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Dan Holiday and Box 13
I’ve recently started listening to an old radio drama I’ve never really checked out before. It’s called Box 13 and is an adventure series starring Alan Ladd. It began in 1947 and ran for 52 episodes. Ladd’s character, Dan Holiday, is a writer of mystery novels who, in an effort to garner plot ideas, solicits…
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Britannicus by Jean Racine
I finished reading Britannicus by Jean Racine, translated by John Cairncross. It’s a play of five acts and was first performed in 1669. The plot centers on the Roman emperor Nero, his mother Agrippina, his stepbrother Britannicus, and Britannicus’s lover, June. The action takes place over a single day and tracks the characters’ attempts to…
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The Chessmen of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
I finished reading The Chessmen of Mars (1922) by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the fifth novel in his Barsoom series. This story focuses on Tara, the daughter of John Carter, Warlord of Mars. I enjoyed this novel more than the one or two that precede it. I found myself getting pleasantly wrapped up in the characters…
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The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
I finished reading The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy (1887). This is one of his Wessex novels, stories that take place in a fictionalized county of England during the Victorian era. I just love Hardy’s writing and often find myself smiling in the midst of reading certain passages. His books tend to focus heavily on character,…