Moloka'i

I packed this dress for three reasons.

Beige sweater with faux fur hood - Zara, Black cardigan - Gap Outlet, Shift dress - Ann Taylor Outlet, Belt - Primark, Boots - Naughty Monkey

It is professional, and I had work obligations from 7 to 7.

Followed by a lovely dinner with work colleagues at Sip. Which might have included sips of champagne to celebrate getting through the actual work.

Reason #2: It goes well with these other shoes I packed. Though I didn't end up wearing them because I usually like to change shoes daily at conferences, to prevent feet pain. Unless they're super comfortable shoes, of course.

Then I wanted to wear this sweater, which seemed to call for more shoe, as in boots.

Reason #3: I also packed this because I had started reading Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. When the main character is a little girl at an orphanage, her and the other girls wear wine-colored dresses. Ta-da! Here's my wine-colored dress.

And matching clothes to books is fun! I mean, how did I feel about the book?

For the most part, I enjoyed Moloka'i. I haven't read too many stories set in Hawaii, and I thought it was interesting reading about its history (no wonder some Hawaiians still have a problem with haoles). And I haven't read any stories dealing with leprosy/Hansen's disease, so there you go--lots of new stuff for me.

Dislikes: I couldn't get a good grasp of the main character Rachel. At the beginning, she's a young child, so most of her motivations and thoughts I felt like were understandable. Then we jump to her being 17, and I just could not figure her out--are you rebellious, the good girl, the strong girl, the adventurous girl? Any time I started to get a sense of her, we would jump forward again in time and I would have to get to know her again. I did like her husband and her father, and her interactions with them, a lot though.

Another dislike: I hate it when novels set around the turn of the century going into the...eh...1950s or so decide that they must touch upon all major events in history. Don't get me wrong--I can see how and why that happens. Duh, it would be difficult to ignore world wars, and that's fine. But I get bothered when it seems like the author is going out of their way to include these points, or even when they seem to drag out their book to include certain moments, when really, they could have just ended the darn book. You don't need to make this a history book. I learned some already okay, like Hawaiians don't dig haoles. Do we need to go into WWII and internment camps? Do you need to throw in every technological advancement too? Like great, here's a gramophone, let's drink a Coke and look at Gibson girls, oh, let's watch a silent movie, oh boy, movie with sound now, ahhh, we're riding on a plane. Stop beating me over the head. Seriously, we can just surf, then talk about how it stinks that we can't ride that new hollow board when we no longer have our toes due to leprosy. See, that's related. You're not forcing something on me.

Last dislike, and it includes a **SPOILER**: Alan Brennert, this book is sad enough. People are dying left and right due to leprosy, people are separated from their families forever, the family left behind tear themselves up even more. You did not have to kill Kenji like that. I think at that point, you were just going for the dramatic, and I didn't very much appreciate it.

Okay, I'm ranting, but seriously, I did like the book.