MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Literary Non-Fiction Nominations • March 2016

bfisher · 03-04-2016, 05:19 PM

Wow, a slow month for nominations.

I'll fourth Orwell's Victory by Christopher Hitchens

I'll third In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick

I nominate A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro.

Shapiro's book won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2006. The Goodread's blurb:
Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen.

James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare’s staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.

03-04-2016, 05:19 PM	#7
bfisher Wizard Posts: 1,638 Karma: 28483498 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Sony PRS-T3, Galaxy (Aldiko, Kobo app)	Wow, a slow month for nominations. I'll fourth Orwell's Victory by Christopher Hitchens I'll third In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick I nominate A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare: 1599 by James Shapiro. Shapiro's book won the Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction in 2006. The Goodread's blurb: Shakespeare wrote four of his most famous plays: Henry the Fifth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and, most remarkably, Hamlet; Elizabethans sent off an army to crush an Irish rebellion, weathered an Armada threat from Spain, gambled on a fledgling East India Company, and waited to see who would succeed their aging and childless queen. James Shapiro illuminates both Shakespeare’s staggering achievement and what Elizabethans experienced in the course of 1599, bringing together the news and the intrigue of the times with a wonderful evocation of how Shakespeare worked as an actor, businessman, and playwright. The result is an exceptionally immediate and gripping account of an inspiring moment in history.