Chris Wolak

Recent Posts - page 2

• September 2020 Reminder for The Willa Cather Short Story Project

  By Chris Wolak on September 9, 2020 • ( 6 )

  

  This month we’re not going to read a short story by Willa Cather, but rather an essay by George N. Kates about the last story she was working on before she died. This piece, “Willa Cather’s Unfinished Avignon Story,” rounds out Willa Cather: Collected Stories that many of us have been reading from, as well as Phase One of this reading project.

• Library Visit: East Glastonbury, CT

  By Chris Wolak on August 31, 2020 • ( 7 )

  

  Last week Laura and I were looking to go on a day drive. I also wanted to visit a new to me library and since most libraries in Connecticut are still either not open or running on limited hours due… Read More ›

• Response to “Tom Outland’s Story.” The Willa Cather Short Story Project

  By Chris Wolak on August 27, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  Have you read “Tom Outland’s Story” this month? I’ve had a busy and somewhat tiring month and just got around to re-reading it this evening (at sunset, as captured in the photo above). As I mentioned in the reminder post,… Read More ›

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

  By Chris Wolak on August 16, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was one of the most anticipated books of the summer. It’s a Gothic novel with classic creepiness, and although it’s a bit slow at times — as Gothic novels can be due to the element… Read More ›

• August 2020 Reminder for The Willa Cather Short Story Project

  By Chris Wolak on August 12, 2020 • ( 0 )

  

  “Tom Outland’s Story” is a stunning piece of writing about the West and of historical fiction. Don’t miss out — read it this month for The Willa Cather Short Story Project and enjoy some armchair travel to the Southwest and time travel to the late 19th-century.

• Classics Club Spin Number Twenty-Four

  By Chris Wolak on August 2, 2020 • ( 17 )

  

  A new Classics Club Spin was just announced and since I had good luck with my last CCSpin pick — The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett — I’m going for it again. Last night I was… Read More ›

• Library Stop: Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, Old Lyme, CT

  By Chris Wolak on July 31, 2020 • ( 9 )

  

  Yesterday I picked up items on hold at the public library in Old Lyme, Connecticut. I’m happy to introduce you to the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library. It was built in 1898 and has had some additions over the… Read More ›

• Response to “The Enchanted Bluff.” The Willa Cather Short Story Project

  By Chris Wolak on July 22, 2020 • ( 0 )

  

  “The Enchanted Bluff” by Willa Cather was a delightful short story to read on a hot summer afternoon. That is, until the end when the narrator jumps twenty years into the future. This story is one of Cather’s earlier works,… Read More ›

• Blacktop Wasteland by S. A. Cosby

  By Chris Wolak on July 14, 2020 • ( 2 )

  

  This is a mystery/thriller in the noir tradition that takes you out of the city and into rural black America, specifically the southeast where blacks and whites might coexist, but slavery and the confederacy still linger.

• “The Enchanted Bluff” Willa Cather Short Story Project Reminder July 2020

  By Chris Wolak on July 8, 2020 • ( 1 )

  

  Our story for July is “The Enchanted Bluff.” We are making some serious progress on our quest to read all of Willa Cather’s short fiction. So far we’ve read seventeen stories in the four collections pictured above. Our next group… Read More ›

• ‹ Older Entries
• Newer Entries ›