Music Monday (74): Tayla Parx

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: I’m listening to music from Tayla Parx's 2019 album: We Need to Talk. Disconnected is one of my favorite songs. It’s so short, and I wish it was longer....

What are you listening to this week?

The Friday 56 (150) & Book Beginnings: The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda's Voice where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it's not a spoiler. For the full rules, visit the the page HERE

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you're reading.

Synopsis from Goodreads...

The Interdependency, humanity’s interstellar empire, is on the verge of collapse. The Flow, the extra-dimensional conduit that makes travel between the stars possible, is disappearing, leaving entire star systems stranded. When it goes, human civilization may go with it—unless desperate measures can be taken. Emperox Grayland II, the leader of the Interdependency, is ready to take those measures to help ensure the survival of billions. But nothing is ever that easy. Arrayed before her are those who believe the collapse of the Flow is a myth—or at the very least, an opportunity that can allow them to ascend to power. While Grayland prepares for disaster, others are preparing for a civil war, a war that will take place in the halls of power, the markets of business and the altars of worship as much as it will take place between spaceships and battlefields. The Emperox and her allies are smart and resourceful, but then so are her enemies. Nothing about this power struggle will be simple or easy... and all of humanity will be caught in its widening gyre....

Beginning: "Years later Lenson Ornill would reflect on the irony that his time as a religious man would be bracketed by a single and particular word."

56: "I understand the House of Nohamapetan--your house--is currently debating whether or not to ask the state to charge you with destruction of property."

Comments: I finally read The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, and I loved it. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, The Last Emperox. What are you reading this week?

Quarterly Recap: January-March

I find that I spend the first couple of months of the year just trying to get back on track with blogging, and it reflects whenever I look over what I’ve gotten done. So that means it’s time for the first quarterly recap of 2019. It doesn’t seem like three full months have already gone by, but according to the current date—April 2nd—it has. The next thing you know, it’ll be November and then it'll be time to break out the Christmas decorations, but I digress. Let’s get on to the review section of this recap….

January Reviews:

• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
• The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden

February Reviews:

• The Beast's Heart by Leife Shallcross
• The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World by Andrew Jotischky & Caroline Hull

March Reviews:

• A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos
• A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn
• Fashioning Fashion, European Dress in Detail 1700-1915 by Sharon Sadako Takeda & Kaye Durland Spilker 

Other January Posts:

• Happy New Year!
• We're Back!: New Resolutions for the New Year + Most Anticipated Books of 2019 

Other February Posts:

• Exploring Colored Pencils Part #1
• I'm Taking A Break

Other March Posts:

• Exploring Colored Pencils Part #2
• Upcoming Music I'm Waiting For + Recent Releases I'm Listening To

I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with Weekend Tidbits. At the beginning of January, I had a…somewhat solid plan of what I wanted to do; however, I’m not too sure about it now. In the coming months, I want to put more work into a Weekend Tidbits overhaul so it doesn’t end up being one of my blogging resolutions in 2020. I also want to do another post dedicated to colored pencils. Namely because I have a very old set of Crayola Colored Pencils in fairly good condition with some of them being mostly unused, because it’s easy to tell which colors were my favorite.

Also, there are two upcoming reviews I’m excited to share on the blog. The first is for The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi, which will be on the blog next Wednesday. And the other is for The Missing of Clairdelune by Christelle Dabos, translated by Hildegarde Serle—which will be posted closer to the release date...

Music Monday (73): Nao, Bishop Briggs, Two Steps From Hell

   Rules:

• Music Monday is a weekly meme hosted by Lauren Stoolfire at Always Me that asks you to share one or two songs that you've recently enjoyed. For the rules, visit the page HERE 

Breana: Well, I’m still listening to music by Nao. I’ve sort of rediscovered how much I enjoy listening to For All We Know, her first studio album which was released on July 29, 2016. Bad Blood is one of my top favorite songs from the album.

I’m also listening to Bishop Briggs. White Flags is one of my favorite songs.

Adri: Lately, I've been listening to Two Steps From Hell, especially since they released their new album Dragon. While listening to Bravestone, I noticed a lot of comments mentioning Emerald Princess featuring Chris Bleth and Merethe Soltvedt. So I headed on over, and gave it a listen. I then discovered how much I love this song and the meaning behind it....

What are you listening to this week? 

Review: Fashioning Fashion, European Dress in Detail 1700-1915 by Sharon Sadako Takeda & Kaye Durland Spilker

Title: Fashioning Fashion, European Dress in Detail 1700-1915
Series: n/a
Author: Sharon Sadako Takeda; Kaye Durland Spilker
Source/Format: Borrowed from the library; Hardcover
More Details: Nonfiction; History; Fashion
Publisher/Publication Date: Prestel Publishing; September 22, 2010

Goodreads     Amazon     Barnes & Noble     Book Depository

Synopsis from Goodreads...

The creation of eighteenth and nineteenth century fashion moved at a much slower tempo than the lightning-speed pace of contemporary fashion, so great attention was paid to the smallest detail. Fashioning Fashion: European Dress in Detail, 1700-1915 celebrates these and brilliantly examines the transformation of the fashionable silhouette over this span of more than two centuries. Lavish photographs and illustrative text provide historical context, showing how technical inventions, political events, and global trade often profoundly affected style. It is little wonder that many of today's top haute couture designers often look to fashion of the past to find inspiration in the present. The intriguing and stunning examples of historic dress in this opulent volume are as captivating today as they were centuries ago. Fashioning Fashion showcases nearly two hundred highlights from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's new European collection of rare pieces of historic fashion and accessories for men, women, and children. LACMA recently acquired this singular collection, which numbers more than 1,000 objects and represents a total of fifty years of acquisitions by prominent historic dress dealers and collectors Martin Kamer of England and Wolfgang Ruf of Switzerland. The pieces were chosen for their roles in the story of fashion's aesthetic and technical development from the Age of Enlightenment to World War I. This in-depth look at the details of these luxurious textiles, exacting tailoring techniques, and lush trimmings is the first presentation of this remarkable collection...

After I read the medieval history book—The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World, my thoughts about it can be found HERE—it got me thinking about the clothes of the time period, specifically how international trade, diplomatic ties, conflicts, and the like would affect historical clothing trends. Unfortunately, it was a topic The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Medieval World didn’t cover. So, of course, once I was thinking about it, I wanted to know a bit more about historical fashion. A quick search of my library's catalogue brought me to this book: Fashioning Fashion, European Dress in Detail 1700-1915. It was a quick but fascinating read with plenty of photo examples that highlighted a collection from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. I thought it was interesting how trends changed but eventually old ideas were recycled and updated into something new, which was a prominent theme throughout the book. It was especially highlighted in sections that talked about the treatment of garments. I was surprised to learn about the difference in the quality for the stitching, particularly between expensive formal wear and undergarments. The latter of which had better, meticulous seams, because they were frequently washed. While a lot of other garments were described as being incapable of receiving the same treatment. One passage perfectly captures what I mean:

“Plain but functional items such as linen shirts, which had to endure frequent washing, were more carefully stitched than silk gowns, which eventually would be unpicked to be altered or “turned” (resewn with the reverse side of the textile facing outward, to prolong the life of the unwashable garment). Because Fabric was so valuable, it was customarily recycled, and clothes were not constructed to last as long as their textiles.”(p.73)

I found the relationship between technology and fashion interesting. I also liked the sections that talked about the “blending and manipulation” of the four principle fibers—silk, cotton, linen, and wool—to get other textiles. This book also touched on the working conditions of factory workers, as well as other issues relevant to this topic. There’s so much more I could say about this book, but then this post would turn into a summary of the book. That’s not what I’m trying to do.

Overall, Fashioning Fashion was fantastic. There’s still so much I don’t know about this topic, and I would be interested in finding more books like this one....