Lili Taylor Books

Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.

Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.

This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.

Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.

It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.

Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.

A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.

This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.

To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.

Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.

Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.

This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.

Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...

The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...

Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...

Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...

The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...

Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...

If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...

Helmed by "Platoon" director and Vietnam vet Stone, "Born" is a profoundly moving portrait of a macho athlete whose horrific battle experience causes him to reassess his politics and reorient his give-`em-hell attitude. Cruise, in an ambitious turn away from heartthrob roles, plays Kovic with precision and conviction, especially at his darkest moments, delivering the finest work of his career. Co-written by Stone and Kovic, "Born" reflects the pain and anger felt by an entire generation of returning US soldiers, and will leave a lasting impression.

How could it have happened? Thousands of innocent soldiers and civilians killed for nothing? The most powerful nation on earth, having free speech and a free press, duped into a totally unnecesary and even counterproductive war? A Congress fooled by a dissembling and deceitful administration, with few dissenters.

Well, it happened again in 2003, and watching this movie, one of my favorites, is even more heartbreaking now than it was when I first saw it years ago. It's a period piece starting in the '50s, beautifully filmed, wonderfully acted, and perfectly capturing the spirit of three decades that I know well from personal experience. It's the story of Ron Kovic, who volunteered for duty in Vietnam, was severely wounded, and returned to find that not only had the war been unnecessary, but he and his fellow veterans were not all that welcome, especially when they started exercising their rights to protest the continuation of the war.

This is Stone's best movie by far. The joys of family life, the horrors of war, the pain of catastrophic injury, the trauma of alienation, the exhilaration of redemption... all are depicted movingly and accurately. In this movie, Stone is uncharacteristically as understated as John Williams' wonderful score. There are scenes, such as when Cruise's character, based on a real story, returns to his old neighborhood on Long Island to find his parents,family, and neighbors uneasily prepared for him, that always bring tears to my eyes. But that is just one of many such scenes.

Stone also is dead-on in his depiction of the attitude of the American public toward returning Vietnam veterans and the veterans' despair and bitterness. Alas, I fear that we have not seen yet the development of those same feelings as we have yet to see very many returning Iraq War veterans in this war, which never made any sense, but we will.

It's amazing to watch this movie again now and to see all the parallels with Vietnam, beginning with the killing of innocent civilians, confusion in the fighting, deaths of minority and working class kids, etc.

Like I said, it is heartbreaking to see this happen again, but this movie ought to be re-released or be shown in schools. Of course, being realistic, it has so much profanity and explicit references to sex that it will never be seen by those who ought to see it--impressionable kids who are brainwashed by government propaganda.

A side note: George W. Bush was probably at the 1972 GOP Convention that is depicted in the last part of this movie, so he was probably there when Ron Kovic and other Vietnam Veterans against the War were spit upon and gassed by police. Why John Kerry and his campaign did not bother to mention this--and a number of other things having to do with unnecessary wars--in the 2004 campaign is beyond me.

This is a movie to watch with your teenage son or daughter and to discuss afterward.

To be in a hot sun in a thick heavy uniform is very hard especially for those who never been in hot countries.You'd get easily confused and combined stupidities.
This movie features an ambitious young man dreams to be a hero of his land fighting enemies in other people's land.Ron Kovic has been brought up in a good family,but ends up for the rest of his life on a wheelchair.This... must be hell.
If you're born without legs,you'd never feel this kind of suffering.if you don't have love but have your legs,it would be different.Think what war can do to your children.
Kovic is interprated by Tom Cruise, an actor we have never seen so sad and depressed like in this movie.Oliver Stone is to me the 'Hero' of Vietnamese war's movies.Never forget that handsome Yankee Doodle Boy as young Kovic too.

Born on the Fourth of July follows the journey of Ron Kovic from his innocent childhood in the 1950's through his experience in the Vietnam war and its aftermath. His painful journey reflects the tumultuous journey that America took during the Vietnam War years.

Tom Cruise, delivering an intense performance as Kovic, and director Oliver Stone, a Vietnam Veteran, allows us to share in the raw emotions of the character. John Williams provides a brilliant score to add to the emotional punch.

This film was made when Stone could command a big budget post-Platoon and before he succumbed to the excesses of his later films - Born on the Fourth of July stands as his finest film.

Everything that people love and detest about Oliver Stone's films is in full flower here--ambitious theme, strengthen visual style, undisguised political biases...

The film is also an important turning point in Tom Cruise's career, completing his transformation from rising star to serious actor... He received his first Academy Award nomination for his role as antiwar activist and Vietnam veteran... Though Ron Kovic's story is presented as a distillation of the political and a violent social commotion that America went through from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies... At heart, it's propaganda...

Stone begins the story as a twisted cinematic version with boys playing war in suburban woods... It's Massapequa, Long Island, 1956...

Ron Kovic grows up as a typical American white kid who believes in God, country, sports, and sex... His father's (Raymond J. Barry) leaving his forceful mother (Caroline Kava) as the dominant personality in the home... To Ron, she's a repressive slave driver who sets a standard he can never measure up to... That, in part, is why he enlists in the Marines, straight out of high school... Cut to the Cua Viet River, October 1967, where Sgt. Kovic is in his second tour...

The short vision of Vietnam that Stone presents here is even more surreal and horrifying than the violence in "Platoon." An attack on a village is a disaster, and the Marines' retreat from it is even worse for Kovic... That nightmare is settled when Kovic is seriously wounded, sent to a MASH unit, and then to a Bronx Veteran's Administration hospital...

Paralyzed from the waist down, Kovic sank into a deep depression... From that moment, the next hour or so is a steep downward spiral of self-pity, drunkenness, anger, misery, and, most important, guilt over one incident for which he cannot forgive himself... It's honest, unflattering, and ugly...

Cruise's performance is one of his best, capturing both the cocky, insecure young man and the haunted veteran...The motion picture is never boring and, until the last reel, the action moves forcefully...

If Stone had elected in the middle section to spend less time rolling about with pleasure in Mexican fleshpots and to pay more attention to Kovic's full development, he might have created the antiwar epic he was aiming for, revealing the physical and psychological costs of one of the most tragic events in history...

I really liked the book Ida B by Katherine Hannigan. I thought it was very interesting. The book was realistic and was set in present day. Ida B is about a girl in the fourth grade, her name is Ida B. She has been home schooled for most of her life. Suddenly her parents send her to a public school and she doesn't like it at all. Then Ida B's family sells some of their land. The new owners decided to build a new house there.
One reason why I liked the book is because Ida B is unpredictable. One minute she's happy, sweet, and nice, and the next, she's angry, mean, and yelling at people. You never know how she's going to act. The next reason why I liked Ida B is because of Ida B's reaction to having to go to a public school. I thought it was kind of funny the way she was acting. She was acting mean, and her eyes were like slits. The third reason why I liked the book was when Ida B's new neighbors went to their house for the first time. The two kids went into Ida B's yard. They got closer to her hiding spot, which was a tree and started playing. Ida B was furious and decided to scare the kids.
I think that other people should read the book Ida B. I really liked it, so I think other people will too. I thought it was an awesome book and pretty funny. If you do decide to read Ida B, I think you will really enjoy it.

Ida B by Katherine Hannigan is an interesting book that any young adult could read. Ida B has always been homeschooled until something tragic happens to her mom. Ida B talks to nature, has ups and downs daily and has an interesting journy through public school. I gave Ida B four stars because when I read the book I wanted to read more and more. If you like fiction books you won't want to miss out on Ida B.

this was a great book and i would recomend it for and one woul likes a good read. yes she talks to trees that is because she is home school and has no other friends.

My biggest complaint about this book is that Ida never acknowledges her spoiled, self-absorbed behavior toward her parents. I was expecting a scene at the end of the book where she grows up a little and shows compassion and concern for her mother's health. I was waiting for her to apologize to her parents for her behavior, realizing that her mother didn't get cancer on purpose and her father had no choice but to sell land to pay for medical bills. Instead, she apologizes to the trees and to the river and her classmate, and that's it. To make it worse, she "senses" that her father apologizes to her. It would have been so much better if Ida B. had learned a lesson about life's difficult choices.

Meet Ida B Applewood: bold, passionate, determined, full of spunk, and armed with a plan for everything. While Ida B's life is "righter than right," and full of adventure, fun, and family, her mom's diagnosis of cancer changes everything and instantly forces Ida B to learn how to deal with adult-size problems in a kid-size world. Written as juvenile fiction, Katherine Hannigan is successfully able to reach her intended audience through her use of characterization, point of view, writing mechanics, and use of conflict and internal change. Additionally, her use of universal themes and wit appeal to a much broader audience.

"Superhero Deluxe"
Hannigan successfully develops her protagonist into the embodiment of what every child secretly wishes they could be. After all, Ida B is living the dream. Being homeschooled, Ida B has escaped the drudgery of desks on a tile floor and instead spends her days concocting wild schemes and adventures for her and her dog Rufus. Ida B spends sunny afternoons in her family's apple orchard with a whole forest full of friends (like the trees Beulah, Pastel, and Charlie) or the babbling brook that invites "C'mon out and play, Ida B".

But it's not just Ida B's situation that appeals to children. She's fun and daring, clever and inventive, passionate and noble and symbolizes the innocence, magic, and wonder of childhood. Hannigan characterizes her as a sort of child-hero. After all, Ida B has defied all authority figures and overcome most of the barriers that get in children's way: she has thwarted teachers and school altogether and even has delightful parents that are fun, young, energetic and seem to comply with her every plan and dream. Her life is one of perpetual recess, and Ida's only cares seem to be whether or not she has enough time to visit three places, make six things, and have two conversations all before dinnertime.

Ida B says it best herself: "I was Ida B, Superhero Deluxe, Friend of the Downtrodden, Foe of Cancer, Meanness, Mindless Destruction, and Traditional Schooling". For children, hers is the idyllic model of what childhood should be like, and she becomes a character that her readers identify with and cheer on.

Through the Eyes of Ida
The use of first-person narrative further enriches the story of Ida B by telling it in a voice that is authentic and rings true with the intended audience. It sounds like kid-talk, and invites the readers into Ida B's magical world. Ida B describes "smelling the prettiness" of the blossoms of the apple orchard, or the feeling of "a warm ball in my belly, and the warmth spread out through me so I was heated from the inside out."

Through being told through the eyes of a child, there's much greater attention to detail. While dog slobber might not be included in most books, Ida B observes that "a school of goldfish could go swimming in the pool of drool that [Rufus] makes while he's sleeping." With all the imagery of a child, she more gruesomely depicts her breakfast and "all those little raisins that used to be so happy bobbing around like they were swimming, but now were drowning in a sea of milk."

When it comes to more somber events, Hannigan successfully uses this point-of-view to relate to her intended audience with analogies that make sense to them instead of the vague terms or empty euphemisms that adults tend to use. For instance, when her mom gets sick, Ida B explains, "Cancer is like bugs in a tree: one day you don't see them at all and the next it seems like they're everywhere, eating the leaves and the fruit. And it won't work to find them and squish them one by one. You have to do something drastic."
This use of Ida B's voice effectively communicates and reaches an elementary audience by using a perspective that kids more identify with.

"The Yellow Prison of Propulsion"
The carefully constructed mechanical elements of writing, like Hannigan's imaginative diction, punctuation and capitalization, hyperbole, and alliteration, are what make the story of Ida B come alive.

Rather than generic complaints about school, Ida B describes "The Place of Slow but Sure Body-Cramping, Mind-Numbing, Fun-Killing Torture," and an ordinary box is transformed into "Lulu and her Someday Friends' Big City High-Rise and Exotic Resort." Even simpler phrases, like "it was sitting about two miles beyond wrong with me," help to expose Ida B's personality through her word choice.

Readers will smile at Hannigan's excessive use of dashes, like the Miss-America-the-Miserable-flat-hand-up-and-back-down-again wave, or the top-all-time-silliest-things-grown-ups-say-list. When Ida B is outraged, she says, "I went from a low boil to a bubbling-over-the-top-the-lid's-hardly-on-the-pot furious one in about two seconds."

Hannigan also employs the tool of alliteration to reach her audience by giving her book a more poetic, bouncy, and all around kid-friendly feel. Dad becomes the Deputy of Doom and Disaster, the classroom is christened the Dungeon of Deadly Dullness and Ida B identifies with Distressa, Patron Saint of Dread and Dumbfoundedness.
Through her prose and creative use of writing mechanics, Hannigan further develops characters, plots, and brings a smile to the face of her readers.

"O.K. - for Outrageous Katastrophe"
". . . I knew as long as I was with Mama and Daddy and I was near the mountain and the orchard and the brook, everything would work out. As long as I could be Ida B, I'd be fine."

Of course, Ida B's too-good-to-be-true situation doesn't last forever. When her mom gets cancer, Ida B's world of innocence and magic come crashing down around her. Ida B is sent to public school, her parents are suddenly distant, and her usually positively upbeat household has now become one where "I didn't know if we were trying not to wake Mama or trying not to wake the cancer." To top it all off, her dad has to resort to selling a piece of their orchard--cutting down her trees and selling her land to other kids.

In this time of intense personal conflict, not only does Ida B have to learn how to accept change, but Hannigan also teaches her intended audience important lessons about love, being unselfish, forgiveness, friendship, and growing up.

While Hannigan is ultimately successful in gaining the hearts and trust of her juvenile fiction audience, that is not the only audience she appeals to. The commentary on the human condition and universal life-lessons learned by Ida B are easily identified with, in any age group or any stage in life. Subtle wordplay and details (like trees named Jacques Costeau or a reference to the Venus de Milo) are clearly intended for a more mature audience, who will just as easily fall in love with Ida B.

Ida B:... and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World is a hilarious yet meaningful read, perfectly aimed for an elementary audience but one to be treasured and reread by audiences of all ages alike.

I was never really captivated by this book until page 170 or so. That's about when the story really got moving. There was a lot of switching back and forth between memories and present, and the transitions weren't clear. So, I was often confused. In my opinion, the book was just okay. Nothing overly exciting, never got really attached to the characters.

Anna Quindlen's writing is the perfect chocolate cake. Not too dry, not overly creamy, but moist and perfect for the taste buds. That's Anna Quindlen's writing. She didn't do a great job at telling this story but a 'perfect' job.

The book tells the story of an abused woman who has had enough and runs away from her husband, a police officer. She takes her son with her. She coincidentally finds an organization that helps women like herself to start a new life - an organization that claims that their program is more efficient than the witness protection program. The story goes back and forth from her new (completely new) life, and flashbacks to her life of abuse. What was so interesting about the story-telling was that there was the constant wondering of whether this husband of hers would find her. As a reader, I was sweating with the main character, everytime the phone rang or when there were strangers or policemen at her son's school. A true page-turner.

Quindlen's set up of the characters were so real that when the characters spoke, (call me crazy) I could imagine what kind of voice they'd have if I were to really hear them in person.

Even if you're not a fan of this genre or this subject matter, this book is an awesome piece of literature. Read it.

Boy meets girl. They fall in love. Get married. He turns out to
be an abusive New York City police officer. She leaves him with
son and heads south to start new life. He comes after her and
you've seen enough movies to know how it's going to turn out.
That's the entire novel and not Quindlen's best work.

If you want to discover Quindlen's gift as a writer, then read Object
Lessons or her Newsweek column. This book should have just been
made exclusively into a screenplay for Lifetime, which is where
it ultimately ended up.

Anna Quindlen can really write well, and I enjoyed this book a lot. It's the story of one woman's daring escape after years of domestic abuse. Unfortunately, this tale has been told a couple dozen times in the last few years, but Quindlen works hard to make it feel fresh.

The characters are the best part of Quindlen's writing. Their emotions seem real, which is the hallmark of good writing. My book club agreed that this is one of the best books that we've read recently, like Rabid: A Novel by T.K. Kenyon and The Handmaid's Tale (Everyman's Library) by Margeret Atwood.

Minna

BLACK AND BLUE is a well written, perfectly paced story with characters a reader cannot help but fall in love with, and yes, hate. It is told from the point of view of Fran, a wife and a mother who struggles between the fine lines of love, loyalty, hatred, and fear. Abused and battered by her husband she struggles with how best to protect herself and most importantly to her, her child.

She finds herself on the run with her son, but always looking around her shoulder, knowing that for now, she may be one step ahead of her abusive husband, but constantly fearful that it cannot last, that he will find them if not today, then maybe tomorrow. And all the while as she finds herself constantly scanning the crowds around her, looking for that one familiar face that would have the power to doom her, she struggles with her son and his confusion over his new life without his beloved father.

A stunning tale that is sure to captivate you. A must read for everyone.

Thank you Anna for such a great read.

I remember reading a few of these stories in elementary school & really liking them, so I decided to buy them, & I'm so glad I did! I'm almost in high school & I still enjoy these stories. They're fast, fun, & very entertaining! I also really like the second volume of The Princess Tales. I recommend both of them if you are interested in funny, entertaining, and quick reads of simple, yet cute, fairy tales. & if you are looking for a longer & more developed story similar to these you will also like Ella Enchanted by the same author.

The Princess Tales Volume One By Gail Carson Levine

Rosella is a princess that was granted with a spell that made jewels come out of her mouth when she talked. No one really appreciated her but they appreciated her jewels.

Lorelei was a girl that lived with her nanny that didnt like her very much at all. Lorelei ends up pretending that she was a princess and it turned out she did eveything a real princess should be able to do.

Sonaro was a princess that was granted with a spell that if she was pricked with needle she would fall asleep for a hundred years and a prince would wake her up with a kiss. Sonaro gets pricked by a needle and she falls asleep for a hundrd years and she wakes up with a prince that was perfect for her.

Three princesses are each fighting hard times with spells and people.

Hundreds of years ago on Snettering-On-Snoakes these three tales take place.

Beauty, bravery, fear, hope, and love all take place in the story making it very detailed and addicting to read.

I liked this story. These tales really made me want to keep reading to find out how these princesses would go on living and why.

I love the way Gail Carson Levine has all of her chapters written in each different Princess story. The Fairy's Mistake, The Princess Test, and Princess Sonora and The Long Sleep are three different retellings of Cinderella/or Ella Enchanted, The Princess and The Pea and of course...Sleeping Beauty.

Maybe someday, another one of Gail Carson Levine's books besides Ella Enchanted, will become live action movies, too.

I just love retellings of fairy tales, and Levine does some of the best work I've seen. They have just the right twist of humor to them, to show that she doesn't take herself too seriously, and the characters are so much fun! And it always has a happy ending, but not too sappy of an ending. I highly recommend this book for fantasy lovers of any age.

This book actually deserves 4 or 5 stars EXCEPT that the one that we got when we ordered it (a few weeks ago) has a major printing error- after page 138 pages 59-90 are repeated, before picking the story back up at page 171. That means that you miss the end of the second story and the beginning of the third, which caused great distress when it was discovered halfway through a long plane flight! We have the first Harper Trophy paperback edition (2003). Get the book- but make sure you get a different edition!