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#KaramazovReadalong #WarAndPeace2022 Podcast TTT Readalongs Russian Literature Season 4

Season 4 Episode 1:  Happy New Year with Liz Humphreys and Elisabeth Van Der Meer

Welcome to Tea, Toast, and Trivia!

Thank you for listening in!

Happy New Year! We have entered the Year 2022.

I am your host, Rebecca Budd. Thank you for listening in to this special podcast to bid a fond farewell to 2021 and offer a warm hello to the incoming 2022, a new year of possibilities and opportunities.

Liz Humphreys from Edinburgh, Scotland, and Elisabeth Van Der Meer from Porvoo, Finland have joined me today for a celebration of New Year traditions that bring us together as a global community.

Happy New Year, Liz and Elisabeth!

Exciting news coming to you on our next adventure that will take us back to Russia. Stay tuned for more information.

So put the kettle on and add to this exciting conversation on Tea Toast & Trivia.   

Thank you, Liz, for your willingness to take on this massive project, #WarAndPeade2022, and for your invitation to once again enter the world of Russian Literature. Thank you, Elisabeth, for adding breadth and depth to our understanding.  I am looking forward to road ahead and to the many discussions that will come out of this Readalong.  

2022 will be the year of Leo Tolstoy.

Liz Humphreys has brought together an invaluable collection of resources that will add depth to our reading experience. Books, blog posts, and reading schedules are available and easily accessible at the following links.

#WarAndPeace2022 – Reading Schedule

Thank you for joining Liz, Elisabeth, and me on Tea Toast & Trivia.   You are invited guest on #WarAndPeace2022.

As we part, I leave you with the words of Leo Tolstoy to speed you on your journey. “Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.”

You can connect with Liz on “Leaping Life” and Elisabeth on “A Russian Affair.”  You are only an internet click away from entering a world of books and brilliant conversations.

Until next time, dear friends, keep safe and be well.

Liz Humphreys
Elisabeth van der Meer
Photo Credit Liz Humphreys

Happy New Year with Liz Humphreys and Elisabeth Van Der Meer – Tea. Toast. & Trivia.

By Rebecca Budd

Blogger, Visual Storyteller, Podcaster, Traveler and Life-long Learner

43 replies on “Season 4 Episode 1:  Happy New Year with Liz Humphreys and Elisabeth Van Der Meer”

I would like to thank you all for your enthralling conversation about Russian traditions! For me traditions are very important, because they give us security, but I have realized very much during Christmas time, how much they have changed in my world and the emotions I always had to sing, at least one song together, have vanished! I wish you all a very good 2022:)

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I am delighted that you enjoyed this podcast Martina. Like you, I have been thinking a great deal about traditions during the month of December. As I look back there were so many traditions that have changed and transitioned over the years: My father reading the Christmas story, setting out cookies for Santa with my young son, singing in a choir when I was a teenager, gathering around a table with family on Christmas Day – all have passed because time moves on and circumstances intervene. A few weeks ago I came across Maya Angelou’s poignant poem: “When Great Trees Fall” which reminded me that memories are what keep traditions alive, vibrant, ever moving forward within a complex environment. I especially appreciated the last stanza when I think of all those who have gone before. Happy New Year, my dear friend. Looking forward to 2022! Sending hugs and more hugs across the way.

“And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”

https://poems.com/poem/when-great-trees-fall/

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I am delighted that you are joining #WarAndPeace2022 readalong, Liz. What an adventure we have undertaken. I like your incremental approach of reading the book “cold” and then going deep into the back story. I’m looking forward to the many twists and turns on the pathway.

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It’s probably a little easier to do a successful translation of fiction than poetry. There are some translated poems I’ve read that just go “clunk,” and I can’t help but think it’s the problem of translating the sound and meter of one language using the denotative meanings of the words in another language.

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What a great way to start 2022, Rebecca. I love these podcasts. I learn so much from guests like Liz and Elisabeth.The notion that literature helps keep traditions alive is interesting. I think that can also be said for history in general. A lot of events in history could easily be forgotten if people didn’t continue to write about those events. Historians get credit for recording the events, but writers keep the events alive.

Reading War and Peace sounds like a daunting project. I’m not sure I’ll be able to follow, but I’m going to add the hashtag as one I follow on Twitter.

I look forward to a year of interesting discussions, Rebecca. Happy New Year!

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I am delighted that you listened in to this conversation, Dan. I’m taking a deep breath and diving. I had planned to read War and Peace last year and then I received the invitation to join the #KaramazovReadalong which was one chapter a day for 96 days. I am thrilled when Liz announced the #WarAndPeace2022 readalong. I found that reading within a community provided a deeper reading experience. 361 days with Leo will be very interesting. Thank you for your support and encouragement. Happy New Year!!

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Thank you to the three of you for this exciting, educational and interesting New Years discussion. Wishing you a very happy 2022 year to come. I have to confess that this has been a very good learning experience for me. Just one thing, I did not know about two times for Christmas in Russia. Thank you for including the voices and readings by the two who contributed, so very interesting! Thank you for a look into our “reading together” in the coming year. I am looking forward to it very much My very best wishes to all three of you in this next year. Sending love! !

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Wonderful conversation about holiday traditions, and how literature reflects and/or influences those traditions! And very glad to see the “tradition” of a compelling read-along continue in 2022. Thank you, Rebecca, Elisabeth, and Liz!

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Thank you for your heartening words, Dave. I am excited that I will be reading War and Peace. And even more exciting that we are going deeper into Russian culture – art, literature, traditions. I am calling this “my year of living with Leo.”

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Another wonderful conversation about another beloved Russian classic! Although I won’t be joining the group reading, I greatly look forward to reading all the favorite quotes and cultural materials provided by everyone.

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FANTASTIC!!! I am delighted that you are on the #WarAndPeace2022 readalong. This will be an extraordinary year of going deeper into Russian Literature. Liz has a great line of up ideas that we are going to pursue. I just read about the connection between Tolstoy and Sir Walter Scott.

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