Chocolate Book Tag

Yay!!  Two of my favorite things combined!  Thanks to Monica at Spilled Ink for the tagging of me :)

Dark Chocolate (a book that covers a dark topic)

I think I'm gonna have to go with Island of the World by Michael O'Brien.  I could put almost any of his Children of the Last Days series under here, but I feel like this one is the one that best fits the description.  Or maybe I'm just putting it here because the book is so deep and that makes me think of Dark Chocolate?

White Chocolate (a light and humorous read)

While not exactly humorous, this book (or any in the series) is a very light read, and pretty fun too.

Milk Chocolate (a book with lots of hype that you're dying to read)

I've been wanting to read this one ever since I watched the movie.  That was shortly after I saw the Hunger Games, and I wanted to compare the two stories.  Now I really want to read the book, which, as a little birdie told me, my sister is getting me for my birthday :)  Don't tell her I know, I dragged the secret out of Mom.

Caramel Filled Chocolate (a book that makes you feel gooey inside)

 

This is one of the many romance novels I have read that makes me feel gooey inside :) But this one does it the most!

Wafer-less Kit-Kat (a book that surprised you)

 

I was going to mention one of my first sci-fi books here, but instead I'm putting Palace of Stone by Shannon Hale instead.  This book, unlike the sci-fi books which surprised me in a good way, surprised me in a not so good way.  It was just really dry, which surprised and disappointed me, since the prequel was soooooo good.  I was really surprised at how cookie-cutter it seemed, especially after the originality of the first book, Princess Academy.

*Snickers (a book you're going nuts about)

 This is kind of hard, because there are books that I have gone nuts about before that I now am not so entranced with, and there are books that I would like to go nuts over, but haven't read them yet (e.g., The City, Divergent, etc.).  That being said, I... don't really have an answer.

Hot Chocolate with Mini-Marshmallows (a book you turn to for comfort)

 

The Lord of the Rings :)  Need I say more?

A Box of Chocolates (a series you feel has something for everyone)

 

I think I would have to say the Fairy Tales Retold series.  It has a little bit of romance, a little bit of adventure, and a little bit of religion.  The religion part might annoy some people, but it's one of the highlights of the series to me.

Well there you have it!!  My Chocolate Book list :)  Look out for more posts in the near future.

*I king of feel like this should be called Nutty Bar, since you're going nuts over it?

Open Letter to Cry Room Invaders

Dear Cry Room Invaders,

I would say you know who you are, but you obviously don't because of your behavior to all parents who correctly use the cry room.  So allow me to let you know who you are.

You are the crazy people who come in with your 20-something year old children (who by the way, are NOT children) who are perfectly well-behaved.  You are also the parents who come in with your children who are legitimately children but are perfect angels who obviously do NOT need to be in the cry room (there's a method to the madness of its name, people).  You are also the random people who come just to sit because, I don't know, you think it's quieter?  But why on earth would you think that, it's a CRY room!!  You are also the people who are only in the cry room in order to hide until communion time.  WHY?!

Never mind the fact that you are taking up seats and room for the people who actually use the cry room for its specific purpose, but you insist on rebuking those who come in to the cry room to use it for its full intent!!!!!  'Rebuking' is a nice name for your behavior towards those parents, but I'll just leave it at that.

But seriously, the cry room is made for parents when their children just will not stop banging the pews, or yelling about the fact that their older sibling is serving on the altar, why can't they? or just won't stop yelling and screaming in general.  The parents of these children should be able to scoop the adorable but mischievous child up and go into the cry room, where they can participate in the Mass but be sure of not disrupting it.

You, my dear Cry Room Invaders obviously do not realize this.  The parent of a loud child is usually already flustered that their kid was being super loud, and does not need to be flustered even more by you, insisting that their child is being loud, so they "really need to leave."  NO!  They DO NOT need to leave!!  You do, if such behavior is distracting to you!  If the child is being loud, they belong, and you do not.  It is NOT your space, and if anything, these parents should be able to ask YOU to leave.  But of course, they are wrestling a screaming child, so who can expect them to think of that?

And you parents who decide to bring your children here even when they are well-behaved, would you be kind enough to leave if you and your children are distracted by the little kid who keeps banging on all the chairs, or screaming, instead of telling the parent who is correctly using the cry room to leave?  I know some churches have 'family rooms' (which are actually supposed to be used in the same way a cry room is) but this is a cry room, so please use it like one.

I'm sure that no church wants to have a volunteer position of 'cry room monitor' whose duty it is to kick the ineligible out of said cry room, so Cry Room Invaders, please do everyone (including yourselves) a favor and stay in the main room of the church?  It's much nicer out there anyway (and quieter).

Thank you,
Ice Cream

Reading List

Yikes, my last post was almost three months ago :P
I suppose one reason that I haven't posted is because I haven't had anything to post about.  My reading for school has been too much to leave room for some fun books, but lately I've had more time for fun reading, so I've decided to come up with a list and post it!  Some of these books aren't actually what some people would consider 'fun' books.  They are part of my unofficial Tolkien Study Reading List.  And since I like reading books about Tolkien and his works, these make the list of my 'fun' books :)
So here's the list!

1. Following Gandalf by Matthew Dickerson

I've actually already started this one, I like it so far.  The title sounds cool, doesn't it?

2. Island of the World by Michael O'Brien

I actually started this one a while ago, but it is such a hefty book that I'm still not done :P I am a pretty big O'Brien fan, and I was super excited when Mom got this one.

3. The City by Dean Koontz

Recommended by my friend Monica, of Spilled Ink :)  My Grandmother has also read several Dean Koontz books and loves them, so I thought I'd give them a go.

4. Tolkien Man and Myth by Joseph Pearce

Another of my Tolkien study books.  'A literary life' makes it sound like a biography, and normally biographies are not my thing, so we'll see how that goes.

5. The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien edited by Humphrey Carpenter

And another Tolkien study book.  This is the last one for this list, don't worry :)  This book is thicker than I thought it would be O.o  But after reading it quoted in so many other books on Tolkien, I'm pretty eager to read the whole book.

 

6. The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

This is a re-read.  After reading so many books about Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings, I missed reading the actual books and decided to start the trilogy again!  But I'm just putting the first book on this list for now.  I would've started with the Silmarillion, but our copy is falling apart :P Too many younger brothers left it out in weird places (isn't it amazing that by too many, I actually mean one?).  But isn't the cover just so cool?!  I know that in this picture if you look closely at the bottom, it says 'THE ART OF THE FELLOWHIP OF THE RING GART RUSSELL' in all its caps glory, but trust me, this is the cover for my copy of FotR.

So there you have it!  My reading list.  I might or might not be posting reviews, and I might or might not be reading the list in order.  So no commitment over here, except for the commitment to finish this list.

Breed to Come

Okay, so my step-grandfather got me hooked on sci-fi books.  It was an attempt to get me away from some of the more serious books that aren't actually stories (like 'Myth, Morality, and Religion' or 'The Philosophy of Tolkien') but it didn't work, because in one of books the author was talking about the relation between The Lord of the Rings and sci-fi books, so they were good examples :)


I am so glad I found the cool cover
not the creepy one.

'Breed to Come' by Andre Norton (that's a nom-de-plume, her real name is Mary Norton) is a post-apocalyptic story, which is basically what you would get if you took evolution, Humans leaving earth, very advanced technology, cats, and rolled them all into one.  Humans have been gone from our good planet Earth for quite some time.  In those long, long years Cats, Dogs, Wild Boars, and Rats have evolved and become the four dominant species, all capable of reasoning and at the very least, using simple tools.  The first three species are living very primitively near the ruins of a Human university.  Cats have developed the ability to walk constantly on two legs, and they are able to use primitive tools and weapons.  The Rats live in the ruins of the city, and not much is learned about them until the end of the book.  They are very similar to Cats, though. 

The hero of the story is a Cat named Furtig, whose ancestor Gammage left the Clans to live in the ruins of the Human university and discover their secrets.  Furtig, after losing his chance at the Trials (a contest between the males so the females have a chance to choose their mate), decides to follow Gammage and the many Cats who followed him.  When he finally arrives, Furtig discovers that Gammage and the Cats under him have made tremendous progress discovering how to use the Human's technology, and why the Humans left in the first place.  Even so, Gammage is very concerned that the Humans will return, and soon, to reclaim their home planet.

The story is very complex, and there is so much about the technology of the Humans that is never explained.  There is an extremely interesting plot twist, which I never really expected, but probably should have.  I wish I could rant about it, but I'm going to restrain myself.  There is not much conversation throughout the book, which is usually what it takes to keep me occupied with a  book, otherwise I will read through three full pages without actually registering what was happening, then I have to go back and re-read.  But the book kept my attention the whole way through!  I absolutely could not put it down.  If it was possible to read all the time (literally) I would have read this book while I slept!


I give this book an: A-
The book was really good, and I love, love, love the plot, however, nothing really relevant to the plot happens until you're almost half way through the book.  Okay, stuff happens, it's just very slow.  After reading more Andre Norton books I find this rather typical of her.  There is also not a whole lot of character development, which in NOT typical of Andre Norton.

I would TOTALLY recommend this book!

Oh, and one thing I LOVE about Andre Norton's books is that she proves that romance is not required to make a good book :D

In Defense of Frodo

So recently I was at a summer camp, and while there I was talking with a group of girls, and we got into the subject of The Lord of the Rings, one of my favorite subjects.  While on this subject, one of the girls started gushing about Sam in a manner such as the following: 

I'd like to suggest that he does, at least in the fan world

"Sam is sooooo awesome!  I love Sam so much, he is so cool, he is the best character in LotR!"  etc.  Then she moves on to Sam's counterpart, Frodo: "Frodo on the other hand is soooooo annoying, he's all greedy, and mean to Sam, and an educated snob!!  He's always acting above Sam!!

Now hold on.  I like Sam and Frodo, they are both really cool.  For different reasons.  Which is as it should be.  Now I am not going to point out Sam's character flaws in this post, I shall devote a small post to that later.  But for now:

In Defense of Frodo:
First things first:  Frodo is NOT greedy.  If by 'greedy' you are referring to his being possessive of the Ring, possessive is not the same as greedy.  This possessiveness is also not part of Frodo, it comes as a side effect of The Ring.  Anyone can become affected in this way by it, including but not limited to Boromir, Gollum/Smeagol, Bilbo, oh, and Sam was definitely hesitant before he gave the Ring back to Frodo after he rescued him from the Orc tower.

Second:  Frodo is NOT mean to Sam.  He may be a bit snappish towards the end of the quest, but again, that's a side effect of The Ring.

When does Frodo act like a snob?  Is this part of the whole 'he's mean and greedy' thing?  Because we already debunked that.  He also doesn't act above Sam.  Sam is Frodo's closest friend!  It's also not Frodo's fault that he has an opportunity to be more educated than Sam.  Also, Sam isn't as not educated as some might think.  In the books it mentions Sam spending lots of time with Bilbo and listening to him.  Don't you think he might've learned something from him?

Now that I have done my best at justifying Frodo, I'm now going to justify all those fanpeople who love Sam and strongly dislike Frodo.

In Defense of All Those Who Love Sam and Dislike Frodo:
This is perfectly normal for people to love Sam.  That's kind of the way that Tolkien set it up.  Sam is the character whom Tolkien made to be most similar to the average Joe.  He has regular person characteristics, and reacts to most situations in the same ways that a regular person would.  The real thing is, that despite the fact that Sam is similar to a regular person, he does do many quite heroic things, including, but not limited to, carrying Frodo (literally and mentally), providing for the material needs of himself and Frodo, going off with Frodo when Frodo was going to go alone, saving the Shire, helping to defend Frodo from Gollum, rescuing Frodo from an orc tower, taking on a gigantic spider that I have nightmares about (sorry diehard Sam fans, he didn't ever actually kill it), and etc.  This heroicness while still being ordinary is what appeals to so many people who read The Lord of the Rings. 

Frodo is not like this, because he had to be one of the higher characters.  It was a consequence of his choosing to carry the Ring.  Frodo had to become more than an ordinary person, because of his more than ordinary burden.  Frodo says to Sam, "We set out to save the Shire, and it has been saved.  But not for me."  That reflects the fact that Frodo has grown since his quest, and he has been hurt.  The Shire can no longer hold Frodo, he is not at peace there, so he has to go across the sea into the Undying Lands.  He will eventually die there, by the way, just because the Undying Lands are undying doesn't mean that Frodo won't die.

I think that Frodo is a tragic character, who had the right to be honored, and should have been mourned.  I honestly feel sorry for Frodo.  I still like Sam, I think he's great example of courage in the ordinary person, but just because you like Sam doesn't mean you should bash on Frodo.  In fact, you should probably love Frodo just as much as Sam did.  After all, if it wasn't for his love for Frodo, Sam wouldn't have become the hero that he is.

Bucket List Tag!

So I was tagged by my dear friend Monica at Spilled Ink for the Bucket List Tag!  Thanks Monica!  I shall now list the ten things I wish to do before I kick the bucket (translation:  before I die).

• Start a Pro-Life group
• Become an OB-GYN (a pro-life one!)
• Go sky-diving, bungee-jumping, and/or deep sea scuba-diving!
• Read every bit of writing that Tolkien ever wrote
• Eat a dessert pizza
• Remember all of my friends' birthdays for at least one year
• Go to Europe and see the sights, Catholic and secular!
• Cook all the meals for my family for at least one day (technically I could, I just have never done it yet)
• Own a horse!
• Win a blue ribbon at a horse show (lots of red second place ribbons, never a beautiful blue first place ribbon)
• Whoa, that's it?  I guess so!

Okay, so that's it!  Some of those listed are more ambitious than others, some are next to impossible for me right now, but might very well be possible in the future!  I'm not going to tag anyone, because I don't know who to tag besides my friend Monica, who has already been tagged, so I don't want to double tag her :)  I don't think anyone will mind this breach of etiquette because I don't think anyone reads this except for you Monica!  But that's okay, because it allows me to do things like this ;)

Oh, and by the way, I have close to three reviews I want to get out, plus another post on the side, but almost NO TIME to do so.  What's that rhyme in The Hobbit, it brings down mountains and eats up people, etc.?  Yeah, it also prevents me from posting on here.  Ah, the many abilities of time.

The Hunger Games

I know, I know, all the real literary people have stopped viewing my blog as of the time they read this title.  But hey, even though I suck at reviewing, and nobody reads this blog anyways (except one of my best friends), I can post whatever I want!  So onward!

Before I watched the movie I had my doubts.  I really thought this was going to be a silly movie with no substance whatsoever.  (Another) One of my best friends is crazy about The Hunger Games series (to the point where you can't look anywhere in her room without seeing SOMETHING relating to HG), and I couldn't understand it.  Now I do.  (However, I'm not one of the HG series fawning fangirls, like my friend is.  It wasn't THAT good)
I thought the movie was going to be all about Katniss, her (sort of?) love triangle between Gale, Peeta, and herself, and the killing, and blah blah blah.  But I was so wrong.  It was definitely something more than that.

Katniss lives in a dystopian North America, which is split into 14 areas:  The Capitol (where all the rich people and tyrants live), and 13 poorer districts, which all specialize in in producing certain things for The Capitol.  Once upon a time, the 13 districts rebelled.  The Capitol defeated them, and as a punishment, obliterated district 13 and started the annual Hunger Games.  Each district sends a girl and boy tribute between the ages of 12-18 to compete in an arena where the contestants fight to the death.  Or if you don't like going out and killing people, you can just wait it out.  That works, as long as you don't die of a bug bite, food poisoning, or hypothermia along the way.  Katniss' little sister Primrose is chosen as the girl tribute (against unthinkable odds) and Katniss volunteers in her place.

Like I said, I really thought it would be all about the killing, and Katniss being a hero by volunteering for her little sister, etc.  But as I watched the movie, I realized that the Games had a political influence as well.  The Capitol is definitely a troubled place, and when you think about it, people are so desperate for entertainment that they are willing to watch people, and not just people, but KIDS kill each other.  This makes me think of our society now.  People watch a LOT of TV, and Youtube, and just videos in general.  They are also always looking for the next best thing to entertain them.  How long until we really ARE so desensitized that we are willing to kill people for entertainment?  Actually, now that I think about it, The Hunger Games reminds me a lot of the Roman Coliseum....

The Hunger Games is not only about the danger of entertainment at any cost, but also about Human Dignity.  A review of the books is actually what brought this point to light.  The children sent to the arena are robbed of their dignity and made into objects for entertainment, and the viewers are also robbing themselves of their dignity and are made into objects.  There's your philosophical bit for the day :)

I have to say, that I really liked the movie.  Well, I'll say movies, I saw Catching Fire as well, but I don't think I'm going to write another review.  I would recommend the movie, but only to certain people.

I'm going to give this a B-, it was a good movie, but it was VERY graphic.  That's what I mean when I say certain people.  I am a teen, and I almost had to leave at certain parts.  I would also not let teenage boys watch it, just because of all the violence, and even you talked to them about how WRONG all this is, boys are easily desensitized to this stuff.  I also really felt like the sort of love triangle between Gale, Katniss, and Peeta, wasn't that well played out.  I kind of felt like Gale liked Katniss, but not that much, and then Peeta was just out of nowhere!  Also, in the books* it explains more why Katniss is so EXPLOSIVE with her mother, but in this movie, all you really see is that Katniss' relationship with her mom is, not that great, to put it nicely.

*As a side note, I read the first few chapters of the book at said friend's house, and honestly, I really dislike Katniss in the book.  Really.  I like the movie better than the book, but maybe I'm not giving the book a fair chance?