Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss THE WEDDING by Dorothy West, and chat about their current reading.

Summer is upon us, so we are setting ourselves free just a little bit. July and August will feature some bonus content as well as a wrap-up conversation about our summer reading. Look out for details about these conversations on our social media accounts. Our next regularly scheduled episode will be in September when we will discuss A HOUSE IN PARIS by Elizabeth Bowen. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you as the first signs of fall arrive.

We are holding a contest! We’ve each picked six books we’re excited to read this summer. You can check out all the books at our store. But who chose what? Which books have caught Rebecca’s eye? What’s Dorian checking out? Which titles are calling to Frances?

Match titles with reader, and send your responses via DM to the One Bright Book twitter account or email at onebrightmail@gmail.com. 

Entries due at noon on July 4th, central time. Open world-wide. 

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• The Wedding by Dorothy West
• The Living Is Easy by Dorothy West
• Colored People: A Memoir by Henry Louis Gates Jr.
• Any Person Is the Only Self: Essays by Elisa Gabbert
• Emergency by Daisy Hildyard
• The Second Body by Daisy Hildyard
• Reading the Room: A Bookseller’s Tale by Paul Yamazaki
• The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century by Josh Cook
• All Fours by Miranda July
• Kala by Colin Walsh
• The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen

You might also be interested in:

• Notes From a Small Press, Anne Trubek – https://notesfromasmallpress.substack.com/
• “Shades of Difference” by Susan Kenney (NYT review in year of publication) – https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/12/books/shades-of-difference.html

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Dorian, and Rebecca as they discuss LA BÊTE HUMAINE by Émile Zola, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss THE WEDDING by Dorothy West. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late June.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola, translated with introduction and notes by Roger Pearson
• L’Assommoir by Émile Zola, translated by Brian Nelson and edited by Robert Lethbridge
• Germinal by Émile Zola, translated by Peter Collier and With an Introduction by Robert Lethbridge
• The Masterpiece by Émile Zola, translated by Thomas Walton and translation revised and introduced by Roger Pearson
• Nana by Émile Zola, translated by Helen Constantine and Edited by Brian Nelson
• Pot Luck by Émile Zola, Translated with an Introduction and Notes by Brian Nelson
• Doctor Pascal by Émile Zola, translated by Julie Rose, edited by Brian Nelson
• The Octopus by Frank Norris
• Rural Hours: The Country Lives of Virginia Wool, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehmann by Harriet Baker
• Henry, Henry by Allen Bratton
• The Morning Star by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• The Wolves of Eternity by Karl Ove Knausgaard
• It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over by Anne de Marcken
• The Wedding by Dorothy West

You might also be interested in:

• “Is It Even Good? Brandon Taylor Reads Zola” – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/brandon-taylor/is-it-even-good
• Further pursuing your knowledge of literary zombie novels

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Dorian, Rebecca, and Frances as they discuss DURING THE REIGN OF THE QUEEN OF PERSIA by Joan Chase, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss LA BÊTE HUMAINE by Émile Zola. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late May.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase
• The Evening Wolves by Joan Chase
• Bonneville Blue by Joan Chase
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• My Antonia by Willa Cather
• The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
• Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
• Cold Crematorium: Reporting from the Land of Auschwitz by József Debreczeni
• Miss MacIntosh, My Darling by Marguerite Young
• The Wedding by Dorothy West
• Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag
• La Bête Humaine by Émile Zola

You might also be interested in:

• “Is It Even Good? Brandon Taylor Reads Zola” – https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n07/brandon-taylor/is-it-even-good
• “The Longest, Least-Remembered Great American Novel” by Ryan Ruby – https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/the-longest-least-remembered-great-american-novel

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances and Dorian as they discuss THE WILD IRIS by Louise Glück, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss DURING THE REIGN OF THE QUEEN OF PERSIA by Joan Chase. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late April.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• The Wild Iris by Louise Glück
• Poems 1962-2012 by Louise Glück
• Winter Recipes from the Collective by Louise Glück
• Proof and Theories: Essays on Poetry by Louise Glück
• American Originality: Essays on Poetry by Louise Glück
• Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü, translated by Maureen Freely
• Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet’s Memoir of China’s Genocide by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated by Joshua L. Freeman
• Phantom Pain Wings by Kim Hyesoon, translated by Don Mee Choi
• Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated by Michael Hofmann
• Crooked Plow by Itamar Vieira Junior, translated by Johnny Lorenz
• The Details by Ia Genberg, translated by Kira Josefsson
• Mater 2-10 by Hwang Sok-yong, translated by Sora Kim-Russell and Youngjae Josephine Bae
• Not a River by Selva Almada, translated by Annie McDermott
• Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur
• A Dictator Calls by Ismail Kadare, translated by John Hodgson
• Undiscovered by Gabriela Wiener, translated by Julia Sanches
• Lost On Me by Veronica Raimo, translated by Leah Janeczko
• What I’d Rather Not Think About by Jente Posthuma, translated by Sarah Timmer Harvey
• Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirsten Bakis
• Loved and Missed by Susie Boyt
• During the Reign of the Queen of Persia by Joan Chase

You might also be interested in:

• Louise Glück Nobel Lecture – https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2020/gluck/lecture/
• Remembering Louise Glück by Garth Greenwell – https://garthgreenwell.substack.com/p/remembering-louise-gluck-1943-2023

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Frances, Rebecca, and Dorian as they discuss HARRIET HUME by Rebecca West, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss THE WILD IRIS by Louise Gluck. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in March.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
• The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West
• The Judge by Rebecca West
• Orlando by Virginia Woolf
• The Waves by Virginia Woolf
• The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope
• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding
• Howards End by E. M. Forster
• Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
• Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
• The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
• Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
• Lote by Shola Von Reinhold
• Rebecca West: A Life by Victoria Glendinning
• Sunflower by Rebecca West
• The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola
• His Excellency Eugene Rougon by Emile Zola
• The Octopus by Frank Norris
• McTeague by Frank Norris
• A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor
• The Tree of Life by Chava Rosenfarb
• In the Land of the Postscript: The Complete Short Stories of Chava Rosenfarb by Chava Rosenfarb
• Confessions of a Yiddish Writer and Other Essays by Chava Rosenfarb
• Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
• This Little Art by Kate Briggs
• The Preparation of the Novel: Lecture Courses and Seminars at the College de France by Roland Barthes
• The Long Form by Kate Briggs
• How to Live Together: Novelistic Simulations of Some Everyday Spaces by Roland Barthes
• The Wild Iris by Louise Gluck

You might also be interested in:

OED Entry for “Slut:” https://www.oed.com/dictionary/slut_n?tl=true

Rebecca’s Substack for #KateBriggs24: https://readingkatebriggs.substack.com/p/introducing-katebriggs24

Hear Roland Barthes Present His 40-Hour Course, La Préparation du roman, in French (1978–80): https://www.openculture.com/2014/07/listen-to-roland-barthes-deliver-his-40-hour-lecture-course-la-preparation-du-roman-in-french-1978-80.html

A collection of resources about Yiddish writer Chava Rosenfarb: https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/chava-rosenfarb

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss their most anticipated books of 2024 with John Williams, books editor for the Washington Post.

For our next episode, we will discuss Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy by Rebecca West. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in late January.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Tone by Kate Zambreno and Sofia Samatar
• We the Parasites by A. V. Marraccini
• Professing Criticism: Essays on the Organization of Literary Study by John Guillory
• James by Percival Everett
• Your Utopia by Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
• There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib
• A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib
• Be Holding: A Poem by Ross Gay
• The Hunter by Tana French
• The Searcher by Tana French
• Colored Television by Danzy Senna
• The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise of a New City by Kevin Baker
• The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov
• Prairie, Dresses, Art, Other by Danielle Dutton
• Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton
• Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
• There There by Tommy Orange
• Wild Houses by Colin Barrett
• Ordinary Human Failings by Megan Nolan
• Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
• The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft
• Alphabetical Diaries by Sheila Heti
• Opacities by Sofia Samatar
• Rhine Journey by Ann Schlee
• The Skin of Dreams by Raymond Queneau, translated from the French by Chris Clarke
• Union Station by David Downing
• Point Zero by Seicho Matsumoto, translated from the Japanese by Louise Heal Kawai
• With My Back to the World: Poems by Victoria Chang
• Mirror Nation by Don Mee Choi
• Modern Poetry: Poems by Diane Seuss
• Praiseworthy by Alexis Wright
• Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
• Notes From the Henhouse: On Marrying a Poet, Raising Children and Chickens, and Writing by Elspeth Barker
• All Things Are Too Small: Essays in Praise of Excess by Becca Rothfeld
• Harriet Hume: A London Fantasy by Rebecca West

You might also be interested in:

• The Second Pass – http://thesecondpass.com/

• “Why You Left Social Media: A Guesswork” by Sofia Samatar – https://magazine.catapult.co/places/stories/why-you-left-social-media-a-guesswork
• The American Vandal Podcast, Season Eight – https://marktwainstudies.com/the-american-vandal-podcast/

Image credit: Aviva Wishnow

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss A MERCY by Toni Morrison, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss our most anticipated books of 2024 with the book editor of the Washington Post, John Williams, as our special guest. We hope you all listen in to this conversation and grow your book wish lists accordingly.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• A Mercy by Toni Morrison
• Beloved by Toni Morrison
• Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
• Home by Toni Morrison
• Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, translated from the Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette
• Same Bed Different Dreams by Ed Park
• Tone by Sofia Samatar and Kate Zambreno
• The Long Form by Kate Briggs
• The Master Key by Masako Togawa, translated from the Japanese by Simon Grove
• Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
• The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West
• The Real Night by Rebecca West
• Cousin Rosamund by Rebecca West

You might also be interested in:

• Toni Morrison Nobel Lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1993/morrison/lecture/
• Between the Covers Podcast – Kate Zambreno and Sofia Samatar: Tone https://tinhouse.com/podcast/kate-zambreno-sofia-samatar-tone/
• Toni Morrison Discusses A Mercy –  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IZvMhQ2LIU
• Toni Morrison: ‘Goodness, Altruism and the Literary Imagination’ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/07/books/toni-morrison-goodness-altruism-literary-imagination.html

Image credit: Damon Winter / The New York Times

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss A Mercy by Toni Morrison. We would love to have you read along with us, and listen in on our conversation coming to you in late November or early December, scheduling and consistency being our strong points.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy
• Pale Horse, Pale Rider by Katherine Anne Porter
• The Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic
• The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt
• Between Friends: The Correspondence of Hannah Arendt and Mary McCarthy 1949-1975 by Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt
• The Group by Mary McCarthy
• The Company She Keeps by Mary McCarthy
• The Stones of Florence by Mary McCarthy
• Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean
• Lojman by Ebru Ojen, translated by Aron Aji and Selin Gökçesu
• The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Translated by Lara Vergnaud
• The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
• Crook O’Lune by E.C.R. Lorac
• Tone by Sofia Samatar and Kate Zambreno
• The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
• Bats in the Belfry by E.C.R. Lorac
• Gibbons, or One Bloody Thing After Another by James Morrison
• A Mercy by Toni Morrison

You might also be interested in:

Gibbons, or One Bloody Thing After Another Book Trailer

Gibbons, or One Bloody Thing After Another Book Launch

The Formidable Friendship of Mary McCarthy and Hannah Arendt

https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-formidable-friendship-of-mary-mccarthy-and-hannah-arendt

Mary McCarthy, The Art of Fiction No. 27, The Paris Review

https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4618/the-art-of-fiction-no-27-mary-mccarthy

Mary McCarthy at the 92nd Street Y, The Paris Review

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/05/18/mary-mccarthy-92nd-street-y/

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska, and chat about their current reading.

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For our next episode, we will discuss Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy. We would love to have you read along with us, and listen in on our conversation coming to you in October or November, scheduling and consistency being our strong points.

Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak
• The Memoir of an Anti-Hero by Kornel Filipowicz
• Love at First Sight by Wislawa Szymborska, illustrated by Beatrice Gasca Queirazza
• Chenneville by Paulette Jiles
• News of the World by Paulette Jiles
• Simon the Fiddler by Paulete Jiles
• Come Back in September by Darryl Pinckney
• The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
• When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut
• The Forest: A Fable of America in the 1830s by Alexander Nemerov
• Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
• The End of August by Yu Miri, translated by Morgan Giles
• Tokyo Ueno Station by Yu Miri
• Memories of a Catholic Girlhood by Mary McCarthy

Just in case you don’t have a copy of Map on hand, here are some links to the main poems discussed in this episode:

• “Love at First Sight” – https://poets.org/poem/love-first-sight
• “Allegro ma Non Troppo” – http://mrhoyesibwebsite.com/Poetry%20Texts/Szymborska/The%20Poems/Allegro%20Ma%20Non%20Troppo.htm
• “In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself” – https://www.best-poems.net/poem/praise-feeling-bad-about-yourself-by-wislawa-szymborska.html
• “Consolation” – https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/48271/consolation-56d2295fb70bb

Szymborska’s Nobel Lecture – https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1996/szymborska/lecture/

This second bonus episode of the podcast is a conversation that Rebecca and Frances recently had with writer and translator, Anton Hur. We are excited to share that Anton is the first guest we have had on One Bright Book! His insights into translation and the role of the translator were direct and honest, revealing both surprises and calls for action to improve the landscape of the craft.

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Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books!

Books mentioned:

• Toward Eternity by Anton Hur
• Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
• Love in the Big City by Sang Young Park, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
• Tomb of Sand by Geetanjali Shree, translated from the Hindi by Daisy Rockwell
• Jennifer Croft original work and translations
• The Long Form by Kate Briggs
• Counterweight by Djuna, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
• Beyond the Story: 10 Year Record of BTS by Kang Myeong, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur in collaboration with Claire Richards and Slin Jung
• Indeterminate Inflorescence by Lee Seong-bok, translated from the Korean by Anton Hur
• White Cat, Black Dog: Stories by Kelly Link
• Vengeance is Mine by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump
• That Time of Year by Marie NDiaye, translated from the French by Jordan Stump
• The Annual Banquet of the Gravediggers’ Guild by Mathias Énard, translated from the French by Frank Wynne