The Reader and the Writer

“It’s delightful when your imaginations come true, isn’t it?

But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have to stop and that hurts.

When the Lord puts us in certain circumstances He doesn’t mean for us to imagine them away.

Welcome to our first conversation on Anne of Green Gables! In this episode, Shari and Rhea can’t get enough of Anne with an ‘e’. They share their favorite moments, favorite quotes, favorite things this story make them think about, and their favorite things about Anne, which, of course, is everything! They wonder what it takes for a wide scope of imagination. They ask if we treat our own imaginations well in this day and age, and what would it look like to cherish our imaginations? They talk about the connection between imagination and beauty, and how Anne sees beauty in everything but herself. They talk about naming, and wonder if Anne’s naming of places and objects transfigures them—not only for herself, but for those around her as well. Also, they ask one another the hardest question ever: Which would you rather be if you had the choice: divinely beautiful, dazzling clever, or angelically good??

Look for the Rhea’s reading guide for Anne of Green Gables to publish on her Substack page, soon!

Thanks for listening to The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this post, please ❤️ it and share it with others.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our literary work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome back to Middlemarch! In this episode, Shari and Rhea think long and hard about our narrator: by what tactics is she (he?) getting us to see? Where are our eyes turned? On what do we gaze? And how does this gaze serve Eliot’s purposes for expressing her greater themes? They also talk about the symmetry in the story lines of Book Three, and the elegant arc they make. Of course, they discuss details: Fred Vincy’s extreme self-centerdness, Lydgate’s dunce-headedness, and poor Dorthea’s hopes of matrimonial bliss being popped so soon. They argue over passionately discuss whether Rosamond is manipulative or innocent in her pursuit of Lydgate. They bring up that tricky narrator again, and how we are given the turn in their relationship: from careless flirting to holy matrimony. They continue to scratch their heads over the British class system and where exactly every person and trade fits in. And furniture… What is up with this continual mention of furniture?? Finally, they take in the title of Book Three, Waiting to Die, and consider the full scope of its meaning.

Show Notes:

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, by Daniel Pool. (Rhea referenced)

R&W Outline for Middlemarch, Book Three (Available for a limited time to all subscribers. Will go behind paywall mid-year). Great for use with:

* Personal Study

* Book Groups

* Homeschool Supplement

* Upper Level High School Curriculum Supplement

Thanks for listening to this edition of The Reader & the Writer! If you like this post give it some ❤️ and pass it around.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our literary work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

“Survival, it is called. Often it is accidental, sometimes it is engineered by creatures or forces that we have no conception of, always it is temporary.” —p. 324

Welcome back to Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. In this episode, Shari and Rhea find themselves without words… more than once…! They talk about Charity’s way of controlling everything to the very end, and how still after all that, they couldn’t dislike her, or harbor ill feelings toward her. They talk about Sid and Larry’s simultaneous “journeys” they took at the end, and how each one came out on the other side. They talk about dying “right” v. dying “well,” living “right” v. living “well,” and how the two inform one another. They talk about fate, forgiveness, and the way suffering has the mysterious gift of enlarging us if we’ll let it. Finally, Shari declares Crossing to Safety as one of her top five books of all time—a statement that, if you’ve been listening to R&W for any length of time, you know she doesn’t make easily.

Below is The Resurrection by Piero della Francesca that was mentioned multiple times in the narrative and acted as a critical image in the last section of the story.

Our next book is Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery. Our first episode of that four-part series will air April 14th.

Thanks for listening to this edition of The Reader & the Writer! If you like this post, ❤️ it and pass it along.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we’re doing, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

“Order is indeed the dream of man, but chaos, which is only another word for dumb, blind, witless chance, is still the law of nature.” (p. 191)

Welcome back to Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner. In this episode, Shari and Rhea talk (somewhat obsessively) about Charity Lang and her extreme need to control, and how it affects, well, everything! They talk more about Larry, the long-view narrator, the various narrative techniques Stegner uses through him, and how it continues to impact our understanding of Charity, Larry, both marriages, and the friendship at the heart of this story. They talk about the farce of control itself—how very little we actually have—what makes a person decide he or she has “no choice” but to sacrifice for the sake of another, and what it looks like to bend and not break. Oh, and they talk about the continual Eden imagery: Adam and Eve, and that damnable lurking snake.

Next week will be their fourth and final episode with Crossing to Safety.

Show note:

Here is the quote Shari was talking about from Madeleine L’Engle’s book, Walking on Water (in reference to bringing order from chaos):

Leonard Bernstein tells me more than the dictionary when he says that for him music is cosmos in chaos. That has the ring of truth in my ears and sparks my creative imagination. And it is true not only of music; all art is cosmos, cosmos found within chaos. At least all Christian art (by which I mean all true art, and I’ll go deeper into this later) is cosmos in chaos.

—Madeleine L’Engle (p. 8)

Thanks for reading The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this episode please give it ❤️ and share it with others.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we do, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

And so, by circuitous and unpredictable routes, we converge toward midcontinent and meet in Madison, and are at once drawn together, braided and plaited into a friendship. (p. 96)

Welcome back to Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. In this episode, Shari and Rhea continue their discussion of the long-view narrative style of the story’s first person narrator, Larry Morgan. They discuss his generous story telling style, his telling of deep intimacies, and the way they find themselves, at times, so overcome by the quiet beauty of the narrative they could weep. They continue to relate Larry and Sally’s story to their own marriages, and their own younger-self lives. They discuss Larry’s imagined historical telling of Sid and Charity’s meeting and early love: what more is revealed about Larry the narrator, and what Stegner the author gains by this creative narrative technique. They discuss Charity in-depth: her name, its meaning, and how Stegner, through his narrator, is training us in the way of true, charitable and lasting love. They talk about C. S. Lewis. Shari comes up with a fitting Hamilton quote about Sid.

In their next episode, they will be reading through the end of Book One (pp. 142-239)

Here’s a link to Rhea’s excellent reading guide for Crossing to Safety:

Here is the poem by Robert Frost that inspired the story’s title:

I Could Give All To Time by Robert Frost

To Time it never seems that he is braveTo set himself against the peaks of snowTo lay them level with the running wave,Nor is he overjoyed when they lie low,But only grave, contemplative and grave.

What now is inland shall be ocean isle,Then eddies playing round a sunken reefLike the curl at the corner of a smile;And I could share Time’s lack of joy or griefAt such a planetary change of style.

I could give all to Time except – exceptWhat I myself have held. But why declareThe things forbidden that while the Customs sleptI have crossed to Safety with? For I am There,And what I would not part with I have kept.

Thanks for reading The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this post, please ❤️ it and share it with other literature lovers like you.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our literary work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to R&W’s next 2026 read: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss the powerful beauty they see already this story of the mundane that makes both marriage and friendship lasting and gold. They talk about Stegner’s great influence on the American literary canon—both through his own work, and his teaching of those literary giants who followed him, Shari’s personal favorite being Wendell Berry. They spend a long time talking about the 1st person long-view narrator, and the effect it has our view of the story itself, the characters, and the events being narrated. They talk about the ways they see the themes of the story: marriage, friendship, and vocation, already being expressed and given foundation in these early chapters. And they wonder how all three will survive and thrive over the course of the decades to follow.

Below is a link to Rhea’s reading guide for Crossing to Safety. Please do check it out. She has some great stuff in it!

Also, here is the full poem by Robert Frost that inspired Crossing to Safety’s title:

I Could Give All To Time

– A Poem by Robert Frost

To Time it never seems that he is braveTo set himself against the peaks of snowTo lay them level with the running wave,Nor is he overjoyed when they lie low,But only grave, contemplative and grave.

What now is inland shall be ocean isle,Then eddies playing round a sunken reefLike the curl at the corner of a smile;And I could share Time’s lack of joy or griefAt such a planetary change of style.

I could give all to Time except – exceptWhat I myself have held. But why declareThe things forbidden that while the Customs sleptI have crossed to Safety with? For I am There,And what I would not part with I have kept.

Thanks for listening to this edition of The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this episode, hit the ❤️ button and share it with someone!

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we’re doing, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome back to Middlemarch, our year-ish long read. In this episode, Rhea and Shari discuss what it means to be old and young, to have desire and duty, and the making of a person and a marriage. They talk about the various relationships in Middlemarch and how they are continuing to shape into being. They spend considerable time discussing the “big-hearted” narrator, and all they appreciate about her commentary. And they go through several quotes from Book 2, and scratch their heads over each one’s meaning.

Be sure to check out our Middlemarch page:

Be sure to find our chat section on the Middlemarch page for each week’s reading and join in the conversation!

Our next Middlemarch episode covering Book Three is scheduled to air April 3rd. Until then, read wide and read well!

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this post, ❤️ it and share it.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we’re doing, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to our final episode of Frankenstein. In this episode, Shari and Rhea revisit the nesting narrative, also called framing. They examine each frame through the lens of several different themes and motifs. They ask what ideas they see repeatedly, and how the characters express the various themes. They talk about Shelley’s exploration of love through the pairing of different characters together, and how Victor and the Creature combine in such a way that desecrates love as well as one another. They discuss the significance of names in Frankenstein, and the extra-significance of the De Lacey family at the center of the story. And they circle back around on earlier discussions about creators and creations, not taking responsibility for what we make, not “killing our darlings” when we should, and the ways we end up with monsters of our own making.

Journal Prompts for Frankenstein:

Rhea had some excellent reflective questions we didn’t have time to discuss. I (Shari) would like to offer them here as journal prompts in case you’d like to do some final noodling over Frankenstein.

* On Creation: What does Shelley want me to notice about creation? About my relationship with creation? My responsibility to creation? My responsibility to what I create?

* On Companionship: What does Shelley want me to notice about companionship? About my expectations about companionship? My responsibilities within companionship?

* On Love: What does Shelley want me to notice about love?

We’d love to hear your thoughts or discoveries on any of the above. And if Frankenstein spurred you on to consider other big ideas, please share these, too!

Our next slow read is Crossing to Safety, by Wallace Stegner. We will be reading it over four weeks. Our first episode will drop March 10th. No new episodes will air between now and then. Great time to catch up on your Middlemarch reading!

If you need a refresher of our 2026 reading list, you can find it here:

Thanks for listening to this episode of The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this post, give it some ❤️ and share it with a friend, enemy, or frenemy.We’re not picky.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we’re doing, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to Middlemarch, Book One.

In this first “reading” episode of Middlemarch, Rhea and Shari dive headlong into the world of early-1800’s provencial England. They spend a great amount of time discussing the story’s witty, critical, big-hearted narrator. They examine the text for understanding how they are meant to feel about Casaubon, though they already know exactly how they feel about Casaubon. They talk about Dorthea as viewed from various points of view—especially her sister, Celia’s. They look at where the narrator offers us a critical eye, a wide lens, and always a quick witt. Rhea wonders if she’ll even be able to find a character she’ll love to hate. Shari declares Celia is her hero.

If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to read through R&W’s Middlemarch page. It’s full of great stuff:

Thanks for reading The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this post, please show it some ❤️ and share it around.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we’re doing, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Welcome to R&W’s second episode of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley. In this episode, Shari and Rhea dive deeper into the complexities and questions begged by the nested narrative style of the story, Shelley’s use of nature as a metaphor and motif, the use of counterpoints in every character as they relate to Victor, the many Great Conversations embedded in Volume 2, a continued study of humans’ duties toward the works of our hands, and their severe discomfort at the Creature’s lack of a name.

The final Frankenstein episode will air Tuesday, February 10th. (This is one week off the original reading schedule, due to inclement weather.)

Here is a link to Rhea’s Frankenstein Reading Guide:

Thanks for listening to The Reader & the Writer! If you liked this episode, show it some ❤️ and share it with a friend.

The Reader & the Writer is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support the literary work we do, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.