The Literary Life Podcast

Episode 309: Our Literary Lives of 2025

Date: December 30, 2025
Hosts: Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks
Guest: Cindy Rollins

Episode Overview

This reflective and lively episode wraps up 2025 with a candid conversation among hosts Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks, and returning guest (and founding co-host) Cindy Rollins, exploring the theme "Our Literary Lives of 2025." The trio discusses the rhythms, joys, and realities of their year in reading, their favorite and surprising books—both fiction and nonfiction—as well as the importance of reading aloud, the virtue of rereading, and new directions for the coming year. They offer engaging commentary, witty exchanges, and warm encouragement to readers navigating their own literary journeys.

Main Topics & Discussion Highlights

1. Catching Up with Cindy Rollins (02:01–05:06)

• Cindy’s Year: Moving to Kentucky, adapting to new surroundings, family changes (grandkids, including new twins!), and coping with “the Kentucky flu.”
• Recounts the challenges and joys of transition and being pulled from sabbatical for this episode.
• Impact on the Literary Life Podcast: Cindy reflects on stepping down from her regular role due to busy-ness and business growth, passing the torch while staying connected.

Quote (Cindy, 04:55):

“I hope [my Patreon] is a great place for people. I do try to be very true to Charlotte Mason and also be very realistic about life and what it throws at us.”

2. Reading Philosophy: The Power of Reading Aloud and Charlotte Mason (05:06–08:07)

• Hosts discuss how Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy transformed Angelina’s homeschooling and literary life.
• The inefficacy of applying the "factory model" of school education at home.
• "Morning time" as family literary bonding.
• Cindy’s Maxims:
  • “Reading covers a multitude of sins.”
  • “One good year makes up for two bad years.”

Quote (Cindy, 07:48):

“You never regret those days of reading aloud. …Nobody has ever said, ‘I wish we hadn't read aloud so much.’”

3. Announcing the 2026 Literary Life Conference (09:13–12:49)

• Theme: The Letter Killeth and the Spirit Quickeneth: Reading Like a Human
• Conference Dates: January 23–30
• Keynote: Dr. Jason Baxter (“Deep Reading in the Age of Hypertexts”)
• Other talks: Overcoming Modern Illiteracy, Tolkien, St. Paul’s Reading, Greek Tragedy, Panel with HHL students.
• Responds to cultural anxieties about post-literacy and AI.

4. Commonplace Quotes (13:02–20:26)

• Thomas shares: C.S. Lewis’s wisdom about shyness between old and young people (13:11).
• Angelina shares: Erasmus on language acquisition through daily exposure and reading the best authors (14:34).
• Cindy shares: George MacDonald on the importance of old carols and the history of words (19:09).

Quote (Erasmus via Angelina, 14:34):

"It is not by learning rules that we acquire the power of speaking a language, but by daily intercourse with those accustomed to express themselves with exactness and refinement and by the copious reading of the best authors."

5. Cindy’s Upcoming Literary Christmas Markets Tour (15:34–18:41)

• Cindy announces she’ll lead a 2026 tour to European Christmas markets and monastery libraries:

  “We’re going to be going to Munich, Strasbourg—some really beautiful places with all these Christmas markets. But we’re also going to be going to some of the great libraries of Europe.”

• Encourages listeners to sign up for her newsletter at Morning Time for Moms for info.

6. Pedagogy and the Pattern of Learning (20:08–24:42)

• Discussion on experiential/contextual learning—children absorb vocabulary, grammar, and poetic devices (e.g., metaphors) by immersion, not drills.
• Thomas praises older dictionaries for including literary examples.
• Angelina discusses being “immersed in a language-rich environment.”

Quote (Cindy, 23:39):

“A child who’s heard a lot of poetry …when you say ‘I’m going to teach you what a metaphor is’—they get it. They don’t have to hold on to that definition. They know innately what a metaphor is.”

7. The Reality Check: Reading in Real Life (25:05–31:42)

• All three admit to “off years” with lower book counts due to busyness, work demands, and life transitions.
  • Thomas: Reading “enslaved to my occupation”—research for teaching and webinars, little leisure reading.
  • Cindy: “Dismal” year, won’t hit her usual 100-book goal; read more long works and embraced slower reading.
  • Angelina: Cut way back on audiobooks for cognitive health, shifted more to physical/long books.

Quote (Angelina, 31:42):

“I have been more mindful since then... I was starting to feel frazzled mentally. There was too much... It was doing something to me.”

8. Notable Nonfiction Reads of 2025 (33:01–46:14)

Thomas:

• Victorian Age – Charles Petrie (out-of-print, available on archive.org)
• Oliver Cromwell – John Buchan (praised as classic biography)
• Winston Churchill’s The New World

Cindy:

• Interior Freedom – Jacques Philippe (spiritual reflection)
• Be Thou My Vision – Jonathan Gibson (daily devotional/liturgy)
• The Great Passion – James Runcy (novel about Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, “excellent”)
• Second Nature – Michael Pollan (on gardens and how they shape our lives, “super”)
• Land of Hope – Wilfred McClay (American history, “wise grandpa telling stories”)
• Against the Machine – Paul Kingsnorth (“Very definitely a book I will read again”)
• Why Literature Still Matters – Jason Baxter (“excellent, excellent book”)
• Strength to Strength – Arthur Brooks

Angelina:

• Against the Machine – Paul Kingsnorth (profound resonance; “most important book published in 2025”)
• The Sacred and The Profane – Mircea Eliade (“I love his mind”)
• The Forge and the Crucible – Mircea Eliade (on alchemy/spiritual transformation)
• Alchemy – Titus Burckhardt (“blew me away”)
• Shakespeare: An Illustrated Life – Judi Dench (on Cindy’s recommendation)
• D.W. Robertson’s Chaucer (“world’s best D.W. Robertson collection now!”)
• St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine (“I’ve been talking about it in all my classes… I really fell hard for Augustine.”)
• Why Literature Still Matters – Jason Baxter

9. Favorite and Surprising Reads – Fiction (62:18–79:10)

Thomas

• Olivia Manning's Balkan Trilogy (“War as seen by civilians… tense and brilliantly observant”; recommended by Peter Hitchens; best WWII novel, 36:31–38:26)
• W. Somerset Maugham's The Magician (surprising disappointment, 62:18–63:17)
• Georges Bernanos’ Diary of a Country Priest (“not a cheerful read, but highly recommended”, 79:00–80:24)
• Hugh Walpole novels and George Eliot (especially Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss)
• J.-K. Huysmans’ À rebours (eccentric favorite, 69:00–70:31)

Cindy

• Moby Dick – challenge book, “so Dickensian…didn’t have any problems, thought it’d be hard, but loved it” (63:32–66:31)
• Expiation by Elizabeth von Arnim (“so good…about atonement, forgiveness, honest and beautiful, 66:45–66:50)
• Ruth by Elizabeth Gaskell (“so not moralistic...could have been, but wasn’t, very devotional” 73:45–74:24)
• The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot (“I knew it would be a good book…I love George Eliot” 74:24–74:43)
• Penman’s Plantagenet series (deep, immersive historical fiction, 72:07–73:00)
• Verdict of Twelve by Raymond Postgate (mystery, gifted by Thomas, 73:03–73:33)
• The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion (Vol. 1-8), mixed feelings, “witty banter gets wearing” (76:46–79:00)

Angelina

• The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling (“gets better and better… Dante for kids… thinking about doing a webinar,” 80:42–82:18)
• Green Dolphin Street by Elizabeth Goudge (“loving it”, 82:18–82:41)
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (“charmed beyond anything I can say… needs to be on the podcast”, 83:05–84:36)
• Jungle Book by Kipling (her only “new classic” for podcast series, “completely charmed”, 85:03–86:15)
• Vanity Fair by Thackeray (reread; “Vanity Fair is War and Peace!” 87:09–88:34)
• The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji (“fun Japanese detective novel”, 88:34–89:42)
• Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey series (comfort rereads, 85:03–85:49)
• Admission: Did not read as much Dickens as planned (“I had said I would knock out Dickens novels… did not happen”, 86:15–86:48)
• Cormoran Strike Series (“one of the most magnificent journey of the soul books I have ever read” 89:42–94:38)

MEMORABLE MOMENTS & QUOTES

• On Reading Aloud:
  “You never regret those days of reading aloud. You never look back and say, ‘I wish we hadn’t.’”
  (Cindy, 07:48)

• On Literary Realism:
  “I don’t think anybody should feel sorry for us because…I figured out a way, here's what I want to read, I’ll do a webinar on it, and get paid for the reading.”
  (Angelina, 29:47)

• On Differences in Literary Taste:
  “If you didn’t like it, if it wasn’t for you, if you can’t look past the language, it’s fine…But I’d appreciate if you did not judge me and judge the people who like it, because we really are reading a different book.”
  (Angelina, 93:11)

• On Conference Themes:
  “All around us is the evidence that we are existing in an almost post-literate age…We need machines to read for us because we can no longer read like humans.”
  (Angelina, reading from conference description, 11:16)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp (MM:SS) | |------------------------------------|-----------------------| | Cindy’s Year/Return | 02:01–05:06 | | Reading Aloud & Charlotte Mason | 05:06–08:07 | | Literary Life Conference Preview | 09:13–12:49 | | Commonplace Quotes | 13:02–20:26 | | Cindy’s Christmas Tour | 15:34–18:41 | | Language Patterns/Older Dictionaries| 20:08–24:42 | | Honest Reading “Stats” | 25:05–31:42 | | Notable Nonfiction Reads | 33:01–46:14 | | Surprising/Favorite Fiction | 62:18–79:10 | | Detective Fiction Hot Take | 89:42–97:55 | | Closing Thoughts & Goodbyes | 97:55–end |

The Hosts' Literary Wisdom: Themes & Takeaways

• Seasons of Reading: It's normal to have years of intense, slow, tumultuous, or peaceful reading.
• Embrace Rereading: Revisiting favorites deepens understanding and comfort.
• Read for Yourself, but Be Generous: Literary taste is individual and shaped by life stage and personality; one person’s transformative book may be another’s irritant.
• Context Over Rules: Children (and adults) learn best through immersion and experience, not rote memorization.
• Delight in the Journey: Whether you read five books or 100, the joy lies in the slow unfolding, “crafting your literary life.”
• Stories Will Save the World: The continual affirmation that literature’s enchantment brings wisdom, connection, and hope.

Final Words & Community Invitation

As this year closes, the hosts encourage listeners to reflect on their own reading journeys—what worked, what didn’t, and what surprised or delighted. They invite the community to share their highlights and disappointments on Patreon and encourage checking out related projects, including Cindy’s new ventures and the upcoming Literary Life Conference.

Closing Quote (Angelina):

“Keep crafting your literary life, because stories will save the world.”

[100:34] Ending:

Thomas closes by reading Emily Brontë’s “Spellbound,” a fitting haunter for readers who, like the Literary Life hosts, are spellbound by stories.