I’m participating in the A-Z Blogging Challenge, where I post every day in the month of April (except Sundays) and each day is a letter.

My theme for the month is a series of posts about the things that shaped me.

A Murder Is Announced

I’ve talked about my love for Agatha Christie before, but I still feel like I need to call out my very first one.

A Murder Is Announced is a Miss Marple mystery, and it’s a doozy. One day a mysterious ad appears in the local paper, inviting the village to a neighbor’s house for a “murder.” Everyone assembles, expecting a party game — not an actual murder!

Over time I would love Hercule Poirot as a character much more than Miss Marple, but I think this was the story that really made me a Christie fan. The cozy village atmosphere, the fluffy detective with her knitting basket and a mind like a steel trap, several twists and surprises…

I wish I could read it again for the first time now; it would be interesting to know if I was surprised simply because I was eleven and didn’t know any better, or because it really was that good of a mystery.

Either way, it made me a fan for the rest of my life.

Much Ado about Nothing

Like any good English major, I’ve read plenty of Shakespeare. And my particular favorite is not a tragedy (Romeo and Juliet is a ridiculous love story and Hamlet whines too much) or a history (British kings are seriously crazy-pants), but the comedy Much Ado about Nothing.

Actually most of Shakespeare’s comedies are downright hilarious — the jokes at Bottom’s expense in Midsummer Night’s Dream, the slapsticky mistaken identity in Comedy of Errors — but it’s the romantic comedy of Much Ado about Nothing that really gets me.

Not Hero and Claudio; those two are just dull. And Don John, the bad guy, has no other motivation except being a bad guy.

But the enemies-to-lovers Beatrice and Benedick, that’s where the story gets interesting. Their banter is delightful, spending their scenes trading insults and snark — until everyone else convinces them the other is harboring unrequited love.

The 1993 film version with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson is absolutely worth watching (though who can really believe kind and pure Keanu Reeves as a villain?).

And again, just fast forward through the silly Hero/Claudio nonsense. Kate Beckinsale is lovely and all, but their story’s just not very interesting.

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