I feel like the title, "Twenty-first-century Tolkien: What Middle-earth means to us today" is in some ways a bit misleading - or the book does not entirely fulfill the promise of this title. I was expecting more discussion of the themes, inspirations and influence of Tolkien, and also how they are to be interpreted in our time. The book does contain some of this,  but I felt that too much of the book is spent explaining and describing Tolkien's process of writing his legendarium and the subsequent adaptations. For a Tolkiendil, well versed in the legendarium, much of it is already familiar. But perhaps the book is aimed at a more casual fan of the books or the Peter Jackson films. However, the latter part of the book does contain interesting insights and arguments, so I give the book three stars.