Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

An extraordinary friendship (cannonball!)

The Mythmakers: The Remarkable Fellowship of CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien by John Hendrix

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The Mythmakers is a graphic story written for middle schoolers and older. The narrators of this biography/history are a lion (CS Lewis) and a Wizard (JRR Tolkien). The Mythmakers covers the life stories of each man in brief as well as going into detail on their ideas about storytelling and myths. Lewis and Tolkien shared some remarkable things in common but clearly they were two very different men whose friendship inspired them to write their greatest works. Yet their differences (other relationships, perhaps jealousy, differences […]

Return of King: Or how Merry got his groove back

Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

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At last, we have reached the end of the trilogy. I won’t keep you on tenterhooks. My lukewarmest take is still that these books need brutal editing. These books are boring much more often than they are interesting. Still, you’re not here for warm takes. You’re here for hot takes, and I am here to deliver. I first owe Peter Jackson an apology, since Eowyn’s feminist cry was just in the last book rather than in Two Towers. But not a big apology. Tolkien seems […]

The Two Towers: Pippin is just a stand-in for Tolkien’s son right?

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

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I’m back from my second visit to OG Middle Earth and I have thoughts. Remember, you brought this on yourselves. I remember noticing a difference in Star Trek once Roddenberry was no longer involved. He was really hung up on the idea that there can’t ever be conflict among the crew, because in his perfect future, we’ve literally grown out of interpersonal conflict. And it was *boring* because it didn’t make sense. Even in a perfect world, it is impossible for there never to be […]

In defense of Pippin, the actual best hobbit

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

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I did not care for the Lord of the Rings when I was younger. It took my then-boyfriend three attempts at making me watch through the series before I could stay awake past Boromir dying. It just that Boromir takes too damn long to die. But he persisted and fed me tasty things to keep me awake and I discovered LOTR (or the LORT we call it at home) meme groups online and suddenly I was in baby. I mean, I needed to understand the underlying […]

Fantasy newbie thinks the 2nd LOTR is great

The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings #2) by J.R.R. Tolkien

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I am late to the game when it comes to fantasy epics. I have read and reread Harry Potter more times than I can count, but anything more hardcore than that has historically failed to grasp my attention (looking at you, Game of Thrones). I am so very happy that I decided to embark on my own hobbit-sized journey to read Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, because it has paid off handsomely. The second part of Tolkien’s trilogy follows the Fellowship after their […]

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

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CBR12 Bingo: Yellow When I was a kid my dad read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to me. I’d already read The Hobbit, and of course as a kid I preferred the simplicity and accessibility of that book, but I can still remember the moment that my dad and I finished reading The Two Towers: “Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy.” Whew. Eat your heart out, The Empire Strikes Back–that is a killer ending to a Part II of a trilogy. […]



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