Friday 24 November 2017

Mini-reviews: Murder on the Orient Express and The Big Sleep

Murder on the Orient Express (Hercule Poirot, #10)Everyone knows Agatha Christie - the queen of crime fiction, and that is exactly why I'm reading Murder on the Orient Express, for the Crime part of my MA. This was my first Christie, and despite knowing the gist of what her stories entailed, it still surprised me. I really liked this, Poirot is a bit full of himself but a good detective - methodical and logical, especially in the face of a strange case like this. A lot of you have probably seen the movie by now (although I haven't) so the story, and maybe even the murder, isn't a surprise but I adored it. A very good introduction to Christie and the Golden Age of Detectives.


The Big Sleep (Philip Marlowe, #1)My tutor said in this week's seminar that Chandler is to American crime fiction that Christie is to British. And I can certainly see that! Admittedly, a lot went over my head, maybe that was just the way I read it, but I loved the old gang warfare, the guns and the racketeers - maybe not the way women are portrayed as basically sluts and/or things but Marlowe had a surprisingly strong moral compass (for a PI!). The plot itself is pretty convoluted, with a series of killings to cover up the previous secret, and two sisters who run around this town as if its their playground. A very different style of crime fiction to Christie but just as iconic.


As you can tell, I've been reading these as part of my course and so have been analysing them critically as literature in history, rather than just as a good story. I've been really enjoying reading these different types of stories, genres and styles I wouldn't normally pick up. Let me know if you like this classic crime sort of books or if you've watched/liked the Murder on the Orient Express movie!

Sunday 5 November 2017

Weekly Highlights: the 'November TBR' edition


Weekly Highlights is a feature borrowed from Faye of A Daydreamer's Thoughts, where I get to highlight my posts of the week, show you my new books and talk about bookish things!

Just another little update for you, mostly just to say I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth, I'm still here - stressing about word counts and referencing and reading my books on time. 

University is going pretty well - I'm deep into essay-writing now, I've got two on the horizon and am frantically planning and writing and hoping it all makes sense! Because of my workload, I have had to quit one of my part-time jobs though, which was ridiculously sad. I've worked in this public library for a little over two years and I am sorry to have to leave but I could tell my brain was going to melt if I had to continue juggling two jobs and a masters.

On The Blog
One lonely post in October: October TBR and Life Update

Currently Reading
Collected Ghost Stories by MR James - some are better than others but for the most part I'm enjoying them. Definitely the right time of year for it!

On My Bookshelf
I got two books for my birthday in mid-October, which were both from my fiancee and both I asked for. They were: It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne, which I have already read and bloody loved, and The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord, which I am super excited for because I adore her books.

I also got a few ebooks, which I have no idea when I'm going to read but they are there just in case! Both from Netgalley, I received: Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart, and Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed. I'm really excited about both of them, and thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for sending them my way - just got to fit them in around all my uni reading!

November TBR
The uni books I'm studying this month, and still need to read, are: Murder of the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, Let The Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Then in December we will be studying Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith, Poppet by Mo Hayder and Broken Harbour by Tana French.