"Scarlet" by Stephen R. Lawhead

Overall, I liked Scarlet about ten times as well as I liked Hood.  It still took me months to read, but this time it was because I had to set it aside to read a few things that I had a deadline for.  However, this book was exciting and enjoyable, with a great mix of danger and emotion, and even some fun here and there. 

This book is narrated by Will Scatlocke, aka Will Scarlet, whom I became very fond of indeed.  He was such a cheerful, sensible guy!  He tells most of it to a scribe while he's in prison.  I got closer and closer to the end and started worrying that the whole book would end before Will ever got out of prison, but happily, that totally didn't happen.  While in captivity, he relates how he joined up with Rhi Bran Hud's band of Welsh rebels even though Will isn't himself Welsh, how they fought against their oppressors by every means possible, and how he got captured.  He also talks about gradually falling in love with one of the rebels, a widow named Noin. 

The last hundred pages or so were extremely awesome, and I read them in one day.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG-13 for violence and a little bad language.

Another LOTR Read-Along: A Journey in the Dark (FOTR 2, 4)

A quick house-keeping note:  Starting today, I will be bumping our pace up to at least 3 chapters a week.  I got very busy AND very lazy over the holidays, but I'm back into the swing of real life now, so we will not be meandering through these books anymore, but marching steadily along.  (I hope.)

Every time I read this chapter, I decide I should thereafter sign everything as "one stray wanderer from the South" (p. 288). Totally my favorite description of Boromir. Just so you know.

This chapter has lots of exciting parts, with the wolves, and then the watcher in the water, and then all the wandering around in Moria. And once again, I don't have lots to say. Hmm. And yet, this and the previous chapter are one of my favorite sections of the book.

Gandalf says that he "once knew every spell in all the tongues of Elves or Men or Orcs" (p. 299) that were used to open enchanted doors. So... there must have been a lot of enchanted doors around at one time, and they've just fallen into disuse?  Why?  I mean, if I had an enchanted door that you could only open with the right password, I think I'd keep using it. Sounds very handy in case of a siege, for instance. Or for stockpiling Christmas presents where the kids couldn't get at them.

Once Gandalf figures out how to open the Doors of Durin, he says, "Of course, of course! Absurdly simple" (p. 300). This makes me laugh, not for a LOTR-related reason, but because there's a moment in the Sherlock Holmes story "The Dancing Men" where Holmes doesn't want to explain to Watson how he deduced something because he says that once he explains, Watson will say, "How absurdly simple!" Watson insists that he won't, Holmes explains, and then Watson cries, "How absurdly simple!" It's a funny moment in the story, and particularly funny in the Jeremy Brett TV show version. So just thought I'd share :-)

Also, the welcome mat by our front door says "Speak friend and enter."  Because we're cool like that.  

Favorite Lines:

"However it may prove, one must tread the path that need chooses!" (p. 289)

"The wolf that one hears is worse than the orc that one fears" (p. 290).

"That was an eye-opener, and no mistake!" (p. 291)

In the dark at the rear, grim and silent, walked Aragorn (p. 302).

Discussion Questions:

Aragorn is almost always at the rear of their procession. Why? What does that tell us about him?

How does Tolkien use Sam's devotion to Bill the pony to deepen him as a character and help us get to know him? And to know what to expect of him later in the story?

My YearS in Middle Earth

You may recall that I decided that 2017 would be My Year in Middle-earth.  I planned to re-read LOTR and whatever other Middle-earth-related things that came my way.  And I think I did fairly well, though my re-read of LOTR got suspended for a while because I decided to use it for my niece's high school lit class this year.  She and I are almost finished with The Two Towers, and our class together has been such a joy.

Besides re-reading half of the trilogy, in 2017 I read:

J. R. R. Tolkien: Mind of a Genius

Wizards, Hobbits, and Harry Potter edited by Mark Whitlock

Finding God in the Lord of the Rings by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware

The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power by Jane Chance


And besides teaching LOTR to my niece, I went ahead and started a new read-along of the trilogy here on my blog.  It slowed down a lot over the holidays, but we'll be picking it up again tomorrow at a much brisker pace, I promise.

But it comes to this:  I have a lot of Middle-earth-related books that I haven't even touched yet.  We have almost a full shelf of books by and about Tolkien:

Some of those are extra copies of certain books, but many of them are cool commentaries, history books from Middle-earth, and so on -- and I've barely scratched the surface of most of them.  

So I am extending my time in Middle-earth!  Instead of a one-year personal challenge, I'm going to make it last for two years.  And I hope to share reviews of at least four more of the books on this shelf with you over the course of 2018.

My Ten Favorite Books of 2017

As is my wont, I've compiled a list of the ten books I liked best of all the ones I read this year.  You can read my previous years' lists here: 2016, 2015, and 2014.  (I do a similar thing with movies, and my 2017 list for those is here on my other blog.)

I read and reviewed 56 books this year, plus I know I read a couple more that I never got around to reviewing.  I've split this list into two parts, as usual -- those I've read before and those that were new to me.  

These are in alphabetical order because I don't feel like getting them into a favoritey sort of order.  Titles are linked to my reviews.  Here we go!

New to Me

As You Wish by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden -- I got to see The Princess Bride (1987) on the big screen thanks to TCM and Fathom Events this fall, so it felt like the perfect time to finally read Elwes' memoir about the filming.  I want to own a copy.

The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay -- I liked it, then I was frustrated by it, then I liked it again, and by the end, I loved it.  Currently vying with A Portrait of Emily Price for the distinction of being my favorite Katherine Reay book.

Every Frenchman Has One by Olivia de Havilland -- hilarious, heart-warming, and adorable.

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis -- even better than I expected.

A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley -- one of the funniest fiction books I read all year!

The Story People by Heather Kaufman -- sweet and charming.  I've already pre-ordered Kaufman's next book, Loving Isaac.

The Usurper's Throne by Charity Bishop -- engrossing and thrilling.  I can't wait for the next book.

Re-reads

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler -- my favorite author, what more can I say?

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien -- Enchanting as always -- this was my seventh time reading it.  (Though we're only about halfway through it for the read-along, I started it back in August for my niece's lit class, so I'm done reading it already.)

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald -- I like this on better every time I read it.


How about you?  What wonderful books did you discover or re-read in 2017?

Mount TBR Reading Challenge 2017 Wrap-Up and 2018 Sign-Up

I did it!  I achieved my goal of "climbing Pike's Peak" by reading 12 books off my TBR pile as it existed before January 1, 2017.  (I read lots of other books I owned last year too, but they were ones I bought during the year, not ones I'd already owned before the challenge started.)  I'm really pleased by this.  My TBR pile isn't just a pile, it's a whole bookcase in my basement that is stacked to overflowing with books I haven't read yet.  Sometimes it makes me despair.  Completing this challenge gives me hope that yes, I will be able to read all those books.  Eventually.

My Reader's Block, the blog that hosts this challenge, has provided a fun little "Words to the Wise" thing to try to fill out with titles from the books read for the challenge this year.  Here goes:

A stitch in time saves The Song of the Ean
Don't count your chickens before Finding God in the Lord of the Rings
All good things must come (when) Montana Rides!
When in Rome, Every Frenchman Has One
All that glitters is not The Lord of the Rings: The Mythology of Power
A picture is worth a thousand Screwtape Letters
When the going gets tough, the tough get The Jane Austen Guide to Life
Two wrongs don't make Skipping Christmas right
The pen is mightier (when wielded by) Luther (Biography of a Reformer)
The squeaky wheel gets Echoes of Sherlock Holmes
Hope for the best, but prepare for Wizards, Hobbits, and Harry Potter
Birds of a feather flock (to the) House of Living Stones

That was amusing and fun!  

And I am hereby signing up to do this challenge again in 2018, again challenging myself to read 12 of the books currently languishing on my TBR bookcase.  If you want to join too, you can sign up right here.

Another LOTR Read-Along: The Ring Goes South (FOTR 2, 3)

The fellowship sets out at last, and I start to feel that the story is truly getting started. A lot happens here, and yet I don't have a lot to say. The bit on Caradhras is very exciting.

I spend a lot of time there being impressed by Boromir, of course. He's the one who suggests bringing wood. He's the one who worries that the snow will be "the death of the halflings" (p. 283). He's the one who suggests creating a path back down through the snow for the others to follow. And then he suggests carrying the hobbits through the path. So the last few pages of this chapter in my copy are full of little smiley faces in the margins, and the occasional heart. And sometimes a heart with a smiley face inside it if I'm particularly pleased.

I'm heartily amused by Legolas too, running around on top of the snow and making little jokes.

Favorite Lines:

"Books ought to have good endings" (p. 266).

Health and hope grew strong in them, and they were content with each good day as it came, taking pleasure in every meal, and in every word and song (p. 267).

"May the stars shine upon your faces!" (p. 274).

Discussion Questions:

Gandalf seems to possibly blame Sauron for the freak storm, but Gimli blames Caradhras itself. What/who do you think caused the storm? (In the movie, it's Saruman, but that doesn't seem to be an option in the book.)

Do you agree with Bilbo that books ought to have good endings? If so, what do you consider to be a "good ending"?

The Annotated-by-the-Author Giveaway!

Hey, guess what?  FOUR authors (including me) are running the coolest-ever giveaway right now.  We call it the Annotated-by-the-Author Giveaway... because we're each giving away a copy of our latest book which has been personally annotated by the author.  

That means the author of each book has inserted notes (I used sticky notes, and I'm assuming the others did similar things) into the book giving you all kinds of cool information about the story.  I don't know what the others are doing, but for Cloaked, I wrote about name choices, historical details, plot choices, and more.

Each author is also going to include some little surprises in the box.  So the winners will basically get a cool little subscription box, but for free instead of having to pay a subscription fee.

You can enter this giveaway right here or on my other blog, where I've provided more details about the books and authors.  Enjoy!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(This is open to US addresses only.)