Meanwhile, in Rivendell . . .

Well, today is the last day of  Abigail's C. S. Lewis Week , and it also happens to be the birthday of Jack himself.  (I didn't actually know that, so thanks for the info, Abby! :D) I thought perhaps I'd attempt a "commemorative post" for the last day/his birthday.  We shall see how it goes;) C. S. Lewis is my favorite author.  Have I announced that before?  Probably, I just don't remember it.  Well, now you all know (just in case the title didn't clue you in).  Lewis is my favorite, and not just because of Narnia.  I LOVE Narnia, especially the first movie and the books The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy , but sometimes I think that people judge Lewis's "depth" solely off the Chronicles, and that just MAKES ME MAD.  (I know, I know, I said all this yesterday.  Just stay with me.) Y'see, I've encountered this a couple times:  people compare Lewis to Tolkien, which I don't think is fair or legitimate in t...

Here I am to answer  the questions  Abigail put together for Lewis Week (hey, better late than never, right?)! I apologize (ish) in advance for the superfluity of Narnia pictures, particularly those pertaining to "The Call." ;) 1. How did you hear about C. S. Lewis? I can't remember not hearing about him, if you know what I mean.  I grew up on the older (and yes, fairly stereotyped as pretty bad) BBC movies, of which I do really like The Silver Chair , but which, other than that, I can do without.  And then I read the Narnia books, of course, and stuff kind of happened from there;)  2. What was the first of his books that you read? The first?  Hmm…probably The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe . 3. Which one of his book(s) is your favorite? He's my favorite author!  How can you ask me to pick a favorite??  Actually, it's okay.  Um…I think Till We Have Faces wins.   Mere Christianity , The Magician's Nephew , and T...

Since you all were so kind as to give my  television couples post  a wonderfully warm reception, here I am with my suggested book-ship post! :)  The same caveats apply:  these are by no means all the couples I ship from books, and I must admit that most of the ships I'll list here actually sunk, but no matter.  Hope you enjoy!  I tried to pick those couples that were not totally obvious or that I didn't know from the beginning would end up together (case in point, there are no LotR ships in this post).  Let's get started, shall we? Be aware:  spoilers, of course, follow;) Julie Wallace and Graham Gillin (I think that was his last name?) From:   Julie by Catherine Marshall I was disappointed that Julie did not end up with Graham at the close of Julie .  (Of course, I was a bit disappointed in that whole book, but that is nothing to the purpose.)  I think the relationship between Julie and Graham had the most depth to i...

GUYS.  So my friend  Abigail  is hosting a C. S. Lewis party (mayhap you've noticed the button on my sidebar?) this week, November 22-29, the latter date happening to be the beloved author's birthday! I got very excited when I heard about it, because, hello,  Lewis .  I don't know how much I'll be able to participate in the party post-wise, but I at least wanted to contribute this--very short--review of (probably) my favorite Lewis book:   Till We Have Faces . (Originally posted on Goodreads; I've made minor adjustments.) This book is the one that solidified Lewis's place as my favorite author. (Mere Christianity started the process, though.) What blew me away was the utter complexity of his writing (and also his impressive flexibility and aptitude in being able to change his style for his various books). The first time I read it, I didn't know "where he was going with it," so to speak, and when I reached the end I was floored by the powe...

Recently, I've been privileged to get to know  Cordy .  I'm so glad we met!  Her blog is delightful and a lovely addition to the blogosphere:) And guess what?!  She's started this three-part tag  all about Christmas music, and she tagged me! Well.  You know me;) If I understand this correctly, each installment of the tag will have a different theme:  Ice Skating, Santa Claus, and Jesus' Birth (are those the right ones?).  Anyway, today's is ice skating , but this basically just means newer Christmas songs--as in, non-traditional, non-hymn songs.  Since Cordy has allowed us to interpret it that way, that's how I'm gonna do it;)  (And I'm going to steal her idea of including pretty ice skating pictures.) Rules 1.)  Link back to the person who tagged you 2.)  List up to five holiday songs that meet the current category (for today, 'ice skating') 3.)  Tag up to five other bloggers and let them know that you ...

I may step on a few toes in this post.  Just be prepared;) SO.  If you've been following my blog for any length of time, you probably know that I am a rather fanatical lover of the BBC show Robin Hood .  I've reviewed all three seasons, I'm in the process of driving my mother crazy by pestering her about watching it with me, and few other stories get me quite as emotionally "stirred up" as RH.  (To which anyone who knows me really well will scoff.) I love the storyline, the different twists on the original legends, and I love the characters. Marian, especially, is one of my favorites out of them all. I know Marian irritates some people, and I understand that (partially), but I really love this gal, so I wanted to share the reasons why with you all!:) One of the chief complaints I think people have with Lucy Griffith's portrayal of Marian is that they think she's this hugely politically correct character, a deference to the feministic commu...

Is this not like the coolest movie poster everrrrr? "You see many stories where the woman says, 'We love you, guys, no matter what you look like,' so I wanted a story where it was giving the women the same."         ~ Leslie Caveny, writer for Penelope Christina Ricci stars as Penelope, a lonely heiress who has spent her entire life trying to break a strange family curse that left her with the nose of a pig.  When she meets a charming aristocrat, James McAvoy, who seems to see beyond her physical appearance, Penelope begins to learn that loving herself is more important than breaking the curse. (I did not write the above summary; it came from the back of the DVD, and I excluded the parentheses where they tell you the other movies in which the actors have acted.  I didn't feel like coming up with an introduction, so I decided to plagiarize.  Usually works;D) I don't know how my family first came by this movie, but I'm glad we did! ...

I don't know why it's taken me so long to get around to this!  My friend  Erudessa  put together a new blog meme known as the Memory Nest, and she kindly asked me if I'd be interested in getting it going! Needless to say, I was;) Here's what's what (taken from her blog via Emma's post , because apparently I can't find Erudessa's original post): Instead of having to answer questions or tell random facts about yourself {like a normal tag} you make up random nonsense that starts with: 'When I grow up and have my own house' And then list a random fact. It can be true example: 'When I grow up and have my own house, I am going to learn to play the Violin', or serious, 'When I grow up and have my own house, I want and Old English Garden with a sun dial' or complete nonsense like, 'When I grow up and have my own house, I am going to make a different chocolate dessert everyday.' Instead of an 'awards tag' it's a...

Here I am to share my selection for  Heidi's November edition of Inkling Explorations !  The theme for this month: ~ a giving of thanks in prose or poetry ~ And my choice comes from The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien!  (Natalie, DON'T READ THIS!  If you don't already know what happens in RotK, that is, and don't wish to know.) …Is Natalie/whoever else doesn't want LotR spoilers gone? Okay, then.  We can proceed;) This passage comes after the Ring has been cast into the fires of Orodruin, and Sam and Frodo awake to find themselves rescued and in the camp of Aragorn in…Ithilien, I think.  Sam is disoriented at first, but at being reunited with Gandalf, all the toils and sorrows of his heavy journey begin to fall away, and his out-gushing of relief and exhilaration reach a robust crescendo throughout the whole latter part of the chapter.  It's all joyous and exuberant and wonderful, but for the sake of brevity I must limit it to t...

I did it!  I finished…the first shelf.  Approximately…oh, well, I guess it was only about a month after I posted the initial  Bookshelf Project  low-down.  It felt longer; I'm not a very fast reader;)  AND, I now rather want to join Lois's  12 Month Classics Challenge  for 2016, and if it's going to take me an average of a month per shelf, I need to get down to business to defeat the Huns  hasten (because a queen never rushes, she hastens). Let's do this, shall we?  (I'm afraid this will be one of those parenthetical, gif-filled, link-overdosed posts that might be irritating to certain constitutions.  Abject apologies and all that.) But anyway.  Thoughts on the first shelf!  (Just so you know, I add new novels to the Bookshelf Project as I get them, so several have been added since September.) Those I finished : A Lantern in Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich.  This one was really good.  I know y...