February 25, Wednesday evening -- Reading a book of anecdotes

At Union Square, where, in the background, Tibetans are preparing to hold a candlelight vigil in place of their New Year celebration, to remember Tibetans killed, detained, tortured, and intimidated by the Chinese occupying forces in 2008. It is the 50th Anniversary Year since Tibetans rose up against the Chinese colonization of Tibet.
Reading 5000 самы лучших АНЕКДОТОВ, or, in English, 5000 Best Anecdotes, such as:
Woman 1: My husband is always talking about his ex-wife.
Woman 2: You've got it better than me. My husband is always talking about his future wife.
...she had a hard day and is reading this to cheer her up! Also in her bag is a book by Ryu Murakami. She's read Haruki and thought she'd try Ryu. So far she likes Haruki better.

Originally from Russia, near the Chechnyan border, the first book she read, at the age of twelve, was Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. He is, she said, the Russian soul at the best. Her favorite authors -- Chuck Palahniuk, who, she mused, gets his freedom from his American heritage, and his way of thinking about plain things different, from his Ukrainian heritage (she reads him in English); Haruki Murakami, for his beautiful language (translated into Russian); and, of course, Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

A favorite contemporary Russian novelist -- Tatyana Tolstaya, who she described as Rosie O'Donnell for intelligent people.