Pages Unknown

In Rebecca Thorne's Can't Spell Treason Without Tea , two women commit treason and leave their high profile lives to open a tea/book/plant shop in a small town that just so happens to be a stone's throw from dragon country. Along the way they meet a lovely cast of characters and build a family they didn't know they needed. All is well until their old lives and responsibilities come...

Colonialism, magic, and blaming everything on England. We're discussing R.F. Kuang's Babel with our good friend Emma (theaceofbooks on TikTok)! We also chat all about Booktok, some hot takes, and her (small) collection of grammaticas! We hope you enjoy! Want to grab your own copy? Check out our store! We've partnered with Bookshop.org and opened our own little Pages Unknown shop where...

This week we're tackling the fast-paced, twisty-turny fantasy novel Bloodmarked , Tracy Deonn's follow up in the King Arthur retelling Legendborn Cycle series (which we covered in episode #13). This episode will contain *light* spoilers from book one so be warned! If you haven't yet read it, go check out Legendborn (and our episode) and then come back! (Or keep listening if you're...

Ryan Douglass' YA paranormal, horror novel The Taking of Jake Livingston is at its core a story centered around family relationships, mental health, loneliness, and the deep seeded racism in American society. Despite these heavy topics, the book has beautiful moments of happiness, reconciliation, and self discovery with some campy vibes sprinkled throughout. Trigger warning for this one, thoug...

In the lush world of P. Djèlí Clark's novel A Master of Djinn we visit a reimagined, steampunk version on Cairo in 1912 outfitted with magical beings, a murder mystery, and a misguided, mythical prophet wreaking havoc. We follow Fatma el-Sha’arawi, the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, while she works to crack the case. Special shoutout...

This week we're talking about Tracy Deonn's fantastic re-imagination of the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. This book gets a whole lot of love and for very good reason. We unpack the treasure trove of themes, and basically beg you to read this book.   Want to grab your own copy? Check out our store! We've partnered with Bookshop.org and opened our own little P...

We sit down with author Heather Nix to discuss her debut sapphic, high fantasy novel Woodborn. This failed-DND-campaign-turned-book centers around a found family cast of characters from extremely different circumstances joining together to save their world from an oppressive religious cult. It's got magic, dates with destiny, spicy romance scenes, and did we mention pirates? Comprehensive list...

In her book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times , Katherine May asks us to actively accept and embrace sadness and loss while also seeking nourishment and growth in these moments we withdraw from every day life. This book inspires reflection on things current society views as "bad" and asks us to consider seeing them as natural and good instead. This is a shorter book and a...

New year, new you, new books! It's time to talk all things reading goals and New Year's resolutions for 2023! All the books we're putting on our list plus the ways we're diversifying our reads. Storygraph coming soon! Want to support the podcast? Here's three ways you can right now! #1. Leave us a rating wherever you get your podcasts.  #2. Write a short review of the podcast along with your...

We're talking all things queer holiday romance with our friend Sammie (aka booksdogsandcoffee on TikTok)! We read three books for the holiday season, one for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa: Kiss Me at Kwanzaa by L.L. Bucknor, Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun, and The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish.  We hope you have a happy and safe holiday season! We will see you on January...

Sangu Mandanna, author of the cozy fantasy romance The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, sat down with us to discuss the worlds she creates as well as all things writing and authorship. We each dove in her backlist of books and were excited to find some new books to recommend to all of you!  Want to grab your own copy? Check out our store! We've partnered with Bookshop.org and opened o...

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is finally over and we're exhausted! We're sharing our experiences with attempting to write 50k words and we give a preview for what's to come in 2023! Hint: more books, author interviews, plus general silliness over on TikTok (@pagesunknown). We hope you enjoy the episode! Want to support the podcast? Here's three ways you can! #1. Leave us a rating wherev...

It's that time of year again! November 1st begins National Novel Writing Month, aka NaNoWriMo, where aspiring writers scramble to write 50,000 words in 30 days (1,667 per day!). We highlight some books that were written and subsequently published by folks who took the challenge previously to show that it is indeed possible! We're also taking the challenge this year and will be sharing our experien...

Autumn ushers in the return to school and, along with it, waves of nostalgia about the libraries we haunted and the books we read and loved. On this episode, we pitch to you the books that we adored as younger people as well as the books sitting on our to be read shelves. So grab a tea, sit back, and enjoy this trip down memory lane! Fair warning, the audio levels are a little weird on this one. S...

For the anniversary of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight we’re reminiscing about sparkly vampires, shirtless werewolves, and exploring some religious trauma! Classic combo. We'll dive into the new romance novel Corinne and the rumors that it shares the same author that gave us Bella and Edward. In Corinne, the titular character and her childhood love interest, Enoch, reconnect and navigate an exceedingly...

Two best friends, one demon, and a bodybuilding exorcist make for one hell of a ride, and a read, in Grady Hendrix's My Best Friend's Exorcism ! It's a campy, 80's nostalgia filled book to kick off your Halloween month and, as luck would have it, Amazon's adaptation of the book will be available this Friday, September 30th. I do want to put a trigger warning on this book as an FYI ! If you enjoyed...

Just one day left before Autumn begins and that means pumpkin spice, falling leaves, & curling up with a cozy book. We're talking cozy fantasy! We read Legends and Lattes & The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches ! These have romance, diverse characters, queer representation, and, maybe most importantly, many cups of caffeinated beverages.  If you enjoyed the podcast, please leav...

We're discussing Jennette McCurdy's memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died . After finishing the book, we can safely say we're also glad her mother's dead. We'll get into all the painful details Jennette shares with us, Nickelodeon and childhood fame, confronting family trauma, plus gossipy celebrity and YouTuber tell alls.  Want to grab your own copy? Check out our store! We've p...

Welcome to Episode 0 of Pages Unknown! We're Zachariah and Michaela and in this podcast we'll be sharing our many (many) opinions about the books we're reading, the ones sitting on our shelves, and their places in pop culture. This episode is a quick introduction to us, our tastes in books, and what this podcast is all about. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave us a review and let us know! Ne...