This week, Amelia and Sarah decide to defy God and Church alike to read The Golden Compass. Amelia struggles to find herself in the animal kingdom. Sarah raises questions about daemon sexuality that should have gone unasked. We also talk about things besides the daemons, but frankly we all understand what the most important part of this series is.

This week, Amelia and Sarah are laser-focused on the book. Unfortunately, it's because one half of the team hated the book. Sarah shares horrific facts about historical blood transfusion. Amelia makes a compelling case for useless men who love their wives. We both are ready and willing to die for the vampire-hunting cowboy.

This episode is all chianti, love darts, and apophallation as your hosts tuck into the latest installment in their obsession with cannibalism. From the all-you-can-eat buffet of insanity that is the animal kingdom to a deep dive into the culture of human cannibalism, there's a lot to sink your teeth into. Featuring spider sex diagrams, gender bias in scientific research, and Amelia desperately trying to explain why her obsession with this stuff is not weird at all guys, like, come on.

This week, Sarah and Amelia discuss a work one of them has very passionate feelings about: the British television show Life on Mars. No, wait, they're talking about Les Mis again. No, wait, they're talking about Night Watch, part of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and they're spinning theories that TPrat was waiting his whole career for some brave clever reader to figure out. Amelia regrets what she's heard. Sarah has nothing but respect for the furry community. They both agree that Terry Pratchett is proof that practice pays off.

This week, Amelia and Sarah read the tale of the least satisfying trip north since the time we tried to drive to Newfoundland. (Please don't ask us how late in the planning it was that we figured out it was an island.) Lament the loss of what seems to be thousands of dogs in this group project from hell. Like expedition leader Donald MacMillan, we literally can't imagine anyone not being wildly enthusiastic about this topic.

Happy birthday, Victor Hugo! In celebration, your hosts spend this episode dragging the man's masterpiece Les Miserables through the mud of their mutual thirst for Javert. This is technically an episode about the musical, though Amelia may or may not have poured over all the parts of the book exclusively relevant to Javert. We just can't know. Featuring Les Mis humiliation at the hands of family members, Javert character meta, song analysis, more Javert character meta, textual evidence misappropriated to support the Javert meta... Sorry Victor.

This week, things get heavy — heavy metal. Your hosts read Grady Hendrix's epic horror-ballad We Sold Our Souls, and honestly, it rocked. Featuring discussions of female anger, the power of music as an active influence, and the fact that Amelia had a crush on Durza from Eragon as a kid. You know, the evil ghost guy? Yeah, it was pretty niche.

This week your hosts spend a good long while debating the differences between zombies and vampires, stake out their claim on the post-apocalyptic trope market, and stray into a discussion about how religion created the apocalyptic genre but technology created the post-apocalypse.

Amelia and Sarah are back and more physically infirm than ever. This week, we discuss Scott Smith's travelogue gone wrong and offer good, constructive criticism on the name of both the book and the author. Amelia insists on going straight edge in emergency situations. Sarah's mostly just concerned about the time impact of all this plant murder on the local community.

The best gift is the one you yank off your own bookshelf in a panic because you weren't expecting this cousin to turn up for Christmas morning. Amelia and Sarah talk about their go-to gift books, the unbearable burden of Christmas cookies, and the big dick move of gifting people classic literature. We're sorry we talk about video games for the first ten minutes, but considering Sarah's had a Nintendo Switch for a week and has already played it 80 hours, we should just be happy she contained herself as much as she did.