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It's Aaron's turn to handpick a book from the list, and he selected Italo Calvino's 1979 post-modern masterpiece. This novel is one that he has admired for more than a quarter century. In fact, he's been trying to foist it on Rebecca seemingly ad nauseum since 2001.

The real reason he picked it, though, is because he wants Rodney to gain a greater appreciation of post-modernism, and there are college courses that consider If On A Winter's Night A Traveler a core text for academic study. Rebecca and Aaron have placed a friendly wager on whether he likes it or not. Who will be the lucky winner?

There's only one way to find out . . .

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When it turned out that maybe Aaron and Rodney might be able to convince Rebecca that not all science-fiction was a waste of her time, Aaron recommended Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. It was a gamble, to be sure, because this is a Science Fiction novel (note the capital S and F). Space exploration? Alien race first contact? Scientific calamity that might bring on the apocalypse? Check, check, and check.

Guess what? It took two years and a well-crafted trailer for the upcoming film adaptation, but Rebecca has finally read it. This month, we’re going to talk about whether or not she liked it, what separates a book like Project Hail Mary from other sci-fi tomes, and try to come up with other recommendations that she would appreciate.

Salman Rushdie is in there somewhere, too, but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out why!

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Pär Lagerkvist, the recipient of the 1951 Nobel Prize for Literature, was not a writer that had ever been in the to-be-read piles of any of this podcast’s participants. All three of them, though, were affected by this novel’s message. This short 1950 novel takes a character briefly mentioned in the Holy Bible, expounds on his story, and prompts a discussion that starts with one opinion and ends with a change in perspective. How can such a slight little volume have such a profound effect on people who don’t consider themselves religious?

Be warned: religion is a hot-button topic in this episode. You may not agree with our points of view.