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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 with anything interesting (or pleasant) to say about poetry, so it’s time for a deep dive into some literature news items that are making headlines. Hated writers making super-considerate gestures, secret identities revealed, biographies from surprising sources, and the knowledge that a favorite writer of everyone in the cast will soon be within two hours of their homes. It’s also about time that all these books on the veto lists got replaced.

For having nothing to talk about, it sure was easy to fill an hour . . .

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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:

1. A paperback in English was going to cost $73.85.
2. The cheapest editions were either in Chinese ($17.85) or on Kindle in Spanish ($9.99) and no one but Rebecca can read Spanish.
3. There is an audiobook version of Three Trapped Tigers on Audible but that doesn’t do anyone any good but Rodney.
4. The book is well-known for its punning, wordplay, and excessive use of Cuban street slang and has often been jokingly referred to as “the Cuban Ulysses.”

All of these things combined led to Rodney vetoing a novel for the very first time. His replacement? A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier. This novel and its vision of a unique afterlife– a purgatory fueled by the memories of the living– is one of the first books that Rodney and Aaron can remember discussing back when their friendship first formed. Both of them are very excited for Rebecca to read this novel for the very first time.

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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 was a man!

March is Women’s History Month, so it was decided to center this month’s bonus episode around feminine writers. There’s plenty to discuss: genres that have secretly been hiding excellent female authors amongst their ranks, the favorite female scribes of all three members of the cast, and stereotypes about female writers that need to go away. It’s Just In Case We Die’s first ever episode dedicated to women!