The Inimitable Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

A loosely connected collection of short stories featuring Jeeves and Wooster.

Don't we all wish we had a Jeeves to take care of us, to provide our every need even before we knew we needed it, and to solve all our problems and our friends' problems with ease and diplomacy? Bertie Wooster is a young man of Edwardian England, a socialite who has received a good education and seemingly is not required to work for his living. He and his friends frequently find themselves "in the soup", usually of their own making, and Bertie's valet, Jeeves, always adroitly manages to restore them to the good graces of their families. The contrast between Bertie's casual Edwardian slang ("What ho and all that rot" for example), behavior, and attitude and Jeeves' very proper, conservative manner ("Very good, sir") was part of the fun of reading this.

Field of Thirteen, by Dick Francis

This is a book of thirteen short stories by Dick Francis. I have read a couple of his books and enjoyed them very much. It speaks to his brilliant gift for writing that I enjoy reading his works so much, although I have never had an interest in horse racing. In this selection of mystery stories, each one has a surprise twist at the end. His memorable characters run the gamut in the horse-racing world: jockeys, trainers, owners, betters, bookies, mothers, and wealthy widows.

Whitethorn Woods, by Maeve Binchy

Read, reviewed, and released in November, 2009

This is a collection of many short stories about many different people all somehow connected with St. Ann's Well, a shrine near Rossmore, Ireland (Republic of, I guess, although that isn't clear). It started out similar to the Father Tim stories of Jan Karon, but it goes much wider, deeper, and even darker.

It was very interesting how each story was told independently, with its own beginning and end, but the people were all linked somehow, sometimes in surprising ways.