Living With Shakespeare

When I am looking at books for the shops, there are some I know we will only carry for a short period, sort of ‘of the moment’ titles. Others become perennial favorites and we end up stocking it for quite some time. Such is the case with Living With Shakespeare. It is a title that makes a great gift, but also a book that many want to keep for themselves. Mister Shakespeare has quite a hold on folks.

From the publisher’s site:
Why Shakespeare? What explains our continued fascination with his poems and plays? Susannah Carson invites forty actors, directors, scholars, and writers to reflect on why his work is still such a vital part of our culture. We hear from James Earl Jones on reclaiming Othello as a tragic hero, Julie Taymor on turning Prospero into Prospera, Camille Paglia on teaching the plays to actors, F. Murray Abraham on gaining an audience’s sympathy for Shylock, Sir Ben Kingsley on communicating Shakespeare’s ideas through performance, Germaine Greer on the playwright’s home life, Dame Harriet Walter on the complexity of his heroines, Brian Cox on social conflict in his time and ours, Jane Smiley on transposing “King Lear” to Iowa in “A Thousand Acres,” and Sir Antony Sher on feeling at home in Shakespeare’s language. Together these essays provide a fresh appreciation of Shakespeare’s works as a living legacy to be read, seen, performed, adapted, revised, wrestled with, and embraced by creative professionals and lay enthusiasts alike.

A glorious Spring Friday and first day of April to you!
From sunny Seattle,
TKW