“How to Wear Everything” by Kay Barron

A month ago if you’d told me I would read a book about fashion, I would have laughed at you while picturing Ross falling asleep next to Rachel at a lecture. If you’d told me I would pay full price for a book about clothes, I would have rolled my eyes and flashed you with my Half Price Books membership card (note: they don't offer one. But if there was one, and it were free, it would be well worn and easily accessible in my wallet). But that was before the plain white cover proclaiming HOW TO WEAR EVERYTHING in stark black lettering caught my eye at Indigo in Toronto. I was pulled towards it as if caught in a tractor beam. I picked it up and started reading and I wanted to know more. But then I saw the price and put it back down again. 

Various scenarios ran through my mind. Order it from Amazon (where surely it would be cheaper)? Put it on my birthday list? Forget about it entirely since it's Just Not My Thing? All this while wandering through the store looking for Sam and percolating an idea in the back of my mind which went something like this: I would find Sam, tell him about this book and how weirdly attractive I found it, tell him it was too expensive but then remind him it's priced in Canadian dollars so it's really not as bad as it sounds, and he would just smile at me with love in his eyes and say, "If you want it, you should get it." 

And that's pretty much what happened.

Just as weird as my attraction to this book is the fact that I really enjoyed reading it. Like, the whole thing. (Except for the chapter on maternity clothes which I skimmed through pretty quickly since I am of an age where that topic definitely does not apply.) I even (though I'm slightly embarrassed to admit this) took a few notes with outfit ideas. And, best of all, I have new confidence and impetus in getting rid of clothes that don't both look and feel good on me. Thumbs up all around! Hopefully next time you see me I will be looking newly chic. 

“Intermezzo” by Sally Rooney

Terrible news. I finished reading this book two weeks ago but never blogged about it. And now… I definitely haven’t forgotten about it, but nothing is fresh on my mind. Here's what I can dredge up from the muck: I enjoyed reading it, as expected where Sally Rooney is concerned, but for me it wasn't on the same level as Conversations with Friends or Normal People. It's OK, that's a high bar. And it's solidly on par with Beautiful World, Where Are You. (Although I just reread my blog posts for those three books, which made me think maybe I didn't love the experience of reading Normal People as much as my obviously almost non-existent memory tells me I loved it.)

To me, this book had less in the way of so-high-level-as-to-be-almost-unbelievably-intelligent conversations between characters. (Or maybe these conversations were so expected in a Sally Rooney book that I didn't even notice them this time around?) Which helped in the arena of not making me feel inferior. Not that the characters were idiots or anything--there were still a lot of really high IQs floating around--but they found other paths to superiority (like world-class chess skills and incredible beauty). 

I must admit I did not reach critical mass with this book, but that's OK too. I don't have to be desperate to finish a book in order to enjoy it. It's actually kind of a relief to be able to put a book down any time I need to. And I definitely did not have to force my way through, which is never a good indication.