Month: January 2016

BCRL Book Club: February 2016 Book Club Selection

Some of you guys have expressed an interest in joining a BCRL Book Club, so let’s make this happen!

To keep this fun, I’ll keep the rules minimal. The last Friday of every month, I will post my review/discussion of the month’s book club selection, and announce the following month’s selection. The comment section will be all yours, guys. I will do a similar thing on IG, so if you follow me there, you will have several options for participating. If anyone has book suggestions, feel free to email them to me; otherwise, I will basically pick things that I want to read (or re-read), and think you guys might also enjoy. I enjoy a pretty wide variety of genres (including fantasy, historical, mystery, classic, literary fiction, non-fiction, memoirs), although I tend to steer clear of “fluffy” chick lit (think The Shopaholic series) and erotica. I’m not ragging on those genres, they’re just not my cup of tea. I will try to mix up the genre every month to keep things interesting – and, like I said, feel free to chime in with suggestions.

OK, on to February’s book selection. Drum roll please …

GOOD OMENS by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman!!!!

This book holds a special place in my heart. It introduced me to the contemporary fantasy genre (hey, it’s probably not entirely coincidental that my own book features a demon protagonist), as well as the crazy geniuses of Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It is laugh-out-loud kind of funny, as well as brilliantly smart. I couldn’t think of a better first pick for the BCRL Book Club.

Hope you guys will join me in reading Good Omens this month – don’t forget to check out (and share your thoughts) in the wrap up post on February 26.

Happy reading!

Sunglasses in the Morning

Blazer, Theory (via consignment); top, Joe Fresh; skirt, Anthropologie (via eBay); necklace, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Ivanka Trump; bag, Marc Jacobs
Blazer, Theory (via consignment); top, Joe Fresh; skirt, Anthropologie (via eBay); necklace, J. Crew Factory; shoes, Ivanka Trump; bag, Marc Jacobs

Do you guys remember Corey Hart? Have I just dated myself like whoa? No need to answer that. Suffice it to say, Mr. Hart would have been well equipped to deal with this outfit — any time of day — despite it being quite, um, retina searing. It looked really nice in real life, I promise. The colour of this blazer is impossible to photograph, but it leans slightly more orange-red than coral, and it does match rather nicely with this skirt.

Speaking of which, this skirt is so, so good. Definitely worth hunting down on eBay if you are so inclined. Just wait for a good deal — they come up regularly (especially if you’re in the US and don’t have to deal with an abysmal exchange rate). I paid about $40 CDN for mine, shipping included, and it’s totally worth that money.

Oh, and the shoes. I found this pair of *cough* Ivanka Trump *cough* gold pumps at Winners for $40 as well, and have been wearing them — to work! — non-stop lately. (Ok, not non-stop. More like 3 times in 2 weeks, but still — 30% of the time ain’t bad.) Turns out, gold substitutes for pretty much anything in a pinch. For example: no navy shoes? No problem! Gold’s got you (or, in this case, me) covered. Yay.

seeing red ... er, coral
seeing red … er, coral
zee bag ...
zee bag …
congrats, you're awake now
congrats, you’re awake now

Jade All Over

Top, skirt & shoes, J. Crew; necklace, House of Harlow; bag, MbMJ
Top, skirt & shoes, J. Crew; necklace, House of Harlow; bag, MbMJ

So, for whatever reason, last week I decided to do a monochrome theme with every outfit, and this was another attempt – hence the jade/teal overload. On the plus side, plenty of people at work seem to think this is “my colour” so I’m happy to call this one a success. I only cheated a little, too, by letting a print sneak into the mix. A week without florals is a lot to commit to, you guys. Lesson learned.

As an unrelated side note: I’ve been thinking about getting a book club feature started here on the blog. It would work … exactly the way you’d imagine. Every month, a book would be selected (I can get the ball rolling, and then we can figure out where to go from there in subsequent months), then I would put up the corresponding post at the end of the month (last Friday, say?) with my thoughts on it, then open it up to discussion in the comments. So, if anyone is looking for some fun new reads, and a place to talk about them, drop me a line in the comments. (And ditto if you have other ideas for similar recurring and/or interactive posts.)

derp face
pourquois le derp face?
action shot!
action shot!
last one for the road
last one for the road