The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

WHY DIDN"T ANYONE WARN ME?????

So after reading the classic work The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, I realized that it won't be a book that I'll read to my daughters anytime soon.  Granted it was amazingly written, in short prose and amazingly crafted short chapters I was pretty dark at times.  The Tin Man chops off wolves heads (40 of them to be exact), the Scarecrow gets his brains (made of bran and needles) and the Lion gets his courage by destroying an overlarge spider by knocking it's head off.

I was anticipating the nicely done 1939 movie where Dorothy visits the Munchkins, gains some friends and gets home.  I actually got something much, MUCH better.  I loved it.  The characters were intricately woven into each other.  The other 13 stories in the series will be just an enjoyable I have a feeling.  I liked how Baum described Kansas as a place full of gray, and Oz as a place beaming with color.  The characters in each place displayed those characteristics as well.

Rating: 5/5

I can't wait to read more about the land of Oz, but Call of the Herald is next.  It is supposed to be a cross between Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Eragon ... sounds like fun!  Plus it is a trilogy ... I love books in a series.

Let's get WEIRD!!!

Craig Groeschel is WEIRD!  But weird in a good way ... in a Christian way.  He hits on some very obvious things that we, as Christians, should be thinking about on a daily basis.  We should look at being weird because what we, as Americans, think is normal (high debt, divorce, self-centeredism, etc) obviously isn't working.  People think that high consumer debt is acceptable, divorce rates are at 50% and we think about ourselves before we think about others.

Pastor Groeschel's other book "The Christian Atheist" is just as good as this one.  In that he talks about how we as Christians will admit that we are a Christian and yet act as if we aren't.

Weird is an amazing book for some good old-fashioned self reflection.  We need to look deep into ourselves and step up and make a change.  Let's not accept what the rest of the world accepts as normal.  We should be concerned with debt, we should hate divorce and we should think about others.  Let's try.  Read this book and think ... and think long and hard about it.

Rating: 5/5

Alright ... I knew I couldn't wait til the weekend!

Just like typical me ... I stayed up waaaay too late last night and finished Imaginary Jesus.  That may make for a pretty long Friday.  Going on four hours of sleep right now, so don't hold that against me.  But caffiene can be your friend in just these sorts of instances.

Pete punched Jesus in the face.

Great way to start the book in Chapter Zero.  No don't pull out your Peacenik Jesus and shame me for this.  Pete (The Apostle Peter) is here to save Matt's world.  But in order to do that, Matt must do away with his own imaginary Jesuses.  You know what I'm talking about ... the Jesuses that we make up that support our views on anything from animal rights to feminism to sin to free will.  This book really struck me.  I related to it well, maybe TOO well.  I can see myself as Matt.  The real world all around us, and us surrounded by our own Jesuses, personified and real (in our eyes).  We all have them, whether we are Christians or not.  Even atheists have their own Atheist Jesus.

This book is wrought with humor and a main character who is sarcastic beyond belief (which I can relate to as well).  Then there is Pete, who is really trying to get it through Matt's thick skull that the Jesuses that he had imagined are not real.  I loved Daisy, the talking donkey.  I even shared a few of her lines with the share feature on my Kindle onto my Facebook page.  I called her the Genius Donkey, because everything that she said was so true (at least for me) that it was obvious that her IQ just has to be 180 at a minimum.  Then there was Sandy the former prostitute.  She really impacted Matt in a positive way, and introduced him to the Atheist Bible Study group.  Which is funny if you think about it, but it shouldn't be.  Shane is the leader of this group, and he end up enlightening Matt the most during his quest to rid himself of his Imaginary Jesuses.

In the end Matt realizes that life isn't about making sure you have all your Jesuses lined up to take on any problem that you may have, but it's about realizing that there is only ONE real Jesus and He is talking to us ... alot.  If only we could learn to listen.

I loved this book and HIGHLY recommend that you head over to Matt Mikalatos' blog to learn more about him and his upcoming book entitled "Night of the Living Dead Christian".  I can't wait for it this fall.

The Burning Hearts Revolution - Matt's Blog

And one more thing ... LONG LIVE HOUDINI DOG!!!

Rating: 5/5

Hunger Games Trilogy

I have to admit ... I'm a sucker for teen fiction.  Harry Potter was a staple of mine when I had knee surgery in 2003 and was stuck on the couch.  I know this doesn't necessarily qualify for "teen fiction", but I am always mesmerized by the Pevensie children in The Chronicles of Narnia.  Some people call Narnia "Children's Fantasy", even though some of the lessons taught throughout the series are very much directed at adults.

Anyway on the the review of this trilogy.

The Hunger Games Trilogy was so well written that it made me really want to go and compete in the Hunger Games ... for those that have read these books this might qualify me for being totally off my rocker.

The heroine is 16 year old Katniss Everdeen (awesome name), and she is at heart a great person.  Though conflicted in many ways, she seems to genuinely want to put others first.  Everyone from her mother and sister (Prim), to her friends (Gale & Peeta), to all other people in District 12.  She is also a crack shot with a bow.  She is one of the main sources of food for the people in District 12 as well, so people love her.  Peeta Mellark is just a baker's son, Gale Hawthorne is "Katnip's" (as he calls her) best friend, and Haymitch Abernathy is supposed to be her mentor for the Games.

Suzanne Collins has created a world from nothing, and it is fun to try to figure out where exactly District 12 is located.  How does District 12 still survive in the era that these books are created?  The overall premise is the fact that when government control gets to be too big, there will typically be problems for everyone involved.  Even the innocent teens that are forced to "compete" in the Hunger Games.

Collins continues the story into Catching Fire and on into Mockingjay.  These were both just a well written as the first, if not better.  You can see Collins style mature through the trilogy, just as Katniss matures.  In Catching Fire (like Empire Strikes Back) there are questions formed and concerns answered.  But it leaves you hanging ... in a good way.  I read these one after another, so I didn't have to wait for the "next installment".  It was enjoyable, and it kept me going for a couple of weeks to finish all three.

My favorite was Mockingjay.  At times when a series is written too much can be put into it, just to stretch it out.  Mockingjay does not dissapoint.  It answers so many questions that were left alone in the first two.  Katniss struggles with some pretty deep issues for a 17 year old girl, and shows wisdom beyond her years.  Let me know what you think.

PS- The Hunger Games will be coming to a theatre near you next March (2012).  I am pretty excited to see how the film adaptation will capture some of the minute details of Panem and the games.  Is it OK for me to be pumped up to see these movies?  I'm going to see it anyway.

PPS- I hope they do a better job of creating a movie than they did when Eragon was made into a film.  It was a great book, and the movie was TERRIBLE!!!

Ratings:
Hunger Games: 4.5/5
Catching Fire: 4/5
Mockingjay: 5/5