The Literary Life Podcast

Welcome to a new series on The Literary Life Podcast with Angelina Stanford and husband Thomas Banks. This week they begin talking about E. M. Forster's book Howards End , giving some introductory information about Forster and also cover the first seven chapters of the book. Thomas shares some background on the Bloomsbury Group authors in contrast to their Victorian predecessors. Angelina highligh...

Today on The Literary Life, Angelina and Thomas sit down with Cindy to chat about her new book Beyond Mere Motherhood: Moms Are People, Too . First Cindy shares some of what she has going on this year, and Angelina officially introduces the 2024 Literary Life Online Conference, " Dispelling the Myth of Modernity: A Recovery of the Medieval Imagination ." Cindy shares how this book came to be and w...

Welcome to another episode in our "Best of The Literary Life" podcast series. Today on The Literary Life Podcast, our hosts Angelina and Cindy chat with "superfan" Emily Raible about her own literary life. Emily is a homeschool mom, an avid reader, birdwatcher, baker and probably Angelina's most loyal student. In telling the story of her reading life, Emily talks about her childhood and how she wa...

On The Literary Life podcast this week, we will wrap up our series on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . Our hosts, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas walk through the last two acts of the play, sharing their thoughts on the structure and ideas presented here. Angelina talks about why she thinks Shakespeare resolves the different conflicts the way he does. They discuss the importance of the play wi...

Today on The Literary Life podcast, we continue our "Best of" series discussing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with coverage of Act 3. Angelina talks about the pacing of this act and the importance of the characters' madcap, lunatic behavior. She also highlight's Shakespeare's wrestling with the relationship between the imagination and art and reality. Thomas highlights the structure of t...

Welcome back to The Literary Life podcast and our "Best of" re-air of the series on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . After kicking off the episode with their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas start digging into the play itself. Thomas brings up the importance of the timing of this story being midsummer. Angelina gives a little background into the names and characters in this...

Welcome to this new season of The Literary Life podcast! During the month of January 2024, we will be re-airing our series of episodes on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream . This week we bring you an introduction both to William Shakespeare and his play  A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas seek to give new Shakespeare readers a place from which to jump into his work...

On The Literary Life today, Angelina and Thomas preview the upcoming season of the podcast and what books you can expect them to cover in 2024. We have some short books and exciting new series coming up in the new year, and you can scroll down for Amazon affiliate links to all the books planned. The House of Humane Letters is currently having their Christmas sale until December 31, 2023. Everythin...

On The Literary Life today, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas recap their reading from the past year. They first share some general thoughts on their year of reading and what sorts of books they completed. Other questions they discuss are on what books surprised them, what "low brow" books they read, and more! Come back next week for a preview of all the books we will be covering in the podcast in 2024....

This week's episode of The Literary Life we bring you a special interview with Jenn Rogers! Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins talk with Jenn about her own literary life and how she learned the things she is now passing on to others through The House of Humane Letters. Jenn shares how languages and literature were a part of her life from a young age as a child of missionaries in the Dominican Rep...

On The Literary Life today, we wrap up our series on The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers. Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas begin the conversation with C. S. Lewis' critique of Sayers' work, both what he agreed with and disagreed with in this book, as well as touching on Tolkien's idea of artists as sub-creators. Cindy talks about what it is like writing a book in relation to Sayers' thoughts on...

This week on The Literary Life podcast, we have a very special 200th Episode for you! Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks are joined by their Patreon Friends and Fellows for a live episode recording to launch the 2024 Reading Challenge! This year's challenge theme is "Book of Centuries" and features a timeline of literary periods from which you can choose works to read throughout the...

Due to illness among our hosts and holiday travel plans, we are airing a Best Of Series episode this week instead of our previously planned episode on The Mind of the Maker . Please enjoy this lighthearted discussion as you prepare for your Thanksgiving feasting, and join us right here next week for a very special 200th episode featuring our Friends and Fellows and introducing the 2024 Reading Cha...

Today's episode of The Literary Life is a continuation of our series covering The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers. Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas discuss chapters 6-8 this week, which they acknowledge are probably the most difficult portions of this book so far. Angelina starts off with some questions she has about why chapter six in included and how it fits with other arguments she has alread...

On The Literary Life Podcast today, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks continue discussing Dorothy L. Sayers' The Mind of the Maker . In today's conversation, they cover the ideas in chapters 3-5, including the following: the creative process in relation to the members of the Trinity, the relationship of the writer to his own creation, the misconception of art as self-expression, t...

This week on The Literary Life Podcast, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks are kick off a new series on The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy L. Sayers. Before discussion the book itself, Angelina gives a little biographical information on Sayers for those who are new to her and her work. They begin talking about the book with the preface and Sayers own purpose in writing it. Cindy shar...

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast this week as we wrap up our series of discussion on C. S. Lewis' novel Out of the Silent Planet . Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks are covering from chapter 16 to the end of the book in today's episode. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina starts the conversation comparing the ideas in Gulliver's Travels with what Lewis is doi...

On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts continue their discussion of C. S. Lewis' science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet , covering chapters 6-15. Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks begin by sharing their commonplace quotes, including some heated debate about sausages, then dive in to this section. They start by looking at Ransom's need to let go of some of his own mo...

This week on The Literary Life podcast, Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas bring us the first installment in their series of discussions about C. S. Lewis' science fiction novel Out of the Silent Planet . Angelina shares some background on how Lewis began writing this book and what he set out to do through the genre of science fiction within the form of a romance. In looking at the historical time period...

Welcome back to The Literary Life Podcast and a brand new episode for this fall season! This week Angelina, Cindy, and Thomas begin this series of episodes on science fiction stories, beginning with some background on H. G. Wells and his book The First Men in the Moon . This sets the scene for us as we then continue on next week with the opening of a discussion of C. S. Lewis' Out of the Silent Pl...

On this week's episode of The Literary Life, we bring you another installment in our "Best of" Series. Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks continue their discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's short story " Leaf by Niggle ". If you missed the Back to School 2020 Conference when it was live, you can still purchase access to the recordings at MorningTimeforMoms.com . Angelina opens the book...

Welcome to another episode of our "Best Of" Series on The Literary Life with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks. Both this week and next, our hosts will be discussing J. R. R. Tolkien's short story " Leaf by Niggle ". Angelina sets the stage with a little historical background on Tolkien's writing of this story as well as some thoughts on allegory and how to read a fairy tale. She...

Today on The Literary Life podcast, we bring you another episode from the "Best of" series vault, our discussion of J. R. R. Tolkien's essay " On Fairy Stories ". Tune in again over the next two weeks as we continue the conversation with Tolkien's short story Leaf by Niggle . If you missed the 2020 Back to School conference that Cindy introduced in this episode, you can still get the recording at...

On The Literary Life podcast today we are pleased to bring you a special episode focusing on the importance of a good translation when reading works originally written in other languages. Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are joined for this conversation by Dr. Anne Phillips, who has a BA in Latin and Greek and a Doctorate in Classical Studies and teaches Latin at the House of Humane Letters. They start...

This week on The Literary Life podcast, we wrap up our discussion of The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton. After sharing their commonplace quotes, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas dive right in to the last section and share their various thoughts on finishing this book. Angelina and Thomas talk about some of Chesterton's thoughts on Impressionism in the arts. Cindy and Thomas make some connectio...