RAD Reading

It’s all about book series today! We're defining the different types of series, talking about why we love reading them, and then we’re giving our favorite series starter books. Let’s do this!

• To series read or not to series read
• Connected series vs. continuing series
• Duets and trilogies
• Shared world series
• Roni remembers a book she forgot she wrote
• Dawn makes friends in parking lots with people pulling things out of their trunks 
• Series and fandoms and which fandom Roni was googling a decade ago
• Why we love series
• Why not waiting for a whole series to be written before buying can be important
• RIP one of Roni’s series
• Relief from decision fatigue
• Our favorite series starters recs
• Our RAD Recs of the Week
• How Loren is pronounced

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

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This week we’re chatting about how books can help our mental health, the kinds of books that work best for us when we’re feeling anxious or down, and we’re discussing the practice of putting trigger warnings in books. Also, we have our RAD Reading Recs of the week plus a few bonus picks!

Spoiler Alert: Spoiler for the book The Push by Ashley Audrain at 42:55, skip ahead one minute to 43:55 mark if you don’t want a spoiler.

• Roni got a puppy and is feeling loopy from lack of sleep
• Why waiting rooms can be a gift
• Reading and health
• Goat yoga but with teeth
• Calgon, take me away reading moments
• Dark stories in dark times
• Bibliotherapy is a real thing and a cool word
• Someone send Roni recs for dog-themed essay collections!
• That “this is me” feeling when reading
• How A Wrinkle In Time found Dawn at the exact right moment
• Romance, weirdness, and acceptance
• Thoughts on menage and laundry
• The beauty of the guaranteed ending
• Dawn throws shade at Nicholas Sparks (do people still say “throw shade”?)
• Romance vs. “a love story”
• Genre mystery vs. literary mystery vs. cozy mystery
• Dawn’s Apollo 13 anxiety
• Sometimes sad moods and happy comedic books are a bad mix
• What is a trigger warning? 
• Are trigger warnings spoilers?
• Transcending our GenX-ness (but Roni’s not giving up her Doc Martens)
• Our personal experiences with triggers in books
• Roni wants a “Does this book have…?” database
• Different ways authors handle trigger warnings
• Roni let Dawn down by not giving her a trigger warning for a movie
• Bonus books recs 
• The RAD Reading Recs of the week
• Stay tuned for bloopers!

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It’s that time of year, and we’re so here for it. Join us as we get all ourselves together for 2022. We’re sharing which planners we’re using to set goals and organize our year, and then we’re recommending our favorite self-improvement books for improving your home life, reducing distractions, getting control of your time, and boosting your creativity. We've got a long list! Plus, as always, we’ll be sharing our RAD Recs of the week.

• We’ve both ditched the planners we’ve used in the past and switched to new ones
• Which planners we’re using this year – and yes, there are multiple planners because we contain multitudes, okay. No one planner can contain us! ;) 
• Roni’s a pushy planner person
• How Dawn lost many hours of her life…planning her planner
• A "happy life" planner
• Dawn made a stencil journal
• Roni is learning to “use the things”
• Roni apparently needs a lot of self-help while Dawn only needs a little
• Books really can fix things
• Books for improving your home life
• Pondering deep questions like “why am I folding my underwear?”
• Books that helped us reduce distractions and tame social media/staring at our phones all the time
• Books that help you take back your time 
• Books that give you a creativity boost
• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week
• We still can't say “RAD Reading Rec” without stumbling on our words
• An important change to the podcast
• Listen all the way through the end for bloopers ;)

Find us online:

• RAD Reading on Instagram
• RAD Reading Facebook Page
• RAD Reading Website
• RAD Rec Master List
• Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram
• Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

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It’s one of our favorite times of the year—time to set new reading goals and challenges for 2022! Roni is sharing the many nerdy reading challenges that she’s tackling this coming year, and Dawn is firmly anti-challenge but has chosen some goals to enhance her reading year. Also, as always, we have our RAD reading recs of the week!

• One of us declares New Year’s their favorite holiday
• The difference between a reading challenge and a reading goal
• Can you count a DNF in a reading challenge?
• Dawn’s audiobook goal
• Roni’s book subscription addiction & Dawn tries to stage an intervention
• Reading goal suggestions
• The pros and cons of reading challenges
• The personality type that fits best with reading challenges
• The book Dawn flat out refused to read in school
• The Pizza Hut Book-It Challenge was our 80s jam
• Roni’s experience with her Read Wide challenge
• One of us has strong feelings about the randomness of some reading challenges
• Roni talks about the personal growth of not finishing one of her reading challenges this year (Update: since recording, she finished it because…personal growth is hard. :) )
• How to choose the right reading challenge for you
• Creating or customizing your own challenge
• Read Your Way to 10k (words not kilometers)
• Dawn’s reading goals
• The Bookish Subscription challenge
• The Indie Author challenge
• The Romance Roots/Fated Mates challenge
• Roni’s reading goals
• RAD Reading recs of the week

Click here to get the full show notes, including links and downloads for reading challenges, our recommendations, and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Roni's Happy for Now newsletter

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

• 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

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Books can make fantastic holiday gifts (obviously!) but knowing how to buy the right book for someone in your life can be harder than it looks. Today we’re tackling the challenge of buying books for others and sharing our best tips. And we also have a Santa-worthy list of our favorite bookish gifts. Oh, and you’re totally allowed to buy all of these things for yourself if you have no bookish person to buy for in your life. We won’t tell. ;)

• Gift-giving is a love language and one of us doesn’t know how to speak it fluently

• How to know if Roni loves you and what she hasn’t done with her husband in fifteen years

• Dad books

• The key to the “also boughts” on Amazon

• When that person in your life only reads one author or one series exclusively

• Dawn is a fail at hiding gifts

• Making a book gift feel extra personal

• Roni can’t seem to conjugate a verb

• Buying for the non-readers in your life

• A good ebook reader’s power to reignite a reading life

• A drool-worthy list of bookish gifts (no, we weren’t putting stuff in our carts for ourselves as we recorded, hush.)

• What gift makes Roni feel like she has a little taste of the library in her office

• Dawn gets attacked by a fly

• Out of town library cards

• Don’t put your address in a used book or Dawn will stalk you

• The joy of bookmail and our favorite bookish subscriptions

• We have feelings about the Amazon First Reads

• Go for the gold type gifts

• Making it easier for your family and friends to buy the right gift for you

• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

• Stay tuned for bloopers at the end



Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The What to Read decision fatigue is real, y’all. Join us today as we talk about some practical (and some bonkers!) ways to pick your next book, how to choose what's next if you’re a mood reader, and what to do if you keep picking up books you don’t like. Also, we’re giving you insider tips on how to read those Amazon and Goodreads reviews because all is not as it seems at first glance! Oh, and there’s an incident with an umbrella. 

• The decision fuel tank and Roni melting down over a Christmas tree
• The teetering TBR and the Why did I buy that again? brain fog
• Roni loves a spreadsheet as long as there is no math (and you can download a blank copy of her TBR spreadsheet for yourself!)
• Your taste and how books go stale
• Dawn and The Umbrella, you’ll just have to listen to understand
• Reading challenges and our opposing views
• Using “best of” book lists for inspiration
• Strange Facebook recommendation groups
• Some bonkers options for picking your next book
• Wrapping books? Um, what?
• Mood reading struggles
• Contagious bookish excitement and where to find it
• Book monogamy not required
• What to do when you keep picking up books you don’t enjoy
• Deciphering the gold in book reviews
• When “adorable” and “hilarious” are bad words
• No, Roni doesn’t have a chip on her shoulder about reviews, shut up
• Weird s*x reviews
• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

*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!

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It’s time for our November round-up of all the great things we’ve been reading, watching, or listening to this month. 

• We took a used bookstore field trip and ended up in very different aisles
• Roni reads a book Dawn recommended on the podcast and Dawn reads one of Roni’s recs
• Roni feels slightly betrayed 
• Trigger warnings involving spiders who wear top hats
• A movie that gives a character a perfect goal to strive for
• A TV show about a writer
• Roni needs a hotter Darkling
• A scarier than expected kids movie
• Roni’s Romantic Movie Marathon
• Dawn’s cozy watch
• Cooking without recipes
• Fabio hunting
• Roni remembers she’s part of the Rhythm Nation
• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

• RAD Reading on Instagram
• RAD Reading Facebook Page
• RAD Reading Website
• RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’re talking about dropping reader shame and reading what you want to read. Plus, we’re giving our top shameless reading recs! Make sure the kids aren’t in the room for this one, y’all. ;) Join us and read shameless! 

• The language/terms used to shame readers about certain types of books
• Roni gets on her soapbox about the word “cheesy”
• How genres read primarily by women are often shamed the most
• Shame about book covers, titles, taboos, and uncomfortable topics
• Self-help books and why they shouldn’t be shamed
• Graphic novels count as reading
• Romance novels and mental health
• People who watch romance on the screen but won’t read a romance novel
• Ways to keep things private if you really can’t been outwardly shameless
• Finding your people
• Our shameless book recs including Dawn’s blue aliens and Roni’s kinky picks
• Our RAD Reading recs of the week

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading on Instagram

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Grab your fuzzy socks, cozy blanket, and a cup of something warm. Today is all about fuzzy sock books, AKA comfort reading. We’re talking about the types of books that lend themselves best to comfort reading, sharing cozy bookish activities, and then giving you a pile of recommendations to snuggle up with, including our RAD recs of the week! Also, Roni gets somewhat electrocuted while recording...so that happened. 0_0

• Our favorite comfort reading categories
• The odd things we see posted on the neighborhood pages in our small towns
• Black moments vs. gray moments in a story
• What’s comforting can vary widely from person to person
• To reread or not to reread
• Watching the movie/TV show of a book (gasp!) first
• Dawn’s daughter’s shocking reading habit
• Roni’s deep secret she keeps from her husband ;)
• Comforting bookish activities
• Dawn gives us an update on her book journaling
• Dawn hunting down hero-inspired body wash
• Roni’s book-inspired food emergency
• Bookish girls’ night out 
• Our cozy book recommendations
• Roni is shocked--no, like literally with electricity--and blows out her microphone
• Our RAD Reading Recs of the week

Click here to get the full show notes, including links to all of our recommendations and anything else we mentioned in the show.

RAD Reading Facebook Page

RAD Reading Website

RAD Rec Master List

Connect with Roni on her website or @roniloren on Instagram

Connect with Dawn on her website or @dawnalexanderbooks on Instagram

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.