Episode 214 - Biblio Adventure Extravaganza

Book Cougars Episode 214

Episode 214 Show Notes

August 17th is Bookstore Romance Day! Check your local bookstore to see if they have any special events planned.

– Currently Reading –
So Thirsty – Rachel Harrison (CW) release date 9/10/2024
Mary Queen of Scots – Antonia Fraser (CW)
One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter: Essays – Scaachi Koul (EF)

– Just Read –
The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey (EF)(audiobook)
How to End a Love Story – Yulin Kuang (CW)(audiobook)
Yulin was featured in an Author Spotlight on Episode 205.
Within Arm’s Reach – Ann Napolitano (audiobook)
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW)

Emily read two short stories by Alice Hoffman:
The Bookstore Sisters and The Bookstore Wedding

The Rose Arbor – Rhys Bowen (CW)
Chris requested this book via BookBrowse. Listen to our conversation with the Founder & Publisher, Davina Morgan-Witts on Episode 193.
The Whale: A Love Story – Mark Beauregard (CW)

– Biblio Adventure –
Chris went on a fantastic biblio adventure accompanied by Colleen. They stopped at Herman Melville’s Arrowhead, Edith Wharton’s The Mount, the Emily Dickinson Museum, The Evergreens, Amherst Books, and the Yiddish Book Center.

Books Chris purchased:
The Letters of Emily Dickinson edited by Cristanne Miller and Domhall Mitchell
Emily Dickinson Poem’s: As She Preserved Them edited by Cristanne Miller
Margaret Fuller and Her Circles edited by Brigitte Bailey, Katheryn P. Viens, and Conrad Edick Wright
Bram Stoker: A Biography of the Author of “Dracula” by Barbara Belford
Myself with Others: Selected Essays by Carlos Fuentes
Nasty Women Poets: An Unapologetic Anthology of Subversive Verse edited by Grace Bauer and Julie Kane
Outwitting History: The Amazing Adventures of a Man Who Rescued a Million Yiddish Books by Aaron Lansky
The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish

Emily went to Horizon Books in Traverse City, MI and purchased The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon and the most recent issue of Oh Reader magazine.

Emily has been enjoying the little free libraries sprinkled throughout neighborhoods in Traverse City, MI and she has been spending time at the Traverse City Library.

Chris participated in the Mystic Seaport Museum’s annual Moby Dick marathon.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Emily plans to shop at the Friends of the Library Book Sale at Peninsula Community Library in Traverse City, MI.

On August 24th Peter Heller will be in Traverse City to chat about his new book Burn. He will be in conversation with Doug Stanton, the author of In Harm’s Way and 12 Strong.

Chris is heading to Chicago where she might find some bookish mischief.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Dragon From Chicago: The Untold Story of an American Reporter in Nazi Germany – Pamela D. Toler (CW)
American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond - Jeremy Dauber (CW) release date 10/1/2024
Hot Air – Marcy Dermansky (EF) release date 3/18/2025
Envy – Sandra Brown (CW)(EF)

– 3rd Quarter Readalong –
Envy by Sandra Brown.
Please join the online conversation via the Goodreads discussion thread.
The Zoom readalong discussion will take place on Sunday, September 15th at 7:00 pm (ET). Please send an email if you would like to join.

Download the Romance Bingo Card!

– Also Mentioned –
Such Sharp Teeth by Rachel Harrison
Also by Ann Napolitano: Hello Beautiful, A Good Hard Look, and Dear Edward
Author Caroline Leavitt
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Haunting of Hill House – Shirley Jackson
Author Nathaniel Hawthorne
Poet Sandra Yannone
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
New Bedford Whaling Museum

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 205 - Author Spotlight with Yulin Kuang

Episode 205 Show Notes

– Giveaways –
Patreon: Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan. You have until April 14th to become a Patreon member.

Newsletter Winner: Congratulations to Calloway, who won The Awakening: The Dragon Heart Legacy, Book One by Nora Roberts.

– 2nd Quarter 2024 Readalong –
Our first quarter readalong The Awakening: The Dragon Heart Legacy, Book One by Nora Roberts. 

Our Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, June 2nd at 7pm (ET), send an email if you would like to reserve a spot. You can join The Awakening Goodreads Discussion anytime and we’ve also created a Goodreads thread for general romance chit chat.

Download the Romance Bingo Card!

– Currently Reading –  
Chris dnf’d The Maiden – Kate Foster (CW)
Emily dnf’d Interesting Facts about Space – Emily Austin (EF)
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW)
You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World – edited by Ada Limón (EF)
Emily read the poem “Canine Superpowers” by Michael Kleber-Diggs
Boats for Women – Sandra Yannone (CW)
Chris read “Providence April 14, 1998”
Piglet – Lottie Hazell (EF)
The Highest Apple: Sappho and the Lesbian Poetic Tradition – Judy Grahn (CW)
Break the Cycle: A Guide to Breaking Intergenerational Trauma – Dr. Mariel Buqué (EF)(audiobook)
Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential – Tiago Forte (CW)
Chasing Beauty: The Life of Isabella Stuart Gardner – Natalie Dykstra (EF)

– Episode Sponsor –
This episode is sponsored by Clitapalooza: Her flower blooms power by Billie Best.
You can learn more about Billie here.

– Just Read –
Wake Up With Purpose! What I’ve Learned in my First Hundred Years – Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt (CW)(audiobook)
You can read Chris’s review here.
Intimacies – Katie Kitamura
Deprog: Volume 1 – Tina Horn, Gab Contreras, Dani Strips, and Lisa Sterle – (CW)
A Baker’s Year: Twelve Months of Baking and Living the Simple Life at the Smoke Signals Bakery – Tara Jensen (EF)
Chris read a preview of River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
When Cicadas Cry – Caroline Cleveland (EF) release date 5/7/2024

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily went to RJ Julia’s Bookseller to see Rachel Slade discussing her new book Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (and How It Got That Way).

Chris had a lovely conversation with a student at the library about The Birthmark by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Emily watched the movie Adaptation, about a screenwriter trying to adapt the book The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris has purchased a ticket for the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair taking place April 4-7.

Thank you to a listener who called in to tell us about the movie Shirley a biopic about the author Shirley Jackson, Chris and Emily are both planning to watch it.

Chris and Emily are going on a joint jaunt to Nyack, NY to see the home of Carson McCullers. They are also planning to read the short story “Reflections in a Golden Eye” and the new Mary Dearborn biography Carson McCullers: A Life.

– Upcoming Reads –
Bride – Ali Hazelwood (CW)
The Frozen River – Ariel Lawhon (CW)
The Twilight Garden – Sara Nisha Adams (EF)

– Out Now –
The Sicilian Inheritance – Jo Piazza
The Husbands – Holly Gramazio
Victory Parade – Leela Corman
A Killing on the Hill: A Thriller – Robert Dugoni

– Author Spotlight with Yulin Kuang –
We chat with Yulin about her new novel How to End a Love Story.
You can learn more about Yulin here and here, and be sure to check out her book tour.

– Also Mentioned –
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Gracy Hendrix
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
Indigo by Beverly Jenkins
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead by Emily Austin
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Worldly Things by Michael Kleber-Diggs
The Glass Studio by Sandra Yannone
Salmon Poetry Press
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Flour Power: The Practice and Pursuit of Baking Sourdough Bread by Tara Jensen
Tara Jensen
Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
Into the Raging Sea: Thirty-Three Mariners, One Megastorm, and the Sinking of El Faro by Rachel Slade
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
NaNoWriMo
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
North & South Elizabeth Gaskill adaptation with Richard Armitage

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 202 - Author & Editor Spotlight with Jessica Pryde

Episode 202 Show Notes

– Currently Reading –  
The Vanishing of Carolyn Wells – Rebecca Rego Barry (CW) (audiobook)
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad (EF) (audiobook)
Indigo – Beverly Jenkins (CW) (audiobook)
Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters – Jessica P. Pryde (CW)(EF)

– Just Read –
Emily tried to read two short stories but accidentally read a chapter from the novel That Old Ace in the Hole and the short story “Referential” by Lorrie Moore in The Best American Short Stories 2013 guest edited by Elizabeth Strout.
Vampires of El Norte – Isabel Cañas (CW) (audiobook)
Mrs. Caliban – Rachel Ingalls (EF)
Finding Margaret Fuller – Allison Pataki (CW) release date 3/19/2024
How To End a Love Story – Yulin Kuang (EF) release date 4/9/2024

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily stopped at Breakwater Books expecting to pick up a book for the Gentleman Caller and was surprised to receive a copy of Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly.

Chris spent a day in Manhattan at the New York Society Library doing research in the archives and searching for books by Sophia Belzer Engstrand. She couldn’t find Wilma Rogers but there was a well-loved copy of Miss Munday. There were also books on the shelf by her husband Stuart Engstrand including The Sling and the Arrow. A highlight of the day was finding a first edition of Emily Dickinson Face to Face.

Chris and Emily had two joint jaunts the first was in Book Cougars HQ chatting with Booktuber Melinda Ott. The second was a trip to Chester, CT to see Chris’s wife, Laura Thoma, read from her work-in-progress at the Chester Arts & Literary Weekend.   

Chris participated in a virtual event with Rebecca Rego Barry about her new book The Vanishing of Caroline Wells : Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author sponsored by The Ohio State University’s Rare Books & Manuscripts Library. Rebecca recommended two favorite books by Carolyn Wells: Murder in the Bookshop and Vicky Van.

Emily is looking forward to watching a video with Roxane Gay (The Audacity Newsletter) in conversation with Sohla El-Waylly about her new cookbook Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook.

– Episode Sponsor –
If Her Love Was Enough by Catherine Oni

Catherine will be signing books at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT on Saturday, March 2nd from 1-3pm (ET).

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily are heading on a joint jaunt to An Unlikely Story to meet Jenna Miller author of the new novel We Got the Beat. Wednesday, March 6 at 7PM (ET). She will be in conversation with Alecia Dow, Jennifer Dugan, and Jenny L. Howe.

– Upcoming Reads –
Small Odysseys: Selected Shorts Presents 35 New Stories – edited by Hannah Tinti (EF)
Shark Heart: A Love Story – Emily Habeck (EF)
Church on the Screen – Julie Fitzpatrick (CW)
Moby Dick – Herman Melville (CW) send an email if you want to join the buddy read

– Out Now –
Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story – Leslie Jamison
We Got the Beat – Jenna Miller
Grief Is for People – Sloane Crosley
Thirst – Marina Yuszczuk, translated by Heather Cleary
Summer at Squee – Andrea Wang  

– Editor Spotlight with Jessica Pryde –
We chat with Jess about Black Love Matters: Real Talk on Romance: Real Talk on Romance, Being Seen, and Happily Ever Afters. She recommends the book Well-Read Black Girl edited by Gloria Edim.

Learn more about Jessica here. You can find her writing on Book Riot.

– 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.

– Also Mentioned –
Information about the remote control page turner shared by Sigrid (https://www.instagram.com/hatcherstacks):
This one works on the Kindle App, this one costs $10 more but works on the Kindle, Kobos, and more!
The movie American Symphony
Also by Annie Proulx: Brokeback Mountain and The Shipping News
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Ice Storm by Rick Moody
Also by Emily Henry: Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation
Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
Also by Michael Fink (Episode ): The Stranger in the Woods and The Art Thief

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.