Cracked Spines

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 exploring piracy in fiction, and most importantly, Rhys Darby's calves. 

Media discussed this episode:

• Our Flag Means Death (2022-2028, SIX SEASONS AND A MOVIE)
• Black Sails (2014-2017)
• Island of the Lost by Joan Druett
• Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas by Laura Sook Duncombe
• She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett

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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, but I think the discussion was interesting. This episode description is the one thing keeping us from watching the final episodes of Our Flag Means Death. 

Media discussed: 
Circe, by Madeleine Miller
The Odyssey, by Homer
Women and Other Monsters: Building a New Mythology, by Jess Zimmerman 
The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism, by Kristen Donbek 

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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 imaginative stories. Also, Amelia brushes the fringe of a deep musical conspiracy involving a "hellish" pop song played in H&M which was at the center of multiple murders and an apocalypse cult, probably, according to her lack of evidence and the general vibes. Sarah liked the beat. 

Stories discussed: 

• Cat Pictures Please by Naomi Kritzer
• The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir
• I’m Alive, I Love You, I’ll See You in Reno by Vylar Kaftan
• Das Steingeschöpf by G. V. Anderson
• The Shape of My Name by Nino Cipri
• Don’t Press Charges and I Won’t Sue by Charlie Jane Anders
• Né łe! by Darcie Little Badger
• Seasons of Glass and Iron by Amal El-Mohtar
• Calved by Sam J. Miller
• The Lily and the Horn by Catherynne M. Valente
• The Duke of Riverside by Ellen Kushner

CONTENT WARNING: This episode briefly discusses a horror story involving the forcible detransition of a trans woman (timestamp 37:15 - 39:00).

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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, again, goes briefly insane.
 
Amelia's etsy store which again Sarah is posting, hi it's me Sarah, Amelia would rather die than self-promote this aggressively which is why I'm putting this in here AMELIA I LOVE YOU AND THE THINGS YOU MAKE!! 

Media mentioned:
Dreamsnake, by Vonda McIntyre
Tiffany Aching Series, by Terry Pratchett
"Common Cyborg," by Jillian Weise
Circe, by Madeleine Miller

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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 the hour of your death? Also, Sarah ranks various books based on the mouthfeel of their pages. 

Books discussed: 

• Eragon by Christopher Paolini
• Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
• Goosebumps by R.L. Stine
• Animorphs by K. A. Applegate
• The poetry of Wislawa Szymborska

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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 trying a new set up, and it *finger guns* didn't work.) 

Media discussed: 
The Broken Earth trilogy, by N.K. Jemisin 
The Imperial Radch Series, by Ann Leckie 
The Winternight Trilogy, by Katherine Arden
The Shadow Campaigns Series, by Django Wexler
Remembrance of Earth's Past, by Liu Cixin (translated by Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen)
This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War, by Drew Gilpin Faust

And obviously the tv show What We Do In The Shadows

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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 categories like "best nonfiction," "juiciest dynamic," and "guaranteed to rip your heart out and eat it in front of you." 

Books discussed in this episode: 
The Heart of a Vicar by Sarah M. Eden
Dream Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting and A Seditious Affair by K.J. Charles
The Man Who Ended History by Ken Liu
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishigiro 
Unnatural Magic by C M Waggoner 
Earth Fathers Are Weird by Lyn Gala
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
Two Truths and a Lie by Sarah Pinsker
The Unspoken Name AK Larkwood 
Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir 
I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
The Only Ones by Carola Dibbell
The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Kingdom of Copper by SA Chakraborty

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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 strange melancholy that so many of them tend to share. 

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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, reading as a kid vs reading as an adult, and that one fanfic by your favorite author you swear you'll never read. Also, Amelia also immediately dives into a discussion of NaNoWriMo without once thinking to mention that it stands for National Novel Writing Month. 

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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 Mistake" and "Fan Fiction"
Supernatural: John Winchester's Journal, by Alexander C. Irvine
This specific tumblr post 

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