Posted by SB Sarah

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/11/shakespeare-in-the-park-twelfth-night-on-pbs/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=162930

At some point this year, and I don’t remember which corporate or governmental bullshit event it was, I subscribed to PBS and downloaded the PBS Passport app.

You can stream SO MUCH GOOD STUFF my gosh. Ballet! Antiques Roadshow! Stage performances from recent and distant history! The truly top-shelf visual dopamine of All Creatures Great and Small. I could end this post here and just say, PBS Passport is the greatest, and subscribing is an upgrade to your life.

Also – supporting a rural PBS station goes a VERY long way right now as the administration plays do-si-kiss-my-ass with funding.

BUT. Y’ALL.

Great Performances has begun streaming the 2025 Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night with a cast that includes, and I am not joking:

• Lupita Nyong’o
• Sandra Oh
• Peter Dinklage
• Junior Nyong’o, who is Lupita’s brother (the resemblance is profound)
• Jesse Tyler Ferguson
• Khris Davis
• Daphne Rubin-Vega

The performance was directed by Saheem Ali, and seriously, y’all. We watched the play over two nights, and it was easily one of the best productions I’ve seen.

And I don’t want to brag or anything, but I saw a production in the late 90s at Lincoln Center with Helen Hunt and Paul Rudd. You can watch it in varying degrees of quality on YouTube now.

• Not great audio and video quality but the full play (Shakespeare Network, YouTube)
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Part 1
• Twelfth Night, or What You Will, Part 2

That performance was also incredible, with music so alluring I bought the soundtrack on CD.

The Shakespeare in the Park production at the Delacorte equally blew my mind – and also had incredible music, much of it sung by Feste, played impeccably by Moses Sumney.

A behind the scenes clip of rehearsal

I’m not a theatre critic by a longshot, though I love live theater productions. I love remixes of Shakespeare that play with era or setting. And I love LOVE LOVE when clearly everyone involved is engaged with their character and the others on stage with an energy and ebullience that to me communicates that they’re really enjoying themselves. Antonio is played by an actor who goes by b. and they were mesmerizing; even with a smaller part and a few lines, their presence on stage had a gravity that was difficult to look away from.

I already watch tv with subtitles, but even with the text at the bottom of the screen, it was difficult to look away from most of this production. The only parts I found more dull were the scenes with Sir Toby Belch, played by John Ellison Conlee. While the other performers gave their delivery nuance and variety, Conlee mostly seemed to have one setting, which was “drunk bloviation.” Granted that’s Belch’s entire schtick, but those scenes were less engaging because of the sameness of the tone.

In addition to different kinds of love and ardor, Twelfth Night explores grief, identity, and gender; this production adds through a few changes an exploration of immigrant experience.

Viola and Sebastian are shipwrecked in Illyria, and some of their dialogue includes translations of the text into Swahili. They’ve washed ashore in a strange place where they are vulnerable, convinced they are now alone in this strange world, and their reunion and dialogue in Swahili at the end made my eyes tear because I didn’t understand it (no subtitles there) but also, I did understand it. I didn’t need to know the words to know the emotion of realizing a person thought dead is alive, and safe, and present and whole. Earlier that evening, I had been reading about the hundreds of people being kidnapped and disappeared by ICE in Charlotte, and clearly that added to my reaction.

The style and flair of the actors, such as dropping into modern speech rhythms for delivery of some lines and adding elements of camp and drag, was delightful. Peter Dinklage is incredible at physical comedy and his Malvolio is both brittle in his insecurities and weighty in his pompousness. There is nothing more funny to me right now than hearing him say “Cross gartered.”

This production lives in my mind alongside the production of Born With Teeth that was playing until recently in London, starring Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane) and Ncuti Gatwa (Doctor Who). Born With Teeth is about an imagined alliance and rivalry (and mega flirtation) between William Shakespeare (Bluemel) and Christopher Marlowe (Gatwa). The palpable erotic tension was remarkable, but so too was the way in which Gatwa subtly included aspects of Black identity and history into how he interpreted Marlowe’s character. Similarly, Black identity and markers of Black culture – Orsino lifting weights while wearing a durag, elements of body posture and line delivery, for example – suffuse this production with layered meaning in a way that I can’t stop thinking about. I think I’m going to have to watch it again.

So, my recommendation: watch Twelfth Night on PBS Great Performances. It’s terrific. And it reminds me that I will be immeasurably more content if I engage with more theater, more marginalized actors interpreting historical figures and texts, and more PBS.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/11/shakespeare-in-the-park-twelfth-night-on-pbs/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=162930

Posted by Amanda

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/11/mostly-historical-romances-8/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=162962

The Duke at Hazard

The Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles is 99c! This is the second book in the The Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series. It came out last year. Shana was excited for this one because of the road trip element.

Don’t miss the second thrilling Regency romance in the Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune series by KJ Charles…

The Duke of Severn is one of the greatest men in Britain.

He’s also short, quiet, and unimpressive. And now he’s been robbed, after indulging in one rash night with a strange man who stole the heirloom Severn ring from his finger. The Duke has to get it back, and he can’t let anyone know how he lost it. So when his cousin bets that he couldn’t survive without his privilege and title, the Duke grasps the opportunity to hunt down his ring-incognito.

Life as an ordinary person is terrifying…until the anonymous Duke meets Daizell Charnage, a disgraced gentleman, and hires him to help. Racing across the country in search of the thief, the Duke and Daizell fall into scrapes, into trouble-and in love.

Daizell has been excluded from polite society, his name tainted by his father’s crimes and his own misbehaviour. Now he dares to dream of a life somewhere out of sight with the quiet gentleman who’s stolen his heart. He doesn’t know that his lover is a hugely rich public figure with half a dozen titles. And when he finds out, it will risk everything they have…

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Slightly Married

Slightly Married by Mary Balogh is $1.99! This is the first book in the Bedwyn Saga, which is a favorite amongst romance readers. It also has a cover updated, which is…fine? I kind of miss the red and gold.

Meet the Bedwyns…six brothers and sisters—men and women of passion and privilege, daring and sensuality…Enter their dazzling world of high society and breathtaking seduction…where each will seek love, fight temptation, and court scandal…and where Aidan Bedwyn, the marriage-shy second son, discovers that matrimony may be the most seductive act of all.…

Like all the Bedwyn men, Aidan has a reputation for cool arrogance. But this proud nobleman also possesses a loyal, passionate heart—and it is this fierce loyalty that has brought Colonel Lord Aidan to Ringwood Manor to honor a dying soldier’s request. Having promised to comfort and protect the man’s sister, Aidan never expected to find a headstrong, fiercely independent woman who wants no part of his protection…nor did he expect the feelings this beguiling creature would ignite in his guarded heart. And when a relative threatens to turn Eve out of her home, Aidan gallantly makes her an offer she can’t refuse: marry him…if only to save her home. And now, as all of London breathlessly awaits the transformation of the new Lady Aidan Bedwyn, the strangest thing happens: With one touch, one searing embrace, Aidan and Eve’s “business arrangement” is about to be transformed…into something slightly surprising.

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

The Viscount’s Unconventional Lady

The Viscount’s Unconventional Lady by Virginia Heath is $1.99! This was previously published in 2021, so make sure you don’t already have it. This is book one in The Talk of the Beau Monde series and I certainly don’t like that cover.

The notorious viscount

And the most gossiped-about lady…

After years as a diplomat in the Napoleonic Wars, Lord Eastwood is reluctant to return to London society. His scandalous divorce has made him infamous, not to mention cantankerous! To halt the rumor mill, he should marry a quiet noblewoman—instead it’s bold, vibrant artist Faith Brookes who’s caught his attention. They are the least suitable match, so why is he like a moth to a flame?

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You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

Call Me Maybe

Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone is 99c! Bastone’s romances have been previously recommended in the comments. This one was originally released on audio and judging by the description, I’d assume it was pretty cute. This is also on the shorter side at a little over 200 pages.

The audio bestseller, available for the first time in ebook! True love is on the line in Cara Bastone’s charming, laugh-out-loud rom-com, perfect for fans of Netflix’s Love is Blind, Jo Watson, Lauren Layne and Hannah Orenstein!

Paint your toes. Pick up the wrong coffee and bagel order. Drive from Brooklyn to Jersey in traffic so slow you want to tear your hair out. It’s amazing all the useless things I can accomplish while on hold for three hours with customer service. Three hours when I should be getting the Date-in-a-Box website ready to launch at the big business expo in a few days. Except my shiny new website is glitching, and my inner rage-monster is ready to scorch some earth…when he finally picks up. Not the robot voice I expected but a real live human named Cal. He’s surprisingly helpful and really knows his stuff, even if he’s a little awkward…in an adorable way.

And suddenly I’m flirting with him? And I think he’s flirting back.

And suddenly it’s been hours, and we’re still on the phone talking and ordering each other takeout while he troubleshoots my website.

And suddenly we’re exchanging numbers and sending texts and DMs every day, leaving voice mails (who even does that anymore?!).

And suddenly I’m wondering if it’s possible for two people to fall in love at first talk.

Because I’m falling…hard.

Add to Goodreads To-Read List →

You can find ordering info for this book here.

 

 

 

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/2025/11/mostly-historical-romances-8/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?p=162962

Posted by Lara

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/the-botanists-assistant-by-peggy-townsend/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=162161

This is a book about a quiet, steady woman in her 50s who is dogged in her pursuit of justice. Margaret is a research assistant and she’s perfectly suited to the job: she’s methodical, reliable and devoted to science. When her boss dies unexpectedly, it is Margaret alone who suspects murder. In the way of these things, she is dismissed and not believed.

As to that disbelief: the book is frank about how older women who don’t conform to beauty standards are invisible to the greater world. When they are seen, they’re a topic of pity or ridicule, depending on the viewer’s degree of kindness. Margaret is a figure of fun to many of her colleagues. She’s a big boned tall woman and she’s called ‘Big Bird’ as a cruel nickname.

Nevertheless, Margaret sets out to find the killer or, at least, prove that her boss was killed. Margaret is based at a small university and the cast of characters is varied in terms of personality. Although there is a relatively large number of characters that we meet, they are introduced to us slowly and each is so individual in their character that it is very easy to keep track of who did what with whom, etc.

In her investigation, she meets Joe, the custodian for the Botany department. In Joe she finds an ally, not least because he is willing to unlock offices that Margaret needs access to. I should point out now that there is not even the slightest bit of romance between Margaret and Joe. It’s purely platonic, just a lovely warm friendship. In fact, there’s no romance in the book at all.

The mystery is really well-plotted and while in hindsight the culprit was quite clear, it was a genuine surprise to me when they revealed themselves. There’s not a huge amount I can say about the mystery though, as the death happens at the start of the book and the twists begin almost immediately. I do not want to spoil the reading experience for you, dear Bitchery!

Something that this book has in spades (via Margaret’s POV) is an absolute love for nature and the role it plays in our lives. There are tender asides about certain plants, how those plants are used for medicinal purposes, and other scientific tidbits. This really added not only to my enjoyment of the book, but it also added to the rich nuance that is Margaret’s character.

Unsurprisingly, Margaret’s garden is her pride and joy.

Unlike the rest of her ordered and plain life, Margaret’s garden is a riot of colours, textures and scents. Dainty violets line a winding path of stepping stones next to a row of silvery dusty miller. Gaudy gladiolas lord it over black-eyed Susans while lilies erupt in clumps and deer grass sways in the breeze.

The plants are characters in themselves.

As Margaret investigates, she finds allies and eventually friends as she starts to build closer connections with those around her. Joe, for one, but there are others she becomes closer to as well. And because Margaret is so observant and thoughtful, the narrative is as much a yarn for me to enjoy as it is a close study of human behaviour and people’s various foibles.

Overall, the writing is immersive. I sank happily into Margaret’s POV and for the hours this book held my attention, I lived another life. Margaret’s world is filled with unkindness and treachery and skulduggery (it’s academia, after all) but she is such a force for good. Not loud. Not demanding. Just resilient, down-to-the-bone goodness that never becomes twee or cosy. This book has no whimsy in that sense. Rather it is serious and certain and good.

This is a book about being loyal to the truth, the scientific method and to yourself.

When Margaret and [REDACTED] are talking near the end of the book, Margaret shares this wisdom with us.

“You, um, probably don’t know this but, um, some people call you Big Bird behind your back, including me.”

“I’ve known that for a very long time” [says Margaret]
His eyebrows lift. “And you don’t mind?”

“Of course I mind, but what people call you isn’t what you are. Am I an eight-foot-two yellow bird who can rollerskate and write poetry?” she says. “Do I live in a large nest? … No, I’m just a scientist who happens to be tall and large-boned, and when you don’t fit a mold, people must find a way to set you apart so they can assure themselves they are the normal ones.”

I thoroughly enjoyed this masterclass of human nature.

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/reviews/the-botanists-assistant-by-peggy-townsend/

https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/?post_type=reviews&p=162161