Manic Bookstore Cafe

It's been quite a rollercoaster of a spring semester. Russian Cuisine in Exile  is selling pretty well. It dawned on me to (Facebook) "friend" the surviving co-author, Alexander Genis, and then the son of the deceased co-author also friended me. Genis commented to me how ironic it felt that his (real) friends were still the main readers and purchasers of the book--this time Russians buying it for their own English-speaking friends. Konstantin Vail, who lives in New Jersey, wrote a super sweet thank you note to us for translating his father's book. Tom and I did a video interview in Boston at ASEEES, which the crack staff at Academic Studies Press edited up beautifully. I've also done a couple of interviews which will appear in print or have already online (see here , the U of Wisconsin CREECA interview with Larisa Doroshenko). And this morning--after spring semester, with my May term study abroad course starting in Budapest, Hungary tomorrow--I finally poste

Check out the window, lower left. NOTE: THIS POST WAS WRITTEN IN MID-DECEMBER AND REMAINED IN DRAFT FORM. TIME TO RELEASE IT AND GET BACK TO BLOGGING. Wednesday night we did our first public reading of Russian Cuisine in Exile in Milwaukee. Tom Feerick -- formerly my undergraduate student, now a second year grad student at Northwestern -- drove up from Evanston, while I drove over and up from my dad's house in Barrington. (On Thursday we met in Hyde Park for round two.)  In brief, translators on tour. What can I say? It was terrific fun. We were in "dialogue" with Joe Peschio, the brilliant and funny Russian prof at UW-Milwaukee who helped set up the event. Boswell Books is fantastic -- a large space with really well-curated offerings. I will make it a destination in future for stocking up for my own library and for gifts. The manager, Daniel, was gracious and sweet, and the audience settled right into comfy chairs and sofas to listen to us chat. As we were p