A column of color (black) plus a plaid jacket makes for an easy work outfit.
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| From legalleeblonde.blogspot.ca |
I tried this out with a black plaid jacket I snagged at the December 88 cent sale with my mom.
*Black/maroon/beige plaid jacket (thrifted, Joan Leslie), $0.88/wear+
Black striped layering T (thrifted, Talbots), $1.00/wear
Black pants (thrifted, Lane Bryant), $0.71/wear
Gold tassel necklace (Kohls), $1.43/wear
Red/black paisley flats by Ivanka Trump, $1.75/wear
Outfit total: $5.77/wear
I thought yesterday's low total cost per wear would be hard to beat, but this one is really good! (That's what happens when you wear several thrift store items and a couple of older pieces with several wears on them, I guess.)
I thought it looked really good with this long tassel necklace.
Now in this post about wearing prints and patterns to work (in a conservative/business professional work environment), the blogger suggests sticking to a single pattern. Well, it's a good thing that my workplace is business casual because print mix is where it's at. I did a subtle print mix on top by wearing a black top with very faint (slightly glittery) stripes that you can't even see...
...but the wow factor in this outfit comes from this sock/shoe combination. Plaid with paisley (in very similar colorways, though) works for me. I was pretty much happy every time I looked down at my feet today. Happy feet for the win!
In other news...It's been a while since I've done a book review, so I have a bunch of books piled up that I could talk about--after having a cold for two weeks where I feel like I did nothing but complain, eat carb-heavy foods, watch Netflix, and read, it's really two piles.
I thought I'd start with this one that I nabbed off my mom's "books to be read" shelf this past Christmas because (1) I was intrigued by it and (2) it had been sitting on that shelf for a couple of years.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
I was like, Huh, I guess this is the book that the crazy-popular Broadway show is based on. Knowing absolutely nothing about the show, I thought it possible that it might be a very simplistic book that it could be turned into a musical [now that I've been listening to Hamilton, I realize what a faulty assumption that is] but decided to try it anyway.
I'm really glad I did.
I believe this book does an amazing job of complicating the Oz universe, making it rich and dark and very, very funny. (Confession: I have seen the movie of The Wizard of Oz but I'm not sure that I've ever read any of the books--well, I feel like I've read one but I don't trust that feeling. So my understanding of the original Oz universe is pretty rudimentary. Still, I stand by my assessment.)
The book starts with a Munchkin couple--a minister (whose religion is being threatened by the newly popular Clock of the Time Dragon) and his hugely pregnant wife. She's warning him that she feels like today's the day, and because this is very inconvenient to him (as he is traveling to a nearby village to preach against the Clock, which is going to do a show and enrapture the villagers into idolatry), he tells her, "Exert some self-control...Think of it as a spiritual exercise. Custody of the senses. Bodily as well as ethical continence." She is amused by this. "Self-control? I have no self left. I'm only a host for a parasite."
From the very first, I enjoyed his writing style, dialogue, and characterization. The expansion of the universe feels fresh and new, taking advantage of our familiarity with Oz to twist and tweak our expectations. After we meet the green-skinned child Elphaba, a wonderful coming-of-age-in-boarding-school story occurs (for those of us who find such things irresistible). And then we get to see how a strange young girl becomes a "wicked witch" and what she does about it.
A sample amusing exchange:
"She's sent the crows out to blind the guests coming for dinner!"
"What?"
"She's BLINDING THE GUESTS COMING FOR DINNER!"
"Well, that's one way to avoid having to dust, I suppose."
I'm not sure I'd go so far as one reviewer who said that it is "the best fantasy novel of ideas I've read since Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast or Frank Herbert's Dune," but my sense that it is not completely ludicrous to mention this book in the same sentence as the other two says a lot.
I just discovered on Amazon that there are 3 additional Oz books in this series, and I will definitely be trying the next one (Son of a Witch) and hoping it's as good (or close to as good) as this one.
6 comments:
My aunt gave me a book by that author, but set in the Alice in Wonderland universe (called After Alice), for Christmas. At least I think it's the same author. I started it but haven't finished it. It was fine (not truly entrancing), I just somehow don't think to read paper books anymore. But you would probably like it since you like both Wicked and AIW.
Sounds like a good book. I never have seen the Broadway show surprisingly!
And cool socks. My (male) director commented on some argyle socks I was wearing one day. Didn't realize people noticed them!
Thanks for the recommendation, Tam. That sounds like a no-brainer for me.
Jen--thanks! Cool socks do seem to be something that guys might notice, I guess because guys also sometimes wear cool socks (where cool socks = argyle/plaid/stripes/etc.). My supervisor at work has a pretty good cool socks game--not quite to Seeley Booth levels, but still noticeably interesting.
Speaking of coming-of-age-in-boarding-school stories, another blogger I read just posted on books about girls at boarding school (check the comments for more book recommendations):
< https://nicoleandmaggie.wordpress.com/2016/02/09/girls-at-boarding-school/ >
Thanks, Debbie! That's about the third reference I've seen to A College of Magics in as many weeks. Perhaps that's a sign that it's time for me to check it out! Some of the others looked interesting too.
Now if somebody would please get cracking writing the book about rabbits at a magic boarding school that exists on a boat...
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