Mailbox Monday: Hollywood Book Club and P.G. Wodehouse

It is the first Monday in December, which means Mailbox Monday has a jazzy Christmas mailbox picture. Fa la la!

I'm also celebrating this Christmas season, as I always do here on Rose City Reader, with an advent calendar of vintage Christmas cards. Read yesterday's post to learn more about this blog tradition of mine. And check back every day through Christmas to see a different vintage Christmas image. The theme this year is Christmas cats! If you are looking for vintage Christmas images, click the "vintage postcard" or "Advent" tag at the bottom of any of the advent calendar posts and you can scroll through 12 years of vintage Christmas cards.

What new books came into your house last week? We were pretty busy mashing potatoes and baking pies, but two new books did show up:




The Hollywood Book Club by Steven Rea, new from Chronicle Books. This fun book of movie stars reading books is a definite gift option for book and film buffs.

I got my copy from the LibraryThing Early Review program. I plan to take a little "me time" during this busy holiday season and relax with this book, an adult beverage, and a crackling fire in the fireplace.

From the publisher's description:

Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe—the brightest stars of the silver screen couldn't resist curling up with a good book. This unique collection of rare photographs celebrates the joy of reading in classic film style. The Hollywood Book Club captures screen luminaries on set, in films, in playful promotional photos, or in their own homes and libraries with books from literary classics to thrillers, from biographies to children's books, reading with their kids, and more. Featuring nearly 60 enchanting images, lively captions about the stars and what they're reading by Hollywood photo archivist Steven Rea, and a glamorous stamped case design, here's a real page-turner for booklovers and cinephiles.

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse : Volume 1: "This is Jolly Old Fame" by Paul Kent. I am beyond excited about this one. I am a huge P. G. Wodehouse fan. I keep a list of Wodehouse books here on this blog and am working my way through them.

Paul Kent is writing a three-volume biography of Wodehouse, based in part on new access to Wodehouse's papers and library. This first volume is just out in the UK. For American readers, you have to order it from the publisher, TSB an imprint of Can of Worms Enterprises, or from Book Depository.

For die-hard Wodehouse fans, there could be nothing better.

From the publisher's description:

Whether you re an absolute beginner or an aficionado, Paul Kent has captured the essence of what made Wodehouse tick without spoiling all the fun; and makes a compelling case for why we owe it to our collective sanity to keep on reading him. P.G. Wodehouse 1881-1975 Humourist, Novelist, Lyricist, Playwright So reads the simple inscription on the memorial stone unveiled in London s Westminster Abbey in September 2019, honouring the greatest comic writer of the 20th century. It takes a steady hand and a steely nerve to insist that sweetness and light can prevail in a world that seems hell-bent on proving the opposite, and over 40 years after his death, Wodehouse is not just surviving but thriving all over the world. Young Indian professionals can t get enough of him; he s hugely popular in Japan; his books have been translated into more than 30 languages, from Azerbaijani to Ukrainian via Hebrew, Italian, Swedish and Chinese; and there are established Wodehouse societies in the UK, the USA, Belgium, Holland and Russia. His books are demonstrating the staying power of true classics, and are all currently in print, making him as relevant and funny - as he ever was.

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday, a weekly "show & tell" blog event where participants share the books they acquired the week before. Visit the Mailbox Monday website to find links to all the participants' posts and read more about Books that Caught our Eye.

Mailbox Monday is graciously hosted by Leslie of Under My Apple Tree, Serena of Savvy Verse & Wit, and Martha of Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf.