Episode 270 - Talking about Empaths, Monsters, and Magic, oh my!

Book Cougars Episode 270
Emily Fine & Chris Wolak
Book Cougars Episode 270

Episode 270 Show Notes

– Another 10th Episode Giveaway! –
Practical Magic 2 – Alice Hoffman
The Dog Stars – Peter Heller
Girls Like Girls – Hayley Kiyoko

If you want to be entered to win, subscribe to our newsletter by October 15th when the winner will be chosen.

– Deb & Kate Desert Island Books –
The Stand – Stephen King
Tom’s Crossing – Mark Z. Danielewski
The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell
Devotions – Mary Oliver
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
The Power Broker – Robert Caro
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald

– Currently Reading –
Black Notice – Patricia Cornwell (CW)
The Empath’s Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People – Judith Orloff (EF)
Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football – Rich Cohen (CW)

– Just Read –
The Pirate Queen – Ariel Lawhon (EF)
American Hagwon – Min Jin Lee (CW)
From Hell, With Love – Bryce Oakley (CW) (audiobook)
I’ve Tried Being Nice – Ann Leary (EF)
Gibbons or One Bloody Thing After Another – James Morrison (CW)
Consider the Oyster – MFK Fisher (EF)
When the Emperor was Divine – Julia Otsuka (EF)
Chris dnf’d The Last Vampire – Romina Garber (CW) (audiobook)
Social Animals – Camille Perri (EF)
Good Girls Die Bored – Elizabeth Little (CW)
Food is a Feeling: Recipes & Stories, with Love – Carla Lalli (EF)
The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Trello – Scott La Counte (CW)
Supercharging Productivity with Trello – Brittany Joiner (CW)
Mother Daughter Sister Stranger – Hank Phillipi Ryan (EF)
Winter’s Bone – Daniel Woodrell (EF)

– Episode Sponsor –
Motherhood, and the Places Between by Jacqueline Kolosov

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended a virtual event via Honest Dog Books with Dr. Jen Golbeck and her book Think Like a Dog: How Positive Psychology Can Help Your Dog Thrive. She was in conversation with Blair Braverman, who was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 168 with her debut novel Small Game.

Emily went to An Unlikely Story Bookstore to see Laura Zigman in conversation with Alice Hoffman about her new novel The Witches of Cambridge.

Chris attended a virtual event via The National Willa Cather Center with Richard Norton Smith discussing My Mortal Enemy.

Emily took a browse through the Niantic Book Barn and picked up a copy of How to Cook a Moose by Kate Christensen and The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett.

Chris watched All the President’s Men based on the novel by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to see Terry Tempest Williams. The event was sponsored by the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library on the Yale University campus.

Chris attended a virtual event with a 19th Century Women’s Writers group that was focusing on The Reconstruction Diary of Frances Anne Rollin by Jennifer Putzi, who was a guest on Episode 266.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to see “Silent Springs, Windswept Seas: Rachel Carson’s Environmental Vision” at the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

Emily plans to watch the 1973 film Don’t Look Now based on the short story by Daphne du Maurier and Winter’s Bone based on the novel by Daniel Woodrell.

Emily plans to see the exhibit “Cooking Up Change: Women’s Agency and Community Building Through Cookbooks,” at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute Schlesinger Library.

Learn more about Uncovered, a new author talk series that is a partnership between the Association of University Presses and PBS Books.

– Upcoming Reads –
Carrie – Stephen King (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
We’re doing a buddy read and will discuss the book on Episode 271.
Learn more about the new adaptation.
The Rise and Fall of the Artificial State – Jill LePore (CW)
Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility & the Meaning of Life – Victor Frankl (CW)
All the Love You Can Use: The Letters of Carson McCullers – Carson McCullers, edited by Carlos Dews (CW)
Read both of Chris’s blog posts:
All the Love You Can Use
Carson McCullers’ Home in Nyack

– Q4 Readalong –
Girls Like Girls by Hayley Kiyoko and the film adaptation. The Zoom conversation will take place on December 6th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation on Goodreads.

– Also Mentioned –
LibraryThing is launching an app that includes a dating app!
“My dad was a Monster!” article in The Guardian
Also by Julie Otsuka: The Buddha in the Attic and The Swimmers
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl

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Episode 191 - Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough with Poet Shuly Cawood

Book Cougars Episode 191
Emily Fine & Chris Wolak
Poet Shuly Cawood

Episode One Hundred Ninety One Show Notes

KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– Currently Reading – [5:53]
Adversity for Sale – Jay Jeezy Jenkins (CW)
The Creative Act: A Way of Being – Rick Rubin (EF)(audiobook)
Listen to Rick Rubin in conversation with Debbie Millman on Design Matters
Monsters: A Fans Dilemma – Claire Dederer (CW)
Consider the Oyster – M.F.K. Fisher (EF)

– Just Read – [12:43]
Properties of Thirst – Marianne Wiggins (EF)
The Inferno of Dante – Dante Alighieri translated by Robert Pinsky (CW)
Thin Places – Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (EF) (audiobook)
Cleat Cute – Meryl Wilsner (CW)
Zorrie – Laird Hunt (EF)
Bombshell: A Hell's Belles Novel – Sarah MacLean (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [36:46]
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to New York City to have a visit with Aunt Ellen. First stop was a delicious brunch at Maman. Then the New York Society Library where they took a tour and spent time with the current exhibit: the Quack! Quack! The Wonderful World of Robert Quackenbush. They stopped at two bookstores: The Corner Bookstore and Kitchen Arts & Letters. The capstone event was dinner at Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant before catching the train home.

Chris watched the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting Book Bans: Examining How Censorship Limits Liberty and Literature. You can watch it here.

Chris and Emily attended the Popular Romance Conference: The Literature of Hope at Yale University where they watched the documentary Love Between the Covers. (Watch the documentary here.) There were two days of panels that included: Beverly Jenkins, Eloisa James, owners of The Ripped Bodice bookstore, Monique Patterson publisher with TOR/Bramble, Fated Mates podcast, and the Black Romance podcast, and Roxane Gay.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [01:11:35]
To wrap up Scarlet Summer, Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to Boston on September 21 to visit Hawthorne-related sites including the Boston Athenaeum and have  a meal at the Chipotle located at the site of the original Old Corner Bookstore.

Emily is heading to Cape Cod where she hopes to attend parts of the Provincetown Book Festival.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:12:35]
Wellness – Nathan Hill
Heartbreaker: A Hell’s Belles Novel – Sarah MacLean
Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques – Fancy Feast
And a Dog Called Fig: Solitude, Connection, the Writing Life – Helen Humphreys

– 4th Quarter Readalong – [01:14:35]
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams is the official book for the last quarter of the year reading within our theme of Books about Books. Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 3rd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

– Author Spotlight with Shuly Cawood– [01:17:20]
We chat with Shuly Cawood about her new poetry collection Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough.

You can learn more about Shuly and her writing workshops and purchase signed copies of her books here.

– Also Mentioned –
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman
Ron Charles review of The Invisible Hour
The Second Shelf BookTube channel with Britta Böhler
House of Books in Kent, CT
Cacophony of Bones: The Circle of a Year – Kerri Ní Dochartaigh
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson
Ink and Paper Blog booktube channel with Russell Gray
Vincent Virga author of the Gaywycke series
The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M.  Auel
Radclyffe
Bold Strokes Books
The Nix – Nathan Hill
Ann Patchett

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