Home is where the holiday is, says Susan Swartz, even if it's in Texas...or wherever.

We may not have the classic white winter, said Susan Swartz, but we do have our own kind of wet wonderland.

It may be the season but Susan Swartz thinks only the smallest elves should wear themed sweaters.

Is this the year we take the ka-ching out of Christmas and go for good karma, asks Susan Swartz.

Will we get health care insurance at the expense of women, asks Susan Swartz. Whose choice is it now?

Rosemary Manchester and Suzanne Lang host a live conversation about literary gifts for holiday giving. In-studio guests review this year's publishing highlights, and we'll take your recommendations of favorite books to give, and the best book you read all year. It's a Literary Salon on the air, and you can wear your pajamas!

A Novel Idea celebrates a bounty of stories and writers with three authors this month. Occidental's ever-astonishing Chester Aaron, has been awarded a 2009 Moonbeam Award in Young Adult Historical Fiction for his recently re-published novel, Gideon, a story of the Warsaw ghetto uprising, and the uprising at the concentration camp of Treblinka.

Stefanie Freele's work has been called "micro fiction" for its clarity and brevity. Sensitive and unruly, sincere and absurd, Stefanie Freele's Finding Strays is a collection of fifty short stories about children, family, relationships, and oysters. Freele is the fiction editor of the Los Angeles Review and an editor of SmokeLong Quarterly.

Writer and photographer, Beth Carpel's "biker book" Assembling Georgia is the story of a Minneapolis chicken-factory worker who begins receiving motorcycle parts through the mail. Who is sending her the parts, why, and how it changes both their lives is at the heart of this twisting tale full of humor and emotional depth.

Barbara Baer, editor and publisher of Floreant Press, introduced her new book, Grisha the Scrivener, at the Sonoma County Book Festival in September. the story is set in the former USSR, where Barbara lived for some time, and concludes in contemporary, independent Russia. Barbara is a prominent member of the local literary community, and has won national journalism awards for essays and fiction. Grisha the Scrivener is her first novella.

A Novel Idea celebrates the Sonoma County Book Festival

Jonah Raskin - Field Days

ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET - #2 (Program #10)

SRJC Chamber Concerts, October, 2008
- BEETHOVEN - Quartet in F Major Op. 18, No. 1

Russian River Chamber Music, April, 2009
- LOU HARRISON - Quartet Set
- BRAHMS - Quartet No. 2 in A Minor Op. 51/2
- BRAHMS (Encore) Liebeslieder Waltz, Op. 52, No. 6 (arr. String Quartet)

From their Recording:
- BEETHOVEN - Quartet No. 59, No. 2, Finale
Alexander String Quartet, Foghorn Classics CD, 2009
www.asq4.com

ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET
From the Santa Rosa Junior College Chamber Concert Series, October, 2008

BEETHOVEN - String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131
WAYNE PETERSON - "Jazz Play"

AXEL STRAUSS & FRIENDS
From the Oakmont Concert Series, December, 2008
SCHUBERT - Quintet in C Major for Strings, D. 956 ("Cello Quintet")

TRIO CON BRIO COPENHAGEN (Program #8)
SRJC Chamber Concerts, February, 2009

- MENDELSSOHN - Songs without Words, Opus 109 (for Cello & Piano)
- BEETHOVEN - "Archduke" Trio
- DVORAK - Trio in F MInor Opus 65
- HAYDN (encore) - Trio in G Major "Gypsy Rondo"

From the OnStage Archives: HAYDN - Trio in C Major (excerpt)
Gryphon Piano Trio, Russian River Chamber Music, 2002

www.trioconbrio.dk

IVES STRING QUARTET (Program #7)
Russian River Chamber Music, February, 2009

- QUINCY PORTER - Early Works
- JOSEPH GREGORIO - "The Fullness of Peace"
- DVORAK - "American" Quartet
- PORTER - (Encore) - Quartet No. 3, 4th mvt.

From their Recording: PORTER - Quartet No. 4 (excerpt)
Ives String Quartet, Naxos CD
www.ivesquartet.org
Eugene Brancoveanu

AFIARA STRING QUARTET (Program #6)
Redwood Arts Council, January, 2009

- MOZART - Quartet No. 16 in E-Flat, K. 428
- BARTOK - Quartet No. 3 in C-sharp
- BEETHOVEN - Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge finale

www.afiara.com

From a newly-released Koch Recording: BEETHOVEN - Quartet Op. 130 - the "Rondo" Finale (the "alternate!")

ORION STRING QUARTET (former guest artists of the Redwood Arts Council)
*Sorry -- no podcast of this program is available.

CONFESSIONS OF A RAMBLER is an interview with Tom Paley, founding member of The New Lost City Ramblers, one of the first urban old-time Southern string bands (founded in 1958). Paley was a guest on The Fiddling Zone on October 13, 2008, while he was on tour on the West Coast. He talks about the early days of the Ramblers, his years in Sweden, and his current band in London, England. He also plays some great old time tunes on guitar, banjo and fiddle. Interview by Gus Garelick.

Mouthful welcomes organizers and chefs participating in Sonoma County Restaurant Week. Nancy Wang joins in, too, with details about our local Chinese New Year Celebration.

For Valentine's Day, Mouthful presents poems and stories that explore the intersection of the heart, the kitchen and the vineyard along with a couple of special treats to delight your inner romantic.

From the Mouthful archive: Terri Pischoff Wuerthner discusses "In A Cajun Kitchen," and Mouthful Salon continues with Deborah Walton of Canvas Ranch.

President Carl Brandhorst and Vice-President David Barber of the Atlantic Seaboard Wine Association return for a second year to taste white wines from the other coast. Joining in the fun is Anne Vercelli, food and wine instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College.

As mustard flowers begin to cover our landscape like a bright yellow fever, organizer Pat Summer discusses the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, which kicks off with Mustard Madness and continues through March.

The town of Occidental has changed a good deal since Doris Murphy first moved there more than half a century ago, something she herself has had a hand in doing. It's reason enough for a community-wide party to celebrate her 100th birthday.

Economist Helene Jorgenson thought she had good health insurance, until she got really sick. Having survived both her illness and her direct dealings with hospitals, laboratories and insurance companies, she has written a bluntly critical account of her experiences, both economic and medical, titled Sick and Tired.

More women than ever are going to college, and they are graduating in record numbers, too. Except in certain subject areas, such as math and the hard sciences. A local group believes that the way to change that is to start early.

In our fast-paced, materially-driven society, the idea of living more simply and slowly runs counter to prevailing norms. That may be why it's catching on.

March fourth was billed in advance as "A Day for Action" in support of education funding in California, and Sonoma County rose to the occasion, especially on the campus of Sonoma State University.

This month, The Selected Poems of Freidrich Holderlin will be read and discussed by the translators, poets Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover. Also, Rebecca Foust talks with host Katherine Hastings and reads from her first two award-winning collections, Dark Card; and Mom's Canoe.

Host Katherine Hastings throws a Poetry Party this month, featuring poetry and music from Yusef Komunyakaa, John Updike, Marilyn Hacker, and Anais Nin reading from her diary about French playwright, poet, actor and theatre director Antonin Artaud. Plus Kate Royal singing "I Have Dreamt" from Wuthering Heights, and poet Arisa White with the Jessica Jones Quartet. Also included is a visit from Sonoma County poet Michael Rothenberg who will give an introduction to Rockpile, a collaboration between Rothenberg and David Meltzer that will send them through eight cities in the U.S. to perform poetry and prose composed on the road with local musicians and artists in each city.

An in-depth interview with poet Brian Tso Jones, author or the award-winning collection, Raking the Hollow Bones. Also, host Katherine Hastings introduces the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anne Sexton.

Tribute to David Bromige - August 26, 2009

Poet, critic, playwrite and radio personality Jack Foley performs a number of his poems and his ten-minute play, The Boy, the Girl, and the Piece of Chocolate along with his wife, poet Adelle Foley who will also read work from her book, Along the Bloodline, and more recent haiku. Following the Foley's, Alabama poet, songwriter, singer and musician Jake Berry perfroms segments from his magnificent work of poetry and music, Brambu Drezei.

Big Read Radio Call-In Special