barbicancentre! A stunning curated experience, this temporary exhibit celebrates the influence of Pan-Africanism on art.

Curated by MACBA director Elvira Dyangani Ose, along with Antawan Byrd, Adom Getachew and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica is the first major international exhibition to examine the cultural manifestations of Pan-Africanism from the 1920s to the present.

The exhibition will be at the Barbican centre until THIS Sunday and I highly highly recommend you visit if you are able!

❤️💚 by @hotlinelit

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a month ago