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.

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Aug 24, 2022
5 min

236: Laura Gao's MESSY ROOTS - August 2022 Book Club

In our August 2022 book club episode, we discuss Laura Gao's Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American. We share pairings for Gao's memoir including Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club and Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese. Join us for the book club discussion of this one on Instagram! Just message us to be added to the chat. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Steven Rowley’s The Editor (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) Jen - Lalita Tademy’s Red River (Bookshop.org |

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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 16, 2021
4 min

Graphic Novels Recommended by Kids

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Though I've definitely come to love graphic novels and memoirs, my knowledge still hasn't reached the heights of the kids in my life. So, I thought I would share some of their faovrites as we prepare for our episode release this Wednesday, "Graphic Novel Recommendations." My sons, who are currently 14 and 11, are still huge fans of graphic novels. Often, they find an author whose work they enjoy, and then they run through their entire backlist

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Jul 19, 2021
7 min

Some of Jen's Favorite Reads of 2021 (so far)

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) As usual when I set out to create a concise list of something, I struggled with this task, with creating a list of five favorite books that I've read so far in 2021. I've read a LOT of amazing books this year, and I want to tell you about them ALL. But, fear not, I've restrained myself, and I've come up with a list. I won't say that it's the definitive list because there's a great chance that tomorrow, I'll have regrets and wish I'd chosen one

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Jul 12, 2021
7 min

Some of Ashley's Favorites of 2021 (So Far)

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Phew, I have read some amazing books so far this year! Every year it feels increasingly challenging to pick favorites, and that is proving to be true for 2021. I shared some favorites from my reading challenges so far in my latest Bookish Fave. Here are a few others that I have absolutely loved during the first half of 2021! This list of five favorites so far includes Kacen Callender's Felix Ever After (Amazon | Bookshop.org)

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Jul 2, 2021
2 min

Cece Bell's EL DEAFO - A Graphic Novel for All Audiences

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) I am not a huge reader of graphic novels, but I have a personal interest in Cece Bell's autobiographical graphic novel, El Deafo. One of my favorite people in the whole world, my cousin, Bekah, has a similar story—ill at a young age which led to total hearing loss in both ears, a cochlear implant before starting school, and similar struggles to Cece throughout the course of her life. It was extremely appealing to read a novel which chronicle

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Mar 31, 2021
12 min

171: Update on Our Season 4 Book Recs to Each Other

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we circle back to the books we recommended to each other in episode 139. Each of us got a recommendation from each of our co-hosts, and we read those books and are reporting back about how we felt about them! Be sure to check out episode 139 if you'd like to hear more about why the books were recommended. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything (Bookshop.org | Amazon.com) Jen

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Mar 22, 2021
4 min

Meeting the Challenge: Celebrating Author Imprints

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) This year, for the Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge (find out more here!), we are celebrating author imprints. On Wednesday, we're releasing an episode all about Rick Riordan Presents, but I wanted to spotlight some other imprints you may want to check out. Do you have favorite author imprints? Let us know @unabridgedpod! Rick Riordan Presents Description from the website: "Rick Riordan Presents is one small branch of the Disney-Hyperion P

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Mar 3, 2021
13 min

167: Mira Jacob's GOOD TALK - March 2021 Book Club

In this Unabridged Podcast Book Club episode, we discuss Mira Jacob's graphic memoir Good Talk. We talked about this amazing memoir and also shared our pairings, including Craig Thompson’s Blankets, James McBride’s The Color of Water, and Jarrett J. Krosoczka’s Hey, Kiddo. If you're interested in discussing this one with us, be sure to join us on March 15th on Instagram to participate in our book club chat. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Robert Jones, Jr.’s The Prophets Jen - Hena

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Nov 23, 2020
5 min

9 Books Considering Culture: Coming of Age as Children of Immigrants

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) In this bookish fave, I wanted to share some of my favorite middle grade and young adult lit recommendations that comment on the experience of children of immigrants. While each story is unique and their life experiences are all quite different, these books have common threads, such as an examination of the different facets that create identity and an exploration of the periodic tension between the parents' native culture and

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Oct 26, 2020
4 min

Graphic Novel Roundup

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) This year has been a great one for me to dive into some wonderful graphic novels, graphic memoirs, and comic books. I read differently with these, using a different type of interpretation than when I'm looking solely at text. My boys, who are 10 and 13, love graphic novels, and I can always count on them to pass on the ones they love. Here are some recommendations from my reading this year: Molly Knox Ostertag's The Witch Boy trilogy (The Witc

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Oct 13, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for October 13, 2020 featuring Harrow, Favilli, and Roanhorse

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Alix Harrow's The Once and Future Witches Description from Publisher: "In the late 1800s, three sisters use witchcraft to change the course of history in a Hugo award-winning author's powerful novel of magic amid the suffragette movement. "In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witchi

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Oct 6, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for October 6, 2020, featuring Mbalia, Faruqi, and Gansworth

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) All right, book lovers, this is one of those pub days that overwhelms me, so I'm feeling obligated to share some extras today. I have FIVE books pre-ordered today, FOUR that I've already read thanks to NetGalley, and THREE more than I can't resist mentioning. Here we go: Pre-Ordered Books Jerry Craft's Class Act - My boys and I are SO excited about this follow up to the award-winning graphic novel New Kid. Tana French's The Searcher - French i

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Sep 1, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for September 1, 2020, featuring Woodson, Cole, and Zoboi and Salaam

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Jacqueline Woodson's Before the Ever After Description from Publisher: "National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson's stirring novel explores how a family moves forward when their glory days have passed. "For as long as ZJ can remember, his dad has been everyone's hero. As a charming, talented pro football star, he's as beloved to the neighborhood kids he plays

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Aug 4, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for August 4, 2020, featuring Emezi, Garber, and Leong

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Akwaeke Emezi's The Death of Viveh Oji Description from Publisher: "One afternoon, in a town in southeastern Nigeria, a mother opens her front door to discover her son’s body, wrapped in colorful fabric, at her feet. What follows is the tumultuous, heart-wrenching story of one family’s struggle to understand a child whose spirit is both gentle and mysterious. Raised by a distant father and an understanding but overprotective mother, Vivek suff

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Jul 20, 2020
7 min

Some of Ashley's Favorite Reads of 2020 (So Far)

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Oh my goodness, I'm already having A LOT of trouble choosing only five books, which is the sign of a great reading year so far! (Perhaps total life chaos leads to me loving books more... I certainly suffered from a reading slump when quarantine first started, and I'm still missing audiobooks and sometimes feel distant from the books I'm reading, but I have generally gotten back into reading after the initial transition... and

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Jun 2, 2020
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! June 2, 2020 featuring Bennett, Brown, and Johnson

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) As we struggle to learn more in response to the injustices we're seeing across the United States, we are highlighting three works by Black authors that are being published today. Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half Description from Publisher: "The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is di

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May 25, 2020
2 min

Building on the Classics: Middle-Grade Reads to Add to Your Shelves

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) We recently had the chance to chat with Jill Hames, director of the James L. Hamner Public Library and host of the Connections podcast. Our agenda? To think about classics--like Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, Wilson Rawls's Where the Red Fern Grows, Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, and Fred Gipson's Old Yeller--and develop a list of books that we could recommend to fans of these tried-and-true options. (For the record, we endorse the

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May 20, 2020
22 min

126: Plugging into Bookish Communities Online with @readwithtoni from Instagram

In this week's episode of Unabridged, Ashley, Jen, and Sara talk with Toni about the power of developing an online bookish community. Toni--who posts @readwithtoni--shares her own bookstagram journey, what she loves about buddy reads, and the books (like Homegoing and All the Ugly and Wonderful Things) that have resulted in some great conversations. We also each share some great, bookstagram-made-me-do-it reads. Bookish Check In Ashley - Lyssa Kay Adams’s The Bromance Book Cl

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May 4, 2020
3 min

5 Graphic Memoirs You Should Read Immediately

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Some of us (me!) might be having a hard time getting through books. What better way to get through some books than to read some really great graphic memoirs? If you are not familiar with this sub-genre, I think you are going to be happy you found it. The great thing about graphic novels is that they are quick and have beautiful artwork to enjoy along the way. The great thing about memoirs is they are raw, truthful, and often share moments of

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