Books No. 31-32

[sarahmichigan]

Book No. 31 was "Elephants Can Remember" by Agatha Christie. In this Hercule Poirot novel, he teams up with novelist Mrs. Oliver to solve a decades-old mystery about why a seemingly happy couple committed a double suicide, or a murder-suicide. The couple's daughter, Celia, is grown up and about to marry and wants to know more about her past, as does her nosy mother-in-law, and they ask Mrs. Oliver to investigate since she is a crime novelist and Celia's godmother. Mrs. Oliver talks to old acquaintances about events in the far past that might be relevant, and Poirot talks with old police contacts, and together they find out the truth about Mr. and Mrs. Ravenscroft. I was in dire need of brain candy, and this fit the bill. It was just over 200 pages, swiftly paced, and an easy/fun read. I had several elements of the solution worked out at about the half-way point of the book. I haven't read any Christie in probably at least 20 years, but I can see why she is continually popular. Her novels are easy reads, and she rewards regular readers by referencing previous books (i.e. Poirot's previous cases). I was actually somewhat surprised by the terse description and the lack of transitional sentences and paragraphs. Sometimes she'll end one chapter by saying something along the lines of "We should talk to Mrs. So-and-So next" and the next chapter opens with the dialogue with Mrs. So-and-so in progress. Christie doesn't have a lot of patience for deep character development and scene-setting and is more about giving you a complicated plot at a breathless pace.

Book No. 32 was "The Shadow Hero," story by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Sonny Liew. The authors were intrigued by an old 1940s comic called "The Green Turtle" that only ran for 5 issues and was created by a Chinese American man named Chu Hing. Though The Green Turtle isn't explicitly portrayed as Chinese-American in the 40s version, there is reason to think that Chu Hing intended him to be. That element is made more explicit in this modern update, where mild-mannered Hank Chu, who only wants to run his father's grocery store, is spurred to become a superhero, at first by his mother's nagging and later inspired by gang activity in Chinatown. The book includes the entire first issue of the 1940s comic printed at the end as well. I found this graphic novel to be delightful and now I'm curious to read more by Yang. See a short clip where scenes from the graphic novel are animated on Yang's website.


1. Death's End (3rd in the "Three-Body Problem" trilogy) [fiction]- Cixin Liu (translation by Ken Liu)
2. Brat Farrar [fiction]- Josephine Tey
3. Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored [nonfiction]- Mary Gabriel
4. Nine Years Under: Coming of Age in an Inner-City Funeral Home [fiction]- Sheri Booker
5. Heap House (1st in the Iremonger trilogy) [fiction]- Edward Carey
6. Air [fiction]- Geoff Ryman
7. The Intuitionist [fiction]- Colson Whitehead
8. The Monster of Florence: A True Story [nonfiction]- Douglas Preston, with Mario Spezi
9. Foulsham (2nd in the Iremonger trilogy) [fiction]- Edward Carey
10. The Secret Place [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
11. Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga [nonfiction]- Pamela Newkirk
12. Between the World and Me [nonfiction]- Ta-nehisi Coates (unabridged audiobook)
13. Everfair [fiction]- Nisi Shawl
14. The Departed (first in the "The Departed" trilogy) [fiction]- Kristy Cooper
15. The Night Circus [fiction]- Erin Morgenstern (unabridged audiobook)
16. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall [fiction]- Anne Bronte
17. The Story of My Tits [graphic nonfiction]- Jennifer Hayden
18. Long Black Curl (a novel of the Tufa) [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
19. Ursula, Under[fiction]- Ingrid Hill
20. The Witch of Lime Street: Séance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World [nonfiction]- David Jaher
21. The Sheltering Sky [fiction]- Paul Bowles
22. Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond [fiction/short stories]- Kim Harrison (unabridged audiobook)
23. The sound the stars make rushing through the sky: The Writings of Jane Johnston Schoolcraft [fiction/poetry/biography]- writings by JJS, ed. Robert Dale Parker
24. Love in the Time of Cholera [fiction]- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
25. The Golden Ass [fiction]- Apuleis
26. Ghetto Klown [graphic memoir]- John Leguizamo (illustrated by Christa Cassano and Shamus Beyale)
27. Good Kings Bad Kings [fiction]- Susan Nussbaum
28. The Night Gardener [fiction]- Jonathan Auxier
29. Close Range: Wyoming Stories [fiction/short stories]- Annie Proulx
30. The Things They Carried [fiction/short stories]- Tim O'Brien

Comments

[airsucker]

On the topic of Poirot I used to watch the series with my folks starring David Suchet. (He was in a recent Dr. Who.) At the showing of Wonder Woman, there was a trailer for Murder on the Orient Express, with Kenneth Branaugh as Poirot. As hard as it is not to picture him as Suchet, I think this movie is going to be something else, since it's so packed with stars.

[sarahmichigan]

I've watched 4-5 of those old "Poirot" episodes and quite enjoyed them. We just saw the trailer for "Orient Express" and the cast looks fabulous, but I do NOT like Branagh's mustache!!!