I've Read All of Her Books

One of my favorite authors as a teenager was Agatha Christie.  I'm pretty sure I have read all her books and collections.  Sometime late last century (love saying that), Brooklyn Public Library started revamping their collection of her work.  I was so exuberant; I think I have read every book published in the United States. I had a list so I wouldn't reread anything until I had read all the other books. 
Crooked House is still my favorite Agatha Christie story.





 
I don't really have a favorite between Miss Marple or Hercules Poirot, her two main detectives.  I like Miss Marple.  Everyone thinks she is a quiet, unassuming doddering spinster, but she is very with it.  No one can get anything past her.  My favorite Miss Marple book is A Murder Is Announced.









Hercule Poirot is somewhat different.  He is well traveled and had a successful career as a detective before retiring and becoming a private detective.  He is very confident in his abilities and has no problem flaunting his abilities.  My favorite Hercule Poirot book is Murder on the Orient Express. 




Her greatest mystery was her disappearance for 11 days in the winter of 1926.  After having an argument with her husband, she left home.  Her secretary found a note that she was going to another town.  Nobody could find her or get in contact with her.  Eleven days later she was found in a hotel under an assumed name and was either unable or unwilling to give any details of the preceding eleven days.  To this day, we have no concrete idea of what really happened.  Some people think she was trying to frame her husband for her murder; some think she just wanted a little privacy.  Whatever the reason, Agatha took the secret to her grave.

She is one of the best selling authors of all times, has had the longest running play, and many film adaptations of her novels.  Her detective Hercule Poirot is the only fictional character to have a New York Times autobiography.   All this from a woman who started her career trying to prove to her sister she could write better mysteries than the Sherlock Holmes series.

Do you have a favorite author?  Have you read all their books? 

Bloggers Night Out - Swag -

  

On Thursday night, the wonderful people at Random House invited assorted book bloggers and tweeters in the NY area to a get-together at the Random House offices.  We got to meet Ellen Sussman, author of  French Lessons, which is on tons of  Summer Reads lists.  Ellen, who is was so cool btw, talked a little about her inspiration for the book.


Check out the swag.  Forgive the blurry picture, phone has been acting a fool for the past couple days.



 

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.  We post about all the books we are waiting to be published.

My pick this week is Nerd Do Well: A Small Boy's Journey to Becoming a Big Kid by Simon Pegg.  I think Simon Pegg is crazy funny.  Everything I've seen from him is really hilarious; add Nick Frost and the laughs never stop.



From the publisher, Penguin's site:

Zombies in North London, death cults in the West Country, the engineering deck of the Enterprise: actor, comedian, writer and self-proclaimed supergeek Simon Pegg has been ploughing some bizarre furrows in recent times. Having landed on the U.S. movie scene in the surprise cult hit Shaun of the Dead, his enduring appeal and rise to movie star with a dedicated following has been mercurial, meteoric, megatronic, but mostly just plain great.
From his childhood (and subsequently adult) obsession with science fiction, his enduring friendship with Nick Frost, and his forays into stand-up comedy which began with his regular Monday morning slot in front of his twelve-year-old classmates, Simon has always had a severe and dangerous case of the funnies.
Whether recounting his experience working as a lifeguard at the city pool, going to Comic-Con for the first time and confessing to Carrie Fisher that he used to kiss her picture every night before he went to sleep, or meeting and working with heroes that include Peter Jackson, Kevin Smith, and Quentin Tarantino, Pegg offers a hilarious look at the journey to becoming an international superstar, dotted with a cast of memorable characters, and you're rooting for him all the way.

Out this Friday.

Review: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir by Kelle Groom

Title: I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl: A Memoir by Kelle Groom
Publisher: Free Press
Published: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 9781451616682
Pages: 256

I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl is Kelle Groom's harrowing account of the despair of her struggle with alcoholism and the emotional aftershocks of the birth, adoption and death of her only child.  Alternating between past and present, Groom details her journey to sobriety and her journey to come to terms with her son's brief life.

From the onset, I Wore the Ocean is a very difficult book to get through.  There are multiple accounts of violence towards herself, the birth of her son, her self loathing, accounts of anonymous sex and rape, and the many blackouts that she suffered.  To see the depths she put herself and her loved ones through, saddens one and at times causes her to be a very difficult person to like.  Luckily, her willingness to tell the whole story, even the parts that make her seem deplorable, makes her story compelling.  You want her to win her battle with alcoholism and are glad when she starts making concrete steps to sobriety.  The hardest part of the book is knowing she is intelligent enough to do better but seeing her addiction pulls her to rock bottom.

Groom is devastated by the death of her son that she gave up for adoption.  She knows intellectually that she cannot care for him as a full blown alcoholic.  Yet, she is unable to stop thinking about him.  Hearing about his death, just drives her further into alcoholism.  It isn't until she is emerging from alcoholism that she is able to think about who he was and might have been.  Over two decades, after his death she is able to talk openly about him and ask the relatives who adopted him about his life.  Groom is relieved to be able to share in his life

Groom's book is full of ocean and water imagery.  Her nickname as a child is "ocean girl".  When she is away from the coast, she feels unsettled and out of place.  Someone who saw me reading the book pondered whether  title is an allusion to the way the ocean wears away all in its path to sand.  Groom's accounts can be like a current - calm at times, violent and stormy in others, buoying one in lighter moments or brutally battering.

I received this book from the publisher Free Press in exchange for my honest opinion.

Follow Friday

Follow Friday is hosted by Parajunkee's View.  This week's question:

Q. What are you doing to prepare for an upcoming zombie apocalypse and/or the return of Mel Gibson to the silver screen? (Both of which could be terrifying.) 

I think the best defense against the zombie or Mel Gibson is a karate chop or canned goods to the head.  I'm pretty sure the zombie is the more socialized of the two.  I'll ignore Mel Gibson unless a zombie catches me and forces me to see his movie.

 

Winner of the Giveaway

Remember the giveaway.  Well the winner is

Brittany Gale

Thank you to everyone that participated.  I'll be having more giveaways in the future. 

Waiting on Wednesday

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine.  We post about all the books we are waiting to be published.

My pick this weeks is Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling.

 

Per Amazon:

Comedy's fastest-rising star takes to the page in a book of essays, personal anecdotes, and impassioned pleas.

Multi-hyphenate Mindy Kaling is an Emmy-nominated writer, the actress famous for playing the beloved Kelly Kapoor on The Office, and the author of one of Twitter's most popular and quoted feeds.  She is a keen and witty observer of life, romance, and pop culture, whom the New York Times recently called "an entirely original and of-the-moment" performer and Entertainment Weekly deemed “one of the ten funniest actresses in Hollywood.”

In Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?, Mindy shares her observations, fears, and opinions about a wide-ranging list of the topics she thinks about the most: from her favorite types of guys (including Sherlock Holmes, NBA players, Aaron Sorkin characters, and 19th-century fictional hunks) to life in the Office writers' room to her leisure pursuit of dieting (“I don’t travel, speak other languages, do crafts, or enjoy sports, but I love reading about new diets”) and how much she loves romantic comedies.  Loaded with personal stories and laugh-out-loud philosophies, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? is a must-read by one of the most original comedic voices working today.

I follow Mindy on Twitter and love her work.  I can't wait. Luckily, there's a 27 page excerpt on her publisher's website.