Other books that might interest you

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  The Kingdom of Surfaces - Poems

  Sally Wen Mao

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  In The Kingdom of Surfaces, award-winning poet Sally Wen Mao examines art and history—especially the provenance of objects such as porcelain, silk, and pearls—to frame an important conversation on beauty, empire, commodification, and violence. In lyric poems and wide-ranging sequences, Mao interrogates gendered expressions such as the contemporary “leftover women,” which denotes unmarried women, and the historical “castle-toppler,” a term used to describe a concubine whose beauty ruins an emperor and his empire. These poems also explore the permeability of object and subject through the history of Chinese women in America, labor practices around the silk loom, and the ongoing violence against Asian people during the COVID-19 pandemic. 
   
  At its heart, The Kingdom of Surfaces imagines the poet wandering into a Western fantasy, which covets, imitates, and appropriates Chinese aesthetics via Chinamania and the nineteenth-century Aesthetic Movement, while perpetuating state violence upon actual lives. The title poem is a speculative recasting of Through the Looking-Glass, set in a surreal topsy-turvy version of the eponymous China-themed 2015 Metropolitan Museum of Art Gala. The Kingdom of Surfaces is a brilliantly conceived call for those who recognize the horrors of American exceptionalism to topple the empire that values capital over lives and power over liberation.

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  Perfection Comes at a Price

  Ulla Beattie

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  Eric has a miserable childhood in a violent, drunken family in a tough London housing estate. He compensates by looking for perfection. For him, this means worldly success in a diplomatic career as far away from his childhood as possible. His single-minded ambition comes at a price. It makes him leave his childhood sweetheart Katie behind, since he knows that she can’t keep up with him. Their ways part. Eric marries an upper-class woman and becomes an Ambassador. However, Katie and he never quite lose touch. After his wife’s death Eric and Katie come together again. There is action and pace, fun and sadness, a huge variety of life experiences and a sense of providence and redemption.

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  Unicorn

  Mike Bartlett

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  'My point is we're at the frontier here. No one knows. And I find that really fucking exciting.'
  Polly and Nick have it all. Happily married, two children, successful careers. And yet there's something missing… something rare and unforeseen… waiting to add a much-needed sparkle…
  Unicorn by Mike Bartlett is an explicit, funny and provocative play, which was first performed at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End in 2025. It was directed by James Macdonald and starred Nicola Walker, Stephen Mangan and Erin Doherty.

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  Much Ado About Nothing

  William Shakespeare

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  Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing towards the middle of his career, sometime between 1598 and 1599. It was first published in quarto in 1600 and later collected into Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies in 1623. The earliest recorded performance of Much Ado About Nothing was performed for the newly-married Princess Elizabeth and Frederick the Fifth, Elector Palatine in 1613.
  Shakespeare's sources of inspiration for this play can be found in Italian culture and popular texts published in the sixteenth century. Gossip involving lovers deceived into believing each other false was often spread throughout Northern Italy. Works like Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso and Edmund Spencer's Fearie Queene also feature tricked lovers like Claudio and Hero. Besides these similarities, the idea of tricking a couple like Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love was an original and unusual idea at the time.
  The play focuses on two couples: upon the noblemen's return to Messina, Claudio and Hero quickly fall in love and wish to marry in a week; on the contrary, Benedick and Beatrice resume their verbal war, exchanging insults with each other. To pass the time prior to the marriage a plot to trick Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love has been set in motion. Unbeknownst to both our couples, a fouler plot to crush the love and happiness between Hero and Claudio has also begun to unfold.

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  EMILY DICKINSON VS SARA TEASDALE...

  Valeska Matti

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  This is a tribute to the work of Emily Dickinson and Sara Teasdale, two of the greatest representatives of -female- American literature. 
  It is a carefully crafted selection of 150 poems, all of them 8 lines in length, which are presented face-to-face in pairs -one per author- and with matching themes. In this way, the reader can compare and enjoy the magic of these poets. 
  Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886) is, without a doubt, one of the most renowned representatives of American Classic Poetry. Her poems and unique writing style, although largely unknown before her passing, have had a remarkable influence on American literature. 
  Sara Teasdale (1884 – 1933), on the other hand, was favored with success and recognition for her writing, having won the first edition of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Nevertheless, in more recent times she hasn’t enjoyed nearly as much recognition as Dickinson. 
  The 150 Poems in this collection are distributed in four themes:Of Love, Heartbreak and FaithOf Mother NatureOf Life and EmotionsOf Death 
  This is a wonderful gift for all poetry lovers, also available in paperback, hardcover, and e-book formats.

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  King Arthur

  John Nicholson, Bete Le Navet

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  Camelot is in trouble. If King Arthur doesn't turn things around soon, his reign will be remembered as nothing more than a rather dull period in British history. Enter three hapless squires with a plan... and a legend is born.
  This hilarious retelling of the Arthurian legends brings to life King Arthur (obvs), the lovely Guinevere, the enigmatic Merlin, the Lady of the Lake and the Lady of Shalott, the evil Morgana and her troublesome son Mordred, and more Knights than you can fit round an oblong table.
  Following in the hoofsteps of Le Navet Bete's previous hit adaptations, Dracula: The Bloody Truth, The Three Musketeers and Treasure Island, all co-created with John Nicholson (The Hound of the Baskervilles), it toured the UK in 2023 and 2024.
  Originally performed by three actors playing several dozen characters, King Arthur offers rich opportunities for any theatre company, drama group or Round Table to create their own legendary production and a spectacular knight to remember.

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