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Vinegar Girl: William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew Retold: A Novel by A

Description: Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler Contains a readers guide for Vinegar Girl (Penguin Random House, 2017). FORMAT Paperback LANGUAGE English CONDITION Brand New Publisher Description Pulitzer Prize winner and American master Anne Tyler brings us an inspired, witty and irresistible contemporary take on one of Shakespeares most beloved comedies. Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, shes always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents dont always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner. Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. Theres only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost.When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, hes relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time hes really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two mens touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around? Author Biography Anne Tyler is the author of twenty bestselling novels. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. A Spool of Blue Thread, Anne Tylers New York Times bestselling twentieth novel, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize; her eleventh novel, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Vinegar Girl sees Anne Tyler going behind the scenes of one of Shakespeares most controversial yet enduring (Kiss Me Kate, 10 Things I Hate About You) plays: "You how know sometimes a friend will tell you something that happened to her, and you think wait, there must be more to it than that, Im sure theres another side to this. Well, thats how Ive always felt about The Taming of the Shrew." Review New York Times Bestseller"Shakespeare... would be pleased, I am sure... Novels such as Anne Tylers, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. Vinegar Girl is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful."--Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review"[A] screwball comedy of manners that actually channels Jane Austen more than Shakespeare. Its clear that [Tyler] had fun with Vinegar Girl, and readers will too…A fizzy cocktail of a romantic comedy, far more sweet than acidic, about finding a mate who appreciates you for your idiosyncratic, principled self — no taming necessary."--NPR.org "[An] ingenious resetting... with considerably more humor and gentleness than in the Bards version."--Washington Post"An effective retelling, while nodding to the original text, stands on its own as a story in the way Iris Murdochs The Black Prince responds to Hamlet and Aldous Huxleys Brave New World plays with The Tempest. Tyler succeeds in creating a world we believe in...Charming...Clever." --Boston Globe"A perfect read."--New York Post"Vinegar Girl" is a fast, easy read…Held side-by-side against Shakespeares Shrew, the story of Kate and Pyotr is full of hidden treasures."--Houston Chronicle "Vinegar Girl has the requisite Tyler trademarks…the characters populating Vinegar Girl are flawed, quirky, likable, self-indulgent and astute."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch"Is there any living American writer who has written as well about marriage as Anne Tyler? Or who has consistently been as honest about the disconnect between fantasies of lovebirds living happily ever after and the often sad but also funny miracle of two separate people actually staying together? In Vinegar Girl Tyler brings these talents to the altar of the Hogarth Shakespeare series…its fun, lighthearted, clever, compassionate and filled with Tylers always extraordinary love for her characters, liberating them here to love each other."--Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel"[A] great success; Vinegar Girl is funny and endearing, the quirky characters vintage Tyler."--Minneapolis Star Tribune"A very funny retelling of Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew."--The Sacramento Bee"Family drama meets rom-com in a modern version of The Taming of the Shrew. Pushy dad plus entitled little sister, cute but clueless suitor, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author equals must-read."--Cosmopolitan"A quirky tale that transports Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew to Tylers modern-day Baltimore, where a fathers attempt to shoehorn his daughter into a green-card marriage has, of course, an unintentionally happy ending."--W Magazine"Tylers smooth prose makes Vinegar Girl, one of a series of renowned authors Shakespearean updates, a light, summer read."--Baltimore Magazine "Readers unfamiliar with The Taming of the Shrew will have no problem enjoying this novel, which is funny, fun-loving and uplifting. Those who know the original well will be intrigued by Tylers riffs: Is the new Kate less shrewish, or simply better characterized, her motives and anxieties better understood? In either case, the surprising ending, which deviates from Shakespeares in important ways, makes for a heartwarming conclusion to a quirky, timeless tale."--Shelf Awareness "The Taming of the Shrew meets Green Card in this delightful reinvention that owes as much to Tylers quirky sensibilities as it does to its literary forebear. Come for the Shakespeare, stay for the wonderful Tyler." --Library Journal (starred review)"Resplendent storyteller Tyler (A Spool of Blue Thread, 2015) is perfectly paired with The Taming of the Shrew…Deeply and pleasurably inspired by her source, Tyler is marvelously nimble and effervescent in this charming, hilarious, and wickedly shrewd tale of reversal and revelation."--Booklist (starred review) "Anne Tylers Vinegar Girl, based on The Taming of the Shrew, gives readers a modern, witty, wonderful Kate."--Lithub.com International Praise for VINEGAR GIRL: "This sparky, intelligent spin on Shakespeares controversial classic demolishes the old saw that you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar." --The Guardian "[A] modern take on The Taming of the Shrew."--Good Housekeeping "Tylers deepest purpose is to challenge the premises of Shakspeares comedy... Her gentle, funny novel insists that it is possible, in spite of our customarily blind perversities, to find unexpected ways of breaking free from self-destruction." --Times Literary Supplement"[Vinegar Girl is] knockabout comedy at its best, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny and, indeed, may be [Tylers] funniest book to date." --Daily Mail"Funny, thought-provoking, essential." --The Sunday Telegraph"[A] hilarious contemporary take on the play." --Frankie McCoy, Evening Standard "Tyler is uniquely capable of handling a rebarbative character like Kate with generosity and imagination ... she consistently finds good in unpromising people and is a sharp and very funny observer of day-to-day life… A joy." --Literary Review"Excellent." --Glamour"A reflective, engaging twist on Shakespeares unfashionable play." --Daily ExpressMore Praise for Anne Tyler and Her Work: "Everyone loves Anne Tyler."--San Francisco Chronicle "Without Anne Tyler, American fiction would be an immeasurably bleaker place."--Newsday "Tylers characters are thoroughly three-dimensional. They are our own families; they are ourselves; and it is our own desperate desire to understand the people we love, as well as the people who hurt us and whom we hurt, that keeps us reading with fervor."--The Boston Globe"You are involved before you even notice you were paying attention . . . Her feel for character is so keen that even hardened metafictionalists [who] would happily fry the whole notion of character for breakfast are reduced to the role of helpless gossips, swapping avid hunches about the possible fates of the characters."--Tom Shone, The New Yorker"Tylers eye and ear for familial give and take is unerring, her humanity irresistible. Youll want to turn back to the first chapter the moment you finish the last."--People"[A] novel by Anne Tyler is cause for celebration."--Caroline Moore, The Sunday Telegraph "Tyler reveals, with unobtrusive mastery, the disconcerting patchwork of comedy and pathos that marks all our lives."--Michael Dirda, Wall Street Journal"Over five decades of exuberant shape-shifting across the fictional landscape, Anne Tyler has cut the steady swath of a literary stalwart, writing novel after novel whose most memorable characters inhabit a cosmos all their own."--Julia Glass, New York Times Book Review "Anne Tyler never disappoints . . . Her insights about life, love, aging, marriage, siblings, grief, and unexpected happiness grow richer and deeper with each passing year and book."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette"Anne Tyler has no peer. Her books just keep getting better and better."--Anita Shreve"The wonder of Anne Tyler is how consistently clear-eyed and truthful she remains about the nature of families and especially marriage." --Los Angeles Times Review Quote New York Times Bestseller "Shakespeare... would be pleased, I am sure... Novels such as Anne Tylers, which are so precise and current, are like photographs or digital clock faces that tell us where we are and where we are coming from at the same time. Vinegar Girl is an earthy reflection of this fleeting moment, both lively and thoughtful."-- Jane Smiley, New York Times Book Review "[A] screwball comedy of manners that actually channels Jane Austen more than Shakespeare. Description for Reading Group Guide In order to provide reading groups with the most informed and thought-provoking questions possible, it is necessary to reveal certain aspects of the story in this novel. If you have not finished reading Vinegar Girl, we respectfully suggest that you do so before reviewing this guide. Discussion Question for Reading Group Guide 1. Compare and contrast Tylers Vinegar Girl with Shakespeares Taming of the Shrew . 2. Do you think Tylers Kate was less of a "shrew" than Shakespeares Katherine? 3. Discuss Kate and Pyotrs first meeting. Did you think there was a connection or chemistry there from the beginning? 4. Did you like how Tyler transformed the misogynistic Petruchio to the quirky Pyotr? Do you think he was a good match for her sarcastic Kate? 5. Kate is unsatisfied with her life at home and at work, but has done nothing to change her situation. Do you think her father strong suggestion to marry Pyotr was actually what she needed to change her life? 6. Discuss the character of Bunny and the role she plays in Kates life. 7. Tyler is a master writer when it comes to depicting family relationships. Discuss the family dynamic in Vinegar Girl . Do you think all families struggle with the balance of acting selfishly and selflessly? 8. Were you surprised when Kate was so upset when Pyotr does not show up to the church on time? 9. Discuss Kates speech at the end of the novel. Do you agree with her? 10. What was your reaction to the storys Epilogue? Is that how you imagined Kates life to turn out? Excerpt from Book CHAPTER ONE Kate Battista was gardening out back when she heard the telephone ring in the kitchen. She straightened up and listened. Her sister was in the house, although she might not be awake yet. But then there was another ring, and two more after that, and when she finally heard her sisters voice it was only the announcement on the answering machine. "Hi-yee! Its us? Were not home, looks like? So leave a--" By that time Kate was striding toward the back steps, tossing her hair off her shoulders with an exasperated "Tcch!" She wiped her hands on her jeans and yanked the screen door open. "Kate," her father was saying, "pick up." She lifted the receiver. "What," she said. "I forgot my lunch." Her eyes went to the counter beside the fridge where, sure enough, his lunch sat precisely where she had set it the night before. She always used those clear plastic bags that supermarket produce came in, and the contents were plainly visible: a Tupperware sandwich box and an apple. "Huh," she said. "Can you bring it?" "Bring it now?" "Right." "Jesus, Father. Im not the Pony Express," she said. "What else have you got to do?" he asked her. "Its Sunday! Im weeding the hellebores." "Ah, Kate, dont be like that. Just hop in the car and zip over; theres a good girl." "Sheesh," she said, and she slammed the receiver down and took the lunch bag from the counter. There were several strange things about this conversation. The first was that it had happened at all; her father distrusted the telephone. In fact, his lab didnt even have a telephone, so he must have called on his cell phone. And that was unusual too, because his only reason for owning a cell phone was that his daughters had insisted. He had gone into a brief flurry of app purchases when he first acquired it--scientific calculators of various types, for the most part--and after that had lost all interest, and avoided it now altogether. Then there was the fact that he forgot his lunch about twice a week, but had never before seemed to notice. The man did not eat, basically. Kate would get home from work and find his lunch still sitting on the counter, and yet even so she would have to shout for him three or four times that evening before he would come to dinner. Always he had something better to do, some journal to read or notes to go over. He would probably starve to death if he were living alone. And supposing he did feel a bit peckish, he could have just stepped out and bought something. His lab was near the Johns Hopkins campus, and there were sandwich shops and convenience stores everywhere you looked. Not to mention that it wasnt even noon yet. But the day was sunny and breezy, if cool--the first semi-decent weather after a long, hard, bitter winter--and she didnt actually mind an excuse to get out in the world. She wouldnt take the car, though; she would walk. Let him wait. (He himself never took the car, unless he had some sort of equipment to ferry. He was something of a health fiend.) She stepped out the front door, shutting it extra hard behind her because it irked her that Bunny was sleeping so late. The ground cover along the front walk had a twiggy, littered look, and she made a mental note to spruce it up after she finished with the hellebores. Swinging the lunch bag by its twist-tied neck, she passed the Mintzes house and the Gordons house--stately brick center-hall Colonials like the Battistas own, although better maintained--and turned the corner. Mrs. Gordon was kneeling among her azalea bushes, spreading mulch around their roots. "Why, hello there, Kate!" she sang out. "Hi." "Looks like spring might be thinking of coming!" "Yup." Kate strode on without slowing, her buckskin jacket flying out behind her. A pair of young women--most likely Hopkins students--drifted at a snails pace ahead of her. "I could tell he wanted to ask me," one was saying, "because he kept clearing his throat in that way they do, you know? But then not speaking." "I love when theyre so shy," the other one said. Kate veered around them and kept going. At the next street she took a left, heading toward a more mixed-and-mingled neighborhood of apartments and small cafés and houses partitioned into offices, and eventually she turned in at yet another brick Colonial. This one had a smaller front yard than the Battistas but a larger, grander portico. Six or eight plaques beside the front door spelled out the names of various offbeat organizations and obscure little magazines. There was no plaque for Louis Battista, though. He had been shunted around to so many different buildings over the years, landing finally in this orphan location near the university but miles from the medical complex, that hed probably decided it just wasnt worth the effort. In the foyer an array of mailboxes lined one wall, and sliding heaps of flyers and takeout menus covered the rickety bench beneath them. Kate walked past several offices, but only the Christians for Buddha door stood open. Inside she glimpsed a trio of women grouped around a desk where a fourth woman sat dabbing her eyes with a tissue. (Always something going on.) Kate opened another door at the far end of the hall and descended a flight of steep wooden stairs. At the bottom she paused to punch in the code: 1957, the date Witebsky first defined the criteria for autoimmune disorders. The room she entered was tiny, furnished only by a card table and two metal folding chairs. A brown paper bag sat on the tab≤ another lunch, it looked like. She set her fathers lunch next to it and then went over to a door and gave a couple of brisk knocks. After a moment, her father poked his head out--his satiny bald scalp bordered by a narrow band of black hair, his olive-skinned face punctuated by a black mustache and round-lensed, rimless spectacles. "Ah, Kate," he said. "Come in." "No, thanks," she said. She never could abide the smells of the place--the thin, stinging smell of the lab itself and the dry-paper smell of the mouse room. "Your lunch is on the table," she said. "Bye." "No, wait!" He turned from her to speak to someone in the room behind him. "Pyoder? Come out and say hello to my daughter." "Ive got to go," Kate said. "I dont think youve ever met my research assistant," her father said. "Thats okay." But the door opened wider, and a solid, muscular man with straight yellow hair stepped up to stand next to her father. His white lab coat was so dingy that it very nearly matched Dr. Battistas pale-gray coveralls. "Vwouwv!" he said. Or that was what it sounded like, at least. He was gazing at Kate admiringly. Men often wore that look when they first saw her. It was due to a bunch of dead cells: her hair, which was blue-black and billowy and extended below her waist. "This is Pyoder Cherbakov," her father told her. "Pyotr," the man corrected him, allowing no space at all between the sharp-pointed t and the ruffly, rolling r. And "Shcherbakov," explosively spitting out the mishmash of consonants. Pyoder, meet Kate." "Hi," Kate said. "See you later," she told her father. "I thought you might stay a moment." "What for?" "Well, youll need to take back my sandwich box, will you not?" "Well, you can bring it back yourself, can you not?" A sudden hooting sound made both of them glance in Pyotrs direction. "Just like the girls in my country," he said, beaming. "So rude-spoken." "Just like the women," Kate said reprovingly. "Yes, they also. The grandmothers and the aunties." She gave up on him. "Father," she said, "will you tell Bunny she has to stop leaving such a mess when she has her friends in? Did you see the TV room this morning?" "Yes, yes," her father said, but he was heading back into the lab as he spoke. He returned, pushing a high stool on wheels. He parked it next to the table. "Have a seat," he told her. "I need to get back to my gardening." "Please, Kate," he said. "You never keep me company." She stared at him. "Keep you company?" "Sit, sit," he said, motioning toward the stool. "You can have part of my sandwich." "Im not hungry," she said. But she perched awkwardly on the stool, still staring at him. "Pyoder, sit. You can share my sandwich too, if you want. Kate made it especially. Peanut butter honey on whole-wheat." "You know I do not eat peanut butter," Pyotr told him severely. He pulled out one of the folding chairs and settled catty-corner to Kate. His chair was considerably lower than her stool, and she could see how the hair was starting to thin across the top of his head. "In my country, peanuts are pigs food." "Ha, ha," Dr. Battista said. "Hes very humorous, isnt he, Kate?" "What?" "They eat them with the shells on," Pyotr said. He had trouble with th sounds, Kate noticed. And his vowels didnt seem to last long enough. She had no patience with foreign accents. "Were you surprised that I used my cell phone?" her father asked her. He was still standing, for some reason. He pulled his phone from a pocket in his coveralls. "You girls were right; it comes in handy," he said. "Im going to start using it more often now." He frowned down at it for a moment, as if he we Details ISBN0804141282 Author Anne Tyler Short Title VINEGAR GIRL Pages 256 Publisher Hogarth Press Series Hogarth Shakespeare Language English ISBN-10 0804141282 ISBN-13 9780804141284 Format Paperback Year 2017 Publication Date 2017-03-28 Country of Publication United States AU Release Date 2017-03-28 NZ Release Date 2017-03-28 US Release Date 2017-03-28 UK Release Date 2017-03-28 Imprint Hogarth Press Subtitle William Shakespeares The Taming of the Shrew Retold: A Novel DEWEY FIC Audience General We've got this At The Nile, if you're looking for it, we've got it. With fast shipping, low prices, friendly service and well over a million items - you're bound to find what you want, at a price you'll love! TheNile_Item_ID:101981724;

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Vinegar Girl: William Shakespeare

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