Clare and Hannah read "Ready Player One," Ernest Cline's 2011 LitRPG novel in which every challenge can be solved by being chronically online. Contestants plug in to the OASIS, a virtual universe where anything is possible, if you have the cred...

Story structure is what makes us love stories in the first place. We love a nice set of bookends. We root for characters who save cats. A hero's journey "there and back again" resonates with the human psyche. In this episode, Clare and Hannah t...

This episode, Clare and Hannah talk about Flannery O'Connor's first novel, Wise Blood, published in 1952. O'Connor's stories are rich with symbolism, from a beat-up jalopy of a car to a stolen gorilla suit, and from a preacher's blindn...

Does it dry up like A Game of Thrones in the sun?  Or fester like A Wise Man's Fear, and then run? Clare and Hannah talk about book series that authors have left unfinished, and the repercussions of that. Should authors be obli...

Clare and Hannah struggle to untangle the final book in C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy: That Hideous Strength. Clare declares this book did not require a wizard. Hannah finally discovers a romantic subplot she's invested in. Once again, we ...