SCARLET SUMMER kicks off Independence Day weekend! Nathaniel Hawthorne’s birthday is July 4th, so we consider it an auspicious start for our summer-long readalong. Our website has a new page, https://www.bookcougars.com/scarletsummer2023, where you can find all the info about SCARLET SUMMER, including a link to download your BINGO! card. As Emily noted in the episode, at least one reader is already making “witchy substitutions” on her card. We listed each of the three readalong books three times to make it easy to win, but feel free to swap out any of the repeat squares for other witch-related or Hawthorne or Albanese or Hoffman books.

We are both making progress on our #BigBookSummer reads (DEVIL IN THE GROVE and ULYSSES) and we’ve read a few fun/interesting/thought-provoking books including:

—EVEN THOUGH I KNEW THE END by C.L. Polk (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9781250849458)

—THE WHISPERS by Ashley Audrain (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9781984881694)

—THOUGHTS FROM THE OAK by Audrey Colasanti (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9781913606602)

—GRACELAND by Nancy Crochiere (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9780063288430)

In Biblio Adventures we recap our day in Newport, Rhode Island visiting the Redwood Library & Athenaeum, the Newport Public Library, and Charter Books where we attended their event with Claire Fuller for her new novel, THE MEMORY OF ANIMALS. (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9781953534873)

Chris watched the documentary Turn Every Page: The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb about their decades-long writer/editor relationship. We recorded this episode in the early afternoon of June 21st and were deeply saddened when news broke later in the day of Gottlieb’s death.

Emily had a lovely trip to Manhattan to visit Aunt Ellen who is back on the East Coast for a visit. They went to P&T Knitwear Books (which has a podcast studio you can reserve for free) and Sweet Pickle Books (where you can trade books for pickles!).

Our Author Spotlight features a conversation with Bethanne Patrick discussing her memoir LIFE B: OVERCOMING DOUBLE DEPRESSION. (https://bookshop.org/a/17535/9781640091290)

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

Emily & Chris