The Ultimate Book Bash Tag: Part 1

I'm going to be participating in Austenitis's The Ultimate Book Bash tag! Keep in mind as you read through my questions that I'm not a great reader (sound familiar?), so there isn't a great big list of books that I have read; sure, I've read some books for school (some of which were "modern", and thus I didn't care for them), but I have a very small list of books that I've read for pleasure. But I'm doing my best to answer the questions!




Name three books you love.
Pride and Prejudice - I love the story, I can relate so much to Elizabeth Bennet, and it's also funny!
Sense and Sensibility - I love that there's a good moral to the story and that it shows the downside of relying on your emotions to make decisions.
Northanger Abbey - I really enjoyed it. It was entertaining, the characters were likable (not all of them, though ;) ), and it held my interest.

Name two books you enjoy, but that most people probably haven't heard of.
I don't think too many people who aren't familiar with Jane Austen know of Northanger Abbey... and probably Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (at least, I hadn't heard of it until a couple of years ago), though I've only read a little bit of it (really enjoyed it, though)

Name three series you love.
None at the moment.

Name three authors you love!
Jane Austen -- Probably the author that I know the most about. I've read almost all of her books (I'm currently reading Mansfield Park, once I finish that I would have read all her books).

The next two I'm basing off the period dramas that I have seen, but I may read the books eventually. So I guess this part will be the authors that I am most interested in reading.

Elizabeth Gaskell -- I really enjoyed watching Cranford and I liked Wives and Daughters.

Charles Dickens -- Really enjoyed Little Dorrit and have heard good things about A Tale of Two Cities.

How about three adventures or mysteries?
Hadn't really read any... Unless Jurassic Park (which for a while, I didn't know it was a book) counts as an adventure story?

Three non-fiction?
Hadn't read any that I can think of now...

Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys? Which book in your favorite set is your favorite?
Never seriously read either of them... There was one Nancy Drew that I read part of, but I wasn't too interested in it; I can't recall what it was. I think both series were written by the same person (different pen names, though); correct me if I'm wrong.

Narnia or Harry Potter? Name your favorite from the series you like best.
Narnia, but I've never read any of the books, but I've seen the first two movies. I liked the Christian themes in there. Never read/seen Harry Potter nor do I have an interest to.

A cookbook or a how-to-sew book?
Probably how-to-sew books, since I do more sewing than cooking (though I like both). My brother got me a sewing book for Christmas that has techniques and projects in there. It's a very good book!

Historical fiction or fantasy? Name three books you like from the genre you chose.Never read any.

Hardcover or softcover?
Hardcover... though it is more expensive, hardcover books I find look nicer and keep nicer longer. With softcover books, the spine of the book gets pretty worn out quickly after being opened so many times.

Future parts coming soon!




God Bless,
 

Review: A Doll's House (1973)

I had to read this play for school a couple of years ago. While I was reading it, it was tolerable, but then once I got to the end it was very disappointing. I happened to see that this was on Netflix's Instant Streaming, and, having nothing better to really watch at the moment, I thought I would try to watch this even though I was not fond of the play. I also happened to see that Anna Massey was in this movie, so I thought "maybe this will be interesting..."

Note: Unfortunately, I couldn't find screenshots of the movie. Sorry about that.

DVD Box Art

Synopsis
After years of being poor, Torvald and Nora Helmer finally have plenty of money to have a very nice Christmas. But when Torvald's coworker threatens to reveal that Nora forged her father's signiture on a loan to get money for a trip for Torvald's health, Nora tries to hide that fact from Torvald.

Characters
You might recognize a couple of characters in here. As Torvald, you will notice a young Anthony Hopkins. Claire Bloom (Nora) was also in The King's Speech as Queen Mary. And also, Anna Massey (Kristine Linde) was also in He Knew He Was Right as Miss/Aunt Stanbury.

I found both Torvald and Nora to be very irritating. Between his treating her like a child and the squirrel noises that she makes trying to be cute, they got very irritating quickly. Spoiler As I said in my introduction, I found the ending to be very disappointing. The ending was that Nora, after years of not being taken seriously by Torvald, leaves Torvald and her children. There are many people that applaud her decision, but I cannot. I found that what she did was very selfish: she abandoned her responsibilities, at the very least, to her children to find out who she is. And she also didn't even attempt to work things out with Torvald; she just left him. In this movie, they made it so that Torvald slapped Nora after he found out what she did, but I don't think he did in the play. But even still, she didn't even try to work it out her problems with him, which really bothers me. End of Spoiler

Anna Massey did a great job at acting. I didn't know she was in here when I started to watch the movie, but then I saw her name in the credits and recognized her name. She was probably one of the characters that didn't irritate me. She was level-headed, sensible, and wanted to be of some use after her husband died.

Scenery
The scenery was okay. The entire play is supposed to take place in one or two rooms, but they moved it around more in the movie (which would make sense: if someone wanted to talk to Krogstad, the antagonist, why would they go to the Helmer's residence?).

Costumes
The costuming wasn't the worst that I've seen. It was good overall, but I've seen better. The costumes were from (I would say) around 1875 - 1883, which in the time that the play was published.

Overall: 1/5
Well, I gave it a shot. I never really liked A Doll's House (In fact, I'm not fond of Henrik Ibsen), but I still thought I would give this movie a try. This movie just wasn't good. There is a scene that looks like it could get mature, but it doesn't. There is a little bit of swearing (Nora swearing just because she isn't allowed).

A Doll's House is available on DVD. It runs for 105 minutes and is rated G (though I would say it should be rated PG).