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Out of Oz marks Gregory Maguire’s fourth and final book in the series beginning with his brilliant, beloved Wicked. Maguire’s Wicked universe is richly complex, politically contentious, and filled to the brim with nuanced characters—all of which is wonderful to read but super tough to remember. Out of Oz is released on November 1st, and readers have a lot to recall if they’re going to travel that labyrinthine yellow brick road once more.

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Header via Free Images

(Just joined us? Maybe you missed my first imaginary sockpuppet pundit making the case for ebook self-publishing, in which case, why not go back and check it out? Then rejoin us below as a second sockpuppet argues the case against, and pull on your gloves to fight for your favoured corner in the comments. Ready? Let's do this.)

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In Book Brawl, two books that are somehow related will get in the ring and fight it out for the coveted honor of being declared literary champion. Two books enter. One book leaves.

This month, our contenders are circus life novels Geek Love (Katherine Dunn, 1983) and Water for Elephants (Sara Gruen, 2006). Who shall emerge victorious? This is so exciting!

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Though many true book enthusiasts, particularly in the Northwest where locally owned retailers are more common than paperback novels with Fabio on the cover, would never have set foot in a mega-chain bookstore like Borders, plenty of people did each day--right up until the company shuttered each of its stores in July. Which also meant that, until that time, plenty of publishers and booksellers, authors and editors, baristas, retailers, and representatives worked with Borders to stock the shelves, sign books, make deals and jerk lattes. So what now?

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Roth image via Wikipedia Commons — Flag image by Karolina Grabowska via Pexels

I've been asked to write about Philip Roth. According to the editorial guidelines, this should be neither a simple “review” of any one of his novels nor a cold, general overview of his work. That suits me.