The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I very much enjoyed my first Agatha Christie experience. Poirot is a fun character, and I'm looking forward to reading more mysteries featuring him. I enjoyed how the narrator kept doubting Poirot and jumping at the same conclusions that I wanted to jump at, which told me how much I was missing. It turns out all the pieces were there, I just forgot about some of them, or didn't see how they fit together. It's always fun to read a mystery where I don't guess correctly, but it all clicks at the end.

Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The atmosphere in this book is so thick. The descriptions are evocative, with nature mirroring all the tensions, and with a broody mansion, musty and closed up with secrets.

At first, I was impatient with the heroine's spinelessness. Rebecca, her dead predecessor, sounded much more interesting to me. But as time went on and it - slowly - built in intensity, that mattered much less. Then I was afraid of the creepy Mrs. Danvers and what havoc she could wreak on an impressionable mind, and the benign facades all started falling apart deliciously. What a great story of misdirection and twisted minds, of leaping to conclusions and faulty assumptions. When I turned the last page and realized that was the end, I really expected more. There should be more! Yet it was completely fitting. I can see why this is a classic.

I'm toying around with a 5 star rating after seeing the whole picture, but for now it's 4.5 rounded down instead of up. Just because it took so long to get going, and the heroine did annoy me for quite a while.

Anne of Avonlea

Anne of Avonlea by L.M. Montgomery
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I think for me, this is a case of loving the TV adaptation too much. I had always wanted to read the books that inspired it, but now I can see why there are so many more books than episodes. There's a lot that was left out of the TV version, and I'm glad. It was a much tighter story.

The rambling of the book was alternately too boring or too painful, except for a couple of scenes with Gilbert and a few others that felt warmly familiar here and there. Other than that, the stories of Anne trying to control school children and adopting a naughty boy were too much for me. The first time I tried to read this, I stopped half way through. I just now decided I needed push through to finish it, even if I had to skim to get past those parts, and I'm glad I did go back and finish. I just feel like I need to go back and watch the show again to remind myself of why I love it.

Sign of the Four - Arthur Conan Doyle

The Sign of Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.5 Stars, rounded up.

I did enjoy the mystery a lot, and am warming up to Watson and Holmes, but the extra story of the villain that was tacked on the end was again too much of a tangent. It was enough for me to take off half a star from my rating. At least I knew about it beforehand this time, so I wasn't too surprised when the last quarter was a second story. I was still waiting for it to get over with, although there were a few interesting parts in there. I heard that this is the last Sherlock Holmes story with the entire story of the crime dumped at the end, and that Doyle found his style after this. If so, I am looking forward to the more mature stories to come.

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle

A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



So I was really liking this, and thinking how well the BBC Sherlock is done, and then right after the reveal we didn't get Holmes' explanation for how he got there. Instead it went off on a huge flashback to America, showing what led up to the crime. I kept wondering if someone had pasted the wrong book into my public domain download! I didn't really care for the detour. Which is probably why I've never seen it in any adaptations.

Review: The Count of Monte Cristo

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I'm so glad I'm finished with this book! It had its great moments, but for a 1200 page book, they were too far between. Much of this was a real slog to get through. There are long conversations about who knows what, and it's often overly descriptive to the point of needing to skim to get to the next scene. My mind wandered a lot, and I had to force myself back on track. I even took a break about half way through and read and couple of other books. I feel like I've been reading it forever.

Like I said, it had its moments. The prison and escape, and then the hammer of vengeance falling on the guilty and taking a few others with it - those parts were good. A lot of what came between was boring setup with a lot of new characters whose viewpoints weren't as interesting as the Count's, and whose importance takes a long time to discover. In the meantime, they're going to parties, attending festivals, and dining with friends. Talking, talking, talking of the society of the day.

While we're thrown in with these strangers at parties, the Count becomes this mysterious figure who we only see observed by others looking on events with a strange smile, or mysteriously knowing and anticipating everything everyone does. He becomes an exotic god, not the person we got to know in the prison at all. It's not until near the end that we return to his viewpoint again, and he betrays some human emotion.

I have to admit that the way he orchestrates the fall of his enemies is brilliant - obviously that is why this is such a well-loved classic. But I guess complex revenge isn't enough for me. There are times when the Count put his true friends through hell by withholding information from them that was really cruel for someone who is supposedly not punishing them along with everyone else. Especially at the end, I thought he took it too far, and so the ending was not as satisfying to me as it could have been.

Overall, I found this to be overrated. I would have enjoyed the story a lot more if it was significantly trimmed. My patience didn't come to fruition until the last 200 pages, and right now I'm not sure if it was worth it. I wish I'd found an abridged version to read - or just watched the movie. It is far, far too long for the payoff.

I'm so excited I can read something else now.



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Review: The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The Princess Bride is obviously a great classic tale, so I wasn’t sure what to expect reading the book when I’ve seen the movie many times. What I found was that I was basically watching the movie in my head, as scenes and lines were often identical. The excellent, witty dialogues that are so memorable are undeniably the best parts of the book, and I enjoyed them very much as the movie was reeling in my head.

I found the parts that were left out of the movie boring and I ended up skimming those a lot. Especially the narrator remarks - they are way too long and digress a lot on insignificant details that are probably supposed to be clever. I think the movie dealt with the 'asides' quite well considering the original. Since I never really cared for the plot device that interrupts a story anyway, I kept skipping to the actual story.

Honestly, I think this is a clever book worthy of the classic label, but the movie takes the best of the book and immortalizes it. If you haven’t watched the movie, the book is probably great. But if you have, the movie is better and I’m not sure you need to experience the book. Actually, I now feel that I need to go watch the movie again.



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Review: A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have to admit to skimming much of the book to get to the actual meat of the story - the parts that get close enough to the characters for me to care what's happening. They are there, they're just buried under a gluttony of description and scene setting, even more than usual for Dickens. I just wanted him to get to the point and stop reveling in words for the sake of them.

I find myself unable to be in raptures over this, the bloodthirstiest Dickens I've ever read (if you can skim well enough to realize when something exciting is actually happening). Yes, it has social upheaval, danger, revenge, and portrays very vividly the tumultuous time of the French Revolution. Yes, you feel for the characters on both sides, and feel the full horror of what is happening, once you actually get there. But there are maybe about 80 pages that actually matter. The setup gives you such a general, omniscient view that it takes too long to reach the point of knowing the characters enough to care. Or knowing which characters to care about! This is in contrast to other great novels that I love (David Copperfield, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend) that build understanding and love of the characters while getting close to them, alongside them, instead of from far above. And although Dickens is always descriptive and wordy, in those it does not overwhelm, while in this one it chokes. As a result, the characters read more like vignettes.

I will admit that it is quite moving at the end, once everything comes together. It's also very sensational, with the immediacy of the mobs and daily guillotine executions. Again, once you get there. My guess is that this is what appeals to a lot of people compared to the pace of other Dickens' novels that slowly build sympathy and feeling but don't actually involve much action. 3 stars for the last 50 pages!




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