Perestroika in Paris by Jane Smiley
Monday, November 1, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, November 1 through Friday, November 19, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. Paras, short for "Perestroika," is a spirited racehorse at a racetrack west of Paris. One afternoon at dusk, she finds the door of her stall open and wanders all the way to the City of Light. Soon she meets an elegant dog...
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Monday, October 11, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, October 11 through Friday, October 29, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. In Oscar Wilde’s only novel, he forges a devastating portrait of the effects of evil and debauchery on a young man in late-19th-century England. Combining elements of the Gothic horror novel and decadent French fiction,...
A Beginner’s Guide to America by Roya Hakakian
Monday, October 4, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, October 4 through Friday, October 8, 2021. Read by Michele Good. Written as a "guide" for the newly arrived, and providing "practical information and advice," Roya Hakakian, an immigrant herself, reveals what those who settle here love about the country, what they miss about their homes,...
Evening Class by Maeve Binchy
Monday, September 6, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, September 6 through Friday, October 1, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. Eight Dubliners take a class in Italian and find their lives changed along with their language. (Doubleday; ISBN-10: 0385318073 ) Theme: "Un Bel Di" from "Madama Butterfly" by Giacomo Puccini; Cincinnati Pops Orchestra -...
Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger by Lisa Donovan
Monday, August 23, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, August 23 through Friday, September 3, 2021. Read by Susan Sweeney. Noted chef and James Beard Award-winning essayist Lisa Donovan helped establish some of the South's most important kitchens, and her pastry work is at the forefront of a resurgence in traditional desserts. Yet, Donovan had...
Raft of Stars by Andrew J. Graff
Monday, July 26, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, July 26 through Friday, August 20, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. When two hardscrabble, young boys think they’ve committed a crime, they flee into the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Will the adults trying to find and protect them reach them before it’s too late? (Ecco; ISBN-10 : 0063031906 /...
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Monday, June 21, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, June 21 through Friday, July 23, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. In 1922 an unrepentant aristocrat is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol Hotel. If he steps outside he will be shot. Inside, however, life goes on. (Viking Press; ISBN-10: 0670026190 ) Theme: Tchaikovsky: Serenade in C, Op 48...
Edge of the Map by Johanna Garton
Monday, May 31, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, May 31 through Friday, June 18, 2021. Read by Susan Sweeney. A dramatic and inspiring adventure story based on the lives of trailblazing mountaineer Christine Boskoff and her partner Charlie Fowler. Edge of the Map captures each step of the pair's story, culminating in their disappearance...
The Woman Who Stole Vermeer by Anthony M Amore
Monday, May 10, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, May 10 through Friday, May 28, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. The extraordinary life and crimes of heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale, who in 1974 became the only woman to pull off a major art heist. (Pegasus Crime; ISBN-10 : 1643135295 / ISBN-13 : 978-1643135298) THEME: Malcolm...
Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart
Monday, April 19, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, April 19 through Friday, May 7, 2021. Read by Michele Good. Constance Kopp, one of the nation’s first deputy sheriffs, prowls the streets of New York tracking down victims, trailing leads, and making friends with girl reporters and lawyers. (Mariner Books; ISBN-10: 0544409949 | ISBN-13: 978...
Girl Waits With Gun by Amy Stewart
Monday, March 22, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, March 22 through Friday, April 16, 2021. Read by Michele Good A lively novel about a forgotten woman, Constance Kopp. She was one of very first female deputy sheriffs. (Houghton Mifflin; ISBN-10: 0544409914 ) / ISBN-13: 978-0544409613) Theme: Charleston Rag from Memories Of You, Eubie Blake
Long Way Round by John Hildebrand
Monday, March 1, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, March 1, 2021 through Friday, March 19, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. Wisconsin is in the midst of an identity crisis, torn by new political divisions and the old gulf between city and countryside. Cobbling rivers together, from the burly Mississippi to the slender wilds of Tyler Forks,...
American Dialogue by Joseph J Ellis
Monday, February 15, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, February 15, 2021 through Friday, February 26, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming. The story of history is a ceaseless conversation between past and present, and in American Dialogue Joseph J. Ellis focuses the conversation on the often-asked question "What would the Founding Fathers think?" (Knopf...
Make Way For Liberty by Jeff Kannel
Wednesday, February 3, 2021, 12:30pm
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 through Friday, February 12, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. Hundreds of African American soldiers and regimental employees represented Wisconsin in the Civil War, and many of them lived in the state either before or after the conflict. And yet, if these individuals are...
The Olin Album by Chauncey C. Olin
Monday, February 1, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, February 1, 2021 through Tuesday, February 2, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. Chauncey C. Olin recounts the activities of abolitionists in southeastern Wisconsin and the flight of slave Caroline Quarles via the Underground Railroad in 1842. Norman Gilliland reads. (Apple Manor Press; ASIN...
Lincoln Among The Badgers by Steven K. Rogstad
Friday, January 22, 2021, 12:30pm
Friday, January 22, 2021 through Friday, January 29, 2021. Read by Norman Gilliland. Verbal and written historical accounts of the visits that Abraham and Mary Lincoln made to the Badger State. Lincoln entered the state’s borders for the first time in 1832 during his military service in the Black...
Tomboyland: Essays by Melissa Faliveno
Tuesday, January 19, 2021, 12:30pm
Tuesday, January 19, 2021 through Thursday, January 21, 2021. Read by Michele Good. Part personal narrative, part cultural reportage, “Tomboyland” navigates midwestern traditions, mythologies, landscapes, and lives to explore the intersections of identity and place. Faliveno asks curious, honest,...
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
Monday, January 18, 2021, 11:00pm
Monday, January 18, 2021. Read by Melvin Hinton . At the time of the award was given, Dr. King was the youngest person ever to get that particular honor, and said that he would dedicate all of the $54,000 that accompanied it toward the cause of equal rights. When he appeared in Oslo to collect the...
The Tiger's Wife by Téa Obreht
Monday, December 28, 2020, 12:30pm
Monday, December 28, 2020 through Friday, January 15, 2021. Read by Susan Sweeney. In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather's recent death. Most extraordinary of all is the story her...
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Wednesday, December 23, 2020, 12:30pm
Wednesday, December 23 through Friday, December 25, 2020. 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...