Summer Reading!

Well, it’s almost officially summertime. Hooray! Summer is my favorite season. I love love love warm weather and in Chicago it’s kind of hit or miss whether or not we actually GET a summer or not. Last year: yes. The year before: nope. So far this June has been rather annoying. We had a couple days of killer heat (and I mean killer! it was in the 90s with blazing sun. that’s even too hot for me) and then it sunk back down to the 50s and 60s and rain rain rain. Yuck! It seems like it’s slinking back up to the 70s and 80s soon though but I still see a bunch of rain in the forecast. Boo.

Anyway…with summer for a lot of people comes some fun reading. Time to catch up on some books you’ve been meaning to get to or participate in some summer challenges or just sit back with some beachy-type reads.

For me it’s the first two. As you all know, my TBR pile floweth over. One book I really really want to get to this summer (okay, it’s really a play, not a book, but whatever) is King Lear by Shakespeare. I’m always ashamed when I claim to be a huge Shakespeare fan but yet I have to admit I’ve never read that one. So this summer, come hell or high water, I’m going to get to it!

Then I’m also participating in a fun summer reading challenge with a group I’m in through Shelfari. It’s not the group I run, Who Doesn’t Love a Classic, it’s another one where I’m just a lowly member, but that’s okay ;)

It’s the Bibliophile Reading Group and the challenge is like this:

1. Read 3 books that are Book-of-the-Month’s from June-August (this group has about 3-4 books each month that they read so there will be a bunch to choose from).

2. Read a book that has a summer theme on the title (For example, The Beach by Alex Garland)

3. Read a book that has at least 400 pages.

4. Read a book that starts with the letter of your first name or last name (this would be “L” for me).

5. Read a book that has at least one of the summer colors on the cover: red, yellow, and orange.

And the trick is you can only use one book per number. So even if I read a book that would work for say #2,3 and 4, I would have to choose which number to use it on. So you have to read seven books total. And there are mini-challenges posted along the way too.

I think I’ve figured out most of the books I’m going to be reading to fit in with the numbers, aside from the Book-of-the-Months that is. For #2 I’m going to either read Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island or Aldous Huxley’s Island (get it?). I’ve already done #3 because I just recently finished The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk which was well over 400 pages. And for #5 I’m going to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon because the cover is entirely reddish-orange and I just bought it (oh, and I’ve heard great things).

The only one I don’t know about is #4, the “L” book. Maybe Liza of Lambeth by Maugham? Not sure yet. Any good suggestions?

What are your summer reading plans? Any good challenges? Taking it easy? What’s going on with you all :)

Shakespearean Cologne Anyone?

This link was passed on to me by a friend that knows I am a diehard Shakespeare lover and I thought you all would appreciate it as well. It’s a website called Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab that sells perfumes and colognes but the fun thing about it is that all the scents are named after characters in Shakespearean plays! Neat huh (yes I said the word neat)? I think they also have scents named after other classic novel works and characters but I like the Shakespeare thing the most. I mean, if you just read the descriptions of each perfume it’s perfect. Like this one:

Lady Macbeth: The essence of ambition, covetousness and manipulation: sweet Bordeaux wine, blood red currant, thyme and wild berries.

Oh and this one:

Yorick: Grave dirt, bone, decay, angel's trumpet, and moldering scraps of shroud: the essence of finality.

Aren’t those great?!

Review for You - Othello

Othello by William Shakespeare
4 stars

Everyone knows the tale of Othello, or almost everyone at least. A Moor (otherwise known as black guy), Othello, falls in love and marries a white woman, Desdemona, and through the evilness of his servant, Iago, is tricked into thinking her untrue and unloyal and kills her in a fit of rage. Sorry for the spoiler there but, like I said, who doesn’t know this story? I knew it before I read it. The real point of reading it is in the beauty of the language and to see it all unfold.


From the moment the play starts Iago feels slighted for basically no reason at all and sets it in his mind to ruin his master, Othello. To do this he enlists the help of his friend, Roderigo, who wants the lovely Desdemona for his own. They come up with a wonderful plan to make Othello think that Desdemona is sleeping around with Cassio, Othello’s lieutenant. However Iago doesn’t really tell Roderigo the whole plan because well, it won’t work if Roderigo LIVES at the end of it. Of course, Othello thinks of Iago as nothing but a kind and loyal servant and calls him “honest” over and over again. So naturally when he calls Desdemona unfaithful Othello believes him almost immediately. The wheels having been so easily set in motion, Othello goes into her room at night and utters the famous line: “Have you prayed tonight, Desdemona?” And thusly strangles her.


Now this was a fantastic Shakespeare play. It had all the elements to make it great, even though I knew the ending. Murder, deception, jealousy, intrigue. However a feminist work it certainly was not. I could not count the number of times the men threw about the words “whore” and “strumpet” simply because the women said something they did not like or because Othello wrongly thought Desdemona untrue. And the implication that it is alright to KILL your WIFE just because she cheats on you is entirely ridiculous as it is. Only when Othello finds out that he was wrong and Iago tricked him does he feel any sort of remorse for his actions.


So, read it for the language and the awesomeness that is Shakespeare. But don’t expect to feel all warm and tingly inside afterwards. And Iago is a very good evil villain indeed.

Bechdel Test Tuesday!

Welcome back for another exciting addition of Bechdel Test Tuesday! Now you have to shout that last part like a game show host, otherwise it’s simply not as fun. Are you all as pumped as I am (of course you are!)? First time looking in on my awesome weekly meme? Well then here’s a quick overview of what the Bechdel Test is all about.

Well, last week the book Rebecca passed the challenge with flying colors! Will it be quite so simple for the book I pick this time around? It’s time to find out. Let's step up to the plate with…Othello!

Othello by William Shakespeare

1. Does it have at least 2 women in it?

It does. Though not a lot. Only 3 women total.

2. Do they talk to each other?

Only 2 of them talk to each other: Desdemona and her maid, Emilia.

3. About something besides a man?

Nope nope nope nope nope! Unfortunately Emilia and Desdemona do have lengthy conversations but it is ENTIRELY about Othello! What's he thinking? Why is he acting like this? Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!

Sorry Shakespeare. I’m going to have to fail you. But I had a feeling it was coming with what this play was about and all…better luck next time!

Tune in next week for another awesome installment of Bechdel Test Tuesday! And if you have any suggestions for future titles to be featured, please leave them in the comments :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope everyone has had as lovely a day as possible, be it with friends or significant others…or pets! My kitty is my Valentine (aw shucks!).

And how fitting was it that on this Hallmark Holiday I finished up the very un-romantic Shakespearean play, Othello, where the main character is driven insane with jealousy planted in his head by the evil Iago and therefore decides to murder the innocent Desdemona. Not a very feminist play, eh? Especially seeing as how Othello thinks he did absolutely nothing wrong by committing that horrid act of domestic violence UNTIL he finds out that his wife was in fact true and faithful the whole time. Because otherwise it’s perfectly acceptable to go around killing your wife! Strumpets all of them! But my full review is to come later. I promise.

But, since I don’t want to seem totally unromantic, I will leave you with a beautiful Shakespearean sonnet to lighten the mood. I’m sure many of you know it already. It’s one of his most famous:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

-William Shakespeare

A Little Shakespeare Anyone?

Alright, I admit it, William Shakespeare is my favorite author of all time. It’s true. And it’s not just because of his dashing good looks (mmm, bald spots). I own his complete works on my shelf at home and I’ve even downloaded several of his plays onto my Kindle, just so I have them with me at all times (because that complete works collection is a heavy load to carry, I’ll tell you!).

I can always count on Shakespeare for a good read, delightful wordplay, elegant prose and rhyme schemes and universal truths. I mean, even a so-so Shakespeare play is going to be better than the majority of most of the other garbage out there (sorry books, you know I love you!) I don’t know how many times I’ve read Romeo & Juliet (my favorite of all his works). I also played Ophelia in my high school production of Hamlet (I know, I’m so talented, you‘re so kind to say so). I’ve been to several different productions of several different plays, and before seeing each one I always have to read it over again. I think it just gives you a better sense of it and a richer appreciation for the play as a whole.

My brother hates Shakespeare unfortunately, which is too bad because I think if he took the time to really read and understand him then he’d find some of his plays rather humorous and right up his alley. Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing still throws me into fits of laughter.

But there are still so many of Shakespeare’s plays (even the great works) that I have yet to read. King Lear comes to mind. I just started Othello today and hope to be done very soon. I can’t believe I haven’t read it before, probably just because I already knew the plot (I mean, who doesn’t?). But I’m very excited about finally tackling it.

What about the rest of you? Anyone else in love with Shakespeare? How many of his plays have YOU read? What are your favorites/least favorites? Anyone read every single one of his plays? Now that would be an impressive accomplishment (one that I hope to tackle before I die).