Announcing the 11th Zoladdiction in 2024! #Zoladdiction2024

April is coming soon, which means that Zoladdiction is just around the corner! And this would be the 11^th Zoladdiction! For you who are not familiar with it, Zoladdiction is a reading event on April, to celebrate the birthday of Émile Zola (in 2^nd April). It is mainly because we love Zola's writings, and also to get more and more people to appreciate his works. For the whole month we will read, post, and talk about Zola - his life, his works, and his influences.

How It Works

• Pick any of Zola's works, or Zola's biography, and read them. Any books about Zola by other writers are acceptable too.
• Post your review/thoughts on your blog/social media (you can use hashtag #Zoladdiction2024).
• But I also encourage you to go beyond reading…
• Yes, we will still read Zola, but during April we can also share/post/tweet/talk about just any thing that is related to Zola. A book you're reading reminds you of Zola? Share it! Found Zola's quote on Twitter? Retweet it! Or Zola’s picture on Instagram? Share it! Watched movie about Zola? Share it! Anything.
• Don’t have time to read one book? Worry not, a short story or essay is equally good.
• To participate, simply leave comment, or mention me on Twitter, using hashtag #Zoladdiction2024, and tell us your plans for Zoladdiction (it might inspire others).
• If you want, you may grab and put Zoladdiction banner on your blog, so that others might aware about it.
• If you blog about your participation, leave the link in comment box.
• Linky will be provided in the Master Post (will be published on April 2^nd - on Zola's birthday). You can submit links to your Zola posts there.

 
So, are you in? What's your plan?

Mine would be another re-read of my most favorite book of all time: Germinal. This would be my third (the second one was 9 years ago), and this time I will be listening to the audiobook. I also plan to read a few short stories from Zola’s three collections (haven’t decided the title). Now, I’m very excited to return to Germinal (psstt… I might even start earlier!), and can’t wait to see what you will read!

 

The Moving Finger (1942) by Agatha Christie

✒ I have just realized why I can't seem to remember any Miss Marple books I have read before. It's because Miss Marple is perhaps the most inconspicuous amateur detective that ever existed in crime fiction. This book is one clear proof of it. True, it is Jane Marple who eventually solved the mystery, but she only appeared in the last fourth of the story. And that's only for several scenes.

✒ Jerry and Joanna Burton take abode at Little Furze in a quite town of Lymstock, where 'nothing ever happens', on doctor's orders. Jerry is recuperated from injury after plane crash landing. When they begin to settle in, Jerry receives what people call a poison pen letter, insinuating that he and Joanna aren't brother and sister. Disgusted, Jerry throws it away, and thinks it must be a wicked joke from some neighbors who dislike strangers coming to their town.

✒ It turns out later, that many others have also received the same kind of letter. People begin to feel uneasy, feeling that something nasty is bound to happen. And it indeed happens to a Mrs. Symmington, who, after receiving a nasty poison pen letter, committed suicide.

✒ Now, it is not a matter of evil joke anymore, and soon the police is involved. But a murder then follows - a maid worked at the Symmingtons, and people get more restless. The vicar's wife, impatient with the police's slow progress, takes initiative to bring in 'an expert'. The expert turns out to be none other than our dear Miss Jane Marple!

✒ I liked this charming and rather sweet mystery. The solution is clever, and I couldn't guess the murderer. The most interesting element, though, is its similarities with two other Christie's earlier books. First, Jerry Burton was tagged by the constable along his investigation. This, and Jerry's remark that usually in detective novel, a person who's given that privilege turns out to be the murderer, instantly reminded me of another prominent book by Christie. I won't reveal the title, but if you know, you know!

✒ Secondly, Jerry also reminded me of Captain Hastings, in term of his love interest and the way the girl being used as decoy. Again, I won't reveal the title, but the similarity is uncanny. All in all, it's a quiet delightful book with not one, but two romances!

P.S. Without mentioning any title, can you identify the two titles I'm speaking about, which I think are similar to this book?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Scarlet Feather (2000) by Maeve Binchy #ReadingIrelandMonth24

💓Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather have two things in common: passion of cooking and dream of having their own catering business. They've known each other since culinary school, and been cultivating their dream ever since. This story is about the realization of that dream, their journey from nobody to be a respectable business entity. But not only that, this story is also about their individual struggles to maintain balance between career and personal lives, as well as the lives and struggles of people and families around them. In short, this is a story about friendship, family, love, and humanity.

💓 This is a book about people, rather than a plotted story. Reading it, you'll feel like you become a part of their circle for a certain period of time. It's like you are closely related to every one, moving around from one's house to another. You see, therefore, their ups and downs, and that you're rejoicing at their triumphs, heartbroken at their sorrows. As the title hinted, the main characters are Cathy Scarlet and Tom Feather, the owners of Scarlet Feather - their catering business. But the story also revolves around three families: the Mitchells, the Scarlets, and the Feathers.

💓 Cathy, the daughter of a maid, has married into the wealthy Mitchells, in whose house Cathy's mother used to clean. We follow how the two families awkwardly get along with each other, while the Feathers are rather circling on the outer edge of the stage. Interestingly, there are two characters who bind the scattered characters together: Maud and Simon. They are ten years old cousins of Neil Mitchell, Cathy's husband; two broken-home children of an unstable couple.

💓 When Maud and Simon's parents aren't capable of looking after them, Cathy and Neil bring them to stay temporarily in Waterview, their house. Cathy often brings them to the premises - meaning Scarlet Feather's - and so Tom and the staffs become acquainted to them too. Then Cathy's parents agree to take the children at their house, and the rest is history. The children's wild temperament are tamed by Lizzie and Muttie. And along the process, they steal and touch many people's hearts. So much so, that people are, at different stage, concerned when they're missing, and equally rejoiced and relieved when they're safely found.

💓 In short, this is a heartwarming book that reminds me again, that hardworking and kindness are always worth in the end. Perhaps the reward isn't a life changing fortune, but a series of small contentment through our days which warm our heart always, and give us courage to keep doing it, and to convince us that life is, indeed, good after all. It impressed me much that Binchy could weave this seemingly everyday stories into a wholesome reading experience, that though it is 500 pages long, there isn't any passage that felt dull or unnecessary. I couldn't stop reading through the pages, yet I hoped it never come to an end. That is a sign of a brilliant book, is it not? I adored this book, and I think I will look forward to every #ReadingIrelandMonth from now on, just to be able to read another Binchy! Which one do you suggest I read next?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read this book for:

Reading Ireland Month 2024

hosted by: Cathy @ 746 Books

Fire in the Thatch (1946) by E.C.R. Lorac

🔥 Chief Inspector Robert MacDonald has become my favorite police-detective since my first E.C.R Lorac: Murder in the Mill-Race. I like his methodical investigation and communication skill. In this case, MacDonald (or the Scotland Yard) was summoned to give his opinion on a burnt thatched cottage in a rural countryside at Mallory Fitzjohn, Devon; whether it was an accident or a foul play.

🔥 Nicholas Vaughan bought Little Thatch, a cottage belongs to Colonel St. Cyres, and planned to farm the land and renovate the cottage. Colonel St. Cyres and his daughter were pleased with their new tenant, a conscientious hardworking man, compared to his competitor, a gentleman from London called Mr. Gressingham. The later was recommended by June St. Cyres, the colonel's daughter-in-law, whom the colonel had dismissed (the proposal from the gentleman, not the daughter-in-law).

🔥 One day Little Thatched was on fire, and Vaughan was found killed inside. The local police marked the case as accident, but a navy captain who had been Vaughan's chief suspected a foul play. This is a mystery where the key to solve it lays in the personality of the victim - a field where Robert MacDonald is an expert of.

🔥 The mystery itself isn't very complicated. It lacks of suspects and surprises. June St. Cyres hasn't got an opportunity to be closely investigated by MacDonald, and I feel that she's there at all only to bring Gressingham and his London lot into the picture. However, the countryside atmosphere and the detailed description of Vaughan's farming infused a charm into this story. Vaughan has a pleasant personality; his relationship with the St. Cyreses is heartwarming. We are fortunate to enjoy these two elements long enough before the tragedy came into the picture.

🔥 All in all, it is another enjoyable murder mystery from Lorac.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

#MurderEveryMonday: Mysteries from Authors Best Known for Their Non-Mysteries

Murder Every Monday was created by Kate @ Crossexamining Crime and @ArmchairSleuth. Put simply, the plan is for readers to take a photo of a crime fiction book (novel or short story collection) which meets a given week’s theme criteria and to then share it online, using the hashtag #MurderEveryMonday.

This week's theme is:

Cover for a mystery written by an author who is more famous for having written non-mystery stories

Benjamin Black is pseudonym of John Banville, an Irish novelist who has won a lot of literary awards, 2005 Booker Prize is among them. We know him mostly as a literary fiction author with beautiful prose, and I have just found out last year that he also wrote mystery. Here's my review.

Susan Scarlett is the pseudonym of Noel Streatfeild, who was best known for her children's books. Scarlett also wrote several romance books (lately re-printed by Dean Street Press), but she only wrote one (unfortunately) mystery, which I liked! Here's my review if you're interested.

I don't think this one need explanation, but in case you haven't known yet, Robert Galbraith is the pseudonym of J.K. Rowling, who's famous with the Harry Potter universe.

Have your read any of them? Which cover(s) do you like most?

If you want to participate, here's the list of the weekly theme:

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024 - MARCH #AgathaChristieSS24

March is here, I hope you've enjoyed our February stories as much as I did! This month we will read one Tommy and Tuppence, and another with a random detective.

THE UNBREAKABLE ALIBI

This story was first published by Collins in 1929, as one of the Partners in Crime collection. It's about Una Drake, a capricious Australian, who has challenged her fiance to crack two unimpeachable alibis. Despairing that Una will not marry him if he cannot guess how she managed to be in two places at once, Montgomery-Jones calls on Tommy and Tuppence for help.

THE MYSTERY OF THE SPANISH SHAWL

This is a story which Agatha Christie had been struggling to publish back then. Originally published in a magazine in 1924, it's titled The Mystery of the Second Cucumber. But when it was then selected in The Listerdale Mystery collection in 1934, the title was changed to Mr Eastwood's Adventure. Later on when it appeared in the US collection The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948), it experienced another title change - the one we use in #AgathaChristieSS24: The Mystery of the Spanish Shawl. So, if you can't find any copy with this title, you could check if the other two might be what you get in your collection!

Strangely though, the story itself is also about a mystery writer's struggles! Struggling with a commission from an editor, Mr Eastwood receives a mysterious phone call summoning to save a woman's life. 

Are you excited? Both sound like fun to me! ;)

A Century of Books (1925 - 2024): Another Project

This is another project (I won't call it challenge, to not adding pressure to the otherwise fun and exciting activity) I undertake starting this year, which is inspired by Simon @ Stuck in a Book. The idea is to read 100 books published during the last hundred years - one title for each year. I don't set any timeframe for myself, but I guess I'd able to finish this in two years. Part of the fun is to browse and find new books I have never heard of before, or books that I have wanted to read in the past but have been forgotten. The other is, of course, reading an interesting assortment of those books! :)

Here is my initial list in Google Sheet, with links to the ones I have read and reviewed. It's still incomplete, and I will keep adding (or changing) books along the way. Just reading one book for each year, how difficult will it be, right?

A Century of Books
1925	Under the Tonto Rim (Zane Grey)
1926	The Blue Castle (L.M. Montgomery)
1927	The Wintringham Mystery (Anthony Berkeley)
1928	The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye (Brian Flynn)
1929	Missing or Murdered (Robin Forsythe)
1930	Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase (Carolyn Keene)
1931	Danger Calling (Patricia Wentworth)
1932	Cold Comfort Farm (Stella Gibbons)
1933	High Rising (Angela Thirkell)
1934	Miss Buncle's Book (D.E. Stevenson)
1935	The Cornish Coast Murder (John Bude)
1936	The Wheel Spins (Ethel Lina White)
1937	How Do You Live? (Genzaburo Yoshino)
1938	Artists in Crime (Ngaio Marsh)
1939	The Black Spectacles (John Dickson Carr)
1940	Ten Way Street (Susan Scarlett)
1941	Babbacombe's (Susan Scarlett)
1942	The Moving Finger (Agatha Christie)
1943	The Five Find-Outers: The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage (Enid Blyton)
1944	Death Comes as the End (Agatha Christie)
1945	The Pursuit of Love (Nancy Mitford)
1946	Fire in the Thatch (E.C.R. Lorac)
1947	Kate Hardy (D.E. Stevenson)
1948	The Black Lake (Hella Haasse)
1949	Crooked House (Agatha Christie)
1950	Our Spoons Came from Woolworths (Barbara Comyns)
1951	The Swiss Summer (Stella Gibbons)
1952	Excellent Women (Barbara Pym)
1953	Seven Years in Tibet (Heinrich Harrer)
1954	Because of Sam (Molly Clavering)
1955	Fresh from the Country (Miss Read)
1956	Near Neighbors (Molly Clavering)
1957	A Winter Away (Elizabeth Fair)
1958	The Greengage Summer (Rumer Godden)
1959	My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George)
1960	Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell)
1961	Travels with Charley: In Search of America (John Steinbeck)
1962	The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (Joan Aiken)
1963	Never Cry Wolf (Farley Mowat)
1964	Up the Down Staircase (Bel Kaufman)
1965	Airs Above the Ground (Mary Stewart)
1966	The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman)
1967	From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.L. Konigsburg)
1968	Picture Miss Seaton (Heron Carvic)
1969	The House on the Strand (Daphne du Maurier)
1970	Thursday's Child (Noel Streatfeild)
1971	When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Judith Kerr)
1972	The Summer Book (Tove Jansson)
1973	Tea on Sunday (Lettice Cooper)
1974	Mister God, This is Anna (Flyn)
1975	Crocodile on the Sandbank (Elizabeth Peters)
1976	All Things Bright and Beautiful (James Herriot)
1977	Quartet in Autumn (Barbara Pym)
1978	The Bookshop (Penelope Fitzgerald)
1979	Offshore (Penelope Fitzgerald)
1980	Rhine Journey (Ann Schlee)
1981	Goodnight Mister Tom (Michelle Magorian)
1982	War Horse (Michael Morpurgo)
1983	Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beverly Cleary)
1984	Cold Sassy Tree (Olive Ann Burns)
1985	The Ruby in the Smoke (Philip Pullman)
1986	Howl's Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones)
1987	The Shell Seekers (Rosamund Pilcher)
1988	A Far Cry from Kensington (Muriel Spark)
1989	Blitzcat (Robert Westall)
1990	Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli)
1991	Neither Here Nor There (Bill Bryson)
1992	The Thief of Always (Clive Barker)
1993	The Club Dumas (Arturo Perez-Reverte)
1994	Walk Two Moons (Sharon Creech)
1995	The Persian Pickle Club (Sandra Dallas)
1996	Under the Tuscan Sun (Frances Mayes)
1997	Pretend You Don't See Her (Mary Higgins Clark)
1998	The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency (Alexander McCall Smith)
1999	Bud, Not Buddy (Christopher Paul Curtis)
2000	Scarlet Feather (Maeve Binchy)
2001	Five Quarters of the Orange (Joanne Harris)
2002	The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (Jan-Philipp Sendker)
2003	The Housekeeper and the Professor (Yōko Ogawa)
2004	Chasing Vermeer (Blue Baillett)
2005	Still Life (Louise Penny)
2006	The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Muriel Barbery)
2007	Book of a Thousand Days (Shannon Hale)
2008	Olive Kitteridge (Elizabeth Strout)
2009	The Easy Life in Kamusari (Shion Miura)
2010	Days at Morisaki Bookshop (Satoshi Yagisawa)
2011	The Martian (Andy Weir)
2012	Cigarette Girl (Ratih Kumala)
2013	The Murder at Sissingham Hall (Clara Benson)
2014	Murder Most Unladylike (Robin Stevens)
2015	Jade Dragon Mountain (Elsa Hart)
2016	Convenience Store Woman (Sayaka Murata)
2017	The Cat Who Saved Books (Sosuke Natsukawa)
2018	A Picture of Murder (T.E. Kinsey)
2019	The Secret Guests (John Banville)
2020	Snow (John Banville)
2021	The Man Who Died Twice (Richard Osman)
2022	The Golden Mole (Katherine Rundell)
2023	The Bird Found the Body (Bailey Booth)
2024	Eleven Huskies (Philipp Schott)

Do you find your favorite books in the list? Or books you're exciting to read? Or do you want to recommend books I'd love to read for certain years? Please tell me on the comment section. I would love to hear some suggestions!