Episode 199 - Our 2024 Reading Intentions

Book Cougars Episode 200

Episode One Hundred Ninety Nine Show Notes

– Listener Top Ten –
Let us know your Top Ten Books of 2023
Please fill the form out by January 22nd.

– 1st Quarter 2024 Readalong –
Our first quarter readalong is Indigo by Beverly Jenkins.  
Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, March 3rd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join the Indigo Goodreads discussion here.

We’ve also created a Goodreads thread for general romance chit chat.

– Chris and Emily 2024 Reading Intentions –
· Both Chris and Emily set their Goodreads Reading Challenge to 52 Books.
· Emily will continue to read books written by Maggie O’Farrell.
· Chris has eight stories left in the Willa Cather Short Story project.
· Emily has started a Monday morning short story project.
· Chris plans to focus on reading books when she wants, following the whim of her desires.
· Emily plans to read one new-to-her cookbook each month and cook one recipe from the book.
· Chris will read 19th Century literature including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Silas Marner, and A Tale of Two Cities.
· Chris is planning to focus on reading books by Margaret Fuller starting with Summer on the Lakes.
· Emily is aiming to watch one book to film adaptation per month.
· Biblio Adventures wish list: Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick, Maine; a trip to Long Island to visit the newly opened Barnes and Noble along with other indie bookstores and paying tribute to the place where Margaret Fuller perished; Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco; Bold Fork Books and Politics and Prose in Washington DC.

– Currently Reading –  
The Iliad – Homer (translated by Emily Wilson) (CW)(audiobook)
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
The Hero of This Book – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America – Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst (CW)
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett (EF)(audiobook)
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk (CW) release date 3/5/2024
The Boy Who Lost His Spark – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)(audiobook)

– Just Read –
Emily read two short stories “The End of the World is a Cul de Sac” by Louise Kennedy and “Powder” by Tobias Wolff
Archives 101 – Lois Hamill
You can read Chris’s review of this book in the Volume 86, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2023 issue.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Emily Dickinson Face to Face – Martha Dickinson Bianchi (CW)
A Winter in New York – Josie Silver (EF)
Freegift – James R. Benn (CW)
The Book of Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs (EF)
The Para Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life – Tiago Forte (CW)
The Cemetery of Untold Stories – Julia Alvarez (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Last Night – Luanne Rice (CW) release date 2/1/2024
Family Lore – Elizabeth Acevedo (EF) (audiobook)
Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food – Ann Hood (EF)
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese (EF)(audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum for 2024 Moby-Dick Marathon. She also visited the New Bedford Free Library.
Thanks to listener recommendations, Emily listened to two NPR Book of the Day podcasts:
· Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
· Big Heart Little Stove by Erin French

Emily participated in Katherine May’s Book Club where she was in conversation with Diana Henry speaking about her cookbook Roast Figs Sugar Snow.

Chris watched The Martian based on the novel by Andy Weir. She also participated in a group discussion about The Iliad by Homer. Listen to translator Emily Wilson reading from The Iliad. If you would like to join the conversation, send an email.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
On Saturday, January 20th Chris is participating in an online forum about craft via the Biography Lab. She’s particularly excited about a panel with Janice P. Nimura, “Nasty Women: Making a Good Story out of Bad Behavior.”

Emily is heading to Colorado to visit her son and attend an event via Aspen Words featuring Ann Patchett in conversation with Elizabeth McCracken.

– Upcoming Reads –
Erasure – Percival Everett
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki release date 3/19/2024
The Grey Wolf – Louise Penny

– Also Mentioned –
The Giant’s House – Elizabeth McCracken
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohlleben
Also by Louise Kennedy – Trespasses and The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
The Best American Short Stories 1997 series edited by Katrina Kenison, guest edited by E Annie Proulx
Fish Stories – Tobias Wolff
Trigger Warning Database
The Dictionary of the Book – Sidney E. Berger
The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
Afterlife – Julia Alvarez
Luanne Rice – Last Day and The Shadow Box
Laurie Colwin
American Prometheus – Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
James – Percival Everett
American Fiction movie

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Episode 194 - Author Spotlight with Sarah MacLean

Author Sarah Maclean

Episode One Hundred Ninety Four Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Emily read the poem “Only Love” by James Crews. The poem is available in the collection The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy. Follow this link to learn more about the collection and the poem.

– Currently Reading – [1:50]
The Paradiso – Dante Alighieri (CW)
The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century – Josh Cook (CW)
Family Lore – Elizabeth Acevedo (CW)
How to Marry a Millionaire Vampire – Kerrelyn Sparks (CW)

– Just Read – [5:22]
The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (EF)
Starling House – Alix E. Harrow (CW)
The Golden Gate – Amy Chua (EF)(audiobook narrated by Robb Moreira)
Country Place – Ann Petry (CW)(EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [20:45]
Chris and Emily both had a Couch Biblio Adventure: Emily binged the second season of Slow Horses based on the novel Dead Lions by Mick Herron on Apple TV+. Chris watched Renfield loosely based on the classic Dracula story.

Emily went to see Killers of the Flower Moon based on the novel by David Grann. You can watch a conversation with the cast at the Cannes Film Festival. Two books that are written from the Osage point of view: A Pipe for February by Charles H. Red Corn and Mean Spirit by Linda Hogan which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1991.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [32:27]
Chris is excited to attend some of the events celebrating Willa Cather’s 150th Birthday on December 7th. The Willa Cather Center has a list of events celebrating her sesquicentennial.

Emily is going to Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT on Thursday, November 9th to see Sigrid Nunez in conversation about her new book, The Vulnerables.

– Upcoming Reads – [34:13]
Julia – Sandra Newman (EF)
Old Crimes – Jill McCorkle (EF) release date 1/9/2024
Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather – Benjamin Taylor (CW) release date 11/14/2023
A Darker Shade of Noir: New Stories of Body Horror by Women Writers – edited by Joyce Carol Oates (CW)

– Out Now – [38:40]
Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education – Stephanie Land
You can find the recent NY Times article about Stephanie’s experience in publishing here.

– Author Spotlight with Sarah MacLean – [39:15]
Learn more about Sarah MacLean here. Her newest book is Knockout: A Hell’s Belles Novel, the third book in the Hell’s Belle’s series. The first book is Bombshell, and the second is Heartbreaker.

Check out this vast list of recommended reading on Sarah’s website.

Sarah co-hosts the podcast Fated Mates with romance critic Jen Prokop.

– 4th Quarter Readalong –
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.

Watch the video of Pip talking about the inspiration for The Bookbinder. If you are interested, her debut novel is The Dictionary of Lost Words.

– Also Mentioned –
John Valeri Central Booking
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
Other books by Ann Petry: The Street, The Narrows, and Miss Muriel and Other Stories
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
Other books by Sarah Maclean: The Rogue Not Taken and Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake
Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Taylor Jenkins Reid
Lee Child
Stephen King
John Irving

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.