Reading Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

by Carol8 Comments
On this midsummer night, the woods are full of magic and enchantment, lovers and fairies. A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of Shakespeare's romantic comedies, has whole batch of main characters, certainly more than most plays. From ancient myth we have Theseus, soon to be married to the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. We have four young lovers Hermia, Helena, Lysander and Demetrius, who would really fit in to any time and place, since young people in love tend to act and think the same. From the English countryside of Shakespeare's time, we have Nick Bottom, a weaver, who along with some other workmen is pulling together a play to perform at the wedding. Finally, Oberon and Titania, King and Queen of the Fairies, and Puck come from the world of folklore and magic. At the beginning of the play, Hermia's father is insisting she marry Demetrius, even though she truly loves Lysander, so she and Lysander conspire to run away together, agreeing to meet in...
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Review: A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

by Carol9 Comments
In A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is once again called to the small village of Three Pines to investigate a murder. The deceased is Lillian Dyson, killed in Clara Morrow's garden during a party. The celebration is in honor of Clara's solo show at the famed Museé in Montreal and the art world has descended on the town, a world full of jealousies and hidden agendas. As secrets are exposed, Gamache and his team have to sift through the evidence, lies and suspects to find the truth. Reason I chose this book: This is the 7th of Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries, a series I love, so I had no choice but to read it. Listen to it actually, read by Ralph Cosham. Reasons I liked and/or disliked this book: While this is not my favorite in the series, I had a hard time putting it down. I kept looking for more chores to do around the house,...
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Reading Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

by Carol14 Comments
It's no wonder I enjoyed Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Aside from the language, it could be a contemporary romance. Granted it's a play and therefore shorter than most novels, which means there's not as much lead up. You can fall in love fairly quickly in a play. There are two couples. The first, Benedick and Beatrice, are familiar characters. Both have sharp tongues, love to play with words, and have announced their scorn for marriage and, of course, for each other. Just like in any story, though, they belong together and their friends and family trick them into revealing their love for each other. The second couple, Claudio and Hero, are sweet, young and obviously in love. Claudio is tricked into rejecting Hero, thinking her unfaithful, but of course it works out in the end, thanks to Dogberry, a constable who is constantly using the wrong words which is rather amusing. He discovers that the villain is Don John....
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Reading Shakespeare: The Tempest by William Shakespeare

by Carol19 Comments
I don't think I've read The Tempest by William Shakespeare before, but in my head it was about a magician on an island. Briefly, the play is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, and his daughter Miranda were ship-wrecked years before. Prospero plots to restore himself to his rightful place. He is a magician and has control over the spirits of the island, including his main helper, Ariel. The island sole other inhabitant who was there before Prospero is Caliban, a monstrous person who acts as a slave to Prospero, but speaks beautifully. A storm brings to the island Prospero's usurping brother Antonio and the complicit Alonso, King of Naples. Prospero can finally gain his revenge, but chooses forgiveness instead. In the end, Prospero will to return to his place in Milan, Miranda will marry Alonso's son, Ferdinand, and Ariel is freed. I'm not sure if Caliban will be left on the island on...
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Review: Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny

by Carol12 Comments
I finished listening to Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny a few days ago, but I've been finding it difficult to review. It's the sixth in a series I love and really is more of a follow-up to the last, The Brutal Telling, so much so that I doubt this would work as a stand-alone. I try not to use the publisher's synopsis, but in this case I'm going to. There's a lot going on in the book, three plots interwoven together. It is Winter Carnival in Quebec City, bitterly cold and surpassingly beautiful. Chief Inspector Armand Gamache has come not to join the revels but to recover from an investigation gone hauntingly wrong. But violent death is inescapable, even in the apparent sanctuary of the Literary and Historical Society— where an obsessive historian’s quest for the remains of the founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain, ends in murder. Could a secret buried with Champlain for nearly 400 years be so dreadful...
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Review: Hell and Gone by Duane Swierczynski

by Carol4 Comments
In Hell and Gone by Duane Swierczynski, Charlie Hardie is gone, hidden away in a secret underground prison that is effectively hell for him and the others trapped there. This is the second in the series, picking up where Fun and Games left off. Hardie has barely survived his encounters with the Accident People, but they've got worse things in store for him now. Just a note, you really do need to read the first one before Hell and Gone. Where Fun and Games was fast-paced and action-filled, Hell and Gone is more of a psychological thriller, in a way. Yes, there's plenty of violence, but the "inmates" and "guards" are all at the mercy of a bodiless voice, who orders them around, provides the food and heat or lack thereof. They turn on each other, test each other, form their own plans and loyalties in a closed society where a few have all the power. I do have to give it...
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