Welcome to Litsy!

Okay, gotta get back into the swing of Litsy things… (although honestly, a pox on moving)

1) I have moved 8 times in the last ten years, almost all of them intercontinentally and most with pets…and I could not be more over it (although if you need moving pointers, I‘m your gal!). Most recently was 8 months ago & this one had better stick for a bit.

2. Agatha Christie‘s memoir of her expat life is one of my all time favourites

#Two4Tuesday

My previous read reminded me that I still had this memoir on my shelves. Agatha Christie writes of the time spent with her archaeologist husband on digs in Iraq and Syria in the years before WWII. It‘s incredibly witty!

See, @Tamra ? I‘m really trying to #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks. 😆

After finishing the Readathon, I‘m thinking a book for #NFNov is the way to go next. This is just a small #stack of some of my #NFTBR I‘ve also got a few waiting at the library for pickup. I‘m thinking of going with A Night To Remember but the Ann Rule is calling me too. This is my problem as a reader, too many choices can put me in a rut. Do any of you have the same issue? Which one are you looking forward to reading or have read and loved?

My parents brought over a stand no longer in use at their house...let‘s just say my library shelves are filling up, and I have so much more to put away. But, I‘m building a collection of all Christie‘s books and thought having a special place for them was in order. Hence the stand. I also have ARCs on the stand I really need to review...yikes! Naturally, Vladimir and Sebastian has to check it out. #catsoflitsy #Vladimir #SebastianKitty

Really ... could there be anyone else for The Empress than Dame Agatha or any of her novels more suited to the themes of embracing the world around you than her autobiography of her life in archaeological digs in the Middle East between the wars? If you haven‘t read this, I can‘t recommend it enough, especially if where you live at the moment isn‘t “home”.

#OctoberPhotoChallenge #TarotTakeover

My #fascination over Christie...not every book of hers I own, but this represents most of them. Waiting to buy a bookcase to showcase all of her books. My goal is to own at least one copy of every book she wrote.

I‘d showcase my Jane Austen fascination/obsession, but I have those books scattered everywhere! #SeptemberDanes

Bookmail! I love Agatha Christie, so I couldn‘t resist buying these two. 😍📚

An entertaining account of life on a dig in the 1930s. Christie uses the same wry wit in describing the countries, people, & daily grind of survey & excavation in this book as she does writing her mysteries. She writes with an obvious affection, albeit from an obviously privileged point of view, about the Middle East. Reading the memoir, it‘s obvious archaeology has changed a great deal even as our desire to understand the past remains unchanged.

It is the question, too, that Archaeology asks of the Past - Come, tell me how you lived?
And with picks and spades and baskets we find the answer.

#Study #QuotsyDec17
@TK-421

“No sooner have the lamps been extinguished than mice in their scores—I really believe in their hundreds—emerge from the holes in the walls and the floor. Mice across one‘s face, mice tweaking your hair—mice! mice! mice!...
“Max utters soothing words.
“Excellent advice...One has first to get to sleep, and with mice taking healthy exercise and having their field sports all over you, that is hardly possible.”

Honestly, I‘d take mice over roaches.

Ok, so reading Agatha Christie‘s archaeological memoir has me adding a couple of rereads to my TBR pile. Funny that I have these and not, at least currently, Murder on the Orient Express which is the story, via the movie, that led me to pick up my current read.

“For to our point of view the Romans are hopelessly modern—children of yesterday. Our interest begins in the second millennium B.C.”

Christie, like many others, would most likely have described my period of specialization as “post interesting.” Some things don‘t change.

“Preparations are now in full swing—buying of stores; engaging of chauffeur and cook...”

Ha! Safe to say excavations (certainly most) have changed a little since the 1930s.

Truth:

“One thing can safely be said about an archaeological packing. It consists mainly of books. What books to take, what books can be taken, what books there are room for, what books can (with agony!) be left behind.

“There are several schools of thought as to packing. There are people who begin packing at anything from a week to a fortnight beforehand. There are people who throw a few things together half an hour before departure.”

This is totally me and one of my best friends. I always pack early & include extras of things I know she‘ll forget when she packs last minute! (Can‘t always find your favorite things while on an excavation.)

Family went to see Murder on the Orient Express which got me thinking about Agatha Christie—long a favorite of mine—& this book which has languished in my TBR pile since someone recommended it this summer. It‘ll be interesting to see what Christie makes of dig life. (My husband excavated with me for 3 days one summer. His reaction? “I get why you like it but this is too hard. You‘re crazy.”) It‘ll be fun to read Agatha Christie‘s thoughts.

#BookMail Bk2 of today‘s #Bookstravaganza is this lovely little memoir written by Dame Agatha after her 1930 archeological dig in the Middle East,which gave her a lifelong love of that part of the world.There‘s a few Poirot books set in Iraq (Persia at the time I believe) and Egypt.She wrote this during WWII after her husband was posted Egypt & she was working in a hospital dispensary,which probably explains her love of poisons & pills as weapons!

The Red Sox have been pretty terrible this series, so this may be my last Books + Baseball of the season. 📚⚾️

My book buying willpower took a bit of a hit the last couple days. Yesterday I found myself beside my favourite used bookstore with no kids in tow, the result was the stack on the left. Today, I was in the dollar store and found a beautiful, signed edition of The Orenda, and the two others on the right. The good news is all this cost me only $13.

I bought this on a whim and fell completely in love with it. Non-fiction, this is Christie's account of her time spent living and working in the near east with her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowen. If you've been or are an expat, you'll laugh out loud at her tales of trying to find off season clothes or explain foreign food tastes. Really lovely short book that captures the essence of living away from home & leaving your heart there. #expat

Agatha Christie's memoir of her time spent accompanying her husband on his archeological digs is charming and fascinating. It is a #memorablememoir for #booktober

Happy Birthday to Dame Agatha Christie. "An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have: The older she gets, the more interested he is in her." #bookmarks