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 179 - Deep Dive with Poet Shuly Cawood

Episode 179 Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Emily read “Climbing” from Book of Light by Lucille Clifton.

You can find the video of Chris and Emily rearranging the readalong shelf at Book Cougars headquarters here.

– Currently Reading – [7:50]
Voyager – Diana Gabaldon (CW)
Chase of the Wild Goose – Mary Gordon (CW)
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron (EF)
Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Readers’ Brains – Bill Birchard (CW)
Summer Stage – Meg Mitchell Moore (EF) release date 5/23/2023

– Episode Sponsor – [14:00]
Episode 179 is sponsored by The Peak Experiment. Learn more about Diana X. Moga here.

– Just Read – [14:59]
Writing Down the Bones – Natalie Goldberg (EF)(audio)
Why Am I So Anxious: Powerful Tools for Recognizing Anxiety and Restoring Your Peace – Tracey Marks (CW)(audio)
You can find her on YouTube.
My Dearest Darling: Letters of Love in Wartime – Lisa Franco (EF)
Bookselling in America and the World – edited by Charles B. Anderson (CW)
The Lager Queen of Minnesota – J. Ryan Stradal (EF)
Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret – Judy Blume (CW)(EF)(audio)
Watch the video with us talking about the book on YouTube.

– Biblio Adventures – [42:32]
Chris went to New York City to meet a fellow writer and visited the new McNally Jackson bookstore in Rockefeller Center where she picked up the Writing Down the Bones Deck of writing prompts. Before catching the train home she walked through the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures.

Chris and Emily went to Boston and worked at the Simmons University Library then took a browse at Brookline Booksmith. Chris bought A Small Book of Grave Humour by Fritz Spiegl and The Crystal Frontier by Carlos Fuentes.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [50:30]
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.

Chris is bummed that she won’t be able to attend either of the two Willa Cather conferences this June. She 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 the conferences and Taylor’s virtual study series here.

– Upcoming Reads – [58:50]
Travels with Charley in Search of America – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)(audio)
Learn more about the Vintage Book Club.
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)
The Other Family Doctor: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us about Love, Life, and Mortality – Karen Fine, DVM (EF)
Best American Short Stories 2023 – edited by Min Jin and Heidi Pitlor Lee (EF) release date 10/17/2023

– Out Now –
On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World's Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer – Michael P. Branch
Chain Gang All Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
You Could Make this Place Beautiful: A Memoir – Maggie Smith

– Poet Spotlight with Shuly Cawood – [1:00:55]
We speak with Shuly about her poem “Starter Marriage” from her forthcoming collection Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough available for PREORDER NOW.  
Learn more about Shuly’s publications and workshops here.

___________________________________________
Starter Marriage
after Erin Adair-Hodges*

First there was the word and the word was trying.
Trying the apartment with white walls, popcorn ceilings,
footsteps heavy above, thudding over our days.

Trying the job I took filing papers into squeaking cabinets,
the one you took answering phones for dentists. Trying
the brown bag lunches with limp sandwiches

and sliced cheese, the softening apple, the room-temperature
soda. Consuming it all on church steps, hunched below
the overhang as it rained. Trying the cold pool after work

with dead insects needing to be netted. Unraveling towels,
TJ Maxx suits, the walk back on the no-car driveway.
All heat evaporated. Empty stomachs. No one wanted what the other craved.

Trying the red Chevrolet with the bad battery, no parking without pay,
the bus rides to and from work, your stop, my stop, the sun hitting hard,
us squinting at the sky. Your last day, the blue electric toothbrush

they gave you as goodbye. Buzzing in your mouth with all those
trapped words. Trying the new queen mattress
we could not afford but bought anyway.

Trying the laundry we toted to the next
building, plastic hampers in our
arms full of every day’s dirt.

Coffee but no creamer,
bread but no toaster,
sugar hardened in the bag.

Day-old everything bagels,
buy-one, get-one veggie burritos,
dollar theater on Sundays.

New job but less pay, new boss
but no promotion. Saving for tickets
for never vacations.

Trying the places we gave up for each other:
city salted by an ocean, all those fish and ferry rides;
town with three stoplights, two policemen,

a forest to get lost in. Your dreams, my dreams,
weeds by the parking lot. Trying
your face a broken banister,
my hands an unused map.

*The first nine words are borrowed from “Portrait of Mother: 1985” by Erin Adair-Hodges
___________________________________________

– Also Mentioned –
Book Barn
John William Tebbel
Sylvia Beach
Shakespeare and Company
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
The Sunwise Turn Bookshop
Also by J. Rion Straddal: Kitchens of the Great Midwest and Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club
Erin Adair Hodges

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 174 - Author Spotlight with Jenna Miller

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

– Listener Top Eleven of 2022 –
We collected the Top Ten Reads of 2022 from our listeners. There were over 70 respondents with a total of 427 books! If you are interested in receiving a copy of the spreadsheet please send an email. We created a shop on our Bookshop.org page for you to learn more about the Top Eleven Books.

The top author mentions included: Maggie O’ Farrell, Ann Patchett, Elizabeth Strout, Kate Quinn, Colson Whitehead, Louise Erdrich, Louise Penny, Richard Powers, Stephen King, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and William Kent Kreuger.

– 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.

In order to be entered into the giveaway for a copy, join our newsletter by February 1st.

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.

– Our 2023 Reading Intentions – [7:30]
Chris and Emily both set a Reading Challenge with a goal of 52 books.
Emily hopes to read more Maggie O’ Farrell. (9 novels, 1 memoir, 2 kids picture books)
Chris joined the TBR Pile Challenge via Adam at Roof Beam Reader.
Emily wants to read from one new-to-her cookbook per month with a challenge to cook one recipe from each cookbook.
Chris plans to continue the Willa Cather Short Story project with one story per month. Learn more about it here.
Emily wants to read more non-fiction and she wants to try to read an hour each morning uninterrupted by technology.

Please join in the conversation about 2023 Reading Intentions on our Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reading – [20:00]
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks (CW)
This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)

– Just Read – [23:22]
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People – Tracy Kidder (EF)(audio)
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with Slavery Across America – Clint Smith (CW)(audio)
A Heart that Works – Rob Delaney (EF)(audio)
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [37:20]
Chris and Emily met with the Vintage Book Club at the Wood Memorial Library & Museum in South Windsor, CT to discuss The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Boston where they browsed at Brattle Bookshop, Beacon Hill Books & Cafe, and Commonwealth Books.

Emily went to Northampton, MA to see Tracy Kidder in conversation with Dr. O’Connell discussing his new book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People.

Chris has started her new (and last!) semester of Library School. The History of the Book with two books: The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others by Sidney E. Berger and The Book by Amaranth Borsuk.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:28]
Chris and Emily are hoping to go on a joint jaunt to RJ Julia in Madison on Tuesday, February 21 at 7pm to see Will Schwalbe and his new book We Should Not Be Friends: The Story of a Friendship.

Emily is hoping to catch Laura Zigman on book Tour with her newest novel, Small World.

– Upcoming Reads – [55:12]
Fieldwork: A Forager’s Memoir – Iliana Regan (EF)
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death – Maggie O’ Farrell (EF)(audio)
Speak for the Dead: A Dominon Archives Mystery – Amy Tector (CW) release date March 14, 2023
Endpapers – Jennifer Savran Kelly (CW) release date February 7, 2023

Out Now: [57:16]
Small World – Laura Zigman
Decent People – De’shawn Charles Winslow
Georgie, All Along: An Uplifting and Unforgettable Love Story – Kate Clayborn
Exiles – Jane Harper
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks

– Author Spotlight with Jenna Miller – [57:55]
We had a great time chatting with Jenna about her debut novel Out of Character which is available for pre-order now!
Learn more about Jenna.
Jenna’s literary inspirations include: Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Julie Murphy, and Becky Albertalli.

– Episode Sponsor – [1:28:13]
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 –
LibraryThing – a place to catalog reading
There is a group reading the 8 novels of Louise Erdrich – contact @katie_sikkes on Instragram
True Grit – Charles Portis
Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner
Also by Geraldine Brooks – Horse and March
Also by Maggie O’Farrell – Hamnet and The Marriage Plot
Television series Catastrophe and Bad Sisters
Something Rotten! musical
A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway
Mountain Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
Agate Publishing
The Foulest Things: A Dominion Archives Mystery – Amy Tector
Malinda Lo
Rainbow Rowell

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, please email for instructions.

Join our Goodreads Group!

Check out our BookTube Channel and be sure to subscribe!

Please subscribe to our email newsletter.

Episode 173 - Emily's Hidden Reading Slump and Chris's Return to Practical Magic

Episode One Hundred Seventy Three Show Notes

KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

– 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.

– 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

– Currently Reading – [3:31]
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (CW)
Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People – Tracy Kidder (EF)
How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with Slavery Across America – Clint Smith (CW)(audio)
Dragonfly in Amber – Diana Gabaldon (CW)

– Just Read – [9:28]
Oona Out of Order – Margarita Montimore (EF)
The Rules of Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Trespasses – Louise Kennedy (EF)
The Wok: Recipes and Techniques – J. Kenji López-Alt (CW)
The Change – Kirsten Miller (EF)
Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano (EF) release date 3/14/2023
What the Fortune Teller Would Have Said – Shuly Cawood (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [35:06]
Chris did some shopping at two used bookstores: The Book Barn in Niantic, CT and Bennett’s Books in Deep River, CT.

Emily attended a cooking class with the cookbook author Julia Turshen.

Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching the new Interview with a Vampire television series based on the novel by Anne Rice.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to New Haven where they visited one of their favorite Little Free Library’s in Wooster Square and had lunch at Haven Hot Chicken.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [47:52]
Chris and Emily will be meeting with the Vintage Book Club on Thursday, January 19th at 1:00 pm (ET) at the Wood Memorial Library & Museum in South Windsor, CT to discuss The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck. Please join us!

Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to browse at Brattle Bookshop in Boston, MA.

Emily is going to Northampton, MA to see Tracy Kidder in conversation with Dr. O’Connell discussing his new book Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People. Learn more about the event here.

– Upcoming Reads – [47:54]
The Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck (EF)
The Warden – Anthony Trollope (CW)

– Out Now – [50:11]
The Deluge – Stephen Markley
Reef Road – Deborah Goodrich Royce (EF)
Check out Our Mystery Man talking with Royce on Central Booking Episode 124
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton

– Also Mentioned –
Also by Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine and Mountains Beyond Mountains
Also by Alice Hoffman: Practical Magic, Magic Lessons, Faithful
The Food Lab – J. Kenji López-Alt
Also by Ann Napolitano: A Good Hard Look and Dear Edward
Little Women
Interview with a Vampire movie

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 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 169 - Author Spotlight with Marcia Clark and Our Mystery Man John Valeri

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

– Announcing our 23rd Readalong –
Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon
You can purchase an e-book directly from Soho for $7.99, the paperback from Bookshop.org or 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, December 4th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reading – [1:40]
Take What You Need – Idra Novey (EF) release date 3/14/2023
Outlander – Diana Gabaldon (CW)

– Just Read – [4:19]
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Collected Stories – Constance Fenimore Woolson (CW)
The Seas – Samantha Hunt (EF)
Chris dnf’d The Archivist – Rex Pickett (CW)
On Writing: A Memoir Of the Craft – Stephen King (EF)(CW)(audio)
Check out the essay: Reading Audiobooks for my Dad, Stephen King by Owen King.
Sweet Thursday (Cannery Row #2) – John Steinbeck (CW)
Shame – Annie Ernaux (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [27:30]
Chris and Emily visited the Lenox Library in Lenox, MA when they went north to visit The Mount.

Emily attended a virtual Biblio Adventure via the San Francisco Public Library in celebration of their One City One Book selection, This is Ear Hustle: Unflinching Stories of Everyday Prison Life; with Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, moderated by Piper Kerman author of Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women’s Prison. A video of the event is available here.

Chris went on a walkabout in New Haven visiting The Institute Library, Grey Matter Books where she found a copy of A Backward Glance by Edith Wharton, and Barnes and Noble-The Yale Bookstore.

Emily visited The Bookworm of Edward’s Colorado.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [1:02:52]
Chris and Emily have a joint jaunt planned to Amherst, MA on November 30th to go to a screening of the pop opera Emily & Sue at Amherst College hosted by the newly renovated Emily Dickinson Museum. They plan to take a tour of the museum earlier in the day.

– Upcoming Reads – [40:21]
Deliverance – James Dickey (CW)
Inciting Joy – Ross Gay (EF)

– Out Now – []
A Ghost of Caribou – Alice Henderson
Dark Rivers to Cross – Lynne Reeves (EF)
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family – Rabia Chadry

– Author Spotlight with Marcia Clark and Our Mystery Man John Valeri – [45:30]
We talk with Marcia about her new novel The Fall Girl. Learn more about Marcia here.

– Also Mentioned –
The Lottery – Shirley Jackson
The Book of Delights – Ross Gay
Central Booking with John Valeri

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 168 - Author Spotlight with Blair Braverman

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

– Announcing our 23rd Readalong –
Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon
You can purchase an e-book directly from Soho for $7.99, the paperback from Bookshop.org or 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, December 4th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reading – [3:12]
Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics – Marion Nestle (EF)
Outlander – Diana Gabaldon (CW)
On Writing: A Memoir Of the Craft – Stephen King (EF)
A Scatter of Light – Malinda Lo (EF)
Sweet Thursday (Cannery Row #2) – John Steinbeck (CW)

– Just Read – [10:56]
The Midcoast – Adam White (EF)
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles (CW)
Flight – Lynn Steger Strong (EF)
The Bookstore Sisters – Alice Hoffman (EF)
Eric Hermannson’s Soul – Willa Cather (CW)
You can join the Willa Cather short story project on Chris’s blog.

– Biblio Adventures – [31:24]
Chris and Emily visited The Mount in Lenox, MA. In preparation for our visit we read three ghost stories from Wharton’s New England: Seven Stories and Ethan Frome: The Triumph of Night, Bewitched, and All Souls. Chris purchased a copy of The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton in The Mount’s gift shop.
You can view the video we took of her library on our YouTube channel.
We also visited the The Bookstore & Get Lit Wine Bar in Lenox, MA that was featured in the documentary. Hello Bookstore.

Emily made a tip to Maine and visited Elements Books Coffee Beer in Biddeford and Longfellow Books in Portland.

Chris stopped at Barbara’s Bookstore when she was walking through O’Hare airport in Chicago.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [46:51]
Emily is looking forward to watching the series From Scratch based on the book by Tembe Locke that was one of her top reads of 2020. Emily talked about the book on Episode 97 and Episode 120.

Chris is headed to Loyola University’s Library at the Lakeshore Campus to do some archival research.

– Upcoming Reads – [48:31]
Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon (CW)(EF)
The Seas – Samantha Hunt (EF)
Guarded by Dragons: Encounters with Rare Books and Rare People – Rick Gekoski (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Blair Braverman – [51:20]
We talk with Blair about her debut novel Small Game.
You can learn more about Blair here.
Here’s the link to the Outside Magazine article that Blair wrote about her experience on Naked and Afraid.
You can keep up with Blair and her BraverMountain mushing team on Twitter. If you are interested in supporting her team financially, check out her Patreon page.

– Also Mentioned –
Librovox public domain audiobooks
Bookshop.org gift cards
University of California Press
Last Night at the Telegraph Club – Malinda Lo
A Thin Ghost and Others – M R James
In a Glass Darkly – Sheridan Le Fanu
Henry James
Theodore Roosevelt
The Ballad of Reading Gaol – Oscar Wilde
Herman Melville’s Arrowhead
Honest Dog Books
Parnassus Books
The Concord Bookshop
Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer

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 167 - Author Spotlight with Kelcey Ervick

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

– Announcing our 23rd Readalong –
Murder on the Red River – Marcie R. Rendon
You can purchase an e-book directly from Soho for $7.99, the paperback from Bookshop.org or 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, December 4th at 7 PM (ET). And we would love for you to join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reakding – [1:15]
Sweet Thursday (Cannery Row #2) – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles (CW)

– Just Read – [4:11]
Cannery Row – John Steinbeck (CW)(EF)
The Fall Girl – narrated by Marcia Clark and Cathy LePard (CW)(EF)
Small Game – Blair Braverman (CW)(EF)
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan (EF)
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas (translated by Frank Wynne) (EF)
Library Girl: How Nancy Pearl Became America’s Most Celebrated Librarian – Karen Henry Clark (illustrated by Sheryl Murray)(CW)
Dark Rivers to Cross – Lynne Reeves (EF) release date 11/8/2022
Miss Grief and Other Stories – Constance Fenimore Woolson (edited by Anne Boyd Rioux) (CW)
Open Water – Caleb Azumah Nelson (EF)
Lovecraft Country – Matt Ruff (CW)
The Salt Path – Raynor Winn (audio)(EF)
The Lunar Housewife – Caroline Woods (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –  [44:02]
Emily was in Martha’s Vineyard where she visited Bunches of Grapes bookstore and four of the public libraries on the island: West Tisbury, Oak Bluffs, Vineyard Haven, and Edgartown libraries.

Chris attended a virtual event through the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library about The World in Maps.

Chris and Emily had a Couch Biblio Adventure via Simmons University with Malinda Lo discussing her book Last Night at the Telegraph Club.

Chris and Emily went on a Joint Jaunt meeting Aunt Ellen in Brooklyn. They made stops at The Center for Fiction, Books Are Magic bookstore, the Brooklyn Public Library at Carroll Gardens, then to an event at St. Ann & the Holy Trinity Church with Maggie O’ Farrell talking about her book The Marriage Portrait.
Books purchased:
Queer Little Nightmares: An Anthology of Monstrous Fiction and Poetry – David Ly and Daniel Zomparelli  
Laserwriter II – Tamara Shopsin
The Between – Tananarive Due
Yellow Jessamine – Caitlin Starling

Food Eaten:
Smith Street Bagels
La Vara NYC
Magnolia Bakery

– Upcoming Jaunts – [1:02:52]
Emily is heading to Savoy Bookshop & Cafe on November 3rd at 5:30 to hear James Hannaham discuss his new book Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta.

Emily is headed back to Brooklyn on November 5th & 6th to attend Cooks & Books hosted by Cherry Bombe at the Ace Hotel.

Chris and Emily are headed to The Mount in Lenox, MA. The hope to read some stories from Wharton’s New England: Seven Stories and Ethan Frome. The ghost stories include The Triumph of Night, Bewitched, and All Souls.

– Upcoming Reads – [1:06:00]
The Foundling – Ann Leary (EF)
The Midcoast – Adam White (EF)
His Only Wife – Peace Adzo Medie (EF)
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family – Rabia Chadry (EF) release date 11/8/2022
Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics – Marion Nestle (EF)
Inciting Joy: Essays – Ross Gay (EF)
Hotel Cartagena – Simone Buchholz (translated by Rachel Ward) (CW)
Blue Night – Simone Buchholz (translated by Rachel Ward) (CW)
Carmilla – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Out Now: 
Signal Fires – Dani Shapiro

– Author Spotlight with Kelcey Ervick – [1:10:10]
We talk with Kelcey about her new graphic memoir The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women’s Lives.

You can learn more about Kelcey here.

– Also Mentioned –
BOOK CLUB On the Go   
East of Eden – John Steinbeck
Jane Austen
Tattered Cover Bookstore
Lovecraft Country series
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed
A Scatter of Light – Malinda Lo
Bleak House – David Copperfield
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
Hamnet – Maggie O’ Farrell
The Good House – Ann Leary
Book of Delights: Essays – Ross Gay
The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron

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