Comfort zones, comfort novels, and two novels by Willa Cather – welcome to episode 83!
In the first half of this episode, Rachel and I talk about whether or not we have comfort zones when it comes to reading – and what our comfort reading is, which isn’t quite the same question. In the second half, we pit two Willa Cather novels against each other: A Lost Lady and Lucy Gayheart.
We hope that Tea or Books? can be a ray of sunshine in this complicated and anxious time. We’ll keep recording as much as we can! Do let us know if you have any suggestions for future episodes – and please do rate and review us at your podcast app of choice SHOULD you wish. You can find us at Apple Podcasts, and we’re on Spotify too now. If you’d like to support the podcast, that’s an option at Patreon.
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The books and authors we mention in this episode are:
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel
The Lost Pianos of Siberia by Sophy Roberts
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank by Thad Carhart
Tension by E.M. Delafield
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Denis Mackail
Rose Macaulay
Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession by Janet Malcolm
Virginia Woolf
Gertrude Stein
The Silent Woman: Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes
Two Lives by Janet Malcolm
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Remarkable Life of the Skin by Monty Lyman
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
The Love Child by Edith Olivier
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The People on the Bridge by Wisława Szymborska
Circe by Madeleine Miller
Miss Read
Agatha Christie
Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill
The Illustrated Dustjacket 1920-1970 by Martin Salisbury
Penguin By Design by Phil Baines
When I Was A Child I Read Books by Marilynne Robinson
The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford
The Road to Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead
The Shelf by Phyllis Rose
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Phantoms on the Bookshelves by Jacques Bonnet
A Reader on Reading by Alberto Manguel
The Library at Night by Alberto Manguel
Packing My Library by Alberto Manguel
Jorge Luis Borges
The Professor’s House by Willa Cather
Alexander’s Bridge by Willa Cather
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
The Go-Between by L.P. Hartley
Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather
Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Aunt Mame by Patrick Dennis
Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Books are definitely a comfort at the moment, and although I do have a comfort zone I’m not necessarily staying in it. I identify with Rachel when it comes to Golden Age crime as perfect comfort reading – it certainly is, and I’ve been wallowing in it later!
I’m so glad we plumped for 1920 as the club this time, Simon, as it’s obviously keeping you well and truly where you are happiest! I’m prepping at the moment too (Golden Age Crime!!) but have taken on something a bit longer, most unexpectedly, and am happily wallowing in it.
As for Borges (said Bor-hez, I think), you should read him!!! (If you recall I bought a massive collected Borges stories in Foyles when we met Laura and the folks from the LT gang all those years ago!)
Comfort listening for sure. You and Rachel made today much better with the issuance of a new episode. You also successfully argued me into rethinking Cather. Thanks for highlighting other titles from a writer whose reputation often seems to end at O Pioneers and My Antonia, both of which reek of high school syllabus reading.
Yes, thank you for continuing to drop new podcasts. Yours and a few others are certainly comfort listening for me.
I enjoyed this episode very much, as usual. The combination of the two sections of the podcast is interesting for me because essentially all my comfort reads (besides children’s authors like L.M. Montgomery, Elizabeth Enright, Laura Ingalls Wilder, etc.) are by British authors, even though I am American. Willa Cather is definitely outside my comfort reading zone, though I did read Death Comes to Archbishop in college and was struck by it. It makes me curious about how each of us develops an affinity for certain kinds of books, even as children when we are just working with what’s immediately around us. Food for thought, I guess. Thank you Simon and Rachel!
Elizabeth, I completely relate. I’m American – and while I did go through a Truman Capote phase and I love Flannery O’Connor, my comfort reads are definitely British writers. I had a sneaking suspicion Willa Cather must be good as Virago published her, but it’s funny it took two British podcasters to finally get me to read her!
Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shadows on the Rock are my two favourite Cathers, too. Please don’t be put off Shadows, don’t think of it as an historical novel, I hope you’ll just enjoy it as a good novel :) The Song of the Lark is an earlier (and longer) book than Lucy Gayheart. It also follows the career of a musician, but a different character and in a different way – well worth reading.