Your Words Against Mine

A Merry Christmas and Happy Final episode of 2022! As our hosts prepare for next year's big new framing device, visions of cataloguing software dancing in their heads, we'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who tuned in. We hope we've been of some comfort to you, and we welcome you to join us again in season 3!

With 2022 winding down, there has been a lot of house keeping to take care of. Nevertheless, if there's two things you can always count on, it's reading and podcasting (way better than those other two things.)

Happy Thanksgiving from Your Words Against Mine. This year, we're grateful to be recording in the same room again, and to both be on the exact same page when it comes to the latest reading challenge.

The end is in sight for this season of YWAM, but your hosts still have a lot of reading to go if they want to meet their goals. Life, as it will, throws some curveballs into the mix, but we're back again to talk Josh Malerman's Bird Box follow-up, Inspection.

Plans for the week ahead lead off a relatively laid back episode, where we discuss Edward Ashton's thrilling and existential sci-fi adventure.

Fresh off a long overdue vacation, Elizabeth & Thomas get into a reasonably (and necessarily) spoiler-lite discussion of Jessica Knoll's bestseller and its recent Netflix adaptation.

Nabakov's beguiling and audacious 1962 novel makes for a surprisingly complementary topic to accompany an extended discussion of social media trends and celebrity drama. Add to that an impending storm and a long overdue vacation, and you'll hardly notice how little we actually read this week!

Whatever the multiple technical difficulties and interruptions would have you to believe, this episode was produced entirely sober. You might need something to take the edge off all the talk of tiktok rabbit holes, sexy dragon-folk, and cephalopod paintball.

YWAM looks to the future with travel plans, career moves, and reading challenges. Right now, though, the question remains: how haunted is too haunted for a haunted house story?

The world does not stop for podcasting, as this week's discussion of non-reading events makes clear. With a potential spin-off podcast in the works, where will we find the time for reading at all? But let's not get all defeatist! There's always room for books!

A highly, HIGHLY contentious episode of YWAM sees our hosts nearly coming to blows and having to walk back some truly hurtful claims. Granted, drama is pretty relative, so take all that with a grain of salt. Regardless, we've got the sci-fi romance and magical-realist ennui that you crave, so don't touch that dial!

Fanfiction and manga are back with a vengeance in this dual reading challenge episode! A decidedly modern take on the Harry Potter universe is paired with a world literally overrun by demons. Nothing relatable about that at all!

This 4th of July, Tamsyn Muir's deliciously dark work of fantasy sci-fi has got your hosts seeing fireworks! With half the year left ahead of us, the show still has a long way to go, both in ambition and literal trips to be taken. Stick with us for more talk of romance, mystery, e-reading metrics, and cats.

Season Two hits the halfway mark with this discussion of Aiden Thomas' coming-of-age (& undeath) tale, along with some talk about baseball, Top Gun, manga, and more!

With Summer break under way, this year's reading competition just will not stop piling on the surprises. Join your hosts for a discussion of a classic of Colombian literature, some good old-fashioned mysteries, and a full-on dive into the world of other people's IP.

Your hosts are still recuperating from last week's shop-a-thon, so enjoy this low-key episode about Covid, roof maintenance, vet visits, and the quirks and issues with southern romantic fiction.

On a long anticipated episode, Thomas and Elizabeth hit the road to Atlanta for an all-out book shop-a-thon. Join your hosts as they struggle to beat the heat, grapple with world-class arthouse cinema, and come out the other side with their sanities (and wallets) intact. Get ready to journey along "The Broken Spine!"

Elizabeth & Thomas hit the hard streets of Clawville in this episode's visual novel-based reading challenge. There's also talk of phones, cats, moms, and some big plans for the near future!

After cabin retreats, bird attacks, and some good old fashioned spring cleaning, we return with a new episode discussing Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. This tees us up surprisingly well for further discussions of an impending Mother's Day episode, as well as a recent hit Kung Fu film!

Summer may be a ways off yet, but we're in the road-trip spirit on YWAM this week, discussing Amor Towles latest novel as well as television adaptations, engrossing puzzle games, and more!

This week we're discussing Ukrainian author Oksana Zabuzhko's 2014 short-story collection. Rounding things out is a healthy side of video game talk and musings about the declining relevance of an Oscars telecast in the internet age.

Our hosts reminisce on their school days while discussing Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed historical fiction series. There's also romantic space dragons, because come on, you know what show this is by now.

While big game launches loom over more mundane affairs, there's still the great new work from acclaimed novelist Colson Whitehead to keep our heads in the page, not to mention sprawling sci-fi romances and Hungarian lit-fic.

This week we jack into the metaverse for a discussion of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Other books discussed include Kira Jane Buxton's Feral Creatures and the Maze of Shadows series by Kathryn Ann Kingsley.

As the winds of winter abate, your hosts take a dive into virtual reality fiction with Jason Segel & Kirsten Miller's young adult sci-fi novel. There's also some health updates and a fearsome serial killer series begging for an adaptation.