And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

Genre: Mystery

Published: 1939, 173 pgs.

Review: 4.5/5

This was our book club's choice for October. In the past we've chosen books like Frankenstein and Rebecca for their spookiness value. And Then There Were None is pretty creepy too. The story unfolds as 10 very different individuals are brought together on an island. It's a little like the movie Clue but without the comedy aspect. We did something really fun for this meeting. We told everyone to read up through the epilogue but not to read the very last section, a letter to Scotland Yard. By doing this we could read the whole story but not find out "who dun it". Then at book club we read the last ten pages that tell what really happened. The idea was really fun but in actuality almost everyone, for some reason or other, had found out who the murderer was. Even though it didn't work out perfectly, I think it was a great idea.

The book club discussion was definitely not as uplifting as our meetings usually are. We talked about crazy people and murder and how a person can get to the point of committing pre-meditated murder.

If you like mysteries I really recommend Agatha Christie--unpredictable, sometimes humorous, and always clean.

Rating 1.2.1 Includes violence but not graphic.

My Agatha Christie Kick

Last fall I listened to my very first Agathie Christie book, And Then There Were None. Since then I have listened to another half a dozen mysteries by Christie and I look forward to more. Here they are:

Little did I know when I picked up this book on cd from the library that I was being introduced to Agatha Christie by what is considered one of her very best books. I don't know if that is good or bad. It's good because it made me want to read more but it's also bad because nothing since then has quite measured up. I loved And Then There Were None. What an amazing plot! Such a fun mystery and it kept me guessing until the very end. It was a little hard to listen to as are all of Agatha Christie's books because there are so many characters but I was able to sort them out pretty quickly. I would recommend reading this one rather than listening to it but I still loved it as an audiobook.

Review: 5/5 stars

These next books aren't actually books. These are the BBC radio dramatizations of the books, Murder at the Vicarage, 4:50 from Paddington, and Evil Under the Sun. They were each only about 2-3 hours in length and were full cast productions. They gave me an idea what it would have been like before TV, and the family gathered around the radio to listen to a show. I quite enjoyed them. I don't know how much of the books was taken out to shorten it down so much, but it felt like all the necessary information was presented fully and well. Vicarage and Paddington are both Miss Marple mysteries and Evil is a Hercule Poirot mystery. Miss Marple makes her very first appearance in Murder at the Vicarage so it could be a good place to start if you are interested in Miss Marple mysteries. At first I preferred the Hercule Poirot books but Miss Marple is growing on me.

Review: 3.5/5 stars

Nemesis was my first Miss Marple mystery and it was an interesting one. An old acquaintance of Miss Marple's asks her to do her amatuer sluething but doesn't tell her who was murdered or any of the circumstances of the case. He puts her into a situation and then she, in her odd ways, digs up a mystery and, of course, solves it. (That's not giving too much away, is it? :) ) Review: 4/5

The Mysterious Mr. Quin is a collection of twelve short mysteries. While each mystery is a separate story there are two characters that have a part in the solving of each mystery. Each story adds to the overall effect of the final conclusion. I enjoyed this one but started getting bored towards the end. I think there were just a few too many stories. Review: 3/5

The final Agatha Christie novel I listened to was The Secret Adversary. It was different from the others because it was more of an espionage story rather than a murder mystery. I liked it in the end but I like the murder mysteries better.

Review: 3.5/5

These books are all wonderfully clean and fun books to read. I'd recommend them to anyone who likes mysteries and also for those who like to read about England and its people and society.

Review Catch Up

There are still books that I read in 2008 that I haven't reviewed yet so I'm going to have to play catch-up with one long list of reviews. I prefer to post one review at a time but desperate times call for desperate measures. :)

After the Funeral by Agatha Christie was my second mystery by this legendary author. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the first one I read but it was still pretty good. I do like mysteries. Sometimes I try to guess "who dunit" and sometimes I just enjoy the story. So far with Agatha Christie's novels, she has kept me guessing til almost the end. That's fun for me.

Audiobook

4/5 stars

I found The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck to be a very sad book. I'm glad I read it but it was not a happy book. It made me think a lot about money, pride, greed, women's rights, love and family. I think this would make a good book club selection.

Audiobook

Rating: 2.3.1

4/5 stars

Hallelujah by J. Scott Featherstone was our book club's selection for December. It probably wasn't the best choice for that month because it is a chunkster and only a few of us were able to finish it. We were not very impressed by the overall writing of this book. It's a little too sentimental and fluffy in parts as well as being repetitive but I did still like it quite a bit. Despite it's problems, I really liked learning about Handel and especially about The Messiah oratorio.

Rating: 1.1.1

4/5 stars

I listened to this audiobook while traveling. French Women Don't Get Fat is a book I'd heard quite a bit about a couple of years ago. I thought it would be interesting and it was. If you are the kind to be easily offended about the stereotype that most Americans are fat, then this book is not for you. When I listened to it I felt inspired to try to look at food in a different way. The author has some great ideas and I can see how they could be effective in weight management. They don't really work for me but that's not saying a lot.

Audiobook

3/5 stars

Our book club read How Angel Peterson Got His Name together with Hatchet by the same author, Gary Paulsen. In Angel, Paulsen tells several stories of his growing up in a small mid-western town where he and his buddies pulled some really crazy stunts. This is the kind of book that pre-teen and teenage boys love but makes their parents worry. All I can say is that Gary Paulsen is lucky to still be alive today. It was interesting to read these books together to get an insight into the author's life.

3/5 stars