Recent reading

Read Wicked by Gregory Maguire, mostly because everyone was like "people are going to see the movie-inspired cover and pick up the book with no idea of what they're getting into" and I was like yeah, sure, I'll bite. I did know more or less what I was getting into, and it is a very weird book in ways that I both was and was not prepared for, but I enjoyed it more than I'd expected. Unsurprisingly, my favorite section was Elphaba's college years at Shiz, especially for the Team Revolutionary Research Assistants arc. (Honestly, the biggest surprise in coming to this book from the new musical movie is that my favorite character was probably Boq; he still has a crush on Glinda, but instead of the whole Nessarose saga, he just gets over it and becomes Elphie's partner in crime illicit research.)

Read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, as the obvious follow-up. I remembered enjoying this book as a child but I'd forgotten just how charming it is: Dorothy is so delightfully unflappable, and it's very sweet how obviously the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion embody the qualities they most want even before they "get" their brains/heart/courage.