Our book this fortnight is the vivid and wonderful Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi. It's a story about family, food, sensuality, love, home, and the way that trauma reverberates through lives over time and space. This book is gorgeously written and full of light and heart, even as it tackles some pretty heavy … Continue reading S3 Ep 5: Butter Honey Pig Bread by Francesca Ekwuyasi
Get ready for some armchair time travel to 1920s Mexico! This book takes off when Casiopea Tun accidentally frees Hun-Kamé, the Mayan god of death. She BOLTS from her unhappy life as a drudge in her rich and prejudiced grandfather's house and adventures ensue. We discuss what we love about this book, ponder how a … Continue reading S3 Ep 4: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
This fortnight we are talking about the extremely neglected book Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It's a gem! Lolly Willowes was pubished in 1926 and is a wonderful portrayal of a woman forging her own path. This book is a treasure trove of feminist ideas, and it features gloriously sensory, sensual, tactile language. As … Continue reading S3 Ep 3: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Episode Two is all about Circe by Madeline Miller. As we say in our intro, Circe is one of a kind, and she falls nicely into our bolters theme, because she bolts from godhood itself. The ultimate bolt? If you haven't read this beauty of a book then please do go out and read it. … Continue reading S3 Ep 2: Circe by Madeline Miller
Welome to Season 3! Our theme this season is bolters, so it only feels right that we kick it off with Nancy Mitford's The Pursuit of Love, which features a character who is known only as "the Bolter." Like all of the women in this season, the Bolter is a character who eschews society's expectations … Continue reading S3 Ep 1: The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
Season three has been mused upon, hashed over, meandered around, and delayed. In addition to various life events (such as the birth of a bébé and a pesky pandemic), something about the season we had planned just wasn't sitting right. So we've given it a complete overhaul! Many apologies if you were devotedly reading the … Continue reading Season 3: New and Improved! Here’s the Reading List.
Well, here we are at the end of our DLS quartet. And, subsequently, the end of Season 2. Thanks for hanging in there with us through pandemic delays and ultra-lengthy fangirling!Busman's Honeymoon is quite unlike any other classic detective novel that you will read. It's a cozy house mystery, set in the English countryside, but … Continue reading S2 Ep 8: Busman’s Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers
It's finally here! We make NO APOLOGIES for the length of this episode. We've been building up to this allllll season, because there is just so much to say about this fantastic, fantastic book. Do yourself a favour and make haste, run out and grab a copy of Gaudy Night and immerse yourself in what is … Continue reading S2 Ep 7: GAUDY NIGHT!!! by Dorothy L. Sayers
A book with a distinctly beach-y, summery vibe, Have His Carcase follows Harriet and Peter to a seaside town on the coast of England where Harriet has managed to entangle herself in yet another murder case.We do our best to sort through the web of characters and red herrings, untangle some ciphers, and keep everybody’s … Continue reading S2 Ep 6: Have His Carcase by Dorothy L. Sayers
In this episode we launch into the beginning of our DLS quartet, with Strong Poison. This book introduces the character of Harriet Vane, and starts Lord Peter on a trajectory of emotional growth rarely seen in a fictional detective.This book has tons to say, in a non-didactic, often humorous way, about the role of women … Continue reading S2 Ep 5: Strong Poison by Dorothy L. Sayers
Story Girls 