North and South soundtrack. . .

Enjoy! :-)

Fifty-five books every girl should read

I seem to be in the mood for compiling book lists at the moment. I felt inspired to make a list of the books that were my "best friends" as a very young girl. Okay, I'm still young, but I've got the 8-14 age bracket in mind here. These are books that I would love to share with my daughter/s one day, if I ever have any. . . I've been trying to get my younger sisters to read some of these books, but I guess they have other interests and hobbies right now. Hopefully I'll be blessed with at least one bookworm daughter someday. :-)

~L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables books and others~

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea
Anne of the Island
Anne of Windy Willows
Anne's House of Dreams
Anne of Ingleside
Rainbow Valley
Rilla of Ingleside
Emily of New Moon
Emily Climbs
Emily's Quest
Jane of Lantern Hill

~Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie series~

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years

~C.S. Lewis - The Chronicles of Narnia~

The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Last Battle

~L.M. Alcott - Little Women books and others~

Little Women
Good Wives
Little Men
Jo's Boys
Eight Cousins
Rose in Bloom
An Old-Fashioned Girl
The Inheritance

~Arleta Richardson - Grandma's Attic novels~

Away from Home
A School of Her Own
Wedding Bells Ahead
At Home in North Branch
New Faces, New Friends

~Johanna Spyri and Charles Tritten - Heidi books~

Heidi
Heidi Grows Up
Heidi's Children

~Ethel Turner - Seven Little Australians series~

Seven Little Australians
The Family at Misrule
Little Mother Meg

~Frances Hodgson Burnett~

The Secret Garden
A Little Princess 

~Patricia St John~

The Tanglewood's Secret
Treasures of the Snow
Rainbow Garden

~Miscellaneous~

Mara, Daughter of the Nile - Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm - Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot and Cuddlepie - May Gibbs

A Girl of the Limberlost - Gene Stratton-Porter

Pollyanna - Eleanor H. Porter

~~~~~

What are some of the books that you loved as a young girl? Are there any classics for girls that I have apparently missed out on, and should read ASAP? :P

An award

Thank you, Vellvin!

I award: Grace, Naomi, Annie, Esther, Bria, Siminy, Lydz, and Alexandra.

100 Followers! Wow!!

A big, big thank you to everyone who follows Ribbons of Light! I'm stunned that so many people enjoy reading my scribblings here. Thanks again, everyone!

2010 book list

Detail from "Reading a book" by Rudolf Ernst

At the beginning of last year I wrote up a book list for myself. . . I thought I might as well do it again this year! I only ended up reading a fraction of the books from last year's list - naughty me! Hopefully I'll manage better this time around. . . 

Okay - my reading list for 2010. The first 10 titles are books that I have to read for book club. I've already read most of them, but I'll be re-reading them for book club. . .

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen
Christy - Catherine Marshall
Mara Daughter of the Nile - Eloise Jarvis McGraw
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C.S. Lewis
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

~~~~~

Non-book-club-books:

Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton - Elizabeth Gaskell
Shirley - Charlotte Bronte

Belinda - Maria Edgeworth

Camilla - Fanny Burney

Cecilia - Fanny Burney
The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
The History of Rasselas - Samuel Johnson
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Daniel Deronda - George Eliot
War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens (yes, I know, there's lots of Dickens. . .)  

-And I intend to make yet another attempt at tackling Shakespeare. . . figuratively, not literally, of course.

~~~~~

It's another fairly ambitious list! If I am able to read only half of the books on my list, I'll be happy.

Edit: added a couple of Burney and Edgeworth titles that I forgot to include in the list. . .

Under the birches

Under the birches, evening - by Theodore Rousseau

Keira Knightley as Eliza Doolittle is not to be. . .

. . . at least according to this article, and this one. John Madden has been confirmed as director for the remake of My Fair Lady.

Carey Mulligan (whom most of you will remember as Kitty from P&P 05) in her most recent film, An Education

I must confess I am a little disappointed. Keira seemed so perfect for the part. . . now, names like Carey Mulligan and. . . Kristen Stewart (!!!) are being tossed up for the part of Eliza. What about Natalie Portman? I think she'd be pretty amazing as Eliza Doolittle. . . probably won't happen though. Carey Mulligan would also be great - wonder if she can sing? Carey reminds me more of a Julie Andrews than an Audrey Hepburn - she'd be a different kind of Eliza than either Keira Knightley or Natalie Portman would have been, but I think she could do really well in the role.

We'll just have to wait and see what happens. . . I'm still very impatient to find out who the new Henry Higgins is, too!!

From our backyard

Jane Eyre 2011

This is kind of old news by now, but I haven't done a post on it yet, so. . . 

A couple of years ago, there was a rumour going around that BBC Films were set to make *another* adaptation of Jane Eyre - remember, this was only just after the BBC's 2006 adaptation had been aired! Canadian actress Ellen Page (Juno) was to star as Jane Eyre.

Mia Wasikowska. Does anyone else think she looks like a grown-up Georgie Henley? - Who, incidentally, played the young Jane Eyre in JE 2006.

Ellen Page left the project some time ago, but late last year it was reported that Mia Wasikowska (Alice in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland) and Michael Fassbender (who had been rumoured to be the latest Heathcliff, but it would seem that honour will now be going to Ed Westwick) would star as Jane and Rochester, respectively.

Michael Fassbender. I think he looks adequately Rochesterian. 

Have a look at this article from Variety:

Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender are in negotiations to star in "Sin nombre" helmer Cary Fukunaga's feature adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic novel, "Jane Eyre."

Brit shingle Ruby Films' Alison Owen and Paul Trijbits are producing with Focus Features and BBC Films from a script by Moira Buffini. Focus holds worldwide rights to the pic.

Project is a period piece but will play up the gothic elements of the story about Jane (Wasikowska), a demure governess who discovers her surly employer Rochester (Fassbender) is harboring a dark secret. The book is one of the most iconic in English literature and has been the subject of numerous previous adaptations.

Wasikowska will next be seen as Alice alongside Johnny Depp in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," which Disney is releasing next year. The actress is also set to star in helmer Gus Van Sant's untitled project for producers Dallas Bryce Howard and Imagine's Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

Fassbender previously appeared in Steve McQueen's "Hunger," Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" and Andrea Arnold's "Fish Tank."

He will next be seen in Neil Marshall's Roman actioner "Centurion" and Warner Bros.' "Jonah Hex" opposite Josh Brolin and Megan Fox.

Ellen Page was previously attached to star as the eponymous heroine but left the project some time ago.

Lensing is due to begin next year.

"Playing up the Gothic elements of Jane Eyre"? Hmmm. . .  I wonder what exactly that will mean.

So - yet another adaptation of Jane Eyre. Your thoughts?

My thoughts are: why, why WHY can't they adapt a Bronte novel that isn't Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? The Brontes wrote numerous other masterpieces, but you'd never guess it judging by the screen adaptations that have been made of the sisters' books. Somebody, somewhere, please make a movie version of Villette. . . 

But having said all that, I'm still moderately excited about this latest Jane Eyre, and will certainly go to see it if/when it comes out in cinemas. Filming is supposed to begin this March.

I'm back. . .

I've been taking a brief sabbatical from blogging over the holidays. But now I'm ready to get back into. . . well, into blogging.

Okay, what's new - well, unfortunately, I've had to enable comment moderation. I've been getting a lot of spam comments over the last few weeks, so I've had to switch comment moderation on for now. Hopefully the spam will stop soon. . . 

That's all for now. . . hope you're all well, and have had a great Christmas/New Year!