The Year of Agatha 2017 Gift Guide!

(photo from our Instagram) One of the questions we get asked the most is: “which Agatha Christie book should I start reading?” Our answer is usually a mix of "oh these are some generally good ones" or "oh these are our favorites!" But we’ve come to realize that sometimes our favorites are not necessarily the books everyone should start with. We created a few Buzzfeed quizzes (see here and here!) to help guide Agatha newcomers to some fun reads,...

A Triumph, My Dear!: Crooked House | 2017

(image from here) The Sum of It: Thank goodness for our #bookstagram community because they did us a SOLID by letting us know that Crooked House was available on iTunes and Amazon in the US ahead of the theatrical release later this year! Since Crooked House was a favorite read for both of us during our #yearofagatha, we both bought the film right away. We've organized our thoughts and feelings below: *BE ADVISED: many spoilers to follow! You...

Murder on the Orient Express | 2017 | Review & Discussion Extravaganza!

(image from here) The Sum of It: So after months of waiting, we finally went to see Gilderoy Lockhart (aka Kenneth Branagh #harrypotter #always)'s Murder on the Orient Express this past weekend! We have so many thoughts and feelings, so we'll try to organize them as best we can: *ALERT: LOTS AND LOTS OF SPOILERS AHEAD!* THINGS WE LIKED: Audrey: I know this film will get a mix of reactions, however, on the whole, I really enjoyed...

Agatha Superlatives + HAPPY BIRTHDAY, QUEEN!

Happiest of Agatha Christie Birthdays to you all! We thought it would be fun to honor the Queen of Crime on her bday by sharing a list of superlatives we've compiled throughout our Christie reading adventures! Feel free to leave us a comment with any of your Agatha superlatives below! Most Likely to Succeed: Hastings! (Jk, poor thing fails at every venture...but we love him anyway!) - prize actually goes to plucky, young Julia Upjohn from...

Cambridge Revisited: The Incredible Crime | 1931

Image from here "It was a fine, windy morning in Cambridge. Down King's Parade the wind came swirling along, sweeping the insecurely-propped bicycles on to the road and pavement, picking up sheaves of loose white papers and sending them dancing along. Those who had hats were holding them on, and those who wore gowns were holding them down. Young women with bundles of books under their arms and preoccupied expressions, hurrying tradesfolk, and...

Disappearing Agatha: A Talent for Murder | 2017

(image by The Year of Agatha) "'I am quite convinced that , had you not had the outlet of your books, books that are full of murder, poisonings, betrayals of the worst kind, you yourself may even have been tempted to commit a heinous crime.' 'That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Quite preposterous. Just because I make a small living out of writing about crime and its detection doesn't in the slightest mean I could possibly do it...

The Destroyers: Our Rhapsody and a GREAT Interview with Author Christopher Bollen | 2017

Image from here "One lie. That was all that was asked of me. One lie concocted between old friends to keep a house in order. And now the lie is growing to the size of an island and must be watered and pruned and fed." - The Destroyers, p. 244 Last year we raved about Christopher Bollen's book Orient, a truly Christie-inspired mystery set on Long Island featuring a truly frightening denouement and named an NPR Book of the Year. Loving that...

Art Appreciation: The Last Painting of Sara de Vos | 2016

Image from here "The paintings on your walls, the Dutch rivers and kitchens, the Flemish peasant frolics, they give off fumes and dull with age, but connect you to a bloodline of want, to shipbuilders and bankers who stared up at them as their own lives tapered off. Like trees, they have breathed in the air around them and now they exhale some of their previous owners' atoms and molecules. They could last for a thousand years, these paintings,...

Time After Time: The Rocks | 2016

Image from here “And the seasons, as now, reliably made everything new again. He liked to remember Goethe’s line: 'A man can stand anything but a succession of ordinary days.'”  -The Rocks The Sum of It: Oof - this is a hard one to summarize, but we will do our best! The most important thing to know is that the book is written in reverse time order in that we begin at the end of the tumultuous relationship between main characters...