"Carry On, Jeeves" by P. G. Wodehouse

Earlier this summer, a friend shared this news article that stated that Penguin Random House has started censoring P. G. Wodehouse's books.  Incensed by this kind of Nazi-esque behavior, I went to various used book sites and bought up a complete collection of the Jeeves books, all in one cool, older paperback edition that I really liked the looks of.  While the CEO of Penguin Random House later released this statement saying that the whole issue has been blown way out of proportion, I still prefer to censor books myself rather than have someone else try to tell me what or how to be offended.  

I am an intelligent person who is well aware of the continual shifting of societal mores over the few thousand years of human history, and I am able to read books written in the past and know whether or not there are words or ideas there that I disagree with, find distasteful, or would not espouse/use myself because they would be hurtful to others.  I also find books written in the past with differing attitudes to ours to be a help in teaching my own kids about how ideas and attitudes change over time.  I find it very dangerous to try to erase those differences by pretending they never existed, whether it's by censoring fiction or burning history books under a swastika flag.  You can't change the fact that people thought differently from you in the past, but you can prevent yourself from learning by blinding yourself to the past.

None of which tells you anything about how funny this book is.  It's downright hilarious.  I laughed aloud multiple times while I read this.  From Bertie Wooster hiring Jeeves because he cured his hangover to the way that Jeeves pulled so many of Bertie's friends out of terrible scrapes, every story here was ridiculously nonsensical and adorable and funny.  So funny!  

I'm not sure I've ever read a full Jeeves book before, though I have read quite a few of Wodehouse's stories in anthologies and so on.  Of course, this is more like a collection of short stories than a novel, but that made it great to pick up and read a bit, and then go do something else.  I am so happy to have the whole series now!  This was an absolutely perfect book for me to read at the tail end of summer when I was feeling blue and gray and unhappy with the world.  I am going to try really hard to remember how well these stories work for me at the end of summer.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG because I don't think it's allowable to rate a P. G. Wodehouse book anything different.  Also because there is a little mild cussing, but nothing else objectionable.

This is my 18th book read for my fourth Classics Club list, my 46th read off my TBR shelf for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023, and the last book I completed for #20BooksOfSummer23.

Polishing Off My 10 Books of Summer List

Remember when I joined the 20 Books of Summer challenge back in June?  Well, August has ended, so I need to see which books from my prospective list I did actually read!

Here's my list:

1. Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem ✔
2. Lando by Louis L'Amour ✔
3. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo ✔
4. Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose ✔
5. Carry On, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse ✔ (review coming!)
6. A Name Long Buried by C. M. Banschbach ✖
7. Peter Duck by Arthur Ransome ✖ (21 pages left!)
8. Sackett by Louis L'Amour ✔
9. Then Comes a Drifter by C. M. Banschbach ✖
10. Thornrose Estate by Kendra E. Ardnek ✔

This was such a fun little challenge!  So, two of those books are crossed off because they were a duology, and I tried them and decided they were not my thing, so I DNFed them.  So, I didn't actually read them... but I'm not going to, either, so I say they don't count against me.

I do have a couple chapters of Peter Duck left, so that is an actual fail, I guess.  But I will finish it soon, probably next week!  I'm reading that one aloud to my kids, and our read-aloud time has been patchy lately.  I need to get better about that and make time for reading aloud every day or two like I was doing at the beginning of the summer.

Over all, this was a fun challenge, and I will probably try to join it again if it's held next year.

"Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo

Ahem.

First, let me be clear: I read this book twenty-ish years ago, between my junior and senior years of college.  I also am quite happy to read very long classics.  And French classics.  The Count of Monte Cristo, which was published nearly twenty years before Les Miserables, and is at least as long and very equally French, is my second-favorite book of all time.  The problem here is not that I don't know how to read and understand books from the 1800s, that I don't appreciate the French, or that long books tire me out.

The problem here is twofold:

One, I should not have read Les Mis during the summer.  I get a mild case of summertime S.A.D. in late July that lasts through August and into September.  Les Mis was not the sort of thing I need to read during that time.  In late summer, I gravitate to dark and cool mysteries, ala Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, and to frothy romps, ala P. G. Wodehouse.  I should not have attempted to read this book during this season.  But a bunch of friends on Bookstagram got together a buddy read for it, and I have read lots of other books with them and really enjoy our discussions, so I decided to join.  Also, I'd totally read it once before (and during the summer, no less), so I knew I could finish it.  I just didn't reckon on the S.A.D. factor turning this book into a big bummer, or this book adding some extra grey tones to my S.A.D. or something.  Maybe both.

Two, Victor Hugo is not my kind of writer.  I like writers who can give me a good story, well told.  And who don't hesitate when doing so.  I do not appreciate entire chapters devoted to sarcastic remarks about famous Parisians I have never heard of and can't get the joke for.  I do not appreciate multi-chapter-long digressions about French slang.  I do not gravitate to writers who can't stay on track for more than about two chapters in a row.  I want to read about the characters that I have come to care about, and when you continuously wander off to look at the architecture or the flowers or the social customs... you lose me.  I don't care.  I care about your characters, and when you refuse to stick with those characters, I get frustrated and angry.

I think Victor Hugo needed a blog.  He needed somewhere to publish all his thoughts about heroism, sacrifice, the importance of Napoleon, the meaning of loyalty, and all the other extremely random rabbit trails he pursued throughout the book.  If he could only have had a blog, he could have pontificated about each one to his heart's content without gumming up a fiction book with them.  Perhaps he had ADHD.  Perhaps he got paid by the word.  I don't know.  

What I do know is, y'all, this book wearied me.  And, having read it twice, I don't think I ever need to read it again.  I love the musical, I love the Manga Classics version, and those will content me whenever I feel a Les Mis need.  I really love Jean Valjean, and his journey to forgiveness and insistence on living out a life of love and mercy and contentment are absolutely beautiful... and I wish Hugo would have presented that story in a coherent fashion instead of rambling like a senile old man.  I really do.

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for reasonably tasteful discussions of prostitution, a very frilly and oddly twee explanation of why Hugo decided not to describe a wedding night, quite a bit of violence, and a very long description of what it's like to wade through a disgusting sewer. 

This is my 17th book read for my fourth Classics club list and my 6th for my #20BooksOfSummer23 list.

"Lando" by Louis L'Amour

Now, that's what I call a rousing good adventure story!

Lando Sackett leaves the Appalachian mountains as a young man, hunted by three of his uncles who are convinced he knows where there's a fabulous buried treasure.  Not Sackett uncles, of course, but his mother's brothers.  Lando and a man known only as the Tinker strike out to find their fortunes in the West, but the Tinker turns out to be involved with that buried treasure too.  After many misadventures and a stint in a Mexican prison where hard labor turned his muscles hard even if his disposition is still pretty kind, Lando ends up duking it out with his childhood nemesis in the middle of a Texas town.  Also, there's pirate gold.  And Lando's dad turns up again and falls for the woman Lando kinda fancies himself.  But somehow, Lando just remains a good-hearted, sensible, nice man through it all.

Honestly, this book just kind of trots along from one adventure to the next, all of which are tied together by that search for pirate gold, which Lando himself is not really all that interested in, but which people around him keep dragging him toward.  I could have trotted along beside Lando for another couple hundred pages.  This is probably going to end up being one of my favorites of the Sackett books.

Particularly Good Bits:

"Mr. Sackett, face a man with a gun or a sword, but beware of bookkeepers.  They will destroy you, Sackett" (p. 43).

"The place for a woman," she said, smiling at me, "is where she is needed" (p. 83).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-13 for a lot of violence, including a brutal boxing match.  Some minor cussing too.

This is my 41st book read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Murder at Kensington Palace" by Andrea Penrose

Yet another thoroughly entertaining Wrexford and Sloane mystery!  I won't say this one was thoroughly enjoyable because it had a couple of quite grisly murders and involved the subject of people doing scientific experiments on themselves and on dead bodies, which is kinda icky.  Not nasty or repulsive to the point where I felt squeamish, just... a bit ew.  

When Charlotte Sloane's cousin is murdered, and his twin is arrested for the murder, she sets out to prove the surviving brother innocent.  Naturally, the Earl of Wrexford involves himself in the case as well.  The two of them dance around the fact that they have come to care for each other, and come to a somewhat satisfactory understanding of this fact by the end of the book.  As an emotionally cautious person, I found their hesitancy completely relatable, but I suppose some readers may be irked by their reticence to fall into each others' arms. 

Charlotte also makes a decision that will change her life, and the lives of her two wards.  It involves introducing a new character: her aunt, Lady Peake, whom I found amusing and fun.

Particularly Good Bits:

Creativity is rarely tidy, he thought wryly as he ran his gaze over the bookshelves and work counters (p. 213).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-15 for the grisly murders, one of which involves removing a piece of male anatomy, but which does not involve any kind of sexual element.  There are a variety of cuss words, some veiled suggestive dialog, and a violent fight scene.  No spicy scenes, and the murder scenes are not described in a grossly gory way.

This is my fourth book read from my #20BooksOfSummer23 challenge list.

"Thornrose Estate" by Kendra E. Ardnek

This book is a whirlwind!  An amnesiac heroine (who repeatedly forgets things in the past), a shape-shifting hero, a horrible curse to untangle, and a friends-to-lovers arc that I loved.  Not to mention some found family elements too!

Calla (who was a side character for much of the previous book in the series, Snowfield Palace) has grown up in a small cottage in the middle of nowhere.  She can't remember the last nine years of her life, but her guardians assure her that when she turns nineteen, she'll be able to remember who she is and what happened to her nine years ago.

Nine years ago, the Forest was sealed off, not allowing people in the northern and southern kingdoms to contact each other in any way.  Calla knows this is due to some disaster, and she feels like she should remember what happened, but how could she have been involved if she was a child of ten at the time?

Calla's guardians send her to stay with a friend in the big city, where she's befriended by the chatty and gossipy Belle and pursued romantically by Belle's brother Johnston.  Calla also makes friends with the sweet Elaeza and her brother Hansel, both of whom are much kinder than Belle and Johnston.  Which pair of siblings can Calla truly trust?  She really wonders about this when Elaeza and Hansel turn out to be royalty and ask her to stay with them at Thornrose Estate.  Why would they seek the company of a nobody with no memory of her childhood?

Of course, Calla's memories eventually return, and she joins one set of friends in fighting the other, trying to break the curse that binds the Forest and its Gardiner.  Plus, she falls in love with a man who can turn into a wolf, which echoes a couple of her favorite fairy tales.

I like that a lot of what happened in Snowfield Palace got resolved in this book -- I'm so glad Ardnek didn't drag that out until the final book of the series, which is expected to launch this fall.  Though I can see that some of this book's ending is setting things up for that final adventure, so everything is not fully resolved yet.

Once again, Ardnek cleverly twists a Jane Austen novel (Northanger Abbey) with a fairy tale ("Beauty and the Beast") and uses them to craft an entirely new story of her own.

Particularly Good Bits: 

Wasn't that why she read all of the books that she did?  So she could pretend that the lives of the heroines were hers.  Pretend that there were people who loved her and adventures that she could travel.  But it was only ever pretend (p. 136).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It:  PG for some violence, scenes of peril, and kissing.  As with the rest of the series, no smut or bad language.

This is my 3rd book read from my 10 Books of Summer list, and the 40th book read off my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Sackett" by Louis L'Amour

I really loved Tell Sackett's dry, self-deprecating humor.  He was a charming narrator, and I thoroughly enjoyed his wry observations about people and life.

The story in this one is not my favorite -- too much gold-hunting, maybe?  Too many people impinging on Tell's plans?  The love interest did annoy me a bit because she was so easily swayed against him, and then she just shifted right back onto his team with too much ease too.

The part where Tell has to survive an ice storm high in the mountains was pretty spectacular, and I loved that he helped found a new town.  But overall, this one grabbed me less than the previous books in the Sackett series.  It was still enjoyable, don't get me wrong.

Particularly Good Bits:

Folks talk about human nature, but what they mean is not human nature, but the way they are brought up (p. 55).

But the fact of the matter is, no man can shape his life according to woman's thinking.  Nor should any woman try to influence a man toward her way.  There must be give and take between them (p. 85).

Women are practical.  They get right down to bedrock about things, and no woman is going to waste much time remembering a man who was fool enough to kill himself.  Thing to do is live for love, not die for it (p. 117).

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-10 for violence, dangerous situations, and some mild cussing.

This is my second book read from my Ten Books of Summer list and my 40th read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

"Code Name Edelweiss" by Stephanie Landsem

I suspect this book will be on my list of favorite new reads for this year.  It is enthralling!

Liesl Weiss loses her job as a stenographer at a big Hollywood studio.  It's the middle of the Great Depression and, ever since her husband disappeared a couple of years earlier, it's been up to Liesl to support her two children, herself, her mother, and her brother.  While searching for a new workplace, she meets up with Leon Lewis, a Jewish lawyer who offers to pay her to spy on suspected Nazi agents in Los Angeles.

Liesl takes the job, sure she will discover that her fellow German-Americans are not up to anything nefarious.  Instead, she helps uncover a real-life plot to attack Jewish movie makers and take over the studios.  Sometimes, the book was almost too suspenseful for me -- I occasionally had to put it down and process everything that had happened.  But, in the end, I loved it.

I was absolutely fascinated by the historical notes at the end, which talked about the real history of Leon Lewis and his tireless efforts to stop Nazis from infiltrating the movie industry and Californian culture.

Landsem's writing style was engaging and appealing, and I loved the wealth of historical details that really made the story come alive.  The message of how good people need to stand up for what is good and decry what is bad was also very timely.  But it was the characters, particularly the mysterious Agent Thirteen, that I loved the best.

Particularly Good Bits:

This was war.  Not with guns and tanks--not yet at least--but with words and ideas, with ideology.  And wasn't that how war always started?

If This was a Movie, I Would Rate It: PG-16 for a lot of sexual harassment toward Liesl and other women, discussions of an unwed pregnancy, some violence, and lots of racism directed not just toward Jewish people, but many others as well.  No bad language or smutty scenes.

This is my first book read from my 10 Books of Summer list and my 39th read from my TBR shelves for #TheUnreadShelfProject2023.

20 Books of Summer (Well, Sorta)

I just learned about the 20 Books of Summer challenge thanks to Bloggin' 'Bout Books, and it looks so fun I had to join!  This event is hosted by the blog 746 Books, and the official signup post for it is right here.

I've already read quite a few books this month (in fact, I read 12 while on vacation), but I'm not going to count those because I didn't join the challenge until just today.  However, since the summer is almost a third over now, and since I am an inveterate mood reader, I am going to try to read 10 specific books, rather than 20.  So, here are the 10 books I intend to read between today (June 26) and August 31:

1. Code Name Edelweiss by Stephanie Landsem (currently reading)
2. Lando by Louis L'Amour
3. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (currently reading)
4. Murder at Kensington Palace by Andrea Penrose
5. Carry On, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
6. A Name Long Buried by C. M. Banschbach
7. Peter Duck by Arthur Ransome (currently reading)
8. Sackett by Louis L'Amour
9. Then Comes a Drifter by C. M. Banschbach
10. Thornrose Estate by Kendra E. Ardnek

I really enjoy reading challenges like this, so I'm excited to join!  Do you also participate in reading challenges from time to time?