Hello, gang, time for the annual oopsie episode where we acknowledge the sins of our past (not uploading podcast episodes) and lay out our plans to change in the future (start three more podcast?). We catch up on life then eventually discuss THE question we return to again and again: what do you do when your TBR list gets too daunting. Cyrus discusses the frustration of false starts. Sarah gives up on the young adult genre. No shovels were harmed in the making of this episode, which makes these 50 or so minutes completely unique compared to the rest of Cyrus's enterprises. 

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Hello friends, it's that special time of year - Animorphs time! And also Wasteland Weekend, but you don't care about that, you care about Cyrus and Sarah dunking on these traumatized teens! This week, books 38-42 are up for discussion, and they're kind of a mixed bag: strong performances from Ax and Jake, and a subpar showing from Sarah's fav, Rachel. Also on the docket: the squirrels that live in our ceiling and Cyrus' murderous vendetta against them, mispronouncing words, and the fact Sarah took an edible right before they started to record, and it starts to become very obvious at about the halfway mark. Fun is had by all.

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This week, Cyrus and Sarah are back in the danmei mines, this time with books three and four of Heaven Official's Blessing by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu and if you thought the last two books were complicated and convoluted, get ready for more characters, more extended flashbacks, and more messy interpersonal drama! Listen in awe as our intrepid readers struggle with character names, timelines, and how much these books have in common with zeitgeist-y movie Saltburn. 

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This week, Cyrus and Sarah dig into Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin, a horror novel that asks what if Invasion of the Body Snatchers was set at a conversion camp, and wouldn't that just be so super fucked up? Also on the table is a larger discussion of the extreme horror genre, the nightly abduction of our rooster Bubba, and PISS KINK (all caps). According to Cyrus, the only things a book really needs are the following: body horror, transgender stuff, and goo. Cuckoo has all three!

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Welcome to our first episode covering the Heaven Official's Blessing series by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu! And also the Saw franchise. A media match made in heaven that definitely makes complete sense to pair in one episode, because isn't Xie Lian's life just one long Saw trap, in a way? As Cyrus is reading the series for the first time and Sarah for the second, delicious dramatic irony ensues. Sarah and Cyrus discuss the budding character relationships, the MXTX of it all, and speculate on the meaning of BeefLeaf. 

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Greetings listeners, here it is - the chicken episode, featuring our five beautiful daughters. This week, Cyrus and Sarah dig into some books about chickens: their personalities, their care and keeping, and how to turn your beautiful backyard into a chicken paradise. If you're a patron, head on over to the Patreon to see our intrepid co-hosts desperately try to get these unruly birds to sit in their laps. It goes about as well as you'd expect. 

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Cyrus and Sarah are back at it again in the Animorphs mines, this time covering books thirty-three through thirty-seven, and things are getting....well, kind of mid, to be honest. Except for the torture. The torture is great. Dive in to hear our intrepid readers arguing about the Goo Goo Dolls for what seems like forever, a whole lot of talk about the SAW franchise, and, unfortunately, a load-bearing bit about Scurvy the cat's nether regions. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

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This week on Cracked Spines, Cyrus and Sarah dive into Sarah's latest obsession with Chinese history, cracking open several books by...mostly white authors in the 60's-80's. Okay, so it may not be an scholastically accurate or ethical deep dive, but it is fascinating. Listen as Sarah infodumps on Cyrus about the perils of learning the Chinese language, poetry translation, and gendered nouns. 

Content warning: humorous mentions of suicide and absolute butchering of French, Spanish, and Chinese languages. 

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Say "I do" to checking out this weeks episode on Marriage, A History by Stephanie Coontz! See, I did a wedding pun, this description writing stuff is easy. Cyrus and Sarah tackle nonfiction this episode, and have a rollicking discussion about marriage as a centrally organizing pillar of society, women's work, relationships as a capitalist construct, and the equitable division of labor in a platonic lifemate situation. Also how hot they are in Cyrus' bedroom, and how cute Scurvy's little snores are. 

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It's finally happening - Cyrus and Sarah have finally read The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson! Turns out they loved it, but isn't that always the way with books you've been putting off? Baru Cormorant is a twisty turny hard fantasy novel about the devastation of empire, with fabulous worldbuilding, fantastic characters, and also it's kinda gay. We love to see it. Topics of discussion include the belief structures behind imperialism, the joy of an unreliable narrator, and what the fuck a 'murre' is. 

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