Another LOTR Read-Along: Helm's Deep (TTT 3, 7)

Another favorite chapter! It's funny -- I get kind of tired of the Helm's Deep section in the movies, but in the book? It's stellar! The movie goes on and on and on, but in the book it's only like fifteen pages and so brilliant.

If you ever want to write a suspenseful action scene where the tension and excitement spiral tighter and tighter, and you're looking for an example of a scene that does exactly that, read this chapter. By the end of it, I'm in goosebumps. I'm in goosebumps just typing about it! The horn starts blasting, Theoden and Aragorn ride forth, and then we see the trees. And Erkenbrand. And Gandalf. It's amazing. I might cry with joy.

(That's Gandalf arriving on Shadowfax -- it looks better on my TV. Hmm.)

Anyway, so much to love in this chapter. Helm's Deep itself is a cool fortress place, and I love how Gimli stamps around rhapsodizing about the good bones the mountain has. He felt out of place in the forest, but now he's right at home, and its Legolas' turn to feel out of place. Cracks me up.

And yes, a forest marched over here during the night. We'll learn more about that in the next chapter, but basically, it's not only the Ents who have gone to war; some of the trees have too.

Favorite Lines:

Even as they looked he was gone: a flash of silver in the sunset, a wind over the grass, a shadow that fled and passed from sight (p. 516).

"Trust not to secret ways," said the king (p. 517).

"Give me a row of orc-necks and room to swing and all weariness will fall from me!" (p. 520).

"...oft the unbidden guest proves the best company" (p. 522).

"None knows what the new day shall bring him," said Aragorn (p. 527).

Discussion Questions:

Do you find the eleventh-hour arrival of Gandalf, Erkenbrand, and the forest all together to be totally awesome, or a little too convenient?

How do you think the battle would have gone if any one of those three had not shown up?

International Book-Giving Day Giveaway

Yup!  I'm giving away six books in honor of International Book-Giving Day, which is February 14.  So from now through February 13, you can enter to win one of these books, using the widget below.  I'll pick six winners on February 14 and give away these six books!

+ F. Scott Fitzgerald On Writing edited by Larry W. Phillips.  A collection of things Fitzgerald wrote in letters, articles, and his books that involve the writing process.  I reviewed it here.

+ Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh.  A contemplation of what it means to be creative and a woman.  This book touches me deeply and also inspires me.

+ Aspects of the Novel by E. M. Forster.  This is a guide for writers, and I haven't read it yet, but I hear it's awesome.  I have a copy on my own TBR shelf right now.

+ Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love AND Money by Holly Lisle.  I have learned more about writing from Holly Lisle's classes than I have from all the other books, classes, and editorial advice I've encountered.  This book is a collection of essays, workshops, quizzes, and how-to articles.

+ Flashes of Splashes by Elizabeth McCleary.  A collection of water-themed flash fiction.  I reviewed it here.

+ The Trials of Sherlock Holmes by James Moffett.  A collection of new Sherlock Holmes stories.  I reviewed it here.

All of these books are gently used.  The copies shown above are the actual copies I am giving away.  The Rafflecopter widget will choose one winner for each of these books on February 14, and I will then alert the winners via the email address they have provided to this widget, so be sure to use an email address you check regularly.  If I don't hear back from a winner within one week, I will disqualify them and choose a new winner.

This giveaway is open world-wide.  No purchase necessary, void where prohibited, and all that jazz.  I do my best to match winners with a prize they will enjoy, but I can't always make that work with the winners the widget picks, just so you know. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top Ten Tuesday: It's Been a Long, Long Time

This week's TTT topic, as set forth by That Artsy Reader Girl, is: Top Ten Books That Have Been on my To-Read List the Longest.

I got a little spiral-bound book about the time I graduated from college that I used to keep track of all the books I wanted to read.  Before that, I'd had my list on scraps of paper and in my head, but that was the first time I jotted them down in one spot.  That book looked just like this one:

(Thank you, Pinterest)

I still have that book, being a good little pack-rat, so here are the first ten books in it that I have not yet read:

Death Comes to the Archbishop 

by Willa Cather

From Here to Eternity

by James Jones

Plainsong

by Kent Haruf

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Private Investigating

by Steve Brown

Never Accept Candy from Strangers Unless They Let You Ride in Their Car

by Lawrence Russell

Jonathon Strange and Mr. Norrell

by Susanna Clarke

Shakespeare Well-Versed

by James Muirden

The Scarlet Pimpernel 

by Baroness Orczy

Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

Hamlet's Perfection 

by William Kerrigan

I still have hopes of reading all of these some day!  Especially Death Comes to the Archbishop and The Scarlet Pimpernel -- I even own copies of those, so really hoping to get to them sooner rather than later.

That's it for this edition of Top Ten Tuesday.  Tell me, have you read any of these?  Are any of them on your own TBR list?  Did you do a TTT post this week? 

International Book-Giving Day Exists!

My friends, I have discovered a glorious truth:  International Book-Giving Day is a real thing!  It has a website and everything.

You may have noticed that I love hosting giveaways.  There is no way I was going to let an event like this go past without giving away some books.  Not now that I know it exists.  So, yes, I'm going to host a book giveaway here on The Edge of the Precipice.  It'll start later this week, and I'll draw the winners on Feb. 14.  Stay tuned for details!

(And yes, I'll also be hosting a totally separate giveaway next week as part of my We Love Superheroes Week on my other blog, Hamlette's Soliloquy.  The Post Office is going to love me this month.)

Another LOTR Read-Along: The King of the Golden Hall (TTT 3, 6)

Here we are at last! Edoras! It doesn't really look in the movie the way Tolkien describes it (there's not much grass that I can see, for one thing), but it's so awesome in both that I totally don't care.

Are you reminded of Obi-Wan Kenobi when Gandalf and company first arrive at Edoras? Gandalf tells the guard to go announce their arrival, and then he stares hard at the guard until the man slowly says he will go announce them. It always reminds me of Obi-Wan saying, "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Theoden joins the ranks of those that lament Boromir's passing, you'll notice. Warms my heart.

And here we meet Eowyn! My favorite female character in LOTR, by far. Wormtongue obviously has been creepily stalking her, which her brother Eomer has been wanting to do something about, but because Wormtongue has had more favor with Theoden King than Eomer for quite a while now, Eomer's mostly just had to glower in silence. I would assume he's also been having members of his household keep an eye on her whenever he's been gone, to make sure Wormtongue hasn't done more than be creepy from afar. That's speculation on my part, though.

Poor Eowyn has spent the last few years waiting on her uncle as he grows old and weak under Wormtongue's influence. And now here comes this man with kingly bearing and great power, Aragorn -- is it any wonder she's a bit starstruck in his presence? We've gotten kind of used to Aragorn, like the hobbits, and forget that he's actually really important, but Eowyn sees his veiled majesty right away. And for his part, Aragorn sees that she is beautiful and has a power of her own, but of course, his heart belongs to Arwen. That's why he's troubled when Eowyn offers him a drink and trembles when their fingers touch -- he knows then that she's developed a crush on him. Now he has to figure out how to deal with that.

A line that struck me during this reading was a bit of Gandalf's advice to Theoden. He tells the king "[t]o do the deed at hand" (p. 507). I love that advice. When I'm super busy and starting to stress out, I make myself slow down and just do the next useful thing. For instance, when I'm packing for a trip, I often spend a day gathering everything that we need and gradually packing them in various suitcases and bags, and that can be a stressful and overwhelming day if I focus on all the stuff I need to do all at once. But if I just keep finishing one task and then starting the next, it all gets done. Maybe I should make a sign that says, "Do the deed at hand" for my kitchen or something.

And I want to particularly mention one line, which I think is the coolest description of a horse ever: "Were the breath of the West Wind to take a body visible, even so would it appear" (p. 513). Why, Eomer! How poetic you are today!

Favorite Lines:

"A king will have his way in his own hall, be it folly or wisdom" (p. 499).

"...in doubt a man of worth will trust to his own wisdom" (p. 500).

"The wise speak only of what they know" (p. 503).

Discussion Questions:

Tolkien describes Grima Wormtongue as having "a pale wise face" (p. 501). Do you think this means Grima does have some wisdom in him somewhere? Or does he only appear to be wise?

How do you think Aragorn should approach the problem of Eowyn's interest in him?

"Jane of Lantern Hill" by L. M. Montgomery

Rejoice with me, my friends!  I've finished reading my allotment of entries to judge for the Five Poisoned Apples contest, and I am now going to devour some books, starting with this one that I began simply weeks ago.

There's something so comfortingly optimistic about most of Montgomery's novels, isn't there?  I mean, many of them begin absolutely horribly, with some wonderful girl stuck in a grim life, surrounded by people who don't love her or understand her or take care of her.  Or all three.  But there's the promise of hope and better things on the horizon.  At least, in most of the Montgomery books I've read -- honestly, until I was out of college, I'd only ever read the 8 Anne of Green Gables books.  In my twenties, I read the Emily of New Moon books, which I liked okay.  But it wasn't until I got into book blogging a few years ago that I started hearing about her other books and getting interested in reading them too.  

So anyway, I really liked Jane of Lantern Hill.  I've put it on my wish list.  

Jane lives a cheerless life, reminding me a bit of The Child from Anne of Windy Poplars mixed with Valancy Stirling of The Blue Castle.  She's being raised by her mother, grandmother, and maiden aunt in a gloomy, hostile old house.  Her mother loves her, so at least she has that, but she's constantly squelched and belittled by her grandmother and aunt.  Then her life changes forever -- and decidedly for the better -- when her estranged father sends for her, and she spends her summer with him on Prince Edward Island (enchanted realm that we all know it to be), where she becomes a real person instead of a scared little shadow.

It's also got an interesting bit of meditation on how parents shouldn't get so wrapped up in their children that they neglect their spouses.  And also that spouses shouldn't get jealous of the way their spouse loves their child.  I would have liked to see that developed even more, but what was there was very nice as it is.

I could never decide, though, if I wanted Glenn Ford or Tom Hiddleston to play Jane's father.  'Tis a puzzlement.

Particularly Good Bits:

...if you couldn't be loved, the next best thing was to be let alone (p. 43).

"It is the essence of adventure to see the break of a new day, Jane" (p. 125).

The lion did not seem to have any intention of going away.  He came in, looked about him, and lay down in a patch of sunshine with the air of a lion who had any amount of spare time (p. 173).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  G.  Clean, wholesome, and delightful.

This is my 14th book read and reviewed for the Classics Club and my first for the OldSchool KidLit Reading Challenge 2018.

Another LOTR Read-Along: The White Rider (TTT 3, 5)

And so Gandalf returns, with Tolkien melding the scenes of Christ's Resurrection and Transfiguration into one when a returned-from-the-dead Gandalf appears to his followers in shining white robes with eyes "piercing as the rays of the sun." This is the only place where the book that is "neither allegorical nor topical" (p. xvi) strikes me as a bit heavy-handed with the religious imagery (even more so than in "In the House of Tom Bombadil")... and I don't mind it a bit! Huh.

So... Gandalf is back, we're all going to Edoras, hooray!

Favorite Lines:

"That would not baffle a Ranger," said Gimli. "A bent blade is enough for Aragorn to read" (p. 477).

"Few can foresee whither their road will lead them, till they come to its end" (p. 481).

"It was not in vain that the young hobbits came with us, if only for Boromir's sake" (p. 485).

"A thing is about to happen which has not happened since the Elder Days: the Ents are going to wake up and find that they are strong" (p. 488).

"Go where you must go, and hope!" (p. 489).

Discussion Questions:

Gandalf says of Sauron: "That we should wish to cast him down and have no one in his place is not a thought that occurs to his mind" (p. 485-6). Does that ever seem a little convenient to you? That Sauron hasn't even considered that they might all want to be totally free?

Gandalf says that he has returned "at the turn of the tide. The great storm is coming, but the tide has turned" (p. 484). What do you think he speaks of, that has turned the tide? Is it himself returning, more powerful than before? Or Frodo making up his mind to take the ring into Mordor and not to Minas Tirith?