Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 41

Middle-earth Food Quiz: A Party Game

Tolkien's books are full of food.  I get hungry just reading them!  This particular quiz tests whether or not specific foods are mentioned in either The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings -- the BOOKS.  Not whether they appear in the movies, but whether Tolkien mentioned them in those two books, meaning they do exist canonically in Middle-earth.

You just have to say "yes" if they are mentioned, and "no" if they aren't!

1. Apples
2. Bacon
3. Blackberries
4. Butter
5. Cheese
6. Chocolate
7. Coffee
8. Eggs
9. Garli...

Meet Me in Middle-earth: A Party Game

Want to hang out with me in Middle-earth for a day or two?  Wouldn't that be an absolute dream?  Well, we can imagine we're doing just that, using the following to determine where we'll meet and what we'll do.  Share your adventure in the comments so we can all enjoy!

Location

Where do you and I meet up?  Your favorite warm beverage determines our adventure's location:

Coffee = Minas TirithTea = HobbitonHot Chocolate = RivendellHot Apple Cider = EdorasChai = LothlorienMulled wine = Moria
Other = The...

A Tolkien Blog Party 2021 -- Kick-Off Post + Tag

Welcome, hobbits and humans, elves and dwarves, and all free peoples!  Welcome to the ninth annual Tolkien Blog Party.

Nine is such a significant number in Lord of the Rings.  There are nine companions in the fellowship of the Ring, nine Nazgul, and so on.  I'm really excited that this event has been so long-lived!  I look forward to hosting it every year.  I collect up prizes for the giveaway for months.  It's such a delight to share the love of Tolkien's storytelling with you, year after year!

S...

Giveaway for Tolkien Blog Party 2021

Since this is the ninth annual Tolkien Blog Party, I am giving away nine prizes!  Here are details:

Prize 1: A camp-style mug that says Gandalf's line "Go where you must go, and hope," which I purchased from Crab Apple Books and More
Prize 2: A "leaf of Lorien" pin/necklace -- the leaf has a pinback, but is also on a chain, so you can wear it either way
Prize 3: A pack of Lord of the Rings-themed playing cards
Prize 4: A "Bag End" bookmark I purchased from Austens and Alcotts

Prize 5: A sheet of Midd...

Mid-Year Book Freak-Out Tag (2021)

Yeah, yeah, it's the end of August, so we're past the true middle of the year, but whatever.  I saw this on Coffee, Classics, and Craziness, and again on I'm Charles Baker Harris (And I Can Read), and it looked fun, so I'm doing it too :-D  Because I haven't done a tag in like... months.  And I love tags.

I'm linking all titles to my own blog reviews when available.  All pictures are mine from my Instagram account.

Best book you’ve read so far in 2021:  This is very hard because I've read/reread s...

"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas

I haven't read the full text of this book since I was eleven.  Thirty years ago, I fell in love with Edmond Dantes, and this book has been in my top 3 ever since.  When I was a teen, I bought my own copy.  I reread it.  And I was a little confused because I remembered things about the story that seemed to be missing.  Like all this stuff about a baby in a box.  I finally decided I'd just confused The Count of Monte Cristo with some other book, and shrugged it off. 

It wasn't until a few years ago...

"On These Black Sands" by Vanessa Rasanen

This book is SUCH a fun time!  I was a little bit hesitant about it because I kept reading reviews that said "this book destroyed me," and I honestly am not particularly a fan of books that leave me feeling destroyed.  As you may have gathered from my recent rant about Summer by Edith Wharton.  However, happily, On These Black Sands did NOT destroy me.  It did leave me reeeeeeally wanting more, but I know Vanessa Rasanen is working on book two already, so I will be patient :-D  I am confident it...

"The Alpine Path" by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This was a fun little book.  It's kind of a memoir of Montgomery's writing journey up to 1917, when she wrote it.  Originally, these memories were published in several installments in Everywoman's World, and later collected into one slim volume.

This was a fairly enlightening read, if only because it shows you how Montgomery wanted her life and her work to be viewed.  I have read enough about her actual history to know that her childhood was not a particularly happy one, and I got the impression ...

"Summer" by Edith Wharton

I don't think I'm going to be an Edith Wharton fan.  In fact, after reading Summer, I took two more of her novels off my TBR shelves and put them in the sell-to-the-used-bookstore box in the basement.  Between reading this book and Ethan Frome , and reading a pretty detailed synopsis of both The Age of Innocence and House of Mirth, I have discovered that she really liked to write books about characters in bleak situations with no hope of a good outcome for their lives, with all their options bein...

"The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick

Did I pick this up off the shelf at the library in the Junior Fiction section solely because the title is a nod to Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea?  Yes, yes, I did.  And then I read the whole thing in one sitting and enjoyed myself thoroughly!

While this does eventually retell Hemingway's story in a way, the first half of the book is totally different. Twelve-year-old Skiff's mother died recently, and his father is sunk deep into depression because of that.  Skiff tries to figure out ...