I read that book in High School (we had Scholastic catalogues and my mother and I bought like 6 Royal Diaries) and didn’t like it much, I think. My English was not so good so I didn’t understand most of it. But looking back, I am glad to have read it, so I’m marking this as worth consuming! ;) I am now reading the other Royal Diaries I own (seven years after buying them!) and I like the concept of them.

It’s a bit weird though because my book is green, and the book in here is purple. Oh well! There are worst mysteries in the wide world.

I watched Elizabeth after reading a “Royal Diary” from Scholastic and getting interested in her life (I didn’t know much about English monarchy). It’s a good movie, obviously very “fictionized” and a bit hard to understand if you don’t have much backstory. Nonetheless, I had an okay time watching it, and I like Joseph Fiennes very much.

The DVD in itself is all right, the picture and sound quality could be better but I am not really demanding. The extras were pleasing to watch, but showing their 10-year oldness. It’s also a bit weird that this movie has a slipcover claiming the movie to be in the “Academy Award Winners” collection, since it mentions only winning Best Makeup. I know it was nominated for Best Picture, but that’s no reason to put in the Winners collection. Anyway, the slipcover still is good and fits with the others, so I don’t mind so much, eh.

Of course, when you first hear “Cinderella III”, you understandably roll your eyes at Disney’s habit to push it too much. But this movie is actually kind of good! It should even bear the II number (especially since that would mean that the real Cinderella II would be wiped from the universe). It’s well animated (not like the original, of course, but still) and the story is well done, full of twists (!) and surprises. An excellent way to pass a good moment! :D

I was pretty disappointed by this book. At first it was interesting, because it’s one of the books that Kundera wrote in French first (I find it amazing that he’s Czech but still manages to write so beautifull in French!), but the book in itself really did nothing to get to me. The weird obsession with sex was of no interest to me and the characters were annoying (except for Kundera himself, I guess!).

I urge you, do not start your discovery of Kundera’s works with this book! I loved everything else I read of him (L’immortalité springs to mind first) so I am not sure what I so disliked about this one, but still. Really not a must-read.

I love Alan Menken. His melodies followed me through childhood (I was born one year before The Little Mermaid). It’s great to see that his genius continues in that Hercules movie, where the style differs a lot from the other Broadway-styled (Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin…) with this great Gospel feel to it. There a lot of (very short) score pieces on this CD, I love it! The songs in themselves are great too, I Won’t Say (I’m In Love) is this wonderful anti-love song, it so much fun to listen to!

This CD is good, but I wouldn’t recommend it for somebody who is discovering Ani. Many of the songs actually annoy me a bit – like Swing. But this those contain some gems – The Arrivals Gate is like the quintessence of greatness, and also one of the few happy Ani songs. Soft Shoulder and Cloud Blood really stand out for me too.

Don’t bother with this movie – the story is okayish, but the movie in itself is really plain bad. Meg Ryan isn’t so bad either but Nicolas Cage is a pretty terrible actor. And the ending sucks enormously. I guess I had too much expectations about this since I had heard it was quite good and also because that Goo Goo Dolls song is great. But still! It’s so bad! Don’t see it, just listen to the song!

I read this in Cuba, with my feet in the sand and the sound of the waves in my ears. It was fitting since Hemingway did live in Cuba for quite a while – but really, any seashore will do. The scent and the sounds of the sea are, to me, really necessary to appreciate this tale.

I got this CD not long after I discovered Ani, and all I knew of her was some early-middle stuff, when she was just a girl and her guitar. So this CD was really a surprise and – no use in hiding it! – a tremendous disappointement. But it was a CD by Ani, and at the time the only CD I had of her, and I felt a bit guilty for not loving it at all so I kept on listening to it… and eventually it sunk in.

So after multiple listenings, I can now say that I love this record very dearly. Some songs – like Bodily – took me through hard times – Ani wrote the album after her divorce and it’s a really great music for surviving a break-up. It’s not 5 stars though because I am still somewhat annoyed by the very high and eerie back vocals, but all in all I love it.

I saw this movie because one of my 43 things is to see every movie with Colin Firth in it. So my best friend and I rented it one night when there was nothing better to do, and frankly, we were a bit disappointed. The story is okay, but the characters are boring and you don’t feel any attachment to them (not even to dear Colin!). They are just not believable.

The DVD in itself is okay though – the extras we watched were fun. There was a little documentary on the movie – and Colin said the funniest line ever, something like “It was good for once to be in a movie where I get the girl(s). Usually they are stolen away from me, most of the time by someone whose last name is Fiennes.” Hehe! Almost all of the third star I give to this movie is due to that ;)