Episode 225 - Top Ten Books of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

Episode 225 Show Notes

Top Ten Reads of 2024 with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog

– Russell’s Books –
The Most – Jessica Anthony
Sipsworth – Simon Van Booy
Real Americans – Rachel Khong
Hombrecito – Santiago Jose Sanchez
The Safekeep – Yael Van Der Wouden
Our Evenings – Alan Hollinghurst
Tell Me Everything – Elizabeth Strout
Universality -Natasha Brown
Intermezzo – Sally Rooney
Small Rain – Garth Greenwell
James – Percival Everett

– Chris’s Books –
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Summer – Edith Wharton
We Got the Beat – Jenna Miller
A Little Bit Country – Brian D. Kennedy
Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (audiobook)
River of the Gods: Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile – Candice Millard
The Dragon from Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany – Pamela D. Toler
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells – Rebecca Rego Barry
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki
Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham – Marcia Clark
Lucy Undying: A Dracula Novel – Kiersten White
The Gathering – C.J. Tudor
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Brontë

– Emily’s Books –
An Exact Relica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon
The Women – Kristin Hannah
The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle  – Matt Cain  (audiobook)
How to Read a Book – Monica Wood
The One-In-A-Million Boy – Monica Wood
Sandwich – Catherine Newman
We All Want Impossible Things – Catherine Newman
The Cookie That Changed My Life: And More Than 100 Other Classic Cakes, Cookies, Muffins, and Pies That Will Change Yours: A Cookbook – Nancy Silverton and Carolynn Carreno
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension – Hanif Abdurraqib

Listener Top Tens! We would love to hear about your favorite reads of the year. You can find the form here fill it out by January 15, 2025.

– Also Mentioned –
Powell’s Books
Read By Ryan on Instagram
American Symphony documentary
Shawn Breathes Books
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (Pulitzer Prize Winner) by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
The Ghost Writer – Phillip Roth
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Author Agatha Christie
Find all of the novels by Elizabeth Strout here
Margaret Fuller: Collected Writings (Loa #388) by Margaret Fuller, edited by Noelle A. Baker and Megan Marshall
Normal People by Sally Rooney
A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Armadale – Wilkie Collins
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
My Ántonia – Willa Cather

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Episode 220 - A Shocking Buddy-Read with Our Mystery Man John Valeri

Episode 220 Show Notes

– Giveaways –
Patreon:
Eight Very Bad Nights: A Collection of Hanukkah Noir edited by Tod Goldberg

Tenth Episode:
The Gardener’s Plot: A Mystery by Deborah J. Benoit
The Author’s Guide to Murder by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White

– Currently Reading –
Armadale – Wilkie Collins (CW)
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary – Alice Hoffman (EF) (audiobook)
“The Bolted Door” from the collection Tales of Men and Ghosts – Edith Wharton (CW)
A Bit Much: Poems – Lyndsay Rush (EF)

– Just Read –
Birding with Benefits – Sarah T. Dubb (EF) (audiobook)
The Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston (EF)
Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (CW) (audiobook)
The Rom-Commers – Katherine Center (EF) (audiobook)
“Afterward: A Ghost Story for Christmas” or from the collection Tales of Men and Ghosts– Edith Wharton (CW)
Real Americans – Rachel Khong (EF) (audiobook)
What Feelings Do When No One’s Looking – Tina Oziewicz, illustrated by Aleksandra Zajac and translated by Jennifer Croft (EF)

– Biblio Adventure –
Chris took an unexpected trip to Nebraska for a funeral. She happened upon a lovely bookstore at the Charlotte airport with a nice sitting area. She also found a little free library in Omaha, Nebraska.

Both Chris and Emily enjoyed the monthly Patreon Reading Salon discussion about recently read books. In November we will be chatting about our favorite author.

On National Louise Penny Day, Chris purchased her copy of The Grey Wolf at Breakwater Books in Guilford, CT.

Emily attended the virtual event "Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: Examining the Truths and Fictions we Tell Ourselves with Lori Gottlieb" via the North Haven Memorial Library. You can watch the video here.

Sue Jackson shared a vlog of her Biblio Adventure to two bookstores in New York. You can watch it here.

Emily binged season three of The Lincoln Lawyer based on the novel The Gods of Guilt by Michael Connelly. 

Emily and The Gentleman Caller stopped at Bennett’s Books in Deep River, CT where she got a copy of Girl at War by Sara Nović.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
On Wednesday, November 20th, Chris is planning to attend an event at RJ Julia’s Booksellers with Karen Olson in conversation with Elizabeth Hobbs and her novel Misery Hates Company: A Novel.

Emily is planning to attend the Connecticut Book Festival on Saturday November 23rd from 10-4.

– Upcoming Reads –
The New Menopause: Navigating Your Path Through Hormonal Change with Purpose, Power, and Facts – Mary Claire Haver (EF)
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall – Anne Bronte (CW)
The Illustrated Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood - In Two Volumes - Volume I: Original Title: Varney the Vampyre – James Malcolm Rymer, Thomas Preskett Prest, edited by Finn J. D. John (CW)

– Spotlight with Our Mystery Man –
A conversation with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, about our buddy read of the novel Murder in the Smithsonian by Margaret Truman.

You can learn more about John here. Follow his informative and fun interviews with mystery authors over at Central Booking.

– 4th Quarter Readalong –
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy
Please join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
The Zoom readalong discussion will take place on Sunday, December 8h at 7:00 pm (ET). Please send an email if you would like to join.

– Also Mentioned –
Author Shuly Cawood
Author Jessica Pryde
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
One Bright Book podcast
Author Donald Bain
Also by Margaret Truman: Murder at Ford’s Theatre and Murder at the Library of Congress

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. 

Episode 219 - Exploring Picture Book Art

Episode 219 Show Notes

– Currently Reading –
Armadale – Wilkie Collins (CW)
The Dead Romantics – Ashley Poston (EF)
This Cursed House – Del Sandeen (CW)
Birding with Benefits – Sarah T. Dubb (EF) (audiobook)
Boyfriend Material – Alexis Hall (CW)(audiobook)

– Just Read –
The Mighty Red – Louise Erdrich (EF) (audiobook)
If I Stopped Haunting You – Colby Wilkens (CW) (audiobook)
Sandwich – Catherine Newman (EF)

Chris read several picture books:
The Tower of Life: How Yaffa Eliach Rebuilt Her Town in Stories and Photographs – written by Chana Stiefel, illustrated by Susan Gal
The City Tree – Shira Boss illustrated by Lorena Alvarez
I Am Bat – Morg Hood
The Little Ghost Who Was a Quilt – written by Riel Nason, illustrated by Byron Eggenschwiler
She Made a Monster: How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein – written by Lynn Fulton, illustrated by Felicita Sala

Emily read two short stories written by Nobel Prize winners:
“Loot” by Nadine Gordimer from the collection Loot and Other Stories.
“Seams” by Olga Tokarczuk from The Best Short Stories 2022: The O. Henry Prize Winners. You can read the story here.

– Biblio Adventure –
Chris and Emily went north to Massachusetts. The first stop was The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, MA. They spent time in the giftshop where Emily purchased a copy of Pancakes, Pancakes! by Eric Carle and Chris purchased Moominvalley in November by Tove Jansson, translated by Kingsley Hart. Next stop was the Montague Book Mill. Emily purchased a copy of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones and The Collected Stories of Shirley Hazard edited by Brigitta Olubas. Chris purchased A New Home, Who Will Follow? by Caroline Kirkland, Thinking and Writing about Literature by Michael Meyer, and Writing Creative Nonfiction edited by Philip Girard. The last stop was the Montague Public Library. You can watch a quick video of our day here.

Emily attended an event at RJ Julia’s Booksellers with Betsy Lerner and her debut novel Shred Sisters.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are heading to NYC to see Aunt Ellen.

Chris and Emily are planning to attend an author signing with Penny Goetjen and her newest novel Deadly Ripples at Breakwater Books in Guilford on October 17th between 1-3pm (ET).

On October 30th Chris and Emily are heading to the Concord Library to attend an event via the Concord Festival of Authors, “The scrolls of the past burn my fingers”: Reviving Margaret Fuller. You can learn more about the event here.

– Upcoming Reads –
Read Between the Lines – Rachel Lacey (CW)
What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking – Caroline Chambers (EF)
Murder in the Smithsonian – Margaret Truman (CW)(EF)

– 4th Quarter Readalong –
A Little Bit Country by Brian D. Kennedy
Please join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
The Zoom readalong discussion will take place on Sunday, December 8h at 7:00 pm (ET). Please send an email if you would like to join.

– Also Mentioned –
Audio version of The Decameron Short Story Project
Single All the Way movie
The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson
There Once Was a Town documentary narrated by Edward Asner
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk

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.