"only You can make every new day seem so new" ~Five Iron Frenzy

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

"Out of Oz"

New Year's Resolution #4

(Yes, I know I'm going out of order)

Read at least one new book every month.

The book of choice for this month is Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire. It's the fourth and final book in the The Wicked Years series. 

I first read Wicked my sophomore year of college. I then continued to read the sequel, Son of a Witch and was less than intrigued. 

I didn't love the books the first time I read them, but decided to give them a second try. When I reread them, I was amazed by how much I had missed the first time.  These books are so steeped in symbolism and imagery that I needed gillyweed to swim through it all. How I missed this the first time, I don't know, but I was amazed. And I hoped and prayed that there would be a third book. If for no other reason than that Son of a Witch finished with no less than a dozen or so loose ends.

And there eventually was a third. A Lion Among Men did not disappoint. But with the closure of the book, there were still many loose ends and just enough of a cliff-hanger to make waiting for the next book pure torture. 

-------------------

Picture it. Black Friday 2011. I was shopping with my mother-in-law at Meijer. We were casually meandering down the book aisle - she was looking for a certain book for one of her sons, I was browsing the titles. When my eye was caught by the name "Gregory Maguire." The name of the book: Out of Oz. Having been shopping since midnight, it took a moment before my brain clicked. ... The new book! The one I had been waiting for! This was it! I was ecstatic, mesmerized, reluctant to put it down. When my awesome MIL snatched it out of my hand and threw it in the cart. Yeah, she is awesome. Anyway...

----------------------

Before Christmas, I began re-reading the first three books for a good refresher. I finally finished about 5 days ago (yes, I am a slow reader) and began the last book.  I'm about half-way through and cannot wait to finish. I'm struggling between feelings of hope (that all the loose ends and questions will finally be tied up and answered) and fear (that it will end with as many loose ends as it began).

On a personal note, I would not recommend the Wicked books to everyone. In fact, I would not recommend them to most people. They're pretty dark, pretty vulgar, and have a few pretty obscene scenes.

If you haven't seen the musical, it is none of the above. I highly recommend it. If you have seen the musical, and therefore want to read the books, be forewarned. When they created the musical, I'm pretty sure they just took a few of the main characters, one of the main plot lines, and watered everything down a good deal. And then proceeded to tell their own story. Not to knock the musical, I actually rather enjoy it. I just can't even compare the two. I get depressed when I try.

To conclude, with the help of my new Kindle - aptly named Glinda (and all the awesome free books on it), I already have a reading list lined up for the rest of the year:

The Hunger Games (Collins)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

The Brothers Karamazov (Dostoyevsky)

Dubliners (Joyce)

Bleak House (Dickens)

Frankenstein (Shelley)

Grimm's Fairy Stories (Grimm and Grimm)

The Last of the Mohicans (Cooper)

Walden (Thoreau)

Little Women (Alcott)

Gone With the Wind (Mitchell)

2 comments:

  1. the hunger games is AMAZING! i devoured book one in 1.5 days.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the name of you Kindle... we considered Elphie for a cat... from Elphaba

    ReplyDelete