EVERYONE Has Read This but Me - The Catch-Up Book Club discussion

Hello all - starting up discussions for the JANUARY 2018 BOTMs. This discussion is for the group's poll selection for the CLASSICS category: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

This discussion will be SPOILER-FREE. If you have already finished the book and want to discuss, hop on over to the spoiler-filled discussion HERE .

Happy reading!
Kasey

Looking forward to this! It'll be my third Agatha Christie ever and might just be the tipping point that gets me hooked on her works!

This is one of my all time favorite mysteries. Agatha Christie was a genius. I remember my shock at the ending.The clues were all there but I didn't put them together

I read this a few months ago and really enjoyed it. It is worth reading as it is probably one of AC's best books.

🙂 I love this book so far and I liked the movie a lot as well. Though a bit too much French for me ☹ I do not speak French at all.

Which movie did you see the new one with Brangh?

I loved the scenery in that one. I am not sure I liked Branagh as Poirot. I hope he does another one so I have more opportunity to decide.

lol

Hard to get a copy because of the current movie. I have one, but only for two weeks, no renewals!

Renee wrote: "Which movie did you see the new one with Brangh?

I loved the scenery in that one. I am not sure I liked Branagh as Poirot. I hope he does another one so I have more opportunity to decide.

lol"

Exactly the new one 🙂 I liked how the movie was made, country and also that I can imagine the characters, although I must agree I also did not like Branagh and imagine Poirot as the one from the TV series 😀

I am looking forward to reading this as I have never read it before. I did see the movie many, many years ago. But I almost always like books better than movies!
And I don't really remember much about the movie since I saw it so long ago.

I haven’t seen any of the movies yet, but David Suchet is Poirot to me. I started watching the tv show with my parents when I was very young and he just IS Poirot in my mind! So it would be interesting to see someone else portraying him.

I really loved this book! As someone before said, the clues are all there but man, Christie hides those clues pretty well in everything going on. I probably won’t reread this one this time around, but the discussion should be interesting. I’m looking forward to it :)

I'm looking forward to picking this up at the library. I have never read anything by Agatha Christie, I didn't get to our October read since I had my book for my Brit lit course. But I did watch the movie and I am hoping that it is better than the movie (which all books are better than the movie...usually), just not enough Johnny Depp lol. I am ready to check it out right now though!

Cheryl wrote: "Hard to get a copy because of the current movie. I have one, but only for two weeks, no renewals!"

I had the same problem as I usually get my book club reads from the library, but the main library near me is closed for renovations and the copies as the satellite libraries are all checked out. It made a great excuse for a Scribd free trial, though. :)

the thing i like about this club is it makes me read books i would not have otherwise <3 i do enjoy agatha's books but the vocab can get away from me, i always have to sit with google open.

Kyra wrote: "I'm looking forward to picking this up at the library. I have never read anything by Agatha Christie, I didn't get to our October read since I had my book for my Brit lit course. But I did watch th..."

Is there eve enough Johnnyh Depp?

Vrenzy wrote: "the thing i like about this club is it makes me read books i would not have otherwise <3 i do enjoy agatha's books but the vocab can get away from me, i always have to sit with google open."


I agee Vrenzy. I tend to go to the same shelf for the same authors every library trip. Its nice to be exposed to new authors. It is also nice to talk on them

Yes, guys, broaden horizons! :-)

I'm in, rereading "Orient Express". Also read this a long time ago, so it'll be interesting. Didn't go to the movies just not to spoil the mistery.

Cheryl wrote: "Hard to get a copy because of the current movie. I have one, but only for two weeks, no renewals!"

Same here! I really want to read it, but my library is estimating a 26 week wait before a copy is available. If I want to join the discussion I will definitely have to buy this one!

I saw the movie and I really hope, that the book will still be good, although I already know the ending.

I recently watched the movie and received a really nice edition of the book for Christmas! I’m excited to start reading; it’s my first Agatha Christie but hopefully not the last

Hoping to get to this one this month.
It will only be my second Christie, but I have heard so many good things.

I wish I didn’t know the ending from watching the movie! I wonder if I’ll be able to figure how the clues fit together because I know how it ends though.

Rose wrote: "... it’s my first Agatha Christie but hopefully not the last"

Guaranteed. Once inocullated, the poison spreads! :-)

Agatha worked as a nurse and so learned a lot about poisons, knowledge she used in many of her novels.

Downloaded the novel to my tablet yesterday. How fast a read is it? I am currently slogging through 2 other books but if I can zip through this, I might do that. Otherwise, I will focus on the others to get to this one.

I wanted to read her stuff before but was intimidated by the large catalog and was afraid I would get hooked and needed to read them all or I should try to read them in order. Are we missing anything by not reading others first? The catalog seems to indicate this is the 10th novel of the Hecule Poirot series.

James wrote: "Are we missing anything by not reading others first? The catalog seems to indicate this is the 10th novel of the Hecule Poirot series. ..."

I was wondering this as well and why I've put off reading this specific selection (I normally am one who has to read all books in a series in order)

Pretty sure you don't need to read any other Poirot first.

It's a mystery, not a story about the detective.

How fast a read? Depends on how hard you want to try to solve it yourself. Do you want to spend time thinking about every bit of data that might be a clue? I'm about 20 pp in and there's already a lot of those bits so far!

Cheryl wrote: "Pretty sure you don't need to read any other Poirot first.

It's a mystery, not a story about the detective. ..."

I am not a huge reader (trying to be) but I imagined that even if its just one story with a repeating character, there may be some development or the story builds off from the others. For example, his skills improve as the series goes on or he notices something this time that reminds him of another mystery.

I always liked the idea that a character grows with the reader, with novel after novel. However, I can appreciate a story, is just a story. You just sit back and enjoy the twists and turns. Looking forward to it.

True, there are bits of references to previous cases, iiuc. But I'm confident that they're relatively trivial. At least, that's what I'm telling myself, because I have no intention of trying to read every book in the series in order! :)

This is not a series like modern ones, in which the stories really are developed in a sequence (Camilla Läckberg, for instance - characters get married, have babies, etc.). Vintage misteries. There is a growth, but that was not a particular aim at that time, I guess.

Don't worry about having to read everything, AC wrote over 70 books! Mostly standalones. And not all are Poirots.

Cheryl is quite right. Some trivial links between some of the books. Like the very first and the very last of Poirot's adventures, they have some characteres and places in common.

For some books, however, it may be good to read in an order. But not necessarily.

If you care about that, there are indications here:

https://www.goodreads.com/series/5113...

"Orient Express", fortunately, is to be read before another one. :-)

Well, I'm done. I found it too engaging to be able to slow down and try to solve myself....

I intend to join this one by listening this month. I enjoyed listening to And Then There Were None narrated by Dan Stevens. It was quite good, and this has the same narrator. Both are available on Hoopla.

I am hoping I can get a hold of this book in time, currently 26th on my library wait list.... *fingers crossed*

I really want to read this one, I'm going to start as soon as possible!

I am having the same problem as others here, a very long wait list at both libraries I use. So over the holiday weekend I bought a copy for my Nook.

I have never read any Christie and haven't seen the movie so I am coming into this fresh. I have been having a bit of a problem with some of the French expressions and it slows reading down a bit.

I did find a page with references through wikipedia that has been helpful.
http://planetpeschel.com/murder-orien...

Looking forward to finding out what happens.

Karen, thank you so much for that link to the annotations. Peschel did a lot of helpful work for us... I almost want to read the mystery again, with those notes to hand!

Karen wrote: "I am having the same problem as others here, a very long wait list at both libraries I use. So over the holiday weekend I bought a copy for my Nook.

I have never read any Christie and haven't seen..."
THANKS for that link!! what a big help that is gonna be!

Sally wrote: "Karen wrote: "I am having the same problem as others here, a very long wait list at both libraries I use. So over the holiday weekend I bought a copy for my Nook.

I have never read any Christie an..."

Glad to share it, my hubby found it for me after he got tired of trying to translate...LOL. What is a Wagon Lit anyway? It does help to have this resource...the one about the Dickens book was good too.

Karen wrote: "Sally wrote: "Karen wrote: "I am having the same problem as others here, a very long wait list at both libraries I use. So over the holiday weekend I bought a copy for my Nook.

I have never read a..."

A wagon lit is a railroad sleeping car. It's also the name of the company that operates the Orient Express. :)

Jenn wrote: "Karen wrote: "Sally wrote: "Karen wrote: "I am having the same problem as others here, a very long wait list at both libraries I use. So over the holiday weekend I bought a copy for my Nook.

I hav..."
Yes, I found that out by looking at the list I posted, it is a good resource.

Looking forward to reading this, but waiting until after I watch the movie. Usually, the movie will not spoil the book for me, but a great book almost always ruins the movie!

I'm in. I have placed a reserve on the book at the library. I was surprised that it wasn't available. I was unaware of the new movie

Marcos wrote: "This is not a series like modern ones, in which the stories really are developed in a sequence (Camilla Läckberg, for instance - characters get married, have babies, etc.). Vintage misteries. There..."

Thank you for sharing the link, Marcos. I have read quite a few books from the Hercule Poirot series, but I had no idea that there were over forty total works!

I plan on rereading Murder on the Orient Express, hopefully this month. It's been so long since I first read it, but I do remember being quite surprised at the end.

I enjoyed the BBC series Poirot, based on Dame Agatha's books. I just finished listening to David Suchet, who played Poirot in the BBC series, read Murder On The Orient Express. https://archive.org/details/09.Murder... is a link you can copy and paste. If you have a long wait at the library, I recommend trying the audio version (free) online. It is well worth it.

Would you believe that I just finished the Alchemist and decided that I needed a lighter read and saw Murder on the Orient Express sitting on the shelf and decided to reread it. Then I thought I'd check the boards before starting and what do I see? It's the Book of the Month on here. 2 birds one stone.

See you on the other side peoples 📚🚂

Chris wrote: "I enjoyed the BBC series Poirot, based on Dame Agatha's books. I just finished listening to David Suchet, who played Poirot in the BBC series, read Murder On The Orient Express. https://archive.org..."

That is what I ended up doing! And I have not been disappointed. What a talented narrator!

He's an amazing Poirot on the TV too Tawnee.

So this is my first Agatha Christie book, I skipped the other two because I had too much on my plate.

I decided to get the Movie Tie In on Audible, since it seems nothing was changed and I LOVE the cover. The narrator does a fabulous job but french accents are so hard for me to understand! This is the first time I've slowed the audio speed, and it has helped so much!

Is anyone else listening to it and having the same problem with the french accents and words?

I read some of Agatha Christie’s books years ago but have never read this one. I hope to start reading it later today.

I'm usually ok with blatant racism in books because I take in mind the era in which it was written. But... this one.. I'm enjoying it, don't get me wrong! But there has been so many remarks that it kinda pulls me away at times.

The latest one, and the one that honestly has me writing this, is when describing the murder. That its not a latin crime, but a cool, reasonable crime... an anglo-saxon crime. I think the worst part of this remark is that despite the fact that its obviously racist... its still a perpetuated idea today. That anything Latin is passionate, spicy, or what-have-you. Basically that the people are very emotionally driven.

Ok.. rant done... I think.

Good rant, though :)

Crime is crime, no need for those kind of descriptors!

Joanna wrote: "Good rant, though :)

Crime is crime, no need for those kind of descriptors!"

Lol, thanks. Like I said, I'm usually just fine with racist remarks in books because they are a product of their time. But I guess things hit harder when they are closer to home.. not that I've ever even realized that Italians were considered latin.
I mean, I understand in so far that italian is based off the latin language... but so is english so...
Is anyone here italian? My mind isn't making sense.