Hello friends!

Breakfast in Moscow has moved to a cleaner, slick-er new site! I am still posting regularly, but now it’s just at a new place. Please come on over for a visit! I hope you enjoy the new site better than the old one.

Click here to be re-directed to the new Breakfast in Moscow site.

P.S. adorable picture of school children crossing the road in Moscow was found here.

Hi Friends,

Thanks for coming to the new site this week, and for all your helpful comments regarding things that aren’t working quite right or are misspelled. Economist husband and I are looking forward to the weekend, and starting our Saturday breakfast dates now that we’re back in Moscow again.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Breakfast in Moscow has moved to a new location! To finish reading this post, please go to the new site. Also, if you leave a comment on the new site, or subscribe at the new site, I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Hope to see you there!

“One of the few things I know about writing is this: spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time. Do not hoard what seems good for a later place in the book, or for another book; give it, give it all, give it now…Anything you do not give freely and abundantly becomes lost to you.” -Annie Dillard

Breakfast in Moscow has moved to a new location! To finish reading this post, please go to the new site. Also, if you leave a comment on the new site, or subscribe at the new site, I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Hope to see you there!

“Composition” by Pierre Soulages, 1988

Friends, are you going to vote on the 6th?

I really want to vote in this election, although, to be honest, I haven’t decided who I’m going to vote for. Also, I haven’t figured out exactly how to cast my absentee ballot from Russia. Not much time left!

I was reading this really interesting article today about expat voting. Did you know, for example, that there has been a lot of expat enthusiasm for voting this election as the race has been really close?

Breakfast in Moscow has moved to a new location! To finish reading this post, please go to the new site. Also, if you leave a comment on the new site, or subscribe at the new site, I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Hope to see you there!

Soviet Fashion Model at Soviet Exhibit by Walter Sanders

I’ve been meaning to do a post about Soviet fashion for months now, and have finally gotten around to it. This summer our newsroom did a story on fashion in the USSR, and I found it to be totally fascinating.

Breakfast in Moscow has moved to a new location! To finish reading this post, please go to the new site. Also, if you leave a comment on the new site, or subscribe at the new site, I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon gift card. Hope to see you there!

Hello friends!

I have some exciting news to share! I’ve finally moved Breakfast In Moscow to a WordPress.org site. I’ve so enjoyed playing around with the theme and widgets and plugins. I think the new site is a lot more functional than my current WordPress.com site – hopefully it will make it easier for me to post, and more enjoyable for you to read!

Starting today all Breakfast in Moscow posts will be put up regularly at the new site (www.eshockman.com), so come on over to check it out!

ALSO, if you leave a comment on the new site any time this week, or sign up to follow Breakfast in Moscow at the new location I’ll enter your name in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card!

Hope to see you there!

P.S. The 1977 photo of a May Day stampede was found here.

Well, we’re back in Russia. It’s gray and quiet here. We’re still unpacking and recovering from jet-lag, but glad to be back to our own three rooms, and routine. I miss my family (especially this good-looking relative), but I’m actually looking forward to getting back to the office. You know you’ve had a good vacation when you can’t wait to get back to work!

How was your week?

• a sound track for discovering!
• Moscow photo’s of the week.
• Don’t stress out. Go to this website instead! (found via CupofJo)
• The three components of job satisfaction.
• Have you ever thought of using THIS to wash your face??? I can’t wait to try it out!
• Guess where our plane made an emergency landing en route from NYC to Moscow?
• Have you seen this commercial? It makes me laugh every time.
• I watched this film in flight – it was FANTASTIC. High recommendations.
• A pas de deux with an excavator in Moscow
• Russian report criticizes U.S. on human rights, U.S. responds ‘bring it on’
• How much do you know about V.V. Putin? Take this 10-question quiz about Vladimir Vladimirovich to find out!

P.S. beautiful birch photo found here.

I just stumbled onto this great resource online, and had to share it with you. BookSneeze is an organization that sends free kindle (or hard copy) books to bloggers in exchange for a book review.

I’ve already signed up, and received this book (review soon to follow!).

Also, I know it might be obvious, but do you utilize your library’s online catalog?

E-books are surprisingly easy to access online (for free!) from libraries.

The library site allows you to keep a long wish list and to request several books at a time. So, even if there’s a long wait for some books, I just request them, and it has so far worked out that I pretty regularly am able to get a new book every two weeks or so.

And the best part is that there are never any late fees – as soon as my two-week check-out period is up, the book just disappears from my Kindle.

It literally never ceases to bring me joy.

The thing about library books and free books is that you can feel free to try reads that you might not otherwise pay money for.  I’ve gotten introduced to several new authors – some that I’ve really liked, others that I haven’t bothered to finish. Here is a sampling of a few recent reads:

• “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity“, by Katerine Boo. Fantastic, absorbing read! What an honest, absorbing portrait of honesty. I actually had dreams about Mumbai slums after reading this. Probably the best book I read all summer
• “The Paris Wife: A Novel“, by Paula McLain. I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down. Beautifully written, and so interesting to get this perspective on Ernest Hemingway’s life.
• “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel” by Jonathan Safran Foer. I loved the movie, but I couldn’t finish the book, to be honest.
• “Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman” by Robert K. Massie. Fascinating, well-written. Highly recommended!
• “Imperfect Birds: A Novel” by Anne Lamott. Not the best book I’ve ever read, but I so enjoy Anne Lamott’s voice…
• “Loving Frank” by Nancy Horan. I definitely was up late at night looking up pictures of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright while reading this. I can’t say that I liked it, though. I felt it went on for too long, and the protagonist really irritated me.

What about you? Have you read any good books lately? Do you know any other ways to get free Kindle books?

P.S. A fantastic Moscow library!

Have you seen any good documentaries recently?

P.S. video found here.

Hello friends,

Thanks so much for sticking around with my erratic posting schedule this month. Economist husband and I are still enjoying our vacation and soaking up all this great time with family and friends. This weekend we’re going to a cabin up in the northern woods of MN with my sister, brother-in-law and beautiful niece! We’re getting in as much as we can before heading back to Moscow…

• Taking pictures of the ordinary (do you do this?)
• A delicious Italian soup for fall (Pasta e lenticchie)
• Subway poetry
• Hair style at the Kremlin (hilarious, and SO TRUE! Definitely my favorite article of the week!)
• Do you like Alfred Hitchcock movies? Then you and I both are going to enjoy this film.
• What Paris fashion week really looks like

PS. photo of umbrellas and trolley bus found here.