Warning: strpos(): Empty needle in /homepages/5/d845057890/htdocs/clickandbuilds/LionessatLarge/wp-content/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails-advanced/classes/Environment.php on line 47
Projects – Lioness at Large

Archives: Projects

Portfolio Items

100 Days of Summer Reading 2023

The prompts, books, and points: Prompts Books Points 1. Book with summer, beach, sun or sand in the title. Tove Jansson: The Summer Book 6 2. Book set in a location that you would like to go on vacation.     3. Book with a title that starts with a letter in the word B-E-A-C-H. […]

Read More

The Big Books and Series Binge Challenge

2023 seems to be my year of reading (or listening to) long books and bingeing on book series, so, when an online friend recently posted about her summer reading plans, she set me thinking about my own plans for the upcoming summer … only to end up deciding that I might just as well go […]

Read More

Halloween Book Bingo 2022

Blackout: Oct. 28, 2022 Reading Blackout: September 30, 2022. The Books Amateur Sleuth: Ianthe Jerrold: Let Him Lie – finished Sept. 6, 2022. Murder & Mayhem by the Book: Terry Pratchett: Mrs Bradshaw’s Handbook – finished August 29, 2022. Cozy Mystery: Miranda James: Murder Past Due – finished Sept. 22, 2022. Spellbound: Terry Pratchett: The […]

Read More

The Geography of Arda and Middle-earth

The Years of the Lamps and the Years of the Trees Source: Wikipedia Andrey Maximov: Illuin and Ormal — Ted Nasmith: Illuin Karen Wynn Fonstad: The Spring of Arda — from Almaren and the Great Lake in the Time of the Lamps to Middle-earth and Valinor in the Years of the Trees. Aman and Valinor […]

Read More

The Creatures of Middle-earth

Arda had a rich fauna, largely (though not exactly) coinciding with that of our world: it would be going overboard to try and list on this page every single type of animal mentioned in the legendarium even in passing; so the descriptions and commentary hereafter will be limited to those animals that significantly impact a […]

Read More

The Timeline of Arda and Middle-earth

While there is no substantial difficulty in fixing the time periods known as the Second, Third, and (beginnings of the) Fourth Age of Arda and Middle-earth, it is somewhat trickier to determine what exactly was “the First Age”, how long it lasted and which events it comprised.  For a discussion of the whys and wherefores […]

Read More

The Weaponry of Middle-earth

Middle-earth was not a peaceful place; from the First-Age warfare between Morgoth and the Elves, and their Edain allies, to the War of the Ring at the end of the Third Age, armed conflict formed the constant background of its people’s existence — and while there were also numerous minor wars and disputes, the overarching […]

Read More

Shiny Objects in Arda and Middle-earth

Arda and Middle-earth knew poverty, destruction, war, and hardship aplenty, but from their very own sources of light to precious jewels and metals, it also shone and sparkled with items of sheer magical brilliance, many of which were also of huge symbolic value.  These are some of them:   The Lights Amy O’Hanlon: Illuin and […]

Read More

The People and Peoples of Arda and Middle-earth

Note: This is primarily a write-up for my own purposes; I am not trying to emulate or even approximate the many outstanding Tolkien resources already available on- and offline.  As I prefer having all closely-related information available on one and the same page, I am keeping the information on Tolkien’s major (groups of) characters on […]

Read More

Wars and Battles of Arda and Middle-earth

Battlefields are blood-soaked places of unspeakable horror, replete with corpses, body parts, the roar, thunder and clash of arms, the cries and whimpers of the wounded and dying, shouts of rage, often the fumes of smoke and fire, and always the all-pervading stench of death.  And of course the legendarium’s universe far exceeds the various […]

Read More

Middle-earth

Introductory post HERE     J.R.R. Tolkien Author page: biographical sketch, bibliography, quotes, links (Auto-) Biographical Works Humphrey Carter: J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography Humphrey Carter: The Inklings Philip Zaleski: The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings                  Middle-earth The Books The Silmarillion (1977) The Hobbit (1937) – […]

Read More

2021 Holiday Reads

We’re less than two weeks away from Advent and the beginning of December, this year’s incarnation of “Festive Tasks” includes a “holiday books” square, CrimeReads recently published their 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, and I just succumbed to the purchase of electric tealights for my holiday candle holders so as to be able to enjoy them […]

Read More

24 Festive Tasks 2021

  Books: Christmas Tree & Ribbon Tasks: Holiday Socks     Door 1: Southern Hemisphere Book: Read a book set in the Southern Hemisphere, or that has a beachy scene on the cover. => Peter Temple: The Broken Shore Task 1: In Australia, it’s common to brag about having the “biggest ‘X’ in the Southern […]

Read More

Halloween Book Bingo 2021

  My Card and Game Progress   The Books Amateur Sleuth: E.C. Bentley & H. Warner Allen: Trent’s Own Case – finished Sept. 18. Relics & Curiosities: Barbara Hambly: Graveyard Dust – finished Sept. 15. Halloween: Washington Irving: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – finished Sept. 18. Mad Scientists and Evil Geniuses: Barbara Vine: The Blood […]

Read More

Summer Games 2021

So, I’ve finally come up with a summer reading theme: Seeing as both the Olympic Games and the European Football (Soccer) Championship have been pushed back to this year from 2020 due to the pandemic (and 3 of the four tennis Grand Slam tournaments are also set while it’s summer in the Northern Hemisphere), I […]

Read More

Narrativium: Where the Falling Angel Meets the Rising Ape

The Discworld Novels (and Subseries) The Colour of Magic  (1983) – Rincewind #1 ♦ Review HERE The Light Fantastic  (1986) –  Rincewind #2 ♦ Review HERE Equal Rites (1987) – Witches #1 ♦ Review HERE Mort  (1987) – Death #1 ♦ Review HERE Sourcery  (1988) – Rincewind #3 ♦ Review HERE Wyrd Sisters  (1988) – Witches […]

Read More

The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael

The Novels The Prequel: A Rare Benedictine: The Advent of Brother Cadfael (published in September 1988, set in 1120) The first Chronicle: A Morbid Taste for Bones (published in August 1977, set in 1137) The second Chronicle: One Corpse Too Many (published in July 1979, set in August 1138) The third Chronicle: Monk’s Hood (published […]

Read More

Appointment With Agatha: The Agatha Christie Centenary Celebration

This is my master update post for a group project to read all of Agatha Christie’s full-length novels in the order of their publication, beginning in October 2020, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the publication of her first mystery novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which introduced the world to Hercule Poirot and […]

Read More

An Alphabet of My Likes and Dislikes

This project is based on a very similar series of blog posts that I saw in BeetleyPete‘s blog and liked so much that I decided I’ll have a go at it, too — not least because it may also serve as an introduction to those of you who haven’t been following me for a long […]

Read More

The (Mostly) Dead Writers Society Reading Projects: Birthday Challenge & Authors in Residence

(Dead) Author Birthdays This is a reading challenge associated with the (Mostly) Dead Writers Society on Goodreads; I decided to join it because it is as much an invitation to reconnect with the classics as it is one to walk down literary paths less traveled; so it ties in nicely with my own 2021 reading […]

Read More