Welcome to Litsy!

My next read in the Hogarth Shakespeare series. Have read Dunbar (King Lear), Vinegar Girl (Taming of the Shrew), The Gap of Time (The Winters Tale), & Macbeth (Macbeth). Have enjoyed them all, citing Macbeth by Jo Nesbo as my favorite so far, but hey I am a huge Nesbo & crime thriller fan. Also a fan of Margaret Atwood so looking forward to beginning "Hag Seed."
Highly recommend reading this series.

Part of the plot involves a prison putting on The Tempest

#folsomprisonblues
#volumesandvocals

A ruined theatre director teaches a prison literacy class and recreates "The Tempest" whilst seeking revenge on those who destroyed him.

I read The Tempest in high school for my GCSE's and I absolutely hated it. I still couldn't connect to the story this time around. I found "Hag-seed" had a strong, promising start, but the end felt rushed and a little messy for my liking. Atwood is such a strong writer, but this just didn't pack her usual punch.

My other half is working, kids in bed. Is there a better way to relax than - the dog in front of the fire, a good book and treats?! 🤤😍

She‘s done it again.. I loved this one!
Still yet to be disappointed by an Atwood book #pick #MargaretAtwood #hagseed

Back to school .... good luck everyone that is back to work this morning ... roll on half-term ❤️👍

Book 3

I listened to Hag-Seed, a novel written as part of a project to modernize Shakespeare. Her approach to The Tempest is incredibly interesting. Felix, a director wronged by his assistant and depressed by his daughter's death, eventually takes a job teaching literature in a prison. He has the men read, rewrite, and act out a play a year. He uses The Tempest to seek retribution against his enemy and to find peace. It was really engaging. 4⭐️s

I loved this! It's so strange and funny and has so many layers on it. I think you'd get even more out of it if you are familiar with Shakespeare's The Tempest. I especially loved the part where the prisoners learned how to swear as the characters do in Shakespeare's play. Made me laugh outloud. 😂

Also loved to see how the main character Felix matured throughout the book.

Reading on the train 🤓📖

Usually I try to read books that have spent longer time on my bookshelf but since I'm travelling now and my earlier book finished yesterday I need to go with a bit more resent one. I got this earlier this week. It sounds so interesting! 😍

Visited the used bookstore today. Look at all the finds I made! 😍

If you think I‘m not going to do this absolutely perfect assignment with my students, you are wrong. 😂 This is a modern re-telling of Shakespeare‘s The Tempest. Felix (Prospero) has been ousted from his job. To get revenge, he becomes a theater teacher at a prison. This was a fun read. I may be biased, though, because I haven‘t found an Atwood I don‘t like. My #DoubleBookSpin for September! I ordered my #bookspin book and it just came in today!

I'm bad at titles so when I chose this one for #letterH in the #alphabetgame I was thinking of “The Penelopiad“ rather than the actual story about a lecturer in a prisoner education course putting on a performance of “The Tempest , but it is still excellent in its own right.

@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

My #roll100 for May

Life goals 101 😃🙌❤📚😊

My #Roll100 picks for March 2022. So far I‘ve only managed to read 50% , which is kinda what I expected...😬 Still, the year is young! 🤞

The deposed director of a drama festival takes up a position as a literacy tutor in a local prison, teaching the inmates by having them update and stage Shakespeare's plays while he waits for a chance to get his revenge.

The tension mounts as we wonder whether the action of the novel is going to follow the plot of “The Tempest“ as planned or whether it is all going to go horribly wrong. Unputdownable.

Dinner on a rainy evening
#mycover

Another book I wasn‘t aware of until ran across it on Libby as available. It‘s one of the Hogarth Shakespeare books that are modernized versions of his plays written by famous authors. This is a version of the Tempest, set in a prison literacy class. It‘s quite good and I found it a clever twist on the classic. Fans of either Atwood or Shakespeare modernizations may want to give this a go.

This book gripped me from the start. There were hardly any parts that dragged on. I love how Atwood retold The Tempest through the play within the story and the story itself. Very well done.

Happy Thanksgiving! I made homemade orange-cranberry bread to enjoy with my coffee & book this morning.

I'm thankful for my husband, corgi, my mom, extra time to read, and all the new books we're discovering. 💕 What about you?

I'm so hooked on Felix's story. I haven't read anything by Atwood other than Handmaid's Tale & Testaments, but this just reaffirms what a great writer she is.

On a side note, how is everyone doing with lockdown? I was in a routine where I went to the college, got to be in a room with 10 students, & spent my office hours on campus. That all got shut down again next week & I'm trying not to go stir crazy. I'm out of fun ideas for quarantine.

🎶 I always feel like somebody's watching meeee 🎶

I've never read the Tempest, so I didn't quite get the comparison until the end where there's a brief run down of the original. I liked this. I think it says a lot about incarceration and so often folks in prison are treated like they're not people anymore, which is BS. The bits with the MC's daughter broke my heart. Cannot even imagine.

I love Atwood and loved the premise of this Shakespearean retelling but after a strong beginning it all quickly felt lackluster to me. There was some great ideas in here, and I still love the cover, but overall I was happy to reach the end.

I really enjoyed this; I think if you like Shakespeare you‘ll find it delightful. A ruined theatre director teaches prison inmates to produce Shakespearean plays and aims at revenge against his own villains. The director and actors are also mirroring the characters and plots from the Tempest - and it almost gets a bit too clever for its own good, but the writing‘s so good so who would mind? Atwood was asked specifically to retell The Tempest ⬇️

It took me a while to get into this book. The MC is not very likeable and the story is a bit weird. But by the end I was hooked. I guess I just need a moment to be able to appreciate the snarky humour.

I liked that there was a short summary of Shakespeare‘s The Tempest at the end of the book. I haven‘t read that so this really helped seeing the parallels. After all, it is a rewrite of the play.

Thanks for the tag @britt_brooke ! I was surprised how many orange covers are in my collection! The Moon Palace is the only Penguin Ink edition I own. I love it. #ISpy

Different from most books I‘ve read from the author. I thought it was a witty and creative interpretation of the play. There were some themes brought up I had never picked up on originally. Gripping beginning and end, but mild in the middle. Understandable based on the content interpreted. I‘d recommend it for somebody who enjoys theatre and vengeance, but not quite ready to delve into Shakespeare. 7/10

Not my fav Atwood but quite surprising and fresh still. Shakespeare goes prison milieu, and a lavish revenge story is served.

So we made a deal / He'd help me steal it / I'd pay him back / And we grabbed my Bro / that Pros-per-o / In the dead of night / We paid off his guards so they didn't put up a fight

My favourite cat pajamas, and Atwood. That‘s my kind of Sunday💆🏻‍♀️. #1WordTitle
#readwithMrBook
(I‘m reading Atwood after ages. A decade back I had an Atwood marathon and I couldn‘t get enough. Holding this book gives me a tingly-happy feeling)🤗

🌟🌟🌟🌟
#audiobook
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#audiowalk
#2019kmin2019 ✔
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#LitsyWalkers

#audiowalk
#2019kmin2019
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#LitsyWalkers

#audiowalk
#2019kmin2019
#cloudlibrary
#LitsyWalkers

#audiobook
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I generally enjoy Margaret Atwood's books, despite her questionable recent behaviour. This one just didn't do much for me. Also, she referred to the prisoners as being white, black, brown, red and yellow, then later had the prisoners refer to themselves with the same words, except adding "trash white."

This was really interesting, & I mean that in a complimentary way, not a passive aggressive way. What Atwood chose to do w/the source material was clever & unique, and kudos to her for writing an irritable middle aged sad sack dude who I actually enjoyed reading about. It did kind of go off the rails a bit in the final quarter or so, but overall I had a great time with this one! Especially love the actors only using Shakespearean insults 😆 4/5 ⭐️

She never asked him how they came to be there together, living in the shanty, apart from everyone else. He never told her. It would have been a shock to her, to learn that she did not exist. Or not in the usual way.

Atwood + Shakespeare? I‘m on board! #nowreading

#7days7covers #covercrush Day 6

I have no idea who to tag anymore. If anyone isn‘t participating I wish they would. I am loving seeing everyone‘s choices.

#shuffle #QuotsySept19 @TK-421

Today's author spotlight: Margaret Atwood! The 77-year-old Harvard alum has been a life-long Ontario resident. You probably know most of her books and that she's won numerous awards. You might not know that she is Co-Founder and Director of Syngrafii Inc, created in 2004 to produce and distribute the LongPen Technology, a remote writing program, which she holds various patents on. #AuthorPotpourri #TheMoreYouKnow

July reading wrap-up! This month, I read 8 new-to-me books and 6 re-reads, because July is my birthday month & I was in the mood to visit some old favorites (ACOMAF, ACOWAR, the Sookie Stackhouse series). New favorites are Hag-Seed and The Right Swipe. Overall a good reading month!

My fave Hogarth Shakespeare so far! So meta I thought so many layers of Tempests within Tempests would confuse me but it never did. If you‘re considering this please don‘t be put off by how confusing it looks cause I promise she makes it work. My two nitpicks is that writing rap isn‘t Atwood‘s thing and maybe she shouldn‘t try again, and the love at first sight was a bit unrealistic. A definite pick tho!

I listened to this book on audio and it was extremely entertaining. This is Margret Atwood's retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest (which I haven't read). It mostly takes place in a Shakespeare class taught inside a prison. The inmates are putting on a production of The Tempest while their teacher plots revenge.
#AuthorAMonth @Soubhiville @MinDea
#BFCr2 #bookfitnesschallenge @wanderinglynn

For now, doing a #currentlyreading post instead of my July TBR. I feel like I need to mood-read & not set tbrs for a bit while I try to get out of this reading slump!

Went to see The Tempest at Shakespeare in the Park last night & enjoyed it so much that when I got home I immediately started reading Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, a retelling of sorts for the Hogarth Shakespeare series featuring a revenge-seeking theater director putting on a production of The Tempest at a prison. It's very good so far!