Casey Blackbird > Recent Status Updates

I think we underestimate how good Tolkien is for the soul and how Middle-Earth helps us understand life under the sun.

Kelly is making my heart sing.

What’s fascinating about the case of Aimee’s alleged abduction is that, either way, she’s an example of an important lesson. If it was a hoax, then be sure that your sin will find you out and the more you lie, the more you’ll be found out. If it was real, trust the Lord to vindicate you rather than your own savvy.

The Last 🦁 does not approve.

So far there’s a lot of good thoughts in here, but: (1) the organization is logical while the presentation feels erratic; (2) you could spend an hour watching a reputable SLA YouTuber and get the same value for free and a tenth of the time.

This is a riveting read but occasionally makes me want to pull my hair out. And by “occasionally” I mean “frequently.”

What a charming little book. It started out a bit rough—I’m not entirely sold on Sayers’ prose. But, after getting used to it, it was a fun mystery. It wrestled with some compelling themes underneath it all.

So, this was a book. Fatigue set in later than usual, and then the pace of the last 150 pages helped, other than the last chapter+. It was engaging, I mostly enjoyed it, but ready to be done.

We’ve arrived: It is 11/22/63.

There is just a bit too much lovin’ in this book for my taste, if you catch my drift. That said, I’m never reading Stephen King again. But I’m here to see this novel through to the end.

I’ve finally made it to 1963.

How? How!? HOW!?!? Is this only halfway?

I have the down-bads for this book. I’m waking up and reading it in bed before work. I’m reading it before I fall asleep. I’m reading it while food is in the oven. Derry creeps me out.

So yeah, the third to last chapter was a good conclusion, the last two chapters weren’t well done. It drew some ideas together, but left too much fuzz around things that Jordan was doing 800 pages ago.

So, the final chapter in Emond’s Field was powerful. Jordan’s idiosyncrasies took a backseat to some real beauty. Only one allusion to the next book that leaves us baffled. THE LAST CHAPTER THOUGH? dog water. He did this with the last chapter of the Eye of the World—only Jordan can picture what’s going on. The web he wove wasn’t tight enough.

I need to finish by the end of this month.

OK so the last act of this book jumped out of nowhere, to the point where it didn’t make sense. We knew that this was coming, but I thought it’d be a couple books down the line.

We’re at the point where I should be getting an idea how the book is going to end but I have no idea what’s going to happen. Also, we need Elyas to return and give us wolf lore. I WANT WOLF LORE.

This series could’ve been two books if the good guys would’ve just paused to compare notes. “Hey all, I know we have differing motives, priorities, and interests. But we could probably stave off the apocalypse and keep Rand from breaking 3+ hearts needlessly if we all just put our cards on the table instead of all this conniving.” Loial could be a fair third-party. Everyone loves and trusts Loial.

(1) Lan deserves better than being bullied and pushed aside by the strong women in his life. He has impeccable character, is kind, and cares for the vulnerable. Thom, Loial, and Lan deserve better than this whole apocalypse and scheming thing.
(2) The gender-dynamics are getting REALLY REPETITIVE. And weird.
(3) It does something to a man to be on p.605 but only 57% through the book.

This is a 1k page book and I’m finally convinced that I won’t DNF. Reading this size of book on Kindle is SO MUCH BETTER. Also, I’m happy to see the return of the character in book one who got me hooked. That said, Jordan’s prose is weaker in this one and it’s missing the “journey” that the other three each had.

Let us be so for real: Loial is the greatest character ever. If he ever dies, in any of these 97 books, I will never forgive Robert Jordan and his Episcopalian soul. We had a close call where I thought he was going to be sloppily killed off. Don’t. Loial’s hero’s death is spending his centuries of life writing histories and playing that weird board game by the fire.