Rachael's comments (member since Jul 29, 2008)

Rachael's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

Wow, thanks so much for all the help! Some other ones on here, like Secondhand Lions and Balto have been winners with my family. Balto was definitely a staple of my childhood...antitoxin, Rosie- what was the name of the evil dog? Great, great movie.

Thanks everyone. Dionisia, I forgot to mention them, but we've seen and loved The Incredibles and Toy Story, so you were right on track.

I'm sure I'm not the only one whose dealt with the difficulties of choosing a movie appealing to the whole family and as TNBBC usually churns out such amazing discussion, I'd thought I'd ask for recommendations. Below are a list of movies my family has enjoyed. Just a note first: my siblings are all very sensitive to "sad" stories (for example Nicholas Nickleby). This is definitely something they need to be broken of, but it will be gradual, so please try to stick to happy for now. In addition, please steer clear of movies with sexual content (PG is generally OK but please reccomend higher ratings with consideration). Thanks for all the help.
Sister Act
National Treasure
Pink Panther (Peter Sellers)
Cartoons like Ratetoille, Aristocats, Lion King, Finding Nemo, Cinderella, etc.
The Sound of Music
The Narnia Movies
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
The Andy Griffith Show and anything with Don Knotts
Hogan's Heroes
Patch Adams
Flubber
The Princess Bride
Swiss Family Robinson
The School of Rock
Elf
Spy Kids
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Fantasy- The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope. It is a variation of the Tam Lin ballad and I know my friend's mom who teaches a YA lit class at a local college includes it in her class. Also, great book!
Romance-Mara, Daughter of the Nile by Eloise McGraw. Brooklyn Rose by Ann Rinaldi. Beauty by McKinley. All great historical fiction books!

Suzanne wrote: "Rachael ... LOL, on 'The Scarlett Letter' (SO true)
totally agree on Shakespeare tho one exception being 'Midsummer Nights Dream'... which I will take in ANY form at ANY time******* tra la la !!!!!!"

I was in "Midsummer Night's Dream"- it is absolutely hilarious!

Liz, I'm sure "The Scarlet Letter" is a "good book" as it's a classic, but wow is it fun to complain about.The writing drove me crazy from the beginning and the more I read the more the rest got to me.

I've found librarything to be super useful. I haven't seen the feature you mentioned, but I HAVE plugged in books I love and found more! Lots of fun and useful for branching out. Of course the forums are better here on Goodreads:-)

"Catherine Called Birdy" and "THe Midwife's Apprentice" by Karen Cushman. Both very realistic and engaging stories too.

As a book-lover I figure I must read the classics I don't get in school. I intended this summer to go on an intense classic-reading program... but alas vacations, work, and fluffier works called. Just wondering, what should I read next. I'll give a brief list of classics I have and haven't liked as guideline.

FAVORITE CLASSICS
The Great Gatsby
My Antonia
anything by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre
1984

NOT MY FAVORITE BUT STILL GOOD
Wuthering Heights
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Silas Marner
Shakespeare (love him performed- that's how it was meant to be)
Dickens (am very satisfied after finishing though he's undoubtedly dense. please don't recommend me any of him as I get plenty in school)
Ivanhoe
Agnes Grey
TO Kill a Mockingbird

CAN'T STAND
The Scarlet Letter
The Illiad
Heart of Darkness

So where should I go from here? Tolstoy? Gaskell? Elliot? Twain? Please something of a reasonable length as I do have plenty going on in my life and only so much time to devote.
Now forget most of my qualifications and please just recommend me something you think everyone should read:-)
Thanks!

I would suggest "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. It's a sci-fi book but defies all negative stereotypes of the genre- it has tons of depth and lots of philosophical material. I just discovered it this year and it's a favorite. I've since given it to one of my friends for his Bday and he really liked it too (just happens he's a 10th grade boy).
This year in Lit class. We read "The Great Gatsby" and "My Antonia". Both we're wide-spread favorites. They made fantastic use of poetic language, deep characters, and were completely unpretentious.

I did American Lit last year and we read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," "The Scarlet Letter," The Jungle," "My Antonia," and "The Great Gatsby."
Of these we universally hated "The Scarlet Letter." I still can't get over how stilted his writing style was, and how moralizing and preachy his tone. The characters were meant to be types obviously but in becoming so they pretty much lost all realism and depth of their own. THe dialogue was absolutely ridiculous. Honestly the only reason I can see to read this book is for the sake
of cultural literacy.
I'm glad "The Great Gatsby" is required. It was a great, wonderfully poetic book that read like a whirlwind.
Just wondering if you could possibly work in Willa Cather's "My Antonia"? we read that last year and it was beautiful. It was about life on the prarie but thankfully had none of the overdone Little House on the Prarie Feel of so many historical books. "Antonia" is not the narrator but the daughter of immigrants and represents the determined, free spirit of prarie life.
Of the other books I've only read "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Catcher in the Rye" (on my own). "Mockingbird," though not a favorite, would be a decent pick. I think "Catcher" reads too much like an angsty YA novel to be really good for a lit class- just my opinion. Definitely a good book.

My reading music:
Debussy
Chopin (if you listen to a couple songs on Utube and you like it you'll be pretty safe buying a "best of" cd is they're have fairly uniform styles)
Enya (yes there are words but often you can't understand them so:-)

I second "Fast Food Nation." We read a chapter of it in English class this year as a parallel to "The Jungle" which I would also recommend. It was published in the early 1900s and exposed the corruption and the meat industry as well as the terrible oppresiveness of life for immigrants. Though it was obviously an propaganda book (at the end the author very blatantly supports socialism with a pages-long speech defending it) it was obviously historical and ended up causing legislation to be passed in congress. It really made me think: this is what me ancestors had to go through. ANyways, both are very informative and will gross you out as well as make you think

Noelle wrote: "Oh one of my top favorites is Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice and I loved Leisel Meminger from The Book Thief, she really got to me."

I think Lizzy is the ultimate for me- I think she's just what everyone woman wants to be- pretty, intelligent, witty, even-tempered, and able to make a man fall in love with her.

I'd also have to second Cassandra from "I Capture the Castle." Fiona, you seem to mention that book a lot, so thank you. I think I heard of the book first in this group. It was one of those books that from the moment I first held it in my hands I knew I would love it. Does that happen to anyone else?

Actually just about any of JA's characters could win this contest. Who could forget Anne, Marianne, Mrs. Bennet, Catherine, Mrs. Elton, Emma. But I admit I am a JA nut.

Has anyone read "Just Ella"? A humorous retelling of Cinderella for YA. Was a favorite of mine when I was younger.

Antonia from "My Antonia." I love her spirit and of course Cather's writing is beautiful.

The main character of "The Perilous Gard." I love that book but somehow her name has slipped my mind.

And so many more...

Josie wrote: "Except for Enchantment (which I haven't read), you just listed four of my favourite books! YAY!
Ok, it might be obvious, but have you tried Pope's other book, The Sherwood Ring? It's..."
Fun:-) Looks like we have similar taste and especially after seeing your recommendations. I've read everything you mentioned,except The Blue Castle. But skip "An Earthly Knight." I love the Tam Lin story but it was totally wasted here. Dialogue was horrible, never went anywhere. I hate it when that happens with books.

The Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger
I would say no to The Murder of Roger Ackroyd because I think the point is more the mystery than the narration.

I would recommend you CS Lewis. He was a Christian, but rejected is in his youth and was always very aware of the struggles there are between a Christian worldview and the real world. He wrote fiction with religious and philosophical implications, such as the Narnia series, the Spage Trilogy, and the Screwtape Letters, as well as more hard-core books such as Mere Christianity. His approach to the Bible is literary- he makes a fantastic use of analogies to boil complicated concepts down. It seems he infuses insight into even the smallest passage. I think you'd enjoy reading him even if it wasn't precisely what you were looking for.

I'm looking for some sweet and romantic, but not trashy, historical fiction similar to "I Capture the Castle" by Dodie Smith, "The Perilous Gard" by Elizabeth Marie Pope, "Mara, Daughter of the Nile" by McGraw, or "Enchantment" by Orson Scott Card. Thanks for the help!

So now that it's summer I'm trying to start a classic book and movie program for myself. The first movie I chose was The Patriot. Currently I'm about half way through and I love it- the acting, the storytelling, all the characters- but also the way it tells history (any inaccuracies aside).I feel my historical knowledge is a little bit lacking and I'd love to know if there are any other movies that present history in a similar ways- good movies packed with history. Thank you!

Cat 1- Cold Mountain-Charles Frasier
Cat 2- I second Wuthering Heights