Once again guessed the murderer by complete accident. I’m the mystery reader equivalent of those characters you often see in farces who are complete idiots (usually lovable) and bumble about doing everything so wrong they come back around and get everything right. I really enjoyed this book, which was apparently Christie’s 50th (although publishers had to count a book of short stories to make this true, and they really wanted to, because publicists never change). It starts out kind of like a game. An ad […]
A Different Look at Art
It was really hard for me to turn off my teacher brain while reading Blue Balliett’s Chasing Vermeer. The book’s intended audience is middle-grade readers, and while I think the me of that age would have been delighted with this book (it would have appealed to my snootiest, inner-art-snob instincts), 33-year-old me had a hard time getting into it. I kept looking at it from a “Would I want to teach this?” perspective, rather than from “Am I enjoying reading this?” I don’t know that […]
Christie takes a very old trope and makes it work.
I love listening to Agatha Christie books when it’s cold outside. It’s so cozy and comforting and British. This one didn’t disappoint, although it’s not my favorite of hers so far. The dead body found in the library conceit was old even back in 1941 when The Body in the Library was first published. Good old Agatha got ahold of it and decided to make it her own. There is indeed a body found in a library at the start of this book, but in quite […]
Lois Lane, never change.
So on the Batman/Superman divide, spectrum whatever you want to call it, I’m on the side of the Man in Blue. Have been since the fifth grade when Lois & Clark was my favorite TV show and my mom let me put Superman’s shield on my retainer. Also, the dark and broody thing has never really done it for me. I’m pretty much in agreement with John Green on this matter (“Batman is just a rich guy with an affinity for bats who is playing […]