The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

For the second book off of my #75 friend recommended book list, I chose to read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum.

Well, I'd certainly seen the movie. I used to watch it over and over when I was a kid. I loved it, I loved the story, I loved how Dorothy was this meek little girl who ended up being strong and independent and stood up for herself, I loved that each of her friends brought their own little lesson to the story. I loved the witch, I loved everything. I even had a pair of ruby slippers when I was a kid, although in the book they're silver. They made them ruby in the movie because it's much more appealing to the eye, ya know?

The book I had never read before, not even once. I didn't know it was a chapter book and I had no idea how different it was from the movie. The main bits and characters are there, but there was so much left out from the movie and a few things changed around. The flying monkeys for example, they're actually good guys in the book! I had no idea!

I decided to read it to Penny, just to see if she'd tolerate me reading to her that much. And the first night alone she let me get through 38 pages of it before drifting off to her own little Emerald City. And then every night after I would read it to her until she fell asleep and she would lay with me and look at the pictures and be attentive and she seemed to really enjoy it. I can't wait to read it to her again when she's a little older and can ask questions and get into the story more. And I can't wait to watch the movie with her too!

So then I thought, wow, I really do love this story. I really enjoyed it and plan on reading it again. It made me fall in love with it all over again. :-) I think it might be cute to do a kid's room with a wizard of oz theme, so I decided to check out what Etsy had to offer that was W.o.O. related and I found some cute stuff!

These totally adorable modern take on the ruby slippers (even though in the book they're actually silver!)

How cute is this whimsical painting?

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this Somewhere Over the Rainbow print. How pop art! I love it.

And then I thought, maybe Penny could be Dorothy for Halloween next year? Guess what I found? THESE.

So cute. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read it again to Penny when she's a little bit older. I hope she loves it as much as I do! And now I'm going to start A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

So the first of the 11 books from #75 is Shiver, by Maggie Stiefvater. My good friend, Claire, recommended it and told me that it was "like Twilight" so I'd probably like it.

She was right, I did enjoy it. And now I want to read the next one, Linger, but that will have to wait because I have 10 other books that other friends have recommended that I need to read first!

Ok, so Shiver is about a girl named Grace who gets attacked by a pack of wolves as a kid, and one of the wolves decides to save her and bring her back to her parents. She develops this obsession with this wolf, who has yellow eyes and she sees him in her backyard growing up. This obsession is love, but she doesn't really know it.

This yellow-eyed wolf is Sam, an 18 yr old werewolf, who loves Grace. He too develops an obsession (love) for Grace, hence why he saved her when she was attacked. His werewolf-ism isn't a full moon kind of thing, it's a cold weather/hot weather thing. When it's cold, he's a wolf, when it's warm, he's human.

I won't go into the whole story of it, because if you liked Twilight, you'll like this. "They've gotta fight to be together," "without you I'll die" sort of stuff. Lovey dovey mushy goodness. haha

The author did a great job writing this I think. I don't think it's inappropriate for teenagers like some other book series are (*ahem* House of Night *ahem*) I think she did a good job capturing that "first love" feeling and describes emotion in a way that makes you, as the reader, feel it yourself. When Sam describes how he feels when he sees Grace, you feel it, and you blush for her. It's how every girl hopes to be looked at by the guy of their dreams.

Overall, I really liked this and it was a quick read (two days) which is nice when you've got a little one to look after 24/7.

Next up, The Unabridged Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum!