Emeralds of Oz

Book excerpt: Peter Guzzardi spent decades as an editor working with some of the wisest writers of our time—from Stephen Hawking and Deepak Chopra to Carol Burnett and Douglas Adams—yet he couldn’t shake the sense that everything he’d learned from working with them felt oddly familiar. One day, he had an epiphany: All that wisdom had its roots in a film he’d watched as a child—The Wizard of Oz. In Emeralds of Oz, Guzzardi invites us to join him on a journey through the classic film, unearthing gems of wisdom large and small about longing, joy, compassion, fear, power, and having faith in ourselves. He also creates a practical Oz-based tool that we can apply to obstacles in our own lives. Now, like Dorothy, we can activate the magical power we’ve possessed all along. Written with the grace and insight of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Emeralds of Oz is an instant classic, sure to inspire a fresh perspective on this legendary movie—and on our own lives.