Posts tagged ‘humor’

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January 9, 2011

Book Review: #3 – Right Ho, Jeeves, by PG Wodehouse (audio)

Right Ho, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

Narrator: Jonathan Cecil
Source: Sacramento Library
Finished: 1/6/11
Rating: 9 out of 10
Publisher: Overlook Press
Pages: 224
Originally Published: 1934

Synopsis (from the Book Depository): Gussie Fink-Nottle’s knowledge of the common newt is unparalleled. Drop him in a pond of newts and his behaviour will be exemplary, but introduce him to a girl and watch him turn pink, yammer, and suddenly stampede for great open spaces. Even with Madeline Bassett, who feels that the stars are God’s daisy chain, his tongue is tied in reef-knots. And his chum Tuppy Glossop isn’t getting on much better with Madeline’s delectable friend Angela. With so many broken hearts lying about him, Bertie Wooster can’t sit idly by. The happiness of a pal – two pals, in fact – is at stake. But somehow Bertie’s best-laid plans land everyone in the soup, and so it’s just as well that Jeeves is ever at hand to apply his bulging brains to the problems of young love.

Overall Impression: I’m running out of things to say in my reviews of PG Wodehouse’s brilliant books. The words hilarious, romp, madcap, satire, delicious, snappy dialogue, devilish…they are all getting worn out. But his books really are all of these things! And Right Ho, Jeeves is even more so these things than other Wodehouse books. I utterly adored it, and spent a lot of time giggling over the superb writing. The way Wodehouse words things…ah! It’s amazing. My words are crap compared to his.

Narration: Jonathan Cecil is magnificent. I haven’t listened to any Wodehouse read by anyone else, and I’m not sure I could. Cecil has become Jeeves and Wooster in my head, and when I read the paper versions of the books, Cecil does the narration there too. He manages to capture the essence of the stories. He’s brilliant!

Positives: Wodehouse is the cat’s pajamas. ‘Nuff said.

Negatives: None, really. This is officially one of my favorite Jeeves and Wooster stories of all time.

Other books I’ve read by PG Wodehouse:
A Damsel in Distress (review)
The Inimitable Jeeves (review)
Jeeves in the Morning (review)
A Gentleman of Leisure (review)
My Man Jeeves
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through
Do Butlers Burgle Banks?
Code of the Woosters
Jeeves and the Tie that Binds
Girls Pearls and Monty Bodkin

Other blogger opinions:

Michelle (My Books. My Life.): “It’s hard to review this book because you really have to experience the madness to appreciate it.”

Maya Alexandri: “Many other writers would have shown such a juicy squabble, but Wodehouse opts to alternate between showing and telling.

Vulpres Libris: “Wodehouse is not a revolutionary writer; he is an insider, poking affectionate fun at a system he knew intimately.”

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November 3, 2010

#68 – Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

Read: Because Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors, even if he canceled his upcoming reading in Sacramento (lame). (Harper Perrenial, 256 pages, originally published 1991)

Rating: 6 out of 10 (finished 10/9/10)

Synopsis: After 20 years as a London-based reporter, American journalist Bryson (The Mother Tongue) set out to retrace a youthful European backpacking trip, from arctic Norway’s northern lights to romantic Capri and the “collective delirium” of Istanbul. Descriptions of historic and artistic sights in the Continent’s capitals are cursory; Bryson prefers lesser-known locales, whose peculiar flavor he skillfully conveys in anecdotes that don’t scant the seamy side and often portray eccentric characters encountered during untoward adventures of the road.

Overall Impression: I’ve read a bunch of books by Bill Bryson (see below) and it had to come to a point where I finally didn’t absolutely love one of his books. It was one of the first books he wrote, and I found it…rough. He really did hone his skills as time went on, so reading one of his earlier books felt like he hadn’t quite refined his writing like he did in later books. It was a little cruder, a little more repetitive, a little gloomier, and a little less delightful. I think I also had a hard time with it being written 20 years ago, so times have changed and it was hard to relate to traveling how he traveled. That being said, it was still a fun travel memoir, that had some fairly hilarious parts (why a cow makes the best pet had me in stitches). It made me want to see the Northern Lights and avoid Naples like the plague. I liked how he retraced his travel’s with Katz (who co-stars in A Walk in the Woods, and is…well…a character) and talked about the difference between his first travels and his second travels twenty years later. I’d love him to do another trip in 2011, twenty years after Neither Here Nor There. It would be interesting to see how things have evolved!

Pros: Helpful thoughts on two dozen or so European countries. Anecdotes that had me laughing out loud in Starbucks.

Cons: A little gritty compared to his later works.

Other books I’ve read by Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, The Mother Tongue, Shakespeare, Notes from a Small Island, and Icons of England [editor].

Other blogger opinions: None. Have you reviewed this? If so, I’ll link you here!

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July 30, 2010

#50 – I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley

I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley, narrated by the author

Read: Based on several recommendations. And it has a great title. And it has a great cover. (Riverhead Trade, 240 pages)

Rating: 8 out of 10 (finished 7/8/10)

Synopsis:  This debut essay collection is full of sardonic wit and charm, and Crosley effortlessly transforms what could have been stereotypical tales of mid-20s life into a breezy series of vignettes with uproariously unpredictable outcomes. From the opening The Pony Problem to the hilarious Bring-Your-Machete-to-Work Day (which will ring true for any child of the early 1990s who played the first Oregon Trail computer game), Crosley is equal parts self-deprecating and endearing as she recounts her secret obsession with plastic ponies and the joys of exacting revenge via a pixellated wagon ride. In less capable hands, the subjects tackled—from unpleasant weddings of long-forgotten friends to horrendous first jobs—could have been a litany of complaints from yet another rich girl from the suburbs. But Crosley, who grew up in Westchester and currently lives in Manhattan, makes the experiences her own with a plethora of amusing twists: a volunteer job at the American Museum of Natural History leads to a moral quandary, and a simple Upper West Side move becomes anything but. Fans of Sarah Vowell’s razor-sharp tongue will love this original new voice.

Overall Impression: After being somewhat let down by How Did You Get This Number (review), I was a little apprehensive to read this one. But considering the buzz and how many people I know who liked it, I thought I’d give it a shot. I picked up the audiobook version, hoping that Crosley’s voice would help bring her essays to life. I’m really glad I did — she is so dry, but her narration really worked for her essays. Like Joshua Ferris reading The Unnamed (review), Crosley’s reading felt very much like I was in a creative writing class and she was reading her stories out loud, making the rest of us wish we were so talented. The essays themselves were, for the most part, very good. I particularly enjoyed the first essay, which was about a drawer full of ponies. (Yes, ponies. In a drawer.) I absolutely loved this essay, and was soon able to test the “I have a surprise for you!” theory, though, sadly, it didn’t result in a pony. I also loved the essay on the Oregon Trail, which, as the synopsis above points out, any kid of the 90s would love. (I can’t count the number of times I’ve died of dysentery.) While I was annoyed with some of the essays in How Did You Get This Number for being overly New-Yorky, I thought she navigated this series of essays with much more subtlety and grace (mostly), and I found her much more likable, which made her essays much more readable.

Pros: She has some hilarious stories that worked well for fodder for this series of essays.

Cons: A few essays meandered a bit for my liking, and there was still a bit of the I-Live-In-New-York-Which-Makes-My-Stories-Way-More-Interesting-Than-Yours…ness to it.

Other books I’ve read by Sloane Crosley: How Did You Get This Number

Other blogger reviews: S. Krishna’s Books (Are you kidding me, people? I swear more of my readers have read and reviewed this — I feel like I’ve read a handful of reviews and now I can’t find any of them. Was it you?)

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February 25, 2010

#17 – The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse

The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse, read by Jonathan Cecil

Read: because everyone should read PG Wodehouse (Overlook Press, 272 pages)

Rating: 6 out of 10 (finished 2/23/10)

Synopsis: A classic collection of linked stories featuring some of the funniest episodes in the life of Bertie Wooster, gentleman, and Jeeves, his gentleman’s gentleman – in which Bertie’s terrifying Aunt Agatha stalks the pages, seeking whom she may devour, while Bertie’s friend Bingo Little falls in love with seven different girls in succession (he marries the last, the bestselling romantic novelist Rosie M. Banks). And Bertie, with Jeeves’s help, just evades the clutches of the terrifying Honoria Glossop.

Overall Impression: I could tell this series of story was written earlier in Wodehouse’s very prolific writing career. It just wasn’t quite as tight as some of his other books. This was original 18 separately published stories, which were later woven into a series of 11 chapters. They are loosely connected, and for what it is, Wodehouse did it well. Watching Bingo Little fall in love over and over and over again was entertaining. The best story was “The Great Sermon Handicap,” where everyone in a small country towns bet on the length of the sermons of the different ministers. It was such a fun little story. This is the second Wodehouse that I’ve listened to that’s been read by Jonathan Cecil. Jeeves in the Morning was better — the production quality wasn’t quite as good on this one, and Cecil seemed a bit rushed in bits. But it was still a great audiobook — Wodehouse translates well to audio.

Pros: Any Wodehouse is better than most other humorists. Some of the stories were especially funny and mad-cap.

Cons: Not his best work — a little disjointed and the characters aren’t as fully realized as they are later in Wodehouse’s career.

Extras: I must mention the editions of Wodehouse’s books put out by Overlook Press. They are gorgeous. I’m slowly collecting them as I find them in used bookstores (they’ve only been around for a few years, so used copies are few and far between). The cover illustrations are delightful!

Other books I’ve read by PG Wodehouse: Jeeves in the Morning (review), My Man Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees it Through, Do Butlers Burgle Banks?, A Gentleman of Leisure (review), Code of the Woosters (this is my favorite), Jeeves and the Tie that Binds, Girls Pearls and Monty Bodkin

Other books I’ve listened to by Jonathan Cecil: Jeeves in the Morning

Other blogger reviews: none! Not too many people reading random books from 1923, are there?

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February 7, 2010

#8 – Jeeves in the Morning by PG Wodehouse

Jeeves in the Morning (published as Joy in the Morning in the UK) by PG Wodehouse, read by Jonathan Cecil

Read: in my ongoing effort to read everything ever written by the incomparable PG Wodehouse (Overlook Press, 296 pages)

Rating: 9 out of 10 (finished 1/29/10)

Synopsis: Trapped in the rural hell-hole of the Steeple Bumpleigh with his bossy ex-fiancee, Florence Craye, her fire-breathing father, Lord Worplesdon, her frightful Boy-Scout brother, Edwin, and her beefy new betrothed, ‘Stilton’ Cheesewright, Bertie Wooster finds himself walking a diplomatic tightrope. With Florence threatening to ditch Stilton for Bertie, and Stilton threatening to trample on Bertie’s insides if she does, things look black until Jeeves arrives to save the day. One of Wodehouse’s most sparkling comedies, replete with an attendant cast of tyrannical aunts, demon children and literary fatheads.

Overall Impression: If you’ve never read PG Wodehouse, please do yourself a favor and go out and get one of his books. This one in particular would be an excellent place to start. It involves some of my favorite characters in the Jeeves and Wooster universe — Boko Fittleworth, Nobby Hopwood, Edwin the Boy Scout, Stilton Cheesewright . . . not to mention Jeeves and Wooster themselves. Wodehouse is a master of humor, plot, and character (seriously, those names! Brilliant! And I didn’t even mention J Chichister Clam!), and I’ve yet to come across anyone who writes the way he does. And the dialogue — I can honestly say that every sentence is a delight. Wodehouse weaves together a hilarious, ridiculous plot that dips and turns and has each of the characters in different scrapes, out of which they must escape — almost always with Jeeves’ expert help. Accidental engagements! Business deals in the potting shed! A pinched policeman’s uniform! A fancy costume ball! Wodehouse is a master at writing these little farcical gems, and Jeeves in the Morning is easily in my top three of his works that I’ve read. Jonathan Cecil is an excellent reader for Wodehouse’s work — I’m looking forward to listening to more by him.

Pros: Everything! Crazy plot, memorable characters, fantastic dialogue, etc. etc. etc. Wodehouse is amazing.

Cons: It ended way too soon.

Other books I’ve read by PG Wodehouse: My Man Jeeves, Bertie Wooster Sees it Through, Do Butlers Burgle Banks?, A Gentleman of Leisure, Code of the Woosters (this is my favorite), Jeeves and the Tie that Binds, Girls Pearls and Monty Bodkin

Other books I’ve listened to by Jonathan Cecil: none

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