Dark Spring

Tokushige

Much of my reading this Spring is about fairy retales. The best are about dark tales of  transformation. We are perhaps the last generation priviledged to read the original Grimm's or Hans Christian Andersen tales without the sticky sweet varnish.  They are fairy tales laced with terror and sorrow and meaning. If we are what we read,  we will feel mysterious and knowing like Pesephone emerging from the Underworld after the winter's cold.

We'd do well to remember that Mother Nature isn't always sweet flowers and light!

The Death of Bees a first novel by Irish writer Lisa O'Donnell is a contemporary inverted fairy tale, a dark Hansel and Gretel. 

Flesh to Bone a novel by Austin writer Ire'ne Lara Silva is a reweaving of the sorrow and pain and joy and love of the world like the best of Mesoamerican mythology.    

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow is written in crisp and readable verse about an ancient race of human/dogs that is interesting, poignant, dark, and funny. It is very engaging and may make you look at fido innocently asleep at your feet in a wholly different way. 

We the Animals by Justin Torres is a wild rumpus, a darker and dangerous Where the Wild Things Are. Real life is the wild rumpus and a fantasy that never happens is the warm, comforting bedroom with dinner on a tray brought by a loving mother.

 On a table ready to read is Boy, Snow, Bird: A Novel by Helen Oyeyemi, a contemporary retelling of Snow White

 Dress Muse suggests ways to wear black in Spring. 

• Little black dress with colorful trench or raincoat.
• Dressy black patent slingbacks

•  Black and white color blocked shifts. I spotted a woman wearing a dress similar to this one at a reception recently. She had a sheer pashima thrown across her shoulders, a pretty white clutch, and turquoise earrings. 

Agnes B

Dresses for a Sunday afternoon play and dinner or an elegant change from the usual pastels and creams the holidays seem to engender.