Episode 199 - Our 2024 Reading Intentions

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

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Episode 197 - Author Spotlight with Pip Williams

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

– Update on Chris and Emily’s 2023 Reading Intentions – [1:23]
· Both Chris and Emily set their Reading Challenge on Goodreads to 52 books. To date, Chris has read 62 and Emily has read 84.

· Emily’s 2023 year-to-date Cookbook List:
o   Cooking with Mushrooms – Andrea Gentl
o   Snacking Cakes – Yossy Arefi
o   The Wok – J. Kenji López-Alt
o   Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico – Rick Martínez
o   What’s for Dessert: Simple Recipes for Dessert People – Claire Saffitz
o   Budmo! Recipes from a Ukrainian Kitchen – Anna Voloshyna
o   Dark Rye & Honey Cake: Festival Baking from Belgium, The Heart of Low Countries – Regula Ysewjin
o   Yogurt & Whey: Recipes from an Iranian Immigrant Life – Homa Dashtaki
o   Bavel: Modern Recipes Inspired by the Middle East – Ori Menashe, Genevieve Gergis, and Lesley Sutter
o   Big Heart Little Stove – Erin French
o   Tenderheart: A Cookbook about Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds – Hetty McKinnon
o   Roast Figs, Sugar Snow: Food to Warm the Soul – Diana Henry

· Chris’s progress on Adam’s TBR challenge:
o   People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
o   The Warden – Anthony Trollope
o   A Head Full of Ghosts – Paul Tremblay

· Find out more about the Willa Cather Short Story Project.
o   A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Willa Cather by Sheryl L. Meyering
o   Uncle Valentine and Other Stories by Willa Cather

· Check out the 2023 Reading Intentions Thread on Goodreads

– Currently Reading – [10:00]
The Hand That First Held Mine – Maggie O’Farrell (EF)
The Darcy Myth: Jane Austen, Literary Heartthrobs, and the Monsters They Taught Us to Love – Rachel Feder (CW)
The Kamogawa Food Detectives – Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (EF) release date 2/13/2024

– Just Read – [14:03]
The Helsinki Affair – Anna Pitoniak (CW)
The Queen of Dirt Island – Donal Ryan (EF)
Unnatural Death – Patricia Cornwell (CW)
The Maid – Nita Prose (EF)
The Bookbinder – Pip Williams (CW)(EF)

– Episode Sponsor – [34:55]
Book of the Month curated monthly book subscription service
Chris chose a hard cover: No One Can Know – Kate Alice Marshall release date 1/23/2024
Emily chose a hard cover: A Winter in New York by Josie Silver
Use the code FORYOU to receive your first delivery for $5.

– Biblio Adventures – [37:36]
Chis and Emily went on a Joint Jaunt in celebration of their seventh anniversary. They had lunch at Chez Ben Diner in Manchester, CT and went shopping at River Bend Bookshop in Glastonbury, CT. They also strolled through the newly renovated Welles-Turner Memorial Library.

Emily visited Bay Books in Suttons Bay, MI where she purchased a copy of The Recipe Box by Viola Shipman.

Chris attended a virtual Author Talk via the Boston Athenaeum, “Robert Darnton: The Revolutionary Temper: Paris, 1748-1790.”

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.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [48:55]
Chris is planning a trip to NYC to visit the current exhibits, The Best-Read Army in the World and Whodunit? Key Books in Detective Fiction, at  The Grolier Club and to dig into more archival research at The New York Society Library.

Emily is planning to catch up on two virtual author interviews:
Crime Time with host Hank Phillippi Ryan interviewing Nita Prose about The Mystery Guest, the second book in the Molly Maid series. Watch it here.
Launch of Donal Ryan’s The Queen of Dirt Island via the Glucksman Ireland House at New York University. Watch it here.

– Upcoming Reads – [51:10]
Good Taste: A Novel in Search of Great Food – Caroline Scott (EF)
Mischievous Creatures: The Forgotten Sisters Who Transformed Early American Science – Catherine McNeur (CW)

– Announcing our 2024 Readalong Theme – [56:22]
We are excited to share that our readalong theme for 2024 is ROMANCE!
Read the NY Times article about Nora Roberts here.

– Author Spotlight with Pip Williams – [01:01:45]
We had a chance to chat with Pip about her two companion novels The Dictionary of Lost Words and The Bookbinder.
Learn more about Pip here.

The video referred to in the conversation: Oxford University Press and The Making of a Book.

– Also Mentioned –
Sapphira and the Slave Girl – Willa Cather
Maggie O’ Farrell
The Spinning Heart – Donal Ryan
Sue Grafton
The Mystery Guest – Nita Prose
Parnassus on Wheels – Christopher Morley
The Reading List – Sara Nisha Adams
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
Hester – Laurie Lico Albanese
The Invisible Hour – Alice Hoffman
Drafting the Past podcast
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine – Janice P. Nimura
Russell at Ink and Paper Blog
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary – Simon Winchester

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.