The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

It took me longer than usual to read these books this year; I think I both got tied up in library books and busy doing other things than reading. When I did finally read them, I was most struck by the language and the structure this time around. Tolkien has a very good ear for the English language--so he was able to make his book sound like something that's come out of thousands of years of mythic history--while still using subtle differences in dialect to distinguish between the types of characters (and he has a series of invented languages from which the Lord of the Rings was supposedly translated that add a layer of complexity to his work). The structure is also very well done--things that open earlier in the story close later on (even Fredegar Bolger, who was left at Crickhollow in an attempt to foil pursuers is accounted for when the hobbits return to the Shire after destroying the Ring). I think this happens most clearly in the case of Smeágon/Gollum: his fall in Mount Doom is clearly foreshadowed by the oaths he swears on the Ring while he helps Frodo and Sam into Mordor. Despite the clear losses that everyone suffers in the story, it's really a hopeful tale: good can prevail, at least one age at a time, and we know it is good, not just because we are told so, but because it treats those who have done it evil with kindness and mercy; we can also track evil in its self-defeating hostility to all, even its so-called allies. I really love these stories--and I can't wait for the movies about The Hobbit, which start this December!