Episode 199 - Our 2024 Reading Intentions

Book Cougars Episode 200

Episode One Hundred Ninety Nine Show Notes

– Listener Top Ten –
Let us know your Top Ten Books of 2023
Please fill the form out by January 22nd.

– 1st Quarter 2024 Readalong –
Our first quarter readalong is Indigo by Beverly Jenkins.  
Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, March 3rd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join the Indigo Goodreads discussion here.

We’ve also created a Goodreads thread for general romance chit chat.

– Chris and Emily 2024 Reading Intentions –
· Both Chris and Emily set their Goodreads Reading Challenge to 52 Books.
· Emily will continue to read books written by Maggie O’Farrell.
· Chris has eight stories left in the Willa Cather Short Story project.
· Emily has started a Monday morning short story project.
· Chris plans to focus on reading books when she wants, following the whim of her desires.
· Emily plans to read one new-to-her cookbook each month and cook one recipe from the book.
· Chris will read 19th Century literature including The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Silas Marner, and A Tale of Two Cities.
· Chris is planning to focus on reading books by Margaret Fuller starting with Summer on the Lakes.
· Emily is aiming to watch one book to film adaptation per month.
· Biblio Adventures wish list: Sarah Orne Jewett House in South Berwick, Maine; a trip to Long Island to visit the newly opened Barnes and Noble along with other indie bookstores and paying tribute to the place where Margaret Fuller perished; Omnivore Books on Food in San Francisco; Bold Fork Books and Politics and Prose in Washington DC.

– Currently Reading –  
The Iliad – Homer (translated by Emily Wilson) (CW)(audiobook)
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
The Hero of This Book – Elizabeth McCracken (EF)
Forest Walking: Discovering the Trees and Woodlands of North America – Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst (CW)
Tom Lake – Ann Patchett (EF)(audiobook)
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk (CW) release date 3/5/2024
The Boy Who Lost His Spark – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)(audiobook)

– Just Read –
Emily read two short stories “The End of the World is a Cul de Sac” by Louise Kennedy and “Powder” by Tobias Wolff
Archives 101 – Lois Hamill
You can read Chris’s review of this book in the Volume 86, Issue 2, Fall/Winter 2023 issue.
The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Emily Dickinson Face to Face – Martha Dickinson Bianchi (CW)
A Winter in New York – Josie Silver (EF)
Freegift – James R. Benn (CW)
The Book of Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Comfort Food – Kate Jacobs (EF)
The Para Method: Simplify, Organize, and Master Your Digital Life – Tiago Forte (CW)
The Cemetery of Untold Stories – Julia Alvarez (EF) release date 2/13/2024
Last Night – Luanne Rice (CW) release date 2/1/2024
Family Lore – Elizabeth Acevedo (EF) (audiobook)
Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love, and Food – Ann Hood (EF)
The Covenant of Water – Abraham Verghese (EF)(audiobook)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris visited the New Bedford Whaling Museum for 2024 Moby-Dick Marathon. She also visited the New Bedford Free Library.
Thanks to listener recommendations, Emily listened to two NPR Book of the Day podcasts:
· Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
· Big Heart Little Stove by Erin French

Emily participated in Katherine May’s Book Club where she was in conversation with Diana Henry speaking about her cookbook Roast Figs Sugar Snow.

Chris watched The Martian based on the novel by Andy Weir. She also participated in a group discussion about The Iliad by Homer. Listen to translator Emily Wilson reading from The Iliad. If you would like to join the conversation, send an email.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
On Saturday, January 20th Chris is participating in an online forum about craft via the Biography Lab. She’s particularly excited about a panel with Janice P. Nimura, “Nasty Women: Making a Good Story out of Bad Behavior.”

Emily is heading to Colorado to visit her son and attend an event via Aspen Words featuring Ann Patchett in conversation with Elizabeth McCracken.

– Upcoming Reads –
Erasure – Percival Everett
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki release date 3/19/2024
The Grey Wolf – Louise Penny

– Also Mentioned –
The Giant’s House – Elizabeth McCracken
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohlleben
Also by Louise Kennedy – Trespasses and The End of the World is a Cul de Sac
The Best American Short Stories 1997 series edited by Katrina Kenison, guest edited by E Annie Proulx
Fish Stories – Tobias Wolff
Trigger Warning Database
The Dictionary of the Book – Sidney E. Berger
The Friday Night Knitting Club – Kate Jacobs
Afterlife – Julia Alvarez
Luanne Rice – Last Day and The Shadow Box
Laurie Colwin
American Prometheus – Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
James – Percival Everett
American Fiction movie

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 193 - Book Club Fundamentals with Davina Morgan-Witts Founder & Publisher of BookBrowse

Davina Morgan-Witts Founder & Publisher of BookBrowse

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

– Currently Reading – [:38]
Land of Milk and Honey – C. Pam Zhang (EF)
The Paradiso – Dante Alighieri (CW)
Country Place – Ann Petry (EF)

– Just Read – [3:58]
Country Place – Ann Petry (CW)
Afterlife – Julia Alvarez (EF)
My Roommate Is a Vampire – Jenna Levine (CW)
The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth – Elizabeth Rush (EF)The Purgatorio – Dante Alighieri (CW)
The Goth House Experiment – SJ Sindu (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [25:50]
Emily went to Maine where she got to stop in at two different public libraries. The Curtis Library in Brunswick had a Robert McCloskey exhibit featuring his books Blueberries for Sal, Time of Wonder, One Morning in Maine, and Burt Dow Deep-Water Man, and Make Way for Ducklings. She also browsed the Wiscasset Public Library where there was a permanent exhibit featuring local artist Bernard Langlais.

Chris had a few Couch Biblio Adventures. She watched Eye of the Needle via Kanopy, it is an adaptation of the Ken Follett novel of the same name; the first episode of Lessons in Chemistry an Apple TV series based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus; and The Fall of the House of Usher inspired by the short story by Edgar Allan Poe.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [39:29]
Chris is attending a live reading of her wife’s play in New York City! On Monday, October 30th at 6:30 pm (ET), The Bechdel Group will feature Writer’s Block by Laura Thoma and Literary Girls Obsessed with Death by Libby Heily. Both plays will be read by professional actors and there will be a discussion afterwards You can reserve a free ticket here.

Chris and Emily will be going to The Vintage Bookclub where they will discuss Country Place by Ann Petry.

– Upcoming Reads – [41:00]
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store – James McBride (EF)
The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (EF)
The Art of Libromancy: On Selling Books and Reading Books in the Twenty-First Century – Josh Cook (CW)
The Tattooed Woman – Marian Engel (CW)
Blackouts – Justin Torres (CW)

– Out Now – [45:04]
The Best American Short Stories 2023 – edited by Heidi Pitlor and Min Jin Lee
Death Valley – Melissa Broder

– Guest Spotlight with Davina Morgan-Witts – [45:22]
We chat with Davina Morgan-Witts Founder & Publisher of BookBrowse.
Learn more about how to become a member and subscribe to the free newsletter.
Learn more about BookBrowse for libraries.
Take a look at the book club research reports, blog posts based on the findings, and the book club health check.

Davina recommends North Woods by Daniel Mason and Julia by Sandra Newman inspired by George Orwell’s 1984.

– 4th Quarter Readalong –
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams is the official book for the last quarter of the year reading within our theme of Books about Books. Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 3rd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

Watch the video of Pip talking about the inspiration for The Bookbinder. If you are interested, her debut novel is The Dictionary of Lost Words.

– Also Mentioned –
How Much of These Hills Is Gold – C. Pam Zhang
The Inferno of Dante – Dante Alighieri
The Street – Ann Petry
Cleat Cute – Meryl Wilsner
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore – Elizabeth Rush
Mystic Seaport Museum
Ulysses – James Joyce
May Massee children’s book editor
The movie Hidden Figures based on the novel by Margot Lee Shetterly
Other shows by Mike Flanagan: Midnight Mass  and The Haunting of Hill House
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
The Color of Water – James McBride
Porter Square Books
Author Laura Sims
Author Paul Tremblay
Central Booking with John Valeri
We the Animals – Justin Torres
Books by Paul Gallico: The Man Who Was Magic and Snow Goose
The Phantom Toll Booth – Norton Juster
The Complete Little World of Don Camillo – Giovanni Guareschi
Author Judy Blume

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 192 - Author Spotlight with Fancy Feast

Book Cougars Episode 192

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

– 4th Quarter Readalong –
The Bookbinder by Pip Williams is the official book for the last quarter of the year reading within our theme of Books about Books. Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, December 3rd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

Watch the video of Pip talking about the inspiration for The Bookbinder. If you are interested, her debut novel is The Dictionary of Lost Words.

– Currently Reading – [6:14]
The Purgatorio – Dante Alighieri (CW)
The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy – edited by James Crews (EF)
Emily reads “Turning” by Julie Cadwallader Staub
The Goth House Experiment – SJ Sindu (CW) (release date 10/17/2023)

– Just Read – [14:24]
Adversity for Sale – Jay Jeezy Jenkins (CW)
Wellness – Nathan Hill (EF)
Monsters: A Fans Dilemma – Claire Dederer (CW)
Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques – Fancy Feast (CW)(EF)
The September House – Carissa Orlando (CW)
When a Pet Dies – Fred Rogers (CW)
Stairway to Doom – Robert Quackenbush (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [39:30]
To wrap up Scarlet Summer, Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Boston to visit Hawthorne-related sites including Brook Farm in West Roxbury, MA, the Boston Athenaeum, a meal at the Chipotle located at the site of the original Old Corner Bookstore, strolled down Pinckney Street to visit the sites where prominent 19th-centuryliterary figures lived throughout. We also got a chance to see The Embrace, a new bronze sculpture honoring Coretta Scott Kind and Martin Luther King Jr., located on Boston Common. Watch the slideshow of our day in Boston.

Emily went to Cape Cod and stopped at Herridge Bookstore in Wellfleet where she purchased The Book of Salt by Monique Truong, the Provincetown Bookshop, Tim’s Used Books, Provincetown Public Library where she grabbed a free copy of An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken, and the Eldredge Public Library in Chatham, MA.

Chris appeared on Shawn the Book Maniac’s BookTube channel chatting about bookmarks from her childhood (that were made in Emily’s hometown!). You can watch it here.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [01:03:07]
Emily is heading to Maine and is hoping to do some bookstore browsing. She plans to watch Lessons in Chemistry an Apple TV series based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:04:14]
The Iliad – Homer translated by Emily Wilson (CW) If you would like to join Chris in a buddy read beginning in January 2024, send an email.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death – Amanda Flower (CW)
Afterlife – Julia Alvarez (EF)

– Out Now – [01:08:42]
Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward
How to Say Babylon: A Memoir – Safiya Sinclair
Nothing is Missing: A Memoir of Living Boldly – Nicole Walters

– Author Spotlight with Fancy Feast– [01:09:06]
We chat with Fancy Feast about her essay collection Naked: On Sex, Work, and Other Burlesques. You can learn more about Fancy on her website, via her Instagram feed and Facebook page. We encourage you to watch the documentary Fancy Feast – The Fat Burlesque Performer.

– Also Mentioned –
National Book Awards 2023
Chain Gang All Stars – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Blackouts – Justin Torres
Also by SJ Sindu: Blue Skinned Gods and Marriage of a Thousand Lies
The Nix – Nathan Hill
The Second Shelf BookTube channel with Britta Böhler
The House Guest – Hank Phillipi Ryan
How Can I Help You – Laura Sims
Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters

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.