Bronte 200

In addition to last weekend's Shakespeare quatercentenary, April 2016 also marks a second literary anniversary, as it's 200 years since the birth of Charlotte Bronte, on April 21, 1816.

In celebration of this, the Walker Library is currently running an exhibition about the novelist's life and works, and has recently added to its shelves Reader, I Married Him, a collection of 21 short stories inspired by Bronte's best-known novel, Jane Eyre: contributors include Lionel Shriver (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Emma Donoghue (Room) and Susan Hill (The Woman in Black).

The collection is edited by Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), who has written about why Charlotte Bronte is her literary hero here, and has also curated an exhibition at the Bronte Parsonage Museum, in Haworth, once the Brontes' family home: you can read more about how she put the exhibition together here.

If you're already a fan of Bronte's fiction, you can test yourself in the Guardian's Charlotte Bronte quiz:

and if you're particularly keen on Jane Eyre, there are even some questions which will let you work out which character from the novel you are.  Have fun! 

Book of the Week

The Firm by John Grisham
Recommended by David Moreno

Mitch McDeere is fresh out of Harvard Law School with many offers from the best American law firms. He also has a brother in jail, no money, and is struggling to provide for him and his wife, Abby. So when he receives a huge offer from a small tax firm in Memphis, he cannot refuse it.

He is inducted into Bendini, Lambert & Locke and promptly begins work on passing his bar exam, in order for him to practise Law.

Shakespeare 400

Tomorrow - 23rd April - marks 400 years since Shakespeare's death, and launches a year long celebration of the writer's life and work.  As the playwright was reputedly born on the same day on which he later died, it would also be his 452nd birthday. 

Here at the book blog, we decided to celebrate the occasion by inviting SPS teachers to nominate their favourite play, favourite character and favourite line from Shakespeare's works.

Book of the Week

Philosophy for Life (and Other Dangerous Situations) by Jules Evans
Recommended by Miss McLaren

This book was suggested by my god-daughter, who's about to sit her GCSEs, and tells me it's been enabling her to keep a sense of perspective amid all the revision.

Author Jules Evans introduces the ideas of the great classical philosophers in twelve illuminating chapters, that take the reader from Socrates to Seneca, Pythagoras to Plato, via cynicism, scepticism, mysticism and anarchy.