Episode 172 - Top Ten Reads of 2022 with BookTuber Russell Gray

Book Cougars Episode 172

Episode One Hundred Seventy Two Show Notes

– Announcing our 24th Readalong –
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
. The paperback is available from Bookshop.org, the audiobook from Libro.fm to support the Book Cougars.

Please send an email if you would like to participate in the Zoom conversation on Sunday, February 26th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

Send Us Your Top Ten Books of 2022

– Our Top Ten Books of 2022 – [9:05]
We chat with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog about our Top Reads of the year.

Russell
Perish – Latoya Watkins
A Little Bit Country – Brian D. Kennedy
Our Missing Hearts – Celeste Ng
The Change – Kirsten Miller
Young Mungo – Douglas Stuart
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies – Maddie Mortimer
Address Unknown – Kathrine Kressman Taylor
Trust – Hernan Diaz
The Trees – Percival Everett
They’re Going to Love You – Meg Howrey

Emily
Hidden Pictures – Jason Rekulak (illustrated by Will Staehle & Doogie Horner)
Maggie Smith books:
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
Keep Moving: The Journal: Thrive Through Change and Create a Life You Love
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir release date 4/11/2023
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas, translated by Franck Wynne
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton
Lessons in Chemistry – Bonnie Garmus
Elizabeth Strout:
Oh William!
Lucy By the Sea
The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka
In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss – Amy Bloom
Simply Julia: 110 Recipes for Heathy Comfort Food – Julia Turshen

Chris
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles
A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers: A Memoir – Jenn Shapland
The Barrens: A Novel of Love and Death in the Canadian Arctic – Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson
Shutter – Ramona Emerson
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen
Miss Grief and Other Stories – Constance Fenimore Woolson
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson
The Bad Seed – Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald

– Upcoming Reads We Are Excited About – [1:45:40]
The Deluge – Stephen Markley release date 1/10/2023
Decent People – De’Shawn Charles Winslow release date 1/17/2023
The Wise Hours: A Journey Into the Wild and Secret World of Owls – Miriam Darlington release date 2/7/2023
Chain Gang All-Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah release date 4/4/2023
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman release date 8/15/2023
The Writing Retreat – Julia Bartz release date 2/21/2023
Out of Character – Jenna Miller release date 2/7/2023

– Episode Sponsor –
Today’s Episode sponsored by Shuly Cawood and her book A Small Thing to Want.
We spoke with Shuly about the book on Episode 100.

– Also Mentioned –
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
Penis Pokey – Christopher Behrens
Quirk Books
Impossible Fortress – Jason Rekulak
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America – Clint Smith
Small Game – Blair Braverman
A Ghost of Caribou – Alice Henderson
My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
Anything is Possible – Elizabeth Strout
In the Distance – Hernan Diaz
Dean Street Press
Telephone – Percival Everett
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents – Isabel Wilkerson
Jami Attenberg
Ohio – Stephen Markley
In West Mills – De’Shawn Charles Winslow
Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott
Friday Black – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese

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

Episode 164 - Talking About the Booker Prizes with Russell Gray from Ink and Paper Blog

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

– 22nd Readalong –
Our Third Quarter readalong is The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson. The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, September 18th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in. You can join the Goodreads discussion here. You can purchase directly from Milkweed Press with free shipping using the Promo Code: SEEDKEEPERCOUGARS

– Currently Reading – [1:27]
How to Read Now: Essays – Elaine Castillo (CW)
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead: A Mystery – Elle Cosimano (EF)
Finding Dora Maar: An Artist, an Address Book, a Life – Brigitte Benkemoun, translated by Jody Gladding (CW)

– Just Read – [6:52]
We Are Water Protectors – Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade (EF)
A Ghost of Caribou – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 11/6/2022
Listen to our conversation with Alice Henderson on Episode 141
Small World – Laura Zigman (EF) release date 1/10/2023
Are They Women?: A Novel Concerning the Third Sex – Aimée Duc, translated and edited by Margaret Sönser Breen and Nisha Kommattam (CW)
Black, White, and the Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant – John O. Morisano and Mashama Bailey (EF)
Miss Nobody from Nowhere – Elizabeth Jordan (CW)
Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship – Annabel Abbs narrated by Ell Potter, Bianca Amato (EF)
The Displacements – Bruce Holsinger (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [40:00]
Chris met Kate in Norwalk to eat lobster rolls and discuss Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Kate gave her a copy of Exiles by Jane Harper (release date 1/31/2023).

Emily and The Gentleman Caller visited several little free libraries by foot and by bike.

Chris is watching The Outlander series on Netflix based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [44:36]
Chris and Emily are looking forward to The Zoom discussion of the The Seed Keeper by Diane Wilson which will take place on Sunday, September 18th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in.

Emily is hoping to get to Pop! Art Books Culture in Boardman, Ohio.

Chris is planning to attend the Provincetown Book Festival, particularly the session with Melissa Homestead and Scott Bane discussing his book A Union Like Ours: The Love Story of F.O. Matthiessen and Russell Cheney.

– Upcoming Reads – [47:20]
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson (CW)(EF)
Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures – Merline Sheldrake  (EF)
On the Rooftop – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (EF)

Out Now:
Sweet and Sour – Debbi Michiko Florence
Lucky Girl: How I Became a Horror Writer – M. Rickert

– The Booker Prize conversation with Russell Gray – [50:10]
You can watch Russell on his YouTube channel.

Learn more about The Booker Prizes.

The 2022 Short List of Books:
Glory – Noviolet Bulawayo
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
Treacle Walker – Alan Garner
The Trees – Percival Everett
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida – Shehan Karunatilaka
Oh William! – Elizabeth Strout

– Also Mentioned –
The Ski Jumpers by Peter Geye
University of Minnesota Press
Finlay Donovan is Killing It: A Mystery – Elle Cosimano
The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power – Deirdre Mask
Also by Alice Henderson: A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears
Broadview Press
Miss Nobody From Nowhere – Elizabeth Ashton
Rebecca – Daphne du Maurier
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration – Isabel Wilkerson
The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis – Melissa J. Homestead
The Revisioners – Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
Trust – Hernan Diaz

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