First things first, this is Sarah and I say an incorrect fact at the end of the episode, the Catholic Church actually updated their guidelines for exorcisms in 1999. Second off, hello, hi, this week, we're discussing My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix,  a book I put off reading for so long that it became a running joke in our household. Turns out? It's good. Also, I talk a lot about exorcisms. Like. A lot. Cyrus this episode is doing the equivalent of meditating underneath a waterfall (the waterfall is made of facts about exorcisms). Other discussion points include: girl best friends, the inherent horror of no one believing you, and how goddamn hard it is to read a book at the hospital. 

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Whoops! Your hosts are still totally under the sway of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. This episode, we recap the series as a whole from our favorite characters to which of the cast would bomb the worst at improv comedy. We probably spend a bit too long on that last part.

Also featuring Cyrus's undying love for Jiang Cheng, Sarah's touchingly high-brow fanfiction ambitions, and a love letter to alternating timelines.

Media Mentions:

• Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
• Hamlet by Shakespeare

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Sarah got Covid! She's fine now. But if you're looking for the stuffiest, most pathetic audio experience you'll ever have in your life, we recorded this episode just for you.  We're taking a hiatus from our intended topic because Sarah's brain isn't working. Instead, we're talking about our experience at Wasteland Weekend: a spectacular all-themed post-apocalyptic extravaganza with amazing people that we spent a good amount of time ignoring to try and read more. Sarah discusses the books on Chinese history and myth she read; Cyrus discusses their acquisition of 100 scalpel blades.

Our next episode concluding the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation series will go up one week from now to make up for lost time, and our episode on My Best Friend's Exorcism (that's right folks, Sarah is finally reading it) will go up on October 30th. Thanks for bearing with us through our agonies.

Content notes: We briefly touch on abortion rights in the context of feminism as a whole.

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Y'all, y'all, we're real excited for this one. It's a sloppy lil episode where we discuss the first two books of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by Mo Dao Zu Shi. The first book took us months to read. The second? A couple days. Shit picks up and gets pretty evil. Delicious. Sarah talks about the walking source of embarrassment that is Wei Wuxian. Cyrus loses their mind over one man psychologically torturing another. We both do our very best with pronunciations, and we plug the bonus episode on The Untamed maybe a little too much. We cannot WAIT to read more. 

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No spaceships, no magic systems this week, it's time for some straight up Literature. This week, we're reading Less and Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer. The first book is one of our favorites from 2020; the second is a sequel that dared us to ask the question, "wait what the hell could the sequel possibly be about?" We talk about the inherent romance of loving someone's flaws, the charming writing style of literary farce, and what we'll do to get out of social events. And also. America. A lot of America. If you love navel gazing about what America means, this episode might be up your alley. We only sing "Proud to be an American" a little bit and we promise it's 95% ironic. 

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It's a bird! It's a plane! It's an elfin asshole with a knife! It's Peter Pan! Or specifically, in this case, Peter Darling by Austin Chant, a delightful romance novel where Peter leaves his identity as Wendy Darling behind to go to Neverland and have a rivalmance with Captain Hook. Exquisite. We discuss the difficulty in adapting challenging (read: rancid) source material, how the original canon traps Wendy in hell, and our ideal casting for James Hook. Despite Cyrus's efforts to the contrary, about a quarter of this episode is dedicated to discussing the 2014 NBC live musical Peter Pan, somehow. Spoiler warning, it's not a good musical.

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This week, we're talking about the first two books of the Aubrey–Maturin series, Master and Commander and Post Captain, but really more specifically we're talking about:  1) how much boat talk is too much boat talk; 2)  is Jack a himbo or THE himbo; and 3) do we want to read 18 more of these. We're both pretty positive about the books while affirming that no, we're not gonna read 18 more. It's a lifestyle commitment we're just not ready to make. 

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This week we read uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh well it depends on who you ask. One of us read Delivered from Distraction. One of us read Driven to Distraction. This was. Not on purpose. See how long it takes us to realize. Other talking points include: why case studies are the best form of literature, the brand new eating disorder Sarah's been reading about, and Cyrus' inability to remain within the country.

Books discussed:

Driven to Distraction (Revised): Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder Paperback by Edward M. Hallowell M.D. and John J. Ratey M.D

Delivered from Distraction: Getting the Most out of Life with Attention Deficit Disorder by Edward M. Hallowell M.D. and John J. Ratey M.D

The Picky Eater's Recovery Book: Overcoming Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder by Jennifer J. Thomas, Kendra R. Becker, and Kamryn T. Eddy 

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This week, we're digging into the graphic memoir Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe! We're talking gender, fandom, identity, pronouns, sexuality, and our own experiences with all of the above.  Based on our mutual experiences, gender is stored in the gruff old nautical man. Also featuring discussions of all five members of One Direction: Zayne, Harry, James, Brandon, and Ricki-tiki-tavi. Not included in this episode: the number of times we said "Gender Queer" in the Chucky from Chucky voice. 

A note: This episode contains discussions of transphobia.

A second note: Maia Kobabe uses spivak pronouns (e/em/eir). A couple times in this episode, we goof up and use the wrong nonbinary pronouns when referring to em. We're sorry for the slip ups, and we hope you'll find this episode to be entertaining and interesting nonetheless! 

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This week we're talking enemy time-spies, bee sting letters, and of course, the all-powerful influence of Trigun twitter. That's right, it's This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. We discuss the age-old label battle of speculative fiction vs literary fiction, Cyrus pitches a tragically unironic World of Warcraft AU, and Sarah stoically endures the criticism of her Until Dawn feelings. And yes, in case you were wondering, the new kitten situation is still destroying our audio. 

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