My Ikaria: How the people from a small Mediterranean island inspired me to live a happier, healthier and longer life
Spiri Tsintziras (Nero, April 2018)
Three years ago, Spiri Tsintziras found herself mentally, physically and spiritually depleted. She was stretched thin – raising kids, running a household and managing a business. She ate too much in order to keep going and then slumped in front of the telly at night, exhausted, asking herself ‘What is it all for?’
Spiri’s quest for a healthier, more nourishing life took her from her suburban home in Melbourne to her family’s homeland of Greece, and to the small Greek island of Ikaria. The people of Ikaria – part of the famous ‘Blue Zones’ – live happy, healthy and long lives. Inspired by their example, Spiri made some simple lifestyle changes and as a result lost weight, gained energy and deepened the connection to those closest to her. Best of all, she didn’t have to give up bread or wine!
Spiri’s heartwarming memoir, which includes delicious family recipes, will console and entertain all of us who are bogged down in the daily grind – encouraging us to put our health and happiness first.
Afternoons in Ithaka
Spiri Tsintziras (ABC Books/HarperCollins Publishers Australia, 2014)
I remember crusty just-baked bread, rubbed with juicy tomato flesh, swimming in a puddle of thick green olive oil. I am seven years old. I sit on a stool in my grandmother's house. It is the height of summer in a seaside village in the south of Greece. We little Aussies devour 'tomato sandwiches' as the family chats and laughs and swats flies ... From the first heady taste of tomatoes on home-baked bread in her mother's village in Petalidi, to sitting at a taverna some 30 years later in Ithaka with her young family, Spiri Tsintziras goes on a culinary, creative and spiritual journey that propels her back and forth between Europe and Australia. These evocative, funny and poignant stories explore how food and culture, language and music, and people and their stories help to create a sense of meaning and identity.
- Buy the hard copy edition (RRP AUS $24.90)
- Buy the e-version (AUS$$12.99)
- See the book on the publisher's website
- Read an excerpt of the book in The Australian newspaper
- Read an article about the author in Neos Kosmos and Greek American Girl
Children's books set in the Yarra Ranges area, Victoria
I have run workshops with children and community groups in Victoria's Yarra Ranges area to create story books for the local community. These include:Riding home - The Yarra
Ranges:What children like about where they live (and what they’d change) (Yarra Ranges Council - 2014)
Story by Spiri Tsintziras
This story is based on what 150 children from pre-schools and schools in Gladysdale, Healesville, Monbulk, Montrose, Mt Evelyn and Yarra Junction had to say about the area they live in.
The Season's In Our Town: A picture book by children from Millgrove, Wesburn and Surrounds (Yarra Ranges Council - 2013)
Story by Spiri Tsintziras
Kicking the footy, building a snowman, waiting for wombat to come out of her hole. These are some of the things that the children of Millgrove and Wesburn do during summer, autumn, winter and spring. Come and join them on thier exciting adventures.
Flying Home: A Mount Evelyn Story (Yarra Ranges Council - 2013)
Story by Spiri Tsintziras
Owler the Powerful Owl flies high above the Mount Evelyn township. Hop on his back and fly with him to find the silver bell, the flying fox and the flame tree. Look, feel and imagine your way through the Mount Evelyn township using this delightful picture book for the young, and the young at heart.
The Way Bunjil Flies: A new Dreaming about Badger Creek by Aunty Dot Peters (Mount Lilydale Secondary College, 2010)
Edited by Spiri Tsintziras
'Bunjil flies over. He sees Platypus and Fish fighting. He picks Platyus up in one claw, and Fish in the other, and drops them over Badger Creek...'This story recreates Aunty Dot's new Dreaming story about Bunjil the Eagle, with illustrations by Mount Lilydale Mercy College and Worawa Aboriginal College students.
Melbourne Coffee Review: A journey through Melbourne's top 100 coffee spots (2012 ed.)
Ristretto in Rosanna? Syphon in Spotswood? Cold-filter in Collingwood?
This is the definitive guide to Melbourne's very best coffee houses.
Check out why in my blog entry about it.
Buy the hard copy, e-Book or iPhone/Pad app from
Parlour Games for Modern Families
Myfanwy Jones & Spiri Tsintziras (Scribe, 2009)
Book of the Year for Older Children,
Australian Book Industry Awards, 2010.
'Who knew you could have this much fun without power cords? I love this book' Catherine Deveny
Parlour Games for Modern Families sets out to revive the tradition of indoor family games: push aside the consoles, turn off the telly, and bring some mental stimulation, silliness and laughter, joy and connection back into your living room.
This book is bursting with games of logic and memory, wordplay, card games, role-play, and rough and tumble. Not a single game requires equipment that you won’t find in your average home: a pack of cards, a dictionary, an hourglass, dice, paper, and pen. You can play to your heart’s content without wasting a single natural resource — except perhaps the delicious jam tart, recipe found herein.
- Buy the iPhone/Pad ap ($5.49)
- Buy the new edition (2011, $24.95)
- Read about it in The Guardian newspaper and listen to a BBC Bookclub interview
- Hear the authors interviewed on Life Matters, ABC Radio National
- Purchase in Australia, the United Kingdom, Italy (in translation) and elsewhere
- See media quotes on the publisher's website