"The Lord of the Rings" by JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)

 

Publisher: George Allen & Unwin

Copyright: 1966

ISBN: 0048230871

Unlike the hobbit which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago I don't remember exactly when I first read this book, but it was approximately 30 years ago and since then I have read it probably a good five or six times. 

It is without a doubt the seminal work of high fantasy, and one which has influenced numerous Fantasy authors since. Unfortunately many of these authors want to attempt to replicate professor Tolkien's works. Rather than come up with something new. This in fact is taken to some odd levels in that most fantasy novels now seem to have three parts (or more) even if they aren't required.

In any case this is a fantastic novel, and even though it is written as three separate books I will be treating it as one as that's always the way I read it. For those who do not know the three books are "The Fellowship of the Ring", "The Two Towers" and "The Return of the King".

All three novels feature likely the greatest examples of world building in fantasy, as well as some of the best character design. There are many who will dispute these facts by saying the story is slow, and goes into too much detail, but Professor Tolkien was a linguist, historian and this was his forte.

In the event you are one of the people who has only seen the movies by Peter Jackson you will be in for a treat by reading these books as Mr. Jackson made a number of changes, which I believe altered the overall storyline sufficiently to corrupt Professor Tolkien's overall intent. Still, with this in mind his version of "The Lord of the Rings" is much better than his version of "The Hobbit.

Enjoy.

"Yours Cruelly, Elvira: Memoirs of the Mistress of the Dark" by Cassandra Peterson

Publisher: Hachette Books

Copyright: 2021

ISBN: 9780306874352

I don't read a lot of biographies or autobiographies (in fact it even says this in my blog notes). However, I am extremely glad that I chose to read this book. While I can't say It grew up with Elvira, I do remember seeing her on TV occasionally but this was primarily because I was not a horror movie buff. After reading this book though I definitely wished I had been introduced to these great movies years earlier.

An interesting coincidence is that the first movie that Elvira introduced was "The House on Haunted Hill" with Vincent Price, and this is one of my favourite horror movies of all time, even though I came to it many years later.

Without a doubt Ms. Peterson has had a very interesting and troubling life, but she has managed to persevere, succeed and win. This in and of itself should be an inspiration to all young women throughout the world. Her ongoing fight against what I consider to be the built-in misogynistic culture of Hollywood shows that it is a fight that can be won, although it will likely take time.

I would recommend that you read this book and take the messages Ms. Peterson shares to heart. These messages show that you can overcome pretty much anything in your life with sufficient perseverance, friendship and the courage to stand up for your ideals. I found her honesty and courage to out some of the people in Hollywood, and sports was commendable to say the least.

Finally in the event you have never watched the movie "Elvira: Mistress of the Dark" or "Elvira's Haunted Hills" I would seriously recommend you check them out as they are great movies.

"The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again" by JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)

 

Publisher: George Allen & Unwin

Copyright: 1937

ISBN: 0048231479

This is one of the classics of all high fantasy novels. And has been read by millions of people. I'm not overly sure how many times I've read the book, but over the years probably around ten times as a guess. I can remember exactly when I first heard of the book, and that was when my parents were having a garage sale, and it happened to be one of the books they had for sale. This was in the early 1980s, so yes, I'm a late starter. 

Prior to this I can't clearly recall a time when I even heard of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. I cannot recall anyone mentioning it when I was in school. In hindsight, I would've thought that a book of this quality would've been hard to miss but I guess it was, either that or it just wasn't discussed.

For those of you who are unaware of the story as I was it tells the tale of Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit, and his adventures with 12 dwarves and Gandalf the wizard who set out to reclaim the dwarfs stolen treasure from the lonely mountain, and if necessary fight the dragon Smaug. Bilbo goes along as he he's purported to be a master thief.

During the first part of this adventure Bilbo encounters Gollum, and finds a certain little golden ring that changes his life from that moment on. If you haven't read the story yet I'm not gonna go any farther and tell you what happened, so read it!

In the event you are one of the people who has only seen the movies by Peter Jackson you will be in for a treat by reading these books as Mr. Jackson made a number of what I consider to be rather drastic changes, and which I believe corrupted the story so much that I refused to even watch the third movie.

Happy reading,

"Morals Without Religion and other essays" by Margaret K. Knight (1903-1983)

 

Publisher: Dennis Dobson

Copyright: 1954

ISBN: None

Dr. Margaret Knight, a psychologist, is likely remembered in some certain circles as the person who created a fervour when she was finally permitted to broadcast two humanist programs on the BBC in the 1950s.

She did this in response to the standard education curriculum in Britain at the time which required students to be trained or better yet indoctrinated into the Christian belief system as put forward by the church of England. As I understand it parents who objected to this training had little to no choice if they wished their child to be educated.

This is an extremely interesting book to read given the current climate with regard to religion as a whole. The topics of humanism, culture, politics etc. are also dealt with to a certain point. 

As could be expected the information is somewhat dated being that the broadcast was 70 years ago. Even though the Christian religion is the only one actually mentioned in this book (other religions were rarely ever mentioned that long ago), it would be interesting to see what the reaction to a rebroadcast -- or better yet an updated broadcast that took into account the many different religions that are seen today. I'm sure somewhat the same response wold be garnered today, but I'm sure a number of them would be quite a bit stronger than simply writing letters. 

Well worth the read for both it's historical value, as well as an insight into how some people behave towards each other, especially when they feel long established boundaries have been crossed.

"The Black Witch" by Laurie Forest

 

Publisher: Harlequin Teen

Copyright: 2017

ISBN: 9780373212316

The Black Witch was a very interesting book to read. When I started it, I at first I thought it was going to be a Harry Potter-ish style a book with a teenager figuring out they have magic powers, going to school, and then finally saving the world. However, I was pleasantly surprised approximately a quarter way into the book when I realized it was more of a study of cultural norms, politics, and racism.

There is of course magic, wands, elves, etc. after all it is a fantasy novel, but while they do play major parts in the story, we thankfully aren't treated to exhaustive descriptions of what elves are etc. as Ms. Forest treats her readers as if this isn't the first fantasy book they ever read. There is teen romance, but while it does play a significant part int he plot, it also looks at things such as arranged marriages (called wand-fasting in the book), and so on.

This is the first book in a trilogy, so it looks as if things are off to a good start, and I look forward to reading the next instalment.

"Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" by Richard Wrangham

 

Publisher: Basic Books

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 9780465020416

Even though this book shares the first part of its title with one of a relatively popular series of novels, this book has absolutely nothing to do with "The Hunger Games", although cooking does typically satisfy hunger. It is in fact an anthropological investigation into the revolutionary history of humans and how we possibly might have teamed fire, and thereby learned to cook food, allowing us to evolve into what we have today.

The book starts off by examining the theories behind eating raw food, which at the time of writing was somewhat of a fad. Following this Dr. Wrangham looks into amongst other things the energy theory of cooking, how cooking began, what foods best affect brain development, the social structure of hunter-gatherers, how we differ from the great apes in both social structure and feeding habits, how domestication possibly influenced the male role in life, and much more.

In one chapter Dr. Wrangham looks at the social inequity between males and females, and it is rather surprising to see how much that parallels the inequality seen even today in certain cultures.

This book has 46 pages of reference notes, and a 30 page bibliography. Both of which are extremely valuable in understanding this topic. For the most part when I was taking my anthropology courses ideas such as this were not part of the curriculum but then again this was many years before this book was published.

An extremely book that is well worth reading.

"Sleipnir" by Linda Evans

 

Publisher: Baen Books

Copyright: 1994

ISBN: 0671875949

Sleipnir is I believe Linda Evans first book, and it is an extremely interesting one to say the least. We first meet the protagonist Randy Barnes when he is in the process of negotiating a Norwegian cave on his way to confront Odin, whom he intends on challenging to a duel and hopefully killing.

So why you might ask is Barnes looking to challenge Oden? Well Barnes himself is an ex-soldier who was recently discharged shortly after the death of his best friend Gary in a traffic accident. However, very shortly after his death he witnessed Sleipnir retrieving the body and taking it to Valhalla. Now for those of you who do not know Norse mythology, Sleipnir does not collect bodies of people who die accidentally, nor are they welcome in Valhalla, as this is where warriors who are killed in battle are taken, accident victims etc. go to Niflheim to serve the goddess Hel.

So what is going on? Well, you'll have to read the book to find out as I don't want to spoil it for you. But suffice it to say the story is well written, and well researched too. I reviewed another of Ms. Evans' books a while ago "The Far Edge of Darkness" which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. Unfortunately Ms. Evans hasn't published any books recently, but we can always hope she'll return to writing soon.

"Paleofantasy: what evolution really tells us about sex, diet, and how we live" by Marlene Zuk

 

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Copyright: 2013

ISBN: 9780393081374

Paleofantasy is a very interesting book that goes into the great detail debunking the Paleo diet and other such pseudo scientific silliness. Dr. Zuk is a professor of ecology evolution and behaviour at the University of Minnesota, and she has researched this topic extremely well.

She uses the disciplines of anthropology, physiology, psychology, medicine and history to explain why the Paleo diet is not what proponents believe it is or promote it as i.e., a cure-all for societies ills, weight loss, etc.

In this book she examines the lifestyles that proponents of the Paleo lifestyle follow, and examines how actual science debunks this system of nutrition, and living. She gives a good overview on evolution, and how it works and then examines other concepts of the Paleo lifestyle such as exercising, love, sickness and health and much more.

Dr. Zuk's writing is clear and comprehensive, and the examples she uses are easily understandable by anyone. Or at least anyone who wants to understand them, as I am sure there are many paleo-fans out there who will dispute her findings as they have little or no scientific training.

Highly recommended