Monthly Archives: September 2023

Rereading The Great Brain by John D. Fitzgerald

Leave a reply

You can listen to this episode here.

On this episode, Deborah and Mary Grace read John D. Fitzgerald’s 1967* novel The Great Brain, the first book in the series featuring John, the narrator, and his older brother Tom, the eponymous Great Brain, who wreaks havoc on their late 19th-century Utah town with his devious moneymaking ventures. Mary Grace, who did not read this book as a child, suspects that this sometimes harrowing read is Deborah’s revenge for making her read The Owl Service.

The first edition cover gives a good sense of Mercer Mayer’s illustrations.

Here’s the Amazon review Mary Grace mentions that gives parents a heads-up about disturbing content in the book.

Mary Grace recommends the Encyclopedia Brown books, featured on a previous episode, for fans of The Great Brain. She also recommends Two Are Better than One and Louly, by Carol Ryrie Brink, which are set in a small Idaho town in the early 20th century. Deborah recommends the Henry Reed series, also featured on a previous episode.

Here’s a June 2023 article by New York Times opinion writer Carlos Lozada, who was born in Peru, about his love for The Great Brain, which he read after his family moved to the United States. Lozada jumps into the article’s comments section to share more Great Brain love with readers.

The podcast is hosted by Buzzsprout at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.

You can find Deborah’s author interviews on her blog, Books Q&A by Deborah Kalb, and you can find Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.

*Mary Grace says incorrectly that it was published in 1969.

Rereading The Owl Service by Alan Garner

Leave a reply

You can listen to this episode here.

In this episode, Mary Grace and Deborah reread Alan Garner’s Carnegie Medal-winning 1967 novel The Owl Service, which tells the story of three teenagers, Alison, Gwyn, and Roger, who find themselves reliving a Welsh legend of love and betrayal. Word to the wise: read it, but not right before bed like Mary Grace did!

The Owl Service has had many editions, and many covers, over the years. Here’s the first-edition cover.

Here’s the current edition that Mary Grace and Deborah read this time around, except it’s much cooler-looking in real life because what looks orange in the photo is actually a shiny copper color.

Here’s a cheesy horror movie-style cover:

And another one:

Here’s a 2021 Guardian profile of Garner.

Mary Grace recommends Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain series and Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series for fans of The Owl Service.

At the beginning of the book, Alison becomes obsessed with a set of dinner plates with pictures of owls or flowers, depending on how you look at them. As Mary Grace mentions, the plates in the book were inspired by a real-life set that Garner saw at someone’s house. She rashly promised to put a photo of the plates on the website, but it turns out that it’s copyrighted. You can see it at the Bodleian Libraries‘ Facebook page.

The podcast is hosted by Buzzsprout at rereadingourchildhood.buzzsprout.com and is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms. You can listen to it on Buzzsprout here.

You can find Debby’s author interviews on her blog, Books Q&A by Deborah Kalb, and Mary Grace’s adventures in the 1920s on her blog, My Life 100 Years Ago.

This episode was edited by Adam Linder of Bespoken Podcasting.