Robin Allison Davis – Surviving Paris – A Memoir Of Healing In The City Of Light

A deeply personal account of a young Black woman who set out to shake up her life by moving abroad but got a lot more than she bargained for.

Surviving Paris is not Emily in Paris. It’s not a story of moving to the City of Light, meeting a dashing Frenchman, and raising beret-wearing enfants. It is not a romantic fantasy. It is a true story about a young, Black single woman and what happens when your Paris dream turns into a Paris nightmare.

After more than a decade as a journalist and television producer, Robin Allison Davis decided to shake up her life and move to France. But it wasn’t quite the life she expected. When she was just thirty-four, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Surviving Paris recounts her journey from diagnosis through multiple surgeries to surviving the strictest Covid-19 lockdowns, only to be told her cancer had come back—and how she got to finding herself healthy again, including all the detours in between.

While this book is about cancer, it’s not just about survival. It’s a love story about cancer. It’s a story about Robin’s love of adventure, her love of love, and her love for herself. Grounded yet irreverent, informative and anecdotal, Surviving Paris has laughter, sorrow, and some unforgettable cringe-worthy moments. It also has courage, surprises, and remarkable depths of heart.

Robin writes about the struggles of finding her community and family away from home, dating on Tinder with one boob, and learning to be the best advocate for her medical care in a culture she doesn’t completely understand, and that doesn’t understand her. Surviving Paris details the good, the bad, and the ugly of expatriating to Paris and one American woman’s unexpected and often hilarious journey—and her precious second chance at life.

Naoise Mac Sweeney –  The West: A New History In Fourteen Lives

Prize-winning historian Naoíse Mac Sweeney delivers a captivating exploration of how Western Civilization the concept of a single cultural inheritance extending from ancient Greece to modern times – is a powerful figment of our collective imagination. An urgently needed emergent voice in big history, she offers a bold new account of Western history, real and imagined, through the lives of fourteen remarkable individuals. From Herodotus, a mixed-race migrant, to Phylis Wheatley, an enslaved African American who became a literary sensation; and from Gladstone, with a private passion for epic poetry, to the medieval Arab scholar Al-Kindi – the subjects are a mind-expanding blend of unsung heroes and familiar faces viewed afresh. Naoíse Mac Sweeney’s enthusiasm for history is refreshingly engaging and a delight to listen to.

Herbal Tea – Seventeen

A cut from a remarkable new album I just received, the artist goes by the moniker of Herbal Tea, this is the work of Helena Walker out Bristol in the west of England. Hear As The Mirror Echoes is Helena’s debut album and it’s a beauty, gorgeously realized songs with ambient textures and cleverly placed distortion – a striking combination. In Seventeen, Helena recalls life at that age, her lyrics are honest, the closing line “Moments are much sweeter existing as a memory”, so true. Herbal Tea’s music is certainly poignant yet she shares an element of optimism, “I’ve always felt like a bit of an outsider, and making music is my escape”, Helena says, “I hope this album can be that escape for someone else.” It certainly is, listen carefully.