A TREASURY OF DAMON RUNYON, BY DAMON RUNYON

Damon Runyon writes of the Broadway types of the 1930's, of guys and dolls, bookies, bootleggers, double-crossing sweethearts, race touts and more. A sample of his witty writing is "Hold 'Em Yale," where the narrator's friend is looking for a ticket scalper who cheated him. "In fact, the nearest Sam ever comes to a college is once when he is passing through the yard belonging to the Princetons, but Sam is on the fly at the time as a gendarme is after him, so he does not really see much of the college." Runyon is a forgotten genius, and I recommend him highly.

MOVIE, THE HUNGER GAMES. Suzanne Collins

Just read Entertainment Weekly's first look at the GAMES. Jennifer Lawrence plays Katniss Everdeen, and the readers initially protested her choice as being "too pretty, too pale, too blond, too curvy." Haven't any of these people ever heard of hair dye? The director chose her because of her work in Winter's Bone, and EW remarked "Lawrence's role there included taking care of younger siblings when her parents can't, hunting in a forest, and skinning and eating a squirrel--basically an audition tape for the GAMES." Look at the EW cover for her transformation--she's not too pretty or superficial there. The movie comes out in March 2012 and I'll be there.

PERSUASION, BY JANE AUSTEN

I started reading Austen late in life, and am at the re-reading stage now. PERSUASION is not as dramatic as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, or EMMA, or as memorable as the parody NORTHHANGER ABBEY. PERSUASION slowly unfolds the tale of ANNE ELIOTT, the unloved daughter of a vain and stupid father, who's ignored by him and her older sister, and used by her younger, married, hypochondriac sister. Eight years before the story begins, ANNE's friend Lady Russell persuades her to give up her love for Frederick Wentworth, then a young navy officer, because she thought he couldn't provide for Anne, and so discouraged them.

When the now wealthy Captain Wentworth returns to her village, she looks for any sign that he still cares for her. There are mistaken "attachments" and much unspoken longing until the pair reunite in the last few pages. The narrator reports Anne's thoughts and feelings in third person. This and the lack of dialogue slow the pace.

PERSUASION is not so much a love story as it is a social commentary. Poor but high ranking, haughty aristocrats, wealthy, low ranking gentry, houses, carriages, parties, happy marriages versus unhappy ones, all come under the Austen microscope. She paints her society with unerring detail. A very rewarding book.

HOW RIGHT YOU ARE JEEVES, BY P.G.WODEHOUSE

I've returned briefly to PGW for a sugary read. The imbecilic but filthy rich Bertie Wooster constantly gets into hot water and needs his valet Jeeves, of the large brain, to get him out. This offering presents Bobbie Wickham, a redhead dynamo who's gotten Wooster into scrapes before, Aunt Dahlia, Bertie's "good" aunt, Reginald "Kipper" Herring, Bertie and Kipper's old headmaster, Aubrey Upjohn, broken engagements, a libel suit, and much fun. The plot of a PGW novel scampers along brightly with G-rated froth.

Bertie is relaxing at home when Bobbie's mother calls crying. There's an announcement in the London Times that Bertie is engaged to her daughter. First time that Bertie's heard of it, because she said no to him before. But it's a ploy to make her mother more accepting of her real fiance, Kipper. He doesn't know it's a ploy, sends her a scathing letter, which crosses in the mail, and before you know it, Kipper is engaged to someone else. Then Kipper, in his position as editor at a small literary magazine, savagely criticizes an article sent in by Aubrey Upjohn. Unfortunately, Bobbie has heated up the review even more, by repeating the lads' claim that the Sunday sausages were made of pigs which had died of glanders, botts, and tuberculosis. Hence the libel suit. Only Jeeves can sort all this out.