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 2023 reading challenge, join our buddy reads or book club on Instagram, or sign up on Patreon!

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Jan 25
5 min

246: Celeste Ng's OUR MISSING HEARTS - January 2023 Book Club

Have you read this propulsive near future dystopian novel by podcast favorite Celeste Ng? To kick off the new year, we're pleased to share our thoughts on our first book club pick of 2023, Celeste Ng's Our Missing Hearts (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). We also include our pairings, Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Veronica Roth’s Poster Girl (Bookshop.org). We're discussing this one on Instagram on January 30th at 8 PM EST, so message us if

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May 13, 2022
2 min

Julia Glass's VIGIL HARBOR - Speculative Fiction that Hits Close to Home

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Julia Glass's Vigil Harbor (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) Thanks to partners NetGalley, Knopf Doubleday, and Pantheon Books for the digital ARC of Julia Glass’s Vigil Harbor in exchange for an honest review. The book is available for purchase. I’d read only one of Julia Glass’s prior novels—her debut Three Junes, winner of the National Book Award—when I requested an advance copy of Vigil Harbor. I was drawn in by the synopsis, focused on an isolate

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Sep 14, 2021
5 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for September 14, 2021, featuring Daria, Jackson, and Whitehead

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Alexis Daria's A Lot Like Adiós (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "Hi Mich. It’s Gabe. "After burning out in her corporate marketing career, Michelle Amato has built a thriving freelance business as a graphic designer. So what if her love life is nonexistent? She’s perfectly fine being the black sheep of her marriage-obsessed Puerto Rican-Ital

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Sep 7, 2021
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for September 7, 2021, featuring Morrow, Rooney, and Streep

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Today is such an epic book release day that I'm afraid I can't limit myself to highlighting only three books. So, be sure to scroll to the end to check out the books I can't help shouting out. Bethany C. Morrow's So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "Four young Black sisters come of age during the American Civil War in So Many Beginnings, a warm and powerful YA remix of the classic novel

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Aug 28, 2021
3 min

Featured Books for September 2021

September Books On September 29, we'll release our Book Club episode focusing on Darcie Little Badger's Elatsoe (Amazon | Bookshop.org), but before that releases, we'll have two IG chats on September 13 and 27 (this is also our September Buddy Read pick!). Stay tuned @unabridgedpod for announcements and updates. Here is the synopsis from the publisher: "A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin's ghost and vows to unmask the murderer. "Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an

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Aug 24, 2021
5 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs! for August 24th, 2021 featuring Heller, Barker, and Jeffers

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Peter Heller's The Guide (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "The best-selling author of The River returns with a heart-racing thriller about a young man who is hired by an elite fishing lodge in Colorado, where he uncovers a plot of shocking menace amid the natural beauty of sun-drenched streams and forests. 'Peter Heller is the poet laureate of

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Aug 11, 2021
8 min

190: Unabridged Discusses the Pilot of RIVERDALE - Book-to-Screen Adaptation

In this Unabridged episode, we discuss one of our favorite topics, book-to-screen adaptations! In this episode, Ashley, Jen and Sara share their Bookish Check-in, and then Sara and Jen discuss the pilot episode of Riverdale. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Kacen Callender’s Felix Ever After (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Jen - Susan Abulhawa’s The Blue Between Sky and Water (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Sara - Jennifer Ryan’s The Kitchen Front (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Our Riverdale Discussion Ri

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Jul 31, 2021
4 min

Featured Books for August 2021

August Books On August 25, we'll release our Book Club episode focusing on Balli Kaur Jaswal's Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows (Amazon | Bookshop.org), but before that releases, we'll have an IG chat mid-month. (We're working on shuffling our episode order for Season 5!) We'll also have two IG chats about our Buddy Read pick, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera's YA novel What If It's Us (Amazon | Bookshop.org). Stay tuned @unabridgedpod for announcements and updates. Here ar

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Jul 9, 2021
2 min

Rachel Donohue's THE TEMPLE HOUSE VANISHING - A Haunting, Atmospheric Read

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner Algonquin Books for the ARC of Rachel Donohue's The Temple House Vanishing (Amazon | Bookshop.org) in exchange for an honest review. This one just came out on July 6! Rachel Donohue's The Temple House Vanishing is an atmospheric, gorgeous novel about the friendship between two girls and the charismatic teacher who lies at the center of their relationship. Louisa is the new girl at the Temple House, a scholarship girl who is m

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Jul 7, 2021
12 min

185: Jacqueline Woodson's RED AT THE BONE - July 2021 Unabridged Book Club

In this Unabridged Book Club discussion, we talk about Jacqueline Woodson's Red at the Bone. Spoiler alert: we all loved this powerful, tightly woven story. We pair this one with Randi Pink’s Angel of Greenwood, Tommy Orange’s There There, and Brit Bennett’s The Mothers. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Jen - Leigh Bardugo’s Rule of Wolves (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Sara - Joanne Tompkin’s What Comes After (Amazon | Booksh

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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 27, 2021
5 min

Featured Books for July 2021

July Books On July 7, we'll release our Book Club episode focusing on Jacqueline Woodson's Red at the Bone (Amazon | Bookshop.org), and we'll have an IG chat mid-month. We'll also have two IG chats about our Buddy Read pick, Laekan Zea Kemp's YA novel Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet (Amazon | Bookshop.org). Stay tuned @unabridgedpod for announcements and updates. Here are the synopses from the publisher: Red at the Bone "Moving forward and backward in time, Jacqueline Wood

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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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Jun 1, 2021
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs for June 1, 2021 featuring Yoon, Reid, and Àbíké-Íyímídé

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to celebrate! Nicola Yoon's Instructions for Dancing (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Description from Publisher: "#1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star Nicola Yoon is back with her eagerly anticipated third novel. With all the heart and hope of her last two books, this is an utterly unique romance. "Evie Thomas doesn't believe i

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May 29, 2021
4 min

Featured Books for June 2021

June Book On May 5, we're so excited to share our Book Club episode focusing on Laura Taylor Namey's A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow, which will also be our Buddy Read pick. On June 14th and 28th, we'll have IG chats about the novel. DM us @unabridgedpod to join! Here's the synopsis from the publisher: A Cuban Girl's Guide to Tea and Tomorrow "For Lila Reyes, a summer in England was never part of the plan. The plan was 1) take over her abuela’s role as head baker at

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May 28, 2021
3 min

Book Review of Deb Caletti's ONE GREAT LIE - A Stunning Book about Gender and Power

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partners NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for the digital ARC of Deb Caletti’s One Great Lie (Amazon | Bookshop.org) in exchange for an honest review. The book will be released on Tuesday, June 1. Deb Caletti’s One Great Lie is a stunning YA novel about gender dynamics and issues of power, perfect for consideration in the aftermath of the #metoo movement. Told in spare, gorgeous prose, the novel focuses on a girl who’s given her drea

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May 5, 2021
16 min

176: Ocean Vuong's ON EARTH WE'RE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS - May 2021 Book Club

In this Unabridged episode, we discuss our May book club pick, Ocean Vuong's novel On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. We discuss the powerful, heartbreaking, lyrical novel, and then we share our pairings, including Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, Lisa Ko’s The Leavers, and Mira T. Lee’s Everything Here Is Beautiful. Bookish Check-in Ashley - Beth O’Leary’s The Flatshare (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Jen - Glendy Vanderah’s The Light through the Leaves (Amazon | Bookshop.org) Sara - Laekan Zea

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May 3, 2021
4 min

8 Retellings of Greek Epic Poetry

by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) One of the categories I've been loving for the Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge is "Retelling of a Classic." Though I'm no expert on Greek epic poetry, I enjoy retellings of it SO. MUCH. Here are some I'd recommend: 1. Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles - Here's my review from 2019: "I love this book SO. MUCH. Miller crafts a brilliant story rooted in mythology and in the gritty reality of love. Her interpretation of the story of Achil

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Apr 27, 2021
4 min

Pub Day Shout-Outs for April 27, 2021, featuring Garvin, O'Neal, and Sutanto

by Sara Voigt (@meaningfulmadness) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Jesse Q. Sutanto's Dial A for Aunties Description from Publisher: "When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cak

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Apr 25, 2021
4 min

Featured Books for May 2021

May Books On May 5, we're so excited to share our Book Club episode focusing on Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. We'll have a Book Club chat on IG about the novel on May 17 at 8:00 PM EST. Then, on April 10 and 24, we'll have IG chats about Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite’s Dear Haiti, Love Alaine. DM us @unabridgedpod to join! Here are the synopses from the publishers: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to

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