Well, here I go again, it seems. I’m binging on another author, with no help in sight for binge-readers like me. Cather is a master storyteller, and this novel takes us away from the Great Plains into a world that none of us have experienced. It’s the power of reading—you get to experience other times and other worlds. Shadows on the Rock takes us to 1697 Quebec. There, political and religious conflicts take place against remote settlements and unforgiving winters. The novel follows a year […]

In my latest authors binge, I’ve decided that Willa Cather needed to be next on my list. I really liked The Professor’s House a lot, and thought that Lucy Gayheart should come next. I was really intrigued to see what Cather would do this go-round. Lucy Gayheart has some interesting similarities to The Song of the Lark in that the coming-of-age of the artist, but she diverges in the end. Lucy Gayheart is a young music student from Haverford, Nebraska, raised by a widowed father […]

FINALLY! I am all caught up on my CBR Reviews!!! Now that I’ve celebrated, on to the review, eh? Last summer, I developed a bit of a lady-crush on Willa Cather. I read The Song of the Lark, O Pioneers!, My Ántonia, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and A Lost Lady in shockingly quick succession. It might have turned into a Barbara Pym readathon had I not gotten distracted by other books. So maybe I will be going through another phase this next term…you’ve all […]

I’m doing that thing again where I read all the books by my favorite author. It’s okay, though, I really like being an expert in my favorites. And Willa Cather is definitely a new favorite. Now that I’ve read her most famous stuff, I’m hoping to read all her less known novels. A Lost Lady is about the enigmatic but charismatic Marian Forrester, a beautiful woman married to a much older man and living in the somewhat remote railroad town of Sweet Water. As a […]