Gretchen Beilfuss Witt
Mystery readers everywhere are drawn to the quintessential writer of the crime puzzle, Dame Agatha Christie. With two of the most beloved sleuths and a number of other characters, Christie examines the working of the human psyche in a manner that continues to enthrall readers. Beginning in 1920 and continuing nearly till her death in 1976, Christie regaled her fans not only with full length mystery novels but with romances, short stories and plays as well. In the thoroughly delightful book, “The Bedside, Bathside, & Armchair Companion to Agatha Christie”, admirers of her work have provided a smorgasbord of commentary to enlighten and entertain.
The book introduces Christie’s first great detective who appears in more than half of her murder mysteries. Accepting a dare from her older sister Madge, Agatha wrote her first novel in 1915 although it was not published until 1920. Although devoted to Sherlock Holmes, she felt that she must create a new kind of detective. She often drew from her own experiences and this was no exception. Agatha knew of an enclave of Belgian refugees near her home in Devon. Christie imagined a retired Belgian policeman, neat and tidy, but a small man with a “flavor of absurdity.” Such a small man deserved a big name, perhaps the hero Hercules modified to flow with the surname, Hercule Poirot entered the literary lexicon.
Interspersed between summaries of her marvelous tales are amusing bits with titles like “A Nice Cuppa” explaining the origin of the English tea ritual and how it appears in various narratives. It gives details about how tea became a fashionable ladies beverage as early as 1662 in London with Twinning’s Tea house first making an appearance in London in 1717. Taking tea with a variety of hostesses to win confidences or acquire needed information became a fixture in both Poirot novels and those of Miss Marple. Charming vignettes like “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you/Rooms to avoid in an English County House” or “How to Trace your family mystery – if you dare” share space with essays discussing weapons like the pearl handled 22 or the oft found trophy from the war, the Mauser. Other articles discuss the presence of class distinctions and dress codes and the influence they had in Christie’s crime stories.
Adding recipes for the condemned, crosswords, word searches and acrostics make this a wonderful book with which to take a break of a few minutes or curl up with for hours. Enjoy immersing yourself in Agatha’s criminal world with “The Bedside, Bathtub and Armchair Companion” and continue your reading pleasure by checking out her splendid books as well as the wonderful films adaptations and television series. Cozy up with the Queen of the Murder Mystery.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Library Notes
August 9, 2010 Betty Moore
“To Kill a Mockingbird”
How long has it been since you read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee? Or perhaps you saw the movie but never read the book. Maybe you think of the book as something only for students to read. However, the book is definitely one that deserves to be read and reread and now is a good time for that.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which has sold more than 30 million copies and made a lasting impact on readers and writers. Many libraries, book groups, and individuals are taking part in a celebration of the book.
For my own personal celebration, I have just finished listening to the book on CD, wonderfully read by Sissy Spacek. I heard my favorite quotations, including, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
As a student, a high school teacher, and a mom, I’ve read the book at least five times. Each time I read it I discover new things, as I am different places in my life. Returning now to the book makes me reflect on what has changed since that time and what has not.
The novel looks at events in a small Alabama town in the mid-1930s through the eyes of Scout, a young white girl. Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer defending an innocent black man accused of rape. Through the perspective of this precocious young girl, who doesn’t always understand what is said or happening around her, the book explores layers of innocence and guilt, justice and injustice, society’s rigid codes, race relations, class, poverty, and compassion.
While the book concerns very serious themes, it also contains a lot of humor. Scout relates many humorous stories about her family and neighbors – made even funnier, or more ironic – by young Scout’s immaturity and innocence of adult matters. Sometimes Scout’s clear youthful perspective sees right through the pretensions and hypocrisy of the adults around her, as when the church mission society ladies discuss their help for natives in Africa but don’t see how their own neighbors of a different race or class need their help too.
This well-loved book is available at the library in many formats. The film is also available. Plan to revisit them soon and join with others to celebrate “Mockingbird” three Tuesdays in November. As you read, or reread, consider who is your favorite character. What lines stick in your memory? Has reading the book made a lasting impression on you or made a difference in your life?
On November 2, there will be a book discussion at RPL Headquarters for people who want to read or reread and discuss the book, as well as people who are curious but have never read it. On November 16 we’ll show the 1962 Oscar-winning film based on Lee’s book. Book Bites Book Club will discuss the book at their November 30 meeting at RPL’s South Branch in China Grove. More details about times and places will be available closer to those dates.
August 9, 2010 Betty Moore
“To Kill a Mockingbird”
How long has it been since you read “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee? Or perhaps you saw the movie but never read the book. Maybe you think of the book as something only for students to read. However, the book is definitely one that deserves to be read and reread and now is a good time for that.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which has sold more than 30 million copies and made a lasting impact on readers and writers. Many libraries, book groups, and individuals are taking part in a celebration of the book.
For my own personal celebration, I have just finished listening to the book on CD, wonderfully read by Sissy Spacek. I heard my favorite quotations, including, “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
As a student, a high school teacher, and a mom, I’ve read the book at least five times. Each time I read it I discover new things, as I am different places in my life. Returning now to the book makes me reflect on what has changed since that time and what has not.
The novel looks at events in a small Alabama town in the mid-1930s through the eyes of Scout, a young white girl. Her father, Atticus, is a lawyer defending an innocent black man accused of rape. Through the perspective of this precocious young girl, who doesn’t always understand what is said or happening around her, the book explores layers of innocence and guilt, justice and injustice, society’s rigid codes, race relations, class, poverty, and compassion.
While the book concerns very serious themes, it also contains a lot of humor. Scout relates many humorous stories about her family and neighbors – made even funnier, or more ironic – by young Scout’s immaturity and innocence of adult matters. Sometimes Scout’s clear youthful perspective sees right through the pretensions and hypocrisy of the adults around her, as when the church mission society ladies discuss their help for natives in Africa but don’t see how their own neighbors of a different race or class need their help too.
This well-loved book is available at the library in many formats. The film is also available. Plan to revisit them soon and join with others to celebrate “Mockingbird” three Tuesdays in November. As you read, or reread, consider who is your favorite character. What lines stick in your memory? Has reading the book made a lasting impression on you or made a difference in your life?
On November 2, there will be a book discussion at RPL Headquarters for people who want to read or reread and discuss the book, as well as people who are curious but have never read it. On November 16 we’ll show the 1962 Oscar-winning film based on Lee’s book. Book Bites Book Club will discuss the book at their November 30 meeting at RPL’s South Branch in China Grove. More details about times and places will be available closer to those dates.
Library Notes
Rebecca Hyde – July 30, 2010
Geologists study features ranging from microscopic crystals to satellite views, from glimpses of Earth’s origins to present Earth-building events. How can these different perspectives of time and scale be combined and viewed in a larger context? Take to the air. As author Michael Collier writes in “Over the Mountains”: “On the ground, like mites on an elephant, you don’t know if you’re sitting on the elephant’s tooth or its toenail. But a view from the sky adds another dimension. Rise above and you can see the earth from trunk to tail.”
Information and entertainment, extraordinary images with text that instructs the “unschooled” --- Michael Collier’s “aerial views of geology” are picture books for adults. For people curious about geological processes (mountain-building, erosive rivers), or people who like to travel, these photographs offer access to areas accessible only to birds and pilots.
Collier is a geologist, science writer, photographer, and pilot. And using his Cessna 180 “like a tripod,” he brings into focus and records geologic features that illuminate the theories by which scientists understand our earth. He also wants to impart “a sense of wonder, a tangible sense of the earth that springs from an intimate knowledge of the land.”
In “Over the Mountains,” the map of the United States is overlaid with boundaries marking geologic “provinces,” each having its own particular geologic history. A photograph of the North Cascades (Columbia Plateau Province) shows a remarkably jumbled range of mountains. These mountains are still being created by the spreading ocean floor meeting the edge of the continent, with accumulations of silt and sand being scraped off like “peanut butter smeared from a knife onto a piece of bread.”
Again, In “Over the Rivers,” a map helps us re-imagine the landscape. State lines are overlaid by rivers, their basins, and divides, which draw the line between water flowing toward one or another river (the great Continental Divide, for example). A river’s “job description” calls for moving water and sediment from the mountains to the sea. And that means maintaining a “fastidious equilibrium” between water and sediment.
A spectacular alluvial fan is pictured within Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, where coarse sand and gravel is dumped when the stream runs high and hard. In contrast, as the gradient flattens, a river meanders, like a “string of wobbly railroad cars rolling down an uneven track.” Its current bears against one bank and deflects against the other, creating bends, all the way to the sea. The Green River is a “writhing snake” as it moves toward Bronx, Wyoming, leaving bright sand on the inside of bends and erosion on the outside.
Collier’s books offer us a view of a dynamic earth, a work in progress.
Rebecca Hyde – July 30, 2010
Geologists study features ranging from microscopic crystals to satellite views, from glimpses of Earth’s origins to present Earth-building events. How can these different perspectives of time and scale be combined and viewed in a larger context? Take to the air. As author Michael Collier writes in “Over the Mountains”: “On the ground, like mites on an elephant, you don’t know if you’re sitting on the elephant’s tooth or its toenail. But a view from the sky adds another dimension. Rise above and you can see the earth from trunk to tail.”
Information and entertainment, extraordinary images with text that instructs the “unschooled” --- Michael Collier’s “aerial views of geology” are picture books for adults. For people curious about geological processes (mountain-building, erosive rivers), or people who like to travel, these photographs offer access to areas accessible only to birds and pilots.
Collier is a geologist, science writer, photographer, and pilot. And using his Cessna 180 “like a tripod,” he brings into focus and records geologic features that illuminate the theories by which scientists understand our earth. He also wants to impart “a sense of wonder, a tangible sense of the earth that springs from an intimate knowledge of the land.”
In “Over the Mountains,” the map of the United States is overlaid with boundaries marking geologic “provinces,” each having its own particular geologic history. A photograph of the North Cascades (Columbia Plateau Province) shows a remarkably jumbled range of mountains. These mountains are still being created by the spreading ocean floor meeting the edge of the continent, with accumulations of silt and sand being scraped off like “peanut butter smeared from a knife onto a piece of bread.”
Again, In “Over the Rivers,” a map helps us re-imagine the landscape. State lines are overlaid by rivers, their basins, and divides, which draw the line between water flowing toward one or another river (the great Continental Divide, for example). A river’s “job description” calls for moving water and sediment from the mountains to the sea. And that means maintaining a “fastidious equilibrium” between water and sediment.
A spectacular alluvial fan is pictured within Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, where coarse sand and gravel is dumped when the stream runs high and hard. In contrast, as the gradient flattens, a river meanders, like a “string of wobbly railroad cars rolling down an uneven track.” Its current bears against one bank and deflects against the other, creating bends, all the way to the sea. The Green River is a “writhing snake” as it moves toward Bronx, Wyoming, leaving bright sand on the inside of bends and erosion on the outside.
Collier’s books offer us a view of a dynamic earth, a work in progress.
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