The Fellowship of the Ring:
In the first part of Tolkien's epic trilogy, we are reintroduced to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo has become a legend because of his adventures with Smaug and, being a hobbit, this isn't necessarily a good thing, since almost all the other hobbits now see him as not quite all there. One hobbit in particular who doesn't look at Bilbo this way is Bilbo's nephew, Frodo Baggins, who has lived with Bilbo ever since his parents died. Frodo isn't like other hobbits either. Although still childlike, Frodo is deep and thoughtful and has even learned about the world outside of the Shire. Frodo's troubles begin when Bilbo leaves the Shire and leaves Frodo his magic ring. Contrary to what Bilbo thinks, the ring does more than simply make you become invisible, it is actually the One Ring, forged by the dark lord Sauron, lost for thousands of years. Gandalf is the one who makes this discovery and he tells Frodo that the Ring must be taken out of the Shire immediately. Frodo must than leave his home to take the ring to a place where it will be safe. Three of his friends accompany him (Sam, Merry and Pippin) and Frodo's adventure begins. After getting the Ring to Elrond's home in Rivendell, it is decided that in order to save Middle Earth, someone must take the One Ring and destroy in the fires of Mount Doom where it was made. Frodo volunteers and sent with him is a group sworn to help Frodo see his quest succeed: the Fellowship of the Ring. The Fellowship consists of the hobbits Sam, Pippin and Merry, the wizard Gandalf, the men Boromir and Aragorn (i.e., the King of Gondor), the dwarf Gimli (son of Gloin from The Hobbit) and the elf Legolas (whose dad we met in The Hobbit also). Together they take the Ring to the borders of Mordor and then... oops! end of the book!
The Two Towers begins with the breaking up of the Fellowship. Merry and Pippin are kidnapped by orcs; Gandalf and Boromir are no longer with us; Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli are trying to rescue Merry and Pippin; Sam and Frodo are taking the Ring into Mordor. Several major events occur in this book, but I won't tell you what they are (Read it yourselves!). All I'll let you in on is this: Pippin and Merry are better at this "quest" stuff than anyone thought, Ents are decidedly un-hasty, we meet key secondary characters like Eowyn and Boromir's younger brother Faramir, Sam, Frodo and Gollum team up to take the One Ring to Mount Doom (Oh yes, my precious!), Boromir and Gandalf keep showing up even though they're supposed to be dead and (Ba Ba BUHHH!) Sam ends up with the One Ring! So much excitement!
Definitely this one has the most action in it out of the whole trilogy. It revolves around Aragorn coming back to Gondor to claim the throne, the final key battles in the War of the Ring and the destruction of the One Ring and the end of Sauron. Oh, and the Scouring of the Shire, but you won't be hearing even a tiny bit about that here. Again, READ THE BOOKS! Also at the end of this book we have the appendices, which is where we learn about things like how to pronounce Elvish, the story of Aragorn and Arwen, how the Fellowship ends up, etc.