Piecework Magazine and Miss Marple

In the September/October 2010 issue of Piecework Magazine they will be featuring literary inspired projects including:

• Deadly Yarns and Knitted Fictions by Jo Turney – Miss Marple lives on in contemporary knitting mysteries.

• What Would Miss Marple Knit? – A shawl, of course. Use the reproduction of a 1930’s English pattern to create your own “Miss Marple” shawl.

• Jane Austen’s Women and Their Crafts by Jennifer Forest – Set within a historical context, Jane Austen’s references to craft in her novels were well-recognized by her readers.

And many more interesting articles and projects all pertaining to literature. I’m both an Agatha Christie fan and a Jane Austen fan so I will be looking for to the new issue. You will be able to buy it at newsstands August 31st or you can order it directly from Interweave.

Ever Wonder What Inspires Writers Like Agatha Christie?

When Agatha Christie ‘Ripped from the Headlines’
by Chris_Chan

(WARNING: SPOILERS FOR VARIOUS CHRISTIE NOVELS FOLLOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.)

The Law & Order television franchise is famous for “ripping from the headlines,” that is to say, taking real-life crimes and other news stories and then fictionalizing them and incorporating them into the plots of episodes. Although Law & Order is probably the most famous example of this practice, many other crime shows borrow actual events. In another prominent instance, the television show The Fugitive is thought to be based on the true case of Dr. Samuel Sheppard (no relation to the character from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd!), who was convicted of murdering his wife but insisted that a man with distinctive features really did it. Roy Huggins, the creator of the show, denied borrowing the premise, despite the many parallels.

Agatha Christie had a creative and original mind, but on occasion she dipped into real-life events for her books. Many little details came from life.

It should be noted that she insisted that most of her characters were not based on anyone real, although she admitted that the killers in The Man in the Brown Suit and The Pale Horse were based on acquaintances of hers.  In the former case, the individual in question begged to be inserted into one of her books, then took umbrage at being the victim and insisted on being made the murderer, since “the murderer is always the most interesting character!”  Some fictional locations are based on real places.  The fictional mysterious island of And Then There Were None and the vacation getaway in Evil Under the Sun are thought to be based on Burgh Island.  The titular Bertram’s Hotel is commonly believed to be based on Brown’s Hotel, an establishment Christie often frequented in London.  These are just a handful of instances where little details had a foundation in fact.

Though the bulk of Christie’s plots were original, a handful of true crimes, carefully restructured, found their way into murders solved by Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple.  Importantly, Christie tended to only borrow the basic facts of the case, altering details as needed, and almost never utilizing the real-life solution.  Indeed, as this essay will illustrate, many unsolved true crimes were given neat solutions by Christie.

Should You Buy A Kindle

By now you’ve probably heard a lot about ebook readers and wondered if they are worth it and if you should get one, will they make reading easier, better, less expensive, or will you read more. There are a lot of worthy reviews out there and I’ll leave you with some links, but I wanted to briefly add my reason for recommending the Kindle.

I’ve had the Kindle 2 for less than a year and I love it. First I had the app for my iPhone and when I got the money I bought the real thing. I’m a moderate reader, I read 1-2 books a month for my own entertainment; I read as often as I can but I’m not very fast. I actually really like old books and have a number of them and won’t quit buying one when I can. But I also home school so I consume many more books a year.

Currently I read a lot more fiction than I used to because I’m too tired for anything heavy and want to read something easy to relax. A lot of these books are available for the Kindle already and the numbers of titles being published digitally have been increasing quickly since I’ve been paying attention.

I also read a few books on history, politics, and knitting. The history and politics are usually available on the Kindle (even old books), but I don’t even want the knitting books on the Kindle because they have a lot of color photos and diagrams and often have a more creative layout than standard text. (I have mailed patterns to Amazon to be made into the Kindle format for a very small fee that I have used on the Kindle.)

Lastly, I home school and a lot of the books we use are older books, not text books, and are available on the Kindle. This past school year there were six required books we used, and so I don’t do a lot of personal reading, I do use the Kindle a lot. Oh, and yes you can get many free classic books on the Kindle, on Google Books, and other sites but I just read the internet books on my computer for variety.

Some people don’t like ebook readers because they aren’t like books; the way the pages turn, color, and navigation, for instance. Well, they never will be just like books, because they aren’t traditional books. This Kindle Review is very thorough addressing all the pros and cons affecting who would be happy with these readers and who wouldn’t. There is also the question as to whether you should just buy an iPad and skip the readers altogether. The Kindle is better in the sun, has free 3G, doesn’t need a computer, is small, and costs a lot less, but if you can afford an iPad then get one because it has a lot of other stuff too, or get both–I’d like one too.

But if you are deciding between the Nook, Sony and Kindle, the Kindle wins! The Nook is nice but there are a lot of features that aren’t all they seem like you can only share books for a short specified amount of time and the same with reading in the store. David Pogue of the New York Times has a great video podcast on the pros and cons called, “I am Nook” which you can get on iTunes.

Sony, too, has made some great improvements which you can read about on The Ebook Reader Advisor along with other ebook information. Another good comparative review is available from Cnet for all three readers.

And if you read a lot, you will appreciate that Amazon has by far the most books, they work to keep the prices a good deal for their digital customers, it really does only take seconds to get your book (no waiting, never out of stock), and you can sync and read your books on your iPhone, Blackberry, PC, Mac, and iPad. I have had so many books over the years that I’ve resold for pennies or traded, given away to friends, and really I’m the one who has lost money. I collect some books, but unless I can afford a first edition Agatha Christie, it doesn’t really matter to me if I save the space and have it digitally. And you can keep all the books you may never read again “just in case” without feeling guilty.

So if you like to read and think you might like an ebook reader, try one, try a Kindle. Reading is very important and even your kids are more likely to be readers if they see you reading, and technology might be the enticement they need. (My son reads from the Kindle for school.) Reading is powerful because we have so much knowledge, opinion, and entertainment available to us uncensored in the U.S. Lastly, reading also reaps great rewards for a really small investment so rich or not so well off can enjoy this private luxury. Better new books and old clothes!