Service With a Smile

Service With a Smile
by P.G. Wodehouse


Blurb:

The final Uncle Fred novel marks his return to Blandings Castle to relieve Lord Emsworth's woes: a nagging secretary, prankster Church Lads, and a plot to thieve his prize-winning sow. Uncle Fred must serve up his brand of sweetness and light to ensure that everything turns out very capital indeed.

My Reaction:
(Shared read with Donald.)

We started reading this one months (no telling how many months) ago, then set it aside to keep up with whatever 372-Pages book was going at the time. Somehow, we never got around to picking it back up again, until the past week, when we wanted some light reading. It was still on my Kindle, so we picked up where we left off.

It didn't take long to remember enough of the story to feel that we weren't completely lost-- and honestly, with Wodehouse, the humor and style of the language itself is much more important (for me, at least) than the plot. I don't think this is one of his best, but it still had us laughing again and again.

As always with Wodehouse, this little novel left me in a better mood than it found me. I need to remember this the next time my spirits need lifting!

My Immortal

My Immortal
by Tara Gilesbie


My Blurb:

This Harry Potter fanfic follows the trials and tribulations (and the bizarre wardrobe choices) of Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, proud goth and vampire, after she enrolls at Hogwarts. She meets all the most notable characters from the Harry Potter universe, but you won't recognize them, because in this fic, none have any depth or retain any of their canon characteristics/personality traits-- to the point that most have been transformed into vampires and have even been renamed to sound more "goff" for this hilariously bad exercise in wish-fulfillment.  It is a truly epic example of the Mary Sue. 

(Or IS IT?!?!)

My Reaction:
(This was a shared read-aloud with Donald.)

It's another 372-Pages bookclub podcast selection!

Once we began reading this, I realized that I'd started it years before after seeing it mentioned online. I didn't get very far back then, but this time around, I loved every poorly written sentence.

I simply can't believe that this could possibly be "real". There's no question that there are some staggeringly terrible writers out there, but this... this is probably too outrageously, entertainingly awful to be true. Some of the malapropisms are just too, too perfect. (Tom Bombadil, anyone?) And the way that characters can do absolutely anything "sexily"... It's just not possible that this could be real. (Right?)

Anyway, I suppose it doesn't matter whether or not it's actually "sincere", so long as the author and her audience enjoy(ed) the experience. We laughed and laughed while reading-- and having the podcast to go along with it is just the cherry on top!