The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum- Review

 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum is an amazing classic!  I am so surprised I hadn't read it before now.  We are reading it in my Young Adult Book Club this month and discussing how great it is.  Here is the goodreads description:

Join Dorothy Gale, Toto, and all of her friends as they explore the incredible land of Oz. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is American's most enduring fairy tale. From the moment Dorothy puts on the silver slippers (changed to ruby slippers by MGM to take advantage of their new advance in movie making: color) until the moment she clicks her heels and returns home to Kansas you will be swept away and captivated by her extraordinary story.

This is my first time reading The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz. Shocking! I am so glad I read it. It really is a wonderful tale. Full of great characters and plots. Baum creates a wonderful world. I will for sure be carrying onto the other novels in the series. I am glad too that in the book Oz is not a dream. I can't stand when books/movies do that. You go the whole way only to find out it was all fake! The silver shoes in the book/red shoes in the movie has always bothered me too. I guess it was because they were trying to make use out of the movie being in color. Also the characters have to wear goggles with green lenses in Oz so that everything looked green. Even after the Wizard left people continued to wear them. If the Wizard left I would quit wearing those goggles!  The Wicked Witch of the West is clearly not a big villain like in the movie. In the movie we know she is chasing Dorthy the whole time. The monkeys are EVIL and scary. In the book they were so friendly and just really wanted to be freed. I really enjoyed finding out their back story. I did think the story ended a little abrupt. Was a series planned? Or did the author just want to write this one book? One thing I LOVE LOVE about the movie is that Kansas is in black and white and OZ is in color. Very very clever!

I wish that by the end of the book the characters had found out that the Wizard gave them fake items and that in the end they had the heart, courage, and brains in them all along. I think that would've been a better moral to the story. As readers though I suppose since we know that items are fake the moral still comes across. Just think of how many people the Wizard faked out?

The characters are really neat. I wish that I hadn't seen the movie prior to reading this. Because the movie is so dominant in our culture I of course pictured the Lion, Scarecrow and Tin Man just like I saw them in the movie. The Wicked Witch of the West only has one eye? Who knew? The later OZ books now intrigue me.. what are they even about? Can't wait to find out. The China town in this book really interested me. I didn't even know about it till the movie Oz the Great and Powerful (the one that just came out). They did a fantastic job of bringing china town to life. The Wizard is the most intriguing character to me. Is he a bad man or a good man? He ended up in the circumstances he did by accident but did he do the best he could in the situation? The four witches are also interesting to me. Two evil, two good. It seems the only way the can gain/lose power is by being killed. 

I am interested in reading more into the series and see where it goes. I love the art in the edition of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz I have pictured above.  The artist is Michael Sieben and I first heard about this book through Huffington post.  What do you think of OZ?  Do you have any favorite retellings? 

 The crystal ball says:

Clouds are covering! A read that lets me down every now and then but peaks out of the clouds!

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler-Review

 Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

I was very excited when my book club, The Young Adult Book Club, picked Bittersweet for our February book club pick!  Sarah Ockler is an author from Colorado, where I live, so I had been looking forward to read this.  She also agreed to do a Q&A with the group which can be found here.

Oh and did I mention this book is about cupcakes??  So I was inspired to go to my local cupcake shop!! 

Here is the goodreads description:  

Once upon a time, Hudson knew exactly what her future looked like. Then a betrayal changed her life, and knocked her dreams to the ground. Now she’s a girl who doesn’t believe in second chances... a girl who stays under the radar by baking cupcakes at her mom’s diner and obsessing over what might have been. So when things start looking up and she has another shot at her dreams, Hudson is equal parts hopeful and terrified. Of course, this is also the moment a cute, sweet guy walks into her life... and starts serving up some seriously mixed signals. She’s got a lot on her plate, and for a girl who’s been burned before, risking it all is easier said than done. It’s time for Hudson to ask herself what she really wants, and how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Because in a place where opportunities are fleeting, she knows this chance may very well be her last..

I love this book. It surprised me how much I love this book.. I was not expecting to like it since I don't love contemporary YA books. I love how the characters in this book are so real. I think everyone could just relate to them. Normal people with normal problems trying to have a normal life. I feel bad for the characters, I am happy for the characters, all kinds of emotions. The book made me want to be an ice skater. Unfortunately I grew up when roller blades were just starting to become popular so I only used roller skates. AND my balance is awful as I discovered last year when I tried to snowboard for the first time. But I always have wanted to go ice skating on an outdoor rink at night in the winter with all the lights around. The love triangle in this book was actually a good one. It wasn't even annoying!!

I love the cover on this book.. it is sooo sparkly in the perfect way.  It just looks sweet.  But I am a little confused as to why there is a cookie on the cover and not a cupcake?  The whole book is about Hudson working by baking cupcakes.. and then there is a cookie?  Confusing.  I also love how each chapter is named for a cupcake including the flavors!  I mean AMAZING! I love how Hudson uses making cupcakes like it's therapy.  Trying new flavors and spending every morning in her mom's shop would probably be relaxing most of the time.  The book really inspired me to go out and find a cupcake shop.  I didn't even know they existed until one popped up by the movie theater we go to a few years ago.  I went to go out and find that shop... but couldn't seem to find the location.  So I looked on the web and found a fantastic shop downtown here.  Cupcake Girls was everything I thought a diner like this would look like!  I tried Berrylicious, Miss American Pie, and Lulu Lemonade cupcakes while there!

They even have lunch there a couple times a week which I didn't know about so I didn't even ask (I will be going back to get lunch AND cupcakes soon!)

 I think cupcakes are fun... I am tired of the old cake in a box stuff.  I also really love how cupcakes are becoming more popular for weddings.  My sister had cupcakes at her wedding and it was really cute!

 I really liked this book and recommend it to everyone looking for a great winter read! I love when I read a book and it inspires me to do something I haven't done before.  I will for sure have delicious cupcakes again!

Also.. I just discovered through Jessica at I Read to Relax that the Huffington Post Books is going an amazing book series where they read a book and make cupcakes!!  This is the perfect time for this.. here you can see Life of Pie and Cupcakes  featured.  It looks amazing!! 

The crystal ball says:

Sun is shinning!!!  Great day to go outside and read this book.