A Weekend of Reading | Just Mercy, Agatha Christie, and More

I am seeing the weekend in with bookmarks in three books: Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie, and Where We Belong by Anstey Harris.

SATURDAY 4TH JULY

I'm starting my weekend by focusing on Just Mercy - I have read 170 pages so far of my ebook copy meaning I have just under 100 pages left. 

During two sittings today - one first thing in the morning & the other later on in the afternoon - I managed to complete Just Mercy. This is a nonfiction book with a focus on social injustice and racism, written by Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer who is committed to helping those in need within the criminal justice system. Through his work he has heard many stories and met many people, and done his best to get justice for them. A number of these cases feature in Just Mercy, with the case of Walter McMillian being a constant throughout the book; Walter was one of Stevenson's first cases and through the telling of his story, you can tell that not only was the case life changing for Stevenson as a lawyer, but also that he holds Walter as a person dearly. 

I have been reading this book all week, spending short amounts of time with it daily - the reason I did this was because it is the kind of book I want to digest in small snippets due to the emotional nature of the writing. The stories in this book are heart breaking, the racism angering, and many of the statistics hard hitting.

Learning about Bryan Stevenson himself, and his work, made for really interesting reading also. I am in awe of him and all the work he (& many others) commit themselves to.

Although a hard to read book, Just Mercy is an important book, and one that should be read by the masses. 

This evening I read a further 51 pages within A Murder is Announced, leaving my bookmark on page 92.

SUNDAY 5TH JULY

I spent this morning and a little into the afternoon with my Agatha Christie mystery: A Murder is Announced, completing it by about 1pm. I really enjoyed this book - I think I say this with all the Christie's I read - and especially like the concept of the murder being announced before it took place; a thrilling aspect almost. There were some good twists and turns along the way with this one, and I once again did not guess the murderer correctly... But it was cleverly done. I will say, I do think I like Marple mysteries a smidge more than Poirot.

This evening I stayed up way later than I should have, and finished reading Where We Belong by Anstey Harris. As I went into the weekend I was at just over the 100 page mark, so in total read 130 pages of this book this evening. Although a slow read at times, I found this book engaging and it was interesting to see the transformations that took place throughout - that of the museum that features, and the family also. 

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At the start of the weekend I did wonder if finishing all three books was a tad ambitious, so am happy to have come away with all three books wrapped... And it means I can now go in to the new week with the first page of an unread book.