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- Dec 7, 2020
- 3 min
My Reading Challenge Made Me Do It
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) I took my Reading Challenges this year more seriously than usual (talking about them on an episode of your podcast will do that!), and so I wanted to reflect on the books I found (or finally got to) because of those challenges. We all reflect this Wednesday on our reading challenges in general—don't miss that episode!—but here are some of the amazing books I read to fulfill my challenges. I'm sharing a short excerpt from each of my IG posts an
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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 23, 2020
- 6 min
144: Celebrating Global Read Aloud
In honor of the final year of the Global Read Aloud, Unabridged Podcast revisits our episode from last year, in which we discussed Cherie Dimaline's The Marrow Thieves, Padma Venkatraman's The Bridge Home, and Kelly Yang's Front Desk. Join us in celebrating this fantastic program, which highlights books for young people and promotes global collaboration. What have been some of your favorite Global Read Aloud books? Bookish Check-in Ashley - Mark Oshiro’s Each of Us a Desert (
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- Aug 21, 2020
- 3 min
Susan Abulhawa's AGAINST THE LOVELESS WORLD - Gorgeous, Fast-Paced Literary Fiction
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Thanks to Partner NetGalley for the digital ARC of Susan Abulhawa’s Against the Loveless World in exchange for an honest review. The book will be published on Tuesday, August 25, 2020. I requested Susan Abulhawa’s Against the Loveless World after absolutely loving her novel Mornings in Jenin. This one is, for me, even better. Nahr, the protagonist, is complicated. She’s by turns selfless and selfish. She tells her story from The Cube, a “moder
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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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- Jul 14, 2020
- 5 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! for July 14, 2020, featuring Dave, Center, Klune, and Belcourt
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Saumya Dave's Well-Behaved Indian Woman Description from Publisher: "From a compelling new voice in women's fiction comes a mother-daughter story about three generations of women who struggle to define themselves as they pursue their dreams. "Simran Mehta has always felt harshly judged by her mother, Nandini, especially when it comes to her little 'writing hobby.' But when a charismatic and highly respected journalist careens into Simran's lif
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- Jul 13, 2020
- 8 min
Some of Jen's Favorite Reads of 2020 (so far)
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) I love my friends, I love my friends, I love my friends. But when we were chatting and decided to do these mid-year, five-favorites-so-far posts, I knew I would be sending a little resentment their way. Only FIVE picks!?! Really? I can't choose just FIVE favorites! I want to include all the things. So, here's my methodology. I looked back at my monthly wrap-up posts in IG, and I ONLY allowed myself to jot down the titles of my five-star reads.
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- Jun 19, 2020
- 3 min
Abi Daré's THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE - An Uplifting Story of Bravery and Determination
by Ashley Dickson-Ellison (@teachingtheapocalypse) Abi Daré's debut novel, The Girl with the Louding Voice, captures your heart with the focus on Adunni, a young Nigerian teenager who loses her ability to go to school and becomes a child bride after her mother's untimely death. Despite her father's promise to her mother that Adunni will get to continue her education and will not become trapped in a life of hard work and misery, her father agrees to her marriage for a bride pr
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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 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 12, 2020
- 5 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! May 12, 2020 featuring Homa, Kamp, Thomas
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) I had such a hard time choosing only three books to highlight today--I've included a few more at the end, but do yourself a favor and check out the full list of books being published today. Ava Homa's Daughters of Smoke and Fire Description from Publisher: "Set in Iran, this extraordinary debut novel takes readers into the everyday lives of the Kurds. Leila dreams of making films to bring the suppressed stories of her people onto the global st
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- Apr 14, 2020
- 4 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! April 14, 2020 - Moore, Jimenez, Jamieson
by Jen Moyers (@jen.loves.books) Here are three books coming out today that I'm excited to read! Wes Moore's Five Days: The Fiery Reckoning of an American City Description from Publisher: "When Freddie Gray was arrested for possessing an 'illegal knife' in April 2015, he was, by eyewitness accounts that video evidence later confirmed, treated 'roughly' as police loaded him into a vehicle. By the end of his trip in the police van, Gray was in a coma from which he would never r
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- Apr 7, 2020
- 3 min
Pub Day Shout-Outs! April 7, 2020 - Alvarez, Carr, War
I (Jen) had a really hard time narrowing my choices today to just three--so if you scroll down, you'll find that I cheated and recommend a few extras (sorrynotsorry). Julia Alvarez's Afterlife Description from Algonquin Books: "Antonia Vega, the immigrant writer at the center of Afterlife, has had the rug pulled out from under her. She has just retired from the college where she taught English when her beloved husband, Sam, suddenly dies. And then more jolts: her bighearted b
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- Feb 3, 2020
- 1 min
Best Reads of 2019 - Jen's Picks
Oh, friends. I gave 51 books five stars in 2019, so this was tough for me! Ultimately, I settled--somewhat arbitrarily--on a top 15, ranging from middle-grade reads like Kelly Yang's Front Desk to Michelle Obama's brilliant memoir Becoming to a stunning multi-genre novel in Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archive (which I really need to re-read!). Anyway, here are 15 of the books I loved in 2019, in COMPLETELY random order (you can find reviews for all of them on Instagram,
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- 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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- Jan 27, 2020
- 5 min
Best Reads of 2019 - Ashley's Picks
2019 was a great year for reading for me. Many of these books were not written in 2019, but they were new to me this past year, and they were phenomenal. From Michelle Obama's Becoming that I read in right at the beginning of the year to John Boyne's The Heart's Invisible Furies, which I read very close to the year's end, I definitely read some keepers this year that I will be recommending and revisiting for a long time to come. These were all five bookish hearts books for me
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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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- Dec 6, 2019
- 2 min
Daniel José Older’s THE BOOK OF LOST SAINTS -- Jen's Review
"They came in boats and airplanes, armed with false documents and holy terror and a grinding wariness of what they would find. . . . They came and left behind family members clutching photographs, and promises to send money and frequent letters and powdered milk or vacuum cleaners or whatever it was impossible to find that year. . . . Each brought along a cord that stretched all the way back to the island and when they slept, each prayed the cord would send along news from ho
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- Sep 20, 2019
- 2 min
Min Jin Lee's PACHINKO - Ashley's Book Review
Upon beginning this novel, I was immediately swept away by the tender, compelling story of the young Sunja, child of Hoonie and Yangjin, and their family's challenges as they worked to make their living by running a boarding house for people in the small village where they lived in Korea. When Sunja found herself in a position of dishonor and shame, I was moved by her resolution and her courage. As she makes the move to Japan, the story shifts into an exploration of Korean li
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