In this conversation, Angelina and Cindy talk all things related to the detective novel. Why do we love detective fiction so much? What are the qualities of a good detective novel? What is the history of detective fiction, and how did World War I bring about the Golden Age of the genre? Angelina and Cindy answer all these questions and more. Be sure to scroll down for links to all the books and authors mentioned in this episode!  Commonplace Quotes: Those who read poetry to improve their minds will never improve their minds by reading poetry, for the true enjoyments must be spontaneous and compulsive and look to no remoter end. The Muses will submit to no marriage of convenience. C. S. Lewis One of these days I shall write a book in which two men are seen to walk down a cul de sac, and there is a shot, and one man is found murdered, and the other runs away with a gun in his hand, and after twenty chapters stinking with red herrings, it turns out that the man with the gun did it after all. Dorothy L. Sayers The Listeners by Walter De La Mare ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveler,       Knocking on the moonlit door;  And his horse in the silence champed the grasses       Of the forest’s ferny floor:  And a bird flew up out of the turret,       Above the Traveler’s head:  And he smote upon the door again a second time;       ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.  But no one descended to the Traveler;       No head from the leaf-fringed sill  Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,       Where he stood perplexed and still.  But only a host of phantom listeners       That dwelt in the lone house then  Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight       To that voice from the world of men:  Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,       That goes down to the empty hall,  Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken       By the lonely Traveler’s call.  And he felt in his heart their strangeness,       Their stillness answering his cry,  While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,       ’Neath the starred and leafy sky;  For he suddenly smote on the door, even       Louder, and lifted his head:—  ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,       That I kept my word,’ he said.  Never the least stir made the listeners,       Though every word he spake  Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house       From the one man left awake:  Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,       And the sound of iron on stone,  And how the silence surged softly backward,       When the plunging hoofs were gone. Book List: The World’s Last Night by C.S. Lewis  The Five Red Herrings, Murder Must Advertise, and Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers  Nancy Drew #45: The Spider Sapphire Mystery by Carolyn Keene  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle  The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox Agatha Christie  Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter by Edgar Allan Poe  The Moonstone and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins The Albert Campion Series by Margery Allingham The Roderick Alleyn Series by Ngaio Marsh The Flavia de Luce Series by Allen Bradley The Inspector Appleby Mystery Series by Michael Innes  The Daughter of Time and Miss Pym Disposes by Josephine Tey  Murder Fantastical by Patricia Moyes The Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) Alexander McCall Smith Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes Series by Laurie King Chief Inspector Gamache Series by Louise Penny  Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Series by Ellis Peters The Inspector Adam Dalgliesh Series by P.D. James  Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life podcast with Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins and Thomas Banks, we have a very special episode for you. Our hosts are joined by guests Dan Bunting and Anthony Dodgers, both of whom are pastors, for a discussion on why pastors should read fiction books. Dan is also host of the the Reading the Psalms podcast. Angelina starts off the conversation by asking why these men would prioritize taking literature classes. Anthony shares about his own literary life journey and how rediscovering literature has helped him personally. Dan talks about the book club that he and a couple of his pastor friends have and what kinds of books they read together. They discuss many other deep topics and crucial questions that we hope will be encouraging and thought-provoking to everyone who listens to and shares this episode. If you want to get the replays of the 2022 Back to School Conference, “Education: Myths and Legends” with special guest speakers Lynn Bruce and Caitlin Beauchamp, along with our hosts Cindy Rollins, Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, you can learn more at Morning Time for Moms. Commonplace Quotes: If education is beaten by training, civilization dies. C. S. Lewis, from “Our English Syllabus” How am I a hog and me both? Flannery O’Connor He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times. Freidrich Schiller Whoever wants to become a Christian, must first become a poet. St. Porphyrios of Kafsokalivia It is hard to have patience with those Jeremiahs, in press or pulpit, who warn us that we are “relapsing into paganism”. It might be rather fun if we were. It would be pleasant to see some future Prime Minister trying to kill a large and lively milk-white bull in Westminster Hall. But we shan’t. What lurks behind such idle prophecies, if they are anything but careless language, is the false idea that the historical process allows mere reversal; that Europe can come out of Christianity “by the same door as in she went”, and find herself back where she was. It is not what happens. A post-Christian man is not a Pagan; you might as well think that a married woman recovers her virginity by divorce. The post-Christian is cut off from the Christian past, and therefore doubly from the Pagan past. C. S. Lewis, from “De Descriptione Temporum” A Boy in Church by Robert Graves ‘Gabble-gabble, . . . brethren, . . . gabble-gabble!’ My window frames forest and heather. I hardly hear the tuneful babble, Not knowing nor much caring whether The text is praise or exhortation, Prayer or thanksgiving, or damnation. Outside it blows wetter and wetter, The tossing trees never stay still. I shift my elbows to catch better The full round sweep of heathered hill. The tortured copse bends to and fro In silence like a shadow-show. The parson’s voice runs like a river Over smooth rocks, I like this church: The pews are staid, they never shiver, They never bend or sway or lurch. ‘Prayer,’ says the kind voice, ‘is a chain That draws down Grace from Heaven again.’ I add the hymns up, over and over, Until there’s not the least mistake. Seven-seventy-one. (Look! there’s a plover! It’s gone!) Who’s that Saint by the lake? The red light from his mantle passes Across the broad memorial brasses. It’s pleasant here for dreams and thinking, Lolling and letting reason nod, With ugly serious people linking Sad prayers to a forgiving God . . . . But a dumb blast sets the trees swaying With furious zeal like madmen praying. Book List: Put Out More Flags by Evelyn Waugh Asterix Comics by René Goscinny Tin Tin by Herge Sigrid Undset Giants in the Earth by Ole Rolvaag Roald Dahl A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle John Donne George Herbert The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré Graham Greene Alfred Lord Tennyson The New Oxford Book of Christian Verse edited by Donald Davie Waiting on the Word by Malcolm Guite Word in the Wilderness by Malcolm Guite Neil Gaiman Bill Bryson Ursula Le Guin Terry Pratchett Reflections on the Psalms by C. S. Lewis Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are joined by their podcast producer Kiel Lemon to chat about her own literary life. Kiel and her husband, along with their two children, live in West Virginia where they homeschool and enjoy the outdoors together whenever they can. After sharing commonplace quotes and how Angelina and Cindy met Kiel, they dig in to her background in reading. They also talk at some length about making use of audio books and speak to the concern parents have about audio versus physical books. Kiel gives a shout out to her high school English teacher for giving her a good foundation in the classics and poetry. She also shares some of her early attempts to give herself a literary education in early adulthood, and Angelina asks Kiel why she was so drawn to old books. They also discuss the challenges of a dry time she went through when she wasn’t reading much at all and how to get out of a reading slump. Some other topics they touch on are disciplined versus whimsical reading, keeping multiple books at the same time, going through the AmblesideOnline curriculum with children, and more. To find out more about Thomas’ summer class on G. K. Chesterton and sign up for that, go to houseofhumaneletters.com. To register for Cindy’s summer discipleship session, visit morningtimeformoms.com. Commonplace Quotes: Why are we reading, if not in hope of beauty laid bare, life heightened and its deepest mystery probed?…Why are we reading if not in hope that the writer will magnify and dramatize our days, will illuminate and inspire us with wisdom, courage, and the possibility of meaningfulness, and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries, so that we may feel again their majesty and power? Annie Dillard, from The Abundance: Narrative Essays New and Old My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company. Jane Austen A man living at the bottom of a well will think the sky is small. Han Yu Recent psychological research, together with a number of other contributory factors, has influenced us to emphasise–possibly to over-emphasise–the importance of the unconscious in determining our actions and opinions. Our confidence in such faculties as will and judgement has been undermined, and in collapsing has taken with it a good deal of our interest in ourselves as responsible individuals. Dorothy L. Sayers, from Introductory Papers on Dante The Land of Story-Books by Robert Louis Stevenson At evening when the lamp is lit, Around the fire my parents sit; They sit at home and talk and sing, And do not play at anything. Now, with my little gun, I crawl All in the dark along the wall, And follow round the forest track Away behind the sofa back. There, in the night, where none can spy, All in my hunter’s camp I lie, And play at books that I have read Till it is time to go to bed. These are the hills, these are the woods, These are my starry solitudes; And there the river by whose brink The roaring lions come to drink. I see the others far away As if in firelit camp they lay, And I, like to an Indian scout, Around their party prowled about. So when my nurse comes in for me, Home I return across the sea, And go to bed with backward looks At my dear land of Story-books. Books Mentioned: An American Childhood by Annie Dillard Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard The Real Mother Goose by Blanche Fisher Wright The Odyssey by Homer Howards End by E. M. Forster Cormoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith Heidi by Johanna Spyri What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll The Discarded Image by C. S. Lewis “Kate Crackernuts” retold by Joseph Jacobs Beowulf trans. by Burton Raffell My Antonia by Willa Cather Bess Streeter Aldrich Gene Stratton-Porter Poems That Touch the Heart ed. by A. L. Alexander Black Plumes by Margery Allingham To the Far Blue Mountains by Louis L’Amour The Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoire by Louis L’Amour Redwall Series by Brian Jacques Continuing the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Kidnapped by Robert Lewis Stevenson Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

Welcom back to The Literary Life Podcast and our discussion of P. G. Wodehouse’s Code of the Woosters. This week Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy finish up the book, covering chapters 10-14. After sharing their commonplace quotes, they start the chat by talking about what exactly the “Code of the Woosters” is for Bertie. Cindy brings up Wodehouse’ good experience in boarding school and how that comes out in his stories. Angelina reminds us again of the Roman comic structure that sets the form for this type of story. Thomas highlights some connections between Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde, and P. G. Wodehouse. They also enjoy recounting the moments when Bertie thinks of himself of a detective and compares himself to Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, et al. Find annotations for the slang, quotes, etc., for The Code of the Woosters here. To find out more about Thomas’ summer class on G. K. Chesterton and sign up for that, go to houseofhumaneletters.com. To register for Cindy’s summer discipleship session, visit morningtimeformoms.com. Commonplace Quotes: The books that should be set before children are books of play and ceremonial, and pomp and war: the whole gloria mundi, the whole pageant of history, full of blood and pride, may safely be told them–everything but the secret of their own incomparable influence. Children need to be taught primarily the grandeur of the whole world. It is merely the whole world that needs to be taught the grandeur of children. G. K. Chesterton, from The Speaker, November 24, 1900 Each be other’s comfort kind: Deep, deeper than divined, Divine charity, dear charity, Fast you ever, fast bind. Gerard Manley Hopkins, from “At the Wedding March” I find that my personal animosity against a writer never affects my opinion of what he writes. Nobody could be more anxious than myself, for instance, that Alan Alexander Milne should trip over a loose boot-lace and break his bloody neck, yet I re-read his early stuff at regular intervals with all the old enjoyment and still maintain that in The Dover Road he produced about the best comedy in English. Did you read Milne’s serial in the Mail? I thought it good. Nothing happened in it, but the characters were so real. I wonder how a book like that sells. Do people want a story or not? P. G. Wodehouse Pippa’s Song by Robert Browning The year’s at the spring, And day’s at the morn; Morning’s at seven; The hill-side’s dew-pearl’d; The lark’s on the wing; The snail’s on the thorn; God’s in His heaven— All’s right with the world! Books Mentioned: P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters edited by Sophie Ratcliffe Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy Sayers Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh Oscar Wilde Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

This week on The Literary Life Podcast our hosts, Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks, continue discussing P. G. Wodehouse’s Code of the Woosters together, covering chapters 5-9 today. They share some similarities in Wodehouse’s work to Shakespearean and Roman comic characters. Some of these stock characters are the couple, the helpful servant, the unhelpful servant, the irritable old man, and more. Angelina shares her take on Wodehouse’s ability to complicate the comedic form. Cindy makes a comparison between the ease created by habits in life and form in stories. Delighting in Wodehouse’s skill to turn a phrase, our hosts share many humorous passages throughout this episode, so be sure to stay tuned to the end to catch it all. Find annotations for the slang, quotes, etc., for The Code of the Woosters here. To find out more about Thomas’ summer class on G. K. Chesterton and sign up for that, go to houseofhumaneletters.com. To register for Cindy’s summer discipleship session, visit morningtimeformoms.com. Commonplace Quotes: The gentleness and candour of Shakespeare’s mind has impressed all his readers. But is impresses us still more the more we study the general tone of sixteenth-century literature. He is gloriously anomalous. C. S. Lewis He wrote to Sheran: What do you find to read these days? I simply can’t cope with the American novel. The most ghastly things are published and sell a million copies, but good old Wodehouse will have none of them and sticks to English mystery stories. It absolutely beats me how people can read the stuff that is published now. I am reduced to English mystery stories and my own stuff. I was reading Blandings Castle again yesterday and was lost in admiration for the brilliance of the author. P. G. Wodehouse, as quoted by Frances Donaldson You notice that popular literature, the kind of stories that are read for relaxation, is always very highly conventionalized…Wodehouse is a popular writer, and the fact that he is a popular writer has a lot to do with his use of stock plots. Of course he doesn’t take his own plots seriously; he makes fun of them by the way he uses them; but so did Plautus and Terence. Northrop Frye …when you go to his residence, the first thing you see is an enormous fireplace, and round it are carved in huge letters the words: TWO LOVERS BUILT THIS HOUSE. Her idea, I imagine. I can’t believe Wells would have thought of that himself. P. G. Wodehouse, in a letter to William Townend Fashion’s Phases by P. G. Wodehouse When first I whispered words of love,  When first you turned aside to hear,  The winged griffin flew above,  The mammoth gaily gamboll’d near;  I wore the latest thing in skins  Your dock-leaf dress had just been mended  And fastened-up with fishes fins –  The whole effect was really splendid.  Again – we wondered by the Nile,  In Egypt’s far, forgotten land,  And we watched the festive crocodile  Devour papyrus from your hand.  Far off across the plain we saw  The trader urge his flying camel;  Bright shone the scarab belt he wore,  Clasped with a sphinx of rare enamel.  Again — on Trojan plains I knelt;  Alas! In vain I strove to speak  And tell you all the love I felt  In more or less Homeric Greek; Perhaps my helmet-strap was tight  And checked the thoughts I fain would utter,  Or else your robe of dreamy white  Bewildered me and made me stutter.  Once more we change the mise-en-scene;  The road curves across the hill;  Excitement makes you rather plain,  But on the whole I love you still,  As wreathed in veils and goggles blue,  And clad in mackintosh and leather,  Snug in our motor built for two  We skim the Brighton road together.  Books Mentioned: English Literature in the Sixteenth Century by C. S. Lewis P. G. Wodehouse, A Biography by Frances Donaldson The Educated Imagination by Northrop Frye Arabian Nights trans. by Burton Richard The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry by Walter Pater Unnatural Death by Dorothy Sayers Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy’s own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let’s get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB