Announcing Cool Down with Agatha Christie

Have you heard the very exciting news that Harper Collins is reissuing all of Agatha Christie’s books?

I say "very exciting news" because I have very fond memories of Agatha Christie's mysteries and I can't wait to re-discover them all over again. Agatha Christie's novels were some of the first grown-up books that I ever read and they also contributed to my love of mysteries. I am pretty sure that I'm not alone with these fond memories of Agatha Christie.

To celebrate, the fine folks at Harper Collins as well as some fellow bloggers have decided that it would be fun to host an Agatha Christie Summer Read-along Extravaganza called “Cool Down with Agatha Christie.” This read-along will take place this summer and give many of you the opportunity to indulge in some terrific stories. If you're not up for reading or just want a change of pace, there will also be opportunities to participate in some movie viewings.

Here’s the scoop about the reissues directly from HarperCollins:

HarperCollins is proud to now be Agatha Christie’s global publisher and will be reissuing all of her books in beautiful trade paperback editions. These wonderful authentic editions are exactly as Christie wrote them using the original UK texts. Read all of the Christie mysteries including the Hercule Poirot Mysteries, the Miss Marple Mysteries, and the Tommy and Tuppence Mysteries (Winter 2012). And don’t miss a single one of Christie’s stand-alone novels and short stories.

I am extremely excited about the Cool Down With Agatha Christie read-along because I will be hosting a few read-alongs of Hercule Poirot books during the fourth (or one time, third) Thursday of every month. If you want to start reading early (or just plan ahead), here is my schedule:

June 23rd: THREE ACT TRAGEDY (Note: This title will tie into the June movie selection.)
July 21st: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
August 18th: THE A.B.C. MURDERS

There will be plenty of opportunities for free books and other prizes for those of you who participate. Each blogger will have five copies of their books to give away to people who sign-up for the read-along. There will also be a "mystery" prizes for one participant in each discussion.

Feel free to grab the general button (at the top of the post) and/or the one specifically for my Hercule Poirot read-along:

While I'm hosting the Hercule Poirot portion of the read-along, there are four other bloggers who will also be participating. Here's what they will be reading:

Jen from Book Club Girl will be hosting Agatha Christie short stories
Jen from Devourer of Books will be hosting Stand-alones
Melissa from The Sunday Book Review will be hosting Miss Marple
Nicole from Linus’s Blanket will be hosting movies

Schedule:

June 6th-June 12th: Short Stories on Book Club Girl (THE TUESDAY NIGHT CLUB)

June 13th-June19th: Miss Marple on The Sunday Book Review (4:50 FROM PADDINGTON)

June 20th-June 26th: Poirot on Booking Mama (THREE ACT TRAGEDY)

June 20th-June 26th: Film post on Linus's Blanket (THREE ACT TRAGEDY airing on PBS June 19th)

June 27th-July 3rd Standalones on Devourer of Books (ENDLESS NIGHT)

June 27th-July 3rd: Film post on Linus’s Blanket (THE CLOCKS airing on PBS June 26th)

July 4th-July 10th: Short Stories on BookClub Girl (THREE BLIND MICE)

July 4th-July 10th: Film Post on Linus's Blanket (HALLOWE'EN PARTY airing on PBS July 3rd)

July 11th-July 17th: Miss Marple on The Sunday Book Review (A CARIBBEAN MYSTERY)

July 11th-July 17th:  Film post on Linus's Blanket (THE PALE HORSE airing on PBS July 10th)

July 18th-July 24th: Poirot on Booking Mama (MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS)

July 25th-July 30th: Standalones on Devourer of Books (AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (previously known as TEN LITTLE INDIANS))

August 1st-August 7th: Short Stories on Book Club Girl (WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION)

August 8th-August 14th:  Miss Marple on The Sunday Book Review (A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED)

August 15th-August 21st: Poirot on  Booking Mama (THE A.B.C. MURDERS)

August 22nd-August 28th: Standalones on Devourer of Books (ORDEAL BY INNOCENCE)

Make sure you check out each of their sites for more information! You can also learn more at the official website or the official facebook page. In addition, you can join in the discussion by using the Twitter Hashtag #agathachristie. 

I hope you'll join me (and my fellow hosts) in some (or all!) of the read-alongs. We wanted to keep this fun, so you can participate in as many or as few as you want. If you plan to participate in any of the events, we encourage to leave a link on the Mr. Linky below (please note, all of our blogs have the same Mr. Linky, so you only need to leave your information once), either to an announcement post or to your blog in general:



If you are interested in participating in my first read-along for THREE ACT TRAGEDY, please fill out the form below. I will randomly select five people to receive copies of the book from the publisher. Please sign up by Friday, June 3 at 11:59 p.m ET and I will notify the winners the following day. You don't have to have a blog to participate.