The Literary Life Podcast

On The Literary Life podcast today, we join our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks to discuss Act 3 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. Before jumping into Shakespeare, though, our hosts are excited to announce a new online conference coming on March 13-14, 2020. Our theme will be Re-enchanting the World: The Legacy of the Inklings . Our keynote speaker is Inklings s...

This week on The Literary Life, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are back to discuss Act 2 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they begin with a brief recap of the plot. They highlight the story begun by Mamillius upon the entrance of Leontes in Act 2, Scene 1. Angelina explores the concept of Leontes as a tragic hero. Ou...

On today's episode of The Literary Life podcast, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks talk about Act 1 of The Winter's Tale by Williams Shakespeare. After sharing their commonplace quotes, our hosts begin by discussing the form of nearly ever Shakespeare play. They discuss the "problem" of the combination of tragic and comedic elements in this play. Other themes discussed are the pres...

Welcome to our first episode on Shakespeare's play A Winter's Tale . Hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins start off with some ideas of how to approach a Shakespeare play, especially if you feel new or intimidated by Shakespeare. Angelina talks about the use of poetry and prose in these plays, as well as the different types of plays within Shakespeare's body of work. She also discusses the his...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview James Banks. James is a civil servant, veteran, teacher, former academic and writer living in Austin, Texas. Prior to moving to the Lone Star State, he studied Renaissance Literature and taught at the University of Rochester. But it was only after leaving the academy that he rediscovered his passion for Shakespeare, Spenser, Cha...

In this last episode of 2019, our Literary Life podcast hosts chat all about their past year in books, as well as what they hope to read in the coming year. Cindy, Angelina and Thomas begin by sharing some commonplace quotes from books they read in 2019. They discuss their strategies for planning their reading goals and how they curate their "to be read" lists. Each host also share some highlights...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview Caitlin Bruce Beauchamp. In addition to being a homeschool graduate and a lover of the humanities, Caitlin is a busy wife and a mother of young children. In their conversation, Angelina, Cindy and Caitlin dive into the deep end from the start, discussing the purpose of beauty. They talk about Caitlin's early reading life and how...

Welcome to the final episode in our series on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey . On The Literary Life Podcast today, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks go chapter by chapter through the end of the book. First we see that Catherine finally comes to the realization that people are a mixture of good and bad, not all angels or villains. Cindy and Angelina point out the ways that Catherine...

In this week's episode of The Literary Life, our host are back to discuss chapters 18-24 of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey . Cindy, Angelina and Thomas start out sharing the things that struck them as they read this particular section of the book. Angelina highlight's Catherine's growing ability to judge between appearances and reality. We see the great contrast between Henry Tilney with John Thor...

Today on The Literary Life, Cindy, Angelina and Thomas dig into chapters 11-17 of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey . Today's conversation gets into the subtext surrounding what was expected of young ladies to be acceptable in society. A major theme in this book, and particularly in these chapters, is Catherine's learning to discern between what is simply appearance and what is reality. We learn even...

Today on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins, along with Thomas Banks, are discussing chapters 4-10 of Northanger Abbey . They start out talking about Jane Austen's light touch and her gentle satirical way of pointing out the pros and cons of the novel. Angelina and Thomas bring up some of the historical and social context for this setting in Regency period Bat...

This week on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts are pleased to begin talking about Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. For this introduction episode Cindy Rollins and Angelina Stanford are joined by Thomas Banks. Together they discuss the advent of the novel as a form, as well as some predecessors of Austen. Angelina points out Austen's satirical voice in poking fun at the sentimental novel in the f...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy interview poet, author and mother, Sally Thomas. You can find Sally and some of her writing at www.sally-thomas.com . Sally talks about her early reading life beginning with her memories of her family members reading themselves and to her. Cindy and Angelina ask her about her early forays into storytelling and writing. They discuss how li...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina and Cindy are once again joined by Thomas Banks. They discuss the last two chapters and the epilogue of An Experiment in Criticism. The first topic of conversation is Lewis' comments on poetry, including the un-literary reading of poetry and the importance of the sound of poetry. Angelina highlights Lewis' take on reading "bad books," and Cindy poi...

This week's episode is a continuation of Cindy Rollins and Angelina Stanford's discussion of An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis. They start with an exploration of the difference between loving a book and evaluating a book as a work of art, followed by an explanation of Lewis' idea that works of art do not teach us. Angelina goes in depth about why it is not our job as readers to find the "n...

Angelina and Cindy open today's discussion of C. S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism with a recap of the terms that Lewis defines in chapters 5-7, starting with myth. They talk about what it means to have an "extra-literary" experience and how to cultivate the proper attitude of a good reader. Next Cindy and Angelina dig into the definition and benefits of literary fantasy versus the dangers of m...

This week kicks off our fall series, "How to Read a Novel", starting with C. S. Lewis' An Experiment in Criticism . Next, we will dive into Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, applying the principles we have learned as we read. Angelina and Cindy discuss Lewis' approach to literature and the point of this book being a critique more of readers than of books. Some main ideas they bring out of the first...

Welcome to the final episode of our summer series on short stories and essays! Today your hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins are joined once again by Thomas Banks for their discussion of Samuel Johnson's essay "The Vulture." Before getting into the meat of the essay, Angelina talks about why she disagrees with her own commonplace quote on the purpose of poetry. In the process, she gives us...

On this week's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins are joined once more by Thomas Banks for their discussion of "The Celestial Omnibus" by E. M. Forster. Angelina and Cindy tell why they love this short story so much and how it encapsulates their own ideas about literature. Thomas gives us some biographical background on E. M. Forster. We get a brief look at the plot...

The topic of today's discussion on The Literary Life is George Orwell's essay "Why I Write." Angelina and Cindy kick off the conversation about how much they each identify with Orwell's description of his childhood. In his story of learning to write, we see many aspects of a good education, even his inclination to imitate other authors. An important point Angelina brings up is Orwell's own struggl...

On today's episode of The Literary Life, Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins discuss Guy de Maupassant's short story "The Necklace." Also, don't forget to register for the Back to School online conference on August 26-29, 2019 with Cindy and Angelina, as well as Thomas Banks and Adrienne Freas! Before getting into the short story discussion, Cindy and Angelina chat about what a "commonplace book"...

Today on The Literary Life, Cindy Rollins and Angelina Stanford are joined by a special guest, Angelina's husband, Thomas Banks! This week's selection for our summer series is Joseph Addison's "The Adventures of a Shilling." This episode is packed with book references, so scroll down for links to the titles mentioned! The conversation today kicks off with an attempt at defining the "essay" form an...

This week on The Literary Life, Cindy and Angelina discuss Katherine Mansfield's short story "The Garden Party." Before starting today's episode, we want to encourage you to register for the Back to School online conference coming up on August 26-29, 2019! After a great chat over their commonplace quotes, Angelina and Cindy dig into this week's short story, "The Garden Party." They start with how...

On The Literary Life podcast today, Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins discuss G. K. Chesterton's essay "A Defence of Penny Dreadfuls." Before diving in to today's episode, don't forget to register for the amazing Back to School online conference coming up on August 26-29, 2019! Angelina opens with a brief history of the Victorian era and the more prevalent availability of the novel to the masses...

This week on The Literary Life, Cindy Rollins and Angelina Stanford open our Summer of the Short Story series with a discussion of "Araby" by James Joyce. Cindy and Angelina also announce an encouraging Back to School online conference coming up on August 26-29, 2019. In delving into "Araby," Angelina talks about the history and development of the short story form. Cindy gives a little of her own...