Bookish Thoughts

I've been wanting to read L Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for years. I've seen a ton of adaptations, from the 1939 Judy Garland movie, to Gregory Maguire's Wicked and the musical based on it, to the Syfy mini-series Tin Man . But somehow I kept missing the original work, even after my mom bought it. I finally picked it up when I discovered a collection that combines three books in the series into single printings. And I'm happy to report that I thoroughly enjoyed the original tale. There was a lot more adventure and character development that I expected. It was fun to see so much more of Oz when the characters traveled south to meet Glinda (the witch in the north is an entirely different person). I also liked how much the book emphasized that the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and Cowardly Lion all already possessed the very things they wanted from the wizard. The scarecrow is nearly always the person to provide solutions to any problems the group...

The Nanny Diaries is not great literature. But it is fun and light and exactly the palate cleanser I need after binging on Harry Dresden for a few weeks. The book follows Nanny, a senior at NYU, as she takes care of four-year-old Grayer X. She finds herself juggling Mrs. X's impossible demands with her knowledge of Mr. X's affair, and eventually the demands of his mistress as well. All the while she is attempting to shield Grayer from his parents, finish her thesis so she can graduate, and negotiate a blossoming relationship with one of the X's neighbors. There isn't a lot to this book. It's a fun look at the insanity of the incredibly wealthy. Mostly it made me appreciate my own life and work a lot more, as I'm not trying to juggle a slew of absolutely ridiculous demands. But the ending is rather abrupt and leaves a lot of loose ends. The greatest part about reading this book is my discovery that they made a movie out of it starring Scarlet...

I've made it to the halfway point of The Dresden Files series. I'm still a little worried about completing this in time for my book club. Especially since I am now constantly being distracted by wedding planning things. But if I buckle down, I think I can still do it. Thankfully, the seventh book is way better than the sixth book was. This one deals with necromancers, and it returns to the style of the second book. Rather than dealing with three different plots simultaneously, Harry has to face a single problem with multiple enemies. It gives the book a nice sense of focus. Not that I'm complaining about all the plot heads butting heads in previous books; that was exciting in its own way. But it was nice to get something a little different. Not that there was nothing else going on. This book continues with some threads from previous books that will likely show up again in the future. The war with the Vampiric Red Court is still going on off page, and we g...

It turns out that the sixth book of the Dresden Files does not turn its attention to the war between the wizard's White Council and the vampire's Red Court like I was hoping. The red vampires aren't even in this book, though there is a brief conflict with the Black Court vampires. And the White Court vampires, who really have more in common with incubi and succubi than proper vampires, have a huge role. But mostly, this book deals with the porn industry. Someone is targeting a guy who owns a studio that turns out adult films by killing all the women around him. Between Harry's knee0jerk judgement of porn and everyone involved in the industry, the women who died every so often, and the truly incompetent villain who (spoiler alert) was trying to kill her ex-husband's next wife, this book was a complete disaster. But at least Dresden got a cool dog out of the deal. Here's hoping Butcher stays far, far away from these topics in the future.

The fifth book in The Dresden Files turns its eye to Christian mythology. And in doing so, it brings some mere mortals back into play in some cool ways. Dresden is tasked with finding the Shroud of Turin, which has been stolen from Italy and brought to Chicago. But a group of Fallen Angels are looking to recover it first, and they're a lot stronger than anything Harry's faced before. Luckily he also has some Knights of the Cross on his side to even things out. Butcher does an interesting thing in this series. Thanks to he Knights of the Cross, and particularly Michael Carpenter, the Christian God seems to be a fact in this universe. But Butcher still allows for other religions. One of the knights even identifies as an atheist, claiming he simply wants to do good however he can. And he's allowed to maintain that atheism through the story, which is actually pretty refreshing. See in this world, it's faith that gives power. Not necessarily whatever the ...