"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

This tag is going around and I was tagged for it over on Sidewalk Crossings by DKoren.

R U L E S

1. You Must Be Tagged to take the Q and A quiz

2. You must tag (notify) at least three other bloggers (or whatever they are on) for this Q and A

3. You must answer the following questions to the best of your ability

4. You must have seen The Battle of the Five Armies to be tagged/take the quiz

WARNING!  There's going to be spoilage!!!

Q U E S T I O N S

1. Tell your story of how you came to see the movie(s) or got into Tolkien in the first place.


My introduction to Tolkien was The Hobbit, not the book, but the cute animated film by Rankin Bass from the 1970s. Anyone remember it? I was probably 10 at the time, maybe a little younger, and I just loved it. So imaginative and clever. I read the book for the first time when I was 14, just after I moved to Colorado and was feeling lonely. It took my mind off the upheaval of moving and leaving all my friends behind, kind of like Bilbo leaving his comfortable life for a new adventure. So I became a true fan at the age of 14 and never looked back.

2. Who are your three favorite characters in The Hobbit Trilogy?

Bilbo, Gandalf, and Smaug.

I always have been, always will be a hobbit fan. As you now know, I've loved the story from the time I was a little munchkin and Bilbo was a big reason for my loving it. I think Martin Freeman gave a spot-on performance and the only thing I would change is giving him more screen time.  

Gandalf is amazing. It doesn't matter what movie he's in or what form he takes, he's incredible. But Gandalf the Grey has always been my favorite and so to have three more movies with my favorite incarnation of Gandalf was delightful!

As for Smaug, dragons are cool. All right, he's a bit on the nasty, murderous side, but he is a dragon, after all. The saddest part for me in the entirety of the last film is Smaug's death. When his light goes out and his eyes die, I just wanted to cry, I felt so bad. The last dragon in Middle Earth dies in such a way. I can't excuse his behavior, but I grieved for him just the same.

Honorable mentions are: Thranduil, Elrond, and Legolas

3. Did you cry during The Battle of the Five Armies, and if so, which scene(s) and what type (sniffling, sobbing, choke-crying)?

No, I did not cry. I felt a little bad for Bilbo's emotional upheaval, a bit of transference going on from him to me, but not enough to awaken even a smallish tear. The closest I came was Smaug's death and Bilbo's reaction to Thorin's death.

4. Were the deaths compelling to you, and if so, whose?

The one death that was compelling, as you already know, was Smaug's, see above. I don't like seeing the last of anything die, let alone something as magnificent as a dragon. 

I also felt a little bad for Thranduil's elk. He was pretty awesome and again, such a unique creature shouldn't die.

I'll be honest, I'm shocked at how little the deaths moved me. Maybe a second viewing would help. After all, I blubbered my way through The Lord of the Rings without any problem or restraint. Haldir died and I was a mess!

5. Overall, were you satisfied with the movie itself?

Nope, not at all. Too many changes to the original story, too much bloating, too much Kiliel, and I would give anything for the people of Laketown to feel like they lived in Middle Earth instead of wandering out of a Dickens' novel. Really. You know it's bad when your favorite moments are the first 20 minutes before the title even rolls.

The rest of it, the Laketown people especially, just felt like a rehashing of characters already done. Like Alfred. Did we need another Grima? A Grima that I actually hated worse than Grima and had the gall to live through the trilogy? And what's up with everyone trusting him? Alfred, watch my kids. Alfred, look about Bilbo. Alfred, do this, and Alfred, do that. Nope, he'd have been out on his ear in a second. It's not like people didn't know what he was like, a treacherous little leech!

I also cannot believe that Legolas has now been degraded to the loser in a love triangle. Excuse me? How the heck did that happen? And now he goes off to join the Dunadain (wait, what?) to get over his attachment to Tauriel? Nope.

Overall, I disliked how much time was given over to unimportant side plots and characters that Tolkien didn't create.

 6. Describe the movie in one word.

Bloated.

I wanted less, far, far less than what PJ gave us, yet at the same time, so much more than he gave us. Does that make sense? I wanted The Hobbit and he wrote his own story. I never considered myself a true purist until this moment, but I guess I am, at least where this story is concerned. I can even handle RDJ's Sherlock Holmes movies that pretty much butcher the character of Holmes, but I experienced no enjoyment with this final installment of The Hobbit trilogy. I just wish PJ had been able to let it stand on its own, be its own story, instead of trying to recreate the epic that he already made with The Lord of the Rings. 

I know that I am in the minority so all I can do is apologize to all of you who loved this movie. I'm sorry and I wish I saw in it what you did. Believe me, I do wish it.  

Consider anyone who wants to do this tag . . . tagged. :) 

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Book Review: Like a Flower in Bloom by Siri Mitchell (5 stars, 2015)

Like a Flower in Bloom by Siri Mitchell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

1852, England. Charlotte Withersby cannot believe her ears. Is it possible that her uncle really intends for her to join society? To find a husband, settle down, and give up her beloved study of botany? It seems too cruel to be true except that her father also agrees with him, to the point that he has hired a young man to take her place at his side. Having lost her mother at an early age and also been cloistered away from society for so many years, Charlotte lacks tact and societal graces. However, she is still able to attract two men of the village in which she lives. Except that Charlotte's motivations are actually governed by choosing men she hopes will not be pleasing to her father and that he will take her back as his assistant and caretaker. She cannot bear to let Edward Trimble, the young man now working at her father's side, change everything in their lives, and not even the encouraging words of her new friend, Miss Templeton, can entirely uplift her spirits. Everything she loves, everything she does that is of value, is in danger of being snatched from her, but Charlotte little realizes the true peril of playing with a man's heart to achieve some other purpose. Her road, for a little while, is set on a different path, one that will challenge her to branch out into new experiences and perhaps learn a little discernment along the way.

I love this book. I'm just going to state it, plain and simple, because I don't get to say it often enough! I'm fond of Siri Mitchell's writing in general, but had yet to read one of her books that I could rate as 5 stars, at least until this very moment. Like a Flower in Bloom is a success in every way. Charlotte is charming in her lack of societal graces, her lack of pretense and her blunt honesty. She is an ISTJ if ever there was one, on the Myers-Briggs scale of personality typing. And I think I found her most intriguing because I rarely ever read a female character with this type. Highly introverted, highly intellectual, and brutally honest. It doesn't matter to her whether something is done this way in society if that something is absurd and has little bearing on her life. Why don't people understand botany? How can they possibly consider an artistic rendering of a flower to be accurate when it is missing its stamens and pistils? She is refreshingly delightful in her blunt nature, and because Ms. Mitchell crafted her with also a generous heart, I came to adore Charlotte.

One of the things I admire most about Ms. Mitchell's books is her ability to change her writing voice. Not all authors manage this feat successfully, but her voice in this book is completely different from her voice in Love Comes Calling set in the 1920s, which is different from her voice in A Constant Heart set during the reign of Elizabeth I. She lends authenticity to each of her novels by this remarkable ability to change out her writing voice, but by far, my favorite of her voice's used to this point is the one she chose for Charlotte. I was there, walking with Charlotte through her journey, feeling her pain as she is being forced into a new life not of her choosing, but the ending was delightful. As with most romances, the reader knows how the book must end, but I felt like I was in a race to get there because even though I knew what would happen, I was desperate to see just how it would happen.

If there is a downside, which there really isn't, it's that I didn't get to know the hero very well, obviously Edward Trimble. Oh, you engage with him regularly, and his interaction with Charlotte is delightful, but he has some secrets that he's keeping and because of that, you don't know him. I didn't truly mind that about him, though, because he is quite likeable anyway. As are all the characters, from her uncle who dared to go into something other than botany to her eccentric father to the kindly Miss Templeton to the absurd young men who take an interest in Charlotte . . . the wealthy aristocrat with his collection of stumps and the widower parson possessed of 8 children. The characters, the plot, the setting, it was all pure delight. As was the history lesson of how an intelligent woman in the 1800s might find her scientific research purloined and published by a man instead. I had no idea that sexism was so terribly rampant. I suspected it had to be, but I had never read a book like this before that made the truth of sexism so perfectly clear. Also, yes, the book cover is lovely, but I confess that its inaccuracies to the era plague me. Still, it's quite pretty and I can overlook the flaws.

Finally, readers should know that Ms. Mitchell always writes in the 1st person, so if you struggle with that style of writing, as I used to struggle, bear that in mind. She does it the best of any author I have read so if you're branching out into 1st person, her work is a good place to start. I truly congratulate Ms. Mitchell on her quality work in her latest novel, a book I shall treasure for a long time to come and recommend to all lovers of historic fiction.

- I received this book free from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

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Book Review: Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund (3.5 stars, 2014)

Love Unexpected by Jody Hedlund
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The story takes place in 1859, on Presque Isle, Michigan. With their steamboat under attack by fresh-water pirates, Emma Chamber and her brother Ryan jump overboard into the frigid waters of Lake Huron, praying for a miracle. Neither of them believe strongly in miracles anymore, ever since their mother died of starvation in Ireland and their father passed away after doing whatever was necessary for them to survive, including theft which then led him to drink. But lighthouse keeper Patrick Garraty spotted the sinking steamboat from his perch and rushes to save whoever he can, meaning Ryan and Emma. Befuddled by the loss of their passage, once again nearly penniless, Ryan must work locally in order to earn enough for their passage on a new ship, work which will take him at least a few months. Emma is left to her own devices, saddened that her brother is once again saddled with her as a burden, that is until Patrick Garraty and the local preacher, Holy Bill, approach her with a proposition. Patrick's wife just recently died and he is in desperate need of someone to watch his two-year-old son, Josiah, while he tends to the care and upkeep of the lighthouse. The only condition is that they must marry. After a moment of panic at the very notion, Emma agrees to Patrick's plan, having already taken a liking to the toddler and thrilled at being able to release her little brother from his responsibility in protecting and providing for her. Now Patrick and Emma must work together to form a new life for themselves and for little Josiah, but their fledgling relationship is tested by local gossips and the rumor mill, raising doubts in Emma's mind about the suitability and faithfulness of her new husband.

This is my third Jody Hedlund book, and the start to a brand new series by her, entitled Beacons of Hope. Ms. Hedlund enjoys writing about lighthouses, particularly those in the Michigan area run by female lighthouse keepers, and so she based Emma and Patrick off two real people, Patrick Garraty and his wife Mary Chambers. The historicity of the novel is fascianting. Even Holy Bill, an eccentric and amusing character, is based off a real individual. I always find that using historic people and places, doing your research as a writer, always enhances historic fiction, and Ms. Hedlund does one of the finest jobs out there when it comes to her research.

As to the characters themselves, I truly appreciated Patrick, both as a husband and as a father. He has a speckled past, full of mistakes and poor choices, but he turned his life around with God's help and refuses to return to his past sins. He is a gentle and loving father, an affectionate husband, and a dedicated lighthouse keeper, determined to keep the lighthouse going every night, even when he's so tired that he can barely stay awake. I struggle more with liking Emma, unfortunately. It's not that she's unlikeable, it's just that she makes errors in judgement. She chooses to befriend the nosiest, most mean-spirited woman in town, spilling her new husband's secrets in earnest to the woman, hoping for advice. Emma creates most of the problems in this book by her foolishness in trusting the wrong people who are obviously the wrong people from the start.

I deeply appreciate Ms. Hedlund's writing. She is skilled in her descriptions and her dialogue, painting very real and vivid pictures most of the time. I just wish, in this book, that Emma and Patrick had talked. A lot of the angst and turmoil could have been avoided with a few simple conversations. Emma constantly jumped to conclusions about Patrick: oh, he couldn't love her, she's plain, he's angry with her, he could never desire her, etc. All while it's obvious that Patrick adores her and is highly attracted to her. She even tries to leave because she assumes something she sees is true, that her opinion of it is right, and that a conversation with Patrick would be pointless. She's sure she's right, and so she runs away without talking to him. That's foolish and reckless. Communication is just as important in fiction as it is in real life, and I just wish that Patrick and Emma had communicated more.

On my rating scale, I would give Love Unexpected 3.5 stars. I'm rounding it up because the flaw is not in her writing, only in some of the character development and design. The book is a quick and simple read, enjoyable in many places, and one that most readers will love.

- I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review, which I have given.

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The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies

It is a strange thing to finish something that I first fell in love with when I was fourteen. Like almost every other American, I headed to the theater last Wednesday to watch The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. The only problem is that I'm now perplexed. It didn't raise a single tear. I disconnected emotionally from everyone except Bilbo, so when everyone else in the theater is sniffling and weeping, I'm sitting there stoically calm, unmoved by everything except some of Bilbo's emotional reactions.

It's sad. Really, it is because I love this story. I've loved The Hobbit since the moment I first picked up the book. It's an incredible and imaginative tale of adventure and daring-do, with a highly courageous and blunt hobbit at the head. So why didn't this final movie impress me? I suppose I could spend time pondering and rehashing and tearing down, but I won't. I'd like to think that the fans, even the diehard ones, see the flaws and don't need me to remind them. I remember my frustrations with The Two Towers, its plot deviations and insanity, so this feeling is really nothing new. And it may change the next time I see this final installment.

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Femnista - Nov/Dec Edition 2014: A Family Affair

It's the season again, both for the delights of the Christmas holiday and for the next issue of Femnista. The theme this time around is A Family Affair and this issue is in fact stocked to the rafters with the goods on various literary and film families we all know and love, or even love to hate depending on where you stand

Within these delightful pages you will find the goods on the Baratheons (Game of Thrones), the March family (Little Women), the Gilmores (Gilmore Girls), Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, the Gibsons (Wives and Daughters), the Crawleys (Downton Abbey), the Jones's (Indiana Jones), the Mikaelsons (The Originals), The Bennets (Pride and Prejudice), the Winchesters (Supernatural), and of course, the Holmes's (Sherlock), along with many others.

My article is, as promised, on Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, a movie I happen to deeply love. I hope you take a moment to peruse the articles, and may you enjoy each and every one of them, harboring any pearls of wisdom shared by the authors within your heart.

And remember, if you're a writer and want to participate, Charity is always looking for new voices. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll love it!

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Book to Movie: Thoughts on "Stand by Me" (1986) and the original short story "The Body" by Stephen King

I know what you're thinking. What in the world is she doing reading a Stephen King story? Well, push your eyeballs back in your head and hear me out before you run shrieking from my blog. I have a very . . . liberal approach to literature. I have enjoyed many a story than most Christians make the sign of the cross over. That's just me, it's who I am, and while I'm not swayed by the stories, I do find them an intriguing psychological look at humanity. Know your enemy, so they say, not that I view Stephen King as my enemy, although I'm sure of my readers must disagree on that point.

No, what I'm saying is that I first encountered The Body not through King, but through the film Stand by Me that they based off his short story. I didn't even realize it was one of Stephen King's stories until I reached the end and did some online research. I had no clue. What you're probably wondering now is, what in the world is this story about other than a body? It's literally a coming-of-age story for 4 twelve-year-old boys in the 1960s who go on a trek over Labor Day Weekend to see a dead body. And not just any dead body, but the body of a kid their own age. It's the story of Gordy, Chris, Vern, and Teddy in the prime of their stupendously idiotic youth as they try to figure out who the heck they're becoming when their futures are pretty much already decided for them.

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Book Review: Keepers of the Covenant by Lynn Austin (2014, 4 stars)

Keepers of the Covenant by Lynn Austin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

People familiar with scripture are most likely also familiar with the story of Esther, how she saved the Jews from being slaughtered by approaching the king when he had not called for her. Keepers of the Covenant approach the story from a different angle, this time through the eyes and experiences of Ezra, a devout man of God from the same era. Ezra lives through the attack upon the Jews, because remember that while the king proclaimed the Jews could defend themselves, he could not undo the permission already given for them to be attacked. So there was an attack on the 13th day of the 12th month, and Ezra, usually a scholar, fought alongside his brothers, defending his people from their enemies. Fast-forward at least a dozen years and we have Ezra asking the new king's permission for the Jews to leave for Jerusalem, their promised land, so they may worship as instructed in the Torah. This story really is about Ezra and his spiritual journey and his putting away the seed of bitterness that has grown within him against any peoples other than Jews. But it also follows the stories of Amina, an Edomite, who was orphaned during the attack, and the story of Reuben, another child, this time Jewish, who for many years of his life loses his way.

All right, I did enjoy Keepers of the Covenant in that I wasn't familiar with the events following the life of Esther. I've never read the book of Ezra in The Bible, so had no knowledge of his story. That part of the novel was fascinating, all of the historic references, and watching Ezra draw his people back into a devotion to God. He truly is a keeper of the covenant with God, and whenever that covenant is broken, God returns the children of Israel into bondage until they repent again and turn from their wickedness. I think Ms. Austin did a superb job in capturing the authenticity of Jewish beliefs at the time, and I appreciated her efforts.

However, I never bought into her use of dialogue. A lot of the books I read are very strict in their use of language for dialogue, making sure the spoken word matches the era in which it is being spoken. I was constantly yanked out of my focus while reading this book because the spoken sentence structure for the characters was too modern. Words like "kids" or "weird" were used, along with more words than I can remember. It was very distracting, just when I started getting into the story, a conversation between characters, any characters, would snap me out of it. So I would like to see more effort put into making the dialogue authentic.

I would have also preferred it if the story had just been about Ezra. All right, yes, I liked Amina a lot. She's a very sweet girl, but the climax could have been achieved just as solidly without her and Reuben. In fact, the book would have been at last 100 pages shorter, and in my eyes, much more concise and effective a read. So yes, while I enjoyed Keepers of the Covenant it could have used a bit of tightening in places. I would, however, still recommend it to friends.

- I received this book for free from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for an honest review, which I have given.

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