Good morning. The round-up continues! Let’s jump right in!
- Do *you* like Raymond de Merville? Fizzyxcustard describes why she does
- Puggledy-huggledy-is-not-a-pig describes Sir Guy’s favourite traits
- Are these AI-created images of Thorin? Bagginstooksblog describes them as “Metal Thorin”. That’s pretty hot metal, I say
- Richardarmitagefanpage posts pictures from the Faber spring event where Richard read from Geneva
- Some more Trevor Price courtesy of riepu10
- TBT this funny scene from a BTS way back when RA was recording Wolverine. Full body acting – even when it is for audio…
- I think I have missed all of the previous chapters of this modern Tolkien AU by middleearthpixie. Here we are at ch 25 of Seven Days
- Reminder to re-watch RH – because as messandahalf10too says, the moving image is so much better than just the photos
- Following on from last week’s head canons post, puggledy-huggledy-is-not-a-pig has put together her Guy head canons. Long post!
Not that long a list, but better than nothing, right…
In other news, I have finished creating my contributions for the upcoming Turkey/Syria fundraiser. Just will have to get one last confirmation and then I can announce the date of the charity sale. Apart from Kate and myself, we have actually got a third crafter who has offered up a couple of hand-made items up for the fundraiser. Plushie-queen Nancy aka sinnamin is contributing. So you can look forward to that! More info coming soon.
What else has been going on? At the start of the year I created a book journal for myself. One of my resolution for 2023 was to do more hand-writing and to read more. So a journal (hand-made, of course, in my usual junk paper style) is the perfect 2-for-1: I am recording the books I am reading in 2023 in this journal, noting down a short summary of my impressions. It started quite well in January with 4 books under my belt. I *am* including audio books, too, and so there was one Armitage-related books in the January list. (Joy Ellis’ Solace House, performed by Richard Armitage). – It is now the 25th of February and I have nothing yet in my book journal ☹️. Two reasons: I was listening to a couple of True Crime podcasts while crafting, and they don’t qualify as “books”. Secondly, I had started a book recommended by my m-i-l – which I despised more or less from the beginning. (The book!!!!!! Not my lovely m-i-l 😬!!!) I was going to grin and bear it and read it til the end, but then decided that life’s too short to waste it on sub-par literature. Instead I turned to audio – and Richard – again.
After ascertaining that the level of horror is manageable for scaredy-cats, I started on CJ Tudor’s The Drift. I have listened to all of her Armitage-narrated books so far. While I will never become a fan of the genre, I have found out that I am “able” to bear horror if sweetened by the performer’s voice. I haven’t finished The Drift yet (about an hour left, I think, so nearing the end), but I can say that the story – despite much gore and a theme that is slightly too close for *my* comfort at this time in world history – did grip me. A couple of the characters (and their fate) has me hanging on tightly. However, of Tudor’s books, I still like The Other People best as it had less gore and more psychology.
Despite not having finished The Drift I jumped into another book yesterday. Since my volunteering shifts are always punctured by quiet periods in the museum, I bring a book to read. Having chucked my m-i-l’s recommendation book, I delved into Harlan Coben’s Fool Me Once. While I did not read the novels prior to the Netflix adaptations of The Stranger and Stay Close, this time round I decided to read the existing thriller. Coben is formulaic, yes, but say what you will, his prose is easy to read and the mystery is drawing me in. No doubt, the kopfkino courtesy of “Joe” to be played by Richard, is adding to the attraction… Suffice to say that I hope to have a couple of books down for February in my book journal…
What about you? Read/listened to the two above-mentioned works? Thoughts (preferably without spoilers!)?
That said, I feel the urge to get back to the crafting table now… must find out what happens in The Drift.
Happy weekend,
Sonja ❤️
Guylty Pleasure 
I listened to Solace House at the end of last year, because Jackman is one of my favourite characters, enhanced, of course, by the narrator, but still a detective I like. And I finished The Drift yesterday – like you I find I can cope with C J Tudor’s level of horror, and even enjoy it at times, and I definitely like the twists she puts in. I agree the theme this time is a bit close to the bone (probably why it took so long for her to finish it) but I enjoyed it as much as I ever enjoy the genre.
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We have the same tastes in lit then, Hobbit ;-). I quite like the character of Jackman, too, even if I often find Ellis overloading her plots a bit much. But I did enjoy Solace House. With The Drift you could definitely see what inspired the premise of the book.
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When I discovered RA’s narrating prowess, I devoured about 40 of them. Almost everything that is available on Audible Canada. My favourite was the ‘Christmas Hirelings’. Many of his books I have listened to more than once… maybe more than twice. He’s that good. And yes I did listen to Drift. Good listen, not my taste.
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Oh wow – did you listen to them all one after the other? Hehe, overdose? I have probably listened to most of them (except for some of the Christmas stuff – not my taste. I haven’t listened to the Hirelings, for instance). I have listened to the Jackman audio books twice.
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I’ve only been aware of RA for about two years and I discovered audiobooks about six months after that. I’ve listened to several of the Jackson books a couple of times as well as some of the romances. I’m not usually big on romances. And of course I’ve been through Geneva twice. I never knew audiobooks could be so good. Some books I can go through in a day or two so, yeah, addiction. When I was reading books it was even worse.
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Great stuff! The great thing about discovering a new crush is that there is lots of back catalogue to go through!
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I finished the J&E series with Solace House as soon as it was released. Same with The Drift. Audiobooks only. Enjoyed them both, though others from Ellis and Tudor might have been better (agree The Other People is the best of the four by Tudor I’ve listened to; wish that was the one RA was going to adapt for TV instead of The Taking of Annie Thorne, which I thought was too derivative of Pet Sematary). And I had to p/u a copy of Fool Me Once to see just how large a role for RA we can expect. About halfway through and sorry to say it’s not looking promising.
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Ah, I had no idea that Annie Thorne was reminiscent of Pet Sematary. King is Tudor’s hero, isn’t he?
😬 as for Fool Me Once…
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Yes, but that’s the only one of her RA-narrated novels I felt was a bit too reminiscent for my taste.
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Gawd, after nearly-twenty years he still sets my heart a flutter! What is it about this man? Thank you for this gorgeous selection. Fizzy Custard is spot on about Raymond and 3 Metal Thorin is impressive (Psst, 9 seems to be the same as 8).
I sympathise with your vow to read more (I misunderstood your comment at first about recording books and thought Guylty would be joining RA on the Audible roster!). I rarely read the books of RA vehicles until I’ve seen them, even though they often vary, and am delaying The Drift, as dystopian stories give me the heebie-jeebies. I am currently listening to The Medici Murders, read with a sexy Northern accent by RA ,,,
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Oops, northern I meant
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