The Listerdale Mystery: “Mrs. St. Vincent was adding up figures.”
Detective: None, as these are various tales of murder & suspense
Published: June 1934
Length: 192 pages
Setting: various
The Listerdale Mystery by Agatha Christie
4
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations: “My fathers’ family name being Pirrup, and my christian name Philip, my infant tongue could make of both names nothing longer or more explicit than Pip.”
In the mid-19th century, in a marshy area of Kent, Philip Pirrup, or Pip as he was called, lived with his crotchety, abusive sister and her husband, a loveable, yet rather simple blacksmith named Joe. While Pip attempts to avoid his sister’s wrath, a wrath that she appears to happily cultivate, he also forms a deep attachment and friendship with Joe, who equally enjoys Pip’s company.
20 Books of Summer 2024
I haven’t done this challenge from Cathy at 746 Books in a couple of years so it’s time to start it again. I don’t think I’ve ever finished 20 Books but it’s fun to try. I was looking back at previous years and was embarrassed to see the some of the same books appearing year after year but thankfully I’ve finally completed most of them.
Classics Club Spin #37
Well, here I go. I keep doing these spins and then reading other books. But the books are on my Classics Club list so it’s not all bad. I’ve made it through Ivanhoe and Bleak House so I’m feeling rather pleased.
Time for another spin:
Classics Club Spin #36
In spite of my silence on my blog, I’m still reading! I managed to read 54 books for 2023 so I’m really happy with that considering previous years hovered around 35 or less. That said, I don’t have the reviews that really go in depth, so there’s a trade-off.
Classics Club Spin #35
I’m not going to finish my Classics Club list, within the 5-year time period but nevertheless I continue on and these spins help out so much. And by including four lists I’m at least making my way through some of my reading goals. So I’ve been waiting for this spin!
Classics Club Spin #34
Another spin and another attempt. Since incorporating not only my Classics Club list, but some of my other project lists, I’ve managed to read one book for each spin, so I’m going to continue! From my last spin, I’m finishing up The Amazing Adventures of Father Brown.
Classics Club Spin #33
Oh, heavens! I haven’t accomplished much on the spins. I did manage to find my copy of Revelations of Divine Love, so that’s promising. Otherwise I :
- am reading Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations but haven’t finished it
- have begun Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs on my Kindle (the children’s version) and also started one volume of the original. I’m planning to finish the Kindle version, which is all I committed to; the original is both too long and too difficult to find for me to commit to it now
- I began Aristotle’s Ethics as a course quite awhile ago. I plan to finish … but ….
- I finished Journey from Peppermint Street by Meindert de Jong. Woo hoo!
Not the results I wanted but, oh well!
Continue reading
Unfinished Portrait by Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
“Do you know the feeling you have when you know something quite well and yet for the life of you can’t recollect it?”
Oh, wow! After my first Westmacott novel, Giant’s Bread, I was really dreading Unfinished Portrait, but what a masterpiece of human psychology, human frailty and the unexpected journey that life has in store for all of us!
The novel begins on an island where a successful portrait painter meets a young woman who is ready to take her own life. Through speaking with her, he learns of her childhood and marriage and both the humorous and tragic circumstances that slowly led her to where she is that day.
2022 Year In Review
Children Blowing Soap Bubbles (c. 1827) Sophie Chéradame ~ source Wikimedia Commons
YEAR IN REVIEW
2022 READING STATS
Number of Books Read: 32
Number of Re-Reads: 9
Genre You Read The Most From: Classics / Mystery