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 11, 2020
3 min

Kate J. Baer's WHAT KIND OF WOMAN - A Beautiful Poetry Collection about Being a Woman and a Mother

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) The first time I read a Kate J. Baer poem, my youngest child was still an infant. I was new to Instagram and still learning how stories worked on there; the poem had been shared by a beloved friend. (Don't all our best discoveries come from friends?) I remember feeling like the world rocked a little bit when I read those words—poetry can do that to you. Sometimes, it's like the poet, whom you have never met, can somehow see a

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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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Jan 17, 2020
2 min

Jami Attenberg's ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, Jen's Review

Jami Attenberg's All This Could Be Yours is a stunning and incisive examination of the obligations we have as parents and as children to each other and about the way that loving someone is, in a sense, an obligation. It's also about what happens when someone is so horrible that he erases those obligations, that he eliminates the love others have. The novel centers on Victor, a man who is dying in the midst of a family he has abused and controlled for years. Though he excels

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Jan 8, 2020
1 min

107: Mary Beth Keane's ASK AGAIN, YES - I Had to Open Another Tin of Book Darts

In this Unabridged Book Club (#unabridgedpodbookclub) episode, we discuss Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, the amazing multigenerational novel examining two families in a planned community. We make connections to Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, John Boyne’s The Heart's Invisible Furies, and Ann Patchett’s The Dutch House, and we thoroughly discuss the intricacies of relationships over time and through generations as they are explored in the novel. Timeline Introduction

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Dec 13, 2019
1 min

Matthew Dicks's TWENTY-ONE TRUTHS ABOUT LOVE -- Jen's Review

Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Matthew Dicks’s Twenty-one Truths about Love in exchange for an honest review. The book released Tuesday, November 19. Dan’s life is out of control. His wife, Jill, yearns to be have their first child. Dan is not so sure. He quit his job as a teacher to open a bookshop . . . which is failing. He has no relationship with the father who left him when he was a child, and he’s overshadowed by his brother, Jake Jr. He has no frien

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Oct 16, 2019
1 min

95: Rainbow Rowell Rocks: You Have to Read It! You Have to Read It!

For this short episode of Unabridged, we are talking all about Rainbow Rowell and our love for her books. While we each have unique favorites of her work, we can agree that we are all fans, and there are some things that run through her writing that we enjoy. And as Jen says, "Rainbow Rowell is an auto-buy for us!" the hosts' favorites Ashley’s Pick Rainbow Rowell's Carry On Jen’s Pick Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl Sara’s Pick Rainbow Rowell's Eleanor and Park Other Mentions

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Aug 16, 2019
4 min

Yara Zgheib's THE GIRLS AT 17 SWANN STREET - Ashley's Review

"There must have been signs, but we were distracted by the roller coaster of the adventure. Paperwork, looking for a couch for the apartment, ties and shirts for Matthias." "I used to eat. I used to like to eat, then I grew scared to eat, ceased to eat. Now my stomach hurts; I have been anorexic for so long that I have forgotten how to eat." "I did not choose anorexia. I did not choose to starve. But every morning, over and over, I choose to fight it, again." Thank you to Pa

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Dec 5, 2018
1 min

50: Gretchen Anthony's EVERGREEN TIDINGS FROM THE BAUMGARTNERS - These Random People at Dinner

"This is me. This is my family. This is love." ~Gretchen Anthony Spoilers are inevitable throughout our discussion, so consider whether or not to listen if you haven't yet read the book, Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners! Timeline Introduction and Summary of the Book: 0:00 - 01:13 Main Discussion: 01:13 - 33:43 Book Pairings: 33:53 - 43:15 Classroom Connections: 43:15 - 45:38 Book Pairings Jen - Helen Hanff's 84, Charing Cross Road Ashley - Jenny Han's To All the Boy

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