Reviews Week 39

 Reviews Week 39

September 26th- October 2nd

Book 128: The Midnight Library

By Matt Haig

Read on September 27th-29th

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The concept of this book is what interested me in it two years ago when it first came out. Who hasn't wondered what their life would be like if they chose a different path during it? Matt Haig always seems to have such interesting ideas in his books; this one is at the top of that list for me so far.

The message of this book is pretty evident from the beginning, and the ending is predictable, but not in a bad way. I enjoyed the story in this book a lot and the different paths Nora could have taken in her life. None of them going quite the way she would have expected. This book hit me hard and made me think about my life choices. It caused some existential thoughts for me throughout the entire journey.

I think that this is the beauty of the book because most people can relate to at least some of what Nora is going through. We all have made decisions that we regret and wonder what would have happened if we didn't. The whole library was just such a great idea, and I loved the librarian as a character. It makes me wonder who my "librarian" would be.

Book 129: Alice in Verse: 

The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland

By J. T. Holden

Read on October 2nd

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I love Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and poetry, so I was excited to pick this book up as soon as I saw it on Amazon. Many of these poems I did enjoy, especially "The Tea Party Resumes" and "A Slight Detour Through the Looking Glass." They are the two poems that really stood out to me in the collection as a whole. Also, the illustrations were wonderful. 

I did not love this as much as I wanted to, though. The poems kind of bored me, which I'm surprised to say about a Wonderland poetry collection. Wonderland retellings are literally some of my absolute favorite topics to read and write about, but this just did not click with me. 

Book 130: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

By L. Frank Baum

Read October 2nd 

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Review from my reread on October 2nd, 2022: 

I have been wanting to reread this novel ever since I finished the rest of the Oz series (at least the ones that L. Frank Baum wrote himself). This time around, I listened to the audiobook read by Titus Burgess, and it was phenomenal! He does such a wonderful job creating voices for each of the characters. I especially enjoyed his “Queen of the Field Mice.” Over the years since I first read this novel, I have fallen in love with the world of Oz even more from Baum’s books. This book hit even more this time around because of the other books. It is my second favorite in the series right below Ozma of Oz.

Review from April 8th, 2017:

 Before I read this novel, I only knew the story from the 1939 movie and the many television shows I have seen based on the novel. The story is similar to the movie. A little girl named Dorothy is swept up in a tornado because she is not able to get out of the house in time. She lands in the house on a witch in the Land of Oz. There she finds out from the Witch of the North (one of the differences between the movie and the novel) that she should go to the Wizard of Oz, and he may help her get home. On the way to the Wizard, she meets three characters: the Scarecrow, The Tinman, and the Cowardly Lion. Each has a reason to go and meet Oz.

One of the differences that I was surprised about was the Wicked Witch of the West, who was one of my favorite characters in the movie. She is not in the novel that much and really is in the novel as a comedic device. I did think that the witch was funny, but this is one of the reasons that I did not love the novel. The Wicked Witch of the West has become one of the biggest and most known villains of all time, and I kind of wish that she had more of a story in the novel. I loved her in the movie, but I only liked her in the book.

This novel was one that I have been wanting to read for a long time, and I am glad that I read it. If you like the movie, I believe that you will enjoy the novel. It is interesting and a great piece of children's literature.