Shelf Esteem

Episode 60: We Descend to the Level of the Sentence and We Come Back Up for Air by Trudy Morgan-Cole

Poet, novelist, and avid reader George Murray drops by to talk about what he's been reading, which gets us into discussing genre boundaries, literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, artificial intelligence, what it means to be human, and why we shouldn't (yet) fear the rise of the robots. For the full list of books we discussed, check out the show notes at https://shelfesteem2017.wordpress.com/

It's time for murder and mayhem as librarian Julia Mayo and I discuss two bookswapped mysteries - Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes, and The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters (which is, arguably, not a mystery at all). We end up talking about those two novels and many, many others in this crime-filled episode.

Journalist and broadcaster John Gushue joined me in my new recording location at Bad Times Club Studio to discuss what we've been reading lately, particularly the memoirs that have fascinated us. That led us into a deep dive into a book that I read on John's recommendation and we both had a lot of thoughts about: Sarah Polley's collection of personal essays Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations With a Body of Memory.

In the first podcast episode of 2024, we have a Black History Month special where I visit with Xavier Michael Campbell and Heather Barrett and talk about their book Black Harbour. Our conversation ranges from the record of enslaved people in Newfoundland history, to peppermint knobs, salt fish, and men named Junior, as well as to the idea that "there's no Black people in Newfoundland," why we can sometimes be defensive about our history, and some more reading suggestions for people who'd like to delve deeper into Black history.

For my last podcast episode of 2023, I sat down with my frequent co-host and even more frequent daughter, Emma Cole, and two of her friends, Emma Pappas and Myles Bradley, to discuss the book they'd just read for their friend-group book club, Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment.

Martha Muzychka and I enjoyed a thorough discussion of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels by Dorothy L. Sayers, wrapping up my three-episode celebration of the 100th anniversary of Whose Body, the first Lord Peter novel.

Continuing my summer series celebration 100 years of Lord Peter Wimsey, I bookswapped Murder Must Advertise with Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety -- two novels set amongst a drug- and crime-ridden London underworld -- in conversation with writers, visual artist, and cousin, Jennifer Morgan.

Back from an unplanned hiatus, I dive into a summer mini-series where I get my reading partners to read some of the Lord Peter Wimsey novels, my favourite book series of all time, by Dorothy L. Sayers. This month, Emma and I swapped the first of the Lord Peter books, Whose Body, with the Truly Devious mystery series by Maureen Johnson. Tune in to find out what a Gen Z reader thinks of a novel published in 1923, as we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Lord Peter Wimsey.

In this month's Bookswap, Lori Savory and I discuss two recent novels that are both, in their way, "pandemic novels," though only one is explicitly set during the Covid19 era. Both deal with isolation, finding your path in life, breaking up with the perfect or imperfect boyfriend ... and somehow, the whole discussion ends with us talking about our dogs.