Jennifer M. Dixon – Spoken Realms

A Haunted House

Jovana — Thu, 21 Nov 2024 18:16:00 +0000

“A Haunted House” published in 1944 as part of a collection of short stories by Virginia Woolf, is a charming love story about two couples sharing the same house centuries apart.

Audible/Amazon

Suzanne: The Midwife

Jovana — Thu, 22 Sep 2022 17:36:00 +0000

Suzanne Morse, a midwife in Watertown, moves to a remote frontier town with her husband and two children in 1666. A hands-on, practical woman who needs people, she bonds with the first two women she meets.

The minister’s new wife, Abigail Willard, wants to learn Suzanne’s trade. At the same time, Dancing Light, a renowned medicine woman in the Nashaway town across the river, calls her to heal her sister, dying of a white man’s disease, with white medicine.

In no time, Suzanne becomes known as an effective healer among Groton settlers, and Reverend Willard certifies her, a necessity to practice in the Puritan colony. However, the friendship between Suzanne and Dancing Light—the two collaborate—arouses the town’s approbation.

Abigail, too, is compromised when her servant, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth Knapp, is “bedeviled,” famously accused of being a witch. Some villagers project their fears on the neighboring natives, as well as anyone who befriends Suzanne, a friend of the witch doctor. Despite her successful practice, birthing four more children, and two sisters marrying and moving to Groton, Suzanne must warily handle the rising tension in her community. It comes to a head in 1676 when King Philip’s War reaches their small settlement, and in the heat of a siege, her neighbors turn on her.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

Common Sense

Jovana — Wed, 06 Sep 2017 17:42:28 +0000

Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1737-1809), originally published anonymously (by “an Englishman”) in Philadelphia on January 10, 1776. This revised edition was published on February 14, 1776. It had a great influence at the time, particularly with regard to the colonies becoming completely independent of Great Britain as well as bringing about the issuance of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776.
Some estimated that more than a million copies, in newspapers and in pamphlet form, were sold throughout America and Europe within a year of its first publication. It was very popular in France. As of 2006 it was still the all-time best seller in America and is still in print today. Thomas Paine, an independent British American political activist, philosopher, and writer, edited his pamphlet when he assessed there was no “attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independence” and stressed that the ideas within were influenced by “reason and principle” and not by “party” politics. He was one of the founding fathers of the United States.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Jovana — Wed, 15 Mar 2017 17:46:13 +0000

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871), written by Lewis Carroll, the pen name for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
Charles Lutwidge Dodson, a professor of mathematics at Magdalen (Maudlin) College, Oxford, originally wrote these charming children’s stories for young Alice, the daughter of his friend, Henry George Liddell, the dean of Christ Church. After publication, these children’s books rapidly became popular with adults because of the extraordinary mixture of rationalism and fantasy, irony, and absurdity viewed through the looking glass of a child’s dreams.
These stories possibly reflect the struggles Dodgson, a conservative mathematician, was having in adapting to new scientific concepts that challenged his point of view and seemed absurd and upsetting. Perhaps Dodgson found some way of coping with his challenges through the creation of these “seriously silly” but delightful tales.
A new Disney version of Through the Looking Glass directed by James Bobin, produced by Tim Burton, and starring Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), the late Alan Rickman (voice of the Caterpillar), Stephen Fry (the voice of Cheshire Cat), Mia Wasikowski (Alice), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), and Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen) will be released during the Summer of 2016.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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Emma

Jovana — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 17:24:40 +0000

December 2015 marks the 200th anniversary of Emma by Jane Austen. It was first published on December 23, 1815.
Emma is the delightful classic about a financially independent young woman with a “happy disposition” who does not consider marriage for herself. She does, however, find amusement in playing matchmaker with the lives of others in her own social class. Her meddling into the love lives of her young friends has surprising results.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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As a Man Thinketh

Steven — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 20:39:31 +0000

Considered the pioneer of modern inspirational thought and motivation, James Allen (1864 – 1912) published As a Man Thinketh in 1903. This is a powerful little self-help treatise, which essentially discusses how, by adjusting the way we think in response to external circumstances, we can shape our lives, personally, professionally, physically, and psychologically, towards the ultimate goal of inner peace and serenity.

James Allen came from a working-class background. His father was murdered whilst looking for employment and his mother could neither read nor write. These difficult circumstances forced James to leave school at 15 to help support his mother and younger brother. He became a private secretary, and eventually earned his living as a reporter and journalist. His wife, Lily Oram Allen, wrote of him, “He never wrote theories, or for the sake of writing, but he wrote when he had a message, and it became a message only when he had lived it out in his own life and knew that it was good. Thus he wrote facts which he had proven by practice.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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Queen Elizabeth II’s Address to People of USA July 6th 1976

Steven — Mon, 28 Nov 2016 20:33:52 +0000

Queen Elizabeth II’s address in Philadelphia on July 6th, 1976, where she presented a new Liberty Bell inscribed with “Let Freedom Ring” in honor of the bicentennial of the USA.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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The Story of Aaron Burr

Steven — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 19:08:46 +0000

Lyndon Orr published his story of Aaron Burr in 1912 within his Famous Affinities of History. Here he briefly and simply compares Burr’s life with Alexander Hamilton’s and attempts to dispel some of the negative opinions that surrounded him as the “villain” who shot and killed one of the Founding Fathers of the USA in a duel. Orr also describes Burr’s strong relationships and the mysteries surrounding the women in his life, particularly his daughter – beautifully depicted in the recent song about parenthood, “Dear Theodosia”, from Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, sung by Leslie Odom, Jr. as Aaron Burr and Lin-Manuel Miranda as Hamilton.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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A Little Princess

Steven — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:45:39 +0000

Published in 1905 by Frances Hodgson Burnett – author of the beloved The Secret Garden – this is the story of Sara Crewe, the adored and pampered daughter of a wealthy widowed father. Sara suffers great losses but taps in to her “inner princess”, and with strength, imagination, and storytelling, she triumphs over her sad circumstances while at the same time inspiring her fellow school companions.

The Academy Award-winning director Alfonso Cuaron made an acclaimed movie of this story and helped inspire young children and preteens to rise above unhappy and difficult circumstances through imagination and storytelling.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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The Secret Adversary

Steven — Tue, 16 Jun 2015 13:00:14 +0000

Described as an “excellent yarn”, “amazingly clever”, and a “thrilling adventure”, Agatha Christie’s tale of a dauntless pair of amateur detectives, Tommy Beresford and Prudence “Tuppence” Cowley, who stumble upon a puzzling mystery, was recently adapted for a BBC TV series that will air in 2015. The story begins on the doomed RMS Lusitania and takes the listener through a web of intrigue, murder, and mayhem.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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Three Weeks

Steven — Sat, 23 May 2015 13:07:34 +0000

Elinor Glyn was famous as the notorious author of several sexy Hollywood movies and novels, e.g., It, in which she described “it” as the strange magnetism that attracts both sexes. Three Weeks became her most popular novel, described as erotic, romantic, and risqué. Glyn’s work in movies, novels, and articles in Cosmopolitan is considered to be influential in changes in social attitudes toward women, sex, and sexuality – even characters Lady Mary and Tom Branson acknowledged this in the latest season of Downton Abbey!

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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Tess of the D’urbervilles

Steven — Tue, 19 May 2015 19:22:42 +0000

Tess of the d’Urbervilles is the 19th century novel lately thought to be one of the inspirations of E .L.James’ Fifty Shades of Grey. It depicts the life of an impressionable, naive, somewhat educated young woman, who yearns to be free to live her own life, but finds herself constricted by the bonds of the sexual, religious and socially hypocritical customs that have surrounded her from birth.

Considered a Victorian Realist, Thomas Hardy criticized social constraints on those living in the 19th and early 20th century through most of his novels. He was also a renowned poet and many of his works were set to music by notable English composers. He was an Anglican who questioned traditional Christian views and had difficulty reconciling the ‘horrors of pain’ with the so called existence of a loving God. He also showed in his writings a fascination with the supernatural even as he held a strong emotional attachment to the Christian liturgy and rituals which were a major influence in his childhood. The narrator, Jennifer M. Dixon, is a board-certified Music Therapist and Licensed Counselor, veteran of Michigan Opera, Piccolo Opera and Community Theater.

Amazon/Audible • iTunes

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