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

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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Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!

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Episode 180 - Travels with Chris, Emily, and Charley

Book Cougars Episode 180

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

– Giveaway News –
Every tenth episode we give books away! We have two books this time: Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly and Night Flight to Paris by Cara Black. To be automatically entered to win, become a newsletter subscriber by May 1st. The upcoming Patreon giveaway is The Dig by Anne Burt. To be automatically entered to win, become a Patreon by May 15th.

– Currently Reading – [4:14]
Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Readers’ Brains – Bill Birchard (CW)
Follow this link to find his articles on Psychology Today.
The East Indian – Brinda Charry (EF)
Creating Rain Gardens: Capturing the Rain for Your Own Water-Efficient Garden – Cleo Woelfe-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher (CW)
Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives – Robert D. Richardson with a foreword by Megan Marshall (EF)

– Just Read – [13:15]
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us about Love, Life, and Mortality – Karen Fine, DVM (EF)(audio)
Chase of the Wild Goose – Mary Gordon (CW)
Summer Stage – Meg Mitchell Moore (EF) release date 5/23/2023
Travels with Charley in Search of America – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)(audio)

– Episode Sponsor – [38:14]
Episode 180 is sponsored by The Peak Experiment. Learn more about Diana here.

– Biblio Adventures – [39:03]
Emily started listening to the Women’s Prize for Fiction podcast. So far she has listened to Season 5, Episode 12, with Maggie O’Farrell who recommended Where the God of Love Hangs Out Amy Madeline Season 5, Episode 15 Madeline Miller recommended Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

Chris went to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library to get her hands on a copy of The Way it Was by Harold Loeb and a first edition of Dracula. Learn more about the Poison Book Project: how it started and how it is going.

Emily went to the Madison Cinemas to see The Quiet Girl based on the novella Foster by Claire Keegan.

Chris and Emily went on a two-day joint jaunt to New York City. Chris worked at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. Emily volunteered at Cherry Bombe Jubilee. On the second day, Chris wandered from the Lower Eastside to Midtown and stopping at Codex Books, NYU Bookstore, and The Strand.

Emily binged Tiny Beautiful Things on Hulu based on the book by Cheryl Strayed.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [59:17]
On April 26th, Emily will be attending a virtual conversation with Maggie Smith and Elissa Altman about Maggie’s just released memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful; co-sponsored by Barrett Bookstore and Main Street Books.

Chris is planning to attend a series of four virtual events with author Benjamin Taylor that the National Willa Cather Center is offering beginning on April 27th. Taylor’s new book, Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, publishes on November 14, 2023. Learn about Taylor’s virtual study series here.

Willa Cather’s birthplace is for sale: learn more here.

Emily is heading to the Newburyport Literary Festival April 28-30 where she will be moderating two author sessions:
Fur, Feathers, and Scales: A Lifetime of Caring for Pets with author Karen Fine and Shaped by Loss: How Tragedy Changed the Lives of Emerson, Thoreau, and William James with author Megan Marshall.

May 4-5th, Chris and Emily will be going on a joint jaunt to Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT for Booktopia 2023.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:04:39]
Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom – Sharon Salzberg (CW)(EF)

– Out Now – [01:05:59]
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – J. Ryan Straddal

– 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.

– Also Mentioned –
West with Giraffes – Lynda Rutledge
Books by Robert Richardson: William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, and Emerson: The Mind on Fire.
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life – Megan Marshall
The Islanders – Meg Mitchell Moore
Ann Petry
The Sunwise Turn Bookshop
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Poison Book Project
Grove Press
Brokeback Mountain – Annie Proulx
Brokeback Mountain movie
Kitchen Arts & Letters Bookstore
Jabberwocky Bookshop

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.