Send us Fan Mail The critical blurb on the cover of book #776 on our curated list states that The Memoirs of Hadrian is "singularly beautiful", which is a really interesting opinion since the cast of Just In Case We Die found it "boring", "tedious", and "uneventful." Ostensibly, a 300+ page passing-of-the-torch epistle between emperors in ancient Rome, it reads like a textbook by a professor who doesn't care if the reader passes this class or not. The author, a renowned Belgian-French n...
May 28
1 hr 7 min
Send us Fan Mail On Sunday, May 3, 2026, The Davis Theatre in Chicago had a single screening of Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, a new film by Academy-Award-winning director Alex Gibney, as part of the annual Doc10 Festival. This film is a documentary partially stitched together from footage filmed by novelist Rachel Eliza Griffiths as her husband, Salman Rushdie, recovered from the 2022 attempt on his life by a 24-year-old religious extremist. Tickets for this screening were no...
May 6
1 hr 14 min
Send us Fan Mail Once upon a time, Aaron recommended a novel he had recently completed to Rebecca, citing it as his favorite novel of 2021. Already familiar with the work of the author, Rebecca jumped right in, despite Aaron’s misgivings about the science-fiction content of this spectacular book. Rebecca loved Cloud Cuckoo Land so much that she brought it to the table as an entry on her veto list when she joined the cast in 2024. In February of 2026, this novel became up for discussion when a...
Apr 29
1 hr 2 min
Send us Fan Mail Last year, for the bonus material in April, Just In Case We Die celebrated National Library Week with a lively discussion about some of the unique things libraries are doing all around the world. The year before that, the cast celebrated International Children’s Book Day by reminiscing about some of their favorite books and authors from when they were kids. What do they have in store for April 2026? No idea. April is also National Poetry Month and there is no one in the cast ...
Apr 16
1 hr 8 min
Send us Fan Mail Back in January, the random number generator gave us #1, 167. This number corresponded to a Cuban novel by Guillermo Cabrera Infante entitled Three Trapped Tigers. None of the cast had heard of it. Research ensued, and the following information was discovered: A paperback in English was going to cost $73.85.The cheapest editions were either in Chinese ($17.85) or on Kindle in Spanish ($9.99) and no one but Rebecca can read Spanish.There is an audiobook version of Three Trappe...
Mar 26
57 min
Send us Fan Mail It occurred to the crew here at Just In Case We Die that a vast majority of the broadcast space is devoted to male authors. It would seem that the editors of the original list didn’t have as many women writers that they found to be “essential.” In three full years of episode dropping, with the minor exception of three short stories, there have only been six discussions featuring novels written by female authors--and one of them was written by a woman who had to pretend she wa...
Mar 11
1 hr 15 min
Send us Fan Mail Watchmen is, without question, the most unique book to be up for discussion on Just In Case We Die. Of all the tomes to ever appear on the curated list, Watchmen is the only comic book. Originally released as twelve individual issues, the final collected volume premiered at the end of 1987 and has subsequently become one of the most consistently-reprinted graphic novels of all time. It also managed to win the Hugo award and find a spot on Time Magazine‘s list of 100 Best Nove...
Feb 25
1 hr 10 min
Send us Fan Mail It is February 2026. This means that this is the first episode of the fourth season. It also means that Rebecca has a pre-arranged prior commitment and cannot join the cast for their bonus discussion. While the cat’s away . . . This seemed like a perfect opportunity to bring Rodney’s friend Joe Tavano, former sci-fi podcaster and self-avowed expert on all things J. R. R. Tolkien, in for a discussion about two books that Rodney and Aaron knew that Rebecca would vehemently veto...
Feb 11
1 hr 17 min
Send us Fan Mail The final episode of the third season features one of the world’s most successful writers. The author of novels, short story collections, works of nonfiction, children’s books, and comics, Margaret Atwood has been topping bestseller lists and wowing prize jury judges for more than six decades. Few Canadian writers have enjoyed the success that she has made seem easy. This discussion is an interesting one. Aaron is already a fan of Margaret Atwood. Neither Rodney or Rebecca ha...
Jan 30
1 hr 10 min
Send us Fan Mail If there is one thing that everyone here at Just In Case We Die can agree on, it’s this: Haruki Murakami is one of the greatest contemporary storytellers. Japan’s best-selling novelist, Haruki Murakami has made an international name for himself with thought-provoking, meaningful narratives that explore loneliness and the nature of love within the warm, surreal embrace of magical realism. He is the author of fifteen novels, five story collections, and five works of varied non-...
Jan 14
1 hr 27 min
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