Dear Great Book Guru. Since today April 23 is the birthday of William Shakespeare, I was wondering how you were going to celebrate and do you have a book to recommend for the occasion?
Shakespearean Student and Fan

Dear Shakespearean Student and Fan, Thanks for asking… my friends and I will be celebrating the Bard's birthday on my porch with readings and refreshments throughout the night. At some point in the evening, I will show Tom Stoppard's SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, a wonderful compilation of a number of Shakespeare's plays and in particular" Romeo and Juliet". If there is time, I will also show Orson Welles's CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT which combines the three plays in which the rascal Falstaff plays a role. Sometime during the party, I'm sure I'll turn to my favorite book of Shakespearean criticism - Marjorie Garber's SHAKESPEARE AFTER ALL. Garber offers the reader an analysis of each of the plays with emphasis on modern scholarship such as gender studies, colonialism, and character delineation. To really celebrate the birthday, get yourself a copy of one of the plays (Folger is my favorite series), watch a BBC production with captions (available at the Sea Cliff Library), and then read Garber's analysis . You will have arrived in Shakespearean paradise. Enjoy, my friend!