“Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself”: So reads one of the great opening lines in British literature, the first sentence of Virginia Woolf’s classic 1925 novel, “Mrs. Dalloway.”
The book tracks one day in the life of an English woman, Clarissa Dalloway, living in post-World War I London, as she prepares for, and then hosts, a party. That’s ... Show More
Jun 27
Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Yesteryear,' by Caro Claire Burke
“Yesteryear,” Caro Claire Burke’s debut novel, tells the story of Natalie Heller Mills: an ultrasuccessful tradwife influencer who posts about her life on Yesteryear Ranch, a homestead where she grows her own food, tends to cows and chickens, raises her six children and models a ... Show More
58m 19s
Jun 19
Art, Outrage and How the Culture Wars Began
In April 1989, a newspaper clipping about an art exhibit landed in the mailbox of the Rev. Donald Wildmon, the founder of a conservative evangelical group, the American Family Association. Partly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the exhibit included a now-infamous p ... Show More
34m 56s
Jun 12
The Best Books of the 21st Century: Ryan Holiday on ‘The Road’
In 2024, The New York Times Book Review gathered more than 500 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets and literary enthusiasts to help pick the best books of the 21st century so far. One of those books was Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “The Road,” which came in at ... Show More
36m 43s
Oct 2024
Merve Emre on Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf
I am so excited to say that my guest on the GWA Podcast is the writer, critic, and author, Merve Emre.
Currently the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing and Criticism at Wesleyan University – and the Director of the Shapiro Center for Creative Writing and Criticism – ... Show More
49m 21s
Oct 2025
744 Love, Sex, and Frankenstein (with Caroline Lea) | #10 Greatest Book of All Time | My Last Book with Geoffrey Turnovsky | A Letter from a Middle School Teacher and Mom
The year is 1816, and 18-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. They're on their way to visit Lord Byron's villa in Lake Geneva, Switzerland - and to change the course of literary history. In this episode, Jacke talks to Carol ... Show More
1h 26m
Aug 2024
#130: Do Books Need Romance? and The Ladies’ Paradise vs Babbacombe’s
Emile Zola, Noel Streatfeild, and romantic books – welcome to Tea or Books? episode 130! In the first half of this episode, we do a topic suggested by Lindsey – do books need a romantic storyline? In the second half, we
1s
Nov 2025
746 Wild Jane Austen (with Devoney Looser) | #9 Greatest Book of All Time
Author Devoney Looser may be a mild-mannered English professor to most people, but roller derby fans know her as Stone Cold Jane Austen, her smashmouth alter ego. In this episode, Devoney tells Jacke about her new book Wild for Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane, ... Show More
1h 4m
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
1 h
<p class="" data-pm-slice="1 1 []">On this episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Meredith are discussing:</p> <ul data-rte-list="default"> <li> <p class=""><strong>Bookish Moments:</strong> silencing notifications and crying over books</p> </li> <li> <p class=""><strong>Curren ... Show More
