Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 80

Another LOTR Read-Along: The Choices of Master Samwise (TTT 4, 10)

How far we have come. More specifically, how far Samwise Gamgee has come. He began as a humble gardener, a simple hobbit, but now, thanks to his "indomitable spirit" (p. 713) and his rage over what has happened to his dear Master Frodo, he not only faces down a terrifying monster, he prevails against her with "a fury... greater than any she had known in countless years" (p. 711).

And yet, once Shelob disappears, so does Sam's sudden transformation. "Sam was left alone," (p. 713) and as he knee...

Top Ten Tuesday: It Might as Well be Spring

This week's TTT prompt from That Artsy Reader Girl is "Top ten books on your spring TBR list."  Here we go!

The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula K. LeGuin

Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather


Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War by Joseph Loconte


Loving Isaac by Heather Kaufman

MatchUp edited by Lee Child


A Pioneer Woman's Memoir: Based on the Journal of Arabella Clemens Fulton

Prelude for a Lord by Camille...

Another LOTR Read-Along: Shelob's Lair (TTT 4, 9)

You'd think this would be one of my least-favorite chapters, what with this having a giant spider in it and me loathing spiders so much. But actually, I find it quite exciting. Maybe it's just the change after all that endless walking and climbing? It helps that even though the text talks about her enormous legs and that she's spider-like, my imagination kind of turns her more into a crab and saves me from getting too creeped out.

Anyway, I think I'm never fonder of Frodo than I am here, when...

Guest Post: I am No Man, but I'm Still Important

(Note from Hamlette:  This is an essay my niece wrote for the high school literature class I'm teaching her.  It's so good, I'm sharing it with you as part of my Another LOTR Read-Along.  Enjoy!)


I Am No Man, But I’m Still Importantby V. Kovaciny
When reading The Lord of the Rings, many readers have wondered: Where are the female characters? Where is the femininity and romantic love? There are no women in the Fellowship, and feminity is spread thinly throughout the many pages of...

"If I Live" by Terri Blackstock

Well, that didn't take me long, did it?  I'm all done with this book after like 3 days, which means I'm also done with the If I Run series!  

Overall, I liked the series a lot.  Blackstock has an engaging writing style with great energy and flow.  Her characters were human, relatable, and likeable.  Her dialog stayed crisp through the series.  Her pacing got a little lax in a few places -- there were a couple spots where I felt like monkey wrenches got thrown...

Another LOTR Read-Along: The Stairs of Cirith Ungol (TTT 4, 8)

I have nightmares like this chapter. Impossibly steep steps, winding trails going through mountains -- but usually someone's chasing me in those dreams, and at least no one's directly chasing Frodo and Sam here. Still, it's very tense and nail-biting-inducing.

I love the part where Sam and Frodo are talking about their journey like it's part of a story. Partly because they literally are in a story, so it's a neat moment just cuz it's true, but also because a lot of time, I feel like I'm living...

Another LOTR Read-Along: Journey to the Cross-roads (TTT 4, 7)

I like how Faramir's farewell to Frodo and Sam includes "the manner of his people, stooping and placing his hands upon their shoulders, and kissing their foreheads" (p. 680). That is exactly how Aragorn said farewell to Boromir when he died, and I love that detail, that Aragorn knew enough of Gondorian ways that he knew how to properly say farewell to a man of Gondor, in the Gondorian custom.


Although we spend most of this chapter slogging on through bleak, unfriendly environs, at the very end...

"If I'm Found" by Terri Blackstock

So, you might have been wondering why, if I loved If I Run so much, it took me NINE MONTHS to read the second book in the trilogy.  I will tell you.  It's because I was waiting for book 3 to be released, because I knew once I finished book 2, I would want to dive right into book 3.  And I was right.  As soon as I finish writing this review, I'm going to start reading If I Live, which came out last week.

All told, I didn't like this one quite as well as book 1.  Pa...

Another LOTR Read-Along: The Forbidden Pool (TTT 4, 6)

I'm sorry I haven't posted a new LOTR post in almost a week, and I haven't replied to a whole bunch of comments either.  My 10-year-old came down with the flu on Friday, and my 6-year-old came down with it today.  The influenza flu, not the stomach flu.  So my life is filled with doctor visits and medicine and thermometers and trying to keep people hydrated.  :-(
BUT I have 5 minutes before I need to start making supper, so here we go!

I hate this chapter. Hate it hate it ha...

"Girl in Disguise" by Greer MacAllister

I've had such a great string of reading luck lately -- book after book that have been awesome!

Girl in Disguise is a fictional book based on the life of Kate Warne, the first woman detective hired by the famous Pinkerton Agency back before the American Civil War.  She walks into the Pinkerton agency to ask for a job, wows Mr. Pinkerton himself, and goes on to become one of his finest operatives.  Her career takes her all over the US and spans decades, though most of the book occ...