 I'm here today to tell you about the greatest mystery thriller that I have ever read. We are talking Unput Downable. So I was feeling a bit slumpy when I picked this up and I'd had this book for a little while because I had pre-ordered it and it was like months since it came out and I figured I would like it. That's why I got it. But I wasn't like dying to immediately pick it up and then I was forced to pick it up like ASAP because of another project that I'm working on that I'm not going to talk about right now. I had to read it suddenly and I was like okay well you know it's about time I read this anyway. And I could not put it down. It is such a page turner and I kept murmuring to myself while I was reading it. Ugh this book is so good! I've probably kept you in suspense long enough. I guess I should probably tell you what the book is. The book in question is none other than Shakespeare was a woman in other heresies. How Doubting the Bard became the biggest taboo in literature by Elizabeth Winkler. Now don't go anywhere. Stop, stop, stop. Wait, no. Don't go. Listen, I know it's a non-fiction book about the Shakespeare authorship question. This news fast. But trust me. This book is more than it seems. It is so well written, so well researched, and just so goddamn compelling. Okay, so stick with me. Stick with me, okay? So the Shakespeare authorship question. What the heck is that? If you have heard of it at all you're probably like oh that's that conspiracy theory right that like Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare, there's some crazy people that think that, whatever. What's next? Jane Austen wasn't written by Jane Austen. Like who's even questioning this? Who cares? Why? And you may or may not know that for a long time people have speculated about whether this dude from Stratford called William Shakespeare actually wrote the plays that are attributed to him. Even as a kid I had heard that there were such conspiracy theories. But that's all they are, right? It's just conspiracy theories, right? That's like the English degree equivalent of Flatter. Right? Right? Okay, so this book truly is a mystery thriller. I'm not joking. This is not clickbait. I'm freaking serious. This is a mystery thriller. It reads like one and it is the best one that I've ever read. So in a mystery thriller we very often have a protagonist who stumbles upon something that they're not supposed to know or not supposed to have seen. And then the fact that they get warned off from looking into it makes the protagonist all the more keen to dig. Enter the book's author, Elizabeth Winkler. Elizabeth was a journalist who some years back wrote just a little article for The Atlantic discussing the idea that maybe a woman had actually written the plays attributed to William Shakespeare. It wasn't intended to ruffle any feathers. It wasn't intended to be this like big like OMG turned the world of literature upside down moment. It was just like a fun little think piece to be like, hey, what if? To offer some food for thought, to kind of make you go, huh, yeah, seems like maybe. Cue our protagonist being warned off. Scholars came for Elizabeth Winkler in a way that she had not anticipated. They were calling this piece, this article in The Atlantic, heresy. And they were comparing her to people who engage in Holocaust denial. So what can our protagonist do but dig? And so what follows in this book is a journey through academia, through conspiracy, through skeptic circles, through historical artifacts, as Elizabeth pursues the question that she has been so vehemently warned off of. Is the Shakespeare authorship question legit? And if it is a legit question, why are they covering it up? Okay, so why I love this book so much. This book is just so freaking good. During this book, it was the first time that someone had laid out for me the reasons why someone would actually question the authorship of Shakespeare plays. And why not only would you kind of sort of question that, but you'd seriously look into it, not just kind of like a, huh, hard to know, but wouldn't it be crazy if? But like actually legitimately a research question, like if not this man from Stratford, then who? And to be clear, this book is not making a case for any particular candidate, for any particular alternate to William Shakespeare. Rather this book makes the case that asking the question in the first place is legit. And not only is it legit, but it is a worthwhile question that should be investigated. The amount of things that kind of converge on this subject that make it so taboo, everything from history and national identity, to classicism and sexism, to institutional biases, so many things converge to make the Shakespeare authorship question so important to people, both in terms of protecting it and in questioning it. And so this book does a brilliant job of illustrating why this question has become so contestant, why the mere suggestion has become taboo, why this harmless article in the Atlantic caused such a stir. This book reads like the Da Vinci Code, but in the best way, because unlike the Da Vinci Code, which is nonsense, this is real. In fact, once the facts, as we currently understand them are laid out in this book, the sense that this question should be asked becomes all the more apparent and urgent. And just following Winkler as she corresponds with scholars, examines historical evidence, meets with skeptics and heretics, it's genuinely thrilling following that. And as each candidate for authorship is presented and the case made for their authorship, I was certain that this had to be the one. I was like, well, that's so convincing that that's got to be the one, right? Well, the next candidate would be presented and I was like, dang, that's even more compelling. That sounds even more like it could be the one. It was so exciting and so engrossing to read this, but it was also deeply frustrating. It was not dissimilar from the experience that I've had reading books about how women or other marginalized groups have been treated in the not too distant past. That kind of like impotent rage you feel at people and questions being shut down unjustly. I felt so angry that I had been made to feel like this question was nonsense, just a conspiracy theory. And I was so angry that those who do investigate this question have been punished for it. And it made me, while reading this, all the more eager to cheer on Elizabeth Winkler as she is following up on this question and finally shining a light on all of this scholarship. So why should you read it? Because I am making the case that you absolutely should. Even if you are not remotely interested in Shakespeare or the Shakespeare authorship debate, it's just such a bloody good read. I've watched plenty of video essays that are on topics that I didn't care about or didn't even know about. So I couldn't not care about them because I didn't even know it was a thing. But they were created by people who are interested in those topics and I've come away from those video essays fascinated by this new thing and I found them incredibly engaging, entertaining and informative, even if again it was a topic that I neither knew nor cared about. Now I am interested in Shakespeare and the Shakespeare authorship debate. I'll not deny that, but I do truly believe that anyone that likes a good literary mystery would find this book compelling. And Elizabeth Winkler does a fantastic job explaining everything. So if you haven't really engaged the Shakespeare or the Shakespeare authorship question or anything like that, there's no barrier to entry. Like she explains everything that you need to know, gives you all the context that you would need for you to follow this story. It's not like you're gonna sit there going, well, I don't know what she's talking about or I mean, I guess you have to have at least heard of Shakespeare. So I'm gonna say that's a requirement, but I think the odds of you not having heard of Shakespeare are pretty low. And perhaps the book will inspire you to want to look into Shakespeare or the Shakespeare authorship question and that'd be great. But even if it doesn't, I think that you will not regret picking up this book and simply enjoying it as a thrilling mystery and just kind of briefly venturing in and dipping your toes into the Shakespeare authorship waters. Now, I kind of just want to mention that like I would have dismissed this book out of hand. I kind of happened upon this book by accident. So if you've watched my channel for a while, you'll know that I do really like Shakespeare or at least the plays attributed to him. And I talk about them fairly regularly. But even so, I don't know that this book would have come onto my radar. But also if it had come onto my radar, I'm afraid that I very likely would have dismissed it as just like nonsense conspiracy theory crap. But I do watch a lot of non-booktive content. And one of the channels that I watch regularly is a lifestyle and interior design channel, well, named after its creator Caroline Winkler. And as it happens, Caroline has a sister, Elizabeth Winkler. And for a while in Caroline's vlog, she would mention that her sister is writing a book. And I was like, cool, whatever. And then she made mention later that the book was actually that she's working on is actually related to Shakespeare somehow. And I was like, ooh, okay, kind of interested. And then as the book was getting closer and closer to release, Elizabeth came on the channel to kind of talk about the book and what it's actually going to be about. Shakespeare authorship question and why she's writing it. And to say the least, my interest was peaked. And if not for this fairly random personal connection, if you can call it that. If I had just seen this book online or in a store, I would have dismissed it as just some crackpot conspiracy theory. Having read this book, I now know that that's exactly the reaction that they want me to have. They want me to dismiss this. They want everyone to dismiss this. And had I not trusted that Caroline's sister wasn't a nutcase, I wouldn't have been willing to give this a go more than likely. So if in case anyone out there would be interested in this, but they don't happen to watch a channel that has nothing to do with books or Shakespeare, and therefore they have no particular reason to trust this book, I'm here to say, trust me, this book is worth your time. Read it.