Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read

John Valeri, our Mystery Man and host of Central Booking, returns to offer Halloween season recommendations for middle-grade, young adult, and adult readers.

Emily has nothing but high praise for THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS by Ruth Ozeki. She’s also thrilled to discover author Zoraida Cordóva (THE INHERITANCE OF ORQUİEDA DIVINA), and you’ll have to listen to hear her favorite line from the book. And even though she would have preferred to read cupcake books while on vacation, Emily did finish the dark novel, MRS. MARCH by Virginia Feito for book club.

Chris finished listening to Farah Jasmine Griffin’s READ UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature, which is part memoir, part literary criticism, and an exploration of African-American cultural themes. She also had a deliciously creepy experience listening to the sexy Audible Original production of CARMILLA by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. And Chris highly recommends the graphic novel SHADOW LIFE about a 70-something woman who fights death by Hiromi Goto and Ann Xu.

It’s also another 10th episode, which means it’s GIVEAWAY time! All you have to do to be entered to win is subscribe to our monthly newsletter, which you can do here: https://www.bookcougars.com/subscriber (If you’re already subscribed, you’re in!)

We wrap up our read along of The Doctors Blackwell with an interview with the author, Janice P. Nimura.

Emily explores the life of one Tokyo housewife through Emily Itami’s debut novel, Fault Lines, and finds solace and inspiration from Maggie Smith in her book, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change. Meanwhile, Chris has been listening to Farah Jasmine Griffin read her new work that is part memoir and part literary & cultural history, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature.

In biblioadventures, Both Book Cougars glow on about a charming seaside library up in Maine, the Ogunquit Memorial Library which has its own look-alike Little Free Library.

Mothers, madness, alcoholism, researching slave revolts, wilderness guides — Emily and Chris discuss recent books they’ve tackled that range widely in subject matter but are all excellent reads. And guess who showed up yet again? Marilynne Robinson! We know, we know. She seems to be everywhere. Last episode Robinson was mentioned in a biblioadventure with Peter Heller and this episode her writing came up via William Kent Kruger. Reading synchronicities!

Emily finished ANNA KARENINA by Leo Tolstoy, her #BigBookSummer challenge read. It was a good read, but — phew! — big and intense. Chris read Kate Moore’s new nonfiction release, THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE, the true story of Elizabeth Packard’s battle against her husband and the system that tried to lock her away. Although the women’s rights movement still has a ways to go, some of the books we’ve read recently have been good reminders of how far we’ve come since the 19th-century.

During Hurricane Henri, Chris dove into the deep ocean with BELOW THE EDGE OF DARKNESS by Edith Widder, Ph.D. and Emily plunged into pie making with Ken Haedrich’s PIE ACADEMY. She shares a new-to-her pie crust secret.

In biblioadventures, we have some early news about Susan Cain’s new book coming out in spring 2022 and Peter Heller’s next novel (the one coming after his new release, THE GUIDE). We talk about so many good reads — this little blurb just scratches the surface!

We were thrilled to finally sit down and chat with author and editor, Juliet Grames. We talk about books, editing, food, and more. Listen now!

We’ve been having a great reading summer and hope you are, too! In Episode 136 we discuss a slew of different types of books we’re reading, from classics to new releases to some forthcoming novels — LIGHTNING STRIKE by William Kent Krueger and O BEAUTIFUL by Jung Yun (pre-order now or request at your library).

Emily was highly impressed by Ashley Audrain’s debut novel, THE PUSH, which Aunt Ellen recommended. She’s also making progress with her #BigBookSummer read, ANNA KARININA. Chris finished BLEAK HOUSE and then dove into two excellent novels, A SOLITUDE OF WOLVERINES by Alice Henderson and RAZORBLADE TEARS by S.A. Cosby.

More books and biblioadventures await your listening pleasure! Also, reminder that our next read along is THE DOCTORS BLACKWELL: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women—and Women to Medicine by Janice P. Nimura.

Both Book Cougars rave about Jung Yun’s forthcoming novel O BEAUTIFUL (St. Martin’s Press, Nov 9). We’ve been (im)patiently waiting for this novel and we give it a solid four thumbs up! Pre-order it now or ask your library to order a copy, or ten.

Thanks to Juliet Grimes for sending us a copy of CLARK AND DIVISION by Naomi Hirahara (Soho Crime, Aug 3). Chris highly recommends this historical mystery set in 1944 Chicago about a Japanese-American family from California that is relocated to the Windy City after being incarcerated in a concentration camp by the U.S. Government.

Emily read three very different novels. For a good light summer read, she recommends THE APOLOGY PROJECT by Jeannette Escudero (Lake Union Publishing, Aug 1) and if you’re looking for a page-turning thriller, check out HER PERFECT LIFE by Hank Phillip Ryan (Forge Books, Sep 14). A MOUTHFUL OF AIR by Amy Koppelman was originally published in 1992. Two Dollar Radio has a new edition coming out Aug 17. Emily highly recommends this novel that has been compared to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. This is an intense and compassionate novel about a woman struggling with postpartum depression.

In Biblioadventures we were thrilled to go on our first IN PERSON author event since the pandemic moved events online. We ventured to the Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library to see Clarie J. Griffen talk about her new biography, A REBELLIOUS WOMAN, about Belle Boyd (1844-1900). The event was held on the library’s front lawn. It was so lovely to once again sit side-by-side listening to an author talk about her work. Chris binged the new HEMINGWAY mini-series and Emily went to the Big Apple to visit Aunt Ellen — of course they visited a couple bookstores.

Listen to Episode 135 to hear about all of the above and more!

Chris and Emily are making progress in their #BigBookSummer classics and diving into some brand-new fiction as well. Emily went on a thrilling, if dark, adventure through Paul McLain’s new novel, WHEN THE STARS GO DARK, and Chris time traveled to meet THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN via Marie Benedict’s and Victoria Christopher Murray’s cowritten novel about Belle da Costa Green. We traveled to several states on biblioadventures, both IRL and though Zoomlandia — from Rhode Island to Massachusettes to Colorado. There’s lots more bookish banter in this episode for your listening pleasure, including the announcement of our 18th readalong pick!

Emily and Chris recorded together in person in a new space: Emily’s office, AKA the new Book Cougars recording studio! Emily shares her exciting biblioadventures in Colorado and Chris meets up with The Great Gatsby in two books and one documentary. Emily read Beach Read, the novel by Emily Henry, not the concept, and Chris is reading Books for Idle Hours by Dona Harrington-Lueker, about how the concept of summer reading developed in the 19th-century. They’re both diving into their Big Book Summer reads and so much more!

Get ready, we reveal our Summer Reading Goals, and Our Mystery Man, John Valeri, stops by to share some of his, as well. Chris takes us along on her biblio adventure to Chicago including her stops along the way. We have a great interview with Gina Barreca, the editor of the flash non-fiction essay collection, Fast Funny Women.

We reveal our Big Book Summer Reading challenge books, and a couple of our listeners let us know about their choices, as well. Chris talks about a controversy regarding reader book reviews and Emily got a chance to watch a video with the dynamic duo of John Valeri and Playwright Laura Thoma on the Central Booking YouTube channel. We discuss Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, our joint readalong with Jenny from the Reading Envy podcast.