Randi 
All right, folks, it’s time to jump on the bandwagon and give you my top reading recommendations for Halloween. Except I’m not going to recommend books. No, I suspect your reading list is long enough already. Instead, I’ve gathered up my favorite stories, poems, songs, and poem-songs, which you can enjoy in 15 minutes or less. … Read more…
Forget “Winter is Coming.” In Novosibirsk, it’s here. The golden leaves that made this past month so gorgeous have peaked and fallen, and street cleaners have already raked them up into sacks and hauled them away. On Wednesday we had our first snow. Granted, it’s not a real Siberian winter yet — we still have … Read more…
Need some inspiration? (Or maybe a kick in the pants?) Over at my favorite creative forum, deviantART, there’s a “100 Themes Challenge” going around. As the name suggests, you get a list of 100 themes (I like to think of them as points of departure) that you turn into 100 new creations. I think it was … Read more…
“Ett…två…tre…” I sat at the dinner table with a sheet of paper, jotting down Swedish numbers as my grandpa taught me what little he remembered from childhood. On command, I repeated after him, though as a born writer I was more interested in getting it on paper. “Fyra…fem…sex…sju.” He stopped on seven and made me … Read more…
To the Barnes & Noble in State College — or really, any Barnes & Noble anywhere. Indie bookshops have great charm, but among the corporate chains, there’s no one like B&N. (Well, literally. There’s practically no one else left in business…) THE BOOKSTORE Windows, wide, stretching the length of this hall, brilliant glass, radiant with … Read more…