Episode 250 - In podcasting years, we’re older than America250

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Book Cougars Episode 250

Episode 250 Show Notes

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** Reminder to email a picture of your Ghost Story Bingo Card by December 31st **

– 2025 Reading Intentions Recap –  
Emily
·       Explore becoming a completist: Anna Quindlen, Alice Hoffman, Erica Wood, Catherine Newman, and Jeanine Cummins.
·       Set Goodreads Reading Challenge to 52 books; have read 83 to date.
·       Contemplating an essay reading challenge or continuing the weekly short story project. Didn’t do this but did read from the The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (audiobook). 
·       Aim to post monthly on Ingredient One newsletter,
·       Focused Biblio Adventure: The Year of Isabella Stewart Gardner (Chasing Beauty and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).
·       Consider starting a Book to Film Club.

Chris
·       Buddy Reads included in Search of Lost Time by Proust, A New Home Who’ll Follow by Mrs. Mary Clavers, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather.
·       Read more 19th century novels: Old New York by Edith Wharton, Silas Marner by George Eliot, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, and Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë.
·       Read Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388).
·       Focus on reading fewer books, more deeply, and writing about them. Check out Chris’s blog.

– Currently Reading –
Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line – Elle Cosimano (EF) release date 3/17/2026
The Romance of Certain Old Clothes – Henry James (CW)
Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit – Erika Council (EF)
Beth Is Dead – Katy Bernet (CW) release date 1/6/2026
Good Things – Samin Nosrat (EF)

– Just Read –
The Award – Matthew Pearl (CW)
“A Small, Good Thing” from the collection Where I’m Calling From – Raymond Carver (EF)
Jurassic Girl: The Adventures of Mary Anning, Paleontologist and the First Female Fossil Hunter – Michele C. Hollow (CW)
The Last Witch – C.J. Cooke (EF)
“Street haunting:  a London adventure” – Virginia Woolf (CW)
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (CW)(EF)(audiobook)
Sapphira and the Slave Girl – Willa Cather (CW)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris watched part of the conversation on Crime Time via A Mighty Blaze between Hank Phillipi Ryan and Matthew Pearl about his new novel The Award. You can watch it here.

Emily watched season five of Slow Horses based on the novel London Rules by Mick Herron.

Chris had a coffee date in New Haven with a friend at Book Trader Cafe, she also took a browse at Atticus Bookstore Cafe.  

Emily watched the documentary Come See Me in the Good Light about poet Andrea Gibson.

Emily spent the week in New York City where she visited the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Café Con Libros in Crown Heights, and Bibliotheque NYC in Soho.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
January 28th from 6-7 pm (MT) Emily has a virtual season pass to Aspen Winter Words, the first in the three-part series is Susan Orlean and her memoir Joyride.

January 24th Chris registered for Biographer’s International Organization Biography Lab 2026, a daylong forum with keynote David Denby, a staff writer with The New Yorker.  His most recent book is Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer.

– Upcoming Reads –
Postmortem – Patricia Cornwell (CW)
Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman (EF)(audiobook)
A Backward Glance – Edith Wharton (CW)
The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (EF)
The Restaurant of Lost Recipes – Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (EF)
Menu of Happiness – Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (EF)

– Announcing the 2026 Readalong Theme –
Books that have been made into film adaptations!

The 2026 first quarter readalong is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

– Also Mentioned –
Land by Maggie O’ Farrell
Author Agatha Christie
Trial by Ambush by Marcia Clark
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking by Samin Nosrat
“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo
The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl
Christmas Carol film adaptations: Spirited and The Muppet Christmas Carol
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Beloved by Toni Morrison

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Episode 249 - It’s Our Ninth Anniversary!

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Book Cougars Episode 249

Episode 249 Show Notes

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!

Purchase a Bookshop.org gift card.

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.

** Reminder: email a picture of your Ghost Story Bingo Card by December 31st **

– Currently Reading –
A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Transatlantic Cable – John Steele Gordon (CW)
The Last Witch – C.J. Cooke (EF)
The Award – Matthew Pearl (CW)
An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace – Tamar Adler (EF)
Tamar’s Substack: The Kitchen Shrink is In

– Just Read –
The Chicken Sisters – KJ Dell’Antonia (EF) (audiobook)
Citizen Reporters: S.S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine That Rewrote America – Stephanie Gorton (CW)
Dream State – Eric Puchner (EF) (audiobook)
Fiend – Alma Katsu
What Can I Bring: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life – Casey Elsass (EF)
More Than Enough – Anna Quindlen (EF) release date 2/24/2026
“Afterward” by Edith Wharton from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
Our favorite short stories from the collection:
“What Was It?” by Fitz-James O’Brien
“The Cold Embrace” by Mary E. Braddon
“The Readjustment” by Mary Austin
“The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs
“The Jolly Corner” by Henry James
“The Wind in the Rose-Bush” by Mary Wilkins Freeman
“The Moonlit Road” by Ambrose Bierce
“The Old Nurses Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell

– Episode Sponsor –
Let the Willows Weep by Sherry Parnell
Learn more about Sherry.

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily watched the first episode in The Chicken Sisters serialized television show based on the novel.

Chris and Emily watched the 1992 film adaptation of Dracula directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

Emily enjoyed a conversation between Casey Elsass and Dorie Greenspan about her new cookbook Dorie’s Anytime Cakes; the book is illustrated by Nancy Pappas. Casey’s book is What Can I Bring: Recipes to Help You Live Your Guest Life.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to the Harvard Bookstore to see Hanna Halperin in conversation with Oyinkan Braithwaite about her new novel Cursed Daughters. While in Boston they visited the Houghton Library, Bob Slate Stationer, the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, and the Harvard Art Museum where Chris purchased a copy of Pencil by Carol Beggy. They also made it to Flour Bakery + Cafe, which has been on Emily’s bucket list.  

Chris went on a road trip throughout Rhode Island and Cape Cod, MA searching for lighthouses and trolls created by Thomas Dambo. They passed by Inkfish Books in Warren, MA, browsed Tim’s Used Books in Provincetown, MA where she looked for a copy of Clover Adams by Natalie Dykstra, stopped in at the Wellfleet Marketplace where she saw a copy of Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman, and stopped at Highland Lighthouse in North Truro, MA memorialized by a plaque regarding a visit by “tourist” Henry David Thoreau. 

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily has purchased a virtual season pass to Aspen Winter Words. The three-part series includes authors Susan Orlean (Joyride), Lily King (Heart the Lover), and Tara Roberts (Written in the Waters).

The next Patreon Reading Salon will take place on Sunday, December 28th. Our topic will be our favorite books of the year. Come prepared to talk about two books, but feel free to bring along your top ten so you can share more if time allows. 

– Upcoming Reads –
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
Beth is Dead – Katy Bernet (CW) release date 1/6/2026
Her Life in Ink – Sharon Harris (CW) release date 2/10/2026
Man Overboard! – Kathleen Rooney (CW) release date 7/7/2026
Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line – Elle Cosimano (EF) release date 3/17/2026
Still We Rise: A Love Letter to the Southern Biscuit – Erika Council (EF)
Some Bright Nowhere – Ann Packer (EF)

– Announcing the 2026 Readalong Theme –
Books that have been made into film adaptations!
The 2026 first quarter readalong is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

– Also Mentioned –
The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl
Author Hank Phillipi Ryan
Feast on Your Life: Kitchen Meditations for Every Day by Tamar Adler
Author Laurie Colwin
Author M.F.K. Fisher
How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix
A Solitude of Wolverines by Alice Henderson
Titcomb’s Bookshop
My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Chris loved the audiobook)
The Dive from Clausen’s Pier and Swim Back to Me by Ann Packer
To Catch a Thief by David Dodge
The Birds and Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier 

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Episode 203 - Romance Readalong with INDIGO by Beverly Jenkins

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Episode 203 Show Notes

Download the Romance Bingo Card!

– Patreon Giveaway –
If you are a member of our Patreon Community by March 15th you will be automatically entered to win a copy of The End of the World is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy.

– Currently Reading –  
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon (EF)
We Got the Beat – Jenna Miller (CW)
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 (EF)

– Just Read –
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells – Rebecca Rego Barry (CW) (audiobook)
Emily read three short stories: “Itinerary” by Lucia Berlin in Evening in Paradise and “Los Angeles” and “Office Hours” by Ling Ma in Bliss Montage: Stories.  
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton (CW)
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad (EF) (audiobook)
Summer – Edith Wharton (CW)
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice – Elle Cosimano (EF)
Indigo – Beverly Jenkins (CW)(EF) (audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris took a trip to Washington DC and visited The Library of Congress where she purchased a copy of American Libraries 1730-1950 by Kenneth Breisch.

Over on Ingredient One, Emily had a conversation with Louise Miller author of The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living and The Late Bloomer’s Club. You can listen to the conversation, find a copy of the recipe for Burnt Sugar Cake with Maple Icing, and more.

Emily attended a virtual retreat with Katherine May author of Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times and Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age. Learn more about her Substack at The Clearing.

Emily watched a conversation via Live Talks Los Angeles between Jennifer Garner and Adam Grant about his new book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Unfortunately, Chris is a little under the weather, she and Emily were supposed to go on a joint jaunt to An Unlikely Story to meet Jenna Miller author of the new novel We Got the Beat in conversation with Alecia Dow, Jennifer Dugan, and Jenny L. Howe, but had to cancel.

Chris was also supposed to attend an event at Mystic Seaport Museum with Daphne Palmer Geanacopoulos about her book The Pirate’s Wife: The Remarkable True Story of Sarah Kidd.

Emily is heading to Wilmington, NC and hopes to visit independent bookstores.

– Upcoming Reads –
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW) send an email if you want to join the buddy read
Women of the Anarchy – Sharon Bennett Connolly (CW)
Slow Noodles: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes – Chantha Nguon and Kim Green (EF)

– Out Now –
After Annie – Anna Quindlen
Becoming Madam Secretary – Stephanie Dray
The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels – Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans

– Also Mentioned –
Trespasses – Louise Kennedy
The Women’s Prize for fiction longlist / nonfiction longlist
New publisher: Author’s Equity
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
Emily’s substack is Ingredient One
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
Severance by Ling Ma
The film American Symphony
Learn more about Elle Cosimano. Other books in the series: Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead, and Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun.

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!

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Episode 177 - Author Spotlight with Amy Tector

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Author Spotlight with Amy Tector

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

– Giveaway News –
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.  We also have a copy of Speak for the Dead by Amy Tector for our newsletter subscribers. To be automatically entered to win, become a newsletter subscriber by March 15th.

– Currently Reading – [2:35]
My Kitchen Wars – Betty Fussell (EF)
The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarian, and Others – Sidney E. Berger (CW)
The Memory of Animals – Claire Fuller (EF) release date 6/6/2023
The Warden – Anthony Trollope (CW)

– Just Read – [10:53]
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun – Elle Cosimano (EF)
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley (CW)(EF) (audio) Join the conversation on Goodreads thread.
Watch Ann Patchett on The Colbert Report.
Watch Ann Patchett with Reese Witherspoon.

– Episode Sponsor – [35:44]
Episode 177 is sponsored by The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton. Learn more about Julie here.

– Biblio Adventures – [36:25]
Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT to hear Will Schwalbe talk about his new book We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship.

Chris attended a virtual event via the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “Understanding Katherine S. Days Identity: Interpreting Sexuality in Early 20th Century New England, Four Case Studies in LGBTQIA+ History.”

Emily had a great trip to California to see Aunt Ellen. They walked through Berkeley visiting loads of little free libraries, visited the Main Branch of the Berkeley Public Library and Ellen’s local branch. They visited ten bookstores: Half Price Books, Sleepy Cat Books, Books Inc., Black Swan Vintage Books, Owl & Company Bookshop, Pegasus Books, Moe’s Books, Spectator Books, Out of the Closet Thrift Store, and Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.  

– Upcoming Jaunts – [51:19]
Emily hopes to join in on an Instagram Live on March 14th with Idra Novey via Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, CT discussing her novel Take What You Need.  

– Upcoming Reads – [52:13]
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader – Anne Fadiman
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret – Judy Blume

– Announcing our 25th Readalong –
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. Order from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars. Join the online conversation on Goodreads. Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom readalong discussion will take place on May 21st at 7PM (ET), Chris and Emily will discuss it on Episode 183.

– Author Spotlight with Amy Tector – [57:23]
We speak with Amy about the second novel in the Dominion Archives Mystery series Speak for the Dead, available now! Amy’s other two novels are The Foulest Things and The Honeybee Emeralds. Learn more about Amy here.

– Out Now – [01:26:24]
Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson
Hello Beautiful – Anne Napolitano
Take What You Need – Idra Novey
All That Is Mine I Carry With Me – William Landay

– Also Mentioned –
Unsettled Ground – Claire Fuller
Charles Dickens
Wilkie Collins
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas
Louise Penny
Tin House Publisher
Alice Hoffman
True Grit – Charles Portis
Thirst – Amélie Nothomb
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down – Anne Fadiman
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – Samin Nosrat
Heart Is A Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
Sapphira and the Slave Girl – Willa Cather
Defending Jacob – William Landay

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.

Episode 165 - Author Spotlight with Diane Wilson

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Author Spotlight with Diane Wilson

Episode One Hundred Sixty Five Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– Announcing our 23rd Readalong –
Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon
You can purchase an e-book directly from Soho for $7.99, the paperback from Bookshop.org or the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars.
Join the Goodreads conversation here.

– Currently Reading – [1:09]
How to Read Now: Essays – Elaine Castillo (CW)
The Rabbit Hutch – Tess Gunty (EF) (audiobook)
Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life – Brigitte Benkemoun, translated by Jody Gladding (CW)

– Just Read – [6:43]
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead: A Mystery – Elle Cosimano (EF)
The Warmth of Other Suns – Isabel Wilkerson (CW)(audiobook)
“Pig” the short story in The Best of Roald Dahl – Roald Dahl (EF)
The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women’s Lives – Kelcey Ervick (EF)
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson (CW)(EF)(audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures – [29:55]
Chris attended a virtual event with Jenn Shapland discussing her book My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir with Robert Kesten, Executive Director of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives. You can watch the video here.

Emily visited Pop! Art Books Culture in Boardman, Ohio where the Gentleman Caller picked up a copy of Magic Terror: 7 Tales by Peter Straub.

Chris watched an episode of Lovecraft Country based on the novel by Matt Ruff.

Emily attended an event at Madison Art Cinema sponsored by R.J. Julia Booksellers, a showing of the documentary Hello, Bookstore.

Chris and Emily went on a Joint Jaunt to the E.C. Scranton Memorial Library for some worktime together. Emily picked up a copy of Simply Julia: 110 Recipes for Easy Comfort Food by Julia Turshen.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [40:53]
Emily is heading to Martha’s Vineyard and hopes to visit Bunch of Grapes Bookstore and Edgartown Books as well as Eight Cousins Bookstore in Falmouth, MA.

Chris is planning to attend an event at the Mark Twain House& Museum on September 27th at 7pm with Nikki Woolfolk in conversation with Alex Jennings discussing the novel The Ballad of Perilous Graves.  

– Upcoming Reads – [44:27]
Small Game – Blair Braverman (CW)(EF) release date November 1, 2022
The Believer: Encounters with the Beginning, the End, and Our Place in the Middle – Sarah Krasnostein (EF)
All that She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles (CW)
After Sappho – Selby Wynn Schwartz (CW)
The Bread the Devil Knead – Lisa Allen-Agostini (EF)

Out Now:
Lucy by the Sea – Elizabeth Strout

– Author Spotlight with Diane Wilson author of The Seed Keeper Our 22nd Readalong – [49:39]
We chat with Diane Wilson author of our Third Quarter readalong, The Seed Keeper.
Learn more about Diane.

Her new picture book, Where We Come From, publishes on October 4th.

Reminder that you can join the Goodreads discussion here, anytime.

– Also Mentioned –
The Ski Jumpers by Peter Geye
National Book Awards
The Booker Prizes
Shutter – Ramona Emerson
James and the Giant Peach – Roald Dahl
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Provincetown Book Festival
The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis – Melissa Homestead
Also by Blair Braverman: Dogs on the Trail: A Year in the Life and Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube:
Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North

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.

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