Episode 134 - Announcing Our 18th Readalong!

Episode One Hundred Thirty Four Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– A Big Book Summer Reading Challenge –
Please let us know what you are reading this summer! Call 860-391-6674 or email bookcougars@gmail.com to let us know what big book (over 400 pages) you are going to read this summer.
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

Some listeners let us know what they are planning to read:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Border – Don Winslow
The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah

You can also discuss your summer reads on our Goodreads thread here.

– Currently Reading –
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
Lucy Gayheart – Willa Cather (CW)
The Apology Project – Jeannette Escudero (EF) release date 8/1/21
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (CW)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF)

– Just Read –
The Personal Librarian – Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (CW)
The Ninth Hour – Alice McDermott (EF)
When the Stars Go Dark – Paula McClain (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended an event through the Emily Dickinson Museum with Alena Smith, creator of the television series Dickinson and Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. You can learn more about events at the Museum here.

Emily visited the Basalt Regional Library in Colorado. She also went on two bookstore adventures in Westerly, Rhode Island: Savoy Bookshop & Café and Re-Reads Bookshop.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is registered to attend an event on July 24 at 1:00 ET at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT with Jenn Bouchard, debut author of First Course. You can register for the event here.

Chris is planning to attend an event on August 5th at 6PM ET at Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, in conversation with Emily Arsenault, author of When All the Girls Are Sleeping. You can sign up for the event and purchase a signed copy of the book from Book Club on the Go.

– Upcoming Reads –
Home – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
Her Perfect Life – Hank Phillippi Ryan (EF) release date 9/14/21
Razorblade Tears – S.A. Crosby (CW)
The Final Girl Support Group – Grady Hendrix (CW)
The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny (CW) release date 8/24/2021

– Favorite Reads of the Year (So Far) –
Emily:
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch – Erin French
The Hare – Melanie Finn
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
The Last Romantics – Tara Conklin

Chris:
The Shadow Box – Luanne Rice
Country Place – Ann Petry
Leaving Coy’s Hill – Katherine A. Sherbrooke

– 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.
The podcast discussion with the author will drop on September 28th via Episode 139, please get questions/comments to us by September 20th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Book People
Fabled Bookshop & Cafe
Nowhere Bookshop
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: Colloquialisms, and Catch-Phrases, Solecisms and Catachresis, Nicknames, and Vulgarisms – Eric Partridge
Carnegie’s Maid – Marie Benedict
The Morgan Library & Museum
Charming Billy – Alice McDermott
The Paris Wife – Paula McClain
The Child Finder – Rene Denfeld
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel Van Der Kolk
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir – Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
Blacktop Wasteland – S.A. Crosby

You can help support the Book Cougars via our affiliates:
Libro.fm audiobook platform: Follow this link for the monthly membership. (promo code: bookcougars)
We are an affiliate of Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
Bookshop.org – support us and independent bookstores!

If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. You can DONATE HERE. If you would prefer to donate directly to us, please email bookcougars@gmail.com for instructions.

Join our Goodreads Group!

We have a BookTube Channel – please check it out here, and be sure to subscribe!

Please subscribe to our email newsletter here.