All Books Aloud
Elizabeth and Martha are two sisters who love reading in all of its forms. Elizabeth is an academic librarian by day and fiction writer by night with a lifelong obsession with all things reading and books. Martha is a busy professional who came to her love of reading later in life, but now she’s an audiobook power user. We chat about the books we’re reading and delve a little deeper into a topic related to reading or publishing. We ask questions like, “Does listening to a book count as reading?” “Are genres a good or bad thing?” and “Do you finish every book you start?” If you love reading, nerding out about books, and sassy millennial hot takes, this podcast is for you!
Episodes
If you haven't listened to part 1 of this episode, we recommend doing so before listening to this episode! In part 2, we continue the conversation about literacy by taking a deep dive into some of the studies that have informed recent articles announcing the doom of literacy and reading. Specifically, we grapple with the source material for the viral Atlantic article, "The End of Reading is Here." We then look at so...
If you read the news or look at social media, you've probably heard that the U.S. is in the throes of a literacy crisis. Are we? And what do we even mean when we say 'literacy?' Join as we unpack this topic in a special two-part episode. In this first part, we discuss the history of books and reading, the definition of literacy, and how our digital age informs (and possibly changes?) what we mean when we talk about ...
We're back with our annual year-end reading round up. Join us as we talk about our year in reading, our favorite books of 2025, the big stories in the world of books and publishing (probably not a spoiler: AI), and what we're looking forward to reading in 2026.
We also talk about the pros and cons of different reading tracking apps and audiobook listening apps, how reading tastes can change over time, and how c...
In this episode, we are lucky enough to talk with author Zoe B. Wallbrook about her critically acclaimed debut novel, History Lessons. It's a clever, witty mystery on its surface that touches on deeper, more challenging issues with what the New York Times calls "a satirical bite." It also has a sweet romantic subplot that we are here for!
It was Library Journal's Mystery Debut of the Month in July, and was chosen as ...
Something about this season of cold weather and long, dark nights makes us want to read mysteries. Whether you like 'em cozy, hard-boiled, or realistic and by the book, there's something in this genre for everyone. Join us as we follow the clues to learn about the history, make-up, and readers of the mystery genre.
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Sources:
Have you ever wondered why we have "summer reads" but not winter or spring or fall reads? We both had various associations with "summer reading," namely from being kids out of school and having the languorous expanse of the summer stretching out in front of us. But we wondered what is really behind this phenomenon. Join us to find out more and hear about our own summer TBR lists.
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Books we'r...
Elizabeth just got back from a trip that included a day in the Original Book Town, Hay-on-Wye in Wales in the UK. It was adorable and she went to more bookstores than you can shake a stick at. It also made her wonder what other bookish vacations she could go on. When we started to dig into this idea for this episode, we found out that the answer is: a lot!
Join us in daydreaming about bookish trips to literary ...
Have you heard about the IMLS (Institute of Museum and Library Services) in the news lately? An Executive Order in mid-March ordered it be "eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law" and there has been a lot of conversation about it since. But this agency was relatively low profile politically until recently, so many people might not know much about it.
On this episode we talk about what t...
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work in a bookstore? According to Rebecca, bookseller and events manager at the independent bookstore Fireside Books, who we interview for this episode, it's a lot like playing a video game!
Join us to find out what she means by this, and also hear her talk about so many other interesting parts of her job, including how her work affects her reading, what it's like...
We were planning to talk about our reading habits and rituals in this episode...but then Elizabeth heard an NPR podcast about how no one reads anymore, at the same time as Martha read multiple articles about how more people bought Rebecca Yarros' latest book than any adult book since records began and that thanks to TikTok, Barnes & Noble is opening more stores this year. We had to ask ourselves: how could both ...
Have you ever wondered what it takes to be an audiobook narrator? Or is it perhaps your dream job like it is for Martha? In this episode, we interview audiobook narrator extraordinaire Laura Horowitz.
Laura tells us how she got into the business, what a day in the life for an audiobook narrator looks like, how she connects with authors and fans, and what the rise of AI might mean for audiobook narrators like ...
[Apologies, listeners! We're re-releasing this one because there was an audio glitch in the original episode. If you've already downloaded the episode from Wednesday, try this one instead!]
Happy New Year! There are some beliefs, truisms, urban legends, myths, whatever you want to call them, about books and reading that seem like they just won't die. Do audiobooks really count as reading? Are all reader...
Happy Holidays! We're bringing back our year-end reading round up. Join us as we talk about our year in reading, our favorite books of 2024, and what we're looking forward to reading in 2025. We also talk about how our conversation about goal-setting in January of this year impacted our years in reading (spoiler: profoundly and in a good way!)
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Books we talk about in this episode:<...
Romantic fantasies have taken the book world by storm in recent years, but fantasy stories that allow us to break free of the rules and limitations of our own world and reality are as old as human history. We wanted to learn more about the genre's history and its variations and sub-genres.
What's the difference between fantasy and science fiction? Between high fantasy and low fantasy? What about all the...
Whether or not you'll enjoy a book club depends a lot on your reading style, habits, and preferences. But if you're interested in joining a book club, there is truly one out there for everyone - different types, communities, themes, modalities, and more.
Join us as we talk about our own experiences with book clubs (as both participants and moderators), the history of book clubs (which includes a lot more soci...
Season 2 is here and our first episode is a big one! In some ways, we have been building up to this moment since the podcast began: we finally chat with Elizabeth's librarian inspiration and the All Books Aloud unofficial mascot, Nancy Pearl.
Nancy has had a storied life and a career about as influential as a librarian could hope for, and she shares so much of it with us during this hour. We talk about ...
In our season finale we talk with author Sarah T. Dubb about her debut novel, Birding With Benefits. It's a fun, flirty, sexy, and touching fake-dating romance novel featuring two protagonists in their 40s who fall in love while - you guessed it - bird-watching together. But Sarah hasn't always been a romance reader (or writer). In fact, her reading journey started solidly in literary fiction, but she fell in love w...
Is the book always better than the movie? If you had asked either of us before this episode, we both would have said unequivocally 'yes!' But our discussion showed us that this topic might actually be more nuanced than we realized. Join as we talk about nearly every Jane Austen adaptation ever made (don't worry, we also talk about other adaptations...a little), ponder whether we enjoy watching screen adaptations of ...
Two very special guests joined us for this episode - the other half of our sibling quartet, Bekka and Mike. Listen in as we talk about our early experiences with reading, the similarities in how our reading journeys started, where our tastes differ, and how we took different paths based on our personality traits.
We really enjoyed reminiscing with our siblings and reflecting on some childhood nostalgia, and w...
The topic of this week's episode is one of the few book-related topics we've found where we disagree! Martha loves to re-read her favorite books, whereas Elizabeth thinks life is too short to re-tread old ground. Martha begins the episode by setting herself the challenge of changing Elizabeth's mind...listen to find out if she's successful!
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Books we're reading in this episode:
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