Cracked Spines
Crack open a good book with two wise-cracking besties. Sarah and Cyrus are two queer English majors who use their degrees to commit crimes against literature.
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Episodes
122 episodes since 2020
Alien Romulus: We did not like The Man
Cyrus saw Alien Romulus and loved it so much they immediately went back to see it a second time; Sarah saw Alien Romulus and experienced an internal crisis about the state of feminism in 2012. Somehow, we reconcile these two experiences. <...
September 10, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 32
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1:13:44
This Is Not An Episode About Dungeon Meshi (lofi)
It makes a valiant effort to try to be, but ultimately fails. We're rusty! We took the summer off! We're just vibing! We're so rusty that frankly the audio on this episode is maybe our worst ever. We're working on it, guys. We come...
July 29, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 31
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51:42
Illumicrate Book Subscription Box
Is there anything better than receiving package in the mail? Well, it helps if you actually enjoy the stuff inside of it. Cyrus and Sarah discuss three months worth of Illumicrate subscription boxes with the ultimate conclusion that maybe this ...
May 31, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 30
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49:43
He Who Drowned The World by Shelley Parker-Chan
Oh my GOD we finally read this book. And it was good! But we are not without thoughts. Turns out 400+ pages of characters hating themselves is occasionally a bummer. Cyrus flip flops on the topic of duologies. Sarah is weirdly positive about th...
May 13, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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1:09:08
Ex Marginalia: Essays from the Edges of Speculative Fiction
This week we read Ex Marginalia, a collection of essays edited by Chinelo Onwualu that focuses on the experiences of marginalized creators writing speculative fiction. In addition to talking about our favorite essays, we discuss everything from...
April 24, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 28
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59:47
A Rube Goldberg Machine for Self-Crucifixion
The episode title actually doesn't refer to the whole concrete and flooring situation Cyrus has got going on in the basement. This week, we're talking about Things Have Gotten Worse Since Last We Spoke and Other Misfortunes, a collecti...
April 09, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 27
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45:40
Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui
Who's hungry? This week we're sampling the delights of Dungeon Meshi, aka Delicious in Dungeon, a manga by Ryoko Kui. 50 percent of our podcasting duo is scared of eating zucchini, while the other 50 percent would probably give boiled boot leat...
March 11, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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50:00
WE BOUGHT A HOUSE AND FORGOT HOW TO READ
I mean, look at the title. What do you want us to say. This is not a traditional episode so much as it is a 50 minute apology-brag about the most exciting thing in our lives right now. We bought a house, and Cyrus is single-handedly tearing it ...
February 26, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 25
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50:00
The Whole Milieu of Frances Hardinge
This week on Cracked Spines, we discuss SO MANY BOOKS by British children's fantasy writer Frances Hardinge. Sarah gushes over the strange little girls and bizarre worlds of the books. Cyrus finds a character who is Tobias from Animorphs but so...
February 05, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 24
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50:32
Animorphs Part 2: High Stakes Moral Crises for Children
This week we're discussing books 6-10 of Animorphs. This includes The Capture which is a great piece of sci-fi horror that hit Cyrus' preteen brain like a comet. It also includes the first Megamorphs, which isn't a master...
January 22, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 23
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1:10:49
Translation State by Ann Leckie
Gender, self-determination, and law drama collide in Ann Leckie's Translation State! Your hosts rank their favorite characters; unsurprisingly, Cyrus was head over heels for pro-vivisection Qven, whereas Sarah was charmed by Enae's swagle...
January 08, 2024
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Season 3
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Episode 22
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57:25
2023 End of Year Wrap Up Lamentation and Vows
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, guys. It's time for us to discuss the best of what we read, our disappointments, and what we're planning on next year. Cyrus discovers they're making good progress on their reading list for next year, but onl...
December 26, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 21
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1:04:29
Animorphs Part 1: Baby's First Existential Dread
Thanks to our generous benefactors on Patreon, we're embarking on our journey to read and discuss the entire 54-book Animorphs series by K.A. Applegate, plus at least a few of the extra...
December 11, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 20
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1:01:22
The Real Horror is Marriage but the Clones Don't Help
This week Sarah and Katie (wait whomst? guest host filling in as Cyrus is sequestered in Spain!) discuss two books that are basically the same idea, prepared two different ways: Comfort Me With Apples by Catherynne M. Valente and&...
November 27, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 19
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1:01:28
My Best Friend's Exorcism
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 E...
October 31, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 18
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1:00:27
Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Sorry, We're Still Obsessed
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...
October 23, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 17
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1:01:43
In Our Time of Woe
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 b...
October 16, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 16
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37:16
Wei Wuxian is a Public Menace
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...
September 25, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 15
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54:40
Read More With Less
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 se...
September 11, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 14
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57:22
Gender Roles and Gender 'Oles
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 a...
August 28, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 13
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53:53
Must Love Boats
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 t...
August 15, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 12
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57:15
Conclusively and Without Question, We Have ADHD.
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 p...
July 31, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 11
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58:38
Gender? I Hardly Know 'Er!
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...
July 18, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 10
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56:57
The Ballad of Bigolas Dickolas
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 th...
July 04, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 9
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43:52
You Know What They Say About Big Hands (of the Emperor)?
This week, we're talking about The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard. Sarah is wildly enthusiastic about the prospect of exploring the complex functioning of a massive government for 900 pages. Cyrus was super busy thi...
June 20, 2023
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Season 3
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Episode 8
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1:13:57