Let’s Hunt Some Orc!

Book: The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings Volume 1)
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Challenge: 104 Books, one book a week

“You shall be known as the Fellowship of the Ring.”

I was able to finish The Fellowship of the Ring last week. While I haven’t finished the entire book, technically, The Fellowship was published by itself. So….for the purposes of reading a book a week, I’m counting this as one novel.

When I first read it, I thought it was one of the most boring books I’ve read. I didn’t even get into it until it was nearly 3/4 of the way complete. But, this time, I loved every second of it. I really wasn’t ready to close the final page when we got to Amon Hen. I honestly can’t say what my favorite part is: from Tom Bombadil to Frodo falling off the table at the Inn of the Prancing Pony to Gandalf’s famous “You CANNOT pass!” to Sam running through the water to go with Frodo, every part made me smile and give a giddy squee.For that, it deserves a ratings update.

2001: 2.5/5

2018: 4.5/5

Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

In late 2000, I went on a date. We had dinner. We went to the movies. Typical stuff. So bland and boring, I can’t remember much about it. I don’t know where or what we had for dinner. I don’t recall his name, or what he looked like. I couldn’t begin to tell you the movie we saw (and I’ve tried looking for it). The only thing I’ve kept from that night nearly 20 years ago is a trailer at the beginning of a forgotten movie.

“One ring to rule them all. One ring to find them. One ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them…” That’s all it took. I was gone. I’d seen the book before. Picked up, dismissed it, and put it back. Fantasy of any type wasn’t my thing, especially not an epic high fantasy written in the FIFTIES. Something about that trailer stuck with me. I knew, without a doubt, I had to read it. I got home, the movie trailer still ringing in my mind. I called my mom and asked for the first book for Christmas. She’d buy me the movie tie-in box set. An immature, if prolific reader, I’d struggle to read it. Stilted and stuffy at times, I’d doze off in the Old Forest. Not realizing it was a single book, I’d criticize The Fellowship as being slow to start, pointless at times. But, yet, I wouldn’t be able to put it down, and when it was over, I was in love. I waited to pick up The Two Towers, reading the beginning hours before watching The Fellowship (good thing, given the way to movie ends). I’d read RotK even faster, gasping when Frodo reaches Mount Doom, sobbing when Sam says good-bye at the Grey Havens.

And just like that, my life was changed. Peter Jackson and J.R.R. Tolkien would introduce me to a world I disappeared in over and over again. It became my escape when I needed to get away. It became my anthem for hope and courage, when things are at their darkest. Middle-earth becomes my first re-read of the year. I won’t read it in a week, or even a month. To this day, a much more mature reader than 20 years ago, I still struggle with it. I love it. It’s my favorite book and my favorite world, but it is NOT an easy read. It’s slow, and plodding. Quite long-winded at times, with so much back ground, I call it my cure for insomnia. Yet, I read it as often as I can, and the way Tolkien meant it to be read: One Volume To Rule Them All.

Book: The Lord of the Rings (Deluxe Edition with original Alan Lee illustrations)
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
Category: Read it Again, Sam; Color-Coded Reading Challenge (Blue); #SFvFBingo Epic

5/5 Lattes, because I don’t have to finish it to rate it…not this one.

We’re All Mad Here…

Challenge: SciFi vs Fantasy Bingo; One Book A Week
Title: Splitered; A. G. Howard
Category: Retelling

Heavily ripped off inspired by Walt Disney’s Alice live action movie, Splintered is an updated retelling of Louis Carroll Stevens’ Alice stories. Set in modern times, and taking us to a version of Wonderland that is dark is twisty, this almost sets its own place in the world. Almost…

Alyssa Gardner is the great granddaughter of little Alice Liddell…yes, THAT Alice. The women in her family have steadily gone mad since the original Alice told her tale to a family friend. Alice, as an old woman, was institutionalized. Her mother, after trying to kill her, is placed in an asylum. Alyssa fears is no different. It starts when she’s 12. She can hear animals and bugs speaking. She spends the next 6 years trying to make it stop. Until she learns she’s not crazy. The voices are real. As childhood memories slowly unlock, Alyssa will venture down the rabbit hole into her own dark, twisted adventure in Wonderland to break the curse of women in her family, accidentally dragging hot bff Jeb down with her. Along the way,she has to confront her feelings for Jeb, and meets Morpheus, a beautiful blue moth who tries to help Alyssa on her quest…or is he?

This is a remarkably slow read. The words jump out of page at you, and force you to pay attention. The imagery gets a solid 5 lattes, but the blatant rip off of other versions of Alice’s story detract from it. Additionally, I’m kind of sick of the typical YA love triangle. Alyssa’s crush on Jeb is vaguely annoying, as is her love to hate to love Morpheus confused feelings. Having two gorgeous bad boys in love with your female lead is stretching the boundaries a bit…even for a YA. Overall, I did enjoy Splintered, and I look forward to reading the remainder of the books….if I can figure out where my daughter has them stashed. 4/5 lattes.

Underground and Derailed

Book Challenge – Alternate Reality (Disqualified), Read 104 books #5.
Author – Colson Whitehead
Title: Underground Railroad
Trigger warning: The horrors that befall Cora, her mates, and those who assist her are written in GRAPHIC detail.

I originally was intending to use this one on my SFvF Bingo, but ultimately, it just didn’t fit. When I read the premise for this novel, I was excited. In an alternate history, the Underground Railroad is literally, an underground railroad. Cora is a ~19yo 3rd generation slave living on a plantation in Georgia. Depictions of her life are vividly detailed, the good (of which there is little) and the bad. This part of the story is fantastic. When Cora and two other slaves escape to the underground railroad, the story begins to fall apart.

The book becomes disjointed and introduces many plot points, and characters, yet never fully resolves them. The actual titular portion of the novel is only small and poorly fleshed out part. However, when describing the more mundane aspects of Cora’s life, the story can briefly come to life again, only to disappoint you with an unsatisfying ending. I felt this was more of a prelude to another novel, or notes for a bigger, more epic adventure that just got thrown together into a smaller one, Silmarillion style. 2.5/5 lattes.

Science Fiction vs Fantasy Status

Sci-Fi:
Fantasy:
Lil Bit O’ Both:

2018/01/14: SciFi 0/Fantasy 2
Second block captured is A. G. Howard’s dark retelling of Alice in Wonderland. The first in a YA trilogy of same name, Splintered takes us down a twisted rabbit hole to a Wonderland that has seen better days. Another point to Griffyndor…er, Fantasy!

2018/1/3: SciFi 0/Fantasy 1
First out of the gate was Nora Roberts Year One. At first glance, this seems like a post-apocalyptic Science Fiction novel about a Pandemic plague, but by the end of the first section, you know it’s fantasy through and through.

 

New Year…New World

Challenge: Science Fiction vs Fantasy 2018 Bingo
Category: Plague
Book: Year One; Chronicles of The One Book One; Nora Roberts

Nora Roberts. Queen of Romance. Queen of Lather Rinse Repeat Happy Ever After Trilogies. Queen of Predictability. Not this time. This time, she flips the program.

It starts on New Year’s Eve in Scotland in an unnamed year. A single gunshot…a falling pheasant…a happy celebration… starts the downfall of humanity. They call it The Doom. First your throat hurts. Then you start to cough. Next comes the vomiting. Then…you die. Within 4 weeks, over 2 billion humans, 1/3 the Earth’s population, is dead. And, more lay in ER waiting areas, dying.

As the Earth’s human population continues to fall, strange new powers are born to many who live. Witches. Faeries. Healers. Seers. Shape Shifters. But, with the Light, comes the Dark.

When I first started reading this, I expected, and saw to an extent, the same old set up by Nora Roberts. Make no mistake, that same old setup is comforting and enjoyable. It’s what makes me read her trilogies year after year after year, and still find enjoyment. It’s not long before you realize THIS NR book is different. THIS NR book won’t bring you comfort. THIS NR book doesn’t follow the familiar pattern of Happy Ever After. THIS NR book sends you on a dystopian, urban fantasy ride that reminded me of an unexpected setting. From the car ridden streets to the bands of Raiders terrorizing their way through a new world to the cringe inducing abandoned tubes of New York, I felt like I was reading the synopsis for Fallout 5…and that’s not a bad thing. As factions arise, and the Immune Humans and Uncanny try to survive in a world determined to destroy itself, Year One reminds us there’s a reason we love Nora Roberts. While I found the ending slightly unsatisfying, overall, I enjoyed this book from cover to cover. 4/5 Lattes.

Reading Challenges 2018

I’ve decided to hit 3 challenges this year, with cross over where possible.

Color Coded Challenge

Goal: to read 9 books with a specific color family in the title or that dominates the cover art.

Read it Again, Sam

Re-read several books from your personal library. I’m going with 8 as a base.

Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018

Goal: Bingo anyway you choose (I do Blackout) the below card. This one excites me the most. I love Bingo Reading Challenges.

Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018

Ah…that age old dilemma. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Which one is better? Which one do prefer? What better way to decide than with…Reading Bingo. Yay!!!!

I loved Reading Bingo the first time I did it. I liked that it forced me to try new genres, read stuff in my Stack O’Shame, and introduced me to authors I’d never heard of. I’ve been trying to find one I liked ever since then. None of them really appealed to me until I found this one. I’m super excited to do this one, and I’ve already cleared a block.

Now…was the first book I’ve read this year Science Fiction or Fantasy…or a bit of both?

Source: Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018

Read it Again, Sam…

“Play it, Sam. Play ‘As Time Goes By’.”

Source: Read it Again, Sam

Goal: Choose a level, and re-read that many books…or more

Déjà vu: Reread 4 books
Feeling Nostalgic: Reread 8 books
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Reread 12 books
Living in the Past: Reread 16+ books

I chose to go with Feeling Nostalgic: Re-read 8 books, but I would like to re-read at least 12.  Quite a few of the books I re-read should satisfy the Color Coded Challenge, too.

Color Coded Challenge

I don’t know why I decided to be so ambitious with my Reading Challenge this year. Maybe because there’s so much cross over. Or, maybe because I end up getting bored with the same old genres and crap writing on Kindle Unlimited. Whatever the reason, I’m excited to do this one, and already have several books in mind that satisfy this challenge, Science Fiction vs Fantasy Bingo 2018, AND Read it Again, Sam….

One thing to note…when using the cover art to satisfy the color requirement, it should be the PRIMARY color of the book. Otherwise, where’s the challenge?

Source: Color Coded Challenge

Here are the rules:

*Read nine books in the following categories.
1. A book with “Blue” or any shade of Blue (Turquoise, Aquamarine, Navy, etc) in the title/on the cover. 

2. A book with “Red” or any shade of Red (Scarlet, Crimson, Burgundy, etc) in the title/on the cover.

3. A book with “Yellow” or any shade of Yellow (Gold, Lemon, Maize, etc.) in the title/on the cover.

4. A book with “Green” or any shade of Green (Emerald, Lime, Jade, etc) in the title/on the cover.

5. A book with “Brown” or any shade of Brown (Tan, Beige, Sand etc) in the title/on the cover.

6. A book with “Black” or any shade of Black (Jet, Ebony, Charcoal, etc) in the title/on the cover.

7. A book with “White” or any shade of White (Ivory, Eggshell, Cream, etc) in the title/on the cover.

8. A book with any other color in the title/on the cover (Purple, Orange, Silver, Pink, Magenta, etc.).

9. A book with a word that implies color (Rainbow, Polka-dot, Plaid, Paisley, Stripe, etc.).