Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

"April is upon us, pitiless and young and harsh," as Edna St. Vincent Millay so justly expressed it, and I can think of no better time to dive into the work of my beloved Virginia Woolf.  Woolf is probably my top favorite author at this point, so I wanted her to have at least one dedicated post on this blog.  And, since I've officially read all of her novels now, a ranking post naturally seemed the way to go. Here, then, are my thoughts — in a few nutshells — on Woolf's long-form fiction, from the worst of it to the best. 😍 (General content warning for all of these books:  As you might expect from literature of this time period, there are, unfortunately, throwaway racial slurs or instances of casual racism peppered throughout most of them.) # 10.   Night and Day   (1919) “When you consider things like the stars, our affairs don't seem to matter very much, do they?” Babe, no.  If Olivia Rishell is telling you that you're taking parlor politics too far, then...

Hey, as long as I get my yearly recap post published during the first quarter of the new year, it still counts, right?  (Even if I squeeze it in at the eleventh hour.  Ahem.) Present tardiness aside, I do usually try to post at least one "top ten" list at the beginning of each calendar year, reflecting on the best of the new-to-me media I consumed the last year.  In 2024, however, it would appear that most of said new-to-me media was . . . unfortunately mid.  Thus, where I would usually select ten favorites in each category, I'm limiting myself to five this time around and just compiling everything into the one post.  But we're also expanding the categories to include music, so I think we'll have plenty of material to cover. 😉 "The hour is late and bed beckons," so without further ado, let's get into it. ⸻ ❧  Best Books #5.   Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton "... details the story of a man who falls in love with his wife's cousin and the trage...

It feels like it's been ages since I've really discussed musical theatre on here, and what better time to remedy that than during my friend Rachel's We Love Musicals week ? As the title of this post suggests, this will be a look at some of my current favorite musicals.  Specifically, I wanted to focus on those musicals that I'll more frequently choose to listen to as I'm going about my day, rather than just the movie musicals that I'll more frequently sit down to watch, as the two groups seldom overlap.   For example, as we all know, the 1964 film version of My Fair Lady is tied for my top favorite film of all time, but will I regularly listen to the soundtrack?  No, because while I do like the music, my adoration of the movie is due more to its non-musical elements.  (Of course, there are exceptions to this rule — you'll find both  Evita and  Newsies in this post, but I probably watch screen versions of both of those almost as often as I listen to the...

God rest ye, merry gentlemen, and God send you a happy new year!  My friend Rachel  tagged me last month with a festive film questionnaire, and while I 100% squandered several golden opportunities to finalize and publish this post on one of the actual twelve days of Christmas, I've decided to fly in the face of convention and share my answers anyway.  Yes, even though Epiphany has passed.  I'm rebellious that way. The Rules Fill out the prompts (expound as much or as little as you like) Tag some friends (however many or few you feel like)* Have fun (this is mandatory) * I would have done this, but since I'm publishing this post after the season is technically over, I've decided not to.  Abject 'pologies, etc., etc. The Questions 1. A favorite funny Christmas movie: Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) is low-key hilarious. "She has four fatal diseases!"  "And it only takes one." *terrific crash from overhead*  "Now I remember where I left my other s...