Kirsten Brown- The Wizard of Oz

I chose The Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum, for two reasons. The first reason is that in the fall, I will be participating in the play The Wizard of Oz at Young Actors Theatre. I thought that by reading this book, I would be able to srudy for my play while also completing summer work. The second reason I chose this book was bcause I recently went to see the Broadway production of Wicked. I was able to participate in a backstage tour and was told that the ruby slippers were actually silver. The reason for this was that the play had to follow the book Wicked, not the movie The Wizard of Oz. I was told that in the original books, the slippers were silver and that to get around this legal issue, the silver slippers inWicked were constantly lighted by a red spotlight. This peeked my curiosity. What else was different in the book? I had only ever seen the movie, so I wanted to know how closely the producers had staid to the novel. I'm very glad that I chose The Wizard of Oz. There were many events in the book that weren't even mentioned in the movie such as the gaps in the yellow brick road, the cap of the winged monkeys, and the porcelain city. The book also conveyed the important ideas of the story much more effectively. It is very obvious in the book that the characters have what they are searching for all along. The Scarecrow is intelligent, the Tin Woodman is caring, and the Lion is brave even in the face of death. This book was incredibly entertaining and enlightening as well. I would recommend it to veryone.

Hans Kollar Catch-22

I enjoyed reading Catch-22 and find Heller's cynical humor and his rather comical character developments to be rather humorous. At the beginning of the book I had a hard time really getting into the story and understanding the many sly meanings that are very easy to miss if you aren't paying attention; however, as I continued to read I began to catch on to these subtle jokes and stabs Heller takes at war, society, and human nature. As I read I discovered more and more that Heller was trying to comment on the inhumanity of war as well as the way that the military chain of command seems to treat soldiers like expendable tools and that the authorities are always trying to get as much work as possible from them.The story is mostly from the first person point of view of a character named Yossarian who tells the story but includes many short anecdotes and specific scenes. These anecdotes make the story more interesting, but they can also become confusing as you have to think about and remember the multiple story lines. Many of the ironic descriptions in this book perfectly illustrate the term Catch-22 and I now more fully understand the term and its origins.

Thomas Geeker - Catch 22

I read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. I would recommend it to anyone because it is very entertaining and it is pretty funny. Heller writes with a lot of sarcasm and humor but to me it is kind of disorganized and confusing to read at times. He starts talking about characters before he even introduces the reader to the character and it makes it hard to follow sometimes. I had to go back and re-read pages and even chapters just to get a firm grasp of what was happening. Other than that this book is very interesting and I got a bunch of laughs out of it. It is a very good book

Franchesca Jenkins--Frost Nixon

I chose the book Frost-Nixon by Bob Zelnick and David Frost. Politics intrigues me so much. It is especially facinating that politics has everything to do with the Watergate incident. President Nixon tried everything he could to keep what was actually happening from the United States. The book is very well-written and easy to follow. The book is interesting and enjiyable. I am so happy I picked this book.

Paige Emenheiser- The Killer Angels

I decided to read The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara because I am very fascinated by Gettysburg! Initially by older sister advised me to read it because she herself did when she took this class. I am glad I listened to her because this book definitely gives me more insight on what Gettysburg was like through the eyes of the generals! I normally wouldn't pick this type of book because I find bboks like this a little boring but it was the exact opposite of boring! The way the author writes is very realistic and the fact that he includes visual aids like maps helps you understand what is going on! I am happy I chose this book!

Jessica Dees: response to Rachel Shaeffer

That book seriously sounds confusing. But what i thought when i read your post was that maybe the author was giving his perspective on history, like what he thinks went down. And it's probably not just one fixed time period but entire history in general. I'm not sure if that makes sense or not. Maybe the author was crazy himself! Alot of people back then thought women were half crazy and never amounted to anything but prostetution, and alot of the times the mental hospitals were corrupt so I'm guessing he was just giving his opinion on the hole subject.

Jessica Dees: the things they carried

I just finished reading "The things they carried" by Tim O'brian. Initially I thought I would be reading about a soldiers life in the war, and because war stories have always interested me I thought it would be a quick read. I was surprised to find out it was not a story, but something like a jumble of short war stories put together. Nothing really fit together right. The detail of the dead bodies in the book somewhat disturbed me also. When i was done with the first chapter I thought that I made a huge mistake with choosing this book, but after a while it actually started to catch my attention. It was really more interesting than the average book because it was real and people actually went through this stuff. Sometimes I had to stop and think if the part that I had just read was the truth or not becuase Tim O'brian would always contradict himself or say "now if this was true" or "see this story can make this true even if it's not." You just never knew. The characters were also very entertaining, even though most of them went crazy or died. In all it was a very good book that i will always remember and i am glad i read.

Rachel Shaeffer: One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I just finished reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey, but I'm confused about where the history is. Basically the story takes place in an insane asylum and revolves around three main characters. A half Native American man named Bromden who pretends to be deaf, McMurphy a ridiculous ginger guy, and the evil Nurse Ratched. Overall it was a pretty entertaining read and compared to Catcher in the Rye which I just read, it was as easy to get through as Harry Potter. My opinion is that Nurse Ratched is the crazy one, most of the patients seem pretty normal. All except a handful had themselves admitted. I guess they did that just to escape normal life. Even so, that doesn't explain what this has to do with history, which is exactly the question I asked myself as I turned the last page. So does anyone know? I tried looking it up online but that only brought up the main themes, two of which I knew already. The top three themes I found were that mental hospitals were seriously corrupt around the 1950's, Kesey portrayed women as either blood sucking demons or prostitutes, and Bromden's fear of the "Combine". I took the combine to mean anything that limited personal freedom like the government, so to Bromden the hospital. Am I missing the point? I guess I could speculate on the historical facts the author is trying to get across: maybe the government was especially limiting at that time, maybe the women's place in society was being shaken up, maybe everyone in America was crazy? I guess what I'm trying to say is that this book left me with several questions I need answered.

Mary Roberts: The Things They Carried

So I'm reading The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and I was surprised to find that it's not an actual story, more like a bunch of short stories that the author wrote about/based on his past. It's actually really good book, not as boring as I thought it would be. He talks about this guy Curt Lemon, the show-off in the group, who went "trick-or-treating" basically naked with nothing but a ghost mask(which he got from who knows where because come on people, there's a war going on here!) on Halloween while his platoon was stationed in Vietnam and his partner-in-crime Rat Kiley. O'Brien also tells of when he received his draft notice and how he hadn't wanted to go because he didn't know the purpose of the war, didn't believe in it. Seriously though, this books got a little of everything; kinda gory, a little sad, had a major "wtf!?" moment in there and even a little romance. You should definitely read it(:

Mary Roberts response to Kim Rogers

Dood! I love you! I hope were in the same class next year(:
Anyway Wizard of Oz huh? Which version of the movie did you watch? I've only ever seen the one with Micheal Jackson in it. haha that was when Mrs Fitz (the lady who taught that computer class at SCMS) made us watch it and everyone got all excited cause like half of the actors/actresses were black (no offense to anyone who might not like my wording). Do you remember that? It feels like so long ago...

Kim Rogers-The Wizard of Oz

The book I'm reading for my summer reading assignment is the Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. It has always been one of my favorite movies form when I was little and my friends referred the book to me, which is why i chose to read it. I found the book to be much different from the movie. I feel as if the movie was much more kid friendly then the book was, but they were both very good. Overall the book was a great choice.