Books I read in 2019

Hello everyone!!!!!

Welcome to 2020!!! It feels so unreal that this is here. I have so many things planned for this year (seriously, this blogging schedule I've got for January is insane!) and I can't wait to share them with you all! As tradition, here at Movies Meet Their Match I tell you all of the books that I read in the previous year and my top 10. I hope that you enjoy!

Here are my lists from 2018, 2017, and 2016.

As usual, if I reviewed it there will be a link to it. I also got a Goodreads account this year, so you can look at the list HERE but Goodreads has a different way of counting things than I do (usually I don't count devotionals or graphic novels).

New-to-me Reads:

The Year of the Dog - by Grace Lin
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - by Newt Scamander (aka J. K. Rowling)
Dune - by Frank Herbert
The Broken Prince - by Kara Linaburg
Five Poisoned Apples - by Skye Hoffert, Jenelle Hovde, Courtney Manning, Maddie Morrow, & Rachael Wallen.
Emily of New Moon - by L. M. Montgomery (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
North & South - by Elizabeth Gaskell
Flunked - by Jen Calonita
The Adventures of Robin Hood - by Roger Lancelyn Green
Rilla of Ingleside - by L. M. Montgomery
The Secret School - by Avi
The Bridge to Terabithia - by Katherine Paterson
Jackaby - by William Ritter
Anastasia Krupnik - by Lois Lowery
Moriarty - by Anthony Horowitz
Heartless - by Marissa Meyer
Persuasion - by Jane Austen
The Girl Who Drank the Moon - by Kelly Barnhill
A Week of Werewolves, Faeries, and Fancy Dresses - by Nicki Chapelway
A Time of Trepidation, Pirates, and Lost Princesses - by Nicki Chapelway
Agnes Grey - by Anne Brontë
To the Future, Ben Franklin! - by Mary Pope Osborne
Fahrenheit 451 - by Ray Bradbury
Wives & Daughters - by Elizabeth Gaskell
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - by Alan Bradley
Raymie Nightingale - by Kate DiCamillo
Reflections on the Psalms - by C. S. Lewis
The Great Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald
More Adventures of the Great Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald
I Walk In Dread: The Diary of Deliverance Trembley, Witness to the Salem Witch Trails - by Lisa Rowe Fraustino
Romeo & Juliet - by William Shakespeare
Me and My Little Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald
Christy - by Catherine Marshall (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4)
The Great Brain at the Academy - by John D. Fitzgerald
Babe the Gallant Pig - by Dick King-Smith
The Great Brain Reforms - by John D. Fitzgerald
Dandelion: The Extraordinary Life of a Misfit - by Sheelagh Mawe
The Isle of the Lost - by Melissa de La Cruz
The Witches - by Roald Dahl
"When Did You See Her Last?" - by Lemony Snicket
The 39 Clues: From the Grave - by Jude Watson
Rascal - by Sterling North
The Courage of Sarah Noble - by Alice Dalgliesh
Don Quixote de la Mancha - by Miguel de Cervantes

Total: 44 books

Rereads:

The Silver Chair - by C. S. Lewis (Part I, Part II, Part III)
The Wizard of Oz - by L. Frank Baum
"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" - by Lemony Snicket
The Clue of the Velvet Mask - by Carolyn Keene (I don't know if this was a reread, but I'm counting it)

Total: 4 books

Grand total: 48 books!


My 10 Favorite New-to-me Books:

1. North & South - by Elizabeth Gaskell (Eeeep!! I love it so much!)

2. Rilla of Ingleside - by L. M. Montgomery

3. Persuasion - by Jane Austen

4. The Girl Who Drank the Moon - by Kelly Barnhill

5. The Bridge to Terabithia - by Katherine Paterson

6. Five Poisoned Apples - by Skye Hoffert, Jenelle Hovde, Courtney Manning, Maddie Morrow, & Rachael Wallen.

7. The Adventures of Robin Hood - by Roger Lancelyn Green

8. Jackaby - by William Ritter

9. Raymie Nightingale - by Kate DiCamillo

10. The Broken Prince - by Kara Linaburg

Reading Challenges:

I participated in the Mount TBR Reading Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block. I chose the lowest, Pike's Peak which was to read 12 books that I own. I got 16!

Dune - by Frank Herbert
Flunked - by Jen Calonita

The Adventures of Robin Hood - by Roger Lancelyn Green

Rilla of Ingleside - by L. M. Montgomery

The Bridge to Terabithia - by Katherine Paterson

Jackaby - by William Ritter

Agnes Grey - by Anne Brontë

Reflections on the Psalms - by C. S. Lewis

The Great Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald

More Adventures of the Great Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald

Me and My Little Brain - by John D. Fitzgerald

The Great Brain at the Academy - by John D. Fitzgerald

The Great Brain Reforms - by John D. Fitzgerald

Dandelion: The Extraordinary Life of a Misfit - by Sheelagh Mawe

The Isle of the Lost - by Melissa de La Cruz

And she counts reread if you haven't read them in five years, so The Wizard of Oz - L. Frank Baum counts, too.

Part of the challenge is to see how many proverbs and sayings you can finish using the titles of the books that you read. Bev says that you can remove or add one word to make it work.

A stitch in time [saves]... Jackaby
Don't count your chickens [on]... The Isle of the Lost
A penny saved [and]... The Great Brain Reforms
All good things must come [with]... The Wizard of Oz
When in Rome [be]... Rilla of Ingleside
All that glitters is not... The Bridge to Terabithia
A picture is worth... Agnes Grey [Dune? Nothing really works here]
When the going gets tough, the tough gets... Me and My Little Brain
Two wrongs don't make... The Great Brain
The pen is mightier than... The Great Brain at the Academy
The squeaky wheel gets... Dandelion: The Extraordinary Life of a Misfit [or Flunked also works for this one]
Hope for the best, but prepare for... More Adventures of the Great Brain
Birds of a feather flock [to]... The Adventures of Robin Hood

Some of those don't really work, but I was trying! Haha!

That's it for me! Have any of you read these books? Thanks for reading, and have a wonderful 2020!

MovieCritic

It's So Classic Tag!

Greetings!

Rebellious Writing is celebrating two years of blogging, and are hosting the It's So Classic Blog Party!

Awesome, right? Classics are some of my favorite books so I'm excited to fill out their tag, but it will also be really hard!

It's So Classic Tag:
Rules:
1. Link your post to Rebellious Writing (http://www.rebelliouswriting.com/)
2. Answer the questions
3. Tag at least 5 bloggers.


1.What is one classic that hasn’t been made into a movie yet, but really needs to?


*cracks knuckles* Now, this is my kind of question. The thing is, I know that there are a lot of film adaptations of classics that I haven't seen yet. I'm just going to copy Nicole and say the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia books. I love them so much! Movies of The Silver Chair, The Horse and His Boy, The Magician's Nephew, and The Last Battle would be so great! As long as they don't mess them up! Make them like how they made The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

2.What draws you to classics?


(Note: Most of the classics that I read were written before 1900, so that is what I'm talking about.)
Whenever I am having a reading slump, or can't find any good books I go back to the classics because I know that there is a point, a message, or a moral. I know that I can find a story that will teach me something.


3.What is an underrated classic?


North & South - by Elizabeth Gaskell! I just read it this year, thanks to a friend's suggestion, and I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Ah! But, no one has ever heard of it! Every time I mention it people ask, "Oh, is it set during the Civil War?" The question makes sense, but no, it is set in England, now go read it.

4.What is one classic that you didn’t expect to love, but ended up loving anyway?


Well, I don't love it, but I was expecting to hate Frankenstein - by Mary Shelly, but it actually is really thought provoking. The characters do some really bad things that makes you want to pull your hair out, but that is the point. It shows that there are consequences to your actions, and that if all you show someone is hate, you will turn them into a monster.

5.What is your most favorite and least favorite classics?


No! This question is way too hard! Pick one favorite out of all of the many that I love?? Fine, I'll decide.:
Most favorite: Anne of Green Gables - by L. M. Montgomery. It is so beautiful! (It is also my favorite book of all time).

Least favorite: Candide - by Voltare. It is terrible.


6.What is your favorite character from a classic? Or if that is too hard, one is your favorite classic character trope (e.g. strong and silent, quiet sidekick, etc.)


(This was the hardest. question. ever.)
Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Ever since I started The Hobbit, I loved him. I actually wrote a post about him HERE (It was one of my first, so don't judge.).


7.What’s a popular classic that you felt wasn’t actually that great?


Popular? I know that 2001: A Space Odyssey - by Arthur C. Clarke is really famous, but it is so long, not a lot happens, and it is very confusing. Not my favorite.

8.Who is your favorite classic author?


Jane Austen, of course!


9.In your opinion, what makes a classic a classic?

"A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say." 
~ Italo Calvino

10.Relating to newer books, what attributes does a book need to have in order to be worthy of the title “classic”?


As I said in question #2, there has to be a deeper meaning. When reading books like A Tale of Two Cities - by Charles Dickens, and To Kill a Mockingbird - by Harper Lee, I thought that they were super boring. It was only after I finished them, and I sat back, just thinking about the stories, did I realize how truly amazing they were, and are now two of my favorites. I am currently reading Agnes Grey - by Anne Brontë, and I think that the first line in there sums up what a lot of newer books are:
'All true histories contain instruction; though, in some the treasure may be hard to find, and when found so trivial in quantity that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut.'
Whereas, to be a classic, the message or theme might be hard to find, but when you do, it is so great, you'll never forget it.

Okay, rant over.


And I tag:
PioneerGirl
Kara Lynn
Korin
Megan Chappie

I don't know how much you guys like classics, so only do it if you want to!


Happy Blogoversary to Rebellious Writing!

Thank you so much for reading! What do you think of my answers?

MovieCritic

Movie Review: Jane Eyre (1934)

Hello Everyone!!

So LAST YEAR Hamlette at The Edge of the Precipice, hosted this Jane Eyre read-along and I said that I could review this version of the movie, and that was last year and I still haven't gotten around to it!!! So today I WILL!!!!!! I'm so sorry this has taken so long Hamlette!!! It's really hard to watch it in a house where only two of you have read the book and you don't want to have the others watch it because you don't want it spoiled and for some reason the disc won't work on the computer, okay, okay, I was being stubborn. I could have watched it any time on YouTube but I wanted to watch our version. Sorry about that. Any way, enough excuses. Here it is:

Jane Eyre (1934):

The film is actually in black and white.

Based on the book by Charlotte Bronté, It is about a governess, Jane Eyre, who goes to work for a Mr. Rochester and they fall in love, but there is more to Mr. Rochester than meets the eye.
Genre: Romance.
Costumes: 8, My favorite is the one she first has tea with Mr. Rochester in.

Script: 6, they did make up a bit. "If I die of the plague my dying wish will be that he marries you."
Crew:
Directed by: Christy Cabanne
Produced by: Ben Verschleiser
Written by: Adele Comandini
Based on: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronté
Starring:
Virginia Bruce as Jane Eyre, as sweet and lovely as ever: ☆

Colin Clive as Mr. Rochester, He really is a perfect Edward Rochester, but in this movie, he is such a softy! Taking in mind that this film is only 63 minutes long, but still, in the book he doesn't really care about Adele, but in this movie he is the great Uncle Edward. He is perfect when he first meets Jane, but after that is just too nice. I mean he is in the book too, but in the book, through the course of it he changes into a different person. Here he already is that different person as soon as he is in his own house in this movie:

Beryl Mercer as Mrs. Fairfax ☆
David Torrence as Mr. Brocklehurst ☆
Aileen Pringle as Lady Blanche Ingram ☆
Edith Fellows as Adele Rochester √
Jean Darling as Jane Eyre as a Child ☆
Ethel Griffies as Grace Poole ☆
Claire Du Brey as Bertha, too tidy.
Music: 8, it has a nice theme.
Music by:
Quotes: 7,
"My foot is caught!"
"Her foot is caught!"
"Her foot is caught, so I've heard."
Notes: I thought that this was the first movie version of it, but there actually is a 1910 version!! But this was the first version to use sound!
Good For: Anyone who loves a good romance, Anybody.
Storyline: 6, As this is only 63 minutes, as I have said before, it goes really quickly. There are a few scenes they rushed or missed:

1. Jane can make the trip to Thornfield Hall because of the small inheritance from her uncle.

2. They do not have the Gypsy scene.

3. She meets Mr. Rochester on her way to Thornfield Hall.
4. There is a "John" Rivers, and he is a missionary, but they didn't really do too much on him. He only has a minute of screen time.

Overall Score: 7

So, there is so much more to the story and if you want to see all Hamlette thinks about each chapter (you really should, it makes the story more beautiful!) here is the link to her post that has all the links for each chapter. Here:

Jane Eyre

Also she had an awesome givaway and I got a bookmark! I have been using it and it is perfect!!!

Thank you so much Hamlette for this awesome read-along!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that some time you are able to see this movie and tell me what you think of it!

MovieCritic

Books I read in 2016

Hello!
In these last few hours of 2016, I am finally putting up which books I read in 2016, and which were my 10 favorites! Hopefully one day I will be able to review all of these...

First Time:

Princess of the Silver Woods - by Jessica Day George
Beauty - by Robin McKinley
I, Robot - by Isaac Asimov (My first sci-fi!)
Oliver Twist - by Charles Dickens
The Diary of Anne Frank - by Anne Frank
Zlata's Diary - by Zlata Filipović
The BFG - by Roald Dahl
The 39 clues: A Maze of Bones - by Rick Riordan
Storybound - by Marrisa Burt
Fridays with the Wizards - by Jessica Day George
Old Yeller - by Fred Gipson
Esio Trot - by Roald Dahl
George's Marvelous Medicine - by Roald Dahl
A Tale of Two Cities - by Charles Dickens
My Friend Flicka - by Mary O'Hara
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - by J. K. Rowling
Jane Eyre - by Charlotte Bronté
Big Red - by Jim Kjeljaad
The Hobbit - by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fablehaven: Key to the Dragon Sanctuary - by Brandon Mull
Pax - by Sara Pennypacker
The Land of Stories: An Author's Odyssey - by Chris Colfer
Santa Cruise: a holiday mystery at sea - by Mary and Carol Higgins Clark
Appointment with Death - by Agatha Christie
Lambing Out and other stories - by Mary Clearman
A Wizard of Earthsea - by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ghosts of Rockville: Search for the Dominion Glass - by Justin Heimberg
David Copperfield - by Charles Dickens
The 39 clues: One False Note - by Gordan Korman
The Little Mermaid - by Hans Christan Anderson
Emma - by Jane Austen (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)
The 39 clues: The Sword Thief - by Peter Langras
The Hundred and One Dalmatians - by Dodie Smith
Great Expectations - by Charles Dickens
Hattie Big Sky - by Kirby Larson
Johnny Tremain - by Esther Forbes
To Kill a Mockingbird - by Harper Lee
2001: A Space Odyssey - by Arthur C. Clarke

ReReads:

Holes - by Louis Sachar
The Penderwicks - by Jeanie Birdsall
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - by Lewis Caroll

Favorite First Time 10: (In no particular order!)

1. Great Expectations - by Charles Dickens

2. The Hobbit - by J. R. R. Tolkien           

3. To Kill a Mockingbird - by Harper Lee

4. Pax - by Sara Pennypacker

  

5. David Copperfield - by Charles Dickens

6. Storybound - by Marissa Burt

7. A Tale of Two Cities - by Charles Dickens

8. Old Yeller - by Fred Gipson

  

9. The BFG - by Roald Dahl

  

10. Hattie Big Sky - by Kirby Larson

Read-alongs:

The Jane Eyre read-along, hosted by The Edge of the Precipice:

The Emma read-along, hosted by Seasons of Humility:

Thank you so much Hamlette and Amber!!

Oh, read-alongs I am going to be in in 2017 are:

And:

How cool Risa!! Can't wait!!

We will never have 2016 again. It was a great year in some ways, I'm glad we had it.
Happy New Year!

MovieCritic