Snoozecast: Stories for Sleep

Tonight, we’ll be reading from “Butterflies Worth Knowing” by Clarence Moores Weed in 1926. Weed was a New England based naturalist. He was the author or co-author of more than 20 books, many of them on insect pests and insect-plant relationships.

Tonight, we’ll be reading "The Red Headed League", a short story from "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1892. In this story, which Doyle ranked as number 2 of his favorite top 12 Sherlock stories, the focus is on Jebez Wilson, the owner of a pawnbroker shop who sports a head of bright red hair and receives an invitation to join an exclusive club.

Tonight, we’ll reading a selection of South African folk-tales collected during the 19th century. It includes animal tales with classic wisdom, including The Monkey’s Fiddle and The Lost Message. These stories were collected by Dr. James Honey and published in 1910. 

Tonight, we’ll be reading from "The Art of Lawn Tennis", written by William “Big Bill” Tilden, published in 1921. Tilden was considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time. Born into wealth, Tilden earned large sums of money during his long career and he spent it lavishly, keeping a suite at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City. Much of his income went towards financing Broadway shows that he wrote, produced, and starred in,

Tonight, we’ll read the opening to Willa Cather’s 1918 novel My Ántonia .It is the final book of her "prairie trilogy" of novels, preceded by O Pioneers! and The Song of the Lark. The novel tells the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. This novel is considered Cather's first masterpiece. Cather was praised for bringing the American West to life and making it personally interesting. 

Tonight, by listener request, we will read the opening to the classic 1847 novel "Jane Eyre" by English writer Charlotte Brontë and published under the pen name “Currer Bell”. It is the story of a young, orphaned girl who lives with her Aunt and cousins and is mistreated by them. The novel is considered one of the greatest works of English fiction. It revolutionized writing style by being the first to focus on its protagonist's moral and spiritual development through an intimate first-person narrative, where actions and events are coloured by psychological intensity. Charlotte Brontë has been called the "first historian of the private consciousness", and the literary ancestor of writers like Proust and Joyce.

Tonight, we'll be reading a Snoozecast original story, "Baseball." Settle in and watch a Little League game unfold during the waning days of summer. Without a clock to keep time, baseball, otherwise known as America's Pastime, is always played at its own pace. 

Tonight, we’ll be reading from the 1899 novel by Kate Chopin, "The Awakening". Set in New Orleans and on the Louisiana Gulf coast at the end of the 19th century, the plot centers on Edna Pontellier and her struggle between her increasingly unorthodox views on femininity and motherhood. It is widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism, and a precursor of American modernist literature.Snoozecast makes sleep stories, put on a Snoozecast before you get into bed to help you fall asleep.

Tonight, we’ll be reading “Jack and the Beanstalk”, from the 1918 Mother’s Nursery Tales by Katherine Pyle. Born in 1863, Pyle was an American artist, poet and children’s book writer. “Jack and the Beanstalk” is the best known of the “Jack Tales”, a series of stories featuring the archetypal hero and stock character “Jack.” According to researchers, the story originated more than five millennia ago.Snoozecast makes sleep stories, put on a Snoozecast before you get into bed to help you fall asleep.

Tonight, we’ll be reading from the 1895 novel "The Wonderful Visit", by H.G. Wells. With an angel—a creature of fantasy unlike a religious angel—as protagonist and taking place in contemporary England, the book could be classified as contemporary fantasy, although the genre was not recognized in Wells's time. The Wonderful Visit also has strong satirical themes, gently mocking customs and institutions of Victorian England as well as idealistic rebellion itself.