Unknown Friends

Bearing little resemblance to its modern cinematic descendants, Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein tackles weighty issues like the mutual duties between creator and creature and the relationship between virtue and happiness.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes and chapter readings.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

One of the first works of fiction ever to imagine a post-nuclear-war America, Pat Frank's 1959 novel Alas, Babylon tells an intriguing tale of chaos, community, and survival, while also offering a glimpse into the cultural morality of the 1950s.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes and chapter readings.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

The Book Thief, Markus Zusak's World War 2 novel published in 2005, explores themes of compassion and courage through sympathetic characters, but the book's worldview limits its ability to answer essential questions of suffering and sin.

Learn more about Markus Zusak: www.zusakbooks.com

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like monthly preview episodes and chapter readings.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

To celebrate the first birthday of the Unknown Friends podcast, I'm sharing A. E. Stallings's lovely poem "The Rosehead Nail," AND I'm planning two bonus episodes this month for my subscribers over on Patreon!

To join the Unknown Friends community as a patron, simply visit www.patreon.com/unknownfriends. Thank you to each and every one who has already joined us there!

To read "The Rosehead Nail" online, visit www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56231/the-rosehead-nail.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this bonus episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

First published by Charles Dickens in his magazine Household Words (as a follow-up to his self-published novel Hard Times), Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South follows a heroine and hero who - though slightly romanticized - undergo realistic and inspiring character growth over the course of their story.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I so appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

Charles Portis's American classic, True Grit, features a tenacious, meticulous narrator and heroine, Mattie Ross, who tells her story with a solemnity that is somehow both amusing and admirable.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I so appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

The 1972 Newbery medal winner, Robert C. O'Brien's Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, blends fantasy and science fiction in its tale of a widowed mouse trying to save her family, and in the process the story explores themes of education, morality, and ultimately self-sacrifice.

Thank you to each of you who've joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I so appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

Published serially in 1941, then in book form in 1942, C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters presents "the psychology of temptation from the other point of view," as he wrote to his brother Warren when the idea of the book first struck him.

Thank you to each of you who have joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I so appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book published in 1908, depicts a tiny community of four dedicated friends who gently teach us much-needed lessons about humility, simplicity, faithfulness, longing, and home.

Thank you to each of you who have joined the Unknown Friends community on Patreon! I so appreciate your support, and I love having the opportunity to share extra content with you. Learn more at www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, and share it with your book-loving friends!

Leif Enger's latest novel, titled Virgil Wander after its protagonist, depicts a middle-aged movie house owner getting a second chance at life. While the novel is engaging, quirky, and optimistic, it seems to lack the zealous Christian faith of Enger's first novel, Peace Like a River.

The Unknown Friends podcast is now on Patreon! Visit our page at https://www.patreon.com/unknownfriends, where you can explore the different ways to join as a patron and get access to bonus content like our new monthly preview episodes.

I'm Rachelle Ferguson of Kittywham Productions, and Unknown Friends is my weekly book review podcast, where I discuss classic and contemporary literature from my personal reading list. Visit the Unknown Friends homepage at www.kittywhamproductions.com/podcast. To learn more about me and my writing, explore my website at www.kittywhamproductions.com.

Get in touch on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelle.ferguson

Connect on Facebook: www.facebook.com/kittywhamproductions

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with your book-loving friends!