Absent in the Spring by Mary Westmacott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very good book, very gripping. I am not sure why this book is under the category of romance, they are gripping, searing personal dramas. Agatha ripped the facade that this woman erected around herself, it is done slowly, plotted very naturally. It so gripping I could not stop reading it, even though it is very disturbing. The desert in the story reminds me of a police integration room with the spotlight centered on the suspect. Except there is no suspect, just a human being stripped bare to find her own inner core. This does not really give any plot points away, it is just my reaction to it, (other then effect of the desert on her,) you need read it to find out what she finds out and how she reacts to it. It certainly made me cry and react. I wonder it if it will do the same to you?

Dorothy L. Sayers: The Complete Stories by Dorothy L. Sayers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed re-reading this delightful collection.

Of course is The Lord Peter Wimsey stories that I had never read before the first time I read it and the wonderful stories of married life of Harriet and Peter. As always Peter solves all the various puzzles with aplomb.

I had never even heard of the Montague Egg stories. They are adorable. Egg is a traveling wine and spirits salesman who runs into all sorts of mysteries mysteries as he makes his sales calls. “The salesman who will use his brains will spare himself a world of pains,” and with this book he solves very puzzling mysteries.

I’m not really that big a fan of the last group of stories of stand alones, they’re much darker than the Wimseys and the Eggs and they are not my cup of tea but they are very well written of course.

I really like Sayers style, the puzzles are always fun and the humor is full of wit and fun. Great read!

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— Sherri Rabinowitz

Such a pretty flower,

It looks like any other,

But when one blows gently,

It flies apart, sensationally!

You want to cry,

It is a tragedy, but no, as you see the petals part,

you give an amazed start!

Because each petal is itself,

an individual,

whole and complete,

a dream like spirit that

flies its own path.

Each petal is an angel of beauty,

Fluttering in its own very short flight,

to freedom.

To check out my poetry and more; https://www.flapperpress.com/blog/writing-submissions-may-2019?fbclid=IwAR0aX1lOMAdPkzeoPN__4oye7gFl0WzibZPR9xmmfvls37bNIwEAv_xNP7A

Postern of Fate by Agatha Christie

I really enjoyed reading this book, when I first read it I had no idea that it was her very last book. I love the glimpses of her real childhood. It is a fun book with some thoughts that fits today’s world quite well, which is very sad, it means after 40 years the world is still in the same mess it has always been in. Which is basically what she talks about in the book. Oh, and I don’t agree with the reviewers of the time, it is not at all boring or banal.

I love that even in old age that Tommy and Tuppence are very much the same. And I love it all started with sorting out books from moving into a new place, and deciding what to keep and what to give away. I related to that because I had a similar thing happen to me recently. It is a really good mystery, very much worthy of the Queen of Crime and I highly recommend it.

By the Pricking of My Thumbs by Agatha Christie

I have read this before and enjoyed it, but recently I saw a movie of it, they added Miss Marple and changed the characters so that they were almost unrecognizable as our Tommy and Tuppence. Since there were first rate actors in it (whom I truly respect a lot,) I gave it a chance but it didn’t just disappoint me, it truly upset me.

So I decided to read it again, and it was just as fun and delightful as I remembered it. First of all Tommy and Tuppence though more mature were still true to their basic core of being in love and a team. I loved that. And she made a point that just because you became older didn’t mean you didn’t passionately love your life partner. I loved that too! Tuppence, as Tommy called her was still a terrier and went after what she was investigating with true vigor. She was brilliant, though she got herself in real trouble, even then she handled it all superbly.

Tommy was still a steady, reliable fellow, who not only respected his wife and but adored her. When she doesn’t come home, he pulls out everything he has in bag of tricks to find her. And of course faithful Albert is there, with his chicken dinners. Albert actually came up with an important lead.

I can’t really tell you more but it was lovely. I actually stayed up to 3 am last night to finish it, because I had forgotten parts (it’s been a while) and wanted to finish it before I went to bed.

Central to Nowhere by D.J. Blackmore

D.J. Blackmore’s; “CENTRAL TO NOWHERE” is a wonderful read created around a remote Australian station made which made me wish I could see it in person.

Ivy was hoping she to make a fresh start and turn herself into an experienced cowhand. Her new boss Adam O’Rourke despite how ill-suited she was found himself drawn to her against his will.

There is a lot of pain in this novel. Its about broken families, broken pasts and Alzheimer’s breaking a once strong mind.

Very intense but a good read, I had to read it in bits because some of it was intense but it is a heart filled book.

The Haircut Who Would Be King by Robert Trebor
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a fun and a very interesting satire. He combined what is happening in a humorous, fictional cloth. Very much like Mark Twain and Will Rogers he spun a tale with humor and a great deal of wit but there was just a sharp enough edge so you know it was couched in the reality of our time.

Towards Zero by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can’t believe that I owned this book and I have never read it before. I loved it! It had me looping back and forth between every character in the house. But I never guessed the killer. I think it was a fascinating study in psychology by the great Agatha Christie. The clues were there, the little slips but they seemed so normal that I did not pick them up.

Also I really enjoyed the two romances in the book that were not central to murder, I was happy that Mary had some romance, finally.

Also the man at the beginning of the book who you can’t really figure out what his part in it is till it is revealed. I think he is my favorite character for many reasons that I can’t reveal or it will give it away. But I really, really like him.

Also I find it interesting that Agatha Christie’s view on suicide that she had in The Harley Quin’s short story “The Man From The Sea,” is repeated here. And it really touched me both times, quite beautiful.

The Thirteen Problems by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

There is something special about this introduction of Agatha Christie’s second great sleuth; Miss Marple. Introduced through a series of short stories that allows you to truly get to know her. Her intelligence, compassion and humor. Her sweet expression belied by her sharp blue eyes as she sits quietly knitting almost forgotten by the others in the room. Even when she says she really had no idea what the solution was, she really did. Some people don’t enjoy reading short stories but I always have. It helps you to learn all the different sides of characters. And it teaches you just what an art the creating of a short story truly is and Agatha Christie was genius at it.

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The Bridesmaids ~ Inside the Privileged World of Grace Kelly and Six Intimate Friends by Judith Balaban Quine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is second time I read this book, (sort of trend because of moving and finding books as I slowly unpack.) I was in my twenties the first time I read it and rather innocent. I was more interested in the glamour and the movie stars then in the real lives.

Now as I mature women I read it very differently. With life experience I actually took in thing I don’t think my younger self could have even understood. Some of the lessons I learned from this book was very much needed. It made me feel more understanding and better about my own up and downs and my losses.

Grace was a beautiful, accomplished, very intelligent woman, she had a full life that contributed a lot in several ways. As much I enjoyed her many and varied accomplishments I really learned from her mistakes. It was a lot to take in.

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Laughs, Luck…and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time by Jess Oppenheimer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I interviewed Gregg Oppenheimer for my show Chatting With Sherri. It was a charming chat about his dad Jess Oppenheimer and Gregg’s play about Lucy called; “I Love Lucy; A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Sitcom.” So as research I began to read this book.

I truly enjoyed it because it was full of information not just about I Love Lucy, which I love but radio shows with Jack Benny, Fanny Brice, Fred Astaire and ultimately Lucille Ball. It was about the life story of Jess Oppenheimer and his memories of the period of Live Radio which was like catnip to me.

In case you can’t tell I loved this book and in it are recording from My Favorite Wife and I Love Lucy that you can’t hear anywhere else. Definitely worth a read 

By the way, the play I mentioned is also going to be a radio show, isn’t that cool? I can hardly wait!

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Aghatha Christie : Evil Under The Sun by Agatha Christie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hi, the way it is put into the system, they put the author’s name wrong and I just wanted to let you know, I know her name is; Agatha Christie  (But this is the edition I own, so I left it under here.)

This is the third time I have read the novel. It’s been a while and I am a very visual person. I see books as I read them. And Agatha Christie is excellent at painting a picture with her words. Maybe that is why her work translates so easily to film.

I have seen both the Peter Ustinov and David Suchet versions of the story. It’s funny what sticks in your mind, some things from the films completely wipe out what happens in the novel. For instance the summing up, it was completely different in both films from the novel. Where they take place, who he talks to and what he says in the novel is completely different, though the puzzle is of course is the same. I love a good movie and though they were both very different from what she wrote I enjoyed them both. You just don’t realize how your mind juggles things till you re-read it again later.

I don’t want to give away any of the plot but it is a fun “who done it,” with amazing characters. Like all her books, my favorite part in the book that does not happen at all in the movie is very small but important. It will not affect the mystery but it tells you how both Poirot thinks and his creator; He is helping Mrs. Gardener with a puzzle, putting the cut out pieces into place and that act in itself actually helped him figure out the puzzle of the crime. To me it says a lot.

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