Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie

by CarolNo Comments
I do love a good Poirot mystery and this one is interesting because each of our potential suspects gets to tell their story exactly as they remember it. Poirot is asked by a young woman to solve the murder of her father, Amyas, a famous painter who was killed 16 years ago. Although her mother, Caroline, was tried, convicted, and died in prison, she left her daughter a note claiming she was innocent. Poirot agrees to look into it and happily, the five other people at the house at the time are all still alive. Poirot visits each of them and asks them to write down how they remember the events of that time. They all oblige. Through those accounts, we learn more about Caroline and Amyas Crale, but also about everyone else concerned. Everyone sees the others just a bit differently and layers and layers are added to the timeline and the characters, some obvious, others surprising. We do...
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Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields

Brooke Shields Is Not Allowed to Get Old by Brooke Shields

by CarolNo Comments
Brooks Shields has been a well-known actor/model my entire life. She's 9 years older than me and this book about growing older resonated with me in several ways. Yes, Brooke Shields is famous and beautiful and can afford fancy clothes, but she's also funny and down to earth and relatable. She shares personal anecdotes and mixes in observation on society and statistics that back up her points. She discusses gaining confidence as she gets older, about worrying less about others' opinions and finding joy in middle age. But also about being overlooked and undervalued as a "woman of a certain age." Shields discusses her recent interactions with the healthcare system and how we need to advocate for ourselves, even if we're sometimes (often) seen as difficult. She points out, from personal experience and research studies, that there is a definite lack of knowledge surrounding perimenopause and menopause and considering how many women are in those life stages, that's ridiculous. Shields narrates the...
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Read Christie 2025

Read Christie 2025

by CarolNo Comments
I am a huge Agatha Christie fan and have participated in the Read Christie reading challenge before, but I don't think I've ever posted about it here before. It's hosted at agathachristie.com. This year it's about characters and their careers. Every month features a character type and the book selected for that month features them - from artists and performers to detectives and spies. There are "official" selections, but you can also choice to read alternatives. The hashtag is #ReadChristie2025. January - Artists (Five Little Pigs)February - Authors (The 13 Problems)March - Performers (Three Act Tragedy)April - Butlers (The Seven Dials Mystery)May - Detectives (Cards on the Table)June - Amateurs (Crooked House)July - Archaeologists (Come, Tell Me How You Live)August - Medics (One, Two Buckle My Shoe)September - Religious Figures (At Bertram's Hotel)October - Lawyers (Towards Zero)November - Spies (Cat Among the Pigeons)December - Military Men (N or M or The Sittaford Mystery) Books read:...
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January Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

January Cloak and Dagger Link-Up

by Carol10 Comments
Happy New Year!! For those of you who are new to the challenge, welcome! To all the returning readers, I’m glad you’re joining in again. If you haven't official signed up for the challenge yet, hear to the 2025 Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge post. Does anyone have their first book of the year planned, cloak and dagger or otherwise? Let us know in the comments. Or have you already finished your first book? You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter...
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The Christmas Eve Murders by Noelle Albright

The Christmas Eve Murders by Noelle Albright

by CarolNo Comments
I don't know. The Christmas Eve Murders had a lot of what I'm looking for in a Christmas cozy - a warm fire, Christmas decorations, good food, too much snow, and quirky characters, but I never really bought into it. Maddie Marlowe, a reporter, is having the worst Christmas Eve ever. She's heading home to a town just outside of Edinburgh, but got a late start because she had to work late. Then a traffic tie up made her reroute taking her through the Yorkshire Dales, where her car breaks down. Due to the increasing snow, the auto club can't get to her until the next day, so she has to take refuge at the local pub, the Merry Monarch, which also has rooms for rent. For some reason, the pub hosts a Christmas Eve scavenger hunt, which she is convinced to join in on. And then of course, there's a murder. Maybe the fact that Maddie is an outsider,...
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