Shakespeare's Prop Room: An inventory by John Leland and Alan Baragona

I don't know Alan or John but I wish I did because they are my kind of Shakespeare geeks. The idea of this book (inventorying every prop mentioned in dialogue, stage directions or implied in action. (Shakespeare was pretty sparing with stage directions. I only remember the most famous one, Exeunt, pursued by a bear, so I'm curious to know what they came up with. the book came out earlier this year and is available now, but at a price. (Even the Kindle version is nearly $35 which indicates a certain lack of clarity on the concept of digital copies.) The publisher is offering "early review" copies over at Library Thing this month so I signed up. But you know how Library Thing's things go...People click on everything, whether they want them or not. They're what a friend of mine calls "greedy grabbers." So wish me luck because I think it would be a ton of fun to leaf through this book.

And another book to be on the lookout for: Wolf Road by Beth Lewis

When you're marketing something, one of the things you aim for is "frequency" if you can manage it without driving people crazy. (There are those who claim that's actually not a bad thing either, but I disagree.)  The idea is that if you see something once, you might take notice of it, but you probably won't act. But if you see something THREE times, that interest turns to a click on a buy site.

I've seen something about Wolf Road three times now.  I know it was the title that first caught my attention because the cover is actually kind of meh. When I read the blurb, though, I was drawn in. It's 2020, a post-apocalyptic world, and a young girl begins to suspect that the man who calls himself her father is not only NOT her father, but a serial killer who plans to kill her next.  Yes, this book has three things I like:  a plucky young heroine, a dystopian future setting, and crime! the book will be out next month (July 5), so stay tuned!

BOLO: Ben Macintyre's Rogue Heroes

I have a writer crush on author Ben Macintyre. (I hope his wife, novelist/film critic  Kate Muir doesn't mind.) The first book of his I read was Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth. Worth was a fantastic, movie-worthy character and his greatest crime is actually motivated by passion (and not the murderous kind). Macintyre has a new book coming out in October and I cannot wait to read it. Rogue Heroes is a wartime story of Britain's SAS. I'm not necessarily one for war stories, but Macintyre's books Agent Zigzag and A Spy Among Friends, were enough to put me on his list of "followers" on Amazon. (And somehow I missed his Operation Mincemeat.  The subtitle is: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured Allied Victory.  Who is NOT going to read a book with that subtitle?)

Even if you prefer fiction to non-fiction, you owe it to yourself to sample Macintyre's work. He's on my list of best non-fiction writers working today. (Since you asked, some of the others are Sebastian Junger, Erik Larson, John McPhee, Joan Didion, Jon Krakauer, Susan Orlean, Barbara Ehrenreit, David McCullough, and Kathleen Norris.)

Shakespeare for the Soundtrack of Your Life

This is the Earl of Essex Galiard. The Earl of the title was Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, who was the politically ambitious nobleman known to be a "favorite" of Queen Elizabeth I.

Obscure Mysteries with Shakespeare Themes

I love mysteries. I've been reading them since I was a child and I love them all--cozies to Nordic noir and everything in between. If someone's getting murdered and someone's trying to find out why and who did it, I'm there. So it's fair to say that I've read a LOT of mysteries in my time. And yet--how can this be--I have never read a Shakespeare-themed mystery. Not one. So I turned to Goodreads, my source for all things listicle. The site did NOT let me down. (I find Goodreads a PITA to deal with in terms of uploading books and changing covers and things, but the readers are spectacular resources.)

There are 60 books on the list--one a day for the next two months!! And the one that caught my eye was Interred With Their Bones. It's set in modern day, themed to Hamlet, and features a character who goes on to headline a series. My kind of book. And bonus, it's available used for a penny and postage, so $4,

For the TBR pile...We Are Not Such Things

I'm not a big fan of most true crime, but this book by Nadine Justine Van Der Leun caught my eye in my Net Galley newsletters. I remember reading about this south African murder case and wondering, "How did this happen?" I've read the author's magazine pieces and she's a fine writer, so I look forward to reading this book.

Anonymous--a star-studded riff on the Shakespeare authorship question

It's always fun to read the articles about who "really" wrote Shakespeare's plays. In one of the only fan letters I ever wrote in my life, I asked Isaac Asimov (whose two-part guide to Shakespare is terrific) if he had an opinion on the issue. He did not. (Yes, he answered my fan letter with a typed index card reply. Which I still have somewhere. Yes. Isaac Asimov!!!!) But I digress.

I'm a fan of British costume dramas. They're often a little on the slow side but they almost always make up for it with fantastic acting. Anonymous is the perfect example. It's an Elizabethan romp starring mother/daughter actresses Joely Richardson and Vanessa Redgrave as Elizaabeth One at various stages in her life.The premise of the movie is that Shakespeare's work was really written by an aristocrat and that Shakespeare himself was a nasty little man who acted as the aristocrat's "front" and killed Christopher Marlowe because he was about to out him.  (Speaking of fronts, if you love good acting, check out Trumbo.  The movie about the Hollywood Ten's most famous member is a feast of fine acting, with Louis C.K. and John Goodman outstanding in supporting roles and Bryan Cranston and Helen Mirren at the top of their game.)