Episode 12: The Best of the Best - Our Top Reads of 2021

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode #12 

Episode Title: The Best of the Best: Our Top Reads of 2021

Release Date: December 17, 2021

Episode Summary: 

Who doesn’t love a “Best of” book list? Join us today as we share our top reads of 2021!

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading
  
  
  

Highlights:

• Roni shares her nerdy, detailed reading statistics and the spreadsheet she used to track them

• Roni’s most successful book recommendation source

• Our favorite thrillers of the year

• Our favorite contemporary romances of the year

• Roni’s favorite historical romances

• Giving audiobooks a chance and Roni’s faves 

• Our favorite fantasy books of the year

• Roni’s favorite memoirs and essay collections

• Our favorite general fiction books

• Dawn’s random favorites

• Our RAD recs of the week

*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Roni’s Faves of 2021:

• In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashely Winstead (reviewed in episode 2)

• Good Neighbors by Sarah Langan

• Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian (reviewed in episode 2)

• The Roommate by Rosie Danan (reviewed in episode 4)

• The Wallflower series by Lisa Kleypas (reviewed in episode 11)

• When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn (reviewed in episode 4)

• My Life In France by Julia Child (reviewed in episode 7)

• Share Your Stuff, I’ll Go First by Laura Tremaine

• Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo (reviewed in episode 6)

• Vicious by V.E. Schwab (reviewed in episode 9)

• I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott

• Text Me When You Get Home by Kayleen Schaeffer

• Joyland by Stephen King (reviewed in episode 4)

• Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (reviewed in episode 7)

Dawn’s Faves of 2021:

• No Exit by Taylor Adams (reviewed in episodes 5 and 9)

• Twisted Hearts/Unraveled Love (duet) by Stacey Lynn

• Fireproof by Delancey Stewart

• The Art of Falling for You trilogy by Maya Hughes (reviewed in episode 2)

• You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle

• Waking the Dragon by Juliette Cross (reviewed in episode 4)

• At the Cabin by Claudia Blood

• The Alpha’s Salvation by Marlowe Roy

• Hooked by Emily McIntire 

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan (Roni rec)

• Yes & I Love You by Roni Loren (Dawn rec)

• What If You & Me by Roni Loren (Dawn rec)

Other books mentioned:

• As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avid DeVoto by Joan Reardon

• The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren

Other non-book recommendations:

Sarah’s Bookshelves Reading Tracker 

Find us online:

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Another note: Because we are both in the publishing industry, sometimes the books we recommend might be by an author we know personally, an author who shares a publisher, editor, or agent with Roni, or an author whom Dawn has edited. Publishing is a small world, so that will happen from time to time. However, we guarantee that we only recommend books we love. We have not been asked to promote any of these books and none are paid ads. However, some books we review may be ARCs (advanced reading copies provided by publishers to reviewers for honest reviews.)

Episode 6: Distraction Detox - Less Screen Time, More Reading Time

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode # 6 - Reading Upgrade

Episode Title: Distraction Detox - Less Screen Time, More Reading Time

Release Date: Nov. 5, 2021

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

Episode Summary/Highlights: 

Do you find yourself picking up your phone instead of picking up a book or your e-reader? Yeah, us too. Today we tackle how to tame the screen time so we can get more reading time, especially during the busy holiday season. We’ll also discuss how the type of book you pick up can make all the difference. And as usual, we’ll have a pile of reading recs for you! 

Highlights:

• This is our reading brains on smartphones

• The power of Do Not Disturb

• How to reclaim reading time in a screen time world

• Roni’s haunted moaning window makes a cameo

• The types of books that are better suited for distracted minds

• Fast-starting book recs

• Recs for short and snappy reads

• Short story/essay collections that you can tackle in bite-sized bits

• Page-turning memoirs

• Some of our favorite binge-worthy book series

• Roni is horrified to realize she’s read books two and three of a series and not book one

• Roni’s doorstop length books

• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

EPISODE SPOILERS AHEAD…

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Books recommended by Roni:

• Boys Like You by Juliana Stone

• I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron

• Evidence of the Affair by Taylor Jenkins Reid

• This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Phillips

• Shadow and Bone series by Leigh Bardugo

• Brokedown Cowboy (Copper Ridge series) by Maisey Yates

• Bad News Cowboy by Maisey Yates

• 11/22/63 by Stephen King

• Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Books recommended by Dawn:

• Chasing Vega by Terry Shepard

• Why Moms Are Weird by Pamela Ribon

• Charmed in Texas series by Sharla Lovelace

• Faceoff anthology by International Thriller Writers

• Matchup anthology by International Thriller Writers

• Different Seasons by Stephen King

• Tinsel and Tatas anthology for charity

• The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

• Always a Bridesmaid (For Hire) by Jen Glantz

• One For the Money (Stephanie Plum series) by Janet Evanovitch

• Naked In Death (In Death series) by J.D. Robb

Other books mentioned:

• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

• Gold Valley series by Maisey Yates

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik (Dawn)

• Deep Work by Cal Newport (Roni)

Roni’s many blog posts on social media breaks and device-free summers:

• A Screen-Free Summer for Kidlet: How, Why, & If I'll Lose My Mind

• The 10-Day Update 

• 5 Week Update on Screen-Free Summer

• The End of Our Screen-Free Summer: Results and Moving Forward

• The After-Effects of Our Device-Free Summer

• Device-Free Summer 2.0: Why We’re Doing This Again

• 7 Things to Reduce Distractions and Increase Focus

• On Productivity and Distraction: Deep Work

• Revisiting Deep Work

• Stop Letting Your Inbox Distract You: Making Rules Work For You

• The Digital Declutter & Why I’m Taking a 30-Day Social Media Break

• After the 30-Day Social Media Ban: What Surprised Me & What I’m Changing

Find us online:

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Another note: Because we are both in the publishing industry, sometimes the books we recommend might be by an author we know personally, an author who shares a publisher, editor, or agent with Roni, or an author whom Dawn has edited. Publishing is a small world, so that will happen from time to time. However, we guarantee that we only recommend books we love. We have not been asked to promote any of these books and none are paid ads. However, some books we review may be ARCs (advanced reading copies provided by publishers to reviewers for honest reviews.)

Episode 3: Making Your Own Reading Journal (AKA Fun with Office Supplies)

RAD Reading Podcast
Episode # 3

Episode Title: Making Your Own Reading Journal (AKA Fun with Office Supplies)

Release Date: October 15, 2021

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

Episode Summary: 

We love upgrading our reading lives, so this week we’re talking about one of our favorite ways to enhance the reading experience--creating our own reading journals! Plus, as always, we’re giving our RAD Reading Recs of the week.

Highlights:

• Why Dawn’s teen journals led her to get grounded--unnecessarily!

• The one journal Roni’s been able to stick with

• The basics of a reading/book journal

• Private reading journals vs. Goodreads 

• Roni avoiding awkward book signings

• What Dawn said that made Roni clutch her pearls

• The unexpected benefits of a reading journal

• Dawn’s epiphany about stencils

• The nuts & bolts of putting together your own journal

• What Roni wishes she’d been putting in her journal from the start

• Rating systems - Roni’s highly detailed one & Dawn’s low-key method

• Documenting reading challenges

• Finding your journaling style - decorative, bare bones, etc.

• Digital options for journaling

• Dawn’s signal that she’s been kidnapped

• Journaling tips

• Instagram perfect journals are not necessary

• Our favorite journaling supplies

• Our RAD Reading Recs of the Week

*Note: all book/product links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Supplies recommended by Roni:

• Leuchtturm1917 Journal 

• Stabilo Fineliner Pens

• Zebra Mildliner highlighters 

• Staedtler Ergosoft colored pencils 

• Staedtler Template, Geometric Shapes & Symbols to draw boxes and circles

Supplies recommended by Dawn:

• Plum Paper Notebook 

• Frixion pens

• Prisma Color Pencils 

Other resources mentioned:

• Roni’s free downloadable Romance Reading Journal

• Rock Your Reading Tracker by Sarah’s Bookshelves

• My Reading Journal by Anne Bogel (Modern Mrs. Darcy)

• Pensieve app

• Book of the Month club 

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Dawn’s Reading Journal

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Roni’s Reading Journal

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

Dear Writer, Are You In Burnout? by Becca Syme (Dawn’s rec)

Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert (Roni’s rec)

Find us online:

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Episode 2: Feeling All the Fall Feels - Seasonal Book Recs

Fall is here! This week we’re talking about whether or not we’re seasonal readers and how to enhance those autumnal vibes with your reading choices. We’re also bringing you a big stack of book recommendations! Roni’s got a pile of recs from one of her very favorite micro-genres: dark academia & campus novels. And Dawn is bringing the heat with sexy football-themed romances and some fun seasonal rom-coms. Come feel all the Fall feels with us!

Listen above or in your favorite podcast app:

• Apple podcasts

• Audible

• Spotify

• Acast  

• Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

Highlights:

• To Pumpkin Spice Latte or not?

• Which of us is a seasonal reader

• The genres we reach for in Fall

• How to enhance the season with your reading

• The types of books that are particularly suited for Fall

• Halloween getting the short end of the holiday stick

• Roni trying to pronounce “horror” but sounding like she’s saying something offensive

• Roni’s favorite dark academia and campus novels

• Why Dawn almost had to move out of her new house

• Why Roni, the romance author, doesn’t read a ton of romance 

• Roni horrifies Dawn with her stance on mysteries

• Texting whodunnit guesses while reading

• Dawn recs a football-themed romance series and some LOL seasonal rom coms

• The RAD Reading Recs of the week

• How Roni sees book scenes through Instagram filters

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*Note: all book links are affiliate links which means the podcast makes a small commission if you make a purchase, but there is no extra cost to you!

Books recommended by Roni:

• THE SECRET HISTORY by Donna Tartt

• FINDING FELICITY by Stacey Kade

• NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo 

• MISADVENTURES WITH A PROFESSOR by Sierra Simone

• NEVER SAW ME COMING by Vera Kurian

• IN MY DREAMS, I HOLD A KNIFE by Ashley Winstead 

• THE MAIDENS by Alex Michaelides 

• DINNER: A LOVE STORY by Jenny Rosenstrach

Books recommended by Dawn:

• THE FOURTH TIME CHARM by Maya Hughes

• THE ART OF FALLING FOR YOU by Maya Hughes

• FALLING INTO FOREVER by Delancey Stewart

• SHAKING THE SLEIGH by Delancey Stewart

• PINWHEELS, POTIONS, AND POSSIBILITIES by Fenley Grant

RAD Reading Recs of the Week: 

• THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper (Dawn’s rec)

• THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE by V.E. Schwab (Roni Rec)

Other books/authors mentioned:

• The Babysitter’s Club series

• The Harry Potter series

• Author Grady Hendrix

• Author Riley Sager

• Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

• The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris

• Author Kresley Cole

• Harlequin holiday books

• Author Ruth Reichl’s food memoirs

• My Life in France by Julia Child

• Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo

• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Other non-book recommendations:

• Felicity (TV Show)

• YOU (TV show)

As promised on the podcast, here are photos of Roni’s cookbook collection: