Episode 198 - Top Ten Reads of 2023 with BookTuber Russell Gray of Ink and Paper Blog

Episode 198 with BookTuber Russell Gray

Episode One Hundred Ninety Eight Show Notes

– 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 Goodreads discussion here.

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

You can stream the documentary Love Between the Covers for free.

– Listener Top Ten –
Let us know your Top Ten Books of 2023

– Episode Sponsor –
Book of the Month curated monthly book subscription service
Chris chose a hard cover: No One Can Know – Kate Alice Marshall
Emily chose a hard cover: A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Use the code FORYOU to receive your first delivery for $5

– Russell’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –  (Follow Russell on his Booktube Channel: Ink and Paper Blog)
The Road to Dalton – Shannon Bowring
Little Monsters – Adrienne Brodeur
Alice Sadie Celine – Sarah Blakley-Cartwright
Day – Michael Cunningham
Wellness – Nathan Hill (audiobook)
North Woods – Daniel Mason ((audiobook)
The Only One Left – Riley Sager
The Late Americans – Brandon Taylor
The Daughter Ship – Boo Trundle
In Memoriam – Alice Winn
Family Meal – Bryan Washington

– Chris’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –
The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others – Sidney E. Berger
Wilma Rogers – Sophia Belzer Engstrand
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want – Ruha Benjamin (audiobook)
Endpapers – Jennifer Savran Kelly (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 178)
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 189)
The September House – Carissa Orlando
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
How Can I Help You – Laura Sims
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism – Meghan Marshall
Emily Dickinson Face to Face – Martha Dickinson Bianchi

– Emily’s Top Ten Reads of 2023 –
Lark Ascending – Silas House
The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan (NPR Book of the Day conversation with Donal Ryan)
Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough – Shuly Cawood  (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 191)
Yogurt & Whey: Recipes of an Iranian Immigrant Life – Homa Dashtaki
Morning in This Broken World – Katrina Kittle (listen to the Author Spotlight on Episode 188)
Rough Sleepers – Tracy Kidder (audiobook)
Zorrie – Laird Hunt
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell
Let Us Descend – Jesmyn Ward
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks
Properties of Thirst – Marianne Wiggins

– Favorite Biblio Adventures –
City Arts & Lectures in San Francisco – Brandon Taylor
A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland, CA with Lauren Groff talking about The Vaster Wilds
The Old Manse in Concord, MA
The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, MA
Galivanting around Berkeley, CA with Aunt Ellen

– Upcoming Reads We Are Excited About –
James – Percival Everett release date 3/19/24
The Fury – Alix Michaelides release date 1/16/24
Real Americans – Rachel Khong release date 4/30/24
Last Night – Luanne Rice release date 2/1/24
Memory Piece – Lisa Ko release date 3/19/24
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki release date 3/19/24
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks – Crystal Wilkinson release date 1/23/24
The Twilight Garden – Sara Nisha Adams release date 4/9/24

– Also Mentioned –
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Flame and the Flower – Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Southernmost – Silas House
Read Appalachia
Ann Patchett
The Institute Library of New Haven
Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize
The Hours film
The White Mustache Yogurt Company
Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook – Sohla El-Waylly
The Nix – Nathan Hill
Ryan – ReadbyRyan on Instagram
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Vulnerables – Sigrid Nunez
Lucy by the Sea – Elizabeth Strout
The Woman in Me – Brittany Spears
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires – Grady Hendrix
March – Geraldine Brooks
Also by Brandon Taylor: Real Life and Filthy Animals
Also by Paul Tremblay: The Cabin at the End of the World, The Beast You Are: Stories, Disappearance at Devil’s Rock, and A Head Full of Ghosts
The Mad Women’s Ball – Victoria Mas (translated by Frank Wynne)
John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, and The Absolutist
Pip Williams – The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder
McNally Editions
Barbara Kingsolver
Center for Fiction 2023 First Novel
Also by Bryan Washington: Lot and Memorial
Evidence of Things Unseen – Marianne Wiggins
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
Also by Percival Everett – The Trees, Erasure, and Telephone
Documentary about Percival Everett: Through the Writer’s Mirror
The Silent Patient – Alix Michaelides
Goodbye, Vitamin – Rachel Khong
The Leavers – Lisa Ko
The Birds of Opulence – Crystal Wilkinson
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams

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!

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Episode 196 - Trying Not To Go Viral

Book Cougars Episode 196

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

– Patreon Giveaway –
House of Caravans by Shilpi Suneja
Become a member of our Patreon Community by December 15th to be automatically entered to win.

– Currently Reading – [1:50]
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America – Heather Cox Richardson (CW)(audiobook)
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea – Debra Magpie Earling (EF)
Librarians Guide to Online Research – Christopher C. Brown (CW)
Tenderheart: A Cookbook about Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds – Hettie Lui McKinnon (CW)

– Just Read – [6:23]
The Paradiso – Dante Alighieri (CW)
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary – Simon Winchester (EF)(audiobook)
The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (CW)
Sea Change – Frank Viva (EF)
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want – Ruha Benjamin (CW) (audiobook)
The Last Love Note – Emma Grey (EF)
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism – Megan Marshall (CW)
Grief is for People – Sloane Crosley (EF) release date 2/27/2024
The Bookbinder – Pip Williams (CW)(EF)

– Episode Sponsor – [47:36]
Book of the Month curated monthly book subscription service
Emily chose an audiobook: The Last Love Note by Emma Grey narrated by Leeanna Walsman. Chris chose a hard cover: The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak.
Use code FORYOU to receive your first delivery for $5.

– Biblio Adventures – [56:41]
Chris had a Zoom conversation with her fellow buddy readers of The Paradiso by Dante Alighieri.

Emily went to the Guilford Library to hear Adres Dubus III discuss his new novel Such Kindness. Emily had a Couch Biblio Adventure watching Lessons in Chemistry an Apple TV series based on the novel by Bonnie Garmus.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [01:01:07]
Chris and Emily are heading to Drama Works Theater to see Laura Thoma’s play “Miss Margaret’s Barton Cottage Christmas Surprise.” The show runs from December 15-17. Tickets are available here.   

Chris is joining an online event via the Harry Ransom Center titled “Lost Books: The Dark Matter of the Early Modern English Book Trade” featuring Alan B. Farmer. The video is available here.

Chris is attending a virtual Author Talk via the Boston Athenaeum, “Robert Darnton: The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1790.” Online tickets are available here.

Emily is looking forward to watching the third season of Slow Horses on Apple TV based on the Slough House series by Mick Herron. This season is based on the third novel, Real Tigers.

Emily is planning to see Ileana Douglas at the Durham Public Library discussing her new book Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia.

– Upcoming Reads – [01:05:35]
The Iliad – Homer (translated by Emily Wilson) (CW)
If you are interested in joining The Iliad buddy read, send an email or get in touch via Instagram.
The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan (EF)
Are You Somebody – Nuala O’Faolain (EF)

– Out Now – [01:09:29]
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac: Stories – Louise Kennedy

– Also Mentioned –
Milkweed Editions
Harriet Beecher Stowe Prize
I Was Told There’d Be Cake – Sloane Crosley
Dirty Love – Andre Dubus III
Jane Austen
Nothing Good Can Come From This: Essays – Kristi Coulter

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 195 - Hooked by Nonfiction November & 2023 Holiday Gift Ideas

Episode 195 - 2023 Bookish Gift Ideas

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

– Currently Reading – [:25]
The Paradiso – Dante Alighieri (CW)
Big Heart Little Stove: Bringing Home Meals & Moments from the Lost Kitchen – Erin French (EF)(audiobook)
The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism – Megan Marshall (CW)
Fatty Fatty Boom Boom: A Memoir of Food, Fat, and Family – Rabia Chaudry (EF)
Democracy Awakening: Notes on the State of America – Heather Cox Richardson (CW)(audiobook)
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary – Simon Winchester (EF)
The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams (CW)
Knowledge as a Feeling: How Neuroscience and Psychology Impact Human Information Behavior – Troy Swanson (CW)

Head over to our Booktube channel to hear about our Nonfiction November reads.

– Just Read – [16:22]
After Annie – Anna Quindlen (EF) release date 3/12/24
Moby-Dick Hidden Treasures found poetry – discovered by Stephen Durkee (CW)
Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden – Camille T. Dungy (EF) (audiobook)
“Like a Winding Sheet” a short story within Miss Muriel and Other Stories – Ann Petry (CW)(EF)

– Episode Sponsor – [28:34]
Book of the Month curated monthly book subscription service
Emily chose an audiobook: The Last Love Note by Emma Grey narrated by Leeanna Walsman
Chris chose a hard cover: The Helsinki Affair by Anna Pitoniak
Use the code FORYOU to receive your first delivery for $5.

– Biblio Adventures – [30:36]
Emily went to Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT to see Sigrid Nunez discuss her newest novel, The Vulnerables, with Willard Spiegelman whose most recent book is Nothing Stays Put: The Life and Poetry of Amy Clampitt.

Chris had a lovely visit to Mystic Seaport Museum where she walked aboard The Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship in the world. She’s considering a re-read of Moby Dick.

Emily took a jaunt to RJ Julia’s Booksellers in Madison, CT to see Michael Cunningham discuss his new novel, Day, with Amy Bloom. On Episode 153, we spoke with Bloom about her memoir In Love.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [40:45]
Chris is heading into New York City to see a play and is hoping to renew her NYPL library card.  

Emily plans to attend an event at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT on Tuesday, November 28th at 6PM (ET).  Lauren Acampora will be in conversation with Mona Awad discussing her new novel, Rouge.

– Upcoming Reads – [42:24]
The End of the World is a Cul de Sac: Stories – Louise Kennedy (EF) release date 12/5/2023
The Upstairs Delicatessen: On Eating, Reading, Reading about Eating, and Eating While Reading – Dwight Garner (EF)
Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want – Ruha Benjamin

– Episode Sponsor – [45:02]
Liv Macy, author of the Infinites Universe Novels. Learn more about Macy and her series here.

– 2023 Holiday Gift Ideas – [45:42]
Head over to our
Booktube channel to see visual representations of some of these gift ideas
🎁 A Bookbrowse Gift Membership
🎁 North American Reciprocal Museum Association Membership
🎁 Book Letters derived from vintage books
🎁 Reading Headlights. Emily has a Petzl from LL Bean and Chris has a Glocusent
🎁 Decorate paper and transcribe a poem or quote upon it
🎁 The 2023 New York Public Library Holiday Gift Catalog
🎁 Literary Board game: Really Loud Librarians
🎁 Book Embosser
🎁 Author Bobblehead (Bram Stoker) and custom bobbleheads via Bobble for a Cause
🎁 Custom Family Recipe Tea Towels
🎁 Create a Biblio Adventure Car Kit

– 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 –
Finding Freedom – Erin French
The Old Manse
Mystic Seaport Museum
Adnan’s Story – Rabia Chaudry
Undisclosed podcast
Also by Sigrid Nunez: The Friend and What Are You Going Through
The Hours – Michael Cunningham
Trespasses – Louise Kennedy

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 182 - Biblio Adventure Bonanza: Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

Book Cougars Episode 182

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

– Currently Reading – [1:00]
Moby Dyke: An Obsessive Quest to Track Down the Last Remaining Lesbian Bars in America – Krista Burton (CW) release date 6/6/23
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams (CW)(EF)
Cat Brushing – Jane Campbell (CW)

– Just Read – [8:37]
Budmo! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen – Anna Voloshyna (EF)
Shakespeare and Company – Sylvia Beach (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [17:31]
Chris and Emily went to see the movie Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret based on the book by Judy Blume.  

Chris watched Fried Green Tomatoes based on the book by Fannie Flagg.

Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers to see Mary Beth Keane talk about her new book The Half Moon.

Chris went to Booktopia at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT. She also visited Monroe Street Books in Middlebury where she purchased: New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton, A Manual of Archive Administration by Hilary Jenkinson, and So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance by Gabrielle Zaid. On the drive home she made stops at Rodgers Book Barn in Hillsdale, NY and Oblong Books in Millerton, NY.

– Episode Sponsor – [38:58]
Episode 182 is sponsored by Rewriting Illness by Elizabeth Benedict. Learn more about Elizabeth here.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [39:52]
Chris will be celebrating World Dracula Day on May 26th with plans to work on a puzzle and listen to an audiobook of the book.

Emily is going to try watching the television series Bridgerton based on the books by Julia Quinn.

– Our Big Book Summer Reading Challenge – [43:05]
We are joining our friend Sue Jackson’s summer reading challenge by reading a book that is over 400 pages. The challenge runs from May 25 – September 4. Learn more on her blog.

Ulysses – James Joyce (CW)
(check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of New America – Gilbert King (EF) (audio)  
(check out the Buddy Read link on Goodreads)

Novels that Emily is considering:
Fellowship Point – Alice Elliott Dark
The Great Reclamation – Rachel Heng
Three – Valérie Perrin
Properties of Thirst – Marianne Wiggins

Chris might read The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American American Romanticism by Megan Marshall.

– Out Now – [54:54]
Life B: Overcoming Double Depression – Bethanne Patrick
Summer Stage – Meg Mitchell Moore

– Also Mentioned –
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffeneger
Bison Books
Joyce Maynard
Katherine May: Enchantment and Wintering
Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane
Marian Engel
Fresh Water for Flowers – Valerie Perrin
Horace Mann
Nathaniel Hawthorne

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 180 - Travels with Chris, Emily, and Charley

Book Cougars Episode 180

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

Book Cougars Episode 179

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 WheelsChristopher 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
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