Unabridged Podcast

Welcome to Unabridged! Ashley and Jen (shown left to right in the photo) talk books, share recommendations, and celebrate all things bookish. On our blog (see our posts below!) we share bookish faves, pub day shout-outs, show notes, and book reviews.

Want to get more involved? Check out our 2022 reading challenge, join our buddy reads on Instagram, or sign up on Patreon!

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Dec 29, 2021
7 min

210: Encore of Our Cozy Reads Recommendations - Curl Up with a Good Book

In this encore episode of the Unabridged Podcast, we each share some cozy read recommendations with you. After our Bookish Check-in, we talk about what makes a cozy read for us, and then we each share one that we've loved. The books we chose include Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series, Colleen Wright's The White Christmas Inn, and Alexis Hall's Boyfriend Material. We end the episode with our Give Me One . . . Cozy Comfort. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Karina Yan Glaser’s The Va

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Dec 22, 2021
9 min

209: Encore of Christina Lauren's IN A HOLIDAZE Book Club Discussion

In this encore episode of our Unabridged Book Club pick from December 2020, we talk about Christina Lauren's holiday rom-com, In a Holidaze. After our Bookish Check-in, where we each share what we're reading, we chat about the novel and then offer another holiday book recommendation. We end with our Give Me One and talk about holiday songs that make us cringe. We'd love to know what holiday books you'd recommend! Head over to our social media pages to share some recs. Bookish

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Oct 6, 2021
7 min

198: Spooky Reads 2021 - Our Latest Recs

In this Unabridged episode, which has become an annual tradition, Sara, Jen and Ashley share our latest thriller and spooky recommendations with you, perfect for fall mood reading. Our recommendations include Alex Michaelides’s The Maidens, Shea Ernshaw’s A History of Wild Places, and Riley Sager’s Survive the Night. We talk about the best ways to enjoy thrillers and wrap up our episode by sharing some of our favorite Halloween memories. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Stephen Grah

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Sep 17, 2021
3 min

B.B. Alston's AMARI AND THE NIGHT BROTHERS - A Thrilling, Magical Middle Grade Read

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) B. B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers I absolutely loved this brilliant book, B. B. Alston's Amari and the Night Brothers (Amazon | Bookshop.org), so much! It was fast-paced and compelling with excellent world building and an outstanding protagonist. I loved Amari right from the start, and I found her motivation, her desire to find her older brother Quinton who had disappeared, to be powerful and authentic. When the boo

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Sep 15, 2021
13 min

195: Unexpected Joy - Books that Surprised Us in Excellent Ways

In this Unabridged episode, Jen, Sara, and Ashley share book recommendations for book picks that surprised us and brought unexpected joy. Our recommendations, including Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things that Will Not Change (Amazon | Bookshop.org), Patrik Svensson’s The Book of Eels: Our Enduring Fascination with the Most Mysterious Creature in the Natural World (Amazon | Bookshop.org), and Tiffany Haddish’s The Last Black Unicorn (Amazon | Bookshop.org), are very different

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Aug 18, 2021
17 min

191: Expand Your Reading with Our Latest Graphic Novel Recs

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we talk all things graphic! We share a graphic novel, a graphic memoir, and a graphic nonfiction pick, all of which would work well for the Unabridged Reading Challenge 2021. Listen in to hear what we have to say about our picks including Roz Chast’s Can’t We Talk about Something More Pleasant?, Gene Luen Yang’s Dragon Hoops, and Jerry Craft’s Class Act. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Rebecca Stead’s The List of Things that Will Not Change (Amaz

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Aug 4, 2021
16 min

189: Our Recs for Books We Can't Stop Reading

On today's Unabridged episode, we share about a popular topic - books we cannot stop reading! We share about a fantasy favorite, Sarah J. Maas, with A Court of Silver Flames, and romance favorite Alyssa Cole with her thriller When No One is Watching. We also talk about Laura Hankin’s Happy and You Know It. It's always fun to read a book you can't put down, so we wanted to share some that had that effect on us! Bookish Check-in Ashley - Peter Heller’s The River (Amazon | Books

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Jul 5, 2021
4 min

Favorite Reads from Jen's 2021 Reading Challenge Picks So Far

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) On our episode two weeks ago, we all shared mid-year updates on our reading challenges for 2021. As always, I appreciate the ways that taking on these challenges can help to make my reading more intentional, but I also seek balance: sometimes, those lists can stress me out! This year, I've been thrilled with my challenges. I'm doing three: the Tournament of Books (and now Camp ToB, which is in progress), the Unabridged 2021 Reading Challenge (

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Jun 30, 2021
11 min

184: Find New YA Books with Our Latest Young Adult Lit Recommendations

In this Unabridged episode, Ashley, Jen, and Sara share about one of our favorite topics—young adult lit books that we want to recommend! We're all passionate about YA literature (both for use in the classroom and in our own reading lives!), and we love sharing some of our favorite YA lit novels with you. This time, we're sharing three of our most recent favorites with Nicola Yoon’s Instructions for Dancing, Aiden Thomas’s Cemetery Boys, and Laekan Zea Kemp’s Somewhere Betwee

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Jun 28, 2021
3 min

Favorite Reads from Sara's 2021 Reading Challenge Picks So Far

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) On last week's episode, we all share mid-year updates on our reading challenges for 2021. Ashley shared some of her reading challenge favorites in her Bookish Fave last week, so I thought I would follow up with mine! My reading challenges are going SO much better than my 2020 challenges, which if you remember were abysmal. So, I am elated to share with you some of the books that I have loved from my Unabridged 2021 Reading Challenge (which y

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Jun 21, 2021
3 min

Favorite Reads from Ashley's 2021 Reading Challenge Picks So Far

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) On this week's episode, we all share mid-year updates on our reading challenges for 2021. I'm happy to report that things are going a lot better for me this year! We talk about where we are with the Unabridged 2021 Reading Challenge (which you can still join if you're interested!), and then we share about where we are with our individual reading challenges. I personally chose the Uncorked Reading Challenge with the Uncorked L

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May 19, 2021
13 min

178: Find More Amazing Middle-Grade Books with These Recommendations

In this Unabridged episode, we have several amazing middle-grade book recommendations for you all. We share about Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Ghost Boys, Alex Gino’s George, and Dusti Bowling’s Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus as our featured recommendations, and then we each mention a couple of other personal favorites from our recent middle-grade reads. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Talia Hibbert’s Act Your Age, Eve Brown (Bookshop.org | Amazon) Jen - Maggie O’Farrell’s

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Apr 28, 2021
13 min

175: Enjoy Revisiting the Classics through Retellings

In this Unabridged podcast episode, we share some retellings of classics that we've enjoyed reading. We share our picks including Hena Khan’s More to the Story, Patricia Park’s Re Jane, Rachel Hawkins’s The Wife Upstairs. These recommendations are perfect for the retellings category on our Unabridged Reading Challenge for 2021! Bookish Check-in Ashley - Aiden Thomas’s Lost in the Never Woods (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Jen - Liz Moore’s Long Bright River (Amazon | Bookshop.org) S

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Dec 15, 2020
5 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! December 15, 2020 Special Edition

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) As we move toward the holidays and the end of the year, there are not many books coming out this week. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to highlight a few of my favorites that I've read so far from our pub day shout-outs! Fredrik Backman's Anxious People Description from Publisher: "Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bur

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Dec 2, 2020
9 min

154: Christina Lauren's IN A HOLIDAZE - December Book Club

In this Book Club episode of the Unabridged Podcast, we talk about Christina Lauren's holiday rom-com, In a Holidaze. After our Bookish Check-in, where we each share what we're reading, we chat about the novel and then offer another holiday book recommendation. We end with our Give Me One and talk about holiday songs that make us cringe. We'd love to know what holiday books you'd recommend! Head over to our social media pages to share some recs. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Nic

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Nov 18, 2020
10 min

152: Books that Encourage Activism in Young People

In this episode of the Unabridged Podcast, we share book recommendations that we believe promote and encourage activism in young people. Our selections include Brandy Colbert’s The Voting Booth, Dave Cullen’s Parkland: Birth of a Movement, and Monica Clark-Robinson's Let the Children March, illustrated by Frank Morrison. We also share what we're currently reading in our Bookish Check-In, and we share some activism accounts that we love in our Give Me One segment. Don't miss J

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Nov 11, 2020
7 min

151: Our Cozy Reads Recommendations - Curl Up with a Good Book

In this autumn episode of the Unabridged Podcast, we each share some cozy read recommendations with you. After our Bookish Check-in, we talk about what makes a cozy read for us, and then we each share one that we've loved. The books we chose include Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series, Colleen Wright's The White Christmas Inn, and Alexis Hall's Boyfriend Material. We end the episode with our Give Me One . . . Cozy Comfort. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Karina Yan Glaser’s The Va

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Oct 28, 2020
12 min

149: Read-Aloud Book Recommendations for Parents and Teachers

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we're discussing books for all levels that we believe would work really well for read aloud choices. We were thrilled to be joined by Holly Hicks, a third-grade teacher and Unabridged Ambassador who has experience choosing and sharing read-aloud picks with her third-grade students. We also share our own experiences with read-aloud picks both at home and in the classroom. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Kate Clayborn’s Love Lettering Jen - Marissa

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Jan 22, 2020
2 min

Welcome - Introduction and Overview

Just getting started with Unabridged Podcast? Welcome! We're Ashley, Jen, and Sara, and we are teachers and podcasters who are passionate about books. We have four kinds of posts here on our blog. On Mondays, we post about our Bookish Faves, on Tuesdays we do Pub Day Shout-outs, on Wednesdays our episodes drop, and on Fridays, we post book reviews. (Be on the lookout on Thursdays, too; we sometimes have an extra post then!) There are many ways to connect with us! In addition

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Oct 23, 2019
1 min

96: Update on Our Recommendations to Each Other: A Love Story . . . and Also Not

Well, we have failed at reading all of our recommendations for each other, but we had a good time with some confessions, some reflection, and some reviews of how well we know each other. In general, I'd say that we did a pretty good job recommending books for each other . . . and a pretty bad job prioritizing our TBRs. Join us on social media to share your thoughts about these books, your recommendations for each of us, and your tips for TBR prioritization! Missed out on the

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