What to Wear While Reading Rules of Civility

Continuing on with our series of imagined outfits to wear while reading our book each month is this little outfit for reading Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. The shirt and pants are reminiscent of what she wears while up at the cottage with Wallace (and the blanket is inspired by scenes from there too) while the clutch, scarf, and shoes are inspired from her night out at the French restaurant by herself. I know she wore a white dress with blue polka dots on it and navy, presumably high heeled, shoes, but I thought those worked well too. I thought the red lipstick went well with the outfit, and seemed 1930s to me and I liked the nail polish too. Of course, to complete the outfit this book can be read while being driven along in a Bentley. Have fun!

1. Navajo blanket  2. nail polish  3. J. Crew blouse  4. red leather clutch  5. polka dot scarf  6. chino pants  7. blue Bensimon sneakers  8. Nars Heatwave lipstick  9. your ride

P.S. Missed the first 'what to wear while reading' post? Check it out here.

What to Wear While Reading The Hunger Games

I thought it would be fun to start up a column about what to wear while reading the books we do. Totally imaginary outfits that hint at something in the book - whether it be a character description, setting, or emotion it evokes while reading. First up, (even though we've already finished reading it) The Hunger Games.

1. well worn jeans  2. China Glaze Capitol Colours nail polish  3. a leather jacket  4. a cozy sweatshirt  5. a Hunger Games charm bracelet  6. rugged leather boots  7. chunky wool socks

So, what do you think? Anything that I left out that is essential for reading The Hunger Games?

The Hunger Games

When I think of writing the summary of the book we've just read I try to avoid writing a 'book report' like you would in school. Instead, I think of the times at book club when one of us hasn't finished the book and how we all jump in trying to fill in what that person missed. The conversation doesn't always flow chronologically, we sometimes miss something that maybe wasn't too important anyway, and we share our favourite parts and even sometimes quotes. This is how I approach our summaries here. So while there are many spots to find condensed, concise, 'proper' summaries of the books we read out in the internet, this is not one of those places. Instead things are a little jumbled, more conversational, and hopefully ring true to our book club - enthusiastic and informative but not an English class study. So, here's how I imagine we'd share what happened in The Hunger Games if one of us had not had a chance to finish it.

original photo from here

The Hunger Games and The Most Dangerous Game

For the month of March we are reading The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.* The buzz around this story has grown immensely over the last half year - especially now with the first movie in the trilogy coming out later this month - but it wasn't until recently that I really grew interested in reading these novels. I think my first exposure to them was when I was browsing around Indigo looking for books for the book club to give to Karyn on her arrival home from Rwanda and to celebrate her engagement. I was pretty pregnant at the time, and if you've ever been pregnant you might know this, everyone wants to help you and talk with you. So, while I was browsing in Indigo a number of sales associates offered to help me. I heard about a lot of good books that night but one lady in particular took me on a grand tour of the store showing me many different novels. She brought me over to the pre-teen section, pointed to The Hunger Games trilogy and told me, "now these might be for kids, but seriously, you have got to read them. They're a great read." Although not what I was looking for that night, I tucked that bit of information in my head as something to look into later. I'm so glad that Carolyn chose The Hunger Games to read this month and now I finally have the chance to read them.
Not knowing anything about The Hunger Games story line I was reminded, based on the title alone, of a hallowe'en episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns puts a number of the townspeople in a forest and hunts them for sport (starts at 9:45). That episode is based on the short story "The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell which he wrote in 1924. I won't give away the ending, it is worth reading, but it involves man hunting man.

*

A Study in Scarlet

The copy of A Study in Scarlet that I got out from the library notes the author as 'Arthur Conan Doyle' so that is why I listed it as such in the title of this post... but it just feels weird. Even though this is the first novel I've read in the Sherlock Holmes series, I've grown up knowing him as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. So, I'm trying something new and omitting the 'sir' - how brazen.

Wuthering Heights

Below you'll find a summary of Wuthering Heights divided into the different story arcs involving different sets of characters. Of course there is so much more contained within the pages of Wuthering Heights, but this is probably as thorough a summary as we'd discuss in book club. For a complete list of the characters and their relationship to one another, visit this post. This summary will include plot spoilers.

wuthering heights: cast of characters

Mr. Earnshaw lives in Wuthering Heights with his wife and two children, Hindley and Catherine. Hindley is eight years older than Catherine. Ellen Dean (a.k.a. Nelly) is born the same year as Hindley and she works for the Earnshaws. Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff after finding him alone along the road back to his house. He doesn't know how old he is, but he is close in age to Catherine and they become friends. 

Mr. Linton and Mrs. Linton live in Thrushcross Grange and have two children, Edgar and Isabella who are close in age to Catherine and Heathcliff. (Spoilers after the break.)