Off the shelf

In Benet Brandreth’s historical thriller “The Assassin of Verona,” William Shakespeare is disguised as a steward to the English ambassador in 1586 Venice.

What happens after “The Tempest” ends? “Miranda in Milan,” Katharine Duckett’s debut novel, picks up where Shakespeare’s play leaves off.

This new book by Andrew McConnell Stott is about David Garrick and the Shakespeare Jubilee of 1769 in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Read an excerpt from “The Girl on the Balcony: Olivia Hussey Finds Life After Romeo and Juliet,” a memoir by the star of Franco Zeffirelli’s classic film.

In his recent memoir, “Thanks a Lot Mr. Kibblewhite,” Roger Daltrey of The Who writes, among other things, about playing the Dromio twins in the BBC’s TV movie of “The Comedy of Errors” (1983).

Inspired by a real-life episode, Simon Mayo’s novel ‘Mad Blood Stirring’ tells the powerful story of a Shakespeare production by African American prisoners of war at Dartmoor prison in England, near the end of the War of 1812.

From rudeness to gross behavior, Ruth Goodman’s book “How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England” sheds some surprising light on what bad behavior really meant, including the reason that Shakespeare had Sampson threaten to “bite my thumb” at another character…

A detailed but absurd decor chat with Lady Macbeth is one of Susan Harlan’s many hilarious design interviews with literary figures in her new book “Decorating a Room of One’s Own.”

In her new novel “The Shakespeare Requirement,” Julie Schumacher continues her satirical commentary on the humanities in academia.

This excerpt from a new book by Katherine West Scheil explores the 19th-century transformation of the Anne Hathaway Cottage into a tourist destination.

Jonathan Croall writes about Frances de la Tour’s 1979 performance as Hamlet, the first woman to do so on the English stage since Sarah Bernhardt.

This excerpt from Ayanna Thompson’s book explores Peter Sellars’s “uniquely American take on William Shakespeare” and his 1980 production of King Lear.