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

Book Cougars
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Chris and Emily discuss books and literary adventures

  1. 2D AGO

    Q1 Readalong: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    Welcome to Episode 255, where we dig into talking about FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley! We also discuss two adaptations that we’ve watched. We both plan to watch more adaptations and remain fascinated by Shelley and her work, so we are not done with FRANKENSTEIN. Thanks to everyone who attended the Zoom discussion and to those who have chatted with us via email, Goodreads, and social media. Books we finished since the last episode and talk about include: HOBOMOK AND OTHER WRITINGS ON INDIANS by Lydia Marie Child AWAKE IN THE FLOATING CITY by Susanna Kwan ALL THAT REMAINS by Patricia Cornwell THE RESERVATION by Rebecca Kauffman In Biblio Adventures, we got to see THE LIBRARIANS documentary, directed by Kim A. Snyder, at the Schubert Theater in New Haven. It drew a big crowd of librarians and library lovers. The film documents the attack on school libraries launched by a billionaire and politician, with cookie-cutter campaigns that spread across Texas and into other states, such as New Jersey. Librarians are on the front lines fighting against these threats to our First Amendment rights and the foundations of our democracy. New showings are added to their website regularly, and you may be able to organize one yourself. It is streaming on PBS from Feb 9-May 9, 2026 [https://thelibrariansfilm.com/streaming/] As for Couch Biblio Adventures, we both watched FRANKENSTEIN, directed by Guillermo Del Toro. Chris also recommends Frankenstein: The Anatomy Lesson, a short documentary on the making of Del Toro’s adaptation. And she watched FRANKENSTEIN: The Man Who Made a Monster, starring Boris Karloff, who originated the iconic flat-headed creature with neck electrodes. It is interesting to see which aspects of Shelley’s story movie makers choose to focus on, what changes they make, and the new elements/characters they create. We are checking off some boxes on our Page-to-Screen Bingo card. We hope you enjoy this episode, and that you are finding comfort, inspiration, and understanding in books. Happy Reading!

    1h 16m

  2. FEB 24

    Episode 254 - Author Spotlight with Tiya Miles

    Welcome to Episode 254! We are so excited to welcome Tiya Miles to the podcast to discuss her most recent book, NIGHT FLYER: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People. Don’t miss our conversation, which immediately follows our regular segments. [Should we put in a time stamp?] Chris has finished FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley, and Emily is #currentlyreading the novel, so we talk about it, but not too much, since we will discuss it in depth on Episode 255 after our March 1st Zoom conversation with listeners. We still have some spots available–if you’d like to join in, send us an email (hello@bookcougars.com). Other books we are currently reading include IN THE SHADOW OF YOUNG GIRLS IN FLOWER: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 2 by Marcel Proust, THE RESERVATION by Rebecca Kauffman, and RUSS & DAUGHTERS: 100 Years of Appetizing by Niki Russ Federman and Josh Russ Tupper. Our BiblioAdventures have primarily been of the Couch variety: Chris watched a Jane Austen-inspired romance called SENSE, SENSIBILITY, & SNOWMEN, and Emily watched the second event in the Aspen Winter Words series featuring Mitzi Rapkin in conversation with Lily King about her new novel, HEART THE LOVER. We did run into a delightful Little Free Library after a delicious dinner at Fair Haven Oyster Co. along the banks of the Quinnipiac River, and we sing the praises of a #LFL we both often visit in Stony Creek, CT. NEW BOOKSTORE ALERT! If you’re in Chicago, Partners in Crime Bookshop just celebrated their grand opening. Let us know about it if you check it out, or tag us (#bookcougars) if you post photos of your visit. Okay, we’ll stop writing now so you can start listening. We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we enjoyed recording it! Happy Reading! Show notes for the episode can be found here: https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode254

    1h 44m

  3. FEB 10

    Episode 253 - Author Spotlight with Sharon M. Harris

    Welcome to Episode 247! Can you believe it is already time to share our annual Holiday Gift Ideas?? Each year, starting with Episode 2 back in 2016, we share some bookish (or biblioadventuring) gifts. We hope you benefit from these in the form of presents for loved ones and/or for yourself! We also discuss our fourth quarter readalong pick – the last in our year of reading ghost stories – HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE by Grady Hendrix. Thanks to everyone who read along and those who attended the Zoom conversation. Cacawewe! In our Just Read segment, we talk about: THE BONE THIEF by Vanessa Lillie WITCHES OF DUBIOUS ORIGIN by Jenn McKinlay ANNE BRONTË NIGHT WALKER: A Brontë Blood Chronicle by Gea Haff Chris also DNF’d two novels. It happens. In Biblio Adventures, Emily went to Bank Square Books in Mystic to hear Luanne Rice in conversation with Vanessa Lillie about her novel THE BONE THIEF. Chris had a good old browse at Barnes & Noble in Milford, CT, where she stumbled upon one of our gift ideas. Thank you to this episode’s sponsor RESONANT BLUE AND OTHER STORIES by Mary Vensel White. Happy Listening and, until next time, we wish you lots of Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode247

    1h 38m

  4. JAN 27

    Episode 252 - Listener Top Tens of 2025 and New Year Reading Intentions

    Welcome to Episode 252, where we share LISTENER TOP TEN READS of 2025! In past years, there hasn’t been much of a spread between the first and second place books on the list. But this year there is a 15-point spread between the first and second books! As usual, the first-place book was a novel, but the second-place book was nonfiction—a first ever for that. Usually, nonfiction doesn’t show up until well into the list’s mid-teens. Thanks to everyone who shared their top tens– you help grow our TBR lists! Reminder that we have a Top 10 shelf on our Bookshop.org page for purchase and for you to learn more about each of the books. We also talk about our 2026 Reading Intentions. These are often works in progress, which is a good thing, because after recording, we both realized we had forgotten a couple of intentions. It had been a longer-than-usual time span since we last recorded a regular episode, so we had some catching up to do in our “Just Read” segment, which includes: BETH IS DEAD by Katie Bernet PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman A BACKWARD GLANCE by Edith Wharton BODYWORK: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos POSTMORTEM and BODY OF EVIDENCE by Patricia Cornwell THE AUTHOR WEEKEND by Laura Zigman (release date 5/5/2026) A TANGLE OF OBSIDIAN by Lydia M. Hawke THEO OF GOLDEN by Allen Levi We had some wonderful Couch Biblio Adventures, but we also managed to get out into the world. Emily visited Slackline Press in Branford, Connecticut, and Davoll’s General Store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where she saw Catherine Newman in conversation with Emily Franklin. Chris was in Huntsville, Alabama, and visited The Snail on the Wall bookstore, named after Virginia Woolf’s short story, “The Mark on the Wall.” She also checked out the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. Happy listening, take care of yourself, and stay safe out there. Until next time, we wish you lots of Happy Reading!

    1h 37m

  5. JAN 13

    Episode 251 - Top Ten Reads of 2025 with Russell of Ink and Paper Blog

    Welcome to Episode 251 – Another Annual Top Ten Celebration with Russell of Ink and Paper Blog! We each share our list of Top Ten books read in 2025 and a favorite Biblio Adventure. Of course, more than 30 books were mentioned during this conversation. It seems impossible to narrow it down to ten books, and we remind ourselves that these are our top ten that day, but it is a fun exercise. Don’t forget to submit your Top Ten reads via our Google form: http://bit.ly/ListenerTopTen2025 We will discuss listener top tens on the next episode. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode251

    1h 51m

  6. 12/30/2025

    Episode 250 - In podcasting years, we’re older than America250

    Welcome to Episode 250! We joke that we turned “250” before “America250,” the moniker given to the United States’s anniversary celebration. The country is celebrating 250 years in 2026. This is also our last episode of 2025, and we want to thank you for listening and making this another fantastic year filled with good books and good friends! Some highlights: We have our usual segments in this episode, but first, we review how we did with our reading intentions for 2025. Overall, we did well, even if we had to look in our notes to see what they were! Emily had one that really surprised us, and may have slipped into our subconscious to help create our theme for 2026. What we’ve read since last time: THE AWARD by Matthew Pearl “A Small, Good Thing” from the collection WHERE I’M CALLING FROM by Raymond Carver JURASSIC GIRL: THE ADVENTURES OF MARY ANNING, PALEONTOLOGIST AND THE FIRST FEMALE FOSSIL HUNTER by Michele C. Hollow THE LAST WITCH by C.J. Cooke “Street Haunting: A London Adventure” from the collection, COLLECTED ESSAYS by Virginia Woolf A CHRISTMAS CAROL by Charles Dickens (the audio version narrated by Ralph Cosham) SAPPHIRA AND THE SLAVE GIRL by Willa Cather In Biblio Adventures, Chris watched Hank Phillipi Ryan’s excellent interview with Matthew Pearl about his new novel, THE AWARD, on A MIGHTY BLAZE. Emily spent a week in the Big Apple and visited the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, Café Con Libros in Crown Heights, and Bibliotheque NYC in Soho. We talk about our 2026 theme: books/stories with movie/TV adaptations. Our first quarter readalong pick is FRANKENSTEIN by Mary Shelley. The Zoom discussion will be in March; the exact date is TBD. We’ll use #booktofilm2026 as our official hashtag. Reminder: if you played Ghost Story Bingo with us this year, email us an image of your card by midnight on 12/31/2025. Happy Listening and Happy Reading!

    1h 18m

  7. 12/16/2025

    Episode 249 - It’s Our Ninth Anniversary!

    Welcome to Episode 249–we are now NINE! That’s right, December is our anniversary month. Episode 1 launched on December 6, 2016, and we’ve published a new episode every other Tuesday since then. Thank you so much for listening and all your encouragement along the way. We always wonder, especially around our anniversary: how did you discover our podcast?? Let us know in the comments or send us an email if you prefer (bookcougars@gmail.com). Another big deal about this episode is that we finished THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: FROM ELIZABETH GASKELL TO AMBROSE BIERCE! We discuss the last story, “Afterward” by Edith Wharton, and also share our top *cough* three stories from the collection. There’s a big surprise about that. The books we have read since the last time include: THE CHICKEN SISTERS by KJ Dell’Antonia CITIZEN REPORTERS by Stephanie Gorton DREAM STATE by Eric Puchner FIEND by Alma Katsu WHAT CAN I BRING by Casey Elsass MORE THAN ENOUGH by Anna Quindlen (release date 2/24/2026) We had some fun Biblio Adventures, including running into author Hank Philipi Ryan when we went to see Hanna Halperin in conversation with Oyinkan Braithwaite at The Harvard Bookstore. We spent the day in Boston before that evening's event, starting with a delicious lunch at Flour Bakery + Cafe. Highlights include visiting the Houghton Library, Bob Slate Stationer, the Grolier Poetry Book Shop, and the Harvard Art Museum. We discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, DRACULA. Emily enjoyed a conversation between cookbook writers, Casey Elsass and Dorie Greenspan. She also watched the first episode of The Chicken Sisters, a new serial based on the novel. Chris went on a road trip around Rhode Island and Cape Cod, searching out lighthouses and trolls created by Thomas Dambo. Oh, and we announce our reading theme and first readalong book for 2026. Thanks to this episode’s sponsor: LET THE WILLOWS WEEP by Sherry Parnell. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode249

    1h 40m

  8. 12/02/2025

    Episode 248 - Author Spotlight with Natalie Dykstra

    Welcome to Episode 248! This episode is a bit different. We have an Author Spotlight with biographer Natalie Dykstra. If you’ve been listening to the podcast since this summer, you know that we both read her fascinating biography, CHASING BEAUTY: THE LIFE OF ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER. We also visited the exceptional, impressive, excellent – let’s go with indescribable – Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. As a result, we had A LOT to talk about with Natalie, and our conversation went long. We greatly appreciated Natalie taking so much time to speak with us, and when it came to editing, well, we didn’t know how to cut anything, and, to be honest, we didn’t want to cut anything! So, this episode is an extended Author Spotlight with Natalie Dykstra! We hope you enjoy it and that you pick up CHASING BEAUTY. This biography won a New England Society of New York Book Award and the Marfield Prize, the national award for arts writing. We read it in paper, digitally, and can also recommend the audiobook narrated by Maggi-Meg Reed. We’ll be back with a “regular” episode in two weeks, when we’ll discuss Edith Wharton’s “Afterward,” the last story in our year-long reading of THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES. Thank you to this episode’s sponsor: CLOSING COSTS by Janie Steele. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode248

    54 min
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Chris and Emily discuss books and literary adventures

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