Episode 142 - O Beautiful Pub Day Conversation with Jung Yun

November 09, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

Patreon Only Giveaway – Claire J. Griffin’s book A Rebellious Woman; become a Patreon sponsor by November 14th to be entered to win.

– Currently Reading – [4:09]
Fifty Ships that Changed the Course of History: A Nautical History of the World – Ian Graham (CW)
State of Terror – Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny (EF)(audio)
The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story – Horace Walpole (CW)

– Just Read – [13:11]
Woodrow on the Bench – Jenna Blum (EF)
A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson (CW)(EF)
Doctors and Friends – Kimmery Martin (EF)
Vampyres of Hollywood – Adrienne Barbeau, Michael Scott (CW)
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love – Kim Fay (EF) release date 2/8/22
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen – Laurie Colwin (EF)
Happy All the Time – Laurie Colwin (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [41:43]
Chris and Emily went on a Joint Jaunt to The Montague Bookmill in Montague, MA. Chris was thrilled to find a first edition of Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg.

The Willa Cather Book Club met and discussed Alexander’s Bridge. The next meeting is in January and will be discussing O Pioneers. You can learn more about the book club here.

Chris attended a virtual event, Out of the Archives: The Queer History of Dracula with Ranger Meaghan Michel of the Longfellow House – Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site. You can watch the video recording of the event here.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:14]
Chris and Emily are planning a trip to People Get Ready bookstore in New Haven to pick up their copies of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Emily is planning to check out the Write America Series via Byrd’s Books hosted by Roger Rosenblatt, author of Making Toast. You can sign up for upcoming events and watch past events here.

– Upcoming Reads – [57:50]
Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen (EF)
Chouette – Claire Oshetsky (EF)
The Old Nurse’s Story: A Ghost Story for Christmas – Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (CW)
The Beetle – Richard Marsh (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Jung Yun – [1:05:20]
We spoke with Jung Yun, author of Shelter (which we discussed on Episode 104) and her new book O Beautiful.
You can learn more about Jung on her website.

– 19th Readalong –
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
The discussion will drop on December 21st via Episode 145, please get questions/comments to us by December 14th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Mystic Seaport Museum
Ellen Macarthur Foundation
Strawberry Hill House & Garden
The Pull of the Stars – Emma Donoghue
84 Charing Cross Road – Helene Hanff
Bram Stoker
Walt Whitman
Oscar Wilde
Alice Hoffman
Reading Envy Podcast
Joanne Harris: Chocolat, Five Quarters of the Orange
Leave the World Behind – Rumaan Alam

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
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!

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Episode 141 - Author Spotlight with Alice Henderson

October 26, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– Currently Reading – [1:00]
A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 11/9/2021
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love – Sonya Renee Taylor, foreword by Ijeoma Oluo (CW)
Dracula – Bram Stoker (CW) (Audible Original)

– Just Read – [7:13]
Being Perfect – Anna Quindlen (EF)
The Sundial – Shirley Jackson (CW)
How to Get Into the Twin Palms – Karolina Waclawiak (EF)
A Solitude of Wolverines – Alice Henderson (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [19:07]
Chris went on two bookstore adventures: Grey Matter Books in Hadley, MA and Raven Used Books in Northampton, MA.

Emily watched two interviews via the Oprah Conversation on Apple TV: Barack Obama discussing A Promised Land and Matthew McConaughey discussing his book Greenlights.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [24:40]
Out of the Archives: The Queer History of Dracula with Ranger Meaghan Michel on October 28 7:00 pm (CT). You can sign up for the event here.

Emily is signed up for an event via Politics & Prose on Wednesday, October 27 at 7 pm (ET); a thriller panel with authors Wiley Cash, When Ghosts Come Home, and Kimi Cunningham Grant, These Silent Woods.

– Upcoming Reads – [26:49]
The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman (EF)
The Man Who Died Twice – Richard Osman (EF)
Woodrow on the Bench – Jenna Blum (EF)
The Castle of Otranto: A Gothic Story – Horace Walpole (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Alice Henderson – [30:00]
We spoke with Alice about her Alex Carter series including the first book, A Solitude of Wolverines, and the upcoming release of the second book in the series, A Blizzard of Polar Bears publishing on 11/9/2021.

You can learn more about Alice on her website.

Citizen science enables people from all walks of life to advance scientific research. You can learn more about it here.

– 19th Readalong –
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

The discussion will drop on December 21st via Episode 145, please get questions/comments to us by December 14th.

The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Two Dollar Radio
The Believer Magazine
Longfellow House Washington’s Headquarters
Books by John Grisham: A Time to Kill and A Time for Mercy
Nevada Barr

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
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 here.

Episode 140 - Our Mystery Man Returns with Spooktacular Recommendations

October 12, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– Episode 140 Giveaway –
Archer – Shruti Swamy
Choose Me – Tess Gerritsen and Gary Braver
When All the Girls Are Sleeping – Emily Arsenault
Fault Lines – Emily Itami
To be entered in the giveaway, subscribe to our newsletter here.

– Currently Reading –
The Sundial – Shirley Jackson (CW)
Bewilderment – Richard Powers (EF)
Today a Woman Went Mad in the Supermarket: Stories – Hilma Wolitzer (EF)

– Just Read –
Shadow Life: When Death Comes Too Soon, Fight Dirty – Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu (Illustrator) (CW)
The Book of Form and Emptiness – Ruth Ozeki (EF)
Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature – Farah Jasmine Griffin (CW)(audio)
The Inheritance of Orquíeda Divina – Zoraida Córdova (EF)
Carmilla – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (CW)(Audible Original)
Mrs. March – Virginia Feito (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily found a very cool Little Free Library on Chappaquiddick Island, MA.

Chris went to the Amherst Book Store and purchased a copy of Matrix by Lauren Groff and A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark.

Chris (and Aunt Ellen) binged Midnight Mass on Netflix.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is planning to watch Chapelwait based on Stephen King’s short story Jerusalem’s Lot.

Emily is excited to watch an event via Books and Books in Miami, Florida with Leigh Bardugo (Ninth House) and V.E. Schwab (The Invisible Life of Addie Larue) in conversation with Zoraida Cordova about her new book The Inheritance of Orquíeda Divina. You can watch the video here.

– Upcoming Reads –
Alexander’s Bridge – Willa Cather (CW)
You can learn about the Willa Cather book club here.
A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 11/9/2021
How to Get Into the Twin Palms – Karolina Waclawiak (EF)
Emily is hoping to find a book by Sarah Addison Allen

– Our Mystery Man, John Valeri –
Check out John’s YouTube channel: Central Booking

Young Adult Recommendations:
The Stitchers (Fright Watch #1) – Lorien Lawrence
The Collectors (Fright Watch #2) – Lorien Lawrence
The Mary Shelley Club – Goldy Moldavsky
Kill the Boy Band – Goldy Moldavsky
No Good Deed – Goldy Moldavsky
When All the Girls Are Sleeping – Emily Arsenault
There’s Someone Inside Your House – Stephanie Perkins
The movie adaptation.

Adult Recommendations:
Chasing the Boogeyman – Richard Chizmar
My Heart is a Chainsaw – Stephen Graham Jones

Nonfiction:
It All Began with a Scream – Padraic Maroney

Vampire Book:
Vampyres of Hollywood – Adrienne Barbeau, Michael Scott

– 19th Readalong –
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

The discussion will drop on December 21st via Episode 145, please get questions/comments to us by December 14th.

The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 12th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Also by Shirley Jackson – We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Lottery
The video of the Book Cougars Biblio Adventure to North Bennington to see Shirley Jackson’s Haunts
The Overstory – Richard Powers
Meg Wolitzer
Brooklyn Brujas series by Zoraida Córdova: Labyrinth Lost, Bruja Born, and Wayward Witch
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good – Helene Tursten
The Haunting of Tramcar 015 – P. Djèlí Clark
The Haunting of Hill House dramatic series on Netflix
Night Shift – Stephen King
Salem’s Lot – Stephen King
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara
Jaws movie
The Only Good Indians – Stephen Graham Jones
Silence of the Lambs movie

Episode 139 - Author Spotlight with Janice P. Nimura

September 28, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– Currently Reading –
The Book of Form and Emptiness – Ruth Ozeki (EF)
Shadow Life: When Death Comes Too Soon, Fight Dirty – Hiromi Goto, Ann Xu (Illustrator) (CW)
Water I Won’t Touch – Kayleb Rae Candrilli (EF)
Like Other Girls – Britta Lundin (CW)
Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature – Farah Jasmine Griffin (CW)(audio)

– Just Read –
Fault Lines – Emily Itami (EF)
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change – Maggie Smith (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily went to the Ogunquit Memorial Library in Maine and found an adorable Little Free Library out front that is a replica of the library. It turns out that Chris visited the library five years ago. You can read her blogpost about the visit here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is going to Boston and hopes to visit a bookstore, or two, or more.

Emily is heading to Martha’s Vineyard and hopes to visit Bunch of Grapes bookstore, Edgartown Books, Portobello Road bookstore, and go on the prowl for Sister’s Blackwell historical sites.

– Upcoming Reads –
Mrs. March – Virginia Feito (EF)
Bewilderment – Richard Powers (EF)
Matrix – Lauren Groff (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Janice P. Nimura and 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura. The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

Janice also wrote the book Daughters of the Samurai: A Journey from East to West and Back.

You can learn more about Janice here.

– Also Mentioned –
Sinking Islands – Cai Emmons
Red Hen Press
My Year of Meats – Ruth Ozeki
Elliot Bay Book Co. (sub)TEXT Poetry Subscription
Copper Canyon Press
Sally Rooney
Haruki Murakami
Keep Moving: The Journal: Thrive Through Change and Create a Life You Love – Maggie Smith
God’s Hotel: A Doctor, a Hospital, and a Pilgrimage to the Heart of Medicine – Victoria Sweet
Woman in the Nineteenth Century – Margaret Fuller
Leaving Coy’s Hill – Katherine A. Sherbrooke
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights – Dorothy Wickenden
Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine – Olivia Campbell
In Falling Snow – Mary-Rose MacColl
Testament of Youth – Vera Brittain
Sunflower Sisters – Martha Hall Kelly
The Gilded Hour – Sara Donati
The Documentary 13th

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
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 here.

Episode 138 - Marilynne Robinson Returns

September 14, 2021 by Emily Fine

Episode One Hundred Thirty Eight Show Notes

KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.
The discussion will drop on September 28th via Episode 139, please get questions/comments to us by September 20th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Currently Reading –
The Doctors Blackwell – Janice P. Nimura (CW)(EF)

– Just Read –
Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing – Elissa Altman (EF)
The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny (CW)
Middletown – Sarah Moon (EF)
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts – Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez (CW)
The Guide – Peter Heller (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris visited The Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

Emily watched the Oprah Book Club conversations with Marilynne Robinson regarding her Gilead book series. You can learn more about it here.

Emily caught the conversation with Hank Phillipi Ryan and William Kent Krueger, author of the book Lightning Strike. You can watch it here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is planning to attend an event with Heather Frimmer, author of Better to Trust, at Westport Library from 7-8 pm. You can learn more about the event here.

Chris and Emily are hatching plans to go on a joint jaunt to Mount Holyoke College and then head on to Northampton, MA to check out multiple bookstores.

– Upcoming Reads –
A Blizzard of Polar Bears: A Novel of Suspense – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 11/9/2021
An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed – Helene Tursten (CW) release date 10/5/2021
The Archer – Shruti Swamy (EF)
My Darling from the Lions: Poems – Rachel Long (EF)

– Also Mentioned –
Piranesi – Susanna Clarke
“Ditching Dickensian” – Matthew Sherrill
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Martin Chuzzlewhit – Charles Dickens
State of Terror – Louise Penny and Hillary Rodham Clinton
Me Myself and Him – Chris Tebbetts
The Trial of Lizzy Borden – Cara Robertson
The River – Peter Heller
The movie Get Out
Simmons University
Gilead and Home – Marilynne Robinson
An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good – Helene Tursten
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk
A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel of Suspense – Alice Henderson

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 here.

Episode 137 - Author (and Editor) Spotlight with Juliet Grames

August 31, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

Chris recited the poem “When Will I Be Home” by Li Shangyin.

– Currently Reading –
The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny (CW)
Pie Academy – Ken Haedrich (EF)
Below the Edge of Darkness: A Memoir of Exploring Light and Life in the Deep Sea – Edith Widder (CW)
Radiant Fugitives – Nawaaz Ahmed (EF)

– Just Read –
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF)
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear – Kate Moore (CW)
The Paper Palace – Miranda Cowley Heller (EF)
The Final Girl Support Group – Grady Hendrix (CW)
Once There Were Wolves – Charlotte McConaghy (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris, Emily, and Aunt Ellen went on a Joint Jaunt to visit the new little free library in the neighborhood.
Chris also found a new-to-her little free library in Niantic, CT.

Chris and Emily attended an event with Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, in conversation with Lisa Miller about her new book The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life. You can watch a video of the event through RJ Julia Booksellers here.

Emily watched an event with Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace, in conversation with MacKenzie Newcomb. You can watch the event here.

Chris attended an event hosted by Politics and Prose, Gibson’s Bookstore, and Books & Books, with Peter Heller discussing his new book, The Guide, with Diane Les Becquets.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is signed up to attend an event on Thursday, September 2 at 8PM ET via Boswell Book Company with William Kent Krueger introducing his new book Lightning Strike. You can sign up for the event here.

Chris is planning to attend some of the events of Bloody Scotland taking place September 17-19, 2021.

Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) is doing a joint readalong of The Sundial by Shirley Jackson from September 1 – October 31, 2021.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Doctors Blackwell – Janice P. Nimura (CW)(EF)
Salt – Catrin Kean (CW)
In the Country of Others – Leila Slimani (EF)
Monster She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction – Lisa Kroger and Melanie R. Anderson (CW)
The Sundial – Shirley Jackson (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Juliet Grames –
We chat about her book The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna. Opera singer Lisa Flanagan is the narrator for the audiobook.
Juliet has given us a few copies of the book The Seven or Eight Recipes of Stella Fortuna, if you would like one, please send us an email.
You can learn more about Juliet here.
Juliet is also Editor and Associate Publisher at Soho Crime.

– Also Mentioned –
The Green Mile – Stephen King
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
Article about Dickens: The Turning Point review – how Charles Dickens Built Bleak House
Simon Vance audiobook narrator
Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices – Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford (EF)
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix
Migrations – Charlotte McConaghy
Also by Peter Heller: The River, Celine, and The Orchard
Marilynne Robinson
Marilynne Robinson - Home, Gilead, Housekeeping
The Perfect Nanny – Leila Slimani
Lady Joker – Kaoru Takamura, translated by Allison Markin Powell and Marie Iida
Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara

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 here.

Episode 136 - We Discuss Books by Audrey Audrain, S.A. Cosby, Yan Ge, Alice Henderson, William Kent Krueger, Jung Yun, and MORE!

August 17, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

Emily read a poem by Maggie Smith titled “Good Bones”

– A Big Book Summer Reading Challenge –
Please let us know what you are reading this summer! Call 860-391-6674 or email bookcougars@gmail.com to let us know what big book (over 400 pages) you are going to read this summer.
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

You can also discuss your summer reads on our Goodreads thread here.

– Currently Reading –
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF) (audio)
Strange Beasts of China – Yan Ge, narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, translated by Jeremy Tiang (CW)
Home – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts – Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martínez (CW)
Ladyparts: A Memoir – Deborah Copaken (EF)

– Just Read –
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (CW)
The Push – Ashley Audrain (EF)
O Beautiful – Jung Yun (CW) release date 11/9/21
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
A Solitude of Wolverines: A Novel of Suspense – Alice Henderson (CW)
We Are the Brennans – Tracey Lange (EF)
Razorblade Tears – S.A. Crosby (CW)
Lightning Strike – William Kent Krueger (EF) release date 8/24/21

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended an event at Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT with Our Mystery Man, John
Valeri, in conversation with Emily Arsenault, author of When All the Girls Are Sleeping. You can purchase a signed copy of the book from Book Club on the Go.

Emily listened to a conversation with Deborah Copaken, author of Ladyparts: A Memoir, in conversation with Ayelet Waldman via A Great Good Place for Books. You can watch a video of the conversation here.

Chris watched a conversation with Naomi Hirahara, author of Clark and Division, in conversation with Erik Matsunaga through Madison Street Books. You can watch a video of the event here.

Episode 225 of the Reading Envy podcast with Jenny Colvin featured co-authors of The Personal Librarian, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is hoping to catch an event with Deborah Mandel, the author of All Write: How to Start, Structure, and Sustain A Writing Group.

Tuesday, August 17 at 7pm ET – Emily is signed up to attend an event with Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, in conversation with Lisa Miller about her new book The Awakened Brain: The New Science of Spirituality and Our Quest for an Inspired Life. You can sign up for the event here.

Chris and Emily are going on a Joint Jaunt to visit a new little free library in their neighborhood.

– Upcoming Reads –
Everything Sad is Untrue (A True Story) – Daniel Nayeri (EF)
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change – Maggie Smith (EF)
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (CW)
The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny release date 8/24/21

– 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.
The discussion will drop on September 28th via Episode 139, please get questions/comments to us by September 20th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Kate Baer: What Kind of Woman: Poems, I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems
Maggie Smith - Goldenrod
Marilyn Robinson – Lila, Jack
Shutterbabe: Adventures in Love and War – Deborah Copaken Kogan
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt
We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
Shelter – Jung Yun
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century – Jessica Bruder
Nomadland the movie
The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
Nevada Barr
The Shining – Stephen King
Blacktop Wasteland – S.A. Cosby
William Kent Kreuger – Ordinary Grace, This Tender Land, Iron Lake
Michael Chabon
Discover Nikkei
James Benn

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
Bookshop.org – support us and independent bookstores!

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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 here.

Episode 135 - Finally, an IN PERSON Joint Jaunt!

August 03, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– A Big Book Summer Reading Challenge –
Please let us know what you are reading this summer! Call 860-391-6674 or email bookcougars@gmail.com to let us know what big book (over 400 pages) you are going to read this summer.
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

Some listeners let us know what they are planning to read:
Middlemarch – George Elliot
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany – William L. Shirer
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Long Bright River – Liz Moore
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson

You can also discuss your summer reads on our Goodreads thread here.

– Currently Reading –
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (CW)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF) (audio)
O Beautiful – Jung Yun (CW) release date 11/9/21
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson (EF)

– Just Read –
O Beautiful – Jung Yun (CW) release date 11/9/21
Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara (CW)
The Apology Project – Jeannette Escudero (EF)
A Mouthful of Air – Amy Koppelman (EF) release date 8/17/21
Her Perfect Life – Hank Phillippi Ryan (EF) release date 9/14/21

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went on a Joint Jaunt to the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library to hear Claire J. Griffin discuss her book, A Rebellious Woman, about Belle Boyd. You can learn more about Claire here.

Chris hosted the Willa Cather Book Club, hosted by Book Club on the Go. You can learn more about the book club here.

They discussed Lucy Gayheart; the next book they are reading is Alexander’s Bridge.

Emily went to Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT to meet Jenn Bouchard, debut author of First Course.

Chris watched the Ken Burns documentary series about Ernest Hemingway titled Hemingway.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily went on a galivant to New York City where she made stops at Little Island, Posman Books, and the Rudolf Steiner Bookstore where she purchased The Story of the Root Children by Sibylle Von Olfers.

Chris is planning to attend an event on August 5th at 6PM ET at Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, in conversation with Emily Arsenault, author of When All the Girls Are Sleeping. You can sign up for the event and purchase a signed copy of the book from Book Club on the Go.

Anne in Austin wrote in to tell us about the upcoming Texas Book Festival which will be a hybrid version this year: October 25-28, 2021 (Virtual) and October 30-31, 2021 (Downtown Austin).

Chris is hoping to attend an event with Lucy Burdette at the Manchester Library in Connecticut, to hear her talk about her newest book A Scone of Contention. The event takes place on Monday, August 16th from 2-4 pm. You can learn more about the event here.

Emily is planning to stop at Two Dollar Radio Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.

– Upcoming Reads –
Razorblade Tears – S.A. Crosby (CW)
The Center for Fiction 2021 First Novel Prize List
The Sneakily Subversiveness of Laurie Colwin essay in the New York Times.
Three of Colwin’s books:
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen
Family Happiness
Happy All the Time
The Darkest Evening – Ann Cleeves

– 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.
The discussion will drop on September 28th via Episode 139, please get questions/comments to us by September 20th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Master and Commander – Patrick O’ Brian
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whale Ship Essex – Nathaniel Philbrick
The Newberry Library
I Smile Back – Amy Koppelman
I Smile Back – the movie
Jungle Red Writers
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Vera television series

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
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 here.

Episode 134 - Announcing Our 18th Readalong!

July 20, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– A Big Book Summer Reading Challenge –
Please let us know what you are reading this summer! Call 860-391-6674 or email bookcougars@gmail.com to let us know what big book (over 400 pages) you are going to read this summer.
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

Some listeners let us know what they are planning to read:
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy – J.R.R. Tolkien
The Border – Don Winslow
The Four Winds – Kristin Hannah

You can also discuss your summer reads on our Goodreads thread here.

– Currently Reading –
Gilead – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
Lucy Gayheart – Willa Cather (CW)
The Apology Project – Jeannette Escudero (EF) release date 8/1/21
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (CW)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF)

– Just Read –
The Personal Librarian – Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray (CW)
The Ninth Hour – Alice McDermott (EF)
When the Stars Go Dark – Paula McClain (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended an event through the Emily Dickinson Museum with Alena Smith, creator of the television series Dickinson and Martha Ackmann, author of These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily Dickinson. You can learn more about events at the Museum here.

Emily visited the Basalt Regional Library in Colorado. She also went on two bookstore adventures in Westerly, Rhode Island: Savoy Bookshop & Café and Re-Reads Bookshop.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is registered to attend an event on July 24 at 1:00 ET at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT with Jenn Bouchard, debut author of First Course. You can register for the event here.

Chris is planning to attend an event on August 5th at 6PM ET at Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, in conversation with Emily Arsenault, author of When All the Girls Are Sleeping. You can sign up for the event and purchase a signed copy of the book from Book Club on the Go.

– Upcoming Reads –
Home – Marilynne Robinson (EF)
Her Perfect Life – Hank Phillippi Ryan (EF) release date 9/14/21
Razorblade Tears – S.A. Crosby (CW)
The Final Girl Support Group – Grady Hendrix (CW)
The Madness of Crowds – Louise Penny (CW) release date 8/24/2021

– Favorite Reads of the Year (So Far) –
Emily:
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch – Erin French
The Hare – Melanie Finn
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
The Last Romantics – Tara Conklin

Chris:
The Shadow Box – Luanne Rice
Country Place – Ann Petry
Leaving Coy’s Hill – Katherine A. Sherbrooke

– 18th Readalong discussion –
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.
The podcast discussion with the author will drop on September 28th via Episode 139, please get questions/comments to us by September 20th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 19th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Book People
Fabled Bookshop & Cafe
Nowhere Bookshop
Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: Colloquialisms, and Catch-Phrases, Solecisms and Catachresis, Nicknames, and Vulgarisms – Eric Partridge
Carnegie’s Maid – Marie Benedict
The Morgan Library & Museum
Charming Billy – Alice McDermott
The Paris Wife – Paula McClain
The Child Finder – Rene Denfeld
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma – Bessel Van Der Kolk
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir – Alex Marzano-Lesnevich
The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
Blacktop Wasteland – S.A. Crosby

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
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 here.

Episode 133 - Recording Together from the New Book Cougars Studio!

July 06, 2021 by Emily Fine

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

– A Big Book Summer Reading Challenge –
Please let us know what you are reading this summer! Call 860-391-6674 or email bookcougars@gmail.com to let us know what big book (over 400 pages) you are going to read this summer.
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Some listeners let us know what they are planning to read:
Boy’s Life – Robert McCammon
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
The Rose Code – Kate Quinn
Middlemarch – George Elliot
The Actual Star – Monica Byrne
Firekeeper’s Daughter – Angeline Boulley
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy – Leigh Bardugo
The Once & Future King – T.H. White

You can also discuss your summer reads on our Goodreads thread here.
Take our poll on your reading plans for summer.

– Currently Reading –
Book for Idle Hours: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer Reading – Donna Harrington-Lueker (CW)
The Book of Magic – Alice Hoffman (EF) release date 10/5/2021

– Just Read –
Books Can Be Deceiving (A Library Lovers Mystery #1) – Jenn McKinlay (EF)
Chris dnf’d Great Plains by Ian Frazier
Beach Read – Emily Henry (EF)
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (CW)
The Chosen and the Beautiful – Nghi Vo (CW)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily did a whirlwind trip to Colorado, she visited: The Tattered Cover in Denver, Explore Booksellers in Aspen, The Book Haven in Salida, Once Upon a Trapeze and The Book Nook in Buena Vista, Bookbinders in Basalt.

Chris attended a Homesteading Authors Roundtable via Homestead National Historical Park where they discussed six authors: (You can watch the video here.)
·       Willa Cather (expert Tracy Tucker, Education Director & Archivist at The National Willa Cather Foundation)
·       Phoebe May Hopper (expert Dr. Melissa Hays)
·       Hamlin Garland (expert Kurt Meyer)
·       Laura Ingalls Wilder (expert Sarah Uthoff),
·       Mari Sandoz (expert Jamison Wyatt)
·       Bess Streeter Aldritch (expert Billie Leftholtz)

Chris watched an event through the Village Preservation Society titled “The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams” in South Village with Jonathan Ned Katz discussing his book, The Daring Life and Dangerous Times of Eve Adams. You can watch the video here.

Chris watched the documentary Gatsby in Connecticut the Untold Story via Kanopy.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
The Willa Cather Book Club is back! Next date is July 15th at noon in South Windsor, CT; the next book is Lucy Gayheart. Email bookcougars@gmail.com for more information.

– Upcoming Reads –
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (EF)
Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson (EF)
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (CW)

– Also Mentioned –
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides
The Price of Salt: Or Carol – Patricia Highsmith (CW)
Tracks – Louise Erdrich
One Summer – Blanche Willis Howard
We hosted the Jungle Red Writers you can watch the video here
Also by Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic, Magic Lessons, The Rules of Magic
Min Jin Lee
Eragon – Christopher Paolini
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore – Matthew J. Sullivan
The Great Gatsby movie (1974 adaptation)
Matthew J. Bruccoli, F. Scott Fitzgerald scholar
Maureen Corrigan
Old Jules – Mari Sandoz

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 Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click HERE to start shopping.
Bookshop.org – support us and independent bookstores!

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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 here.