Oooh -- Aziraphale and Crowley.  It's very simple:

* The eternal teenager inside me roots for Crowley.  I don't think I'll ever outgrow tall, dark and handsome bad boys who aren't really bad at heart.

* The book lover inside me roots for Aziraphale.  I mean, how could any book lover not root for the owner of a bookstore?

And of course, however slick I may find this year's screen adaptation, there is absolutely no question that David Tennant and Martin Sheen are Crowley and Aziraphale.

Then again, by way of decidedly more than a side note, I also root for Agnes -- far and away the most kick-ass of all the book's female characters.

(Task: In Terry Pratchett’s and Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, who do you root more for: Aziraphale or Crowley?  Or another character?  (And in each case: why?))

... aaand a Books and Beans bookmark as well!

Here's hoping this year won't see any more authors' deaths, because too many of the great ones have already left us in 2019.  Those that stood out most to me:

Toni Morrison

(Feb. 18, 1931 – Aug. 5, 2019)

Toni Morrison was the Nobel Prize-winning author of best-selling novels including Beloved, Song of Solomon, and The Bluest Eye.  She died at the age of 88.

Of all the great authors who died in 2019, she stood head and shoulders above the rest.  I reread her novel Beloved for Halloween Bingo and came away devastated and heartbroken all over again.  If you only ever read one book by Morrison, make it that one.  What a literary voice, and what an advocate for racial and gender equality the world has lost in her.

Judith Kerr

(June 14, 1923 – 22 May 2019)

Judith Kerr, who created the Mog picture books series, The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and the semi-autobiographical When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, died at age 95.

Even before I had first seen the images of children gassed at Auschwitz, Kerr's book When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit brought home to child-age me that genocide and persecution stops at no-one -- rather, anybody, regardless how young, can become a victim.  once learned, it was a lesson I never forgot.

Herman Wouk

(May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019)

Herman Wouk, who wrote the classic novel The Caine Mutiny, died at the age of 103, only 10 days before his 104th birthday.

What an age to have reached -- a true witness to a whole century!  I've yet to read more of his work (yeah, I know ...), but The Caine Mutiny was one of the first literary works to truly make me think about the nature of justice (and "justice" vs. "the administration of the law") ... and who could possibly not be left stunned with the gut-punch screen adaptation starring Humphrey Bogart?

Mary Oliver

(Sept. 10, 1935 – Jan. 17, 2019)

Mary Oliver was a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet beloved for her poems about nature and animal life. She died at the age of 83.

And instead of any further words, I'm just going to leave this here (I think BT may already have quoted it in her post for this task, too, but it definitely bears quoting twice):

Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.


  

(Task: In keeping with the minute of silence, tell us about the authors who have passed this year that you will miss the most.)

... at least, to the extent that they include any or all of these:

Let's be honest, though, if we should decide to move on to something else after Quartet in Autumn, that'll just be one more reason for me to buy yet more books ...

Golf is key to a number of books by Agatha Christie (not only in the Poirot series -- Hastings is not the only character by Christie who is an ardent golfer).  So my list of favorites is largely a mash-up of BrokenTune's and Obsidian's:

Agatha Christie favorites:

1.  4:50 From Paddington

2.  Murder on the Links

3.  Why Didn't They Ask Evans?

Honorable mentions from my TBR:

1.  P.G. Wodehouse: The Clicking of Cuthbert (short stories)

2.  Ian Fleming: Goldfinger (I've seen the movie but have yet to read the book)

... and a few Christie short stories:

1.  Murder in the Mews (Poirot)

2.  The Mystery of the Blue Jar (standalone)

3.  The Sunningdale Mystery (Tommy & Tuppence)