Cracked Spines

And we're back! Welcome to our big beefy kickoff for 2023. In this episode your hosts discuss their reading goals for 2022 (including far more stats than anyone could possibly want), their favorite (and least favorite) reads of the year, and a whole slew of goals for the coming solar cycle. Also including multiple bouts of blistering sincerity about our personal lives and our reflections on t...

This week, Sarah and Amelia are back after faking their own deaths and disappearing to the desert (didn't work), and it's a bit of a grab bag. Sarah discusses her difficulty with reading lately (yeah, another one of those episodes) and how she's powered through it by taking things from small children. Amelia engages in combat with a 56 hour audio book and reads a sentence that made...

This week, Sarah and Amelia get deep. About six feet or so. In an episode that totally isn't a disaster of conflicting tones, we discuss the book Advice for Future Corpses (and Those Who Love Them)  , a very good book that both of us recommend but neither of us necessarily enjoyed. Sarah shares too many work anecdotes that all involve how bad she is with corpses. Amelia revels the least surpr...

This week, Sarah and Amelia meet at different ends of the sleepiness spectrum to discuss the fantastic worldbuilding and historical resource that is The Victorian City by Judith Flanders. We talk about sewage seepage, watercress sellers, the infernal din of the city, and a couple of kinky Victorians who left detailed diaries behind. Amelia picks a fight with Victorian street sellers and accurately...

This week, we're talking political marriages! Icy locales! Disco Elysium! Magical political intrigue! Fictional soccer coaches! Mirror travel! And of course, more Disco Elysium! Technically this episode is about A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos, but as usual, we get a bit off topic. We discuss our thoughts on YA vs adult fiction, intellectual elitism, whether or  not Disco Elysium...

This week on Cracked Spines, we are revisiting all our big dreams we had in January and inadvertently have the exact same conversations as we did then. Amelia is riding high on her book list. Sarah is forcibly humbled. And I'll be honest, then we talk about Trent Crimm from Ted Lasso for about ten minutes. No, we don't provided context on who that man is. You just need to know that he&ap...

This week, Amelia and Sarah are talking about short story collections by a single author that bodied us and kicked us while we were down. In a good way! We discuss three books that are strong contenders for our faves of the year, while every plane in the PNW circles overhead. I know you can't hear the planes that much in this final version. That's because I'm a hero and I have shelt...

If you love something, let it go: or at least maybe stop giving it your money and putting it in your tumblr blog description. This episode, Sarah discusses two of her favorite childhood series--Ender's Game and Harry Potter--and the frustration of still liking a piece of media when the creator is an active sewage volcano. Is is possible to separate the creator from their creation, and is that...

WHEW WE HAD A LOT TO SAY. This week, we're discussing lesbian romance novels and, unfortunately, why we just don't like a lot of the ones we've read. Amelia discusses gender exploration and lesbian relationships with gay men. Sarah laments the lack of butches and why Regency era women should be allowed to do rampant infidelity. We both spend a long, long time trying to figure out wh...

That's right, we're back on poetry again! We finished the Odyssey and, hungry for more punishment, dove into Mary Oliver's work. Amelia humorously mistakes two vastly different modern poets; Sarah humorously botches an 20th century poet's name (wow). We discuss religion, medicine, nature, DOGS, cats, prose, and more religion.  Media Discussed Mary Oliver: Dog Songs, Evidence ,...

This week, we're discussing In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex , by Nathaniel Philbrick, the real life story of the shipwreck that inspired Moby Dick, a book we PROMISE that at SOME POINT we will read. Amelia gushes with frankly alarming intensity about how metal whaling culture and Nantucket Quakers were. Sarah offers some Monday morning quarterbacking about nautical...

This week on Cracked Spines your hosts read a whole slew of words centering around the Trojan War, from The Song of Achilles by Madeleine Miller to Homer's Illiad, Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, and The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker. From across the millennia, one single sentiment rings true: Agamemnon is the wooooooooooooooorst .  In other news, Sarah had a great time reading...

We read The Odyssey! We actually did it!! And we only whined a little for weeks on end. Amelia lets her love of milfs fatally blind her to the will of the gods. Sarah overestimates how much Odysseus is naked and murdering people but maintains that just doing it once is enough to make it His Thing. Discussion points include: is this book good? Do we like Odysseus as a character and as a person? Is...

Our Flag Means Death is a win for gays and dads alike.  In this episode we tackle the big questions, like "Why did this delightful little pirate show became so popular so fast," and "Isn't it okay to torture your hostages just a little , as long as it's funny?" Also featuring the joys of good representation, the horrors of the British Navy, the complicated nature of e...

This week, we're discussing Circe by Madeleine Miller and Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology by Jess Zimmerman. Sarah gets mad about how she stopped being mad about the treatment of women. Amelia discusses the shackles of gender and commits a minor act of arson against Sarah's most prized possession (again). We got a little depressed in the middle there, not gonna lie, bu...

This week, your hosts read Far Out: An Anthology of Recent Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Paula Guran, aka an absolutely kickass collection of speculative short stories ranging from a cat-loving AI to gut-wrenching horror. Both Amelia and Sarah agree that this is one of the best anthologies they've encountered, with an effective theme and a wide selection of engaging and imagina...

This week, Amelia and Sarah discuss fantastical healthcare in Vonda McIntyre's Dreamsnake under the pointless time crunch of precious homemade goods cooking in the oven. Amelia finds new reasons to swear off pregnancy. Sarah gets real emotional about the concept of witches. We both lament how often genre fiction neglects the narrative potential of realistic injuries and healing, and our cat,...

Taste the Reading Rainbow! This week Sarah and Amelia discuss the way that our favorite books can be so deeply entwined with our memory, and in Sarah's case, her digestive tract. Do you have a book that brings you back to a specific point in your life? A novel you've read over time and time again? Or do you cast your personal and reading history into a dark vault which will open only on...

It's a lil quickie! Short! Sweet! Full of baseless hopes about what the year will bring! This week, we're talking about our  reading goals. Amelia dances with the idea of quality over quantity. Sarah's going to read one (1) western. We're both going to discuss the tv show What We Do In The Shadows an embarrassing amount.  (Sorry about the sound quality on this one. We were tryi...

In the final episode of 2021, Sarah and Amelia dig through their year's worth of reading materials in a ruthless gladiatorial death match of arbitrary categories and favoritism (but like, in a chill way). Triumphs are hard-won, emotional depths are plumbed, and favors are ruthlessly extorted under false pretenses and then upheld as law.  Join us on a journey through our top picks in categorie...

It's a Christmas special! This week Sarah and Amelia read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and discuss all the ways a person can do Christmas wrong: whether by being a rich coldhearted jerk with no love for your fellow man, or just by baking anything less than 1,500 Christmas cookies in a single weekend. We also touch on a few other favorite pieces of Christmas media and dig into the stra...

Like all readers, we sometimes lose the ability to process written language and fall into a pit of misery and despair. Here's some tips on how we claw our way back out again! If you need a little extra motivation, just remember that if you don't meet Amelia's quota of reading one book per year, she will nonjudgmentally hunt you for sport.  Also featuring the joy of romance novels, r...

There will NOT be peace because we are NOT done. I mean what did you expect? From us? On the anniversary? Of destiel? Wherein we once again try to puzzle what mysterious hold this show somehow maintains over us, but not with enough detail for someone who doesn't know about the show to learn anything. It's an episode just for us, baby.  Media Discussed: Supernatural, "The French Mist...

Spookiness can be a November thing too. This week, Sarah and Amelia discuss what happens when you get a house that's just Bad. Like just the most toxic of vibes.  Where people die inside the house, sure, but that's almost incidental to why the house sucks. Amelia loves only the quietest and slowest of horror movies. Sarah expresses some strong disappointment with one of the staple works...

This week, we’re talking symbiotes! Venom! Parasites! I Married A Lizard Man! Venom! Honestly mostly Venom! What is it about having an alien consciousness riding tandem in your noggin that sparks such joy? We read virtually all we could find in the symbiote/host dynamic, from the actual Venom comics to Stephanie Meyer’s The Host. Sarah unironically compares the Venom movies to Lawrence of Arabia a...