#susanna shakespeare hall

[incorrectandjuliet]

Anne: William just insisted Romeo, Judith, Susanna and I remember a code word in case we’re ever confronted by their clone or a cyborg doppelgänger and we’re not sure which is the real them and which is the imposter. Anne: Some families have a fire escape plan, but not us.

[antique-ro-man]

you guys ever think about how so many of shakespeare's plays are about women being accused of infidelity and immodesty only for his daughter to face the same accusations

[aforcedelire]

Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell

Été 1596. Dans la campagne anglaise, une petite fille tombe gravement malade. Son jumeau Hamnet part chercher de l’aide. Leur grande sœur Susanna est introuvable ; leur mère Agnes cueille des plantes médicinales dans les champs alentour ; leur père est à Londres pour son travail. Et tous sont inconscients de cette maladie funeste qui plane au-dessus de leurs têtes…

J’ai eu un peu de mal à rentrer dedans, mais alors une fois fait, j’ai vraiment beaucoup aimé. L’ambiance m’a pas mal rappelé Les Sorcières de Pendle de Stacey Halls, alors forcément, j’étais conquise. Dans ce roman, Maggie O’Farrell dresse le portrait d’Hamnet, ce jeune garçon que la Peste a enlevé trop tôt, dont la terrible perte a ensuite inspiré Shakespeare pour sa tragédie Hamlet.

Car ici, c’est bien de la famille du dramaturge dont on parle, et lui-même n’est jamais nommé, n’apparaît qu’au second plan. C’est simplement un homme qui comme tant d’autres travaille dans un théâtre à Londres. J’ai beaucoup aimé les personnages, surtout celui d’Agnes, la mère. Si farouche, si libre. En marge de la société, parlant le langage des plantes et décortiquant leurs secrets, elle aurait aisément pu passer pour sorcière. Un personne fort comme on les aime ! L’écriture est aussi très spéciale, on alterne entre le présent et le passé, entre la maladie des jumeaux et l’histoire de leurs parents, leur rencontre, leur mariage… le tout de façon vraiment bien écrit.

Et puis surtout, c’est un très beau livre sur le deuil, sur la famille, sur l’amour. Hamnet était la pierre triangulaire de la famille, et sa disparition a affecté tout le monde. C’était beau et puissant.

30/06/2024 - 07/07/2024

[cromwelll]

My 2023 New-to-Me Media Wrap-Up

Movies

History of the World, Part 1 (★★★)

A Man Called Otto (★★★★)

The Beguiled (★★★★)

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (★★★★★)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (★★★★)

Oppenheimer (★★★★★)

Barbie (★★★★★)

Bullet Train (★★★)

Other People (★★★)

A Haunting in Venice (★★★★)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (★★★★)

Death on the Nile – 2022 (★★★)

Death on the Nile – 2004 (★★★)

The Woman in Black (★★★)

Worth (★★★★)

The Woman in White (★★★★)

Murder on the Orient Express (★★★★★)

Santa Claus is Coming to Town (★★★)

Happiest Season (★★★)

The Other Boleyn Girl (★★★)

Maggie Moore(s) (★★★★★)

T.V. Shows

Ghosts S4-S5 (★★★★★)

Suits S1-S8 (★★★)

The Great S2-S3 (★★★)

The Bear S2 (★★★★★)

Mildred Pierce – Mini-series (★★★)

Fisk S1 (★★★★★)

Call the Midwife S12 (★★★★)

Over the Garden Wall (★★★★★)

Wolf Hall (★★★★★)

Books

Nobody is Ever Missing by Catherin Lacey (★★)

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman (★★★★)

Beowulf (★★★★)

Speak No Evil by Uzodinma Iweala (★★)

This One Summer by Jillian & Mariko Tamaki (★★★)

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (★★★★)

Zami by Audre Lorde (★★★)

Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (★★★)

Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (★★★)

Othello by William Shakespeare (★★★★)

Dawn by Elie Wiesel (★★★)

Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (★★★)

One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (★★★)

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen (★★★★)

Clover by Dori Sanders (★★)

Passing by Nella Larson (★★★★)

Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (★★★)

Daisy Miller by Henry James (★★★★)

The Turn of the Screw x2 by Henry James (★★★★)

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde x2 by Robert Louis Stevenson (★★★★)

To a God Unknown by John Steinbeck (★★★)

The Yellow Wallpaper & Other Writings by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (★★★★)

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (★★)

The Living by Annie Dillard (★★★)

Heartstones by Ruth Rendell (★★★)

The Law & the Lady by Wilkie Collins (★★★)

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (★★★★)

Cane by Jean Toomer (★★★★)

Our Dark Academia by Adrienne Raphel (★★)

A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (★★★)

Wieland by Charles Brockden Brown (★★★★★)

The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammet (★★★★)

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (★★★)

E is for Evidence by Sue Grafton (★)

Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley (★★)

Podcasts

Rehash (★)

Normal Gossip (★★)

Noble Blood (★★★★★)

Lore (★★★)

Fuckbois of Literature (★★★)

Stuff You Missed in History Class (★★★★)

If Books Could Kill (★★★★)

Wilder by Glynnis MacNicol (★★★★★)

Documentaries

Anna Nicole: You Don’t Know Me (★★★)

Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie (★★★★)

Defending My Life (★★★★★)

Plays

The Last Living Gun (★★★)

[missglass]

2022, the year of great books

i had a fantastic reading year in 2022. these were some highlights in no particular order:

Susanna Clarke, Piranesi. What a peculiar little book. A man lives in a gigantic ruinous house - a kind of castle with grand halls and statues - where life is dominated by the tides of an ocean in the lower levels of the building. The protagonist is a kind man with almost child-like curiosity, he seems like a monk living with the utmost worship for this strange place. Like the house, the story unfolds like a labyrinth and as a reader you only slowly discover what exactly is going on. Best read in January by the sea.

Jonathan Franzen, Crossroads. I mean, yes, guys like Franzen rewrite the same kind of book again and again, but man, are they good at it. I'm a sucker for the same story told from multiple perspectives, and who doesn't love to think about God and a complicated relationship with faith through the eyes of one of the most pathetic protagonists I have read about in the past years, a housewife with the most unhinged backstory, and a bunch of unnecessarily dramatic children.

Kamila Shamsie, Home Fire. One of my absolute favourites. A retelling of Antigone set in modern Great Britain about three siblings - a set of twins and their older sister - whose father was a jihadist. I found the classic themes of Antigone - struggles with family, duty, sacrifice - really well updated to reflect more contemporary struggles with identity, faith, as well as political issues like immigration and the toll it can take to be pulled into two different directions: tradition/modernity, fitting in/staying connected to your roots, conforming/preserving some form of inherited cultural identity.

And yes, you obviously know how the story ends from the start, but the ending is still so heartwrenching. As we know from Fleabag, the greatest love stories are still between siblings ("the only person i'd run through an airport for is you" and such).

Ali Smith, Autumn and Summer. I have been a fan of Smith since reading "How to Be Both" and I am now three quarters through her beautiful Seasonal Quartet. I hardly know another author who writes about our contemporary times with such ease. i love how art is always present in her works and how her prose is playing sly tricks on the reader. she is sometimes so literal in her imagery that you can only think something is meant poetically or metaphorically, only to find out two sentences later how it was indeed meant literally.

Rachel Cusk, Transit and Kudos. One of my favourite discoveries of 2022. I loved reading about Faye's encounters and her conversations with friends and strangers alike. It reminds me a bit of Salinger's "Nine Stories" in the best way, enough love and squalor to please Esmé. Especially Transit was so full of great stories; Cusk really is able to capture that uncomfortable, liminal space in between two situations, to describe what it means to go through upheaval, to not know how something will turn out. To know something old - a relationship, a flat, a homecountry - was not the right fit, but not knowing at all that what will come will be any better.

Maggie O'Farrell, Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait. "Hamnet" is a fictional account of Shakespeare's youngest (real) children - insightful, inutitive twins Hamnet and Judith - as well as of their mother, Agnes (the secret protagonist). O'Farrell's descriptions of grief and quiet domesticity are very lovely. The scenery is a bit mystic or unsettling at times, especially chapters about Agnes' life, and I found the novel generally beautifully written. (As the Guardian put's it: "read it and weep").

The Marriage Portrait takes place in Renaissance Florence and also features a very insightful, inutitive child, Lucretia de' Medici, the smart and rebellious daughter of the Duke of Florence. This story is about her arranged marriage at 15 to the Duke of Ferrara, and - as stated on the first page of the book - about the rumour that her husband killed her less than a year after their wedding.

I found the book quite suspenseful, but also very tender, poetic and loving. Also, I love books about artists and seeing through their eyes how they approach their art, which was a big part of TMP.

Honorable mentions:

Stine Pilgaard, Meter pro Sekunde - features my personal favourite, most fun protagonist of 2022.

Katja Oskamp, Marzahn Mon Amour - tales of a pedicurist/podiatrist and her clients.

[fanofcatchysongs]

Apollo — God of The Sun and Light. But is also the god of poetry, healing, music, plagues, knowledge, order, prophecy, beauty, agriculture, and archery.

“Always, the sun always comes back.”

“Hello mortals! I am the great Apollo..”

Help…

ALIAS: Phoebus, Lester Papadopoulos (mortal), Fred (hobo), God of Archery, God of Art, Music and Poetry, God of Prophecy, God of Light and the Sun, God of Healing and Plagues, God of Truth, God of Making Me Do Stupid Quests (by Percy Jackson), Music Man (by Leo Valdez), Sunny (by Ares, Leo Valdez and Josephine), Mr. A (by Dionysus), Lester-Apollo (by the troglodytes), Lover Boy (Sibyl of Cumea)

Sexuality: none of your business.. (bisexual)

Personality: Laid back, less serious, obsessed with haikus.

Appearance: Any! (Mainly blonde with curly hair, tanned skin, and blue eyes.)

Fam:

FAMILY

Zeus (father) Leto (mother) Artemis (twin sister) Ares, Hermes, Dionysus, Heracles and Perseus (paternal half-brothers) Athena, Persephone, Hebe, Enyo, Thalia Grace, and Eileithyia (paternal half-sisters) Apollo's Cabin members (children) Asclepius, Halcyon Green, Lee Fletcher, Michael Yew, Will Solace and Austin Lake (sons) Eurydice, Melite, Victoria (demigod), and Kayla Knowles (daughters) Hecate and Aura (cousins) Metis, Eos, Styx (first cousins once removed) Kronos (paternal grandfather) Rhea (paternal grandmother) Koios (maternal grandfather) Phoebe (maternal grandmother) Hygieia, Panakeia, Iaso, Akeso, Aglaea, Oeno, Spermo, Elais, Susanna Hall and Judith Quiney (granddaughters) Aratus, Meditri, Telesphoros, Machaon, Podaleirios, Actaeon, Thamyris, Eumolpus, Andros, Mykonos, Thasos, Corax, Laomedon, Hamnet Shakespeare and Pranjal (grandsons)

Powers: Battle Prowess, Archery, Swordsmanship, Music Ability, Audiokinesis, Heliokinesis, Photokinesis, Sunlight Rays, Dazzling Appearance, Pyrokinesis, Fiery Appearance, Fire Generation, Fire Immunity, Supernatural Sight, Vitakinesis, Enhanced Healing, Nosokinesis, Prophecy, Madness Inducement, Truth Sense, Couplets Curse, Flight, Invisibility, Hypnokinesis, Shapeshifting, Power Granting, Deification, Teleportation, Cloud Transformation, Dreams.

Apollo's attributes are his golden bow and arrow, his golden lyre (made for him by Hermes), the laurel wreath (in honor of Daphne, his unrequited love), the sacrificial tripod (representing his prophetic powers), and the hyacinth flower (which sprouted out of the blood of Hyacinthus, Apollo's deceased lover). Apollo's sacred animal is the swan.

[thedankprofile]

William Shakespeare Age, Wife, Email Id, Phone no. and more

William Shakespeare Biography 1910–1997 Name: William Shakespeare William Shakespeare Mobile Number: N/A William Shakespeare Email ID: N/A William Shakespeare Age: 52 years 1564–1616 William Shakespeare wife: Anne Hathaway William Shakespeare Mother: Mary Shakespeare William Shakespeare Children: Hamnet Shakespeare Judith Quiney Susanna Hall William Shakespeare NET WORTH: around £5…

[shakespearenews]

Documentary evidence shows that the vast majority of Hall’s patients were women, and the herb garden at his home, Hall’s Croft in Stratford-upon-Avon, will be filled with the sort of plants that he used in treating them. The site is overseen by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT), which is collaborating with the University of Brighton on a major research project focusing on Susanna.

As part of their research, they are drawing on Hall’s 400-year-old medical casebook which was recently translated from Latin into English. Between 1611 and 1635, he recorded symptoms and treatments for 178 cases.

Hall, who was educated at Queens’ College, Cambridge, emerges from its pages as a compassionate scholar-physician. Among his treatments was rhubarb, which helped sort out “constipation of the belly, melancholy, sleeplessness”, while borage, mallow and mugwort calmed “frenzy after childbirth”, now understood as postnatal mental health issues. Rosemary appears repeatedly, treating Susanna’s own scurvy, back pain and “melancholy”.

[quietparanoiac]

Upstart Crow (2016–), 1x05

[thestrangegirl091200]

Tangerines, pastries and the best books I've read this year, that are:

• La Campana di Vetro (Italian edition of The Bell Jar) by Sylvia Plath

• Circe by Madeline Miller

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

• L'Inverno della Strega (Italian edition of The Winter of the Witch) by Katherine Arden

• Molto rumore per nulla (Italian edition of Much Ado About Nothing) by William Shakespeare

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

• Così si perde la guerra del tempo (Italian edition of This Is How You Lose the Time War) by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Plus (books read on my tablet):

• The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

• The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

[literarypilgrim]

Read Like a Gilmore

All 339 Books Referenced In “Gilmore Girls” 

Not my original list, but thought it’d be fun to go through and see which one’s I’ve actually read :P If it’s in bold, I’ve got it, and if it’s struck through, I’ve read it. I’ve put a ‘read more’ because it ended up being an insanely long post, and I’m now very sad at how many of these I haven’t read. (I’ve spaced them into groups of ten to make it easier to read)

1. 1984 by George Orwell  2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 3. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 5. An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser 6. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt 7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 8. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank 9. The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan 10. The Art of Fiction by Henry James 

11. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 12. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner 13. Atonement by Ian McEwan 14. Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy 15. The Awakening by Kate Chopin 16. Babe by Dick King-Smith 17. Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi 18. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie 19. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 20. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 21. Beloved by Toni Morrison 22. Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney 23. The Bhagava Gita 24. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy 25. Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel 26. A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy 27. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 28. Brick Lane by Monica Ali 29. Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner 30. Candide by Voltaire 31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer 32. Carrie by Stephen King 33. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 34. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 35. Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White 36. The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman 37. Christine by Stephen King 38. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens 39. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess 40. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse    41. The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty 42. A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare 43. Complete Novels by Dawn Powell 44. The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton 45. Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker 46. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 47. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas 48. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac 49. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 50. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber    51. The Crucible by Arthur Miller 52. Cujo by Stephen King 53. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 54. Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende 55. David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D 56. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 57. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown 58. Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol 59. Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 60. Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller 61. Deenie by Judy Blume 62. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson 63. The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx 64. The Divine Comedy by Dante 65. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells 66. Don Quixote by Cervantes 67. Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv 68. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 69. Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe 70. Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook 71. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe 72. Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn  73. Eloise by Kay Thompson 74. Emily the Strange by Roger Reger 75. Emma by Jane Austen 76. Empire Falls by Richard Russo 77. Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol 78. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton 79. Ethics by Spinoza 80. Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves

81. Eva Luna by Isabel Allende 82. Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer 83. Extravagance by Gary Krist 84. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury 85. Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore 86. The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan 87. Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser 88. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson 89. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien 90. Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein 91. The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom 92. Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce 93. Fletch by Gregory McDonald 94. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes 95. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem 96. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand 97. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 98. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger 99. Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers 100. Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut 101. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler 102. George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg 103. Gidget by Fredrick Kohner 104. Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen 105. The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels 106. The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo 107. The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy  108. Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky  109. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell  110. The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford 

111. The Gospel According to Judy Bloom 112. The Graduate by Charles Webb 113. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 114. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 115. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 116. The Group by Mary McCarthy 117. Hamlet by William Shakespeare 118. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling 119. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 120. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers    121. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 122. Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry 123. Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare 124. Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare 125. Henry V by William Shakespeare 126. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby 127. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon 128. Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris 129. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton 130. House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III    131. The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende 132. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer 133. How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss  134. How the Light Gets In by M. J. Hyland  135. Howl by Allen Ginsberg  136. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo  137. The Iliad by Homer 138. I’m With the Band by Pamela des Barres  139. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote  140. Inferno by Dante 

141. Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee 142. Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy 143. It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton 144. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 145. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan 146. Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare 147. The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain 148. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 149. Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito 150. The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander 151. Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain 152. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 153. Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence 154. The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal 155. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman 156. The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield 157. Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis 158. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke 159. Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken  160. Life of Pi by Yann Martel 

161. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 162. The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway 163. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen 164. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 165. Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton 166. Lord of the Flies by William Golding 167. The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson 168. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 169. The Love Story by Erich Segal 170. Macbeth by William Shakespeare 171. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 172. The Manticore by Robertson Davies 173. Marathon Man by William Goldman 174. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov 175. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir 176. Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman 177. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris 178. The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer 179. Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken 180. The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare 181. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 182. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 183. The Miracle Worker by William Gibson 184. Moby Dick by Herman Melville 185. The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin  186. Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor  187. A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman  188. Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret  189. A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars 190. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway 

191. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 192. Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall 193. My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh 194. My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken 195. My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest 196. Myra Waldo’s Travel and Motoring Guide to Europe, 1978 by Myra Waldo 197. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult 198. The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer 199. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco 200. The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri 201. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin 202. Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen 203. New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson 204. The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay 205. Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich 206. Night by Elie Wiesel 207. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen 208. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan 209. Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell 210. Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski

211. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (will NEVER read again) 212. Old School by Tobias Wolff 213. On the Road by Jack Kerouac 214. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey 215. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez 216. The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan 217. Oracle Night by Paul Auster 218. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood 219. Othello by Shakespeare 220. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 221. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan 222. Out of Africa by Isac Dineson 223. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton 224. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster 225. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan 226. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 227. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious 228. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 229. Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington 230. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi 231. Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain 232. The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby 233. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker 234. The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche 235. The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind 236. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 237. Property by Valerie Martin 238. Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon  239. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw  240. Quattrocento by James Mckean 

241. A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall 242. Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers 243. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe 244. The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham 245. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi 246. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier 247. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin 248. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant 249. Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman 250. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien 251. R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton 252. Rita Hayworth by Stephen King 253. Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert 254. Roman Holiday by Edith Wharton 255. Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare 256. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 257. A Room with a View by E. M. Forster 258. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin 259. The Rough Guide to Europe, 2003 Edition 260. Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi 261. Sanctuary by William Faulkner 262. Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford 263. Say Goodbye to Daisy Miller by Henry James 264. The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum 265. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne  266. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand  267. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir  268. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd  269. Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman  270. Selected Hotels of Europe 

271. Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell 272. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 273. A Separate Peace by John Knowles 274. Several Biographies of Winston Churchill 275. Sexus by Henry Miller 276. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon 277. Shane by Jack Shaefer 278. The Shining by Stephen King 279. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse 280. S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton 281. Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut 282. Small Island by Andrea Levy 283. Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway 284. Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers 285. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore 286. The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht 287. Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos 288. The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker 289. Songbook by Nick Hornby 290. The Sonnets by William Shakespeare 291. Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 292. Sophie’s Choice by William Styron  293. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner  294. Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov 295. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach  296. The Story of My Life by Helen Keller  297. A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams  298. Stuart Little by E. B. White  299. Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway  300. Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust 

301. Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett 302. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber 303. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 304. Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald 305. Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry 306. Time and Again by Jack Finney 307. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 308. To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway 309. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 310. The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare    311. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith 312. The Trial by Franz Kafka 313. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson 314. Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett 315. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom 316. Ulysses by James Joyce 317. The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath 318. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe 319. Unless by Carol Shields  320. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann 

321. The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers 322. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray 323. Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard 324. The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides 325. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett 326. Walden by Henry David Thoreau 327. Walt Disney’s Bambi by Felix Salten 328. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 329. We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker 330. What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles 331. What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell 332. When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka 333. Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson 334. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee 335. Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire 336. The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum 337. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 338. The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 339. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

[lizziestudieshistory]

Books of 2021 - August

I had a decent reading month in August! Not only did I FINALLY conquer Anna Karenina but I also managed to knock a fair few books of my long term TBR.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by That Woman - a reread that completed my entire series reread. I enjoyed it, found a new love for Severus Snape, and rediscovered a love that had suffered from Rowling herself. I don't want to say too much because Harry Potter isn't exactly under praised!

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - Okay I KNOW I just finished a reread but I was playing the Harry Potter games from when I was a kid and wanted something to stick on in the background I didn't need to fix my entire attention on... I also wanted to revisit some scenes from this book to follow up some thoughts I'd had in the later novels.

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio - I ADORED this book! It took me a little while to get into it but once I was hooked it was intense. The drama was intense, the relationships between the main character were beautiful (if a bit twisted), and the love of Shakespeare permeated every page. It was a suspenseful read that came to me exactly at the right time!

I would highly recommend if you love Shakespeare and, for some reason, haven't read this yet, or if you're into dark academia as a literary genre (I actually think it's better than The Secret History!!!) If you don’t love Shakespeare I would recommend familiarising yourself with Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and King Lear before you resd this one as an awareness of these plays will really help you enjoyment. However, this is definitely one of the best books I've read all year - I absolutely adored it!

The Warden by Anthony Trollop - This was an unexpected boom for me to pick up. It's been sitting on my shelf for a couple of years at this point and I've never felt the urge to pick it up. I knew I wanted to try Trollope and I thought I'd enjoy this because I am a bit too into church politics but I'd never felt particularly motivated to read it - turns out I did really enjoy it!

It's probably not Trollope's best work (although I have nothing to compare it to) and I definitely wouldn't recommend it as a starting place for Trollope unless you do really love church politics. However, I had a great time and really enjoyed the discussion around church abuses, personal responsibility, and the effect unthinking busybodies can have on otherwise content individuals. It was a promising start from Trollope and I'll definitely be reading more in the future!

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë - Another unexpected read for this month, however, like The Warden I picked this up to help with my momentum through the 1kpagesaug21 readathon. I liked Agnes Grey, it was an interesting little book that I enjoyed reading. The exploration of a governess' life was powerful and eye opening - although it was probably moreso for a Victorian audience than it is today.

However, I felt there was something lacking in Agnes Grey that was present in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. The characters didn't feel as vivid - even Agnes herself felt flat to me - and her life didn't draw me into the book. I do think the relationships, particularly between Agnes and the children she taught, were very well developed. Children, especially teenaged girls, really are THAT horrible and cruel. But most of Agnes' life didn't interest me that much, her relationship with Mr Weston felt a bit forced (and predictable!) while her happily ever after left me underwhelmed.

The emotionality and passionate heart that's so iconic in the Brontë's work didn't come across in Agnes Grey and I felt a little bit disappointed. It was a good book and I'm glad I read it but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is definitely the superior Anne Brontë work in my opinion. In Tenant I really feel Anne's passion and anger, which is more in line with my taste.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy - Okay I literally cannot review Anna Karenina here... It's too much in the space I allow myself, so I'll try to do a full review at some point in the future (don't hold your breath I have a backlog!)

Let's just say I struggled with Anna Karenina. I loved parts and loathed others. It's truly a novel about life and life is not always enjoyable to read about... I think Tolstoy gets lost in the scope of his novels! He does too much, encompasses too many plots, and Anna Karenina really should have been two books, not one.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - I'm STILL processing Piranesi, I've been putting off my monthly reviews to try and decide how I feel about it but I just don't know! It's a beautifully written book, the prose is to DIE FOR. Clarke could write about anything and I'd think it was beautifully written.

Yet the book itself is weird, not in a bad way though. It's slow and whimsical - nothing really makes sense until you've uncovered the whole mystery of the House and Piranesi. It was enchanting to read, I really was spellbound, but I'm not sure if it was enjoyable? I found it hard going in places, especially at the beginning where Piranesi was doing nothing for 70 pages! I do think it's worth reading, and I did love the plot (when it actually happened) I just wished it was slightly more to the point in the opening part.

[gilmoregirlsrevival2016]

Season 1 Gilmore Girls References (Breakdown)

Yay! All the season 1 references have been posted. Before I start posting season 2, I wanted to post this little breakdown for your enjoyment :) It starts with some statistics and then below the cut is a list of all the specific references.

Overall amount of references in season 1: 605

Top 10 Most Common References: NSYNC (5), Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (5), Taylor Hanson (6), Leo Tolstoy (7), Lucky Spencer (7), Marcel Proust (7), PJ Harvey (7), The Bangles (8), The Donna Reed Show (8), William Shakespeare (10)

Which episodes had the most references: #1 is That Damn Donna Reed with 55 references. #2 is Christopher Returns with 44 references 

What characters made the most references (Only including characters/actors who were in the opening credits): Lorelai had the most with 237 references, Rory had second most with 118, and Lane had third most with 48.

First reference of the season: Jack Kerouac referenced by Lorelai 

Final reference of the season: Adolf Eichmann referenced by Michel 

  Movies/TV Shows/Episodes/Characters, Commercials, Cartoons/Cartoon Characters, Plays, Documentaries:

9 1/2 Weeks, Alex Stone, Alfalfa, An Affair To Remember, A Streetcar Named Desire, Attack Of The Fifty Foot Woman, Avon Commercials, Bambi, Beethoven, Boogie Nights, Cabaret, Casablanca, Charlie's Angels, Charlie Brown cartoons, Christine, Cinderella, Citizen Kane, Daisy Duke, Damien Thorn, Dawson Leery, Donna Stone, Double Indemnity, Double Mint Commercials, Ethel Mertz, Everest, Felix Unger, Fiddler On The Roof, Footloose, Freaky Friday, Fred Mertz, Gaslight, General Hospital, G.I. Jane, Gone With The Wind, Grease, Hamlet, Heathers, Hee Haw, House On Haunted Hill, Ice Castles, I Love Lucy, Iron Chef, Ishtar, Jeff Stone, Joanie Loves Chachi, John Shaft, Lady And The Tramp, Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows, Love Story, Lucky Spencer, Lucy Raises Chickens, Lucy Ricardo, Lucy Van Pelt, Macbeth,  Magnolia, Mary Stone, Mask, Midnight Express, Misery, Norman Bates, Officer Krupke, Oompa Loompas, Old Yeller, Oscar Madison, Out Of Africa, Patton, Pepe Le Pew, Peyton Place, Pink Ladies, Pinky Tuscadero, Ponyboy, Psycho, Queen Of Outer Space, Rapunzel, Richard III, Ricky Ricardo, Rocky Dennis, Romeo And Juliet, Rosemary's Baby, Sandy Olsson, Saved By The Bell, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Schroeder, Sesame Street, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Sex And The City, Sixteen Candles, Sleeping Beauty, Star Trek, Stanley Kowalski, Stella Kowalski, Stretch Cunningham, The Champ, The Comedy Of Errors, The Crucible, The Donna Reed Show, The Duke's Of Hazzard, The Fly, The Great Santini, The Little Match Girl, The Matrix, The Miracle Worker, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Outsiders, The Shining, The Sixth Sense, The View, The Waltons, The Way We Were, The Scarecrow, This Old House, V.I.P., Valley Of The Dolls, Vulcans, Wild Kingdom, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, Wheel Of Fortune, Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf, Working Girl, Yogi Bear, You're A Good Man Charlie Brown

Bands, Songs, CDs:

98 Degrees, Air Supply, Apple Venus Volume 2, Backstreet Boys, Bee Gees, Black Sabbath, Blue Man Group, Blur, Bon Jovi, Boston, Bush, Duran Duran, Everlong, Foo Fighters, Fugazi, Grandaddy, Hanson, I'm Too Sexy, Joy Division, Jumpin' Jack Flash, Kraftwerk, Like A Virgin, Livin La Vida Loca, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Man I Feel Like A Woman, Metallica, Money Money, My Ding-A-Ling, NSYNC, On The Good Ship Lollipop, Pink Moon, Queen, Rancid, Sergeant Pepper, Shake Your Bon Bon, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Sister Sledge, Smoke On The Water, Steely Dan, Suppertime, Tambourine Man, The B-52s, The Bangles, The Beatles, The Best Of Blondie, The Cranberries, The Cure, The Offspring, The Sugarplastic, The Wallflowers, The Velvet Underground, Walk Like An Egyptian, XTC, Ya Got Trouble, Young Marble Giants

Books/Book Characters, Comic Books/Comic Book Characters, Comic Strips: 

A Mencken Chrestomathy, A Tale Of Two Cities, Anna Karenina, Belle Watling, Boo Radley, Carrie, David Copperfield, Dick Tracy, Dopey (One of the seven dwarfs) Goofus And Gallant, Great Expectations, Grinch, Hannibal Lecter, Hansel And Gretel, Harry Potter (book as well as character referenced), Huckleberry Finn, Little Dorrit, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Mommie Dearest, Moose Mason, Nancy Drew, Out Of Africa, Pinocchio, Swann's Way, The Amityville Horror, The Art Of Fiction, The Bell Jar, The Grapes Of Wrath, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame, The Lost Weekend, The Metamorphosis, The Portable Dorothy Parker, The Unabridged Journals Of Sylvia Plath, The Witch Tree Symbol, There's A Certain Slant Of Light, Tuesdays With Morrie, War And Peace, Wonder Woman

Public Figures:

Adolf Eichmann, Alfred Hitchcock, Angelina Jolie, Anna Nicole Smith, Annie Oakley, Antonio Banderas, Arthur Miller, Artie Shaw, Barbara Hutton, Barbara Stanwyck, Barbra Streisand, Beck, Ben Jonson, Benito Mussolini, Billy Bob Thornton, Billy Crudup, Bob Barker, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears, Catherine The Great, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Charles I, Charles Dickens, Charles Manson, Charlie Parker, Charlotte Bronte, Charlton Heston, Charo, Cher, Cheryl Ladd, Chris Penn, Christiane Amanpour, Christopher Marlowe, Chuck Berry, Claudine Longet, Cleopatra, Cokie Roberts, Courtney Love, Dalai Lama, Damon Albarn, Dante Alighieri, David Mamet, Donna Reed, Edith Wharton, Edna O'Brien, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Webber, Elle Macpherson, Elsa Klensch, Elvis, Emeril Lagasse, Emily Dickinson, Emily Post, Eminem, Emma Goldman, Errol Flynn, Fabio, Farrah Fawcett, Fawn Hall, Flo Jo, Francis Bacon, Frank Sinatra, Franz Kafka, Fred MacMurray, Friedrich Nietzsche, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, George Clooney, George Sand, George W. Bush, Harry Houdini, Harvey Fierstein, Henny Youngman, Henry David Thoreau, Henry James, Henry VIII, Herman Melville, Homer, Honore De Balzac, Howard Cosell, Hugh Grant, Hunter Thompson, Jack Kerouac, Jaclyn Smith, James Dean, Jane Austen, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Tandy, Jim Carey, Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hoffa, Joan Of Arc, Joan Rivers, Jocelyn Wildenstein, Joel Grey, John Cage, John Gardner, John Muir, John Paul II, John Webster, Johnny Cash, Johnny Depp, Joseph Merrick AKA Elephant Man, Judy Blume, Judy Garland, Julian Lennon, Justin Timberlake, Karen Blixen AKA Isak Dinesen, Kate Jackson, Kathy Bates, Kevin Bacon, Kreskin, Lee Harvey Oswald, Leo Tolstoy, Leopold and Loeb, Lewis Carroll, Linda McCartney, Liz Phair, Liza Minnelli, Lou Reed, M Night Shyamalan, Macy Gray, Madonna, Marcel Marceau, Marcel Proust, Margot Kidder, Marie Antoinette, Marie Curie, Marilyn Monroe, Mark Twain, Mark Wahlberg, Marlin Perkins, Martha Stewart, Martha Washington, Martin Luther, Mary Kay Letourneau, Maurice Chevalier, Melissa Rivers, Meryl Streep, Michael Crichton, Michael Douglas, Michelle Pfeiffer, Miguel De Cervantes, Miss Manners, Mozart, Nancy Kerrigan, Nancy Walker, Nick Cave, Nick Drake, Nico, Oliver North, Oprah Winfrey, Oscar Levant, Pat Benatar, Paul McCartney, Peter III Of Russia, Peter Frampton, Philip Glass, PJ Harvey, Prince, Queen Elizabeth I, Regis, Richard Simmons, Rick James, Ricky Martin, Robert Duvall, Robert Redford, Robert Smith, Robin Leach, Rosie O'Donnell, Ru Paul, Ruth Gordon, Samuel Barber, Sarah Duchess Of York, Sean Lennon, Sean Penn, Shania Twain, Shelley Hack, Sigmund Freud, Squeaky Fromme, Stephen King, Steven Tyler, Susan Faludi, Susanna Hoffs, Tanya Roberts, Taylor Hanson, Theodore Kaczynski AKA The Unabomber, The Kennedy Family, Groucho, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo, and Gummo Marx AKA The Marx Brothers, Venus and Serena Williams (The reference was "The Williams Sisters"),Thelonious Monk, Tiger Woods, Tito Puente, Tom Waits, Tony Randall, Tonya Harding, Vaclav Havel, Vanna White, Vivien Leigh, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, William Shatner, Yoko Ono, Zsa Zsa Gabor

Misc:

Camelot, Chernobyl Disaster, Cone Of Silence, Hindenburg Disaster, Iran-Contra Affair, Paul Bunyan, The Menendez Murders, Tribbles, Vulcan Death Grip, Whoville, Winchester Mystery House

[iwouldvebeendrake01]

WOMEN IN FILM

Agnieszka Holland - director, The Secret Garden (1993) Alice Waddington - director, Paradise Hills (2019) Amma Asante - director, Belle (2013), A United Kingdom (2016) Amy Heckerling - director, Look Who’s Talking (1989), Clueless (1995) Angela Workman - writer, The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), Longbourn (?) Angelina Jolie - director, By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017) Anna Boden - director, It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010), Captain Marvel (2019) Anna Kendrick - exec. producer, Dummy (?), Love Life (?) Anne Fletcher - director, The Proposal (2009), Dumplin’ (2018) Ava DuVernay - director, Selma (2014), A Wrinkle in Time (2018) Barbara Streisand - director, Yentl (1983) Brenda Chapman - director, The Prince of Egypt (1998), Brave (2012) Brie Larson - director, Unicorn Store (2017) Bryce Dallas Howard - director, Dads (2019), The Mandalorian Ch. 4 (2019) Carey Mulligan - exec. producer, Promising Young Woman (2020) Cate Shortland - director, Lore (2012), Black Widow (2020) Cathy Yan - director, Birds of Prey (2020) Céline Sciamma - director, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Chanya Button - director, Vita & Virginia (2018) Charlize Theron - producer, Monster (2003), Atomic Blonde (2017), Bombshell (2019) Chloé Zhao - director, Eternals (2020) Claire McCarthy - director, Ophelia (2018), The Luminaries (?) Debbie Allen - director, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), The Twilight Zone (2003) Deborah Chow - director, The Mandalorian Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (2019), Obi-Wan Series (?) Debra Granik - director, Winter’s Bone (2010) Desiree Akhavan - director, Appropriate Behavior (2014) Diablo Cody - writer, Jennifer’s Body (2009), Young Adult (2011) Dorota Kobiela - director, Loving Vincent (2017) Drew Barrymore - director, Whip It (2009) Elizabeth Banks - director, Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), Charlie’s Angels (2019) Elizabeth Olsen - exec. producer, Sorry for Your Loss (2018–) Emma Stone - exec. producer, Maniac (2018) Emma Thompson - writer, Sense and Sensibility (1995), Last Christmas (2019) Gal Gadot - producer, Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Hedy Lamarr Mini-Series (2020–) Gillian Armstrong - director, Little Women (1994), Death Defying Acts (2007) Greta Gerwig - director, Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019), Barbie (?) Gurinder Chadha - director, Bride & Prejudice (2004), Blinded by the Light (2019) Jamie Babbit - director, Supergirl (2016), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2018) Jane Goldman - writer, Stardust (2007), X-Men: First Class (2011), Rebecca (2020) Jennifer Lee - writer, Frozen (2013), Zootopia (2016), Frozen II (2019) Jerusha Hess - writer, Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006), Austenland (2013) Jessica Chastain - producer, I Am Jane Doe (2017), 355 (2021) Joanna Hogg - director, Unrelated (2007), Archipelago (2010), The Souvenir (2019) Josie Rourke - director, Coriolanus (2014), Mary Queen of Scots (2018) Julia Ducournau - director, Raw (2016), Titane (2020) Julie Taymor - director, Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007), The Glorias (2020) Karen Gillan - director, The Party’s Just Beginning (2018) Kari Skogland - director, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2020–) Karyn Kusama - director, Æon Flux (2005), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Destroyer (2018) Kate Mara - producer, My Days of Mercy (2017), A Teacher (2020–) Kathryn Bigelow - director, The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Katt Shea - director, Poison Ivy (1992), Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019) Kay Cannon - writer, New Girl (2012-2013), Girlboss (2017), Cinderella (2021) Kelly Fremon Craig - director, The Edge of Seventeen (2016)  Lana & Lilly Wachowski - directors, The Matrix (1999), Cloud Atlas (2012) Laura Lau - director, Silent House (2011) Leslye Headland - writer, Terriers (2010), Bachelorette (2012), Russian Doll (2019–) Lindsey Beer - writer, Chaos Walking (2020), The Kingkiller Chronicle (?), Silver Sable (?) Lois Weber - director, A Heroine of ‘76 (1911), The Angel of Broadway (1927) Lone Scherfig - director, An Education (2009), One Day (2011), Their Finest (2016) Lorene Scafaria - director, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), Hustlers (2019) Lucia Aniello - director, Rough Night (2017), Broad City (2014-2019) Lupita Nyong’o - producer, In My Genes (2009), Americanah (2020–) Lynne Ramsay - director, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Madonna - director, Filth and Wisdom (2008), W.E. (2011) Margot Robbie - exec. producer, Gotham City Sirens (?), Modern Shakespeare Project (?) Marielle Heller - director, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) Marjane Satrapi - director, Persepolis (2007), The Voices (2014), Radioactive (2020) Marti Noxon - writer, Fright Night (2011), To the Bone (2017), Sharp Objects (2018) Mary Harron - director, American Psycho (2000), Alias Grace (2017), Charlie Says (2018) Mary Pickford - writer, The Awakening (1909), Rags (1915), A Girl of Yesterday (1915) Michelle Williams - exec. producer, Blue Valentine (2010), Fosse/Verdon (2019) Millie Bobby Brown - producer, Enola Holmes (2020) Mimi Leder - director, Deep Impact (1998), On the Basis of Sex (2018) Nancy Meyers - director, The Parent Trap (1998), The Holiday (2006), The Intern (2015) Naomi Watts - exec. producer, Gypsy (2017), The Wolf Hour (2019) Natalie Dormer - writer, In Darkness (2018) Natalie Portman - director, A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015) Nia DaCosta - director, Little Woods (2018), Candyman (2020) Niki Caro - director, Whale Rider (2002), The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), Mulan (2020) Noomi Rapace - producer, Stockholm (2018), Close (2019), Hearts of Stone (2020) Nora Ephron - director, Sleepless in Seattle (1993), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Julie & Julia (2009) Octavia Spencer - exec. producer, Green Book (2018), Self Made (2020–) Olivia Wilde - director, Booksmart (2019) Patty Jenkins - director, Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017), I Am the Night (2019) Penélope Cruz - producer, Twice Born (2012), Ma ma (2015), The Queen of Spain (2016) Penny Marshall - director, Big (1988), A League of Their Own (1992) Phoebe Waller-Bridge - writer, Fleabag (2016-2019), No Time to Die (2020) Quiara Alegría Hudes - writer, In the Heights (2020), Vivo (2021) Rachel Weisz - producer, The Shape of Things (2003), Radiator (2014), Disobedience (2017) Rashida Jones - writer, Black Mirror: Nosedive (2016), Toy Story 4 (2019) Rebecca Hall - director, Passing (2020) Reese Witherspoon - producer, Penelope (2006), Gone Girl (2014), Tinker Bell (?) Robin Wright - director, House of Cards (2014-2018), Land (?) Ruth Wilson - exec. producer, Mrs. Wilson (2018) Sally Potter - director, Orlando (1992), The Man Who Cried (2000) Salma Hayek - producer, Frida (2002), Ugly Betty (2006-2010), The Prophet (2014) Sandra Bullock - exec. producer, George Lopez (2002-2007), The Proposal (2009) Scarlett Johansson - exec. producer, The Whale (2011), Black Widow (2020) Sofia Coppola - director, Lost in Translation (2003), The Beguiled (2017) Susanna White - director, Bleak House (2005), Jane Eyre (2006), Woman Walks Ahead (2017) Susanne Bier - director, Serena (2014), The Night Manager (2016), Bird Box (2018) Tessa Thompson - exec. producer, Little Woods (2018), Sylvie’s Love (2020) Thea Sharrock - director, The Hollow Crown: Henry V (2012), Me Before You (2016) Thea von Harbou - writer, Destiny (1921), Metropolis (1927), Woman in the Moon (1929) Tina Fey - writer, Mean Girls (2004), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-2019) Valerie Faris - director, Battle of the Sexes (2017), Living with Yourself (2019–) Vanessa Taylor - writer, Divergent (2014), The Shape of Water (2017) Zoe Kazan - writer, Ruby Sparks (2012), Wildlife (2018) Zoe Lister-Jones - director, Band Aid (2017), Woman Up (?), The Craft (?) Zoe Saldana - producer, Rosemary’s Baby (2014), The Honor List (2018), From Scratch (2020–) Zooey Deschanel - exec. producer, New Girl (2011-2018)

[cto10121]

all right, since I’m bored and have little to do, I’ll just do a random review of the latest shakespeare offering I’ve seen, all is true, that absolutely no one asked for

so in all honesty I thought it was going to be a lot worse than I thought, based on the mixed and spoilerific reviews I read (i’ll keep this one without spoilers, but honestly, it really does not spoil the experience). At least it did flow and was entertaining enough. i liked shakespeare’s realization about how much he had overlooked judith and his reversal in attitude. at least that felt truer to how the real shakespeare would have reacted

but oh god, did this have “shakespeare pop biography” written all over it. i could just see the screenwriter’s checklist on screen along with his copy of greenblatt’s will in the world propped against his computer. most of the academic fanon is included. estranged from his wife and kids? check. obsessed with his legacy and reputation? check. required and/or unrequited passion for the fair youth? check. cute tongue-in-cheek references to legends like the deer poaching? check. reference to and justification of the second bed bequest? check, check, check.

(there are some quirky reversals: this film posits that shakespeare was not so gung-ho about son-in-law john hall, a puritan prig here, and was ok-ish with thomas quiney. also judith gets to be the rebellious, feisty, talented daughter here and not susanna. i may have the most ridiculous soft spot for judith, but susanna was most likely the most capable of the two)

and of course, there is iteration #383774838 of shakespeare as the money-obsessed Strawman Patriarch(tm) mixed with Self-Absorbed Genius(tm). *le sigh* ymmv, but i think anyone who even vaguely skims a shakespeare’s play and what his contemporaries said about him, is most likely not accurate portrayal of his personality. i mean, the guy giggled at his own jokes, for god’s sake. (the anecdotes about him trolling ben jonson are literally the best). yet this movie supposes that in his retirement years he became a total buzzkill and wrecked his family with his patriarchal attitudes and demands. (never mind that his harshest and most devastating tragedies are literally about patriarchal men who fuck everything up. delusional patriarchal men do not write self-portraits).

true, shakespeare did keep his nose and his name very clean, was excellent in dealing with money, and if the will bequeathing his fortune to susanna’s hypothetical boy heirs seven generations down is any indication, he did have some of the patriarchal bug (but honestly, it would have been surprising if he didn’t. guy was 16th century, after all). and, as the movie does point out, it would most likely have been because of hamlet’s death. we don’t know how shakespeare reacted, whether he mourned for him or no. the movie throws shade at the fact that he wrote the merry wives of windsor only a couple of months after hamlet’s death, but of course it’s misleading. merry wives was almost certainly commissioned for the order of the garter ceremony at windsor and shows signs it was a rushed production (legend claims he wrote it in 14 days at the queen’s behest).

disappointing, all in all. shakespeare’s retirement years are filled with incident. susanna being accused of adultery? judith marrying a fuckboi who got his lover pregnant? that tea that could very well have been their own movies. a pity, because the same writer, ben elton, also penned the upstart crow series, which also uses the shakespeare-is-roasted-alive-by-his-family-and-friends shtick but to greater comic effect. ranges from smart and clever to really stupid and silly, but the clever parts really are priceless. the early modern lingo is also much better done in upstart crow than the dialogue here, which is dumbed-down victorian at the best, slightly formal modern at worst. elton clearly knows his shakespeare, so he must have been forced to dumb down for wider distribution. pity. i would kill for an actual non-sucky shakespeare biopic. 

(as for the shipping: team southampton for both the movie and upstart crow (academic ships really are the best ships), with unrequited pining on the part of shakespeare. full disclosure: i’m a sonnet skeptic, so i don’t ship either shakespeare/southampton nor shakespeare/pembroke. in context, though, it is a nice centerpiece of the film, even if i wish they had chosen a sonnet other than when in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes as shakespeare’s love declaration. among the (well-known) fair youth sonnets, i feel like this one is the least likely to have been written about or to a fair youth. shall I compare thee would have been more like it, but i guess it would have been too fluffy and too obvious, since that is his most famous poem. i also found southampton’s rejecting shakespeare a little far-fetched. even if you discard the report of southampton snuggling with that officer, it’s more or less clear he was bi as hell. if you’re going the fairyouth!southampton route, at least go full throttle. give me fanfic excess of it. (curiously enough, shakespeare claims that all his sonnets were written to southampton. if so, this implies that the dark lady sonnets are purely poetical exercises. talk about dark lady erasure! where is my fandom discourse at?))

[shakespearenews]

A general (but not unanimous) view is that Shakespeare’s will shows him to have been sour, unemotional and unkind, with a dysfunctional family. From this much more has been extrapolated:

Judith was resented for out-living her twin brother Hamnet. She was probably uncared-for, unlike his elder daughter Susanna Hall – his favourite, and the lucky recipient of his wealth.

Shakespeare made no provision for his wife Anne, except for the slighting bequest of the second-best bed.

He had probably lost affection or respect for Anne years ago, if he ever had any – after all, she was older than him and pregnant when they married. No wonder he had abandoned his wife and three children to live in London.

But the will was written as a business document, about a future transfer of property to come into effect on his death. It was not a deathbed declaration, and was no place for expressions of affection. Sourness or coldness can’t be read into the formal language of such a document.