Join me in some word association: Romance novels. Cheesy? Trashy? Embarrassing? Redundant? In this episode listeners are encouraged to keep an open mind about this immensely popular and often disrespected genre. Our fifteenth reader begins the conversation by identifying Lisa Kleypas’ Devil in Winter (2006) as the novel that initiated her interest in romance fiction.... Read More

This fourteenth episode features an in-depth conversation about Siri Hunstvedt’s expansive and confrontational novel The Blazing World (2014). I sat down with our reader to discuss Hustvedt’s tragic heroine, Harriet Burden, and her strategic exposure of gender inequality within the art world. The novel is provocative, insightful, and draws the reader toward an understanding of […]

This fourteenth episode features an in-depth conversation about Siri Hunstvedt’s expansive and confrontational novel The Blazing World (2014). I sat down with our reader to discuss Hustvedt’s tragic heroine, Harriet Burden, and her strategic exposure of gender inequality within the art world. The novel is provocative, insightful, and draws the reader toward an understanding of... Read More

Frank McCourt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes (1996) presents a startling account of the author’s impoverished childhood in depression-era New York City and Limerick, Ireland. The most remarkable aspect of this narrative is the endurance of McCourt’s sense of humour throughout years of starvation, disease, and horrendous living conditions. Our reader spoke to me via […]

Frank McCourt’s Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Angela’s Ashes (1996) presents a startling account of the author’s impoverished childhood in depression-era New York City and Limerick, Ireland. The most remarkable aspect of this narrative is the endurance of McCourt’s sense of humour throughout years of starvation, disease, and horrendous living conditions. Our reader spoke to me via... Read More

On a rainy afternoon our twelfth reader and I took a stroll around a neighbourhood readying itself for Halloween and spoke about Mary Poppins (1934), the first installment in P.L. Travers’ immensely popular series. Our reader fell in love with the story as a child and had plenty to say about its impact on her […]

On a rainy afternoon our twelfth reader and I took a stroll around a neighbourhood readying itself for Halloween and spoke about Mary Poppins (1934), the first installment in P.L. Travers’ immensely popular series. Our reader fell in love with the story as a child and had plenty to say about its impact on her... Read More

Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) spans multiple generations, tests the boundaries of reality, and commands the hearts and imaginations of its readers. In this interview, our eleventh reader encourages me to dive right into this “larger than life” novel and to not be intimidated by its style or Nobel Prize-winning reputation. […]

Our tenth reader and I sat down on a park bench in the shadow of a private all-boys school to discuss Pamela Zoline’s subversive sci-fi story “The Heat Death of the Universe” (1967). It’s an amazing work of short fiction that deftly portrays a housewife’s nervous breakdown alongside a discussion of physics and cosmology. We […]

Our tenth reader and I sat down on a park bench in the shadow of a private all-boys school to discuss Pamela Zoline’s subversive sci-fi story “The Heat Death of the Universe” (1967). It’s an amazing work of short fiction that deftly portrays a housewife’s nervous breakdown alongside a discussion of physics and cosmology. We... Read More