Episode 187 - Author Spotlight with Alli Frank & Asha Youmans

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

– 3rd Quarter Readalong our Scarlet Summer –
For more details and to download the Bingo card follow this link.
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne (July)
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese (August)
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman (September)
Send an email if you would like to join the Zoom conversation on Sunday, September 10th at 7pm (ET).

– Currently Reading – [2:42]
Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark – Cecelia Watson (CW)
The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth – Elizabeth Rush (EF) release date 8/29/2023
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope – edited by James Crews (CW)
The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy – edited by James Crews (CW)

– Just Read – [10:06]
The Breakaway – Jennifer Weiner release date 8/29/2023
How Can I Help You – Laura Sims (CW)
Come with Me – Erin Flanagan (EF) release date 8/22/2023
What Did it Take?: The Story of Anna Louise James – Whitney McKendree Moore (CW)
We Ride Upon Sticks – Quan Barry (EF)(audio)

– Biblio Adventures – [29:11]
Chris and Emily went to the Red Heat Tavern for the Vintage Book Club to discuss The Street by Ann Petry (audio). The next meeting date is Thursday, October 19 at 1:00 (ET) at Wood Memorial Library and Museum to discuss Country Place.

Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to the Grolier Club in NYC to do some archival research. They also stopped in at the newly opened McNally Jackson Independent Booksellers in Rockefeller Center.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [46:16]
Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to Porter Square Books in Cambridge, MA on August 2nd at 7pm where Laura Sims (How Can I Help You) will be in conversation with Paul Tremblay (The Beast You Are: Stories). You can register for the event here.

– Upcoming Reads – [47:44]
A Head Full of Ghosts – Paul Tremblay (CW)
The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (CW)
The Dante Club – Matthew Pearl (CW)
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese (CW)(EF)(audio)
Join our Patreon Community by August 15th if you want to win a copy of this book.
Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen – Rebecca May Johnson (EF)

– Author Spotlight with writing duo Alli Frank and Asha Youmans – [52:24]
We talk with Alli and Asha about their new novel The Better Half and their writing life.
You can learn more about them here.
Their other books: Tiny Imperfections and Never Meant to Meet You

– Also Mentioned –
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore – Elizabeth Rush
Milkweed Editions
Shirley Jackson
Lighthouse Keeper’s Daughter: The Remarkable True Story of American Heroine Ida Lewis – Lenore Skomal
The Witches: Suspicion, Betrayal, and Hysteria in 1692 Salem – Stacy Schiff
Tayari Jones
What a Library Means to a Woman: Edith Wharton and the Will to Collect Books – Sheila Liming
Jojo Moyes

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!

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Episode 182 - Biblio Adventure Bonanza: Making Lemonade Out of Lemons

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 175 - He’s BAAACK! Our Mystery Man, John Valeri

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

– 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. Join the online conversation on the Goodreads thread.

– Currently Reading – [4:26]
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)(audio)
The Book by Amaranth Borsuk (CW)

– Episode Sponsor – [9:27]
Episode 175 is sponsored by A Castle in Brooklyn by Shirley Russak Wachtel. Learn more about Shirley and her debut novel here.

– Just Read – [10:07]
Cooking with Mushrooms: A Fungi Lover’s Guide to the World’s Most Versatile, Flavorful, Health-Boosting Ingredients – Andrea Gentl (EF)
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks (CW)
This Must be the Place – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
Endpapers – Jennifer Savran Kelly (CW)
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club – J Ryan Stradal (EF) release date 4/18/2023
Alfred A. Knopf: A Quarter Century – designed by W.A. Dwiggins (CW)
Beartown – Fredrik Backman (EF)
Why We Swim – Bonnie Tsui (EF)(audio)

– Biblio Adventures – [44:11]
Chris made a series of three styles of books. Follow this link to learn how to make them.

Emily started to watch Dear Edward streaming on Apple TV, based on the novel by Ann Napolitano.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [49:10]
Chris is planning to attend two virtual events:
Center for Printing History and Culture on February 16th the focus is Women in Print: Design and Identities. Learn more here.
March 2nd via the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Understanding Katherine S. Days Identity: Interpreting Sexuality in Early 20th Century New England, Four Case Studies in LGBTQIA+ History. Register here.  

– Upcoming Reads – [51:22]
Pie: A Global History – Janet Clarkson
Hagitude: Reimaging the Second Half of Life – Sharon Blackie (EF)
The Warden – Anthony Trollope email if interest in joining the Buddy Read, Saturday, March 11th 5pm (ET)
The Lady with the Borzoi: Blanche Knopf, Literary Tastemaker Extraordinaire – Laura Claridge (CW)

– Out Now – [55:02]
The Wise Hours: A Journey into the Wild and Secret World of Owls – Miriam Darlington
Out of Character – Jenna Miller
End of Story – Kylie Scott

– Our Mystery Man John Valeri – [55:48]
You can learn more about John here and be sure to subscribe to his YouTube channel, Central Booking.
Books recommended by John:
Nine Liars – Maureen Johnson
All the Dangerous Things – Stacy Willingham
Reef Road – Deborah Goodrich Royce
The Drift – C.J. Tudor
A Mystery of Mysteries: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe – Mark Dawidziak
Every Man a King: A King Oliver Novel – Walter Mosley

– Also Mentioned –
Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains – Keri Arsenault
Learn more about Enheduanna, the earliest known named author in history
Gilgamesh
Atomic Anna – Rachel Barenbaum
The Wok: Recipes and Techniques – J. Kenji López-Alt             
Horse – Geraldine Brooks
Out of Character – Jenna Miller
Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell
Also by J Ryan Stradal: Kitchens of the Great Midwest and The Lager Queen of Minnesota
Reading Envy podcast
Also by Fredrik Bachman: Us Against You and The Winners
Author Shuly Cawood
Booktuber Russell Gray of Ink and Paper Blog
Author Marcia Clark
Also by Deborah Goodrich Royce: Finding Mrs. Ford and Ruby Falls
The Chalk Man – C.J. Tudor
Author John Connolly
Little Free Library organization

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 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 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 171 - Author Spotlight with Marcie R. Rendon

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

Chris read the poem “The Margin” from the poetry collection The Historians: Poems by Eavan Boland.

– Currently Reading – [3:31]
The Writing Retreat – Julia Bartz (CW) release date 2/21/23
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age – Katherine May (EF) release date 2/28/23
The Library Book – Susan Orlean (CW)
Listen to Episode 62 when Chris and Emily chat about seeing Susan on a Biblio Adventure in New York City back in 2018
How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope – edited by James Crews (EF)
Emily read the poem “Improvement” by Danusha Laméris.

– Just Read – [14:36]
Reef Road – Deborah Goodrich Royce (EF) release date 1/10/23
The Foulest Things: A Dominion Archives Mystery – Amy Tector (CW)
Night Wherever We Go – Tracey Rose Peyton (EF) release date 1/3/23
The Light We Carry – Michelle Obama (EF)(audio)
Murder on the Red River – Marcie. R. Rendon (CW)(EF)(audio)

– Biblio Adventures – [30:26]
Chris started watching Three Pines based on the novels by Louise Penny.
Emily watched From Scratch on Netflix based on the novel by Tembi Locke.
Emily tuned in to via the Library of Congress to watch Jason Reynolds: Closing Celebration for National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.   

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:38]
Chris is hoping to watch Kindred, the series based on the novel by Octavia Butler.

Emily is hoping to watch Bullet Train based on the novel by Kotaro Isara.

Chris and Emily are planning a joint jaunt to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center. In preparation, Emily is planning to read Stowe’s short story “The Pearl of Orr’s Island.” Stowe is best known for her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

– Upcoming Reads – [41:24]
A World of Curiosities – Louise Penny (CW)
Moonrise Over New Jessup – Jamila Minnicks (EF)

– Author Spotlight with Marcie R. Rendon – [01:07:22]
We chat with Marcie about our fourth quarter readalong:  Murder on the Red River. The next two books in the series are Girl Gone Missing and Sinister Graves.
You can learn more about Marcie here.

– Also Mentioned –
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times – Katherine May
Elizabeth Gilbert
White River Books
Speak for the Dead – Amy Tector
Alice Henderson
All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family Keepsake – Tiya Miles
Twilight Series by Stephanie Meyer
Jacqueline Woodson
Mark Twain House
Firekeeper’s Daughter – Angelline Bouilley
Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
Stephen King
Kurt Wallender Series by Henning Mankell
John Sanford
John Grisham
Shutter – Ramona Emerson

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.

Episode 119 - Author Spotlight with Bill Goldstein

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

You can read our Blog Post with Redfin Real Estate on How to Create the Perfect Home Reading Nook here.

– Currently Reading –
Faviken: 1415 Days Beginning to End – Magnus Nilsson (EF)
Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day – Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky (CW)
Hamnet – Maggie O’ Farrell (EF)
The House on Vesper Sands – Paraic O’ Donnell (CW) release date 1/12/2021

– Just Read –
Legends of the North Cascades – Jonathan Evison (EF) release date 6/8/21
Hide Away – Jason Pinter (CW)
Send for Me – Lauren Fox (EF) release date 2/2/21
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead – Brené Brown (CW) (audiobook)
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times – Katherine May (EF) (audiobook)
A Granted Prayer – Edith Wharton (CW)
Olive, Again – Elizabeth Strout (EF)

– (Couch) Biblio Adventures –
Emily watched two conversations with Elizabeth Strout in conversation with Meg Wolitzer through The Strand, watch it here and with the Book Maven (Bethanne Patrick) via Politics and Prose Bookstore, watch it here.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
January 14, 7:30 pm (EST) - Chris and Emily both plan to attend a conversation between Min Jin Lee & Jennifer Buehler focused on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The event is being hosted by Greenlight Bookstore and is free but you need to register here.

Emily is planning to watch the television series Olive Kitteridge starring Frances McDormand based on the book by Elizabeth Strout.

– Upcoming Reads –
Finlay Donovan is Killing It: A Mystery – Elle Cosimano (EF) release date 2/2/21
Breast and Eggs – Mieko Kawakami (translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd) (EF)
Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Bill Goldstein –
Bill is an author, book critic, editor, journalist, and moderator extraordinaire. His book is  
The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster, and the Year that Changed Literature.
You can learn more about Bill here.

– 16th Readalong discussion –
Mill Town: Reckoning with What Remains by Kerri Arsenault
The discussion will drop on February 16th via Episode 123, please get questions/comments to us by February 11th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, Feb 7th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join us please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
A Stranger at the Door - Jason Pinter
Xingu – Edith Wharton
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
The Wife – Meg Wolitzer
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Norman Mailer
Lolita – Vladimir Nobokov
Lincoln – Gore Vidal
Robert Caro
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Larry Kramer
Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

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