The Two Noble Kinsmen by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

It is bittersweet, this the last of Shakespeare's plays! I'm so glad that I really enjoyed this one.

Two cousins are the best of friends  until they espy a beautiful woman and then well, they vow to fight each other to the death to win her. Oh and the jailer's daughter goes mad over her unrequited love.

I.5

Third Queen: "This world's a city full of straying streets,

And death's the market-place where each one meets."

How's that BFF thing going?

II.2.

Palamon: "I do not think it possible our friendship

Should ever leave us."

***

Arcite: "I will not, as you do, to worship her

As she is heavenly and a blessed goddess.

I love her as a woman, to enjoy her.

So both may love."

***

Palamon: "Friendship, blood,

And all the times between us I disclaim

If thou once think upon her."

But the battle must be legit!

III.6

Palamon: "I would have nothing hurt thee but my sword.

A bruise would be dishonor."

The BFFs prayed to the respective god/goddess (Mars & Venus) and got exactly what they wished:

IV.4

Theseus: "The powerful Venus well hath graced her altar,

And given you [Palamon] your love. Our master, Mars,

Hath vouched his oracle, and to Arcite gave

The grace of the contention."

***

Palamon:"That we should things desire which do cost us

The loss of our desire, that naught could buy

Dear love but loss of dear love."

      The Angel's Game - Carlos Ruiz Zafon                                                                                         (Z author)

This completes my A to Z author category on the TBR. Now I will start book titles A to Z. 

This was a slow read for me but Mr. Zafon has some beautiful descriptive scenes of Barcelona, Spain which I enjoyed.

I met David Martin who wants to be a novelist but at what cost. Did he make a deal with the devil?  What is the mystery that surrounds the old house he lives in? 

At times, it was a page turner for me and other times is seemed to drag.     I enjoyed Mr. Zafon's book, Shadow of the Wind but this one, not as much.

Goodreads:: In an abandoned mansion at the heart of Barcelona, a young man, David Martin, makes his living by writing sensationalist novels under a pseudonym. The survivor of a troubled childhood, he has taken refuge in the world of books and spends his nights spinning baroque tales about the city’s underworld. But perhaps his dark imaginings are not as strange as they seem, for in a locked room deep within the house lie photographs and letters hinting at the mysterious death of the previous owner.

Once again, Zafon takes us into a dark, gothic universe first seen in The Shadow of the Wind and creates a breathtaking adventure of intrigue, romance, and tragedy. Through a dizzyingly constructed labyrinth of secrets, the magic of books, passion, and friendship blend into a masterful story.

 The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

The Tempest I have read before and seen the play performed. I can't say its a favorite of mine, though it is considered one of the Bard's best. It was neat to begin reading/listening to it as a winter storm was brewing outside!

There is more of a hopeful tone to this play as it ends with forgiveness towards those who wronged each other.

I.2

Miranda: "Good wombs have borne bad sons."

II.2

Trinculo: "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows."

III.2

Stephano: "...if you trouble him any more..

by this hand, I will supplant some of your teeth."

IV.1

Prospero: "We are such stuff

As dreams are made on;"

 The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

A tragic comedy: King Leontes' jealousy leads to the play's tragedy while laughter and "comedy" was sparse. There were disguises, a comical theft and a clown (but not a fool).

The whole "miracle" of the Queen's statue coming to life was a bit hokey. Though one interpretation was that Hermoine wasn't really dead. Hmmmm.

I.2. 

Leontes: "My wife's a hobby-horse..." woah now Leontes!

II.3.

Leontes (to Antigonus, Paulina's husband): "What, canst not rule her?"

Paulina: "From all dishonesty he can: in this, 

Unless he take the course that you have done - 

Commit me for committing honor - trust it,

he shall not rule me."

Antigonus: "La, you now, you hear!

When she will take the rein, I let her run;

But she'll not stumble."

The most famous and possibly most comical  stage direction (yet also disturbing as Antigonus is subsequently eaten by said bear)

III.3

Exit, pursued by a bear

IV.1

Time: "I, that please some, try all, both joy and terror

Of good and bad, that makes and unfolds error..."

 Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

I really liked this final tragedy play. Possibly because I have had experience with false friends as Timon has.
He is surrounded by friends when he has the wealth to allow his generosity but when he endures financial distress his friends are nowhere to be found to help him. Understandably Timon becomes terribly bitter towards mankind.

I.2

Apemantus: "I should fear those that dance before me now

Would one day stamp upon me."

II.1.

Flavius: "Was to be so unwise to be so kind."

III.1.

Flaminius: "Has friendship such a faint and milky heart

It turns in less than two nights?"

III.2

Stranger: "O, see the monstrousness of man

When he looks out in an ungrateful shape!"

IV.2

Flavius: "Who would not wish to be from wealth exempt,

Since riches point to misery and contempt?"

IV.3

Timon: "Were I like thee, I'd throw away myself."

IV.3.

Apemantus: "The middle of humanity thou never knewest,

but the extremity of both ends."

 The Butterfly Cabinet by Bernie McGill

2020 Keyword Challenge (Sword, Magic, FLY, Of, Silver, Crown)
Debut Novel

I struggled the entire time with this one. I had a hard time keeping the characters and their relation to one another straight; it felt very disjointed with tangents on politics and religion that had no real bearing to the plot or the characters. The characters telling anecdotes that again seemed to not be related to the plot (I think one reviewer aptly called it "drivel").

The good thing is that it fits my last and final Keyword Challenge for 2020!!

Summary from Goodreads: Inspired by a true story of the death of the daughter of an aristocratic Irish family at the end of the nineteenth century.  The events begin when Maddie McGlade, a former nanny now in her nineties, receives a letter from the last of her charges and realizes that the time has come to unburden herself of a secret she has kept for over seventy years: what really happened on the last day in the life of Charlotte Ormond, the four-year-old only daughter of the big house where Maddie was employed as a young woman. It is to Charlotte's would-be niece, Anna -pregnant with her first- that Maddie will tell her story as she nears the end of her life in a lonely nursing home in Northern Ireland.

The book unfolds in chapters that alternate between Maddie's story and the prison diaries of Charlotte's mother, Harriet, who had been held responsible for her daughter's death. 

 Edward III by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

The last of the history plays though this one comes with some controversy as the authorship was questioned for centuries. While it may have been co-authorized, like other Shakespeare plays, it was  attributed to the Bard and added to the canon in the 1700's though some  not until much later (Oxford Complete Works - 2005) and others not at all (mine did not include it).

Several of the battle scenes were rather gruesome, much as his other histories, and the adulterous love story got lost, but as with most of the histories I found myself enjoying it more than I though I would. 

While I enjoyed the play, King Edward is not likeable:

King Edward in dictating a love letter to the woman he would like to be his mistress - his secretary writes "More fair and chaste." To which King Edward responds: "I did not bid thee talk of chastity to ransack to the treasure of her mind for I had rather have her chased than chaste." (II.1)

Here his son is outnumbered in battle and the King's men's implore him to send troops to rescue him:

III.5 

King Edward:"Tut, let him fight, we gave him arms today

and he is labouring for a knighthood, man."

II.1 

Warwick: "...lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds..." wait, that seems familiar?!?  Ah, yes it was a line in Sonnet 94!

III.2 

Frenchman: "Aye so the grasshopper doth spend the time

in mirthful jollity till winter come

and then too late he would redeem his time

when frozen cold hath nipped his careless head."

Also sounds familiar?? Did Shakespeare steal this from Aesop?

IV.4.

Audley: "To die is all as common as to live

the one in choice the other holds in chase

for from the instant we begin to live

we do pursue and hunt the time to die."

 King Henry VIII by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

After so many battle scenes in the other history plays, this one was very tame.

Henry VIII (yes the one with all the wives) is marred to Catherine who has not produced a son so he wants to divorce her to marry Anne Boleyn (Bullen in our play) but the church doesn't allow it - he does it anyway.

There are corrupt clergy.

Anne bears Henry a child, a daughter (drat! A girl!), Elizabeth who despite her sex (or maybe because of it!) is destined for great things.

It is interesting that Shakespeare wrote this during Queen Elizabeth's reign and because she controlled what could/could not be shown in the theatres he pandered to her.

Favorite Quotes:

I.1.

Norfolk: "Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot

That it do singe yourself."

II.1.

Buckingham: "Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels,

Be sure you be not loose; for those you make friends

And give your hearts to, when they once perceive

The least rub in your fortunes, fall away..."

II.4.

Queen Katherine: "They vex me past my patience."

III.I

Queen Katherine: "They should be good men, their affairs as righteous;

But all hoods make not monks."

 King Henry V by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare Project 2020

Some of the most inspiring battle speeches ever written which led me to make a connection with another book I'm reading. The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson depicts Churchill's time as Prime Minister going into WWII.  Even though I'm early into the tome, the speeches of King Henry already reminded me of Churchill's optimism in the face of incredible odds - with France falling to the Germans; England would not be able to hold its own against an inevitable German invasion.

I also discovered that Churchill spoke with Laurence Olivier (producer, director, star) about the film of Henry V and its use as propaganda to boost English morale.

But back to the Bard's original play and the battles portrayed, which all ends up being for naught as we learn in Henry VI (Henry V and Katherine's' son) England loses France once again.

Favorite or Famous Quotes:

II.1

Nym:"...I have an humour to knock you indifferently well.

If you grow foul with me,...I will scour you with my rapier, as I may,

in fair terms; if you would walk off I would prick your guts a little..."

II.4.

Dauphin: "Self-love,..is not so vile a sin

as self-neglecting."

III.1.

King Henry: "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;"

IV.3.

King Henry: "...From this day to the ending of the world,

But we in it shall be remembered - 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;"

IV.7

Fluellen: "...It is not well done, mark you now, to take the 

tales out of my mouth ere it is made and finished."

IV.1.

Williams: "...I am afeard there are few die

well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose 

of anything when blood is their argument?"

    The Keeper of Lost Things - Ruth Hogan                                                                                Debut

What a delightful story!!!   I fell in love with almost all of the lovely characters.

Anthony who finds lost items and writes wonderful stories about them.

Laura who has the daunting task of finding the owners of the lost things.

Freddy , the gardener

Sunshine, Laura's new friend who has a charming way of seeing life. "If you never get sadness, how do you know what happiness is like?"

Then there is Eunice, Boomer, and Portia.                                                                                                                 A warm and heartwarming read!!!

Goodreads:

A charming, clever, and quietly moving debut novel of of endless possibilities and joyful discoveries that explores the promises we make and break, losing and finding ourselves, the objects that hold magic and meaning for our lives, and the surprising connections that bind us.

                       Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah

 #monthlykeywordchallenge - FLY

A Hallmark movie in the making!!

Katie and Tully have been friends since they were 14 years old. We follow their lives for 30 years. Their ups and downs and the different paths their lives take .

  Katie as a stay-at-home mom with 3 kids married to the love of her life and Tully who is a powerful career women, rich and famous but often lonely.

Not my favorite genre to read but an nice read during the pandemic.

Goodreads; From the New York Times bestselling author of On Mystic Lake comes a powerful novel of love, loss, and the magic of friendship. . . .

In the turbulent summer of 1974, Kate Mularkey has accepted her place at the bottom of the eighth-grade social food chain. Then, to her amazement, the “coolest girl in the world” moves in across the street and wants to be her friend. Tully Hart seems to have it all---beauty, brains, ambition. On the surface they are as opposite as two people can be: Kate, doomed to be forever uncool, with a loving family who mortifies her at every turn. Tully, steeped in glamour and mystery, but with a secret that is destroying her. They make a pact to be best friends forever; by summer’s end they’ve become TullyandKate. Inseparable.

So begins Kristin Hannah’s magnificent new novel. Spanning more than three decades and playing out across the ever-changing face of the Pacific Northwest, Firefly Lane is the poignant, powerful story of two women and the friendship that becomes the bulkhead of their lives.

                                                                   

 

 hide and seek by clare sambrook

2020 Keyword Challenge - November (LOOK, Forest, Out, Color, Lock, Now)

This was a variation of the keyword "look" to meet the challenge.

If I hadn't selected this for the November keyword challenge I would have been hard pressed to finish it.

I can't say all that was wrong was with the book. My 2020 mental state surely contributed to my reading and it may just have been the wrong time for this book (though I'm not about to re-read it at a right time!)

Most of the characters annoyed me and the writing style was choppy - yet it was being told through the eyes of a 9 year old boy, so I understand the purpose behind it.

Summary from Goodreads: Meet Harry Pickles, the fastest boy in the world (well, at least in school). big brother to Daniel (who runs like a girl but is, in his own twerpy way, a star), and the firstborn son of Mo and Pa, the best-looking parents in their Notting Hill elementary school parking lot. Harry's life, like any other nine-year-old's, is a colorful, frenetic, and fun blur of lunch boxes, vocabulary tests, and keeping up with his pals Piggy and Terry--not to mention keeping an eye on his kid brother Daniel. Mo, a successful, well-known journalist, and Pa, a surgeon, have built a wonderful world for Harry and Daniel to grow up in, but when a school outing results in Daniel's vanishing, the complicated adult world of police investigations and interviews, searches of the countryside, recriminations, and ultimate responsibility come crashing in on a very confused Harry.