By P.G. Wodehouse
Bertie Wooster knew something was up when pretty young Stephanie "Stiffy" Byng urgently summoned him to Totleigh Towers for reasons unknown.
Not that Stiffy wasn't a great friend of his, or that he wouldn't walk a mile in tight shoes for her - but experience led Bertie to believe that whenever Stiffy hatched a plot requiring his involvement, it would be "something totally unfit for human consumption."
Vowing he wouldn't come within fifty miles of the dreaded Totleigh Towers, Bertie resolutely informed Stiffy that she'd have to do without him. If that caused her disappointment, then her fiance the curate would just have to administer spiritual solace to her. In fact, shedding a few tears would be good for her.
Of course, Bertie being Bertie, it isn't long before he's firmly installed in Totleigh Towers against his will. While there, the young man is not only blackmailed into doing Stiffy's dirty work for her (stealing a black amber statuette from under a magistrate's watchful nose) but also has to smooth
things over between Gussie Fink-Nottle and Madeline Bassett, whose engagement is set to rupture all because the young lady insists that Gussie become a vegetarian and feast on spinach at every meal.
No wonder Bertie had a bad feeling when first he heard that Stiffy had a mission for him. In his own words, "My respect for my guardian angel's astuteness hit a new high. A gloomy bird, with a marked disposition to take the dark view and make one's flesh creep, but there was no gainsaying he knew his stuff."
P.G. Wodehouse is at his comedic best in this installation in the Jeeves & Wooster saga. Old favourites like Pop Bassett, Roderick Spode (now Lord Sidcup), and Harold Pinker all make appearances in order to work Bertie into a corner - until Jeeves must rescue him, as only that gentleman's personal gentleman can.
This book is available in the adult fiction area. More books in the series can be found in the same area or downloaded as an audiobook from the library's website, but readers will likely need to place holds to get their hands on this material as it's usually out of the library.
- Reviewed by Rachel Huston, Marketing & Development Assistant at the Prince
George Public Library
The War Of The World
By Niall Ferguson
Forget everything you think you know about war in the 20th century.
As the British historian Niall Ferguson recounts in The War of the World, there weren't just two world wars in the last 100 years. Rather, war across the world never stopped. It was just punctuated by two periods of extremely lethal organized violence, concentrated in Europe.
About 175 million people died at the hands of other humans in the last century but two-thirds of those deaths happened outside of the two world wars.
Deadly conflict - large or small, between states or between populations within states - are always made up of ethnic division, economic instability and declining power regimes. All three of those elements are alive and well in the world today, meaning our new century is as ripe for conflict as the
previous one.
The War of the World by Niall Ferguson fires with both barrels in the non-fiction section of the Prince George Public Library.
- Reviewed by Neil Godbout, Administrative Communications Coordinator for
the Prince George Public Library
The Ascent Of Money
By Niall Ferguson
Most of us like to say "it's just money" and most of us are hypocrites.
Money controls our lives, whether we like it or not. It not only shapes all of our personal decisions, it has been the driving force behind all of the major events in world history since ancient times.
Niall Ferguson explains in his excellent PBS documentary series The Ascent of Money that the driving force behind Columbus and all of the explorers was a desire for new wealth, new markets and more financial power.
Bond markets developed to generate revenue to help pay for wars. Major natural disasters led to the creation of the insurance industry.
Increasingly complicated investment devices has fuelled the spread of globalization but has also made the economy and governments more vulnerable to disaster.
The Ascent of Money is available in a two-hour abridged format or the full four-hour presentation in the documentary section at the Prince George Public Library. An audiobook can also be downloaded from the library website and played on your computer, iPod, or mp3 player.
- Reviewed by Neil Godbout, Administrative Communications Coordinator at the
Prince George Public Library
