| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | AA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Story Date | Aired from | Book Cover / Image | Episode Title | Read by | Book Title | Author | Publisher | Year | ISBN# | Description | Theme | Public domain? | ||||||||||||||
2 | 2026-03-16 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, March 16 through Friday April 10, 2026 |  | Agnes Sharp And The Trip Of A Lifetime by Leonie Swann | Michele Good | Agnes Sharp And The Trip Of A Lifetime | Leonie Swann | Soho Crime | 2024 | 978-1641295802 | This highly anticipated follow-up to “The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp” (Chapter A Day November 2024) finds Agnes and her octogenarian friends face-to-face with a killer after winning a trip to a beautiful hotel. Will it be an early checkout for anyone in the gang? The year is rapidly drawing to an end, Hettie the tortoise is hibernating and Agnes, Charlie, Marshall, and the other elderly residents of Sunset Hall are going stir-crazy. And to top it off, another series of murders is rocking the hamlet of Duck End. Most unpleasant! The residents of Sunset Hall don’t want anything to do with the criminal activities. So when Edwina manages to sneak onto Marshall’s computer and promptly wins a stay in an exclusive coastal hotel in Cornwall, the Sunset Hall crew doesn’t waste any time in deciding to join her. After all, Edwina can’t be left unsupervised. But they’ve barely unpacked their bags when Agnes sees something unsettling: two figures in hoods walk away from the hotel along the cliffs, but only one returns. | "Devil's Dance" by John Williams, performed by Gil Shaham & Jonathon Feldman, from The Witches of Eastwick | no | ||||||||||||||
3 | 2026-02-23 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, February 23 through Friday, March 13, 2026 |  | The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald | Norman Gilliland | The Great Gatsby | F Scott Fitzgerald | Public Domain | NOMINATED AS ONE OF AMERICA’S BEST-LOVED NOVELS BY PBS’S THE GREAT AMERICAN READ. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan, of lavish parties on Long Island at a time when The New York Times noted “gin was the national drink and sex the national obsession,” it is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s. | John Harbison, Remembering Gatsby; Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman, conductor; Argo | yes | ||||||||||||||||
4 | 2026-02-06 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Friday, February 6 through Friday, February 20, 2026 |  | Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson | Martha White | Walk With Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer | Kate Clifford Larson | Oxford University Press | 2025 | 190096845 | She was born the 20th child in a family that had lived in the Mississippi Delta for generations, first as enslaved people and then as sharecroppers. She left school at 12 to pick cotton, as those before her had done, in a world in which white supremacy was an unassailable citadel. She was subjected without her consent to an operation that deprived her of children. And she was denied the most basic of all rights in America―the right to cast a ballot―in a state in which Blacks constituted nearly half the population. And so Fannie Lou Hamer lifted up her voice. Kate Clifford Larson's biography of Fannie Lou Hamer is the most complete ever written, drawing on recently declassified sources on both Hamer and the civil rights movement. Stirring, immersive, and authoritative, Walk with Me does justice to Fannie Lou Hamer's life, capturing in full the spirit, and the voice, that led the fight for freedom and equality in America at its critical moment. | This Little Light of Mine by the Freedom Singers | no | ||||||||||||||
5 | 2026-01-19 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, January 19 through Thursday, February 5, 2026 |  | The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart | Jim Fleming | The Piano Shop on the Left Bank | Thad Carhart | Random House | 375503048 | Every morning as he walked his children to school, American ex-pat Carhart passed a small shop, Desforges Pianos, which called to him. But every time he went in he was rebuffed. Eventually he gained entry to a place of magic; a hangout where university professors and car mechanics from the neighborhood gathered to discuss music, love and life.(Random House; ISBN-10: 0375503048)Theme: John Bayless, piano: "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's "La Boheme" from The Puccini Album: arias for piano (Angel CDC 54801) | John Bayless, piano: "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's "La Boheme" from The Puccini Album: arias for piano (Angel CDC 54801) | no | |||||||||||||||
6 | 2026-01-13 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Tuesday, January 13 through Friday, January 16, 2026 |  | The Thief of Words by Anthony Bukoski | Norman Gilliland | The Thief of Words | Anthony Bukoski | University of Wisconsin Press | 9780299351748 | The lightly interconnected stories in this riveting collection are split between the Polish American communities of northern Wisconsin and Louisiana, where refugees from World War II were resettled. Exploring themes of dislocation and assimilation, love and loneliness, and generational conflict, Bukoski admirably paints portraits of people doing their best, despite the odds and their sometimes-thwarted attempts to follow the urgings of their better angels. | Artur Rubinstein The Chopin Collection The Waltzes, Frederic Chopin, Waltz in A Minor, Opus 34, Nr. 2; Waltz in F Major, Opus 34 Nr 3 | no | |||||||||||||||
7 | 2025-12-29 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, December 29, 2025 through Monday, January 12, 2026 |  | Shelter And Storm: At Home In The Driftless by Tamara Dean | Susan Sweeney | Shelter And Storm: At Home In The Driftless | Tamara Dean | University of Minnesota Press | 2025 | 9781517918569 | Tamara Dean left the tech world to live lightly on the land in the Driftless area of Wisconsin. There, she confronted, in ways large and small, the challenges of meeting basic needs while facing the ravages of climate change. Her gift for storytelling unites personal experience with science and history, presenting a perspective as informative as it is compelling. Executive Producer Note: This book is a modern-day “The Land Remembers” | Three/Quarter North; Leo Kottke; One Guitar, No Vocals; BMG Entertainment | No | ||||||||||||||
8 | 2025-12-24 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Wednesday, December 24 through Friday, December 26, 2023. |  | Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope | Karl Schmidt | Christmas at Thompson Hall | Anthony Trollope | Anthony Trollope’s Victorian “comedy of errors” "Christmas at Thompson Hall" was a holiday tradition for many years on Chapter A Day. Not quite a “Christmas story”, it nonetheless is filled with the festivity and anxiety that accompanies the season. Mrs Brown is overjoyed. She hasn’t been home to England for the holidays in eight years. But nothing is cooperating with her… not the weather, not her husband, and not the strange man she just slathered with mustard plaster. Just how far will she go to get home in time for Christmas? (Public Domain) | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
9 | 2025-12-01 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, December 1, 2025 through Tuesday, December 23, 2025 |  | A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett | Bruce Bradley & Michele Good | A Little Princess | Frances Hodgson Burnett | Public domain | At seven years old, Sara Crewe has it all. A loving father, a substantial fortune, and everyone’s love and adoration. But Sara’s life turns upside down when she’s left penniless after the tragic loss of her father. After spending her life showered in love and affection, gifts, and luxury, can she learn to survive in a place where everyone treats her like a servant? | Vladimir Ashkenazy; Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, Waldszenen; Octavia Records 2001 | yes | ||||||||||||||||
10 | 2025-11-10 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, November 10 through Friday, November 28, 2025 |  | Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan | Jim Fleming | Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog | John Grogan | (Harper Collins; ISBN-10: 0060817089) | (Harper Collins; ISBN-10: 0060817089) | Monday, February 2 through Friday, February 20, 2009. Read by Jim Fleming.When you bring home a Labrador Retriever, you expect the kind of dog famous for its calm and helpfulness. Not Marley. One Hundred Pounds of pure exuberance, there is nothing and no one he can't bowl over. There are lessons here, but are they the ones you want to learn? | Bernstein: Jet Song from "West Side Story"; Gershwin: Promenade "Walking the Dog"; Katia & marielle Labeque, pianos from their album "Encore!" (Sony SK 48381) | no | |||||||||||||||
11 | 2025-10-13 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, October 13 through Friday, November 7, 2025 |  | The Poison Squad by Deborah Blum | Jim Fleming | The Poison Squad | Deborah Blum | Penguin Press | 2018 | 1594205140 | From Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times-bestselling author and UW Alumni Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the inimitable Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, who fought for change. (Penguin Press; ISBN-10: 1594205140) THEME: “Disfarmer Theme”, Bill Frisell, Disfarmer, Nonesuch B0029358HQ | THEME: “Disfarmer Theme”, Bill Frisell, Disfarmer, Nonesuch B0029358HQ | No | ||||||||||||||
12 | 2025-09-08 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, July 7 through Friday, October 10, 2025 |  | This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger | Pete Bissen | This Tender Land | William Kent Krueger | Atria | ISBN-10: 1476749302 / ISBN-13: 978-1476749303 | In the summer of 1932, on the banks of Minnesota’s Gilead River, Odie O’Banion is an orphan confined to the Lincoln Indian Training School, a pitiless place where his lively nature earns him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee after committing a terrible crime, he and his brother, Albert, their best friend, Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own. Over the course of one summer, these four orphans journey into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds. | tba | no | |||||||||||||||
13 | 2025-08-18 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, August 18 through Friday, September 5, 2025 |  | Partners In Crime by Agatha Christie | Bruce Bradley | Partners In Crime | Agatha Christie | Public Domain | n/a | The escapade begins when Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, an adventurous married couple, are enlisted to take over an international detective agency that has been recently purged of spies. Tommy and Tuppence tackle various intriguing cases while adopting the personas of famous fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. The stories blend humor with suspense, showcasing Christie’s signature style of misdirection and intricate plotting. | Shostakovich, Jazz Suite No. 2: II. Lyric Waltz Part 2/8; Jazz Suite No. 2: VI. Waltz II | yes | |||||||||||||||
14 | 2025-07-28 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, July 28 through Friday, August 15, 2025 |  | Truck: A Love Story by Michael Perry | Jim Fleming | Truck: A Love Story | Michael Perry | Harper Collins | The account of a year in which the New Auburn, WI writer "struggles to grow his own food...live peaceably with his neighbors...and sort out his love life." It sounds simple, but it's who he meets and the words he finds for what they do that matter.(Harper Collins; ISBN-10: 0060571179)Theme: "The Driving of the Year Nail" from the Leo Kottke Anthology (Rhino RZ 72585/72438 19111 29) | "The Driving of the Year Nail" from the Leo Kottke Anthology (Rhino RZ 72585/72438 19111 29) | no | ||||||||||||||||
15 | 2025-07-07 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, July 7 through Friday July, 25, 2025 |  | The Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages by Sara Rath | Jim Fleming | The Star Lake Saloon and Housekeeping Cottages | Sara Rath | Terrace Books | 299215245 | Hannah Swann leads a quiet life in Madison, but when she inherits her uncle's rundown resort in the north woods, she finds herself proprietor of his environmental legacy as well. It's a chance to discover her family, herself, and what is most important to her future.Also Available as an Audio Book through the Radio Store: 1-800-747-7444 (Terrace Books; ISBN-10: 0299215245)Theme: excerpts from "Fretwork" with Chris Newman | excerpts from "Fretwork" with Chris Newman | no | |||||||||||||||
16 | 2025-06-23 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, June 23 through Friday, July 4, 2025 |  | All the Beauty In The World by Patrick Bringley | Pete Bissen | All The Beauty In The World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me | Patrick Bringley | Simon & Schuster/Vintage | 1982163305 | Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamourous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew. To his surprise and your delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. | Lyric Pieces, Book 5, Opus 54, Number 4, Nocturne by Edvard Grieg; Einar Steen NØkleberg piano | no | |||||||||||||||
17 | 2025-05-26 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, May 26 through Friday, June 20, 2025 |  | Passing Strange | Melvin Hinton | Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha A Sandweiss | Martha A Sandweiss | Penguin Books | ISBN 10: 014311686X / ISBN 13 978-0143116868 | Clarence King was a late 19th-century celebrity, a brilliant scientist and explorer once described by Secretary of State John Hay as "the best and brightest of his generation." But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for thirteen years he lived a double life – the first as the prominent white geologist and writer Clarence King, and a second as the black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd. The fair, blue-eyed son of a wealthy China trader passed across the color line, revealing his secret to his black common-law wife, Ada Copeland, only on his deathbed. Noted historian Martha A. Sandweiss tells the dramatic, distinctively American tale of a family built along the fault lines of celebrity, class, and race- a story that spans the long century from Civil War to civil rights. | From the Black Belt by William Grant Still performed by the Westchester Symphony Orchestra, Siegried Landau conductor | no | |||||||||||||||
18 | 2025-05-12 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, May 12 through Friday, May 23, 2025 |  | Sitting Pretty by Rebekah Taussig | Michele Good | Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary, Resilent Disabled Body | Rebekah Taussig | HarperOne | 62936808 | UW Madison’s 2024-2025 Go Big Read! Growing up as a paralyzed girl during the 90s and early 2000s, Rebekah Taussig only saw disability depicted as something monstrous (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), inspirational (Helen Keller), or angelic (Forrest Gump). None of this felt right; and as she got older, she longed for more stories that allowed disability to be complex and ordinary, uncomfortable and fine, painful and fulfilling. Disability affects all of us, directly or indirectly, at one some point or another in our lives. By exploring this truth in poignant and lyrical essays, Taussig illustrates the need for more stories and more voices to understand the diversity of humanity. Sitting Pretty challenges us as a society to be patient and vigilant, practical and imaginative, kind and relentless, as we set to work to write an entirely different story. | THEME: Beautiful by Christina Aguilera, arranged for string quartet by Austin Ralphson | no | |||||||||||||||
19 | 2025-04-21 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, April 21 through Friday, May 9, 2025 |  | Heritage by Miguel Bonnefoy | Norman Gilliland | Heritage | Miguel Bonnefoy | Other Press | ISBN 10: 1635421829 / ISBN 13 978-1635421828 | The house on Calle Santo Domingo in Santiago de Chile, with its lush lemon trees, has sheltered three generations of the Lonsonier family. Having arrived from the harsh hills of France’s Jura region with a single grape vine in one pocket and a handful of change in the other, the patriarch put down roots there in the late nineteenth century. His son, Lazare, back from World War I’s hellish trenches, would live there with his wife and build in their garden the most beautiful aviary in the Andes. That’s where their daughter Margot, a pioneering aviator, would first dream of flying, and where she would raise her son, the revolutionary Ilario Da. Like Lazare before them, they will bravely face the conflicts of their day, fighting against dictatorship on both sides of the Atlantic. A dazzling family saga, brimming with poetry and passion, that skillfully weaves together the private lives of individuals and major historical events in South America and Europe. | THEME: “Images, Iberia”, Claude Debussy, Orchestre National de Lyon, Jum Markl | no | |||||||||||||||
20 | 2025-04-07 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, April 7 through Friday, April 18, 2025 |  | Last Person Rural by Noel Perrin | Jim Fleming | Last Person Rural | Noel Perrin | David R Godine | 087923914x | Perrin's second ``final'' collection of bucolic essays was written eight years after his supposedly ultimate compilation —and it's another appreciation of rural life and being a good steward of the land told with humor, warmth and a little bit of philosophy as well. | THEME: "Pastorale" by Claude Champagne - CBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra | no | |||||||||||||||
21 | 2025-03-24 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, March 24 through Friday, April 4, 2025 |  | The Art Thief by Mike Finkel | Bruce Bradley | The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime and A Dangerous Obsession | Mike Finkel | Vintage | 1984898450 | Stéphane Bréitwieser is the most prolific art thief of all time. He pulled off more than 200 heists, often in crowded museums in broad daylight. His girlfriend served as his accomplice. His collection was worth an estimated $2 billion. He never sold a piece, displaying his stolen art in his attic bedroom. He felt like a king. Until everything came to a shocking end. In this spellbinding portrait of obsession and flawed genius, Michael Finkel gives us one of the most remarkable true-crime narratives of our times, a riveting story of art, theft, love, and an insatiable hunger to possess beauty at any cost. | THEME: Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens, performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Dutoit conductor, Kyung Wha Chung piano | no | |||||||||||||||
22 | 2025-03-10 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, March 10 through Friday, March 21, 2025 |  | Paris 1944: Occupation, Resistance, Liberation by Patrick Bishop | Norman Gilliland | Paris 1944: Occupation, Resistance, Liberation | Patrick Bishop | Pegasus Books | 1639367039 | The fall of Paris to the Nazis on June 14th, 1940, was one of the darkest days of World War II. And the liberation of the city on August 25th, 1944, felt like the brightest. The liberation was also the biggest party of the century: champagne flowed freely, total strangers embraced—it was a celebration of life renewed against the backdrop of the world's favorite city, as experienced by the likes of Ernest Hemingway and J. D. Salinger. But there was nothing preordained about this happy ending. Had things transpired differently, Paris might have gone down as a ghastly monument to Nazi nihilism. | THEME: “Suite Francaise” by Darius Milhaud performed by the London Wind Orchestra, Denis Wick conductor | No | |||||||||||||||
23 | 2025-03-02 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, March 2 through Friday, March 7, 2025 |  | A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold | Jim Fleming | A Sand County Almanac | Aldo Leopold | Read by Jim Fleming.(Oxford; ISBN: 019505928X)Theme: Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Poem; Stephanie Jutt, flute; Randall Hodgkinson, piano (GM Recordings GM 2026 CD) | Charles Tomlinson Griffes: Poem; Stephanie Jutt, flute; Randall Hodgkinson, piano (GM Recordings GM 2026 CD) | ||||||||||||||||||
24 | 2025-02-13 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Thursday, February 13 through Friday, Feburary 28, 2025 |  | Notes Of A Native Son by James Baldwin | Melvin Hinton | Notes Of A Native Son | James Baldwin | Beacon Press | 2012 | 9780807006238 | In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. (Beacon Press; ISBN-10: 9780807006238 / ISBN-13: 978-0807006238) | "Ticklin' Toes" and "Dances In the Cane Breaks" by Florence Price, performed by Kirsten Johnson | No | ||||||||||||||
25 | 2025-01-20 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Thursday, January 30 through Wednesday, February 12, 2025 |  | Third Person Rural by Noel Perrin | Jim Fleming | Third Person Rural | Noel Perrin | David R Godine | 1567920578 | Essays on rural life that not only address the many how-to questions that bedevil country dwellers, but also the larger direction that life is taking on this planet. Perrin, a transplanted New Yorker and now a “real” Vermonter, candidly admits his early mistakes while giving concrete advice on matters such as what to do with maple syrup (other than put it on your pancakes), how to use a peavey, and how to replace your rototiller with a garden animal. | "Pastorale" by Claude Champagne - CBC Vancouver Symphony Orchestra) | ||||||||||||||||
26 | 2025-01-06 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, January 6 through Wednesday, January 29, 2025 |  | Washington Square by Henry James | Karl Schmidt | Washington Square | Henry James | Public Domain | Written in 1880, but about the Regency period, Washington Square is about a father's attempts to thwart a romance between his naïve daughter and the man he believes wishes to marry her solely for her fortune. The father’s efforts are thwarted by his scheming sister who believes that true love conquers all. But is it love or greed? | Edward MacDowell: Fireside Tales, Op 61; Calico Winds (Albany Troy 693) | Yes | ||||||||||||||||
27 | 2024-12-26 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Wednesday, December 26, 2024 through Friday, January 3, 2025 |  | The Chimes - from Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens | Jim Fleming | The Chimes -- from Christmas Stories | Charles Dickens | Public Domain | PD | This 1844 Charles Dickens’ novella concerns the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year's Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man. | "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" & "Greensleeves" from "A Midnight Clear: A Celtic Christmas" with Robin Bullock (Dorian DOR 93250) | Yes | |||||||||||||||
28 | 2024-12-16 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, December 16 through Wednesday, December 25, 2024 |  | Skipping Christmas by John Grisham | Jim Fleming | Skipping Christmas | John Grisham | Doubleday | 385505833 | Luther and Nora Krank, having sent their daughter off to work for the Peace Corps, sense an opportunity. "We won't do Christmas," says Luther, and books a cruise instead. Their neighbors find this decision unseemly, to say the least, and the humor of the story is in how the Kranks respond to pressure. The Kranks may want to skip Christmas, but you won't. | Kirkmount: New Snow/Mittens for Christmas and Bring a Torch/Down in Yon Forest/There Was a Pig Went Out to Dig/I Saw Three Ships/Christmas Morning from the album Mittens for Christmas (Dorian) | No | |||||||||||||||
29 | 2024-11-18 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, November 18 through Friday, December 13, 2024 |  | The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp by Leonie Swann | Michele Good | The Sunset Years of Agnes Sharp | Leonie Swann | Soho Crime | 1641294337 | It has been an eventful morning for Agnes Sharp and the other inhabitants of Sunset Hall, a house share for the old and unruly in the sleepy English countryside. Although they have had some issues (misplaced reading glasses, conflicting culinary tastes, decreasing mobility, and gluttonous grandsons), nothing prepares them for an unexpected visit from a police officer with some shocking news. A body has been discovered next door. Everyone puts on a long face for show, but they are secretly relieved the body in question is not the one they’re currently hiding in the shed (sorry, Lillith). | "Devil's Dance" by John Williams, performed by Gil Shaham & Jonathon Feldman, from The Witches of Eastwick | No | |||||||||||||||
30 | 2024-11-04 WPR Music 7:00 pm WPR News 9:30 pm | Monday, November 4 through Friday, November 15, 2024 |  | The Good War: An Oral History of World War II by Studs Turkel | Karl Schmidt | The Good War: An Oral History of World War II | Studs Terkel | The New Press | 1565843436 | “The Good War” is a testament not only to the experience of war but to the extraordinary skill of Studs Terkel as an interviewer and oral historian. From a pipe fitter’s apprentice at Pearl Harbor to a crew member of the flight that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, his subjects are open and unrelenting in their analyses of themselves and their experiences, producing what People magazine has called “a splendid epic history” of WWII. | No | ||||||||||||||||
31 | 2024-10-14 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, October 14 through Friday, November 1, 2024 |  | The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells | The Invisible Man | H.G. Wells | Setting the mood for Halloween, it’s HG Wells’ science fiction/horror classic! A strange man comes to stay at the "Coach and Horses" in Iping. The man is covered in bandages. The owner of the establishment, a Mrs. Hall, assumes the man was in an accident and is horribly disfigured and ashamed. But the bandages are hiding something much more sinister. | Yes | |||||||||||||||||||
32 | 2024-09-23 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, September 23 through Friday, October 11, 2024 |  | Fallen: George Mallory and the Tragic 1924 Everest Expedition by Mick Conefrey | Norman Gilliland | Fallen: George Mallory and the Tragic 1924 Everest Expedition | Mick Conefrey | Pegasus Books | 1639366350 | In the years following his disappearance near the summit of Mount Everest in June 1924 at the age of thirty-seven, George Mallory was elevated into a legendary international hero. Dubbed "the Galahad of Everest,” he was lionized by the media as the greatest mountaineer of his generation—a man who had died while taking the ultimate challenge. His body was only recovered in 1999 and there is still speculation about whether he made it to the summit. Handsome, charismatic, and daring, Mallory was a skilled public speaker, athlete, technically-gifted climber, a committed Socialist, and a supremely attractive figure to both men and women. But that was only one side to him. Using diaries, letters, memoirs, and thousands of contemporary documents, Fallen is a gripping forensic investigation of Mallory’s last expedition that, at long last, separates the man from the myth. | Elibris (Dawn God Of Urardu) Opus 50, Alan Hovhaness; Philharmonia Orchestra; David Amos, conductor; Christine Messiter, solo flute | No | |||||||||||||||
33 | 2024-08-26 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, August 26 through Friday, September 20, 2024 |  | Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier | Jim Fleming | Cold Mountain | Charles Frazier | Grove Press | 802142842 | Sorely wounded and fatally disillusioned in the fighting at Petersburg, a Confederate soldier named Inman decides to walk back to his home in the Blue Ridge mountains to Ada, the woman he loves. His trek across the disintegrating South brings him into intimate and sometimes lethal converse with enslaved persons and marauders, bounty hunters and witches, both helpful and malign. At the same time, the intrepid Ada is trying to revive her father’s derelict farm and learning to survive in a world where the old certainties have been swept away. | "The Lover's Waltz" with Jay Unger and Molly Mason (Angel 5561-2) | No | |||||||||||||||
34 | 2024-07-29 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, July 29 through Friday, August 23, 2024 |  | West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge | Jim Fleming | West With Giraffes | Lynda Rutledge | Lake Union Publishing | 1542023343 | Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave. It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. | Three Preludes, George Gershwin; Levant Plays Gershwin; Sony BMG Music | No | |||||||||||||||
35 | 2024-07-08 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, July 8 through Friday, July 26, 2024 |  | The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus And A World Out Of Balance by Dan Egan | Norman Gilliland | The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus And A World Out Of Balance | Dan Egan | WW Norton | 1324002662 | Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. Over the past century, phosphorus has made farming vastly more productive, feeding the enormous increase in the human population. Yet, our overreliance on this vital crop nutrient is today causing toxic algae blooms and “dead zones” in waterways from the coasts of Florida to the Mississippi River basin to the Great Lakes and beyond. Meanwhile, diminishing access to phosphorus poses a threat to the food system worldwide ― which risks rising conflict and even war. | Virgil Thomson, Louisiana Story, New London Orchestra | No | |||||||||||||||
36 | 2024-06-10 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, June 10 through Friday, July 5, 2024 |  | Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt | Michele Good | Remarkably Bright Creatures | Shelby Van Pelt | Ecco, A Div. of HarperCollins | 63204150 | After Tova Sullivan’s husband died, she began working the night shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium, mopping floors and tidying up. Keeping busy has always helped her cope, which she’s been doing since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat in Puget Sound over thirty years ago. Tova becomes acquainted with curmudgeonly Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium. Marcellus knows more than anyone can imagine but wouldn’t dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors—until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova. Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old invertebrate body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it’s too late. | TBD | No | |||||||||||||||
37 | 2024-05-20 WPR Music 7:00pm WPR News 9:30pm | Monday, May 20 through Friday, June 7, 2024 |  | The Land Remembers: The Story Of A Farm And Its People by Ben Logan | Karl Schmidt | The Land Remembers: The Story Of A Farm And Its People | Ben Logan | University of Wisconsin Press | 299309045 | This is a story about a farm and its people, of a hilltop world in the 1930s in southwestern Wisconsin. Ben Logan grew up on a farm with his three brothers, father, mother, and farmhand Lyle, the fifth Logan boy, and marked the seasons by the demands of the land. The boys discussed and argued and joked over the events around their hilltop farm, testing each other and themselves as they learned the lessons of the farm and growing up. This beautiful story is now reunited with a never-before published Afterword that traces the land to an earlier time and brings the story full-circle to the farm and its people. | Triptique for String Orchestra-Berceuse & Andante; Akutagawa – Angel S-36577 | No | |||||||||||||||
38 | 2024-04-15 12:30 | Monday, April 15 through Friday, May 17, 2024 |  | Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns | Karl Schmidt | Cold Sassy Tree | Olive Ann Burns | Mariner Books | 618918716 | The one thing you can depend on in Cold Sassy, Georgia, is that word gets around—fast. When Grandpa Blakeslee announces one July morning that he's aiming to marry the young milliner, Miss Love Simpson—a bare three weeks after Granny Blakeslee has gone to her reward—the news is served up all over town. And young Will Tweedy suddenly finds himself eyewitness to a major scandal. Will nevertheless approves of this May-December match and follows its progress with just a smidgen of youthful prurience. A timeless, funny, resplendent novel - about a romance that rocks an entire town, a boy's passage from childhood into adolescence, and how people lived and died in a small Southern town at the turn of the century. | "Miniatures”, Williams Grant Still for flute, oboe and piano, Crystal Records | No | |||||||||||||||
39 | 2024-03-25 12:30 | Monday, March 25 through Friday, April 12, 2024 |  | The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters | Norman Gilliland and Michele Good | The Berry Pickers | Amanda Peters | Harper Perennial | 14434681815 | July 1962. A Mi'kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family's youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come. Meanwhile in Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her. Unwilling to abandon her intuition, she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret. | "Valse Triste", Jean Sibelius; English String Orchestra, William Boughton, conductor; English Chamber Orchestra, Nimbus Records | No | |||||||||||||||
40 | 2024-03-11 12:30 | Monday, March 11 through Friday, March 22, 2024 |  | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Ken Ohst | The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle | Venture back in time to Victorian London to join literature's greatest detective team — the brilliant Sherlock Holmes and his devoted assistant, Dr. Watson. Ken Ohst reads this gem from the archives featuring five favorites: "The Red-Headed League", "The Speckled Band", "The Beryl Coronet", "The Man With The Twisted Lip", and "The Engineer’s Thumb". | Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Beethoven, performed by the Columbia Symphony Orchestra | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
41 | 2024-02-19 12:30 | Monday, February 19 through Friday, March 8, 2024 |  | Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life Of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Stephen Oates | Karl Schmidt | Let the Trumpet Sound: A Life Of Martin Luther King, Jr. | Stephen Oates | Harper Perennial | 62321455 | By the acclaimed biographer of Abraham Lincoln, Nat Turner, and John Brown, Stephen B. Oates's prizewinning “Let the Trumpet Sound” is the definitive one-volume life of Martin Luther King, Jr. This brilliant examination of the great civil rights icon and the movement he led provides a lasting portrait of a man whose dream shaped American history. | "Twenty-four Negro Melodies" - Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Orion Records | No | |||||||||||||||
42 | 2024-02-05 12:30 | Monday, February 5 through Friday, February 16, 2024 |  | The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting by Anne Trubek | Melvin Hinton | The History and Uncertain Future of Handwriting | Anne Trubek | Bloomsbury | 9781620402153 | In the digital age of instant communication, handwriting is less necessary than ever before, and indeed fewer and fewer schoolchildren are being taught how to write in cursive. Signatures have become scrawls. Some argue it’s a signal of a decline in civilization, but is it just the next stage in the natural evolution of communication? | “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter”, Fats Waller, The Very Best of Fats Waller | No | |||||||||||||||
43 | 2024-01-08 12:30 | Monday, January 8 through Friday, February 2, 2024 |  | The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb | Baron Kelly | The Violin Conspiracy | Brendan Slocumb | Anchor | 593315081 | Growing up Black in rural North Carolina, Ray McMillian's life is already mapped out. But Ray has a gift and a dream—he's determined to become a world-class professional violinist. When he discovers that his beat-up, family fiddle is actually a priceless Stradivarius, all his dreams suddenly seem within reach, and together, Ray and his violin take the world by storm. But on the eve of the renowned and cutthroat Tchaikovsky Competition, the violin is stolen, a ransom note for five million dollars left in its place. Without it, Ray feels like he's lost a piece of himself. As the competition approaches, Ray must not only reclaim his precious violin, but prove to himself—and the world—that no matter the outcome, there has always been a truly great musician within him. | Joshua Bell; Tchaikovsky; Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 | No | |||||||||||||||
44 | 2024-01-01 12:30 | Monday, January 1 through Friday, January 5, 2024 |  | The Pirate’s Wife by Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos | Norman Gilliland | The Pirate’s Wife | Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos | Hanover Square Press | B09PJL699S | Captain Kidd was one of the most notorious pirates to ever prowl the seas. But few know that Kidd had an accomplice, a behind-the-scenes player who enabled his plundering and helped him outpace his enemies. That accomplice was his wife, Sarah Kidd, a well-to-do woman whose extraordinary life is a lesson in reinvention and resourcefulness. Twice widowed by twenty-one and operating within the strictures of polite society in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New York, Sarah secretly aided and abetted her husband, fighting alongside him against his accusers. Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos reconstructs the extraordinary life of Sarah Kidd, uncovering a rare example of the kind of life that pirate wives lived during the Golden Age of Piracy. | "Three Shanties, Op 4", Sir Malcolm Arnold; performed by East Winds | No | |||||||||||||||
45 | 2023-12-27 12:30 | Wednesday, December 27 through Friday, December 29, 2023. |  | Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope | Karl Schmidt | Christmas at Thompson Hall | Anthony Trollope | Anthony Trollope’s Victorian “comedy of errors” "Christmas at Thompson Hall" was a holiday tradition for many years on Chapter A Day. Not quite a “Christmas story”, it nonetheless is filled with the festivity and anxiety that accompanies the season. Mrs Brown is overjoyed. She hasn’t been home to England for the holidays in eight years. But nothing is cooperating with her… not the weather, not her husband, and not the strange man she just slathered with mustard plaster. Just how far will she go to get home in time for Christmas? (Public Domain) | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
46 | 2023-12-25 00:30 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023 |  | Children's Holiday Special (Part 2) Coyote Christmas: A Lakota Story by S.D. Nelson | Coyote Christmas: A Lakota Story | S.D. Nelson | Abrams Books for Young Readers | 2007 | 9780810993679 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Chapter A Day celebrates "the Littles" with two days of children's Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah stories. Hosted by Executive Producer Michele Good and read by Wisconsin-based kids and grown-ups who reflect the characters in the stories, these delightful books celebrate the holidays through a range of cultural perspectives. Featuring music from the Madison Youth Choirs and others. Special thanks to Madison Youth Choirs and CTM of Madison for providing the talented kids and to Madison Youth Choirs for providing the choral music. "Coyote Christmas: A Lakota Story" by SD Nelson Harry N. Abrams; Library Binding Edition (December 1, 2007) ISBN-10: 0810993678 | ISBN-13: 978-0810993679 On Christmas Eve, Coyote wants to find some people to trick out of a hot meal. He knows that there’s one character people can’t refuse on Christmas Eve: Santa Claus! Using straw for a jolly belly and wool for his Santa’s beard, the Trickster fools a family into welcoming him to their Christmas meal. But just when he thinks he’s gotten away with his ruse, taking their food and leaving the family with nothing, he’s foiled by a strange occurrence. Could it be a Christmas miracle? Music: “Lakota Lullaby”, Robert Tree Cody, from the album Dreams from the Grandfather: Native American Songs for Flute & Voice”, Canyon Records 1993 Our Readers Coyote Christmas read by Calvin Branum, Nicoletta Avery Fulwilder, Michele Good and Carly Lincoln Michele Good served as Host, Producer, Sound Designer, Director, Engineer, and Technical Director. Special thanks to Steve Gotcher (for spreading Holiday cheer with the Greetings and the breaking of a pinata) and Aubrey "The De-Muffler" Ralph for their elfen audio magic, Valerie Waszak for getting the rights to the books and to the web team for wrapping all the presents into such a pretty package! | No | ||||||||||||||||
47 | 2023-12-25 00:30 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023 | Children's Holiday Special (Part 1) Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story by Angela Shelf Medearis | Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story | Angela Shelf Medearis | Albert Whitman & Company | 2000 | 0807573167 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Chapter A Day celebrates "the Littles" with two days of children's Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah stories. Hosted by Executive Producer Michele Good and read by Wisconsin-based kids and grown-ups who reflect the characters in the stories, these delightful books celebrate the holidays through a range of cultural perspectives. Featuring music from the Madison Youth Choirs and others. Special thanks to Madison Youth Choirs and CTM of Madison for providing the talented kids and to Madison Youth Choirs for providing the choral music. "Seven Spools of Thread: A Kwanzaa Story" by Angela Shelf Medearis Illustrated by Daniel Minter; Albert Whitman & Company; Reprint Edition (September 1, 2000) ISBN-10: 0807573159 | ISBN-13 : 978-0807573167 In an African village live seven brothers who make life miserable with their constant fighting. When their father dies, he leaves an unusual will: by sundown, the brothers must make gold out of seven spools of thread or they will be turned out as beggars. Music: “Little Drummer Boy (African Tribal Version) by Alex Boye’, Alex Boye’ 2020 Our Readers Seven Spools of Thread read by Sebastian LeBarron, Jayquan Jaeger, Calvin Branum, Walker Stephenson, and Cynthia Woodland Michele Good served as Host, Producer, Sound Designer, Director, Engineer, and Technical Director. Special thanks to Steve Gotcher (for spreading Holiday cheer with the Greetings and the breaking of a pinata) and Aubrey "The De-Muffler" Ralph for their elfen audio magic, Valerie Waszak for getting the rights to the books and to the web team for wrapping all the presents into such a pretty package! | No | |||||||||||||||||
48 | 2023-12-25 00:30 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023 |  | Children's Holiday Special (Part 2) Nine Days to Christmas A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida | Nine Days to Christmas A Story of Mexico | Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida | Puffin | 1991 | 0140544429 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Chapter A Day celebrates "the Littles" with two days of children's Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah stories. Hosted by Executive Producer Michele Good and read by Wisconsin-based kids and grown-ups who reflect the characters in the stories, these delightful books celebrate the holidays through a range of cultural perspectives. Featuring music from the Madison Youth Choirs and others. Special thanks to Madison Youth Choirs and CTM of Madison for providing the talented kids and to Madison Youth Choirs for providing the choral music. "Nine Days to Christmas" A Story of Mexico by Marie Hall Ets & Aurora Labastida Dover Publications; Bilingual Edition (October 18, 2017) ISBN-10: 0486815323 | ISBN-13: 978-0486815329 Generations of readers have treasured this 1960 Caldecott Medal winner and its tale of a little Mexican girl's excitement at the approach of Christmas. Ceci eagerly awaits Las Posadas, the traditional nine-day series of yuletide celebrations. This year she'll lead the candlelight procession that reenacts Mary and Joseph's trek to Bethlehem and receive her very first piñata. Music: “Las Posadas Mexicanas” sung by the Luz de las Naciones Choir, recorded live in Salt Lake City, 2014. Our Readers Nine Days to Christmas read by Michele Good, Jayquan Jaeger, Jackie Tabares and sons, Miranda Garcia-Dove, Lola Hernandez, Walker Stephenson, and Davi Leal Michele Good served as Host, Producer, Sound Designer, Director, Engineer, and Technical Director. Special thanks to Steve Gotcher (for spreading Holiday cheer with the Greetings and the breaking of a pinata) and Aubrey "The De-Muffler" Ralph for their elfen audio magic, Valerie Waszak for getting the rights to the books and to the web team for wrapping all the presents into such a pretty package! | No | ||||||||||||||||
49 | 2023-12-25 00:30 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023 |  | Children's Holiday Special (Part 1) The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket | The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story | Lemony Snicket | McSweeney's First Edition | 2007 | 1932416870 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Chapter A Day celebrates "the Littles" with two days of children's Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah stories. Hosted by Executive Producer Michele Good and read by Wisconsin-based kids and grown-ups who reflect the characters in the stories, these delightful books celebrate the holidays through a range of cultural perspectives. Featuring music from the Madison Youth Choirs and others. Special thanks to Madison Youth Choirs and CTM of Madison for providing the talented kids and to Madison Youth Choirs for providing the choral music. "The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story" by Lemony Snicket Illustrations by Lisa Brown, McSweeney's; First Probable Edition (October 28, 2007) ISBN-10: 1932416870 | ISBN-13: 978-1932416879 Latkes are potato pancakes served at Hanukkah, and Lemony Snicket is an alleged children’s author. For the first time in literary history, these two elements are combined in one book. A particularly irate latke is the star of “The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming”, but many other holiday icons appear and even speak: flashing colored lights, cane-shaped candy, a pine tree. Santa Claus is briefly discussed as well. The ending is happy, at least for some. Music: “Shalom Aleichem” and “Miserlou”, from the album Hanukkah Songs of Celebration by Jeff Wolpert, Somerset Group, Ltd. 2013 Our Readers The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming read by Sebastian LeBarron, Mari Garey, Michele Good and Lisa Spierer Michele Good served as Host, Producer, Sound Designer, Director, Engineer, and Technical Director. Special thanks to Steve Gotcher (for spreading Holiday cheer with the Greetings and the breaking of a pinata) and Aubrey "The De-Muffler" Ralph for their elfen audio magic, Valerie Waszak for getting the rights to the books and to the web team for wrapping all the presents into such a pretty package! | No | ||||||||||||||||
50 | 2023-12-25 00:30 | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023 |  | Children's Holiday Special (Part 1) Tree of Cranes by Allen Say | Tree of Cranes | Allen Say | HMH Books for Young Readers; First Editio | 1991 | 039552024X | Monday, December 25 through Tuesday, December 26, 2023. Chapter A Day celebrates "the Littles" with two days of children's Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chanukah stories. Hosted by Executive Producer Michele Good and read by Wisconsin-based kids and grown-ups who reflect the characters in the stories, these delightful books celebrate the holidays through a range of cultural perspectives. Featuring music from the Madison Youth Choirs and others. Special thanks to Madison Youth Choirs and CTM of Madison for providing the talented kids and to Madison Youth Choirs for providing the choral music. "Tree of Cranes" by Allen Say HMH Books for Young Readers; First Printing Edition (October 28, 1991) ISBN-10:039552024X | ISBN-13: 978-0395520246 As a young Japanese boy recovers from a bad chill, his mother busily folds origami paper into delicate silver cranes in preparation for the boy's very first Christmas. Music: “Kamimu” performed by Tomoko Sunazaki from the album Asia Mus: Asia Music, Celestial Harmonies 1996. Our Readers Tree of Cranes read by NayMyo Win Michele Good served as Host, Producer, Sound Designer, Director, Engineer, and Technical Director. Special thanks to Steve Gotcher (for spreading Holiday cheer with the Greetings and the breaking of a pinata) and Aubrey "The De-Muffler" Ralph for their elfen audio magic, Valerie Waszak for getting the rights to the books and to the web team for wrapping all the presents into such a pretty package! | No | ||||||||||||||||
51 | 2023-12-04 12:30 | Monday, December 4 through Friday, December 22, 2023 |  | Plainsong by Kent Haruf | Jim Fleming | Plainsong | Kent Haruf | Knopf | 1999 | In a small town, a high school teacher must raise his two boys alone after their mother retreats altogether. A teenage girl is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And two elderly brothers work the family homestead, the only world they've ever known. A story of family and romance, tribulation and tenacity, set on the High Plains east of Denver. (Knopf; ISBN-10: 0375406182) | Soundtrack from the film "Brother's Keeper" - "The Streets of Munsville, Roscoe's Waterfall, Fiddler's Elbow" - Jay Ungar & Molly Mason (Angel CDC 0777 7 54828 2 9) (album also called "Waltzing With You") | No | |||||||||||||||
52 | 2023-11-06 12:30 | Monday, November 6 through Friday, December 1, 2023 |  | American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal by Neil King | Jim Fleming | American Ramble: A Walk of Memory and Renewal | Neil King | Mariner Books | 2023 | 035870149X | Neil King Jr.’s desire to walk from Washington, D.C., to New York City began as a whim and soon became an obsession. By the spring of 2021, events had intervened that gave his desire greater urgency. His neighborhood still reeled from the January 6th insurrection. COVID lockdowns and a rancorous election had deepened America’s divides. Neil himself bore the imprints of a long battle with cancer. Determined to rediscover what matters in life and to see our national story with new eyes, Neil turned north with a small satchel on his back and one mission in mind: To pay close attention to the land he crossed and the people he met. What followed is an extraordinary 26-day journey to his ultimate destination: Central Park. The journey travels deep into America’s past and present, uncovering forgotten pockets and overlooked people. At a time of mounting disunity, the trip reveals the profound power of our shared ground. (Mariner; ISBN-10: 035870149X / ISBN-13: 978-0358701491) | George Gershwin; Piano Rolls; "Novelette In Fourths", "That Certain Feeling", "So Am I" | No | ||||||||||||||
53 | 2023-10-09 12:30 | Monday, October 9 through Friday, November 3, 2023 |  | Code Six by James Grippando | Norman Gilliland | Code Six | James Grippando | Harper | 2023 | 0063223783 | Aspiring playwright, Kate Gamble, is struggling to launch a script she’s been secretly researching her entire life, mostly at the family dinner table. Her father is Christian Gamble, CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Then Patrick Battle comes back into her life, changing everything she has ever thought about her play, her father, and her mother’s tragic death. Patrick is a childhood friend, but he is now Buck’s golden boy with security clearance to the company’s most sensitive projects. When Patrick suddenly goes missing, Kate doesn’t know who to trust. A phone call confirms her worst nightmare: Patrick has been kidnapped, and the ransom demand is “Code 6”—the most secret and potentially dangerous technology her father’s company has ever developed. (Harper; ISBN-10: 0063223783) | Philip Glass, 10 Etudes For Piano, Volume 1, Philip Glass, piano; Orange Mountain Music | No | ||||||||||||||
54 | 2023-09-11 12:30 | Monday, September 11 through Friday, October 6, 2023 |  | Empire Falls by Richard Russo | Jim Fleming | Empire Falls | Richard Russo | Knopf | 2001 | 9780679432470 | Small towns "force you to deal with your neighbour in a way people in cities and larger towns don't have to" says Richard Russo. He demonstrates this in his epic new novel about a small town in Maine. Empire Falls has fallen on hard time, it's main street so empty "you could strafe it with automatic weapons and not harm a soul." But the people who surround Miles Roby at Francine's Empire Grill make it all worthwhile. (Knopf; ISBN-10: 0679432477) | Joshua Redman: The Best is Yet to Come, from the soundtrack to "Space Cowboys" (Maiposo/Warner Bros 9 47848-2) | No | ||||||||||||||
55 | 2023-08-21 12:30 | Monday, August 21 through Friday, September 8, 2023 |  | The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemmingway | Jim Fleming | The Sun Also Rises | Ernest Hemmingway | The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, this Hemingway masterpiece is a poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation. The novel introduces two of Hemingway's most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Brett and the hapless Jake as they journey from the wild nightlife of 1920s Paris to the brutal bullfighting rings of Spain with a motley group of expatriates. It is an age of moral bankruptcy, spiritual dissolution, unrealized love, and vanishing illusions. (Public Domain) | "Singing the Blues" performed by Frankie Trumbauer and his orchestra with Bix Beiderbeck; The Best of Ken Burns Jazz; Sony Music | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
56 | 2023-07-31 12:30 | Monday, July 31 through Friday, August 18, 2023 |  | O Pioneers by Willa Cather | Susan Sweeney | O Pioneers | Willa Cather | Willa Cather established her reputation as a writer of extraordinary talent with the publication of “O Pioneers!”. The lives of two very different heroines unfold during a time when the wild lands of the frontier broke the spirit of many of America’s hopeful Swedish, Czech, Bohemian, and French immigrant farmers. When Alexandra Bergson inherits the family farm as a young girl, she reveals herself to be as uncommonly determined, enterprising, and capable as she is charismatic. Meanwhile, the relationship between Alexandra’s brother Emil and the beautiful Marie Shabata plays out in what many critics view as some of Cather’s finest writing. Throughout, the land itself emerges as a character that challenges and changes the lives it supports. (Public Domain) | "Our Town", Aaron Copland, London Symphony Orchestra; Copland Conduct Copland | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
57 | 2023-07-17 12:30 | Monday, July 17 through Friday, July 28, 2023 |  | Return to Wake Robin: One Cabin in the Heyday of Northwoods Resorts By Marnie O. Mamminga | Susan Sweeney | Wisconsin Historical Society Press | 2012 | 9780870204913 | On Big Spider Lake near Hayward, Wisconsin is a cabin that has seen five generations of family visit, all of them fondly remembered by the author. Wake Robin was built by the author’s grandparents near the close of the logging era in 1929, on land adjacent to Moody’s Camp, and owned by the family into the modern era of palatial lake homes, condos, and Jet Skis. By tracing the history of one resort and cabin and one family’s time there, Mamminga recalls a time and experience (Wisconsin Historical Society Press ISBN-10: 0870204912) | Phil Cook & His Feat; from the Album: Hungry Mother Blues 1.Frazee, MN, 2. The Jensens 3. Lament & Lullaby | No | ||||||||||||||||
58 | 2023-06-26 12:30 | Monday, June 26 through Friday, July 14, 2023 |  | The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II by Madeline Martin | Jim Fleming | The Last Bookshop in London: A Novel of World War II | Madeline Martin | Hanover Square Press | 2021 | 133528480X | August 1939: London prepares for war as Hitler’s forces sweep across Europe. Grace Bennett has always dreamed of moving to the city, but the bunkers and drawn curtains that she finds on her arrival are not what she expected. And she certainly never imagined she’d wind up working at Primrose Hill, a dusty old bookshop nestled in the heart of London. Through blackouts and air raids as the Blitz intensifies, Grace discovers the power of storytelling to unite her community in ways she never dreamed—a force that triumphs over even the darkest nights of the war. (ISBN-10: 133528480X / ISBN-13: 978-1335284808) | Moonlight Serenade, Glenn Miller | No | ||||||||||||||
59 | 2023-06-12 12:30 | Monday, June 12 through Friday, June 23, 2023 |  | The Call of the Wild and Other Stories by Jack London | Norman Gilliland | The Call of the Wild and Other Stories | Jack London | SeaWolf Press | 2020 | 1950435938 | The Jack London classic follows a dog named Buck, a 140 pound Saint Bernard and Scotch Shepherd mix. Buck is abducted from a comfortable life as a pet and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush. There he must learn to adapt to the brutal realities of frontier life. Plus The Water Baby and The Rainbow's End (Public Domain) | Schubert; Symphony No. 5 in B-Flat Major, D. 485 | Yes | ||||||||||||||
60 | 2023-05-29 12:30 | Monday, May 29 through Friday, June 9, 2023 |  | Here On Lake Hallie: In Praise of Barflies, Fix-It Guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown by Patti See | Susan Sweeney | Here On Lake Hallie: In Praise of Barflies, Fix-It Guys, and Other Folks in Our Hometown | Patti See | Wisconsin Historical Society Press | 2022 | 0870209914 | Growing up in the 1970s and 1980s as the youngest of eight children, Patti never imagined she’d stay in Chippewa Falls as an adult. Now, living on rural Lake Hallie just five miles from her childhood home, she has a new appreciation for all that comes with country living, from ice fishing and eagle sightings to pontoon rides and tavern dice. These brief essays—many of which were originally published in the Sawdust Stories column of the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram—establish that, above all else, it’s friends, family, and other folks in our hometown who provide us with a sense of belonging. (Wisconsin Historical Society Press; ISBN-10: 0870209914) | "Betty's Diner" and "I'll Go To"; Carrie Newcomer; Betty's Diner: The Best of Carrie Newcomer | No | ||||||||||||||
61 | 2023-05-15 12:30 | Monday, May 15 through Friday, May 26, 2023 |  | Happiness Is A Choice You Make: Lessons From A Year Among The Oldest Old by John Leland | Baron Kelly | Happiness Is A Choice You Make: Lessons From A Year Among The Oldest Old | John Leland | Sarah Crichton Books | 2018 | 0374168180 | In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America’s fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise. (Sarah Crichton Books; ISBN-10: 0374168180) | "Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World", Israel Kamakawiwo'ole; Facing Future | No | ||||||||||||||
62 | 2023-04-24 12:30 | Monday, April 24 through Friday, May 12, 2023 |  | The Family Vault by Charlotte MacLeod | Jim Fleming | The Family Vault | Charlotte MacLeod | Doubleday | 1979 | 0385148712 | Great-uncle Frederick has passed away, and the Kelling clan of Boston has made plans to put the old gentleman's remains in the family vault on Beacon Hill. When the vault is opened, however, there's someone already there that no one could have ever expected -- the skeleton of a burlesque queen who disappeared thirty years ago! With the help of private detective Max Bittersohn, it's up to Sarah Kelling to hold the shocked family together, and try to find out what happened. What they unravel is a complex murder plot that not only stretches into the past, but also has Sarah marked as a victim! (Doubleday; ISBN-10: 0385148712) | Canadian Brass plays Fats Waller | No | ||||||||||||||
63 | 2023-04-03 12:30 | Monday, April 3 through Friday, April 21, 2023 |  | Small Game: A Novel by Blair Braverman | Michele Good | Small Game: A Novel | Blair Braverman | Ecco | 2022 | 0063066173 | When reality TV producers came knocking at Mara’s workplace—a survival school that teaches rich clients how not to die during a night outdoors—she’s surprised to learn that she’s been cast in their new show, Civilization. Now, she just has to live off the land with her fellow survivors for six weeks to win the prize money. But when the cast wakes one morning to find something has gone horribly wrong, fear ripples through the group. Are the producers giving them an extra challenge? Or are they wrapped up in something more dangerous? Soon Mara and the others face terrifying decisions as “survival” becomes more than a game. (Ecco; ISBN-10: 0063066173 / ISBN-13:978-0063066175) | "The Isle of the Dead", Sergei Rachmaninoff, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta conductor, Pictures At A Gallery | No | ||||||||||||||
64 | 2023-03-13 12:30 | Monday, March 13 through Friday, March 31, 2023 |  | Under A Veiled Moon by Karen Odden | Norman Gilliland | Under A Veiled Moon | Karen Odden | Crooked Lane Books | 2022 | 1639101195 | September 1878. One night, as the pleasure boat the Princess Alice makes her daily trip up the Thames, she collides with the Bywell Castle, a huge iron-hulled collier. The Princess Alice shears apart, throwing all 600 passengers into the river; only 130 survive. It is the worst maritime disaster London has ever seen, and early clues point to sabotage by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), who believe violence is the path to restoring Irish Home Rule. For Scotland Yard Inspector Michael Corravan, born in Ireland and adopted by the Irish Doyle family, the case presents a challenge. Accused by the Home Office of willfully disregarding the obvious conclusion, and berated by his Irish friends for bowing to prejudice, Corravan doggedly pursues the truth, knowing that if the Princess Alice disaster is pinned on the IRB, hopes for Home Rule could be dashed forever. As the newspapers link the IRB to further accidents, London threatens to devolve into terror and chaos. With the help of his young colleague, the loyal Mr. Stiles, and his friend Belinda Gale, Corravan uncovers the harrowing truth—one that will shake his faith in his countrymen, the law, and himself. (Crooked Lane Books; ISBN 9781639101191) | "With The Wild Geese", Hamilton Harty; Ulster Orchestra, Bryden Thomson Conductor; Malcolm Binns Piano | No | ||||||||||||||
65 | 2023-02-13 12:30 | Monday, February 13 through Friday, March 10, 2023 |  | The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler | Karl Schmidt | The Accidental Tourist | Anne Tyler | Vintage | 2002 | 0345452003 | Travel writer Macon Leary hates travel, adventure, surprises, and anything outside of his routine. Immobilized by grief, Macon is becoming increasingly prickly and alone, anchored by his solitude and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts. Then he meets Muriel, an eccentric dog trainer too optimistic to let Macon disappear into himself. Despite Macon’s best efforts to remain insulated, Muriel up-ends his solitary, systemized life, catapulting him into the center of a messy, beautiful love story he never imagined. (Ballantine Books; ISBN-10: 0345452003) | Terzetto by Gustav Holst - Crystal Records | No | ||||||||||||||
66 | 2023-01-25 12:30 | Wednesday, January 25 through Friday, February 10, 2023 |  | Notes Of A Native Son by James Baldwin | Melvin Hinton | Notes Of A Native Son | James Baldwin | Beacon Press | 2012 | 9780807006238 | In an age of Black Lives Matter, James Baldwin's essays on life in Harlem, the protest novel, movies, and African Americans abroad are as powerful today as when they were first written. Written during the 1940s and early 1950s, when Baldwin was only in his twenties, the essays capture a view of black life and black thought at the dawn of the civil rights movement and as the movement slowly gained strength through the words of one of the most captivating essayists and foremost intellectuals of that era. (Beacon Press; ISBN-10: 9780807006238 / ISBN-13: 978-0807006238) | "Ticklin' Toes" and "Dances In the Cane Breaks" by Florence Price, performed by Kirsten Johnson | No | ||||||||||||||
67 | 2023-01-17 12:30 | Tuesday, January 17 through Tuesday, January 24, 2023 |  | Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do by Tracy Dawson | Michele Good | Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren't Supposed to Do | Tracy Dawson | Harper | 2022 | 0063061066 | From the dawn of time, countless women have ben told, "Nope, not for you," simply because of their gender. A sardonic and thoroughly impassioned homage to female ingenuity and tenacity, Comedian Tracy Dawson profiles women who broke all the rules, dressing – sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively – as men to reach their goals. This entertaining and eye-opening collection lovingly illuminates with wry humor the incredible stories of a diverse group of women from different ethnicities and cultural backgrounds who defied the patriarchy. (Harper Design; ISBN-10: 0063061066 / ISBN-13: 978-0063061064) | "Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves", Aretha Franklin and Annie Lennox | No | ||||||||||||||
68 | 2023-01-16 23:00 | Monday, January 16, 2023 |  | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (Nobel lecture by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) | Melvin Hinton | (Nobel lecture | the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.) | Clarke and Way | 1965 | Monday, January 16, 2023. Read by Melvin Hinton. At the time of the award was given, Dr. King was the youngest person ever to get that particular honor, and said that he would dedicate all of the $54,000 that accompanied it toward the cause of equal rights. When he appeared in Oslo to collect the award, he got the chance to speak eloquently about why that prize was still desperately needed — and why he felt a Peace Prize was appropriate for a movement that had a lot of fighting left to do. This program will air only at 11:00 p.m. | No | ||||||||||||||||
69 | 2023-01-02 12:30 | Monday, January 2 through Friday, January 13, 2023 |  | I Married The Klondike by Laura Beatrice Berton | Susan Sweeney | I Married The Klondike | Laura Beatrice Berton | Lost Moose Books | 2005 | 9781550173338 | In 1907, Laura Beatrice Berton, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, left her comfortable life in Toronto Ontario to teach in a Yukon mining town. When she first arrived in Dawson City, Berton expected to find a rough mining town full of grizzled miners, scarlet-clad Mounties and dance-hall girls. And while these and other memorable characters did abound, she quickly discovered why the town was nicknamed the "Paris of the North." For 25 years, while Dawson City slowly decayed around her, the author remained true to her northern home. Humorous, poignant and filled with stories of both drudgery and decadence, I Married the Klondike is an unforgettable book by a brave and intelligent woman. (Lost Moose Books; ISBN-10: 9781550173338; ISBN-13: 978-1550173338) | Joshua Bell, “Voice of the Violin”, Sony BMG Music; "Estrellita", Manuel Ponce & "May Breezes", Felix Mendelssohn | No | ||||||||||||||
70 | 2022-12-22 12:30 | Thursday, December 22 through Friday, December 30, 2022 |  | The Chimes - from Christmas Stories by Charles Dickens | Jim Fleming | The Chimes - from Christmas Stories | Charles Dickens | Arc Manor | 2008 | 1604505958 | This 1844 Charles Dickens’ novella concerns the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his unworthiness he is visited on New Year's Eve by spirits to help restore his faith and show him that nobody is born evil, but rather that crime and poverty are things created by man. (Serenity Publishers; ISBN: 1604505958) | "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day" & "Greensleeves" from "A Midnight Clear: A Celtic Christmas" with Robin Bullock (Dorian DOR 93250) | No | ||||||||||||||
71 | 2022-12-19 12:30 | Monday, December 19 through Wednesday, December 21, 2022 | | Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope | Karl Schmidt | Christmas at Thompson Hall | Anthony Trollope | Monday, December 19 through Wednesday, December 21, 2022. Read by Karl Schmidt. Anthony Trollope’s Victorian “comedy of errors” "Christmas at Thompson Hall" was a holiday tradition for many years on Chapter A Day. Not quite a “Christmas story”, it nonetheless is filled with the festivity and anxiety that accompanies the season. Mrs Brown is overjoyed. She hasn’t been home to England for the holidays in eight years. But nothing is cooperating with her… not the weather, not her husband, and not the strange man she just slathered with mustard plaster. Just how far will she go to get home in time for Christmas? (Public Domain) | Yes | ||||||||||||||||||
72 | 2022-11-29 12:30 | Tuesday, November 29 through Friday, December 16, 2022 |  | Rest You Merry by Charlotte MacLeod | Jim Fleming | Rest You Merry | Charlotte MacLeod | Avon Books | 1988 | 0380475308 | Each December, the faculty of Balaclava Agricultural College goes wild with holiday decorations. The entire campus glitters with Christmas lights, save for one dark spot: the home of professor Peter Shandy. But after years of resisting the school’s Illumination festival, Shandy suddenly snaps, installing a million-watt display of flashing lights and blaring music perfectly calculated to drive his neighbors mad. Then the horticulturalist flees town, planning to spend Christmas on a tramp steamer. It’s not long before he feels guilty about his prank and returns home to find his lights extinguished—and a dead librarian in his living room. (Avon Books; ISBN: 0380475308) | Philip Jones Brass Ensemble: Christmas Music | No | ||||||||||||||
73 | 2022-11-28 12:30 | Monday, November 28, 2022 |  | More Selected Essays of Ursula Le Guin No Time To Spare | Susan Sweeney | Mariner Books | 2019 | 1328507971 | Selections from "No Time To Spare" and "The Wave In The Mind". Best known for her speculative fiction, Ursula K. LeGuin’s writing career spanned over 60 years, gathering along the way numerous Hugo, Nebula and Focus awards. She’s been described as “a major voice in American letters” and been an important influence to such luminaries as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman. But Le Guin is a writer of non-fiction as well and her sparkling essays on aging, beauty and her beloved cats, are not to be missed. (Permission by the Estate of Ursula Le Guin) | "My Favorite Things" "Anyone Can Whistle", George Shearing, Favorite Things, Telarc | |||||||||||||||||
74 | 2022-11-28 12:30 | Monday, November 28, 2022 |  | More Selected Essays of Ursula Le Guin The Wave in the Mind | Susan Sweeney | Shambhala | 2004 | 1590300068 | Selections from "No Time To Spare" and "The Wave In The Mind". Best known for her speculative fiction, Ursula K. LeGuin’s writing career spanned over 60 years, gathering along the way numerous Hugo, Nebula and Focus awards. She’s been described as “a major voice in American letters” and been an important influence to such luminaries as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman. But Le Guin is a writer of non-fiction as well and her sparkling essays on aging, beauty and her beloved cats, are not to be missed. (Permission by the Estate of Ursula Le Guin) | "My Favorite Things" "Anyone Can Whistle", George Shearing, Favorite Things, Telarc | |||||||||||||||||
75 | 2022-10-26 12:30 | Wednesday, October 26 through Friday, November 25, 2022 |  | Klara And The Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro | Michele Good | Klara And The Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro | Knopf | 2021 | 059331817X | Nobel Prize winning author Kazou Ishiguro offers a look at our changing world through the eyes of an unforgettable narrator, Klara, an Artificial Friend with outstanding observational qualities who is seeking answers to a fundamental question: what does it mean to love? (Knopf; ISBN-10: 059331817X / ISBN-13: 978-0593318171) | William Grant Still; Three Visions: No. 2, Summerland; Zina Schiff, Violin; Royal Scottish National Orchestra; Avlana Eisenberg | |||||||||||||||
76 | 2022-10-19 12:30 | Wednesday, October 19 through Tuesday, October 25, 2022 | | Selected Essays of Ursula Le Guin No Time To Spare | Susan Sweeney | Mariner Books | 2019 | 1328507971 | Selections from "No Time To Spare" and "The Wave In The Mind". Best known for her speculative fiction, Ursula K. LeGuin’s writing career spanned over 60 years, gathering along the way numerous Hugo, Nebula and Focus awards. She’s been described as “a major voice in American letters” and been an important influence to such luminaries as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman. But Le Guin is a writer of non-fiction as well and her sparkling essays on aging, beauty and her beloved cats, are not to be missed. (Permission by the Estate of Ursula Le Guin) | "My Favorite Things" "Anyone Can Whistle", George Shearing, Favorite Things, Telarc | |||||||||||||||||
77 | 2022-10-19 12:30 | Wednesday, October 19 through Tuesday, October 25, 2022 | | Selected Essays of Ursula Le Guin The Wave in the Mind | Susan Sweeney | Shambhala | 2004 | 1590300068 | Selections from "No Time To Spare" and "The Wave In The Mind". Best known for her speculative fiction, Ursula K. LeGuin’s writing career spanned over 60 years, gathering along the way numerous Hugo, Nebula and Focus awards. She’s been described as “a major voice in American letters” and been an important influence to such luminaries as Salman Rushdie and Neil Gaiman. But Le Guin is a writer of non-fiction as well and her sparkling essays on aging, beauty and her beloved cats, are not to be missed. (Permission by the Estate of Ursula Le Guin) | "My Favorite Things" "Anyone Can Whistle", George Shearing, Favorite Things, Telarc | |||||||||||||||||
78 | 2022-10-03 12:30 | Monday, October 3 through Tuesday, October 18, 2022 |  | On Democracy by EB White | Jim Fleming | On Democracy | EB White | Harper | 2019 | 0062905430 | Anchored by an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, this concise collection of essays and letters from one of this country’s most eminent literary voices offers much-needed historical context for our current state of the nation—and hope for the future of our society. (Harper; ISBN-10: 0062905430 / ISBN-13: 978-0062905437) | The Corsair Overture, Op. 21; Hamilton Harty; Brno Philharmonic Orchestra; Petr Vronsky, conductor | |||||||||||||||
79 | 2022-08-29 12:30 | Monday, August 29 through Friday, September 30, 2022 |  | Brush Back By Sara Paretsky | Susan Sweeney | Berkley | 2016 | 0451477154 | V.I. Warshawski goes to help an old friend and ends up in a fight with Chicago political bosses. (Signet; ISBN-10: 0451477154) | “Latin Shuffle” from the album “Combustication” Medeski Martin & Wood | |||||||||||||||||
80 | 2022-08-08 12:30 | Monday, August 8 through Friday, August 26, 2022 |  | Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift | Norman Gilliland | Gulliver’s Travels | Jonathan Swift | Following the many misadventures of a ship’s surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, Jonathon Swift’s wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. (Public Domain) | "The Harmonious Blacksmith", George F. Handel; "Le Rouet D'Omphale, Op 13", Camille Saint-Saëns; Earl Wild, The Romantic Master; Sony Classical | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
81 | 2022-07-11 12:30 | Monday, July 11 through Friday, August 5, 2022 |  | Remarkable Creatures By Tracy Chevalier | Michele Good | HarperCollins | 2009 | 0007178379 | Monday, July 11 through Friday, August 5, 2022. Read by Michele Good. Based on the true story of two extraordinary, 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns she has "the eye" to spot fossils no one else can see. She soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. When Mary uncovers an unusual, fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight. (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; ISBN: 0007178379) | No | |||||||||||||||||
82 | 2022-06-13 12:30 | Monday, June 13 through Friday, July 8, 2022 |  | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne | Jim Fleming | 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Jules Verne | Reader's Library Classics | 2021 | 1954839111 | A mysterious beast is attacking ships all over the world. Famous oceanographer Pierre Aronnax is called upon to hunt for the creature. But when the creature attacks the navy vessel pursuing it and Aronnax is thrown overboard, the adventure really begins when he is “rescued” by the reclusive and, likely mad, genius Captain Nemo and his fantastical underwater ship, the Nautilus. (Reader's Library Classics; ISBN-10: 1954839111 / ISBN-13: 978-1954839113) | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Scheherazade, Opus 35; "The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship"; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra | No | ||||||||||||||
83 | 2022-05-16 12:30 | Monday, May 16 through Friday, June 10, 2022 |  | Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life by Marko Perko and Stephen M. Stahl | Norman Gilliland | Tesla: His Tremendous and Troubled Life | Marko Perko and Stephen M. Stahl | Prometheus | 2022 | 1633887723 | The enigmatic Nikola Tesla—stalked by his ever-present inner demons—invents the modern world. He tames the mysterious force called “electricity;” dazzles the world with his endless inventions and discoveries; and blazes new paths in science that profoundly impact our daily lives. His thought experiments disrupt scientific norms. He gives us many of the indispensable tools we use today. The world vies for his attention. Yet all the while he keeps his own counsel, as he simultaneously struggles with the challenging consequences of bipolar disorder: flights of manic energy alternating with depressive depths of great despair. Forever seeking to “lift the burdens from the shoulders of mankind.” It would become his lifelong aim, but at what cost to him? (Prometheus; ISBN-10: 1633887723 / ISBN-13: 978-1633887725) | Spiegel Im Spiegel, Arvo Part, from "The Calm: Inspired 20th Century Classics", Black Box Classics | No | ||||||||||||||
84 | 2022-05-12 12:30 | Thursday, May 12 through Friday, May 13, 2022 |  | The Memory Book of Jane Love Rankin Clark | Susan Sweeney | Unpublished | 1898 | Jane Love moved with her family in 1840 at the age of fifteen to what was then called the Iowa Territory. Her diary, which ends with her death in 1898, gives us a glimpse into homesteading life on the prairie as Americans pushed West. (Unpublished) | Antonin Dvorak, Lento, String Quartet, Op. 96 "American", Artur Rubinstein/Guarneri Quartet, RCA Victor | No | |||||||||||||||||
85 | 2022-04-18 12:30 | Monday, April 18 through Wednesday, May 11, 2022 |  | Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout | Susan Sweeney | Olive, Again | Elizabeth Strout | Random House Publishing Group | 2020 | 0812986474 | Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge. Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, or a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.” (Random House; ISBN-10: 0812986474 / ISBN: 9780812986471) | "The Good Wife”, “Dreaming On A Runaway”, “Breaking Of The Shells”, Billy McLaughlin, Fingerdance, Narada Lotus ND-61058, 1996 | No | ||||||||||||||
86 | 2022-03-28 12:30 | Monday, March 28 through Friday, April 15, 2022 |  | Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout | Susan Sweeney | Olive Kitteridge | Elizabeth Strout | Random House Publishing Group | 2008 | 0812971833 | Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty. The book offers profound insights into the human condition—its conflicts, its tragedies and joys, and the endurance it requires. (Random House; ISBN-10: 0812971833 / ISBN: 9780812971835) | "Time Remembered" from "Kronos Quartet Music of Bill Evans" (www.savoyjazz.com) | No | ||||||||||||||
87 | 2022-03-14 12:30 | Monday, March 14 through Friday, March 25, 2022 |  | As The Twig Is Bent: A Memoir (Volume 1) by Wallace Byron Grange, edited by Joseph L. Breitenstein and Richard P. Thiel | Norman Gilliland | As The Twig Is Bent: A Memoir (Volume 1) by Wallace Byron Grange, edited | Joseph L. Breitenstein and Richard P. Thiel | University of Wisconsin Press | 2020 | 029932950X | Written when Grange was in his sixties, As the Twig Is Bent conveys how a leading conservationist was formed through his early relationship to nature. Grange's story vividly describes his mostly idyllic childhood watching bird life in the once grand prairies just west of Chicago. He documents his family's journey and pioneering struggle to operate a farm on the logged cutover country in northern Wisconsin, a land that provided him with abundant opportunities to study the lives of wild creatures he loved most. As he develops his own understanding of the natural world, he comes to an awareness of the dramatic and devastating role of humankind on ecosystems. (University of Wisconsin Press; ISBN-10: 029932950X / ISBN-13: 978-0299329501) | Fantasia On Greensleeves, Academy of St. Martin In The Fields. Frederick Delius: On A Hearing The First Cuckoo In Spring; George Butterworth: Two English Idylls | No | ||||||||||||||
88 | 2022-02-28 12:30 | Monday, February 28 through Friday, March 11, 2022 |  | The Man Who Loved Books Too Much : The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession by Allison Hoover Bartlett | Jim Fleming | The Man Who Loved Books Too Much : The True Story of a Thief, a Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession | Allison Hoover Bartlett | Riverhead Biooks | 2010 | 1594484813 | John Charles Gilkey steals rare books, but only for love-the love of books. Ken Sanders wants to catch him. For author Bartlett, it's a fascinating chase, but also a search to find out: What is it that makes some people stop at nothing to possess the titles they love? (Penguin; ISBN-10: 1594484813 / ISBN-13: 9781594484810) | Charlie Parker: Bird, The Savoy Recordings, Volume 1 - "Tiny's Tempo" and "Red Cross" (Savoy Jazz ZDS 4402) | No | ||||||||||||||
89 | 2022-02-16 12:30 | Wednesday, February 16, 2022 through Friday, February 25, 2022 |  | Make Way For Liberty by Jeff Kannel | Norman Gilliland | Make Way For Liberty | Jeff Kannel | Wisconsin Historical Society Press | 2020 | 0870209469 | Hundreds of African American soldiers and regimental employees represented Wisconsin in the Civil War, and many of them lived in the state either before or after the conflict. And yet, if these individuals are mentioned at all in histories of the state, it is with a sentence or two about their small numbers. Relative to the total number of Badgers who served in the Civil War, African American soldiers were few, but they constituted a significant number in at least five regiments of the United States Colored Infantry and several other companies. (Wisconsin Historical Society Press; ISBN-10 : 0870209469) | "Tenting On The Old Campground", Walter Kittredge, Performed by Trevor Stephenson, The Americans: Music of Joplin, Ives, Foster and Others | No | ||||||||||||||
90 | 2022-02-08 12:30 | Tuesday, February 8, 2022 through Tuesday, February 15, 2022 |  | Lincoln Among The Badgers by Steven K. Rogstad | Norman Gilliland | Lincoln Among The Badgers | Steven K. Rogstad | Shebogan County Historical Research Center, Inc. | 2020 | 0988375982 | Verbal and written historical accounts of the visits that Abraham and Mary Lincoln made to the Badger State. Lincoln entered the state’s borders for the first time in 1832 during his military service in the Black Hawk War, returning in 1859 to make speeches in Milwaukee, Beloit, and Janesville. Mary traveled toured northern Wisconsin and Racine in 1867, returning five years later to take advantage of the healing waters of Waukesha. (Millhouse Press; ISBN: 0988375982) | Antonin Dvorak, Serenade For Wind Instruments In D Minor, Op. 44: IV. Finale: Allegro Molto" | No | ||||||||||||||
91 | 2022-01-28 12:30 | Friday, January 28 through Monday, February 7, 2022 |  | A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Part 2) by Roya Hakakian | Michele Good | A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Part 2) | Roya Hakakian | Knopf | 2021 | 0525656065 | Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived, and providing "practical information and advice," Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. With tenderness and humor, she captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America's crosshairs. Her tenderly perceptive and surprisingly humorous account invites us to see ourselves as we appear to others, making it possible for us to rediscover our many American gifts through the perspective of the outsider. (Alfred A Knopf; ISBN: 9780525656067) | “America”, Soundtrack of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein | No | ||||||||||||||
92 | 2021-12-27 12:30 | Monday, December 27 through Thursday, January 27, 2022 |  | Driftless by David Rhodes | Karl Schmidt | Driftless | David Rhodes | Milkweed Editions | 2008 | 1571310592 | A story from the "driftless" area of Wisconsin, about a town apparently left out of time. It's an unforgettable slice of life in rural America. Driftless by David Rhodes (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by David Rhodes. Rebroadcast with permission from Milkweed Editions. www.milkweed.org (Milkweed; ISDN-10: 1571310592 / ISBN-13: 978-57131-059-0) | Haydn: The Seven Last Words - introduction; Emerson Quartet (DG B0002053-02) | No | ||||||||||||||
93 | 2021-12-13 12:30 | Monday, December 13 through Wednesday, December 21, 2021 |  | The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum | Jim Fleming | The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus | L. Frank Baum | SeaWolf Press | Monday, December 13 through Wednesday, December 21, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. Every child knows about Santa Claus, the jolly man who brings gifts to all on Christmas. There are many stories that tell of his life, but this delightful version filled with fairies, immortals and a kidnapped human baby is by far the most charming and original of all. Only L. Frank Baum, the man who created the wonderful land of Oz, could have told Santa's tale in such rich and imaginative detail. (Public Domain) THEME: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Keith Jarrett, Piano. | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
94 | 2021-11-25 23:00 | Thursday, November 25, 2021 – 11 pm only |  | The Eye of Edna from Essays of E.B. White | Jim Fleming | Harper Perennial Modern Classics | 2006 | 0060932236 | "The Eye of Edna" is an essay from the collection "The Essays of E.B. White." The author, one of the founders of The New Yorker magazine, lived in Maine at the time and writes of spending a day listening to the radio while announcers track the progress of the hurricane they say is heading his way. (Harper & Row; ISBN-10: 0060145765) | “Sh boom” by The Crewcuts, “Mr. Sandman” by Chordetts | No | ||||||||||||||||
95 | 2021-11-22 12:30 | Monday, November 22 through Friday, December 10, 2021 |  | Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf: A Memoir by Raymond C. Kaquatosh | Jim Fleming | Little Hawk and the Lone Wolf: A Memoir | Raymond C. Kaquatosh | Wisconsin Historical Society Press | 2014 | 0870206508 | Monday, November 22 through Friday, December 10, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. Raymond Kaquatosh was born in 1924 on Wisconsin’s Menominee Reservation. The son of a medicine woman, he spent his boyhood immersed in the beauty of the natural world and the traditions of his tribe and his family. When his father died, he was sent to Indian boarding school in Keshena. He was "Little Hawk." (Wisconsin Historical Society Press: ISBN-10: 0870206508) THEME: “Begin The Beguine” by Artie Shaw | No | |||||||||||||||
96 | 2021-11-01 12:30 | Monday, November 1 through Friday, November 19, 2021 |  | Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley | Jim Fleming | Perestroika in Paris | Jane Smiley | Knopf | 2020 | 052552035X | Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and wanders all the way to the City of Light. Soon she meets an elegant dog named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. And then Paras meets a human boy and discovers the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships bloom. But how long can a runaway horse stay undiscovered in Paris? How long can a boy keep her hidden and all to himself? (Alfred A Knopf; ISBN-10: 052552035X) | “Fibre de verre” by Paris Combo, Attraction, DRG Records; “I Love Paris” by Gypsy Jazz Caravan, Gypsy Jazz Caravan III | No | ||||||||||||||
97 | 2021-10-11 12:30 | Monday, October 11 through Friday, October 29, 2021 |  | The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde | Norman Gilliland | The Picture of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | In Oscar Wilde’s only novel, he forges a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young man in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction, the book centers on a beautiful, young man named Dorian Gray, who in a fleeting moment wishes that he could have eternal youth and beauty while his recently painted portrait would age instead. His wish granted, he begins to descend into a life of crime and gross sensuality, while the portrait grows day by day into a hideous record of evil, which he must keep hidden from the world. (Public Domain) | Waldszenen, Robert Schumann, Marc-Andre Hamelin, Hyperion Records | Yes | |||||||||||||||||
98 | 2021-10-04 12:30 | Monday, October 4 through Friday, October 8, 2021 | | A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Part 1) by Roya Hakakian | Michele Good | A Beginner’s Guide to America: For the Immigrant and the Curious (Part 1) | Roya Hakakian | Knopf | 2021 | 0525656065 | Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived, and providing "practical information and advice," Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. With tenderness and humor, she captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a country that is in America's crosshairs. (Alfred A Knopf; ISBN: 9780525656067) | “America”, Soundtrack of West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein | No | ||||||||||||||
99 | 2021-09-06 12:30 | Monday, September 6 through Friday, October 1, 2021 |  | Evening Class by Maeve Binchy | Jim Fleming | Evening Class | Maeve Binchy | Delacorte Press | 1997 | 0385318073 | Eight Dubliners take a class in Italian and find their lives changed along with their language. (Doubleday; ISBN-10: 0385318073) | "Un Bel Di" from "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini; Cincinnati Pops Orchestra - Erich Kunzel (Telarc CD 80260), then John Bayless, piano (Angel CDC 54801) | No | ||||||||||||||
100 | 2021-08-23 12:30 | Monday, August 23 through Friday, September 3, 2021 |  | Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger: A Memoir by Lisa Donovan | Susan Sweeney | Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger: A Memoir | Lisa Donovan | Penguin Press | 2020 | 0525560947 | Noted chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens, and her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts. Yet, Donovan had been told at every juncture on her career and life that she wasn't enough. She came from a struggling southern family that felt ashamed of its own mixed-race heritage and whose elders diminished their women. She survived abuse and assault as a young mother. In spite of it all, her salvations were food, self-reliance, and the network of women in food who stood by her. (Penguin Press; ISBN-10 : 0525560947 / ISBN-13 : 978-0525560944) | “Union Branch” and “My Poor Old Heart”, Alison Krauss and Union Station – Lonely Runs Both Ways; Rounder Records | No |