Reading List

Here is a list of books & resources we discuss by character and/or episode.

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Nanea & Molly Revisit

Kit Resources

  • Robert Cohen, Dear Mrs. Roosevelt: Letters from Children of the Great Depression - see also: select letters from a teacher’s page.

  • Linda Gordon, Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits.

  • Tammy S. Gordon, The Mass Production of Memory: Travel and Personal Archiving in the Age of the Kodak

  • Alison Landsberg, Prosthetic Memory: The Transformation of American Remembrance in the Age of Mass Culture

  • National Recovery Administration resources


    Rebecca Resources - Peek into the Present COMMUNITY ZINE

Marie-Grace & Cecile Resources

Caroline Updates Coming Soon!

Episode 65: Meet Mariah: The Making of Mariah

The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey, Michaela Angela Davis

Open Book by Jessica Simpson

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Episode 64: From Borders to Borderlands: A Conversation with Colette Denali Montoya-Sloan

Kaya’s Short Story Collection

Ash by Malinda Lo

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids by Cynthia Leitich Smith

The Sea in Winter by Christine Day

Episode 63: Through the Fire: Changes for Kaya

The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson

The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Revised Edition by Salish-Pend d'Oreille Culture Committee, Elders Cultural Advisory Council, and Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Episode 59: The One Where Kaya Learns Many Lessons: Kaya’s Escape

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

The Thundermaker by Alan Syliboy and Lindsay R Marshall 

Kunu’s Basket by Lee DeCora Francis 

Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King 

Riding the Trail of Tears by Blake Hausman

You can also browse on this indigenous reading list/shop.

Additional Studies:

Staging Indigeneity by Katrina Phillips 

Slavery in Indian Country by Christina Snyder

Ties That Bind by Tiya Miles

Episode 55: Molly’s World and Historical Memory

Listener Book Recommendations:

I Want You to Know We're Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir by Esther Safran Foer

All-of-a-Kind Family Book Series by Sydney Taylor

Episode 50: Gimme Shelter: Happy Birthday Molly

Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era by Elaine Tyler May

Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff

Episode 45: Care and Keeping of You: Burnout

Can’t Even by Anne Helen Petersen

Episode 44: Samantha Spinoff Part 2

Picturing Political Power by Dr. Allison Lange

Read and enjoy the Uncle Gard Zine: http://bit.ly/UncleGardZine

Episode 41: Woah, Nellie: Changes for Samantha

Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan

Open Book: A Memoir by Jessica Simpson

Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams

The Horatio Alger Treasury compiled by Meredith A. Keeney

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness and The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness by Susannah Cahalan

Out to Work—A History of Wage-Earning Women in the United States by Alice Kessler Harris

Episode 40: A Tripp Overboard: Samantha Saves the Day

Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of A Modern Family by Carolyn Durrand and Omid Scobie

The Essential Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson, selected and introduced by Joyce Carol Oates

Episode 39: A Terrible Two and a Tenth Birthday

Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy Cordery

Fallen Women, Problem Girls by Regina Kunzel

Child Care in Black and White: Working Parents and the History of Orphanages by Jessie Ramey

The Baby Thief: The True Story of the Woman Who Sold Over Five Thousand Neglected, Abused and Stolen Babies in the 1950s by Barbara Raymond

Episode 38: To Grandmary’s House We Go… for Samantha’s Surprise

“Orphan Chic” books by Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden, A Little Princess

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Episode 37: Classy, Bougie, Ringlets: Samantha Learns a Lesson

How The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis

Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman

Where Am I Wearing by Kelsey Timmerman

Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America by Rechel Hope Cleves

Episode 36: Living in a Material World: Meet Samantha

The Diary of Alice James by Alice James

Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery

Dorothea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon

Picturing Political Power: Images in the Women’s Suffrage Movement by Allison K. Lange

Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation

Episode 33: Addy Add On: Origins

The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke by Sallie Bingham

To Free a Family: The Journey of Mary Walker by Sydney Nathans

Episode 32: Addy & Lacey & Mary & Allison

The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha L. LeFlouria

Episode 31: Philadelphia Freedom: Changes for Addy

Down City: A Daughter's Story of Love, Memory, and Murder by Leah Carroll

The Stranger in the Woods: The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel

Episode 30: No Strings Attached: Addy Saves the Day

Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory by David W. Blight

What Connie Porter Meant to Me by Nneka Okona

Land-grab Universities by Robert Lee and Tristan Ahtone

Episode 27: Queen Bees and Spelling Bees: Addy Learns a Lesson

Connie Porter. Addy Learns a Lesson

Karin Wulf. Not All Wives: Women of Colonial Philadelphia

Marla R. Miller. Betsy Ross and the Making of America

Hilary E. Wyss. English Letters and Indian Literacies: Reading, Writing, and New England Missionary Schools, 1750-1830

Scott Molloy. Trolley Wars: Streetcar Workers on the Line

Episode 26: Connie Porter’s Inferno: Meet Addy

Connie Porter. Meet Addy

Kiley Reid. Such a Fun Age

Bryan Stevenson. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption

Jacqueline Jones. Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present

Thavolia Glymph. Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household

Episode 24: How the West Was Fun: Changes for Kirsten

Janet Shaw. Changes for Kirsten

Janet Shaw. Kirsten on the Trail

Episode 22: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: Kirsten Saves the Day

Janet Shaw. Kirsten Saves the Day!

Karl Jacoby. Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation

William Cronon. Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

Lizabeth Cohen. A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America

Episode 21: How to Make a Swedish-American Quilt: Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

Janet Shaw. Happy Birthday, Kirsten!

Episode 20: I Love Lucia: A Surprise for Kirsten

Janet Shaw. Kirsten’s Surprise

Craig Brown. Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret

Elizabeth H. Pleck. Celebrating the Family: Ethnicity, Consumer Culture, and Family Rituals

Episode 19: Little Schoolhouse on the Prairie: Kirsten Learns a Lesson

Janet Shaw. Kirsten Learns a Lesson

Karen Cushman. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple

Candice Millard. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

Sarah Vowell. Assassination Vacation

Episode 18: She’s on a Boat: Meet Kirsten

Janet Shaw. Meet Kirsten

Karen Hesse. Letters from Rifka

Amy Fairchild. Science at the Borders: Immigrant Medical Inspection and the Shaping of the Modern Industrial Labor Force

Steven Johnson. The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World

Episode 17: Josefina Journeys II

Lynda Madison. The Feelings Book: The Care and Keeping of Your Emotions

Brene Brown. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Brene Brown. Rising Strong: How the Ability to Reset Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

Episode 16: Josefina Journeys I

Jia Tolentino. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion

Emilie Zaslow. Playing with America's Doll: A Cultural Analysis of the American Girl Collection

Episode 15: Winter of their Discontent: (Nothing) Changes for Josefina

Valerie Tripp. Changes for Josefina

Lisa Wilson. A History of Stepfamilies in Early America

Episode 14: Do You Know the Way to Santa Fe?

Valerie Tripp. Josefina Saves the Day

Alice Sebold. The Lovely Bones

Patricia Limerick. The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

Peter Guralnick. Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

Greil Marcus. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock ‘n’ Roll Music

Robert K. Wilcox. The Truth About the Shroud of Turin

Episode 13: Mailbag!

Kristiana Gregory. Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie: The Oregon Trail Diary of Hattie Campbell, 1847 (Dear America Series)

Kathryn Lasky. A Journey to the New World: The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple, Mayflower, 1620 (Dear America Series)

Kristiana Gregory. The Winter of Red Snow: The Revolutionary War Diary of Abigail Jane Stewart, Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, 1777 (Dear America Series)

Alison Arngrim. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated

Kate Atkinson. Life After Life

The Care and Keeping of You

Episode 12: Cake, Rattle (snake), and Roll - Happy Birthday Josefina!

Valerie Tripp. Happy Birthday, Josefina!

Matt Zoller Seitz & Alan Sepinwall. The Sopranos Sessions

Episode 11: Christmas in July and Surprises for Josefina

Valerie Tripp. Josefina’s Surprise

Episode 10: Josefina Learns a Lesson … or Does She?

Valerie Tripp. Josefina Learns a Lesson

Sarah Kendzior. The View from Flyover Country: Dispatches from the Forgotten America

Howard Stern. Howard Stern Comes Again

Episode 9: Meet Josefina, Mourn for Selena

Valerie Tripp. Meet Josefina

Amy Bloom. White Houses

Karl Jacoby. Shadows at Dawn: An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History

Alan Taylor. American Colonies: The Settling of North America

Pekka Hamalainen. The Comanche Empire

Susan Quinn. Eleanor and Hick: The Love Affair That Shaped a First Lady

Episode 8: Felicity Futures Part II- The Film

Amy Kaufman. Bachelor Nation: Inside the World of America’s Guilty Pleasure (2019) 

Anne Lister. The Secret Diaries of Anne Lister 

Rachel Hope Cleves. Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America

Sara Georgini. Household Gods: The Religious Lives of the Adams Family (2019) 

David McCullough. Truman

David McCullough. John Adams (2001) 

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams (2010)

Cornelia Dayton. Women Before the Bar: Gender, Law, and Society in Connecticut, 1639-1789 (1995) 

Episode 7: Felicity Futures Part One: Fan Fiction 

Rainbow Rowell. Carry On (2015)

--- Fangirl (2013)

--- Eleanor & Park (2013)

Walter Johnson. Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market

Episode 6: You Say You Want a Revolution: Changes for Felicity

Valerie Tripp. Changes for Felicity

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812

Catherine Allgor. Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government

Linda Kerber. No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies

Episode 5: Looking for a Hero: Felicity Saves the Day

Valerie Tripp. Felicity Saves the Day

Scott E. Casper. Sarah Johnson’s Mount Vernon

Episode 4: Felicity, Sweet Birthday Babyyy

Valerie Tripp. Happy Birthday, Felicity!

Jane Ridley. The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince

Episode 3: A Surprise Party in the (Not Yet) U.S.A.

Valerie Tripp. Felicity’s Surprise

Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Yellow Wallpaper

Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol

John Carreyrou. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Episode 2: Felicity Learns a Lesson, Will We? 

Valerie Tripp. Felicity Learns a Lesson

Louisa May Alcott. Little Women

Betty Friedan. The Feminine Mystique

Rosemarie Zagarri. Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic

Episode 1: Meet Felicity, Meet Us

Valerie Tripp. Meet Felicity



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