The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie

 

9/10

I really liked this one. I finished this a few nights ago and cruised through the second half of the book as it was hard for me to put the book down as the plot thickened. This type of sleuthing is what I was expecting when I started reading Agatha Christie books which I didn't get it with the other two I'd read (but this was my first Hercule Poirot story). I just thought this was so well done. It had everything you could ask for in a murder mystery. I really liked the psychological aspect of the story where Poirot tries to understand the mind of the crazy killer. I also liked that Poirot had to struggle through the mystery as he often seemed at a loss. And I always like a nice twist ending and this one was really nicely done and set up really well by Agatha Christie. I can see why she's considered the Queen of Mystery as it was really masterfully done.

Really glad that I didn't give up on Agatha Christie as the first two were minor letdowns. I knew I had to read a Poirot story before giving up. I may just keep my focus on Poirot stories for future Agatha Christie books. Poirot > Jane Marple, at least from what I've seen so far in my limited exposure.

Agatha Christie rankings:

1. The ABC Murders                                                                                                                                       2. 4:50 from Paddington
3. At Bertram's Hotel

A Preface to Paradise Lost by C.S. Lewis

4/10

Back-to-back C.S. Lewis books and back-to-back 4/10 ratings. I finished reading this yesterday. It was actually a really quick read, especially for a literary criticism type book that I usually slog through. So maybe I should give it bonus points for that. It's just I didn't particularly enjoy anything much about this book. I was hoping for a more specific breakdown of particular passages and themes, but the whole first half was about epic poetry in general and talking about Homer and Beowulf and books I've never read. So that was a disappointment. And then I was hoping for a few better Christian related insights but ended up not seeing eye to eye on a lot of his interpretations. The idea that Eve was attempting murder by wanting to get Adam to eat the fruit too was a bit of a stretch I thought. I was disappointed in his interpretation of Eve and her motivations. 

I thought Milton's book was pretty darn close to restored gospel principles and just expected C.S. to be right there as well with his interpretations, but it just wasn't meant to be. My favorite chapter was actually early on before he got into the Paradise Lost analysis portion of the book. It was a chapter of him arguing against someone who said only poetics could criticize poetry. It had some classic C.S. Lewis burns by his unrelenting logic.