Mini Reviews for #AgathaChristieSS24: December

The Chocolate Box

Poirot is telling Hastings his humiliating failure when he's still a detective in Belgian Police force. At the time when there's struggle between state and church in France, a fanatical anti-Catholic deputy was murdered just one day short of becoming Minister. Reluctantly, for Poirot was a Catholic himself (a surprising fact for me!), he took to the investigation. He found the clue in a new box of chocolate on the table; the mismatched color of the box and the lid was suspicious. The murdered man was fond of chocolate, and one of the house member or his guests must have put the poison inside of those chocolates. But who? Could Poirot solve the mystery based on the evident? Or did he made an incorrect solution?

I liked this one, a very simple and basic murder. Poirot failed this time because he hadn't acquired the art of psychology yet, and just depended on the facts. It is an iconic case too, because "chocolate box" would become Hasting's keyword to remind Poirot to be humble - which he fails all the time! LOL...

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

A Christmas Tragedy

In a rather similar theme with Poirot's story, Miss Marple lamented that she had once failed to prevent a murder. She met a couple in a Hydro resort, and knew at once that the husband was getting a way to rid of his wife. She had warned the rather foolish but devoted wife, and was cautious not to let the couple alone. But the wife was found murdered one day, when the husband had a perfect alibi. Had Miss Marple, like Poirot, made a wrong deduction after all? Or was this a clever murder?

This one, by far, is my most favorite of Miss Marple's stories. The old spinster appears less vague than ever, and the murder plot is one of Christie's genius - seems simple but very clever.

Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐⭐1/2

Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024: DECEMBER #AgathaChristieSS24

Two more stories, and then we will complete our Agatha Christie Short Stories 2024 challenge! How have you fared? I wish you've been having fun with these stories - some are probably delightful, the others are boring. In general, I'm glad I've decided to do this. The question remains, should I do it again next year? But first, let's have a look at our two last stories for December. We'll have a Miss Marple and a Poirot - both are a bit Christmassy, and accidentally, have a similar theme. 

Keep scrolling down to see whether there will be another #AgathaChristieSS or not... 

THE CHOCOLATE BOX

Poirot’s only failed case. A French Deputy is found dead on the eve of becoming a minister. This is a rare example of Poirot acknowledging failure and also an account of his life in Brussels as a member of the police force.

First published as a book in the US version of the collection Poirot Investigates (1925), it wouldn’t appear in a UK collection until Poirot’s Early Cases (1974).

A CHRISTMAS TRAGEDY

Miss Marple meets a couple and immediately knows the husband means to kill the wife. But when the wife is found murdered, he has an alibi. Could our beloved amateur sleuth have made a mistake?

The story was published with its revised title in the 1932 collection The Thirteen Problems, and it has a similar plot device as in one of her famous novels.


Now, what about 2025? Will there be another #AgathaChristieSS? The answer is.... YES! We are going to do #AgathaChristieSS25! I will post the detail, including twelve titles that we will read, in a few weeks. Meanwhile, have fun with the December titles!

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats (2002) by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Book Beginnings on Fridays (hosted by Rose City Reader)

The old man's eyes struck me first. They rested deep in their sockets, and he seemed unable to take them off me. Granted, everyone in the teahouse was starring at me more or less unabashedly, but he was the most brazen. As if I were some exotic creature he'd never seen before.

💓 Julia Win came to Burma to seek answer. Answer to her father's mysterious disappearance four years ago from New York, and from her and her mother's life. One day his father Tin Win left abroad, but never returned. They found out that he went to Burma, instead of the country he intended to. But there his traces disappeared. Four years later Julia read a love letter to her father written by a Burmese woman called Mi Mi. Who is Mi Mi? And why had her father never spoken about the first twenty years of his life in Burma to anybody, not even his wife? Julia decided to go to Kalaw, Burma, to get to the truth.

💓 In Kalaw, she was met by a strange old man called U Ba. That's the encounter in the opening line. He told her a wonderful story of her father - the first twenty years of his life he never told anyone before, including his relationship with Mi Mi. And what a story that is!

💓 The story U Ba told Julia was, for Westerner even at that time (1960s), extraordinary. Superstition and astrologer were two dominant things in Burmese people in every step of their lives, typical of South East Asian country whose people were poor and low educated. Tin Win was born on the "wrong day", and so their parents expected only bad things to him and themselves. Every calamity was blamed on Tin Win; and he grew up as a sensitive, affectionate, intelligent boy, capable of great love, but never been loved.

Friday 56 Quote (hosted by Heads Full of Books):

Tin Win's life had not spanned twenty-one days when, at least from his mother's perspective, its whole course had been decided. Lived. Forfeited.

💓 When his mother, who was his only family left, abandoned him, it was too much for Tin Win. I literally wept with him. How could a mother do that to her only child? No matter how stupid or superstitious one is, surely a mother should have had an instinct to protect her child! But she left and never returned, so Tin Win was brought up by a very kind neighbor, a woman called Suu Kyi, as her own son. Then, another calamity came, little Tin Win got a rare cataract on both eyes and gone blind.

💓 A wise monk at the monastery taught Tin Win that human being is capable of perceiving things much better and sharper when he use all his other senses besides the eyesight. And Tin Win began to be aware of even the most imperceptible sounds around him; the flutter of a butterfly's wings, the rustle of certain leaves (every tree made different sound), and even... the heartbeats of people around him. Particularly, that of a girl of his age, named Mi Mi.

💓 Mi Mi is crippled, she couldn't walk due to her stiff legs (polio?), so she crawled on all four to get anywhere. The most undignified way a human being could imagine to move, but surprisingly, Mi Mi always moved very gracefully. She was always patient and never complained of her condition. Soon Tin Win and Mi Mi became inseparable. Everyday, year after year, Tin Win was seen carrying Mi Mi on his back, while the girl is guiding him, becoming his eyes, during their excursions. And just as they are dreaming of marriage, and what they will do to build a future, a summon from a rich uncle in New York came - Tin Win must go away from everything he loved in the world - his Kalaw, his home, and his love, Mi Mi. And that's how he later met Julia's mother. What happened then? Had he ever met Mi Mi again? And will Julia reunite with his father in Burma? Does he live with Mi Mi? You must read this amazing story to find the answer.

💓 Suffice to say, this is a magnificent book. It's been quite a long time since I last read a book that has left deep Impression in me long after I finished it. And I have no doubt this would be my most favorite book of the year. I can't find appropriate words to describe it - it's a humbling experience to read this book. It's tender, deep, touching, and written so beautifully it made me want to cry. I admire the kind of love between Tin Win and Mi Mi. It's not a passionate one that leaves you wretched when you're separated, nor is it a selfish one that you have to have the other for yourselves no matter what. No, it's much deeper and beyond all that; no pain, no jealousy, just contentment that you have loved and been loved, and no matter how far away you are from each other, that love is always in you, no one or nothing can take it away from you.

Two of my favorite quotes:

"And so there must be in life something like a catastrophic turning point, when the world as we know it ceases to exist. A moment that transforms us into a different person from one heartbeat to the next. And if these turning points are real, are we aware of them as they happen, or do we recognize the discontinuity only much later, in hindsight?"

"Do we leave the dead behind or do we take them with us? I think we take them with us. They accompany us. They remain with us, if in another form. We have to learn to live with them and their deaths."

Rating: 💓💓💓💓💓

Dean Street December Reading List #DeanStreetDecember

December is just around the corner, and that means, it's time for a reading list for one of my favorite yearly reading events: #DeanStreetDecember, hosted by the lovely Liz @ Adventures in reading, running and working from home. For you who isn't familiar yet, Dean Street Press is a publisher devoted to republishing lost gems of vintage literature, from Golden Age Detective novels to middlebrow novels by twentieth century women writers. And December is always the perfect month to be sucked into those kinds of books, don't you agree?

This year in particular, I don't feel like reading some sappy Christmas-themed books. After an exhausting second semester, both in work and in personal life, I am craving for gentle things, not overexcited and loud noises which Christmas always brings. So, I decided to devote my December mostly with books from Dean Street Press, especially those from the Furrowed Middlebrow selection. Here's my initial list:

Babbacombe's by Susan Scarlet

Near Neighbors by Molly Clavering

Because of Sam by Molly Clavering

Kate Hardy by D.E. Stevenson

A Winter Away by Elizabeth Fair

I don't know whether I can manage to read, let alone review, more than five, but I also have Miss Granby's Secret in reserve, if-just if-I'd be able to squeeze one more.

How about you? Would you join Dean Street December? What do you plan to read?

Never Cry Wolf (1963) by Farley Mowat #NonFicNov24

🐺 A nonfiction that reads like fiction - that's how I describe Never Cry Wolf: The Amazing True Story of Life Among Arctic Wolves. Farley Mowat is a Canadian writer and environmentalist. Published in 1963, this is Mowat's memoir (some regarded it as fictionalized account of his experiences, but I'd treat it as nonfiction) during his appointment as Canadian Wildlife Service officer to investigate the cause of the declining Arctic caribou populations, and whether wolves are the culprit.

🐺 Mowat left for the Keewaton Barren Lands near Lake Manitoba in 1948. His inexperience in the field (he was a new recruit) provides some of the hilarious accounts; from his arrival by small private airplane, to his first encounter with the wolves. He first stayed with a Canadian named Mike who lives with his huskies in an Eskimo hut. But Mike soon left the hut, leaving him alone.

🐺 As soon as he found a perfect point at Wolfhouse Bay as his quarry, he started his job by following through binoculars, the movements of a family of three adult wolves and their pups who live inside a den not far from Mowat's quarry. He even named the three adults: George and Angeline as the father and mother, and Uncle Albert for the other single male who lives with them, and often share the caring of the pups when their parents are gone. Mowat soon fell to the family routine; George and Uncle Albert are usually go hunting in the evening, and take their leisure naps during the day.

🐺 One day he followed the family approaching a group of caribou who were grazing peacefully, without showing any signs of agitation, though the wolves were only some feet away. Mowat was surprised to witness this; he had expected to see some voracious hunt, but none happened. The wolves just walked away nonchalantly around the edge of the caribous circle. What's happening? That didn't tally what Mowat, what people used to to imagine about wolves - the cunning beasts who ate little innocent children while walking alone, and etcetera (Little Red Riding Hood came to mind). Mowat's observations taught him a rather unsettling truth, that the fast declining of caribou's population isn't caused by wolves, but by men!

"Whenever, wherever men have engaged in a mindless slaughter of animals, including other men, they are often attempted to justify their acts by attributing the most vicious or revolting qualities to those they would destroy. And the less reason there is for the slaughter the greater their campaign of vilification."

🐺 Contrary of common opinion, when they're indeed hunting for caribou, wolves only take the weakest, or most ailing from the pack. The caribous do feed the wolves, but the wolves strengthen the caribous in return, by getting rid of their weakest. In a way the wolves are reserving, rather than endangering, caribous.

🐺 All in all, this was an eye opening, hilarious, but also touching (especially in the end) read about wolves. Some of my favorite moments with Mowat's wolf family are when George saw Mowat when he lowered his pants to pee; then there's Uncle Albert's amorous adventure with a Husky bitch named Kua. Mowat's hilarious moment with Angeline, is when his hungry stomach's loud rumble bemused, then disgusted, her. I just loved how Mowat treated the wolves with respect; that's how we must treat all creatures, flora and fauna.

*I listened to the audiobook, very well narrated by Adam Sims.

Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by: Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

The Golden Mole: and Other Vanishing Treasure (2022) by Katherine Rundell #NonFicNov24

🦒 In The Golden Mole, Katherine Rundell introduces us to some of the world's most exotic creatures which are also endangered. Among these animals, some are no strangers to us, like the crows, wolves, bear, or elephant. We often hear or watch about hare, giraffe, or hedgehog, though we might not see them physically. But how many of us are familiar with wombat, lemur, narwhal, or pangolin? This book talks about all of them, and several others.

🦀 However, this is not some kind of encyclopedia about exotic animals, it's much more interesting. Rundell slips stories, myths, or anecdotes related to each animal, sometimes even concerning prominent historical personages whose stories had been linked to certain animal. The most fantastic is that of Coconut Hermit Crab. You must have been familiar with Amelia Earhart's story of disappearance over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to circumnavigate the world in 1937. One of the many theories believed that some Coconut Hermit Crabs must have eaten Amelia Earhart's body. She was probably stranded on Nikumaroro island, known as home of these crabs. Some human bones were found there many years later, but they're lost on the way to investigation, so we still don't know the truth. But it's an interesting fact nevertheless.

🐨 Another interesting story is involving Wombat. The creature - some says it's a mixture of capybara, koala, and bear cub - was a favorite pet of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the poet. He had sketched Mrs. Morris (Rossetti's model and muse) taking a wombat on a leash, both with halos over their heads. A wombat had also been gifted to Napoleon's wife, Josephine, by a ship's captain. Speaking of gifted exotic animals, do you know that Cleopatra had once gifted a giraffe to Julius Caesar who then brought it to Ancient Rome?

🐻 A funny anecdote came from the inimitable Lord Byron concerning bear. He used to keep a tamed Bear while studying at University of Cambridge, as dogs were forbidden. When he was asked what they should do with it, his answer was, "It should sit for fellowship" 🤣

🦔 But two animals resonated more to me personally than others. The first is Hedgehog. Whenever I hear the word 'hedgehog', an image from my first picture book, which my mother introduced to me when I was very little, comes immediately to mind. It's a hedgehog with an apple stuck on his spikes, stealing it from two animals who picked it from the tree (the apple falls right to its spikes). That image stuck with me, that I always assume hedgehog eats fruits. But this book taught me that it's just a myth, its diet actually consists of insects and worms. Another animal from my childhood picture books about flora and fauna (my parents bought me a lot of these), is Pangolin (Trenggiling in Indonesian). Its name came from a Malay word 'panggiling' which means roller, from the way it rolls its body while in danger. Their scales were used for Chinese medicine.

🕊 Some more interesting bits from this book:

• The unihemispheric sleep in swifts (birds), they are able to shut up half of the brain at a time, while floating in the air inside the clouds. Amazing, right?
• The reclusive creature of Lemur who's able of changing eye color, is another wonder. One of the species is even superstitiously believed to be able to prophecy death.
• I didn't remember this, but the Seal has capacity of learning language. Ahab in Moby Dick recognized the seals' voices.
• The Narwhal's tusk were once mistakenly thought as unicorn's horn. Queen Elizabeth I was presented at least two narwhals by some voyagers.
• The Crows are the Einstein among birds. On an experiment, they punish some boys who're wicked to them, but were known in real life to have rewarded those who fed them.

🐘 Elephants are actually afraid of bees, they sting elephants' soft tissues inside their trunks. Elephants are gentle and caring creatures. When finding bones of dead friend, they will salute it by lightly touching their bones. An elephant returning to its group would get a ceremonial embraces by intertwining their trunks. Seahorse is the only creature that it is the male who gets pregnant (a fact I learned from TV series F.R.I.E.N.D.S, when Ross wants to calm the pregnant Rachel down by pointing this fact out. What about the Golden Mole, who lent its name to the title? As a species, it's nearer to elephant than ordinary mole. It is the most mysterious animal from all that is discussed in this book. We know almost nothing about it, other than its iridescent quality, from which we called it 'golden' mole.

⭐ All in all, it's a wonderful book about nature and its wonder, told in an interesting and sometimes funny way that will interest non-biologists reader like me.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Read for:

Nonfiction November 2024 #NonFicNov24

hosted by Liz, Frances, Heather, Rebekah, and Deb

Blog Tour: Murder in an English Castle (2024) by Merryn Allingham: Flora Steele Mystery #10

It's my stop today on Murder in an English Castle by Merryn Allingham Books-on-Tour. Many thanks to Bookouture's Sarah Hardy for the invite, and for the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this delightful book.

📚 About the book

It’s time to rewrite history with amateur detectives Flora Steele and Jack Carrington as they are called to a castle to unearth the clues of a murder most medieval…

Sussex, 1959. The sun is shining on the breathtaking castle as the Abbeymead Historical Society prepare their re-enactment of the Battle of Lewes. But the fun ends abruptly when council worker Alex Vicary falls to his death from the castle ramparts. A shadowy figure runs from the scene, but Alex was a beloved member of the community… who could possibly want him dead?

As Flora and Jack investigate further, they dig up troubles Alex kept buried from those closest to him. Perhaps he was pushed by his money-hungry landlord, Larry Morton, who was trying to sell Alex’s home? Or maybe his oldest and shiftiest friend, Bruce Sullivan, who gambled away the money Alex loaned him? Or could it be his wide-eyed new girlfriend, Diane Croft, who dodges questions about Alex’s death, and hides presents from another suitor?

But when Flora discovers an engagement ring among Alex’s possessions, she is stunned to learn that his relationship with Diane was more serious than everyone thought. With whispers of another man fighting for Diane’s heart, were the battle lines drawn for love?

Then the body of a second member of the society is found, and the pair realise time is running out. Will history repeat itself with yet another death? Or can Flora and Jack catch their killer before the medieval murderer bids them both adieu?

A totally compelling and absolutely charming cozy mystery novel. Fans of Agatha Christie, Faith Martin and Joy Ellis will adore this unputdownable series!

📚 My thoughts

🏰 Our beloved amateur sleuth couple is back for another murder case! Set in an English rural village in the 1950s, Flora Steele is a bookshop owner who married a crime writer Jack Carrington after they solved several murders together in the past. Now, a newlywed couple, they spend half their weeks in their own house in Abbeymead, the other half in a Cottage in Lewes, where Jack works as a temporary teacher at Lewes arts school.

🏰 The premise of this story is quite unusual, and a creative choice from Allingham. Hector Landsdale is one of the many recurring secondary characters, friends of Flora and Jack. He's the sous-chef at the Priory, and a fervent member of the local historical re-enactment society, who call themselves Knights of Mercia. Our sleuths were invited to one of these re-enactments, the "Battle of Lewes", and witnessed a horrible accident. One of the "actors", Alex Vicary, fell from the ramparts during the "battle" and died instantly. The police's verdict was accident, but Hector was adamant that it was a murder - someone has deliberately pushed Alex amidst the skirmish.

🏰 Now it's up to Flora and Jack to find the murderer. But first, the motive. Why would someone want to get rid of Alex, if he is as good a man as Hector indicated? Was it a passionate murder, because he had been pestering his girlfriend Diane Croft to marry him - a bit too much - despite of her several rejections? Or did money matter involve - a huge sum of loan to a gamble-addict friend? A greedy landlord who wanted to sell Alex's house is another possibility. Few "accidents" had befallen Flora and Jack during their investigation, who perpetrated it? And then, the second murder happened - another member of Knights of Mercia, one of Flora and Jack's suspects. They are at a dangerous point, now that the murderer is getting desperate...

🏰 This is another delightful cozy mystery from Allingham. The premise and the murder method are well thought of. Pushing someone from high place during an enactment of a battle - that's an easy one. No one would have suspected a foul play. Accidents happen. But I have to admit, that my favorite part of the book is not the murder mystery itself - which is creative and lovely - but the village, Abbeymead. I remember that that was the point where I fell in love in the first place to the first book, The Bookshop Murder. I love everything about Abbeymead - the vibes of the era (1950-1960), the inhabitants - which keep growing each season, and even the establishments (the Priory, the All's Well bookshop, the Nook). The characters with their eccentricity, struggles, and triumph begin to grow on me, that I feel like living for years in Abbeymead. Even Betty, Flora's beloved bicycle, feels like a close friend, that I became rather sad when something bad happened to it.. her! :)) Needless to say, I'm going to miss Abbeymead for I don't know how long, because I think I can guess where the next instalment would be set in! ;)

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

📚 Author Bio

Merryn taught university literature for many years, and it took a while to pluck up the courage to begin writing herself. Bringing the past to life is a passion and her historical fiction includes Regency romances, wartime sagas and timeslip novels, all of which have a mystery at their heart. As the books have grown darker, it was only a matter of time before she plunged into crime with a cosy crime series set in rural Sussex against the fascinating backdrop of the 1950s.

Merryn lives in a beautiful old town in Sussex with her husband. When she’s not writing, she tries to keep fit with adult ballet classes and plenty of walking.
https://merrynallingham.com/
https://www.facebook.com/MerrynWrites
https://twitter.com/merrynwrites

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