The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
7.0
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Book
A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, Oscar's sweet but disastrously...
Xanderath (690 KP) rated The Lord of the Rings in Books
Aug 25, 2019
Andrew Koltuniuk (762 KP) rated The Fellowship of the Ring in Books
May 14, 2020
The Saga of the Volsungs
Book
Part of a new series Legends from the Ancient North, The Saga of the Volsungs is one of the classic...
The Silmarillion
7.9
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Book
A new hardback edition with a cover design by Tolkien himself, to complement the popular Hobbit and...
BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated Close to You in Books
Jan 2, 2019
I received a free copy of Close to You in my "Swag Bag" from Christian Fiction Readers Retreat, Nashville, 2016. I was not required to write a review. All opinions expressed are mine alone.
A Middle-Earth Traveller: Sketches from Bag End to Mordor
Book
Let acclaimed Tolkien artist John Howe take you on an unforgettable journey across Middle-earth,...
Phil Leader (619 KP) rated The Gods In Anger (The Omaran Saga #4) in Books
Nov 13, 2019
So far so epic-fantasy-by-the-numbers. But this is no Tolkien clone. Cole was doing Grimdark fantasy long before there was any Grimdark fantasy and this still stands amongst one of the best final books in a fantasy series.
Despite any summary of the story sounding very cliched, it is anything but. The characters must dig deep to survive, the danger growing as they get closer to their goal.
If you want an epic fantasy that still feels refreshingly different, you can't do better.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
8.5
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Movie Watch
Frodo Baggins, a hobbit from the Shire, begins his journey to Mordor to destroy the ancient and...
Lord of the Rings
Charlie Cobra Reviews (1840 KP) rated Tolkien (2019) in Movies
Jul 7, 2020
As a young boy living in the countryside, J.R.R. Tolkien, learns multiple languages and how to read and write with his younger brother as they are taught by their mother. They are forced to move to the city so their mother can better provide for them when unfortunate events have them taken in by the Church and and stay at a boarding house. This is where, as a young student at King Edward's School, among a group of fellow outcasts, he finds friendship, love, and artistic inspiration. But his friends and their new brotherhood must endure the ups and downs of his position in society, his relationship with the love of his life Edith Bratt and later the outbreak of World War I.
I was really excited for this movie and having my hopes up and expectations might be the reason I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. For one I don't normally watch autobiographies but I have seen more that I liked in comparison to this film. I guess I thought they would show more about him coming up with the ideas for his books, which they showed very little of. Instead it was about the important events of his life which I guess is what biographies should do. For some reason though I felt like the storytelling dragged and it didn't do enough to keep you interested, very lackluster. I found that the story, acting, and dialogue were all well done but the movie suffered from the direction they went with and how they chose to show it. One thing I really liked was there were several instances where you could see what influenced him when he wrote the Lord of The Rings" books. It's an entertaining film with flair and ambition that teems with on the nose moments but is hindered by the usual biopic framework. I believe the quote from Rotten Tomatoes says it best, "Tolkien Has the period trappings and strong performances of a worthy biopic, but lacks the imagination required to truly do it's subject justice". I give it a 6/10.