Monday, October 3, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, October 3 through Tuesday, October 18, 2022. Read by Jim Fleming.
Anchored by an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jon Meacham, this concise collection of essays and letters from one of this country’s most eminent literary voices offers much-needed historical context for our current state of the nation—and hope for the future of our society.
(Harper; ISBN-10: 0062905430 / ISBN-13: 978-0062905437)
Theme: The Corsair Overture, Op. 21; Hamilton Harty; Brno Philharmonic Orchestra; Petr Vronsky, conductor
Monday, August 29, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, August 29 through Friday, September 30, 2022. Read by Susan Sweeney.
V.I. Warshawski goes to help an old friend and ends up in a fight with Chicago political bosses.
(Signet; ISBN-10: 0451477154)
Theme: “Latin Shuffle” from the album “Combustication” Medeski Martin & Wood
Monday, August 8, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, August 8 through Friday, August 26, 2022. Read by Norman Gilliland.
Following the many misadventures of a ship’s surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, Jonathon Swift’s wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
(Public Domain)
Theme: "The Harmonious Blacksmith", George F. Handel; "Le Rouet D'Omphale, Op 13", Camille Saint-Saëns; Earl Wild, The Romantic Master; Sony Classical
Monday, July 11, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, July 11 through Friday, August 5, 2022. Read by Michele Good.
Based on the true story of two extraordinary, 19th century fossil hunters who changed the scientific world forever, poor and uneducated Mary Anning learns she has "the eye" to spot fossils no one else can see. She soon finds an unlikely champion in prickly Elizabeth Philpot, a middle-class spinster who shares her passion for scouring the beaches. When Mary uncovers an unusual, fossilized skeleton in the cliffs near her home, she sets the religious community on edge, the townspeople to gossip, and the scientific world alight.
(HarperCollins Publishers...
Monday, June 13, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, June 13 through Friday, July 8, 2022. Read by Jim Fleming.
A mysterious beast is attacking ships all over the world. Famous oceanographer Pierre Aronnax is called upon to hunt for the creature. But when the creature attacks the navy vessel pursuing it and Aronnax is thrown overboard, the adventure really begins when he is “rescued” by the reclusive and, likely mad, genius Captain Nemo and his fantastical underwater ship, the Nautilus.
(Reader's Library Classics; ISBN-10: 1954839111 / ISBN-13: 978-1954839113)
Theme: Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Scheherazade, Opus 35; "The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship"; Fritz Reiner, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Monday, May 16, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, May 16 through Friday, June 10, 2022. Read by Norman Gilliland.
The enigmatic Nikola Tesla—stalked by his ever-present inner demons—invents the modern world. He tames the mysterious force called “electricity;” dazzles the world with his endless inventions and discoveries; and blazes new paths in science that profoundly impact our daily lives. His thought experiments disrupt scientific norms. He gives us many of the indispensable tools we use today. The world vies for his attention. Yet all the while he keeps his own counsel, as he simultaneously struggles with the challenging consequences of bipolar disorder: flights of manic energy alternating...
Thursday, May 12, 2022, 12:30pm
Thursday, May 12 through Friday, May 13, 2022. Read by Susan Sweeney.
Jane Love moved with her family in 1840 at the age of fifteen to what was then called the Iowa Territory. Her diary, which ends with her death in 1898, gives us a glimpse into homesteading life on the prairie as Americans pushed West.
(Unpublished)
Theme: Antonin Dvorak, Lento, String Quartet, Op. 96 "American", Artur Rubinstein/Guarneri Quartet, RCA Victor
Monday, April 18, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, April 18 through Wednesday, May 11, 2022. Read by Susan Sweeney.
Pulitzer Prize winner Elizabeth Strout continues the life of her beloved Olive Kitteridge. Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, or a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, the unforgettable Olive will continue...
Monday, March 28, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, March 28 through Friday, April 15, 2022. Read by Susan Sweeney.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge. At times stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always recognize the changes in those around her. As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life—sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty....
Monday, March 14, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, March 14 through Friday, March 25, 2022. Read by Norman Gilliland.
Written when Grange was in his sixties, As the Twig Is Bent conveys how a leading conservationist was formed through his early relationship to nature. Grange's story vividly describes his mostly idyllic childhood watching bird life in the once grand prairies just west of Chicago. He documents his family's journey and pioneering struggle to operate a farm on the logged cutover country in northern Wisconsin, a land that provided him with abundant opportunities to study the lives of wild creatures he loved most. As he develops his own...
Monday, February 28, 2022, 12:30pm
Monday, February 28 through Friday, March 11, 2022. Read by Jim Fleming.
John Charles Gilkey steals rare books, but only for love-the love of books. Ken Sanders wants to catch him. For author Bartlett, it's a fascinating chase, but also a search to find out: What is it that makes some people stop at nothing to possess the titles they love?
(Penguin; ISBN-10: 1594484813 / ISBN-13: 9781594484810)
Theme: Charlie Parker: Bird, The Savoy Recordings, Volume 1 - "Tiny's Tempo" and "Red Cross" (Savoy Jazz ZDS 4402)
Wednesday, February 16, 2022, 12:30pm
Wednesday, February 16, 2022 through Friday, February 25, 2022. 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 mentioned at all in histories of the state, it is with a sentence or two about their small numbers. Relative to the total number of Badgers who served in the Civil War, African American soldiers were few, but they constituted a significant number in at least five regiments of the United States Colored...
Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 12:30pm
Tuesday, February 8, 2022 through Tuesday, February 15, 2022. 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 Hawk War, returning in 1859 to make speeches in Milwaukee, Beloit, and Janesville. Mary traveled toured northern Wisconsin and Racine in 1867, returning five years later to take advantage of the healing waters of Waukesha.
(Millhouse Press; ISBN: 0988375982)
Theme: Antonin Dvorak, Serenade For Wind Instruments In D Minor,...
Friday, January 28, 2022, 12:30pm
Friday, January 28 through Monday, February 7, 2022. 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, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. With tenderness and humor, she captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a...
Monday, January 17, 2022, 11:00pm
Monday, January 17, 2022. 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 award, he got the chance to speak eloquently about why that prize was still desperately needed — and why he felt a Peace Prize was appropriate for a movement that had a lot of fighting left to do.
This program will air only at 11:00 p.m....
Monday, December 27, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, December 27 through Thursday, January 27, 2022. Read by Karl Schmidt.
A story from the "driftless" area of Wisconsin, about a town apparently left out of time. It's an unforgettable slice of life in rural America.
Driftless by David Rhodes (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2008). Copyright © 2008 by David Rhodes. Rebroadcast with permission from Milkweed Editions. www.milkweed.org
(Milkweed; ISDN-10: 1571310592 / ISBN-13: 978-57131-059-0)
Theme: Haydn: The Seven Last Words - introduction; Emerson Quartet (DG B0002053-02)
Wednesday, December 22, 2021, 12:30pm
Wednesday, December 22 through Friday, December 24, 2021. Read by Karl Schmidt.
Anthony Trollope’s Victorian “comedy of errors” "Christmas at Thompson Hall" was a holiday tradition for many years on Chapter A Day. Not quite a “Christmas story”, it nonetheless is filled with the festivity and anxiety that accompanies the season. Mrs Brown is overjoyed. She hasn’t been home to England for the holidays in eight years. But nothing is cooperating with her… not the weather, not her husband, and not the strange man she just slathered with mustard plaster. Just how far will she go to get home in...
Monday, December 13, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, December 13 through Wednesday, December 21, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming.
Every child knows about Santa Claus, the jolly man who brings gifts to all on Christmas. There are many stories that tell of his life, but this delightful version filled with fairies, immortals and a kidnapped human baby is by far the most charming and original of all. Only L. Frank Baum, the man who created the wonderful land of Oz, could have told Santa's tale in such rich and imaginative detail.
(Public Domain)
THEME: Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, Keith Jarrett, Piano.
Thursday, November 25, 2021, 11:00pm
Thursday, November 25, 2021 – 11 pm only. Read by Jim Fleming.
"The Eye of Edna" is an essay from the collection "The Essays of E.B. White." The author, one of the founders of The New Yorker magazine, lived in Maine at the time and writes of spending a day listening to the radio while announcers track the progress of the hurricane they say is heading his way.
(Harper & Row; ISBN-10: 0060145765)
Theme: “Sh boom” by The Crewcuts, “Mr. Sandman” by Chordetts
Monday, November 22, 2021, 12:30pm
Monday, November 22 through Friday, December 10, 2021. Read by Jim Fleming.
Raymond Kaquatosh was born in 1924 on Wisconsin’s Menominee Reservation. The son of a medicine woman, he spent his boyhood immersed in the beauty of the natural world and the traditions of his tribe and his family. When his father died, he was sent to Indian boarding school in Keshena. He was "Little Hawk."
(Wisconsin Historical Society Press: ISBN-10: 0870206508)
THEME: “Begin The Beguine” by Artie Shaw
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 named Frida, who knows how to get by without attracting the attention of suspicious Parisians. And then Paras meets a human boy and discovers the ivy-walled house where the boy and his nearly-one-hundred-year-old great-grandmother live in seclusion. As the cold weather nears, the unlikeliest of friendships...
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, the book centers on a beautiful, young man named Dorian Gray, who in a fleeting moment wishes that he could have eternal youth and beauty while his recently painted portrait would age instead. His wish granted, he begins to descend into a life of crime and gross sensuality, while the portrait grows day...
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, the cruelty of some Americans, and the unceasing generosity of others. With tenderness and humor, she captures the texture of life in a new place in all its complexity, laying bare both its beauty and its darkness as she discusses race, love, death, consumerism, and what it is like to be from a...
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 - Erich Kunzel (Telarc CD 80260), then John Bayless, piano (Angel CDC 54801)
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 been told at every juncture on her career and life that she wasn't enough. She came from a struggling southern family that felt ashamed of its own mixed-race heritage and whose elders diminished their women. She survived abuse and assault as a young mother. In spite of it all, her salvations were food,...
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 / ISBN-13 : 978-0063031906)
Theme: Einojuhani Rautavaara: Divertimento--Allegro; Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Andrew Sewell conducting
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 – 2nd mvt; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields – Neville Marriner, cond.
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 among the remote peaks of western China and the desperate search to find them which gripped the world.
(Mountaineers Books; ISBN-10 : 1680512889 / ISBN-13 : 978-1680512885)
THEME: “Distant Green Valley”, Silkroad Ensemble & Yo-Yo Ma, Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon, Sony Music
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 Arnold, English Dances, First Set Op. 27; Irish Dances Op. 126, The Philharmonia, Bryden Thomson Conductor, Chandos
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: 978-0544947139)
THEME: Charleston Rag from Memories Of You, Eubie Blake