Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read
Book Cougars
246 episodes
1 week ago
Welcome to Episode 246!
We recap some fun Biblioadventures in this episode. Emily got to see Mel Rosenthal in conversation with Virginia Evans about her debut novel The Correspondent at an event hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers. Chris had a research visit to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she enjoyed their book arts exhibit and admired the mantel in front of which Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven.” She also had an impromptu browse at New Haven’s used bookstore, Grey Matter Books.
We also had some Couch Biblioadventures. Because we recently read Daphne Du Maurier’s excellent short story, “The Birds,” we thought we’d also watch Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name, which was inspired by the written word. Spoiler alert: the movie is nothing like the short story. PSA: the birds are LOUD. Other literary-related movies we watched include The Turn of the Screw, starring Michelle Dockery and Dan Stephens. Emily made an exciting discovery about A Star is Born—did you know some famous writers penned the screenplays for various incarnations of this classic story?
Some of the books we discuss include:
– All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
– Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon by Sara Catterall
– Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery by Olivia Blacke
– A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst
And we discuss our second-to-last ghost story from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce: “The Readjustment” by Mary Austin.
Chris has finished, and Emily is currently reading our Q4 readalong book, How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation is on Sunday, November 9th, at 7 pm ET. It is free and open to all, but registration is required. We still have a few spots available, so email us if you’re interested (bookcougars@gmail.com).
Special thanks to this episode’s sponsors: Epic and Lovely by Mo Daviau
and Paper Roses by Debby Show.
Happy Listening and Happy Reading!
https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode246
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Welcome to Episode 246!
We recap some fun Biblioadventures in this episode. Emily got to see Mel Rosenthal in conversation with Virginia Evans about her debut novel The Correspondent at an event hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers. Chris had a research visit to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she enjoyed their book arts exhibit and admired the mantel in front of which Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven.” She also had an impromptu browse at New Haven’s used bookstore, Grey Matter Books.
We also had some Couch Biblioadventures. Because we recently read Daphne Du Maurier’s excellent short story, “The Birds,” we thought we’d also watch Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name, which was inspired by the written word. Spoiler alert: the movie is nothing like the short story. PSA: the birds are LOUD. Other literary-related movies we watched include The Turn of the Screw, starring Michelle Dockery and Dan Stephens. Emily made an exciting discovery about A Star is Born—did you know some famous writers penned the screenplays for various incarnations of this classic story?
Some of the books we discuss include:
– All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
– Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon by Sara Catterall
– Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery by Olivia Blacke
– A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst
And we discuss our second-to-last ghost story from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce: “The Readjustment” by Mary Austin.
Chris has finished, and Emily is currently reading our Q4 readalong book, How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation is on Sunday, November 9th, at 7 pm ET. It is free and open to all, but registration is required. We still have a few spots available, so email us if you’re interested (bookcougars@gmail.com).
Special thanks to this episode’s sponsors: Epic and Lovely by Mo Daviau
and Paper Roses by Debby Show.
Happy Listening and Happy Reading!
https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode246
Episode 227 - Spotlight with Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Megan Marshall
Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read
2 hours 10 minutes 19 seconds
9 months ago
Episode 227 - Spotlight with Pulitzer Prize-winning Author Megan Marshall
Welcome to Episode 227, featuring an author spotlight with Megan Marshall discussing her new collection of essays, After Lives: On Biography and the Mysteries of the Human Heart. Megan is a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer who turns her writerly gaze and historical imagination on her own life, her family and friends, and the “after lives” of her biographical subjects. After Lives publishes the day this episode drops–purchase your copy post-haste or request it at your library.
We have been enjoying a “real” New England winter this season, which has kept us hunkered down and reading on our respective couches. The books in our Just Read segment are:
A New Home, Who Will Follow? by Caroline Kirkland
The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny
Fortune Favors the Dead by Stephen Spottswood
How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde
My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme
Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave by Elle Cosimano (release date 3/4/25)
The Vanishing Kind by Alice Henderson (release date 3/4/25)
I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom (release date 6/24/25)
In short stories, we discuss “The Old Nurse’s Story” by Elizabeth Gaskell, the first story in The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce, which we will be reading throughout 2025 for our year of reading Ghost Stories. Chris also read the ghost story The Inn by Guy De Maupassant.
We did get out and about for a Biblio Adventure to the New York Society Library to see a reading of Lord Byron’s Manfred by The New Relic Theatre. While there we also watched a virtual event via the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism featuring Ruth Franklin in conversation about her new book The Many Lives of Anne Frank.
And we had two couch biblio adventures. Emily watched the film The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse based on the book by Charlie Mackesy, and Chris participated in the Women’s Prize Book Club with Sarah Waters in conversation with Simon Savidge about her novel Fingersmith.
Of course, we also talk about what we’re currently reading, hope to read, upcoming jaunts, Simon & Schuster’s news about book blurbs, and more.
There’s a whole lot of yuck in the world now, and we are grateful for good books and bookish friends. Thank you, friends, for listening and connecting with us on social media, email, or Zoom.
We wish you lots of Happy Reading!
https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode227
Book Cougars Podcast: Two Middle-Aged Women on the Hunt for a Good Read
Welcome to Episode 246!
We recap some fun Biblioadventures in this episode. Emily got to see Mel Rosenthal in conversation with Virginia Evans about her debut novel The Correspondent at an event hosted by RJ Julia Booksellers. Chris had a research visit to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, where she enjoyed their book arts exhibit and admired the mantel in front of which Edgar Allan Poe wrote “The Raven.” She also had an impromptu browse at New Haven’s used bookstore, Grey Matter Books.
We also had some Couch Biblioadventures. Because we recently read Daphne Du Maurier’s excellent short story, “The Birds,” we thought we’d also watch Alfred Hitchcock’s movie of the same name, which was inspired by the written word. Spoiler alert: the movie is nothing like the short story. PSA: the birds are LOUD. Other literary-related movies we watched include The Turn of the Screw, starring Michelle Dockery and Dan Stephens. Emily made an exciting discovery about A Star is Born—did you know some famous writers penned the screenplays for various incarnations of this classic story?
Some of the books we discuss include:
– All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley
– Amelia Bloomer: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon by Sara Catterall
– Death at the Door: A Ruby and Cordelia Mystery by Olivia Blacke
– A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck by Sophie Elmhurst
And we discuss our second-to-last ghost story from The Penguin Book of Ghost Stories: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce: “The Readjustment” by Mary Austin.
Chris has finished, and Emily is currently reading our Q4 readalong book, How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. The Zoom conversation is on Sunday, November 9th, at 7 pm ET. It is free and open to all, but registration is required. We still have a few spots available, so email us if you’re interested (bookcougars@gmail.com).
Special thanks to this episode’s sponsors: Epic and Lovely by Mo Daviau
and Paper Roses by Debby Show.
Happy Listening and Happy Reading!
https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode246
