A Good Story is Hard to Find

Episode 15 takes us to the Salinas Valley in California. The subject is John Steinbeck's East of Eden, written in 1951. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #015| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Julie's Forgotten Classics: The Genesis Episodes - Julie is not quite done with Genesis, but she's up to Chapter 31. |HERE| is Genesis Chapter 1-2, and |HERE| is the episode that contains the first part of Robert Alter's Note to Reader.Also from Forgotten Classics, a couple of Lagniappes! Lagniappe 49, in which we hear about Olive and the airplane and Lagniappe 6, a little something from The Paragraph Farmer who makes sure we don't think that Chinese chefs only know how to cookEast of Eden on WikipediaDragged kicking and screaming into the promised land ... Julie's review of East of Eden at Patheos.

Episode 14. We recommend that you listen to this episode over and over and over and over... Julie and Scott talk about Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowall. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #014| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| More stuff: The Tobolowsky Files podcast - the Episode in which Stephen Tobolowsky talks about Groundhog Day is Episode 20 - The Classic.

Episode 13 finds us in Renaissance Italy. Our book is Prince of Foxes by Samuel Shellabarger. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #013| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Wikipedia entry on Prince of Foxes - lots of info thereFirst Apology by St. Justin Martyr - look at Chap. LXVSome other books mentioned: Captain from Castile by Samuel Shellabarger, The Fathers of the Church by Mike Aquilina, The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin, The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens, The Mass, The Glory, the Mystery, the Tradition by Mike Aquilina and Cardinal Wuerl, A Biblical Walk Through the Mass by Edward Sri, The Mass of the Early Christians by Mike Aquilina, Praying the Mass by Jeffrey Pinyan, Oliver Wiswell by Kenneth Roberts, Lydia Bailey by Kenneth Roberts, The Killer Angels by Michael ShaaraUSCCB's program on the new liturgyDocuments of Vatican II (the two I was thinking of were Lumen  Gentium and Gaudium et Spes)

Episode 12! About a Boy starring Hugh Grant, Nicholas Hoult, and Toni Collette. From the novel by Nick Hornby. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #012| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| More stuff: Nick Hornby's websiteWarm Bodies by Isaac Marion, from Blackstone AudioSummer Reading from Catholic Authors (Julie's Free Mind column)

It's Episode 11 time! Julie and Scott discuss Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. From Rivets and Trees (by Scott): In 1999, Gardner Dozois published the Sixteenth volume of his Year’s Best Science Fiction. I bought a digital copy for Handspring Visor from Peanut Press (now eReader) and started reading. Included in that volume was “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang, a story that affected me so much that it renewed my interest in short fiction. In first-person prose that refers to past and future as if it were all present, a woman tells the story of her daughter’s life while at the same time telling a fascinating story of attempts to unravel an alien language. How it converges is breathtaking. A good Chiang story (and they are all good, as I found out) mixes the intensely personal with exciting science and philosophy. Stories of Your Life and Others includes all the fiction Ted Chiang wrote through 2002. Standouts other than the story I already mentioned: “Tower of Babylon” (building a tower to find God), “Understand” (a story that reminded me of “Flowers for Algernon” by Keyes), and “Hell is the Absence of God” (in which religious things are easily seen, yet a man struggles with faith). I’ve heard so many times the refrain “I just don’t get into short fiction”, and that makes me sad because if you don’t read short fiction, you don’t read these incredible stories. I urge you to read Ted Chiang. Anything by Ted Chiang. It’s all gold. Table of Contents: “Tower of Babylon” • (1990) • novelette “Understand” • (1991) • novelette “Division by Zero” • (1991) • short story “Story of Your Life” • (1998) • novella “Seventy-Two Letters” • (2000) • novella “The Evolution of Human Science” • (2000) • short story “Hell Is the Absence of God” • (2001) • novelette “Liking What You See: A Documentary” • (2002) • short story Download or listen via this link: |Episode #011| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Ted Chiang Interview at Fantastic Metropolis Ted Chiang Interview at StarShipSofa SFFaudio Ted Chiang page The quote about Hell that Julie was looking for from John Ciardi's essay about understanding Dante: “The damned are there because they offended a theological system that enforces certain consequences of suffering. But part of that theological system has also decreed that salvation was available to all men. Christ in his ransom had procured endless mercy. One need only wish to be saved, need only surrender his soul to God in a last gasp of contrition, and he will be saved. He may have to suffer at length in Purgatory, but, once there, his place is reserved in Heaven and he will in time arrive there. Purgatory is like our modern colleges: no one can flunk out of them. It follows then, that the only way to get into Hell is to insist upon it. One must deliberately exclude himself from grace by hardening his heart against it. Hell is what the damned have actively and insistently wished for.”

Episode 10 features Fallen starring Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Donald Sutherland, and Embeth Davidtz. It's a movie featuring a demon, and Julie and Scott place it at very different places on the Rank-O-Meter. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #010| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| More stuff: Peter Kreeft on Angels Angels and Demons by Peter Kreeft The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio The Exorcist Let the Right One In

In Episode #9, Julie and Scott discuss The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint. On the Day of the Dead, at the Solona Music Hall, Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns — just two weeks too late. Grace, as her friends call her, has a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg and grease worked deep into her hands. She works at Sanchez Motorworks customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling. Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business: he’s haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He's never stopped feeling responsible. Before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #009| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Charles de Lint's site: |LINK|

Time for Episode 8! Julie and Scott discuss Stranger Than Fiction, a movie from 2006 starring Will Ferrell, directed by Marc Forster, and written by Zach Helm. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #008| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| More stuff: The opening of the movie, with the graphics we talked about: Two interviews with Zach Helm, the writer of the screenplay: One at Variety and one at filmindependent.org Rene Magritte's Son of Man Julie's column at Patheos - "The Hiding Place": No Pit So Deep" The zombie mention of the week: 28 Days Later from director Danny Boyle The audiobook version of The Mystery of Grace by Charles de Lint (our next book) is available for half price over at Audible if you are out of credits

In Episode #7, Julie and Scott discuss Eifelheim by Michael Flynn. Centuries ago, one small town in Germany disappeared and was never resettled. Tom, a historian, and his theoretical physicist girlfriend Sharon, become interested. By all logic, the town should have survived. What's so special about Eifelheim? Father Dietrich is the village priest of Eifelheim, in the year 1348, when the Black Death is gathering strength. To his astonishment, Dietrich makes first contact between humanity and an alien race from a distant star, when their ship crashes in the nearby forest. Flynn gives us the full richness and strangeness of medieval life, as well as some terrific aliens. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #007| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Michael Flynn's Blog: |LINK|Michael Flynn's Bibliography: |LINK|Special Thanks to Sean McGaughey at the Catholic Roundup Podcast! Julie's new book! Brother Astronomer: Adventures of a Vatican Scientist by Br. Guy Consolmagno In the Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn

In Episode 6, Julie and Scott discuss Quiz Show, a movie from 1994 directed by Robert Redford. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #006| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Stuff mentioned in the podcast: A zombie! (But it wasn't real...) All the Answers by Charles van Doren, from The New Yorker, 2008 Audio version of The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton from Uvula Audio - after clicking, you need to scroll a little more than halfway down the page. The soccer game Scott went to the night before the podcast.

In this week's podcast, Julie and Scott discuss The Franchise Affair, a mystery novel by Josephine Tey. Download or listen via this link: |Episode #005| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Stuff mentioned in the podcast: No zombies! (Not even one...) Julie describes a miracle that she mentioned in the podcast in a post on Happy Catholic called Signs and Wonders Also on Happy Catholic, a list of good sources of Church news The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (audiobook at Audible) Radioarchive.cc

Julie and Scott take a look at The Castle, an Australian comedy from 1997. And here's the podcast! Download or listen via this link: |Episode #004| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Extra Stuff mentioned in the podcast: Neeta Lyffe: Zombie Exterminator by Karina Fabian. By the 2040s, the shambling dead have become an international problem. While governments and special interest groups vie for the most environmentally-friendly way to rid the world of zombies, a new breed of exterminator has risen: The Zombie Exterminator.   Boardgames! Smallworld, Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Zombies!!!  

This time around, Julie and Scott discuss James Lee Burke's Black Cherry Blues. This gritty story won an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1990, and is third of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels. The book is remarkable for its well-written prose and the emotional baggage carried by nearly every character. The setting is contemporary Louisiana and Montana. And here's the podcast! Download or listen via this link: |Episode #003| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Extra Stuff mentioned in the podcast: The Good Wife, a CBS TV series.   Quirks and Creation, an Episode of Being from American Public Media. A discussion with John Polkinghorne about science and religion. "Science and religion are often pitted against one another; but how do they complement, rather than contradict, one another? We learn how one man applies the deepest insights of modern physics to think about how the world fundamentally works, and how the universe might make space for prayer."  

In Episode 2, Julie and Scott talk about Serenity, a movie written and directed by Joss Whedon. And here's the podcast! Download or listen via this link: |Episode #002| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner Or subscribe via iTunes by clicking: |HERE| Extra Stuff mentioned in the podcast: Diana Wynne Jones - Fire and Hemlock, The Lives of Christopher Chant, Howl's Moving Castle, The Homeward Bounders Paperback Swap

In the first A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast, Julie and Scott discuss The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell! For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks.Download or listen via this link: |Episode #001| Subscribe to the podcast via this link: Feedburner An iTunes feed is on the way... Talked about in the podcast: The Books Behind The Reapers Are the AngelsJulie's review of the audiobook on SFFaudioAnd here's the audiobook from Blackstone Audio, read by Tai Simmons. I love this cover!