Let's Bust a Recap : Hallowe'en Party

You knew it was coming, right? As soon as Kenneth Branagh announced his newest Poirot adaptation earlier this year, I was faced with a conundrum: I already had The Murder of Roger Akroyd on my 2023 book list, but now, obviously, I needed to read Hallowe'en Party before seeing A Haunting in Venice. On top of that, shortly before hearing about the movie, I came across the book in a Little Free Library and had just added it to my collection. Literally. In February. Of this year. What's a girl to do? 

Come October I nearly had a fit. I strayed from my list freely and often this year, and, as evidenced by my little self-imposed check-in at the beginning of September, I was feeling the crunch to actually read the books I had put on my list. So I sat down with The Murder of Roger Akroyd and figured I'd just get to Hallowe'en Party whenever I actually planned to watch the movie. 

Well, the same friends who had us over to watch Death on the Nile notified me immediately after seeing A Haunting in Venice come available on hulu that I better get to reading, because we were going to have another watch party. 

Naturally, I obliged. 

In this slim mystery, Hercule Poirot is called by a spooked Ariadne Oliver after she attends a Hallowe'en party where a child is drowned in an apple bobbing tub. The famous author of detective novels is a personal friend of Poirot's, and she begs him to come investigate the crime(s) for himself. The child had declared earlier in the day that she witnessed a murder and so Poirot's mission is twofold: solve the murder of the child, and determine if the dead child really did witness a murder and solve that one too. 

Clever. 

Hallowe'en Party is one of Agatha Christie's much later novels published in 1969 and while it still had her telltale stamp of misdirection and numerous suspects, there was a maturity to this mystery that I thoroughly enjoyed. This is the first Christie novel I've read where I definitively figured out the whodunnit before the actual revelation, but the whydunnit still eluded me making the resolution as satisfying as any of her other books. Reading this one so close to The Murder of Roger Akroyd, I couldn't help compare the two, and this one was by far my favorite. 

The movie on the other hand was the most ridiculous adaptation yet. In Murder on the Orient Express, Branagh did a great job developing the suspects and laying out the mystery, but then royally screwed up the ending. In Death on the Nile, he dragged us through a horrendous adaptation but managed to end it perfectly. In A Haunting in Venice: it was a total free-for-all. Branagh basically took the character names from the book, lifted a few plot devices (like the actual Hallowe'en party, and the separate past and present murders), but then just made his own movie. Like, why? 

I mean, honestly, why?? I really can't get over it. It was awful. 

Even setting the novel aside, the movie just wasn't great; although, much to my own surprise, I enjoyed Tina Fey in the role of Ariadne Oliver. While it's certainly not how I imagined her as I was reading the book, Fey did a great job with the role. While I cannot in good conscience recommend that trainwreck of an adaptation to anyone, I would definitely recommend reading Hallowe'en Party. I will warn you that there are several child victims in this one, but if you can deal with that, this is a great mystery. 

And to end on a fun note: Agatha Christie dedicated this little novel to author P.G. Wodehouse. Because they enjoyed each other's books. You know I'm a sucker for a good dedication and this one made me smile real big. How fun.

Still waiting for your Miss Marple recs over here!

Let's Bust a Recap : The Murder of Roger Akroyd

The Murder of Roger Akroyd is one of the greatest mysteries of all time. And that's not just me talking. As recently as 2013, the British Crime Writers' Association voted it the best crime novel ever. Serialized in 1925 and published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Akroyd is Agatha Christie's sixth published novel and third to feature our favorite little Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. 

Well, I finally got around to reading it this year, completing my little three-book box set of "The World's Favourite Agatha Christie" that I purchased back in 2017 in anticipation of Murder on the Orient Express coming to the big screen. 

And it was a rollicking good time. In The Murder of Roger Akroyd, Dr. James Sheppard is assisting Hercule Poirot in the investigation and keeping account of the details in his personal diary (á la Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes) so he is our first person narrator. Akroyd turns up dead in his study—stabbed—sometime after 9:00 one evening right after the good doctor has left his presence. The doctor along with Akroyd's butler discover him after a mysterious phone call placed to the doctor at home alerts him something strange is afoot. Through a series of circumstances, Poirot is asked to help with the case though he is trying to live a quiet retired life in this supposedly sleepy little village called King's Abbot. In what I'm coming to believe is the typical Christie formula, nearly every single person is a reasonable suspect, but never fear: Hercule Poirot cannot be stumped. In this novel, we get blackmail, poisonings, suicide, love triangles, a secret marriage: it's all in there! The crazy twist ending changed the game for the genre, and The Murder of Roger Akroyd is a perpetual fan favorite the world over. 

My personal favorite aspect of this particular Christie novel is Sheppard's spinster sister Caroline whom he lives with. She's an absolute riot of a character and she singlehandedly elevated this mystery for me. Christie herself acknowledged that this character was possibly a precursor to her other famous detective Miss Marple, so now I'm pretty determined to finally choose a Miss Marple novel for my next Agatha Christie book. 

While I had a lot of fun reading The Murder of Roger Akroyd and would definitely recommend it if you're looking for a good mystery, I wouldn't say it's my new favorite. As I alluded to above, I'm starting to see a pattern to Christie's writing: multiple credible suspects, a flood of clues and red herrings to overwhelm the reader, and a brilliant resolution. I think reading one or two Agatha Christie novels a year is probably a good pace to avoid burnout, but maybe I'm judging too harshly after only reading a few (this one was my fourth). I'll be talking about another of her novels later this week which brings my Christie Total Read to five. I have about twenty-five more sitting on my shelf, and I've decided I must get to Miss Marple next.

So which one should I read?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Woman in Me

Alright, y'all, let's just get right into it. I'm not a big memoir girl and more than one person in my real life was surprised by how anxious I was to read Britney Spears' buzzy new tell-all. 

I grew up in a household that loved music. There weren't too many rules about what we could and couldn't listen to. But on the flip-side of that, my parents shielded us from a lot of pop-culture. I feel like their approach of not making anything a huge deal and keeping the TV to a minimum in our home gave me a really healthy perspective on celebrities. I never idolized them. I didn't have posters plastering the walls of my bedroom. I really never had celebrity crushes because, what's the point? I'll probably never meet those people in real life, right? So I can't really call myself a Britney Spears superfan or anything. Sure, I own Crossroads on DVD, and if you turned back the clock you could definitely catch my little middle school self dancing around to her songs. My friends and I would choreograph our dances and practice them like it was our actual job. (We weren't just dancing to Britney: pretty much anything with a fun beat—the Beach Boys, Steven Curtis Chapman, *nsync—got airtime too. It was a total free-for-all. The nineties/early aughts were a wild time.)

Growing up in the time that I did, I couldn't have missed the headlines even if I'd tried: Britney's 55-hour Marriage! Britney's Custody Battle with K-Fed! Britney Shaves Her Own Head! And how can an adult woman who makes such a ludicrous amount of money be stuck in this heinous conservatorship for over 13 years?? If I had been on social media during the #FreeBritney movement, you can bet that hashtag would have popped up on my profile here and there.

So when the news dropped that after finally getting out of the conservatorship, Britney would be publishing a memoir: I was all ears. As soon as the release date was announced, I requested that my library preorder it. (Actually, The Woman in Me is what finally motivated me to get my own library card.) And even though my librarian snickered at my overeager request, I ain't sorry because there are over 300 holds on it right now, and your girl was first in line. (Who's laughing now, Lisa?)

But to get to the actual content of the book: I knew it wasn't going to be some sunny-day picnic, and boy, was I right on that. Britney Spears has always seemed like such a genuinely sweet person to me which is such a strange dichotomy from her hypersexualized star persona. As someone who was thrown into the industry at such a young age, I don't think she was equipped to deal with how quickly she rose to fame or how massive that fame was when she got there. (I don't think anyone would be equipped to deal with that.) By the time she was 20 years old, she had paid off all her family's debts and was financially supporting them. But somehow at 26 years of age, her father was able to take over her life as conservator of her person and conservator of her estate. Every single person in this girl's life exploited her, and her own upbringing and naiveté did not prepare her to handle any of it. Britney is a few years older than me, but honestly as I was reading her memoir, I wished I could turn back time and just adopt her. She is literally begging one person, any person in her life to love her unconditionally and that breaks my heart.

As for the information she shares in The Woman in Me, Britney comes across as incredibly honest, but also exceedingly immature. (Like, her maturity may have been stunted as a result of being kept in an abusive conservatorship her entire adult life? Who would have thought?) I'm not gullible enough to believe that this memoir paints a completely accurate portrait of her life, and she does not delve very deeply into her mental health or if the conservatorship was necessary. It's very likely that she did need help (and maybe still does—have you seen her Instagram? it's a little unhinged), but I'm fairly confident her dirtbag father was the last person on earth who should have been in that role. Ultimately, I'm still left with a lot of questions about how the legal system could have failed her so egregiously. And unfortunately, I have to chalk that up to corrupt people with access to an ungodly amount of money. 

Concerning the memoir itself, I'll be honest: The Woman in Me is not great. I think her ghostwriter did a great job of capturing her voice. But even so, can I get an editor in the house? It was rough going at times. It definitely reads like a teenager's very angsty, very disjointed diary.

Ultimately, The Woman in Me left me feeling so very sad for Britney. I hate seeing humans be so horrible to other humans and that has been her entire experience in life. She still seems like the most honest-to-goodness sweet person, and I sincerely hope she finds real Love and full healing. She has announced Volume 2 of her memoir coming next year. I'm not sure I'll be as eager to read that one, although I do think the more space she gets from the conservatorship can only help. 

Is there a celebrity your friends and family would be surprised to find you so interested in? And most importantly, what's your favorite Britney song? It'll always be Lucky for me. 😭 (Crazy is a close second though.)

Let's Bust a Recap : A Curse for True Love

Not only did my resolve to stick to my 2023 book list fall apart pretty quickly when a friend lent me a book in September, I completely failed at ignoring my library holds. In fact, in the week leading up to the release of Stephanie Garber's newest book, I was checking my library account online every single day just in case they got it early. And when October 24th rolled around, and it still wasn't ready, I had a real internal struggle over what the line was between waiting patiently like a normal human being or pestering the librarians about why the book wasn't available yet. (Don't even get me started on the Britney Spears memoir; we'll talk about that Friday.)

But finally, I was able to get my hands on the conclusion to Stephanie Garber's Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. And you know what? Yay for that because it broke me out of a major reading slump I fell into during October. Even though I would still place this book—along with all her others—squarely into the "Trash But I Liked It" category, I was glad to finally get the end of the story. 

What are you even talking about, Hannah? If you're brand new, then you may want to head back to this post from earlier in the year where I detailed my experience of reading Stephanie Garber's Caraval trilogy and the first two books in her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy. My book club chose Caraval, and I went way down the rabbit hole reading all the books Stephanie Garber has had published to date. In this much-anticipated end to her Once Upon A Broken Heart trilogy, we get shifting perspectives between Evangeline Fox, her husband Prince Apollo, and Jacks the fated Prince of Hearts. A Curse for True Love picks up literally right where The Ballad of Never After left us, with Evangeline in Apollo's arms right after he erases all her memories. As Evangeline struggles to regain her lost memories, Apollo is determined to end Jacks, but all Jacks cares about is protecting Evangeline from everyone who wants to kill her. And let me tell you: EVERYONE wants to kill her. For vague reasons I can only assume Garber created as an excuse to let Jacks keep coming to her rescue because it was very unclear why she was such a target. Can Evangeline figure out who is good and who is bad? And can she do it before irreparable damage is done?

Of course she can, and you can see where the story is headed from miles away. Unfortunately, Garber's writing has not really improved. But I thought she did some clever things in A Curse for True Love, particularly with Apollo and the Tree of Souls. As expected, Evangeline gets her tidy, Happily Ever After, and Garber teases more stories to come in a ridiculously schmaltzy epilogue. 

Despite the fact that I will never recommend these books to anyone, and I will probably never read them again myself, I enjoyed them for what they were, and A Curse for True Love was an entertaining end to the series. 

Do you have any books that fall into the "Trash But You Like It" category? And are there any librarians out there who can explain to me why it took so long for supposedly preordered books to be available?

Let's Bust a Recap : A Year Down Yonder

Well my resolve to stick to my 2023 book list for the rest of the year did not even last a month. In return for making her read letting her borrow Anne of Avonlea, a friend of mine lent me this sweet little 2001 Newbery Medal winner and I loved it.

A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck was published in 2000 and it is actually the middle installment of a trilogy. I tried to get the first book, A Long Way From Chicago, from my library, but after waiting on it for a few weeks without it ever becoming available for me to check out, I decided to just go ahead and read this one. 

Set in the midst of the Great Depression, fifteen year old Mary Alice Dowdel is sent downstate to live with her grandmother while her older brother goes out West to join the army and her parents stay in Chicago. Mary Alice is less than thrilled to be leaving Chicago to stay with her hard-nosed country grandma. But what follows is a string of laugh-out-loud funny stories that eventually bond Mary Alice to her grandmother in a hilariously charming way, and by the end of her year down yonder, Mary Alice doesn't want to leave her Grandma Dowdel to go back home to Chicago. We even get to see her come back years later at the end of WWII so that Grandma Dowdel can give Mary Alice away in the front room to her handsome bridegroom. 

Richard Peck's delightful slice-of-life novel had me grinning from ear to ear, beginning to end. While A Year Down Yonder doesn't offer much in the way of a sustained plot, the episodic nature of this short, middle grade book brought to mind a lot of my all-time favorites like Anne of Green Gables or Little Women. Grandma Dowdel is a force to be reckoned with and it was gratifying to watch Mary Alice's perception of her no-nonsense grandmother change as the book went on. 

This little book clocks in at under 150 pages, and it makes for a great reading experience either for yourself or aloud with some young'uns. It's got my enthusiastic stamp of approval, and I'll probably get the other two installments in the trilogy at some point in the future. 

What's your favorite Newbery winning book?

Let's Bust a Recap : A Praying Life

On Tuesday, I shared about my non-fiction pick for September; today, I want to discuss my non-fiction pick for October. A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller was published in 2009, and when my friend Teresa recommended it as one of the best books on prayer she had ever read, I immediately added it to my wishlist. Not long afterwards, I received it in a book exchange I participated in during my two seconds on the Instagram. This is the same book exchange in which I received two Jen Wilkin books and may I just comment on how funny it is to me that during a public book exchange with strangers on the internet, I received three Christian non-fiction books from three different people? This was not a Christian book exchange and I did not follow strictly Christian book accounts when I was on Instagram. In fact, I wouldn't even have been able to tell you before the book exchange that the three people who sent me books were Christians! As my fictional friend Katie Weldon would say: What a God-thing.

Anyway, my friend Teresa was right: this is the best book on prayer I've ever read. (Admittedly, I haven't read all that many books exclusively on prayer, but hey, of the ones I have read, this is the best.) In A Praying Life, Paul Miller introduces us to prayer that regularly and consistently hopes, trusts, and expects God to act. J.I. Packer describes this book as "honest, realistic, mature, wise, deep" and Paul David Tripp says it's "a book on prayer that actually makes you want to pray!" Miller employs my favorite non-fiction writing tactic wherein he weaves together personal stories with practical advice to convey his message. His material comes alive as you read about how he has personally struggled to pray and how his circumstances have shaped his prayer life. I found this book illuminating from the very first page to the very last and while it may sound dramatic to say that this book revolutionized my thinking about prayer, that's exactly what it did. 

As someone who came to know Jesus as Savior at a very young age and was raised in church by loving Christian parents, prayer has been an uphill climb my whole life. I have a hard time staying consistent in it, and I have often struggled with the question "What's the point?" There is a constant temptation to wait to pray until I have my act together, and Miller combats this tendency right out of the gate by pointing to the Pharisee who would stand in the square and pray aloud contrasting him with the sinner who cried out for mercy. The Pharisee seemingly has it all together in his prayer, but Jesus says the sinner is the one who goes home justified before God. The reminder that I must come to God like a child, the invitation to come messy, to trade my heavy burden for Christ's light one was a balm for my soul. None of what I read in Miller's book was new information, but somehow the way he connected the dots made me think about prayer in a way I never had before. In one instance, Miller describes his morning prayer time including interruptions from his autistic daughter and having a conversation with his wife in the midst of it. Instead of giving up or scrapping that particular time as a prayer failure, he showed how those interruptions and distractions directed his prayer time. The idea that letting what seem to me to be distracting thoughts actually open up a way for me to invite God into even more areas of my life was something I hadn't really considered. 

Another section of the book I really appreciated was Miller's handling of lament. Instead of just pointing the reader to the Psalms and encouraging them to pray the Scripture (which he does), Miller writes about times in his life where he was in crisis and shares what his prayers of lament about specific situations actually sounded like. 

Miller also gives very practical advice on keeping a prayer journal and making prayer cards to aid in praying, and I know this is a book I will come back to for those commonsense tips and as a boon when I'm feeling discouraged about my failure to pray better. A Praying Life is a book I can't commend highly enough. It is encouraging, practical, and real, and I've already recommended it to people in my life. 

When was the last time a new book gave you a fresh perspective on an old subject?

Let's Bust a Recap : A Woman After God's Own Heart

Well hello there. I know it's been a hot minute since I posted an actual book recap around here, and I'm jumping back in today with this non-fiction read from September. This book has been sitting on my shelf for years. And not just like, more than two years; I'm talking more than ten years. Easily. When I was in high school, a friend and I went through A Young Woman After God's Own Heart with a mentor at our church. That same friend chose this book for our book club to read together this fall. For me, it came in the middle of a real spiritual dry spell. With all the craziness of our lives this summer, my quiet time had become nearly non-existent, and picking up this book at the beginning of September felt like a sweet and much-needed reset for me.

A Woman After God's Own Heart by Elizabeth George was originally published in 1997, and this updated and expanded version was released in 2006. George's goal in writing this book is to share practical, scriptural insights on how any woman in any stage of life can pursue God's priorities in her personal life. While A Woman After God's Own Heart was written for "any woman in any stage of life", one-third of the book is specifically aimed at wives and mothers and I could easily see how a woman who is not in that stage of life but wants to be might not feel very helped by this book. 

That being said: I personally found this book extremely helpful. To be blunt, the beginning and the end of this updated and expanded edition are not great, but the meat of the book when George gets into the nitty-gritty of daily life and her practical advice on how to pursue God's priorities was highly profitable. George's introduction and "Word of Welcome" seemed a little self-congratulatory to me, and the opening chapters came off a bit clichéd and very surface level. But the chapters on serving, following, and loving your husband were a stark reality check for me. Much like when I read Elisabeth Elliot's Let Me Be A Woman a few years back, I immediately felt myself get defensive when I started to read about ways to serve my husband—specifically her practical tips about keeping the house clean and having a meal ready for him after a long day of work. Who am I, June Cleaver?! Have we reverted back to the 1950s?! But as I calmed down and took time to think critically about her advice, I came back to my own firmly-held convictions about my role as a woman and a wife. While the implementation of George's suggestions will not look the same for every woman, the heart of her counsel rings true. It was challenging for me to read her words and wake up to some of the ways I have slacked off in my God-given role, and it was clear how that slacking off had contributed to the dry spell I was in spiritually. 

While George certainly doesn't pussyfoot around with her guidance to pursue God's priorities, she somehow does so gently. Right about the time I started to feel like I was failing on all fronts as I was reading her book, she softly reminds the reader that—to borrow the old Chinese proverb—"a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Throughout her book, George reminds the reader that something is better than nothing. Praying for five minutes today is better than not praying at all. Rather than berate myself for all the ways I could be doing better, I just need to do my best. What a sweet reminder.

Like I mentioned briefly, the end of the book also wasn't great. It felt like a bit of a sales pitch. Talking about the "legacy" of A Woman After God's Own Heart didn't really do much for me, and I don't think the "updated and expanded" version of this book added much to the original work. 

But all-in-all, A Woman After God's Own Heart is a book I can see myself revisiting—at least in part—in the future. It came to me at a time when I really needed it, and it has helped me to reset and resolve to pursue God's priorities as a woman living in 2023. I would recommend this to any woman seeking to follow close after God's heart with the caveat that if you're particularly longing to be a wife and mother, this may not be the book for you right now. While I think this book can be helpful for single women, it may pour salt in the wound of a hope presently deferred. 

Have you read any non-fiction that has been especially helpful to you lately?