Recent Book Flurry

I finished a bunch of books this weekend, so here's a catchup entry.

I Have Some Questions for You (by Rebecca Makkai)

I loved The Great Believers, and put this on the library holds list as soon as I heard it was coming out. This is a boarding school literary mystery (emphasis on the literary part) in which an adult woman coming back to teach at her boarding school takes a fresh look at the murder of a classmate.  Our narrator comes back again and again to a litany of crimes against women that serve as a backdrop to both the story and the life of every woman. A favorite read of the year, for sure.

Towards Zero (by Agatha Christie)

I'm reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd aloud to my family (Mina calls him "Mr. Altoid") and on a bit of a Christie kick once again.  I enjoyed the characters of this one, and as usual, didn't guess the culprit. You'd think I'd at least have a fighting chance having read so many of these and yet, no.

Murder in Mesopotamia (by Agatha Christie) 

I thought this was the one, I was so sure I had figured it out at 28% of the way into the book! But of course, I didn't, and as usual I enjoyed being fooled. Of course it's in Mesopotamia so it's racist, as usual.  (I had to identify a "guilty pleasure" book and I immediately thought of Christie. I feel guilty reading her racism! Someone edit out the racism!)

Marbles (by Ellen Forney) 

This is the Read Harder Challenge entry of this book flurry. "Read a comic or graphic novel that features disability representation." Ellen Forney has bipolar disorder and this memoir is about her diagnosis, her efforts to get the disorder under control, and its intersection with her creative life as an artist. Even knowing people with bipolar, I learned a lot from this memoir, and enjoyed Forney's visual style.   

Endless Night (by Agatha Christie) 

Woah, this one was different. A very late Christie set in the 60s (the word "sex" shows up a bunch and I'm like o.O) and reportedly one of her favorites. Slow to get started as it's not a typical Whodunit and the murder doesn't happen until more than halfway into the book.  But even though it echoes some of her most famous works, I didn't see the ending coming and it's so well done.