may junebug (if I had an instagram..)

1. flowers by the sundial at Timothy's graduation 2. myself lounging and waiting in 1970s lingerie 3. my baby brother's bodacious curls 4. a tree line and grey clouds on T.'s graduation day 5. another lingerie shot 6. more sundial petals 7. in the arboretum after his graduation 8. recent Russian literature find in the kitty cat bookshop.

Etsy book finds

I found these last night and I can't wait to get them in the mail! They're children's books, but I'm sure they'll help me with my Russian anyway. x

A vintage edition of Pushkin's Tale of the Tsar Saltan 

 and then Hans-Christian Anderson's Thumbalina! 

I purchased them from this shop, if any of you are interested (there are so many lovely Russian things there..).

Весна; it's finally starting to feel like spring!

One day I'll make a post that isn't book related, but today is not that day.

Here is my copy of Eugene Onegin (by the wonderful Pushkin). Since I'm not going abroad this summer (which I'm starting to regret a lot lately...), I decided to read my first novel по-русски this summer! The novel's pretty wonderful (even in english) if you've never read it; and it's written in verse, so it's a novel and poetry all in one!

Underneath the book is my midterm assignment for a Russian literature class. It's Холодная Осень by Bunin, or Cold Autumn. This semester I've discovered a new-found love for his stories, and you should read at least one story by him before you die (his stories are super short, you could finish one before you finish a cup of coffee). I recommend The Caucasus, Light Breathing, and Cold Autumn. I haven't read too much else yet, but I'm sure his other stories are pretty great, too.

Banned book love

So lately I've been researching banned & challenged books, and it's all just so fascinating! Some of them are ridiculous, others lead to things like the "Radioactive Boy Scout" (which is strange yet interesting), and there are some which I'm glad they are banned (Just look up Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). 

I think I'm going to try and have a weekly banned book reading party (or a Russian literature party) during the summer, with baked black cherry crisp and wine and other delicious things. We can all sit on my new apartment's living room floor with pillows and do dramatic readings of sorts, it'll be oodles of fun, I'm sure. x

 

So these are three which I'd really like to read once I get my hands on them. I'm expecting The Color Purple to be a difficult read based on what I read on the wiki page; Lolita has been on my reading list for ages now, and well, Lady Chatterley's Lover just seemed interesting! 

So have some recommendations in no particular order, with stars next to my absolute favorites:

1. Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll ✩
3. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley ✩
4. Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes ✩
5. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald ✩
6. Lord of the Flies, Sir William Golding
7. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde ✩
8. Go Ask Alice, Anonymous
9. The Crucible, Arthur Miller
10. A Separate Peace, John Knowles ✩
11. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (I never finished this one because college gets in the way of things, but it was good!)
12. Bless Me, Ultima, Rudolfo Anaya
13. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare
14. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (I'm not super-duper fond of this one, but it's one of my boyfriend's favorites, so I thought I'd list it anyways)
15. And any Where's Waldo book

"Wir Schwestern zwei, wir schönen, wir schönen.."

Today I attended a friend's opera recital, and it was absolutely beautiful! I find it hard to believe that such a voice could come out of her cute little face, haha. x She performed this song with another talented girl, and now it's become a bit of an obsession of mine:

Johannes Brahms, Die Schwestern (Op. 61, No. 1)

My friend also hugged me four times, and was super excited to see me! (Which kind of surprised me a little). We only ever really saw each other for Russian class, and now that she's finished her Russian minor, I don't really see her anymore. We aren't best friends or anything..but I felt like I was a little friend-acquaintance who showed up and I feel like it meant a lot to her, even if we aren't very close. I don't know, maybe I'm just imagining it or thinking too much about it, but either way it just felt really nice. x

My cameras have been temperamental lately, the batteries keep bursting out of one and the other doesn't want to have nice lighting and also blurs every photo..but! Luckily I like black and white blurry portraits, I get to make ghosts out of people.

Myself and Timothy.

(There were pictures that looked more ghost-like which I love, but he was getting dressed and I don't think he'd like them all over the interwebs, even if there's nothing inappropriate about them).

Anywho, I hope February is good to you! Ta-ta!

xx

2014 reading list!

Happy New Year's Everyone! 

It's a new year, so I spent my last day of 2013 planning my reading list:

 

 

 

 

Since I won't be going to Russia this summer like I had hoped, I think I'm allowed to spend my Christmas money on some of these lovely books (I'm very excited!). There's a few by Haruki Murakami; I've never read him, but I have this feeling I might like him a lot. 

You can find my goodreads account here, if you'd like to see more of my reading interests.

I hope you make the new year as kind as can be! Be soft and let go of your bitterness. Just warm up a bit, and love. x