Unabridged: A Book Podcast

Maggie O'Farrell's I AM, I AM, I AM - Defiance of Death

For our November Book Club, we're discussing Maggie O'Farrell's I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, our first Unabridged Readers' Choice pick! This collection of connected essays elicited a different reaction from each of us . . . some of us definitely liked it more than others.We'd love to know what you think about this memoir. Join us all month on social media to discuss O'Farrell's work.
 
timeline
*Introduction and General Discussion: 00:00 - 39:28
*Book Pairings: 39:39 - 46:18
*Classroom Connections: 46:19 - 50:18
*Give Me One: 50:19 - 52:58
 
book pairings
*Ashley - Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club​
*Jen - Jesmyn Ward's Men We Reaped
*Sara - Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge -- Listen to Sara's perspective on this novel in Episode 16, Unpopular Opinion Alert
 
other mentions
*Lorrie Moore's short story collections such as Birds of America, including the short story "How" from her collection Self-Help
*Elizabeth Strout's Olive, Again​​
 
give me one - super hero edition
*Jen's pick - Captain America
*Sara's pick - Wonder Woman
*Ashley's pick - Black Panther
 
*Check out what's coming up next.
 
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Spooky Stories - Twisty in All the Right Ways

Join us for our 2019 edition of Spooky Stories! ​​We're here again this season to share with you our latest seasonal and spooky favorites. We'll talk the latest books (including Shea Ernshaw's Winterwood, coming out on November 5th... SO GOOD!), and we will share our thoughts about some of the Book of the Month picks from this season (including Alex North's The Whisper Man, Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient, and Riley Sager's The Last Time I Lied). ​What are you reading this season? Find us on social media to share your favorites!
 
our spooky picks
 
Jen's Picks
*Alex North’s The Whisper Man
*Jennifer McMahon’s The Invited
 
Ashley's Picks
*Sarah Henning’s The Sea Witch
*​Shea Ernshaw’s Winterwood
 
Sara's Picks
*Riley Sager’s The Last Time I Lied
*Alex Michaelides’s The Silent Patient
 
give me one - game edition
*Jen's pick - Exit: The Game (The Abandoned Cabin edition)
*Sara's picks - - Apples to Apples AND Trivial Pursuit: Pop Culture Edition
*Ashley's pick - Code Names
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
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Update on Our Recommendations to Each Other: A Love Story . . . and Also Not

Well, we have failed at reading all of our recommendations for each other, but we had a good time with some confessions, some reflection, and some reviews of how well we know each other. In general, I'd say that we did a pretty good job recommending books for each other . . . and a pretty bad job prioritizing our TBRs.Join us on social media to share your thoughts about these books, your recommendations for each of us, and your tips for TBR prioritization!
 
Missed out on the episode where we recommended books to each other? Listen here. 
 
Ashley’s Update
*Renee Watson’s Piecing Me Together 
*Ingrid Rojas Contreras’s Fruit of the Drunken Tree
*Hasn't read yet - 
*Laurie Halse Anderson’s Chains (The Seeds of America Trilogy)
*Sujata Massey’s The Widows of Malabar Hill​
 
Jen's Update ​
*A. Sivandan’s When Memory Dies 
*Knox McCoy’s The Wondering Years
*Louise Penny's Still Life
*Still finishing -
*Don Delillo’s White Noise ​​
 
Sara's Update 
*Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom
*Stephanie Perkins’s Anna and the French Kiss
*Laura Lippman’s Sunburn
*Hasn't read yet - 
*John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies​
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
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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​
*Rainbow Rowell's Wayward Son
*Rainbow Rowell's Pumpkinheads
*Rainbow Rowell's Attachments
*Rainbow Rowell's Landline
*Francine Pascal's Sweet Valley High series
 
give me one: one tv show you should watch
*Sara's pick: Justified
*Ashley's pick: The Good Place
*Jen's pick: Fleabag
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
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Literary Friends in Real Life - I Felt Like I Had Somewhere Brilliant to Go

Our short episode in which we pair two characters from two different books, those literary folks we think might be friends in real life, proved to be more challenging than we anticipated. Fortunately, as friends in real life (ha!), we supported each other, confirming the validity (when we could) of our choices.Listen to this new short episode, and then let us know what you think: are these friendships viable? what friendships do YOU think might work in real life?
 
Jen’s Match
*Wendy from Claire Lombardo’s The Most Fun We Ever Had with Marianne from Sally Rooney’s Normal People
 
Sara’s Match 
*Penny from Shea Ernshea’s The Wicked Deep with Evie from Sarah Henning’s Sea Witch
 
Ashley’s Match
*Leigh from Emily X. R. Pan’s The Astonishing Color of After with Lara Jean from Jenny Han’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
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Anissa Gray's THE CARE AND FEEDING OF RAVENOUSLY HUNGRY GIRLS - Relationships Between Women

We're thrilled to discuss Anissa Gray's new novel, The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls. Told in the alternating perspectives of the Butler sisters, this novel is timely, compelling, and, at times, heartbreaking.We offer pairings and recommendations for the ways that teachers can use this book in their classrooms.After you listen, join us on social media throughout October to participate in our book club discussions. We'd love to know what you think!
 
timeline
*Introduction and General Discussion: 00:00 - 36:03
*Book Pairings: 36:03 - 45:43
*Classroom Connections: 45:44 - 49:54
book pairings
*Ashley - Mira T. Lee's Everything Here is Beautiful
*Jen - Pat Conroy's The Prince of Tides
*Sara - John Green's Turtles All the Way Down​
 
classroom connections
*Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls
*Yara Zgheib's The Girls at 17 Swann Street
*Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing
 
other mentions
*Piper Kerman's Orange Is the New Black and the Netflix Series
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
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All about the Journey - Bump It Up on the List

For this short episode of Unabridged, we thought about journeys. Nearly every book contains some sort of journey--emotional, moral, time--but we wanted to focus on the physical journeys that often lie at the heart of novels to symbolize or catalyze something else.Our TBR lists explode (or shuffle, at the very least) as we each recommend two books with journeys at their centers. Listen to Jen remember our website's url, Sara get past not really loving journey novels all that much, and Ashley consider why audiobooks, while not always quite her first choice, are better than growing her TBR even more. Then, head over to social media to share your recommendations!
 
our selections
 
Ashley’s Picks
*Craig Thompson’s Carnet de Voyage
*Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi’s Americanah
 
Jen’s Picks
*Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
*Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive
 
Sara’s Picks
*J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows
*​Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven
 
other mentions 
*Camp TOB 
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
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Book and Song Pairings - I'm Going to Go for It

We took on a new challenge for this episode, offering our ideas for songs that pair beautifully with books. While none of us would call this our wheelhouse (I don't think!), we loved hearing the others' ideas for songs that resonate, for books that somehow connect in a meaningfully way to the feeling or story of the song.We would LOVE to hear your ideas for perfect book-and-song pairings. Visit us on social media to share your ideas!
 
​Ashley’s Picks
*Death Cab for Cutie’s “What Sarah Said” (lyrics here) with Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers
*X Ambassadors’ “Unsteady” (lyrics here) with Beth Macy’s Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
 
Jen’s Picks
*Pearl Jam’s “Jeremy” (lyrics here) with Dave Cullen’s Parkland: Birth of a Movement
*Lin-Manuel Miranda's “It’s Quiet Uptown” from the Hamilton soundtrack (lyrics here) with Dani Shapiro’s Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage
 
Sara’s Picks
*Chris Cornell’s "Nothing Compares to U" (LIVE Chris Cornell version, lyrics here) with Dane Hucklebridge’s Castle of Water
*Linkin’ Park’s "Shadow of the Day" (lyrics here) with Jennifer Niven’s All the Bright Places​​
 
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
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To All the Boys I've Loved Before Book to Film Adaptation - Get With It!

In our newest short episode, we embark on a discussion of one of our favorite things: a book-to-film adaptation. This time, we're discussing the Netflix adaptation of Jenny Han's fabulous YA romance To All the Boys I've Loved Before. While the book is fuzzier for some of us than others (it's been a loooong time for someone, folks!), we all nonetheless enjoy considering the positives and negatives of this adaptation. Spoiler alert: there are some elements we like better in the movie!
 
works mentioned
*Jenny Han's To All the Boys I've Loved Before
*​To All the Boys I've Loved Before Netflix movie adaptation
*My So-Called Life TV series
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
Become a patron on Patreon.​
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Elizabeth Acevedo's WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH - On Her Side

We're thrilled to discuss Elizabeth Acevedo's sophomore novel, With the Fire on High. Protagonist Emoni is a high school student, a mother, a granddaughter, and an amazingly inspired chef in training. Listen in for our discussion of the ways that Acevedo counters our expectations for this character. We offer pairings and recommendations for the ways that teachers can use this book in their classrooms.After you listen, join us on social media throughout September to participate in our book club discussions. We'd love to know what you think!
 
timeline
*Introduction and General Discussion: 00:00 - 35:00
*Book Pairings: 35:01 - 42:17
*Classroom Connections: 42:18 - 48:00
 
book pairings
*Ashley - Jade Chang’s The Wangs vs the World
*Jen - Roselle Lim’s Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune
*Sara - Erika Sanchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter​
 
classroom connections
*Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X
*Gaby Rodriguez's The Pregnancy Project
*Isabel Quintero's Gabi: A Girl in Pieces
*Robin Benway's Far from the Tree
 
​other mentions
*Chopped TV Series
*Beat Bobby Flay TV Series
*​Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate
Check out what's coming up next.
 
want to support unabridged?
Become a patron on Patreon.​
Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram.
Like and follow our Facebook Page.
Follow us @unabridgedpod on Twitter.
Subscribe to our podcast and rate us on iTunes or on Stitcher.
Check us out on Podbean.