WODEHOUSE, THE LOTTERY, AND ASSORTED OTHERS

Vacationing, plus all the accompanying plane delays, helped me get through three of the five books in my P.G. Wodehouse anthology for the Reading Project at the end of July: The Return of Jeeves (the only Jeeves novel not to feature Bertie Wooster, which was quite odd), Bertie Wooster Sees It Through, and a charming non-Jeeves book, Spring Fever. Upon returning home, I finished another Project book, Shirley Jackson’s deliciously chilling The Lottery and Other Stories. I’ve started yet another Project book, Stanley Park, which A bought for me at Powell’s in Portland a few years ago on his friend’s recommendation. I love that it’s about a chef, and the plot does contain and intriguing mystery, but I’m not a fan of the writing style, which occasionally tends toward melodrama and mysticism. Progress has been slow.

Honestly, I’m a little bummed about the Reading Project this year. Even though the books have been more uniformly fun than last year, there have also been fewer challenges and surprises. With four and a half books yet to go (plus those damn “optional” Sherlock Holmes stories), it’s feeling like a chore. I’m busily working out a radically different plan for next year’s Project, which should make it much more exciting (for me, at least). In the meantime, I’ve started dallying with library books again:

• The Tipping Point, by Malcolm Gladwell (fascinating)
  
• A brief scholarly tome called Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?: American Women and the Kitchen in the Twentieth Century (I’ve read about a million books on this same topic, but I like reinforcing my knowledge)
• The Museum of Hoaxes, by Alex Boese
• The Prestige, by Christopher Priest (I loved it—just as tricksy and creepy and delightful as the movie. Devoured it in just a few days.)