The Friday Face-Off: Current/Recent Read

   

Welcome to The Friday Face-Off, a weekly meme at Books by Proxy. Join us every Friday as we pit cover against cover, and publisher against publisher, to find the best artwork in our literary universe.  You can find a list of upcoming topics at Lynn's Books.

This week's topic is:
Current/Recent Read

I'm reading quite a few books at the moment, so I decided to feature a recent five-star read that I read--J.R.R. Tolkien/Christopher Tolkien's The Children of Hurin! I'll confess, I've still never made it fully through The Silmarillion, but I've been dying to read other Middle Earth universe books and decided I would just move on and try them out, and I don't regret it at all. If you've enjoyed the Lord of the Rings trilogy and have been hesitant to read more books in the universe--don't be, The Children of Hurin was extremely readable and entertaining, although it is rather tragic. Anyway, enough of that--let's check out some of the many covers for this book!

2007 US Hardcover | 2009 US Paperback | 2009 Persian

2002 German | 2018 Polish | 1988 German

2010 Spanish | 2008 Dutch | 2009 French

2009 Dutch | 1994 Polish | 2010 Mass Market Paperback

My choice(s):

I love the simplicity of these ones, I feel like they really stand out and make a statement!

What cover(s) do you like the most!?

 

Waiting on Wednesday: Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Breaking the Spine that spotlights exciting upcoming releases that we can't wait to be released!

This week's upcoming book spotlight is:

Beren and Lúthien by J. R. R. Tolkien

Publication Date: May 4th, 2017
HarperCollins
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository

From Goodreads:

"Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a fully continuous and standalone story, the epic tale of Beren and Lúthien will reunite fans of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with Elves and Men, Dwarves and Orcs and the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The tale of Beren and Lúthien was, or became, an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of the First Age of the World conceived by J.R.R. Tolkien. Returning from France and the battle of the Somme at the end of 1916, he wrote the tale in the following year.

Essential to the story, and never changed, is the fate that shadowed the love of Beren and Lúthien: for Beren was a mortal man, but Lúthien was an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, in deep opposition to Beren, imposed on him an impossible task that he must perform before he might wed Lúthien. This is the kernel of the legend; and it leads to the supremely heroic attempt of Beren and Lúthien together to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, called Morgoth, the Black Enemy, of a Silmaril.

In this book Christopher Tolkien has attempted to extract the story of Beren and Lúthien from the comprehensive work in which it was embedded; but that story was itself changing as it developed new associations within the larger history. To show something of the process whereby this legend of Middle-earth evolved over the years, he has told the story in his father's own words by giving, first, its original form, and then passages in prose and verse from later texts that illustrate the narrative as it changed. Presented together for the first time, they reveal aspects of the story, both in event and in narrative immediacy, that were afterwards lost."

I am a big fan of Tolkien, so of course more material being released from Tolkien - courtesy of Christopher Tolkien - is definitely going to grab my attention! I am really excited by the sound of this story and can't wait to check it out. :)

What do you think about this upcoming release? What are your anticipated upcoming releases?

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