Tags
british, challenge 15, classic, english, fiction, gentle spectrum, horror, mystery, review 15, romance, secondhand books, short stories
Title: The Golden Ball and Other Stories
Writer: Agatha Christie
Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur Mysteries (2002)
Pages: 288p
Bought at: Reading Lights (IDR 25k)
The Golden Ball consisted of 15 short stories by Agatha Christie, taken from some of her books/short story collections. The first half of the book has funny, humorous short stories, full of surprises, twisted endings and hilarious characters, remind me a bit of Roald Dahl’s writing style.
My favorites include The Girl In The Train, telling a story about George Rowland, who had just been fired by his uncle, and decided to move into a small town, when suddenly he faced an unexpected adventure, involving a mysterious girl, a foreign royal family scandal, and some shady secret letters.
Another favorite is The Golden Ball, which has similar tone with The Girl In The Train (even the main character has the same first name!), but with more romance and a bit of juicy drama. All stories in the first half of the book are light, fun, and have a romantic tone.
The second half of the book, however, has very different tone. Taken mostly from The Hound of Death book, it consisted of supernatural stories, stories with unexplained things, and jaw dropping endings.
I don’t really have a favorite since most of them are pretty creepy and I don’t have the mood to enjoy creepy stories (especially after some heartwarming stories in the first half of the book). But I still remember well The Gypsy, a story about a mysterious gypsy woman who always haunted a poor young man and gave scary premonitions. The Lamp is also stuck in my head because it contained ghost- a child ghost who’d like so much to have a friend. Goosebumps!
It’s a bit weird actually to put very different kind of stories in the same book, especially because half of them are sweet and funny, while the rest are scary and creepy. But I still enjoyed The Golden Ball and other stories, it showed clearly that Agatha Christie was a very fine storyteller, however unusual and surprising the stories are.
Submitted for:
Limitless Pallet Category
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Aw, thank you for mentioning my group, Astrid! I saw that you were reading “The Golden Ball”. No wonder you asked for the review page this morning. For you, it’s there now! I like to put the original publishing year of books, instead of the random year in which different copies were made. 2002 makes this appear very modern but 1971 is a very different story. This compilation is not really old, though. It’s the year before I was born! LOL!
Thanks caroline! I’m enjoying the challenge so far 🙂
So happy to hear it! Also I see the linky buttons suddenly came back, although you see I found a creative way to import them into book covers, or the titles of my themes. I have great ideas for your challenge too again this year, Astrid! Carolyn.
P.S. “Gold” could also work in “Gentle Subjects”: stones, jewels. You’re allowed to use a book for both (A) and (B) because they’re different games. If you find extra stones, colours, etc after you pass the basic level; they’re extra points for the year end draw in 2016! 🙂
thanks for the info, caroline! I have put it in the linky as well 🙂
Great! BTW, please spell my name C-A-R-O-L-Y-N. I can see you are thinking of it like rhyming with “wine” but it does not. CAROLYN rhymes with “gin” or “fin”. Now good luck with my last name! LOL.
Cerita ‘The Lamp’ itu serem gilaaaaa!!! XDDD
bangeeet, horror abissss XD
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