Unabridged Podcast

Welcome to Unabridged, the podcast where teachers take on books! Every week, Sara, Jen and Ashley (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 each week.

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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216: Love Is in the Air - Our 2022 Romance Recs

Feb 9
6 min

216: Love Is in the Air - Our 2022 Romance Recs

In the 2022 edition of this annual episode, Jen, Sara, and Ashley are all happy to share some of their latest romance recs. Our picks this year include Ali Hazelwood’s The Love Hypothesis, Jasmine Guillory’s While We Were Dating, and Jenny Bayliss’s A Season for Second Chances. All of us read a lot of romances in 2021, so we're happy to share some of our top picks with you! Bookish Check-in Ashley - Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) Jen - Jane Austen’s

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

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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208: Encore of the Epic LOVE ACTUALLY Debate of 2019

Dec 15, 2021
1 min

208: Encore of the Epic LOVE ACTUALLY Debate of 2019

In this throwback episode from 2019, Jen and Sara get into an uncharacteristic sparring match about the essence of the Love Actually film while Ashley stays (also uncharacteristically) decidedly neutral. What do YOU think makes a Christmas movie? Does it have to be ABOUT Christmas, or is it enough to be set during the holiday season? Let us know what you think @unabridgedpod! Movie Mentions Love Actually Elf Christmas with the Kranks Deck the Halls Jingle All the Way Notting

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207: Jean Meltzer's THE MATZAH BALL - December 2021 Book Club

Dec 8, 2021
7 min

207: Jean Meltzer's THE MATZAH BALL - December 2021 Book Club

In this Unabridged Book Club episode, Sara, Jen, and Ashley discuss their December book club pick, Jean Meltzer's The Matzah Ball. We all discuss this 2021 release (spoiler alert: we all loved it!!!), and then we each share a pairing suggestion. Our pairings include Talia Hibbert’s Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Sarah Adams’s The Match, and Beth O’Leary’s The Switch. This book club pick is perfect for the holiday season and is the perfect mix of a fun romance coupled with serious i

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ONCE UPON AN EID - A Beautiful and Sweeping Collection Celebrating the Joy of Eid

Dec 3, 2021
3 min

ONCE UPON AN EID - A Beautiful and Sweeping Collection Celebrating the Joy of Eid

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) I absolutely loved this beautiful collection of short stories, Once Upon an Eid (Libro.fm | Bookshop.org), edited by S. K. Ali (author of Saints and Misfits) and Aisha Saeed (author of Amal Unbound, a podcast favorite!). I listened to this one on audio, and the narration was outstanding! This collection is a gorgeous middle-grade work, and it conveys a wide array of different experiences, all of which center on Muslims celeb

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206: Find Perfect Books for the Season with Our Winter and Holiday Book Recommendations

Dec 1, 2021
6 min

206: Find Perfect Books for the Season with Our Winter and Holiday Book Recommendations

In this seasonal episode, Jen, Sara, and Ashley are sharing some of their recent favorite reads that would be perfect for holiday reading picks! Our recommendations include Sarah Morganthaler’s Mistletoe and Mr. Right, Sophie Cousens’s This Time Next Year, and Jasmine Guillory’s Royal Holiday. We end the episode by sharing our favorite seasonal drinks for our Give Me One! Bookish Check-in Ashley - Helen Hoang’s The Heart Principle (Libro.fm | Bookshop.org) Jen - Les Payne’s T

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Great Books to Beat the Cold Weather Blues

Nov 29, 2021
5 min

Great Books to Beat the Cold Weather Blues

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Ostensibly, I love the fall season. I'm a huge fan of the changing leaves, I love boots and sweaters, and I can't get enough of butternut squash soup and pumpkin carving. Having been in places where the seasons don't change much, I also love the fact that I now live in a place where the seasons do change significantly, and I celebrate the start of each new season every year. (We're in Madrid as I write this, but that seasonal

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204: Get Gifts for Your Bookish Friends Using Our 2021 Gift Ideas!

Nov 17, 2021
5 min

204: Get Gifts for Your Bookish Friends Using Our 2021 Gift Ideas!

This is one of our favorite annual episodes. As many of you know, Sara is our resident gift giving guru, and she carefully curates a list each year of amazing bookish gifts perfect for the book lovers in our lives (and for us to put on our own wish lists!). Jen and Ashley share a few of our favorites, too. Listen in, and let us know what your go to bookish gift picks are! If you're interested in the long list of Bookish Gifts from Sara (our Gift Giving Guru!), be sure you sig

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Stephen Graham Jones's MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW - An Ode to Slashers with a Twist

Oct 29, 2021
2 min

Stephen Graham Jones's MY HEART IS A CHAINSAW - An Ode to Slashers with a Twist

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Still in the mood for some spooky reads as the end of October approaches? Don't miss Stephen Graham Jones's newest book that just came out on August 31st, My Heart is a Chainsaw (Amazon | Bookshop.org). I was so excited to read this one after reading and absolutely loving Stephen Graham Jones's The Only Good Indians (which I talked about on episode 148!), and thanks to Netgalley, I was able to get an e-galley of this one in

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Not-So-Spooky Spooky Reads for Easily Spooked Readers Who Still Like Seasonal Reads

Oct 4, 2021
4 min

Not-So-Spooky Spooky Reads for Easily Spooked Readers Who Still Like Seasonal Reads

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) In anticipation of our annual Spooky Reads episode that will release on Wednesday, I wanted to share some (not-so-spooky) spooky favorites I've enjoyed. Listeners know that I'm not big on reading spooky books, but I do love speculative fiction, fantasy, and the occasional paranormal presence, and I also love seasonal reads. Here are some books that would be perfect seasonal reads for mood readers. These books are atmospheric

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Eight Winter Book Recommendations to Read This Season

Dec 14, 2020
5 min

Eight Winter Book Recommendations to Read This Season

by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) In this curated list of winter book recommendations, I'm sharing books where the season of winter is a pivotal part of the story. (Actually, in two of them, Fredrik Backman's Anxious People and Margarita Montimore's Oona Out of Order, the new year specifically is an important part of the story.) These are not necessarily cozy reads (though some of them are perfect for that!), and the tone, style, and subject matter of each on

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

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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110: Winter Books - If I Read a Good Thriller, I'm Thrilled

Jan 29, 2020
1 min

110: Winter Books - If I Read a Good Thriller, I'm Thrilled

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we are sharing about a favorite topic of ours, seasonal reads. We discuss some favorite reads that revolve around winter in some way, including Fredrik Backman’s Beartown, Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Child, Ruta Sepetys’s Between Shades of Gray, and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. Our Recommendations Ashley - Fredrik Backman’s Beartown Neil Gaiman’s American Gods Sara - Megan Collins’s The Winter Sister Eowyn Ivey’s The Snow Ch

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109: 2020 Reading Goals and Reading Challenges - I Can Share My Spreadsheet with You

Jan 22, 2020
1 min

109: 2020 Reading Goals and Reading Challenges - I Can Share My Spreadsheet with You

In this episode, we're facing the new year (and new decade!) and considering our reading lives and goals. We've also each signed up for a different reading challenge including Book Riot's 2020 Read Harder Challenge, the Beat the Backlist Reading Challenge, and The Modern Mrs. Darcy Reading Challenge for 2020. We're talking all things goal and resolution-oriented, and we're making grand plans for how our reading lives will look this year. Will they work out? We'll keep you all

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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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104: Debate - What Makes a Holiday Movie? - I'm Having a Conversation in My Head

Dec 18, 2019
1 min

104: Debate - What Makes a Holiday Movie? - I'm Having a Conversation in My Head

The Unabridged debate over what makes a holiday movie gets a little contentious as Jen and Sara face off (primarily) about Love Actually. Poor Ashley serves as moderator (sorry, Ashley!). What do YOU think makes a Christmas movie? Does it have to be ABOUT Christmas, or is it enough to be set during the holiday season? Let us know what you think @unabridgedpod! Movie Mentions Love Actually Elf Christmas with the Kranks Deck the Halls Jingle All the Way Notting Hill The Polar E

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10 More Spooky Reads for Your Fall Reading List

Dec 16, 2019
3 min

10 More Spooky Reads for Your Fall Reading List

Stephen and Owen King's Sleeping Beauties - "We could go on like this forever. He said, she said. The oldest story in the universe." Stephen King is consistently one of my favorite authors--his storytelling ability never fails. His recent novel with his son Owen King falls solidly within his oeuvre. Real-world issues combine with fantastical problems (in this case, women are falling asleep only to be cocooned in silky webs). The Kings take on feminism, the male tendency to vi

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Shea Ernshaw's WINTERWOOD -- Jen's Review

Dec 6, 2019
3 min

Shea Ernshaw's WINTERWOOD -- Jen's Review

Thanks to partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Shea Ernshaw’s Winterwood in exchange for an honest review. The book released Tuesday, November 5. “I am a Walker. I am the thing whispered about, the thing that conjures goosebumps and nightmares” (loc. 131). Evocative. Atmospheric. Beautifully written. Shea Ernshaw’s Winterwood is a gorgeous YA fantasy novel set in a world just next door to our own. Teenager Nora Walker, the Walker (or, perhaps, witch) at the center of the

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102: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Mariah Webb's LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS - Tied Up with a Bow

Dec 4, 2019
1 min

102: Hazel Gaynor and Heather Mariah Webb's LAST CHRISTMAS IN PARIS - Tied Up with a Bow

Friends, for our Unabridged Book Club book this month, we're reading Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb's epistolary novel Last Christmas in Paris. This book, set predominantly during World War I, unveils the relationships of two characters, Evie and Tom, through the letters they write to each other and to friends and family. Through the lens of their very personal letters, readers also gain an understanding of other concerns of the time, including the growing role of women in Gr

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100: Bookish Gifts 2019 - Insert Party Horn Sound Here

Nov 20, 2019
1 min

100: Bookish Gifts 2019 - Insert Party Horn Sound Here

Get in the bookish spirit with Unabridged! We're offering our recommendations for some of the best bookish gifts out there from businesses like Lyndsey Draws, A Hum for Hope, Mountain Thread Company, and Bring Your Own. It's that time of year again, friends. You know it: the time of year when we are all about finding the perfect gift for the bookworms in your life. We have a great time in this episode talking about some of our favorite bookish shops and items for all your boo

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