Life can be pretty messy. If you are a Christian, you know well how we live in a broken world where we don’t always get the happily-ever-after. At least not until eternity. The two books I chose randomly for my September reading illustrate this truth. One is a cozy mystery and the other is a book of poems and prayers. Walk with me through my September book club takeaways, and you’ll see!
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September Book Club Takeaways
The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton
I was probably 8 or 9 when I fell in love with mysteries. That’s about the time my parents gave me the first of many Nancy Drew books, The History of the Old Clock. There’s something about joining wits with a smart protagonist who pieces together all the clues of a robbery, murder, or some other criminal activity. Who did it? How did they do it? And by the end of the story, the mystery is completely solved. The killer is identified, and the puzzle pieces fit together. Not a single one is missing. It makes sense. Order is restored.
As I got older, I gravitated to mysteries that didn’t quite fit into this category where all the pieces came together in the end. They left me with more questions than answers.
Classic v. Wild Mysteries
One of my favorite mystery writers, Tana French, explains that there are two kinds of mysteries, the classic (she doesn’t use that particular word) and the wild. I described the classics above. Nancy Drew. Agatha Christie. Sherlock Holmes. “By the end of the book, every baffling clue connects up to the others,” she writes.
The wild mysteries are another beast. She writes, “In these books, questions are left unanswered. Maybe the killer stays uncaught, or the process of solving the mystery leads to more upheaval instead of less, or the solution works against justice rather than bringing it to fruition. In wild mysteries, order isn’t restored, because order isn’t the point.”
That may be frustrating for some of you who want to know that the good guys win and the bad guys lose and everything is tidy.
But sometimes stories don’t do that.
Because life isn’t like that.
But that’s where choosing what books you want to read becomes important. If you want a breath of fresh air, an escape from real life, then you’ll probably select a classic mystery, one where order is restored.
That’s where my September book sits.
The Quiche of Death by M.C. Beaton is the first of her now 35 Agatha Raisin books, published over 20 years ago. The book even launched a short series on British television in 2014.
It’s what some might call an imperfect cozy mystery. If you don’t know about cozy mysteries, here’s a quick description. Most often, it’s a gentle book with a likable amateur sleuth who is young, educated, and lives in a small village or town. Sometimes there’s a little romance thrown in. The crime is usually off-stage, not brutal, no graphic violence or language (most of the time).
About the Story
When this story opens, the protagonist, a divorced and newly retired PR executive in her early 50’s, has closed her London firm and moved to a small village in the Cotswolds where she had one memorable childhood holiday. She longs for charm, peace, and rest.
“Agatha was described as ‘a real character’ and like all real characters who speak their mind, she did not have any real friends.”
Agatha Raisin is anything but likable. In fact, I had to force myself to keep reading at the start because I did not like Agatha. She speaks her mind and not always nicely. Early in the story she encounters a bored receptionist who is not cooperating with her. Agatha says, “Move your scrawny butt and tell that shyster he’s seeing me.” Yes, she’s a bit snarky.
Once she settles in her new cottage which she had professionally decorated in pure Laura Ashley style, she realizes “it felt like someone else’s house.”
And then I started to sympathize with her. “For the first time in her life, she knew loneliness, and it frightened her.”
She finds herself in a bit of pickle after she enters the village baking contest with a quiche she buys from an upscale bakery in London, passing it off as her own. The quiche-eating judge is found dead the next morning. The mystery begins. There are a few suspects, a helpful police detective, cowbane plants, and quirky villagers.
Of course, we find out who killed the judge, (No spoilers, though.) and order is restored in this quaint village.
I’d love to visit the Cotswolds one day just to stay in one of those thatched cottages with a lovely English garden, and maybe read another neat, tidy, cozy mystery.
Continue: Poems and Prayers of Hope by Tanner Olson
I love poetry about as much as I love a good mystery. Interestingly, poems are a little like mysteries.
When I was very young, I enjoyed Susan Polis Schutz poems such as “What Is a Friend?” or “I’m Lucky to have a Friend Like You.” They are kind and gentle poems that might be a lovely gift to a dear friend. These are the Nancy Drews and The Quiche of Death of poetry: cozy, sweet, and tidy.
And then there are poems like Tanner Olson’s…
About the Poems
Tanner Olson’s poems in Continue: Poems and Prayers of Hope are definitely not cozy. His collection of more than 100 poems and prayers in this little book is eclectic, rich, real, and dare I say it . . . wild.
Here’s a few titles that will show you what I mean.
- “How Long, O Lord?”
- “And This Is Not Easy”
- “When There Are No Words”
- “I Believe He Hears What I Don’t Say Aloud”
He has included plenty of poems and prayers that express faith and hope and joy like “I Don’t Doubt You” and “God Is Here” and “Joy Continues,” but the majority of this collection is raw and real.
These are free verse poems, no regular rhyme or meter, free form structure that flow beautifully from one struggle to one truth – we are redeemed and loved by God. Many of the poems and prayers refer specifically to Bible passages. He includes specific passages at the end of some poems. Other times, I just hear familiar verses through his words.
Take this one for example which is reminiscent of Mark 9:24 where Jesus has healed a young boy of demons and “Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
“I Believe”
Tomorrow when the sun comes up
I’ll exhale and pray
I believe
Help my unbelief.
The same five words
I prayed
This morning.
Every day I pray
I believe
Help my unbelief.
My Takeaway
What I appreciate about Olson’s poems and prayers is their honesty, vulnerability, real-ness. He doesn’t offer completely sweet “all will be well” words. Like the psalmists, he grapples with the real pain of this life. The hurt, the longing, the pride, the selfishness that is in all of us. They are wild but not without a direction or purpose. They are wild in that they express the mess that is real life.
I’m leaving this book on my nightstand and picking it up to read a poem here and there, a prayer sometimes. Some are short, only 5 lines long. Others are a couple of pages. The poems are accessible and lovely because they remind me that even in the wildness of this life – when we don’t have the answers or the happily-ever-afters, when we don’t know why our loved one died young or if our deepest longing will be met — we always have Jesus. In Him, order is restored.
What’s all this about Beth’s Book Club? Let me fill you in.
In case you missed it, this year I chose 24 books to highlight for a “reading club,” two per month. One fiction. One nonfiction. Because that’s what I love to do. Then I write a blog post about those two books at the end of the month. I chose a variety of books, and I realize you might have zero interest in reading some. That’s okay. Read what you want, if you want, before or after I post. In each blog post, I share my Beth-review and key takeaways. Nothing fancy. No quizzes. Just reading fun!
Playing catch up? Here’s what you might have missed:
- February Book Club Takeaways: Remarkably Bright Creatures in a Dark World
- Breath and Life: March Book Club Takeaways
- The Divine Proverb of Streusel Book Review: April Book Club Takeaways
- May Book Club Takeaways: Love Well
- June Book Club Takeaways: Our Home in Christ
- July Book Club Takeaways: A Look at Heaven
- August Book Club Takeaways: Slow Down
