Episode 198 - Top Ten Reads of 2023 with BookTuber Russell Gray of Ink and Paper Blog

Episode One Hundred Ninety Eight Show Notes

– 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 Goodreads discussion here.

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

You can stream the documentary Love Between the Covers for free.

– Listener Top Ten –
Let us know your Top Ten Books of 2023

– Episode Sponsor –
Book of the Month curated monthly book subscription service
Chris chose a hard cover: No One Can Know – Kate Alice Marshall
Emily chose a hard cover: A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Use the code FORYOU to receive your first delivery for $5

– Russell’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –  (Follow Russell on his Booktube Channel: Ink and Paper Blog)
The Road to Dalton – Shannon Bowring
Little Monsters – Adrienne Brodeur
Alice Sadie Celine – Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
Day – Michael Cunningham
Wellness – Nathan Hill (audiobook)
North Woods – Daniel Mason ((audiobook)
The Only One Left – Riley Sager
The Late Americans – Brandon Taylor
The Daughter Ship – Boo Trundle
In Memoriam – Alice Winn
Family Meal – Bryan Washington

– Chris’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –
The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others – Sidney E. Berger
Wilma Rogers – Sophia Belzer Engstrand
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want – Ruha Benjamin (audiobook)
Endpapers – Jennifer Savran Kelly (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 178)
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 189)
The September House – Carissa Orlando
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
How Can I Help You – Laura Sims
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism – Meghan Marshall
Emily Dickinson Face to Face – Martha Dickinson Bianchi

– Emily’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –
Lark Ascending – Silas House
The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan (NPR Book of the Day conversation with Donal Ryan)
Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough – Shuly Cawood  (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 191)
Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life – Homa Dashtaki
Morning in This Broken World – Katrina Kittle (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 188)
Rough Sleepers – Tracy Kidder (audiobook)
Zorrie – Laird Hunt
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks
Properties of Thirst – Marianne Wiggins

– Favorite Biblio Adventures –
City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco – Brandon Taylor
A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland, CA with Lauren Groff talking about The Vaster Wilds
The Old Manse in Concord, MA
The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, MA
Galivanting around Berkeley, CA with Aunt Ellen

– Upcoming Reads We Are Excited About –
James – Percival Everett release date 3/19/24
The Fury – Alix Michaelides release date 1/16/24
Real Americans – Rachel Khong release date 4/30/24
Last Night – Luanne Rice release date 2/1/24
Memory Piece – Lisa Ko release date 3/19/24
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki release date 3/19/24
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks – Crystal Wilkinson release date 1/23/24
The Twilight Garden – Sara Nisha Adams release date 4/9/24

– Also Mentioned –
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Flame and the Flower – Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Southernmost – Silas House
Read Appalachia
Ann Patchett
The Institute Library of New Haven
Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize
The Hours film
The White Mustache Yogurt Company
Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook – Sohla El-Waylly
The Nix – Nathan Hill
Ryan – ReadbyRyan on Instagram
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Vulnerables – Sigrid Nunez
Lucy by the Sea – Elizabeth Strout
The Woman in Me – Brittany Spears
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix
March – Geraldine Brooks
Also by Brandon Taylor: Real Life and Filthy Animals
Also by Paul Tremblay: The Cabin at the End of the World, The Beast You Are: Stories, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and A Head Full of Ghosts
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas (translated by Frank Wynne)
John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and The Absolutist
Pip Williams – The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder
McNally Editions
Barbara Kingsolver
Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel
Also by Bryan Washington: Lot and Memorial
Evidence of Things Unseen – Marianne Wiggins
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Also by Percival Everett – The Trees, Erasure, and Telephone
Documentary about Percival Everett: Through the Writer’s Mirror
The Silent Patient – Alix Michaelides
Goodbye, Vitamin – Rachel Khong
The Leavers – Lisa Ko
The Birds of Opulence – Crystal Wilkinson
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams

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 191 - Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough with 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

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 190 - Haunted by Hawthorne & The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

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

– Tenth Episode Giveaway –
To be entered to win, join our newsletter by September 15, 2023.
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America – Nancy Maclean
The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl

– Currently Reading – [3:56]
The Inferno of Dante – Dante Alighieri translated by Robert Pinsky (CW)
Properties of Thirst – Marianne Wiggins (EF)
My Friend Anne Frank: The Inspiring and Heartbreaking True Story of Best Friends Torn Apart and Reunited Against All Odds – Hannah Pick-Goslar (CW)
Thin Places – Kerri Ní Dochartaigh (EF)(audiobook)
Kerri has been in conversation with Katherine May on How We Live Now and The Wintering Sessions.
Adversity for Sale – Jay Jeezy Jenkins (CW)

– Episode Sponsor – [12:27]
Kissing Asphalt – Delicia Naimi
Learn more about Delicia and order a signed copy of her book here.

– Just Read – [13:14]
Lark Ascending – Silas House (EF)
Hawthorne: A Life – Brenda Wineapple (CW)
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman (CW)(EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [46:32]
Chris and Emily met with longtime listener Karen (aka @barkerforbooks) in Salem, MA. They visited The House of the Seven Gables, Salem Athenaeum, the Salem Public Library, and other Nathaniel Hawthorne historic sites. We used The North Shore Literary Tour by Kristin Bierfelt as a resource. Chris purchased the book at Wicked Good Books on her previous trip to Salem.

The Book Cougars hosted a watch along of the 1934 movie adaptation of The Scarlet Letter.

Emily browsed The Strand Bookstore with Aunt Ellen in search of a copy of A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [01:08:05]
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 Athanaeum and have  a meal at the Chipotle located at the site of the original Old Corner Bookstore.

On September 17 at 7PM, Chris’s wife Laura is having a public reading of her book Yours in Words as part of the Green Stage Festival in Guilford, CT. The dramatic radio production of the play was featured on Book Cougars Episode 66.

Chris plans to watch the biography Joyce Carol Oates: A Body in the Service of a Mind .

– Upcoming Reads – [01:10:53]
Reflections in a Golden Eye – Carson McCullers (CW)(EF)
Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough – Shuly Cawood (CW)(EF)
Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Graphic Retelling of Little Women – Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo (EF)

– Out Now – [01:12:50]
Morning in this Broken World – Katrina Kittle  
Creep: Accusations and Confessions – Myriam Gurba
From Dust to Stardust – Kathleen Rooney

– 3rd Quarter Readalong our Scarlet Summer –
For more details and to download the Bingo card follow this link.
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (July)
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese (August)
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman (September)

– Also Mentioned –
Easy A movie
The Crucible movie based on the play by Arthur Miller via Hoopla
Master of American Literature: The Hawthorne Legacy on Kanopy
The Red Garden – Alice Hoffman
Author Mary Beth Bass
Voices Against Injustice organization
Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA
Blond Joyce Carol Oates

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 179 - Deep Dive with Poet Shuly Cawood

Episode 179 Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Emily read “Climbing” from Book of Light by Lucille Clifton.

You can find the video of Chris and Emily rearranging the readalong shelf at Book Cougars headquarters here.

– Currently Reading – [7:50]
Voyager – Diana Gabaldon (CW)
Chase of the Wild Goose – Mary Gordon (CW)
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron (EF)
Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Readers’ Brains – Bill Birchard (CW)
Summer Stage – Meg Mitchell Moore (EF) release date 5/23/2023

– Episode Sponsor – [14:00]
Episode 179 is sponsored by The Peak Experiment. Learn more about Diana X. Moga here.

– Just Read – [14:59]
Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg (EF)(audio)
Why Am I So Anxious: Powerful Tools for Recognizing Anxiety and Restoring Your Peace – Tracey Marks (CW)(audio)
You can find her on YouTube.
My Dearest Darling: Letters of Love in Wartime – Lisa Franco (EF)
Bookselling in America and the World – edited by Charles B. Anderson (CW)
The Lager Queen of Minnesota – J. Ryan Stradal (EF)
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret – Judy Blume (CW)(EF)(audio)
Watch the video with us talking about the book on YouTube.

– Biblio Adventures – [42:32]
Chris went to New York City to meet a fellow writer and visited the new McNally Jackson bookstore in Rockefeller Center where she picked up the Writing Down the Bones Deck of writing prompts. Before catching the train home she walked through the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures.

Chris and Emily went to Boston and worked at the Simmons University Library then took a browse at Brookline Booksmith. Chris bought A Small Book of Grave Humour by Fritz Spiegl and The Crystal Frontier by Carlos Fuentes.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [50:30]
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.

Chris is bummed that she won’t be able to attend either of the two Willa Cather conferences this June. She 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 the conferences and Taylor’s virtual study series here.

– Upcoming Reads – [58:50]
Travels with Charley in Search of America – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)(audio)
Learn more about the Vintage Book Club.
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)
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us about Love, Life, and Mortality – Karen Fine, DVM (EF)
Best American Short Stories 2023 – edited by Min Jin and Heidi Pitlor Lee (EF) release date 10/17/2023

– Out Now –
On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World's Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer – Michael P. Branch
Chain Gang All Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
You Could Make this Place Beautiful: A Memoir – Maggie Smith

– Poet Spotlight with Shuly Cawood – [1:00:55]
We speak with Shuly about her poem “Starter Marriage” from her forthcoming collection Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough available for PREORDER NOW.  
Learn more about Shuly’s publications and workshops here.

___________________________________________
Starter Marriage
after Erin Adair-Hodges*

First there was the word and the word was trying.
Trying the apartment with white walls, popcorn ceilings,
footsteps heavy above, thudding over our days.

Trying the job I took filing papers into squeaking cabinets,
the one you took answering phones for dentists. Trying
the brown bag lunches with limp sandwiches

and sliced cheese, the softening apple, the room-temperature
soda. Consuming it all on church steps, hunched below
the overhang as it rained. Trying the cold pool after work

with dead insects needing to be netted. Unraveling towels,
TJ Maxx suits, the walk back on the no-car driveway.
All heat evaporated. Empty stomachs. No one wanted what the other craved.

Trying the red Chevrolet with the bad battery, no parking without pay,
the bus rides to and from work, your stop, my stop, the sun hitting hard,
us squinting at the sky. Your last day, the blue electric toothbrush

they gave you as goodbye. Buzzing in your mouth with all those
trapped words. Trying the new queen mattress
we could not afford but bought anyway.

Trying the laundry we toted to the next
building, plastic hampers in our
arms full of every day’s dirt.

Coffee but no creamer,
bread but no toaster,
sugar hardened in the bag.

Day-old everything bagels,
buy-one, get-one veggie burritos,
dollar theater on Sundays.

New job but less pay, new boss
but no promotion. Saving for tickets
for never vacations.

Trying the places we gave up for each other:
city salted by an ocean, all those fish and ferry rides;
town with three stoplights, two policemen,

a forest to get lost in. Your dreams, my dreams,
weeds by the parking lot. Trying
your face a broken banister,
my hands an unused map.

*The first nine words are borrowed from “Portrait of Mother: 1985” by Erin Adair-Hodges
___________________________________________

– Also Mentioned –
Book Barn
John William Tebbel
Sylvia Beach
Shakespeare and Company
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
The Sunwise Turn Bookshop
Also by J. Rion Straddal: Kitchens of the Great Midwest and Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club
Erin Adair Hodges

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 174 - Author Spotlight with Jenna Miller

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

– Listener Top Eleven of 2022 –
We collected the Top Ten Reads of 2022 from our listeners. There were over 70 respondents with a total of 427 books! If you are interested in receiving a copy of the spreadsheet please send an email. We created a shop on our Bookshop.org page for you to learn more about the Top Eleven Books.

The top author mentions included: Maggie O’ Farrell, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Kate Quinn, Colson Whitehead, Louise Erdrich, Louise Penny, Richard Powers, Stephen King, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and William Kent Kreuger.

– Announcing our 24th Readalong –
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. The paperback is available from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars.

In order to be entered into the giveaway for a copy, join our newsletter by February 1st.

Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom conversation on Sunday, February 26th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

– Our 2023 Reading Intentions – [7:30]
Chris and Emily both set a Reading Challenge with a goal of 52 books.
Emily hopes to read more Maggie O’ Farrell. (9 novels, 1 memoir, 2 kids picture books)
Chris joined the TBR Pile Challenge via Adam at Roof Beam Reader.
Emily wants to read from one new-to-her cookbook per month with a challenge to cook one recipe from each cookbook.
Chris plans to continue the Willa Cather Short Story project with one story per month. Learn more about it here.
Emily wants to read more non-fiction and she wants to try to read an hour each morning uninterrupted by technology.

Please join in the conversation about 2023 Reading Intentions on our Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reading – [20:00]
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks (CW)
This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)

– Just Read – [23:22]
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People – Tracy Kidder (EF)(audio)
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with Slavery Across America – Clint Smith (CW)(audio)
A Heart that Works – Rob Delaney (EF)(audio)
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [37:20]
Chris and Emily met with the Vintage Book Club at the Wood Memorial Library & Museum in South Windsor, CT to discuss The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Boston where they browsed at Brattle Bookshop, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, and Commonwealth Books.

Emily went to Northampton, MA to see Tracy Kidder in conversation with Dr. O’Connell discussing his new book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People.

Chris has started her new (and last!) semester of Library School. The History of the Book with two books: The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others by Sidney E. Berger and The Book by Amaranth Borsuk.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:28]
Chris and Emily are hoping to go on a joint jaunt to RJ Julia in Madison on Tuesday, February 21 at 7pm to see Will Schwalbe and his new book We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship.

Emily is hoping to catch Laura Zigman on book Tour with her newest novel, Small World.

– Upcoming Reads – [55:12]
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir – Iliana Regan (EF)
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death – Maggie O’ Farrell (EF)(audio)
Speak for the Dead: A Dominon Archives Mystery – Amy Tector (CW) release date March 14, 2023
Endpapers – Jennifer Savran Kelly (CW) release date February 7, 2023

Out Now: [57:16]
Small World – Laura Zigman
Decent People – De’shawn Charles Winslow
Georgie, All Along: An Uplifting and Unforgettable Love Story – Kate Clayborn
Exiles – Jane Harper
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks

– Author Spotlight with Jenna Miller – [57:55]
We had a great time chatting with Jenna about her debut novel Out of Character which is available for pre-order now!
Learn more about Jenna.
Jenna’s literary inspirations include: Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Julie Murphy, and Becky Albertalli.

– Episode Sponsor – [1:28:13]
Today’s Episode sponsored by Shuly Cawood and her book A Small Thing to Want.
We spoke with Shuly about the book on Episode 100.

– Also Mentioned –
LibraryThing – a place to catalog reading
There is a group reading the 8 novels of Louise Erdrich – contact @katie_sikkes on Instragram
True Grit – Charles Portis
Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner
Also by Geraldine Brooks – Horse and March
Also by Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet and The Marriage Plot
Television series Catastrophe and Bad Sisters
Something Rotten! musical
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Mountain Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
Agate Publishing
The Foulest Things: A Dominion Archives Mystery – Amy Tector
Malinda Lo
Rainbow Rowell

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, please email for instructions.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!

Please subscribe to our email newsletter.

Episode 173 - Emily's Hidden Reading Slump and Chris's Return to Practical Magic

Episode One Hundred Seventy Three Show Notes

KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– Episode Sponsor – Today’s Episode sponsored by Shuly Cawood and her book A Small Thing to Want. We spoke with Shuly about the book on Episode 100.

– Announcing our 24th Readalong –
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. The paperback is available from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars.

Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom conversation on Sunday, February 26th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

Send Us Your Top Ten Books of 2022

– Currently Reading – [3:31]
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (CW)
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People – Tracy Kidder (EF)
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with Slavery Across America – Clint Smith (CW)(audio)
Dragonfly in Amber – Diana Gabaldon (CW)

– Just Read – [9:28]
Oona Out of Order – Margarita Montimore (EF)
The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Trespasses – Louise Kennedy (EF)
The Wok: Recipes and Techniques – J. Kenji López-Alt (CW)
The Change – Kirsten Miller (EF)
Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano (EF) release date 3/14/2023
What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said – Shuly Cawood (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [35:06]
Chris did some shopping at two used bookstores: The Book Barn in Niantic, CT and Bennett’s Books in Deep River, CT.

Emily attended a cooking class with the cookbook author Julia Turshen.

Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching the new Interview with a Vampire television series based on the novel by Anne Rice.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to New Haven where they visited one of their favorite Little Free Library’s in Wooster Square and had lunch at Haven Hot Chicken.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [47:52]
Chris and Emily will be meeting with the Vintage Book Club on Thursday, January 19th at 1:00 pm (ET) at the Wood Memorial Library & Museum in South Windsor, CT to discuss The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck. Please join us!

Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to browse at Brattle Bookshop in Boston, MA.

Emily is going to Northampton, MA to see Tracy Kidder in conversation with Dr. O’Connell discussing his new book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People. Learn more about the event here.

– Upcoming Reads – [47:54]
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (EF)
The Warden – Anthony Trollope (CW)

– Out Now – [50:11]
The Deluge – Stephen Markley
Reef Road – Deborah Goodrich Royce (EF)
Check out Our Mystery Man talking with Royce on Central Booking Episode 124
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton

– Also Mentioned –
Also by Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine and Mountains Beyond Mountains
Also by Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic, Magic Lessons, Faithful
The Food Lab – J. Kenji López-Alt
Also by Ann Napolitano: A Good Hard Look and Dear Edward
Little Women
Interview with a Vampire movie

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 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.

Join our Goodreads Group!

We have a BookTube Channel – please check it out here, and be sure to subscribe!

Please subscribe to our email newsletter.

Episode 172 - Top Ten Reads of 2022 with BookTuber Russell Gray

Episode One Hundred Seventy Two Show Notes

– Announcing our 24th Readalong –
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. The paperback is available from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars.

Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom conversation on Sunday, February 26th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

Send Us Your Top Ten Books of 2022

– Our Top Ten Books of 2022 – [9:05]
We chat with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog about our Top Reads of the year.

Russell
Perish – Latoya Watkins
A Little Bit Country – Brian D. Kennedy
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
The Change – Kirsten Miller
Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies – Maddie Mortimer
Address Unknown – Kathrine Kressman Taylor
Trust – Hernan Diaz
The Trees – Percival Everett
They’re Going to Love You – Meg Howrey

Emily
Hidden Pictures – Jason Rekulak (illustrated by Will Staehle & Doogie Horner)
Maggie Smith books:
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
Keep Moving: The Journal: Thrive Through Change and Create a Life You Love
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir release date 4/11/2023
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas, translated by Franck Wynne
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Strout:
Oh William!
Lucy By the Sea
The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss – Amy Bloom
Simply Julia: 110 Recipes for Heathy Comfort Food – Julia Turshen

Chris
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles
A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir – Jenn Shapland
The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic – Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson
Shutter – Ramona Emerson
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Miss Grief and Other Stories – Constance Fenimore Woolson
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson
The Bad Seed – Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald

– Upcoming Reads We Are Excited About – [1:45:40]
The Deluge – Stephen Markley release date 1/10/2023
Decent People – De’Shawn Charles Winslow release date 1/17/2023
The Wise Hours: A Journey Into the Wild and Secret World of Owls – Miriam Darlington release date 2/7/2023
Chain Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah release date 4/4/2023
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman release date 8/15/2023
The Writing Retreat – Julia Bartz release date 2/21/2023
Out of Character – Jenna Miller release date 2/7/2023

– Episode Sponsor –
Today’s Episode sponsored by Shuly Cawood and her book A Small Thing to Want.
We spoke with Shuly about the book on Episode 100.

– Also Mentioned –
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Penis Pokey – Christopher Behrens
Quirk Books
Impossible Fortress – Jason Rekulak
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America – Clint Smith
Small Game – Blair Braverman
A Ghost of Caribou – Alice Henderson
My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
Anything is Possible – Elizabeth Strout
In the Distance – Hernan Diaz
Dean Street Press
Telephone – Percival Everett
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
Jami Attenberg
Ohio – Stephen Markley
In West Mills – De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott
Friday Black – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese

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