Recs: SPN

I had this ready to post yesterday and... forgot it was Friday. So here goes now.

( Fic: SPN )

( Art: SPN )

And some recommended reading for everybody: synecdochic's Why Modesty is a Dirty Fucking Word.

Reviews - Agatha Christie, Jeff Noon

I've been collecting up this set of reviews for a while, so now I've finished the Miss Marple books, I'd better post them...

At Bertram's Hotel (Agatha Christie)

This one was quite nice. I loved the description of the hotel -- it's really really vivid: I could imagine it perfectly. It was a bit slow to kick off, in terms of action, though, and Miss Marple wasn't terribly central. I wasn't sure what the real point was going to be; it didn't seem as neatly tied together as I would like. I did enjoy it, though, and the last few pages were really rather good.

Nemesis (Agatha Christie)

All I ever seem to say about Agatha Christie books is that they're quite fun, now I've read a bundle of them. I suppose they're all the same, in some ways -- the clue-puzzle is always at the heart of it, not so much the characters. She has a nice touch with describing some characters and getting them just right, of course, and I really love the image of fluffy pink Miss Marple as Nemesis. And I liked Mr Rafiel and his posthumous quest: that was quite a nice plot touch. I got to like his character more, somehow, even though he was already dead.

The main downfall of these books, reading them now, is how dated the attitudes contained therein have become. Especially in this book, with the talk of mental illness and girls crying rape for no real reason, etc -- especially for me, given that my mother's a doctor and works for the police on rape cases, etc, and given that I'm quite irritated by the general perceptions of rape. But it's easy enough to ignore it, and remember that it was written in its moment, for me.

Sleeping Murder (Agatha Christie)

For some reason, this creeped me out a bit. I guess it's how twisted the murderer is, and yet all along you/the main characters rely on his testimony... I did see it coming, rather, but something about his character really got to me. Ugh.

That, plus the fact that I called it after about one hundred pages, means I didn't enjoy this book so much. There wasn't anything especially distinguishing and fun about the characters or the setting that made it extra interesting.

The Complete Short Stories of Miss Marple (Agatha Christie)

This collection is really quite fun -- it doesn't get too tedious, because of course, you have a different set of characters for each one, and the mystery is solved quite quickly. Some of them are better than others, obviously, but they're all good for a relaxing read on a Saturday afternoon... And in some cases you get to see characters from the other books, which is nice too. I like the last one the best, I think, because Bunch and her husband are really rather sweet.

They do blend into each other a little, though -- not while you're reading, but after.

Automated Alice (Jeff Noon)

This is pretty fun to read, but pretty light, too. There's an attempt at being Lewis Carroll-ish, which works in part, and there's a lot of puns, but it ends up being a little over-stuffed with puns, and puns alone can't keep one's interest. I read it really, really quickly, and ended up feeling like it was more quirk than content.

The illustrations are quite fun, too -- I especially like the trumpet playing snail-man, for some reason.