The Tempest

Shakespeare is good at confusing plays. I just felt like I was floundering a little in this one. It's easily summarized as: the former Duke of Milan is mad that his brother has taken his dukedom and he and his daughter have been stranded on an island, so he comes up with a plot to gain back his dukedom by shipwrecking his brother and the King of Naples on the island. Yeah. Now stretch that to five acts.

It wasn't a horrible play. I was able to read it well enough, but it just has these confusing elements, particularly the spirits that Prospero calls to do his dirty work. And let's be honest, they do all of his dirty work. He just sits back and calls upon one in particular (Ariel) to go and either wrangle or confuse the characters that have been shipwrecked.

It was all very confusing.

The Merchant of Venice

I'm not quite sure about this play. The way it began made me feel as if I was being thrust into the middle of a story and I had missed the important things in the beginning. It didn't improve as it felt that there were two rather conflicting stories that were being forced to be one.

Granted, it was a comedy, and there were some funny moments. But it's rather anti-Semitic in nature, and I found the tension between the Jewish character Shylock and the Christian character Antonio to be rather cruel. It felt as if Shylock was acting the way he did solely because he was Jewish and Antonio Christian.

I don't know. I didn't love this play, but I have a fondness for William Shakespeare, so I liked reading it. It was a play I'd never read or really experienced, so I did enjoy that.

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. While I wouldn't say it's laugh out loud funny, it definitely has quite a humorous tilt to it.

The way that Petruchio tames Katherina (the shrew) was so funny to me. He basically took her catty, cruel ways and turned them back on her. She was basically forced a taste of her own medicine and she found she did not like it. But he was doing it in a way to make her a calmer and more obedient wife. He did not want her to be completely silent, but he wanted her to be less contrary.

The only part I didn't enjoy of this play was the very beginning. I didn't understand the point of having this be a play that was presented to another set of characters. The whole introductory act was something that I could easily see cut out of this and it wouldn't affect the humor of the play. But that's just me.

Lord of Chaos

**Links: Prequel * Book 1 * Book 2 * Book 3 * Book 4 * Book 5**

This is book six in the epic series Wheel of Time. I'm not terribly fond of this book. I found it to be rather tedious. Maybe that's not quite the right word. It just seemed to be a lot of storytelling that wasn't terribly important. At least, not in the grand scheme of things.

You mostly follow Rand, Egwene, Mat, and Nynaeve and Elayne in this book. There are a couple of instances where you follow Perrin, but he's not super prominent until the end.

Really, I'm going to be blunt here. This book (my copy on my Nook) is nearly 1000 pages long. Granted, about 50 of those are just the glossary and other non-essentials. But still, nearly 1000 pages. While there is a lot of story, the good part doesn't start happening until the last 100 pages or so. So, you have to muddle through a lot of pseudo-important crap to get to a really exciting climax and conclusion. And you will end the book unable to trust any Aes Sedai except for Egwene, Elayne, and Nynaeve. They are the only trustworthy ones. You'll fully understand that if you read this book.

This is a book that you have to get through to get through the series though. So, if you've read the series up to this point, just keep going. That's about all you're able to do. That's all I'm able to do.

A Lion Among Men

**Links: Book 1 * Book 2**

Another almost stand alone book in Gregory Maguire's Wicked Years series. A Lion Among Men is the third of this four book series. I'm still super fond of Wicked, and these follow-up books never quite reach the same amazing point.

In this book, you learn a little about The Cowardly Lion's past. But he's not the only person you learn about. You also discover new things about Yackle, the old woman who was always on the sidelines of Elphaba's life. You even learn the reasons behind the Clock of the Time Dragon. It's a very revealing book that cleared up a lot of questions that I was left with at the end of Wicked.

I didn't love this book, but I definitely enjoyed it. It's a great addition to the Wicked Years series and if you love Wicked, you'll at least enjoy this. It takes place about nine years after the conclusion of Son of a Witch, which takes place about 15 years after the conclusion of Wicked. So, these books are covering a lot of time, with a lot of gaps in between.

Son of a Witch

**Link: Book 1**

Son of a Witch is the second book in Gregory Maguire's Wicked Years series. It's a strange book.

Son of a Witch follows Liir, who, it is implied and assumed, is Elphaba's son. It is never proven or disproven, but it is sort of an understood fact. Half of the book is memory. It's told in a flashback state. But through these flashbacks, you learn more about who Liir is. In Wicked, he was a secondary character. He didn't have an importance then. This is his book. You learn his character, which, starting out, isn't really much of anything. He starts off very murky, and you aren't sure who he is as a person. As the story progresses, you do learn that. His character is fleshed out.

I won't say that I absolutely recommend this book, but it has a good story. It's almost a separate story from Wicked, and thus would be a great stand alone book. But, be warned, there is some serious implication of homosexual relations. It's never flat out said, but you come to the conclusion that these two male characters were intimate. So, if you don't like that kind of thing, then you might have problems with a certain section towards the end of the book.

Wicked

I'm seriously in love with Gregory Maguire books. I love the way that he takes classic fairy tales and puts an exciting new twist on them.

Wicked is the first book of a 4 book series called The Wicked Years. I love this book. It's such an exciting retelling of the Wizard of Oz where it focuses on the Wicked Witch of the West and her history. The story that nobody ever thinks to ask about, but I had always wondered. Why did the Wicked Witch of the West become so cruel? Was she always that way, or did something happen to make her that? This book covers that.

Following Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) through her life, growing up as a green girl, being different, you start feeling some manner of sympathy for her. Never really loved by anyone until she was grown. Never understood. She tried to be a voice of a revolution for Animals, animals that have a soul. She wanted to be, if not good, at least appreciated. And she was stuck, being this unwanted green girl. You do feel sorry for her.

Read this book! It is a thousand times better than the musical (although the musical is superb as well). There is so much more in the book than there is in the musical. You cover so many other characters and stories that are so important to the transformation of Elphaba to the Wicked Witch.