This weeks post is going to break all the rules. By that I mean that I am purposely disobeying my own ground rules for assembling these posts. First of all, I try to draw from as many different sources as possible. However, some of my reliable sources had so much good content this week that I am offering multiple posts from the same site.
Secondly, and more importantly, I purposely avoid politics in these posts. The links featured here are meant to be a distraction from politics and other current events. However, I ran across a couple of articles this week that were too good to pass up. I will put those at the end so that you can skip those if you like.
Now onto the links for this weekend:
This year marks the centennial of the publication of Agatha Christie's first novel The Mysterious Affair at Styles. To celebrate, here is a wonderful collection of the book's covers through the years. Just looking at this article will help show you why I have different editions of the same novel in my own collection.
Sophie Hannah selects ten underrated Agatha Christie novels. I haven't read all of them yet but can agree that a couple of them certainly don't get the attention they deserve.
One more Christie related link: How I Learned to Stop Being Sexist and Love Miss Marple. Exit question: who would you like to see portray the spinster sleuth? I like the author's suggestion a lot.
If you ever lose your jewelry you can always call the Ring Finders.
With more and more meetings moving to Zoom these days we are getting a look at other people's bookshelves. Why are we so focused on them? I think in a way it helps reveal something about a person. The fact there is an entire Twitter feed devoted to bookshelf credibility tells us how a real our obsession really is.
Besides Agatha Christie another of my favorite mystery writers is Anthony Horowitz. Here's an introduction to his novel series for adults. By the way, the television adaptation of his Alex Rider series premieres in the US on November 13th.
Weekend playlist: this week I have been listening to Palo Alto by Thelonius Monk. In 1968, a sixteen year old high school student hired Monk and his quartet to play a fundraising concert at Palo Alto High School. An enterprising school janitor recorded the session which is now available to stream. It's quite a performance.
The reason why it is hard to spot your own typos. It makes a lot of sense. Thank goodness for autocorrect.
It's been 70 years since C. S. Lewis published the first volume of The Chronicles of Narnia. Why the novels still hold our imagination even as adults. Of all the books I read to my girls when they were younger these are still my favorites.
This is some fascinating research: how readers rate New York Times bestsellers.
Finally, a couple of articles about the election. The headline of the first article sums up how I feel: Why can't they both lose? I don't identify any longer with a particular political party and I don't necessarily endorse everything that this site would stand for. However, I think the article makes some important points about what is at stake and what the two major candidates for president represent. I find myself agreeing with Joel Belz that someone other than the two major party candidates would be preferable in this election.
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