Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 89

Announcing Another "Lord of the Rings" Read-Along

Okay, I'm going to do this!  I'm going to host a second read-along of The Lord of the Rings.  You are hereby invited to join me! Whether you've read LOTR many times, or never read it. Whether you read it and liked it, or read it and hated it. I welcome all comers who want to read and discuss and learn!

There is no "sign up" process for this, but if you want to share a button on your own blog, or leave me a comment saying you plan to participate, go right ahead!


If you've never partici...

"Luther: Biography of a Reformer" by Frederick Nohl

I'm pretty sure I've read this before, back in middle school or high school.  But I enjoyed re-reading it nonetheless, and I'm thinking I'll have my son read it as part of his homeschool curriculum this fall.  It's definitely easy enough that someone with a middle-school-level reading ability should be able to understand and enjoy it.

This book isn't even 200 pages long, so it's not a very in-depth look at Luther and his theology.  Rather, it's a good overview of his life, with...

Would You be Interested in Another LOTR Read-along?

At the end of the Tolkien blog party, I asked a couple people if they would be interested in me hosting another read-along of LOTR.  

Ordinarily, I wouldn't consider hosting a second read-along of a book I've already covered, but it so happens I'm using LOTR in the high school lit course I'm teaching my niece this fall.  The whole reason I've had to quit doing read-alongs except in the summer is because I don't have time to teach her AND lead read-alongs.   Except, if I lead ano...

The Finally Fall Book Tag

I'm borrowing this from Joseph over at The Once Lost Wanderer.  We had about a week of what I consider to be fall weather in early October, but it's been hot and muggy again lately.  Still, the evenings are cool, trees are beginning to change color, and I've got that energized-and-creative vibe going on that I get in fall and spring, so yay!

For some reason, I keep hearing the voices of random cast members on Whose Line is it Anyway? reading these questions in the ridiculously p...

Winners of the "Cloaked" bookmark giveaway!

Congratulations to Niki T, Lydia B, Olivia F, Faith T, and Jessica G!  You won the giveaway of five bookmarks (handmade by me) that reflect some elements of Little Red Riding Hood that I used in Cloaked.  

Winners, I will be contacting you later today via the email address you supplied to the Rafflecopter widget.  I'll need your mailing address so I can send you your bookmark, so please keep an eye out for that email!

And everyone, thank you again for supporting me as I wrote, re...

"Frames" by Loren D. Estleman

I was reading merrily along in chapter 18 when all of a sudden, I stopped breathing.  Not because I was choking, or because the book was suddenly terrifying.  But because, at the bottom of page 176, a character said, "I haven't seen so many cops in one place since they arrested John Landis."

And I stopped breathing and my heart started to pound because I know why John Landis got arrested, and the reason he did makes me EXTREMELY ANGRY AND SAD.  And the book as a whole has nothin...

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" by Martin Luther and Jason Jaspersen

I had grand plans to do posts all year long to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg church on October 31, 1517.  So far I've managed to do one over on my other blog.

Well, it's October.  And if I get myself in gear, I can STILL do a pretty cool series of posts about this. I've got quite a few books about the Reformation and Martin Luther I can review, plus some other thoughts to share, so I'll be doing that throughout Oc...

"Cloaked" Release Day + Giveaway!

Today's the day!  Cloaked is officially available in paperback and e-book from Amazon right here.  
Wow.  This feels slightly surreal, to be honest.  I mean, I've spent how many decades thinking, "Someday, I will publish a book."  And someday is today.
Thanks to my ARC readers, there are already several reviews up on GoodReads.  Thank you, ARC readers!!!  You can now post reviews on the Amazon page too :-)
Yesterday, I asked people to hold off on...

A Request for Anyone Who Has NOT Ordered "Cloaked" Yet

Tomorrow is release day!!!

If you have not already pre-ordered Cloaked, could you do me a favor and hold off until tomorrow?  I'd like to see what happens if a whole bunch of people order all on the same day, namely Friday, Sept. 29.  Maybe we could make it climb a decent way up Amazon's charts for a bit!

Here's a link to its Amazon listing, for your handy reference.  And also a snippet from an advance review:


Tomorrow, I have a little giveaway planned to celebrate release day, so...

Top Ten Tuesday: Second Fiddlers

This week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt from The Broke and the Bookish is "Top Ten Books with ___________ Characters."  I'm going to focus on "unforgettable secondary characters" which is kind of a vague way of saying this is my Top Ten Books With Secondary Characters I Care More About Than the Main Characters.


I have a habit with becoming extremely fond of side characters.  Who, in turn, have a habit of getting killed off and making me very sad.  But that doesn't happen to all of th...