Literary Stylings #25 - Mislaid

For today's LitSty look, I was inspired by the book Mislaid, by Nell Zink:

I chose this book because it was one of my favorites from last month.  I had never read Zink before, but am now a huge fan.  She takes what are definitely sensitive subjects, like homosexuality in the 50s and 60s and race relations in the 60s and 70s and passing (!) for black (!) in the south (!) and writes about them with both pathos and humor.

The main character of the book is Peggy, who realized in high school that she loved women and wanted to love women.  She began dressing in masculine clothing and went to a liberal all-girls school.  However, at that school, she ends up having an affair.  With a professor.  With a homosexual, male professor.  Neither of them being experience with birth control, Peggy ends up pregnant.  And she and Lee, her professor, end up married.

Peggy eventually flees her marriage with her young daughter and in an attempt to hide them both, decides to pass as black.  In the South.  In the 60s.  Again, somehow, Zink manages to handle all of these issues deftly and often amusingly.  It's such a well written book, I recommend it to everyone.


As for my outfit, I wore a vintage dress layered over pants to demonstrate the duality of Peggy's position as both a lesbian and a wife and mother:

I chose this specific dress because although it's printed with roses, they're scribbled roses so it's not too sweet:

All in all, I'm not 100% sure this outfit makes sense in real life, but it made sense to me for this book.  And I was surprisingly comfortable wearing it.

Dress: vintage thrifted  Pants: LOFT
Turtleneck: hinge via Nordstrom  Shoes: Bettye by Bettye Muller

And now it's your turn; link your looks up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Friday, All!

Gracey

What I Read: January 2016

Do you remember when I  said I read a lot of books in December?  Well, as it turns out, I also read a lot of books in January.

I think it's because I still don't really know anyone here in Pennsylvania, so my weekends are spent reading instead of going to see 80s tribute bands or thrifting with Alex or day drinking with Jodi or watching my sweet, giant nephews play basketball.  As much as I enjoy reading, I definitely miss my weekends with friends and family.

But, they're not here and books are, so without further ado, here's what I read in January.


America Pacifica, by Anna North

I hate to categorize someone's time and effort as hot garbage, but, man this book is pretty much deserving of that categorization.  I read it on a whim because it should have been right up my alley.  It's dystopian literature with what seemed like an interesting twist: the world ends due to a new Ice Age.  The freezing of the mainland forces people to flee to tropical islands where they immediately overburden the native ecosystem with too many people and industries better suited to the old world instead of the new world.

Oh, dear, I'm afraid I'm making this book sound interesting.  It's not.  It's terrible.  The author is not a very good writer at all and I can't help but think that this book was only published because of the popularity of The Hunger Games and other YA dys-lit.  But, unlike Katniss, Darcy is hateful and whiny and you spend most of the book hating her even when bad things happen to her.  Seriously, don't read this book.



The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood

If Margaret Atwood writes a new novel, I will read it.  And, in this case, as always, I am so happy I did.  Oh, make no mistake, this is a weird one.  And things are often hinted at rather than fully explained, but done in that Atwood-way that makes you think instead of just frustrating you.

The novel does take place in the future, like many of her novels do, but it's interesting because at first it seems like a less severe future than, say, The Handmaid's Tale or Oryx and Crake.  (Two of my all-time favorites, btw).  But, don't be fooled by the Utopian community in this dystopian future.  Nothing is what it seems, even  with the main characters from whose point of view the tale is told.  Especially Charmaine.  You're gonna wanna keep your eye on Charmaine.



Revival, by Stephen King

As I said in my Goodreads review, I used to read a lot of Stephen King.  I mean, a lot.  And then, after The Dark Tower series finished, I stopped because the way that series finished was so perfect, but so frustrating, but so very right, that I couldn't stand it.

But, I found a copy of Revival in my local Goodwill and figured I'd give King another shot.  And he's still probably the best at pacing that I've ever read.  And he's still smart and terrifying and I might need to read more Stephen King in the very near future.



Shanghai Girls, by Lisa See

I liked this book well enough, but I didn't love it because it also frustrated me.  It's about Pearl and May Chin, thoroughly modern Shanghainese women who have their lives absolutely turned upside down.  I thought the author did a great job with the historical stuff, especially in how the Chinese Exclusion Act impacted Chinese immigrating to the United States.  That part was fascinating.

The two sisters themselves though, were less fascinating and more frustrating.  I basically didn't like either one of them, thought they acted foolish more often than not and couldn't get invested in their relationship at all.  So, to recap, good historical stuff, bad relational stuff.



The House at Midnight, by Lucie Whitehouse

This book, while better than the hot mess that is America Pacifica, is also pretty bad.  The story is supposed to be a modern Gothic story, I think.  I mean, I'm pretty sure that the premise is that the house that one of the characters inherited is supposed to have a malevolent nature and drive its inhabitants to violence and horniness, but it just doesn't read that way.  Basically, one character is an asshole and has too much influence on another character and stuff goes awry and I can't see how the house has any impact whatsoever.
Really, the only thing that saves this book is that Whitehouse is a pretty good writer.  But, she wrote a pretty terrible book.



The Library at Mount Char, by Scott Hawkins

I'm not sure how I even heard about this book, but I basically loved it.  I mean really loved it; I think it might even be one of my favorite books ever.  I'm not saying it's the best book ever, but damn it if I didn't love it.  It's a bit hard to get into because the author forgoes any world building to just throw the reader in.  And that's confusing.  It is.  But it's so worth sticking with.

Seriously, this book is weird and wonderful and funny and sad and wonderful again.  It's also the inspiration for my LitSty look for this month, so I'll share more about it next week.



Speaking of LitSty, the link party will be live on Tuesday, February 9th and I hope to see you there!


Happy Wednesday, All!

Gracey

Literary Stylings # 23: Obsidian

After much deliberation, I decided to base today's LitSty look on the two books of the Red Rising Trilogy, Red Rising and Golden Son:

As I said before, I wasn't actually familiar with these books prior to reading them.  I was just looking for something for my nephew and he's only 15 so I still like to pre-read any books I get for him.

And, as I also said before, I was very pleasantly surprised at how good these books are.  I won't say that Brown is the best writer, but the story is very, very good and he writes well enough to keep the reader engaged.

One thing I appreciate is how much though Brown put into the world he created.  In his version of the future, people are split into color-coded groups.  Each group has been genetically modified to do the work their group does.  Golds lead, Pinks were created for pleasure, Whites are the law, Grays are the military, Reds are the miners and Obsidians are the fighters.


Here is a hierarchy I found on Pinterest:

As you can see, Gold is at the very top and Red is at the very bottom.

The main character of the trilogy, Darrow, is a Red who finds out that although he and his people have been living underground in the mines, killing themselves to mine material so Mars can be terra-formed, it was already terra-formed hundreds of years ago and they're just slaves.

In his fight against the ruling Golds, Darrow is assisted by an Obsidian and for me, the story of the Obsidian group is one of the most fascinating of the book.  They also fought against the Golds once and as a result, the Golds took their technology, sending them back to the Middle Ages at best, and then set themselves up as Gods to the Obsidians.  They also did a bunch of other horrible stuff to them, effectually making them into killing machines to be used by the Golds to maintain their power.

Most of the groups have hair and eyes the color of their group; Reds have red hair and eyes.  Golds have golden hair and eyes and golden skin.  Obsidians, have paper-white skin and obsidian-black hair and eyes (and tattoos).


My outfit represents my fascination with the Obsidian story:

The black and white represents the Obsidians.  The bit of red represents the alliance with Darrow and his Obsidian.  And the leopard booties represent my belief that leopard is a neutral.

Poncho: Zara (save, splurge)  Tunic: Gap (similar)
Leggings: c/o Long Tall Sally (similar)  Shoes: Isola "Banner" Bootie

Sorry for the long post, but I really do appreciate the thought that Brown put into his books and wanted to share some of that with you.


But, enough about me; it's your turn!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey

Literary Stylings # 22: Transmission

As I said last week, I really, really enjoyed reading two books last month; Child 44 and Transmission.  However, I went with Transmission for my inspiration because Child 44 takes place during the Russian winter and it's entirely too hot to pull out the furs.


Transmission, on the other hand, takes place, at least for a bit, in India:

In fact, two of the main characters, Arjun, an American-bound computer geek, and Leela, Bollywood's latest "it girl" are Indian.  And even when these two leave their homelands to write code in America or make movies in Scotland, India is still referenced.


And that's what I tried to do with this outfit.  I tried to reference India:

Although, to be fair, the print on the dress isn't really Indian, but more Far Eastern:

Still, a girl does what she can when inspired by literature.  And what I could do was this:

Dress: thrifted (similar, similar plain)  Pants: LOFT (save, splurge)
Shoes: FRYE (similar)  Necklace: Sole Society (similar)

What about you, Reader Friends?  Were you sartorially inspired by any literature last month?  If so, please link your looks up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey


P.S. If you haven't yet entered my Jamberry giveaway, you can do so here!

What I Read: August 2015

Okay, so what I read was A LOT.  Remember how I mentioned that I traveled a lot during August?  Well, all that traveling meant a whole lot of reading.  Happily, the majority of the books I read were quite good and I was really only "meh" on two of them.


The Love-Artist, by Jane Alison

I thought this book was pretty good.  Not great, but solidly middle-of-the-road and definitely interesting.  It takes place in ancient Rome and tells the story of the poet, Ovid, and his muse.  The author tends towards a poetic turn of phrase, which is nice, but can also be a bit confusing.  In addition to Ovid and his muse, the story also includes some of the infighting and political intrigue Rome was famous for, but that part is still a bit murky to me due to the author's writing style.  If you like historical fiction and flowery language, this may be the book for you.


The Spinning Man, by George Harrar

What?  I don't know.  No, really, I think that I have no idea what happened in this book.  It's about a philosophy professor who is struggling with the fact that no one wants to take philosophy anymore and the fact that he's suspected of murdering a local cheerleader.  Did he?  I don't know.  There are a lot of philosophical questions posed and some of them are answered, but apparently "who done it?" isn't a highbrow of enough question for the author to answer because he just totally leaves the reader hanging.  I'd skip this one, unless, of course, you like being confused.



Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith

NPR called this book "one of the top 100 thrillers of all time."  And, you know what?  Yeah, I accept that.  I mean, I'm no expert on thrillers, but this book really is awfully good, folks.  It takes place in Stalinist Russia in the 50s and it's fantastic.  It's about the investigation of a serial killer, but it's really about a KGB officer losing his religion and his religion is his belief in the Soviet State.  Even if you don't love thrillers, I think this is a book worth reading.



Let's Explore Diabetes With Owls, by David Sedaris

I'm usually a David Sedaris fan, but I didn't love this book.  I did laugh aloud in a couple places, but mostly I wondered if I'd outgrown Sedaris and his brand of snark.  I do recommend reading Sedaris though, but maybe not necessarily this one.



Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

I had this book on my list forever and when I went home to visit my family, I stole it from my sister and finally had time to read it.  And I'm glad I did.  It was very interesting to me as I was unaware that we ever shipped orphan kids from the East Coast to the Midwest to be taken in by strangers.  The only thing I didn't like was the fact that the author goes back and forth between modern times with the girl interviewing a woman who was on an orphan train, and the time of the train.  The modern stuff wasn't half as interesting to me as what the orphans went through, but all in all, it was a good book and one I'd recommend.



Transmission, by Hari Kunzru

I started this book probably three times.  It starts basically in the middle of the story and that was confusing to me, but once I got going I couldn't put it down.  And I absolutely loved the end.  I haven't been that satisfied with the ending of a book in ages.  It made all of the, sometimes confusing, tech and marketing lingo in the middle worth it.  It's a strange book and I can't provide a good synopsis of the plot, but I definitely recommend it!


And that's it.  Again, I spent a lot of time on planes, in airports and on the road so I read a lot of books.  Per usual, I have no idea what to wear for the Literary Stylings Link Party next Tuesday, but I'll find something. Hopefully you will too and hopefully you'll come by and link up!


Happy Thursday, All!

Gracey

Literary Stylings #21: The City of Falling Angels

As I mentioned on Thursday, I absolutely loved The City of Falling Angels by John Berendt:

The main focus of the book is the fire in the famous Venetian opera house, La Fenice.  But, in writing about the fire, Berendt is, somehow, also able to gain entree into famous Venetian palazzos as well as into the Murano glass studio of the famous Archimede Seguso, and gets the dirt on the Save Venice Foundation.  Like his book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (also great), Berendt digs into the inner workings of a proud city and a proud people.  And it is fantastic.


It's also the inspiration behind today's outfit:

Now, this skirt wasn't maybe the best choice given the trees in the print.  Apparently Venice doesn't have trees because it's man-made stone and brick.  Hard to grow trees in that.


But, I still maintain that the print has a sort of old-world feel to it:

Top: LOFT  Skirt: gifted vintage
Sandals: FRYE (similar, vegan option)

And the colors are sort of indicative of the sea and the canals and the yellow in the sky reminds me of eye-witness accounts of the Fenice fire from the book.


What about you, Reader Friends?  Were you inspired by any of your July books?  If so, please link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey

Literary Stylings #20: Gentlemen & Players

As I said previously, Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris was my favorite book from last month:

I really, really want to tell you guys all about this book, but I also really don't want to give anything away, because it's such a great twist.  So, maybe just read it and we can talk about it later?


One thing I can say about the book though is that it's about a private school in England.  And that fact inspired today's makeshift schoolgirl outfit:

Now, I've never been to private school, or even known anyone that went to private school, but I am pretty confident that there is plaid involved.


So, I wore my plaid skirt, a white shirt, a lady-tie and ankle-strap flats:

Skirt: thrifted (similar) Top: Nordstrom
Tie: thrifted Brooks Brothers (similar)  Flats: Piperlime (similar)

I don't remember if they wore plaid in Gentlemen & Players, but they definitely wore ties, so yeah, nailed that.

I also wore a polka dot belt which was not inspired by the book.  I just like polka dot belts:

What about you, Reader Friends?  What did you read last month?  Anything inspiring?

If so, please add a link for your book-inspired outfits below:

An InLinkz Link-up

And if you didn't read anything inspiring, I recommend that you try Gentlemen & Players; you won't regret it!

Gracey

Literary Stylings #18: Scent of Triumph

If you guessed I'd be basing today's outfit off of Scent of Triumph, give yourself a hand.  It really was the obvious choice though.  It's the only book I read last month that I really liked and the 1940s fashions described throughout were truly inspiring.

And they provided the perfect context in which to wear my 40s-inspired wiggle dress:

I love that this dress has the classic "wiggle" shape, but the print is completely modern:

Now, I think a true wiggle dress would be quite a bit more fitted, but this one suits me and my need to work in an office.


I completed the look with t-strap sandals:

Dress: ASOS (similar)  Sandals: Camper

And now it's your turn.  If you were sartorially inspired by something you read last month, please link up below!

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Tuesday, All!

Gracey

Shop Wiggle Dresses