Author Rose Ruane (This Is Yesterday, Birding) picks Gaining Ground AKA Abra (1978) by Canadian feminist writer Joan Barfoot. One day, seemingly on a whim, a woman walks out of her home and her marriage, forsaking her family for a life of near-solitude and self-sufficiency. Many years later, her daughter, now grown-up, comes to find her and to ask a simple q ... Show More
Sep 1
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan (1971), the second Earthsea novel, is the subject of this episode. Joining Una and Andy is writer Frank Cottrell-Boyce, current Children’s Laureate. We look at how Le Guin shifts her story from the adventures of Ged in A Wizard of Earthsea t ... Show More
1h 11m
Sep 25
Candace Bushnell On Modern Dating, Sex & The City, & Evolving Gender Roles In Society
#889: Join us as we sit down with Candace Bushnell – best-selling novelist, TV producer, & most recently the star of her own one-woman show, the critically acclaimed True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex and The City. A cultural icon who redefined a generation, Candace shares her pe ... Show More
1h 13m
Sep 18
Ian McEwan on Speculative Fiction, Lost Poems and What We Can Know
Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of nineteen novels and two short story collections. His novels include Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach, and he is the recipient of many awards including the Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and t ... Show More
42 m
Jan 2025
Episode 510 || Unsung Books of 2024
Happy New Year! This week on From the Front Porch, Annie chats about the unsung books that may have flown under your radar and deserve more airtime.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search “Episode 510”) or ... Show More
33m 8s
Mar 2025
Douglas Stuart on Shuggie Bain, Storytelling, and the Human Condition (Part Two)
This event is part of Conversations at the Kiln, a new event series at Kiln Theatre programmed by Intelligence Squared. For more events with speakers from the worlds of literature, art, poetry and politics, click here.
Douglas Stuart, Booker Prize-winning author of Shuggie Bain a ... Show More
37m 8s
Dec 2024
Episode 508 || Yes, Virginia
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie’s dad, Chris Butterworth, reads the New York Sun reporter Francis P. Church’s timeless response to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s question: “Is there a Santa Claus?” Read the letter from 1897 and learn about its history here.
From the ... Show More
9m 2s
Jan 2025
Ep 463: Remarkable stories that demand to be told
Readers, today we're thrilled to share a delightful conversation with Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, authors of The Personal Librarian. This conversation originally took place over in our Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club community, where Marie and Victoria joined Anne, ... Show More
1h 3m
Jan 2025
Book Club: Let’s Talk About Alan Hollinghurst’s ‘Our Evenings’
The novel “Our Evenings,” by Alan Hollinghurst, follows a gay English Burmese actor from childhood into old age as he confronts confusing relationships, his emerging sexuality, racism and England’s changing political climate in the late 20th and early 21st century. It’s the story ... Show More
47m 52s
Sep 15
Episode 595: Would You Move Abroad for Political Reasons? (with Jennie Spohr)
There are many reasons a family might choose to move abroad. In the case of Americans, that reason is generally motivated by a desire for adventure, change, new scenery, unfamiliar culture, a slower pace of living, or just plain fun. But not always. Today we sit down with friend ... Show More
33m 2s