Everyone loves a good mystery and Agatha Christie knows that. Agatha Christie was a British author who penned numerous books, one of the most well-known being The Murder on the Orient Express. She had a pretty interesting life and she actually disappeared shortly after her first husband asked for a divorce. To this day, no one knows what happened in the ten days that she was missing. She remarried later and was very happy. Her intuitive mind really heped when it came to constructing her novels. Her favorite character that she uses in a number of books is Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective who parallels Nancy Drew in the way he is used over and over again. The people in her books are also very elegant and refined. The way her characters interact with each other is with subdued formality. I say subdued because they are still conversational. She talks in a high-class sort of fashion and even implements some French often throughout the text. Her mysteries are often very twisted and leave the reader guessing through the entire novel, you really don’t know who the killer is until the end of the book, and it is always a shocking revelation. Most readers enjoy her books and they are obviously still read today; on my copy of The Patriotic Murders, it says over 500 million copies of her books have been sold. This shows that she is still relevant and important in society today. In popular culture, Christie has been depicted on television, showing that her legacy lives on. For example, on a Doctor Who episode called ‘The Unicorn and the Wasp,’ Christie’s disappearance is a result of an encounter with an alien called a vespiform. In the end of the episode, the Doctor shows Donna an Agatha Christie book that had been published in the year 5,000,000,000. Even though the show is fictional, it goes to show that Christie is relevant in all genres and society in general. Agatha Christie’s books are cherished and adored by fans and it undoubtedly will be the same for years to come.
Tag Archives: doctor who
Why Historical Novels are Important
How do we know what we know about history? Careful accounts and discoveries have made the amount of information we know on our backgrounds larger and more finite. Historical novels, whether fictional or realistic, help us out even more by describing what life was like back then and how people dressed, acted, and behaved. Without them, we would lose the important part of history that makes us human. Historical books (and not just textbooks) teach us things that we actually wouldn’t have learned from reading a textbook. However, this post may be a little biased since my favorite genre of books is historical fiction. Historical novels can be based in fact or fiction. The fact comes from things that actually happened and the fiction is filler that the author thinks will make an entertaining story. Movies can be this way, too; when it is ‘based on a true story’, it is just that, some filler has been added to make the story flow better or look different, but most usually coincide to the actual events that happened. Take Titanic and Gone With the Wind for example: one about a tragic ship accident and the other based during the time of the American Civil War, with Sherman’s March to the sea being mentioned. However, there was most likely no one named Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater on the Titanic, and if Scarlett O’Hara was actually real, she is a long-forgotten Southern belle. Whatever the case, historical fiction is exciting to me because I find history itself so interesting. Learning how people lived over one hundred years ago is something I find so fascinating and I totally wish the Doctor and the Tardis were real. So whenever they invent time travel, sign me up. I want to learn about these distant times authors write about and live them.
Doctor Who?
Disclaimer: Okay, I know my blog is usually/supposed to be about books but I’m really into this show right now so just bear with me people!
Picture from http://www.hulu.com
This show will be the death of me. If you like Star Trek and British television and a little bit of The Time Traveler’s Wife, mix it all together, add a dash of awesome, and you’ve got Doctor Who. This show first aired in 1963 and after a 16 year hiatus they came back in 2005 with a whole new look but the same concept. The Doctor (yes that is his name) is a Time Lord that has to travel around to every corner of the universe and every second of time to help the life forms that need it. He travels in his TARDIS or Time And Relative Dimensions In Space, which looks like a blue police box from the 1950s. The Doctor is an alien who was in a war with the Daleks, another species of alien that was born to kill, and they both lost, completely obliterating the Doctor’s planet, he being the only survivor. It is now his task to help out everyone by traveling alone. However, he meets some companions along the way. The first companion we meet in the new series is Rose Tyler, a spunky blonde Brit who ends up falling in love with the Doctor, with the feelings being reciprocated. I will try not to spoil anything since all seven seasons are now on Hulu for everyone to watch! The Doctor cannot die, which is an advantage and a disadvantage. He regenerates into a different-looking man but he is the same person on the inside and this saves him from dying. The disadvantage to that is he really can’t die. If he finds a companion who is human, he can only be with them for a certain amount of time (he is 900 years old). This is the hamartia of the Doctor-he is forever completely alone. Overall, Doctor Who is a fantastic (oh, someone please get this reference…) TV show and it is a great watch. You can never be bored watching Doctor Who because there is always something exciting happening. You are introduced to new worlds and new people and it will leave you a different person. Personally, it is totally worth your money to create a HuluPlus account or if you like the cheaper route, just find some illegal website to watch it (not that I’m condoning this…). So go on, Allons-y! New adventures are waiting.
Always Reading 