Imprint Extra: Brush Up Your Shakespeare and Giveaway

Earlier this week I raved about reviewed Eleanor Brown's wonderful The Weird Sisters, which has a strong Shakespeare connection. There are many reasons to love the novel, and as I said on Monday, you don't have to be a student of the Bard to appreciate the story. I, however, had a personal reason for wanting to read about the three daughters who grew up listening to their father quote Shakespeare.

No, my dad is not a professor of Elizabethan drama. And the only Shakespeare quotes in our house were the lame ones, such as "Out damned spot," said when washing something. But my father is currently fulfilling a life-long dream of his: To read the complete works of Shakespeare.

My dad retired when he was about eighty-one, and a few years later he began his project. Now at the age of eighty-six, he has read all the sonnets and poems, a short biography, and the vast majority of the plays. This week he's finishing up Cymbeline, and then he'll have just five plays left, all in the history group and all about kings.

But what if you wish you knew just a little bit more about Shakespeare but weren't quite ready to retire and join my dad in his reading adventure? Well, today is your lucky day because author Eleanor Brown has a fantastic solution. Take a look:

Occasionally, when people hear The Weird Sisters contains Shakespearean references, they give me a wide-eyed look of horror. Don't panic! If you're a Shakespeare lover already, you'll have a great time with Rosalind, Bianca, and Cordelia. But if you've had a bad experience with Shakespeare in the past--maybe someone attacked you with a twenty-pound copy of The Riverside Shakespeare, or maybe you just had a teacher who made one of the plays feel like hard work--you don't have to worry! No Shakespearean expertise is required.

And to prove that the ol' Bard can be fun, I'm giving away a special prize pack to one lucky Beth Fish Reads reader: a signed copy of The Weird Sisters, a set of Shakespearean magnetic poetry (perfect for livening up a dull refrigerator), and a DVD of the Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare: Abridged, so you can brush up on 37 plays in under 2 hours. Hours of fun for Shakespeare lovers and fearers alike! --Eleanor

Thanks so much to Eleanor for providing such a terrific Shakespeare-inspired giveaway. Yeah, you read it correctly: One person will get a signed book, a Shakespeare DVD, and a Shakespeare magnet set. What a great giveaway! Thanks again to Eleanor for putting the prize together, and thanks to the wonderful people at Amy Einhorn Books for all their help.

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is to fill out the form. Please note that the giveaway is for United States and Canada mailing addresses only. If you live elsewhere, ask a blogging friend to be a go-between for you. I'll pick a winner via a random number generator on January 20, the official publication date for The Weird Sisters.



Just for fun, let me leave you with the Muppets' version of "Brush Up Your Shakespeare." The short video is a little bittersweet, however, because it stars a young Christopher Reeve.

Amy Einhorn Books is a featured imprint on Beth Fish Reads. For more information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010, or click the Amy Einhorn tab below my banner photo. To join the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge, click the link.

The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown
Published by Putnam / Amy Einhorn Books, January 2011
ISBN-13: 9780399157226