Episode 205 - Author Spotlight with Yulin Kuang

Episode 205 Show Notes

– Giveaways –
Patreon: Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan. You have until April 14th to become a Patreon member.

Newsletter Winner: Congratulations to Calloway, who won The Awakening: The Dragon Heart Legacy, Book One by Nora Roberts.

– 2nd Quarter 2024 Readalong –
Our first quarter readalong The Awakening: The Dragon Heart Legacy, Book One by Nora Roberts. 

Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, June 2nd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join The Awakening Goodreads Discussion anytime and we’ve also created a Goodreads thread for general romance chit chat.

Download the Romance Bingo Card!

– Currently Reading –  
Chris dnf’d The Maiden – Kate Foster (CW)
Emily dnf’d Interesting Facts about Space – Emily Austin (EF)
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW)
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World – edited by Ada Limón (EF)
Emily read the poem “Canine Superpowers” by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Boats for Women – Sandra Yannone (CW)
Chris read “Providence April 14, 1998”
Piglet – Lottie Hazell (EF)
The Highest Apple: Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition – Judy Grahn (CW)
Break the Cycle: A Guide to Breaking Intergenerational Trauma – Dr. Mariel Buqué (EF)(audiobook)
Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential – Tiago Forte (CW)
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stuart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (EF)

– Episode Sponsor –
This episode is sponsored by Clitapalooza: Her flower blooms power by Billie Best.
You can learn more about Billie here.

– Just Read –
Wake Up With Purpose! What I’ve Learned in my First Hundred Years – Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt (CW)(audiobook)
You can read Chris’s review here.
Intimacies – Katie Kitamura
Deprog: Volume 1 – Tina Horn, Gab Contreras, Dani Strips, and Lisa Sterle – (CW)
A Baker’s Year: Twelve Months of Baking and Living the Simple Life at the Smoke Signals Bakery – Tara Jensen (EF)
Chris read a preview of River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
When Cicadas Cry – Caroline Cleveland (EF) release date 5/7/2024

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily went to RJ Julia’s Bookseller to see Rachel Slade discussing her new book Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (and How It Got That Way).

Chris had a lovely conversation with a student at the library about The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Emily watched the movie Adaptation, about a screenwriter trying to adapt the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris has purchased a ticket for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair taking place April 4-7.

Thank you to a listener who called in to tell us about the movie Shirley a biopic about the author Shirley Jackson, Chris and Emily are both planning to watch it.

Chris and Emily are going on a joint jaunt to Nyack, NY to see the home of Carson McCullers. They are also planning to read the short story “Reflections in a Golden Eye” and the new Mary Dearborn biography Carson McCullers: A Life.

– Upcoming Reads –
Bride – Ali Hazelwood (CW)
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon (CW)
The Twilight Garden – Sara Nisha Adams (EF)

– Out Now –
The Sicilian Inheritance – Jo Piazza
The Husbands – Holly Gramazio
Victory Parade – Leela Corman
A Killing on the Hill: A Thriller – Robert Dugoni

– Author Spotlight with Yulin Kuang –
We chat with Yulin about her new novel How to End a Love Story.
You can learn more about Yulin here and here, and be sure to check out her book tour.

– Also Mentioned –
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Gracy Hendrix
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs
The Glass Studio by Sandra Yannone
Salmon Poetry Press
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread by Tara Jensen
Tara Jensen
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
NaNoWriMo
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
North & South Elizabeth Gaskill adaptation with Richard Armitage

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audiobook platform: Follow this link and use promo code: bookcougars
Shop on Bookshop.org – support the Book Cougars and independent bookstores!

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Episode 199 - Our 2024 Reading Intentions

Book Cougars Episode 200

Episode One Hundred Ninety Nine Show Notes

– Listener Top Ten –
Let us know your Top Ten Books of 2023
Please fill the form out by January 22nd.

– 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 Indigo Goodreads discussion here.

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

– Chris and Emily 2024 Reading Intentions –
· Both Chris and Emily set their Goodreads Reading Challenge to 52 Books.
· Emily will continue to read books written by Maggie O’Farrell.
· Chris has eight stories left in the Willa Cather Short Story project.
· Emily has started a Monday morning short story project.
· Chris plans to focus on reading books when she wants, following the whim of her desires.
· Emily plans to read one new-to-her cookbook each month and cook one recipe from the book.
· Chris will read 19th Century literature including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Silas Marner, and A Tale of Two Cities.
· Chris is planning to focus on reading books by Margaret Fuller starting with Summer on the Lakes.
· Emily is aiming to watch one book to film adaptation per month.
· Biblio Adventures wish list: Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick, Maine; a trip to Long Island to visit the newly opened Barnes and Noble along with other indie bookstores and paying tribute to the place where Margaret Fuller perished; Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco; Bold Fork Books and Politics and Prose in Washington DC.

– Currently Reading –  
The Iliad – Homer (translated by Emily Wilson) (CW)(audiobook)
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
The Hero of This Book – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America – Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst (CW)
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett (EF)(audiobook)
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk (CW) release date 3/5/2024
The Boy Who Lost His Spark – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)(audiobook)

– Just Read –
Emily read two short stories “The End of the World is a Cul de Sac” by Louise Kennedy and “Powder” by Tobias Wolff
Archives 101 – Lois Hamill
You can read Chris’s review of this book in the Volume 86, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2023 issue.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Emily Dickinson Face to Face – Martha Dickinson Bianchi (CW)
A Winter in New York – Josie Silver (EF)
Freegift – James R. Benn (CW)
The Book of Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs (EF)
The Para Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life – Tiago Forte (CW)
The Cemetery of Untold Stories – Julia Alvarez (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Last Night – Luanne Rice (CW) release date 2/1/2024
Family Lore – Elizabeth Acevedo (EF) (audiobook)
Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food – Ann Hood (EF)
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese (EF)(audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum for 2024 Moby-Dick Marathon. She also visited the New Bedford Free Library.
Thanks to listener recommendations, Emily listened to two NPR Book of the Day podcasts:
· Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
· Big Heart Little Stove by Erin French

Emily participated in Katherine May’s Book Club where she was in conversation with Diana Henry speaking about her cookbook Roast Figs Sugar Snow.

Chris watched The Martian based on the novel by Andy Weir. She also participated in a group discussion about The Iliad by Homer. Listen to translator Emily Wilson reading from The Iliad. If you would like to join the conversation, send an email.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
On Saturday, January 20th Chris is participating in an online forum about craft via the Biography Lab. She’s particularly excited about a panel with Janice P. Nimura, “Nasty Women: Making a Good Story out of Bad Behavior.”

Emily is heading to Colorado to visit her son and attend an event via Aspen Words featuring Ann Patchett in conversation with Elizabeth McCracken.

– Upcoming Reads –
Erasure – Percival Everett
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki release date 3/19/2024
The Grey Wolf – Louise Penny

– Also Mentioned –
The Giant’s House – Elizabeth McCracken
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohlleben
Also by Louise Kennedy – Trespasses and The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
The Best American Short Stories 1997 series edited by Katrina Kenison, guest edited by E Annie Proulx
Fish Stories – Tobias Wolff
Trigger Warning Database
The Dictionary of the Book – Sidney E. Berger
The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
Afterlife – Julia Alvarez
Luanne Rice – Last Day and The Shadow Box
Laurie Colwin
American Prometheus – Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
James – Percival Everett
American Fiction movie

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.