Butterfly Bling Barrette
Top: Wild Fable, Target
Skirt (a dress!): Macy's
Shoes: Chase & Chloe, Zulily
Bag: Betsey Johnson, Macy's
Belt: Gifted
Purse Charm: Betsey Johnson, Macy's
If it's wrong to blog about a book just because you like its cover and title, then I don't want to be right. The book in question is
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, which is a novel by Robin Sloan. Still, I'm a little ashamed to be slamming it, however gently, even if I am more enamored with its green screen-slash-book spine cover art than its contents.
Penumbra is about an out-of-work web designer who takes a job in a super old bookstore owned by the super old and kindly if eccentric Mr. Penumbra. Of course, it's no ordinary store, but the front for a covert operation. Which I realize makes it sound like the Mafia's running narcotics through
The Chronicles of Narnia or something
. But that isn't what's going on. (For one thing, the stock doesn't lend itself to
Narnia or much of anything that anyone's heard of.) The secret is more of the Harry Potter variety, with a little "Silicon Valley" tossed in, and the result is less than compelling. Yet although the mystery is unsatisfying, Sloan's writing style is anything but. Succinct and steeped in the dry wit that's the parlance of hipsters and techies, it hints at the promise of
something. And it's a something that I plan to further explore in another Sloan book,
Sourdough: or, Lois and her Adventures in the Underground Market. This one is about an engineer who turns her career bitterness into baked goods. So, rebellious
and homespun, not to mention feminist. Sounds like a bake-off blue ribbon winner to me.
Which kind of sort of brings us to this post's Work That Circuit necklace and earrings. They combine not only the aesthetics of the techie and girly, but the idea of the machine meeting the human, of the lab blurring with the late-night rager. Which begs (okay, very quietly and perhaps apologetically whispers) the question: Are PCs and people so different?
Um, yes. Yes, they are. Unless you count Alexa among your nearest and dearest.
I guess Penumbra's not the only one peddling dead-end puzzles here.
Somewhere out there Mr. Sloan is hate-smiling.
2 comments:
The eye bag (LOL...sounds funny put that way!) looks so cute with your yellow ensemble! I like how you managed to merge the girly with the tech in your jewelry, mirroring the mystery book you read. Glad the writing style was at least compelling, even if the mystery wasn't as much! Also, the butterfly barrette is stunning; stars and butterflies are a striking combination. :)
Jewellery looks awesome as always and the purse and skirt are too.
Haven't read the book, must say, the cover looks quite plain and boring and wouldn't even catch my eye if I were scrolling through Book Depository or Amazon.
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