Unabridged: A Book Podcast

What happens when a book captures both the hardest parts of life and the possibility of hope? In episode 309, we’re discussing John Schu’s Louder Than Hunger (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), our March 2026 Book Club pick. Before we dive into this powerful middle-grade novel in verse, we share our Bookish Check-in: Ashley talks about Annie Hartnett’s The Road to Tender Hearts (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Jen shares her thoughts on Maggie Su’s Blob: A Love Story (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm).In our discussion of Louder Than Hunger, we talk about the emotional power of Schu’s storytelling, the way the verse form brings readers into Jake’s experience, and how the novel offers such an important portrayal of eating disorders, mental health, and healing. We also recommend our pairings, including Yara Zgheib’s The Girls at 17 Swann Street (Bookshop.org) and Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper (Vol 3 Bookshop.org | Vol 4 Bookshop.org).We wrap up with a couple of our latest Unabridged favorites. We’d love to hear what you thought of Louder Than Hunger and hope you’ll join us for the conversation.Visit the Unabridged website for our full show notes and links to the books mentioned in the episode. Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.Want to support Unabridged?The number 1 way to support us is by purchasing Bookshop.org books from our Unabridged shop. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram or Facebook. | Join our Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. | Visit our curated list of books at Bookshop.org. | Become a patron on Patreon. | Check out our Merch Store. | Visit the resources available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Have you discovered a nonfiction audiobook that completely drew you in? In this episode, we’re sharing some of our favorite nonfiction audiobooks as part of the 2026 Unabridged Reading Challenge.Before diving into our recommendations, we start with our bookish check-in. Then we turn to nonfiction audiobooks we’ve loved. Jen recommends Hannah Ritchie’s Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), an accessible and hopeful look at climate change that balances honest data with practical, actionable solutions. Ashley shares Juno Dawson’s This Book Is Gay (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), a candid, funny, and informative guide to exploring gender and sexuality that tackles complex topics with openness and compassion.We wrap up with a Lit Chat question about how we treat our books, including whether we annotate, use book darts, or keep every page pristine.If you’re looking for a great nonfiction audiobook to add to your TBR (or your reading challenge list), we hope you’ll join us for the conversation!Visit the Unabridged website for our full show notes and links to the books mentioned in the episode. Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.Want to support Unabridged?The number 1 way to support us is by purchasing Bookshop.org books from our Unabridged shop. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram or Facebook. | Join our Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. | Visit our curated list of books at Bookshop.org. | Become a patron on Patreon. | Check out our Merch Store. | Visit the resources available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Do you believe love is written in the stars, or is it something we shape for ourselves? We’re discussing our February Book Club pick, Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm). Before we dive in, we start with a quick bookish check-in: Jen shares about What We Can Know by Ian McEwan (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), a speculative literary mystery about art, archives, and the future of the humanities, and Ashley talks about Damsel by Elana K. Arnold (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), a dark, fairy-tale-inspired story that’s already raising big questions.Then we get into Lunar Love, where we talk about the tension between tradition and modern dating apps, what it means to inherit a family legacy, and whether compatibility should be rigidly focused on matchmaking. There’s a lot to unpack here about identity, growth, and opening yourself up to love—even when it doesn’t look the way you expected.We also share a couple of pairings, including Vanessa Yu's Magical Paris Tea Shop by Roselle Lim (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm) and Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and we close with our latest Unabridged Favorites.

Have you ever loved an author so much but then realized you’ve barely scratched the surface of their backlist? In episode 306, we’re talking about the “Book from a Favorite Author’s Backlist” category from the Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge and why exploring earlier works can be such a rewarding reading experience.Before diving into our backlist picks, we kick things off with a bookish check-in. For our main discussion, Ashley shares about The Obsession by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), reflecting on how dramatically tone can shift across an author’s body of work. Jen shares her backlist pick, The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and we talk about nuanced characters, moral complexity, and the joy of reading an author’s interconnected world over time. We wrap up with a Lit Chat question all about book recommendations. Whether you’re tackling this category for the reading challenge or just looking for a nudge to revisit a favorite author, we hope this conversation inspires your next pick.Bookish Check-inAshley - Laura Dave’s The Night We Lost Him (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)Jen - Trent Dalton’s Boy Swallows Universe (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)Visit the Unabridged website for our full show notes and links to the books mentioned in the episode. Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.Want to support Unabridged?The number 1 way to support us is by purchasing Bookshop.org books from our Unabridged shop. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram or Facebook. | Join our Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. | Visit our curated list of books at Bookshop.org. | Become a patron on Patreon. | Check out our Merch Store. | Visit the resources available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Have you ever finished a book you absolutely loved but found hard to explain? In this episode of Unabridged, we’re discussing our January 2026 Book Club pick, National Book Award winner The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), which is brilliant in ways that are sometimes hard to articulate. Before diving into the discussion, we start with a bookish check-in: Ashley shares about Vera Wong’s Guide to Snooping (on a Dead Man) by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm), and Jen talks about Life on a Little-Known Planet: Dispatches from a Changing World by Elizabeth Kolbert (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm).From there, we dig into Raja the Gullible, talking about Raja’s unforgettable narrative voice, the novel’s nonlinear structure, and the way humor and tragedy coexist on the page. We explore Raja’s complicated, tender relationship with his mother, the impact of memory and trauma across decades, and how personal stories are shaped by larger national and historical forces. We also share book pairings, give this one a resounding five bookish hearts, and wrap up with a couple of Unabridged favorites.If you’re participating in the 2026 Unabridged Reading Challenge, this book fulfills the category “book from an awards list.” If you read this one, we’d love to hear what you thought!Visit the Unabridged website for our full show notes and links to the books mentioned in the episode. Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.Want to support Unabridged? The number 1 way to support us is by purchasing Bookshop.org books from our Unabridged shop. Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram or Facebook. | Join our Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. | Visit our curated list of books at Bookshop.org. | Become a patron on Patreon. | Check out our Merch Store. | Visit the resources available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.