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Summary: Seize The Day
Review: I think this book makes people who read it want to keep their own nickel tablet. It gives you a warm feeling and make you want to look for all the magic in life. It's a great book for teens, or adults.
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Summary: One of Bradbury's best.
Review: I've never been able, when asked, to declare a "favorite" book; depending on mood, weather, politics, this can change in a moment.Until now. I'm almost ashamed to admit that I'd never read Dandelion Wine, by Ray Bradbury, until this morning. Honestly, I just never got around to it -- mainly because a largely autobiographical tale of growing up in Waukegan didn't seem as likely to thrill me as most of his more "traditional" genre work. Bradbury's one of my favorite writers, though, and I stumbled across a copy of Dandelion Wine for ten cents at an old bookstore, so I gave it a shot. I think the simple reason behind its appeal to me is this: it's not a sci-fi book. It's not genre fantasy. But it IS fantastic, in the most real and most important way; it's one man's golden and heavily mythologized recollections of the summers of his boyhood, written with such quiet beauty that the mundane is transformed into high fantasy. Bradbury explicitly addresses this concept with two of his motifs; the dandelion wine itself and Douglas' little notebook of extraordinary thoughts to accompany ordinary rituals embody the greatest strength of the book. Largely because I'm familiar with Bradbury's other work, I found myself constantly expecting a little dash of the mystical, the otherworldly, in the Lonely Man and the magical cooking of his grandmother -- but, of course, the only magic present is the magic that Bradbury can conjure up in memory. And it's enough. Stephen King, in his best and most powerful work, has Bradbury's gift for making the prosaic into something poetic and eerie. I've always scorned King's forays into general fiction, mainly because it always felt to me like he was desperate for legitimacy, but also because I felt like he was betraying his gift. I'm not sure that's true, anymore. I think THIS is the book that Stephen King someday wants to write. Heck, it's the book _I_ want to write.
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Summary: Sends you back to a past you WISH you had lived...
Review: Dandelion Wine allows you to go back to the summer of 1928, a summer of dandelion wine, apple trees, new sneakers, mowed lawns and half-forgotten memories. The book both delights me, as Bradbury is a artist when it comes to words, and also depresses me, because there is also the sorrows of things lost, including one chapter that deals with love that could never be. I will never order lime-vanilla ice, ever!
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical beauty
Review: I'd read some excerpts from this before I read the whole thing and it's a great peace of writing, almost more a dream than a novel.
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Summary: One of My Favorite Novels of All Time!
Review: I read this novel by Ray Bradbury every decade or so--the first time as a college student during the Vietnam War. And every time, though my life situation has changed, I come away refreshed and revitalized by this oh so poetic little novel. Set in the summer of 1928 in a small town in Illinois, this book follows the episodic adventures of twelve year old Douglas Spaulding. He finds comfort in the rituals of life: the new tennis shoes which permit him to run faster and jump higher than ever before, the sound of the first lawn mowing (rotary not power!) of the summer, the daily bottling of dandelion wine capturing the essence of each and every summer day. But he finds sadnesses too: the retirement of the wonderful trolley and their replacement by noisy, smelly buses; the departure of his best friend John Huff; the appearance in town of The Lonely One, a murderous threat. This book captures much of the beauty of boyhood, and captures, too, the poignancy of growing up. An intersting book to read in parallel is Bradbury's Someting Wicked This Way Comes--a similar setting, with similar boys, but in autumn this time--a time when the days are shorter and evil can appear. Bradbury is a wonderful writer, and I'll read Dandelion several more times. And, I suspect, enjoying it every bit as much.
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Summary: Summer in a book
Review: "Dandalion wine, the words were summer on the tongue, the wine was summer caught and stoppered"
If you want to feel happy, sad, alive and relaxed read this book. The imagery is magnificent. You can feel the sun, hear the cicadas, and smell the newly cut grass. You can fall in love and discover that you're alive.
An all time favorite of mine. I've read it over and over again.
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Summary: review of dandilion wine
Review: dandilion wine was a great book. to me it seemed like an adult mind with a kids imagination. it made me pay attention to details that I had never thought about before. it gets you excited about things that dont seem so exciting until you read this kids point of view. it is a good book for adults to read because it lets them see a kids point of view, yet it also would probably let them remember what it was like when we didn't have modern entertainment and technology. i just like how it makes you think of things you never though of before.
Rating: 
Summary: Wine Doesn't Win
Review: Dandelion Wine is a book for the readers who love. I was not one. i think that for some it fits like a glove. I'll warn you, if you're worried if you like it, it's more of a slow, take-your-time book. I'll admit, I found some great words of wisdom in it. It's basically about a town during one summer, the stories mainly from the point of view of two pre teen brothers. it did not fullfil my reading tastebuds, when I was hoping for another Farenheit 451, yet Ray Bradbury shows his skill in writing and has made me stop and think. excellent for those of you who love 239 pages of adjectives.
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Summary: What a masterful book
Review: Being only 14, I can't quite go back as far just to dig out the memories of summer since I am only still writing them. This book you cannot only just read the surface, but read deeply and between the lines. No there is nothing literally between the lines but just to see how Mr. Bradbury deeply portraits his childhood. Carefree, living, and thought are words I use to describe this book. Just reading this book makes you feel even more alive and have a new thought on life. Read it and you won't be dissapointed.
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Summary: Lovely little book
Review: I am 25. (Just to let you know I wasn't forced to read this in English class!) I have studied English Literature to degree level. All I have learnt tells me this book is technically poor...sloppy and poorly structured. The author gives the impression of being over-excitable and unwilling to censor his rambling descriptions. For this reason this book will never be listed among the great masterpieces of literature...it is ridiculously "childish", far too naive. BUT...this is precisely why it is one of the most affecting and overwhelming books I have ever read. It is filled with an innocence and love which moves me to tears ever time I read it. Do you remember how life felt before your head got cluttered up with crap? Politics, duties, worries about money, job security, pensions, investments, budgeting...all the junk which turns a child into a grown-up? Do you remember how it felt to be filled with awe and gratitude, simply because you were alive? How it felt to look at a clear night sky, spiked with distant stars, and be filled with wonder? This book can give you that back. Read with an open mind and you will fall in love with life again.
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