Shows
Story GirlsS3 Episode 5: Butter Honey Pig BreadThis is a book about love, sex, healing, family, food, and home. Its gorgeous prose and vivid characters make it one to revisit again and again. Join us as we try to decide who is the true bolter here.
2022-02-031h 03Story GirlsS3 Episode 4: Gods of Jade and ShadowA romp through 1920s Mexico with the Mayan god of death. Spoilers abound!
2022-01-201h 03Story GirlsS3 Episode 3: Lolly WillowesOur bolter this week is Laura "Lolly" Willowes, in a wondrously witchy book about female desire and agency.
2021-12-221h 02Story GirlsS3 Episode 2: CirceIn which Circe bolts from godhood, and we get into the nitty gritty of Greek mythology.
2021-12-081h 27Story GirlsS3 Episode 1: The Pursuit of LoveOur theme for S3 is...Bolters! So, naturally we are kicking things off with Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, featuring a character known only as "the Bolter."
2021-11-241h 05Story GirlsS2 Ep 8: Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. SayersAn in-depth look at the final book in the Peter-Harriet quartet, Busman's Honeymoon.
2020-10-251h 43Story GirlsS2 Ep7: Gaudy NightS2 Ep 7: Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
2020-10-102h 09Story GirlsS2 Episode 6: Have His Carcase by Dorothy L SayersHave His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
2020-09-211h 11Story GirlsS2 Episode 5: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. SayersWe commence our DLS quartet!
2020-09-091h 28
Story GirlsS2 Episode 4: More Work for the UndertakerMore Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham is our book this fortnight, and so we take a highly enjoyable trip through an eccentric, absurd, and Dickensian London with amateur detective Albert Campion and his companions.
It's a complex, slightly fantastical mystery, but as usual with the Golden Age writers, evoked with deep insight and acute observation. Margery Allingham wrote a plethora of Campion books, so if you loved this one, good news! There are plenty more.
As always, spoiler alert! We're gonna tell you whodunnit.
...2020-03-181h 19Story GirlsS2 Episode 3: To Love and Be WiseThis fortnight we are talking about Josephine Tey's To Love and Be Wise, starring the immensely lovable Detective Alan Grant. This is an underappreciated mystery novel by an underappreciated author, in our humble opinions!
Josephine Tey is the dark horse of this season, and the author we have shoehorned into our "Queens of Crime" category (displacing the better-known Agatha Christie). Her works are subtle and layered, and we hope that you will give them a try!
Show Notes:
Here is a link to a recent biography of Tey, Josephine Tey: A Life, by Morag Henderson.
2020-03-041h 10
Story GirlsS2 Episode 2: A Surfeit of LampreysOur first Queen of Crime is Ngaio Marsh, who was a prolific New Zealand author of the Golden Age, penning 32 books featuring her dapper detective "Handsome Alleyn," as well as a plethora of short stories, stage plays, and non-fiction. We have chosen her witty and surprising novel A Surfeit of Lampreys to hook you in to her work, if you happen to be unfamiliar with it. It's a good one!
You can learn more about Ngaio Marsh here.
Here is a link to the Ngaio Marsh Theatre at the University of Canterbury...2020-02-191h 19Story GirlsS2 Episode 1: Queens of Crime & The Golden Age of Detective Fiction
Welcome to Season 2! This season we are taking a look at four excellent female writers from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction: Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, and Dorothy L. Sayers.
These authors were writing fiercely intelligent, wonderfully witty, and extraordinarily astute mystery novels in the 1920s and 1930s. Join us for a romp through the Golden Age, feminist-style!
Season 2 Reading List:
A Surfeit of Lampreys by Ngaio Marsh
To Love and Be Wise by Josephine Tey
More Work for the Undertaker by Margery Allingham
Strong Poison by Do...2020-02-0614 minStory GirlsCastle Minisode 3: Nod to Maud Welcome to our third and final Castle Minisode! This wraps up our first season, so tune in to get your final fix of castles before we move on to season 2! (Spoiler: this minisode has literally nothing to do with castles.)
This past autumn we had the pleasure of traveling to The Book Drunkard Literary Festival in Uxbridge, Ontario, where we visited the Leaskdale Manse, the longtime home of L.M. Montgomery. We attended the Nod to Maud event, which included a talk from Montgomery's granddaugher Kate MacDonald Butler on the theme of...FEMINISM!!
2020-01-2235 minStory GirlsCastle Minisode 2: Studio GhibliFor this episode, we are diverting a wee bit from books and authors to give a shout out to Studio Ghibli. This Japanese film production company is a maker of beautiful, whimsical movies that are pure delight.
As we mentioned in our Howl's Moving Castle episode, that book was adapted by Studio Ghibli into a film that provokes a bit of disagreement between us! But we both agree that overall the Ghibli films are magical and well worth seeking out.
In this minisode we discuss what we love about Ghibli movies, some of o...2020-01-1522 minStory GirlsCastle Minisode 1: Isabella Valancy CrawfordHello, folks! After a little break over the winter holidays, we are baaack!
To tide you over until our Season 2 debut, we humbly offer the first of three minisodes, which will be released weekly for the next three Wednesdays. These are all mini-episodes that tie, in one way or another, into the books from our Castle theme.
This first minisode is a short biography of Isabella Valancy Crawford. Never heard of her? We're not surprised! Crawford was a feisty and significant figure in Canadian literature in the late 19th Century, a...2020-01-0835 minStory GirlsEpisode 4: We Have Always Lived in the CastleWell folks, buckle in for an extra-long, extra-rambling episode! We get pretty engrossed in our discussion of Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and TBQH, our bowl of prompts kinda goes out the window.
But fear not! Well, fear a little. Shirley Jackson is, after all, the goddess of terror. This is a gloriously creepy, Gothic tale of sisterhood, anxiety, murder, madness, revenge, and...preserves?
Our standard spoiler alert stands, but this time multiply it by about a thousand. Definitely, definitely read this one before listening! You do not want this story s...2019-12-111h 32Story GirlsEpisode 3: I Capture the CastleEpisode 3 is a deep dive into Dodie Smith's classic coming-of-age story, I Capture the Castle.
Full of summery vibes, starry nights, and swan-filled moats, this novel is bursting with charm. Its witty and insightful narrator, Cassandra, is just one of a brilliant cast of characters who manage to be both hilariously eccentric and utterly believable.
Spoilers abound, so be sure to read first and listen after!
Show Notes
The version of Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy that we play at the beginning and mid-episode is...2019-11-271h 23Story GirlsEpisode 2: Howl's Moving CastleEpisode 2 carries on with some fairy tale motifs, as we explore another favourite: Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Some people may know this title because of the Studio Ghibli animated film of the same name, but trust us—watching the film is no substitute for reading this fantastic book.
As always, spoiler warning! Read first, listen after. :)
Show Notes:
If you'd like to learn more about Diana Wynne Jones than we provided in our cursory intro, there is a wonderful collection of her autobiographical writings called Reflections: On th...2019-11-131h 02
Story GirlsEpisode 1: The Blue CastleTo kick off the podcast, we dive into an old favourite of ours—The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
If you haven't read this enchanting, fable-esque story that is a love song to Muskoka (as well as a love song to love itself), then we highly, highly recommend that you drop everything and rush out to read it.
This episode contains spoilers, so consider yourself warned!
Show Notes:
The illustrations that we love of The Blue Castle are by New Zealand-based artist Masako Kubo.
...2019-10-301h 28