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Cracked Spines

Cracked Spines

By: Cyrus Amelia Fisher and Sarah Palmer
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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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© 2025 Cracked Spines
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Episodes
  • Marriage, A History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz
    Jun 16 2025

    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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    47 mins
  • The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
    Jun 3 2025

    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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    51 mins
  • Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
    May 20 2025

    Did you know it's really hard to write jokes about books with central themes of racism? Cyrus and Sarah find this out while covering Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, an epic historical fiction novel about the the 20th century Korean experience of Japan. Our intrepid readers, who were sooo sleepy this week, cover personal experiences with identity, the Korean horror movie Exhuma (which totally whips), dead relatives, and the mythologizing of the family narrative. Did I mention they're sooo sleepy?

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    45 mins
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