A Murder is Announced [#books #reviews]

by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple
← The Moving Finger
They Do It with Mirrors →

Rating: 8.5/10

A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m. Friends please accept this, the only intimation.

(Page 5)

Anne of Green Gables [#books #reviews]

by L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Avonlea →

Rating: 9/10

She was sitting there waiting for something or somebody and, since sitting and waiting was the only thing to do just then, she sat and waited with all her might and main.

(Page 15, the first time we meet Anne)

The Rings of Power, Season 2 [#tvseries #review]

← Season 1
Season 3 →

Rating: 7.5/10

Perhaps the Elves need only remember that is not strength that overcomes darkness, but light.
Celebrimbor

(Episode 7)

The Rings of Power, Season 1 [#tvseries #review]

Season 2 →

Rating: 6.5/10

Not all who wonder or wander are lost.

The Harfoots' song This Wandering Day

Taken at the Flood [#books #reviews]

by Agatha Christie

Poirot
← The Hollow
Mrs McGinty's Dead →

Rating: 7/10

They were all, it seemed, under the sway of this absurd little man with the big moustaches.

(Page 265)

The Princess and Curdie [#books #reviews]

by George MacDonald

Princess Irene and Curdie
← The Princess and the Goblin

Rating: 8/10

There is this difference between the growth of some human beings and that of others: in the one case it is a continuous dying, in the other a continuous resurrection.

(Page 13)

My Brilliant Friend [#books #reviews]

by Elena Ferrante

Neapolitan Novels
The Story of a New Name →

Rating: 9/10

Tutto era bello e pauroso, allora.

Everything was beautiful and scary, back then.

(Page 19)

Sparkling Cyanide [#books #reviews]

by Agatha Christie

Rating: 7/10

Iris Marle was thinking about her sister, Rosemary.
For nearly a year she had deliberately tried to put the thought of Rosemary away from her. She hadn't wanted to remember.

[incipit]

Death Comes as the End [#books #reviews]

by Agatha Christie

Rating: 9/10

She might be safer unknowing, but no human creature could be content to have it that way. She wanted to know.

(Page 231)

All Systems Red [#books #reviews]

by Martha Wells

The Murderbot Diaries
Artificial Condition →

Rating: 9/10

I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.

[incipit]

Pyramids [#books #reviews]

by Terry Pratchett

Discworld
← Wyrd Sisters
Guards! Guards! →

Rating: 8.5/10

And then the world went mad.
All right, madder.

(Page 199)

Shōgun [#books #reviews]

by James Clavell

Rating: 9/10

Only by living at the edge of death can you understand the indescribable joy of life.
Mariko

The Big Bad Fox [#books #reviews]

(Le grand méchant renard) by Benjamin Renner

Rating: 9/10

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner [#books #reviews]

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Rating: 7/10

At lenght did cross an Albatross,
Thorough the fog it came [...].

(Page 21)

Towards Zero [#books #reviews]

by Agatha Christie

Superintendent Battle
← Cards on the Table

Rating: 8.5/10

When you read the account of a murder―or say, a fiction story based on murder, you usually begin with the murder itself. That's all wrong. The murder begins a long time beforehand. A murder is the culmination of a lot of different circumstances, all converging at a given moment at a given point. People are brought into it from different parts of the globe and for unforeseen reasons. [...] The murder itself is the end of the story.
It's Zero Hour.
[...]
It's Zero Hour now.
Superintendent Battle

(Page 223)

The Moving Finger [#books #review]

by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple
← The Body in the Library
A Murder is Announced →

Rating: 8.5/10

God doesn't really need to punish us [...]. We're so very busy punishing ourselves.
Jerry Burton

(Page 88)

L'Allegria [#books #review]

by Giuseppe Ungaretti

Rating: 8/10

M'illumino
d'immenso

I illuminate (myself)
with immensity

(English translation found HERE)

Five Little Pigs [#books #review]

by Agatha Christie

Poirot
← Evil Under the Sun
? →

Rating: 8.5/10

Hercule Poirot looked with interest and appreciation at the young woman who was being ushered into the room.

[incipit]

The Body in the Library [#books #review]

by Agatha Christie

Miss Marple
← The Thirteen Problems
The Moving Finger →

Rating: 8/10

Downstairs in the lounge, by the third pillar from the left, there sits an old lady with a sweet, placid spinsterish face, and a mind that has plumbed the depths of human iniquity and taken it as all in the day's work. Her name's Miss Marple. She comes from the village of St Mary Mead, which is a mile and a half from Gossington, she's a friend of the Bantrys—and where crime is concerned she's the goods.
Sir Henry

(Page 103)

N or M? [#books #review]

by Agatha Christie

Tommy & Tuppence
← Partners in Crime
By the Pricking of My Thumbs →

Rating: 8.5/10

Tommy Beresford removed his overcoat in the hall of the flat. He hung it up with some care, taking time over it. His hat went carefully on the next peg.

[incipit]