Episode 237 - From Connecticut to Carbondale

Episode 237 Show Notes

– Currently Reading –
The Garden – Clare Beams (EF)
Join the buddy read. We will be discussing the novel on Episode 238. You can also join the online conversation over on Goodreads.
Silas Marner – George Eliot (CW)
Cooking in Real Life: Delicious & Doable Recipes for Every Day – Lidey Heuck (EF)

– Just Read –
The Shining – Stephen King (CW)
Memorial Days – Geraldine Brooks (EF) (audiobook)
So Far Gone – Jess Walter (EF)(audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended the Bloomsday celebration at the Guilford Free Library.

Emily took a trip to Princeton, NJ but didn’t get any time for Biblio Adventuring, but she did have a nice stop at the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey.

Chris watched the 1980 movie adaptation of The Shining.

Emily attended the 2025 Aspen Food & Wine Classic where she was hoping to run into Mashama Bailey, author of Black, White, and The Grey and recent cover model on The Power Issue of Cherry Bombe Magazine, although she didn’t see Mashama, she had a fan girl moment when she walked past pastry chef Nancy Silverton, author of The Cookie That Changed My Life. Head to Ingredient One to hear Emily’s thought’s on Nancy Silverton

We had a wonderful conversation about short books during our monthly Reading Salon with Patreon supporters (the flip side of last month’s big books).

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is planning to watch the 1997 adaptation of The Shining.

Chris and Emily are hoping to go on a fun Biblio Adventure together and Emily is hoping to spend an upcoming day in her hammock.

Emily plans to watch the recording of Amy Bloom’s book launch of I’ll Be Right Here via Books Are Magic in Brooklyn, NY.

The next Patreon Salon takes place on July 27th at 7PM (ET). Our topic is TBD.

– Upcoming Reads –
Summer on the Lakes from Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall (CW)
A Lost Lady – Willa Cather (CW)
Beautyland – Marie-Helene Bertino (EF)
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier (EF) Join Emily’s buddy read over on Goodreads.
Thrawn Janet by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Open Door by Margaret Oliphant from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)   

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 3rd Quarter Book –
The 3rd Quarter Readalong is The Upstairs House by Julia Fine. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, August 17th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread. We are also planning a companion read of The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

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.

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 –
Also by Geraldine Brooks: March, People of the Book, and Horse
Also by Jess Walter: The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins
Family Week by Sarah Bloom
White Houses by Amy Bloom

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Episode 225 - Top Ten Books of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

Top Ten Books of 2024 with Russell Gray from Ink and Paper Blog

Episode 225 Show Notes

Top Ten Reads of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

– Russell’s Books –
The Most – Jessica Anthony
Sipsworth – Simon Van Booy
Real Americans – Rachel Khong
Hombrecito – Santiago Jose Sanchez
The Safekeep – Yael Van Der Wouden
Our Evenings – Alan Hollinghurst
Tell Me Everything – Elizabeth Strout
Universality -Natasha Brown
Intermezzo – Sally Rooney
Small Rain – Garth Greenwell
James – Percival Everett

– Chris’s Books –
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Summer – Edith Wharton
We Got the Beat – Jenna Miller
A Little Bit Country – Brian D. Kennedy
Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (audiobook)
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile – Candice Millard
The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany – Pamela D. Toler
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells – Rebecca Rego Barry
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki
Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham – Marcia Clark
Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel – Kiersten White
The Gathering – C.J. Tudor
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë

– Emily’s Books –
An Exact Relica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon
The Women – Kristin Hannah
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle  – Matt Cain  (audiobook)
How to Read a Book – Monica Wood
The One-In-A-Million Boy – Monica Wood
Sandwich – Catherine Newman
We All Want Impossible Things – Catherine Newman
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
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension – Hanif Abdurraqib

Listener Top Tens! We would love to hear about your favorite reads of the year. You can find the form here fill it out by January 15, 2025.

– Also Mentioned –
Powell’s Books
Read By Ryan on Instagram
American Symphony documentary
Shawn Breathes Books
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
The Ghost Writer – Phillip Roth
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Author Agatha Christie
Find all of the novels by Elizabeth Strout here
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (Loa #388) by Margaret Fuller, edited by Noelle A. Baker and Megan Marshall
Normal People by Sally Rooney
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Armadale – Wilkie Collins
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
My Ántonia – Willa Cather

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.