Episode 10: Isolation

"No man is an island," wrote John Donne... but many of us feel like we've been stranded on one in recent months. One potential remedy for this condition? Reading! For our tenth episode, the BXC brothers take on "isolation" as a literary theme. Books that explore, describe or portray subjects dealing with some form of isolation or solitude - how it challenges us, helps us to grow or forces us to confront the boundless mystery of ourselves. This discussion took us far and wide into many different genres: thrillers, travel books, mysteries, adventure stories and cultural satire. We hope you'll enjoy the diversity, and thanks again to all of you continue to download, stream and listen to our show!

BOOKS DISCUSSED/MENTIONED/RECOMMENDED IN THIS EPISODE:

From a listener (voice mail)

'Wuthering Heights,' Emily Bronte; 'Tom Sawyer,' Mark Twain; 'Cold Mountain,' Charles Frazier

From John

Recent read: 'Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation,' Joseph J. Ellis

Recommended Titles: 'Darkness at Noon,' Arthur Koestler; 'To the White Sea,' James Dickey; 'The Mysterious Island,' Jules Verne; 'Robinson Crusoe,' Daniel Defoe; 'The Andromeda Strain,' Michael Crichton; 'The Yellow Wallpaper,' Charlotte Perkins Gilman; 'A Time to Keep Silence,' Patrick Leigh Fermor; 'Into the Wild,' Jon Krakauer; 'Sun Dancing: A Vision of Medieval Ireland,' Geoffrey Moorhouse; 'A Time to Keep Silence,' Patrick Leigh Fermor; 'To the Lighthouse,' Virginia Woolf; 'Wittgenstein's Mistress,' David Markson

Next read: 'And Then There Were None,' Agatha Christie

From Jude

Current read: 'The Mirror and the Light,' Hilary Mantel

Recommended Titles: 'The Wisdom of the Desert,' Thomas Merton; 'The Shepherd's Hut,' Tim Winton; 'Drop City,' T. C. Boyle; 'The Temptation of St. Anthony,' Gustave Flaubert

Next read: Our co-host declined to reveal what he is reading next!