Novel by Willa Cather
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My Antonia - a heartfelt story of friendship, resilience, and the enduring spirit of the American prairie.
In tonight's Premium Hypnotic Bedtime Story with Jessica, we're going to be getting sleepy whilst we dive into the beautiful words of Willa Carter, in My Antonia, the coming-of-age story of the elder daughter of a family of Bohemian immigrants in 1900s Nebraska. As always, tonight's episode will start with a relaxing introduction from Jessica, before we sink into tonight's Sleep Hypnosis. Want more Sleep Magic? Join Sleep Magic Premium ✨ Enjoy 2 bonus episodes a month plus all episodes ad-free, access to Jessica's complete back catalog of over 60 episodes, and show your support to Jessica. To Subscribe
Host Meg Wolitzer helps a great documentarian celebrate a great American author. Cather, author of novels like My Antonia and O Pioneers! just had her sesquicentennial—her 150th birthday. And Burns hosted a live evening of her shorter works. On this program, we feature “The Way of the World,” in which an imaginary town's young “citizens” are rife with romance and rivalry. The reader is Sonia Manzano. And a weary farmer's wife recaptures her long-dormant passion for music at “A Wagner Matinee,” read by David Strathairn.
My Antonia by Willa Cather--- Welcome and Introduction Leaders, Small People Matter The Literary Life of Willa Cather Cather's Sense of Place and Nostalgia Leaders, it's Okay to be Private in a Public World Rescuing Eve from the Snake in Eden The Biblical Nature of Jim and Antonia's Relationship Leaders Rescue Their Followers From the Snakes in the Garden Patriarchy at the Edge of Modernism Jim, Grandfather, Jake, Otto, and the Coming of the Lost Generation Leaders, We Still Need the Patriarchy Descending from Paradise into History Genesis 13:12 and Genesis 19:15 Leaders, Watch Out for the Descent into History Staying on the Leadership Path with My Antonia ---Music: Debussy Violin Sonata in G minor, L. 140, recorded live in the Tapestry Room of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is pleased to share this concert under a Creative Commons Music Sharing License. For details see https://www.gardnermuseum.org.Closing theme composed by Brian Sanyshyn of Brian Sanyshyn Music.--- Pick up your copy of 12 Rules for Leaders: The Foundation of Intentional Leadership NOW on AMAZON! Check out the 2022 Leadership Lessons From the Great Books podcast reading list! --- Check out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/. Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/ Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/ Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members. --- Leadership ToolBox website: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/. Leadership ToolBox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ldrshptlbx/. Leadership ToolBox YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJvVbIU_bSEflwYpd9lWXuA/. Leadership ToolBox Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldrshptlbx. Leadership ToolBox IG: https://www.instagram.com/leadershiptoolboxus/. Leadership ToolBox FB: https://www.facebook.com/LdrshpTlb
EPISODE 1843: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Peter Slen, Executive Producer of the C-SPAN series BOOKS THAT SHAPED AMERICA, about Willa Cather's "My Antonia", the 1918 novel that nailed the ideal of immigrant middle AmericaPeter Slen is the senior executive producer and a host at C-SPAN, a television and radio network known for its unbiased coverage of government proceedings.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said today that a ceasefire with Hamas terrorists QUOTE will not happen." His comments come as Israeli forces announced the liberation of a hostage held by the terrorist group and after the release of a video of three other Israelis who remain in captivity . We'll hear from the Prime Minister coming up. Congress returns this week with both chambers continuing to work on 2024 federal spending legislation. Also on the table, is a one hundred billion dollar aid package to Israel and Ukraine. We'll hear from Senators Schumer, McConnell and one House Republican who thinks the aid should come in separate bills. And we'll get you ready for episode 7 of Books That Shaped America featuring Willa Cather's My Antonia. It's was the first installment of what would be known as her Prairie trilogy C-SPAN cameras went to her home state of Nebraska. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Willa Cather's novel, My Ántonia, evokes the Nebraska prairie life of her childhood and pays tribute to the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. Historian Richard Norton Smith discusses Cather's works, including My Antonia, which was written in 1918. The book tells the story of a girl who arrives on the frontier as part of a family of Bohemian immigrants, and her friendship with an orphaned boy who taught her English. The novel explores issues facing women of the time in that region, and the meaning of success in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Willa Cather's novel, My Ántonia, evokes the Nebraska prairie life of her childhood and pays tribute to the spirit and courage of immigrant pioneers in America. Historian Richard Norton Smith discusses Cather's works, including My Antonia, which was written in 1918. The book tells the story of a girl who arrives on the frontier as part of a family of Bohemian immigrants, and her friendship with an orphaned boy who taught her English. The novel explores issues facing women of the time in that region, and the meaning of success in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
C-SPAN and Library of Congress Announce New Primetime Book Series for Fall 2023 "Books that Shaped America" C-Span.org C-SPAN and the Library of Congress today announced a joint original feature production for fall 2023: "Books That Shaped America." The 10-part series – which C-SPAN will air LIVE on Mondays, starting September 18 at 9 p.m. ET – will be a literary journey, tracing America's history by exploring masterpieces in literature that have had, and still have today, a major impact on society. The 10-week series will mark the various eras of American history and feature a diverse mix of stories and authors. The 10 featured books have: Provoked thought. Been best sellers. Led to significant cultural and policy changes. "Books That Shaped America" Series schedule – all LIVE on C-SPAN at 9 p.m. ET: Monday, Sept. 18 - “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine (1776) Monday, Sept. 25 - “The Federalist” by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay (1788) Monday, Oct. 2 – “History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains Lewis and Clark” (1814) Monday, Oct. 9 - “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” by Frederick Douglass (1845) Monday, Oct. 16 - “The Common Law” by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1881) Monday, Oct. 23 - “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain (1884) Monday, Oct. 30 – “My Antonia” by Willa Cather (1918) Monday, Nov. 6 – “Their Eyes Were Watching God” by Zora Neal Hurston (1937) Monday, Nov. 13 – “Free to Choose: A Personal Statement” by Milton & Rose Friedman (1980) Monday, Nov. 20 – “The Words of Cesar Chavez” by Cesar Chavez (2002) The new series was inspired by a list of 100 “Books that Shaped America” and an exhibition curated at the Library of Congress 10 years ago based on the results of a public survey about books that provoked thought, controversy and change throughout American history. Viewers of the series this fall will be able to weigh in with their own thoughts about books that had an impact on the nation. As the world's largest library, the Library of Congress holds millions of books and other collections that offer a rich portrait of life in America. In partnering with the library, C-SPAN will be able to utilize these resources to help tell the stories behind the books featured in the series. The audience will see first-edition copies of famous works authored by Thomas Paine, Frederick Douglass, Mark Twain, Zora Neale Hurston and others, plus rare photos, maps, correspondence, and other items that highlight these books and the times during which they were written. “Over the course of 10 weeks this fall, ‘Books that Shaped America' will shine a light on a diverse group of books and authors whose skill with the written word and powerful storytelling left a lasting impression on our nation,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “These 10 books are just a start. Throughout the series, we will invite Americans to join the conversation and share their perspectives about more books that shaped America.” Audience calls will be incorporated into each program. Longtime C-SPAN executive producer of BookTV Peter Slen will host each episode of the series. Paul Orgel is coordinating producer for the series and Jen Garrott is producer/video journalist. Series Resources: A dedicated webpage for the series, which will be populated with video and supplementary material: https://www.c-span.org/booksthatshapedamerica A series trailer: https://youtu.be/fzJ8vQ4Y2Tg A companion podcast series produced by C-SPAN Radio About the Library of Congress: The Library of Congress is the world's largest library, offering access to the creative record of the United States — and extensive materials from around the world — both on-site and online. It is the main research arm of the U.S.
Cather, and her persona Jim Burden in My Antonia, were perhaps a bit too mystic about ground cherries, but it sort of makes sense. Cather in her Nebraska novels is a deeply Romantic author, with a certain twist: she embraces sensual experiences, often as triggers to mystic insights. So Jim lies down in the garden, picks and munches a few ground cherries, and proceeds to become one with nature.
My Antonia by Willa Cather audiobook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We talk about a bunch of books and biblioadventures in Episode 180. What's new, right? #wink Some highlights include books we just read, which took us from a memoir about caring for animals (THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR by Karen Fine) to an idiomatic fowl in search of freedom (CHASE OF THE WILD GOOSE by Mary Gordon) and from an island in the Atlantic (SUMMER STAGE by Meg Mitchell Moore) to a road trip around America (TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY by John Steinbeck). Speaking of travel, we had a two-day joint jaunt to Manhattan, where we went our separate ways during daylight hours – Emily volunteered at the CHERRY BOMBE JUBILEE and Chris worked at the STAVROS NIARCHOS FOUNDATION LIBRARY. Closer to home, Emily went to see THE QUIET GIRL at the Madison Cinemas and Chris did some archival research at The Beinecke. Some fun biblioadventures are coming up–like Emily moderating two author events at the Newburyport Literary Festival this weekend: Fur, Feathers, and Scales: A Lifetime of Caring for Pets with author Karen Fine and Shaped by Loss: How Tragedy Changed the Lives of Emerson, Thoreau, and William James with author Megan Marshall. Chris is planning to attend a virtual event with author Benjamin Taylor who will be discussing Cather's MY ANTONIA on Thursday at 7pm CT via the National Willa Cather Center. Reminder: the show notes for each episode lists all of the books and events we mention. Happy Listening, and then, Happy Reading!
Summary by Izzy Evangelista. In my podcast, I used My Antonia as the text to introduce my topic of Immigration in the United States, and how immigrants add value to our society. Throughout the podcast, I talk about how immigration is talked about in My Antonia and compare it to my own experience as well as a generalization of how it typically is for immigrants today. I mention what jobs they look for, and how they work hard to provide for themselves and their family. I am more on the positive side of this topic and explain how America is a melting pot of culture. I add my own opinion of immigration aside from the novel to show that I agree with the interpretation of how immigration is shown in My Antonia. Although this novel is about the admiration of someone else, I love that I could talk about a topic like immigration because of the experience that Antonia had, even if the explanation was brief. Reference: Immigrants in the United States. American Immigration Council. (2021, September 21). Retrieved March 30, 2023, from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/immigrants-in-the-united-states
Each week we're going to bring you some suggestions for your summer reading, taking a different category each time. This week Bob Johnstone of The Gutter Bookshop, joined Stefanie to recommend some classic reads. He recommended The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim,Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, My Antonia by Willa Cather, The Colussus of Maroussi by Henry Miller,Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Chances by Jackie Collins.
Each week we're going to bring you some suggestions for your summer reading, taking a different category each time. This week Bob Johnstone of The Gutter Bookshop, joined Stefanie to recommend some classic reads. He recommended The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith, The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim,Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, My Antonia by Willa Cather, The Colussus of Maroussi by Henry Miller,Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe and Chances by Jackie Collins.
Today on the Rarified Heir Podcast we are talking to Victoria Riskin about growing up the daughter of Hollywood royalty. We first became of Victoria via her 2019 book, Fay Wray and Robert Riskin : A Hollywood Memoir and were intrigued not only about her actor mom and screenwriter father but in how she wrote it, which we discuss on this episode. We talk about her father's Oscar winning career writing for Frank Capra and others as well as her mom's six decade career in movies. From silent films, talkies, pre code, horror movies, comedies and later in AIP exploitation films and television, it's a distinguished career that involves much more than giant apes named King Kong. Victoria's mother's iconic name is kept alive today as its synonymous in current pop culture in comic strips, punk bands and the lyrics from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. We also talk to Victoria about her own career as both a psychologist and later as a producer along with her Emmy-winning writer/husband David Rintels. Their television work including The Last Best Year w/ Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters, World War II: When Lions Roared w/ John Lithgow, Bob Hoskins and Michael Caine as well as an adaptation of Willa Cather's My Antonia among others. Along the way we talk about the gone but not forgotten CC Brown's ice cream parlor in Hollywood, the first years of Palisades High School and if the term “scream queen” is still valid. It's all up next, on the Rarified Heir Podcast.
TW: Rape;Good goofin' God we're back in Nebraska. Come join us as we go over the greatest works of Willa Cather; including "Death Comes for the Archbishop", "My Antonia", and "One of Ours", as well as the last years of her life, fraught with pain and loss. Yay!
Laurel Moffatt has been to the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde four times. I first ‘saw' them when I was 16 years old. But not with my eyes. I saw them through reading Willa Cather's The Professor's House. An ancient civilization, preserved in stone. The evidence of ordinary, human lives of an ancient culture and the continuity with the past, layers of history held in stone.There have been times in Laurel's life, and maybe yours as well, when life has felt particularly hard. And in those moments, when the only options are difficult ones, the phrase that seems to suit best is being ‘between a rock and a hard place'. The usual response to difficulty and hardship seems to vacillate between two responses: either avoid it or muddle through in order to overcome it and hopefully get to the other side of it. This is why Laurel says, she's always been a bit perplexed by the habit of some Christians sending scripture verses describing God as a rock, as a message of encouragement. Who needs another rock when life is hard enough already?LINKSIf you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to learn more, I hope these notes will be of help. You may enjoy Willa Cather's novel, The Professor's House, and the description of the land found in the second part of the book ‘Tom Outland's Story'. Although it's not as well-known as My Antonia, it is a gem of a book. Head over to the US National Park Service website to learn more about the history and landscape of Mesa Verde, as well as how to visit and stay nearby if it interests you. For links to the bible verses that I referred to in the episode: Psalm 18 Psalm 143 While I was thinking about and writing this episode, I found this album of music: Beautiful Beyond: Christian Songs in Native Languages.
Tonight, we'll read O Pioneers! a 1913 novel by American author Willa Cather, written while she was living in New York. It was her second published novel. The title is a reference to a poem by Walt Whitman entitled "Pioneers! O Pioneers!" from “Leaves of Grass.”If you enjoy this episode, you can find an episode with another poem from Whitman's “Leaves of Grass” titled “Song of Myself” and published March 13, 2019. You can also find another episode from Willa Cather titled “My Antonia,” published September 19, 2019. — read by V — Listen Ad-Free on Patreon See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
In which our hosts follow the little hero as he narrowly escapes being scorched by heoruweargs and goblins, only to be carried aloft to dizzying heights by fiercesome eagles. The antipathy toward wolves seems to go deep into human consciousness, and when we read a passage such as this from 19th century author, Willa Cather, we can understand why: A black drove came up over the hill behind the wedding party. The wolves ran like streaks of shadow; they looked no bigger than dogs, but there were hundreds of them. Something happened to the hindmost sledge: the driver lost control—he was probably very drunk—the horses left the road, the sledge was caught in a clump of trees, and overturned. The occupants rolled out over the snow, and the fleetest of the wolves sprang upon them. The shrieks that followed made everybody sober. The drivers stood up and lashed their horses. The groom had the best team and his sledge was lightest—all the others carried from six to a dozen people. Another driver lost control. The screams of the horses were more terrible to hear than the cries of the men and women. Nothing seemed to check the wolves. It was hard to tell what was happening in the rear; the people who were falling behind shrieked as piteously as those who were already lost. The little bride hid her face on the groom's shoulder and sobbed. Pavel sat still and watched his horses. The road was clear and white, and the groom's three blacks went like the wind. It was only necessary to be calm and to guide them carefully. At length, as they breasted a long hill, Peter rose cautiously and looked back. ‘There are only three sledges left,' he whispered. ‘And the wolves?' Pavel asked. ‘Enough! Enough for all of us.' - Chapter VIII of "My Antonia" by Willa Cather As for eagles, Tennyson wrote, He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ringed with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls. Eagles have always been a symbol of power, nobility, far-seeing wisdom, and the courage to act. They here constitute the escapism from certain peril which we are offered by Divine Providence. Some might call the literature that professes a Providential God "escapist" - but of such escapist literature Professor Tolkien wrote “Why should a man be scorned, if, finding himself in prison, he tries to get out and go home? Or if, when he cannot do so, he thinks and talks about other topics than jailers and prison-walls? The world outside has not become less real because the prisoner cannot see it. In using Escape in this way the critics have chosen the wrong word, and, what is more, they are confusing, not always by sincere error, the Escape of the Prisoner with the Flight of the Deserter. just so a Party-spokesman might have labeled departure from the misery of the Fuhrer's or any other Reich and even criticism of it as treachery .... Not only do they confound the escape of the prisoner with the flight of the deserter; but they would seem to prefer the acquiescence of the "quisling" to the resistance of the patriot.”
A tribute to the strength of the human spirit during a bitter winter in the American west. Written in 1918 My Antonia is one of Willa Cather's first novels. It focuses on the story of Antonia Shimerda, a part of a family of Bohemian emigrants arriving on the Nebraska frontier. The story encompasses the strength of spirit, as well as the courage and persistence that helped build America. Tuesday's Book Club is a bi-weekly podcast series that dives into some of the most inspirational stories of all time, such as this one. The show is hosted by Nova Lorraine, founder of Raine Magazine, and her two co-hosts: Tobi Santagado and Barbara Donato. Together, on this week's episode of Tuesday's Book Club, they explore the extraordinary story of Antonia Shimerda. Cather's work explores the transformation that winter brings, while the story follows the residents as they wrap up in blankets to keep warm while the season brings its terrifying chill. After exploring the pages of this book, readers will become witness to the strength and hardiness of the spirit of immigrants that came to America to start afresh.
On today's episode, I'll be concluding my discussion of My Antonia. If you want to learn about Jim and Lena's brief courtship, the power of memory, and find out what happens to Antonia as an adult, hit play.
Host Charity Nebbe talks with a panel of expert readers about Willa Cather's "My Antonia"
On today's episode, I'll be beginning my discussion of My Antonia by Willa Cather. First published in 1918, this symbolic look at immigrant life on the frontier is a staple of turn-of-the-century American Literature. If you want to hear about symbolism, Russian wolves, and judgey townspeople, hit play.
This is the November meeting of the Talk of Iowa Book Club. Host Charity Nebbe and her guests have been reading "My Antonia" by Willa Cather, a classic work published in 1918 that tells the stories of immigrant families near Red Cloud, Nebraska.
This week we talk about comparisons! My Antonia or Beloved? Books or movies? How is love like a sourdough starter? Listen to the thrilling conclusion to our three-part series to find out!
Homefolks, we came to party, and your eyes were looking at ... Nöthin' but a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion by Tom Beaujour and Richard Bienstock and it is well and truly time to push the opening acts off the stage and get ready for the *looks down at padded codpiece under spandex trousers* main event, if you know what our book's subjects are talking about AND I THINK THAT YOU DO. That's right: we're heading to the Sunset Strip of Los Angeles, California, USA, circa 1985, and we're just investigating the plain HECK out of the local flora and fauna. Or at least asking the local flora and fauna to tell us what was on their minds 'way back when. And when it gets boring we set off flash pots and / or whang the switch that makes the drum kit start chugging down a long set of railroad tracks it's attached to—it'll all make sense by the end, we promis, so please! put your lighters in the air and get ready for two hard-rocking slabs of hard-rocking rock, followed by one semi-explicably emotional slice of ballad action, because it's time for us ALL to tease our hairs and enjoy (?) the power and passion of rock and roll, '80s style! Recommendations: No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood Shit, who knows, read a classic or two, IDK, Wuthering Heights and My Antonia both ruled... Music Pairings: "Nothin'" by N.O.R.E. "I Wanna Rock" by Snoop Dogg
Hillary Alberts grew up in Nebraska and is now an immigration attorney in New Jersey, but more importantly she's an old Army buddy of mine. We discussed the book My Antonia by Willa Cather, a story about an immigrant and her family growing up in Nebraska. Please check out the Facebook group she runs: https://www.facebook.com/Lyndhurst-Anti-Racism-Coalition-101582522035679
This week we talk about Willa Cather's My Antonia because... well, we had to eventually. In which Chantelle hates the main character and Amy hates prairie fiction! Content warnings for suicide, murder, and attempted sexual assault.
Early on in the greatest novel ever written about life on the Great Plains of North America, My Antonia, Ms. Cather's narrator and her protagonist agree on something: they concur that people who grew up on the prairies shared a “kind of freemasonry.” Such folk possessed common experiences and attitudes that made them something like a secret society.
Prompted by a listener request, we speak with President Jefferson about gardening and his love of plants. Thomas Jefferson once said, "No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, no culture comparable to that of the garden ... But though an old man, I am but a young gardener." You can order Clay's new book at Amazon, Target, Barnes and Noble, or by contacting your independent bookstore. The Language of Cottonwoods is out now through Koehler Books. Mentioned on this episode: Dust Bowl Diary by Ann Marie Low, My Antonia by Willa Cather, The Bones of Plenty by Lois Phillips Hudson, Giants in the Earth by O. E. Rølvaag Find this episode, along with recommended reading, on the blog. Support the show by joining the 1776 Club or by donating to the Thomas Jefferson Hour, Inc. You can learn more about Clay's cultural tours and retreats at jeffersonhour.com/tours. Check out our new merch. You can find Clay's publications on our website, along with a list of his favorite books on Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and other topics. Thomas Jefferson is interpreted by Clay S. Jenkinson.
Amanda and Jenn discuss non-human narrators, stories about ladies doing it for themselves, books set in Japan, and more in this week’s episode of Get Booked. Follow the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. This content contains affiliate links. When you buy through these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. Feedback Stoner by John Williams, Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones and Sing Unburied Sing, Montana 1948 by Larry Watson, and My Antonia by Willa Cather (rec’d by Elizabeth) Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, White Palace by Glenn Savan (rec’d by Wynnde) Virgin Suicides, Middlesex, and The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (rec’d by Cate) Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton (rec’d by Kelly) Questions 1. *TIME SENSITIVE* I am going through a very difficult time personally and have a big period of down time coming up very soon. I need something to read that will not make me feel worse than I already do. I would love an uplifting/hopeful book that features a woman (preferably single!) who achieves her lifelong dreams of becoming a writer/painter/musician etc. Basically, a book about a single woman who is kicking some major life butt and doing it on her own. Bonus points if the thing she does is related to writing (for example a novel or becoming a poet) and PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE for the love of my sanity, do not recommend a romance. I love romance with all of my heart but emotionally cannot handle one at this moment. I also do not read horror, crime, or mysteries. Thanks for the recs in advance, I appreciate it! -Marelis 2. Hi from the UK! I’ve been listening to your podcast for years – I love it. You’re both awesome! I’ve been playing a lot of the video game Ghosts of Tsushima recently and I’d love some recommendations for books set in Japan to complement it! I like historical fiction, literary fiction, fantasy, sci-fi (I’ll pretty much try anything). I have Pachinko on my list. Bonus points for Samurai. -Charlotte 3. My wife and I just had a baby on Valentine’s Day. We are white, Christian, and a LGBT family. We want our daughter to have as much diversity as possible. We have the little leaders and dream big series along with plenty of feminist books. We need some picture books about transgender kids, Muslim (or other religions) children, and children of different races/cultures. What are your favorite picture books for us to add to her library? Thank you! -Jessica 4. Could you recommend a fantasy or sci-fi read-alike for The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison? The things I like most about it are the fantasy elements, the fact that the main character is a person in power who leads responsibly because he’s genuinely a good, empathetic person, and the way that the protagonist learns to assert and value himself slowly throughout the book. Either way, thanks for your time! I appreciate you and your work! -Laura 5. I have been enjoying getting into some more door-stopper sized books this year and was hoping you could help me find some more. Specifically, I’d love an adult fantasy novel with a female lead (preferably written by a woman) maybe with a little steaminess. I generally really enjoy fantasy which doesn’t operate within the standard Tolkein-esque genre, but has its own twist and interesting world building. I read Kushiel’s Dart and that’s almost what I was looking for but I just couldn’t get past all the questionable consent stuff…. I don’t think I’ll be reading the rest of the series. Some fantasy books I have loved (not all door-stoppers) include the Broken Earth trilogy, the Abhorsen trilogy, Gideon the Ninth, Lies of Locke Lamora, and Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. A friend recently got me into the Wheel of Time series as well, which is fun but with a much more male-centric, standard fantasy feel. I do like when sci-fi elements are thrown into a fantasy world (such as with Gideon), but would prefer it to lean more into the fantasy side of things (already have some good sci-fi ones on my shelf). Generally not a huge fan of time travel or robots (excepting Murderbot). Please no sexual violence. I look forward to your recommendations. Thanks! -April 6. Hi! About a year ago, I finally told my husband (and admitted to myself) that I’m bisexual. I hadn’t told anyone else because, well, I’m happily married and it’s not like I’m looking to date. And then, just a couple weeks ago I found out that my best friend of over 30 years is also bisexual! I would love a rec for a book she and I could read about bi women, preferably not a coming of age kind of book, but about grown women who are who they are but also bi. Any genre is good – we are both voracious readers. Thanks! -Jaimie 7. I want to find a fantasy book with the main characters as not human. Like wings of fire. I would love adventure and stuff -Samantha Books Discussed Spinster by Kate Bolick Finding Freedom by Erin French (cw: addiction, domestic abuse, harm to animals) Shinju by Laura Joh Rowland Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba, Vol. 1 by Koyoharu Gotouge with John Werry (Translator), Stan!, Adam Grano, Mike Montesa, John Hunt (cw: harm to children, mostly off-screen) Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love When Aidan Became A Brother by Kyle Lukoff, Kaylani Juanita The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner The Unspoken Name by AK Larkwood A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse (cw: harm to children, graphic violence) Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey (tw: rape, harm to children) The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka (Roxane Weary #1) (cw: violence against women and minors including rape, kidnapping, imprisonment) The Deep by Rivers Solomon (tw: slavery) Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton (narrated by a crow and also a cow and a polar bear, dogs and cats and sparrows) See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jacke continues this week's look at Willa Cather by zeroing in on the style and substance of My Antonia (1918), Cather's celebrated novel about Bohemian immigrants struggling to survive on the unforgiving prairies of Nebraska. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Hidden Gems Podcast (The Best Short Stories You've Never Heard)
What would you do? A man's deathbed confession of a heinous deed that sprang from a moment's decision - kill or be killed. John Bell is our was our narrator and he is also the writer, producer, and actor on "Bell's in the Batfry" podcast, which can be found at:[http://thebatfry.libsyn.com/]We are always looking forward to discovering our next writer, so if you are interested in contributing, please send us your short story of fewer than 5,000 words to:cathydpm@gmail.comI am Cathy McCarthy, your host, and I write under the name of C. Mack Lewis and my books can be found at:[https://cmacklewis.com/]For more short stories on The Hidden Gems Podcast, please go to https://www.thehiddengemspodcast.com/podcast Thank you for listening!
Willa Cather (1873-1947) went from a childhood in Nebraska to a career in publishing in New York City, where she became one of the most successful women in journalism. And then, after a period as an editor for one of the most famous magazines in America, she focused on writing novels about the hardscrabble lives of immigrants trying to tame the Midwestern prairie, including enduring classics like O Pioneers! and My Antonia. In this episode, Jacke is joined by Lauren Marino, author of Bookish Broads: Women Who Wrote Themselves Into History, to talk about the life and works of Willa Cather. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for March 9, 2021 is: luminary LOO-muh-nair-ee noun 1 : a person of prominence or brilliant achievement 2 : a body that gives light; especially : one of the celestial bodies Examples: "[Lloyd] Richards, a luminary who, with the original production of A Raisin in the Sun, became the first Black director to stage a Broadway play, emphasized dramaturgy." — Abigail Aguirre, Vogue, January 2021 "As we walked homeward across the fields, the sun dropped and lay like a great golden globe in the low west. While it hung there, the moon rose in the east, as big as a cart-wheel, pale silver and streaked with rose colour, thin as a bubble or a ghost-moon. For five, perhaps ten minutes, the two luminaries confronted each other across the level land, resting on opposite edges of the world." — Willa Cather, My Antonia, 1918 Did you know? Allow us to shed some light on luminary. It came to English by way of Anglo-French and Late Latin, and it traces back to the Latin word lumen, meaning "light." Other lumen descendants in English include illuminate ("to light up"), luminous ("emitting light") and phillumenist ("one who collects matchbooks or matchbox labels"). Luminary has been shining its light in English since the 15th century.
Theresa and Lynn join us today on the DMPL Podcast! The two Library Assistants love the DMPL Reading Challenge, and they've picked three books each to discuss - one in each of three different categories. Show Notes Theresa's Books Educated, by Tara Westover - A book based on its cover My Antonia, by Willa Cather - A book she enjoyed in school One Summer: America, 1927, by Bill Bryson - A book about a significant historical event Lynn's Books Vesper Flights, by Helen Macdonald - A book of essays or short stories The Widows of Malabar Hill, by Sujata Massey - A book recommended by a Book Chat librarian Perestroika in Paris, by Jane Smiley - A book with a non-human main character(s) Other Related Links DMPL Reading Challenge DMPL Express Book Chat
Today Chelsey and Sara are discussing My Antonia by Willa Cather with a special guest: Michelle Timmins, English literature student and Novel Pairings assistant extraordinaire. There’s plenty to discuss in this wintry classic, including stunning imagery, surprising connections to an American Girl Doll, and where Cather’s novel fits into the American literary canon. Plus, as always, we’re recommending six contemporary books to pair with our classic, including a Western, an arctic memoir, and a nonfiction book about grief. Books Mentioned: My Antonia by Willa Cather (Amazon) We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson (Amazon) Casino Royale by Ian Fleming (Amazon) Also mentioned: Deconstruction Theory Shop the pairings with our affiliate links below: Michelle’s Pairings: How Much of These Hills is Gold by C Pam Zhang (Amazon) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (Amazon) Sara’s Pairings: How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa (Amazon) Wintering by Katherine May (Amazon) Chelsey’s Pairings: A Woman in the Polar Night by Christiane Ritter (Amazon) Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee (Amazon)
Today we celebrate the botanist who saved the Lewis and Clark specimen sheets. We'll also learn about the successful botanist and garden designer who introduced the navel orange. We’ll recognize the Conservatory stocked by the World’s Fair. We'll hear a charming verse about the mistletoe by a poet entomologist. We Grow That Garden Library™ with a book featuring fifteen incredible private gardens in North America. And then we’ll wrap things up with the American writer who wrote about the natural world with simplicity and honesty. Subscribe Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher | iHeart To listen to the show while you're at home, just ask Alexa or Google to “Play the latest episode of The Daily Gardener Podcast.” And she will. It's just that easy. The Daily Gardener Friday Newsletter Sign up for the FREE Friday Newsletter featuring: A personal update from me Garden-related items for your calendar The Grow That Garden Library™ featured books for the week Gardener gift ideas Garden-inspired recipes Exclusive updates regarding the show Plus, each week, one lucky subscriber wins a book from the Grow That Garden Library™ bookshelf. Gardener Greetings Send your garden pics, stories, birthday wishes, and so forth to Jennifer@theDailyGardener.org. Curated News Is Mistletoe More Than Just An Excuse For A Kiss? | Kew | Michael F Fay Facebook Group If you'd like to check out my curated news articles and blog posts for yourself, you're in luck because I share all of it with the Listener Community in the Free Facebook Group - The Daily Gardener Community. So, there’s no need to take notes or search for links. The next time you're on Facebook, search for Daily Gardener Community, where you’d search for a friend… and request to join. I'd love to meet you in the group. Important Events December 7, 1817 Today is the birthday of the American botanist and professor Edward Tuckerman. A specialist of lichens and other Alpine plants, Edward helped found the Natural History Society of Boston. As a professor at Amherst College, Edward spent his spare time botanizing in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Today Tuckerman Ravine is named in honor of Edward Tuckerman. America owes a debt of gratitude to Edward for rescuing some of the Lewis and Clark specimens at an auction. It turns out that after the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a botanist named Frederic Pursh was hired by Meriwether Lewis to process the plants from their trip. After butting heads with his boss Benjamin Smith Barton and Meriwether’s apparent suicide, Frederick Pursh took the Lewis and Clark specimens and went to England. Once in England, Pursh reached out to botanists Sir James Edward Smith and Aylmer Lambert about putting together the Flora of North America. Ultimately, Aylmer became his botanical fairy godfather. Aylmer had a substantial personal botanical library, herbarium, and funding. Aylmer also forced Pursh to be productive. Frederick Pursh was kind of a rough and tough guy, and he was an alcoholic. Aylmer made a space for Frederick in the attic of his house. Once Aylmer got him up there, he would lock Frederick in for stretches at a time to keep him focused on the project. It was an extreme way to deal with Frederick’s demons, but it worked. It took Pursh two years to complete the Flora of North America, and the whole time he was racing against Thomas Nuttall, who was working on the same subject back in America. American botanists felt Frederick Pursh had pulled the rug out from under them when he took the expedition specimens to England. And this is where Edward Tuckerman enters the story. Somehow Edward learned that the Lewis and Clark specimens that Pursh had brought to England were going to auction. It turns out Aylmer had hung on to all of Pursh’s material, including the Lewis and Clark originals. In 1842, after Aylmer died, the Lewis and Clark specimens and papers were up for auction along as part of his estate. Somehow Edward realized the value and the important legacy of these botanical specimens and papers. After winning the items, Edward eventually donated all of the material to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. December 7, 1822 Today is the birthday of the English-American botanist, nurseryman, landscape gardener, and landscape designer William Saunders. William served as the first horticulturist and superintendent of the experimental gardens at the newly created U.S. Department of Agriculture. During his professional career, William enjoyed many successes, but two stand out above the rest. First, William designed the Soldiers' National Cemetery at Gettysburg. On November 17, 1863, William visited the White House to show President Abraham Lincoln his design for the cemetery near the Gettysburg battlefield. William thoughtfully made sure that the Union army dead would be organized by state. A devoted botanist, William’s design was the setting for Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, an ode to the fallen soldiers interred there. William’s second major accomplishment was introducing the seedless Navel Orange to California. After William had received cuttings from a navel orange tree in Bahia Brazil, he forwarded the cuttings to a friend named Eliza Tibbetts, who had recently settled in a town called Riverside, fifty-five miles east of Los Angeles. Eliza and her husband, Luther, planted the navel oranges in their front yard. They watered the trees with dishwater, and both of the trees flourished. In California, navel oranges are picked from October through the end of May. Navel oranges are known for their sweetness and the sweet little navel on the blossom end. A ripe navel orange should have thin, smooth skin with no soft spots. The orange should feel firm, and the riper the orange, the heavier it should feel. The sweetest time to eat navel oranges is after Thanksgiving; that’s when their flavor and color are at their peak. Because navel oranges are seedless, they can only be propagated by cutting. Over the years, Eliza and her husband took so many cuttings of the original two trees that they nearly killed them. In the early 1880s, they sold enough cuttings at a dollar apiece to make over $20,000 a year - that’s over half a million dollars by today’s standards. Ironically, in the 1930s, Brazil’s entire navel orange crop was destroyed by disease. In response, the USDA sent cuttings of Tibbett’s navel oranges to restart Brazil’s navel orange orchards. Today, every navel orange grown in the world is descended from the cuttings William Saunders sent Eliza Tibbetts. Today, one of the Tibbett’s navel orange trees still stands on the corner of Magnolia and Arlington avenues in Riverside. The tree has been a protected California Historic Landmark since 1932. December 7, 1893 On this day, the Phipps Conservatory first opened to the public. A gift from Henry Phipps, Jr. to the City of Pittsburgh, Henry was a childhood friend and business partner of Andrew Carnegie. And gardeners who know their garden history probably already know that the Crystal Palace by Joseph Paxton inspired the 14-room glasshouse at the Phipps Conservatory. In 1893, as the Chicago World’s Fair ended, the plant material was fortuitously available to the highest bidder, and over 8,000 plants ended up on 15 train cars headed east to the Phipps. And that’s how the Phipp’s Conservatory ended up benefiting from impeccable timing; stocking their brand new space with incredible plants for a botanical bargain on a scale never seen before or since. In 2018, the Phipps Conservatory and botanical gardens celebrated their 125th Anniversary. Today the Phipps encompasses fifteen acres and includes 23 distinct gardens. Unearthed Words There's a sound of a festive morrow, It rings with delight over the snow, Dispelling the shadows of sorrow With promise that makes the heart glow... An angel peeps in at the window, And smiles as he looketh around, And kisses the mistletoe berries That wave o'er the love-hallowed ground. — Henry Rowland Brown, English entomologist, and poet, Christmas Eve Grow That Garden Library The Art of the Garden by Relais & Châteaux North America This book came out in 2018, and the subtitle is Landscapes, Interiors, Arrangements, and Recipes Inspired by Horticultural Splendors. Established in 1954, Relais & Châteaux is an association of the world's finest hoteliers, chefs, and restaurateurs who have set the standard for hospitality excellence. In this book, fifteen incredible establishments from Relais & Châteaux share their inspiring ideas for seasonal gardening, interior design, and entertaining. These elite hospitality experts share these exclusive beautifully-designed environments. And, they don’t leave you guessing. The authors show you how to translate their savoir-faire into indoor and outdoor sanctuaries and incredible events at home. The gardens featured range from simple cutting and kitchen gardens to more elaborate formal plantings, including parterres and topiaries. The garden’s delights are then brought indoors via botanical prints, textiles, wallpapers, and art objects, like metal and porcelain flowers. This resource also shares smart ideas for setting a festive table using rose petals, garlands, and bud vases. They even share their secrets for dressing up dishes and cocktails with edible flower garnishes. This book is a must-read for passionate gardeners who long to bring the sparkle and freshness of the outdoors into the home. This book is 240 pages of the finest horticultural havens at fifteen top Relais & Châteaux locations in America. You can get a copy of The Art of the Garden by Relais & Châteaux North America and support the show using the Amazon Link in today's Show Notes for around $30 Today’s Botanic Spark Reviving the little botanic spark in your heart December 7, 1873 Today is the birthday of the American writer Willa Cather. Remembered for her novels of frontier life like O Pioneers! and My Ántonia, Willa won a Pulitzer for her World War I novel called One of Ours. Here’s an excerpt that will delight the ears of gardeners from Cather’s My Antonia. The story’s narrator is Antonia’s friend Jim Burden. In this excerpt, Jim is lying on the ground in his grandmother’s garden as the warm sun shines down on him: The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots. I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep. — Willa Cather, American writer, My Antonia Thanks for listening to The Daily Gardener. And remember: "For a happy, healthy life, garden every day."
Our guest today, Tina Webster, shares her skills on how we can improve ourselves with passionate curiosity and careful observation through nature, science and music. Growing up with an abusive immigrant mother, surviving a life threatening laboratory accident and a body riddled with tumors, Tina gracefully illustrates how she found peace with herself. A beautiful and riveting life story. Recommended reading: "My Antonia"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_%C3%81ntoniaTina's Bluegrass Band; Three Play Ricochet: http://www.3playricochet.com/Bluegrass and Old Time Music Camp: http://www.cbamusiccamp.org/American Banjo Camp: http://americanbanjocamp.com/You Equals Me Foundation: https://www.youequalsme.org/YouEqualsMeEtsyStore: https://www.etsy.com/shop/YouEqualsMeEtsyStoreWe would love to hear from you, comments, questions, guest referrals? We will make a difference through compassion and empathy. Be safe!Support the show (https://paypal.me/youequalsme?locale.x=en_US)
In this episode, Samantha Rund and Judith Shahn discuss the importance of freeing your natural voice, and how voice training can help you speak from a place of power. We discuss impulse, socialization, and how to remove obstacles blocking your way. Judith shares how she became a Linklater practicioner; and some of her many experiences teaching voice at the University of Washington's School of Drama, School of Law, and abroad. Samantha Rund is a professional actor, comic, and creator of Beyond Technique Coaching. Recently, she can be seen on 3 Busy Debras on Adult Swim. She's passionate about using performance principles to help enrich and empower people's lives.www.samantharund.comwww.beyondtechniquecoaching.com Judith Shahn is a voice teacher, actor, public speaking consultant and dialect coach for professional theatre. She is a Designated Linklater Voice teacher and taught for 26 years at the University of Washington’s Professional Actor Training Program and retired in 2016. She also has her own business Vibrant Speaking, where she works with people in all professions on Public Speaking, Presentation Training and Communicating through a present self. For 30 years she has coached professional theatres, mostly in Seattle (Seattle Rep, ACT theatre, Intiman, Seattle Children’s Theatre as well as Shakespeare Festivals). She has been an actor on and off since she was a teenager. Most recently she appeared in My Antonia at Book-It Repertory and Coriolanus: Fight Like a Bitch at 12th Ave. Arts. Until Covid, she was teaching internationally in Brazil, Scotland (the Kristin Linklater Voice Centre) and Mexico. Judith’s other passion is leading groups in becoming an instant chorus for pure joy!www.vibrantspeaking.com
If you could bring 10 things, what would you bring to a deserted island? What if you were shipwrecked and could only grab supplies off the ship? C + D tackle the age-old hypothetical of what you really need when Lord of the Flies becomes your reality. Links To Give You Life: Set up a Llama Farm widget on your Monday board and don’t forget to watch them hula hoop Relearn your homophones (and teach your kids) with the “Llamaphones” board book by Janik Coat Remind your little ones that small doesn’t mean weak with “Macca the Alpaca” by Matt Cosgrove Bring your wildest fantasies alive with Glacier Smoothie soaps, lotions, hand salve, and more Play along at home with these “Desert Island Questions,” including: What book would you be happy you had to read again and again? C chose “My Antonia” and D chose “Julie of the Wolves” Live vicariously through Eden in YA survival story “The Sandcastle Empire” as she braves the jungle on Sanctuary Island Memorize these tips on “How to survive on a desert island (by a former Royal Navy lieutenant commander)” Put Obsessed to the (Taste) Test: Whether you’re a Peeps fan or not, you’re in for a surprise this Easter. According to this Delish article, Hot Tamales and Peeps are forging the partnership you never knew you needed. Hitting shelves this spring are Hot Tamales Peeps “Fierce Cinnamon” flavor, and C + D put the novelty treat to a taste test. Listen to hear what they thought, and be sure to follow @currentlyobsessedclub on Instagram for photos and bonus content! Episode Guide: (00:00) D’s obsession with llamas and alpacas, brought on by adorable books like Macca the Alpaca and Llamaphones (08:45) C’s obsession with Glacier Smoothie hand salve (16:27) C + D debate “desert” or “deserted” island (19:08) C talks context of ending up on a deserted island (23:45) C + D answer 10 “Desert Island Questions” (37:12) C talks “How to survive on a desert island (by a former Royal Navy lieutenant commander)” (44:12) C + D put Hot Tamales Peeps to a taste test
AmLit Readers: American Literature, Culture, and History Podcast
Introduce yourself to Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House (2019) with a book-club discussion of its first line. Texts/authors mentioned in passing: Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto and Truth and Beauty, Lucy Grealy’s Autobiography of a Face, Elizabeth McCracken (author), Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher,” Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The House of the Seven Gables, Arundhati Roy’s God of Small Things, Henry James’s Turn of the Screw, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, Bethany Frankel, A Place of Yes, James Joyce’s Dubliners, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, Olive Ann Burns’s Cold Sassy Tree, Noah Saterstorm (artist), Parnassus Books (bookstore) You can also watch this episode on https://youtu.be/am2Szuy1_Tc Get in touch @profomalley To join the First-Line Book Club click here: https://bookclubz.com/clubs/6404/join/71bf3c/
It's summertime and the twins are knitting.VampingSamphire SocksEveryday SewingLiabLeclairRag Rug MittsKimberTūmanako PulloverMy AntoniaRules of CivilityMary AnneThe Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry GirlsMusic: Hot Burrito #2 by the Flying Burrito Brothers Direct Link
Today on Access Utah, as a part of “Our Favorite Books” series, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Willa Cather's “My Antonia.” Tom Williams' guests include Cather scholars and USU professors Evelyn Funda and Steve Shively. Funda says that “My Antonia” is fresh and contemporary and raises issues about immigration, assimilation, class and female power that resonate today. We also talk about Funda's mother, also named Antonia, who escaped her native Czechoslovakia in 1955 as the Communist Iron Curtain closed in.
True or false: The world is worse than ever before. FALSE. My friends, today’s guest shares hard facts as to why this is the best time in human history. He’ll expose which elements of your life are making you feel otherwise. Most importantly, he'll share the value of recapturing a true, positive perspective + what it could mean for your relationships, business, life + world. Gregg Easterbrook is the New York Times Bestselling author of the book It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear. Today, he reminds us that it’s great day and the best is truly yet to come. SHOW NOTES The United States is in its best condition it’s ever been: Pollution, discrimination, rate of heart disease + cancer are trending down. Life expectancy, education, living standards, middle class income, human freedom are trending up. Globally, we are better off: Global malnutrition and extreme poverty are at the lowest levels in history. Twenty five years ago, 40% of the global population was malnourished. Twenty five years ago, global extreme poverty was 40% v. 10% today. So why do we feel like things are worse today? Social media exaggerates the negative and buries the positive. The physical proximity (and frequency) of social media to our faces enhances its psychological impact. Negative news sells, distorting its pervasiveness and our reality. We allow personal anecdotes to sway our overall outlook. Optimists think problems can be fixed. Pessimists thinks we are doomed. Being optimistic is a choice that we make. Our country was built on optimists. It’s easy to feel bitter—it’s the path of least resistance. Being an optimist is hard but rewarding. The trend of civilization is forever upward, we should be hopeful because the best is yet to come. Get Gregg Easterbrook's book It’s Better Than It Looks: Reasons for Optimism in an Age of Fear. Get Gregg Easterbrook's book Beside Still Water: Searching for Meaning in an Age of Doubt. Check out Gregg’s weekly “Tuesday Morning Quarter Back” column that he’s written for 17 years, here. GREGG EASTERBROOK LIVE INSPIRED 7 What is the best book you’ve ever read? Willa Cather’s My Antonia What is a characteristic or trait that you possessed as a child that you wish you still exhibited today? Besides being slender? More outgoing. Your house is on fire, all living things and people are out. You have the opportunity to run in and grab one item. What would it be? My flash drive with my next book which grows out of Beside Still Water. You are sitting on a bench overlooking a gorgeous beach. You have the opportunity to have a long conversation with anyone living or dead. Who would it be? Jesus, the greatest moral philosopher of the sapiens and the first question would be, “is there hope?”. What is the best advice you’ve ever received? I view myself as an artist, not a journalist. “Listen to your muse.” A muse often tells you things you wish you didn’t hear. Follow your muse wherever she leads you. What advice would you give your 20-year-old self? If you want to make a lot of money as a writer, chose one genre and stick to it. It’s been said that all great people can have their lives summed up in one sentence. How do you want yours to read? He was debonair. *** If you enjoyed today’s episode: Subscribe, rate & review on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. See you here next Thursday! Live Inspired with John daily on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram + get his Monday Motivation email.
Today on Access Utah, as a part of “Our Favorite Books” series, we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Willa Cather's “My Antonia.” Tom Williams' guests include Cather scholars and USU professors Evelyn Funda and Steve Shively. Funda says that “My Antonia” is fresh and contemporary and raises issues about immigration, assimilation, class and female power that resonate today. We also talk about Funda's mother, also named Antonia, who escaped her native Czechoslovakia in 1955 as the Communist Iron Curtain closed in.
Episode Thirty Six Show Notes CW = Chris Wolak EF = Emily Fine Join our Goodreads Group! Let us know what you want us to choose as the next read along. You can email, tweet or join the discussion on the Goodreads page. Willa Cather Bookclub: Join Chris on January 18th at 2:00 at Bookclub Bookstore & More in South Windsor, CT where she is kicking off a quarterly Willa Cather book club starting with My Antonia. We have an upcoming read-along: February – Maurice by E.M. Forster Send in questions or comments by March 1st – we will discuss on March 6th episode – Reading Goals for 2018 – Emily 1. 52 book reading challenge on Goodreads 2. Read “book of shame” on bookshelf : Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts 3. Clean up Currently Reading shelf on Goodreads 4. Establish a volunteer relationship with a literary organization – read to kids! 5. Read excerpts from the many short story collections on the bookshelf 6. Send cards/letters once/week 7. Work on joint podcasts with authors, other literary podcasts, etc. 8. Go on an epic book related adventure Chris 1. 52 book reading challenge on Goodreads 2. TBR 2018 reading challenge – hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader Chris blogged about her 12 books here 3. Australian Women Writers Reading Challenge 2018 Chris blogged about her anticipated reading here 4. Willa Cather quarterly book club at Bookclub Bookstore & More 5. One book challenge – Anna in April – reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Sponsored by Amanda of Fig and Thistle Books. 6. Write and submit work – Currently Reading/Listening – My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy #3) – Willa Cather (CW) (100 year anniversary!) Sweet – Yotem Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (EF) The Selected Letters of Willa Cather – Willa Cather, Andrew Jewell (CW) The Heart’s Invisible Furies – John Boyne (EF) – Just Read – The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin (CW) Someone – Alice McDermott (EF) Sweetgirl – Travis Mulhauser Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook – Alice Waters (EF) The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays & Stories – Marina Keegan edited by Anne Fadiman(EF) – Biblio Adventures – Emily had at home adventures watching the movie Mudbound based on the novel, Mudbound, by Hilary Jordan and starting the series Good Behavior based on the Letty Dobesh Chronicles by Blake Crouch. We discuss the passing of Sue Grafton author of the Kinsey Millhone series. Chris adventured to NYC to hunt for Maurice. She walked and came upon a sign: Melville Square, she wrote about the adventure on her blog. Read about it here. Chris ventured to the North Haven Memorial Library to pick up movies and books. Tragedy struck and her dog ate two of the books: The Woman on the Stairs – Bernard Schlink Laureates of Connecticut – edited by Ginny Lowe Connors December 30, 2017 - Chris met “Our Mystery Man” John Valeri at Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore for a final shop of 2017. – Upcoming Jaunts – January 11, 2018 – Chris and Emily are finally taking a jaunt to the Noah Webster House in West Hartford, CT. January 25, 2018 - Min Jin Lee will be at RJ Julia’s Booksellers in conversation with the Book Cougars! – Upcoming Reads – Smilla’s Sense of Snow – Peter Hoeg (CW) Free Food for Millionaires – Min Jin Lee (CW) Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) – Gretchen Rubin (EF) – Also Mentioned – The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir – Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures – Anne Fadiman Inside the Wave – Helen Dunmore Dark Matter – Blake Crouch Harry Dresden Series – Jim Butcher The Reader – Bernard Schlink Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Episode Thirty Four Show NotesCW = Chris WolakEF = Emily FineJoin our Goodreads Group! Let us know what you want us to choose as the next read along. You can email, tweet or join the discussion on the Goodreads page. We have an upcoming read-along: February – Maurice by E.M. Forster. – Just Read –The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers (CW) – Currently Reading/Listening –The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman (EF)Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II – Liza Mundy (CW) (audio) – Biblio Adventures –Chris celebrated Willa Cather’s birthday on December 7 at Bookclub Bookstore & More in South Windsor, CT. She is kicking off a quarterly Willa Cather book club starting with My Antonia to be discussed on January 18th at 2:00 at the same bookstore.Emily visited Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick, VTShe also saw the movie Call Me By Your Name based on the novel by André Acimanbook info here / movie info here – Upcoming Jaunts – Min Jin Lee will be at RJ Julia’s Booksellers on January 25, 2018 – Gift Ideas –Book Subscription Services like The Mysterious Bookshop Crime ClubsA subscription to Magazines or Literary JournalsBuy some literary swag from Out of PrintGift Cards to Independent BookstoresBundle Monster Booklight ClipGift of a literary activityGift baskets with books and associated literary itemsLeather Weighted BookmarkGift of Poetry - Devotions by Mary Oliver / New Collected Poems by Wendell BerryComplete Stories – Kurt VonnegutComplete Stories – Flannery O’ Connor paired with A Good Hard Look – Ann Napolitano – Also Mentioned –Disappearances – Howard Frank MosherHidden Figures: The Untold True Story of Four African-American Women Who Helped Launch Our Nation into Space – Margot Lee ShetterlyThe movie Lady BirdAlice Hoffman book tourKelly Corrigan book tourStone Butch Blues – Leslie Feinberg
Sometimes a man sets out to write a good episode description for an episode of The Bookening about My Antonia and he just doesn't have it in him. Not that it's a bad episode or a bad book, mind you. But sometimes even the best podcast episodes about the best books don't really inspire one to write a good podcast blurb. Life is weird like that. Deal with it.Click here to support the ongoing mission of awesomeness that is The Bookening.★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Having apologized profusely for some recent meanderings last episode, our heroes engage in no such hogwash/balderdash/poppycock this go around. At no point do they discuss Nathan's recent endoscopy, or awesome roller-coasters, or anything like that. Nor do they spend a bunch of time trying to figure out if it's AnTONia or ANtoNEEa or what have you. It's just straight-ahead collegiate-level book discussion all the way. Mrs. Mentzel and Mrs. Chasteen will be ever so proud. And some hot single chick will probably listen to this fall in love with Nathan (which, hot single chicks, if you're reading this, let's face it, Nathan is not a hard guy to get a hold of).In any case, there is plenty to ponder about the great Willa Cather's My Antonia. Our heroes discuss whether Cather was a lesbian and how much that matters, how a sense of place informs one's reading of a book, whether Jim was a weirdo for obsessing about Antonia all those years, and more!Click here to support the ongoing mission of awesomeness that is The Bookening.★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
Dr Jordan Savage kicks of the LiFTs research casts with an introduction to the series and insight into her research of the novel ‘My Antonia’ by Willa Cather.
This week on StoryWeb: Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening. Kate Chopin initially made her literary name as a writer of “local color fiction.” Writers around the United States were focusing careful attention on the customs, dialects, folkways, and geography of distinct regions in the U.S. For example, Sarah Orne Jewett focused on life in coastal Maine, perhaps most famously in The Country of the Pointed Firs, and her literary heir, Willa Cather, took the local color impulse further in her fully realized novels, such as My Antonia, O Pioneers!, and The Song of the Lark. Chopin was particularly adept at crafting local color fiction, and she published two volumes of sketches and short stories set in the Cajun bayous of Louisiana. Though she was born and raised in my hometown of St. Louis and though she would return to the Lou after her husband died, she lived with her husband first in New Orleans, then in a rural Louisiana parish. It was there in Cloutierville in Nachitoches Parish that she found the inspiration for her short fiction. You can learn about the Chopins’ home, now designated as a National Historic Landmark, and follow in the footsteps of the Literary Traveler, Linda McGovern, as she visits Cloutierville. In 1899, she took what she had learned about local color writing and used it to create The Awakening, a novel set in New Orleans and nearby Grand Isle – a place of summer retreat for the wives and children of wealthy New Orleans businessmen. A woman’s retelling of Gustave Flaubert’s 1857 novel, Madame Bovary, Chopin’s The Awakening teeters on the edge between the nineteenth century and the twentieth. The novel’s heroine, Edna Pontellier, has been raised to be a good New Orleans wife, with the tacit assumption that she’ll simply don her duties like the proper dresses she wears and become like her friend, Madame Ratignolle, whom Edna calls one of the “mother women.” But Edna doesn’t assume the mantle of respectable wife and doting mother as easily as her society tells her she should. Instead, she dips a toe in the burgeoning possibilities of the twentieth century. Actually, she dips more than a toe. After tentative beginnings, she learns to swim and plunges into the Gulf of Mexico headlong. Her twentieth-century role model is Mademoiselle Reisz, an unmarried pianist who has dedicated her life to her music. As Edna “awakens” throughout the novel, the question is constantly posed: can she fly above convention, or is she, as Mademoiselle Reisz says, a bird with a broken wing, hampered by the expectations of her society? The similarities between Madame Bovary and The Awakening are striking. In Chopin’s novel, the heroine Emma is renamed Edna; other character names are echoed as well. Both Emma Bovary and Edna Pontellier commit adultery, and to make matters worse, in Chopin’s novel, the heroine’s downfall – or “sin” – is that she commits adultery solely for passion, rather than for love. Each novel ends with the heroine’s demise. But where Emma Bovary is a shallow child-woman lost in Romantic fantasies, there is more depth to Edna Pontellier. Her deepest desire is to be an artist. She recoils from the identity of the “mother-woman,” which she sees so fully realized in her friend Madame Ratignolle. Edna does not want to be bound by her children, by motherhood. At the same time, she is drawn to her asexual friend, Mademoiselle Reisz. She loves the fact that Mademoiselle Reisz has devoted her entire life to music, and she dreams that she, too, could make a life of her art, her painting. Perhaps the most controversial aspect of The Awakening is how to read what is undeniably an ambiguous ending. It often makes me think of the ending to the film Thelma and Louise. At first, we’re cheering as Thelma and Louise drive off the cliff: they’re liberated, they’re free, they’re triumphant. But almost instantly, we’re devastated: for in that moment of triumph, they also die. So too with the ending of The Awakening. Edna has finally learned to swim – “she wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before.” She does so naked, stripped of all social conventions and mores. She is free and triumphant at last. But it’s also true that she has swum out past the point of no return: she’s dead. She is the bird with the broken wing, the woman who could not succeed in breaking free of convention. What happened to Kate Chopin herself is telling. By any measure and at any time, The Awakening would be considered a bold novel. That it was published in 1899 is nearly unbelievable. It is no surprise, then, to learn that Chopin came in for sharp criticism. Newspaper reviews around the country were immediately and unmistakably harsh. The St. Louis Republic deemed the novel "poison" and "too strong a drink for moral babes,” and the Chicago Times Herald chastised her for entering “the overworked field of sex fiction.” What caused the outrage about the book? Edna’s bold, unconventional choices, including an extramarital affair with someone she did not love. But worse than that was the fact that Chopin, as author, did not punish or condemn her character for the affair. The vitriolic reviews were one thing. But what was of much more devastating to Chopin was the resounding silence she was met with immediately and permanently from upper-crust St. Louis society, of which she had been a mainstay. Chopin had hosted a famous and well-loved “salon” – Thursday afternoon soirees that gathered the literary, artistic, cultural, and intellectual luminaries of her time. She was also the first woman in St. Louis to become a professional fiction writer. Chopin’s prominence meant nothing, however, when The Awakening was published. Quite literally, no one ever darkened her doorway again. So strong was the response against The Awakening that it caused her publisher to pull the contract on her forthcoming collection of stories, A Vocation and a Voice (which was finally published posthumously decades later). Chopin wrote nothing further between the publishing of The Awakening in 1899 and her death after a hot August day at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. After her death, Kate Chopin – the writer once heralded for her ability to capture the essence of Cajun culture – fell into nearly complete literary obscurity. It would take a Norwegian scholar, Per Seyersted, to rediscover her work in the 1960s and convince an American publisher to reissue her work. Now The Awakening is taught in college classrooms across the country and is included in its entirety in the venerated Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ready to learn more about Chopin? Of course, you’ll want to start by reading The Awakening – either in a free, online version or in an inexpensive Dover Thrift Edition. Per Seyersted edited an outstanding volume, The Complete Works of Kate Chopin, and Emily Toth has written the definitive biography, Unveiling Kate Chopin. For my take on Toth’s biography, visit the American Literature website, and for more of my thoughts on The Awakening, read the first chapter of my 1994 book, A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South. If you still haven’t had enough of Chopin’s work, you might want to take a look at Kate Chopin’s Private Papers, co-edited by Seyersted and Toth. In addition, the Kate Chopin International Society has a useful website. PBS has a transcript of its great documentary, Kate Chopin: A Re-Awakening, and Literary Traveler Linda McGovern takes you to Grand Isle, the setting of The Awakening. Finally, if you want to see just how far Chopin could take her depiction of passion, read her posthumously published story “The Storm,” in which the two characters get swept away by the power of a raucous thunderstorm. For links to all these resources, visit thestoryweb.com/chopin. Listen now as I read the scene where Edna Pontellier learns to swim. The people walked in little groups toward the beach. They talked and laughed; some of them sang. There was a band playing down at Klein's hotel, and the strains reached them faintly, tempered by the distance. There were strange, rare odors abroad—a tangle of the sea smell and of weeds and damp, new-plowed earth, mingled with the heavy perfume of a field of white blossoms somewhere near. But the night sat lightly upon the sea and the land. There was no weight of darkness; there were no shadows. The white light of the moon had fallen upon the world like the mystery and the softness of sleep. Most of them walked into the water as though into a native element. The sea was quiet now, and swelled lazily in broad billows that melted into one another and did not break except upon the beach in little foamy crests that coiled back like slow, white serpents. Edna had attempted all summer to learn to swim. She had received instructions from both the men and women; in some instances from the children. Robert had pursued a system of lessons almost daily; and he was nearly at the point of discouragement in realizing the futility of his efforts. A certain ungovernable dread hung about her when in the water, unless there was a hand near by that might reach out and reassure her. But that night she was like the little tottering, stumbling, clutching child, who of a sudden realizes its powers, and walks for the first time alone, boldly and with over-confidence. She could have shouted for joy. She did shout for joy, as with a sweeping stroke or two she lifted her body to the surface of the water. A feeling of exultation overtook her, as if some power of significant import had been given her to control the working of her body and her soul. She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before. Her unlooked-for achievement was the subject of wonder, applause, and admiration. Each one congratulated himself that his special teachings had accomplished this desired end. "How easy it is!" she thought. "It is nothing," she said aloud; "why did I not discover before that it was nothing. Think of the time I have lost splashing about like a baby!" She would not join the groups in their sports and bouts, but intoxicated with her newly conquered power, she swam out alone. She turned her face seaward to gather in an impression of space and solitude, which the vast expanse of water, meeting and melting with the moonlit sky, conveyed to her excited fancy. As she swam she seemed to be reaching out for the unlimited in which to lose herself. Once she turned and looked toward the shore, toward the people she had left there. She had not gone any great distance—that is, what would have been a great distance for an experienced swimmer. But to her unaccustomed vision the stretch of water behind her assumed the aspect of a barrier which her unaided strength would never be able to overcome. A quick vision of death smote her soul, and for a second of time appalled and enfeebled her senses. But by an effort she rallied her staggering faculties and managed to regain the land.
We’re back with Season 5, and what better way to start it off than a continuously-hopped Imperial Pils? I know, right! Fresh from Italy courtesy of our friends at Beers from Italy, it’s My Antonia – a collaboration ale from Dogfish Head and Birra del Borgo. Joining us, and kindly supplying this week’s bottle and […]
The granddaughter of immigrant Annie Pavelka, featured in Willa Cather’s My Antonia, describes the quilt her grandmother made using brightly printed feed sacks and dressmaking cuttings. Turner tells the story behind the quilt and what it illustrates about her grandmother and about immigrant life in Nebraska in the early 20th century.
Interview with Norbert Weisser who starred in Infection, Albert Pyun's 2005 thriller. He talks about his exceptional start in film and discusses his solid history in theatre.Film synopsis - On May 19, 2004, an unprecedented biological outbreak occurred in Lawton, California. A classified N.S.A.A. report detailed the carnage which ensued that night. This film is based on that top-secret report.Norbert Weisser, born in Neu-Isenburg Germany, came to Los Angeles in 1966 and began acting in the LA Experimental theatre scene of the 60s and 70s. He became a founding member of the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble, the ProVisional Theatre, We Tell Stories and the Padua Hills Playwrights' Festival where he originated the role of Trickster through collaboration with playwright Murray Mednick in the epic seven hour "Coyote Cycle". Some of his roles in theatre include: Rode in Ronald Harwood's "Taking Sides" at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Broadway, Mac Heath in "The Three Penny Opera" and Eddy in "Mary Barnes" at the Odyssey Theatre L.A. (for which he received a Drama Logue Award for: best supporting actor), Decius in "Julius Cesar" at the Matrix Theatre L.A., Fredric in "The Ramp" at the South Coast Repertory Theatre, Vershinin in "The Three Sisters" at the Dallas Theatre Center TX, Neigel in "See Under Love" at the ATJT in San Francisco and most recently Oscar in John O'Keefe's "Times Like These" in San Francisco, Albany, NY and Los Angeles where he received an Ovation Award, an LA Weekly Award and an LA Drama Critics Circle nomination for best actor in a leading role. He directed Mednick's "The Coyote Cycle" in San Francisco at the Magic Theatre and "Heads" at the Los Angeles Marc Taper Forum's New Works Festival. His motion picture credits include: Midnight Express, Heavens Gate, The Thing, Android, Three Amigos, Walker, Chaplin, Hocus Pocus, The Road to Wellville, Schindler's List, Pollock and Around the Bend. Some of his television credits are: The Incident, Seeds of Tragedy, Amelia Earheart, Riders of the Purple Sage, My Antonia, From the Earth to the Moon, Alias, Navy NCIS and ER. He writes screenplays with Thomas Morris and Don Keith Opper and is currently producing two Albert Pyun films, Infection and Cool Air, to be released at the end of 2005. Weisser is represented by SDB Partners in LA. He lives with his wife in Venice, California. They have a son, Morgan Weisser, who is also an actor.http://indieville.net/podcasts/norbertweisser_final.mp3