humor

Book Review: Living Unoffended

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Living Unoffended
by Brant Hansen

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Christian living

Radio show host Brant Hansen counters the common opinion that Christians are entitled to “righteous anger,” while also making a case about how learning to let go of our “right” to be offended can change our lives.

I read Unoffendable by Brant Hansen 6 years ago and found that it had a lot to offer; it helped me examine a lot in my life, not only about anger and anxiety but also hypocrisy and self-righteousness. As Brant says in the intro to this book, “We need to keep talking about this stuff.” Brant does a good job here of laying out why righteous anger doesn’t really make sense and how anger and worry mean we’re not trusting God like we should. He uses scripture as well as examples from both Christian and secular writers and thinkers to back up his claims, and he does it all with his signature humor. Brant also offers some practical advice for learning to let go of offense, becoming more humble and Christ-like, and trusting God more fully.

The book is basically a series of short essays, and some of the content comes from at least 2 of Brant’s other books (Unoffendable and Life Is Hard. God Is Good. Let’s Dance.). I haven’t read the 2nd of those books yet, and fortunately I read the 1st long enough ago that it didn’t feel like a repeat to me. However, if you have read either or both of those books, you may not feel the need to read this one. Not that there isn’t anything new here, but I’m not sure how much is new. I do recommend this book, as well all of Brant Hansen’s books, really, for Christians and non-Christians alike.

Thank you to Netgalley and W Publishing for providing me a copy of this book to review.

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Book Review: Faith, Hope and Hilarity

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Faith, Hope and Hilarity
by Dick Van Dyke

My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Humor

Kind of a religious “Kids Say the Darndest Things,” I found this old book at a thrift store and thought I’d give it a try, since I’ve always liked Dick Van Dyke. It’s basically a collection of funny things kids think and say about various religious matters. Though the heavy focus is on Christianity/Catholicism, there are a few bits about kids in the Jewish faith as well. Van Dyke inserts his own thoughts about religion and its importance here and there, which I don’t really know how to reconcile with what he says in his much-more-recent book, Keep Moving, that basically no one can really know the truth about God. He seems a lot more certain about the truth about God in this book. Though I question some of the theology in the book. Note, most of it is information “presented” by kids and not meant to present theology, but there are still some clear statements made. For example, the one that really baffled me, is the statement that a kid got a question wrong on a quiz when she answered that God created light first. Since He did create light first, I’m not sure how that could have been a wrong answer.

Van Dyke’s personal faith aside, the book suffers from being out of date. Some references made are lost on me, due to not being around until over a decade after it was published (1970), and I found myself wishing he’d give just a little bit of context now and then. The topics of the stories are organized a little weirdly, and transitions are awkward. The illustrations provide a little extra humor now and then, but they’re pretty cartoonish and not necessarily needed in a book for adults. Overall, it’s a quick, amusing read, but nothing outstanding or hilarious and didn’t age well.

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Book Review: The Mating Season

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The Mating Season
Jeeves #9
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This book isn’t bad any any means, but for me, after listening to the entire series up to this point, it’s too little Jeeves, too little new, too little funny. There are still funny moments here and there, and certainly Jeeves perpetrates some kind of scheme to solve a problem, but overall, the fact that the main conflicts continue to involve friends of Wooster who have some kind of romantic entanglement that has run into trouble makes the stories feel a bit tedious. Wooster is yet again forced to bend over backwards to try to avoid an engagement with a woman who assumes he’s pining after her. Maybe this situation is normal for this culture and time period, and maybe other people find it funny, but it mostly just makes me roll my eyes. In the end, though I have been enjoying my first time with Jeeves, I plan to put an end to it here. I know I’ll re-visit this world in some way again, but I don’t know if I’ll re-read the first half-dozen or so or continue with the series after the rest aren’t as fresh in my mind. 

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Book Review: Joy in the Morning

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Joy in the Morning
Jeeves #8
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

If I could forget a lot of what I had read in previous books in this series, I think I would have enjoyed this installment a lot more. The problem is that the problems that arise around Wooster tend to not be different enough to be interesting. A friend’s engagement is in danger, so Wooster takes it upon himself to help them reconcile. A woman he doesn’t care for randomly decides that he must want to marry her, so he finds himself engaged, despite his utter lack of desire for such. And he’s too much of a gentleman to say, “No, thank you,” so he has to plan some scheme to get out of it or, oops! He might just find himself married! I will say, at least, that the intricacies of how some of these mostly unrelated messes are twined together so that one solution can somehow fix them all is usually clever enough to provide some fun while I’m listening. And Wooster’s trademark humor, combined with Jeeves’s straight-man wit, still makes me laugh, even amongst the feeling that we’ve “been there, done that.” Jonathan Cecil is a great narrator for these books (though I still miss Kevin Theis).

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Book Review: The Code of the Woosters

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The Code of the Woosters
Jeeves #7
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 3.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

The Jeeves and Wooster dynamic is what makes these stories great, so having a novel-length story (as opposed to the previous short story collections) with Jeeves being largely absent just isn’t quite as good. Plus, the longer single story means prolonging Bertie’s troubles often requires scenarios that are a bit outlandish. How many times can an engaged couple break up and reunite before it becomes ridiculous? And while I realize that Bertie letting his friends and family cajole him into doing things he doesn’t want to do is a common catalyst to the messes he gets himself into, it’s taken a bit far in this story, besides the fact that some of it too much of a repeat of previous stories. Even still, I still enjoyed the book overall and look forward to continuing the series.

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Book Review: Look Out For The Little Guy!

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Look Out For The Little Guy!
by Scott Lang with Rob Kutner

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Movie tie-in, humor

Part movie reference, part self-help book, I enjoyed reading this book that was shown in the most recent Ant-Man movie. The author (actual) did a great job of making it sound just like the character in the movies. There were some strange things about it, like the random pictures that didn’t usually go with the text on the page or the caption, but the “FAAMQ” (Frequently Asked Ant-Man Questions) sections were always great. I did get to a point where I thought, “Yeah, we get it, you missed a lot of time with your daughter when she was growing up; do you have to remind us every chapter?” But overall, for what it is—a quick, mostly funny book for Marvel fans—it’s done very well.

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Book Review: Right Ho, Jeeves

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Right Ho, Jeeves
Jeeves #6
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Kevin Theis

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This is another great addition to the series! Bertie Wooster is in fine form, attempting many schemes of his own to show that Jeeves isn’t the only one with brains. How Wooster keeps getting himself “accidentally” engaged is beyond me. Misunderstandings, outlandish scenarios, and “psychology of the mind” all come together into a fun, engaging story. Like in the previous book, which was the first novel after short stories up until that point, a few of the situations went on a little longer than I would prefer in this book, and Jeeves’s brilliant plans don’t feature nearly as much as they do in the short stories. Still, though, I really enjoyed this book, and I always love Kevin Theis’s narration. I’ll miss it during the rest of the series.

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Book Review: Thank You, Jeeves

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Thank You, Jeeves
Jeeves #5
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

The short story collections I’ve read in this series so far do usually have some connection between some of the short stories. But this is a whole different feel, being the first full novel in the series. I mostly enjoyed that format, but I will say that some of the storyline went on a bit too long for me. But the continuity throughout and the setting being the same the whole time, did give the author room to expand on the humor, and he did a great job. It’s definitely something of a farce, complete with constables coming across random men in sheds and garages, Bertie being snuck off a yacht by Jeeves, and many other outlandish scenarios. And to start things off, Jeeves actually leaves Bertie’s employment because he can’t stand his boss’s playing of a banjolele. While I didn’t truly expect that situation to last, that does not mean the overall story was predictable. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Jonathan Cecil, who did a great job, and I’m really looking forward to continuing!

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Book Review: Very Good, Jeeves

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Very Good, Jeeves
Jeeves #4
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Jonathan Cecil

My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

This was definitely one of my favorite collections of the series. Maybe the outlandish situations Bertie Wooster gets himself into should be getting stale, but I’m only enjoying them more as I go. Maybe because I’m starting to get into the overall feel of the stories more? There were several moments that made me laugh out loud or at least smile; I regret that I was listening to the audiobook and couldn’t make note of them at the time. Bertie fooling himself into thinking Jeeves doesn’t always get his own way, though, is one such moment. I only wish I could have continued to listen to Kevin Theis, but apparently he only narrated 4 of the books. Though I still like Theis more, Jonathan Cecil was good too, excepting for the strange speech impediment he gave to Bingo Little. I can say with certainty at this point that I will listen to these audiobooks again someday.

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Book Review: Carry On, Jeeves

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Carry On, Jeeves
Jeeves #3
 by P.G. Wodehouse
Read by Kevin Theis

My rating: 4 / 5
Genre: Classic British humor

After getting past the stories in this collection that I’d already listened to (though with a different main character), I think I enjoyed this collection a little more than the other two so far. Though I have to admit that, while at first I thought it was great that one of the stories was written from Jeeves’s perspective, I found that I didn’t like that story as much. It was still interesting to get his perspective on the schemes he gets up to for Wooster and his friends.

I now wish I’d read this article sooner, as it recommended newer readers to skip My Man Jeeves, since the stories in that collection featuring Reggie Pepper as the narrator were re-written with Wooster and Jeeves in this collection. Because I didn’t want to listen to the same basic story again, I skipped them this time, but I do think I would have appreciated them more if I’d read them here for the first time. That’s just a little PSA to anyone else new to the series. If I do re-read any of these someday, I’ll definitely skip My Man Jeeves, or at least the Reggie Pepper stories. I will, however, probably stick with the Kevin Theis narration, because I’ve really been enjoying it!

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