Title: The Listerdale Mystery
Author: Agatha Christie
Type: Fiction
Page Count: 192
Rating: 4/5
This little collection of short stories was a lot of fun, but then I was always going to think that because I’m a big fan of Christie’s short fiction. It was also a pleasure to finally have a full collection to read, because the last few short story collections that I’ve picked up have been ones that included a ton of stories that I’d already read.
This might not be the best place to start if you’re new to Christie, but it does give you a pretty decent overall view of what her work is like, and you can read each of the stories as little standalones without any need to read previous novels or stories.
Overall then, if you spot this going cheap at a charity shop, definitely pick it up. Don’t go out of your way for it though, at least until you start to run out of other Christie books to read. As for me, I’m just a little sad because I’m starting to run out of her books.
Tony Hawks – A Piano in the Pyrenees | Review
Title: A Piano in the Pyrenees
Author: Tony Hawks
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 312
Rating: 4/5
This non-fiction book tells the story of what happened when a middle-aged British comedian called Tony Hawks decided to buy a house in France, almost on a whim. He also decided to take his piano over there so that he could finally learn to play the thing.
It was a fun little book, and overall I found it to be a pleasure to work my way through it. My only real complaint would be that the pacing was a little off, in that it felt as though the whole book covered a period of just a couple of months or so.
Other than that though, there were some great little insights into French culture here, as well as a few smatterings of French dialogue that were enjoyable for me as someone who’s slowly but surely trying to learn the language. There were also some great little examples of culture shock or of misunderstandings, particularly when Hawks was trying to navigate the complicated French legal landscape to purchase properties and to build swimming pools, despite being utterly useless at assembling basic flat packs.
I’ve read a couple of Hawks’ other books at this point, and tonality and sense of humour wise, it’s pretty similar to those. That means that if you enjoyed Round Ireland with a Fridge, for example, then you’re probably going to enjoy this one too. Sure, his sense of humour might not be quite right for everyone, but Hawks has always made me laugh and he did so here, too.
There were occasional borderline sexist comments in it here and there, but then I suppose that gave it a certain sense of realness. He was a single bloke surrounded by Frenchwomen, after all. But overall, yeah.
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