Tonight, we’ll read about desert oases from a book written by H. J. Llewellyn Beadnell and published in 1909.

In ecology, an oasis is a fertile area of a desert that sustains plant life and provides habitat for animals. Surface water may be present, or water may only be accessible from wells or underground channels created by humans. 

— read by V —

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Tonight, we’ll read the second chapter to “Anne of Green Gables” the classic 1908 novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. This chapter is titled “Matthew Cuthbert is Surprised.”

Written for all ages, it recounts the adventures of an eleven-year-old orphan named Anne Shirley on Prince Edward Island, Canada.

In the first episode, we meet busybody Rachel, who checks in on Marilla Cuthbert. They live in a small town on Prince Edward Island in Canada. Marilla lives on her farm with her brother Matthew, and they are both growing older. They decided to adopt an orphan boy, which shocks Rachel. Rachel tries to frighten Marilla with terrible orphan stories from the news, but Marilla has a cooler head. Also, she reasons, at least the orphan isn’t going to be a girl. 

— read by N —

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Tonight, we’ll read an excerpt from “A Girl of the Limberlost” by Gene Stratton-Porter, published in 1909. This episode first aired in April of 2021.

The story takes place in Indiana, in and around the Limberlost Swamp. Even at the time of its publication, this impressive wetland region was being reduced by heavy logging, natural oil extraction and drainage for agriculture.

The author, Stratton-Porter, was considered one of the most popular woman novelists of the era.

Elnora Comstock is an impoverished teenager who lives with her widowed mother, Katharine Comstock, on the edge of the Limberlost swamp. Elnora’s mother treats her neglectfully, and makes her to go to her first day of high school at a new school unprepared. She is wearing ugly, out-dated clothes, and doesn’t have proper books or tuition.

Luckily, Elnora is a plucky and good-hearted young woman. She also has loving neighbors who want to help her. And that is where we will start. 

— read by V —

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Tonight, we’ll read the second half to “The Adventure of the Empty House” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as part of 1903’s “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”. The first half aired last week.

Doyle ranked "The Adventure of the Empty House" sixth in his list of his twelve favorite Holmes stories out of 56 total stories.

In the first half, the year is 1894, and it is three years after the apparent death of Sherlock Holmes. An apparently unsolvable locked-room murder takes place in London: Ronald Adair was in his sitting room at the time. The motive does not appear to be robbery as nothing has been stolen, and it seems that Adair had not an enemy in the world. It seems odd that Adair's door was locked from the inside.

Dr. Watson, having retained an interest in crime post- Holmes, visits the scene. He runs into an elderly book collector, knocking several of his books to the ground. The encounter ends with the man snarling in anger and going away. However, that is not the last that Watson sees of him, for a short time later, the man comes to Watson's study to apologize. Once in, he transforms himself into Sherlock Holmes, astonishing Watson so much that he faints to the ground. 

— read by N —

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Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “The Boxcar Children” written by first grade school teacher Gertrude Chandler Warner and published in 1924. This episode originally aired in August of 2021, and we will continue to the end of this book over time.

The Boxcar Children tells the story of four orphaned children, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny. They create a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar in the forest. They eventually meet their grandfather, who is a wealthy and kind man (although the children had believed him to be cruel).

As she wrote the story, Warner read it aloud to her classes and rewrote it many times to make it easy to understand and enjoyable.

— read by V —

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Tonight, we’ll read about baking cakes from the “Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Volume 4”

This episode originally aired in March of 2021.

The Woman’s Institute was founded by Mary Brooks Picken in Scranton, PA. Born in Kansas in 1886, Picken wrote the first dictionary to be published by a woman in the English language, beyond the over one hundred other books she wrote.

— read by V —

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Tonight, we’ll read the first half to “The Adventure of the Empty House” written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as part of “The Return of Sherlock Holmes”. It was first published in 1903. The second half will air next week.

Public pressure forced Conan Doyle to bring the sleuth back to life, and explain his apparently miraculous survival after his struggle with Professor Moriarty in "The Final Problem". This is the first Holmes story set after his supposed demise in Switzerland, as recounted in "The Final Problem".

Read by -N-

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Tonight, we shall read the next part to “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen.

In the last episode, Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle hurry home after hearing the terrible news about Lydia running off with Wickham. There is plenty of time as they travel to consider the situation from all angles, and try to reassure each other from too much worry. They arrive at Longbourne and reconnect with the rest of the family.

— read by V —

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Tonight, we’ll read excerpts from “Meteorology, The Science of the Atmosphere” by meteorologist Charles Fitzhugh Talman, published in 1922. This episode first aired in April of 2021.

The word meteorology, stemming from the Ancient Greek, means "the study of things high in the air."

Though study of meteorology dates back millennia, significant progress did not occur until the 18th century. Prior attempts at prediction of weather depended on historical data. It was not until after the elucidation of the laws of physics and more particularly, the development of the computer, allowing for the automated solution of a great many equations that model the weather, in the latter half of the 20th century that significant breakthroughs in weather forecasting were achieved.

— read by N —

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Tonight, we’ll read the 1921 short story “Mr. and Mrs. Dove” written by New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield.

In this story, Reginald is a young man who works on a fruit farm in Rhodesia, but is currently back home in England for one more day. There, he visits his friend Anne with the pet doves, who he is in love with.

Now known as Zimbabwe, Rhodesia was a state located just north of South Africa, colonized by Britain.

— read by V —

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