Episode 243 - Ghosts, Ghosts, and More Ghosts

Book Cougars Episode 243

Episode 243 Show Notes

– Books We Considered for the Q4 Readalong –
The Shining – Stephen King
Hell House – Richard Matheson
A House With Good Bones – T. Kingfisher
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Whistler – Nick Medina
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
A Haunting on the Hill – Elizabeth Hand
Ghost Story – Peter Straub

If you want to hear us talk more about these books head over to BookTube.

– Currently Reading –
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) – co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall (CW)
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler – Susana M. Morris (CW)
Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Restaurant – Amanda Cohen, Ryan Dunlavey, Grady Hendrix (EF)

– Just Read –
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton – Edith Wharton (CW)
The Rarest Fruit – Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Hildegarde Serle (EF)
To Catch a Thief – David Dodge (CW)
A New Lease on Death: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery – Olivia Blacke (EF)
‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ by M.R. James from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
All The World Can Hold – Jung Yun (EF) release date 3/10/2026
Jung has been featured in Author Spotlights on Episode 104 and Episode 142

– Episode Sponsor –
Playback by Carla Malden
Learn more about Carla and her writing.

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily hopped the rails to New York City where Chris worked in the archives at Barnard College. While she was working Emily and Aunt Ellen visited Book Culture, Columbia University Bookstore, and stopped at The Hungarian Pastry Shop. Read more about this café where writers go to work – and eat cake

Through a recommendation by a student at her library, Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching The Gorge which features The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are going back to NYC to meet Aunt Ellen to visit The Twisted Spine, the new horror bookstore in Brooklyn.

Emily is heading to Cape Cod where she hopes to visit Titcomb’s Bookshop and Annie’s Books & Gifts. She is also taking a large stack of books to read including The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner and Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall.

The next Patreon Reading Salon will take place on Sunday, September 28th.

– Upcoming Reads –
Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery – Olivia Black (EF) release date 10/21/2025
A House With Good Bones – T. Kingfisher
Swimming Studies – Leanne Shapton (EF)
Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather (CW)
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (CW)
Christ in Concrete – Pietro di Donato (CW)
Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life – Donna Leon (CW)
Capote in Kansas – Kim Powers (CW)
The Doll Who Ate His Mother – Ramsey Campbell (CW)
‘The Moonlit Road’ by Ambrose Bierce from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook
Upcoming Short Story Buddy Read with Our Mystery Man:
"The Mask of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde

– Out Now –
The Secret of Secrets – Dan Brown

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 4th Quarter Book –
The 4th Quarter Readalong is How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, November 9th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.

Our theme for 2025 is Ghost Stories! Click here to follow everything Ghost Stories 2025.

There is a ghost story discussion thread on Goodreads. Come tell us about your favorite ghost stories or those you are interested in reading.

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.

– Also Mentioned –
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Also by Nick Medina: Indian Burial Ground and Sisters of the Lost Nation
Never Whistle At Night  edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
To Catch a Thief movie
The Belgian Girls by Kathryn J. Atwood
Learn more about Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The September House by Carissa Orlando

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audiobook platform: Follow this link and use promo code: bookcougars
Shop on Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!

Help support the Book Cougars, by becoming a Patreon member.
If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.
Sponsor an episode of the podcast or the newsletter.

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Episode 176 - We're in a New York State of Mind

Book Cougars Episode 176

Episode One Hundred Seventy Six Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– Patreon Giveaway News –
Congratulations to Julie who won the February Patreon giveaway: The Wise Hours: A Journey into the Wild and Secret World of Owls by Miriam Darlington.
The upcoming Patreon giveaway is Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott. Check out Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, in conversation with Lexie on Episode 128 of Central Booking. To be automatically entered to win, become a Patreon by March 15th.  

– Currently Reading – [2:42]
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley (CW)(EF) (audio)
Dragonfly in Amber – Diana Gabaldon (CW)
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir – Iliana Regan (EF)

– Just Read – [8:10]
The Sunwise Turn: A Human Comedy of Bookselling – Madge Jenison (CW)
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks (EF)
Sarah and the Big Wave: The True Story of the First Woman to Surf Mavericks – Bonnie Tsui, Illustrated by Sophie Diao (EF)
A Singer’s Romance – Willa Cather (CW) (Learn more about the short story project.)
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)(audio)
Where Snow Angels Go – Maggie O’Farrell, illustrated by Daniela Jaglenka Terrazzini (EF)
Ms. Demeanor – Elinor Lipman (EF)
Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson (EF) release date 3/7/2023

– Biblio Adventures – [39:25]
Chris and Emily went to Playhouse on Park and saw the production of Indecent by Paula Vogel and stopped for a browse at Riverbend Bookshop in West Hartford.

Chris and Emily spent two days in New York City. Chris was doing research on Madge Jenison at the main branch of the New York Public Library. Emily got a chance to meet Elinor Lipman at an event via Book the Writer; Chris browsed in Book Culture while Emily was at the event. On day two they had brunch at Russ & Daughters Café with the author Matthew Goodman, visited the Virginia Woolf exhibit and the updated gift shop at the library, and shopped for office supplies at Kinokuniya Books.

Thanks to Anne in Austin, Emily had a virtual biblio adventure watching the first episode of Truth Be Told based on the novel, Are You Sleeping by Kathleen Barber.

Chris attended a lecture through the Bibliographical Society about the library of the Elliots of Minto presented by Meghan Constantinou.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [01:01:56]
Chris is planning to attend an event on Tuesday, February 28th at 4pm (ET) at the Beinecke Library titled Cow, Codex, Collagen: The Many Lives of Parchment with Bruce Holsinger, author of On Parchment: Animals, Archives, and the Making of Culture from Herodotus to the Digital Age.

April 28-30, 2023: Newburyport Literary Festival

May 5-6, 2023: Booktopia at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT

Emily is heading to California to visit Aunt Ellen.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:02:40]
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
Speak for the Dead – Amy Tector – (EF) release date 3/14/2023
The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journeys Through American Slavery and Independence – David Waldstreicher (CW)

– Out Now – [01:05:40]
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age – Katherine May

– Also Mentioned –
Burn the Place – Iliana Regan
Zora Neale Hurston
Pen America Award
Why We Swim – Bonnie Tsui
“Nanette: An Aside” – Willa Cather
The Song of the Lark – Willa Cather
A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
Jean Hanff Korelitz
Stacy Schiff
Mameve Medwed
Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
Serial Podcast
The Grolier Club

You can 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.