Technical nonfiction and spec fiction. She/her. Melbourne, Australia. Generation X. Admin of Outside of a Dog. BDFL of Hometown (Mastodon) instance Old Mermaid Town (@futzle@old.mermaid.town). Avatar image is of a book that my dog tried to put on their inside.
My rating scale: ★ = I didn't care for it and probably didn't finish it; ★★ = It didn't inspire but I might have finished it anyway; ★★★ = It was fine; ★★★★ = I enjoyed it; ★★★★★ = I couldn't put it down.
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The arrangement of entries by date was inspired, but it did inevitably lead to a disappointing last century as I already knew the etymologies of the most recent usually-technical neologisms.
This book was, physically, nightmarish to read, with tiny text practically right in the gutter.
Borrowed this amazing tome from a friend. Mesmerizing and humorous, astonishingly well researched.
Another etymology book. This one is arranged roughly chronologically by first use, with themed chapters (e.g., 1086: The Domesday Book).
A Christmas present. I’ve heard good things about this book.
Having recently read POSH and its well-researched debunking of many folk etymologies, I find How Did It Begin full of those same wrong etymologies. Perhaps being from sixty years ago, this book is now outdated. Setting it aside because I can’t trust it.
Before Dr Karl and before Robyn Williams, the ABC had Rudi Brasch. This compendium of short essays on various customs and superstitions was first published in 1966 and a revised edition in 2006.
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town …
I never got into this story or any of the characters. It’s only technically a Miss Marple story as she has such a small part in it. Written in 1942, it’s very dated now with respect to gender and relationships.
Lymstock is a town with more than its share of shameful secrets – a town …
Oh, first person, this'll be a change.
Oh, first person, this'll be a change.
An old-fashioned London Hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out… When Miss …
Didn’t go at all where I thought it would. Marred again by pacing issues.
An old-fashioned London Hotel is not quite as reputable as it makes out… When Miss …
Book three in the Miss Marple omnibus.
In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial …
Content warning Spoilers Agatha Christie “A Pocketful of Rye”
More an Inspector Neele book than a Miss Marple book, though it’s interesting to see their two investigative styles in counterpoint. It feels that the nursery rhyme alluded to in the title was grafted on a bit. Pacing was a bit better than “The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side” but the ending was again a mite abrupt.
In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial …
Content warning Spoilers Agatha Christie’s A Pocket Full of Rye
Finally Miss Marple turns up in chapter 13!
In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial …
Content warning Mild spoilers: A Pocket Full of Rye
Chapter 9 of 28 and still no sign of Miss Marple!
E-book exclusive extras:1) Christie biographer Charles Osborne's essay on The Mirror Crack'd from Side to …
Content warning Whodunit spoilers - Agatha Christie - The Mirror Crack'd From Side to Side
Till now I'd only read Christie in the form of Poirot stories in an enclosed setting: Murder on the Orient Express where the train is snowed in; Death on the Nile where everyone is stuck on a boat. This one is set in Miss Marple's town of St. Mary Mead, so people could, and do, come and go. I was actually surprised at how little screen time Miss Marple herself actually gets. The biggest part probably goes to Marple's nephew, Chief Inspector Craddock.
The big spoiler for this story is that the victim signs her own death warrant by admitting that she transmitted a German measles infection to a pregnant woman, resulting in the child having permanent physical and intellectual problems, and the mother having lifelong PTSD from that.
Fortunately Rubella is a thing of the past and people don't go around spreading disease because they're afraid of missing out on an opportunity to socialize.
The story snowballs alarmingly as further characters are killed off because they Knew Too Much, right up to the last chapter when there is another unexpected death, and we are left wondering if that one was suicide or also murder, or if the distinction even matters after everything that happened.
This book might have benefited from a bit of a trim at the start and a bit of fluffing up in the middle as the events happened which led to the additional consequential murders. But it was altogether a pretty painless read and the (rushed) conclusion satisfying.
In Agatha Christie’s classic, A Pocket Full of Rye, the bizarre death of a financial …
Number two of four in the Marple omnibus.