Mal: How come you didn't turn on me, Jayne? Jayne: Money wasn't good enough. Mal: What happens when it is? Jayne: Well... that'll be an interesting day.

'Serenity'


Literary Buffistas 3: Don't Parse the Blurb, Dear.

There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."


-t - Feb 17, 2022 2:03:32 pm PST #27312 of 28034
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

I've watched some of Poirot with Suchet. There's an awful lot of that, too! 13 seasons or something?Putting off deciding if and how I want to approach all that.


Dana - Feb 17, 2022 2:31:20 pm PST #27313 of 28034
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."

There is indeed a lot of Poirot.

One of the Marple series, maybe the most recent one, had her reminisce in the first episode about her lover, a married pilot who died in the war. That is entirely not Miss Marple.


-t - Feb 17, 2022 2:46:18 pm PST #27314 of 28034
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

It was in Murder at the Vicarage with Geraldine McEwan, which was not the first episode for some reason. Neither series that I've seen started with Murder at the Vicarage, and both had Nemesis before A Caribbean Mystery and I just don't understand why. But that whole flashback/memory/whatever, that was very wrong. When Jane reminisced about the unsuitable man her mother put a stop to she went on to mention that she ran into him later in life and was super grateful because her mother was clearly in the right. Bah.


Laura - Feb 17, 2022 3:17:50 pm PST #27315 of 28034
Our wings are not tired.

I bookmarked the recommended list because it has been more than enough years since I read these that it will be all brand new now. Some nice pleasant mysteries will be a nice change since I am nearing the end of The Expanse series. Granted I am loving the space settings and action of this series, but will need a drastic change of subject when I finish.


Sophia Brooks - Feb 17, 2022 3:48:48 pm PST #27316 of 28034
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

I read "Cat Among the Pigeons" quite a bit. The plot hinges on Hercule being able to differentiate the knees of a real teenage girl from someone in her twenties pretending to be a teenage girl. Which was a little weird.

I am more of a Marple fan, and the "lover" was just weird. Weird. But I still watched it, just not actual Miss Marple. Miss Marple is the spinster I aspire to be.


Sophia Brooks - Feb 17, 2022 3:54:36 pm PST #27317 of 28034
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

The other thing with Christie is that you WILL encounter very casual racism and classism. There is sort of no way round it. One of my very favorite plots was Ten Little Indians, also known as Ten Little N*ggers. And Miss Marple always talks about "you know how "those people" are"- and there is also always some sort of nefarious swarthy person in Poirot (although that was sort of interesting, because Poirot was sort of a different type of nefarious swarthy person).


-t - Feb 17, 2022 4:11:05 pm PST #27318 of 28034
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

Yeah, there is a lot of that. It's generally not at all important to the plot/mystery, which makes it, I dunno, weird. I actually saw less of that in the Miss Marple books than I was braced for, but I've been gobsmacked by offensive descriptions and language in the middle of several mysteries, not just Christie, I was otherwise enjoying and I always feel like they could have just not done that, you know. So unnecessary.

I remember being not too happy about Cat Among the Pigeons but I can't remember exactly why. I was planning on probably skipping that one because if that vague memory, but by the time I get to 1959, who knows what I may do? That's ages from now.


Dana - Feb 17, 2022 4:12:23 pm PST #27319 of 28034
"I'm useless alone." // "We're all useless alone. It's a good thing you're not alone."

Ngaio Marsh has some appalling racism and homophobia.


Sophia Brooks - Feb 17, 2022 4:16:59 pm PST #27320 of 28034
Cats to become a rabbit should gather immediately now here

I think if I examine the difference with JK Rowling and Christie and March is that they are dead and not on social media. So I can take in their stuff. I can like it/choose to be appalled by it/examine both at a distance. I can do that with Harry Potter as a series, but then JK Rowling just keeps popping up! With opinions.

And yes, the fact that it is just not plot related is weird!


-t - Feb 17, 2022 4:19:08 pm PST #27321 of 28034
I am a woman of various inclinations and only some of the time are they to burn everything down in frustration

She does. I've spent more time thinking about hers because it's kind of isolated in particular books, not randomly sprinkled throughout and that is confusing. And some of it is, I think, trying to be progressive or enlightened or something but it really doesn't come off. Have come to no conclusion about it, other than I wish she didn't.