Agatha Christie

I think I've read 5 Agatha Christies this summer and around 8 last summer, so I'm not going to focus on any one that she's written because, broadly speaking, they're all very similar in plot detail due to the fact that they're all murder mysteries. I'm just going to briefly touch on the ones I've read this summer and give some detail on each.

The Queen of Crime

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: This was the one that shot Christie to fame and gave her the title of the Queen of Crime. Hence, the sheer amazingness of this book should most definitely not be underestimated. Although all her books have a twist, this one has the biggest of all, and if you're planning to read it, you will never ever ever EVER in a million years guess whodunnit. Ever.

The Hollow: This book is different to some of Christie's others, because the murder doesn't seem to be the central focus of the book; it's more about the emotional approach of each of the characters to the murder, and Poirot's observations of their movements. A-mazing.

Murder at the Vicarage: This was the first Miss Marple that I've read, and it was odd, because she didn't seem to feature very much in it, apart from at the end when she gave her theory of who committed the murder. The contents of the book is very much to do with gathering the facts and presenting them to the reader rather than formulating different theories. Not my favourite Christie, but still worth a read.

The Big Four: Agatha Christie roams slightly into the realms of the unknown, by writing about a secret organisation, The Big Four, and a series of murders rather than focusing on one murder. In fact, the murder occurs at the beginning and is merely incidental to the story.

And Then There Were None: There is no detective that features in this story to puzzle out the mystery, but all becomes clear somehow at the end...! It's creepy in the fact that you never expect the murder, or the murderer, but it's fantastic. Definitely read this one.

I'll be reading Little Dorrit next, so it might take me a while to update this, but I will... eventually!

A Farewell To Arms

So this isn't a review on Selected Short Stories, by Henry James. To tell you the truth, I haven't finished it yet. But, fear not, I've still been reading plenty, and here's a post about A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway, which I read at the start of the summer...

I didn't expect this to enjoy it as much as everyone else who's read it seems to have done, mainly due to the fact that I thought it was just a book about the First World War. I wasn't immediately taken in by Hemingway's writing style, which I'll get back to in a minute, but I discovered that it was so so much more than a book about WW1. There was even a love story woven in, which was beautifully sad, and yet so passionate.

The book is semi-autobiographical, and is based on Hemingway's own experiences of enlisting in the Italian army during WW1 and fighting in the mountains against the Austrians. The main character falls in love with a nurse, and although I can't say any of the details because they'll utterly spoil the book, it is a fantastically gorgeous love story. In terms of Hemingway's writing style, it is very simple and states only the fact. He doesn't indulge in long metaphors or poetic techniques to try and describe his feelings; he only expresses them in the words that fit them best. If anyone's seen the film Midnight In Paris, directed by Woody Allen, Hemingway's writing style is pretty much exactly the way Hemingway acts in that film. He can be very dryly funny, but incredibly honest, which is difficult to get your head around if you're used to reading (like me) Dickens's long, flowery, descriptive passages. That isn't to say that it isn't as good as Dickens, because it is, but it's just different.

I adored this book, and am planning on reading many many Agatha Christies on holiday, so look out for the next post!