Episode 241 - The Yellow Wallpaper

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Book Cougars Episode 241

Episode 241 Show Notes

– Currently Reading –
The Wedding People – Alison Espach (EF) (audiobook)
The Improbable Victoria Woodhull: Suffrage, Free Love, and the First Woman to Run for President – Eden Collinsworth (CW) release date 9/2/2025
Hotel Silence – Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir (translated by Brian Fitzgibbon) (EF)

– Just Read –
Working – Robert Caro (CW) (audiobook)
Until Alison – Kate Russo (EF)
The Upstairs House – Julia Fine (CW)(EF)
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman (CW)(EF) (audiobook) Gilman’s essay “Why I Wrote the Yellow Wallpaper” originally published in 1913
Wreck – Catherine Newman (EF) release date 10/28/25
Follow Catherine on Crone Sandwich
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)   
Fonseca – Jessica Francis Kane (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily took a joint jaunt to the main branch of the New York Public Library so Chris could work in the archives while Emily spent time in the Rose Reading Room. They also took a browse through The Drama Book Shop.

The next day they drove to Boston to visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Chris had a Zoom conversation with the reading group working through Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) – co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall.

Emily attended an event with Janice Nimura in conversation with Jessica Francis Kane about her new novel Fonseca at RJ Julia Booksellers.

Chris took a road trip where she did a drive-by of the Piper City Public Library in Illinois and browsed Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee. She also spent time visiting Huntsville, Alabama and enjoyed touring the city’s historic districts which includes some markers honoring women’s institutions and suffragists.

Emily met Aunt Ellen in NYC where they went to see a production of Call Me Izzy starring Jean Smart.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are planning an upcoming trip to the first Horror Bookstore in NYC – The Twisted Spine. They also have plans for a joint jaunt to

Emily is excited to attend the book launch party for Lara Ehrlich’s new novel Bind Me Tighter Still via Bank Square Books on Friday, September 12th. Learn more and register here.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Wind in the Rose-Bush by Mary Wilkins Freeman from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook) 
Bind Me Tighter Still – Lara Ehrlich (EF) release date
The Rarest Fruit – Gaëlle Bélem (EF)
Cat and Bird: A Memoir – Kyoko Mori (EF)
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (CW)
Chris is participating in a reading challenge Framed in September co-hosted by Hannah’s Books. Learn more about the challenge here.  
The Club: Where American Women Artists Found Refuge in Belle Époque Paris – Jennifer Dasal (CW)

– Also Mentioned –
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
Turn Every Page: Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb documentary
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Garden by Clare Beams
Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Joan Didion archives at the New York Public Library
The Doctors Blackwell by Janice Nimura
Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
Hermione Lee: Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life and Tom Stoppard: A Life
Animal Life by Lara Ehrlich

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Episode 240 - The Nightmare Touch

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Episode 240 Show Notes

– Giveaway! –
In celebration of another 10th episode we’re giving away a copy of Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner. The winner will be chosen on August 25th, to be entered to win subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

– Currently Reading –
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (EF) (audiobook)
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) – co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall (CW)
Sesame: Global Recipes & Stories of an Ancient Seed – Rachel Simons (EF)
The Upstairs House – Julia Fine (CW)

– Just Read –
Nightmare-Touch by Lafcadio Hearn from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)   
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race Around the World – Matthew Goodman (CW)
The Correspondent – Virginia Evans (EF) recently nominated for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize
The El – Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (CW)
A Family Matter – Claire Lynch (EF)
The Great Alone – Kristin Hannah (EF)

– Episode Sponsor –
Into the Shallows Darkly by Robin Cannon

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily enjoyed a conversation with their Patreon Community via the monthly reading salon. The theme was feminist literature.

Emily went to Madison, WI where she visited the main branch of the Madison Public Library and was excited to find a makerspace – The Bubbler – that was featuring a fake cake making activity.  She also stopped at Mystery to Me bookstore where the booksellers suggested two books: A Murderous Business: A Harriman & Mancini Mystery by Cathy Pegau (pub date 9/16/25) and Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake.

Chris had a browse through Kindred Thoughts Bookstore in Bridgeport, CT. Her book haul included Kindred by Octavia Butler, Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. The bookseller/owner mentioned his love of Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray.

Next up on Emily’s Midwest trip was a stop in Minneapolis, MN where she saw a lot of little free libraries and learned that the founder of Littlefreelibrary.org and visited Wild Rumpus Books where they had a host of live animals that live at the store and a great selection of merchandise from Out of Print and Comma, a bookshop where she purchased The Night Owl Sings: And Other Stories of Old Age by Judy McConnell; both of the stores are in the Linden Hill neighborhood. Last stop was at the Minneapolis airport where she took a browse through Open Books where they featured a selection of Milkweed Editions.

Emily attended a virtual conversation with Claire Messud and Geraldine Brooks about her memoir Memorial Days. Geraldine announced that she collaborated with Kamala Harris on the forthcoming 107 Days (pub date 9/23/25). You can watch the video here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is heading on a road trip and is excited to have time for some audiobook listening.

Chris is interested in the release of Outlander: Blood of My Blood premiering August 8 on Starz.  

On August 15, Emily is hoping to get to Wilcox Park in Westerly, Rhode Island to hear Marguerite Holloway talk about her book Take to the Trees: A Story of Hope, Science, and Self-Discovery in America's Imperiled Forests. The event is sponsored by Bank Square Books, learn more here.   

– Upcoming Reads –
The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook) 
The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
Wreck – Catherine Newman (EF) release date 10/28/25
The Upstairs House – Julia Fine (EF)
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman (CW)
Haunted North Alabama – Jessica Penot (CW)

– Out Now –
A Dog in Georgia – Lauren Grodstein
Dracula’s Brunch Club – Brian Gonsar, illustrated by Keenan Gaybba

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 3rd Quarter Book –
The 3rd Quarter Readalong is The Upstairs House by Julia Fine. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, August 17th 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 are also planning a companion read of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

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 –
Also by Rudyard Kipling: The Jungle Book and Riki Tiki Tavi
Author Kathleen Rooney
Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
The Shooting of Dan McGrew by Robert W. Service
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
The Personal Librarian by Victoria Christopher Murray
The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones
Rain Taxi Review of Books who sponsors the Twin Cities Book Festival on November 8, 2025
Sandwich by Catherine Newman

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!

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.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!

Episode 225 - Top Ten Books of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

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Top Ten Books of 2024 with Russell Gray from Ink and Paper Blog

Episode 225 Show Notes

Top Ten Reads of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

– Russell’s Books –
The Most – Jessica Anthony
Sipsworth – Simon Van Booy
Real Americans – Rachel Khong
Hombrecito – Santiago Jose Sanchez
The Safekeep – Yael Van Der Wouden
Our Evenings – Alan Hollinghurst
Tell Me Everything – Elizabeth Strout
Universality -Natasha Brown
Intermezzo – Sally Rooney
Small Rain – Garth Greenwell
James – Percival Everett

– Chris’s Books –
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Summer – Edith Wharton
We Got the Beat – Jenna Miller
A Little Bit Country – Brian D. Kennedy
Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (audiobook)
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile – Candice Millard
The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany – Pamela D. Toler
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells – Rebecca Rego Barry
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki
Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham – Marcia Clark
Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel – Kiersten White
The Gathering – C.J. Tudor
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë

– Emily’s Books –
An Exact Relica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon
The Women – Kristin Hannah
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle  – Matt Cain  (audiobook)
How to Read a Book – Monica Wood
The One-In-A-Million Boy – Monica Wood
Sandwich – Catherine Newman
We All Want Impossible Things – Catherine Newman
The Cookie That Changed My Life: And More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, and Pies That Will Change Yours: A Cookbook – Nancy Silverton and Carolynn Carreno
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension – Hanif Abdurraqib

Listener Top Tens! We would love to hear about your favorite reads of the year. You can find the form here fill it out by January 15, 2025.

– Also Mentioned –
Powell’s Books
Read By Ryan on Instagram
American Symphony documentary
Shawn Breathes Books
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
The Ghost Writer – Phillip Roth
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Author Agatha Christie
Find all of the novels by Elizabeth Strout here
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (Loa #388) by Margaret Fuller, edited by Noelle A. Baker and Megan Marshall
Normal People by Sally Rooney
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Armadale – Wilkie Collins
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
My Ántonia – Willa Cather

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.