Episode 214 - Biblio Adventure Extravaganza

Episode 214 Show Notes

August 17th is Bookstore Romance Day! Check your local bookstore to see if they have any special events planned.

– Currently Reading –
So Thirsty – Rachel Harrison (CW) release date 9/10/2024
Mary Queen of Scots – Antonia Fraser (CW)
One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays – Scaachi Koul (EF)

– Just Read –
The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey (EF)(audiobook)
How to End a Love Story – Yulin Kuang (CW)(audiobook)
Yulin was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 205.
Within Arm’s Reach – Ann Napolitano (audiobook)
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW)

Emily read two short stories by Alice Hoffman:
The Bookstore Sisters and The Bookstore Wedding

The Rose Arbor – Rhys Bowen (CW)
Chris requested this book via BookBrowse. Listen to our conversation with the Founder & Publisher, Davina Morgan-Witts on Episode 193.
The Whale: A Love Story – Mark Beauregard (CW)

– Biblio Adventure –
Chris went on a fantastic biblio adventure accompanied by Colleen. They stopped at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, Edith Wharton’s The Mount, the Emily Dickinson Museum, The Evergreens, Amherst Books, and the Yiddish Book Center.

Books Chris purchased:
The Letters of Emily Dickinson edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhall Mitchell
Emily Dickinson Poem’s: As She Preserved Them edited by Cristanne Miller
Margaret Fuller and Her Circles edited by Brigitte Bailey, Katheryn P. Viens, and Conrad Edick Wright
Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of “Dracula” by Barbara Belford
Myself with Others: Selected Essays by Carlos Fuentes
Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse edited by Grace Bauer and Julie Kane
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Emily went to Horizon Books in Traverse City, MI and purchased The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and the most recent issue of Oh Reader magazine.

Emily has been enjoying the little free libraries sprinkled throughout neighborhoods in Traverse City, MI and she has been spending time at the Traverse City Library.

Chris participated in the Mystic Seaport Museum’s annual Moby Dick marathon.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily plans to shop at the Friends of the Library Book Sale at Peninsula Community Library in Traverse City, MI.

On August 24th Peter Heller will be in Traverse City to chat about his new book Burn. He will be in conversation with Doug Stanton, the author of In Harm’s Way and 12 Strong.

Chris is heading to Chicago where she might find some bookish mischief.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany – Pamela D. Toler (CW)
American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond - Jeremy Dauber (CW) release date 10/1/2024
Hot Air – Marcy Dermansky (EF) release date 3/18/2025
Envy – Sandra Brown (CW)(EF)

– 3rd Quarter Readalong –
Envy by Sandra Brown.
Please join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
The Zoom readalong discussion will take place on Sunday, September 15th at 7:00 pm (ET). Please send an email if you would like to join.

Download the Romance Bingo Card!

– Also Mentioned –
Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison
Also by Ann Napolitano: Hello Beautiful, A Good Hard Look, and Dear Edward
Author Caroline Leavitt
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Poet Sandra Yannone
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
New Bedford Whaling Museum

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.

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Episode 180 - Travels with Chris, Emily, and Charley

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

– Giveaway News –
Every tenth episode we give books away! We have two books this time: Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly and Night Flight to Paris by Cara Black. To be automatically entered to win, become a newsletter subscriber by May 1st. The upcoming Patreon giveaway is The Dig by Anne Burt. To be automatically entered to win, become a Patreon by May 15th.

– Currently Reading – [4:14]
Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Readers’ Brains – Bill Birchard (CW)
Follow this link to find his articles on Psychology Today.
The East Indian – Brinda Charry (EF)
Creating Rain Gardens: Capturing the Rain for Your Own Water-Efficient Garden – Cleo Woelfe-Erskine and Apryl Uncapher (CW)
Three Roads Back: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives – Robert D. Richardson with a foreword by Megan Marshall (EF)

– Just Read – [13:15]
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us about Love, Life, and Mortality – Karen Fine, DVM (EF)(audio)
Chase of the Wild Goose – Mary Gordon (CW)
Summer Stage – Meg Mitchell Moore (EF) release date 5/23/2023
Travels with Charley in Search of America – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)(audio)

– Episode Sponsor – [38:14]
Episode 180 is sponsored by The Peak Experiment. Learn more about Diana here.

– Biblio Adventures – [39:03]
Emily started listening to the Women’s Prize for Fiction podcast. So far she has listened to Season 5, Episode 12, with Maggie O’Farrell who recommended Where the God of Love Hangs Out Amy Madeline Season 5, Episode 15 Madeline Miller recommended Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto.

Chris went to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library to get her hands on a copy of The Way it Was by Harold Loeb and a first edition of Dracula. Learn more about the Poison Book Project: how it started and how it is going.

Emily went to the Madison Cinemas to see The Quiet Girl based on the novella Foster by Claire Keegan.

Chris and Emily went on a two-day joint jaunt to New York City. Chris worked at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. Emily volunteered at Cherry Bombe Jubilee. On the second day, Chris wandered from the Lower Eastside to Midtown and stopping at Codex Books, NYU Bookstore, and The Strand.

Emily binged Tiny Beautiful Things on Hulu based on the book by Cheryl Strayed.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [59:17]
On April 26th, Emily will be attending a virtual conversation with Maggie Smith and Elissa Altman about Maggie’s just released memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful; co-sponsored by Barrett Bookstore and Main Street Books.

Chris is planning to attend a series of four virtual events with author Benjamin Taylor that the National Willa Cather Center is offering beginning on April 27th. Taylor’s new book, Chasing Bright Medusas: A Life of Willa Cather, publishes on November 14, 2023. Learn about Taylor’s virtual study series here.

Willa Cather’s birthplace is for sale: learn more here.

Emily is heading to the Newburyport Literary Festival April 28-30 where she will be moderating two author sessions:
Fur, Feathers, and Scales: A Lifetime of Caring for Pets with author Karen Fine and Shaped by Loss: How Tragedy Changed the Lives of Emerson, Thoreau, and William James with author Megan Marshall.

May 4-5th, Chris and Emily will be going on a joint jaunt to Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT for Booktopia 2023.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:04:39]
Real Life: The Journey from Isolation to Openness and Freedom – Sharon Salzberg (CW)(EF)

– Out Now – [01:05:59]
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – J. Ryan Straddal

– Our 25th Readalong –
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. Order from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars. Join the online conversation on Goodreads. Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom readalong discussion will take place on May 21st at 7PM (ET), Chris and Emily will discuss it on Episode 183.

– Also Mentioned –
West with Giraffes – Lynda Rutledge
Books by Robert Richardson: William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism, Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind, and Emerson: The Mind on Fire.
Margaret Fuller: A New American Life – Megan Marshall
The Islanders – Meg Mitchell Moore
Ann Petry
The Sunwise Turn Bookshop
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Poison Book Project
Grove Press
Brokeback Mountain – Annie Proulx
Brokeback Mountain movie
Kitchen Arts & Letters Bookstore
Jabberwocky Bookshop

You can 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 177 - Author Spotlight with Amy Tector

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

– Giveaway News –
The upcoming Patreon giveaway is Bright and Deadly Things by Lexie Elliott. Check out Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, in conversation with Lexie on Episode 128 of Central Booking. To be automatically entered to win, become a Patreon by March 15th.  We also have a copy of Speak for the Dead by Amy Tector for our newsletter subscribers. To be automatically entered to win, become a newsletter subscriber by March 15th.

– Currently Reading – [2:35]
My Kitchen Wars – Betty Fussell (EF)
The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarian, and Others – Sidney E. Berger (CW)
The Memory of Animals – Claire Fuller (EF) release date 6/6/2023
The Warden – Anthony Trollope (CW)

– Just Read – [10:53]
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun – Elle Cosimano (EF)
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley (CW)(EF) (audio) Join the conversation on Goodreads thread.
Watch Ann Patchett on The Colbert Report.
Watch Ann Patchett with Reese Witherspoon.

– Episode Sponsor – [35:44]
Episode 177 is sponsored by The Last Beekeeper by Julie Carrick Dalton. Learn more about Julie here.

– Biblio Adventures – [36:25]
Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT to hear Will Schwalbe talk about his new book We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship.

Chris attended a virtual event via the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, “Understanding Katherine S. Days Identity: Interpreting Sexuality in Early 20th Century New England, Four Case Studies in LGBTQIA+ History.”

Emily had a great trip to California to see Aunt Ellen. They walked through Berkeley visiting loads of little free libraries, visited the Main Branch of the Berkeley Public Library and Ellen’s local branch. They visited ten bookstores: Half Price Books, Sleepy Cat Books, Books Inc., Black Swan Vintage Books, Owl & Company Bookshop, Pegasus Books, Moe’s Books, Spectator Books, Out of the Closet Thrift Store, and Friends of the Berkeley Public Library.  

– Upcoming Jaunts – [51:19]
Emily hopes to join in on an Instagram Live on March 14th with Idra Novey via Golden Notebook Bookstore in Woodstock, CT discussing her novel Take What You Need.  

– Upcoming Reads – [52:13]
Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader – Anne Fadiman
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret – Judy Blume

– Announcing our 25th Readalong –
The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams. Order from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars. Join the online conversation on Goodreads. Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom readalong discussion will take place on May 21st at 7PM (ET), Chris and Emily will discuss it on Episode 183.

– Author Spotlight with Amy Tector – [57:23]
We speak with Amy about the second novel in the Dominion Archives Mystery series Speak for the Dead, available now! Amy’s other two novels are The Foulest Things and The Honeybee Emeralds. Learn more about Amy here.

– Out Now – [01:26:24]
Pineapple Street – Jenny Jackson
Hello Beautiful – Anne Napolitano
Take What You Need – Idra Novey
All That Is Mine I Carry With Me – William Landay

– Also Mentioned –
Unsettled Ground – Claire Fuller
Charles Dickens
Wilkie Collins
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas
Louise Penny
Tin House Publisher
Alice Hoffman
True Grit – Charles Portis
Thirst – Amélie Nothomb
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down – Anne Fadiman
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat – Samin Nosrat
Heart Is A Lonely Hunter – Carson McCullers
Sapphira and the Slave Girl – Willa Cather
Defending Jacob – William Landay

You can 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 170 - 2022 Holiday Gift Ideas and Author Spotlight with Malinda Lo

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

– Giveaways! –
Episode 170 marks our SIXTH ANNIVERSARY! It’s also another 10th episode which means it's GIVEAWAY time! Become a subscriber to our free monthly newsletter by December 15th to be automatically entered to win a copy of My Brilliant Life by Ae-Ran Kim and Death on a Winter Stroll by Francine Mathews. 

We host a monthly book giveaway for our Patreon supporters. If you join our Patreon Community by December 15th you will be automatically entered to win a copy of The Displacements by Bruce Holsinger.

– Currently Reading – [2:38]
The Foulest Things: A Dominion Archives Mystery – Amy Tector (CW)
Learn more about Amy here.
The Light We Carry – Michelle Obama (EF)(audio)

– Just Read – [5:00]
Take What You Need – Idra Novey (EF) release date 3/14/2023
No, N-O-E, No: The Cicero Riot Story – H.M. Edwards (CW)
Foster – Claire Keegan (EF)
Outlander – Diana Gabaldon (CW)
“Rape Fantasies” – Margaret Atwood (CW)
The Collected Regrets of Clover –Mikki Brammer (EF) release date 5/9/2023
You Could Make this Place Beautiful: A Memoir – Maggie Smith (EF) release date 4/11/2023

– Biblio Adventures – [33:43]
Chris and Emily drove up to Amherst, MA and went on a tour of the newly renovated Emily Dickinson Museum. Afterword they browsed Amherst Books where Chris found a copy of Alcuin: A Fierce and Elegant Plea for the Rights of Women by Charles Brockden Brown. In the evening they attended a screening of the pop opera Emily & Sue at Amherst College.

While in Colorado, Emily visited the Basalt Regional Library, the Carbondale Public Library where she picked up a copy of The Echo Maker by Richard Powers, and White River Books where she got a copy of How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope by James Crews.

Emily is watching From Scratch on Netflix based on the novel by Tembi Locke.

Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching Spirited based on A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

– Upcoming Reads – [54:38]
A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny (CW)

– 2022 Holiday Gift Ideas – [55:52]
· Buy Author Swag – for example Louise Penny items at Brom Lake Books
· Simply Julia Cookbook paired with her online Sundays with Julia Cooking Classes
· Biblio Adventure to an Author Home – for example Emily Dickinson Museum or National Steinbeck Center
· Book Gift Subscriptions – for example Trust Me You’ll Love It from the Bookworm of Edwards, CO
· A Donation to an Organization: for example BINC, EveryLibrary, and DiverseBooks.org
· Make a Bookmark that highlights the titles in a book series or favorite author’s entire booklist
· The Remarkable Life Deck created by Debbie Millman
· Record an Audiobook or Short Story
· Subscription to Libro.fm or a set of audiobook Gift Bundles
· Act as technical support, helping someone learn to better utilize their smart phone or tablet
· Book Pairings, for example: Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change and the companion Keep Moving: The Journal by Maggie Smith, The Book of Delights and Inciting Joy by Ross Gay, Finding Freedom paired with the new issue of Cherry Bombe featuring Erin French on the cover.
· A signed copy or first edition of a book

– Author Spotlight with Malinda Lo – [01:07:22]
We had a great time chatting with Malinda about her new book A Scatter of Light and Last Night at the Telegraph Club. Malinda has a fantastic website.

– Also Mentioned –
The Camille DeRose Story – Camille DeRose
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
Susan Orlean
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change – Maggie Smith
The Overstory – Richard Powers
Three Pines – the television series based on the novels by Louise Penny

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!

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