We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the second part of a fairy tale called “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kay. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Frozen.”

In the first part, we meet best friends, Gerda and Kay. We also learn of the wicked mirror that splinters into tiny pieces over the land. The shards sometimes land in unknowing people’s eyes or hearts, and cause them to be cold-hearted and mean-spirited. This happens to the little boy, Kay. Then he gets whisked away by the Snow Queen’s sled. Gerda goes in search of him, and meets a kindly witch.

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Tonight, we’ll read the next part of “Pride and Prejudice”, written by Jane Austen. If you’d like to listen from the beginning, please find and listen to all the previous episodes easily at snoozecast.com/series.

“Pride and Prejudice” follows Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.

In the previous episode, distant cousin Mr. Collins comes to the Bennet Family’s home at Longbourne to find a wife. Although he poses as a man of convictions, his supposed love interest can change in a moment.

The girls walk to the nearby town of Meryton, accompanied by Mr. Collins. There, they become enamored by a handsome stranger in uniform named Mr. Wickham. They also bump into Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley at the same time. Elizabeth notices a curious displeasure between the surprise meeting of the stranger and Mr. Bingley.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the opening to “Across Asia on a Bicycle,” published in 1894 and written by Thomas Allen and William Sachtleben. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

This book is made up of a series of sketches describing a bicycle journey around the world and specifically across Asia. Allen and Sachtleben set a record for the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world.

The day after they graduated college in St. Louis, Missouri, the two friends set out on their journey. Almost three years later, they rolled back into New York on their wheels, having, as they write, “put a girdle round the earth.”

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read “The Maiden of the Mist” or “Anne of Geierstein”, by Sir Walter Scott, published in 1829. It is set mainly in Switzerland, shortly after the Battle of Tewkesbury in the 1400s. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

In this story, two exiles are on a secret mission to the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, hoping to gain his help in regaining the English crown from Edward IV. The two Englishmen get into difficulties in the Swiss mountains. They meet Countess Anne and her family, who are involved in the politics of the newly independent Swiss Confederation and plan to confront Charles with complaints about his conduct towards the Swiss nation.

This book is part of a long series called The Waverley Novels. For nearly a century, they were among the most popular and widely read novels in Europe. Because Scott did not publicly acknowledge authorship until later, the series takes its name from Waverley, the first novel of the series released.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the next part to our “Magic Cloak” series, from the book “Queen Zixi of Ix, or The Story of the Magic Cloak”, a children's book written by L. Frank Baum and published in 1905. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

“The Magic Cloak” episode one aired on Nov 11, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the previous episode again, it aired November 13th, 2020.

The events of the book alternate between Noland and Ix, two neighboring regions to the Land of Oz. Baum, who also wrote “The Wizard of Oz”, commented this was the best book he had written.

In the last episode, the magic cloak accidentally lands on the royal valet Jikki’s shoulders. At the time, he is trying to carry much too many things on behalf of the demanding Aunt Rivette. He wishes he could have a half dozen servants to help him complete all of his tasks. Then, he has the new and unexpected problem of having to much help at hand!

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we shall read the next chapter to “Peter Pan”, the 1911 novel by J.M. Barrie. To unlock full episodes of this series, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

In the last episode, the children are napping on Marooner’s Rock in the Mermaid’s Lagoon, when they realize pirates are near and dive underwater. The pirates caught Tiger Lily, from the island tribe, snooping on their ship and planned to leave her on the rock to drown. Peter impersonates Hook’s voice and orders the pirates to let her go, which they fearfully obey. Hook appears afterwards and gives his men the news that the lost boys have found a mother in Wendy. They come up with a plan to kidnap her to make her their mother instead, as even pirates apparently want to be comforted and taken care of.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers.Tonight, we’ll read a fairy tale called “The Snow Queen” by Hans Christian Andersen. The story centers on the struggle between good and evil as experienced by Gerda and her friend, Kay. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

The story is one of Andersen's longest and most highly acclaimed stories. It was also the inspiration for the Disney movie “Frozen.”

— read by 'V' —

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read a folktale called “Aponibolinayen and the Sun”, from the book “Philippine Folk Tales” published in 1916, compiled by anthropologist Mabel Cook Cole. This story comes from the Ting-yen or Itneg people, who live in a mountainous region in the Philippines. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

The Itnegs believe in the existence of numerous supernatural powerful beings. They believe in spirits and deities, the greatest of which they believe to be Kadaklan who lives up in the sky and who created the earth, the moon, the stars, and the sun. Tonight, we’ll read about the sun in particular and how he came to be married to a special mortal woman with magical powers.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read the next part to the classic children’s story “Heidi”, published in 1881 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri. If you’d like to start from the beginning, you’ll find that the very first episode aired on March 8th, 2019. If you’d like to listen to the last episode before this one, it aired on October 28th, 2020. To unlock full episodes and ad-free listening of this series and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

“Heidi” is a novel about the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care in the Swiss Alps. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature.

In the previous episode, the servants at the Sesemann house are certain the house is haunted. The ghost turns out to be a sleepwalking little Heidi, tormented by her secret homesickness. When Mr. Sesemann realizes this, plans are made to allow her to go back to visit her family on the mountain.

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We hope you enjoy this preview of an episode from our back catalog available to our premium subscribers. Tonight, we’ll read “Treasure Island”, by listener suggestion, an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. It is a tale of "buccaneers and buried gold." Its influence is enormous on popular perceptions of pirates, including such elements as treasure maps marked with an "X", schooners, tropical islands, and one-legged seamen bearing parrots on their shoulders. To unlock full episodes, ad-free listening, and more, please go to snoozecast.com/plus.

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