Monday, December 23, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, December 23 through Wednesday, December 25, 2019. Read by Ken Ohst. From the 1979 Chapter a Day archives, Ken Ohst reads Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" which was published in December of 1843. It tells the story of bitter miser Ebenezer Scrooge and his transformation resulting from visits by...
Monday, December 9, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, December 9 through Friday, December 20, 2019. Read by Michele Good. Word by Word brings to life the hallowed halls (and highly idiosyncratic cubicles) of Merriam-Webster, a startlingly rich world inhabited by quirky and erudite individuals who quietly shape the way we communicate. (Pantheon...
Monday, November 18, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, November 18 through Friday, December 6, 2019. Read by Karl Schmidt. At an early age, Ruth Reichl discovered that "food could be a way of making sense of the world. If you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were." Her deliciously crafted memoir Tender at the Bone is the...
Monday, October 28, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, October 28 through Friday, November 15, 2019. Read by Norman Gilliland. Joe Leaphorn may have retired from the Tribal Police, but he finds himself knee-deep in a perplexing case involving a priceless artifact—a reminder of a dark time in Navajo history. Joe’s been hired to find a missing...
Monday, September 30, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, September 30 through Friday, October 25, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. 2019-2020’s Go Big Read Selection! From Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times-bestselling author and UW Alumni Deborah Blum, the dramatic true story of how food was made safe in the United States and the heroes, led by the...
Monday, September 16, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, September 16 through Friday, September 27, 2019. Read by Karl Schmidt. "A River Runs Through It" is a semi-autobiographical account of Maclean's relationship with his brother Paul and their upbringing in an early 20th-century Montana family in which "there was no clear line between religion...
Monday, September 9, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, September 9 through Friday, September 13, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. In his latest book, acclaimed Wisconsin writer Jerry Apps presents the first comprehensive history of the CCC in Wisconsin. Apps guides readers around the state, from the Northwoods to the Driftless Area, creating a map of...
Monday, August 19, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, August 19 through Friday, September 6, 2019. Read by Norman Gilliland. Will Post, a celebrated and sometimes controversial columnist, is a professor on the MV Explorer's Semester at Sea program, sailing around the world teaching the ups and downs of travel writing, while navigating the...
Monday, July 22, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, July 22 through Friday, August 16, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. As the new Chairman of the Town Board, Fiona Campbell finds that life has become a series of petty squabbles, dull meetings, and papers everywhere, all complicated by her guardianship of the as yet unidentified screaming goat. In...
Wednesday, July 3, 2019, 12:30pm
Wednesday, July 3 through Friday, July 19. Read by Susan Sweeney. As her Wisconsin community endures a long season of drought and feels the shockwaves of World War II, fifteen-year-old Cielle endures a more personal calamity: the unexpected death of her father. On a balmy summer afternoon, she...
Monday, June 10, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, June 10 through Tuesday, July 2, 2019. Read by Michele Good. Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions. But everything changes when...
Monday, May 20, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, May 20 through Friday June 7, 2019. Read by Karl Schmidt. Fishermen do love to tell stories, and Linda Greenlaw loves collecting them. In this memoir she pulls together a variety of stories into an afternoon at the Dry Dock Bar. (Hyperion; ISBN-10: 1401300707 ) Theme: John Adams: Naive...
Monday, April 29, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, April 29 through Friday, May 17, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. It's November 1958 and the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City is about to begin. Into the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and tradition comes the most unlikely of horses - a drab white former plow horse...
Monday, April 8, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, April 8 through Friday, April 26, 2019. Read by Catherine Brand. Terry Ryan's mother Evelyn was amazing. She raised 10 children, and supported her alcoholic husband, by entering -- and winning one out of four -- popular contests in the 1950's. She wrote jingles, and poems, and a hundred...
Monday, March 18, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, March 18 through Friday, April 5, 2019. Read by Norman Gilliland Much like human families, tree parents live together with their children, communicate with them, and support them as they grow, sharing nutrients with those who are sick or struggling and creating an ecosystem that mitigates...
Monday, February 25, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, February 25 through Friday, March 15, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming and Susan Sweeney January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. . . . Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways. (Dial Press: ISBN-10: 0385340990 | ISBN-13: 9780385341004) THEME: Eric Coates: Summer Days Suite; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra - John Wilson, conductor (Avie AV 2070)
Monday, February 4, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, February 4 through Friday, February 22, 2019. Read by Cynthia Woodland This is a story, as the title says, of justice and redemption, but it’s more. It’s about the criminal justice system in this country, and about the death penalty…and about people. Mostly it’s about people. (Spiegel...
Monday, January 7, 2019, 12:30pm
Monday, January 7 through Friday, February 1, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. Willa Drake can count on one hand the defining moments of her life. In 1967, she is a schoolgirl coping with her mother's sudden disappearance. In 1977, she is a college coed considering a marriage proposal. In 1997, she is a young widow trying to piece her life back together. And in 2017, she yearns to be a grandmother. Then, one day, Willa receives a startling phone call from a stranger. (Knopf; ISBN: 0525521224 ) THEME: “Just Like A Woman” by Bill Frisell from the album “Have A Little Faith”
Thursday, December 27, 2018, 12:30pm
Thursday, December 27, 2018 through Friday, January 4, 2019. Read by Jim Fleming. This 1844 Charles Dickens’ novella concerns the disillusionment of Toby "Trotty" Veck, a poor working-class man. When Trotty has lost his faith in Humanity and believes that his poverty is the result of his...
Monday, December 17, 2018, 12:30pm
Monday, December 17, 2001 through Wednesday, December 26, 2018. Read by Jim Fleming in 2001. Luther and Nora Krank, having sent their daughter off to work for the Peace Corps, sense an opportunity. "We won't do Christmas," says Luther, and books a cruise instead. Their neighbors find this decision unseemly, to say the least, and the humor of the story is in how the Kranks respond to pressure. The Kranks may want to skip Christmas, but you won't. (Doubleday; ISBN: 0385505833 )
