Download or read book The Year Shakespeare Ruined My Life written by Dani Jansen and published by Second Story Press. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alison Green, desperate Valedictorian-wannabe, agrees to produce her school’s disaster-prone production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her second big mistake is accidentally saying yes to a date with her oldest friend, Jack, even though she’s crushing on Charlotte, the star of the play.

Download or read book Fiction Ruined My Family written by Jeanne Darst and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beautifully paced . . . heartbreaking and hilarious."—USA Today Augusten Burroughs meets Mary Karr: a deeply funny and wickedly entertaining family memoir. The youngest of four daughters in an old, celebrated St. Louis family-- of prominent journalists and politicians on one side, debutantes and equestrians on the other-- Jeanne Darst grew up hearing stories of past grandeur. And the message she internalized as a young girl was clear: While things might be a bit tight for us right now, it’s only temporary. Soon her father would sell the Great American Novel and reclaim the family’s former glory. The Darsts move from St. Louis to New York, and Jeanne’s father writes one novel, then another, which don’t find publishers. This, combined with her mother’s burgeoning alcoholism, lead to financial disaster and divorce. And as Jeanne becomes an adult, she is horrified to discover that she is not only a drinker like her mother, but a writer like her father. At first, and for years, she embraces both activities— and until she can stop putting drinking and writing ahead of everything else, it’s a questionable choice. Ultimately, Darst sets out to discover whether a person can have the writing without the ruin, whether it’s possible to be both sober and creative, ambitious and happy, a professional author and a parent. Filled with brilliantly flawed, idiosyncratic characters and punctuated by Darst’s irreverent eye for absurdity, Fiction Ruined My Family is a lovingly told, wickedly funny portrait of an unconventional life.

Download or read book Jane Austen Ruined My Life written by Beth Pattillo and published by . This book was released on 2023-04-04 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once upon a time, I believed in romance, thanks mostly to Jane Austen and my happy-ever-after peddling mother. I believed in love and soul mates until the day I found my professor husband compromising his teaching assistant on our kitchen table. As a lowly adjunct professor, I bore the brunt of the fallout. Suddenly, I was divorced, without a job, and in possession of a vendetta against one Jane Austen. Then the mysterious letter arrived. If I would come to London, a benefactor would put in my possession the lost letters of Jane Austen, letters believed to have been destroyed by her sister. I flew to London ready to expose all of Austen's secrets, but what I didn't expect was to run into my old friend Adam. I also didn't expect The Formidables, my mysterious benefactors, to send me on a Jane Austen treasure hunt before I could take possession of all the letters. And I certainly didn't expect to run into my first love, or to be pursued by a mysterious stranger. My journey takes me from the posh streets of Mayfair to the Hampshire countryside to the Regency splendor of the historic city of Bath. In the midst of uncovering Jane Austen's secrets - and her secret love-I might just learn that maybe Jane Austen didn't ruin my life after all.

Download or read book Charming as a Verb written by Ben Philippe and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2020-10-13 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the award-winning author of The Field Guide to the North American Teenager comes a whip-smart and layered romantic comedy. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han. Henri “Halti” Haltiwanger can charm just about anyone. He is a star debater and popular student at the prestigious FATE academy, the dutiful first-generation Haitian son, and the trusted dog walker for his wealthy New York City neighbors. But his easy smiles mask a burning ambition to attend his dream college, Columbia University. There is only one person who seems immune to Henri’s charms: his “intense” classmate and neighbor Corinne Troy. When she uncovers Henri’s less-than-honest dog-walking scheme, she blackmails him into helping her change her image at school. Henri agrees, seeing a potential upside for himself. Soon what started as a mutual hustle turns into something more surprising than either of them ever bargained for. . . . This is a sharply funny and insightful novel about the countless hustles we have to keep from doing the hardest thing: being ourselves.

Download or read book Manchester City Ruined My Life written by Colin Shindler and published by Headline. This book was released on 2012-05-24 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Colin Shindler has previously written of his deep love for Manchester City in the bestselling Manchester United Ruined My Life and three other previous books. Now he tells the story of his sorrowful disenchantment with his home town club as, on the instruction of its new foreign owners, it turns itself remorselessly into a global brand. Trophyless since 1976, in 2011 Manchester City won the FA Cup and set off on their quest for the Premiership and the Champions League. In their zeal to win every competition the new Manchester City has spent money with wild abandon, signing outstandingly talented players as well as a few ordinary ones but in almost every case at hugely inflated prices. From the nail-biting win over Gillingham in the League Two Play Off final at Wembley in 1999 to the climax of the 2011 season, Shindler watches his team get steadily more successful and, to his own bewilderment, feels steadily more alienated from it. This is the story of a frustrated romantic who finds in the glitz and glamour of the current media-obsessed game a helter-skelter of artificially fabricated excitement. As he details how football courses through his veins Shindler tells how it intersects with his own life, a life that has been marked by family tragedy, and how he finally found personal redemption even as his team lost its soul.

Download or read book Will in the World How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare Anniversary Edition written by Stephen Greenblatt and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-05-03 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named One of Esquire's 50 Best Biographies of All Time The Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, reissued with a new afterword for the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. A young man from a small provincial town moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? Stephen Greenblatt brings us down to earth to see, hear, and feel how an acutely sensitive and talented boy, surrounded by the rich tapestry of Elizabethan life, could have become the world’s greatest playwright.

Download or read book Blindly written by Claudio Magris and published by Penguin Canada. This book was released on 2010-04-20 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hailed as a masterpiece upon its initial publication in Italy, Blindly is a novel of highly original, poetic intensity, a Jacob's Ladder reversed to descend into the nether regions of history and, in particular, of the twentieth century. In a shifting, choral monologue—part confession, part psychiatric session—a man recounts (invents, falsifies, hides, screams out) his life, which has passed through the horrors, the hopes and betrayals, and the revolutions of the last century, as well as through widely different lands and seas. Who is the mysterious narrator of Blindly? He is clearly a detainee and a fugitive. He is Jorgen Jorgenson, the nineteenth-century adventurer who was briefly king of Iceland and later condemned to forced labour in the antipodes. But he is also Comrade Cippico, militant Italian communist, imprisoned for years in Tito's gulag on the “naked island” of Goli Otok. And he is all the partisans, prisoners, seamen, and rebels who experience the perils and injustices of persecution, war, violence, and adventure.

Download or read book Faith written by Jennifer Haigh and published by HarperCollins UK. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One woman's search for the truth after scandal rocks her family, and the explosive family secrets she uncovers, in this complex, moving fourth novel from bestselling and award-winning author Jennifer Haigh.

Download or read book Two Gentlemen of Lebowski written by Adam Bertocci and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2010-10-26 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What if…William Shakespeare had written The Big Lebowski? The Dude has met the Bard—and he doth abide. Join “The Knave” and Sir Walter on a wild tale of mistaken identity, kidnapping, bowling, and a rug that, in faith, really tied the room together—in a sidesplitting Shakespearean comedy of errors and ninepins, told in five glorious acts of iambic pentameter and impeccable period prose. Already a theatrical hit and a worldwide viral phenomenon, Two Gentlemen of Lebowski comes alive anew in this definitive and lavishly illustrated edition, featuring recently discovered historical engravings, scholarly annotations, and a revelatory afterword from the author.

Download or read book Ready Player Two written by Ernest Cline and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2020-11-24 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The thrilling sequel to the beloved worldwide bestseller Ready Player One, the near-future adventure that inspired the blockbuster Steven Spielberg film. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST • “The game is on again. . . . A great mix of exciting fantasy and threatening fact.”—The Wall Street Journal AN UNEXPECTED QUEST. TWO WORLDS AT STAKE. ARE YOU READY? Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS a thousand times more wondrous—and addictive—than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest—a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants. Wade’s life and the future of the OASIS are again at stake, but this time the fate of humanity also hangs in the balance. Lovingly nostalgic and wildly original as only Ernest Cline could conceive it, Ready Player Two takes us on another imaginative, fun, action-packed adventure through his beloved virtual universe, and jolts us thrillingly into the future once again.

Download or read book Forever Ruined for the Ordinary written by and published by Thomas Nelson Inc. This book was released on with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Soul of the Age written by Jonathan Bate and published by Random House. This book was released on 2009-04-07 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “One man in his time plays many parts, His acts being seven ages.” In this illuminating, innovative biography, Jonathan Bate, one of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, has found a fascinating new way to tell the story of the great dramatist. Using the Bard’s own immortal list of a man’s seven ages in As You Like It, Bate deduces the crucial events of Shakespeare’s life and connects them to his world and work as never before. Here is the author as an infant, born into a world of plague and syphillis, diseases with which he became closely familiar; as a schoolboy, a position he portrayed in The Merry Wives of Windsor, in which a clever, cheeky lad named William learns Latin grammar; as a lover, married at eighteen to an older woman already pregnant, perhaps presaging Bassanio, who in The Merchant of Venice won a wife who could save him from financial ruin. Here, too, is Shakespeare as a soldier, writing Henry the Fifth’s St. Crispin’s Day speech, with a nod to his own monarch Elizabeth I’s passionate addresses; as a justice, revealing his possible legal training in his precise use of the law in plays from Hamlet to Macbeth; and as a pantaloon, an early retiree because of, Bate postulates, either illness or a scandal. Finally, Shakespeare enters oblivion, with sonnets that suggest he actively sought immortality through his art and secretly helped shape his posthumous image more than anyone ever knew. Equal parts masterly detective story, brilliant literary analysis, and insightful world history, Soul of the Age is more than a superb new recounting of Shakespeare’s experiences; it is a bold and entertaining work of scholarship and speculation, one that shifts from past to present, reality to the imagination, to reveal how this unsurpassed artist came to be.

Download or read book Shakespeare s Spy written by Gary Blackwood and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2005-04-21 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Intrigue, betrayal, and romance surround Widge as we find him back in London and at the center of things, as usual. Queen Elizabeth, Shakespeare's patron, has died, but the new king and his queen love drama-on stage and off. Shakespeare has begun a new play about political intrigue, but real intrigue is close at hand. Someone is stealing from the company, and Shakespeare's scripts must be guarded at all costs-including the one he has given up on and turned over to Widge to finish. Widge finds the glory of being a playwright appealing, especially when there's a pretty girl to impress. But spying is even more exciting! Readers swept up in the first two adventures about Widge and Shakespeare's players will be enthralled yet again by this third tale with its dramatic twists and turns and an ending worthy of the Bard himself.

Download or read book Juliet written by Anne Fortier and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2010-08-24 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping novel of intrigue and identity, of love and legacy, as a young woman discovers that her own fate is irrevocably tied—for better or worse—to literature’s greatest star-crossed lovers. Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy. This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the danger surrounding her—superstitions, ancient hostilities, and personal vendettas. As Julie crosses paths with the descendants of the families involved in the unforgettable blood feud, she begins to fear that the notorious curse—“A plague on both your houses!”—is still at work, and that she is destined to be its next target. Only someone like Romeo, it seems, could save her from this dreaded fate, but his story ended long ago. Or did it? Praise for Juliet “One of those rare novels that have it all . . . I was swept away”—Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants “Juliet leads us on a thrilling treasure hunt through present-day Italy that makes the classic tragedy itself spellbinding all over again.”—Elle “Boldly imagined, brilliantly plotted, beautifully described, Juliet will carry you spellbound until the gripping end.”—Susan Vreeland, author of Clara and Mr. Tiffany “The Shakespearean scholarship on display is both impressive and well-handled.”—The Washington Post

Download or read book Still Time written by Jean Hegland and published by Skyhorse. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of Into the Forest, a moving novel about memory, Shakespeare's green worlds, and the power of reconciliation. Until John Wilson met the warm, wise woman who became his fourth wife, the object of his most intense devotion had always been the work of William Shakespeare. From his feat of memorizing Romeo and Juliet and half a dozen other plays as a student to his evangelical zeal as a professor, John’s faith in the Bard has shaped his life. But now his mental powers have been diminished by dementia, and his wife has reluctantly moved him to a residential care facility. Even there, as he struggles to understand what’s going on around him, John's knowledge of the plays helps him make sense of his fractured world. Yet, when his only child, Miranda—with whom he has not spoken since a devastating misunderstanding a decade ago—comes to visit, John begins to question some of his deepest convictions. In his devotion to Shakespeare, did he lose his way? Did he wrong the child who wronged him? The story of an imperfect father and a wounded daughter's efforts to achieve some authentic connection even now, Still Time celebrates redemption and the gift of second chances. It is that rare novel that ends on a resounding note of hope, reminding us that there is always time to live fully and love deeply, so long as we are alive. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Download or read book Is Shame Necessary written by Jennifer Jacquet and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-01-12 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An urgent, illuminating exploration of the social nature of shame and of how it might be used to promote large-scale political change and social reform. “[Jacquet] exposes the ways shame plays into collective ideas of punishment and reward, and the social mechanisms that dictate the ways we dictate our behavior.” —The Boston Globe Examining how we can retrofit the art of shaming for the age of social media, Jennifer Jacquet shows that we can challenge corporations and even governments to change policies and behaviors that are detrimental to the environment. Urgent and illuminating, Is Shame Necessary? offers an entirely new understanding of how shame, when applied in the right way and at the right time, has the capacity to keep us from failing our planet and, ultimately, from failing ourselves.

Download or read book A Good Man written by Ani Katz and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "I sat down to read A Good Man and didn't move until I'd finished...I loved this book." —Caroline Kepnes, author of You A dark and gripping novel of psychological suspense about a family man driven to unspeakable acts, in the vein of The Perfect Nanny and We Need to Talk About Kevin. Thomas Martin was a devoted family man who had all the trappings of an enviable life: a beautiful wife and daughter, a well-appointed home on Long Island's north shore, a job at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He was also a devoted son and brother, shielding the women in his orbit from the everyday brutalities of the world. But what happens when Thomas’s fragile ego is rocked? After committing a horrific deed — that he can never undo — Thomas grapples with his sense of self. Sometimes he casts himself as a victim and, at other times, a monster. All he ever did was try to be a good man, but maybe if he tells his version of the story, he might uncover how and why things unraveled so horribly.