Episode 227 - Spotlight with Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Megan Marshall
Episode 227 Show Notes
Click here for information about our year of reading Ghost Stories and to download your Bingo card!
– 2025 Readalong Theme and 1st Quarter Book –
Our theme for 2025 is Ghost Stories! There is a ghost story discussion thread on Goodreads. Come tell us about your favorite ghost stories or those you are interested in reading.
The 1st Quarter Readalong is The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, February 16th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
We will also be doing a companion read of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin.
Over the course of the year, we will be reading The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce, one story at a time. If you would like to join us there is a schedule available on Goodreads or we can email a copy.
– Currently Reading –
Swann’s Way – Marcel Proust (CW)
Robin is doing a buddy read, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robinlgustafson/ and via #ProustPilotProject
O Pioneers! – Willa Cather (CW)
Learn more about Colleen’s Cather reading challenger here and follow her at https://www.instagram.com/colleenka/.
Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life – Ruth Franklin (EF)(audiobook)
Good Dirt – Charmaine Wilkerson (EF)
– Just Read –
The Grey Wolf – Louise Penny (CW)
I’ll Be Right Here – Amy Bloom (EF) release date 6/24/25
Bloom was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 153
A New Home, Who Will Follow? – Caroline Kirkland (CW)
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave – Elle Cosimano (EF) release date 3/4/25
The Vanishing Kind – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 3/4/25
Henderson was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 141
Fortune Favors the Dead – Stephen Spotswood (EF)
How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith – Mariann Edgar Budde (CW)(audiobook)
My Life in France – Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme (EF)(audiobook)
The Inn – Guy De Maupassant (CW)
After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart – Megan Marshall (CW)(EF)
The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce year-long read, first short story “The Old Nurse’s Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell (CW)(EF)
– Episode Sponsor –
The Left Hand by Brittnay J. Sears
Learn more about Brittnay and the novel here.
– Biblio Adventures –
Emily watched the film The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse based on the book by Charlie Mackesy.
Chris participated in the Women’s Prize Book Club book club with Sarah Waters in conversation with Simon Savidge about her novel Fingersmith.
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to The New York Society Library where they participated in a virtual event via the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism featuring Ruth Franklin in conversation about her new book The Many Lives of Anne Frank. Then they attended the in-person event with The New Relic Theatre presenting Lord Byron’s Manfred.
– Upcoming Jaunts –
On February 12, Emily is registered to attend an event at RJ Julia’s Booksellers in Madison, CT. Kristan Higgins will be in conversation with Charmaine Wilkerson and her new novel Good Dirt. You can register here.
On February 17, Chris is registered for an event via Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library: Belle da Costa Greene and Modern Art with Deborah Parker. Learn more and register here.
On February 20, Jenn Bouchard will be signing copies of her book Considering Us at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT.
– Upcoming Reads –
Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing – Abigail Thomas (EF)
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson (CW)(EF)
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now…A Love Story – Jason Reynolds (EF)
The Cheesemaker’s Daughter – Kristin Vukovic (EF)
The Secret of Secret’s: A Novel – Dan Brown (CW) release date
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy – Ta-Nehisi Coates (CW)
Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era – Tiya Miles CW)
– Author Spotlight with Megan Marshall –
We chat with Megan about her book After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart.
Learn more about Megan and her writing here.
– Also Mentioned –
Learn more about Bookshop.org e-books
Black Dirt by Charmaine Wilkerson
In Love by Amy Bloom (audiobook)
Author Roxane Gay
Learn more about Alice Henderson’s Alex Carter series
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap…And Others Don’t by Jim Collins
Author Rachel Held Evans
Next Penguin Ghost Story: “What Was It?” by Fitz-James O’Brien
Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters
The Singular Tragedy of Anne Frank – Guest Op-Ed in the NY Times by Ruth Franklin
The Diary of Anne Frank: The Critical Edition
The Oneg Shabbat Archive
A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America by Clint Smith
Author Octavia Butler
John Updike’s Rabbit Series
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romantism by Megan Marshall
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writing (LOA #388) co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall
Help support the Book Cougars via our affiliates:
Libro.fm audiobook platform: Follow this link and use promo code: bookcougars
Shop on Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!
If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.
Join our Goodreads Group!
Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.
