Thara > Recent Status Updates

Really good! With all the rainfall the Midwest is getting right now, it feels especially relevant.

I am going to have to add this to my list of books to read annually.

I'm having a hard time putting it down!

Listening to it on cd with the boys

The use of the n-word and the racist observations are distressing and distasteful!

Where are the blue electric angels? Penny is an interesting character, but not an equivalent substitute.

Sure, reading primary sources would be better, but I appreciate Jones pulling together the diversity of sources for me. This is the first analysis of Tolkien I've ever read. I'm enjoying the content, but the writing is surprisingly unfocused and diffuse. Even within paragraphs, Jones gets distracted by details and irrelevant (albeit interesting) facts.

This book is based on the same land and peoples of Lisle book, Talyn. Knowing what happened in that first book, I find that I am already tense waiting for Lisle's creative and terrible atrocities to begin in earnest. Read the books in order. Without a background understanding of the Tonk culture, religion, and history, elements of this book won't ring true or seem relevant.

I'm still waiting to be wowed. The writing is decent but not great. The story feels flat, like it should have gone through another draft to tighten it up.