Agatha Christie Shortage
I’m not a person who has a favourite book. I love too many different genres and styles to name one book as favourite. I do however think that I can safely declare a favourite author. She has written 70 some-odd books, and I’ve read them all. In fact I’ve read them all numerous times, and they’re still my go-to books when I need something light. As the title of this post suggests, that author is Agatha Christie.
The thing I find with her books is they’re always enjoyable. They’re often silly, seldom realistic, and occasionally way out there, but who cares. The Whodunits she wrote are darn good puzzles. And most often I either forget how it ends between readings or, with some of the more beloved ones, remember the ending, and spend the whole book gloating as I recognize the pointers, and wondering how I was so dim as not to figure it out the first time through.
I can’t even say that I have a favourite Agatha Christie novel, although I can name my top few: Murder on the Orient Express, the Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and Cat Among the Pigeens are right up there. (Pretty much I love Hercule Poirot) Favourite short story collections include: the Tuesday Night Club Murders, and Partners in Crime.
I have a problem though. My mom owned everything Agatha Christie had ever written long before I started reading them. This means I never built up a good Agatha Christie collection of my own. I just borrowed Mom’s. Once I started university, I started to rectify this, mostly by asking for some of the omnibuses etc as birthday gifts. As a result, I have about 20 of her books here with me.
The problem with only having 20 Agatha Christie’s in this city, is that I’ve read them all at least once, and several of them twice since I moved here a year and a bit ago. Now, I can read these books over and over, but three times in a year is a little much. There’s no time to let any of the details fade, at all.
So I need more, that’s the obvious solution. But now we stumble upon the fact that I’m a little bit cheap, and a little bit illogical. There’s no good reason for me not to pay $10 a piece for some of these books, but it seems like way to much for something I’ve read before (this is where the lack of logic comes in, that $10 is a much better bet than the $15 or $16 I’ll spend on something I’ve never heard of because it looks interesting). I seriously need to find a used book store in this city. But until I do, at least I can whine about it on the internet.
The Mistborn Series
Hubby and I both recently finished reading the Mistborn Series, by Brandon Sanderson. Hubby declared the third book, The Hero of Ages, to be the best end of a fantasy series he’s ever read. He then spent the next week or so hounding me to start reading it right now so he could listen to me speculate about how it would end.
Personally I was just thrilled to actually read the end of a fantasy series. Especially one that actually ended after three books, the way so many series now seem to continue indefinitely, or at least until the author dies (as a side note, this is the author who will be finishing Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, now that he has passed). I was starting to think that the idea of ending your story after three books had died with Tolkien.
I do have to agree with Hubby that it is an excellent book. And one that ties things up very nicely. This book ties up loose ends from earlier in the series that I didn’t even realize were loose until right before they were resolved. The story was super interesting and engaging. And I was up way to late two nights running finishing it. It didn’t actually keep me up half the night the way the first one, Mistborn: The Final Empire, did but it was close.
I’m torn about which book in this series is my favourite. I think that distinction goes to the first one. It was a really, really, really good book. The second one, also very good, was probably my least favourite of the three. I know it was hubby’s least favourite. It had the most politicking and the least action of the three.
While I wouldn’t call this series light reading, it wasn’t heavy either. The novels deal with some grown up themes like loyalty and leadership, but they are quick paced, and easy to read. There’s never any feeling of slogging through to the good parts (a la The Two Towers) because most parts are good parts. If you’re looking for a good fantasy, I recommend these.
Yay Audiobooks
I’ve discovered the absolute greatest thing for jogging, and also for the bus: audio books. I was having a small problem with getting bored during jogs. As Hubby and I have become better and better joggers, we’re doing less walking. These means that we don’t get breaks during our jogging to chat. Without any real chatting, 25-30 minutes of jogging can get pretty darn boring.
I’ve tried listening to music while I jog, but it just doesn’t seem to work for me. I find myself jogging in time to the music, which is often not the right rhythm/pace for me. So with music out of the picture I started looking for other things that I could do with my iPod to make jogging less boring. And I hit on the idea of audio books.
A quick google search revealed that if you’re looking for audio books of things in the public domain (i.e. to old to be under copyright) you have tons of free options. So far I’ve been using Free Classic Audio Books because I like their iPod ready downloads. The library isn’t huge, but I’ve been very impressed with what I’ve listened to. I’ve also been looking at the LibriVox library, but it’s so large that I’ve found it easier to start with the small one first.
I started off with a book I’d read many times before: The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. This was a good choice for me, as it took a couple of chapters to get used to hearing the story instead of reading it. I have to say that I was absolutely thrilled though. I’ve always found Agatha Christie’s work entertaining, but it’s never been laugh out loud funny until you hear it read by an Englishman who’s accent is perfect for Captain Hastings. The accent he used for Poirot was even better. I can’t wait to start trying out some other books.
Frankenstein
I just finished reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. I really enjoyed this book, although I have to say that for a classic horror novel, I didn’t find it scary at all. It was certainly a bit suspenseful, and very interesting, but it did not frighten me. And just for the record, I am the single most easily frightened person that I know. So if I didn’t find it scary I doubt that anybody else will.
I have a few words of warning for anyone buying what are now considered “classic” novels. If the book is now in the public domain, be careful that what you are buying is actually that book. Also, skip the introduction, read it last.
I purchased Frankenstein online, the first time that I bought it. Yes, I had to buy the book twice. That’s because I assumed, when I placed my order, that any book labelled with the title of Frankenstein and the author Mary Shelley, was the book I was looking for. I bought the cheapest one, because, well, why pay more for the same thing.
The problem came when our order arrived, and I pulled from the box the Dover Childrens Classics, large print, illustrated, very very abridged (30 pages long) copy of Frankenstein. I went back to the online order to see just how stupid I had been. It really was an easy mistake to make. You have to read into the back cover description a couple of sentences to find the words children, illustrated or abridged.
So I returned this book, and bought another one, in person this time. Knowing that I finally had the right thing, I sat down to enjoy my book. As well as the original text of the novel, this book included two introductions and an afterword. Now, I highly recommend the introduction to the book written by Mary Shelley herself. Most copies of this book I’ve seen contain this introduction, and it is a good lead in to the story.
The other introduction however, was written by someone who seemed to assume that anyone reading this book was already completely familiar with the story. While I was loosely familiar with the book: I knew it was about a man creating a monster, I knew that Frankenstein referred to the name of the man rather than the monster, etc. I did not however know that certain characters would be dying, until I was halfway through the introduction. I knew that the monster in the book was intelligent (unlike most Frankenstein novels) but I did not know many characteristics that were mentioned in the introduction.
So my second word of warning is simple: don’t read the introduction until you’ve read the book, because the person who wrote it may assume you already know everything.
After
I’ve just finished reading After by Francine Prose. It’s a young adult novel that my sister loaned to me. I find that I still really enjoy alot of young adult novels. The Giver by Lois Lowry is still one of my favourite pieces of dystopia, and I’m a huge fan of many series aimed originally at children/teens such as Emily of New Moon, and of course Harry Potter.
I can’t say that I loved this book though. It wasn’t bad, but some parts of it seemed completely improbable to me. The book is about highschool turning into a prison. It’s really about the step by step oppression of a group of people, and how no one stops it when it’s supposedly done for that group’s own safety. The book is set immediately after a school shooting at a nearby school. Ok to that point I can follow it.
However, the administrator who is oppressing them is a one dimensionally evil character who seems to have no reason for what he does. And the parents of the studen’ts seem to have been brainwashed through emails from the school. I understand that some people can be very persuasive, but this administrator was sending children away for an unknown length of time, and they’re parents weren’t objecting. I just couldn’t believe that; and it tinged the rest of the story for me. Once there’s one thing that I can’t accept, it’s much harder to get into the book.
Having said that, I did enjoy many aspects of the book. It was a frightening insight into what it might be like to be part of a group who’s rights are eroded, step-by-step, for their own “safety”. I read the book in one sitting in an afternoon the other day, and spent the evening Googling Stalin and Hitler and reading about real life situations of oppression.
I’m not sure that I would recommend this book to anyone, but I wouldn’t try to talk someone out of reading it either (not that I ever do). It certainly made me think.
Annihilation
I recently finished reading Seven Archangels:Annihilation, by Jane Lebak. For anyone interested it can be found online at Mindflights Magazine, or you can buy it through Amazon. I have to say it was really an awesome book. I read the first part quite a while ago, and then exam time got in the way, but once I got back into it, I finished the last three fourths of the book in three sittings. So it wasn’t quite a stay up all night book, but then there are only about 6 of those ever in my life. It was definitely a stay up half the night book. And while that list is long, everything on it is very, very good
I was a bit worried that it would be a preachy book. After all the major characters are the Archangels Gabriel, Michael, Remial, Raphael and the demon Mephistopheles. The minor characters include Satan, Jesus and the Virgin Mary. Within the first few pages, the angels are talking about God’s love. The main settings are Heaven and Hell. But within a short time it was clear that this book is no more preachy than any standard fantasy novel in which good and evil are clearly defined. In fact, it was a lot less preachy than a few of those that I’ve read. Annihilation reads very much like many fantasy novels I’ve read. Just to be clear, I say this as a compliment. I like good fantasy.
The story hinges around the idea that angels are immortal, until Satan finds a way to annihilate one of them. Imagine being immortal for thousands of years and then finding out you can be destroyed. Heaven goes into panic mode, Hell starts gloating, characters go insane. Overall, craziness ensues.
To make it even more fun, the author has added commentary for the various chapters on her blog. These add some interesting insight. I love it when author’s do this. I really think that it adds to my enjoyment of a book to know something about what the author intended, enjoyed etc. about writing the book. I suspect they would be even better read as you go. I read them all in one sitting after I finished the book. I did the same thing with Brandon Sanderson’s chapter by chapter commentary on his mistborn books.
Overall, I very much enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it.
Year Of Wonders
I recently finished rereading Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks. This is one of my all time favourite books, by an author who’s work I enjoy every time. Obviously I love this book. Except for the epilogue that it’s. I find it completely incongruous with the rest of the book. Every time I reread this book I declare that I’m going to stop before the epilogue. I never actually do though, and always end up annoyed that I didn’t stop.
I came across this book in my final year of highschool. I was doing an English project, whire I had to compare two novels, and I had chosen courage as my topic. When I saw the subject of this book I realized it was perfect. Year of Wonders is a piece of historical fiction about a small English town in the 1600s which is afflicted by plague. The town voluntarily quarantines itself, a decision that is unheard of at the time.
Despite the subject matter, I never find this book to be sad. It isn’t exactly the most uplifting story, but at the same time it is very touching. The main character is a young woman who loses both of her children to the plague, and the tragedies pile on from there. But this story isn’t really about the deaths, it’s about those who survive. I think that’s why I find that the title fits. it seems a really odd choice at first, how can a year when two thirds of a town’s population dies be considered a year of wonders.
But if you think about it from the population of those townspeople it was the year that god called on them to do something extra. They sacrificed themselves to protect those around them. That’s really pretty inspirational, especially in a world where most people considered the plague a punishment. And I think that’s why I love this book so much. It’s a beautiful, well written, touching story about a doomed little town, who manage to become heros.
Which is not to say that it’s a boring preachy book. Lots of stuff happens, and there are oodles of characters to hate, despise and pity to varying degrees. There are the greedy ones, the stupid ones, and the generally misguided ones. And then there is the plague itself. Brook’s doesn’t skim over the horror of the disease. Its presence dominates the book all the way through. As the subtitle says, this is “A Novel of the Plague.”
Paint it Black
I recently finished reading “Paint it Black” by Janet Fitch, and I have to say, I was really disappointed. The problem wasn’t so much that this book wasn’t good. The problem was that this is Janet’s second book, and her first, “White Oleander,” is one of my favourites. So, it’s not that this book is bad, it’s just that it isn’t as good as the last one.
The other problem I have with this book is a matter of setting. This book was set in L.A. in the 1980’s. The main character Josie is an art model. She’s living in the punk scene. She listens to music that I’m not familiar with. And music was a very important theme in this book. She’s very casual with her recreational drug use. Something with which I honestly have no experience.
I suppose really my problem with this book is that the environment is crucial to the story, but the assumption seems to be that the reader is at least passingly familiar with it. I’m not. It was little things; the year was never stated in the book (that I noticed) but the story begins just a few days after John Lennon was killed. That’s the kind of thing that would set the timing perfectly for someone more familiar with the time/place/atmosphere, but didn’t help me. I had to go look it up. At best, given that info, I was able to narrow it down to the decade.
The book was depressing too. It’s about the girlfriend and the mother of a young man who has just killed himself. I really found it a downer. Again, this was surprising to me, even knowing in advance (from the back cover) about the dark themes in the book. It was so surprising, mostly because “White Oleander” also has a depressing set up (young girl’s mother sent to prison, her struggles with the foster system) but I don’t find that book a downer. It may not be uplifting, but it doesn’t make me sad.
Overall, I’m not sorry that I read Paint it Black. But I’m not likely to ever read it again. And I am most definitely the kind of girl who rereads books.
Fantasy Novel Speculations
A surge of boredom has led me to finally trying out this blog thing. I blame it on hubby being out of town.
Since life is boring at the moment, I’ve decided to talk about the book I’ve just finished. I’m a grad student, it’s summer, and my supervisor is not on this continent, which means I have an inordinant amount of time available for reading.
Recently Hubby and I recently traded our favourite fantasy novels and we’ve been having an incredible amount of fun listening to each other speculate. Although I may have ruined some of the fun for him by staying up all night and finishing the book in 27 hours, not alot of time to speculate. I however am still having great fun laughing at some of his ridiculous theories, and trying not to gape open mouthed when he gets things right on.
So I gave him “Wizard’s First Rule” by Terry Goodkind. If you haven’t read it and you like fantasy at all, go get a copy right now. Right before I lent it to him, I reread it. Even on a fourth reading that book can still keep me up all night.
He lent me “Mistborn: The Final Empire” by Brandon Sanderson. Also an awesome book. I had alot of fun with Mistborn, and I don’t promise that the next couple paragraphs will be spoiler free, so if you want to read it you may want to stop reading this here. This book is alot of fun.It started quick, slowed for a bit, then had a huge rush of events at the end.
I successfully predicted a few things such as which key character was going to die. I was also dead wrong, and for no apparent reason was incredibly suspicious of one character who never betrayed anybody the whole time.
If you love complex detailed magic systems this book is for you. The allomancy system used is just fantastic. It involves the burning of metals to produce specific powers, thus giving it very defined limits. This makes it fun compared to some novels, as the reader can better understand the character’s limits. Character development is also awesome in this book. The main character goes from a street urchin to the woman who kills a good. From someone who trusts no one, to someone who risks her life for her friends. And she does it believably, which in and of itself is pretty impressive.
If you do decide to read this book, prepare yourself to read all of part five, and likely most of part four as well, in one sitting. The action really takes off at that point, and it becomes impossible to put down. In fact, even after part five it’s hard to stop. I finished this book three days ago and I’m already halfway through the sequel. In fact, I’m going to stop writing this now, and go read some more.
