Episode 155 - Death on the Nile with Our Mystery Man John Valeri

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

– 21st Readalong –
Our Second Quarter readalong is Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal by Velma Wallis.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, May 15th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in.
You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

– Currently Reading – [:57]
The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Values – James F. English (CW)
She Is Haunted – Paige Clarke (EF) release date 5/17/22
You Have a Friend in 10a: Stories – Maggie Shipstead (EF) release date 5/17/22

– Just Read – [4:55]
Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices – Jon M. Sweeney (CW)(audio)
The Year of the Horses: A Memoir – Courtney Maum (EF)
Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead – Emily Austin (CW)
Marrying the Ketchups – Jennifer Close (EF)
Lucky Girl, How I Became a Horror Writer: A Krampus Story – Mary Rickert (CW) release date 9/13/22
Python for Everybody: Explore Data in Python 3 – Charles Severance (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [26:21]
Emily did a Couch Biblio Adventure via Boswell Books with Lauren Fox, author of Send for Me, and Jennifer Close author of Marrying the Ketchups. You can watch the conversation here.

Chris attended a one-day conference via the Association for the Study of Connecticut History  about “Teaching History with Courage.” Speakers included David W. Blight, author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, and Manisha Sinha, author of The Slaves Cause: A History of Abolition.

Emily and Aunt Ellen went on a Biblio Adventure to Mystic, CT and visited the Mystic & Noank Library and Bank Square Books.

Chris watched an event sponsored by the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center and Mark Twain House with Dr. Manisha Sinha in conversation with Dorothy Wickenden, author of The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights. You can watch a recording of the event here.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [41:50]
Chris and Emily are heading to Booktopia 2022 at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT on Friday, May 6th.

In celebration of Independent Bookstore Day Chris and Emily visited two of their local bookstores, Breakwater Books and Syd’s Book Shack & Boutique where Chris picked up a copy of The Cutters by Bess Streeter Aldrich.

CrimeConn Mystery Lovers’ Conference is being offered as a hybrid event this year at Ferguson Library in Stamford, CT on June 4 from 8:30 am – 4 pm (ET). You can register here.

– Upcoming Reads – [58:20]
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis Devoto – edited by Joan Reardon (EF)
East of Eden – John Steinbeck (CW)
Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal – Velma Wallis (CW)(EF)
Bird Girl and The Man Who Followed the Sun – Velma Wallis (CW)

Out Now:
The Murder of Mr. Wickham – Claudia Gray
By the Book (A Meant to Be Novel) – Jasmine Guillory
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt
The Summer Place – Jennifer Weiner

– Buddy Read with Our Mystery Man, John Valeri – [59:57]
We enjoyed our conversation with John Valeri about the book Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie and the new Kenneth Branagh film.
You can continue the conversation about our buddy read on Goodreads here.

– Also Mentioned –
Two Dollar Radio Press
Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead
The Seven Storey Mountain – Thomas Merton
Thoughts in Solitude – Thomas Merton
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your
First Book – Courtney Maum
Charleston Literary Festival
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life – Richard Hofstadter
O Pioneers – Willa Cather
Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters – John Steinbeck
The Christie Affair – Nina De Gramont
Love Songs of W.E.B. du Bois – Honoree Fanonne Jeffers

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 154 - Biblio Adventure to NYC and Author Spotlight with Jess Montgomery

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

– 21st Readalong –
Our Second Quarter readalong is Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal by Velma Wallis.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, May 15th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in.
You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

– Currently Reading – [2:50]
Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie (EF)(CW) (audio) You can join our buddy read on Goodreads here.

– Just Read – [5:01]
Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life Love and Longing – Jennifer Weiner (EF)(audio)
The Children on the Hill – Jennifer McMahon (CW) release date 4/26/22
Pearl – Tabitha King (EF)
I Am an American: The Wong King Ark Story – Martha Brockenbrough, Julio Kuo (illustrator) (CW)
Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World’s First Female Rabbi – Sigal Samuel, Vali Mintzi (Illustrator) (CW)
We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know – Traci Sorell, Frané Lessac (Illustrator)
True Biz – Sara Nović (EF)
Maud Martha – Gwendolyn Brooks (EF)(CW) You can join our buddy read on Goodreads here.
New edition of Maud Martha from Book Deposity

– Biblio Adventures – [41:12]
Chris and Emily took a joint jaunt to New York City to visit the Gwendolyn Brooks exhibit at The Morgan
Library & Museum, renew our library cards, stop at the Picture the Dream: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Children’s Books exhibit and “Turn Every Page”: Inside the Robert A. Caro Archive, and stopped at Westsider Books.
(The New York Public Library is offering Banned Books for All)
Chris and Emily both read children’s books:
Bronzeville Boys & Girls – Gwendolyn Brooks, Faith Ringgold (Illustrator)
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks – Suzanne Slade, Cozbi A. Cabrera (Illustrator)

Chris and Emily went to Savoy Bookshop & Cafe to see Andrea Wang share her book Watercress. We were joined by author Debbi Michiko Florence, author of Sweet and Sour publishing on July 26, 2022.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [56:57]
Chris is attending a one-day conference via the Association for the Study of Connecticut History  about “Teaching History with Courage.”
Emily plans to attend a Random House Bookclub April Happy Hour with Tara M. Stringfellow and her new book Memphis. You can get a ticket for the event here.

– Upcoming Reads – [58:20]
Calvin Can’t Fly: The Story of a Bookworm Birdie – Jennifer Berne, Keith Bendis (Illustrator) (CW)
On Wings of Words: The Extraordinary Life of Emily Dickinson – Jennifer Berne, Becca Stadtlander (Illustrator) (CW)
Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau – Jennifer Berne, Eric Puybaret (Illustrator) (CW)
The Matrix – Lauren Groff (EF)

– Author Spotlight with Jess Montgomery – [59:57]
We spoke with Jess about newest book in the Kinship series, The Echoes.
Episode 68 – The Widows
Episode 93 – The Hollows
You can learn more about Jess Montgomery, including her podcast Tea with Jess, here  .

– Also Mentioned –
Cujo – Stephen King
Asali Solomon on NPR talking about Maud Martha
Toadstool Bookshops
Annie Allen – Maud Martha
the United Theatre in Westerly, Rhode Island
Jessica Strawser
I’ll Never Tell – Catherine McKenzie

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 153 - Author Spotlight with Amy Bloom

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

In honor of National Poetry Month, Chris read “The Crazy Woman” from Selected Poems of Gwendolyn Brooks and “Steam Song: Hostilica Hears Al Green” from The Essential Gwendolyn Brooks: (American Poets Project #19) edited by Elizabeth Alexander.

– Currently Reading – [4:36]
The Children on the Hill – Jennifer McMahon (CW) release date 4/26/22
Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life Love and Longing – Jennifer Weiner (EF)(audio)
Miss Grief and Other Stories – Constance Fenimore Woolson, edited by Anne Boyd Rioux (CW)

– Just Read – [10:30]
The Summer Place – Jennifer Weiner (EF) release date 5/10/22
Stellaluna – Janell Cannon (CW)
Vampenguin – Lucy Ruth Cummins
Fiona and Jane – Jean Chen Ho (EF)
The Murder of Mr. Wickham – Claudia Gray release date 5/3/22
Learning America: One Woman’s Fight for Educational Justice for Refugee Children – Luma Mufleh (EF)
You can find her Ted Talk here.
Hurricane Girl – Marcy Dermansky (EF) release date 6/14/22

– Biblio Adventures – [29:33]
Chris participated in a Zoom discussion of The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich in celebration of Colleen’s birthday.

Emily took The Gentleman Caller to Kent, CT to shop at House of Books.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [31:50]
Chris and Emily are planning a joint jaunt to Savoy Bookshop & Cafe to see Andrea Wang share her book Watercress on April 10, 2022 at 2:00 for Story Time. Joining us will be Andrea’s friend and fellow author Debbi Michiko Florence, author of Sweet and Sour publishing on July 26, 2022.

– Upcoming Reads – [33:00]
Death on the Nile – Agatha Christie (EF)(CW) You can join our buddy read on Goodreads here.
Maud Martha – Gwendolyn Brooks (EF)(CW) You can join our buddy read on Goodreads here.
Atomic Anna – Rachel Barenbaum (EF)
Oblivion: Stories – David Foster Wallace

Out Now:
The Wise Women – Gina Sorell
Memphis – Tara M. Stringfellow
A Tiny Upward Shove – Melissa Chadburn
Take My Hand – Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott

– Author Spotlight with Amy Bloom – [42:43]
Amy’s memoir is In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss. You can learn more about Amy and her book tour on her website.

For more information and support regarding Alzheimer’s disease, follow this link.

– 21st Readalong –
Our Second Quarter readalong is Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal by Velma Wallis.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, May 15th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in.
You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

– Also Mentioned –
That Summer – Jennifer Weiner
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
Alice Munro
Amy Vincent / Claudia Gray
Tracks – Louise Erdrich
Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie
The Body in the Library – Agatha Christie
A Bend in the Stars – Rachel Barenbaum
Infinite Jest – David Foster Wallace
Something to Do with Paying Attention – David Foster Wallace

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 152 - Author Spotlight with Kathleen Courtnay Stone

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

– Currently Reading – [1:32]
The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts – Mary Wellesley (CW)
Hurricane Girl – Marcy Dermansky (EF) release date 6/14/22
The Murder of Mr. Wickham – Claudia Gray release date 5/3/22

– Just Read – [11:49]
Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds – Huma Abedin (EF)(audio)
Run Rose Run – Dolly Parton and James Patterson (CW)(audio)
Girl In Ice – Erica Ferencik (EF)
Dead Man’s Walk – Larry McMurtry (CW)
By the Book (A Meant to Be Novel) – Jasmine Guillory (EF) release date 5/3/22
E. J. Josey: Transformational Leader of the Modern Library Profession – Renate L. Chancellor (CW)
French Braid – Anne Tyler (EF)
Sudan: Stories and Pictures – Megan Padelecki (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [42:02]
Emily took a jaunt to Washington D.C. and went to Second Story Books, Kramer’s Books, Busboys & Poets in Takoma Park, and Jenni Bick Custom Journals.

Chris visited the Book Barn in Niantic, CT.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [47:00]
Chris and Emily are planning a joint jaunt to Savoy Bookshop & Cafe to see Andrea Wang share her book Watercress on April 10, 2022 at 2:00.

Later in April, Chris and Emily plan to visit the The Morgan Library & Museum to see the exhibit Gwendolyn Brooks: A Poet’s Work in Community.

Booktopia 2022 at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester Vermont May 6-7, 2022.
Presenters include:
Brendan Slocumb – The Violin Conspiracy
Hernan Diaz – Trust
Dalia Azim – Country of Origin
Jane Pek – The Verifiers
Ben Shattuck – Six Walks: In the Footsteps of Henry David Thoreau
Courtney Maum – The Year of the Horses: A Memoir
Bill Roorbach – Lucky Turtle
David Wright Faladé – Black Cloud Rising
Craig Popelars, publisher Tin House Books

– Upcoming Reads – [51:55]
Our Second Quarter readalong is Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal by Velma Wallis.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, May 15th at 7pm (ET). Send us an email if you would like to join in.
You can join the Goodreads discussion here.

Maud Martha – Gwendolyn Brooks (EF)(CW)
Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks – Suzanne Slade, Cozbi A. Cabrera (illustrator) (EF)
The Plague of Doves – Louise Erdrich (CW)

Out Now:
The Echoes – Jess Montgomery
Her Last Affair – John Searles

– Author Spotlight with Kathleen Stone – [55:26]
Kathleen’s new book is They Called Us Girls: Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men. You can learn more about Kathleen and her book tour on her website.

– Also Mentioned –
The Book of Margery Kempe
Library of Alexandria
Walk the Line movie
A Blizzard of Polar Bears – Alice Henderson
Larry McMurtry’s Dead Man’s Walk: The Complete Miniseries
If the Shoe Fits (A Meant to Be Novel) – Julie Murphy
Dumplin’ – Julie Murphy
Dumplin’ the movie
Dr. Carla Hayden – the current librarian of congress
Whitney Scharer
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine – Janice Nimura
Cynren Press

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 151 - Spring is in the air and the Book Cougars are on the prowl!

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

– Currently Reading – [3:30]
Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds – Huma Abedin (EF)(audio)
Run Rose Run – Dolly Parton and James Patterson (CW)(audio)

– Just Read – [8:41]
This Time Tomorrow – Emma Straub (EF) release date 5/17/22
Chris dnf’d War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (CW)
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre – Carole Boston Weatherford, Floyd Cooper (CW)
Gordon Parks: How the Photographer Captured Black and White America – Carole Boston Weatherford, Jamey Christoph (CW)
The Gloaming – Melanie Finn (CW)
Salt – Catrin Kean (CW)
Such a Library: A Yiddish Folktale Reimagined – Jill Ross Nadler (CW)
It Could Always Be Worse – Margot Zemach (CW)
Bubbe & Bart’s Matzoh Ball Mayhem – Bonnie Grubman, Deborah Melmon (CW)

– Biblio Adventures – [31:16]
Zoom discussion of A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger

Chris and Emily went on two joint jaunts: Riverbend Bookshop and the New Bedford Whaling Museum

Emily ventured to the Westport Public Library in Westport, CT. 

Chris attended a Zoom event with the Society for the Study of American Women Writers’s First Book Series. It was a conversation between Jennifer Putzi (Fair Copy: Relational Poetics and Antebellum American Women’s Poetry) and Claudia Stokes (Old Style: Unoriginality and Its Uses in Nineteenth-Century U.S. Literature).

Emily and The Gentleman Caller went on a walk in New Haven and discovered the Society of Book and Snake building.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [54:06]
Chris is registered to attend the Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference from June 2-4, 2022.

Emily is headed to Washington D.C. and hopes to visit the following bookstores: Bridge Street Books, Bold Fork Books, and Politics and Prose.

An exciting upcoming biblio adventure: Playwright Laura Thoma’s play Heartache Tonight is being performed May 13, 15, 19, and 22 at the Eden Prairie Players in Minnesota. You can purchase tickets here.

– Upcoming Reads – [59:57]
The Gilded Page: The Secret Lives of Medieval Manuscripts – Mary Wellesley (CW)
The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks: Life and Death Under Soviet Rule – Igort (CW)
Watercress – Andrea Yang (CW)
They Called Us Girls: Stories of Female Ambition from Suffrage to Mad Men – Kathleen Stone (CW)(EF)

Out Now:
In Love: A Memoir of Loss and Love – Amy Bloom

– Also Mentioned –
Paul Farmer, Founder of Partners in Health
Mountains Beyond Mountains – Tracy Kidder
Doctors Without Borders
Watchmen
The Hare – Melanie Finn
Book Jotter blogger
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
The Economy of Prestige: Prestige, Awards, and the Circulation of Cultural Value – James F. English
One of Ours – Willa Cather
The Pulitzer Prize
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich
The Night Watchman – Louise Erdrich

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 150 - On the Trail of the Jackalope with Michael P. Branch

Episode One Hundred Fifty Show Notes
CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Chris recited the poem “Monody to the Sound of the Zithers” by Kay Boyle

– Giveaway – We are giving one lucky person four books to celebrate another 10th episode.
The books:
Honor – Thruty Umrigar
Servant Mage – Kate Elliott
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Chosen and the Beautiful – Nghi Vo

To be entered into the giveaway all you need to do is subscribe to our newsletter. You can do so here. We will choose the winner on March 8th.

– Currently Reading – [:40]
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (CW)
This Time Tomorrow – Emma Straub (EF)

– Just Read – [10:22]
The Wise Women – Gina Sorrell (EF) release date 4/5/22
Outlawed – Anna North (CW)
Unleashing the Soul of Money: Finding Sufficiency, Freedom, and Purpose Through Your Relationship with Money –  Lynne Twist (EF)
Collected Poems of Kay Boyle – Kay Boyle (CW)
Smile: The Story of a Face – Sarah Ruhl (EF)
The Count of Crow’s Nest – Willa Cather (CW)
You can learn more about the Willa Cather short story project here.
The Echoes – Jess Montgomery (EF) release date 3/29/22
The Runaway Bunny – Margaret Wise Brown (CW)

– 20th Readalong –
Emily recited a portion of the poem “Voice” by Margo Tamez from the collection When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry edited by Joy Harjo, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Leanne Howe.

A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
Check out the YouTube video showing off the book.

– Biblio Adventures – [52:34]
Chris was a guest on Shawn the Book Maniac’s BookTube channel talking about The White Ship by Charles Spencer. You can watch it here. Other guests included:
Karen of RunWright Reads (Blue by Emmelie Prophete)
Lara from Newfoundland (Undersong Kathleen Winter)
Ana Wallace Johnson (Snowflake Louise Nealon)

Emily visited Next Chapter Books in West Hartford. If you’re interested in donating books send an email to
the nextchapter@whps.org.

Chris had a couch biblio adventure Whales, Whaling, and America History featuring Michael Rossi Associate Professor at The University of Chicago. You can watch the video here.

Emily went to the Madison Art Theatre to watch Death on the Nile based on the book by Agatha Christie.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [44:34]
Chris and Emily are hoping to head on a joint jaunt to the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Riverbend Bookshop.

– Upcoming Reads – [1:05:17]
Such a Library: A Yiddish Folktale Reimagined – Jill Ross Nadler (CW)
It Could Always Be Worse – Margot Zemach (CW)
Bubbe & Bart’s Matzoh Ball Mayhem – Bonnie Grubman, Deborah Melmon (CW)
The Last Slave Ship: The True Story of How Clotilda Was Found, Her Descendants, and an Extraordinary Reckoning – Ben Raines (CW)
A Dream Life – Claire Messud (EF)

Out Now:
Servant Mage – Kate Elliott
The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka

– Author Spotlight with Michael P. Branch – [49:55]
Michael’s new book is On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer.

You can learn more about Mike and follow his events here.

– Also Mentioned –
Harold and the Purple Crayon – Crockett Johnson
You can see all of Emma Straub’s books here
Ghost Story – Peter Straub
Larry McMurtry
True Grit – Charles Portis
The Soul of Money: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Life – Lynne Twist
Avalanche – Kay Boyle
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Matters – Anne Boyd Rioux
Jess Montgomery – the other books in the Kinship series are The Widows, The Hallows, and The Stills
Louise Penny
Eric Rosswood – Strong and The Ultimate Guide for Gay Dads
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks – Rebecca Skloot
Mark Twain
Benjamin Franklin

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 149 - Author and Podcaster Bianca Marais Stops By for a Chat

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

– Currently Reading – [:40]
Savory Dinner Pies: More Than 80 Delicious Recipes from Around the World – Ken Haedrich (EF)
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (CW)
Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of
Human Experience – Brene Brown (EF)
The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life – Amy Butler Greenfield (CW)
Goliath – Tochi Onyebuchi (EF)
Free Love – Tessa Hadley (EF)
On the Trail of the Jackalope: How a Legend Captured the World’s Imagination and Helped Us Cure Cancer – Michael P. Branch (CW)(EF) release date 3/1/22 

– Just Read – [13:03]
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them – Elif Bautman (CW)(audio)
The Swimmers – Julie Otsuka (EF) release date 2/22/22 
You Should Have Left – Daniel Kehlmann (translated by Ross Benjamin) (CW)
Furia – Yamile Saied Méndez (EF)
Goodnight Moon – Margaret Wise Brown (illustrated by Clement Hurd) (CW)
Harold and the Purple Crayon – Crockett Johnson (CW)
The Prynne Viper – Bianca Marais (CW)(EF)

Books discussed on previous Just Read’s that are now available:
The Magnolia Palace – Fiona Davis
Small World – Jonathan Evison
Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson
Dead Silence – S.A. Barnes
Love & Saffron: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Love – Kim Fay

– Biblio Adventures – [30:33]
Chris and Emily went on a joint jaunt together to Northampton, MA. Stops included Noodles Restaurant, Smith College Campus including the campus bookstore, the Forbes Public Library, and Old Bookstore – a used bookstore.

Emily listened to the most recent episode of How I Built This. Guy Raz interviewed Otis and Elizabeth Chandler the founders of Goodreads.

Chris attended an online event with C19: Society of Nineteenth Century Americanists First Book Event.
Books discussed included:
Love and Depth in the American Novel – Ashley Barnes
Star Territory: Printing the Universe in the Nineteenth-Century – Gorden Fraser
Oceans at Home: Maritime and Domestic Fictions in Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Writing – Melissa Gniadek
Useful Objects: Museums, Science, and Literature in Nineteen-Century America – Reed Gochberg
Founded in Fiction: The Uses of Fiction in the Early United States – Thomas Koenigs
Liminal Whiteness in Early US Fiction – Hannah Lauren Murray
Disaffected: The Cultural Politics of Unfeeling in Nineteenth-Century America – Xine Yao
Lyrical Strains: Liberalism and Women’s Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America – Elissa Zellinger

Emily attended a Buzz Books Editor panel via the American Bookseller’s Association in partnership with Publishers Lunch, hosted by Emma Straub author and owner of Books are Magic in Brooklyn.
Books discussed included:
Blood Orange Night: My Journey to the Edge of Madness – Melissa Bond release date 6/14/22
A Tiny Upward Shove – Melissa Chadburn release date 4/12/22
Brother Alive – Zain Khalid release date 7/12/22
With Prejudice – Robin Peguero release date 5/17/22 
Take My Hand – Dolen Perkins-Valdez release date 4/12/22
Remarkably Bright Creatures – Shelby Van Pelt release date 5/3/22 

– Upcoming Jaunts – [44:34]
Emily hopes to visit The Next Chapter Bookstore in West Hartford

– Upcoming Reads – [50:07]
Index, The History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the Digital Age – Dennis Duncan (CW)
A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger (CW)(EF)

– Author Spotlight with Bianca Marais – [49:55]
Bianca is the author of Hum If You Don’t Know the Words, If You Want to Make God Laugh, and The Prynn Viper.
She is also the host of the podcast The Shit No One Tells You About Writing.

You can learn more about Bianca and follow her events on her website.

– 20th Readalong –
A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger

The discussion will drop on March 1st via Episode 150, please get questions/comments to us by February 22nd.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

Check out the YouTube video showing off the book.

– Also Mentioned –
Pie Academy – Ken Haedrich
The Complete Maus – Art Spiegelman
Mystery Scene Magazine
The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For – Alison Bechdel
Wench – Daniel Perkins-Valdez
A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman

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!

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Episode 148 - Reading Sure Makes Time Fly (how is it already February???)

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

– Currently Reading – [3:50]
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them – Elif Bautman (CW)(audio)
Ottolenghi Flavor: A Cookbook – Yotam Ottolenghi, Tara Wigley, and Ixta Belfrage (EF)
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (CW)
Notable Native People: 50 Indigenous Leaders, Dreamers, and Changemakers from Past and
Present – Adrienne Keene, illustrated by Ciara Sana (EF)
– Just Read – [16:54]
Honor – Thrity Umrigar (EF)
The Peacock – Isabel Bogdan, translated by Annie Rutherford (CW)
Yinka, Where is Your Huzband? – Lizzie Damilola Blackburn (EF)
The Good Egg and The Bad Seed – Jory John, illustrated by Pete Oswald (CW)
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich (EF) (audio)
Her Last Affair – John Searles (EF) release date 3/22/22
Memphis – Tara M. Stringfellow (EF) release date 4/5/22

– Biblio Adventures – [40:33]
Chris finished watching the third, and final season of Dickinson on Apple TV.

Emily attended the kick-off event for Reading Across Rhode Island. The book this year is Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley. The Executive Director of The Tomaquag Museum is the honorary chair of the event.

Chris attended a talk in partnership between The Madison Historical Society and The Institute for American Indian Studies with Dr. Lucianne Lavin. You can watch a recording of the event here.

Chris is watching the series Sex and The City based on the book by Candace Bushnell, Sex and The City.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [49:18]
Chris and Emily are heading out on a joint jaunt together, stay tuned for Episode 149 to hear more!

Emily will be attending a Buzz Books Editor panel via the American Bookseller’s Association.

– Upcoming Reads – [50:07]
South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation –  Imani Perry (CW)
Goliath – Tochi Onyebuchi (EF)
Free Love – Tessa Hadley (EF)
The Books of Jacob - Olga Tokarczuk (CW)

– 20th Readalong –
A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger
The discussion will drop on March 1st via Episode 150, please get questions/comments to us by December 14th.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.

The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

Check out the YouTube video showing off the book.

– Also Mentioned –
Other Cookbooks by Yotam Ottolenghi – Sweet: Desserts from London’s Ottolenghi, Plenty: Vibrant Vegetable Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook
Ten Speed Press
V & Q Books
The Love Songs of W.E.B. DuBois – Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Pat Conroy
Riot Baby - Tochi Onyebuchi

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 147 - Q1 Readalong Pick, 2022 Reading Plans, and 2021 Listener Top 10s

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

– Currently Reading – [5:02]
Honor – Thrity Umrigar (EF)
The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read
Them – Elif Bautman (CW)(audio)

– Just Read – [10:55]
Hope at Sea: An Adventure Story – Daniel Miyares (CW)
you can read Chris’s blog post here
I Came All This Way to Meet You: Writing Myself Home – Jamie Attenberg (EF)
you can track Jami’s events here
Magic Lessons, 3: The Prequel to Practical Magic – Alice Hoffman (CW)
Falling – T.J. Newman (EF)(audio)
Rebecca Harding Davis: A Life Among Writers – Sharon M. Harris (CW)
In Love: A Memoir of Loss and Love – Amy Bloom (EF)
Rubyfruit Jungle – Rita Mae Brown (CW)(audio)
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois – Honoree Fanonne Jeffers (EF)
The Swells – Will Aitken (CW)

Check out the Listeners Top Books of 2021 List on Bookshop.org
Highlights include:
Braiding Sweetgrass – Robin Wall Kimmerer
The House in the Cerulean Sea – TJ Klune
Meet Me at the Museum – Anne Youngson
We Ride Upon Sticks – Quan Barry
The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams
Alice Henderson: A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears
Elizabeth Strout: Olive, Again and Oh Wiliam!
Jane Austen – Emma and Pride and Prejudice
Willa Cather – The Song of the Lark and Lucy Gayheart
S.A. Cosby – Blacktop Wasteland and Razorblade Tears

– Biblio Adventures – [54:30]
Emily watched Passing on Netflix based on the novel Passing by Nella Larsen. She also watched Oprah’s Bookclub discussion with Honoree Fanonne Jeffers discussing The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Chris took a walk around Gilette Castle State Park. William Gilette was an actor that played Sherlock Holmes.

– Upcoming Jaunts – [59:50]
Chris will be attending an event through the National Willa Cather Center Author Series. Lynda Beck Fenwick author of Prairie Bachelor: The Story of a Kansas Homesteader and the Populist Movement. You can register for the event on Thursday, January 27 8pm ET here.

Emily plans to attend the kick-off for Reading Across Rhode Island with a Zoom event on January 25th at 7pm ET. The book discussion is The Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angelinne Bouilley. You can register here.

– Reading Goals for 2022 – [1:01:00]
Both Chris and Emily set a goal to read 52 books in 2022. Chris wants to focus on books that she currently owns.
Chris is continuing the Willa Cather Short Story Project. You can learn more about it here.

The Book Cougars are focusing on Indigenous writers in 2022, including a readalong with Jenny Colvin from Reading Envy.

Chris is going to participate in a Larry McMurtry challenge with Libro.fulltime.wordpress.com. She is starting with Dead Man’s Walk the third book in the series that includes: Comanche Moon, Lonesome Dove, and Streets of Laredo. Larry McMurtry also wrote Terms of Endearment.

Emily plans to keep a gratitude journal in 2022 and then start a weekly determination, based on the idea introduced by Saeed Jones determinations in How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir, to read something from her library of food writing.

Emily wants to focus on doing some buddy reads with others in 2022.

Chris plans to read a biography of a woman writer. In consideration are:
Sara Orne Jewett: Her World and Her Work by Paula Blanchard
Constance Fenimore Woolson: Portrait of a Lady Novelist by Anne Boyd Rioux

– 20th Readalong –
A Snake Falls to Earth – Darcie Little Badger
The discussion will drop on March 1 via Episode 150, please get questions/comments to us by February 23rd.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, February 27th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join please send an email to save a spot.

– Also Mentioned –
Elatsoe – Darcie Little Badger
Also by Jamie Attenberg: Saint Mazie and The Middlesteins
Nathaniel Hawthorne
House of Anansi Press

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 146 - Top Ten Books of 2021 with BookTuber Russell Gray

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

– Currently Reading – [1:15]
Rebecca Harding Davis: A Life Among Writers – Sharon M. Harris (CW)
Seasonal Work: Stories – Laura Lippman (EF)

– Just Read – [7:07]
Chris dnf’d Mystery of the Whale Tattoo (Hardy Boys) – Franklin W. Dixon (CW)
These Silent Woods – Kimi Cunningham Grant (EF)
Servant Mage – Kate Elliott (CW) release date 1/28/2022
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered – Austin Kleon (EF)
The Magnolia Palace – Fiona Davis (EF) release date 1/25/2022
The Birds of Opulence – Crystal Wilkinson (EF)(audio)
Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives – Mary Laura Philpott (EF) release date 4/12/2022
Who Is Maud Dixon? – Alexandra Andrews (EF)

– Biblio Adventures – [25:29]
Chris and Emily are planning a joint jaunt to Kent, CT to visit House of Books and the Kent Memorial Library.
Books purchased:
Consider the Oyster – M.F.K. Fisher
The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2021 – edited by Alafair Burke and Steph Cha
You Should Have Left – Daniel Kehlmann, translated by Ross Benjamin
The Swells – Will Aitken
Hench – Natalie Zina Walschots

Emily listened to a conversation between Hillary Rodham Clinton, Huma Abedin, and Samantha Barry about Huma’s new book Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds via the 92Y. You can watch a recording of the conversation here.

– Chris Wolak Top Ten –
Country Place – Ann Petry
Clark and Division – Naomi Hirahara
Bleak House – Charles Dickens
A Solitude of Wolverines and A Blizzard of Polar Bears– Alice Henderson
O Beautiful – Jung Yun
The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis – Dr. Melissa J. Holmstead
The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine – Janice P. Nimura
Leaving Coy’s Hill – Katherine A. Sherbrooke
Graphic Novels: Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts – Rebecca Hall, illustrated by Hugo Martínez; Garlic and the Vampire – Bree Paulsen;
Shadow Life: When Death Comes Too Soon, Fight Dirty – Hiromi Goto, illustrated by Ann Xu
Dogs: Woodrow on the Bench – Jenna Blum; Dog’s on the Trail: A Year in the Life – Blair Braverman, Quince Mountain

– Emily Fine Top Ten –
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change – Maggie Smith
Inheritance of Orquídia Divina – Zoraida Córdova
Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch – Erin French
The Push – Ashley Audrain
Trouble Can Be So Beautiful At the Beginning – Shuly Cawood
The Hare – Melanie Finn
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer
We Run the Tides – Vendela Vida
The Paper Palace – Miranda Cowley Heller
Once There Were Wolves – Charlotte McConaghy
Also: Unsettled Ground – Claire Fuller; Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead; Lightning Strike – William Kent Kreuger; The Last Romantics – Tara Conklin; The Lowering Days – Gregory Brown

– Russell Gray Top Ten –
[You can find Russell on his YouTube channel Ink and Paper Blog]
Still Life – Saran Winman
Brood – Jackie Polzin
Three O’Clock in the Morning – Gianrico Carofiglio
Heaven – Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
The Promise – Damon Galgut
The Arsonists’ City – Hala Alyan
Intimacies – Katie Kitamura
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois – Honoree Fanonne Jeffers
Hell of a Book – Jason Mott
Zorrie - Laird Hunt
Also: Beasts of a Little Land – Juhea Kim

– Also Mentioned –
You can learn more about Laura Lippman’s books here.
I Miss You When I Blink – Mary Laura Philpott
Patricia Highsmith
Elena Ferrante
Tin Man – Saran Winman
The Street – Ann Petry
BBC Adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson
Breasts and Eggs – Mieko Kawakami, translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd
Shelter – Jung Yun
A Small Thing to Want: Stories – Shuly Cawood
The Going and Goodbye – Shuly Cawood
Publisher’s Weekly
Last Night at the Telegraph Club – Malinda Lo
Hanya Yanagihari: To Paradise and A Little Life
The Thursday Murder Club – Richard Osman
The Sentence – Louise Erdrich

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.