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

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss MRS. S by K. Patrick, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss MAP: COLLECTED AND LAST POEMS by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in September. We have had to reschedule this chat a few times, but we really think that we can deliver this time.

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

Books mentioned:

• Mrs. S by K. Patrick
• Bear by Marian Engel
• A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
• Blood Wedding and Other Plays by Federico García Lorca
• Loving by Henry Green
• Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville
• The steamy novels of Alberto Moravia
• Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck, translated from the German by Michael Hoffman
• Out of the Sugar Factory by Dorothee Elmiger, translated from the Swiss German by Megan Ewing
• April in Spain by John Banville
• Book of Mutter by Kate Zambreno
• Sleepless by Marie Darrieussecq, translated from the French by Penny Hueston
• Being Here is Everything by Marie Darrieussecq, translated from the French by Penny Hueston
• Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
• All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay
• A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
• Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
• Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak

Also mentioned in the podcast…

Dorothee Elmiger and Kate Zambreno in conversation – “A Meditation on Being a Daughter.” https://vimeo.com/819544960

This special episode of the podcast is a quick conversation between Rebecca and Frances after they enjoyed a private tour of the library at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s summer home in Lenox, Massachusetts. The team thought it might be fun to do the occasional bonus episode when the opportunity presents, capturing a bookishly fun moment in a more compact exchange. Although these “extras” might not all have the excellent bird song in the background that you will find here.

Content warning – this episode briefly discusses suicidal feelings.

Here are a few links that you might enjoy if you are curious about this content:

• The Mount – https://www.edithwharton.org/
• Edith Wharton’s Library – http://edithwhartonslibrary.org/dir/home.html
• The Edith Wharton Society – https://edithwhartonsociety.wordpress.com/
• The Custom of the Country: Vogue Re-creates Edith Wharton’s Artistic Arcadia – https://www.vogue.com/article/the-custom-of-the-country-edith-wharton-estate-in-the-berkshires

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss AN I-NOVEL by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter, and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss MAP: COLLECTED AND LAST POEMS by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in July.

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

Books mentioned:

• An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter
• A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• A True Novel by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter
• The Fall of Language in the Age of English by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter
• Inheritance From Mother by Minae Mizumura
• The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki, translated from the Japanese by Edward G. Seidensticker
• Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
• The Light Room by Kate Zambreno
• Territory of Light by Yuko Tsushima, translated from the Japanese by Geraldine Harcourt
• To Write as If Already Dead by Kate Zambreno
• What a Library Means to a Woman: Edith Wharton and the Will to Collect Books by Sheila Liming
• Mrs. S by K Patrick
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
• The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
• Map: Collected and Last Poems by Wislawa Szymborska, translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Baranczak

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss SPACE CRONE by Ursula K. Le Guin and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss AN I-NOVEL by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you soon.

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

Books mentioned:

• Space Crone by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Books of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Dancing at the Edge of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown by Virginia Woolf
• The Millstone by Margaret Drabble
• Sociobiology: The New Synthesis by Edward O. Wilson
• On Women by Susan Sontag
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Our Spoons Came from Woolworths by Barbara Comyns
• Shy by Max Porter
• Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Cespedes, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
• Siblings by Brigitte Reimann, translated from the German by Lucy Jones
• Francisco by Alison Mills Newman
• They by Kay Dick
• The Shutter of Snow by Emily Holmes Coleman
• We the Parasites by A.V. Marraccini
• A Writer’s Diary by Toby Litt
• A Love Affair by Dino Buzzati, translated from the Italian by Joseph Green
• The Stronghold by Dino Buzzati, translated from the Italian by Lawrence Venuti
• Out of the Sugar Factory by Dorthee Elmiger, Translated from German by Megan Ewing
• Cold Nights of Childhood by Tezer Özlü, translated from the Turkish by Maureen Freely
• Come Back in September by Darryl Pinkney
• Tomás Nevinson by Javier Marías, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa
• Vom Aufstehen (On Getting Up) by Helga Schubert
• The Long Form by Kate Briggs
• The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker
• Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
• Septology by Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls
• The Diaries of Franz Kafka by Franz Kafka, translated from the German by Ross Benjamin
• An I-Novel by Minae Mizumura, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter

David Naimon has a series of interviews called Crafting with Ursula that we highly encourage you to listen to. Click on the link below to access the podcast episodes.

https://tinhouse.com/th_podcast_cat/crafting-with-ursula/

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss THE STONE ANGEL by Margaret Laurence and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss SPACE CRONE by Ursula K. Le Guin. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you soon.

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

Books mentioned:

• The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
• Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro, translated by Frances Riddle
• Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
• The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy
• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
• Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
• The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor
• Falling Hour by Geoffrey Morrison
• The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
• Plainsong by Kent Haruf
• Eventide by Kent Haruf
• Benediction by Kent Haruf
• Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
• Boulder by Eva Baltasar, translated by Julia Sanches
• Still Born by Guadalupe Nettel, translated by Rosalind Harvey
• The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier, translated by Daniel Levin Becker
• Whale by Cheon Myeong-Kwan, translated by Chi-Young Kim
• Is Mother Dead by Vigdis Hjorth, translated by Charlotte Barslund
• While We Were Dreaming by Clemens Meyer, translated by Kate Derbyshire
• Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell
• Free Indirect: The Novel in a Postfictional Age by Timothy Bewes
• The Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
• Space Crone by Ursula K. Le Guin

You might want to look for Selected Letters of Margaret Laurence and Adele Wiseman edited by John Lennox and Ruth Panofsky if you are interested in the correspondence referenced in the podcast.

Check out Joseph Schreiber’s excellent thoughts on the novel here:

“Foolish I may have been, but never silly.” The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

And this beautiful review from Radhika Pandit:

The Stone Angel – Margaret Laurence

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Rebecca, Frances, and Dorian as they discuss MAUD MARTHA by Gwendolyn Brooks and chat about their current reading.

For our next episode, we will discuss THE STONE ANGEL by Margaret Laurence. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you in April.

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

Books mentioned:

• Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks
• Annie Allen by Gwendolyn Brooks
• Native Son by Richard Wright
• Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
• The Waves by Virginia Woolf
• Forbidden Notebook by Alba de Céspedes, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein
• The Birthday Party by Laurent Mauvignier
• Affinities: On Art and Fascination by Brian Dillon, translated from the French by Daniel Levin Becker
• The Story of a Life by Konstantin Paustovsky, translated from the Russian by Douglas Smith
• The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence

And you might be interested in:

Gwendolyn Brooks, Maud Martha, and Other Immortal Mortals https://lithub.com/gwendolyn-brooks-maud-martha-and-other-immortal-mortals/

Nobody Knows My Name: Manuel Muñoz on Gwendolyn Brooks’s Maud Martha https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/891-nobody-knows-my-name-manuel-munoz-on-gwendolyn-brookss-maud-martha

“We Real Cool” – https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/28112/we-real-cool

On Eileen Myles’ Inferno, and the “Poets Novel” – https://lithub.com/on-eileen-myles-inferno-and-the-poets-novel/

Inferno (a poet’s novel) by Eileen Myles – https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/inferno-a-poets-novel/