Just got it in the mail today. Can’t wait to read it and look for things I recognize from the site!

I liked reading this, but I have a gripe about it. I wanted it to reconcile with The Wizard of Oz. That was the draw for me… to hear the witch’s side of the story. I realize that stories told from two different perspectives don’t always reconcile perfectly due to how people perceive things differently. But neither of these stories were written in the first person. In other words, Dorothy didn’t tell the first story, and the witch didn’t tell the second. I would have liked to see Gregory Maguire take more care to keep the stories in sync.

That said, I’d love to read the Wizard’s story now. He’s the biggest mystery of all.

This was good to read, but also disheartening. It gives a lot of examples of emotional blackmail, and it’s hard to read about how some people can be so incredibly selfish. One example is a man whose wife wants to take a class in the evenings, and he doesn’t want her to. He pouts and makes sarcastic comments until she decides it’s easier to not take the class. I’m feeling angry typing about it. I’ve had people like this in my life before. People who didn’t want me to do things that make me happy or wanted me to do things that didn’t make me happy. People who told me, “You don’t care about me, or you would do X*.”

It’s happened enough that now I do something that the author called self-blackmail. I don’t have any emotional blackmailers in my life right now, but I still expect it to happen, so I anticipate negative reactions from people and try to compensate so I don’t make them upset. It’s awful. I think this will wear off as I get more positive reactions from people, though.

The biggest thing I’m going to take away from this book is the phrase “I can stand it.” If faced with an emotional blackmail situation where I need to stand up for myself, I will tell myself that I can stand the reaction. I *can stand it.

My favorite element in this film is the yellow and red roses. Great movie, Rob!

This book helped me change my life. After a particularly hard breakup, it helped me focus on my personal growth. I recommend it to anyone who is going through a breakup or divorce.

Before I read it, I didn’t want to face the future. I went to a counselor to talk, and he recommended it. I believe it helped me get through the bad times more quickly than if I hadn’t read it. It also validated many of the feelings I have about life and love and helped me believe in a positive future.

My favorites:

• Bookwish
• Insomnia
• Plumber

Wonderful poems, Ruth. :)

It took me until close to the end of the book to figure out who was on the cover, and I’m still not completely sure of myself. At first, I thought the illustration was careless with details, but that didn’t seem likely. I think I’ll have my suspicions confirmed while I’m reading the second book in this series.

This is great fantasy. The thing I love most is that there are two storylines. One of hunter/gatherer type people. One of city folk. It takes 660 pages before they meet. Then the second book starts. Epic fantasy rocks!

I’m only about 100 pages in. I love it so far. There are 4 storylines that are due to converge soon. I think Angus Wells writes well. I’ll be reading more of his stuff.

It was interesting to see the life of penguins after being a penguin nut for so many years.