Angie: I am unbelievably frustrated that I didn’t read this book sooner. I thought after the Cullen family anything Meyer wrote would be a disappointment. I know, I know! I’m annoyed with myself too. Feel free to address your hate mail to bookendscolumn@gmail.com. I’ve already sent mine and it was really mean. Truth bombs hurt.

“The Host” is set in a future world where a parasitic species has taken over Earth and humans, or at least control of their bodies. One host refuses to concede power and remains after the implantation. This is where our story and the battle between heart and soul begin.

Mandy: There is nothing wrong with taking a different perspective. Perspective swapping gives one, well, perspective. In “Wicked,” Gregory Maguire calls on readers to look at a story most Americans are familiar with — “The Wizard of Oz” by L.Frank Baum — from the point of view of the villain, the Wicked Witch of the West.

Elphaba (so named for the initials of L.Frank Baum) is like any other child, except for the fact that she is green. She grows to be an independently thinking woman who fights for the equal rights of Animals (animals who have human attributes), the political dissidents of the Wizard (a tyrannical megalomaniac), and other groups she feels to have been mistreated by the government of Oz.

Political tensions fuel the story of Elphaba, showing that the Wicked Witch of the West’s history isn’t as simple as Baum’s tale; however, we know that the Wizard won in the epic battle between him and the Wicked Witch. But remember those who win power write history.