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

lcome to Episode 262! We had a fantastic discussion with an enthusiastic group of listeners about our second quarter readalong, Fannie Flagg’s novel FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE. We talk about both the book and the movie. If you’re curious about our Q3 readalong choice, you’ll have to wait a little longer; we will announce it on the next episode). In our “Just Read” segment, we talk about: SWIMMING STUDIES by Leanne Shapton TWILIGHT SLEEP by Edith Wharton FOE by Iain Reid SIZZLE & DRIZZLE: Over 100 Essential Bakes, Recipes and Tips by Nancy Birtwhistle MS. MEBEL GOES BACK TO THE CHOPPING BLOCK by Jesse Q. Sutanto In #BiblioAdventures, Chris had a great time attending the 2026 BIO Conference, and Emily had a #buddyread of Anne Tyler’s THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST with Russell from Ink and Paper Blog. Both of us were excited to attend Amy Bloom’s recent event at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison where she talked about her new mystery novel BLUNT INSTRUMENT. We are both #currentlyreading OBSTINATE DAUGHTERS: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution by Denise Kiernan, which publishes next Tuesday, 6/23! Denise will be our guest in July, so if you have a question you’d like us to ask her, leave a comment or email us (hello@bookcougars.com). Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode262

Welcome to Episode 260! It’s another 10th episode, which means we have a GIVEAWAY for newsletter subscribers. One lucky subscriber of our free monthly newsletter will win hardcover copies of: Agnes Sharp and the Wedding to Die For by Leonie Swann, translated by Amy Bojang Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line by Elle Cosimano Missing Sister by Joshilyn Jackson Subscribe by May 21 to be entered to win–there’s a link in the shownotes, or go directly to our website. The winner will be chosen by a random number generator on May 22, 2026. It will come as no surprise that we talk about A LOT of books in this two-hour episode. First of all, we went to The Northshire Book Festival: A Weekend in Booktopia, where we saw the following authors talk about their new books: All the World Can Hold by Jung Yun Anderson in Bloom by Jennifer Dugan Crucible by John Sayles Dreamt I Found You by Jimin Han Little Movements by Lauren Morrow Mrs. Benedict Arnold by Emma Parry Pollock’s Last Lover by Stephen P. Kiernan Take It From Me by Alia Hannah Habib The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush by Susan Gregg Gilmore Trad Wife by Saratoga Schaefer Whidbey by T Kira Madden Booktopia is our favorite Biblio Adventure, and we hope Northshire does it again next year! And then JOHN VALERI, Our Mystery Man, joins us to talk about Buddy Reads! Emily and John discuss WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP by Hwang Bo-Reum, translated by Shanna Tan. Chris and John talk about Patricia Cornwell’s new memoir, TRUE CRIME, and their reread of her Scarpetta series. If you’d like to get together with us to talk about FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE by Fannie Flagg, we still have a couple of spots available for our June 7th discussion. Email us at hello@bookcougars.com. We hope you enjoy this mammoth episode as much as we enjoyed recording it. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode260

Welcome to Episode 258! In a first for Book Cougars Author Spotlights, we welcome back an author not to discuss their next book, but to learn about why and how their first novel is being published for a second time – with a new publisher and a new ending! We enjoyed Heather Harper Ellett’s debut novel, AIN’T NOBODY NOBODY, and were thrilled to invite her back to talk about the new life being breathed into her fantastic literary mystery, which also now has an audiobook version. Don’t miss our conversation, which follows our regular segments. We finished/DNF’d some good/okay reads since last time: – PET SEMATARY by Stephen King – THE GOLDEN BOY by Patricia Finn – TRUE CRIME: A Memoir by Patricia Cornwell – RAISING HARE by Chloe Dalton – SHOELESS JOE JACKSON COMES TO IOWA: Stories by W.P. Kinsella In Biblio Adventures, we visited some fabulous independent and used bookstores: –CT: River Bend Bookshop’s new location in West Hartford; Grey Matter Books, the Book Trader Cafe, and Atticus Bookstore Cafe in New Haven –MA: Papercuts Bookshop in Jamaica Plain, Boston –NYC: Pickle Books and P&T Knitwear Books on the Lower East Side And check out Emily’s conversation with author Rebecca Kauffman about her novel THE RESERVATION over on Ingredient One. As always, we talk about more books and #biblioadventures than we list here. We hope you enjoy the episode and check out the show notes for links to all/most of the books, movies, and places that we mention. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode258

Welcome to Episode 256 featuring our Author Spotlight with biographer Sara Catterall! Sara’s new book, AMELIA BLOOMER: Journalist, Suffragist, Anti-Fashion Icon, was on Chris’s Top Ten list, and Emily was so into it that she cried at the end. We think biography lovers, history buffs, women’s rights advocates, and activists of all stripes will enjoy this biography. We had a great time talking with Sara, so don’t miss our conversation with her at the end of the episode. In our “Just Read” segment, we talk about a wide variety of books: ANDERSON IN BLOOM by Jennifer Dugan THIS BOOK MADE ME THINK OF YOU by Libby Page EVERY DAY I READ: 53 Ways to Get Closer to Books by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan NEVER CAUGHT: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar MISSING SISTER by Joshilyn Jackson ULTRALEARNING: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career by Scott H. Young In #BiblioAdventures, we recap several “Couch Biblio Adventures,” including watching the movie HARRIET, binging the new season of VIRGIN RIVER, and dipping into the new SCARPETTA series. Chris was in Rhode Island and visited the B&N in Warwick, and finally got inside Ink Fish Books in Warren. She also saw Edith Wharton’s house in Newport, where the writer lived prior to building her dream home in the Berkshires. Emily had zero luck seeing Laura Zigman and Alice Hoffman in conversation about the new collection of essays, THE BEST DOG IN THE WORLD – events have been sold out! Congrats to them for a successful book launch. We’re also #currentlyreading some great books and have our eyes on some beauties we can’t wait to get to. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode256

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

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!

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!

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

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

Welcome to Episode 244! In years past, the cooler temps and changing leaves were indicators that the year was winding down. This year, we also have THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES: From Elizabeth Gaskell to Ambrose Bierce as a gauge. After this episode, we have only three more stories left to read – can you believe it? (We can guess the mixed responses to this question! haha.) We both enjoyed “The Moonlit Road” by Ambrose Bierce, which we discuss in this episode. Other books we’ve read and talk about include A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher, 107 DAYS by Kamala Harris, SUNNY SIDE UP by Katie Sturino, MARGARET FULLER: Collected Writings edited by Brigitte Bailey, Leslie Eckel, and Megan Marshall, and DEATH AT THE WHITE HART by Chris Chibnall. In Biblio Adventures, Emily recaps some of the bookish highlights from her vacation on Cape Cod, including BOOKSTORES (Provincetown Bookshop, Tim’s Used Books, and Titcomb’s Bookshop), LIBRARIES (Provincetown Public Library, the Sturgis Library, Eldridge Public Library and the South Chatham Library), and a bunch of LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES, including a charming mosaic #LFL. Chris spent a day working in the Barnard College Archives and then met a friend for a delicious dinner at Osteria Accademia, a book-lined restaurant on the Upper West Side. Afterwards, she headed to Grand Central to catch a train home to Connecticut and experienced the building’s power outage, which made her worry about Dementors and rats. Last but not least, we are thrilled to welcome back OUR MYSTERY MAN, John Valeri for his 14th guest appearance. John joined us to discuss two ghost stories that are on our Ghost Stories Bingo card: “The Mask of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Canterville Ghost” by Oscar Wilde. He also drops a few reading recommendations because it wouldn’t be a proper visit from Our Mystery Man without them. Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode244

Welcome to Episode 242! It’s great to know we have some risk takers among us! We dared readers of our monthly newsletter to sign up for the fourth quarter readalong prior to knowing what the book was and a handful of adventurous readers took us up on it. Thank you for trusting us, and listen to this episode to hear the announcement about the Q4 readalong book. Some of the recent reads we discuss are: GOODBYE WITHOUT LEAVING by Laurie Colwin THE IMPROBABLE VICTORIA WOODHULL by Eden Collinsworth THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach HOTEL SILENCE by Auđur Ava Ólafsdóttir (translated by Brian Fitzgibbon) THE PECULIAR GIFT OF JULY by Ashley Ream “The Lady’s Maid’s Bell” and “The Eyes” from THE GHOST STORIES OF EDITH WHARTON “Luella Miller” from HORROR CLASSICS edited by Darryl Jones “The Wind in the Rose-Bush” by Mary Wilkins Freeman from THE PENGUIN BOOK OF GHOST STORIES edited by Michael Newton In Biblio Adventures, we recap the fun talk we had with Patrons at our monthly Reading Salon about books we’ve wanted to throw across the room. Some of us resisted the urge, some did not. Emily watched a conversation about REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier between Ali Velshi and Jennifer Egan. We took a ride down to Bridgeport for lunch and a visit to Kindred Thoughts Books. We also do a quick recap of our #BigBookSummer reads. We don’t go into great detail since we’ve talked about the books in recent episodes. If you’re interested, we did a more indepth recap on our YouTube channel. (www.youtube/BookCougars) Big thanks to all of our patrons and financial donors who help keep the podcast going, and to those who spread the word and stay in touch with us. We literally couldn’t do this without you! Happy Listening and Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2025/episode242

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 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