Episode 95 - Author Spotlight with Matthew Goodman

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

– Currently Reading –
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed – Lori Gottlieb (CW)
Northernmost – Peter Geye (EF) release date April 14, 2020
Winterlust: Finding Beauty in the Fiercest Season – Bernd Brunner (CW)
A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories – Lucia Berlin (EF)
Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life – Joan D. Hedrick (CW)

– Just Read –
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator) (CW)
Recipe for a Perfect Wife – Karma Brown (EF)
Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North – Katherine Keith (CW)
Read Chris’s review on her blog.
Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid (EF)
Lighthouse Road and Wintering – Peter Geye (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went on two jaunts:
Matthew Goodman at the JCC of New Haven discussing his book The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team and Jeanine Cummins at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison discussing her book American Dirt

Chris caught up with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, at the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore where she bought two books by Carmen Maria Machado: Her Body and Other Parties: Stories and In the Dream House.

Emily went on a quick trip to Philadelphia where she stopped at: Shakespeare & Co, The Rosenbach, Penn Bookstore, Penn Book Center, The Last Word Bookshop   

Chris had a couch biblio adventure with a friend watching the Bella Lugosi version of Dracula and also went to bid adieu to our buddy Elissa Sweet at Bank Square Books in Mystic, CT.  

– Upcoming Jaunts –
February 18, 2020 – Chris and Emily are going on a joint jaunt to Northshire Bookstore in Manchester,VT to celebrate the release of Simone St. James new book The Sun Down Motel.

– Upcoming Reads –
Mayo Clinic on Digestive Health: How to Prevent and Treat Common Stomach and Gut Problems – Dr. Sahil Khanna, M.B.B.S. (CW)
You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why it Matters – Kate Murphy (CW)

– Author Spotlight –
Matthew Goodman author of:
The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team
Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World
The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York
Jewish Food: The World at Table
Matthew is inspired by the works of: Joan Didion, Robert Caro, Colum McCann
Saul Bellow: “A writer is a reader moved to emulation.”
Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers award winners that Matthew hinted about.

– 12th Readalong – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. Our conversation about the book will air on February 18th.

– Also Mentioned –
So Long – Lucia Berlin
The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate – Discoveries from a Secret World – Peter Wohlleben, Jane Billinghurst (Translator)
The River – Peter Heller
PJ Our Way – receive books with Jewish themes
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions – Valeria Luiselli
American Factory
Where the Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Broken Girls – Simone St. James
The Invited – Jennifer McMahon
Suzanne Clauser
Shuly Cawood
Ten Days in a Madhouse – Nelly Bly
Seabiscuit: An American Legend – Laura Hillenbrand
The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary –Simon Winchester
Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann
NPR’s Latino USA: Digging Into American Dirt

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Episode 94 - Sometimes You Can Biblio Adventure from the Couch!

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

– Currently Reading –
Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North – Katherine Keith (CW) (release date 2/4/2020)
Becoming – Michelle Obama (CW) (audio)
Recipe for a Perfect Wife – Karma Brown (EF)
Say Nothing: A True Story of Memory and Murder in Northern Ireland – Patrick Radden Keefe (EF)(audio)
The Truth About Magic: Poems – Atticus (EF)

– Just Read –
Shadows on the Rock – Willa Cather (CW)
When They Let Them Bleed – Tod Goldberg (EF)
Astrology for the Soul – Jan Spiller (CW)
The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes (EF)
Emily DNF’d: The Innocents – Michael Crummey (EF)
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk (EF)
Chris put a book aside: Murder at the Breakers – Alyssa Maxwell (CW)
Dear Edward – Ann Napolitano (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily started the Modern Love TV series on Amazon Prime based on Modern Love essays from the NY Times, and binged the entire first season of Virgin River on Netflix based on the book series by Robyn Carr
Chris is watching the Good Witch and binged the BBC Dracula mini-series on Netflix
Chris went to the New Haven Public Library to learn more about their Local History Room

– Upcoming Jaunts –
January 21 ,2020– Matthew Goodman at the JCC of New Haven discussing his book The City Game: Triumph, Scandal, and a Legendary Basketball Team
January 23, 2020 – Jeanine Cummins will be at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to discuss her book American Dirt
May 1-2, 2020 – Booktopia at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT

– Upcoming Reads –
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe (CW)
Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Life – Joan D. Hedrick (CW)
River – Esther Kinsky, Iain Galbraith (translator) (CW)
part of the Reading More German Books 2020 challenge – see their Goodreads Page
Such a Fun Age – Kiley Reid (EF)
The Red Lotus – Chris Bohjalian (EF) release date 3/17/20
Northernmost – Peter Geye (EF) release date 4/14/20
the two other books in the Eide family trilogy, available now: Lighthouse Road and  Wintering  

– 12th Readalong –
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. Our conversation about the book will air on February 18th.

– Also Mentioned –
Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America – Elizabeth Wurtzel
to learn more about her life, read her NY Times obituary
Literary Disco podcast
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek – Kim Michele Richardson
controversy surrounding this book can be read HERE
Sweetland – Michael Crummey
Reading Envy podcast
William Blake
A Good Hard Look – Ann Napolitano
Dracula – Bram Stoker
Harriet Beecher Stowe Society

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Episode 93 - Our Top Reads of 2019 and Author Spotlight with Jess Montgomery

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

– 12th Readalong –
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. Our conversation about the book will air on February 18th.

– Currently Reading –
The Hollows (Kinship #2) – Jess Montgomery (CW) release date January 14, 2020
The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics: Feminine Pursuits – Olivia Waite (CW)
Epic Solitude: A Story of Survival and a Quest for Meaning in the Far North – Katherine Keith (CW)
The Giver of Stars – Jojo Moyes (EF)

– Just Read –
A Death in the Dessert – Willa Cather (CW)
part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project
Nothing to See Here – Kevin Wilson (EF)
Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s review in the NY Times can be found HERE
A Burning –Megha Majumdar (EF) release date June 2, 2020
The Memory Police – Yoko Ogawa (EF)
Ann Kingman talked about this book on Episode 86
The Shape of Night – Tess Gerritsen (EF)
Everything My Mother Taught Me – Alice Hoffman (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt to see the new Little Women movie directed by Greta Gerwig
Emily went to see the movie JoJo Rabbit based on the book Caging Skies by Christine Leunens
Chris visited Puck’s Books in Essex, Connecticut and Our Lady of Grace Monastery bookstore

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is planning to start the Dracula mini-series on Netflix
January 15, 2020 – New Haven Public Library is hosting an event to learn more about their Local History Room
January 23, 2020 – Jeanine Cummins will be at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to discuss her book American Dirt
February 8, 2020 – We will head on a joint jaunt to see the broadway production of My Name is Lucy Barton based on the book by Elizabeth Strout

– Chris and Emily Top Reads of 2019 –
Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions – Valeria Luiselli (EF)
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Caroline Fraser (CW)
Why Religion?: A Personal Story – Elaine Pagels (CW) audio
Wild Bill: The True Story of the American Frontier’s First Gunfighter – Tom Clavin (CW)
How We Fight For Our Lives – Saeed Jones (EF)
Friday Black – Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (EF)
Miracle Creek – Angie Kim (EF)
Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna – Juliet Grames (EF)
Ain’t Nobody Nobody – Heather Harper Ellett (CW)
A Student of History – Nina Revoyr (CW)
The River – Peter Heller (CW)(EF)
Free Food for Millionaires – Min Jin Lee (CW)
The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller (CW)
The Museum of Modern Love – Heather Rose (CW)
True Grit – Charles Portis (CW)
The Invited – Jennifer McMahon (CW)
Jonah’s Gourd Vine – Zora Neale Hurston (CW)
Middlemarch – George Eliot (CW)
Ask Again, Yes – Mary Beth Keane (EF)
American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins (EF)
If You Want to Make God Laugh – Bianca Marais (CW)(EF)
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (EF)

– Author Spotlight –
Jess Montgomery author of The Hollows (Kinship #2)
Jess was also with us on Episode 68 discussing The Widows (Kinship #1)
If you want more information about Jess check out her website.
You can read Chris’s review of The Hollows in Criminal Element HERE.

– Also Mentioned –
Tipping the Velvet – Sarah Waters
Me Before You – Jojo Moyes
The Family Fang – Kevin Wilson
Darkness for Light (Caleb Zelic #3) – Emma Viskic
Fleishman Is in Trouble – Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Ep 53 / Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Ep 55 / March by Geraldine Brooks
Ep 57 / Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters by Anne Boyd Rioux
Orchard House
Little Women movie circa 1933
Their Eyes Were Watching God – Zora Neale Hurston
Shantaram – Gregory David Roberts
Mel’s Bookland Adventures
Britta Bohler - The Second Shelf
Minotaur Books
Louise Penny Three Pines Series
Pulpwood Queens Book Club
Tucson Festival of Books

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Episode 92 - Author Spotlight with Heather Harper Ellett

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

Purchase Book Cougars Swag on Zazzle!
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directly to us, please email bookcougars@gmail.com for instructions.
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– 12th Readalong –
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. Our conversation about the book will air on February 18th.

– Currently Reading –
Nothing to See Here – Kevin Wilson (EF)
The Companion – Kim Taylor Blakemore (CW) release date January 14, 2020

– Just Read –
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Caroline Fraser (CW)
The Hollows (Kinship #2) – Jess Montgomery (EF) release date January 14, 2020
24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week – Tiffany Shlain (CW)
Ain’t Nobody Nobody – Heather Harper Ellett (EF)
Darkness for Light (Caleb Zelic #3) – Emma Viskic (CW) release date June 9, 2020 in the USA
Far from the Tree – Robin Benway (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily watched The Great Santini based on the book by Pat Conroy
Chris visited Newport, Rhode Island and saw two houses: The Breakers and Marble House. She also discovered a murder mystery that is set in these houses: Gilded Newport Mystery Series

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris and Emily both hope to see the new Little Women movie directed by Greta Gerwig
January 23, 2020 – Jeanine Cummins will be at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison to discuss her book American Dirt

– Upcoming Reads –
The Hollows (Kinship #2) – Jess Montgomery (CW) release date January 14, 2020
In West Mills – De’Shawn Charles Winslow (EF)
Who Asked You? – Terry Mcmillan (EF)
Heaven, My Home – Attica Locke (EF)

– Author Spotlight –
We got a chance to speak with Heather Harper Ellett author of Ain’t Nobody Nobody
Heather gained an interest in science writing after reading the work of David Quammen
She re-reads the following novels for inspiration:
Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides
You can follow Heather on Twitter @heatherellett

– Also Mentioned –
Flights – Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft (Translator)
The Family Fang – Kevin Wilson
The Widows (Kinship #1) – Jess Montgomery
Resurrection Bay and And Fire Came Down – Emma Viskic
Far From the Tree: Parents, Children and the Search for Identity – Andrew Solomon
Literary Disco
Anna Quindlen
Anne Boyd Rioux
Waiting to Exhale and How Stella Got Her Groove Back – Terry McMillan
Bluebird, Bluebird – Attica Locke

Episode 91 - Announcing our 12th Readalong!

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

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– 12th Readalong –
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead – Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Translator)
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE. Our conversation about the book will air on February 18th.

– Currently Reading –
The Hollows (Kinship #2) – Jess Montgomery (EF)
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder – Caroline Fraser (CW)
The Yellow House – Sarah M. Broom (EF) 
Farmer Boy – Laura Ingalls Wilder (CW)

– Just Read –
Thin Ice: A Mystery – Paige Shelton (CW)
The Great Believers – Rebecca Makkai (EF)
The Sculptor’s Funeral – Willa Cather (CW)
part of the Willa Cather Short Story Project
The Great Santini – Pat Conroy (EF)
Sourdough – Robin Sloan (EF)

– Biblio Adventures –
Emily took a trip to Portland, Maine and visited Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shops and Longfellow Books

Aunt Ellen discovered the Common Books Bookcart where she bought us a copy of Margaret Atwood’s Selected Poems which was published in 1976. You can follow the cart and purchase books by going to Brittany’s Instagram account.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris will attend an adaptation of Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory at the Theatre Artists Workshop in Norwalk, CT

– Upcoming Reads –
How Not to Die Alone – Richard Roper (EF)
Labyrinth of Ice: The Triumphant and Tragic Greely Polar Expedition – Buddy Levy (CW)
The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich (EF)  release date March 3, 2020
Darkness for Light – Emma Viskic  release date June 9, 2020

– Also Mentioned –
Nobel Prize in Literature
Peter Handke
Canada – Richard Ford
Harper Lee
Jacqueline Woodson
The Booker Prizes
Margaret Atwood
Bernardine Evaristo
Shamus Award                                       
Road to Perdition – Max Allen Collins
Flights – Olga Tokarczuk
The Widows (Kinship #1) – Jess Montgomery
Wifey – Judy Blume
National Book Awards
Patricia Cornwell
Youth and the Bright Medusa – Willa Cather
South of Broad – Pat Conroy
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore: A Novel – Robin Sloan
Print: A Bookstore in Portland, Maine
Osprey Island – Thisby Niessen
Louise Penny
In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
Harriet Beecher Stowe House
Every Man Dies Alone – Hans Fallada
Resurrection Bay and And Fire Came Down – Emma Viskic
Book Depository
Harry Potter
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Book Review Podcast
Motherless Brooklyn – Jonathan Lethem

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

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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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– 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

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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