Friday, July 31, 2009

Three blind mice by Agatha Christie

An entertaining short book around 125 pages in small format, it's easy to read and good for a day when you want to rest or relax and take off your mind of anything pressing.
The crime story starts off with Molly and Giles, a couple who are new to running a small inn in their own house.
They opened it in a harsh winter and their first guests happen to be strange people: Christopher Wren the playful redhead young man from Wales, Mrs. Boyle is accustomed to giving orders and is never satisfied, major Metcalf seems holding back something, the shrewd satyrish alien Mr. Paravicini seems too much interested in women. A snow storm cuts off the inn from the outer world... Dear stumbler I stop here with the details in order to let you discover and enjoy reading the book. Still I only mention that "Three blind mice" was made into a radio play by BBC in 1947 for the 80th birthday of queen Mary, mother of the British king George the VIth. She replied to the question, what kind of play she wants by telling "something by Agatha Christie".
Later Christie turned the book into a play with the title "The Mousetrap" and since it's London premier of 1952 has been the longest running play.
I uploaded the cover of the Hungarian translation of the novel titled "Három vak egér" of course the meaning is the same. Three Blind Mice (St. Martin's Minotaur Mysteries) at Amazon.


Három vak egér - Hungarian edition of Three Blinde Mice

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Deaf Sentence by David Lodge

Deaf Sentence the new campus novel of David Lodge makes us acquainted with Desmond Bates a retired university professor of linguistics. The title reminds us of the expression "Death Sentence" and in fact Desmond feels himself sentenced to deafness due to his hearing disability which makes his life hard, it causes friction with his younger wife Fred who is becoming a successfull entrepreneur while her husband have lost interest in daily life.
But the existance of Desmond gets complicated: he gets involded with an american student who even tries to blackmail him into writing her paper on suicide letters, his father dies, his relation with Fred chills.
I can tell David Lodge is one of my favorite authors.
The first book I read from him was Paradise News, a book which made one of my summers happier. Deaf Sentence: A Novel at Amazon.







God's Hell

I've skipped reading the Bible for many years. I am not a disbeliever but I cannot be counted as a churchgoer. Yesterday I attended a kind of informal preaching titled "Where are we heading?" if I recall it correctly. One bottom line was that for non believers eternal torment awaits in hell.
I put myself the questions: if God is the outmost goodness and righteousness can He allow to exists eternal sufferance? For finite sins is it correct to receive everlasting punishment? I have never believed in the existance of hell, I've allways thought of it as an everlasting death.
Is my belief correct? I don't know. But what I can say that there is a multitude of expressed opinions from theologians for and against the existance of hell and some even admit that for this there is no clear answer in the Bible. At least I can provide some links to read and think about.

What Does the Bible Teach About Hell?

The Bible Hell

The Bible Truth About Hades and Hell Fire

Infinite Punishment for Finite Sins


Problem of Hell