Shakespearean Insults

Here’s something fun for your Friday afternoon.

I was recently contacted by Invaluable, an online marketplace for fine art, antiques, and collectibles, to feature their Shakespearean Insult Generator created to celebrate the 402nd anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth and death on April 23rd. Below, I’ve included a blurb from Invaluable that gives some more info on the generator and shared some of my favorites.

---

Those who love Shakespeare know that his writing can pack a punch! Whether you’ve read all of his works or haven’t touched his plays since your high-school English class, if you’re a bookworm you know that Shakespeare has made huge contributions to the literary world.

To celebrate his legacy, Invaluable created a generator full of Shakespearean insults. Their tool compiles Shakespeare’s top insults from his most well-known works like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew. Next time you wish to put someone in their place, step your game up by using one of these hilarious Shakespearean insults!

I’ll find a reason to use this today:

The next time someone tells me to sell all my books:

To Trump:

Check out Invaluable’s Shakespearean Insult Generator to see more. You can set filters based on whom you’d like to insult (lol).

---

A bit unrelated, but y’all know I love to read articles and interesting posts about books, reading, and art. Well, Invaluable has a wonderful blog dedicate to all things art and I just peeped this post about the benefits of art on memory and creativity that I had to share. Basically, taking time to appreciate art (whether viewing or creating it) helps to relieve stress and increases feelings of empathy, among other things. It’s a short article with some cool infographics. I recommend that you check it out too.

Advertisement

Comics Roundup #24: “Here”

Here by Richard McGuire (illus.)

Genre:

Historical

Pubbed:

December 2014

Goodreads summary:

Here is Richard McGuire’s unique graphic novel based on the legendary 1989 comic strip of the same name.

Richard McGuire’s groundbreaking comic strip Here was published under Art Spiegelman’s editorship at RAW in 1989.

Built in six pages of interlocking panels, dated by year, it collapsed time and space to tell the story of the corner of a room – and its inhabitants – between the years 500,957,406,073 BC and 2313 AD.

The strip remains one of the most influential and widely discussed contributions to the medium, and it has now been developed, expanded and reimagined by the artist into this full-length, full-colour graphic novel – a must for any fan of the genre. 

My thoughts:

Here is so far the most unique graphic novel I’ve read. The title fits it well. The story focuses on a section of a room and shows us how it has changed over time: from prehistoric days when dinosaurs roamed the earth, to Colonial times, to modern day, to what the room could be in the future.

Comics Roundup #23: “The Dam Keeper”

The Dam Keeper by Robert Kondo (illus.) and Daisuke “Dice” Tsutsumi (illus.)

Genre:

Fantasy

Pubbed:

September 2017; but it was first an animated short film, which aired in 2014

Goodreads summary:

Life in Sunrise Valley is tranquil, but beyond its borders lies certain death. A dangerous black fog looms outside the village, but its inhabitants are kept safe by an ingenious machine known as the dam. Pig’s father built the dam and taught him how to maintain it. And then this brilliant inventor did the unthinkable: he walked into the fog and was never seen again.

Now Pig is the dam keeper. Except for his best friend, Fox, and the town bully, Hippo, few are aware of his tireless efforts. But a new threat is on the horizon—a tidal wave of black fog is descending on Sunrise Valley. Now Pig, Fox, and Hippo must face the greatest danger imaginable: the world on the other side of the dam.

“Flotsam” by David Wiesner

This will be a week filled with reviews of illustrated books and comic books. Putting it that way makes it sound like I’ll dump loads of reviews on here this week, but it’ll be just 3 of them. For me, that’s a lot since I usually manage to churn out only a few reviews every couple weeks. I like to pair up my reviews of illustrated books and comics, but I only read one illustrated book. So here is its lonesome review.

---

Flotsam by David Wiesner (illus.)

Genre:

Fantasy

Pubbed:

January 2006

Goodreads summary:

A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam — anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there’s no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share … and to keep. 

My Thoughts:

Flotsam is a wonderful children’s picture book with quite an imaginative story that’s told without words. I think I’m leaning toward such books. The absence of words draws my attention to other details and makes me focus on other ways we communicate.

Sunday Brunch Book Tag

There’s a book tag for just about every topic. Since it’s Sunday, I wanted to do a fun, relaxing post to match my mood: The weather is great, so I’m mad chill right now (and lazy). It’s one of those kick-back, chill, and watch Netflix type of Sunday, and I’m loving it.

I couldn’t find a book tag themed specifically for the day (and didn’t feel like creating one), so I was glad when I found this Sunday Brunch Book Tag because the second best thing to do on Sunday (the first being chilling and reading) is to have brunch. I love party brunches, though I’ve yet to make it to one. I’m always too lazy to leave my house to attend them, but they sound so fun! Anyway, the tag…

It was created by Deborah, the Reading Chick, and I was doubly happy to do it because I love breakfast food, so this is now one of my favorite book tags because of all the yummy food.

American classic: eggs, bacon, and toast

Woo!!!… it’s simple and ordinary, but I love it. Easy to whip up and there’s bacon. Bacon makes everything better. 🙂

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Weekend Reads #86: High-School Experiences

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I’m currently reading.

This week’s topic:

High-school experiences

That just popped into my head. I didn’t have a topic for this weekend but when I started writing about not having a topic, I thought back to a podcast I listened to a while back where two authors of YA novels said “everyone’s high-school experience was horrible” and if your experience wasn’t horrible, then you were doing something wrong. (Not the exact words, but that’s the gist of it.)

“The Wedding Date” by Jasmine Guillory

This one has been receiving a lot of buzz lately. I listened to an interview featuring the author on First Draft Podcast and got curious enough to give the book a try.

Genre:

Romance; contemporary

Pubbed:

January 2018

Goodreads summary:

A groomsman and his last-minute guest are about to discover if a fake date can go the distance in a fun and flirty debut novel.

Agreeing to go to a wedding with a guy she gets stuck with in an elevator is something Alexa Monroe wouldn’t normally do. But there’s something about Drew Nichols that’s too hard to resist.

On the eve of his ex’s wedding festivities, Drew is minus a plus one. Until a power outage strands him with the perfect candidate for a fake girlfriend…

“The Water Witch” by Juliet Dark

I completed the first book in the Fairwick Chronicles — The Demon Lover — in February and couldn’t wait long to jump into the second — The Water Witch.

These books are fluff reads with a slight dark side, and I love reading them! I enjoy the story and love the writing and am charmed by the setting. I get so swept up in the stories that I run through the books quickly.

Genre:

Paranormal/supernatural; romance

Pubbed:

September 2012

Goodreads summary:

After casting out a dark spirit, Callie McFay, a professor of Gothic literature, has at last restored a semblance of calm to her rambling Victorian house. But in the nearby thicket of the Honeysuckle Forest, and in the currents of the rushing Undine River, more trouble is stirring…

The enchanted town of Fairwick’s dazzling mix of mythical creatures has come under siege from the Grove: a sinister group of witches determined to banish the fey back to their ancestral land. With factions turning on one another, all are cruelly forced to take sides. Callie’s grandmother, a prominent Grove member, demands her granddaughter’s compliance, but half-witch/half-fey Callie can hardly betray her friends and colleagues at the college.

“Kintu” by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi

Here’s the reason why I haven’t posted a review in a while: I’ve been procrastinating on Kintu. Not because I hated the book or because it’s bad. It’s because I enjoyed the book so much and got so much out of it that I needed time to process it all.

When I decided to sit and jot down some thoughts on it, I felt overwhelmed and indecisive. I didn’t know what to say, how much to say, or where to start. But I want to stop procrastinating on it and I want to urge everyone to read it, so as best as I can, I’ll just share what comes to mind as I think back on my reading experience with this book (and hope it all makes sense).

Genre:

Historical; literary; magical realism

Pubbed:

2014 in Uganda; 2017 in the U.S.

Goodreads summary:

Uganda’s history reimagined through the cursed bloodline of the Kintu clan in an award-winning debut.

In 1750, Kintu Kidda unleashes a curse that will plague his family for generations. In this ambitious tale of a clan and of a nation, Makumbi weaves together the stories of Kintu’s descendants as they seek to break from the burden of their shared past and reconcile the inheritance of tradition and the modern world that is their future. 

Weekend Reads #85: Book-to-Movie Adaptations – not everyone likes them; not everyone wants them

Weekend Reads is a weekly post in which I discuss a variety of topics and mention the books I’m currently reading.

This week’s topic:

Book-to-movie adaptations

Not everyone wants a book-to-movie adaptation to happen. But those who think this are few, fortunately…or unfortunately. The majority of us, me included, are open to seeing a beloved story told in another format or reimagined as something else.

From a reader/fan point of view, adaptations provide a new way for me to engage with the story and might even provide a fresh perspective. There’s much debate among book bloggers about how to approach adaptations, especially movie adaptations, which often doesn’t closely follow the source material.

Some peeps prefer to first read the book then see the movie so they can make comparisons or critique how closely the movie follows the book or simply understand what inspired the movie. Others, like me, prefer to read the book after seeing the show. Some people avoid this because watching the movie first spoils the book, but seeing the movie first makes me judge it a lot less harshly and stops me from becoming annoyed when I realize how much the movie had deviated from the book. I enjoy the movie more when I see it first, usual YA book-to-movie adaptations. Instead of focusing on the differences between the book and the movie, I just accept the movie for what it is.