Ryanne Molinari

November 3, 2015

“I Met the Fall”

November is my favorite month and not just because of Thanksgiving, pumpkin flavored everything, National Novel-Writing Month, the fact that eleven is my favorite number, or even my birthday. I love November because, living in Arizona and California, this is the month when Autumn finally arrives and, this morning, she arrived and met me with…

Literature
November 1, 2015

What’s your Coffee PersonaLatte?

In the midst of the craziness of the past few months, I have observed that college changes people. For some, they might challenge their former political ideologies or decide to go by their middle name or cut off their hair or switch majors a record number of times. However, the most common change seems to be that…

Musings

americano, cafe, caffe, caffeine, cappuccino, coffee, coffee drinkers, espresso, frappuccino, hipster, latte, macchiato, mocha, personality, starbucks
October 20, 2015

Reading Rainbow: College Edition

Sometimes my color-coded annotation system gets a little out of hand, but it sure is pretty. In the wise words of Buddy the Elf, “It’s like a Christmas tree!” This rainbow artwork of a first page gives me hope as I push through “ye olde English”. But then again, maybe old English isn’t so…

Musings

annotations, faerie queene, literature, Reading, spenser, torrey, twilight
October 14, 2015

Accidental Poetry

I came to the library with intentions of finishing Dante’s Paradise and therefore getting ahead on my homework, but I made the dire mistake of listening to one of my all-time favorite orchestra pieces, Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending.” (Stink it, Dante! You distracted me with “as a lark wheeling in the open sky”…curse your beautiful…

Literature
October 8, 2015

Poems and Trees and Such

It is National Poetry Day and I feel compelled to participate. Unfortunately, I tend to be much better at prose and the occasional limerick. Don’t believe me? The crowning achievement of my poetic career is this, written in eighth grade and shared by my dear friends throughout the entire school during a poetry appreciation event. Thanks…

Literature

frost, limerick, metamorphoses, national poetry day, ovid, poem, poet, poetry, pun, robert frost, stress, trees, writing
October 6, 2015

The Word Crimes Inferno

In reading Dante’s Inferno, I was struck by his ability to identify, categorize, and assign fitting punishments to various sins. This is not perhaps the most cheerful observation, but it was certainly intriguing and made me think (apologies for the morbidity): what crimes I would punish were I to write a modern Inferno and how would I…

Literature, Musings

AP Literature, author, Book, books, bookworm, dante, dictionary, english humor, essay, grammar, grammar humor, grammar nazi, grammarly, humor, inferno, literate, literature, novel, pun, punctuation, puns, Reading, syntax, the inferno, word crimes, writer, writing
September 24, 2015

Clever Odysseus and Wondering Me

In reading the epics of Homer and Virgil, I was struck by the use of titles for each character, from “clever Odysseus” to “circumspect Penelope” to “glorious Hector” to “pious Aeneas.” Rarely is a character mentioned, even in the most unimportant instances, without his or her name being preceded by an adjective of some sort. If…

Musings

aeneid, homer, literature, the iliad, the odyssey, titles, torrey
September 10, 2015

“So you want to be a piano-ist?” and Other Responses to my Major

“What’s your major?” seems to be the question of the month and I am seriously considering giving false answers if (scratch that, when) I am asked this again because it is getting a little old. As a music major with an emphasis in piano performance, though, I have heard some terribly amusing responses to my answer to this…

Music

accompanist, college, conservatory, funny, keyboard, Music, music major, pianist, piano, piano humor, piano major, piano problems, sarcasm, sassy, schroeder, what’s you major
August 28, 2015

#WriterGoals by Homer, Odysseus, and Ryanne

Yes, my title is a hashtag. Sometimes I like to break the trend of ordinary prose. Sorry not sorry. Ironically, however, this post is based on writing standards set waaaaaaaay back in the days of Homer. In reading through The Odyssey for my university’s honors institute, I realized two things: First, listening to Chopin’s nocturnes whilst reading makes…

Literature, Musings

AP Literature, Art, author, authors, beautiful, beautiful wriitng, beauty, Bible, Book, book review, books, brainstorming, C.S. Lewis, character, Children’s Books, chopin, classic literature, creativity, enduring books, epic, good writing, great books, homer, poetry, prose, the iliad, the odyssey, torrey honors institute, true writing, truth, writer, writer goals, writing
August 15, 2015

Literary Living

Standing at the checkout at the grocery store, I found myself incredibly bored having forgotten both my book and my phone. Most people in such a predicament would probably do one of two things: 1) make small-talk with fellow shoppers or 2) flip idly through the magazines on the racks. Similar to Mr. Darcy, I…

literary living

Anne, Anne of Green Gables, AP Literature, author, authors, best friends, books, bookworm, character, Children’s Books, classic literature, kindred spirits, magazine
July 26, 2015

An Epic Workout

You probably clicked on this link thinking it was an actual fitness article with instructions on how to run a 5K or do one-armed pushups, so I am sorry to disappoint you. But then again, this is a book blog, so if you came here looking for fitness inspiration, then you came to the wrong…

Bookish Style

book nerd, book workout, epic, homer, honors institute, summer reading, the iliad, the odyssey, workout, workout game
July 16, 2015

A Europe State of Mind

It has now been over a month since I returned from the trip of a lifetime: a two-and-a-half week journey through Europe with my family. When I call it the “trip of a lifetime”, I mean it! Sure, I had to punch my snoring relatives in the middle of the night once in a while,…

Musings

accents, American, austria, bicycle tour, books, europe, france, germany, holiday, humor, ice cream, inspiration, literature, london, macarons, Music, paris, prague, senior trip, sound of music tour, tourism, tourist, trip, vacation, writing