Spine Crackers
Episodes
Alan Paton - Cry, The Beloved Country
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read South African author Alan Paton's seminal novel of race, family, oppression, and the nature of nationhood...
PAUL READ THE WRONG BOOK?!?
08 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
See how the Spine Crackers react in real time when one of their ranks reads the wrong book. Spoiler: IMPROMPTU 2025 YEAR IN REVIEW!
Bruce Chatwin - On the Black Hill
07 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss English travel writer, journalist, and novelist Bruce Chatwin's 1982 novel of place, family, aging, te...
John Barth - Sabbatical: A Romance
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Spine Crackers return from their...well uh...extended break with a discussion of John Barth's 1982 metafictional romance of espionage, family,...
Lauren Groff - Matrix
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read American author Lauren Groff's 2021 historical novel of belief, sex, class, gender, mysticism and more, M...
Percival Everett - Telephone
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode the Spine Crackers discuss Percival Everett's 2020 novel of grief, loss, human connection, and agency in the face of a seemingly r...
The (Belated) Spine Crackers 2024 Year-In-Review Awards Spectacular
10 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Spine Crackers review our 2024 in books, take questions from our Patrons, and reflect on what was and what is to come. Full episode for everyone t...
Robert M. Coates - The Eater of Darkness
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss American author and critic Robert M. Coates' 1926 experimental, pseudo-Dada, proto-sci-fi, heist(?) novel ...
Susan Choi - Trust Exercise
12 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Susan Choi's 2019 National Book Award winning novel of trauma, memory, and the nature of storytelling, Tru...
Italo Calvino - The Baron in the Trees
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss postmodern master Italo Calvino's 1957 historical-fantasy-bildungsroman-fable-novel The Baron in the T...
William Golding - The Paper Men
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss English author William Golding's (of Lord of the Flies high school fame) first post-Nobel Prize novel ...
Gerald Murnane - The Plains
24 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Australian master Gerald Murnane's 1982 breakout novel of place, country, and the nature of representa...
Djuna Barnes - Nightwood
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode the Spine Crackers discuss Djuna Barnes' pioneering 1936 novel of queer modernism, identity, and history, Nightwood. Full episode ...
Bernard Malamud - The Natural (feat. Nate of Books You Haven't Read)
15 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by friend of the show Nate, who is the proprietor of the excellent Books You Haven't Read Youtube c...
Nicholson Baker - Vox
28 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss American author and literary one-of-a-kind Nicholson Baker's Vox (1992), an erotic study of character,...
The Third Annual Spine Crackers Year-in-Review Awards Spectacular (2023 Edition)
09 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this year-end episode, the Spine Crackers rank every book we read this year from worst to best, hand out various other awards such as best cover, b...
Cormac McCarthy - The Passenger
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss American author Cormac McCarthy's penultimate novel of family, loss, madness, and genius, The Passenge...
Malcolm Lowry - Under the Volcano
29 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss British author Malcolm Lowry's harrowing 1947 masterpiece of love, war, disease, culture, and meaning,...
Kenzaburō Ōe - The Silent Cry
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Japanese Nobel Prize winner Kenzaburō Ōe's 1967 novel of family, death, war, and history, The Silen...
David Duchovny - Truly Like Lightning (feat. Patrick Willems)
12 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by friend of the show, real life friend, film critic, filmmaker, youtube legend, and all around renaiss...
Stefan Zweig - Chess Story
22 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Austrian writer Stefan Zweig's final novella of war, class, and genius, Chess Story! Full episode on t...
William Gaddis - Agapē Agape (feat. Book Shore)
08 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by friend of the show and booktube stalwart Ben from Book Shore to discuss iconic postwar American auth...
Tarjei Vesaas - The Birds
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Norwegian author Tarjei Vesaas' 1957 novel of mental illness, family, nature, and perception The Birds...
Emil Ferris - My Favorite Thing is Monsters
06 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss the first ever graphic novel read for the show, Emil Ferris' 2017 pulp noir horror tale of trauma, his...
William Faulkner - Big Woods: The Hunting Stories
14 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss William Faulkner's 1955 collection of stories of humanity's relationship with nature, history, and...
George Sand - Indiana
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss French romantic (?) author George Sand's (aka Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin de Francueil) 1832 novel of lov...
William T. Vollmann - The Atlas
13 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of 2023, the Spine Crackers read William T. Vollmann's semi-autobiographical 1996 novel of sex, violence, regret, and loneliness ...
The Second Annual Spine Crackers End of Year Roundup Spectacular (2022)!
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers go over their 2022 year in reading, including awards for our top 5 books of the year, best cover, worst book, and ...
Nicholas Mosley - Impossible Object
21 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss British author and 3rd Baron Ravensdale Nicholas Mosley's 1968 novel of war, love, power, and violence, Im...
James Baldwin - Giovanni's Room FEAT @Juliemichellereads
27 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers were lucky enough to be joined by Julie, who runs the fantastic bookstagram account @Juliemichellereads, to discuss Jame...
Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
02 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Ivan Turgenev's legendary 1862 novel of family, friendship, generational difference, philosophy, and love ...
Interview with the new owners of Owl Pen Books
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Matt sits down for a conversation with Sydney and Eric, L.A. transplants and newly minted bookstore owners of the legendary "bibliophile Mecca of Wash...
Percival Everett - The Trees
16 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read prolific American author Percival Everett's most recent (and recently longlisted for the Booker prize) novel ...
Roberto Bolano - The Third Reich feat. Ben of Book Shore
27 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by friend of the show Ben, who runs the fantastic booktube channel Book Shore, to discuss legendary Chi...
Maxine Hong Kingston - Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book
09 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Maxine Hong Kingston's 1987 novel of race, American and Chinese history, love, and the legacy of the 60s, ...
Colin O'Sullivan - The Dark Manual
25 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Colin O'Sullivan's sci-fi novel of family, loss, AI, and getting drunk, The Dark Manual! https://www.patr...
Yu Miri - Tokyo Ueno Station
10 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Japanese author Yu Miri's 2014 novel of national identity, trauma, family, regret, and class, Tokyo Ueno S...
Toni Morrison - Beloved
27 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Toni Morrison's seminal 1987 novel of race, trauma, memory, family, community, and so much more Beloved.&n...
Gerald Murnane - Barley Patch (feat. Sean of Travel Through Stories)
14 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are lucky enough to be joined by Sean, who is the creator of the fantastic YouTube channel Travel Through Stories,...
Ted Chiang - Exhalation
29 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Ted Chiang's much-lauded sci-fi short story collection Exhalation, which touches on issues as wide ranging...
John Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids (feat. W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List)
15 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by Seth, proprietor of the excellent Instagram and Youtube accounts under the W.A.S.T.E. Mailing List m...
Olga Tokarczuk - Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
01 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss Nobel Prize winning Polish author Olga Tokarczuk's 2009 existential pseudo-murder-mystery Drive Your Plow ...
Katharina Volckmer - The Appointment
25 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers discuss Katharina Volckmer's transgressive 2020 novel of sex, identity, and trauma, (still unpublished in her native cou...
Paul Auster - Leviathan
19 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read American author Paul Auster's 1992 novel of friendship, writing, and finding one's place in political history, Levi...
John Bunyan - The Pilgrim's Progress
11 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers discuss their first devotional text, John Bunyan's 1678 allegorical adventure and proto-novel The Pilgrim's Progre...
Lorrie Moore - Like Life
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read American author Lorrie Moore's elegiac collection of short stories on isolation, rootlessness, art, and, well...
Anna Kavan - Ice
25 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read English author Anna Kavan's final novel, 1967's schizological sci-fi blizzard-dream, Ice. https://www.patreo...
Ersnt Junger - The Glass Bees
18 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read controversial German author Ernst Junger's 1957 science fiction novel of technology, war, celebrity, and fasc...
Italo Calvino - If on a winter's night a traveler (Featuring Nate Rankin of Books You Haven't Read)
08 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by Nate Rankin, proprietor of the YouTube channel Books You Haven't Read, to discuss Italo Calvino's 19...
Christopher Isherwood - A Single Man
30 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode (the first in our new condensed format) the Spine Crackers read Christopher Isherwood's 1964 novel of grief, aging, and the American p...
ANNOUNCING: Spine Crackers 2.0!
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Spine Crackers share a very important announcement regarding plans for 2022 and beyond! We will be taking a brief break to get ourselves mentally,...
Charles Simic - The Lunatic & The World Doesn't End
04 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of 2022, the Spine Crackers welcome the bleak midwinter months with their first ever episode on poetry. Specifically, they discus...
The First Annual Spine Crackers End-of-Year Awards Spectacular
26 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this very special episode, the Spine Crackers present their first annual end-of-year awards. They each count down their personal top 5 books of the...
Herman Melville - The Confidence-Man
15 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Herman Melville's final novel, the 1857 satirical masterpiece of identity, religion, irony, and the American ...
One-Year Anniversary Q&A Blowout (The Mics)
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this very special episode, the Spine Crackers celebrate one year of the podcast with some reflections on the story so far and a Q&A with listen...
Truman Capote - A Tree of Night and Other Stories
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read American enfant terrible Truman Capote's 1949 collection of short stories, "A Tree of Night and Other Stories...
Percival Everett - Percival Everett by Virgil Russell
31 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Percival Everett's 2013 postmodern metatext of death, family, race, and language Percival Everett by Virgil R...
Joseph McElroy - Cannonball (feat. Ben of Book Shore)
22 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by Ben, the proprietor of the fantastic Book Shore YouTube channel, to discuss legendary postmodern aut...
Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
16 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
ALERT: THIS EPISODE DOES WORK IT JUST DOESN'T START UNTIL 45 SECONDS IN JUST SKIP TO THAT! In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Pakistani author ...
John Steinbeck - The Pearl
08 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers take a trip back to middle school to discuss John Steinbeck's 1947 parable of family, community, greed, and meanin...
Paddy Chayefsky - Altered States
01 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers are joined by Daniel of the Viva La Dude podcast to discuss legendary screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's first and onl...
Don DeLillo - Cosmopolis
24 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read seminal American author Don DeLillo's 2003 pseudo-postmodern novel of technology, the future, and American id...
David Diop - At Night All Blood Is Black
17 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read French writer and academic David Diop's International Booker Prize winning 2018 novel of war, race, friendshi...
Thomas Bernhard - Correction
08 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode the Spine Crackers read the reluctantly Austrian author Thomas Bernhard's 1975 novel of obsession, family, science, and madness, Corre...
Georges Simenon - The Cat
28 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon's 1967 novel of class, marriage, memory, and the nature of love and h...
Graham Greene - A Burnt-Out Case
20 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode the Spine Crackers read Graham Greene's 1960 novel of faith, colonialism, and fame A Burnt-Out Case.
Nicholson Baker - The Mezzanine
15 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Nicholson Baker's 1988 short novel detailing one man's mental life during a ride up an escalator. Prefiguring...
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers dig into what is arguably the most well-known and influential American novel of all time, F. Scott Fitzgerald's 19...
Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway
30 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Spine Crackers read Virginia Woolf's 1925 modernist masterpiece of war, aging, social isolation, and British identity Mrs. Dallow...
Miscellaneous Book Talk
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode back after an extended vacation, the Spine Crackers ease back into things with some miscellaneous discussion of literature, book...
T.F. Powys - Unclay
28 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read British novelist T.F. Powys' 1931 allegorical novel of Death, Love, and Vice in an English country town, Unclay.
Philip K. Dick - Ubik
21 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read science fiction legend Philip K. Dick's 1969 novel of consumerism, death, identity, and time Ubik. We get a nice lit...
Jean Toomer - Cane
14 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read Jean Toomer's 1923 modernist classic of the Harlem Renaissance, Cane. Alternating between vignettes of African Amer...
Haruki Murakami - Killing Commendatore
07 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers are joined by OG IRL friend and friend of the pod Casey to present our first ever 3-hour episode. We discuss Haruki Mura...
Vladimir Nabokov - The Real Life of Sebastian Knight
30 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov's first English-language novel (1941) of identity, memory, exile, and lang...
Leonardo Sciascia - The Day of the Owl
23 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read Sicilian crime novelist Leonardo Sciascia's early novel The Day of the Owl. Place, community, and the realities of ...
Henry Miller - The Air-Conditioned Nightmare
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
For our first ever non-fiction episode, the Spine Crackers tackle Henry Miller's pseudo-travelogue of exile, national identity, art, and the American ...
Raven Leilani - Luster
09 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the Spine Crackers read the highly praised "millennial fiction" novel of race, sex, and self Luster by Raven Leilani.
Dubravka Ugresic - The Museum of Unconditional Surrender
02 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Yugoslavian-born author Dubravka Ugresic's strange, beautiful novel of identity, war, memory, and place The Museum o...
Ah Cheng - The King of Trees
26 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spinecrackers read Chinese author Ah Cheng's three novellas set in and around post-Maoist China, The King of Trees, The King of Chess, a...
Michel Houellebecq - Submission
19 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week, for their 20th episode, the Spine Crackers read French author Michel Houellebecq's controversial 2015 novel of religion, meaning-making, po...
Hervé Guibert - To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Hervé Guibert's brutally intimate and by turns hilarious and tragic semi-autobiographical account of AIDS and the e...
Evan Dara - Flee (feat. Morgan)
05 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers are joined by enigmatic friend of the pod Morgan to discuss the almost-as-mysterious author Evan Dara and their 2013 nove...
Hiroko Oyamada - The Factory (feat. Scott Thomas)
26 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers are joined and dramatically upstaged by the inimitable Scott Thomas of The Infinity Podcast and And the Best Picture Is.....
Nathaniel Mackey - Bass Cathedral
19 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Bass Cathedral, the fourth volume of Nathaniel Mackey's epic ongoing, beginning and end-less epistolary work of jazz...
Helen DeWitt - The Last Samurai (feat. Viva La Dude)
12 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers, along with OMEGA SPECIAL GUEST Daniel from the Viva La Dude podcast, tackle Helen DeWitt's genre and form-bending chonky...
Guido Morselli - Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing
05 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Guido Morselli's 1977 post-apocalyptic meditation on memory and selfhood Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing. If you have...
Anna Kavan - Sleep Has His House
29 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Anna Kavan's surrealist pseudo-autobiographical novel Sleep Has His House. This episode lives up the podcast's name,...
John Crowley - Great Work of Time
22 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers head to British colonial Africa at some point in the flat circle of time with John Crowley's 1989 time-travel novella Gre...
Georges Simenon - Dirty Snow
15 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Dirty Snow, an existential pseudo-dystopian novel of life during World War II, by prolific Belgian noir specialist G...
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven
08 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers dig into a very unrealistic and not-at-all timely-or-an-exact-mirror-of-our-crumbling-reality novel The Lathe of Heaven b...
Jakov Lind - Soul of Wood
01 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers break into the strange and slightly (though understandably) misanthropic world of Jakov Lind, reading his 1962 novella So...
Charles Dickens - The Chimes & The Haunted Man
25 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers celebrate the most wonderful time of the year (in the case of one co-host, perhaps a bit too much) by talking through two...
Natsume Sōseki - The Miner
18 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read noted Japanese author Natsume Sōseki's proto-modernist novel The Miner (1908).
Bohumil Hrabal - I Served the King of England
11 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Czech author Bohumil Hrabal's comedic, erotic, historical adventure I Served the King of England, first published su...
Roberto Bolaño - Nazi Literature in the Americas
04 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read Roberto Bolaño's 1996 fictional pseudo-encyclopedia Nazi Literature in the Americas.
Paul Auster - Moon Palace
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This Thanksgiving week the Spine Crackers read Paul Auster's 1989 coming of age-ish novel Moon Palace.
Michael Cisco - The Divinity Student
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This week the Spine Crackers read weird-fiction author Michael Cisco's first novel, The Divinity Student (1999).
Arthur Machen - The Great God Pan & The White People
13 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was a Welsh author whose horror stories are often seen as a precursor to the "weird fiction" of today. This week the Spine C...
Andrew Vachss - Shella
06 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In which we read Shella by Andrew Vachss.