MonDaybook I

Finding inspiration and encouragement for the week ahead!

Excuse the gimmicky title and hastily-put-together picture - I might try to improve both at a later date.

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A book I am planning to read this week: The Iliad, by Homer.

My goals for this week: to try at least 3 new recipes, and to clean my room.

Something I was blessed with last week: attending the library sale!!

Something I am looking forward to this week: (maybe) seeing Beauty and the Beast in 3D!

An inspiring picture/piece of music:

Very L.M. Montgomery. Very Anne Shirley, in fact! Picture found via Tumblr.

Your turn, if you'd like to join in!

My $12 worth of books

I was lucky enough to attend a library sale a couple of days ago (thank Erin!). Books were $6 a bag (savvy bookworms brought large cloth shopping bags, and carefully packed as many books into each bag as possible). Childrens' books were free. I went armed with about 10 bags (just in case), and enough cash to fill them all (just in case). After spending the whole morning rummaging, I came tottering out of the building, carrying two VERY heavy bags crammed with books - together with a smaller third bag and my hand bag. I didn't know I possessed such strength! My biceps are still sore now. For the sake of books, even the weakest bibliophile finds strength and determination they didn't know was in them. I suppose I could have just been sensible and carried them out to the car one bag at a time. . . hmmm. . . yes. Too late now.

Moving on: it is time to show off my spoils! As I mentioned, I bought just the two bags of books, plus a third bag of free children's books, bringing my total expenditure to $12.

The big hardcover books: The Complete Phantom of the Opera, Myths and Legends of Ireland, A History of Movie Musicals, The World of Rubens, and Alpine Interiors.

The Dickensian books - a biography, Bleak House, and Our Mutual Friend. I already had a couple of copies of OMF, but I bought the extra copy for sentimental reasons as much as anything - it is the exact same copy that I borrowed from the library when I read OMF for the very first time. Besides, it's nice to have multiple copies of favourite classics. Also, I like the cover (which you can't see very well, I snapped these pictures late this afternoon when the light wasn't good), of Keeley Hawes in the 1998 adaptation.

The L.M. Montgomery books. A beautiful, hardcover, illustrated copy of Anne of Green Gables, and an as-new hardcover copy of Anne of Avonlea.

The James Herriot books: James Herriot's Yorkshire, All Things Bright and Beautiful, All Things Wise and Wonderful, and The Best of James Herriot.

The poetry books: Seven Centuries of Poetry in English, Romantic Period Verse, and Selected Poems by T.S. Eliot.

Miscellaneous children's books, including a copy of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

A couple of classics and a couple of children's books. Treasures of Snow, a book from the Chronicles of Prydain series (I still haven't read the first book in the series, but never mind. . .), Romeo and Juliet, and Animal Farm.

Miscellaneous others. The Book of Buildings: A Travellor's Guide, a biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett, Classic Knitted Cotton Edgings, a Francine Rivers book, and The Penguin Dictionary of Surnames - useful for researching one's family history, and for looking up the names of one's celebrity crushes and favourite fictional characters in order to research their family history. Not that I would ever do such a silly thing as that.

I also bought another 10 or so titles, mostly children's picture books - including a couple of Beatrix Potter volumes.

I exercised great self-restraint and didn't buy any National Geographics, much to my mother's relief. I was a little disappointed that there weren't more good books on offer - for every decent book, there seemed to be about 100 Jackie Collins or Dan Brown books. Still, that made finding the few gems even more exciting and worthwhile.

If you're still reading - thank you! Most of my family members, not being book-lovers, were not at all interested in my haul, so it's nice to share my excitement with others who are likely to sympathise with my delight in the treasures I found! :-)

Oliver Twist (1999)

As I've been working on my Period Drama Index, I usually write a brief review of each film or series. I try to keep each review to within a few sentences, but sometime they stretch into several paragraphs. . . such was the case here. I thought I might as well share it as a proper blog post, rather than let it hide away in my work-in-progress Index pages.

~Oliver Twist 1999~

Michael Kitchen as Mr. Brownlow with Sam Smith as Oliver

In my opinion, there has been no one truly definitive screen version of Oliver Twist, though there are several pretty good ones. The 1999 adaptation, a four-episode, six-hour miniseries, is the longest, most complete adaptation. It expands on the backstory of the novel in a major way. If you've ever been confused by any plot points of the story, this series should clear a lot of things up for you! The first episode - or two, I can't quite remember - deal solely with Oliver's origins, and where and how Monks comes into the picture.

It is a very adventurous adaptation, but in some aspects I felt it missed the mark. The portrayal of the Artful Dodger/Jack Dawkins was off. The backstory part of the series dragged on for too long - 30 minutes or so would have sufficed. And I had mixed feelings about how the characters of Monks and his mother were written. Here, Monks himself is a victim, while his mother is the true villain. It's an interesting interpretation, but I prefer my Monks to be more threatening and ambiguous - that is, after all, the point of his character.

On the other hand, this adaptation has the best, the scariest Bill Sikes ever (played by Andy Serkis, who definitely has a gift for playing creepy Dickensian - oh, and Tolkienesque - villains); and probably the most moving and disturbing murder scene of any Oliver Twist adaptation.

One other point of interest is the proliferation of talented actresses who starred in this series at an early stage in their careers: Isla Fisher as Nancy's friend Bet, 19-year-old Sophia Miles as Oliver's mother, and a 14-year-old Keira Knightley as Rose.

This Oliver Twist is definitely not for little ones, but for older fans of the book, or anyone looking for a good Victorian-era period drama, it is definitely worth a look. Stars Sam Smith, Michael Kitchen, Robert Lindsay, David Ross, Julie Walters, Marc Warren, Lindsay Duncan, Emiliy Woolf, Andy Serkis, Keira Knightley, and Alun Armstrong.

My rating: 3 out of 5 stars. Recommended for teenagers and up, and there are a few uncomfortable scenes that you may want to skip.

Charity's Place | Amazon | IMDb | Youtube

Photos - unfortunately most of these are very small, though there are a couple of bigger ones:

Made me smile.

From Accordion to Kelly

I have amazing followers. :-)

I am currently going through my followers list for the first time in way-too-long, visiting every one of you who has a blog. I have been humbled and amazed! I've enjoyed making many new acquaintances, and I look forward to getting to know all you wonderful people better - new friends and old friends alike, in Hungary, Italy, America, Germany, Canada, Australia, or wherever you may be!

<3 Elise

Baby names

Names! Always such fun to discover, discuss, and make lists of - even if you're not having a baby!

What kind of names do you like for boys? And for girls? What sort criteria would you consider when choosing a name? Here are some of the things I would take into consideration:

1. If my baby were to someday marry a royal (I am speaking hypothetically, of course), would his/her name be appropriate? Would it be a suitably regal, timeless name? Or would it be. . . an embarrassment? This is something that particularly struck me around the time of William and Catherine's wedding last year. Thank goodness Michael and Carole Middleton had the good sense to name their daughter Catherine, rather than (. . .)

2. Does the name have a positive meaning? An - er - meaningful meaning?

3. Is the name aesthetically pleasing? Does it have a pleasant sound when spoken aloud? A pleasant appearance when written down?

4. How common is the name? I would probably try to avoid names that are overwhelmingly popular. Unfortunately, there are a lot of names I really like that are currently in the Top 100 here in Australia! Australian parents actually have decent taste in names, at the moment - with a few notable exceptions, such as Jaxon *cringes*.

5. Last but not least, does the name have pleasant associations? This criterion can be particularly frustrating. Even if a name ticks all of the above boxes, it may still have negative associations in the mind of the public - or in my own mind. I used to like the name Bella/Isabella. . . before a certain series of books came along. I used to like Edward, too - before that same series of books came onto the scene. And I used to like Julia - before our current Prime Minister became Prime Minister.

So, what sort of names do you like? Quirky, or classic and elegant? Vintage, or contemporary? Share some of your favourites, if you want to!

My new favourite baby name site is the alarmingly addictive Nameberry. It has commentary on 1000s of names, and 100s of lists to browse through.

Very sad. . .

I've just been going through all the blogs that I follow/subscribe to, and about two-thirds of them have been inactive for years. Words fail to express my feelings on this occasion, so I resort to emoticons. :-o  :-(

I really HAVE been out of the blogosphere for a while.

Mirror Mirror: a fangirl's review

This review comes a week or two too late, since anyone interested in Hollywood's latest fairytale offering, Mirror Mirror, has probably already seen it. But I thought I'd do a brief write-up regardless.

Mirror Mirror is a retelling of Snow White, starring Julia Roberts as the evil stepmother Queen, Arnie Hammer as Prince Alcott, and Lily Collins - daughter of musician Phil Collins - as Snow White herself.

I have been looking forward to this film for over a year - ever since the first publicity photos emerged last year - but going in to watch it last week, I had fairly low expectations, having read a lot of mixed reviews. I anticipated a silly, though hopefully pleasant and amusing 90 minutes.

Here ends the sensible part of this review, and here commences the fangirly part. Here is an approximate summary of my thoughts as I walked out of the cinema after watching Mirror Mirror.

• The seven dwarves are fabulous!
• Lily Collins is flawless and I adore her! She SO looks like Audrey Hepburn! She also reminds me of a young Jennifer Connelly.
• The costumes are amazing, as I had been led to expect they would be, though I thought Snow White's swan dress, or more specifically, her headdress at the ball struck me as being - well - just faintly ridiculous. Just a little over-the-top for our young heroine - reminiscent of Audrey's overwhelmingly "up" up-do at the ball in My Fair Lady.
• Bonus Sean Bean! And his character doesn't die! Well, he sort of does, but actually doesn't, as you'll understand if you've seen the movie. I'll watch anything for Sean, and to have bonus Sean Bean in a movie is always - well - a bonus.
• Silly "feminist" twist on the story is silly! I mean, Snow White becoming an adept fighter in a matter of days. . . sure, whatever. But it's a silly, light-hearted film, so the feminist-lite aspect of the retelling - also evident in other parts of the film, such as when Snow has to kiss the Prince to save the day, rather than other way round - didn't bother me as much as it would have done if we were supposed to take it seriously.
• I LOVE the random Bollywood song at the end! It's so random, and quirky, and unexpected! In short, it fits the film perfectly. It's also ridiculously catchy. I had "I believe I believe I believe in love" going through my head for hours...
• Prince Alcott/Arnie Hammer is kind of cute. Not my type, but still - cute. Handsome princes are never unwelcome in any movie, as far as I'm concerned!
• Julia Roberts was good as the Queen. She often annoys me as a heroine, but I liked her as a villainess. (!)
• This movie is visually stunning. Not just the costumes, but the animated opening scene, the breathtaking landscapes, and imaginative sets.
• Music composed by Alan Menken, who also composed the music for most of the best Disney movies from the last couple of decades!

There is some slightly more grown-up humour in parts of film, but for the most part, Mirror Mirror was sweet, innocent, fun, funny, and bursting with colour. A delightful confection, a bona fide feel-good movie. Was it silly? Yes. Did I love it? Yesss!!

As well the occasional cheeky humour, some parents may also be concerned about the "magic" element in this fairytale film. Only the "bad guys" use magic, and it's always portrayed as evil, but there were a couple of scenes that might be a bit much for little ones. Mirror Mirror is marketed as a family film, but I'd say it's more of a teen movie. . . age 10-12 and up. If you enjoyed recent fairytale films from Disney - I'm thinking of Enchanted, Tangled - you'll like Mirror Mirror, though needless to say it isn't of the same calibre of Tangled, or the classic Disney princess movies.

Nonetheless, it gets two thumbs up from me! I adored this film. . . as I am sure you've gathered, so I'll stop now.

If you've seen Mirror Mirror, let me know what you thought! And if you have any recommendations for quirky fantasy or fairytale films, please share them!

Christian reviews of Mirror Mirror:

Plugged In
NC Register
Charity's Place
Christianity Today

Picturrrres! Click on thumbnails to view larger.