Shakespeare Who?: A Review and Refresher

Hi there readers.

Congratulations on making it to the halfway point of another week.

Hopefully it's treating you well and if not, eh...show it who's boss, kay?

Today's post features a title that will show YOU who's boss, that's for certain....or at least one that will teach you a thing or two about someone we all know in some fashion.  Who might that be?  Wait for it....wait....all will be revealed in three....two.....one...  Today's book of choice is....

I Used to Know That:  Shakespeare

Stuff You Forgot From School

by

Liz Evers

A fairly clear and concise guide to all things "Bard", this book is like an ultimate Cliff Notes to his life, times, and work.  If you've ever even shared a passing fancy in one of his plays or sonnets, this book will not only take you on a walk down memory lane, but show you the off shoots and side streets you may have over looked the first time around. 

Miss the point of Richard III?  No problem.  --flips pages-- As it seems, this was the infamously wicked character that loved to draw the audience into his odious acts making them a party to the "crimes".  Never heard of The Winter's Tale?  Welcome to my world.  --flips a few more pages-- According to the brief glimpse at the play transcribed here, it seems that the events may have been a story merely told on a cold, dark night...well, for starters at least.  Recently assigned or besieged with questions from those who have been assigned reading from Hamlet, MacBeth, or The Merchant of Venice?  Your window of "salvation" has been opened, and the curtains thrown aside making way for you to read all about it.  However, summaries and play breakdowns are not all that await you within these pages.....

Along with the infamous is the less than known filled with unexpected facts to flesh them into existence.  His life and journey through it start us off.  His imagination and creativity spill forth with the many word creations and meanings associated to him and his work; being a fan of word play, he was a writer after out own hearts.  His many quote-worthy writings are cleared up to reveal their accurate accounts.  There's even a glossary of characters should you be at a loss when faced with a reference and need a quick clarification, plus a selection of several dozen quotes from those same beloved "souls".

In short, it's a book for the young and a book for the old, equally across the board.  Whether being newly introduced to his work, or getting a clearer understand of one's past reads, this is a great reference style guide to keep on hand for those moments you desire to "Shake" things up a bit.  Just remember, his work was meant to be performed so no matter how strange or twisted they appear on paper, all things look different when played out on the stage.  The spotlight is ready...what shall we perform first...

Review copy received courtesy of Rubyna at FSB Associates.  (THANKS!)  For more information regarding this book as well as their other featured titles, be sure to visit them online, or follow along on Twitter.  Now available in a store near you, this title can be purchased through most major retail outlets. 

Until next time...happy reading!

Food for Thought: An Apple a Day by Caroline Taggart

Happy Thursday, everyone!

Today we are going back to the classroom here at Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers because let’s face it; we learn something new every day anyway, right?  Right!  The feature of today’s post is a reference type book, notice I said “type”.  I make this distinction because most hear the term reference and think one thing…B-O-R-I-N-G.  This one…not so much; in fact it has quite a few pearls of wisdom to share that I think you’ll be receptive to.  (To gauge your level of learning interest, check out the quiz from the author posted earlier this week.)  Today’s book of choice is….

An Apple a Day:

Old-Fashioned Proverbs – Timeless Words to Live By

by

Caroline Taggart

The early bird catches the worm…or so they say.  But wait, why DO we say that?  What does it even mean?  It’s not like we’re going out worm hunting eat morning or anything, and let’s face it, early and I are NOT on good speaking terms.  So how in the world does this even relate to me?  Grab your thinking caps and prepare for a little lesson in what I like to call…Proverbs 101. 

Just what is a proverb exactly?  Simply put (via the author), a proverb is…”a piece of wisdom or advice expressed in a short and memorable way”.  In other words, those catchy little phrases and sayings you’ve heard time and time again.  Delivering lessons through the ages, they make learning something that’s usually discovered through previous experience that much easier and much less painful…provided we heed its “warning”.  But really, that’s just the surface of this work.

As you delve deeper into this unusual reference guide, you find not only wisdom and wit but humor.  Now you may be thinking wit and humor are one in the same; ah, but there you'd be mistaken.  Wit refers to a knowledgeable statement that often said in jest or to trump a situation; humor is just plain funny.  Sprinkled here and there are doses of this "wonder drug" both in good taste and political punches, allowing readers the chance to both expand their minds and chase their cares away.  You're bound to pick a favorite or two (or more...hey, there's a whole book of them to choose from...) along the way; I know I did.  Some appear as old favorites, such as "Never choose a book by its cover", while others become new friends, like the "A little learning is a dangerous thing".

Ignorance is bliss...but...knowledge is power.  Honesty is the best policy...but....desperate situations call for desperate measures.  A collection of wise words and sayings that when taken individually add up to a sum worthy of note, but if digested wholly can leave you in quite a conundrum.  Whether your aim is to be the life of the party or the “top dog” of the water cooler trivia, this book along with the entire Blackboard series will add many a wordy weapon to your verbal arsenal.  How much you use or lose of it is up to you, but you’ll certainly be the wiser for the read. 

Recommended reading for all ages and interests.  It’s a perfectly suited reference book (of sorts) for a quick definition or origin at a glance, as well as an interesting read for those merely seeking something to pass the time (or for their next "did you know…" stumper).  Review copy received courtesy of Ruby at FSB Associates.  (THANKS!)  For more information on their current projects, feel free to visit their website, or follow along on Twitter.  To discover more about the Blackboard Books, check out the site dedicated to this collection of knowledge.

Until next time…don’t put all your eggs in one basket…and happy reading!

Proverbs 101: Never judge a post by its title

Hi there, fellow readers!

What's with the questioning look?

Oh, I know...the title of the post, right?

What?

It was my attempt at passing along a little bloggerly advice...a "virtual proverb" if you will in the spirit of today's post.  It's a "tasty" little quiz (purely for fun) from author Caroline Taggart coming to you from me courtesy of Ruby at FSB Associates. (Thanks, Ruby!)  Ready to see how well you fair in a battle of wits or rather wisdom?  Here. We.  Go.

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A Quiz on Proverbs

By Caroline Taggart

 

Author of An Apple A Day: Old-Fashioned Proverbs --Timeless Words to Live By

Two questions are likely to spring to mind when you open a book about proverbs. The first is, "Another book about proverbs?" and the second is, "Um, so what exactly is a proverb?"

Let's answer the second question first. A proverb is defined as 'a piece of wisdom or advice, expressed in a short and memorable way.' It can be anything from a quotation from the Bible ('Spare the rod and spoil the child') or Shakespeare ('The course of true love never did run smooth') to a piece of folk wisdom whose origins are lost in the mists of time ('An apple a day keeps the doctor away'). And to go back to the first question, the point of this book is not only to explain familiar proverbs but also to see if they are still relevant today."

Many of them are relevant. There's a world of truth in sayings, such as "Haste makes waste," "You're only young once," and "Handsome is as handsome does." There may be room for debate over the apparent contradiction of "Many hands make light work" and "Too many cooks spoil the broth," but it's worth remembering that each individual proverb is only one person's take on a situation, the product of his own culture, personality, and mood at that moment in time. Part of the beauty of proverbs is that you can adopt the ones that suit your needs and ignore the others -- you're not going to end up in jail either way. If you are cautious by nature, you can take "Look before you leap" as your motto; if "He who hesitates is lost" is more your line, then that is fine, too.

So without taking any of it too seriously, here is a short quiz on the origins of familiar proverbs and my take on them. Can you match the proverbs (1 - 5) with their sources (a - e)?

1. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched

2. Necessity is the mother of invention

3. Brevity is the soul of wit

4. You can't make bricks without straw

5. Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise

a. A piece of fifteenth-century folk wisdom

b. A fable by Aesop, written in the sixth century B.C.

c. An eighteenth-century poem about a sofa

d. The Biblical story of the Children of Israel being enslaved in Egypt

e. A quotation from Shakespeare's Hamlet

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Answers:

1. B, This is the moral of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail. A milkmaid, carrying a pail of milk home on her head, dreams of what she will do with the profits of selling it: Buy some hens from the poultry farmer; get rich on the proceeds of the eggs and chickens they will produce; buy a pretty dress that will attract all the boys; and toss her head at their advances. Unfortunately, as she dreams, she actually does toss her head -- and spills all the milk (which, come to think of it, she may then have cried over). So the warning is against acting prematurely on something that may or may not happen.

2. C, The English poet William Cowper did write a poem about a sofa -- a female acquaintance had challenged him to do it -- and it contains the lines "Thus first necessity invented stools/Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs/And luxury the accomplished sofa last." The first line is the important one here: Somebody got tired of standing up all the time, so he invented something to sit on. And so it is has been throughout history: When somebody needed a cart to carry a heavier load than he could manage himself, he invented the wheel; when buildings got taller and people didn't want to walk up all those stairs, they invented the elevator. The same poem, by the way, also tells us "variety is the spice of life."

3. E, A lot of proverbs come from Hamlet: "You've got to be cruel to be kind" and "Desperate situations call for desperate measures" are two others. In this context "soul of wit" means "essence of wisdom," so the speaker, Polonius, is advising himself to keep his information brief and to the point (he is trying to tell the king and queen that Hamlet has gone mad). But we -- the audience -- know that Shakespeare is having fun at his character's expense. We have just seen Polonius giving endless worthy advice to his son, Laertes, and we know that he wouldn't recognize brevity if you hit him over the head with it. Irony aside, however, it is sound advice: Keep it snappy and you have a better chance of keeping your audience's attention.

4. D, This is from the Old Testament book of Exodus. The enslaved Children of Israel spend their time making bricks -- of which a key ingredient is straw. Moses, their spokesman, tries to persuade Pharaoh (the Egyptian king) to "let my people go." Pharaoh, furious at this impertinent request, ordains that not only should the Jews stay in slavery, but that from now on they will no longer be given straw. They will have to find it themselves and still produce the same number of bricks each day. The point of the proverb is that this is kind of hard. "Give us the tools," the Children of Israel might have said, "and we will finish the job."

5. A, People have been making this irritating claim for over 500 years -- and the really irritating thing (for those of us who hate getting up in the morning) is that it is true. Once it was sensible not to stay in bed during daylight hours, when you could be working. And you wouldn't want to waste candles sitting up late: You'd think electric light would have changed all that. Maybe, but the "healthy" part of the argument remains valid. When it gets dark, our levels of the sleep hormone melatonin rise and our levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol lower, making it easier for us to unwind and go to sleep. So although artificial light allows us to party till 2 in the morning, if we choose, it lessens our ability to cope with stress and with general wear and tear. So off you go to bed, and don't forget to set the alarm!

Copyright © 2011 Caroline Taggart, author of An Apple A Day: Old-Fashioned Proverbs --Timeless Words to Live By

 

Author Bio

Caroline Taggart has been an editor of non-fiction books for nearly 30 years and has covered nearly every subject from natural history and business to gardening and astronomy. She has written several books and was the editor of Writer's Market UK 2009.

For more information on the book and the Blackboard Books, please visit http://www.rdtradepublishing.com/

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So, how'd YOU do?

You didn't peek at the answers first...did you?

O_o

Currently reading through this book as we speak (well not literally because that would make it very awkward to type); review to follow later this week.

Until next time...happy reading!

Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pajamas by Judy Parkinson

Hi there, insatiable readers!

How are YOU today?

Hopefully all your holiday arrangements are in order and you are just sitting back, enjoying the season....unlike me who is still bustling about trying to get lose ends tied up.  That's part of the fun of the season though, right? 

Anywho...today's post is a break from the stories and escapes of the fictional world (which of course I adore) but loads of nerdishly fun all the same (which I also enjoy to break things up a bit).  It's a book for the curious at heart and all of those who can't simply help but wonder at even the smallest curiosities.  So, um...are you curious?  (hehe)  No need to keep you in suspense any longer.  Today's book of choice is....

Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pajamas

by

Judy Parkinson

A nifty little book chock full of those phrases that you hear everyday and yet still don't quite know the full meaning behind them.  Have you ever had that happen?  You hear a phrase over and over, you may even perhaps use it yourself and yet you only sort of know what it means.  Yep, been there, done that....thankfully usually I was right, but this collection of wordish pearl goodness can help solve quite a few of those mind boggling little devils.  Let's look a prime example, shall we?

The book title itself is made up of two rather popular expressions...but do you really know what they mean or where they came from?  According to the text....

Spilling the beans (or rather "spill" the beans) means "to let on"...and is thought to perhaps have been derived from the ancient Greek practice of voting where black and white beans were used to show for whom or what you were voting in favor of. (pg 143-144)

The cat's pajamas first came into use in the 1920's (explaining the reason why it may be more familiar to YA readers right now with this era being rather popular at the moment) and is said to describe something of supreme quality or highest caliber.  (pg 41-42)

So basically the book's title in in explanation would be "to let on" about some high caliber information....and however fitting that might be, the expressions say it much more eloquently, don't you think?  Though there are so many I could highlight from this book, there is one more that I will lend you a new insight into....what the Dickens.  You've more than likely heard it exclaimed in surprise or even said it yourself (*raises hand*), but guess what?  It's origins have nothing to do with the infamous author of the same name!  That's right...it's actually a bit more devious than that, back to the 16th century or so as a reference for the Devil... O_O ... who'd have thought?

Easily used as a reference book should you have an encounter with an unknown phrase, yet also perfect for random fact lovers the world over.  The meaning behind some of these commonly used expressions is certainly obscure but where they originated from is all the more curious....

Review copy received courtesy of Julie at FSB Associates.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title as well as their current projects, visit them online or follow along on Twitter (multiple options here...1...2...3...4).  So you've been 'saved by the bell' 'at the eleventh hour' but just so you don't end up as 'mad as a hatter' over my over 'no holds barred' use of phrases, might I suggest this unique little book for a phrase slinging friend in your life, or perhaps....even YOU. 

Until next time...happy holidays...and happy reading!