2015: The Year of Reading Women discussion

Group reads and discussions for Willa Cather.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willa_Ca...

Wow, I can't believe I forgot Cather...

I've got the Great Plains Trilogy planned as a more spread out thing, but I'm greatly excited to delve once more into Death Comes for the Archbishop in 2015.

I've been meaning to read Death Comes for the Archbishop for a long time now. I may be over-extending myself (so many group reads!) but I would try to join in a group read if others are interested.

I was going to suggest Cather, so count me in! I have Death Comes for the Archbishop on my bedside table. I just finished listening to My Ántonia (my 3rd reading!) and plan to read the other two in the trilogy this year. I also am reading Willa Cather: A Pictorial Memoir, illustrated with photographs of the settings of her novels.

Perhaps one of the mods could help us schedule out a group read of Death Comes for the Archbishop...*hint hint*

Lisa and Suzy: What time of year would be a good place to do this?

Does May/June sound good? Really anytime from May onwards is good for me, except August.

I will go with the group sentiment on when to read. It's been on my "currently reading" list for about 6 months, so anytime would be ok ;-)

May should work fine for me, so maybe we can get a mod to pencil us in a group read of Death Comes for the Archbishop for May.

I went ahead and added it to the bookshelf and announced it in the discussion for upcoming reads. Looking forward to it!

If anyone wants a strange, but haunting, pairing, read The Archbishop alongside The Samurai by Endō.

For several reasons, I seldom think of the one without also remembering the other -- and I did not read them close in time. Endō's book I include among "great" books I have read; Cather's Archbishop, very worthy of reading. Both are capable explorations of the power and pull and costs of commitments somehow beyond the self.

Thanks for the tip, Lily. I'd never heard of that book before though the author's name seems familiar.

I read My Antonia quite a while ago, and then O Pioneers!, and strangely didn't register that they were part of a trilogy - definitely interested in re-reading them in one fell swoop!

Just dropping by this Willa Cather thread to share an article:


One Writer’s Message

‘Any kind of integrity helps in this world, and I have my own kind.

This volume includes 566 letters, less than one-fifth of those that have been preserved, but it seems clear that the ones chosen by the editors are representative. This is not a sanitized selection. A number reveal that Willa Cather (1873-1947) was not always able to transcend the prejudices of her time; in an 1897 letter, she praises her boss by telling him, “You’re a white man sure,” and complains in 1924 that black maids—“nice little darkies”—too often “get tired of working and ‘go South.’ ” She writes to her brother Roscoe in 1916 that her close friend Isabelle McClung “has married a very brilliant and perfectly poisonous Jew,” and, in 1922, she refers to John Galsworthy’s “new Jew play.”

http://www.weeklystandard.com/article...

ReemK10 (Paper Pills) wrote: "Just dropping by this Willa Cather thread to share an article:..."

That opening paragraph seems written to titillate readers rather than to assess the body of letters, even as it may remind us of the potential significance of each word we speak or write, whether they represent us whole or not.

Are others still up for reading Death Comes for the Archbishop this month? If so, I'll set up the thread. I'm a bit behind on my reading but I've got the book on hand and could start in a week or two.

I would, I fell behind myself and was just now thinking of starting it.

I would like to read this too. It will be a re-read for me.

I just set up the thread here. Glad to see others are still on board :)