Ada brings to Wonderland her own imperfect apprehension of cause and effect as she embarks on an odyssey to find Alice and see her safely home from this surreal world below the world. If Eurydice can ever be returned to the arms of Orpheus, or Lazarus can be raised from the tomb, perhaps Alice can be returned to life.
#AfterAlice #GregoryMaguire #book #books #Fantasy #Fiction #Retellings #HistoricalFiction #Audiobook #Adult #FairyTales 💘💘💘💘💘
Were there a god in charge of story—I mean one cut to Old Testament specifics, some hybrid of Zeus and Father Christmas—such a creature, such a deity, might be looking down upon a day opening in Oxford, England, a bit past the half-way mark of the nineteenth century.
#AfterAlice #GregoryMaguire #firstline #openingline #book #books #bookmark #bookmarks #Fantasy #Fiction #Retellings #HistoricalFiction #Audiobook #Adult #FairyTales #AdultFiction ❤️❤️
bailedDNF, I‘ve had trouble getting into these last three books. I did do the audiobooks for them so that might be why. The narration can be a little dry, and there is battle and plans laid out that is a subject I‘m not very interested in.
“Let me put it more scientifically. If separate species develop skills that help them survive, and if those attributes are favored which best benefit the individual and its native population, to what possible end might we suppose has arisen, Mr. Winter, that particular capacity of the human being known as the imagination?”
#AfterAlice #GregoryMaguire #lastline #closingline #book #books #bookmark #Fantasy #Fiction #Retellings #HistoricalFiction ❤️
pickA couple years ago, a friend and I talked about WICKED and how I still hadn‘t read OUT OF OZ.
“It‘ll happen,” I said. “And when it comes time to review WICKED again, I‘m just gonna post a solid block of exclamation points.”
“DO IT!!!!” she said.
OUT OF OZ isn‘t WICKED. I don‘t love it the same way, but I DO love it—and on the whole, the series has got me all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back to green tea today.
I‘m not yet sure if I‘ll love OUT OF OZ or really like it. It‘s the longest of the four books, and with just under 200 pages to go it feels like it‘ll come out OVERlong. That‘s at least partly because Maguire handles his usual time jumps with extended transitionary scenes instead of just, like, jumping ahead four years or whatever, as he did in WICKED. It adds a lot of narrative bulk.
Maybe it‘s because I made it a book & beer night, but I can‘t stop laughing at this limerick.
(Nah; it‘s because I have the sense of humour of a stereotypical twelve-year-old boy.)
Friends, I‘m living out that age-old readerly curse:
Person buys book they‘re desperate to read.
Person sits on said book for 8 years (because what is desperation, really?).
Person finally reads book and is keen to binge it, but book‘s a hardcover chunkster and hurts their hands so bad they need frequent breaks.
BLAH. Hardcovers are the worst.
I‘m now reading at a table, with salsa con queso. It‘s helped a bit.
I finished rereading A LION AMONG MEN right before bed, processed my I-used-to-love-this-and-now-I-don‘t grief, and resolved to take a little break before I went back to Oz.
Then I woke up and started the grand finale over breakfast (which: a tasty date omelet).
So far, I‘m cautiously optimistic. It‘s more immediately gripping than ALAM. I want the answers to all the questions Maguire asks as the first part unfolds.
I‘m gonna post a book (or series) from my TBR every day until I‘ve shared the lot. No descriptions. No explanations. Just a whole bunch of books I haven‘t read yet.
This is Day 61, and also the LAST DAY. That‘s right—I‘ve now posted about every book on La TBR! I‘ll use the hashtag again as I buy more stuff, but this daily schtick is over.
#LaTBRrevealed
