Episode 245 - Henry James is dead (to us)

Episode 245 Show Notes

– Currently Reading –
Witches of Dubious Origin – Jenn McKinlay (EF) release date 10/28/2025
Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon – Sara Catterall (CW)
Eat & Flourish: How Food Supports Emotional Well-Being – Mary Beth Albright (EF) (audiobook)

– Just Read –
“The Jolly Corner” by Henry James from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (CW)
The Last Resort – Erin Entrada Kelly (EF)
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (CW) (audiobook)
The Dogs of Venice – Steven Rowley (CW)
Aftertaste – Daria LaVelle (EF)
Agnes Grey – Anne Brontë (CW)
“The Birds” by Daphne Du Maurier from the new collection After Midnight: Thirteen Tales for the Dark Hours – (CW)(EF)
Read the Guardian article by Stephen King.

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily rewatched Becoming, the documentary that follows Michelle Obama as she goes on book tour with her memoir Becoming.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to see a performance of Spunk at the Yale Repertory Club based on Zora Neale Hurston’s short story Spunk. Read the NY Times article here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
The Brontë Parsonage Museum is presenting a four-part read-along of Shirley by Charlotte Brontë. Learn more here.

On November 25, the Smithsonian is offering a seminar, Margaret Fuller: An Extraordinary Transcendentalist Woman. Learn more here.

The next Patreon Reading Salon will take place on Sunday, October 26th.

Emily is heading to Colorado and is looking forward to visiting White River Books.

Chris and Emily have upcoming Couch Biblio Adventures including The Birds directed by Alfred Hitchcock and an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw starring the actress, Michelle Dockery.

– Upcoming Reads –
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me – Patrick Bringley (EF)
How to Sell a Haunted House – Grady Hendrix (CW)(EF)
Gothic Tales – Elizabeth Gaskell (CW)
Play Nice – Rachel Harrison (CW)
“The Readjustment” by Mary Austin from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook

– Out Now –
Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery – Olivia Blacke

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 4th Quarter Book –
The 4th Quarter Readalong is How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, November 9th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.

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.

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 –
Kindred Thoughts Bookstore
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
A New Lease on Life: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery by Olivia Blacke

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!

Help support the Book Cougars, by becoming a Patreon member.
If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.
Sponsor an episode of the podcast or the newsletter.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!

Episode 243 - Ghosts, Ghosts, and More Ghosts

Book Cougars Episode 243

Episode 243 Show Notes

– Books We Considered for the Q4 Readalong –
The Shining – Stephen King
Hell House – Richard Matheson
A House With Good Bones – T. Kingfisher
Beloved – Toni Morrison
The Whistler – Nick Medina
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
A Haunting on the Hill – Elizabeth Hand
Ghost Story – Peter Straub

If you want to hear us talk more about these books head over to BookTube.

– Currently Reading –
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (LOA #388) – co-edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall (CW)
Positive Obsession: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler – Susana M. Morris (CW)
Dirt Candy: A Cookbook: Flavor Forward Food from the Upstart New York City Restaurant – Amanda Cohen, Ryan Dunlavey, Grady Hendrix (EF)

– Just Read –
The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton – Edith Wharton (CW)
The Rarest Fruit – Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Hildegarde Serle (EF)
To Catch a Thief – David Dodge (CW)
A New Lease on Death: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery – Olivia Blacke (EF)
‘Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ by M.R. James from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook)
All The World Can Hold – Jung Yun (EF) release date 3/10/2026
Jung has been featured in Author Spotlights on Episode 104 and Episode 142

– Episode Sponsor –
Playback by Carla Malden
Learn more about Carla and her writing.

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily hopped the rails to New York City where Chris worked in the archives at Barnard College. While she was working Emily and Aunt Ellen visited Book Culture, Columbia University Bookstore, and stopped at The Hungarian Pastry Shop. Read more about this café where writers go to work – and eat cake

Through a recommendation by a student at her library, Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching The Gorge which features The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are going back to NYC to meet Aunt Ellen to visit The Twisted Spine, the new horror bookstore in Brooklyn.

Emily is heading to Cape Cod where she hopes to visit Titcomb’s Bookshop and Annie’s Books & Gifts. She is also taking a large stack of books to read including The Upstairs Delicatessen by Dwight Garner and Death at the White Hart by Chris Chibnall.

The next Patreon Reading Salon will take place on Sunday, September 28th.

– Upcoming Reads –
Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery – Olivia Black (EF) release date 10/21/2025
A House With Good Bones – T. Kingfisher
Swimming Studies – Leanne Shapton (EF)
Death Comes for the Archbishop – Willa Cather (CW)
The Turn of the Screw – Henry James (CW)
Christ in Concrete – Pietro di Donato (CW)
Backstage: Stories of a Writing Life – Donna Leon (CW)
Capote in Kansas – Kim Powers (CW)
The Doll Who Ate His Mother – Ramsey Campbell (CW)
‘The Moonlit Road’ by Ambrose Bierce from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce (CW)(EF) (audiobook
Upcoming Short Story Buddy Read with Our Mystery Man:
"The Mask of the Red Death" by Edgar Allan Poe
"The Canterville Ghost" by Oscar Wilde

– Out Now –
The Secret of Secrets – Dan Brown

– 2025 Readalong Theme and 4th Quarter Book –
The 4th Quarter Readalong is How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation will take place on Sunday, November 9th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join. You can join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.

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.

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 –
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Also by Nick Medina: Indian Burial Ground and Sisters of the Lost Nation
Never Whistle At Night  edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.
To Catch a Thief movie
The Belgian Girls by Kathryn J. Atwood
Learn more about Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The September House by Carissa Orlando

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!

Help support the Book Cougars, by becoming a Patreon member.
If you would prefer to donate directly, email for instructions.
Sponsor an episode of the podcast or the newsletter.

Subscribe to our monthly newsletter.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!