Just In Case We Die

Aaron/Rodney/Rebecca
  • 3.7 (3)
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In 2006, Quintessence Editions Ltd. published a book entitled "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". Edited by academic Peter Boxall, this list was a curated selection of novels deemed "essential" for literature lovers. Over time, as books were added and removed to accommodate new tastes, the list has continued to grow into subsequent volumes. As of today, there have been 1,316 novels included in the list. Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca will attempt to read and discuss every single one of them. Sort of. 

  1. 2d ago

    #1,036 "The Sound of Waves" by Yukio Mishima

    Send us Fan Mail “On the sun-drenched island of Utajima, young fisherman Shinji returns home from the sea to find his quiet life transformed by the arrival of Hatsue, the beautiful daughter of the island’s wealthiest man. Their attraction is immediate, but in a small tradition-bound community, love is never truly private.” The preceding paragraph, we think, is a decent, concise back-of-the-book explanation of what Yukio Mishima’s sixth novel is about. That description doesn’t mention, though, that it is written by a closeted gay man who once attempted a coup against the Japanese military, an attempt that ended in his own pre-planned ritual suicide. It doesn’t mention that this tender coming-of-age story was penned by a novelist most known for graphically-violent and sexually-explicit tales of psychological fiction. This novel presented a first-time anomaly for this podcast in that Aaron and Rodney loved a novel that Rebecca did not. This disparity prompted an important discussion: How trite is a seventy-year-old story allowed to be before it becomes unreadable nonsense?

  2. Aug 12

    August 2026 Bonus -- "Forest City Yester-Queer" by Andrew Mertzenich

    Send us Fan Mail Summer camp, business trips, weddings, moving a child from Tennessee into Illinois, productions of 1776, and two days of skate punk made the months of June and July too busy for all three cast members to commit to a regular recording schedule. With nothing else to fill a programming void, Rodney sat down without his castmates and had a fascinating conversation with an author local to the Rockford area. Unfortunately, Rodney did not know how to use Zoom, which means that conversation never got recorded. Thankfully, the subject of his interview was unfazed enough to come back on another day and be interviewed for a second time. This time, Rodney was armed with instructions from Aaron on how to, you know, push the button that says “record.” Rodney’s interview is with a man named Andrew Mertzenich. Native to the Rockford area, Andrew is a practicing lawyer, an accomplished musician, the co-chair of the Rockford Area Pride Committee, founder of the city’s annual Pride parade, and now a published author. His book — entitled Forest City Yester-Queer — is a meticulously-researched chronicle of the LGBTQIA+ community in the Rockford, Illinois area. His stories are fascinating. He is also incredibly patient to record the same interview twice. That last sentence there is one final dig at Rodney. Unnecessary, yes, but we can’t help ourselves.

  3. Aug 3

    #7 "2666" by Roberto Bolaño

    Send us Fan Mail After years of writing poetry, Chilean author Roberto Bolaño made the decision to secure more financial security for his family by making the transition into scribing novels. His first novel, La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink), was published in 1993. His breakthrough, Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), came about in 1998. Unbeknownst to the public and his ever-growing fanbase, in 1992 Bolaño had been diagnosed with a terminal liver ailment, kickstarting a frenetic writing pace. Spurred in large part by a looming awareness of his impending death, he published at least one new book every year until his death in 2003. Although he was, by this point, a well-known and critically-hailed author in Spanish-speaking countries, Bolaño was not widely translated until after his death. That changed with the posthumous publication of his magnum opus, 2666, in 2005. This massive novel, divided into five loosely-connected sections, secured his worldwide literary reputation. Since his death, all of his earlier works have been translated into English and there have been four additional posthumous works released. Rebecca handpicked 2666 as her selection for the month of July. Yes, the discussion isn’t being posted until August, but everyone is still playing catch-up from a summer that has gotten out of control. Besides, posting late gave Rodney an opportunity to savor and digest this most post-modern of novels. Y’all know how he struggles with those.

  4. Jul 15

    #1,022 "The Romantics" by Pankaj Mishra

    Send us Fan Mail The folks here at Just In Case We Die have decided that all a novelist has to do to earn a spot on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is to pen a book about identity chasing. From On the Road (which Aaron adores) to Disappearance (which all but Rodney found boring), there have been many spotlighted novels that cover this theme. This novel, one that the cast was somewhat interested in based solely on the writer being from India, is one of the blandest novels they’ve ever had to discuss. Literally nothing happens save some not-very-subtle character introductions and drab postulating about whether ’tis better to embrace a new India or the encroachment of the Western world. This time around, there’s not even an interesting history to share about the novelist.

  5. Jun 24

    June 2026 -- Bonus ("James" by Percival Everett)

    Send us Fan Mail June is almost over and you have probably noticed that the fine folks at Just In Case We Die haven't posted any new material. This month, there was supposed to be a discussion of The Romantics by Pankaj Mishra (#1022 on the curated list). Well, guess what? It's June 24th and Aaron hasn't even had a chance to start reading it yet. At the end of May, Rebecca's teenage son moved to Illinois from Tennessee just in time for summer to start. Summertime means that now there are four teenagers in their house that need fed, housed, and entertained. Mixed in with that, their daughter needs rides to and from work (at least until she has had her permit for ninety days and can at long last get her license and drive herself). During all of that, Rebecca had a work trip to Washington, D.C. and returned home just in time for Aaron to head to summer camp for a week. He returned from camp just in time to move into tech week for the production of 1776 he has been rehearsing (a production--it should be noted--that also involves Rebecca in many capacities. At the end of the month, Rodney's son is (finally) getting married. There has been legitimately no time to give this podcast the attention it deserves.  Rebecca suggested that the discussion of The Romantics be moved into next month. Instead, the bandwidth in June could be utilized for a round-table discussion of James by Percival Everett, a novel that all three cast members have recently completed. This novel, published in 2024, has won (or been nominated for) almost every literary award on the planet. A reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told through the eyes of the enslaved man, Jim, it is also a great introduction into the work of Percival Everett, a prolific author of considerable talent. This month, the cast of Just In Case We Die dissects this award-winning novel. Is it a reimagining? Is it a retelling? Does it go too far in its diversions from the original book? Does it deserve a spot on the list of "essentials"? Does this tome have Mark Twain rolling in his grave?

  6. May 28

    #776 "Memoirs of Hadrian" by Marguerite Yourcenar

    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 novelist, has some interesting things in her personal biography, but seems to have no grasp whatsoever on how to write one for someone else. Suffice it to say that Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca are not the audience for this book. Neither can they fathom why this book was chosen by Le Temps as the sixth best book written in French in the 20th and 21st centuries.

  7. May 6

    May 2026 -- Bonus (Knife: The Attempted Assassination of Salman Rushdie)

    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 not inexpensive, but the admission price included signed copies of the memoir that this film is based on and an invitation to attend a post-screening Q & A with journalist Bethany McLean, Alex Gibney, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, and . . . wait for it . . . Salman Rushdie himself. That’s right, attendance at this screening allowed the cast at Just In Case We Die the rare chance to be in the same room with a novelist that everyone involved admires greatly. Yes, you read that right. Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca were IN THE SAME ROOM WITH SALMAN RUSHDIE!

  8. Apr 29

    "Cloud Cuckoo Land" by Anthony Doerr -- Veto #4

    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 German epic poem (Hyperion by Friedrich Hölderlin, #569 on the original list) got vetoed for being, well, a German epic poem. Here we are . . . April of 2026. Aaron and Rebecca are hungry to know what Rodney thought of one of their favorite novels. There’s no way he can hate this novel, right?

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About

In 2006, Quintessence Editions Ltd. published a book entitled "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die". Edited by academic Peter Boxall, this list was a curated selection of novels deemed "essential" for literature lovers. Over time, as books were added and removed to accommodate new tastes, the list has continued to grow into subsequent volumes. As of today, there have been 1,316 novels included in the list. Aaron, Rodney, and Rebecca will attempt to read and discuss every single one of them. Sort of. 

Information

  • Creator
    Aaron/Rodney/Rebecca
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    77
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Just In Case We Die
  • Show Website
    Just In Case We Die