Best Books

[antmanb]

Never read "Land of Oz", but "Ozma of Oz" was a total trip -- lunch buckets growing on trees, an entire royal family that had been changed into tacky figurines and Dorothy had to go into this big room FULL of tacky figurines and try to figure out which one was a transformed prince or princess and she only had so much time to do it before she herself got turned into one -- oh, it was just TOO cool. I wish they'd do a movie of that one. Ironically, I can't remember ONE thing about Ozma herself.....

You know they made "Return to Oz" which is the film version of Ozma of Oz. A young Fairuza Balk played dorothy - it was one of my favourite films as a kid. i got very excited when i found it on dvd last month!

Ant

 

[JonnyCoop]

You know they made "Return to Oz" which is the film version of Ozma of Oz. A young Fairuza Balk played dorothy - it was one of my favourite films as a kid. i got very excited when i found it on dvd last month!

Ant

I had heard of the film, but didn't know it was an adaptation of "Ozma"; I thought it was just merely some sequel movie people had thrown together, or perhaps an adaptation of one of the many many Oz books (Well, which I suppose it actually is; I meant one of the OTHER ones ). Thanks for the info, I'll have to check this out!

 

[Spun Silver]

Thanks for the info, I'll have to check this out!

Me too!

 

[Kwanford Wife]

Since everyone is discussing Oz... Wicked: The Life & Times of the Wicked Witch of the West is an AWESOME book... this should be required reading for anyone who ever feels the need to step up on soapbox...

Great story, great writting, great message. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this book...

And let's keep it real... wouldn't you be pissed if somebody dropped a house on your sister? and then stole her shoes? and wouldn't give them back? totally unacceptable.

 

[Mathman]

They stole the plot of Wicked from me.

Years ago I wrote a book on the history of the four wicked witches BD (before Dorothy). The real villainess was the Wicked Witch of the South, who was eventually deposed by Glinda the Good (sister-in-law to Ozma's father, the rightful King).

There is no justice.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

They stole the plot of Wicked from me.

Years ago I wrote a book on the history of the four wicked witches BD (before Dorothy). The real villainess was the Wicked Witch of the South, who was eventually deposed by Glinda the Good (sister-in-law to Ozma's father, the rightful King).

There is no justice.

Curses! Foiled again!

 

[Tonichelle]

Ok. Now I LOVE Liam but as Abe Lincoln??? Not buying it... and an interesting tidbit about me... I've never watched a single Indy movie... because Harrison Ford is Han Solo and nobody else... I'm sucha brat about somethings...

Yay for Random!!!

yeah I don't see Liam as Abe - especially since he played Schindler... I dunno it'd just be weird for me.

RE: Harrison - he himself has said he likes Indy more than Han (hey he's coming back for a 4th Indy, but wanted to be killed at the end of Empire and didn't want to work on ROTJ )

 

[dorispulaski]

Like antmanb & buzzz, I tend to be thinking about the books I've read lately or the ones I want to reread or read next rather than the ones for the ages.

I certainly can recommend Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick though. I just finished it. It is the history of Plymouth colony, with quite a long section on King Philip's War, which got rather glossed over when I was in school. The author did not only consult the standard sources, he also went to the remaining Pequots and Narragansetts and Wampanoags for their view of the conflict. Well written, and I'm still mulling over some of the vignettes.(This is just a note in passing in the book) Right now, it's the fact that Massasoit (which was his title) was originally named Matechipa, changed his name to Usamequin and then later changed it back to Matechipa. Apparently it was the custom of people in his tribe to change their names when a life changing event occurred in their lives. So I have been thinking about whether I would have changed my name in my life, and what I would have changed it to, and what effect such a change would have had on me.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin. I have to hunt it up and reread it. Leguin creates a functional anarchist society in this book, and I want to read it again and think about this now that I am 25 years older than when I first read it.

The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett, but I have to hunt up all my Latin, Greek and French dictionaries so I can read the chapter headings. This is an amazing, literate historical saga set in Scotland and everywhere else in the 16th century. It goes on through 6 books or so.

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley. I read this long before I ever read Roots. I want to go back and read it now that I have more of a feel for who Haley was to try to separate what's Haley from what's Malcolm in this book.

 

[John King]

Arthur Hailey's "Overload",Erica Jong's "Fanny" and Richard Roehmer's "Balls".

Just kidding,that was a humerous comment by Toronto columnist Richard J. Needham.You have to read between the lines on that.

I read Ayn Rand's novels as a teenager,and they had an everlasting influence on me.Another one I would recommend is "Socialism" by neo-classic economist (and associate of Rand) Ludwig Von Mises.

 

[JonnyCoop]

And let's keep it real... wouldn't you be pissed if somebody dropped a house on your sister? and then stole her shoes? and wouldn't give them back? totally unacceptable.

I think that would depend on the sister and how ugly the shoes were....

re. Neeson as Lincoln: I can actually TOTALLY see this. I see a certain basic resemblance between the two, so I can see it working. I mean, if Leonardo diCaprio can play Howard Hughes, for heaven's sake.....

 

[Kwanford Wife]

I think that would depend on the sister and how ugly the shoes were....

re. Neeson as Lincoln: I can actually TOTALLY see this. I see a certain basic resemblance between the two, so I can see it working. I mean, if Leonardo diCaprio can play Howard Hughes, for heaven's sake.....

Point taken...

 

[show 42]

For those who are history buffs, I just finished reading "Henry II" by W.L. Warren. Excellent, excellent!! This is not a newly published book, but one I found and ordered on Amazon as I was doing some "on-line" browsing..........42

 

[Ladskater]

To Kill a Mocking Bird
Anything by Dickens - especially Nicholas Nickleby and a Tale of Two Cities
Charlottes' Web
James Harriot books
Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility as well as Emma by Jane Austen
The Poison Wood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

To name a few...

 

[LegalGirl82]

Children's/Young Adult Books:

The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Little Women, Little Men and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott
All of the Little House on the Prairie Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Also, just off the top of my head:

Anything by Charles Dickens, but especially David Copperfield and Great Expectations
84, Charing Cross Road and Underfoot In Show Business by Helene Hanff

And I've just started The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas