I was at work today looking around for books to add to the Staff Picks shelf. There are a few books that I’m continually putting up there, like The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate and The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but when all my favorites are checked out I have to start grabbing stuff that you’d reasonably believe a middle-aged woman whose book club only keeps on their e-mail list out of pity would recommend to you.
I was wandering through fiction hoping for inspiration when I found an old Wodehouse novel called Jeeves and the Tie That Binds. The inside flap said rather effusively that P.G. Wodehouse published this book on his ninetieth birthday, and that this was his best novel yet, and also that it was clever, delightful, uproarious, entertaining, and fun. Skeptically, I flipped the book over to see if there was more hyperbole on the back:
Nope! But he could still touch his toes. Best author photo ever.
You could totally steal this for your next book or you could be fancy and change it up and do a backbend.
It could be me doing a backbend with Alice underneath, resting her chin in her hands adorably and rolling her eyes. Or sobbing into a copy of the Rigveda. Hmm, decisions.
You know what? I’ve had that Girl’s Guide book on my office shelf for probably three years and haven’t read it. I picked it up at a used book store kind of on a whim and then just put it away. Every time I go to read it I’m like “Ehhhhh Hunting? Fishing? This book’s gonna suck.” and I never give it a chance. BUT you just changed my mind!
YAY
It’s really good.
Anything Mitford is worthy. Decca’s Poison Pennmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking contains several profound gems.
I never read anything by Decca but I have a Mitford Family Album and it’s full of amazing photos of her and all of them. There are SO MANY MITFORDS.
there are just the right amount of Mitfords! one for your every mood… do try some Decca. Her exposé on the funeral industry is a classic.
That Jeeves book is terrific. I wish I had the edition you’ve got, tho.
It can be yours!
http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?bi=h&tn=jeeves+and+the+tie+that+binds&x=50&y=20
I confessed to a college girlfriend that I’d never read any Jeeves and Wooster. She let me read some of hers but our relationship was permanently damaged by my failure to have already done so.
I have been that girl.
at the risk of sounding one note … a Murakami could go there?
Does he touch his toes in his book jacket photos, too?
LOVE Jeeves books! Have you seen the Fry & Laurie Jeeves & Wooster series on TV?