World of imagination, magic, and excitement

* = Hated it
** = Was okay
*** = Liked it
**** = Really liked it
***** = Loved it

Swan Lake (Bolshoi Ballet 1984)*****
The Sleeping Beauty (Royal Ballet 2011)*****
Swan Lake (Bolshoi Ballet 2010)****
Coppelia (Paris Opera Ballet 2011)***
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Royal Ballet)*****
Inspector Lewis (Series 4)****

Last updated: January 21, 2012

Finally(!!!) viewed the latest series of Inspector Lewis while on break. (Had been meaning to catch up with him and Hathaway since the new series aired on PBS back in October or November.) Was up until after 1 in the morning watching, and what a pleasure it was! Despite looking a tad older, and contemplating retirement, Lewis and Hathaway were in brilliant form. I grinned like mad during the first episode when Hathaway tracked Lewis down at the grocer’s due to a case, and Lewis sensed he wasn’t there for shopping. Yes! The great duo was back…how much they had been missed. Great dynamic between them, surrounded by a great supporting cast in their fellow colleges and suspects. Oxford again was a breathtaking backdrop to the various investigations. And having each episode being 90 minutes was wonderful, allowing time for development in the plot and characters. Hathaway almost stole the series in my opinion, with his playing matchmaker in one instance and, when Lewis was considering retiring, claiming he would go too – “Who else understands me?” Aw! Hope we’ll get one more season.

After three or four semesters of hearing about the “It Book” in my library classes – which included the professor showing the trailer for the movie in class – I broke down to see what all the fuss was about with Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games. It has been a week since I finished it, it continues to whirl in my brain, and I am still unsure exactly what I think of it. This reading was not really my cup of tea, me not being a fan of books with lots of violence. And while the violence in the Hunger Games was not all-up-in-your-face-specific-to-the-last-detail, it was very disturbing, especially with the fighters being 12 to 18-year-olds. …Very hard to get through. I did like Katniss, how she fought the Capitol so hard in little ways, showing she was a pawn who did not agree with them. Peeta never caught my interest; nor was I fan of the “fake” romance between him and Katniss. (By the end of the trilogy I’m guessing it is no longer fake and poor Gale (who I liked most of the characters) is left all alone and brokenhearted, right?) Overall an interesting story.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

( Reading of 2011 )


Updated: December 31, 2011

* = Hated it
** = Meh
*** = It was okay
**** = Liked it
***** = Loved it

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe*****
La Traviata (2005)****
Beauty and the Beast (Disney)*****
Another Cinderella Story****
Made of Honor**/***
Toy Story 3*****
Faerie Tale Theatre: Sleeping Beauty****
Faerie Tale Theatre: Little Red Riding Hood****
Faerie Tale Theatre: The Three Little Pigs*****
Faerie Tale Theatre: Puss 'n Boots***
Čarodějův učeň (Krabat, 1977)*****
The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader*****
Life as We Know It*
Soul Surfer*****
Shrek 1****
Tangled*****
Letters to Juliet****
Cinderella (Birmingham Royal Ballet, 2011)*****
Miss Marple: The Body in the Library (1984)****
Marple: The Body in the Library (2004)***
Turandot (2009)*****
La Boheme: the Film (2009)***
Babies (2010)***
Pride and Prejudice (2005)****
The Princess Bride****
Despicable Me*****
Ratatouille***
Ella Enchanted***
Elf***/****
Singin' in the Rain*****
The Swan Princess*****
Wall-E*****
Finding Nemo*****
Monsters, INC.*****
Swan Lake (Royal Ballet, 2009)****
Backstage at the Kirov*****
Color Me Barbra****
Dancing for Mr. B*****
Jim Henson’s The Frog Prince*****
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp*****
Swan Lake (Zurich Ballet, 2010)****
101 Dalmatians (1996)****

Updated: December 27, 2011

*Hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!

*Finally brought my movie and reading lists up to date after four months.

*Caught up on the last three episodes of Once Upon a Time. I am becoming quite a fan this show. The story is drawing me in more, I'm becoming attached to a lot of the characters, and the stakes getting higher and higher. Is it time for episode eight yet??

SyFy which in recent years has been responsible for radical adaptions of The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (still want to see that one), now tackle Peter Pan. Only it is a sequel to the well-known story.



Interesting... Did Mr. Tulkinghorn from Bleak House sneak in there?

This ALMOST meets my biggest New Year fan anticipation/hope.

Snow White has suddenly exploded in popularity and I think I'm digging it -- it being one of my favorite fairy tales.

*Once Upon a Time -- I'm becoming a huge fan of this show. The storytelling has been very good. And there has been Snow White and Prince James... They are so adorable and have such a great chemistry. *la sigh*



*Mirror, Mirror -- Another different, and humorous take on the story. This actually looks interesting.



*Snow White and the Huntsman -- Definitely going for the dark and Grimm angle. Sitting on the fence with this one at the moment. I don't like horror and some of the moments in the trailer strike me as that. Wish there was more of Snow White; Kristen seemed more like an ordinary princess instead of the "fairest in the land."



Yay for fairy tales!!

*The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights -- I wish Steinbeck had been able to finish this. A fascinating book on the Arthurian legends. What has stayed with me the most from this reading was a comment Merlin made at one point to the effect that having knowledge of the future in no way changes it. What is the come to pass will happen. Quite a different idea from the all the books and TV that feature warnings about the future and people attempting, somehow succeeding in changing it to...a better one?

*Ivanhoe -- Confession: I so secretly wished Ivanhoe chose Rebecca in the end. If he hadn't been so loyal to Lady Rowena, and didn't dislike her being a Jew, I could see it happening, or at least resulting in a real love triangle. Bad Sir Walter for teasing me so with Rebecca's secret love for Ivanhoe, her nursing him, his defending her in that climaxing dual! *hits head on desk* In some ways, Rowena, Ivanhoe, and Rebecca reminded me of another annoyingly-not-fully-developed-triangle: Arwen, Aragorn, and Eowyn from LOTR, respectively. Aragorn loves Arwen who (like Rowena) does not appear much in the story. Eowyn loves Aragorn. Aragorn does not love her though. Argh! I actually thought Rebecca was very similar to Eowyn in some ways.

*Pearl in the Sand -- this is the fourth historical novel I've read about Rahab the prostitute from the Bible. The author wrote Rahab as being scarred and broken by her past. She did not believe herself worthy of being loved, and did not know how to be a wife to her husband. It was an unexpected yet believable portrayal. A wonderful story about unconditional love.

*Evelina -- I can see how Burney's novel served as inspiration for Austen's Northanger Abbey and the sweet, naive Catherine Morland. Narrated in letters, Evelina, a young country girl, experiences high and low society in London for the first time with all its assembles, theaters, vulgar relations, fops, and potential suitors. Evelina is pretty, artless, inexperienced, and a simpleton. Her letters read much like a 21st Century young girl's diary. ("Oh! I went to a party and had a blast. So-and-so asked me to dance, but I wish my crush had asked me. Went shopping on the town. Why do my relatives have to be SOOOO embarrassing?!?! I like him, does he like me?") There were times Evelina got on my nerves, though I gave her full marks for having such a good memory when it came to conversations. Yet in the end I couldn't help liking her, and enjoyed the (of course) inevitable happy ending.