Reality Raincheck

On the plots surface, Bel Canto details a hostage situation that takes place at an embassy in Peru. But when one delves deeper, it is a meditation on the healing and uniting power of art, specifically that of opera to bring people of completely different cultures and languages together to appreciate music at its finest. This is Ann Patchett's 4th novel and was awarded the Orange prize for fiction...

Join us for this book club chat as we interview author Dr. Charles Inouye about his beautiful memoir, Zion Earth Zen Sky . He details the experiences from his life as a child growing up in rural Sigurd, Utah. As Japanese-Americans, his family eventually settled there after his parents met at an internment camp following Pearl Harbor. His religious backgrounds include a family culture of Buddhism,...

George Eliot, who's actual name is Mary Ann Evans, was one of the best Victorian authors to have emerged from England. Join us in this book club chat with author John Bennion, and former BYU professor of the British novel. While this novel has slow beginnings, the pace quickens and provides such a complicated love triangle, one is left wondering how things will possibly conclude. As with many vict...

If you want a glimpse into beautiful nature poetry, look no further than the poems of Mary Oliver. She was considered to be one of America's finest poets, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Her poems, and the reading of them, connect you more closely to the natural world and simultaneously the spiritual world. Join us as we read some of our favorite poems with our friend Jessi...

  Eowyn Ivey's debut novel The Snow Child is a beautiful journey into the imagination and the wilds of Alaska. Incorporating the Russian fairytale, the Snow Maiden, Ivey breaths new life into an old tale, and lets live the idea that hope (along with a child) can spring from even the most harsh and hopeless of circumstances. This book gives a very real glimpse into the struggles of infertility and...

If you're curious about the origin story of the haunted house, look no further than Shirley Jackson's classic horror novel, The Haunting of Hill House . We are joined for this book club chat by horror professor, Dr. Carl Sederholm, who recently published a chapter in a work about Shirley Jackson. While his focus was on Steven King (who is an ardent lover of the works of Jackson) he is an expert on...

Barbara Kingsolver's best selling novel The Poisonwood Bible is a masterful historical fiction about the Price family. While their story is fictional, the backdrop and historical events of the narrative are an accurate depiction of life in the Congo. It's an eye-opening tale told from the perspective of the women in the story. Join us as we retell our favorite moments and relive our initial reacti...

Join us for this book club chat about Austen's first novel Sense and Sensibility . Former BYU professor and author, John Bennion, will discuss the merits of the book and Austen's growth as a novelist as she improved upon her craft in subsequent books. The film adaptation of the book as written by Emma Thompson helped to give the novel new life. We compare the book and film, and come to the rare co...

Joanna Quinn's debut novel,  The Whalebone Theatre , is historical fiction at its finest. We are transported to southern England off the coast of Dorset, where we meet three unlikely heroes--Cristabel, Flossie, and Digby. They are siblings who grow up against the backdrop of the second world war. Their childhood consists of little supervision, and jaunts to the seaside where they discover a washed...

This conversation with author, mother, grandmother, scholar, and kind soul Fiona Givens, was healing. If you have not read the books she co-authored with her husband, Terryl Givens, you are missing out on some beautiful and poetic explorations of theology within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Their most recent work, All Things New: Rethinking Sin and Salvation and Everything in B...

Join us in our book club chat as we discuss Jonathan Haidt's work of social psychology, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided By Religion and Politics. Whether you find yourself politically on the left, right, or in-between, we could all benefit from a little application of empathy for others in understanding the moral matrices that make us think the way we do.

Join us as we discuss Shusaku Endo's novel of historical fiction Silence , where he confronts the age old question of "Where is God during human suffering?" Van Gessel, our guest and translator of many of Endo's novels, joins us to clarify some of the discrepancies in the original translation, as well as the difficulty in general of teaching faith to an audience that doesn't share your language. I...

Sarah Cole joins me in this interview about the great escape of creating adventures. Find and follow her on instagram at hatgirladventures for some refreshing ways of getting out of the daily grind, and seeing the things around you that you never knew were always there. Dust off your favorite hat, and go snap a picture of yourself in one of your favorite places to visit. Or, try looking up atlasob...

I can't sufficiently sum up what this book accomplishes, but sufficeth to say that Dame Antonia Byatt won the Booker prize (England's most prestigious award for literature) because her book is masterfull in its telling. It is at once a romance and a mystery, modern and victorian, and a book that one can read again and again just for the shear enjoyment of her ingenious symbolism, color usage, and...

If you find yourself in a quaundry over how to best appreciate music, join me as I discuss some creative ideas for playlists, and how to surround yourself with the music that you had forgotten you always loved. We have such amazing access to mood-enhancing music in so many genres. When was the last time you got away through music and felt reconciled to life? It's time for another get away. 

Join us for this book club chat about Alexandre Dumas classic adventure tale of revenge, The Count of Monte Cristo. It is clear why this book has withstood the test of time, and is so widely recogized as great french literature. But if you don't have time to give it a read, give this podcast a listen. You may be compelled to pick up this great tome after all! 

We loved reading and discussing this Christmas classic, The Box of Delights. Author, John Masefield transports us to the wintery british world of the 1930's, where Kay and his young friends have many fanciful and sometimes dangerous adventures together. If you've ever wanted to enter the world of childhood and relive some of its magic, this book does a great job taking you there. Enjoy! And have a...

Join us as we discuss Ray Bradbury's coming of age story Something Wicked This Way Comes. Bradbury uses the backdrop of a small town in Illinois with a traveling carnival that entices two teenagers with all of its attractions and curiosities. The carnival will ultimately imprison you in your own fears, and these boys must use their cunning, and ultimately the power of friendship, love, and laughte...

Join us for this book club chat as we discuss the guilded age of New York, and the american author who shed so much light on the time, Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence illuminates the rigid societal norms of pre-WWI New York, and the contraints that we make on our hearts, for better or worse, when it comes to love and marriage. 

We thoroughly loved reading and discussing this exciting travel narrative, The Salt Path. Raynor Winn has captured a beautiful and harrowing memoir about homelessness and surival. She redefines home as the relationships that mean the most, and the walking paths that keep you moving forward. It inspires one to get walking, particulary through southern England. If you need an extra boost of hope, an...

Botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer weaves a beautiful story, rich with both scientific and native american culture. She tells the story of our relationship to the earth and what we can learn from indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the wisdom of plants. If you're looking for a book that will inspire you to give the gift of reciprocity to the natural world, give this book chat a listen! We can a...

In Maggie O'Farrell's novel, Hamnet, we are transported to the life of Agnes (Anne) Shakespeare. Though little is known historically about Shakespeares life, so much can be gleaned from what is known. O'Farrell has captured beautifully the grief that comes from loving and then losing a child. This book will at once make you weep, and look freshly upon the playwright that we know as William Shakesp...

Harvard Professor and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, is an extraordinary American Historian. She has woven together a work that is by far the most comprehensive of its kind. Ulrich uses first hand accounts to build a personal look into the women and men who practiced plurality in the newly established Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It also delves into womens ri...

Join us for this discussion of Julie Berry's young adult novel Lovely War. A romance that takes place during WWI as told by the gods of olympus. Highly readable, and highly serendipidous that I was able to find the recording of this podcast! I thought it was lost forever. Enjoy.

Having a spouse deploy is hard. Having him deploy for 11 months straight is even harder. Having him away while managing to keep healthy and alive your three young children is nigh impossible. Join me for a tell-all as I detail the comical crucible that has been my life for the last several months. Hopefully, it will make you think how glad you are to be you, and not me. Enjoy!