Infinite TBR

Smack and Gabi are back from being, um, busy and stuff, and we have a lot to catch up on!  Smack goes feral and rabid for the first time since college over a Nebula finalist with an enormous cliffhanger and a contemporary werewolf black cat/golden retriever romance.  Gabi “complains” about being trapped on a plane with hours of enforced reading time on her way to and from Brazil and recaps her vac...

Smack and Gabi recount their most enjoyable 2024 and most anticipated 2025 reads.  There were truly an astonishing number of both, but of particular note is Heather Faucett’s Emily Wilde series which - with the third coming out shortly after this recording - was both one of our most highly anticipated of 2025 and among Smack’s 2024 favorites.  She might even nominate it for a Nebula with her new p...

Smack and Gabi continue to face off in their 4th Annual Showdown Throwdown in which we compete to see who had the better reading experience during Mysterious Galaxy’s Summer Bingo.  This round, Smack is up against a super fun dark academia trilogy that ended up being one of Gabi’s all-time favorite reads, Gabi has to contend with some nonfiction and memoir powerhouses that Smack read, and we both...

Smack and Gabi are facing off in their 4th Annual Showdown Throwdown in which we compete to see who had the better reading experience during Mysterious Galaxy’s Summer Bingo. Gabi actually won Mysterious Galaxy’s black-out bingo lottery this year, so we begin with an accounting of how those winnings were spent (on books, of course). Then we get into Showdown Throwdown proper, with Smack trying to...

Mysterious Galaxy’s annual summer bingo is in full swing and we are (still) getting ready to throwdown!!  This week to complement the accounting of Smack’s reads last month, Gabi details some of her recent reads that will be feeding into our annual Throwdown next month.  We begin by spending way too much time talking about a book of murder-themed logic puzzles - proving that Smack absolutely kills...

Mysterious Galaxy’s annual summer bingo is in full swing and we are getting ready to throwdown!  Smack went to StokerCon and spent some time cat-sitting for Gabi by the beach, during which she read quite the spread of bingo books.  Highlights included an excellent historical horror novel about a Black woman with a mysterious trunk trying to survive in rural Montana, a Goose Girl retelling that per...

Continuing from where we left off last episode, Smack shares her recent reads which range from an incredible queer historical fiction novel to a Victorian mystery series with a (very) slow-burn romance to a new favorite monster romance author with books that definitely qualify as actual literature, even though the characters are in desperate need of a therapist.  We conclude with an assessment of...

Smack and Gabi reconvene after a bit of a life-induced break and go over what they’ve read since they last saw each other.  This episode is mostly Gabi reads, but with some overlap due to her Smack Shelf books.  Highlights include a complicated fantasy novel with friends teaming up to burn the world down to save a wife, a bunch of murderous and yet somehow beloved convicts trying to escape their p...

Smack and Gabi kicked off their new year with their 2nd annual reading retreat, during which we escape town to curl up next to a cozy fire in a fancy lodge and read books all weekend.  Gabi burned through a lot of short romantic cuties and started a science fiction duology with incredible worldbuilding despite one major flaw.  Smack partook of a smattering of genres, including a mind-blowing histo...

In part three of their 3rd Annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo Showdown Throwdown, things get particularly contentious as Smack and Gabi have five final chances to claim the 2023 title for best books read during the summer.  One match-up in particular between a delightful queer-platonic horror novel and a differently delightful cozy middle-grade fantasy has us literally throwing hands (in rock-p...

In part two of three of their 3rd Annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo Showdown Throwdown, Smack and Gabi settle in with some wine to continue playing two games.  One is the typical showdown throwdown which we all know and love.  The other is Rock, Paper, Scissors for what should be an impartial tie-breaker but which is somehow…not.  This month’s match-up features hard horror limits (mushrooms!),...

Smack and Gabi face off in their 3rd Annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo Showdown Throwdown (etc., etc.)!!  Smack is the defending champion in this contest to find out who had the more enjoyable summer bingo experience.  So far this year, Gabi, the underdog, is helped along by Rock, Paper, Scissors tie-breakers, at which she is inexplicably talented.  P.S. Readers interested in Alexandra Vasti’s...

Smack and Gabi pre-game our third annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo Throwdown Showdown by going over some noteworthy (for better or for worse) recent reads that will not appear during Throwdown Showdown.  These include a surprisingly consumable nonfiction read, a fun sci-fi romp, different flavors of murder mysteries, and two very excellent graphic novels.  In the background, we also had some...

Smack and Gabi cover a lot of ground, briefly recapping the (long-past) Book Crawl and highlighting recent reads.  Smack has mostly been indulging in romantic paranormal novels (mostly) set in the interwar period and has started quite a variety of books ranging from non-fiction writing research to the truly bizarre.  Gabi has been delighting in an excellent adventure romp with very fun character d...

Smack and Gabi are celebrating ITBR's 2nd Anni-birthday by inviting you (our precious listeners) to email (itbrshelf@gmail.com) or follow & DM us on Instagram (@infinitetbrpodcast) with your favorite book of this year OR the name of a book that we recommended that you enjoyed.  Lucky participants will be chosen to win an Infinite TBR Podcast acrylic pin until we run out!  We spent our Anni...

Smack and Gabi interview debut author Christina Marie (C.M.) Alongi about her ongoing and upcoming works. Blackwing, her fantasy novella series that starts with To Kill a Necromancer, is about a paladin and a necromancer becoming reluctant BFFs to save a world inspired by ancient Greek and Roman mythology and has four volumes out as of the release of this episode. Her debut sci-fi novel Citadel, d...

Smack and Gabi go over their best (and not so best) recent reads, most of which will be coming or going from the Smack Shelf (a shelf in Gabi’s apartment that contains all the loans from Smack).  The incomers are all surprisingly good YA reads while the outgoing books include three powerhouses - a perfect fairy-tale-esque novella, an incredible Malaysian-American ghost story, and a sci-fi novel wi...

A few months ago Smack went on an insane 626-page journey with the Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox and then dragged Gabi along for the wild ride. This episode starts with an older recording of Smack's spoiler-free summary to entice Gabi, followed by our fuller exploration of the nitty-gritties that made the Absolute Book so absolutely bonkers. The best part was the saltwater crocodile.

Smack and Gabi reconvene after Gabi’s (second) bout of COVID and Smack’s adventure dog-sitting in Oregon, during which she got lost in Powell’s (which, we establish, is what the entire state of Oregon is for) and drove in the snow for the first time, but mostly got to curl up with the pups, enjoy the green gloom of the Pacific Northwest, and read. We discuss our hoard of recent acquisitions, inclu...

In this bonus episode, Smack goes on her own "Green Creek rant" (i.e., full of spoilers!) about the Elder Races series of paranormal romances by Thea Harrison.  Despite occasional appealing features that kept her reading through four novels and four novellas she finally found the fortitude to DNF, but not before accumulating a host of thoughts and frustrations to share with the masses.  ...

Smack and Gabi discuss their reading highlights since the summer, which included spooky Halloween reads and a couple of very excellent duologies.  Some reads will be spun off into their own future bonus episodes, including a set of paranormal romances that were Smack’s “Green Creek” and a brick that is impossible to describe in brief.  Gabi explains blorbos and poor little meow-meows, we...

The "fight" continues!  In the third and final part of our second annual showdown, we (finally) find out who had the better reading experience during Mysterious Galaxy's 2022 summer bingo.  Smack was ahead at the halfway mark at the end of Part Two, but the only way to know who ultimately won is to listen!  We also found out that Mysterious Galaxy has fifty (FIFTY) book prompts for...

The stakes are high!!  In part two of a yet-to-be-determined number of parts, Smack and Gabi are at it again, going toe-to-toe to see who had the better reading experience during this year's Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo.  By the end of this episode there are some tough calls and a surprising number of ties, but one of us has pulled ahead at the halfway mark (you'll have to listen to fi...

Who’s gonna win??  It’s time for ITBR’s 2nd Annual Mysterious Galaxy Summer Bingo…thing!  Smack and Gabi go head-to-head to find out who had a better reading experience during our favorite bookstore’s summer bingo event by selecting titles at random and defending our own books until a champion for each pair (or a tie) is declared.  The one with the most champions at the end of…three...

Smack and Gabi continue their discussion from the previous episode swapping opinions about recent reads, a surprising number of which we had in common.  Smack soaks in the nostalgia of a formative book of tactile fairy tale retellings that took her on a profound journey of self-discovery.  Gabi delights in a cozy speculative historical haunted house mystery/romance about a scandalous wid...