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The Shakespeare Requirement
The Shakespeare Requirement: A Novel | Julie Schumacher
18 posts | 15 read | 27 to read
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune keep hitting beleaguered English professor Jason Fitger right between the eyes in this hilarious and eagerly awaited sequel to the cult classic of anhedonic academe, the Thurber Prize-winning Dear Committee Members. Once more into the breach... Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes aim against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger's attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb. Lord, what fools these mortals be! Julie Schumacher proves the point and makes the most of it in this delicious romp ofsatire.
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Aims42
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Pickpick

I love the wit and type of humor in this series so much! I finally figured out who Jason Fitger reminds me of… Bernard Black from the British tv show ‘Black Books‘ 😂🤣 Once I made that connection I couldn‘t picture anyone else. So, if you enjoy that type of humor (very wry and ironic) I think you‘ll like this series 😄 I‘m continuing my binge of this series and moving onto the 3rd book right now (“The English Experience”).

wanderinglynn I loved Black Books! 5mo
Aims42 @wanderinglynn It‘s such a funny show 😆 5mo
KathyWheeler I loved Dear Committee Members, but I think I wasn‘t in the right mood when I started this book — I need to go back to it. 5mo
Aims42 @KathyWheeler I can understand that 100% 👍 When you need a silly, palate cleanser read, this is the book lol 5mo
28 likes1 stack add4 comments
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LiteraryinPA
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Bailedbailed

I can‘t any more. I gave it a solid hundred pages and it‘s just really unpleasant to slog through the machinations of this failing, dysfunctional college English department. Her other book I found funny but this is just so blah.

Luckily I don‘t even have to leave the couch to find another book to start!

KathyWheeler I had started this and put it down, thinking I just wasn‘t in the mood. I loved Dear Committee Members. Maybe it really was the book and not me. (edited) 1y
RaeLovesToRead Kitty fell asleep too! 1y
66 likes2 comments
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LeslieO
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Eggs Beautiful arrangement/photo 💛🧡💛 4y
LeahBergen How pretty! 4y
LeslieO @Eggs @LeahBergen Thanks, guys! 4y
Reviewsbylola I love this pic. 💛💛💛 4y
46 likes4 comments
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Twocougs
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Bailedbailed

Wanted to love this but just could t get into, even though the themes were great.

BookishMarginalia Dear Committee Members is much better 6y
36 likes1 stack add1 comment
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Bookboss
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Pickpick

I adored Dear Committee Members. The Shakespeare Requirement is a worthy sequel, even though it does not have the epistolary style of its predecessor. I know that as an English teacher, I am probably the target audience for these novels. I find them hilarious, yet touching as the best comic campus novels should be.

Ruthiella I‘m not in academia but I found Dear Committee Members so funny! 🤣 I‘m looking forward to reading this follow up. 6y
Megabooks I missed this one. Just downloaded a sample to my iPad. Thanks!! 6y
zsuzsanna_reads I loved Dear Committee. Thanks for the recommendation! 6y
56 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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Lola
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It‘s been a really rough few days. My best kind of self-care right here; a light, fun yet darkish witty book, a glass of wine, an aromatic candle and a tub full of Dr. Teal‘s. I may stay here all weekend.

GatheringBooks oooh. sounds lovely!! 🧚🏼‍♀️ 6y
sprainedbrain I‘m sorry it‘s been rough! ❤️ 6y
Reviewsbylola I hope that bath fixed you right up. ❤️ 6y
Bklover Hope your stress melts away in that beautiful tub! 6y
55 likes4 comments
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Kleonard
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Pickpick

Loved it-funny, satirical, observant portrait of higher education machinations.

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Nitpickyabouttrains
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Pickpick

A really fun book with a quick pace. Set at a small university in the English department as a debate raged on if all English majors should have to take a Shakespeare course.

Reviewsbylola This sounds fun! I had to take a Shakespeare course as an English major I think. Either that or I took it of my own volition. I can‘t even remember now. 😂 6y
21 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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Briget66

“This was the amicably banal sort of dialogue, he thought, in which he and Janet would have indulged if they had stayed married. Over dinner, they would have discussed hemorrhoids and cataracts and the replacing of knees. “Just tell me they didn‘t put quotation marks around ‘special‘ pasta,” he said. “You know I can‘t eat things that are badly punctuated or misspelled.”

😁

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Briget66
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bell7
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Mehso-so

The follow up to "Dear Committee Members" follows professor Jay Fitger, now head of the floundering English department at Payne University, as he navigates university politics and tries to get his faculty to agree on the statement of purpose. This one didn't really live up to its predecessor for me. I don't know if it was the shift from letters to third person or if I just don't know academia enough to get the jokes. I do love the cover.

TrishB I have the first on my kindle, I was scared it would be too much like work! 6y
bell7 @TrishB I have the same fear with books about libraries! I really liked Dear Committee Members and I *think* it's just over the top enough that you'd find it more funny than maddening, if that makes sense. And no harm, no foul if you start it and decide it's not for you! 6y
TrishB I will get to it eventually (hopefully!!) 6y
14 likes1 stack add3 comments
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Briget66
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BridgetteM 😂 Love it! 6y
5 likes1 comment
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Apinlibraryland
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I enjoyed Dear Committee Members so I‘m looking forward to this.

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Briget66
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Fitger, unsurprisingly, was ten minutes late to his own meeting. He found the faculty seated scattershot in the classroom‘s desk-and-chair contraptions, some facing east, some north or west—like frustrated drivers in a series of stalled bumper cars.

🤪

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WanderingBookaneer
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This is why I love this character.

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WanderingBookaneer
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Two pages in and I am loving this one!

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BookNAround
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I loved Dear Committee Members so I have high hopes for this one. Plus it seems apropos to be reading this as school is about to start up again. #schnauzersoflitsy

Jess7 😍😍 6y
batsy Love that cover 6y
63 likes3 stack adds2 comments
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ReadingEnvy
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Pickpick

Hilarious followup to Dear Committee Members. Should be required reading of all of us working in academia, for comic relief as we head into the fall semester (but read the first book first as they are consecutive). eARC from publisher, out August 14.

Lindy Glad to hear about this, thanks! I loved 6y
TrishB I have Dear Committee Members on my kindle....I‘m just frightened it will feel too much like work!! 6y
ReadingEnvy @TrishB it was UNCANNY how many very specific things were like my workplace! 6y
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ReadingEnvy @TrishB including a chair of the English department from another Dept! 6y
TrishB 😁 I can well imagine!! 6y
BookNAround Color me jealous on this one! I loved Dear Committee Members. 6y
58 likes4 stack adds7 comments