Literary Stylings: July and August Books, and Green Culottes

Happy Tuesday-That-Feels-Like-Monday! Hmmm, I'm not sure if that's cause for celebration or not.

Stair Pose don't like culottes

 But it's one day closer to the weekend, right? Can't be that bad!

• Top - Annalee and Hope, consignment; last seen here in August 2014
• Culottes - Jac Dale, vintage 80s, thrifted; last seen here in June with plain ol' white
• Shoes - Half Truth Tanya, Fluevog; last worn here with purple plaid in May

I am done with this top. I haven't worn it in a year! I thought when I found the last wearing of it, "Well, that's not so bad, I wore it in August." But no, that's 2014! Definitely time for this lacey thing to go. It doesn't feel nice on.

I was hemming and hawing about these green culottes, but you know? When am I ever going to find emerald green culottes again? For $4.00? How about never?

But I'll pack 'em away for next spring and then I'll be all, "Woo hoo! I forgot about these!" and there will be much rejoicing.

The stuff:

It's a lot of green, I know.

Green bling:

Everything but the necklace. But I had a reason!

• Necklace - Nygard, consignment
• Obi belt - thrifted
• Earrings - Stella and Dot, consignment

And that reason is...Literary Stylings time, yo! I was remiss and skipped the August edition (okay, full disclosure: I didn't read more than 1 book in July. It was a busy month).

Here's what I've read. Lois McMaster Bujold's "Barrayar", which is the second novel enclosed under the name "Cordelia's Honor."

I liked the second book more than the first one, and I have the next two chronologically to read still. She writes strong female characters who are smart, not helpless and not focused on "female" things. Also, soft sci-fi, which I like as it's more character-driven. They just happen to live on different planets than us. Good stuff.

I also finished another bathroom book, "We'll Always Have Paris" by Ray Bradbury.

Ray Bradbury is one of my all-time favourite authors, but this is not his best book of short stories. That would be...hmmm..."The Illustrated Man" or maybe "Martian Chronicles" or ooh...I do really love "The Hallowe'en Tree" and "The October Country". My point being, he wrote much better short stories when he was younger. If you want to delve into Bradbury, don't pick this one.

Our most recent Book Club book up for discussion in a couple of weeks is David Mitchell's "Ghostwritten", picked by Yvonne.

I haven't read anything else by him (although I liked the movie "Cloud Atlas" well enough), and I don't know that I'm all that fired up to read more. I found that I was distracted with trying to connect all the stories, flipping around to find, "Was that the person from the other story?" or to see if that was the same name. Once I gave up on that, I just treated the stories/chapters like a book of short stories - I was much happier. I enjoyed this, although I remember very little of it now. Not a great sign. I'll give this a slight thumbs up.

I just finished this book on Sunday, "NOS4A2" by Joe Hill. Get it, Nosferatu?

Charlie Manx is a very bad man, and he drives a very bad car, a Rolls Royce Wraith with NOS4A2 as its licence plate. Don't get in the car, and do not go to Christmasland. Very nasty things happen there.

Loved Vic, the lead character - I really liked all the characters, which is unusual for me (there is usually one annoying character in most books, I find). I loved the stilted speech of Charlie Manx (reminded me of Christoff Waltz), and the frenetic pace of the story. Great, killer (pun intended) ending. Recommended. I only have one book left of Hill's to read ("Horns" - I gave it to L for Christmas, so I can't read it until L does, arg), and then I'll be finished all of his stuff.

So, this is my inspiration for Literary Stylings! I wore all green, just like a very evil Christmas elf. Hee!

And what have you read lately?