character discussion Archives - Starlight and Saucepans

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen book cover

Thoughts on Rereading Mansfield Park

(Before I dive into the post proper, I want to apologize for being so scarce in the blogging world of late and being so shamefully remiss in commenting and whatnot. My semester is finally concluded, and I have high hopes…

By Lizzie Hexam December 9, 2025Bookishness10 Comments

movie poster for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 2003

Bookishness Period Dramas

The Return of the King (2003) Review

Hello, dear reader. How are you this fine summer afternoon? I hope you're in the mood to hear opinions about The Return of the King, since that is what I am here to provide. If you missed my reviews of…

By Lizzie Hexam June 27, 2025Bookishness, Period Dramas12 Comments

picture of fiddler in Fiddler on the Roof

Period Dramas

Fiddler on the Roof and What Makes a Good Movie Musical

In my humble opinion, it's very hard to make a good movie musical. Musicals and movies are two wonderful ways of telling stories, but I would consider them to be pretty nearly diametrically opposed means of storytelling. Musicals are inherently…

By Lizzie Hexam February 13, 2025Period Dramas28 Comments

Period Dramas Spiritual Life Vintage-ness

2024 Year in Review: Movies

I hope you're been having a marvelous 2025! Here I am to make it even better by blabbing about movies to you. You're welcome. This seems to have been The Year of the Animated Movie for me, since towards the…

By Lizzie Hexam January 4, 2025Period Dramas, Spiritual Life, Vintage-ness4 Comments

Hugh Laurie as Frederick Little and Geena Davis as Eleanor Little in Stuart Little 1999

Miscellaneous

Stuart Little and The Portrayal of Parenthood in Children’s Entertainment

...or in which Lizzie waxes eloquent about Deep Topics using as a springboard a children's movie which was never meant to be a springboard for Deep Topics. Because how else would you spend a rainy summer day? (Buckle up, because…

By Lizzie Hexam August 19, 2024Miscellaneous6 Comments

Period Dramas

Our Mutual Friend (1998) Review

I think I was thirteen when I first read Our Mutual Friend, and I fell head-over-heels in love with it. When I first heard there was a mini-series of it, I had no interest in seeing it. They thought they…

By Lizzie Hexam June 29, 2024Period Dramas5 Comments

Period Dramas

Saving Mr. Banks (2013) Review

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away - otherwise known as back in January in my post on new-to-me movies of 2023 - I mentioned that I wanted to do a review of Saving Mr. Banks. Since…

By Lizzie Hexam May 31, 2024Period Dramas4 Comments

Bookishness

A Half-Hearted Defense of Henry and Mary Crawford

Shall I shock you all and confess that there was a point in my first perusal of Mansfield Park in which I was really hoping Fanny would end up with Henry Crawford? While Jane Austen has plenty of interesting villains,…

By Lizzie Hexam February 21, 2024Bookishness12 Comments

Bookishness Period Dramas

Defending Javert

I've seen plenty of "Defending Ms. So-and-so" and "Defending Mr. Thingum" posts about, but I don't believe I've yet seen one defending Javert. I feel that I've noticed, as a rule, that the further one gets swallowed into the Les…

By Lizzie Hexam May 16, 2023Bookishness, Period Dramas12 Comments

The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien book cover

Bookishness

Thoughts on Re-reading The Lord of the Rings

It had been some years since I actually sat down and read The Lord of the Rings, so I recently decided to re-read it. I got more sucked in than I thought I would (I ended up reading The Return…

By Lizzie Hexam March 21, 2023Bookishness2 Comments