Episodes

Loneliness can grind a man down like a millstone—yet grief, transformed, can become the miller’s divine salvation. A widowed man turns a forgotten mill into a memorial for his lost little girl, and fate brings a stranger—fragile, secretive—who just might be the miracle he’s been waiting for. He called himself O. Henry, but the man behind the pen was William Sydney Porter—a sneaky little Texan with a mustache, a wicked sense of irony, and a knack for surprise endings that snap like mousetraps. H...

Record summer temperature’s take their toll on both our physical and mental health. Extreme weather has been known to bring about strange and often dangerous behavior among those suffering its effects. How strange, I’ll let you be the judge in our special summer tale, August Heat. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grief and heartbreak are the typical reactions to the loss of a loved one, but other emotions may lurk within. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So far, all of our public domain stories were created prior to 1925. However, there are a few newer tales that are no longer copyright protected. From one of the world’s best science fiction writer’s comes a tale of idioms and aliens. Essentially, this story is a long dad joke. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I, a dad, did. Even if you don’t know his name, you know the work of Philip K. Dick. Several of his books and stories have been adapted into movies and Tv shows like: Total Recall, Minor...

While forward to the future we often forget the darkness that is part of life.

A young man's longing for love is briefly fulfilled on one moonlight evening on the sea off the coast of Cannes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thankfully, I can now read Hemingway to you. This story is a powerful way to start. It’s a tale of duty, pain, suffering, racism and so much more. It has myriad twists and turns and all manner of fascinating subplots for such a short story. You may need to listen more than once. Hemingway penned this early work at the age of 24, shortly after the birth of his first child (which may explain the subject matter) by his first wife. It wasn’t published until 1925 and later became part of his first s...

Here is a biting satire of Victorian Era British upper class from the perspective of the family cat who gains a startling new skill. Saki was the pen name of British author, H.H. Munro who was one of true masters of the short story. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Being a dog person, some of my favorite stories feature dogs. It only seems fair to feature a feline character. And you couldn’t ask for a story than one from a two time Pulitzer Prize winner. This story was part of Booth Tarkington’s extremely popular Penrod stories, that, during their day rivaled the popularity of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Tarkington is only one of three authors to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Fiction. The other two: Faulkner and Updike. Hosted on Acast. S...

Welcome aboard an early 20th Century trans-pacific ocean liner where one is likely to be stuck for weeks with any number of unusual characters. Of course, we are likely to put a great deal of stock in first impressions when it often pays to wait to get to know someone. Never a darling of the critics, W. Someset Maugham (the W is for William) was a prolific author and playwright. He was best known for his short stories many of which were fictional global travelogues. Because so many of his works...

A rural mountain couple struggle with their differences, anger, and overpowering love for each other. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A new love springs from the conversations of two sisters and a couple of moles. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When a preacher failed to stir the emotions of his congregants he resorts to the time tested tradition of embellishment. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twenty years after heading west to find his fortunes a man returns to meet a long lost friend. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I have always loved the work of Lewis Carroll. In fact, Litreading began with my rendition of Carroll’s nonsense poem Jabberwocky. His only foray into shorter works came in the form of poetry, much of which found its way into his Alice books. This piece was written a bit differently earlier and changed when added to the book, “Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass.” This nonsense verse is said to be a parody of a poem by Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence. Lewis Carroll was the pe...

Grief part of the human condition and we cope with it varies from person to person. When two old men discuss the loss of family members several years after World War I, it is a fly that help illustrate both life’s constant struggles and fragility. The Fly is considered one of Catherine Mansfield’s greatest works because it is personal. Mansfield lost her brother in a training demonstration during World War I. One of the great modernist writers of the early 20th century, Mansfield was both a con...

Loneliness is painful enough under normal circumstances, but social rejection in the face of a personal crisis can be devastating. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is more a satirical essay than an actual short story, but it makes me smile. The first telephone was demonstrated at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. By 1880, many wealthier families were using the new communication device regularly and one of the 19th century’s best known authors and satirists observed some anecdotal differences in the way men and women communicate. Samuel Clemens better known as Mark Twain is one of the most famous American authors of all time. This story...

We are complex creatures and grow more so with time. Every relationship adds or subtracts from who we are. No relationship is more life changing than marriage and for a woman thrice married in pre-suffrage America the stigma of mutual divorce seems insurmountable until her third husband’s comes to a startling revelation. Best known for her novels, Edith Wharton was a prolific writer of short stories. Growing up among New York’s upper class, she created realistic portrayals of America’s Gilded A...

In the 19th Century particularly, good boys are supposed to enjoy the fruits of the righteousness, and bad boys were destined for eternal damnation, at least according to Sunday School books, but according to Mark Twain, life often contradicted expectation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pride does seem to go before a fall… In this very short story a young man’s life unravels thanks to a small vanity-induced dissimulation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This special short, short story centers on a different kind of haunting, not from without, but from within. The darkness that comes from a profound loneliness that quietly haunts the souls of many. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Happiness has always been elusive, usually found in unexpected places and, often, in the wake of the worst life events In this heart-warming story, an affluent couple discovers what is truly important in life in the wake of both a fiscal and physical tragedy. Kathleen Norris was, for a time, the highest paid female writer in early 20th-century America. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Virginia Wolff had a talent for taking mundane observations and weaving them into enchanting tales. Something a normal as watching two men on an ordinary a day at the beach became an impassioned and poignant story in her hands. Born to an upstanding and literary Victorian family, Virginia Wolff suffered from serious psychological issues which may have been part of the genius behind her introspective and emotional powerful writing. She and her husband founded the famous British publishing house ...