Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 7

"Ride the Dark Trail" by Louis L'Amour

I'm coming close to the end of my personal "My Years with the Sacketts" challenge.  Only one true Sackett novel left, and one that's tangentially related (or so they tell me).  
Ride the Dark Trail is a galloping good time.  You've got Em Talon, a fiery old woman holding off a host of greedy landgrabbers.  You've got Logan Sackett, a somewhat shiftless gunfighter discovering he's related to the old woman and coming to her aid.  You've got the Sackett version of the Bat Signal going up, and the Sa...

"The Solitary Summer" by Elizabeth von Arnim

I didn't realize until I started reading it that this is a sequel to Elizabeth and Her German Garden.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that was the case!  It was published a year after Garden and has a similar playful, refreshing feel.  And it shares the fact that it's written as if it is nonfiction, but is actually highly fictionalized.  
Elizabeth decides she wants to spend a summer in solitude, which her husband (always referred to as the Man of Wrath even though he comes off as fairly ge...

"King of the Wind" by Marguerite Henry

It's funny -- I remember this being one of my favorite books as a youngster... but I only remembered the first third or so of it.  As far as I could recall, the whole thing took place in the Middle East, but that's not true at all!  Most of it takes place in France and England.  Huh.
King of the Wind tells a fictionalized version of the life of the Godolphin Arabian, a horse whose bloodline runs through a huge number of race horses right down to modern day.  Both Secretariat and Man O'War came fr...

Wrapping Up the 2024 Tolkien Blog Party + Giveaway Winners

Thank you for joining me in celebrating J. R. R. Tolkien and his creations with me this week!  I'm sharing the link-up here one last time so you can easily find each others' posts without scrolling back and back through my feed.  Also, the party runs through today, so you are welcome to still add new post links to this!

And now, the winners of this year's giveaway!
Prize One: The Fellowship of the Ring audiobook on CD read by Andy Serkis -- Makenna Marie
Prize Two: 2 Shire Pub Sign Stickers -- Beth...

Answers to the Ladies of Middle-Earth Unscramble

Here are the answers to Tuesday's game!  And everyone's scores are below.
1. newar steervan = Arwen Evenstar
2. onewy = Eowyn
3. sireo noctot = Rosie Cotton
4. anblerice = Celebrian
5. heriot = Ioreth
6. hitlune livenuti = Luthien Tinuviel
7. dragaliel = Galadriel
8. glewin = Elwing
9. greboldry = Goldberry
10. beliola lackviles-gangbis = Lobelia Sackville-Baggins
11. ilrange = Gilraen
12. anavyan = Yavanna

SCORES
Rosa -- 12Olivia -- 11Fundy Blue -- 10Ivy Miranda -- 10Miranda -- 6

Answers to Who Said It? Quotation Quiz

Here are the answers to Monday's game!  Everyone's scores are at the bottom of this post.  Thanks for playing!
1.  "It was a compliment, and so, of course, not true." (Merry Brandybuck, The Fellowship of the Ring)
2.  "Yet dawn is ever the hope of men." (Aragorn, The Two Towers)
3.  "I have never allowed anyone to stand me on my head." (Pippin Took, The Return of the King)
4.  "Short cuts make delays, but inns make longer ones." (Frodo Baggins, The Fellowship of the Ring)
5.  "Faithless is he that sa...

Over the River and Through the Woods: A Party Game

One last game for this year's Tolkien Blog Party!  I hope you've all been enjoying the festivities thus far, and I look forward to catching up on reading all your posts soon.  But, for now, let's play a storytelling game!

All you need to play this game is a six-sided die (or an online number generator that will give you results between 1 and 6).  Simply roll your die once for each question, and the number you roll determines the path your adventure takes.

Who are You?
What Middle-earth group do you...

Ladies of Middle-Earth Unscramble

By popular demand (okay, two people demanded it), our second game this week is an unscramble!  I'm muddled up the names of 12 women from J. R. R. Tolkien's books about Middle-earth.  These include The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings.  Some of these will be easy, some will be hard.  (To be clear, I did not include any characters who appear in the movies but not the books, such as Bard the Bowman's daughters.)
1. newar steervan
2. onewy
3. sireo noctot
4. anblerice
5. heriot
6. hitlu...

Who Said It? Quotation Quiz

Welcome to our first game for the 2024 Tolkien Blog Party!
Below are twelve quotations from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien.  They were all spoken by members of the Fellowship of the Ring.  Your challenge is to figure out who said each one.  (These are all from the books, though some are used in the movies too.)
Put your guesses in a comment on this post.  (I've put all comments on full moderation so I can hide your answers until the end of the party, so no one will be tempted to cheat.)...

The Tolkien Blog Party 2024 Kick-Off Post + Tag

Greetings!  Welcome to my twelfth annual Tolkien Blog Party!

Let me explain how this sort of BYOBP (Bring Your Own Blog Post) party works, in case you haven't participated before, or it's been a while, whatever.  I will provide a couple of games for you to play (starting tomorrow), a giveaway (which you can enter here), and the official party tag (see below). 
Everything else is up to you party goers!  Everyone gets to share posts on their own blogs that relate somehow to J. R. R. Tolkien or his c...