Crack The Book: A Beginner's Guide to Reading the Great Books

Cheryl Drury
  • 5.0 (23)
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  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Confused by Confucius? Daunted by Dante? Shook by Shakespeare? I get it! I'm Cheryl, a reader exploring the world's most influential books one episode at a time. I don't do lectures, and I can't do jargon. But we do have friendly conversations about why (and whether) these books still matter. Each episode, we tackle a great book or two—The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, The Prince—unpacking the big ideas, memorable moments, and surprising ways these stories connect to life today. If you've ever thought "I should read that" but didn't know where to start, you're in the right place. Subscribe to Crack the Book. Let's find out what's inside.

  1. 2D AGO

    Can You Write Light? Week 45: Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot

    Week 45 of Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities List brought me fully into the early 20th century—and, to my surprise, it wasn’t an easy transition. I don’t dislike these works, but I find myself missing the older books and trying to name what feels absent. The shadow of World War I certainly looms, but there’s something more elusive at work. This week’s readings were Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” Woolf was entirely new to me, and her novel took my breath away. Influenced by modern painting, she creates a luminous, fluid narrative that feels like opening your eyes underwater—challenging at first, but deeply rewarding once it clicks. I won’t spoil it. This is a book to discover on your own. Eliot’s poem, famously difficult, benefited enormously from Mary Karr’s advice: don’t dissect it—let it wash over you. I did. I didn’t fully understand it, but I’m glad I read it. Make sure to check my Amazon list for that edition with Mary Karr's introduction. It's essential! LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    28 min

  2. FEB 3

    But is it ART? Week 44: James Joyce and Samuel Beckett

    Week 44 takes us firmly into the 20th century, with a strong Irish lineup: James Joyce’s “The Dead" from The Dubliners, the opening of Ulysses, and Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Joyce surprised me—in the very best way. “The Dead” is rich, intimate, and beautifully written, capturing married love, memory, and Dublin itself as if the city were another character. The opening of Ulysses was stranger and more dreamlike, but not impenetrable; I’m no longer afraid of it, even if I’m not sure the whole novel is in my future. Beckett, on the other hand, infuriated me. Waiting for Godot struck me as deliberately empty, a meditation on meaninglessness that simply wasn’t for me, even while I understand its cultural impact. This week underscored how much I’ve grown as a reader: more patient, more persistent, and open to genres I never imagined loving. Eight weeks to go—and I’m grateful for every page. Oh, and the answer to that question? Well, you'll just have to listen to find out. The beautiful videos can be found in my substack post! LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    27 min

  3. JAN 27

    Change Is Gonna Come. Week 43: Frederick Douglass and W.E.B DuBois

    This week’s reading was heavy—emotionally and intellectually. We paired Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass(1845) with W.E.B. DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk (1903), and the contrast was striking. Douglass’ firsthand account of slavery is harrowing, beautifully written, and unforgettable. From his stolen childhood to his carefully guarded escape, his story exposes not only the cruelty of slavery but its spiritual damage to everyone caught in its system. His reflections on faith, suffering, and corrupted Christianity are especially powerful. This is one book I believe every American should read. DuBois offers a sociological lens on life after Emancipation—Reconstruction failures, education debates, segregation, and his idea of the “Talented Tenth.” While insightful, his approach felt more theoretical to me than Douglass’ lived experience. Both are worth reading—but Douglass, especially, will stay with you. LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    29 min

  4. JAN 20

    No Flowers, Please. Week 42: Charles Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil and Gustave Flaubert's Trois Contes

    This week’s readings on Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities List felt unexpectedly thin and disjointed. We stepped backward in time to Gustave Flaubert and Charles Baudelaire, which made me keenly aware of how much I’ve come to rely on the list’s chronological momentum. I also continue to struggle with “selections,” especially in poetry, where I suspect I shortchange the material when time and energy are limited. Flaubert’s short story “A Simple Life,” from Trois Contes, follows the entire life of Félicité, a housemaid whose quiet existence unfolds in a series of small, often bleak episodes. It’s beautifully written but profoundly sad—an example of realism so stripped of meaning that the character almost disappears. Baudelaire proved even harder for me. Despite repeated attempts (in both English and French), I found Les Fleurs du Mal abrasive rather than illuminating. This week reminded me that this project isn’t about comfort or personal taste—and sometimes, that’s the point. LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    29 min

  5. JAN 13

    Still Life with Feeling. Week 41: Henry James' Spoils of Poynton and Marcel Proust's Swann's Way

    Stepping inside an Impressionist painting? Yes, please. Week 41 of Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities Course made me realize something startling: these books weren't picked for my enjoyment--and yet I loved them anyway. This week’s readings, Henry James’s The Spoils of Poynton and the “Overture” to Marcel Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, carry us right into the early twentieth century. I approached James with dread, expecting a slow narrative, but instead I found a moody, infinitely readable novel built around obsession, property, and desire. With a small cast and dialogue-driven scenes, it feels almost theatrical, no surprise since James briefly wrote plays. But it's also chilling in its fixation on “stuff” and ownership. This one was a winner. Proust, meanwhile, surprised me with prose that felt dreamlike, luminous, and unexpectedly funny. I had expected dense, boring, and pointless--Proust was none of those. The famous madeleine scene becomes a meditation on memory that expands from a sensation as small as a crumb into an entire world. Though radically different on the surface, James and Proust share a similar impressionistic quality, finding vast meaning in subtle gestures. A brilliant pairing--and a week I adored, even if Ted doesn’t care. The Housekeeping: LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack - https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/ LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321 Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    23 min

  6. JAN 6

    Reach Out and Touch Faith. Week 40: Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Frederich Nietzsche

    Week 40 of Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities Course brings together three demanding—and deeply philosophical—works: Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor, and Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. But before we get started, I offer a short primer on reading Russian lit. The names can be a real challenge! Tolstoy’s novella, written after his spiritual “conversion,” is a devastating meditation on death, meaning, and self-deception—circular in structure but spiraling ever deeper. It may be the finest short work I’ve read so far.  Dostoyevsky’s famous parable interrupts the narrative of The Brothers Karamazov to pose unsettling questions about freedom, faith, and institutional power, turning conventional religious assumptions upside down.  Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil proved the most challenging: dense, contrary, and deliberately destabilizing, it rejects inherited moral frameworks in favor of examining desire, psychology, and power. Together, these works confront the shifting relationship between God, morality, and the modern self—making this one of the most intellectually intense weeks of the project. We are back next week with French writers who offer a totally different tone. See you soon! LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack -  https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/  LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321  Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    25 min

  7. 12/30/2025

    Born in the U.S.A. Week 39: A Handful of 19th Century American Writers

    Week 39 of Ted Gioia’s Immersive Humanities Course takes on nineteenth-century American literature—and to my surprise, it became one of the most enjoyable weeks so far. I went in dreading familiar names and old high-school resentments, but came out newly energized.  Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (chapters 1–6) was funny, humane, and immediately engaging. Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and “The Raven” used ornate language to heighten unease, while Emily Dickinson’s poems felt weightless and startlingly modern. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden was quotable and provocative, if ultimately grating, and Herman Melville surprised me most of all: Bartleby, the Scrivener lingered with quiet power, and the opening of Moby-Dick left me eager for more.  This week revealed a real shift in voice and sensibility—and changed my mind about American literature. I’m looking forward to going back and reading more, but first we need to move on to Week 40 and Russian Literature!

    33 min

  8. 12/23/2025

    God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen. Bonus! Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

    We take a little break from our reading list this week for some holiday cheer: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens! I thought I knew this one inside out, which was ridiculous because I had never actually read it. (When will I learn?!) This is a punchy little novel, and you can read it aloud over the course of less than a week with your kids. I hope with this episode to offer a little reassurance and inspiration: You can do this, and you'll be so glad you did. I end with a little discussion of some of the movie adaptations--there are so many! And we will be back next week with Week 39 and a ton of American lit. LINK Ted Gioia/The Honest Broker’s 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!) My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link) CONNECT The complete list of Crack the Book Episodes: https://cheryldrury.substack.com/p/crack-the-book-start-here?r=u3t2r To read more of my writing, visit my Substack -  https://www.cheryldrury.substack.com. Follow me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/cldrury/  LISTEN Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/5GpySInw1e8IqNQvXow7Lv?si=9ebd5508daa245bd Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/crack-the-book/id1749793321  Captivate - https://crackthebook.captivate.fm

    13 min
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About

Confused by Confucius? Daunted by Dante? Shook by Shakespeare? I get it! I'm Cheryl, a reader exploring the world's most influential books one episode at a time. I don't do lectures, and I can't do jargon. But we do have friendly conversations about why (and whether) these books still matter. Each episode, we tackle a great book or two—The Divine Comedy, The Canterbury Tales, The Odyssey, The Prince—unpacking the big ideas, memorable moments, and surprising ways these stories connect to life today. If you've ever thought "I should read that" but didn't know where to start, you're in the right place. Subscribe to Crack the Book. Let's find out what's inside.

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