Episode 144 - Celebrating Our 5th Anniversary!

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

– Our Top Five ‘ish in the last Five Years –
2016:
Shelter – Jung Yun (CW)
Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi (CW)
Year of Yes – Shonda Rhimes (EF)
Delicious Foods – James Hannaham (EF)
2017:
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee (CW)
Stone by Stone: The Magnificent History in New
England’s Stone Walls – Robert Thorson (CW)
The Fact of a Body:  Murder and a Memoir -  Alex Marzano-Lesnevich (EF)
2018:
Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America – Nancy MacLean (CW)
Becoming – Michelle Obama (CW)
Girls & Boys – Dennis Kelly (EF)
2019:
Ain’t Nobody Nobody – Heather Harper Ellett (CW)
Friday Black – Nane Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (EF)
2020:
Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey – Katheleen Rooney (CW)
Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938 – R.A. Scotty (CW)
Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger: A Memoir – Lisa Donovan (EF)
A Small Thing to Want: Stories – Shuly Cawood (EF)
Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices – Kathy Gunst, Katherine Alford (EF)

– Readalong Memories –
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk
True Grit – Charles Portis
Celestial Bodies – Joka Alharthi, Marilyn Booth (translator)
Maurice – E.M. Forster
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Summer of Little Women:
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
March – Geraldine Brooks
Meg, Jo, Beth Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters - Anne Boyd Rioux

– Biblio Adventure Memories –
Booktopias!
Attending Book Expo
Ruth Franklin event at Northshire Bookstore (Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life)
Roxane Gay events
A Booktopia with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog and Julia and visiting the Emily Dickinson Museum
Hachette Book Brunch meeting Sally Field, meeting up with fellow Booktopians, and dinner with Will Schwalbe
Library Time together especially the Sterling Library at Yale University

– Currently Reading – [41:35]
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou (CW)(audio)
Bury Your Dead – Louise Penny (CW)(audio) narrated by Ralph Cosham
Small World – Jonathan Evison (EF) release date 1/11/22
Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen (CW)

– Just Read – [44:43]
Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson (EF) release date 2/1/2022
The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream – Charles Spencer (CW)
Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner (EF)(audio)
Dog’s on the Trail: A Year in the Life – Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain (CW)
Firekeeper’s Daughter – Angeline Boulley (EF)(audio) narrated by Isabella Star LaBlanc

– Biblio Adventures – [1:03:10]
Chris went to the Coast Guard Academy Library Special Collections to investigate salt water damage on some books in the collection. She looked at historical versions of The American Practical Navigator books. She touched a book from 1680!

Emily had a day in Traverse City, MI. She visited the Traverse Area District Library, Horizon Books, and Brilliant Books. She also went to Glen Arbor and visited the Cottage Book Shop housed in a log cabin.

Emily stopped in Nyack, NY on her way home from MI and stopped for a cup of coffee at the Art Cafe right next door to the Nyack Library.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [1:12:51]
Emily is plans to watch Passing on Netflix based on the novel Passing by Nella Larsen.

– Upcoming Reads – [1:13:53]
Garlic and the Vampire – Bree Paulsen (CW)
The Many Daughters of Afong Moy – Jamie Ford (EF) release date

– 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 –
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North – Blair Braverman
Woodrow on the Bench – Jenna Blum
Pickwick Bookshop in Nyack NY
The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet – Jamie Ford
Gone with the Wind movie
Jenny from Reading Envy
My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout

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.