Top Ten Tuesday – Comfort Reads


I’ve always loved re-reading and comfort read to me is almost always about the pleasure of re-visiting an already familiar book. Naturally not every book that I go back to would qualify. I think I re-read Tolstoy’s War and Peace about four times by now, but I doubt that many people would put this dense door-stopper on their list. Bright, breezy and not too long is what usually hits the sweet spot.

Before I started compiling the list (as prompted by That Artsy Reader Girl), I thought it would be about individual books, but it turned out to be more about the authors with a writing style that makes for a perfect comfort read.

Read more

Book Covers with Cats – The Master and Margarita

When I was compiling the most recent Top Ten Tuesday list dedicated to books with cats on the cover, I realised that I could have simply filled it with covers of Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic, The Master and Margarita, since there were so many of them.

It seems that designers and illustrators just can’t resist Behemoth, the enormous demonic black cat who accompanies Satan on his visit to 1930s Moscow – and who can blame them? He is certainly my favourite fictional feline and makes for a great cover image. Here are some of the book covers I found.

Read more

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie – Book Review

An early thriller that turned out to be much more enjoyable than I initially expected. It’s a silly romp with a far-fetched plot that requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but you get a sense that it was written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Read more

Third Girl by Agatha Christie – Book Review

This foray into the swinging sixties doesn’t seem to be highly thought of among Agatha Christie fans, but I enjoyed it quite a lot, maybe because the idea of Hercule Poirot among mods and beatniks is just too much fun.

Read more

Destination Unknown by Agatha Christie – Book Review

A standalone spy thriller set during Cold War and inspired by Dame Agatha’s journeys in the Middle East, Destination Unknown is a fairly decent quick read that doesn’t really stick in the memory for either good or bad reasons.

Read more

Nemesis by Agatha Christie – Book Review

The last Miss Marple mystery Christie wrote is also the very last Miss Marple novel in my re-readathon. Bidding farewell to Dame Agatha’s old lady detective probably put me in a more sentimental and forgiving mood, because its flaws surely would have annoyed me more otherwise.

Read more