Episode 235 - Hello, Pittsburgh Calling!
Episode 235 Show Notes
It’s time for the BIG BOOK SUMMER Reading Challenge 2025. Learn more about Sue and the Challenge on her blog or watch her kick-off video. This year Melinda, who is a BookTuber at A Web of Stories, is co-hosting the challenge. Find out more about what she is reading for Big Book Summer here.
– Currently Reading –
The Emperor of Gladness – Ocean Vuong (EF) (audiobook)
Still Writing: The Pleasures and Perils of a Creative Life – Dani Shapiro (CW) (audiobook)
Feeding Ghosts – Tessa Hulls (EF)
These Too Were Here: Louise Homer and Willa Cather – Elizabeth Moorhead (CW)
Love is a Pink Cake: Irresistible Bakes for Morning, Noon, and Night – Claire Ptak (EF)
– Just Read –
Renegade Girls: A Queer Tale of Romance and Rabble-Rousing – Nora Neus, illustrated by Julie Robine (CW)
The Good House – Tananarive Due (EF) (audiobook)
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Clan’s Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them – Timothy Egan (CW) (audiobook)
A Dog in Georgia – Lauren Grodstein (EF) release date 8/5/2025
The Great Gatsby at 100 – Sheila Liming (CW)
The Writing Life – Annie Dillard (CW) (audiobook)
The Ghost in the Cap’n Brown House by Harriet Beecher Stowe from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
– Episode Sponsor –
The Baker of Lost Memories by Shirley Russak Wachtel
Learn more about Shirley and her writing here.
– Biblio Adventures –
Chris drove from Connecticut to Illinois and made a couple of fun stops along the way including a visit with Linda Johnson, the Book Cougars Librarian. They met at The Brumback Library in Van Wert, Ohio known as the first tax-supported county library in the United States. She picked up a book that explains the history of the library: The County Library the Pioneer County Library (the Brumback Library, of Van Wert County, Ohio) And the County, Library Movement in the United States by Saida Brumback Antrim.
Emily had an unexpected Biblio Adventure at the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore in Middletown, CT involving the children’s book Dear Bookstore by Emily Arrow, illustrated by Geneviève Godbout. Follow Emily Arrow on YouTube.
On her way back from Illinois, Chris stopped at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, PA and took a browse through Caliban Bookshop.
Chris and Emily had the opportunity to meet up with Deanna, one of our listeners who was on a tour of New England. She brought us wonderful gifts including two books: Midsummer Night in the Workhouse by Diana Athill and Edith Wharton: An Extraordinary Life by Eleanor Dwight.
We had our monthly Reading Salon where we talked about Big Books – books over 400 pages. Some mentions: Beach Music and The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy and The Power Broker by Robert A. Caro.
– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is heading to Nebraska to attend the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference and visit the Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum & Boyhood Home.
Emily is heading to Princeton, NJ and hopes to do something bookish.
– Upcoming Reads –
The Weight of Ink – Rachel Kadish (CW)
The Professor’s House – Willa Cather (CW) (audiobook)
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier (EF) Join Emily’s buddy read over on Goodreads.
The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah (EF)
– Out Now –
The Ghostwriter – Julie Clark
– 2025 Readalong Theme and 2nd Quarter Book –
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.
The 2nd Quarter Readalong and our Episode 230 Giveaway is The Good House by Tananarive Due. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, June 8th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
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 –
Author Pema Chödrön
Author Cal Newport
Author Elissa Altman
Author Maura Casey
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Yiddish Book Center
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
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