Episode 90 - Our 2019 Holiday Gift Ideas!

Episode Ninety Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

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– 90th Episode Giveaway – enter to win by December 1, 2019
Through the Bookstore Window – Bill Petrocelli
In Pieces – Sally Field
Kingdom of the Blind – Louise Penny

– Currently Reading –
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Caroline Fraser (CW)   
Farmer Boy – Laura Ingalls Wilder (CW)
The Great Santini – Pat Conroy (EF)

– Just Read –
Little House in the Big Woods – Laura Ingalls Wilder  illustrated by Garth Williams( CW)
This Tender Land – William Kent Kreuger (EF)
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (CW)
Friday Black – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (EF)
Women Who Think Too Much: How to Break Free of Overthinking and Reclaim Your Life – Susan Nolen-Hoeksema (CW)
The Last Book Party – Karen Dukess (EF)
Smedley – Jeff McComsey (CW)
Red at the Bone – Jacqueline Woodson (EF) (audio)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to Happier Hour an Evening with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft hosts of the Happier Podcast in Providence, RI. You can look for their upcoming events HERE.

Chris went to see Richard J. King at Bank Square Books to hear him discuss his new book Ahab’s Rolling Sea: A Natural History of “Moby-Dick” .

Emily went to the Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival highlights included:
The Price of Everything movie – director Nathaniel Kahn
Authors: Lionel Shriver, Deborah Eisenberg, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, David W. Blight, Judge Richard Gergel, Joyce Carol Oates, Rebecca Makkai, Bill Goldstein. She also visited Buxton Books and Blue Bicycle Books in Charleston.

Emily went to Breakwater Books to hear Juliet Grames discuss her book The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna.

– Holiday Gift Ideas –
1.       Custom Embossed Leather Notebook
2.       Panasonic Earbuds with microphone model RP-TCM125-K
3.       Literary Card Decks
4.       Believer Magazine
5.       Rolling Library Cart (check out these suppliers: Demco, Brodart, The Library Store)
6.       DIY project: watercolor paper and put quotes on them. Cut them into small pieces and place magnets behind or make into bookmarks.
7.       Take a friend on a bookish jaunt

– Also Mentioned –
Gibson’s Bookstore
South of Broad – Pat Conroy
Bear Pond Books
Stuart Little – EB White
Ordinary Grace – William Kent Kreuger
Ink and Paper Blog Booktube
Fubar, Volume 2: Empire of the Rising Dead – Jeff McComsey
War is a Racket – General Smedley D. Butler
The Devil’s Cormorant: A Natural History – Richard J. King             

Episode 89 - Min Jin Lee author of Free Food for Millionaires

Episode Eighty Nine Show Notes

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– Readalong with Min Jin Lee –
Free Food for Millionnaires
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

– Also Mentioned –
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Such, Such Were the Joys – George Orwell
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Middlemarch – George Eliot
The Age of Innocence – Edith Wharton
Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott
Name Recognition: A Memoir of Visibility and Voice – Min Jin Lee
American Hagwon – Min Jin Lee

Episode 88 - Sally Field the AUTHOR

Episode Eighty Eight Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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.

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– 11th Readalong –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. We will record with Min on October 30th.

– Currently Reading –
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (CW)
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott (EF)

– Just Read –
The Professor’s House – Willa Cather (CW)
The Gifted School – Bruce Holsinger (EF)
A Wagner Matinée – Willa Cather (CW)
part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project
American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins (EF) release date January 21, 2020
Thoughts in Solitude – Thomas Merton (CW)
In Pieces – Sally Field (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers to see Karl Marlantes talk about his new book Deep River and to see Daniel Leader discuss his new book Living Bread: Tradition and Innovation in Artisan Bread Making.

Chris watched the movie Late Night

Chris hosted The Willa Cather Book Club at Wood Memorial Library where they discussed The Professor’s House

Emily watched the first part of Big Little Lies based on the novel by Liane Moriarty

Emily went on a jaunt to NYC and saw the Jefferson Market Library and saw the play Sunday by Jack Thorne

Chris and Emily attended the Hachette Book Group Bookclub Brunch in New York City:
Sally Field in conversation with her editor Millicent Bennett
Emma Straub in conversation with Susannah Cahalan discussing her books The Great Pretender and Brain On Fire
Nonfiction Panel:
Moderator Bill Goldstein – The World Broke in Two: Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, E.M. Forster and the Year that Changed Literature
Ryan Leigh Dostie – Formation: A Woman’s Memoir of Stepping Out of Line
Leslie Jamison – Make It Scream, Make It Burn
Mychal Denzel Smith – Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education
Fiction Panel:
Moderator Karen Kosztolnyik, VP, Editor in Chief for Grand Central Publishing
Kira Jane Buxton – Hollow Kingdom
Leni Zumas – Red Clocks
Alix E. Harrow – The Ten Thousand Doors of January

– Upcoming Adventures –
November 1, 2019 – Happier Hour an Evening with Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft hosts of the Happier Podcast
November 7-10, 2019 – Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival

– Upcoming Reads –
Alta California: From San Diego to San Francisco, A Journey on Foot to Rediscover the Golden State – Nick Neely (CW)
The Shape of Night – Tess Gerritsen (EF)
All the F*cking Mistakes: A Guide to Sex, Love, and Life – Gigi Engle (EF)

– Also Mentioned –
How We Fight For Our Lives – Saeed Jones
On Writing: A Memoir on the Craft – Stephen King
BOOK CLUB On the Go
A Lantern in Her Hand – Bess Streeter Aldrich
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in Forty Questions – Valeria Luiselli
The Seven Storey Mountain – Thomas Merton
Matterhorn – Karl Marlantes
Pritzker Military Museum & Library
NaNoWriMo
Maxwell Perkins
Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant – Anne Tyler
DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder
Will Schwalbe

Episode 87 - Chris Discovers a Fantastic Debut Mystery Author: Heather Harper Ellett

Episode Eighty Seven Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

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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.

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Please subscribe to our email newsletter here.

– 11th Readalong –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. We will record with Min on October 30th.

– Currently Reading –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee (CW)
The Professor’s House – Willa Cather (CW)
The Gifted School – Bruce Holsinger (EF)

– Just Read –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee (EF)
Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane (EF)
Why Religion?: A Personal Story – Elaine Pagels (CW) (audio)
A Better Man (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #15) – Louise Penny (CW)
Twenty-one Truths About Love – Matthew Dicks (EF) release date November 19, 2019
Ain’t Nobody Nobody – Heather Harper Ellett (CW)
You can read Chris’s review HERE
Chris and Emily stalled and haven’t finished reading:
The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai (EF)
The Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (CW)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris went to see Bobby Flay in conversation with Kate Middleton to discuss his new book Bobby at Home: Fearless Flavors from My Kitchen: A Cookbook.

Emily went to Books on Pratt in Downtown Hartford where she met Jean P. Moore, author of Tilda’s Promise. She also got to Bunch of Grapes Bookstore in Vineyard Haven, MA and attended the first annual Connecticut Literary Festival at Real Art Ways in Hartford.

– Upcoming Adventures –
October 17 at 2pm – Chris will be hosting The Willa Cather Book Club at Wood Memorial Library where they will discuss The Professor’s House
October 19-20 – Boston Book Festival
October 23 – Walden’s Carbon Footprint: People, Plants, Animals, and Machines in the Making of an American Book – at the Beinecke Library
October 26 – Hachette Book Brunch
October 26 – Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon
November 7-10 – Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival

– Upcoming Reads –
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (CW)
The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr – Susan Holloway Scott (EF)
American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins (EF) release date January 21, 2020

– Also Mentioned –
You can subscribe to Jess Montgomery’s newsletter HERE
Louise Penny’s newsletters can be found HERE
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
A Burnable Book – Bruce Holsinger
The Gnostic Gospels – Elaine Pagels
Silver Sparrow – Tayari Jones
The Baker’s Daughter – Sarah McCoy
Frederick-Douglas Knowles II – Hartford Poet Laureate
CT Center for the Book – Spirit of CT finalists: Michael Belanger, Katharine Weber, Christopher Wigren
In Pieces – Sally Field
Sue from Book by Book blog

Episode 86 - Book Recommendations Aplenty with Ann Kingman, John Valeri, and Elissa Sweet

Episode Eighty Six Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!
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!

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– 11th Readalong –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE . We will record with Min on October 30th.

– Elissa Sweet –
Get a Life, Chloe Brown – Talia Hibbert (release date November 5, 2019)
Red, White & Royal Blue – Casey McQuiston
Rebel – Beverly Jenkins

Check upcoming dates for the Bank Square Books Romance Book Club HERE

Upcoming Event: KissCon New England October 26, 2019 at 2:00 – Mohegan Sun
Authors include: Loretta Chase, Sarah MacLean, Ilona Andrews, Tessa Dare, Nisha Sharma, Joanna Shupe, Olivia Waite, Megan Frampton, and Caroline Linden

– John Valeri –
Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s Skinnamarink – Sharon Hampson, Lois Lillienstein, Bram Morrison, Qin Leng
The Truth About Magic – Atticus Poetry
Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott
The Last Séance: Tales of the Supernatural – Agatha Christie

– Ann Kingman –
The Memory Police – Yōko Ogawa
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood
The Secrets We Kept – Lara Prescott
The Starless Sea – Erin Morgenstern (release date November 5, 2019)
The Warlow Experiment –  Alix Nathan
Mary Toft, or the Rabbit Queen – Dexter Palmer (release date November 19, 2019)
Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA – Amaryllis Fox (release date October 15, 2019)
Running With Sherman – Christopher McDougall (release date October 15, 2019)

– Chris Wolak –
Ninth House – Leigh Bardugo (release date October 8, 2019)
Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls – Jessica McDiarmid  
Thin Ice – Paige Shelton (release date December 3, 2019)

– Emily Fine –
The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience – Hillary Rodham Clinton and Chelsea Clinton
All This Could Be Yours – Jami Attenberg (release date October 22, 2019)
Pastry Love: A Baker’s Journal of Favorite Recipes – Joanne Chang (release date November 5, 2019)

– Also Mentioned –
The Housekeeper and the Professor – Yōko Ogawa
The Handmaid’s Tale: The Graphic Novel – Renée Nault, Margaret Atwood
The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen – Christopher McDougall
The Middlesteins – Jami Attenberg
Check out Paige Shelton’s website to read about her book series

Episode 85 - Author Spotlight with Mike Branch

Episode Eighty Five Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!
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.

– 11th Readalong –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee
The Goodreads discussion thread will open on October 1st and we will record with Min on October 30th.

– Currently Reading –
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (CW)
The Sleep Tight Motel – Lisa Unger (CW)
Burn the Place: A Memoir – Iliana Regan (EF)
The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai (EF)

– Just Read –
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (EF)
The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (CW)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT to see author Madeline Miller discuss her book Circe
Emily went to Mystic Seaport Museum
Emily watched Where’d You Go, Bernadette based on the book by Maria Semple
Chris went to Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY and visited the James A. Cannavino Library, and the Marist College Bookstore where she picked up a copy of the Fourth Edition of Journalism Next: A Practical Guide to Digital Reporting and Publishing by Mark Briggs.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
September 20th Chris and Emily are hoping to jaunt to Hartford for Books on Pratt

October 5th – Chris and Emily are heading to the Connecticut Literary Festival at Real Artways

November 1st Chris and Emily will be going on a joint jaunt to see Gretchen Rubin and Elizabeth Craft of the Happier podcast in Providence, RI

– Upcoming Reads –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee (EF)
Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane (EF)
A Better Man     – Louise Penny (CW)
Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury (CW)
Ain’t Nobody Nobody – Heather Harper Ellett (CW)

– Author Spotlight –
Mike Branch, Professor of English at University of Nebraska
Mike’s three most recent books:
Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness
Rants from the Hill: On Packrats, Bobcats, Wildfires, Curmudgeons, a Drunken Mary Kay Lady, and Other Encounters with the Wild in the High Desert
How to Cuss in Western: And Other Missives from the High Desert
Mike read a poem for the Book Cougars April 2018 celebration of National Poetry Month, you can see it HERE.
To learn more about a Jackalope click HERE.

– Also Mentioned –
Readers Imbibing Peril
RiffRaff Bookstore
Author Jean P. Moore
September 22-28th is Banned Books Week
Alison Law – Literary Atlanta podcast
High Country News

Episode 84 - Announcing our 11th Readalong!

Episode Eighty Four Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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.

– 11th Readalong –
Free Food for Millionnaires – Min Jin Lee
The Goodreads discussion thread will open on October 1st.

– Currently Reading –
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II – Sonia Purnell (CW)
Becoming Willa Cather: Creation and Career – Daryl W. Palmer (CW)
For the Love of Men: A New Vision for Mindful Masculinity – Liz Plank (EF) release date September 10, 2019
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (EF)

– Just Read –
Midnight at the Blackbird Café – Heather Webber (EF)
Scandal – Willa Cather (CW) which is part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to see author Jessica Francis Kayne discuss her book Rules for Visiting.

Chris visited the Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT. This is the new meeting place for the Willa Cather Book Club; they will be meeting at 2:00 on October 17th discussing The Professor’s House.

Chris had family in town and went to: Mystic Seaport Museum, Savoy Bookstore and Cafe, New York Public Library. Chris got a new Kaweco Classic Sport fountain pen.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
September 5, 2019 – Chris and Emily are planning to go to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to see author Madeline Miller discuss her book Circe.

Emily hopes to visit Once Upon a Thyme Bookshop in Beavercreek, Ohio.

– Upcoming Reads –
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (CW)
A Better Man – Louise Penny (CW)
The Testaments – Margaret Atwood (CW) release date September 10, 2019
Margaret Atwood: Live in Cinemas event is September 10, 2019
Read about the Long-Distance Pen created by Margaret Atwood HERE
The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai (EF)
Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories – Deborah Eisenberg (EF)
Property: Stories Between Two Novellas – Lionel Shriver (EF)
If: The Untold Story of Kipling’s American Years – Christopher E.G. Benfey (CW)
Hear his interview with Pamela Paul on the NY Times Book Review podcast HERE.
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs?: Big Questions from Tiny Mortals About Death – Caitlin Doughty (CW)
Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil – Susan Neiman (CW)

– Also Mentioned –
Pachinko – Min Jin Lee
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Savory Bookstore and Café / Bank Square Books
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe – Fannie Flagg
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
Birds of America – John J.  Audobon
Nathaniel Philbrick
The Girl Who Lived Twice – David Lagercrantz
Eye of the Needle – Ken Follett
Donald and the Golden Crayon – P. Shauers
Harold and the Purple Crayon – Crockett Johnson
Barter Hordes Booktube
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lionel Shriver
The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People’s Lives Better, Too) – Gretchen Rubin
Bookpage Magazine
The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kipling
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson
Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell
NY Times 1619 Project
Sapphira and the Slave Girl – Willa Cather

Episode 83 - Chris finishes Middlemarch and Author Spotlight with Linda Kay Klein

Episode Eighty Three Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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.

– Toni Morrison –
Books we mention: The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Beloved
If you are interested in participating in the Fans of Booktopia Song of Solomon readalong, the discussion can be found HERE.

– Currently Reading –
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II – Sonia Purnell (CW)
Becoming Willa Cather: Creation and Career – Daryl W. Palmer (CW)
Midnight at the Blackbird Café – Heather Webber (EF)

– Just Read –
Lady in the Lake – Laura Lippman (EF)
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup – John Carreyrou (EF)(audio)
The Farm – Joanne Ramos (EF)
Middlemarch – George Eliot (CW) Chris wrote a review on her blog.
Chris also recommends the audio version performed by Juliet Stevenson and plans to check out the BBC series as well as Rebecca Shoptaw’s adaptation, Middlemarch: The Series.

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris went to Deep River, CT to visit Bennett’s Books
Emily visited Phoenix Books in Burlington, VT
Margaret Atwood: Live in Cinemas event is September 10, 2019

– Upcoming Jaunts –
August 19, 2019 – Chris is planning to go to RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to see author Jessica Francis Kayne discuss her book Rules for Visiting
September 16-23 – Brooklyn Book Festival
October 26, 2019 – Hachette Book Club Brunch: A Day for Readers 2019

– Upcoming Reads –
Vampires of Vermont (News From the Edge #3) – Mark Sumner (CW)
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (CW)
Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing – Elissa Altman (EF)
The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (EF)

– Author Spotlight –
We had a chance to talk with Linda Kay Klein about her book Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free.
You can learn more about Linda and subscribe to her newsletter HERE.

– Also Mentioned –
Ink and Paper Blog You Tube Channel
Like Water for Chocolate – Laura Esquivel
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe – Fannie Flagg
Sunburn – Laura Lippman
Did You Ever Have a Family – Bill Clegg
Wilde Lake – Laura Lippman
Tess Monaghan Series – Laura Lippman
Orange Is the New Black – Piper Kerman
Literary Disco podcast
Other books by Mark Sumner: The Monster of Minnesota and Insanity, Illinois

Episode 82 - Author Spotlight with Fiona Davis

Episode Eighty Two Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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.

– Currently Reading –
Middlemarch – George Eliot (CW)
Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer – Bren Smith (EF)
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup – John Carreyrou (EF)
The Farm – Joanne Ramos (EF)
Three Women – Lisa Taddeo (EF)

– Just Read –
A Gold Slipper – Willa Cather (CW) which is part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project
How We Fight For Our Lives – Saeed Jones (EF) release date 10/8/19
Check out his essay Alright Now at Gay Mag

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily went to Raven Café an Edgar Allen Poe themed restaurant in Port Huron, MI

Emily made a stop at Traveler Restaurant in Union, Ct

99% Invisible Episode #354 Weeding is Fundamental

Emily went to Wesleyan RJ Julia to see Bianca Marais discuss her new book If You Want to Make God Laugh

Chris hosted the Willa Cather Bookclub to discuss Sapphira and the Slave Girl. Sadly, Bookclub Bookstore & More has closed its doors, but upcoming quarterly meetings will be at the Wood Memorial Library in South Windsor, CT. South Windsor is the birthplace of Jonathan Edwards, a theologian who is famous for the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Check back, the next meeting of the bookclub will be in October, discussing the The Professors House.

Chris took her friend, Janet, to the New York Public Library to see the Walt Whitman exhibit. She also browse Kinokuniya Books. They also did a whirlwind tour of Connecticut bookstores including: Yale Bookstore, Grey Matter Books, Sterling Memorial Library, Beinecke Library, RJ Julia Booksellers, and The Book Barn.

Emily watched The Inventor documentary about Theranos

Emily went to Savoy Bookshop & Cafe to hear Nancy Burns-Fusaro of Westerly Sun discuss Three Women with author Lisa Taddeo.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
August 8, 2019 – Odyssey Bookshop Mary Doria Russell author of The Women of the Copper Country in conversation with Rose Bookbinder.

– Upcoming Reads –
The Ventriloquist – E.R. Ramzipoor (CW) (release date August 27, 2019)
Women Heroes of WWII: 32 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage, Resistance, and Rescue – Kathryn J. Atwood (CW)
Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free – Linda Kay Klein (EF)(CW)
So Long: Stories, 1987-1992 – Lucia Berlin (EF)

– Author Spotlight –
We caught up with Fiona Davis when we were at Book Expo. Her new book, The Chelsea Girls, is available now!
Her book tour details can be found HERE.
Fiona mentioned:
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake

– Also Mentioned –
If You Want to Make God Laugh – Bianca Marais
Prelude to Bruise – Saeed Jones poetry collection
Complete Stories of Flannery O’ Conner
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann
Book Nation By Jen
BookBarCT
Bianca Marais recommended two books: American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins (release date 1/21/20) and Such A Fun Age  by Kiley Reid (release date 1/7/20)
Thy Neighbor’s Wife – Gay Talese
Booktuber Jaclyn: Six Minutes for Me
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster – Jon Krakauer
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
The Masterpiece – Fiona Davis

Episode 81 - We're Back! Author Spotlight with Cheryl Suchors and Jean P. Moore

Episode Eighty One Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak
EF = Emily Fine

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!

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.

– Currently Reading –
The Dutch House – Ann Patchett (EF) release date 9/24/19
Middlemarch – George Eliot (CW)

– Just Read –
The Butterfly Girl – Rene Denfeld (EF) release date 10/1/19
A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport – Kate Stewart (CW)
Chris wrote a review of this book on her blog.
Never Have I Ever – Joshilyn Jackson (EF) release date 7/30/19
The Hotel Neversink – Adam O’Fallon Price (CW) 8/6/19
City of Girls – Elizabeth Gilbert (EF)
Evie Drake Starts Over – Linda Holmes (EF)
If You Want to Make God Laugh – Bianca Marais (CW)(EF)
Chris wrote a review of this book on her blog.

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris presented a paper, and generally immersed herself in all things CATHER, at the 17th International Willa Cather Seminar. She went on several field trips including the, Willow Shade (the home where Willa lived with her family for her first nine years, Capon Springs, National Museum of American History and Culture, Winchester Book Gallery, and The Handley Library. She wrote about the Handley Library on her blog.

Emily did a lot of traveling including:
Ireland: Dubray Books & Trinity Library
Portugal: Bertrand Livreiros
Michigan: McClean & Eakin Booksellers

Emily attended a joint event with RJ Julia Booksellers and Meigs Nature Center featuring Bren Smith and his book Eat Like a Fish: My Adventures as a Fisherman Turned Restorative Ocean Farmer

– Upcoming Jaunts –
July 24, 2019 – Wesleyan RJ Julia, Bianca Marais author of If You Want to Make God Laugh in conversation with Jennifer Blankfein.
July 25, 2019 – RJ Julia Booksellers, Jill Abramson author of Merchants of Truth: The Business of News and the Fight for Facts
July 25, 2019- The Willa Cather Book Club at Bookclub Bookstore & More
July 31, 2019 – Savoy Bookshop & Café, Lisa Taddeo author of Three Women

– Upcoming Reads –
Fleishman Is in Trouble – Taffy Brodesser-Akner

– Author Spotlight –
48 PEAKS: Hiking and Healing in the White Mountains – Cheryl Suchors
Author Website: www.cherylsuchors.com
Facebook: Cheryl-Suchors-author
Twitter: @cherylsuchors
Instagram: @cherylsuchors

Tilda’s Promise – Jean P. Moore
Author Website: www.jeanpmoore.com (Be sure to check out the Book Group tab!)
Facebook: /JeanPMooreAuthor
Twitter: @jean_pmoore
Instagram: @jeanpmoore

– Also Mentioned –
Also by Rene Denfeld: The Child Finder and The Enchanted
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters – Anne Boyd Rioux
The Shining – Stephen King
Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals – Michael Pollan
GreenWave
She Writes Press