"The Last Dragonslayer" by Jasper Fforde

It's been a while since I read one of Jasper Fforde's books, and when I stumbled on this one at the library while looking for something entirely different, I knew I should give it a go.  After all, I love most of his Thursday Next novels so much I own them.  This being his first YA novel, I was curious to see how much of his quirky style translated to writing for a younger audience.

Turns out a lot of it.  This isn't actually set in the same alternate universe as the Thursday Next books, but it's got some similarities.  Only, instead of people who can jump in and out of books, you have magicians and dragons and berserkers.  And lots and lots of silly names, zany oddments of world-building, and sly digs at real world obsessions with silly celebrities.  No Toast Marketing Board, but I kind of expected it to crop up somewhere.

The protagonist here, sixteen-year-old foundling Jennifer Strange, also has a lot of similarities to Thursday Next, being intelligent and courageous and snarky.  I thought she lacked a little of Thursday's sparkle, but she made up for it with a startling amount of common sense.  She basically runs a sort of magical home improvement company, but winds up being the Last Dragonslayer and trying to stop a war, save a dragon from being slain, and keep all the world's magic from draining away.  I'm not going to try to explain anything more than that because really, either you'll like this book or you will find it too silly and odd, and only you can decide that for yourself.

So I'll just say that the magic in this book doesn't involve written-out spells or lists of ingredients for magic potions.  The magicians do the magic, we just see what happens.  In case you were wondering.  Visit Jasper Fforde's website to learn more -- this is the first book of a series of 4, and the third was released this year.

First Sentence:

It looked set to become even hotter by the afternoon, just when the job was becoming more fiddly and needed extra concentration (p. 1).

Particularly Good Bits:

Working with those versed in the Mystical Arts was sometimes like trying to knit with wet spaghetti:  just when you thought you'd gotten somewhere, it all came to pieces in your hands (p. 2).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some tense and exciting moments.

LOTR Read-Along: Fog on the Barrow-downs (FOTR Ch. 8)

Quick note -- it is not to late to join us!  If you're feeling like, "Man, they are eight chapters in and I will never catch up, I should just not try," please take heart.  We're less than 145 pages in -- you can knock that out in a weekend.  

But on to this chapter....

Bleah, this is another of the chapters I dislike.  It's really creepy and meandering.  Doesn't make me fall asleep, at least!  But all that stuff about the fog and the echoing voices, and then the crawling hand of the barrow wight -- yuck!  Good for reading around Halloween, I suppose, but I'm glad the majority of the book is not like this.

Favorite Lines:

The mist was flowing past him now in shreds and tatters (p. 136).

The night was railing against the morning of which it was bereaved, and the cold was cursing the warmth for which it hungered (p. 137).

"Few now remember them," Tom murmured, "yet still some go wandering, sons of forgotten kings walking in loneliness, guarding from evil things folk that are heedless" (p. 142).

Possible Discussion Questions:

Why didn't Tom Bombadil escort the hobbits to the road in the first place?  They clearly got into trouble out in the forest on their own before.

"Make the Bread, Buy the Butter" by Jennifer Reese

I read a cookbook every year or so, but I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've really reviewed one.  Make the Bread, Buy the Butter is part cookbook, part memoir, and was so fun to read that my husband finished it before I did.  Reese has a homey, humorous style, and some of her escapades reminded me of my friends who are/were raising chickens and bees and ducks and sheep.  Most of her writing centers around a time when she was between jobs and decided that surely she could make most foods at home cheaper (and better) than their store-bought counterparts.  She learned that some things are just too hard or too messy or too expensive to make at home.  And that many things are far, far cheaper to make -- like vanilla extract, which she made 12 ounces of for $7, while the equivalent amount at the store would be more than $50.  She provides the math on major brands versus these recipes, and also a note on how much hassle is involved in making each thing.

I smiled a lot while reading this, and laughed a few times.  I also copied down nine recipes to try myself, recipes for such varied things as vanilla extract, clotted cream, hummus, and truffles.  The chocolate kind, not the mushroom kind.  I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but when I do, I'll try to remember to comment on this post with a note or two on how they go.  I'm especially eager to try the clotted cream, as I've read a lot of books about people living in England and eating clotted cream on their scones while drinking tea.  I'd quite like to try that.

I learned about this book on Emily Coleman's blog Classics and Beyond, and you can read her review of it (and some of the recipes) here.

LOTR Read-Along: In the House of Tom Bombadil (FOTR Ch. 7)

I'm not a huge fan of this section of the book, I'm just going to admit it here and now.  I know a lot of people love it, and so every time I read it, I feel like I'm missing something.  If you're one who loves it, can you please help me see what I'm missing?

Maybe what trips me up is all the religious imagery -- I know that Tolkien says in the "Forward to the Second Edition," which is included in my copy, that these books are "neither allegorical nor topical" (p. xvi).  So I bounce between trying to figure out who or what Tom Bombadil is supposed to represent and saying that he doesn't represent anyone/thing... but then what is the point of this chapter?  I'm so confused.

I mean, at the end of the previous chapter, Tom hops away singing, "Tom's going on ahead candles for to kindle" and "Fear neither root nor bought!  Tom goes on before you" (p. 118).  To me. that sounds so much like when Christ told his followers, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2b).  And when the hobbits ask Goldberry who Tom Bombadil is, she simply says, "He is" (p. 122), which sounds an awful lot like God telling Moses that his name is I Am (Exodus 3:14).  And then, when the hobbits leave, Tom teaches them something to say if they get in trouble that sounds awfully prayer-like, ending with "Come, Tom Bombadil, for our need is near us!" (p. 131).

I don't get it -- I'm horribly confused.  If anyone can enlighten me, please do so!

Favorite Lines:

The sound of her footsteps was like a stream falling gently away downhill over cool stones in the quiet of the night (p. 123).

As far as he could remember, Sam slept through the night in deep content, if logs are contented (p. 126).

Possible Discussion Questions:  What's it all about, Alfie?

LOTR Read-Along: The Old Forest (FOTR Ch. 6)

This is one of my least-favorite chapters of all the books.  I find the Old Forest really creepy, for one thing.  But also, considering how much danger befalls Merry and Pippen, it's kind of a boring chapter.  For me, anyway.  It makes me sleepy!  It honestly does -- I'm getting a bit yawny just thinking about it now.  Is that due to some crazy good writing, to actually put me under the forest's spell, as it were?  Or is it kind of boring?  Okay, that's your Possible Discussion Question for the day.

Favorite Lines:

Sleepiness seemed to be creeping out of the ground and up their legs, and falling softly out of the air upon them (p. 114).

"The Return of Sherlock Holmes" by A. Conan Doyle

There are thirteen stories in this book, which begins with Sherlock Holmes rising from the dead, in a way.  In "The Adventure of the Empty House," Holmes returns (and nearly gives Watson a heart attack) and explains that he didn't die at Reichenbach Falls after all.  Whew.  

Reportedly, Doyle had killed off Holmes because he was tired of the character, and only revived him because he either needed money or he couldn't resist the public pressure... there are different theories, and you can Google for more info if you're so inclined.  Regardless of why he brought Holmes back, Doyle clearly didn't have the same level of joy for the stories anymore.  The plots are weaker, and some of them are kind of recycled from previous stories.  But some of them are quite good, and they're all still enjoyable.  My favorites in this collection are "The Adventure of the Abbey Grange" and "The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter," probably because they're more original than some of the others.  I also have a fondness for "The Adventure of the Dancing Men," though not for the ending.

Particularly Good Bits:

No. 131 was one of a row, all flat-chested, respectable, and most unromantic dwellings.  ("The Adventure of the Six Napoleons")

Outside the wind howled down Baker Street, while the rain beat fiercely against the windows.  It was strange there, in the very depths of the town, with ten miles of man's handiwork on every side of us, to feel the iron grip of Nature, and to be conscious that to the huge elemental forces all London was no more than the molehills that dot the fields.  ("The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez")

If this was a movie, I would rate it:  PG for dangerous situations, violence, and suspense.

LOTR Read-Along: A Conspiracy Unmasked (FOTR Ch. 5)

I love the contrast between this chapter's title and the previous one.  We go from the whimsical "A Short-cut to Mushrooms" to the rather ominous "A Conspiracy Unmasked."  There's nothing truly ominous about this chapter, however -- just Frodo coming to realize he's not as clever as he thought.

And now I'm going to talk about Sam some more.  I'm afraid you're in for a lot of that later on, as it's Sam and his own personal journey that keep me awake and interested during the Frodo-and-Sam-wandering-through-you-know-where parts later on.  Here, he's the first to leave his comfort zone, crossing the Brandywine (Branduin to you Elvish-leaning sorts) for the first time and striking out into territory that, while still in the Shire, is unfamiliar to him.  Frodo, Merry, and Pippin have been here before, so for them, it's not that big a deal, but to Sam, wow.  Enormous.

But before you can get yourself all comfortable with the idea of Sam Gamgee as a simple, one-note country lad, you find out he's a spy!  And granted, he's just been spying on Frodo in a fairly innocuous way, but I think it would be harder to spy on someone who knows you well than on a stranger.  Not that I'd know anything about such goings-on, of course ;-)

And we learn what lovely, loyal friends Frodo has.  Merry and Pippin and Sam, of course, but also Fredegar "Fatty" Bolger, who got cut out of the movies and isn't in the book a whole lot either, but is equally doughty when it comes to pitching in to help his friend.  What marvelous hobbits they all are.

Finally, I really like the little song Merry and Pippin got ready for the occasion of their departure.  It really does work with the tune used in The Hobbit.  (Random note:  my hubby sang the Hobbit song to our third baby over and over to calm her down when she was tiny, and she still loves it.)

Favorite Lines:

Sam was the only member of the party who had not been over the river before.  He had a strange feeling as the slow gurgling stream slipped by:  his old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front (p. 97).

"We can't begin life at Crickhollow with a quarrel over baths" (p. 99).


Possible Discussion Questions:

Merry describes friendship this way:

"You can trust us to stick to you through thick and thin -- to the bitter end.  And you can trust us to keep any secret of yours -- closer than you keep it yourself.  But you cannot trust us to let you face trouble alone, and go off without a word.  We are your friends, Frodo" (p. 103).

What do you think constitutes true friendship?