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It’s summertime!

That means beautiful weather, afternoons at the pool, and maybe some time to relax and catch up on our ever-growing TBR piles. It also means, however, that things are going to get chaotic around here– prepping for trips to Alaska, summer camp with the kids, schoolwork, jobs. Before the three of us get bogged down in real life, we decided to throw ourselves a backyard patio BBQ . . . and invite some of our favorite writers.

Each of us invited three writers to the shindig– one living, one dead, and one we’ve never discussed on our show before. That means our hypothetical backyard will be hosting nine writers from different eras and genres! What results is a fun and lively discussion in which we speculate on what all of these authors would bring to a conversation. Will a fight break out? Will Rodney’s selections surprise anyone? Will Kurt Vonnegut be sad that Aaron didn’t invite him to attend?

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The first movie released in the DVD format was the 1996 disaster film Twister.

Bullfrogs never sleep.

The nation of China is credited with the invention of ice cream.

Africa is the only continent with land in all four hemispheres.

Queen guitarist Brian May holds a PhD in astrophysics.

Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca are going to remember these five random bits of trivia before they ever remember anything about The Expedition of Humphry Clinker.

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Remember last year when we decided to celebrate National Short Story Month by discussing six short stories hand-selected by the cast? Well, we had so much fun last year that we decided to do it again!

This year, Rodney actually chooses a short story instead of a novella, Rebecca reveals an interesting way to select material for our show, and Aaron must endure insulting words about one of his favorite writers. Also– and probably most importantly– Aaron and Rodney are once again vindicated when Rebecca is impressed by one of their favorite science-fiction authors.

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So what happened was this . . . At the end of the episode on “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo, the random number generator gave us #355. The book corresponding to this number was “Emma” by Jane Austen. Rebecca ixnayed that itshay quicker than quick, but she then had to use the random number generator to pick a tome from her veto list. The redraw gave us A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers’ powerful 2000 memoir about caring for his younger brother after the death of his parents.

This book is hard to categorize. The Pulitzer Prize committee felt it was, in fact, a memoir when they shortlisted it for the prize. The author himself acknowledges throughout the book that some of it is fictionalized and not at all depicted the way that events actually happened. Aren’t memoirs by their very nature technically post-modern works?

Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Is it totally fabricated? Regardless of which genre you choose, however, it cannot be denied that the book is aptly named.

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Did you know that there is a library in Oslo doing quite possibly the coolest literary event that we have ever read about? Too bad none of us will be alive to experience it!

It's National Library Week, and the cast here at Just In Case We Die are celebrating with some reminiscing about our favorite memories of the library. They talk about Aaron's mother and what she is doing for the library in a small town with a population of 500 people. We discuss some fun facts about libraries, librarians, and the library systems in foreign countries.

Make sure you visit your local library!

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A nameless narrator commits a murder. As a result, he must traverse an absurdist landscape of two-dimensional buildings, bumbling police officers, and philosophical meanderings about bicycles. What percentage of one man can become a bicycle before he ceases to be more man than bicycle?

Born in 1911, Irish novelist and playwright Brian O'Nolan made a name for himself in the metafiction movement of the 1940s under the pseudonym of Flann O'Brien. The Third Policeman, a novel that never found a publisher until after the author's death in 1966, is truly one of the strangest novels that any one of us has ever read. It also happens to be one of the more thought-provoking.

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On Saturday, February 22, 2025, Rodney and Aaron spent a rather brisk winter day wandering around the town of Rockford for an annual event called The Independent Bookstore Crawl. It's like a bar crawl with books. There was also comics, though. And vinyl. There was lunch at a local burger joint. We bought battered paperbacks of Robert Heinlein, fantasy novels written by a Rockford native, and a lot of coffee. They met a very interesting woman who seemed to live and breathe charity for her community. They talked with strangers about their favorite writers from Peoria. They saw a painting of a woman performing lewd acts on a rocket ship, an impressive collection of old-school typewriters, and a taxidermied crocodile. It was quite a day y'all!

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Victor Hugo's epic novel of the French revolution is inarguably a classic. Originally published in 1862, it has endured and rightfully been considered one of the greatest novels of all time. It's long, though-- clocking in at 1,662 pages in one version we found-- and tangential, which causes a good amount of trouble for Aaron. Rodney and Rebecca are quick to defend Les Miserables, however, and will go to any lengths to prove him wrong, even if Rebecca has to break his brain.

Can Aaron get through this episode without bursting into song? Probably not.