Episode 192 - Author Spotlight with Fancy Feast

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.

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

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 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!

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

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 163 - Author Spotlight with Shelley Puhak

Episode One Hundred Sixty Three 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.
Find the Goodreads discussion here.
You can purchase directly from Milkweed Press with free shipping using the Promo Code: SEEDKEEPERCOUGARS


– Currently Reading – [2:06]
A Ghost of Caribou – Alice Henderson (CW) release date 11/6/2022
The Electricity of Every Living Thing – Katherine May (EF)(audio)
Young Mr. X – Elizabeth Jordan (CW)
Small World – Laura Zigman (EF) release date 1/10/2023

– Just Read – [6:20]
Oh William! – Elizabeth Strout (EF)
Lucy by the Sea – Elizabeth Strout (EF) release date 9/20/2022
The Barrens – Kurt Johnson and Ellie Johnson (CW)
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt (EF)
Mansfield Park – Jane Austen (CW)
The Battle of Little Bighorn – Mari Sandoz (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [36:09]
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to New Hampshire to visit all three Toadstool Bookshops.
They also stopped at the Peterborough Public Library and their Friends of the Library Used Bookstore, the
Dublin Public Library, and Yankee Publishing.

Emily attended a virtual event with Elizabeth Strout and Cynthis D’Aprix Sweeney author of The Nest via Harvard Bookstore, Politics and Prose, and Books & Books. You can watch it here.

Emily had a Couch Biblioadventure via Episode 133 of Friends & Fiction with Jamie Ford author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy and Jason Mott author of Hell of a Book.

Chris has been doing some accessioning work at the Coast Guard Academy Library and came across a copy of My Heart Leaps Up and Other Poems by William Wordsworth. (The poem “My Heart Leaps Up”) She also went to the Institute Library in New Haven to search for books by Elizabeth Jordan where she found a copy of Young Mr. X.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [59:23]
The Newberry Library in Chicago is offering a course Contemporary Native American Detective Fiction starting on October 5th. Learn more about it here. The reading list includes Murder on the River by Marcie R. Rendon.

Coming up on September 10th at 3:00 pm (ET),  Bank Square Books is hosting a book launch for Sweet and Sour by Debbi Michiko Florence.

Grab tickets for the world premiere of Magpie by Laura Thoma on September 9-11 at Drama Works Theatre in Old Saybrook. Purchase tickets here.

– Upcoming Reads – [1:03:02]
The Seed Keeper – Diane Wilson (CW)(EF)
Miss Eliza’s English Kitchen: A Novel of Victorian Cookery and Friendship – Annabel Abbs (EF)
Buffalo Calf Road Woman: The Story of a Warrior of the Little Bighorn – Rosemary Agonito and Joseph Agonito (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Shelley Puhak – [01:09:09]
We had the opportunity to chat with Shelley about her book The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World.

You can learn more about Shelley here.

– Also Mentioned –
Also by Alice Henderson: A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears
Separation Anxiety – Laura Zigman
My Name is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
Mansfield Park directed by Patricia Rozema
The Killer Angels – Michael Shaara
Entangled Life: How Funghi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, & Shape Our Futures – Merlin Sheldrake
Edith Wharton’s House – The Mount
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts – Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martinez

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.