#and read poirot because funny little detectives are the BES

[crowslastcall]

Literally my favorite thing to do with a mystery movie is try to figure out the plot. knives out movies are the first that feels like they're not trying to punish me for that

i think one of the reasons glass onion is so fun is that it just... loves the audience back.

so many popular movies and shows these days thrive on a sort of bitter engagement with their fans - where the fans are dismissed as being stupid, annoying, and needlessly angry. we are constantly positioned as being less intelligent as the writers.

so much of "spoiler-free" movie-making relies on writers getting away with one twist in their work, regardless of if that twist was earned. the work doesn't actually have any rewatch value or interesting writing - because they think "good writing" is about "pulling one over" on the audience. they don't focus on making interesting characters or storylines or good endings - they focus on fooling you. glass onion, meanwhile, has faith that the audience has figured the ending out, and that we'll watch anyway, because we love the characters.

so many adaptions of older works... kind of seem to hate the original work. they're done without passion. they're done almost as if checking off a box. so many of them openly mock the audience for enjoying the original, almost directly telling us that we are fools for ever having loved something.

but glass onion. loves the audience. it knows that many of the people watching are mystery-lovers. it is an homage that feels love towards the original works it references. it knows we also love those works; and instead of trying to disparage those works, it allows us to celebrate them.

one of my favorite things about it - and maybe why i found it so satisfying - is that this movie isn't trying to tell you it's the smartest, bestest, most-clever detective story. instead, it asks itself what is satisfying and exciting for the audience? and actually gives us that payoff. it's bright, colorful, and fucking fun.

just... more of this please. i'm very bored of nihilism and grittiness and "shock value" writing. put the love back in. let us love unironically. have your work say i love you too. thank you for sharing this story.

[noahsbookhoard]

📚April 2024 Book Review (Part 2/3)📚

Lots of "first" this month: there are so many classic authors I had never read before! But they were all really enjoyable, it is another good batch.

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

To save her family's pub, Polly Perks has to find her brother, a Missing in Action soldier of the Borogravian army. She disguises herself as a man and enlist in the army under the name Oliver. A brilliant idea she might not have been the only one to have.

This one I was impatient to read, the concept was such a classic of fantasy novel that I had high hopes Terry Pratchett would make something awesome out of it.

I love the characters in every Discworld novel but this one especially: all the soldiers have different reasons to be here but they all stay together and care for one another. And I love the clown car effect of "surely this one isn't a woman too!" I couldn't get enough of it.

The story in itself is a bit blury in my memory, sorry. It's probably because I listen to the audiobook and I sometimes lose sight of the plot, on top of it being 5 months behind me. I remember most of all the Nuggan's ever expanding list of Abominations (religious taboos which includes the color blue, people under 3ft tall and sneezing) and the question of The Duchess (deified ruler of Borogravia) being alive or dead.

The message of the novel isn't subtle but if you need to be told that war is bad, religious bigotry and jingoism are bad and misogyny is bad you might be beyond subtlety. I love that Terry Pratchett is definite in his position, razor-like in his satire but always entertaining and funny. Fantasy is a political tool and he proves it everytime.

And (because I am still a fangirl inside) I had my little Vimes cameo as the cherry on top. 10/10 no notes.

Murder at the Vicarage (L'affaire Protheroe) by Agatha Christie

The Colonel Propheroe is widely disliked in the village of St Mary Mead, even his wife is cheating on him. So when he is found shot dead and with a strange half written note, there is no shortage of suspects, not even the Vicar with his very unkind words a few hours before. Miss Jane Marple, the Vicarage's neighbour, decides to solve the mystery.

My first Miss Marple novel! I have absolutely no reading order, this is a bit disjointed so I thought it was my first Christie but I remembered that technically I read And Then They Were None some time ago, it just completely slipped my mind. At that point I hadn't read any Hercule Poirot either so I was quite fresh to Christie's writing and ready for the challenge.

I made the questionable decision to read her novels in french because I wanted to give myself the best chance to solve the mystery. I thought reading in my native language would be easier. Well, apparently the most common translation is old and really not that great so I might rethink that! But for the foreseeable future (at least september) I will have read them in french. And completely failed at solving the crimes but that's another issue.

I don't want to say too much about the plot because that's the whole point of a whodunit but Agatha Christie always has the art of making an asshole the victim of the murder and you still want to know who did it just for the thrill of the chase.

But what I love with Christie is her detectives. The characters are usually quite flat and archetypal, but Poirot and Marple are a delight. Where Hercule Poirot is well established and respected in his craft, Miss Marple is just the nosy neighbour with a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue. The narrator is just so done with her putting her nose in this case which makes it even funnier. I love Miss Marple so much, I want to be her when I grow up.

I was absolutely lost in all the clues, so I did not deduce any part of the revelation but even if I had I would not have seen the murdered coming, I was floored. Everything is there, you know it is, and the culprit still takes you by surprise. Great job Mrs Christie, you did it again.

I, Robot (Robots #1) by Isaac Asimov

In the 2050's Dr. Susan Calvin, famous robopsychologist, answer a reporter's interview and tells him several stories about robot intelligence and their interaction with humans.

Asimov is a legend in SciFi so it was a prerequisite in my discovery of the genre. I read very few short stories anthology so I was a scared I wouldn't enjoy it but as always good books prove me wrong.

I don't remember all the short stories, the one who stuck to me are Robbie, Reason and Catch that Rabbit! but they were all good. Some more compelling than others (Catch the Rabbit! stayed in my memory because I STILL don't understand it) but I'll try to give an overall review rather than story by story.

The play on the Three Laws is at the heart of almost all of them: either it is a source of conflict or it helps in the resolution but it is endlessly creative.

Susan Calvin is an interesting character: a woman, pioneer in her field, a respected authority and she represents a more serious and scientific approach. The stories in which she appears are very murder mystery-like: there is a problem, some set of rules; how do you use the rules to solve the problem? Boom, done.

On the other hand you have the more comicsl stories with my goats: Mike Donovan and Gregory Powell! They approach each assignment as if it was some punishment in a hell design specifically for them (mood) and their first step to solving any problem is always to complain about it and bucket with the other. They are such and old couple together, please give me 10 more shorts stories with Donovan and Powell!

House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski

While rummaging in a dead man's appartment, Johnny Truant found a stack of paper, disorganised, written on scraps of paper, some half destroyed. Johnny will lose himself trying to organise the notes, which turn out to be an essay on a documentary film called The Navidson Record. In this film Navidson, a famous photographer, records the exploration of the house he moved in with his family and the strange dark hallway that appeared in the living room.

I've heard about House of Leaves A LOT and had no idea what it was about, I thought it was some dark academia novel and since Fourth Wimg I am weary of social media's popular book rec. A booktube account I follow talked about it and although its reviews was very lukewarm, I was intrigued. The dedication sets the tone: "this is not for you" and that finished piquing my curiosity.

I loved the actual House on Ash Lane subplot the most: it's the heart of the book, the most mysterious and the spookiest. I loved the mise en abyme, and how it saltoed back to be a book in the book's universe. The academic paper language and scientific description of the events contrast with the uncomprehensible nature of the house and the format growing more and more indecipherable as the exploration of the house progresses. It was creepy, I felt pulled in the story, I deeply enjoyed that.

I was more lukewarm toward Johnny's subplot. Watching him slowly lost himself in Zampano's work and lose his grip with reality was chilling but there came a moment where I was lost in references. It was mostly the part with her mother where you can't say what is dementia and what is real. Some theories online are interesting but some or batshit insane and made sense of a small element of the book at the expense of all the rest. At least the Labyrinth under the house doesn't make sense in a somewhat linear matter. I can deal with linear nonsense. The fact that some part of the book (some of his mother's letters and poems) are still undecyphered (That's not just a matter of turning the book upside down) was just frustrating to me: there's content here and I just can't read it? Why?

I read it while oscillating from the french paperback (there's no way you can read it on an e-reader) and a pdf of the original I found in the subreddit for the book. Sadly there's a lot that's lost in translation but also some translating choice I am still pulling my hair about. (September 19, 1988, in which the words aren't translated literally, the name of Parisian streets and landmark aren't the same... either they were throwing things at the wall trying to see what sticks (unlikely) or they knew something us reader don't...)

Overall it is an interesting book, I understand the craze. However I am not obsessed enough to spend much of my free time trying to decypher it. I lurk sometimes in the subreddit trying to see if someone came up with an interesting theory but not much more.

[spaceorphanssecondbreakfastclub]

Reading Agatha Christie: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is considered an Agatha Christie classic and a game changer in the genre of detective fiction. The novel is a bit like The Sixth Sense in that you can never experience it again like the first time you consume it.  I won’t be giving the twist away (even if the novel is almost 100 years old, and the trope is now considered old), but I think this is really the first step up in Christie’s writing, and I think it still holds up relatively well.  

The story takes place in a small town called King’s Abbott, and is narrated by a man named Dr. James Sheppard.  It should be noted that Arthur Hastings is not around, being happily married and living in the Argentine.  Sheppard is a much different type of narrator; one who is more shrewd with his observations, and has a much darker and sharper tone to his story.  It’s an interesting contrast that works well for the novel.  

The novel plays out quite similarly to Mysterious Affair at Styles in some respects.  The structure of plot is somewhat similar -- a wealthy patriarch has been murdered, a bunch of relatives and close friends stand to benefit from his death and therefore all suspect, a lot of them are hiding dubious secrets, and all the clues left about can only be solved by one Hercule Poirot, who happened to move in next door to Dr. Sheppard.  

I found the novel to be a lot of fun. The characters are more developed and have stronger personalities than in Mysterious Affair at Styles.  Christie’s pacing of the novel works really well, and all the subplots fit together nicely as the mystery slowly comes unraveled.  

I’ve noticed that in some recent reviews of the book, the reviewers aren’t always as engrossed in the second readthrough as they were the first -- and admittedly, I think Christie’s best work is still ahead of her at this point, but maybe it’s because it’s been so long since I read it that I still found it highly enjoyable.  Even knowing the ending, rediscovering how it all plays out worked for me.  

A few things of notice here -- I really liked the dynamic between Dr. Sheppard and Poirot.  There’s a discomfort there that makes the interactions a little more tense, and yet, a little more interesting as Poirot adopts him to be his (temporary) new Hastings.  Also, Poirot attempting, and failing at being retired and trying to become a gardner is kind of funny.   

And Dr. Sheppard has a busybody sister named Caroline, who is rather enjoyable as she sticks her nose in everything throughout the novel.  

Overall, I liked it, and I’m curious as to how it holds up with modern readers who may not see the ending as such a shock.  

[rosecorcoranwrites]

January (and December) Reading Roundup

Advent Gospel Reflections by Bishop Robert Barron

Genre: Religious nonfiction

Why I read it: It was Advent

What I thought of it: Anyone familiar with Bishop Barron's Catholicism film series knows his theological explanations are solid and accessible. This was no different.

Would I recommend it: Yes! Just be sure to get the copy for the specific year, since Advent is a different number of days depending on when Christmas falls.

"Witness for the Prosecution" by Agatha Christie

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Why I read it: Kind of genre research for my WIP, I guess?

What I thought of it: Though the twist was a little predictable by the end, it was still an interesting story with a good concept. I also enjoy Christie's writing style.

Would I recommend it: Maybe, if you're into cozies, but I think some of her other stories are better.

Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies, and a Conspiracy to Protect Predators by Ronan Farrow

Genre: True Crime / Journalism

Why I read it: Someone on Tumblr posted several excerpts and it looked interesting

What I thought of it: I feel like this is the kind of book that anyone who cares about journalistic integrity should read. It wasn't that entire news outlets were lying  (though some publications did do that in order to smear victims), but rather they didn't report the truth, which can be just as bad. The title, "Catch and Kill" is the phrase used for purchasing a story in order not to publish, so it won't see the light of day.

Would I recommend it: Yes, but trigger warnings for sexual assault of all kinds.

"Old Man and The Gun", "Chameleon", and "True Crime" by David Grann

Genre: True crime

Why I read it: I loved Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon and was looking for more true crime from him

What I thought of it: I loved all three essays, which are from a book I had read parts of previously, The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. These are the kind of weird accounts that seem too fantastic to be real: a septuagenarian bank-robber and escape artist, a man who literally takes on the identity of children, and a murderer who wrote his crime into a novel and the detective who used that writing to pursue him.

Would I recommend it: 100% yes!!!

Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir by Alberto Alvaro Ríos

Genre: Memoir

Why I read it: Book club

What I thought of it: This book was sweet and funny, and brought back memories of when my family used to go to Nogales every Black Friday. I enjoy boyhood stories, like those of Patrick McManus; this was in the same vein, with various (slightly) hyperbolized recollections of youth.

Would I recommend it: Yes, especially if you want something charming. This is like the slice-of-life cosy of memoirs.

"Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds" by Agatha Christie

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Why I read it: I'm on a Christie kick

What I thought of it: I liked this one best of Christie's stories so far (though I have admittedly only read four an a half). It had a great set-up and pay-off, and the twist was slightly different from what I was expecting. Much like Arthur Conan Doyle, she introduced a set of twins, but their being twins had nothing to do with the crime!

Would I recommend it: Yes. It was fun.

"The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger" by Agatha Christie

Genre: Cozy mystery adjacent

Why I read it: Still on a Christie kick

What I thought of it: This one was interesting because it was more of a little adventure than a mystery, and I feel there was a lot of backstory I was missing, as this was the only Tommy and Tuppence story I've read. That being said, the twist was super predictable, telegraphed from almost the moment a certain untrustworthy character entered the room.

Would I recommend it: Only if you want to study the cozy genre. I will say, this story has inspired me to finally write a post about why every genre needs to learn from cozies, but that will have to wait until later.

Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

Genre: Cozy mystery

Why I read it: See above

What I thought of it: The entire cast was well written, and I especially liked Cornelia, who I assume was supposed to either have Down Syndrome or autism of some sort (she was referred to as 'simple' a number of times). The different subplots with the side characters / murder suspects were intriguing. Unfortunately, the main murder plot was exceedingly predictable, and I don't think it's just because I've seen a lot of mysteries. Also, I did not approve of Poirot's decision at the end regarding the murderer's fate (Sherlock Holmes would ever have allowed such a thing to happen!).

Would I recommend it: I guess. It was a well written story, just not the best mystery, if that makes sense?

[emmaisreadingalot]

Reviewing Recently Read Books... Part II

I’ve been working more so this bunch took me a little over two weeks to get through, but I really enjoyed a lot of them! Again, I’ll be reviewing in the chronological order of how I read them. 

Dracula by Bram Stoker 3.5/5 stars

Synopsis: I mean it’s Dracula,, classic horror. Vampire “I vant to suck your blood” guy.

My thoughts: What people say is true, the novel becomes Very funny when you know (through being a person in society) who Dracula is. Pretty engaging, but I was disappointed by the lack of action in the story. Makes sense as a classic though. 

The Temple of My Familiar by Alice Walker 4/5 stars 

Synopsis: OK so I didn’t realize this is supposed to be read after The Color Purple and the library didn’t have The Color Purple so I read this first. I think it’s some of the same characters but not necessary to have read The Color Purple so I still enjoyed it. Followed a few entwined families through their struggles both with racism/sexism/lots of isms and personal issues.

My thoughts: Pretty wonderful writing. It felt like poetry a lot of the time. Alice Walker does some cool stuff with multiple lives/playing with time that I really enjoyed. I think I probably should have read The Color Purple first, but we all make mistakes. 

Three Act Tragedy by Agatha Christie 3/5 stars 

Synopsis: Another Hercule Poirot book! Classic whodunnit. You know it had to be on here, I love mysteries too much.

My thoughts: While I love my detective man Poirot I was not a huge fan of most of the minor/supporting characters in this one. I did not fully guess the end though so that’s nice! (Agatha Christie is still the worst, see other posts where I talk about her for more details)

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens 5/5 stars 

Synopsis: The story of a murder investigation unfolds alongside the story of an abused and ostracized young girl’s life in the North Carolina marshlands. This girl happens to be the suspect of the murder investigation. 

My thoughts: Everyone I know has been raving about this book for months so I gave it a try. And... beautiful,, heart-wrenching, wonderful. Plus it had mystery elements in it which I love. I really enjoyed this, and not just because I’m from NC. 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi 5/5 stars

Synopsis: So much happens in this book. We start off with two sisters, separated at birth (I believe), one of which is kidnapped into slavery and one of which remains in Africa. We follow their descendants into current times. 

My thoughts: This is probably my favorite book I’ve read this year. The scale that Gyasi tackled here was daunting, but the book flowed so well and was truly engaging the whole way through. What hit me the most was how putting these horrific events in terms of generations contextualizes them. Instead of, “this happened X many years ago,” it was “this happened X many people ago” and that was incredibly powerful to me. 

The Martian by Andy Weir 4/5 stars 

Synopsis: Astronaut is assumed dead on Mars as his team is making an escape attempt. Surprise: he is not dead. Now he has to find a way to survive on Mars and somehow communicate with earth in order to have any hope of rescue. 

My thoughts: This book was Fun. I very much enjoyed reading it; everything felt plausible in a cool way, and the tone was super funny and light. Just fun and cool. 

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo 3/5 stars

Synopsis: TW for sexual assault. This is non-fiction. Taddeo interviewed three women at length about their sexual experiences (one of which was groomed by a teacher in high school) and told their stories through the narrative.  

My thoughts: Important, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing style. The stories themselves were compelling and I’m glad I read it, because I think it showed a lot about how women are judged, both by others and internally. Not my favorite but I certainly don’t regret reading it. 

Recursion by Blake Crouch 4/5 stars 

Synopsis: Neat sci-fi! Scientists trying to find a cure/treatment for alzheimer’s accidentally find out you can send people back in time through their memories, and their actions will affect the current timeline. Chaos ensues. 

My thoughts: I had a lot of fun reading this book! Very cool sci-fi. The concept that all of time is happening all the time (and we are simply limited in our access to it) is one that I think about a Lot and this book really delved into it. Pretty neat! 

[christinaroseandrews]

Ashley is a witch. And a doctor. Which makes her... wait for it... a witch doctor. She’s also the head of the lone hospital in Washington D.C. that caters to patients of the paranormal persuasion. She’s got pixies and kelpies and werewolves and vampires all in need of her care. And she’s about to lose it all...

Nick is a secret service member and one of the recently undead. A vampire. Which really puts a damper on his day... uh... I mean night.

Together they have to work together to solve a mystery, save her hospital, and oh! fall in love along the way.

So...

The story was billed as a suspenseful romantic paranormal  comedy cozy mystery. And it managed to get only two and a half of those descriptors correct.

So lets break this down.

Suspenseful... For a novella (this book was maybe 35k) there were too many plots going on. There wasn’t time to build up suspense before we were on to the next thing. Suspense is about the build the quiet before the storm. If you want to see great suspense in action go take a look at Sergio Leone or a good horror movie like Jaws, Silence of the Lambs, or Happy Death Day.

Romantic... It’s instalove. I have opinions about that. It’s starting to piss me off. It also features my least favorite kind of sex scene... the kind that shows the foreplay then tells you how many orgasms the heroine had because they don’t want to write the actual act itself. This is again an opinion. So this is the half.. the story isn’t really happy for now and the relationship, while important, wasn’t central to the plot. You could have removed the romance and the story wouldn’t have suffered. THAT’S A PROBLEM!

Paranormal...  This one I will absolutely give the author credit. There were oodles of paranormal creatures in this book. Oodles including Centaurs, Gargoyles, and salamanders in addition to the more common Witch, Werewolf, and Vampire. The world was well-fleshed... but that almost was to the detriment of the story. The background was too much in the foreground so the plots got lost in the weeds... sometimes literally.

Comedy... I didn’t laugh. Not once. I didn’t even crack a smile. The writing was very tongue-in-cheek but not in a good way. It took pot shots at people with mental and physical disorders. That’s bullying. It’s punching down. It’s taking the low hanging fruit. And it’s not funny.

Cozy... This is the other one done right. I did feel like this was a part of D.C. but it felt very small. Like an enclave. And the hospital was well described.

Mystery... Oh there was one. It was a crap one. So here’s a pro-tip to people wanting to write mysteries... the reader shouldn’t be shocked at the ending. There should be clues that, to quote Hercule Poirot, if the reader uses their little grey cells they can figure out the ending. I’ve been reading mysteries since I was 7 - yay Boxcar Children and Encyclopedia Brown -- and I still read them randomly. A good mystery is about the journey. it’s about the reader being the sleuth along with the detective. It’s why shows like Castle, Murder She Wrote, and Death in Paradise are so popular. People like to figure out puzzles. And in this case the mystery just was an ass pull.

The writing itself was fairly solid. A few typos and homophones but nothing too egregious. And nothing to knock it down a star.

The characters were well-fleshed and for the most part okay. I liked Nick more than I liked Ashley but that has to do with the fact that Ashley seemed to bring a lot of her problems on herself.

The thing is, I didn’t hate this book. I just felt let down. It had so much potential. So much going for it that ticked my boxes. But in the end all I felt was blah. 

And because I didn’t love it and I didn’t hate it, the story gets:

Three stars.

If this is your jam, you can get it here.

If you like these kind of honest reviews, please consider supporting us here!

[languagemadness]

38 Classic Polish Books You Should Know (About)

requested by anon

That’s a hell of a Buzzfeed title, wow! I focused solely on books, but you need to remember that poems play a HUGE part in Polish literature in general. Instead of doing a list of "classic Polish texts", which would include full-on books, poems, dramas, everything, and would be probably 18637 positions long, I did only some of the most important books, dramas, and comic books. If you’d like me to tell you more about anything on this list, cover something more in detail, or make another list — shoot me an ask!

I ordered the list NOT by how much I like these books or how strongly I’d recommend them. The list is ordered from the easiest ones to the toughest ones -- literarily, not linguistically.

Also, I know that the ask was about classical books, which I too included in this list.

Let’s start with something approachable — comic books and "normal" books that are so easy and pleasant to read. Except for the two books about war — they’re approachable but the topic doesn’t really make them pleasant.

Pan Samochodzik by Zbigniew Nienacki

A series of books about Pan Samochodzik, who’s an art historian and a detective, and his job is to solve theft, smuggling, and forgery cases. He’s basically a mix of Indiana Jones and Hercules Poirot. The background for the books is life in Polish People’s Republic, but it’s actually shown not as rough as it was in real life. Apart from that, they’re basically children’s books — very light, easy, and funny.

I’d definitely recommend them, I mean, who doesn’t like stories like that? Plus, you don’t need to be God knows how good with Polish to read them.

adaptations: There are 4 movies and a TV show based on the books, each based on a different book from the series.

Podróże z Herodotem by Ryszard Kapuściński

You can read it even when you’re like 10 because it’s a very nice, easy, pleasant story. An autobiography where the author describes his travels to Asia and Africa and compares them to the travels of Herodotus. Very interesting, often funny, it gives you a full view of different people and cultures and how rich the world is. It teaches you a little bit of history, it teaches you a little bit about the modern world (I think the story starts in the 1950s), and the comparison between these two — it’s really fascinating to see that, generally, the world hadn’t changed that much.

I would wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

W pustyni i w puszczy by Henryk Sienkiewicz

The only book I cried on and not because it was so beautiful, but because it was so painful to read. Okay, I was like 11 when I read it, but technically it’s a book for kids, so…

It’s a story about two kids who get lost in Africa and they hike through like 5 countries to find their fathers (who worked in Africa and just happened to forget to take their children one day I guess?). Really, it’s about friendship, dedication, love, all the important values in life. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s painfully boring to read.

It’s a wonderful story, don’t get me wrong, and I loved it as a child — but the movie. The book I hated. So I do recommend it, but the movie.

adaptations: 2 TV shows and 2 movies (the one from 2001 being the most popular).

Tytus, Romek i A’Tomek by Henryk Jerzy Chmielewski

Comic books. Two friends try to humanize a monkey while traveling and exploring different areas of science and history. It’s funny, absurd, educational, and understandable for non-advanced learners of Polish.

Do I recommend? Absolutely.

adaptations: 2 episodes of a short TV show, a video game, and a movie from 2002 titled "Tytus, Romek i A’Tomek wśród złodziei marzeń" — but it’s not based on the comics, only on the characters.

Kajko i Kokosz by Janusz Christa

A series of comic books which is basically a Polish version of “Asterix”. It’s about two Slavic warriors who have all kinds of adventures and fights with Zbójcerze. It’s all fictional and to be honest, I don’t really remember much from the comics, but I know that I loved them as a child. There are also renewals of the old volumes as well as new stories based on the original story and they’re coming out even in 2018.

I wouldn’t say it’s something you absolutely have to read, but if you want to, then it’s worth your time.

adaptations: A TV show that’s still being made and a video game.

Zemsta by Aleksander Fredro

Language-wise, it is pure genius. Not too easy, though. The jokes, the phrases, the sayings — it is the base of common Polish language. Story-wise, it’s basically Polish Romeo and Juliet. Two families live in a castle and hate each other, a girl from one family is in love with a guy from the other family. We also get some more important side characters, they’re very nicely written, iconic even. The whole drama is hilarious, so yes I would calmly recommend it to people who are somewhat fluent in Polish.

adaptations: 2 movies (the one from 2002 being more popular).

Wiedźmin by Andrzej Sapkowski

I think it’s the definition of contemporary classic. It’s a series of short stories, later an actual book, later comics, and finally a movie and a video game. The book is about this witcher and a child of destiny who’s a witcher-in-training. The main character needs to protect her. The stories and comics, however — they’re obviously about the witcher, but I don’t know the details.

If I’m 100% frank, I have not read the stories, the book, the comics, nothing. So I can’t fully recommend it to you, but I can tell you this: everyone who’s into fantasy is crazy about it. I suppose if you like fantasy, Wiedźmin’s a must.

adaptations: A movie from 2001, a TV show from 2002, and a video game.

Solaris by Stanisław Lem

This one’s, on the other hand, is a must if you’re into sci-fi. It’s about contact: with aliens, other civilizations, the unknown — but it’s not specified, which actually makes the book so interesting.

It’s been translated into multiple languages, so I’d say it’s easy to get, and if you’re either into sci-fi or into modern Polish literature — do read it.

adaptations: 3 movies (in 2002 Soderbergh made it a movie, so I suppose it’s worth checking out, but I personally haven’t watched it).

Kamienie na szaniec by Aleksander Kamiński

A story of 3 boys who just graduated from high school when WW2 broke out. It’s an actual story of actual people and it is heartbreaking. If you want to read anything about the WW2 that isn’t very technical or boring, this book is definitely for you. It’s about normal lives in abnormal circumstances and you get very attached to the characters and their stories, and the book actually makes you feel things.

Would recommend.

adaptations: A movie from 1977 titled "Akcja pod Arsenałem", which is based on the book, and a movie from 2014 under the same title as the book, also only based on it.

Medaliony by Zofia Nałkowska

An omnibus of short stories about WW2. Very short, very shocking, sometimes even disgusting. The stories are about people who survived the war and they are actual things that actually happened. I don’t think I get appalled easily, but those are horrifying, really.

A good recommendation for someone who wants to learn about the more (or less) humane side of the war. I would actually say it’s a must if you want to at least begin to understand the tragedy that WW2 was.

And now we’re moving onto some more… mature books. Those are usually compulsory readings in middle school and high school, and to get what they’re about, you need to have some common knowledge. Nothing too specific, though. And there’s a lot to them that you can enjoy even if you don’t know much about general Polish culture and history, so I would say giving them a shot is definitely worth it. Plus, you can learn a lot if you’re a careful reader.

Lalka by Bolesław Prus

Hands down my favorite Polish book of all times. The best thing they made me read in school and I swear this book made the 12 years of tears and pain that I spent in school worth it. Long story short, it’s about a dude from quite a poor family and he becomes rich for an aristocrat he loves very, very deeply. But she’s a total bitch and uses him like an old rag. Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t like romance but Lalka… I mean, the lengths he went for her, the things he did for her… I don’t want to spoil the book but it’s full of dramatic events, interesting characters, surprises, and most importantly — it’s absolutely exciting for the reader! It truly sucks you in. Not to mention the book in a phenomenal way shows how Polish society of the 1870s functioned and thought. And don’t even get me started on the psychology of single characters. I’ve read only a few books in my life that made me feel so passionate about their characters. Character-building-wise, Lalka is the peak of art.

If you want to read only one book from this list, this is the one.

adaptations: Tons of plays, a movie (1968) and a TV show (1978). Pretty accurate, but I personally didn’t like them.

Potop by Henryk Sienkiewicz

There’s a trilogy: Ogniem i mieczem, Potop, Pan Wołodyjowski — and they tell the history of Poland in the 17th century. For some reason, only Potop is considered an absolute must, but if I’m honest I didn’t read it, so I personally can’t recommend it to you. Potop itself is about a guy who wants to marry this girl but she thinks he betrayed the country, so he needs to clear his name by fighting by the king’s side. It sounds very fairy-tale-like, but the background is actual history and the author himself operates incredibly well with the real and the imaginary.

The thing with Sienkiewicz’s historical books is that they are pretty damn good, so even if you’re not too much into that kinda stuff but there’s a tiny part of curiosity in you, I don’t think it’s a mistake to check it out.

adaptations: A movie from 1974.

Krzyżacy by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Basically when Poland was all… under occupation and non-existent, Sienkiewicz wrote this book to bitch about Germanization, as well as to remind the Polish people about their country. The book is about the great times of Poland, from 1399 all the way to the greatest battle of 1410 when Poland kicked Prussia’s ass. But we also get some romance, some schemes, some awful deaths… The full set if you will. 

A lot of people say it’s a super ass boring book, but in my opinion, it’s absolutely fantastic. The details, the numerosity of threads (that somehow doesn’t confuse you at all), again the imaginary intwining with the real… I do recommend it not only to people who are into history, but to anyone looking for a good read that would explain a bit of Polish nature.

adaptations: A movie from 1960.

Quo vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Honey is this one fantastic… It’s a story about a Christian girl in Nero’s Rome and a non-Christian guy who’s in love with her. Of course, at first it looks like a love story, which it is, but there’s so much to it. The book is a knockout of a description of what life was like in ancient Rome. Everything from history, through society, to things like the time of bathing of each social class — there’s everything. And, what’s even better, it’s not boring at all! Actually, the book is unbelievably well-balanced between eventful, not overwhelming, and detailed.

I would definitely, definitely recommend. It’s not exactly a must and if you want to read a Sienkiewicz historical book, then Krzyżacy or Potop would be a better idea since they’re about Poland, but Quo vadis would most definitely not be a waste of time.

adaptations: 6 movies (the one from 2001 is the most popular one), a TV show, and a ton of plays.

Ferdydurke by Witold Gombrowicz

A book you either love or hate. I personally love it, I’m kin with this book, whatever. While reading it, I agreed with every single sentence, with every single opinion, I felt like it was me who wrote it in my past life or something. Just. An. Extraordinary. Book. Remember when I said that Lalka was the reason why I didn’t hate school? It was, but Ferdydurke is the reason I’m alive, kids.

It’s about a 30-year-old man who’s a writer (kinda), but he can’t write. Suddenly, he turns into a kid and is forced to go to school again. That’s just the plot of the book, however, because the story is simple, absurd, inconsistent, weird, and you don’t really read the book for the story. It’s what the story stands for. It’s about how pointless society is. How society creates idiotic rules to standardize people and to take away any creativity or any will to live. How people need to protect themselves and their originality but they can’t because originality doesn’t exist. And our main character explores all those philosophies. It’s a fantastic criticism of society, school, systems, classes, life.

Language-wise, it’s also a very interesting book. Definitely not an easy one. Gombrowicz was the master of language, the words and phrases he came up with, the ideas he hid within them. The language of his books creates, not only describes, the world from the books. His language is a whole different, self-sufficient being. Rare, striking, awe-inspiring.

As I said, somewhat philosophical and very metaphorical. You need to feel from your very heart what Gombrowicz means to understand this book.

adaptations: A theater performance from 1985 that you can watch on Youtube and a movie from 1991. I wouldn’t recommend watching them, though.

Sklepy cynamonowe by Bruno Schulz

Weird, metaphorical, a bit… insane? I love it. It’s an omnibus of short stories that are a description of the adult world through a child’s eyes. It’s like a dream, it’s impossible, it’s very soft and delicate and magical, really. It’s unlike anything. You feel like you’re reading a description of some very sensual dream. The stories make you wonder about the way people think, the way childhood affects your future life, the way the world works, and they make you realize that you don’t understand anything ever. But if you’re not looking for a deeper meaning, you can read the stories just for pleasure because they are honestly so sensual, sexy (but not porny, more like seductive), fascinating, and just strange, you actually read the stories with all of your senses. Makes you enter a whole different world and I will not exaggerate when I say that it changes your perception of everything.

As I said, it’s unlike anything you’ll ever encounter in life. A million out of ten would recommend.

adaptations: There is a short film from 1986 based on one of the stories from the book. It’s called "Ulica krokodyli".

Cudzoziemka by Maria Kuncewiczowa

One of my top 10. It is a story of the last day of a woman’s life. She knows she’s dying and she knows that all of her life she was in pain. So she recalls her entire life, all the big decisions she ever made, to find the source of her misery and to escape reality. It is a very sad book, but rather that depress the reader, it makes you think. It’s a story about alienation — the main character lived in a foreign country, never got to do what she actually wanted to do, never got to be with whoever she wanted to be with, and so everything she did, everywhere she went, everyone she spent time with, she felt out of place. The book was revolutionary in terms of composition and it explored the main character’s psychology very deeply. A fascinating, thought-provoking, original book.

Definitely would recommend.

adaptations: A movie from 1986.

And finally, books for the strong, books for the advanced, books for the masters. To get these, you actually need some strong background knowledge on Polish history and culture, especially society- and politics-wise. Don’t get me wrong, they’re not bad, they’re just… demanding.

Granica by Zofia Nałkowska

It is about… uhh… society, morality and the lengths a person can go to achieve what they want. Sounds complicated and serious, and it sort of is, but it’s also totally worth your time because it doesn’t really tire you as much as you could think it would. And it’s thought-provoking as well. It’s about this dude who has a wife, a career, and a lover, and he basically ruins his life and the lives of everyone around him — which is quite exciting and somewhat frightening to read. So if you’re into ambitious, psychological stuff, then I say yes! Go for it.

adaptations: A movie from 1938.

Chłopi by Władysław Reymont

It’s basically a longass description of one year in Polish countryside in the late 19th/early 20th century. Personally, I think it shows and defines the society of that time extremely well and it surely is admirable that someone wrote almost a thousand pages describing in detail things such as preparing cabbage for dinner or collecting crops. Reymont actually won the Nobel prize for this book.

Would recommend if you’re not looking for anything too thrilling. Even though the book has some iconic moments like taking away Jagna on a wheelbarrow cause she was a slut…

adaptations: A movie from 1922 and a TV show, which was later turned into a movie, from 1972.

Przedwiośnie by Stefan Żeromski

A Polish family in Russia (actually in Azerbaijan but before WW1 it was Russia, so). They live awesome lives until WW1 breaks out and the father has to leave the family. Then, the son goes a little nuts and joins communists and then there’s a revolution, the son gets traumatized and he runs away to Poland (where he’d never been before) where he’s looking for a prosperous life that his father had promised him. And Poland had just regained independence, so everyone hopes that it will be the oasis of prosperity and well-being once it’s renovated. The book is about how hope and gullibility (but mostly hope) are heartlessly crushed by reality. It is also a story about growing up because we follow the main character all the way from his careless youth through his war-and-revolution trauma to a point where he has to decide about his future. But most importantly, I think, it’s a historically important story. It was written when Poland was a new country and it was supposed to remind people that communism is bad and politics, in general, is crap, as well as propose some political solutions for the new country. That’s the general message but there are lighter moments like descriptions of Polish countryside, a lot of flirting with pretty girls, and even a murder.

It’s a good story, it’s a deep story — but not too complicated. And it’s actually very interesting, and I can promise you it’s not as heavy as I made it sound.

10/10 would recommend.

adaptations: Two movies — one from 1928 and one from 2001.

Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz

It’s an epic that describes life in the countryside in the 19th century. It was mainly written to remind Poles who had emigrated to France what a wonderful country Poland originally was, even though it was entirely under occupation, completely wiped off of any map. Naturally, everything there is presented through rose-colored glasses but still, if you’re looking for the classic of the classics, I suppose Pan Tadeusz is the book for you. If anyone wants to understand Polish literature, this book is a must.

Would I recommend? Sure if you’re here to sink in Polish culture or if you like quite full of adventure and yet easy reading. Easy as in the story’s nice and pleasant, the language is rather tedious.

adaptations: A surprisingly good and accurate movie from 1999. And the script is actually the text of the epic.

Dziady by Adam Mickiewicz

I think every Polish student hates Dziady. I didn’t, though. It’s a drama, actually, there are 4 parts of the drama, the last one not quite finished. I think the problem with Dziady is that no one really knows what it’s about. It was written in the mid 19th century, so again — Poland’s out of every map. The tzar is a bitch and Adam Mickiewicz disses him in the wildest of ways, but it doesn’t make sense until someone explains it to you. If you asked me what Dziady were about, in my opinion, all 4 parts are about love. Love for your country, love for your lover, love for yourself, love for other people, love for your family — all possible kinds of love. Sounds nice, right? That’s because it is nice. The problem with Dziady is that if you don’t delve deep into it, you won’t get it at all. The words as you read seem just like random words in a random order, no point whatsoever, skipping from topic to topic, all four parts at first seem completely unrelated. But the deeper you dig, the more you see. It is a very rich drama, there’s something in it for literally everyone, but it requires a ton of commitment and probably someone to guide you well through it.

Add it to my recommendations only if you are desperate to read it and if you have all the things above, aka time, commitment, and help. And language skills. The 2nd part, however, is short and it’s the easiest one, so do check it out.

adaptations: "Lawa" from 1989 is based on the second (which, in order, is the first) part of Dziady.

Wesele by Stanisław Wyspiański

It is such a deep drama that you just don’t get it. Kind of like with Dziady, except this one is waaay shorter and basically just disses everyone. In Dziady, the main character’s idea to show people love was to take control of them. Wesele, however, was about motivating people to do stuff by offending them.

Personally, Wesele is one of my favorites because it is just so problematic. Wyspiański attended a wedding in 1900 and then described it. Each guest in the drama (and at the actual wedding) represented an attitude that the general of Polish society had towards the country’s situation (occupation). And after 105 years of occupation, it seemed that the society didn’t really care anymore and just accepted their fate. Wyspiański was very much against that attitude. So basically what he did was he publicly washed the society’s dirty linen by pinning it onto his real-life friends. When Wesele premiered, people were actually chasing Wyspiański down the streets because they hated him so much. Not to mention that in the drama the whole offending thing is actually pretty profound and harsh. So much so that actual real-life guests weren’t enough for him — Wyspiański needed to introduce ghosts from the past, people who played an important role in Poland’s history. Of course, that was the author’s idea of motivating people to fight for their freedom.

The drama is full of references to Polish literature, Polish culture, and Polish history, so unless you’re fluent in these three, I wouldn’t tell you to read it.

I love Wesele with all my heart. If you want to give it a shot, instead of reading the actual drama, I’d suggest reading the story behind it and the summary and interpretations. This way you can enjoy it, which I think anyone should, without knowing much of the background. If I’m honest, you can’t really get much out of the drama itself. But I definitely recommend spending some time on this book, it’s definitely worth it.

adaptations: From 1973, it’s pretty good and quite accurate, but just a bit tiring.

Szewcy by Witkacy

Oh boy. A grotesque, modernist drama about the future of society, where the author basically talks about how people are doomed and headed for inevitable self-destruction. There’s a lot about how mechanic and inhumane people have become and of course tons of criticism towards society, revolution, capitalism, communism, and fascism.

I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t recommend because I didn’t really understand the language. It was a pain in the ass reading this book and if I had read it earlier in life, I assure you that W pustyni i w puszczy wouldn’t be the only book that made me cry from pain.

adaptations: Tons of theater performances that you can watch on Youtube.

Tango by Stanisław Mrożek

It’s a drama about generation gap and some ideas to live by (like conformism or anarchy). Sounds complex, but it actually keeps it very simple and short, a kid would get it, really, and yet the story actually stays with you. It also makes you wonder about a place and meaning of an intellectualist in society. Not to mention the hilarious and absurd situations like convincing your grandma to just die already.

Personally, I enjoyed it. Even though it’s about quite serious stuff, it’s hilarious, so you do read it with pleasure.

adaptations: There are multiple theater performances available to watch on Youtube.

Balladyna by Juliusz Słowacki

The main idea behind the drama is how good and evil both function simultaneously in this world and the fight between the two. A nymph sends a prince to the main character’s house. The main character wants to marry the prince, so she does a lot of awful things. Basically. It’s a nice story, though strange. A story that you would read to a child, except the language of the drama is… complicated. Let’s be honest — it’s Romanticism after all.

I would recommend it, but I wouldn’t die to make someone read it.

adaptations: There is this absolutely awful movie from 2009 (English title: The Bait). It’s loosely based on Balladyna.

Kordian by Juliusz Słowacki

It’s about this guy who plans to kill the tzar. There was a deeper meaning too but don’t ask me about it, I just don’t remember. To be honest, it was surprisingly pleasant to read and sometimes quite funny (I don’t think it was supposed to be, though). But I wouldn’t recommend it unless you know a whole lot about Polish history and culture — or unless you’re dangerously interested in it. And I mean like, you’d kill and die for it.

Nie-Boska komedia by Zygmunt Krasiński

To be honest, it’s a weirdly good story and what surprises me most about it is that it’s actually understandable, even though it’s quite a typical romantic drama. Interesting, huh… 

It’s about a man who is looking for his artistic self, leaves his family to pursue his art, and then there’s him trying to protect his country. It was actually written to criticize this romantic way of thinking and living, so there are a few moments where the author just dissed other authors of the time, but most importantly, the story is a comment on the current (current for them) political and sociological events, as well as religion, and a way for Krasiński to express his opinions.

Recommend? Meh. It’s a good read but it’s not a must and you gotta be in a mood for it. Also, a solid historical and literary background would make the reading way easier.

My advice if you’re planning on reading any of these? Check the time period of the action. I swear if you do that and you pretty much can tell what the background for Poland was at the time, even just like one basic piece of information, it will make reading the book possible.

I think that’s about it. There are hundreds of other great Polish books that I can go on and on about (I can also talk about these for at least a few hours), so again -- if you have any questions, opinions, requests, anything, ask away.

[thesffcorner]

Truly Devious

Truly Devious is the first book in a YA mystery/thriller series written by Maureen Johnson. It follows Steve, a high school junior, who gets accepted to Ellingham Academy, a free private high school founded by Mr Ellingham: a newspaper and steel magnate, who viewed learning as a form of play. She gets admitted to the school because of her peculiar interest in true crime and investigations, specifically because she wants to solve the famous Ellingham mystery: who kidnapped and killed his family. This book got rave reviews; people said it was atmospheric, creepy, clever and I went into it with high expectations, but also a lot of skepticism, mostly because me and YA thrillers don’t tend to always agree.

I can happily say that this book delivers on most of the hype. It’s well written, both the case in the past and the case in the present are interesting, and the characters are well developed. However, I can’t fully recommend it, or even really explain how I feel about it because of the ending, or rather the lack thereof. I don’t mean this is an open ending, I mean there isn’t one. This is a part one to the mystery, and neither the past nor the present case are solved. I imagine we will get the answer in the sequel, but I am apprehensive, because I saw on Goodreads that there will be a third book. I just don’t see how this mystery can be stretched out into even just 2 books, let alone more; as such I might come off as a bit more negative than I probably intended, because half of a mystery is the ending, and without that how can you really be satisfied. Before we talk about that, let’s talk about the setting. The plot is set in Ellingham Academy, a private boarding school in Vermont. It was founded in the 30’s by Albert Ellingham, an incredibly wealthy man, who owns American steel, a newspaper and a production studio. He’s a true tycoon, a man clearly inspired by the likes of Howard Hughes, Joseph Pulitzer and Warren Buffet, self-made millionaires, hard core capitalists and people who as his friend Detective Marsh puts it “think they are invincible”. I like the idea of the Academy, this Montessori type establishment where learning is play, and the curriculum is very specifically tailored to the student’s interests. However, as always, I don’t see why it has to be a special high school, and can’t just be a private college or conservatory, and have the characters be 17-18, instead of 15-16. Ellingham Academy is already described as an old, classic style small, private, liberal arts college, down to being set in the middle of nowhere, on a hill, with a mostly inaccessible road and surrounded by woods. This makes for a possibly interesting atmosphere; this old isolated house, full of mystery and haunted by the past, surrounded by nature, full of an secret passages, tunnels, catacombs, etc. It should have made for an excellent backdrop to this murder mystery, but unfortunately I feel the setting just wasn’t fully utilized. Johnson does spend a great deal of time and effort into meticulously describing the Academy, the Minerva house and the grounds, but her descriptions are very sterile. There’s no sense of atmosphere or tension; a lot of the time it’s just paragraphs explaining what is on what wall, or what is what color and long tangents about the Ellinghams. This is also why I kind of shrug in confusion when I hear people say this book is creepy; nothing that happens and nothing that is said on the page is creepy; it lack proper atmosphere. If you want a book set in a small liberal arts mansion, surrounded by woods, that’s even set in Vermont, try If We Were Villains; even the Charlotte Holmes series did a better job with the setting and atmosphere. The plot really is where this book excels. It’s clear to me that Maureen Johnson is a fan of mystery novels and whodunnits; there are tons of references to Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, and even noir style detective books. The Ellingham mystery is even reminiscent of the case in Murder on the Orient Express; both set during the Prohibition, and both revolving around a cast of characters implicated in the disappearance and murder of a rich, self-made millionaire’s family. There’s talk of politics of the time, a prominent clash between Mr. Ellingham and the anarchists, and the person who confessed to the crime has clearly not committed it. The way the investigation is lead by Steve too was very old school; she makes deductions based on clues and reasoning that all make sense and we can also pick up on as readers, there are clues in the interview transcripts she reads, and in general the case itself was interesting to keep me invested. The main issue with the plot was actually how the present day mystery and the past mystery intersected, which wasn’t helped by the pacing. It takes a long time before the present day story catches up to the past, and especially at the start, I really didn’t care about Ellingham and his plight, because we quickly find out that his wife and daughter are dead, meaning he never found them. So it was just a slow trudge through the motions he took on the day, and then at one point we just top cutting back to the past, because we have to focus on the present day mystery. We only come back to Ellingham in the very, very last chapter. It’s not well balanced, and it doesn’t feel like the present day story and the past are connected at all, other than Steve being interested in solving both. The present day story is interesting, but even still, I’m not sure what Hayes filming his project had to do with the Ellinghams, other than tangentially being related because they are filming a short about the Ellingham mystery. There is a thematic connection, linking to Steve’s assignment about putting a human face on mystery (which was something that really warmed me to the dean of students as a character), but other than that, even the way Steve figures out what happened, has nothing to do with the past mystery. Speaking of Hayes, this book’s other strong suit are the characters. There are plenty of them so I won’t go over all of them, but they are all developed, and interesting enough to hold my attention. Ellingham and his posse were straight out of an Agatha Christie novel; I honestly wish that the book had maybe split it’s time more evenly, focusing on a core character in the past as well as the present, so I could get more easily invested. From the present day, we have a few of the larger parts: Elle, Janelle, Nathan, Hayes and David. Elle was fine; she was very much the type of person you would find in a private boarding school, and I enjoyed how open she was about her personality, body and sex life. It’s always nice to see female characters who are a bit off and are actually in tune with their confidence and body. Janelle was also fine; I liked she was openly out, gets a girlfriend pretty quickly, and though there’s a little jealousy on Steve’s part, they very quickly move past it, and have a healthy, supportive friendship. I really liked their little trio of Janelle, Nate and Steve. Hayes was the typical Youtube star, or at least the general stereotype of someone who is attractive and charming and uses other people to do the actual difficult work for him. I liked that even though he wasn’t the nicest person, the book didn’t demonize him, and acknowledged that he did indeed have talent and could do at least some of the things he claimed he could. Nate was a surprise to me, because I expected the book to take a different direction with him (which it still might in the sequel, but I’m really hoping it won’t). He’s a writer, so he’s mostly there to discuss how difficult and annoying, while at the same time exhilarating writing can be, and I really enjoyed his banter with the other characters. David was interesting; he was kind of abrasive and an asshole, though I almost think he wasn’t enough of an asshole to Steve after what she does to him, and her horrible, non-apology she gives him. The ending caught me off guard, though in hindsight it makes a lot of sense, so I give this book points for this. I won’t spoil it, but this book does have a romance, and I surprisingly didn’t mind it. I expected someone different to be the love interest, and I was pleasantly surprised at how it actually was. Even when the romance starts, the book doesn’t spend too much time using him as a red herring, which I appreciated; I don’t know if this is just a YA thing, or a genre thing left over from noir stories, but why is the love interest always a suspect, but never actually the perpetrator? Finally Steve, who was the best developed and most complete character. I liked that she had a set personality, while there still being room for her to grow. Even though she’s awkward, and shy, she was still funny, still had good banter with the boys and the rest of the school, and was confident and smart enough to solve the present day mystery. I liked her relationship with Larry, I liked her relationship with the other characters, and enjoyed watching her grow, even if I didn’t always agree with her decisions, and thought what she does to David was horrible (and her being angry at him on the bus for helping, instead of at her parents who are the real reason she had to even be in the situation in the first place, was dumb and never addressed). All in all, a decent start to a possibly interesting mystery, depending on the answers we get in the sequel. Not bad, but as an incomplete story, I can’t in good faith recommend it, or rate it any higher, though I still think that if you like classic style mysteries and detectives, you will probably enjoy it.

[susanandherbooks]

My thoughts on the first two books in the Miss Marple Series

Over the last few years, I’ve realised that I’ve narrowed what genres I typically read. As a child, my reading was incredibly eclectic but after Uni my focus has narrowed. Recently I’ve been sorting some books I have owned for years which made me want to pick up genres/authors I’ve enjoyed in the past (in particular I found quite a few Agatha Christie’s which I’d enjoyed reading in my preteens but I haven’t picked up a book by her since then).

This combined with the fact that lately I’ve been enjoying cosy mystery tv shows meant that I wanted to pick up something in that vein. I thought I’d start fresh with a new detective (when I was younger I think I only read Poirot) so I decided to give her Marple series a try. I was not expecting to enjoy the books as much as I did. 

The Murder at the Vicarage

Synopsis: Murder at the Vicarage marks the debut of Agatha Christie’s unflappable and much beloved female detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her gift for sniffing out the malevolent side of human nature, Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage. Colonel Protheroe, the magistrate whom everyone in town hates, has been shot through the head. No one heard the shot. There are no leads. Yet, everyone surrounding the vicarage seems to have a reason to want the Colonel dead. It is a race against the clock as Miss Marple sets out on the twisted trail of the mysterious killer without so much as a bit of help from the local police

I am not going to talk about the actual mystery because I really don’t want to spoil the whodunit nature of the story but I will talk about the experience of reading this in particular as an introduction to Marple as a character.

This synopsis makes it seem as if this novel is either from Marple’s perspective or an omniscient third-person perspective which follows her character but its actually from the perspective of the village reverend. I believe the intention of this is that the readers are supposed to come around to how clever Marple is at the same time as the narrator (early on he sees her mostly as a busy body). However, as a modern reader, even if you've never picked up a book about her before you know that Marple is a brilliant detective through cultural osmosis at the least.

Once you know that Marple is going to be right a lot of the early criticisms of her character can get a little tiresome, e.g she is just a nosy old woman who has barely left the small village she lives in. (They are also obviously drenched in misogyny mostly from the policeman who is investigating the case, although he is portrayed to be an idiot throughout). It's slightly depressing to realise a lot of the dismissive attitudes towards older women that are portrayed in this book persist although I would hope that a character like her wouldn’t be dismissed as out of hand as she is nowadays.  

Although this dismissive attitude is present in the novel it is nicely countered by the central themes of her character, i.e the reason she can solve crimes so effectively is because she has studied human behaviour on the macro through the lens of the village she lives in. Quite a few of the times she find major clues she does so through by it reminding her of memories of past behaviour and local stories she has seen throughout her life in that small village. She shows how perceptive she is and what a great judge of character she is consistently and again relates this from having seen a microcosm of human life in the village which she can easily relate to the whole.

From what I remember this is a big contrast to Poirot, what with her being an unobtrusive older woman who utilises her local knowledge as opposed to his big personality and dandy-ess as well as rarely having local knowledge with him being Belgian. As I say its been many years since I read Poirot but from my memory, I think I prefer Marple.

In specific terms for this novel, I will say that I wasn’t expecting it to be as funny as it was. I think I’d forgotten how charming and humourous Christie's writing can be. I also wasn’t it to be occasionally relatable (British small town/village life hasn’t changed that much). Something I was expecting and was thankfully not disappointed by is the quality of the mystery, I felt I was handed enough clues to stay slightly ahead of the characters (other than Marple of course) but the ending was still surprising. It does good to be reminded why Agatha Christie is still deservedly held up as a giant of the mystery novel.

Although I enjoyed reading this novel I’m not sure how vital it is for someone starting to read Marple. I wouldn’t want to dissuade anyone from reading it as it isn’t the worst place to start with the series but I think I would recommend anyone to pick up the next book in the series first:

The 13 Problems

This is less a novel and more a series of interconnecting short stories with a wraparound narrative.

Synopsis: The unifying premise for this short story collection is the Tuesday Club: six people who meet socially one evening at Jane Marple's home and then decide to meet regularly each Tuesday night to solve a mystery which a group member must relate.

This is such a fun quick read. The fact that this book is set around a parlour game and not from another character's perspective means that there is basically no wasted time setting up the characters. This book is just a delightful puzzle box of mini-mysteries for Marple to solve. I can't say much else about this book other than I highly recommend it. I definitely recommend starting your foray into Marple here (and maybe Christie’s work in general if you haven’t read any already).

I will definitely be carrying on with both this series, Agatha Christie’s other works and in general I’ll be hoping to pick up more mysteries.

[worldbestlawyers]

New Post has been published on World Best Lawyers

New Post has been published on http://www.worldbestlawyers.com/crime-fiction-ten-cliches-to-avoid/

Crime Fiction - Ten Cliches to Avoid

Crime fiction is big business at the moment, but there are certain situations that have been overplayed so much that they have become genre cliches and everybody knows what to expect next. Here are ten cliches you should try to avoid and thoughts on how to subvert the cliches if you do decide to use them.

Cops and Doctors

You can find this perennial favourite in both crime and historical fiction. You’ll see it in ER, NYPD Blue and in cross -genre shows like the X Files. The doctor says “OK but only for a minute” or “It’s touch and go. The next few hours will be crucial” or “It could be minutes, it could be days… you never know with coma cases” The policemen usually say nothing. They just stand around and chew the scenery in frustration.

Mulder and Scully actually spend a lot of their time hanging around in hospitals but you don’t notice so much because the patients aren’t your run of the mill criminals or witnesses.

And that’s the way to get around this one. Get a new twist and add some tension. Maybe the patient is related to either the cop or the doctor. Or maybe the doctor is an amateur detective and knows better than the cop? But beware of the “Dick Van Dyke” syndrome… that leads you into a whole new area of cliche

The New Partner

In this scenario a veteran cop has to get a new partner after the death of his old one. The rookie is either keen as mustard and eager to please, or burned out from personal problems. It’s probably best known in modern times from the Lethal Weapon movies. Screenwriters tried to add some tension early in the series by having Mel Gibson as a borderline suicide case, and that gave the first film an edge; but it was lost in later instalments. By the time the fourth movie came came along they had fallen so deeply into a buddy movie relationship that all drama was lost in favour of light comedy.

You need to do some serious subverting if you want to use this situation. People have tried having a dog as the buddy in K9, having their Mom as the buddy in Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, and having foreigners as the buddy in big Arnie’s Red Heat.

Outside the strictly police procedural we’ve also had the robot buddy in Robocop, the ghost buddy in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), the alien buddy in Alien Nation, the magician buddy in Jonathan Creek, the ex-serviceman buddy in both Sherlock Holmes and Poirot. The list just goes on and on.

However you do it, filling in the blanks is easy in this scenario. What you need is something new. How about having the cop being given a politician doing a meet-the-people stint. Or, on a completely tasteless but might be funny level, how about the schizophrenic cop who is his own buddy?

The Rookie in the Morgue

Once only the province of young students in Quincy, this one now turns up on TV in the CSI franchise or Crossing Jordan and in print in the Kay Scarpetta books. There are usually two ways this one can proceed. Either the young cop rushes out, hand at mouth, or he stands still, icily cold and detached, as the autopsy proceeds.

Inspector Morse tried to subvert this situation by having the old timer as the squeamish one, but how about having the rookie as the pathologist?

Whatever you do, try not to give the pathologist a chance to be smug and patronizing while explaining large chunks of the plot. In the UK, this is overdone in Silent Witness and Waking the Dead, and is just a lazy way to advance the story.

The Cantankerous Lieutenant Chews Out The Cop

In films and television shows this happens to every protagonist, and Clint Eastwood for one must be tired of it. In the Dirty Harry series he was rarely out of his boss’s office.

It usually ends up with the lieutenant and the cop snarling at each other, so how about having one of them being completely calm and laid back? Or how about having one of them being deaf?

And if you must write this scene, please don’t use lines like “I’ll have your badge for that”, or “I’m not covering for you this time”

The Slimy Defence Lawyer

This one was a hot favourite on NYPD Blue and was guaranteed to get right up Sipowitz’s nose. Once you’ve introduced the sharp suit, the slick hairstyle and the briefcase, this guy will inevitably say, “My client has no further comment,” or “You had no right to talk to him without me there.” Everybody knows the rest.

Again, serious though is needed to bring a new twist to this situation. Your lawyer could be an ex-cop who knows all the moves, or a relative or lover of one of the cops? How about a lawyer defending himself? Or a counter-culture lawyer covered with tattoos and piercings?

Whatever you do try to come up with some creative invective. Slimeball, sleazeball, reptile and shyster have all been overused.

The Car Chase

Bullit and The French Connection set the standard, and Gone in 60 Seconds brought it into the 21st Century, but this situation has mostly become tired. There are only so many little old ladies to avoid, so many road signs to hit, and so many police cars to trash before your audience becomes jaded.

Over the years the Bond movies have used up just about all the possible permutations, so you’ll struggle to come up with something new. It would be better to add tension in another way.

In a bid to appear fresh, the chase element has sometimes been dropped altogether in favour of the race against time as in Speed or Die Hard With a Vengeance. To succeed you’ll need a good reason for the journey to take place, a disastrous outcome if it’s not successful, and some good near misses on the way.

But beware. Too much carnage and your readers will start thinking of The Blues Brothers. And please, don’t have your protagonist drive the wrong way down a one-way street.. it’s been done far too often.

The Shoot Out

Raymond Chandler’s advice to crime writers still holds. “If your plot is flagging, have a man come in with a gun.” You’ve got to be careful though. Too many people still transfer scenes from old cowboy movies almost verbatim into modern cop scenes.

Probably the best recent shoot out was in Michael Mann’s Heat. You cared who lived or died, and there was excitement and tension. Therein lies the trick. Make your readers have an opinion, not just about your hero, but about the other characters as well. At the end of LA Confidential, we knew all of the people involved in the climax, and it made it more satisfying to watch who lived or died. Lining one-dimensional people up just as cannon fodder might work in a Saturday night popcorn movie, but we should be aiming higher than that.

Shoot outs work well on film, but they can be a drag in print. Some writers tend to slow things down, especially to have a close look at the wounds. Unless you’re careful it can read like a medical textbook.

And, please, don’t have heads “exploding like ripe watermelons.”

The Cop in The Cafe

This was used in Chips in every episode, giving them an excuse to show a motorbike speeding from a car park with loose gravel flying.

It’s also a favourite in most of the aforementioned buddy movies, and especially in Starsky and Hutch. They’ll be in a cafe, musing over the chewing out they’ve had from their boss, when a call comes through. The radio buzzes, giving them a chance to attach a flashing light to the roof of their car and head off to a car chase, closely followed by a shoot out. See how it’s possible to run one cliche into another? Pretty soon you’d have a whole plot, but would anybody buy it?

One way of changing this scene might be to have an alternative means of the cops getting the message. You could have them hearing something on the Television? Or how about on a cell-phone or laptop… there are multiple opportunities for foul ups, misunderstandings or criminal actions there, and they haven’t been overdone… yet.

Good Cop / Bad Cop

The good cop / bad cop interview became a cliche almost as soon as crime fiction began. A fine example, nearly seventy years old, can be seen in The Maltese Falcon. By now everybody knows the moves, and your readers will be bored long before the interview is over. Unless you’re being self-referential and ironic, as in LA Confidential you’ll never pull it off.

Cracker tried to subvert the interview situation altogether by having it performed by a psychiatrist who played both cops in one. In The Rock, Sean Connery as the prisoner told Nicholas Cage which questions he should be asking. You’ll need to find something similarly innovative if you’re going to make it work.

How about having two good cops? Or two bad cops? Or maybe there is a new computer system designed by psychologists to ask the right questions in the right order? How would your cops and your prisoner handle that?

The Estranged Wife

Why do all fictional cops have relationship problems? This scene always goes the same way. The wife says, “You never see the children anymore.” The cop doesn’t say anything, because his mobile phone interrupts. You know the rest.

Cracker is again a good case in point as he went through this scene in almost every episode. Pacino played a variation of it with his girlfriend in Heat.

Not only does Cracker have a failed marriage, but he’s also a gambler and a drinker. In recent years people have been giving cops more and more problems to overcome, culminating in Denzel Washington’s paraplegic investigator in The Bone Collector. I wouldn’t even try to top that.

Why not be original. Make your cop a healthy, stable, happily married man. Now there’s a challenge.

Conclusion

The next time you read or watch a police drama, notice how many of the above are still in use. All of them can occur in any one story, and frequently do… just shuffle the paragraphs, add a murder or two and you have an instant plot.

But unless you can subvert some of the cliches, don’t expect anybody to buy it.

[pooktales]

Reflection on Chapter One: Hercule Lecoffret

Some funny notes about the first chapter of “Master Daddy: The Last Nightborne Godfather”. I’ll try hard not to spoil you on what happens, just tease you... but no guarantees. If you absolutely don’t want to be spoiled, then definitely go read it.

Read chapter 1

Not gonna work too hard on this reflection cause I always have a ton of writing projects I’m neglecting, but I’ll sneak and jot it down while it’s fresh, and it’s actually kinda funny, and awesome! to give ya’ll an inside look into what I was thinking for Chapter 1: Hercule Lecoffret of “Master Daddy”. There’s also a little writing advice in here about first chapters, too.

First off, I want to say... Fanfaction makes me feel electric. I love writing anyway and I just cackle when I’m writing fanfiction. I do this really to practice writing and for the joy of it. It’d be nice to get some recognition as a writer but, whatever. So lemme share about how I developed this. I mentioned on my Trixany blog that the initial concept started when I re-watched a Gankutsuou clip (you’ve seen the Count of Monte Christo anime right?) and I was like ‘Okay so... that guy is a Nightborne!’

Chapter One got re-written like, a bajillion times

I did my fangirl thing, became obsessed with the idea... Then it came time to write chapter one. If you write or you’re just starting to write (a lot of us gamer-roleplayers do) you’ll see how this is true... what I started as chapter one actually became chapter three which you’ll see go live on Friday 11/27. (And then I really enjoy writing long-form so I messed with all my chapters again, breaking them into about two parts each. It was a little agonizing when I crafted them so carefully and pay attention to pacing, etc. but it had to be done.)

Influences from the My Life for My Prince series

Originally, I wanted to do something similar to what I did with another fanfiction of mine “My Life for My Prince 4: Fall of Quel’thalas”, which is to have the freedom to leap around to any character and any timeline encompassed in the plot. That was fun and I loved the flexibility, but I learned some hard lessons from that fanfic. Not that it was ‘so successful’ or anything that people really read it or told me what it was like to read it; it’s just a fanfic like I said. Um, but in writing it, and re-reading it plenty of times, I felt like it did not flow well. It didn’t flow as easily as I thought it did. (If you’re curious and new to my stuff, I write a lot of ‘Kael’thas survived Outland and he’s the king of Quel’thalas with badass Blood Knights’ alt-universe fanfiction. In the fourth story I decided to go way back in time to let you meet his mother and show how something that happened to her affected the series timeline in crazy ways.) But, thing is, if you get to a point where you think you need to explain the timeline as a guide, it’s probably not the best setup. Hey, practice makes perfect. That’s why I don’t restrain myself, I’ve learned to write as much throw-away stuff, and as much fanfiction as I like, as long as it isn’t really interfering with other projects (don’t worry, it IS) and then re-read it as much as you can to study and see if you’re really achieving your goals as a storyteller.

I forgot what I was talking about

Oh, my whole point--it went much like this... I wrote chapter one. Then I wrote another chapter one with Thalyssra and later put Lor’themar and Silgryn in it. And then I decided to make sure they were there throughout the fanfic as a result. More on that later. And then, I re-wrote chapter one yet again, to focus on the um... shower scene mainly. There used to be lot of extra text about Lor’themar arriving at the prison and stepping out of a fancy armored carriage drawn by Hawkstriders, and then he talked to the chief investigator Heron Audobon who you’ll meet much later... and then he was thinking about Thalyssra and how much he missed her, and then he had some toast (I’m joking, there was no toast but I love Futurama references), but I cut all of that out because it was taking waaaay long to get to the point. I’ll be recycling Lor’themar’s pensive walk it in Part Two. And it’ll be much different, and feel really new. You’ll like it.

So we’ll be meeting each of the main characters in a fresh way for “Master Daddy” as we go, and then I took a page from The Romancer Turaho. (This fanfic is about a Tauren detective investigating... you guessed it, Kael’thas. Actually, this is holiday-themed and I’m about to pick it back up again so you should read it if you want something funny and messed to read about Kael’thas stealing Winter’s Veil... again.) and decided to enjoy writing things first-person too. But Lucien will always be at the center, and things will progress chronologically, day-by-day in his life at the start of this ‘incident’ he’s been jailed for. And as I said, originally, chapter one was something else. It was one of Lucien’s relatives complaining about him to the authorities. And this kid truly hated his uncle which was really funny.

Advice on writing first chapters: It’s okay to do it over plenty of times, throw it out, get new ideas

What I have now, that first page you’ve read/will read? That came from backtracking and wanting to frame the story a little better. The whole point is that Lucien is in trouble for a crime, big trouble, so we make that clear up front and ‘raise the stakes’ which is another writer’s strategy. That means, add Thalyssra, and we also push that most important part, that he’s in trouble for a crime, up to the tip-top of the story. But it took a long time to figure out that an interrogation scene was how I needed to do it. And he’s a sexy guy so, even though Lucien isn’t there himself, I made sure to do something... that something turned out to be letting the jailor talk about his tattoos and fantasize about him. Usually, I just listen to my gut and eventually several small decisions about how to probably frame a story at the start add up to a brand new presentation.

I’ve read somewhere that the first three chapters of a novel should always let you know two key things. First, what is this story really about? The main conflict should be clear. Second, all those main characters need to be introduced. Maybe they don’t have to actually have to be face-right-up-in-the-camera speaking their lines at the very start... For example, Darken Rahl in Terry Goodkind’s The Sword of Truth series wasn’t sitting there at the reception watching Kahlan hate cheese, but we knew he was going to be there in the plot soon enough in the story. It’s been a while since I’ve read "Wizard’s First Rule”, one of my favorite novels, but it’s a good example of how flexible you can be with introducing main characters, as long as readers at least have a guide, a roadmap. Nothing so jarring that they feel thrown out of the story later or cheated if it turns out the main characters aren’t the main characters after all. I’m a little worried that will happen, but hopefully people are at peace with Lucien being the protagonist and Thalyssra and Lor’themar being more the muses or the chorus who usher us into this grand tale of a Nightborne villain.

What else can I say about the actual chapter one you’ve read or are about to read?

Shower scene. The um... flaming arsehole thing was something I thought about a long while and re-framed a lot before going with the way I presented it. I decided it was too compellingly gruesome an element to leave it out. It is very much the ‘bloody horsehead in the bed’ you encounter in The Godfather.

Thal’remar. I think Thalyssra was just interviewing Lucien’s jailor on her own initially but there were too many excellent connections with Lor’themar, and their romance, and also it occurred to me that he had experienced a rough imprisonment situation so that fit perfectly. Funny thing about that too--I had put this draft together with them ‘dating’ and at this interview because I was aware that the Warcraft fandom shipping them. And then Blizzard put an actual story on their website about them and I was just so pleased!

Silgryn!! Having Silgryn in there as well made me fangirl squeak every time I got to let him say something. Other than quest dialogue we don’t have a lot so I’m going to imagine some consistent character traits for him so he’s consistent, and feels real, breathing, in the fanfic. My favorite part with him in it was him... wait, his heroic comeback is in chapter 2. I won’t spoil that for you.

Goofy mystery story names. In the tradition of other mystery stories out there, some of the character names are ironic. Lecoffret means “coffin” in french I believe. Hercule, Hercules, giant dude... giant coffin? You can see what I felt needed to happen to that guy for how he ran Nighthold, Cell Block E. I also had Hercule Poirot on the brain since it was an investigation, and, well, as Hercule Poirot will tell you, he’s not French, he’s Belgian--but that came into it as well.

What’s up next?

See how the valiant Thalyssra handles Lecroffret and then how Lor’themar encourages her to handle the man himself, named for a saber’s sly grin. Whatever crime Lucien committed to get thrown in prison in the first place, I’m not sure if Thalyssra will ever let him get away with it.

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Today I am delighted to open up the #booklove once more to celebrate the launch of Sandra Imrie’s new book, Connectedness. Happy publication dat Sandra and thanks for visiting my blog. Here’s a little more about Sandra and her books.

About Sandra

Sandra Danby is a proud Yorkshire woman, tennis nut and tea drinker. She believes a walk on the beach will cure most ills. Unlike Rose Haldane, the identity detective in her two novels, Ignoring Gravity and Connectedness, Sandra is not adopted.

Author links

Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Goodreads ~ Pinterest

…

Connectedness

TO THE OUTSIDE WORLD, ARTIST JUSTINE TREE HAS IT ALL… BUT SHE ALWAYS HAS A SECRET THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY EVERYTHING

Justine’s art sells around the world, but does anyone truly know her? When her mother dies, she returns to her childhood home in Yorkshire where she decides to confront her past. She asks journalist Rose Haldane to find the baby she gave away when she was an art student, but only when Rose starts to ask difficult questions does Justine truly understand what she must face.

Is Justine strong enough to admit the secrets and lies of her past? To speak aloud the deeds she has hidden for 27 years, the real inspiration for her work that sells for millions of pounds. Could the truth trash her artistic reputation? Does Justine care more about her daughter, or her art? And what will she do if her daughter hates her?

This tale of art, adoption, romance and loss moves between now and the Eighties, from London’s art world to the bleak isolated cliffs of East Yorkshire and the hot orange blossom streets of Málaga, Spain.

A family mystery for fans of Maggie O’Farrell, Lucinda Riley, Tracy Rees and Rachel Hore.

About the ‘Identity Detective’ series

Rose Haldane reunites the people lost through adoption. The stories you don’t see on television shows. The difficult cases. The people who cannot be found, who are thought lost forever. Each book in the ‘Identity Detective’ series considers the viewpoint of one person trapped in this horrible dilemma. In the first book of the series, Ignoring Gravity, it is Rose’s experience we follow as an adult discovering she was adopted as a baby. Connectedness is the story of a birth mother and her longing to see her baby again. Sweet Joy, the third novel, will tell the story of a baby abandoned during The Blitz.

Amazon UK ~ Amazon US

Childhood Sweetheart Favourite book from childhood

Little Women by Louisa M Alcott. I guess, like so many women writers, I was motivated by Jo March’s determination to write, despite difficulties and opposition. I was quite sweet on Laurie and couldn’t believe he preferred Amy who I thought vain, superficial and spoiled. I still have my old Collins hardback, the sort with fragile thin paper; I love these books which make reading seem so special. Despite all the remakes, I still prefer the 1949 film – with Peter Lawford as Laurie, June Allyson as Jo and Elizabeth Taylor as Amy – I guess because it’s the one I watched as a child.

First love The first book you fell in love with

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I still love the series and have all the audio books on my iPod. Actually the first book of the series which I read was Pigeon Post, a present from my parents, and of course after that I collected them all. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve read them, always wanting to be a more imaginative John or less flaky Titty. I love their independence, their adventurous spirits, their bravery, their ability to make friends with whoever they meet.

Biggest book crush The book character you’re totally in love with

Adam Dalgliesh. Long before television detectives had to be emotionally challenged alcoholics or depressives, with more problems than their victims, PD James created this wonderful, sensible, poetry-writing, literature-quoting detective with a vulnerable side. One of the last gentleman detectives, Dalgliesh features in fourteen novels written over a period of 46 years. He seems unsurprisingly ageless, a mentor to his crime team, watching, observing, analysing. His inscrutability has a lot in common with Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot though Dalgliesh lacks the grand flourish, that would simply be too out-going for him.

Weirdest book crush Well… duh

Researching art and artists for Connectedness, I found myself drawn to Tracey Emin. I had enjoyed reading her weekly column in The Independent newspaper between 2005 and 2009, so was pleased to find these articles collected in My Life in a Column [Rizzoli]. Her anecdotal tales of her working week, her inspirations and frustrations, her victories and mistakes, gave me an insight into the practical world of a modern artist like no formally-written memoir did.

Hardest break up The book you didn’t want to end

It’s a series, rather than one book. I wish Elizabeth Jane Howard’s ‘Cazalet Chronicles’ would never end. What a master she is of unassuming quiet stories, making you care so much about the three generations of this wealthy family living through the Second World War. The lives of everyone are changed forever but particularly the women in the family; matriarch the Duchy; daughter Rachel and daughters-in-law Sybil, Villy and Zoe; and granddaughters Polly, Louise, Lydia and Clary.

The one that got away The book in your TBR or wish list that you regret not having started yet.

I could be predictable and say War and Peace, which is still on my bookshelf and on my Kindle. But instead I’m nominating Haruki Murakami’s IQ84. I’ve been a huge Murakami fan since first reading Norwegian Wood but the hardback edition of the trilogy is sitting on my to-read shelf. I’m not sure why I don’t pick it up: its length, perhaps [the trilogy is 1300 pages], or the reviews ranging from 1* to 5*.

Secret love Guilty Reading pleasure

Harry Potter. All of them. I listen to the amazing Stephen Fry read the audio books and tend to start with The Philosopher’s Stone and listen to them back-to-back. Why? JK Rowling has created a magical world that feels fingertips away from my own, which I could possibly join if I were Muggle-born. It has everything; good v evil, great fight scenes, wonderful characters to love and hate, and Rowling is so good at the detail and the planning. No fact is included in the early books that does not have relevance in the later books. Stay alert and spot them all!

Love one, love them all Favourite series or genre

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy and now The Book of Dust. Ostensibly for children but which, like an iceberg, both disguise hidden depths of philosophy, thought and backstory enough to satisfy any adult reader. Pullman is excellent at plotting and character. We root for his people in a world not unlike ours, shaped slightly differently and running in parallel, so it is easy to imagine ourselves there. Like Rowling, Pullman is a master storyteller; many adult novelists would do well to read and study him.

Your latest squeeze Favourite read of the last 12 months

The best novel I’ve read in 2018 to date is The Heart’s Invisible Furies by Irish writer John Boyne. It is rare for me to give a book a 5* rating [my usual rating is 3] but I knew quite quickly when reading it that this would be a 5. Honest, sad, laugh-out-loud funny, touching, with paragraphs I just had to read out aloud to my husband. It is about being true to yourself, the need for honesty in relationships, and the power of love. It is the life story of one man, Cyril Avery, but also of a country and its attitudes to sexuality. The story starts in Goleen, Ireland, in 1945; a country riven by loyalty to, and hatred of, the British, at the same time in thrall to its Catholic priests whose rules were hypocritical, illogical and cruel. Cyril narrates his story, starting with how his 16-year old mother was denounced in church by the family priest for being single and pregnant.

Blind date for a friend If you were to set a friend up with a blind date (book) which one would it be?

The two novels I give most often to friends are The Light Years, the first of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s ‘Cazalet Chronicles’ and The Penguin Complete Novels of Nancy Mitford. Both are wonderful books to take you to another world, away from the stress of contemporary life and into the lives of a group of people who you come to care for.

Greatest love of all Favourite book of all time.

An impossible question to answer so I am going to nominate two [if that is allowed]. Both by Jane Austen. A predictable answer, I know, but I cannot lie and choose something else just because other people have chosen Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I love the wit, the observation, the sumptuous descriptions. And then I remember Austen’s circumstances, moving from place to place, dependant on others, watching, writing quietly, and I wonder even more at her achievement. None of the Bronte experience of group supportive writing around a large table. Jane was on her own, without feedback.. Could you do it?

Thanks Sandra. Some great choices in there. I really just get on a read some more of the classics. I’m a very naughty reader. Hope all goes well with your book launch. Don’t forget folks – order links are at the top of the page.

Have a fab day everyone and keep spreading the #booklove.

Jen

  Book Love: Sandra Danby @SandraDanby Today I am delighted to open up the #booklove once more to celebrate the launch of Sandra Imrie's new book, 

[weblistposting-blog]

New Post has been published on Weblistposting

New Post has been published on https://weblistposting.com/the-splendor-of-a-great-detective-story/

The splendor of a great detective story

If we take a look at the detective tale, there are fundamentally two formats to it: the British and the American.

The British faculty of detective tale became massively popularized by Agatha Christie—if not invented by using her together with her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Patterns, posted in 1916. The hallmark of the British whodunit turned into that it become a “closed system” story. Commonly, there is a mansion, and there are 10 people living in it. One is murdered, and the murderer is one of the different nine.

there may be no opportunity of ingress or egress; it’s far without a doubt one of the residents who has dedicated the murder. A detective is referred to as in—except he’s already there as one of the residents—and he investigates.

The radical ends with the detective calling all of the residing residents for the final denouement—commonly within the mansion’s library—and giving a long speech, inspecting each suspect’s cause; Christie’s genius lay within the truth that almost every resident had a purpose for the murder. Then he appears on the suspects’ get admission to to the murder tool and the sufferer at the night of the homicide, and subsequently identifies the killer. The police, who’ve been ready reverentially outdoor the door, rush in and arrest the wrongdoer.

The typical American detective tale, which located its definitive shape a decade or so after Christie made her successful debut, is “open machine”. there’s no room locked from inner in which a frame is found, there may be no limited set of suspects. there may be no thriller approximately the reason of demise—a unprecedented poison, for example. All victims are either shot or stabbed to loss of life.

The detective starts with a specific crime—a homicide or a disappearance—and is drawn into a bigger plot, commonly encountering extra murders. He—like the reader—has no idea wherein he could be subsequent and who he will come across. He certainly follows the leads and travels anywhere they take him. The testimonies are open-ended until the entirety falls into vicinity within the climax.

Bullets fly, gangsters and organized crime may seem, the detective is regularly overwhelmed to inside an inch of his existence—in essence, stuff that would have horrified Christie.

In The USA, the detective tale was also an adventure tale, with the sleuth regularly going through threat and death. In England, no person ever tried to kill the detective.

The reason why the American detective story deviated from the norms of the British can possibly be attributed to the us of as Prohibition-era enjoy when gangster bootleggers ruled the roost, and there has been extensive corruption within the police pressure. there was nothing genteel about crime, and cynicism seemed to be—rightly or wrongly—the best sane attitude for the not unusual man to have.

it’s miles essential to be aware right here that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who we are able to simply seek advice from as the pioneer of the detective tale in the English language, remains above those classifications. The Sherlock Holmes tales are more or less equally divided among closed gadget and open gadget. Watson regularly includes a gun and every now and then has to apply it, something that would appear quite unseemly to Christie’s Hercule Poirot, and might be impossible for her other detective, the aged spinster Omit Marple.

Christie set her novels in various locations that were perfect surrogates for her mansion with 10 citizens—demise on the Nile on a cruise deliver on the Nile river, Evil Under the Sun in a summer time motel, dying inside the Clouds on an aeroplane.

of her most famous novels are After which There had been None and murder at the Orient Express. Both are wildly incredible memories, however regardless of that—or much more likely, due to that—they sell in big numbers even these days, and maintain to confound first-time readers.

Christie loved playing cat-and-mouse together with her readers, serving them red herrings at each possibility and joyfully main them up useless-give up lanes. In And then There have been None and homicide on the Orient Express, she is at her sadistic pleasant—she does not even ought to deceive readers, because the answers to the crimes are so outrageous that no reader, however alert and however shrewd, can ever guess them. these novels represent the top of closed-machine detective testimonies.

And then There were None is set on an island in which 10 human beings locate themselves as guests or recruits of a mysterious—and absent—proprietor, and one after the other, they begin getting murdered. It quickly dawns on absolutely everyone that certainly one of them is the killer. however who?

The activities of homicide at the Orient Specific take location in a single instruct of the legendary luxury train that plied among Istanbul and Paris. A wealthy American is murdered, the teach is stalled in a snowdrift, and none of the opposite passengers inside the teach seem to have a reason to kill him. Hercule Poirot takes place to traveling in the same educate, and solves the case, presenting the most improbable denouement in the records of mystery.

In 1945, the exceptional writer William Faulkner, then a screenplay writer in a Hollywood studio, turned into operating on a script for the inimitable American crime creator Raymond Chandler’s The Large Sleep, a unique that has numerous murders. In a few puzzlement, he known as up Chandler and requested, “but who killed the chauffeur?” Chandler stated that he couldn’t take into account, and that he would study The radical once more and get again. A few days later, he phoned Faulkner and admitted that even he had no concept who killed the chauffeur. So what is the factor here, if the writer himself can’t determine out what he had written? I’ve read The Huge Sleep several instances and that i need to additionally say that the chauffeur’s murder remains unexplained. But the point is that it has by no means decreased my leisure of studying the book. due to the fact it is literature. however we can come lower back to that later. the Yankee personal eye works in a corrupt world. He receives scant admire from policemen, lots of whom are thugs in uniform—in reality, they’re adverse to him. They seek advice from him derogatorily as a “shamus” or a “gumshoe”, and are happy to position him in a police lock-up at the slightest provocation. That is a scenario that a Holmes or a Poirot by no means had to face.

The detective is frequently employed via wealthy families, and via the cease of the story, the reader receives to realize what sordid foundations that wealth has been constructed on. In a Raymond Chandler novel (and i paraphrase from reminiscence), someone tells the hero Philip Marlowe: “That’s the dirty facet of the dollar.” Marlowe replies: “I didn’t recognize there was every other facet.”

As Chandler wrote in his conventional essay The Simple Art Of murder: “The realist in murder writes of a world in which gangsters can rule international locations and nearly rule cities, in which accommodations and apartment homes and celebrated eating places are owned by means of men who made their cash out of brothels, in which a display screen megastar can be the Fingerman for a mob, and the nice guy down the corridor is a boss of the numbers racket; a global in which a decide with a cellar complete of bootleg liquor can ship a person to jail for having a pint in his pocket, wherein the mayor of your city may also have condoned murder as an instrument of profitable, in which no guy can stroll down a darkish avenue in safety due to the fact law and order are things we talk approximately however chorus from training; a international wherein you may witness a maintain up in wide daylight and notice who did it, but you may fade fast lower back into the crowd instead of tell all people, due to the fact the hold-up guys can also have buddies with long weapons, or the police might not like your testimony, and anyways the shyster for the defense may be allowed to abuse and vilify you in open court docket, before a jury of decided on morons, without any But the maximum perfunctory interference from a political choose.

“It is not a very aromatic global, but it is the sector you stay in, and certain writers with tough minds and a groovy spirit of detachment can make very exciting and even fun styles out of it. It is not funny that a man have to be killed, however it’s miles sometimes humorous that he ought to be killed for so little, and that his demise should be the coin of what we call civilisation.”

The conventional British novel is set in a solid and typically honest environment in which every night, the gong is rung for dinner. Despite the fact that there could be a blunder or two many of the solid of characters, people know what the proper etiquette is. We not often meet any hardened criminals. To cite Chandler over again:

“Personally I like the English fashion better. It is not quite so brittle, and the humans customarily, just wear garments and drink liquids. there’s more feel of heritage, as if Cheesecake Manor in reality existed all round and no longer simply the element the digicam sees; there are greater long walks over the Downs and the characters don’t all try to behave as though that they had simply been tested through MGM. The English may not usually be the first-rate writers within the global, however they’re incomparably the satisfactory stupid writers.”

In truth, if one takes a step again, the manors in which many of Christie’s Poirot novels are set resemble P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings Fortress. The only difference is that a number of the residents in Christie’s Fort are murderers, whilst in Blandings, the best concerns are whether or not the Empress of Blandings will win the Fat Pig contest this yr, and whether or not Sir Galahad Threepwood can be stopped from publishing his tell-all memoirs. it’s far extraordinarily thrilling that Chandler changed into educated in England, and he went to the identical school as Wodehouse did—Dulwich College. There cannot be two outstanding writers who’re extra unlike each other.

Chandler defined his best American detective hence:

“however down these suggest streets a man ought to pass who isn’t always himself suggest, who’s neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective in this sort of tale need to be any such guy. he’s the hero, he is the whole lot. He should be a entire man and a commonplace guy and but an unusual guy. He must be, to use a rather weathered word, a person of honor, by way of intuition, with the aid of inevitability, with out notion of it, and truly without pronouncing it. He need to be the first-class guy in his world and an amazing enough man for any global. I do now not care lots about his private life; he is neither a eunuch nor a satyr; I suppose he may seduce a duchess and I am quite certain he could now not destroy a virgin; if he is a man of honor in a single thing, he’s that in all things. he’s a relatively terrible guy, or he would no longer be a detective at all. he is a common guy or he could not go among commonplace people. He has a sense of character, or he would not know his job. he will take no man’s money dishonestly and no guy’s insolence with out a due and dispassionate revenge. he’s a lonely man and his satisfaction is that you will treat him as a proud man or be very sorry you ever noticed him. He talks as the man of his age talks, this is, with impolite wit, a active sense of the ugly, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. The tale is his adventure in search of a hidden fact, and it’d be no adventure if it did not occur to a person fit for adventure. He has quite a number focus that startles you, but it belongs to him by means of right, because it belongs to the world he lives in.