I have been averaging about four books a month this entire year, except for March, when I somehow read seven, but I think that was because I finished up a book I’d been reading with my daughter and also finished (finally) Return of the King.
In June I read the following books:
The Ivory Dagger by Patricia Wentworth
Description: When Lila Dryden is discovered standing over her fiancé’s body with dagger in hand, Miss Silver is called in to investigate, only to discover Lila’s sleepwalking patterns, the return of her former lover, and the victim’s circle of acquaintances–all of whom occasionally wished him dead.
Brief thoughts: I enjoyed this one. It was my first by Wentworth, so it was also my first Miss Silver book. I think it was number 18 but I didn’t have any problems following the characters or figuring out their past interactions with each other. I loved Miss Silver and her interaction with the investigator in the case, who she had worked with before.
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
Description: Eustace and Jill escape from the bullies at school through a strange door in the wall, which, for once, is unlocked. It leads to the open moor…or does it? Once again Aslan has a task for the children, and Narnia needs them. Through dangers untold and caverns deep and dark, they pursue the quest that brings them face to face with the evil Witch. She must be defeated if Prince Rillian is to be saved.
Brief thoughts: I’ve been making my way through The Chronicles of Narnia this year and this was the next one. I was in a reading slump when I started it and it pulled me out because I couldn’t put it down. I was immediately caught up in the story. It wasn’t my favorite of the series, but I love how Lewis writes so I still really liked it. This is a children’s book but I truly believe even adults should read this series. It’s so magical and fun. And, yes, there are elements to the stories that are allegories for Christianity but even if a person isn’t a Christian, the stories are just so good.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Description: The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells” before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.
Brief thoughts: I wrote a review for this one, but the bottom line is that I enjoyed it. I read this one as part of the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge.
Description: Pleasant Creek, Indiana, loves its history. Each summer the town sponsors Heritage Day, a festival commemorating the signing of the original town charter. Liz Eckardt couldn’t be happier to participate in the star-spangled celebration.
But someone else isn’t happy. Antique items related to the historic event are being stolen from Pleasant Creek’s people and businesses, including Liz herself. Does the culprit merely want to torch the celebration or is there more to his sinister plot?
Brief Thoughts. I also wrote a review on this one and posted it here on the blog. I enjoyed this one. It was a very light mystery, not dark, not overly depressing. I love the characters in this series (The Amish Inn Mysteries) so it felt like visiting old friends when I read it.
What did you read in June? Have you ever read any of these?
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin, Cat, and I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Notice: This post may contain affiiate links. If you purchase the product from these links I will receive a small compensation at no extra charge to you.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
Happy belated Canada Day to our Canadian friends and an early 250th Anniversary to all the U.S. citizens! It’s going to be a hot one for a lot of us!
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself.
Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.
But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.
Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content! This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more! Thank you for joining us!
Welcome to the A Good Book & A Cup of Tea (A Monthly Bookish Link Party)!! This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!).
1. For Bloggers, you can link unlimited posts related to books and reading. They can be older posts or newer posts. These can be posts about what you’re reading, book reviews, books you’ve added to your shelf, reading habits, what you’ve been reading, about trips to the bookstore, etc. You get the drift.
2. Link to a specific blog post (URL of a specific post, not just your website). Feel free to link up any older posts that may need some love and attention, too.
3. Please visit at least two other bloggers on this list and comment on their posts. Have fun! Interact! Get some book recommendations.
4. Readers can click the blue button below to visit blog posts.
5. If you add a link you are giving me permission to share and link back to your post(s).
In this installment, Nick Charles returns home to where he grew up and where his father thinks he’s a failure and roaring drink. He is a not a failure, but he has, many times throughout this series, been a roaring drunk.
His father, played by Harry Davenport (I love him in anything I see him in) has not been impressed by his son’s detective endeavors. He wanted his son to become a doctor. Nick is attempting to change at least his drinking ways, which is why on the train to see his parents he is drinking apple cider instead of whiskey, or whatever it is he usually has in his flask.
While home, Nick, of course, gets mixed up in a mystery, which puts his job on full display for his disapproving father.
Lucile Watson joined Davenport, portraying Nick’s mother.
TCM describes the Thin Man movies as being about a “sophisticated married couple with a knack for solving murders,” and I guess that works but they are so much more. There is witty banter between Nick and his heiress wife Nora, quirky characters, a cute and funny dog, slapstick comedy, and quick little quips that sometimes make you gasp from the audacity of the writers to slip that in there.
This was a fun movie, even though they wrote Nick Jr. out of it by saying he had to stay home to attend kindergarten.
I read a quote from Myrna Loy that the movies after the second weren’t very good, but I actually liked this movie more than the third. Adding Nick’s parents in was a good decision and added a new dynamic and new life to the franchise, in my opinion.
The jokes about Nick’s alcoholism were rich in this one, especially when he arrives home and tries to fix an old desk for his mother while his father is out. Part of the desk falls, hitting him on the head, and knocking him down on his face on the floor. Of course at that moment, his father and believes he’s been on yet another drunken binge.
There are always jokes in these movies about Nick drinking too much but this time around his family is appalled by the drinking, instead of encouraging it, which Nora tends to do.
We start the film on the train with Nick, Nora, and Asta on their way to New England to see Nick’s parents and celebrate his birthday.
The reunion is full of funny moments and the funny continues as people in town start to hear that Nick is home and circulate rumors that he’s there to solve a case.
Edgar Draque even tells his wife Helena that they must leave town immediately after she goes and acquires painting by local artist Peter Berton. It won’t be until much later that we find out why that painting is important and not until Nora buys the painting for Nick’s birthday before Helena can get there. Nora thinks the painting, which features a windmill outside of town, will remind Nick of good times he had at the windmill as a child.
The artist of the painting arrives at the Charles’s home that night, starts to confess something, but is shot in the back before he can finish his sentence.
Things roll on into total chaos from there and I found that chaos a lot of fun. It was a complex case with a solution that was actually very ahead of it’s time, in my humble opinion.
The woman who played Crazy Mary (Anne Revere) was amazing, by the way. There is a scene where she talks about something very emotional that happened to her and she blew me way. It was one of the few serious moments of the film and it had tears welling up in my eyes. She was the mother in National Velvet and was in a ton of other movies, in case you have never heard of her. She was an amazing actress.
This was the first of the series not to be directed by W.S. Van Dyke, since he died in 1943. Instead, Richard Thorpe directed it and was familiar with William and Myrna after directing them in Double Wedding in 1937.
I watched Double Wedding this past weekend and didn’t enjoy it as much as their other films, but that’s probably because I am so used to seeing them as Nick and Nora.
Myrna had been away from the screen for three years when the suggestion to make the film came up. She had been busy with the home-front war effort and a marriage to car-rental heir John Hertz in New York. Thin Man fans wanted another film and were horrified when studio executives let it slip they might replace Myrna with Irene Dunne.
“The fans wanted Myrna, and they didn’t want anyone else,” Powell later recalled. “And I wanted Myrna, too. Besides the favorable reception our pictures always received, I must say it was certainly a pleasure to work with her.”
The cast and crew was pleased to see her too, William said.
“I’ve never seen a girl so popular with so many people,” he said. “Everybody from wardrobe was over the set, everybody from makeup, everybody from property, everybody from miles around, it looked like.”
While the characters were based on Dashiell Hammet’s characters, the screenplay was written by Robert Riskin, Dwight Taylor, from story by Riskin and Harry Kurnitz.
The couple’s dog, Asta (real name Skippy), was back for the movie and provided his usual comedic relief.
Up next I will be watching the final movie in the series, The Song of the Thin Man.
It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, whatthe rest of the familyand I have been reading and watching, andwhat I’ve been writing.
I am loving all the celebrations for our country’s 250th anniversary! Last night our local Catholic Church put on an amazing display that our entire town was able to watch because the church is located on a hill.
Little Miss’s little friend was over and played the Star Spangled Banner as the show went on which made it even more patriotic. Zooma the Wonder Dog did freak out some but she was so excited that Little Miss’s friend was over that she was distracted from being afraid from the loud banging.
The shot my husband got as he headed back into our town from the movies with the kids.
I actually forgot about the fireworks display so when it went off I thought it was gunshots which is not unusual in this area since we have so many hunters, but still, we don’t usually hear that many at a time.
I’ll be looking forward to seeing fireworks displays around the country next week too. Our town has flags all over – it’s fun to see.
What I/We’ve Been Reading
Just Finished
This week I finished The Ivory Dagger by Patricia Wentworth. It was my first book by her and I enjoyed it. It reminded me of Agatha Christie with more descriptions. This was a book from the Miss Silver series. I’m going to go back to the beginning of the series and start there.
In Progress
I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month. I’m still reading Miss Buncle’s Book by D.E. Stevenson but I put it aside to finish The Ivory Dagger. I’ll continue it this week because I am enjoying it.
Up Soon
Up soon I will be reading Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham.
What The Family is Reading
Little Miss and I are reading Heidi. My son is listening to a Warhammer book. I forgot to ask The Husband what he is reading.
New arrivals to my bookshelf
Last week I received a delivery of nine middle grade books for Little Miss and I to read together. They included: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright, The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keattey Snyder, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle, Across the Lines by Carolyn Reeder, The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks, Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac, Calico Girl by Jerdine Nolen, and Phoebe the Spy by Judith Berry Griffin.
What I/We’ve Been Watching
I was depressed this week to find that Murder, She Wrote was taken of Amazon Prime, where I was able to watch it without commercials. I hate commercials because it seems most of streaming commercials are for pharmaceutical companies and politics. Blah.
I’ve decided I am going to start ordering them on DVD like I am my movies. I’m tired of putting up with tech companies telling me when and how I can watch my shows! And I don’t care if I sound like an old lady. Ha.
I did watch some Murder, She Wrote on the On Demand feature on Amazon. I also watched a movie called Tell It To the Judge with Rosalind Russell and Robert Cummings, a Myrna Loy and William Powell movie called Double Wedding, and several episodes of As Time Goes By.
What I’ve Been Writing
I’m working on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School, book four in the Gladwynn Grant series.
I’ve been listening to The Essential Dean Martin Collection and a Murder, She Wrote book.
Photos From Last Week
Some Housekeeping
Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs), Cat (Cat’s Wire) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea. This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.
Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.
Now It’s Your Turn
What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
I finally watched Around the World in 80 Days from 1956 with David Niven, two years after reading Jules Verne’s novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
The movie, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1956, was a ton of fun and I am going to watch it again just to catch all the moments I might have missed.
The book and the movie follow the story of Phileas Fogg, an English gentleman, who no one in his gentleman’s club can exactly figure out. During a discussion Phileas brags that he could go around the world in 80 days. A wager is made and he and his French valet (newly hired) Passepartout (Pass-par-too) head out, starting their journey in a large, hot air balloon.
As you can imagine, all kind of situations arise on the journey and along the way they pick up a couple other travelers, one an Indian princess they rescue from being killed and another man who turns out to be a police officer who thinks that Phileas is actually the man who robbed the bank of England shortly before leaving on his trip.
(I may be the only one who thinks of Phineas and Ferb, the kids’ cartoon, when I read or hear the name Phileas but that is because I had a little one when the show first came out.)
In addition to Niven as Phileas Fogg, we also have Cantinflas as Passepartout, Shirley MacLaine as Aouda and Robert Newton as Inspector Fix.
I’m going to be upfront and say that I had no idea Shirley McClaine was Aouda, the Indian princess. I didn’t recognize her at all and didn’t realize it until I was working on this blog post and saw her name listed in the cast.
I found it interesting that the movie created the idea of “cameo roles” as a way to invite established stars to participate in a production. The cameos in this movie included the most I’ve ever head of at 40 cameos with some of the most notable being Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, Buster Keaton, Noel Coward, Charles Boyer, Caser Romero, Ronald Colman, Red Skelton, and Peter Lorre.
Of course there are some aspects of the movie that have not aged well but many of the racial stereotypes I expected luckily didn’t surface with the focus mainly being on our main characters and the adventures they find themselves in.
Clocking in at 2 hours and 55 minutes, this was one of the longer classic movies I have watched and I actually took several breaks from watching it to run errands, cook dinner, go to bed, and do several other things that needed doing. In other words it took me a couple of days to finish it. I actually do that a lot with movies, no matter the length, because it feels like I am constantly interrupted while watching them.
One couldn’t be expected to shove all that happens in Verne’s book into a 90-minute to 2-hour movie, though, right? The characters travel across several countries, including the US, while being chased by a man who thinks Phileas is a robber, and, for Passepartout, often getting lost or separated from the group.
Michael Todd produced the movie and when it was released, he urged promoters not to refer to Around the World in 80 Days as a movie. To him it was an epic, a spectacle, an experience to immerse oneself in.
Michael Todd with his wife Elizabeth Taylor and movie director Michael Anderson.
“Do not refer to Around the World in 80 Days as a movie,” Todd wrote when the movie was distributed. “It’s not a movie. Movies are something you can see in your neighborhood theatre and eat popcorn while you’re watching them….Show Around the World in 80 Days almost exactly as you would present a Broadway show in your theatre.”
Critics and movie-goers agreed with the assessment, though some felt the movie would never end because it was so long.
Todd was a master at convincing stars to get involved, according to Jeff Stafford , writing for TCM.com.
“One of his talents was attracting marquee-name talent through his sheer extravagant nature,” Stafford wrote. “When he learned that the Jules Verne novel had been a childhood favorite of David Niven, he casually offered him the role of Phileas Fogg, to which Niven excitedly said, “I’d do it for nothing.” Todd’s famous remark was “You’ve got a deal.” He enticed other actors with gifts: Ronald Colman received a new yellow Cadillac for half a day’s work. Noel Coward was allowed to write his own dialogue for his cameo scene and received a Bonnard painting as a Christmas present. John Gielgud was seduced into appearing in a small role out of sheer curiosity. Todd recalled that “Gielgud asked me, ‘Why do you want me to play a sacked butler? I am a Shakespearean actor.’ I said, ‘Because I know you could do it so well and I know it’s right for you.’ He said, ‘Let me read it.’ I gave him the pages and he read it. Then he said, ‘My dear Mr. Todd, you really want me to play this? Why?…Who is playing the other part?’ I said, ‘Noel Coward.’ He said, ‘I’ve got to see that.’ I said, ‘One way for you to see it – be on the set tomorrow.’ And he was on the set.”
Todd went all out in other ways for this film too. He not only traveled the world to secure actors but props or locations for scenes.
From Stafford’s article: “He went to Chinchon, Spain, and hired the entire population of 6,500 residents to appear in a bullfight sequence. He visited his friend, the King of Thailand, who loaned him his 165-foot-long royal barge, complete with 70 glitteringly clad oarsmen, for a scene that lasted maybe 12 seconds. In China, Todd acquired a Chinese dragon used in holiday processions, which was 250 years old, thirty-feet-long, and required 24 men to operate it. In Pakistan, the producer persuaded the Nawab of Pritim Pasha to loan him his private elephant herd.”
And the train in the movie?
It was a Durango museum piece and used to run from San Francisco to Colorado in 1871 and Todd convinced the museum to loan it after a million dollar bond was secured.
The movie set some definite records, including:
the most people (68,894) ever photographed in separate worldwide locations; the greatest distance ever travelled to make a film (four million air passenger miles);
the most camera set-ups ever used (200 more than Gone With the Wind, 1939);
the most sets ever used (140 actual locations plus interiors on soundstages in London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo as well as six Hollywood studios);
the most costumes ever used (74,685);
and the most assistant directors (33).
The movie was directed by Michael Anderson.
Younger viewers may not recognize some of the cameos, I certainly didn’t, but it’s still fun to read about them later and learn who they were. I, honestly, only recognized Frank Sinatra until I read about who was in it after I watched it.
There were generations of people who came to know David Niven through this movie, not realizing his long career before it ever came out.
Gentleman’s Journal wrote that Niven represented the perfect English gentlemen in the minds of generations.
In his first movie he said “Good-bye, my dear,” to a lady getting on a train.
“In just a few words, Niven had distilled onto celluloid the perfect English gentleman – suave and cheerful, sleek and charming,” The website states. “His success skyrocketed overnight, and it echoes still today. Even now, when we think of the quintessential Englishman, it is Niven’s smiling face, pencil moustache, and effortless attire that flashes into view.”
Well, if not Niven, then Phileas Fogg.
A few tidbits of trivia I learned about the movie while researching:
Orson Welles was a little upset he did not get a cameo in the film. He was upset because before Michael Todd produced this film, he produced a stage version by Welles. The play flopped but Todd turned the project into a film anyway and it enjoyed great success. Welles felt he gave the idea to Todd in the first place. (Source Classic Movie Hub).
Shirley MacLaine wrote that filming a scene with thousands of extras ground to a complete halt because the propman forgot to put the bottle of champagne in the balloon with David Niven and Cantinflas.
Michael Todd never had anyone else other than David Niven in mind for the role of Phileas Fogg.
Michael Todd’s original estimate for the film’s budget was $3 million. The film ended up costing nearly double that, largely thanks to Todd’s demands for verisimilitude and location shooting.
Alexander Korda had previously taken an unsuccessful stab at the material. His advice to Michael Todd was “Back away from it, Mike. I’ve been trying to lick it for years. Total loss.”
If you write book reviews or book-related blog posts, don’t forget that Erin, Cat, And I host the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea Monthly Bookish Blog Party. You can learn more about it here.
On Thursdays, I am part of the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot blog link party. You can find the latest one in the sidebar to the right under recent posts.
Notice: This post may contain affiiate links. If you purchase the product from these links I will receive a small compensation at no extra charge to you.
Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.
If you would like to be the first to get news about my books or just have access to special posts for supporters, you can do so here for $2.99 a month https://lisahoweler.com/support-my-writing/
Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, where we offer a place for bloggers to link up and get a fresh set of eyes on their posts. We also feature one blog a week, letting our readers know about the blog and providing a link so readers can learn more about it.Please feel free to post new blog posts or old ones you want to bring attention to again.
Look for the post to go live about 9:30 PM EST on Thursdays.
This has been a bit of a weird week with little irritations all flying in at once, but it has also been a very nice weather week, which I am enjoying beause next week we are getting high temps and my chronically ill body can not handle hat well. Bracing myself for it all by buying a new (small) fan, checking that the AC is ready to go, and having lots of cold drinks on hand. I hope you are doing well wherever you are.
Now, let’s introduce our current hosts for the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot:
Marsha from Marsha in the Middle started blogging in 2021 as an exercise in increasing her neuroplasticity. Oh, who are we kidding? Marsha started blogging because she loves clothes, and she loves to talk or, in this case, write!
Melynda from Scratch Made Food! & DIY Homemade Household – The name says it all, we homestead in East Texas, with three generations sharing this land. I cook and bake from scratch, between gardening and running after the chickens, and knitting!
Lisa from Boondock Ramblingsshares about the fiction she writes and reads, her faith, homeschooling, photography and more.
Cat from Cat’s Wire is a bookworm, movie fan, crazy cat lady, armed with beads, cabs, wire and a very jumpy brain which loves to go down rabbit holes!
Rena from Fine, Whatever writes about style, midlife, and the “fine whatever” moments that make life both meaningful and fun. Since 2015, she’s been celebrating creativity, confidence, and finding joy in the everyday.
We would love to have additional Co-Hosts to share in the creativity and fun! If you think this would be a good fit for you and you like having fun (come on, who doesn’t!) while still being creative, drop one of us an email and someone will get back with you!
WTJR will be highlighting a different blogger each week this year! We invite you to stop by their blog, take a look around and say hello!
Nettie is the cook, baker, photographer, and designer behind the Moore or Less Cooking Food Blog. When she’s not busy creating, adapting, and testing recipes, she enjoys reading, traveling, and outdoor activities. Her true passions are food and design. Have a seat, take a look around, and savor the flavor!
Thank you so much for joining us for our link-up!
And now some posts that were highlights for me this past week:
This link party is for blog posts only. All other links will be deleted.
Please link only blog posts you created yourself.
Please link directly to the URL of your post and not the main address of your blog.
Please do not add links to videos, sales ads, or social media links such as YouTube videos or Shorts, Instagram or Facebook Reels, TikTok videos, or any other “social media” based content.
But do visit other blogs and give the gift of a comment.
Notice: By linking with Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot, you assert that content and photos are your own property. And you give us permission to share said content if your post or blog is showcased.
We welcome unlimited, family friendly content! This can include opinion pieces, recipes, travel recaps, fashion ideas, crafts, thrifting, lifestyle, book reviews or discussions, photography, art, and so much more! Thank you for joining us!
If you are new to my blog, I just wanted to share with you that I co-host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea (no, you don’t have to drink tea to participate) with Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs) and Cat (Cat’s Wire). You can find a link to it at the top of the page. The link party is for all book-related posts from reviews and recommendations to …well, anything related to books at all. Including Top Ten Tuesday, if you want to link your top ten there too!
Today’s Top Ten Tuesday prompt is: Books on My Summer 2026 To-Read List
Since I listed 15 books I want to read this summer in a blog post last week, I thought today I would list 9 mystery books I want to read this summer and one I already read. There are four Agatha Christe books listed here — one I already read, two I’ll be reading for the Agatha Christie Reading Challenge (July and August) and one I threw in for extra.
Already read: 1. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Description:
The peaceful English village of King’s Abbot is stunned. The widow Ferrars dies from an overdose of Veronal. Not twenty-four hours later, Roger Ackroyd—the man she had planned to marry—is murdered. It is a baffling case involving blackmail and death that taxes Hercule Poirot’s “little grey cells” before he reaches one of the most startling conclusions of his career.
2. The Ivory Dagger (A Miss Silvers Mystery) by Patricia Wentworth (already started)
Description: When Lila Dryden is discovered standing over her fiance’s body with dagger in hand, Miss Silver is called in to investigate, only to discover Lila’s sleepwalking patterns, the return of her former lover, and the victim’s circle of acquaintances–all of whom occasionally wished him dead.
3. Clouds of Witness by Dorothy Sayers
Description: In a shocking scandal, the likes of which has not been seen in the English aristocracy since the 18th century, the Duke of Denver stands accused of the foul murder or his sister’s fiance, shot through the heart on a cold, lonely night at Riddlesdale Hall in Yorkshire. The Duke’s brother, Lord Peter Wimsey, attempts to prove Denver’s innocence, but why is the Duke refusing to cooperate? And what does his sister, Lady Mary, know about the affair? Trying to reveal the truth, Wimsey uncovers a web of lies and deceit within the family and finds himself faced with the unhappy alternative of sending either his brother or his sister to the gallows – until he himself becomes a target…
4. Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham
Description: A red chess piece… An improbable suicide… A disappearing judge… These were the clues to a killer whose victims never escaped. Judge Lobbett has found evidence pointing to the identity of the criminal mastermind behind the deadly Simister gang that is terrorizing New York. After four attempts on his life, he seeks the help of enigmatic and unorthodox amateur sleuth, Albert Campion, during his travel to England. For safety, Campion sends the Judge and his family to a secluded house in an island on the Suffolk coast.
But that safety is it seemed fitting that odd things should happen in a town called “Mystery Mile”. Soon after their arrival the local vicar is killed – a clear message from the gang. Its a race against time for Campion to get the judge to safety and decipher the clue to their mysterious enemy’s name. But even a connoisseur of crime as Scotland Yard’s Albert Campion had never encountered such elusive clues. He had to trace a mastermind of crime in time to save his client’s life–and his own. Luckily for Judge Lobbett, underneath his constant stream of banter, Campion displays a diamond-sharp intelligence and a natural detective’s instinct… Blackmail, abduction and sudden death bring matters to a climax.
5. Murder, She Wrote: Slaying in Savannah by Donald Bain
Description: Jessica is saddened when her eccentric old friend Tillie Mortelaine passes away—and surprised to learn that Tillie has left her a million dollars. But there are strings attached. Jessica must use the money to help the literacy fund she and Tillie established years ago in Savannah, Georgia. And she will receive the money only if she can solve a mystery within the month: the murder of Tillie’s fiancé, Wanamaker Jones.
As Jessica settles into Tillie’s Savannah mansion and meets Tillie’s boarders, she also discovers that the spirit of Wanamaker Jones haunts the grounds. And that there are those in Savannah who are looking to cash in on Tillie’s demise—and Jessica’s failure…
6. ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
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Description:
When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already looking into the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it’s one letter down, twenty-five to go.
There’s a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway Guide beside each victim’s body. But if A is for Alice Asher, bludgeoned to death in Andover, and B is for Betty Bernard, strangled with her belt on the beach at Bexhill, who will then be Victim C? More importantly, why is this happening?
Often considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s best.
7. By The Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie
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Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, Agatha Christie’s delightful sleuthing duo, investigate the strange and troubling doings behind the scenes at a gothic British nursing home in By the Pricking of My Thumbs
When Tommy and Tuppence visit an elderly aunt in her gothic nursing home, they think nothing of her mistrust of the doctors; after all, Ada is a very difficult old lady.
But when Mrs. Lockett mentions a poisoned mushroom stew and Mrs. Lancaster talks about “something behind the fireplace,” Tommy and Tuppence find themselves caught up in a spine-chilling adventure that could spell death for either of them.
8. Pigeon Pie Mystery by Julia Stuart
Description: When Indian Princess Alexandrina is left penniless by the sudden death of her father, the Maharaja of Brindor, Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace. Though rumored to be haunted, Alexandrina and her lady’s maid, Pooki, have no choice but to take the Queen up on her offer. Aside from the ghost sightings, Hampton Court doesn’t seem so bad. The princess is soon befriended by three eccentric widows who invite her to a picnic with all the palace’s inhabitants, for which Pooki bakes a pigeon pie. But when General-Major Bagshot dies after eating said pie, and the coroner finds traces of arsenic in his body, Pooki becomes the #1 suspect in a murder investigation. Princess Alexandrina isn’t about to let her faithful servant hang. She begins an investigation of her own, and discovers that Hampton Court isn’t such a safe place to live after all. With her trademark wit and charm, Julia Stuart introduces us to an outstanding cast of lovable oddballs, from the palace maze-keeper to the unconventional Lady Beatrice (who likes to dress up as a toucan—don’t ask), as she guides us through the many delightful twists and turns in this fun and quirky murder mystery. Everyone is hiding a secret of the heart, and even Alexandrina may not realize when she’s caught in a maze of love.
9. Sad Cypress by Agatha Christie
Description:
Beautiful young Elinor Carlisle stood serenely in the dock, accused of the murder of Mary Gerrard, her rival in love. The evidence was only Elinor had the motive, the opportunity, and the means to administer the fatal poison.
Yet, inside the hostile courtroom, only one man still presumed Elinor was innocent until proven Hercule Poirot was all that stood between Elinor and the gallows.
10.The Cat Who Had 60 Whiskers by Lilian Jackson Braun
(Little nervous about this one as it is the last in the series before Lilian died and the later books really weren’t very good.)
Description: A twenty-ninth installment of the popular series finds Moose County in an uproar over a string of lucrative inheritances and a bee sting-related death, throughout which Polly departs for Paris, Koko the irrepressible Siamese meets a piano tuner, and Qwill writes a play.
Have you read any of these? What did you think of them?
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Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.
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You don’t have to guess who is going to die in this Agatha Christie book since the title is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
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But who killed Roger Ackroyd is going to get complicated and you’ll need to strap yourself in for the rollercoaster ride.
The book was originally presented as a serialization entitled Who Killed Ackroyd? From July to September of 1925 in the London Evening News.
The book is about a doctor, James Sheppard, who lives in the small English village of King’s Abbot with his spinster sister Caroline and gets wrapped up in the mystery of the murder of well-known village resident Roger Ackroyd, which occurs within 24-hours after another village resident commits suicide.
From Goodreads: “Considered to be one of Agatha Christie’s greatest and also, most controversial mysteries. ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’ breaks the rules of traditional mystery.”
I didn’t realize this was a Hercule Poirot book before I started it. This is actually the third Poirot book, which I found interesting since in it he is talking about retirement. Dr. Sheppard narrates this book in first person, creating a unique and entertaining way to introduce Poirot.
This is my seventh Agatha Christie read this year as I work through the books on my own and through the 2026 Christie Reading Challenge.
Before I was done with this one, someone online (I can’t remember if it was a comment on my post or someone else’s post, spilled the beans that the ending was shocking. They said there was a surprising twist so that had me trying to figure out the twist through most of the book, which means I figured out the killer but still had to be sure I was right and still wanted to know how Agatha lead the reader there.
I was right but I still enjoyed the book immensely. Agatha really was ahead of her time with her plot twists and stories overall. Never before, or maybe I should say, rarely before, had mystery writers taken readers down such psychological roads with endings that left the reader not just thinking about the mystery’s solution, but also about the nature of humans and why they do what they do.
I’m not going to say she was the first to do this (hello, Conan Doyle, Allingham, Sayers, etc.), of course, but she did pull off the twists in interesting ways. I would say that the ending of Crooked House was one of the darkest and uncomfortable twists in any era, let alone the Golden Age of Mystery era.
As in any Poirot book, there were hilarious or interesting quotes.
Among them was one that came from Poirot after he accidentally hits Dr. Sheppard with a marrow (squash):
“I demand of you a thousand pardons, monsieur. I am without defence. For some months now I cultivate the marrows. This morning suddenly I enrage myself with these marrows. I send them to promenade themselves — alas! Not only mentally but physically. I seize the biggest. I hurl him over the wall. Monsieur, I am ashamed, I prostrate myself.”
Dr. Sheppard doesn’t know who Poirot, who has moved in next to him and his sister, is at first. He thinks he might be a hairdresser.
“Clearly a retired hairdresser,” he thinks at one point. “Who knows the secrets of human nature better than a hairdresser?”
Dr. Sheppard calls him “Porrott” and is bewildered by the clues the man is giving him. Poirot also has no idea Dr. Sheppard doesn’t know he’s a famous detective.
“Mr. Ackroyd knew me in London, when I was at work there,” Poirot tells him after the marrow hitting incident. “I have asked him to say nothing of my profession down here.’ Sheppard continues by saying, “I see,” and is amused at Poirot’s “patent snobbery.”
“But the little man went on with an almost grandiloquent smirk,” Christie writes.
“One refers to remain incognito. I am not anxious for notoriety. I have not even troubled to correct the local version of my name.”
“Indeed,” I said, not knowing quiet what to say.
Another funny quote that I took as a bit of a self-deprecating jab at herself by Christie, since she once wrote romances too: “What made you notice Ralph Paton? His good looks?”
“No, not that alone — though he is unusually good-looking for an Englishman — what your lady novelists would call a Greek God. No, there was something about that young man that I did not understand.”
Up next in my Agatha Christie reading journey is a different book for Agatha — The Rose and the Yew Tree — a tragedy written by Agatha under the name Mary Westcott.
Have you read The Murder of Roger Ackroyd? What did you think?
