Episode 132 - Author Spotlight with Gina Barreca

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

Katherine won our Episode 130 Giveaway and chose the book The Wolf in the Whale by Jordana Max Brodsky.

– 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.

Two listeners let us know that they are planning to read:
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
Dune – Frank Herbert

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

– Currently Reading –
Books Can Be Deceiving (A Library Lovers Mystery #1) – Jenn McKinlay (EF)
Rebecca Harding Davis: A Life Among Writers – Sharon Harris (CW)
Home Made: A Story of Grief, Groceries, Showing Up – And What We Make When We Make Dinner – Liz Hauck (EF)
The Price of Salt: Or Carol – Patricia Highsmith (CW)
The Plot – Jean Hanff Korelitz (CW)

– Just Read –
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within – Natalie Goldberg (CW)(audio)
The Last Romantics – Tara Conklin (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris had a big adventure to Chicago where she visited the Loyola University Lakeshore Campus and to the Newberry Library to see the exhibit Viva La Libertad!. She picked up three books: Queer Legacies: Stories from Chicago’s LGBTQ Archives by John D’Emilio, Chicago Renaissance: Literature and Art in the Midwest Metropolis by Liesl Olsen, and the Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks. She also visited Washington, PA the birthplace of Rebecca Harding Davis and Wheeling, WV where Harding grew up. Chris also stopped in Yellow Springs, OH where she got a tour of the town from author Shuly Cawood. Lastly, she visited Mitsuwa Marketplace shopped for office supplies at a Kinokuniya.

We hosted the Jungle Red Writers on June 10th. The authors: Julia Spencer Fleming, Lucy Burdette, Hallie Ephron, Rys Bowen, Hank Phillipi Ryan, Deborah Crombie, and Jenn McKinlay. You can watch a video of the event on our BookTube page. Check out this Bookshop.org page to see a sampling of their books. You can follow the Jungle Reds on their blog.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily is heading to Colorado and is hoping to visit Explore Booksellers in Aspen and the Tattered Cover in Denver.

– Upcoming (Summer) Reads –
Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, recommended three books:
Collateral Damage – Mark Shaw
The Box in the Woods – Maureen Johnson
Dark Roads – Chevy Stevens

Chris Picks:
Bleak House – Charles Dickens (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
Book for Idle Hours: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer Reading – Donna Harrington-Lueker
Great Plains – Ian Frazier
The Narrows – Ann Petry
Creating Family Archives: A Step-by-Step Guide to Saving Your Memories for Future Generations – Margot Note
Python Crash Course, 2nd Edition: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming – Eric Matthes

Emily Picks:
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)
What Happened to You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing – Oprah Winfrey and Bruce D. Perry (audio)
On Writing: A Memoir of The Craft  – Stephen King (audio)
Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty, and Simple – Dorie Greenspan release date October 19, 2021
Gilead, Home, Lila, Jack – Marilynne Robinson (EF)

– Author Spotlight with Gina Barreca –
We talk with Gina about the flash nonfiction essay collection that she edited called Fast Funny Women out now from Woodhall Press.
You can learn more about Gina here.

– Also Mentioned –
Scrublands – Chris Hammer
The House Girl – Tara Conklin
Truly Devious Trilogy – Maureen Johnson
Still Missing – Chevy Stevens
The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich
A Registry of My Passage Upon the Earth: Stories – Daniel Mason
Telephone – Percival Everett
Tracks – Louise Erdrich

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