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

Welcome to Episode 240!

It’s another 10th episode, which means we’re giving away a book as we do every tenth episode. One lucky newsletter subscriber will receive a copy of CHASING BEAUTY: The Life of Isabella Stewart Gardner by Natalie Dykstra. If you’re not yet subscribed to our monthly newsletter, you can sign up on our website (go to the “support/subscribe” tab). Dykstra will be our guest on the podcast in October, and we hope many of you will join us in reading her award-winning biography of Gardner.

In this episode, Emily recaps her Midwest #biblioadventures, which included quality time at the MADISON PUBLIC LIBRARY and MYSTERY TO ME bookstore in Wisconsin and WILD RUMPUS BOOKS, COMMA, A BOOKSHOP, and OPEN BOOKS in Minnesota. Meanwhile, back in Connecticut, Chris visited KINDRED THOUGHTS BOOKSTORE in Bridgeport and came home with a big stack of new books.

We discuss another ghost story: “Nightmare-Touch” by Lafcadio Hearn from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. Neither of us had heard of this author before, and we enjoyed his story very much.

Books we read and talk about include

EIGHTY DAYS: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World by Matthew Goodman

THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans

THE EL by Theodore C. Van Alst Jr.

A FAMILY MATTER by Claire Lynch

THE GREAT ALONE by Kristin Hannah

We also talk about what we’re currently reading and hope to read soon, as well as upcoming author events and jaunts. Thanks to this episode’s sponsor, Robin Cannon, author of INTO THE SHALLOWS DARKLY.

Oh, and a reminder that our Zoom discussion of THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE by Julia Fine is this Sunday at 7 pm ET.

Enjoy the show, and Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode240

Welcome to Episode 239!

Playwright Laura Thoma joins us to talk about her first commissioned play, Letter to My Soul, which will premiere at the GreenStage Guilford Live Arts Festival on August 10th.

We discuss another story from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES, “At the End of the Passage” by Rudyard Kipling, which didn’t seem very ghostly to us. Other stories we’ve read and discuss include BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan (out 9/2/2025); SUMMER ON THE LAKES, IN 1843 from the new Library of American edition, MARGARET FULLER: COLLECTED WRITINGS, edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall; NANAVILLE by Anna Quindlen; THE BELGIAN GIRLS by Kathryn J Atwood; HOW TO SAY BABYLON by Safiya Sinclair; and REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier.

In BiblioAdventures, we had the opportunity to attend the launch event for the New Haven Memory Lab at the Ives Main Library in New Haven, Connecticut. The lab is part of the Beinecke’s New Haven Community Archives Support program. It provides free resources for people to digitize their family history or their organization’s records.

We’re reading some great books this summer and are excited about new releases and events on the horizon.

Happy Listening and Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode239

Welcome to Episode 238 which features an Author Spotlight with the wonderfully creepy Clare Beams! To clarify: it’s her work that’s creepy, in a good way. As you’ll hear in the interview, Clare is lovely, smart, feminist, and fun. We both enjoyed her latest book, THE GARDEN, which is part historical fiction, part ghost story, and part pregnancy horror story all wrapped up in a novel about a woman who finds herself in a place she never imagined with results that . . . well, you’ll have to read it yourself to find out.

We also talk about what we’re currently reading. Chris is enjoying a re-read of SUMMER ON THE LAKES, IN 1843 by Margaret Fuller and Emily is relishing BUCKEYE by Patrick Ryan (pubs on 9/2)

Those of you who’ve been reading along with us in the PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce will be happy to hear we did our homework. We discuss two stories from the collection: “Thrawn Janet” by Robert Louis Stevenson and “The Open Door” by Margaret Oliphant.

In #BiblioAdventures, Emily recaps recent writing workshops she has attended, one with Shuly Cawood and the other with Betsy Lerner. Chris watched the 1997 mini-series adaptation of Stephen King’s 1979 novel, THE SHINING, which she compares to the 1980 movie adaptation. Spoiler alert: the novel is best.

As always, there’s more bookish goodness in the episode than we mention here. We hope you enjoy it and wish you lots of Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode238

Welcome to Episode 237 where we DO NOT talk about the scheduled ghost story, “Thrawn Janet” by Robert Louis Stevenson due to human error. We’ll discuss it on the next episode along with “The Open Door” by Margaret Oliphant.

Now, on to what we DID discuss.

What we’re currently reading:

THE GARDEN by Clare Beams, SILAS MARNER by George Eliot, and COOKING IN REAL LIFE by Lidey Heuck.

What we’ve just read:

THE SHINING by Stephen King, MEMORIAL DAYS by Geraldine Brooks, and SO FAR GONE by Jess Walter.

There are Biblio Adventures:

Chris talked about attending the very first Bloomsday celebration at the Guilford Free Library and watching the 1980 film adaptation of The Shining.

Emily shares her stop at the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey on the way to Princeton, and recaps the excitement of attending the 2025 Aspen Food & Wine Classic and fan-girling over Nancy Silverton whose book, THE COOKIE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE, is a longtime favorite.

We had a wonderful discussion at our monthly Reading Salon with Patreon supporters about short books (the flip side of last month’s big books).

As always we wrapped with upcoming jaunts and reads, and a reminder about our third quarter readalong in our year of reading Ghost Stories – THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE by Julia Fine with a companion read of “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode237

Welcome to Episode 236, where we are both back at Book Cougars HQ and happy to be sitting across the table from one another again.

We did some Biblio Adventuring since the last episode! Emily joined the Pride celebration in Middletown, CT which kicked off with Drag Storytime at Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore. She also had a lovely visit to Big Red Books in Nyack, NY. Chris was back in the Midwest where she visited the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Boyhood Home in Abilene, Kansas before heading to Red Cloud, Nebraska for the 70th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference.

We managed to read a few books between/during our adventures (love those audiobooks on road trips!):

FINDING GRACE by Loretta Rothschild (release date 7/8/2025)

THE PROFESSOR’S HOUSE by Willa Cather

THE BOOKSTORE FAMILY by Alice Hoffman


STILL WRITING by Dani Shapiro

THE EMPEROR OF GLADNESS by Ocean Vuong

THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due, our second quarter readalong pick

Thanks to the sponsors of this episode: Deb Miller, author of FORGET THE FAIRY TALE AND FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, and Jen Michalski, author of ALL THIS CAN BE TRUE.

Continuing our year of reading Ghost Stories, we are excited to announce the third quarter readalong pick. Because we chose a shorter novel this time, we decided to include the story that inspired it as a companion read for Q3: “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The novel that is the official pick is another one with the word “House” in the title. You’ll have to listen to find out or peek at the show notes.

As always, thank you so much for listening and we wish you lots of Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode236

Chris and Emily recorded Episode 235 over Zoom. Emily was holding down the fort at Book Cougars HQ in Connecticut and Chris dialed in from Pittsburgh, PA. She was on the road back to Connecticut from Illinois and had some fun Biblio Adventures to share including a visit to Van Wert, Ohio where she visited The Brumback Library and had lunch with Linda, the BC’s librarian. She also visited the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and got to browse Caliban Bookshop. Emily saved the day or at least story time at Wesleyan R.J. Julia. She was there with her daughter to share her granddaughter’s first bookstore story time and ended up hosting said story time!

Books we’ve read since the last episode and discuss include:

— RENEGADE GIRLS: A QUEER TALE OF ROMANCE AND RABBLE-ROUSING by Nora Neus and illustrated by Julie Robine

— THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due

— A FEVER IN THE HEARTLAND: THE KU KLUX KLAN'S PLOT TO TAKE OVER AMERICA, AND THE WOMAN WHO STOPPED THEM byTimothy Egan

— A DOG IN GEORGIA by Lauren Grodstein (forthcoming 8/5)

— THE GREAT GATSBY AT 100 by Sheila Liming

— THE WRITING LIFE by Annie Dillard

This episode’s ghost story is “The Ghost in the Cap’n Brown House” by Harriet Beecher Stowe from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES FROM ELIZABETH GASKELL TO AMBROSE BIERCE.

We also talk about meeting up for coffee with Deanna (a listener from Virginia), our upcoming jaunts, and mention the books we’ve chosen to kick off the #BigBookSummer Reading Challenge.

Many thanks to Shirley Russak Wachtel, author of THE BAKER OF LOST MEMORIES, for sponsoring this episode!

We hope that if you go on a road trip this summer, you’re able to drive at your preferred pace, on your preferred type of road, and listen to the audiobook of your choice.

Happy Reading!

Welcome to Episode 234, featuring an Author Spotlight with memoirist Elissa Altman. We talk about her writing process, including the use of two particular desks that she sits at depending on the focus of her work. We also get into the specifics of journals vs. diaries and, of course, we asked her about writing implements! Her new book, PERMISSION: THE NEW MEMOIRIST AND THE COURAGE TO CREATE, is out now.

In our Just Read segment we talk about books in several different genres. Emily finished a novel, Chris read a poetry collection and a work of literary criticism, and we did a joint read of a short story in our Penguin Classics collection of ghost stories:

LEAVING by Roxana Robinson

WHEN I WAS STRAIGHT by Julie Marie Wade

JANE AUSTEN’S BOOKSHELF by Rebecca Romney

“GREEN TEA” by Sheridan Le Fanu

We recap an exciting joint jaunt to NYC to meet up with Aunt Ellen, where we saw the Belle de Costa Green exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum and attended Selected Shorts: Classics with a Twist with Meg Wolitzer and Friends at Symphony Space.

As always, there are more books and Biblio Adventures discussed than we mention in this blurb. Special thanks to Janet Clare author of TRUE HOME, for sponsoring this episode.

Happy Listening and Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode234

On Episode 233, we are thrilled to welcome back, MATTHEW GOODMAN! We are so grateful that Zoom and, before them, Skype (remember them?) opened up the world to conversations with authors. That said, there’s still nothing like sitting in the same room with other humans talking about books, ideas, and historic happenings. Matthew joined us at Book Cougars HQ here in Connecticut to discuss his new book, PARIS UNDERCOVER: A WARTIME STORY OF COURAGE, FRIENDSHIP, AND BETRAYAL, now available from Ballantine Books. The book is a narrative history about Etta Shiber and Kate Bonnefous, two middle-aged women who smuggled out British servicemen from behind enemy lines, their arrest, Etta’s best-selling memoir about their efforts, and the price Kate paid for that book. Don’t miss our conversation with Matthew at the end of this episode. Paris Undercover is about history, but it speaks to our current time.

Some highlights in this episode:

We both have started reading around in THE PORTABLE FEMINIST READER, edited by Roxane Gay, starting with “If Men Could Menstruate” by Gloria Steinem. Chris also read “Being Female” by Eileen Myles. Emily finished the novel FOOD PERSON by Adam Roberts, and Chris read the graphic memoir EPHEMERA by Briana Loewinsohn.

It was also time for another ghost story from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. We both thought “The Signal Man” by Charles Dickens was “meh,” although it had some good lines and moments.

In Biblio Adventures, we recap seeing Maura Casey at Bank Square Books in Mystic, our Independent Bookstore Day jaunts to Breakwater Books in Guilford and R.J. Julia Booksellers in Madison, CT, and Emily’s volunteer experience at Cherry Jubilee in NYC.

We had such a fun time recording this episode and hope you enjoy it.

Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode233

We were thrilled to talk with author Eowyn Ivey about her new book, BLACK WOODS BLUE SKY. During our conversation, Eowyn shared her writing habits, including a description of her writing cottage, and tells us about her reading life. Topics ranged from motherhood on the page and in real life, her family’s literary life in Alaska, and Proust vs Joyce.

In our own reading lives, we both read and discuss “The North Mail” by Amelia B. Edwards from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: from Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce. We gave this one four paws up. Or should it be eight paws? Whatever the rating system should be for cougars, we both enjoyed Edwards’s story. It has a good creep factor and atmosphere, both indoors and outside.

Other books we’ve enjoyed include novels HAPPY LAND by Dolan Perkins-Valdez and THE GRIFFIN SISTERS GREATEST HITS by Jennifer Weiner; a quartet of novellas, OLD NEW YORK by Edith Wharton; and two works of nonfiction: STORYWORTHY: Engage, Teach, Persuade, and Change Your Life Through the Power of Storytelling by Matthew Dicks and DEEP WORK: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.

Big thanks to this episode’s sponsor, James Crews and Brad Peacock. The new poetry collection they co-edited is available on May 6: LOVE IS FOR ALL OF US: Poems of Tenderness and Belonging from the LGBTQ+ Community and Friends (with illustrations by Lisa Congdon).

We also recap a great Biblio Adventure to the Mark Twain House to hear Ethan Rutherford (author of NORTH SUN, OR THE VOYAGE OF THE WHALESHIP ESTHER) in conversation with Amity Gaige about her new novel, HEARTWOOD. Chris also got to attend THE MOUNT’S virtual book club discussion of Edith Wharton’s A SON AT THE FRONT and Willa Cather’s ONE OF OURS, led by Anne Schuyler and Julie Olin-Ammentorp.

As always, there are more books inside this episode than we can fit here! Enjoy, and be sure not to miss our conversation with Eowyn Ivey at the end.

Oh, and reminder: our second quarter readalong pick is THE GOOD HOUSE by Tananarive Due (Zoom discussion on 6/8 and also on Goodreads).

Thanks for listening, and happy reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode232

The Good House Goodreads readalong https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode231

Penguin Book of Ghost Stories Goodreads thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/23017532-ghost-stories

We were thrilled and a little nervous to sit down with Ruth Franklin to talk about her work and share our origin story. The Book Cougars may not have been born without Ruth Franklin. Or, come to think of it, Shirley Jackson. We were excited to talk with Ruth about her brilliant new work, THE MANY LIVES OF ANNE FRANK, and her previous biography, SHIRLEY JACKSON: A RATHER HAUNTED LIFE. You won’t want to miss our conversation with Ruth. She is a fantastic writer and a great conversationalist. The interview begins at 01:13:25.

In our Just Read segment, we discuss “The Cold Embrace” by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, the current story from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES. Note: we spoil some plot points so read this ten-page short story prior to listening (unless you don’t care, then feel free to listen with abandon). Head to the shownotes, where you’ll find a link to the story available to read online.

Rejoice, for Chris has finally finished SWANN’S WAY by Marcel Proust! However, this won’t be the last you hear about Proust. She has committed to reading the next book in his longer work, IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME, with Robin Gustafson’s group in Feb/Mar 2026. After Proust, Chris found a delicious palate cleanser in THE STOLEN QUEEN by Fiona Davis.

Emily finished CARE AND FEEDING: A Memoir by Laurie Woolever and THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan, which marks off another square on her Ghost Stories Bingo Card. She also attended the virtual ALL CT READS 2025 Adult Author Talk with Monica Wood who penned HOW TO READ A BOOK, which was one of her Top 10 Reads of last year.

Thanks to our two sponsors this episode, authors Lise Mayne (TIME ENOUGH) and Aline Weiller (FUN: Essays on a Life Embraced).

As always, we talk about more books and Biblio Adventures than we list here. We hope you enjoy listening and that your next book is a great read.

Happy Reading!

https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode231