Do you love reading books that your friends recommend? Jen and Ashley celebrate the joy of recommendations from friends on this year's Unabridged Reading Challenge with a category dedicated to that topic.
On today's episode, we're sharing our specific recommendations for each other, which we'll both read for the 2023 reading challenge category. Our picks include Aiden Thomas’s Lost in the Never Woods (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
and Sara Novic's True Biz (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). Listen in to hear why we made those choices!
How will our recommendations for each other work out? We'll report back later in the year after we've read the recommendations!
Bookish Check-in
Ashley - Tracy Deonn’s Bloodmarked (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen - Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Our Book Recs to Each Other
Ashley for Jen - Aiden Thomas’s Lost in the Never Woods (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Jen for Ashley - Sara Novic's True Biz (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
Two Years Ago This Month
Check out our brand new segment, and listen in to hear what we were doing two years ago! This time we shared about favorite podcast episodes from this month two years ago including episode 169 discussing Always and Forever Lara Jean and episode 167 discussing Mira Jacob’s Good Talk as our book club pick.
(A note to our readers: click on the hashtags above to see our other blog posts with the same hashtag.)
Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.
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Bookish Check-in
Ashley was reading...
Tracy Deonn’s Bloodmarked (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher: "The shadows have risen, and the line is law.
"All Bree wanted was to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death. So she infiltrated the Legendborn Order, a secret society descended from King Arthur’s knights—only to discover her own ancestral power. Now, Bree has become someone new:
"A Medium. A Bloodcrafter. A Scion.
"But the ancient war between demons and the Order is rising to a deadly peak. And Nick, the Legendborn boy Bree fell in love with, has been kidnapped.
"Bree wants to fight, but the Regents who rule the Order won’t let her. To them, she is an unknown girl with unheard-of power, and as the living anchor for the spell that preserves the Legendborn cycle, she must be protected.
"When the Regents reveal they will do whatever it takes to hide the war, Bree and her friends must go on the run to rescue Nick themselves. But enemies are everywhere, Bree’s powers are unpredictable and dangerous, and she can’t escape her growing attraction to Selwyn, the mage sworn to protect Nick until death.
"If Bree has any hope of saving herself and the people she loves, she must learn to control her powers from the ancestors who wielded them first—without losing herself in the process."
Jen was reading...
Colson Whitehead’s Apex Hides the Hurt (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher: "The town of Winthrop has decided it needs a new name. The resident software millionaire wants to call it New Prospera; the mayor wants to return to the original choice of the founding black settlers; and the town’s aristocracy sees no reason to change the name at all. What they need, they realize, is a nomenclature consultant. And, it turns out, the consultant needs them. But in a culture overwhelmed by marketing, the name is everything and our hero’s efforts may result in not just a new name for the town but a new and subtler truth about it as well."
Our Book Recs to Each Other
Ashley's Book Recommendation for Jen...
Aiden Thomas’s Lost in the Never Woods (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher: "It’s been five years since Wendy and her two brothers went missing in the woods, but when the town’s children start to disappear, the questions surrounding her brothers’ mysterious circumstances are brought back into the light. Attempting to flee her past, Wendy almost runs over an unconscious boy lying in the middle of the road...
"Peter, a boy she thought lived only in her stories, asks for Wendy’s help to rescue the missing kids. But, in order to find them, Wendy must confront what’s waiting for her in the woods."
Jen's Recommendation for Ashley...
Sara Novic's True Biz (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)
From the Publisher:
"True biz (adj./exclamation; American Sign Language): really, seriously, definitely, real-talk
"True biz? The students at the River Valley School for the Deaf just want to hook up, pass their history finals, and have politicians, doctors, and their parents stop telling them what to do with their bodies. This revelatory novel plunges readers into the halls of a residential school for the deaf, where they’ll meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who’s never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school’s golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the hearing headmistress, a CODA (child of deaf adult(s)) who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another—and changed forever.
"This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection."
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