It’s time for a new book! Welcome to Housekeeping by Mariynne Robinson. In this episode, Shari and Rhea introduce listeners to the author, and this strange new place they find themselves now, Fingerbone, Montana, a vastly different world from early 1700’s England, for sure! They then dive into the narrative, talk about the eccentricities of the characters, the aliveness of the setting, and the possibility of motherhood as a place. They marvel over Robinson’s sparkling, image-rich prose, and notice immediately the profundity of water imagery throughout. Clearly, water will play an important role in unfolding Housekeeping’s deeper themes. But how?

Rhea wrote an excellent post introducing Housekeeping and its author. It contains the reading schedule, a set of bookmarks for each section, excellent links to interviews with Marilynne Robinson, War & Peace connections, and a new opportunity we’re inviting you to join: a practice of journaling on place. Stay tuned. More to come on that in an upcoming essay post by Shari (on the Reader & Writer Substack).

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