Books and Jams Readalong discussion

It seems like this is the first one that has quite a few of us reading it. I'm going to read this one as well. I am pretty surprised that I haven't ever read it. I went through a mystery phase quite a long time ago, but Mary Higgins Clark was my go-to. I cannot wait to read ATTWN.

In this thread go ahead and share initial reactions, thoughts about the writing and characters, etc, but do try to stay away from spoilers. Towards the end of the month I'll change the title to SPOILERS so we can share final thoughts and reactions but not "ruin" anything for other readers.

Happy Reading!

I love a good mystery but for some reason have never picked up one of Agatha Christies's books. Murder on Orient Express is the one book I knew the most about and it never really held much interest for me. Sometime in the last year or two a booktuber was talking about another book that was inspired by And Then There Were None and have wondered about it ever since. So this is the perfect opportunity to try it out.

I am listening to the Audiobook and the narrator, Dan Stevens, is doing an amazing job with the various characters. Overall I am enjoying the story quite a bit although I finding there are a few things problematic with some of her character descriptions.

Samantha wrote: "I finding there are a few things problematic with some of her character descriptions."

Samantha - I used to love AC unconditionally when I was much younger and, sadly, blind and deaf to certain issues. Re-reading her books much later did not change my love for her oeuvre, BUT it is far not unconditional any more. Much to my regret and dismay I had to realize how many openly antisemitic (and other 'anti-') sentiments are there in these books; quite a few times her writing is outright cringy. I still love to read her stories and characters, but it is good to be clear about this problematic issue with AC, and be prepared to find several of them while reading her.

Kinga wrote: "Samantha wrote: "I finding there are a few things problematic with some of her character descriptions."

Samantha - I used to love AC unconditionally when I was much younger and, sadly, blind and d..."

I went in unprepared and have since (as Krista put in her most recent video) gone down a google rabbit hole. I wasn't even aware of the original titles for this book; talk about outright cringy. In any case Kinga you make a great point about being prepared.

Hi, everyone! I wasn't sure what book to read next, but my curiosity has been aroused by your comments. And, besides, I have lately read quite a few novels by "this is the new Agatha Christie" authors, so I guess it's time to go to the source. I also found it very intriguing that the original title had been changed.

I wasn't aware there was an original title. Now I'm curious. Watch out, google, here I come! haha.

I finished this one the other day. You guys are right about some of the problematic descriptions and sentiments for sure, but overall I had so much fun reading this!

I thought at first that I'd get bogged down in trying to figure out who was who, but as people start dying off it becomes much easier.

Is it wrong to say a book with so much murder was a fun read? I can see why so many people love this book. I enjoyed becoming a sleuth (or trying to) to figure out what was going on. I didn't guess it at all. I'm excited to get to another one now.

Krista wrote: "I finished this one the other day. You guys are right about some of the problematic descriptions and sentiments for sure, but overall I had so much fun reading this! "

This is one of my favs by AC together with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and the Murder on the Orient Express.

This was my first AC and I just loved it. I find myself still thinking about it going back in my mind trying to see why I didn't figure it out. It was a challenge to keep all the players straight but eventually, they began to stick out.

I have enjoyed reading this book and I am definitely going to read some more AC novels. Oh, and when I started reading, I realized that a film I saw a long time ago, Murder by Death, was a parody of this novel.

I just finish reading ATTWN; I loved it. I read a lot of AC and other whodunnits in my twenties but somehow missed this one. Although there were some uncomfortable racist references I gave it a bit of a pass for being written so long ago. It is a masterpiece of suspense, one where as soon as you finish you want to immediately start at the beginning again to uncover the hints you missed.

Nice, that was actually my first AC and now I want to read all of them

Kim wrote: "I just finish reading ATTWN; I loved it. I read a lot of AC and other whodunnits in my twenties but somehow missed this one. Although there were some uncomfortable racist references I gave it a bit..."

I felt the same way. I think this would be a fun one to reread and see if I can pick out any clues.

Krista wrote: "I think this would be a fun one to reread and see if I can pick out any clues."

:D That't exactly what I am doing right now. And so far (I am at about 40%) not really...! (Which makes me love this book even more!)

I really enjoyed this! And so glad to have had the push to read it thanks to the group. Definitely some problematic language and I did have a question related 2 of the murders, are we able to discuss spoilers?

Heather wrote: "I really enjoyed this! And so glad to have had the push to read it thanks to the group. Definitely some problematic language and I did have a question related 2 of the murders, are we able to discu..."

Sure! I think it's safe to discuss spoilers now. I'll change the title of this thread. What questions did you have?