September 2020 – Pages to Remember

Tolkien 2020 Blog Party

Hooray!! Its the Tolkien Blog party! Last year I just kinda watched as it was my first year blogging, but this year I thought it would be fun to participate in the tag questions! So here we go!

First I wanted to thank Hamlette for hosting! Check out her blog post here to find other post: https://theedgeoftheprecipice.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-tolkien-blog-party-2020-kick-off-post.html

1. What Tolkien character do you think you’re the most like?

Honestly, I would have to say Bilbo as I am not a fan of big changes and prefer to stay in my comfy abode to read. Although with a little pushing, I can be convinced to explore the outside world 😉

2. What Tolkien character do you wish you were more like?

Hmm, that’s a tough one. After my reread of the LOTR last year, Faramir comes to mind. He has a lot of quality character traits that I hadn’t picked up on before like leadership, trust, resisting evil. So, yeah, that is who I’ll pick.

3. What would your dream home in Middle-earth be like?

I am conflicted with this one. I would love to live in the shire, but I think I’d also like to be in view of the mountains. Ah, I know, I would live in Rohan!! You get the mountains and a land known for their horses. Perfect!

4. You get to make a movie of the story of Beren and Luthien! Who do you cast as the leads? I think Emily Blunt would make a good Luthien, she could be very elf like & mysterious *cough* Mary Poppins 😉

Now for Beren … oddly enough Chris Evens comes to mind. I think he could be a good Beren. I’m thinking of his role as Captain America. He goes out and gets things done. So I could see him playing a character who risks his life, several times, for the one he loves.

That’s who I would cast. Kinda fun to pick and choose who you would cast for a role, especially since no one has ever attempted The Silmarillion.

5. Have you ever marathoned the LOTR or Hobbit movies?

Yes, I have done so a couple times. Before The Battle of Five Armies came out we watched the first 2 Hobbits over the course of a day. It worked really well! Then a couple years later, we marathoned the movies over several days. You pick up on certain details that I miss when I watch them separately.

6. Do you have a favorite song or track from the movie soundtracks by Howard Shore?

I love the “Concerning Hobbits” soundtrack, but I also really like “The Misty Mountains” song. Oh, cannot forget “The Last Goodbye”!! So many good songs to pick from!!

7. Which of Tolkien’s characters would you like to be best friends with?

Either Legolas or Samwise. Legolas becomes Gimli’s friend overcoming some prejudice and they become so close! I always loved their friendship, but I love Samwise’s loyalty!

dont leave me here alone lord of the rings GIF

8. Who of the people in your real life would you want in your company if you had to take the ring to Mordor?

I would have to say my siblings. We all each have are own skill set, although not really any survival skills, 😉 but I think it would be like a fun road-trip.

9. Have you read any of Tolkien’s non-Middle-earth works?

Yes, I have read several: Roverandom, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – which I think Tolkien translated, Farmer Giles of Ham, Leaf by Niggle & Smith of Wooton Major.
10. Is there a book by Tolkien you haven’t read yet, but want to?

Yes, I still want to read Beren and Luthien & maybe The Children of Hurin.

Well, that is it!! This was a lot of fun! Nice to have a break from the normal blog posts and do something fun like a blog party!! What are your thoughts on the tag questions?

Anna

2 Mysteries that I have recently finished

Recently I just haven’t had as much time to read as I would like, yet I have just finished 2 mysteries that were quite good! I enjoyed both, but for different reasons & and will give a mini review on both.

First, Mycroft and Sherlock by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar & Anna Waterhouse.

Genre – Mystery, Historical fiction

Series – Second book in the Mycroft and Sherlock series

Rating – PG -13 for violence & drug use

Synopsis – Mycroft has just started working high up in the British government and has saved the queen on a previous occasion when a series of murders occurs. At first he is not interested, but when Sherlock’s professor becomes involved and a few close calls, Mycroft begins to suspect that something is brewing. Sherlock meanwhile has secretly taken on this case as his budding investigative powers lead him into the lion’s den. Mycroft and Sherlock work together to find out who is behind these awful murders.

My Thoughts – First, I really liked the authors take on younger versions of Mycroft and Sherlock. I haven’t read the first book as I had no idea this was series, but there was enough information that I didn’t feel too lost. I preferred Sherlock’s escapades for I found Mycroft’s character not as interesting. Plus Sherlock has always been a favorite character of mine. 😉 I liked Douglas with his orphanage for boys & appreciated his values. Nice to see Douglas endeavoring to keep his son’s memory by helping others in need. Charles and George were sweet and wanted to hear more of their story.

While the beginning was a wee bit slow, it began to pick up midway through. The action was spread out and did a decent job keeping the pace going, Although the conclusion felt a little off to me. It felt just a little anti-climatic. Oh, well. Overall I enjoyed it and liked several of the characters.

Content – Only a handful of mild uses of language. Really pretty minimal. Violence was mostly characters seeing an already dead body or a description of how they were killed. A couple mentions of genitals getting cut off. Later we learn this is a ritual done in Asia to teach others a lesson. There is a fight scene were a couple characters get beat up. The other content issue is drug use. It is a main theme as the bad guys test drugs on young children before shipping it to users. Sherlock enters a drug den and is injected multiple times.

Now for the second mystery!

The Religious Body by Catherine Aird

Genre – Mystery, Historical fiction

Series – First book in the C. D. Sloan mysteries

Rating – PG – Mild violence

Synopsis – When a nun is thought to have been murdered in the convent of St. Anselm, Inspector Sloan is called in. Sister Anne is found at the bottom cellar. The problem for Sloan is that the Nuns are a very quiet group and have given up everything worldly to live for God. Sloan begins diving into Sister Anne’s past and interrogating the others in the convent. Will Sloan be able to get to the bottom before anyone else dies?

My Thoughts – This was a well done mystery. For the longest time, I thought someone was the culprit, but I was proved wrong. 😉 Anyway, this was really clean and breath of fresh air. Set after WWII, it has a lot going for it. I like Sloan and his partner Crosby. They were a good pair that reminded me of a couple characters from the show Foyle’s War. While there isn’t much character development, the focus was on introducing the characters and solving the mystery. It was a pretty short book less then 200 p. We also get to see things from the sister’s perspectives and what their life was like. So pacing was pretty quick and it flowed really well for my tastes. I think that I will probably continue this series and see where it goes.

Content – Rare mild language, violence was again after the character had died. She is hit on the back of the head. The villain tries to kill another nun, but is stopped by inspector. Maybe a couple mentions of blood on her clothes. Other then that it is really clean.

Conclusion – So these are a few books that I have finished. It feels so good to finish a book!! Slowly, but surly I am ticking off books on my list. I think I only have maybe 2 or 3 left!! Yea!!! My next book will be My Dog Skip. I recently watched this movie and really enjoyed it! Then found out there was a book behind it so yeah, looking forward to that!!

What books have you read recently? Do you enjoy mysteries? Read any Sherlock Holmes pastiches? What is your favorite?

Anna

Review for The Last Dragonslayer

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Genre – Fantasy, Contemporary, YA fiction

Series – First in The Chronicles of Kazam series

Rating – PG – for fantasy violence

Synopsis –

Working at Kazam has taught Jennifer Strange a fair amount about wizards and how to deal to them. After Mr. Zambini’s disappearance, Jennifer has also taken over managing the whole building. As a 15 year old founding, Jennifer has no clue who her parents were, but she is looking forward to finishing her indentureship upon turning 18. News begins spreading that the soothsayers have foreseen the last dragon dying. The dragonlands are surrounded by a force field that keeps everyone but the dragonslayer out. This leads to a flood of people If the dragonlands disappears then so will all the history behind the dragons. Jennifer decides to try to stop it.

My Thoughts –

Sorry about the small hiatus, but things have picked up with work, so I haven’t been able to post as much as I’d like. I have had this post in the works for a couple weeks &I have to admit that I listened to this as an audiobook.

Going into it I had no expectations and was pleasantly surprised! The narrator was terrific, although some of her guy voices kinda ran together. The characters were quirky and odd, but enjoyable. It made me enjoy driving which is a statement right there. It takes a good audiobook to do that as you are constantly pausing every 20 minutes or so. In addition it was pretty clean, yet interesting enough that the whole family could enjoy it.

Jennifer was a strong character who was used to having the world on her shoulders. She was kind, truthful, and sometimes right to the point. Tiger was so sweet and I really wanted to see more of him, but since its a series hopefully he appears more later on. In all the other fantasy books I’ve read, dragons usually team up or are evil. This story was different. The dragons were kinda neutral, depending upon how you looked at it. They also were a minor part in the book.

Pacing was also well done, although a little bit predictable. I kinda saw who the last dragonslayer was from like a mile away. The ending though surprised me. I figured they would have to wrap it up quick and didn’t know how author would accomplish that. Kinda neat actually! (I’m Trying not to give away spoilers.) 😉

An overall theme was greed. Fforde really showed what can happen when man just keeps taking and taking. It was sad how many characters were affected by it. The truth came out in the end and we got some answers into why some of the characters did the things they did.

Violence – Minimal, one creature self sacrifices himself for Jennifer. Jennifer reluctantly uses her sword to kill a dragon (he actually asked her to do it). Cannon shots are fired.

Language – Maybe one or uses of a certain word

Innuendo – None

Conclusion –

This was a very enjoyable audiobook!! I liked the characters and found myself pulled into the story & smiling at the wit & humor sprinkled throughout. Despite the fact that there was some magic, it was mostly kept to the foreground and didn’t really bother me too much. The perfect audio for family trip!!

Have you read this series? How is your summer’s going? Been able to read?

Anna