WPR

Chapter A Day

Started in 1931, “Chapter a Day” is WPR’s longest-running program. Jim Fleming, Norman Gilliland, Michele Good, Melvin Hinton, Baron Kelly and Susan Sweeney read a chapter from a book for a half hour each weekday. Genres are predominately contemporary and range from works of fiction, history and biography.

Schedule

WPR Music, 7 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., WPR News, 9:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Hosted by

Michele Gerard Good

A bearded man with glasses and a receding hairline, wearing a dark jacket and white shirt, looks slightly past the camera in a sepia-toned portrait. — Portrait of Anthony Trollope by Napoleon Sarony – The New York Public Library – Public Domain

CURRENTLY READING

Christmas At Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope

Wednesday, December 24 through Friday, December 26, 2025

Read by Karl Schmidt

Anthony Trollope’s Victorian “comedy of errors” “Christmas at Thompson Hall” has been 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 time for Christmas?

(Public Domain)

Readings are archived for one week following the broadcast day of the last chapter due to publisher  copyright restrictions.

Latest Episodes

Christmas At Thompson Hall 2 of 3 – A Failed Escape
After putting a mustard plaster on the wrong man’s chest, Mrs. Brown insists on leaving first thing in the morning…before her guilt is made known. But as she is nearly […]
December 25, 2025
Christmas At Thompson Hall 1 of 3 – Mr. Brown Begrudgingly Agrees
Mr. and Mrs. Brown are traveling from the south of France to England so that Mrs. Brown can attend Christmas at her family home — Thompson Hall. There she will […]
December 24, 2025
A Little Princess 17 of 17 – Spreading Largess
Miss Minchin returns to the school seeking sympathy from her sister. Sara writes a letter to Ermengarde telling her what has occurred. Although Becky is very happy for Sara, she […]
December 23, 2025
A Little Princess 16 of 17 – “It Is The Child”
The Large Family is at Mr. Carrisford’s house trying to console him after another dead end in finding Ralph Crewe’s child. When Sara arrives at the house to return the […]
December 22, 2025
A Little Princess 15 of 17 – The Kindness Of A Friend
After a day without food, everyone expects that Sara will look very ill and unhappy when she comes downstairs. But she seems happy and healthy, which only makes Miss Minchin […]
December 19, 2025

Chapter A Day Booklist

View information about every book we’ve read in the past 30 years!

View Booklist

Coming Next

Book cover for “Shelter and Storm: At Home in the Driftless” by Tamara Dean, with a wavy, multicolored blue, green, and tan abstract background.

Shelter & Storm by Tamara Dean

Monday, December 29 through Monday, January 12, 2026
Read by Susan sweeney

Tamara Dean left the tech world to live lightly on the land in the Driftless area of Wisconsin. There, she confronted, in ways large and small, the challenges of meeting basic needs while facing the ravages of climate change. Her gift for storytelling unites personal experience with science and history, presenting a perspective as informative as it is compelling. “‘The Land Remembers’ for the 21st century”