The book discussed at this meeting is “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life” by Mark Manson. In this entertaining and hard hitting self-help guide, the author cuts through the crap to show us how to stop trying to be "positive" all the time so that we can truly become better, happier people. In othe…

Emily is back in Connecticut, which means she and Chris were able to record this episode together at Book Cougars HQ. We are grateful for long-distance recording technology, but talking about books in person is much more fun! Our special guest is Michael Kelleher, Director of the Windham Campbell Prizes. Mike explains that these awards are given to…

We’re calling this episode “The Midwest Episode” because we recorded it while both of us were visiting the Midwest. Emily is spending time with her daughter and granddaughter in Michigan, and Chris was visiting her mom in Chicago. Newer listeners might not realize that although we both now live in Connecticut, we are transplants from the Midwest. E…

Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Today's episode features our discussion of the book, "Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia" by Michael Shermer. In this very interesting discussion, Shermer sets out to discover w…

Welcome to Episode 214! This episode contains a lot of biblio adventuring. Emily is in Traverse City, Michigan, helping her daughter, getting to know her new granddaughter, and discovering the many excellent Little Free Libraries in the area. She also shopped at Horizon Books and has been spending time at the Traverse City Library. Meanwhile, back …

Welcome to Episode 213!BookTuber Shawn Breathes Books joins us to celebrate Jenny Colvin and “I’ll Have What You’re Reading,” the memorial buddy read we jointly hosted with him the last few months. We also discuss Andrea Robbin Skinner’s recent revelation about her mother, Alice Munro, and how it has impacted us as readers. Some other highlights:In…

Welcome to Episode 212!This episode is different from all of our previous shows because Emily was unexpectedly called out of town to attend her granddaughter’s birth! Baby Neena arrived three weeks early. She and her mom, Rachel, are doing great. And yes, Emily has already read a book to her, SPOT GOES TO THE FARM, by Eric Hill.Instead of recording…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings available for viewers and listeners to enjoy. Our bookclub discussion this month was centered on the book, "The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values" by Sam Harris. In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of huma…

We dove into summer with our first big Biblio Adventure of the season! It involved art by kids inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” lobster, a little free library, and Bank Square Books. A great day! In other Biblio Adventures, Emily went to see Ann Leary talk about her new essay collection, I’VE TRIED BEING NICE, …

Welcome to Episode 210, where we have the pleasure of welcoming back Our Mystery Man, John Valeri! For those of you who are new to the Book Cougars, John is a frequent guest. He’s a reader, professional reviewer, and interviewer extraordinaire (check out his BookTube channel, CENTRAL BOOKING). John joins us to not only recommend some hot new myster…

Delving into the latest research of psychologists and neuroscientists, HOW MINDS CHANGE explores the limits of reasoning, the power of groupthink, and the effects of deep canvassing. The book ultimately challenges us to question our own motives and beliefs. In an age of dangerous conspiratorial thinking, can we rise to the occasion with empathy? We…

Welcome to Episode 209! We were thrilled and honored to talk with New York Times bestselling author, mystery legend, and social justice advocate Sara Paretsky. We talk with Sara about her newly published novel, PAY DIRT, the 22nd installment in her V.I. Warshawski series, founding Sisters in Crime, and so much more. Don’t miss our conversation at t…

Welcome to Episode 208, which features a fantastic author spotlight with Sara B. Franklin. Her new biography, THE EDITOR: HOW PUBLISHING LEGEND JUDITH JONES SHAPED CULTURE IN AMERICA, is a must-read. It is not hyperbole to say that everyone reading and eating today has been touched by Judith Jones’s work, and Franklin’s writing is a delight to read…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this episode we discuss the ground breaking book, "The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World " by Max Fisher We all have a vague sense that social media is bad for our mind…

Welcome to Episode 207. We are thrilled to have the opportunity to talk with rare book dealer and author Rebecca Romney. Her first book was PRINTER’S ERROR: Irreverent Stories from Book History, and she made a significant contribution to the world of romance fiction with her collection, THE ROMANCE NOVEL IN ENGLISH: A Rare Book Survey, 1769-1999. Y…

Welcome to Episode 206 where we have a fantastic conversation with Rebecca Rego Barry, author of THE VANISHING OF CAROLYN WELLS: Investigations into a Forgotten Mystery Author. One reviewer referred to Barry’s book as a “process biography.” It is true, Barry takes you along on her investigation into the life of Carolyn Wells who, it turns out, wrot…

Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This episode features our bookclub discussion of "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared Diamond. In this groundbreaking book, the author convincingly argues that geographical and environmental fa…

Welcome to Episode 205! April is National Poetry Month and we are here for it. Emily is currently reading YOU ARE HERE: Poetry in the Natural World, a new anthology edited by Ada Limón, and Chris is reading BOATS FOR WOMEN by Sandra Yannone.Since our last episode, Chris finished listening to WAKE UP WITH PURPOSE! What I’ve Learned in my First Hundr…

We begin Episode 204 with the announcement of our second quarter readalong in our year of reading romance and end with a delightful conversation with author Allison Pataki about her fabulous new novel, FINDING MARGARET FULLER.Since our last episode, Emily has continued with her intention of reading a short story every Monday. She read “Lot” by Brya…

Welcome to Episode 203! Some highlights of this episode: Emily dives into the pages of THE FROZEN RIVER by Ariel Lawhon and the delicious world of baking with THE COOKIE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE cookbook by Nancy Silverton and Carolynn Carreno. Meanwhile, Chris is back in high school with Jenna Miller's new sapphic YA romance, WE GOT THE BEAT. Emily de…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events availble for listeners and viewers to enjoy. On today's epiosde we discuss the book "Devil's Gate: Brigham Young and the Great Mormon Handcart Tragedy" by David Roberts. The book recounts the tragedy of the Willey and Martin handcart companies. In 1856, 2…

Welcome to Episode 202 of the Book Cougars, featuring an Author and Editor Spotlight with Jessica Pryde.Chris and Emily are enjoying and learning from Jess’s ground-breaking anthology, BLACK LOVE MATTERS: REAL TALK ON ROMANCE, BEING SEEN, AND HAPPILY EVER AFTERS. Thanks to listener Katie for putting this book on our radar.We’re both currently immer…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this episode, we discuss the book “Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan (Author), and Cacilda Jetha . “Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about…

Welcome to Episode 201 featuring an Author Spotlight with LUANNE RICE recorded at the beautiful and welcoming Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library in Old Lyme, CT. Luanne’s new novel, LAST NIGHT, is out now. You’ve heard us rave about it in recent episodes and we do our best to keep our conversation with Luanne spoiler free.Some highlights of this episode:…

Thank you for listening over the years and helping us reach our 200th episode! To celebrate this milestone, we invited special guests to call the Book Cougars hotline and recommend two forthcoming books they can’t wait for all of us to read. This idea was inspired by Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness, hosts of the podcast Books on the Nightstand, wh…

Welcome to Episode 199! We have read A LOT since our last regularly recorded episode in December, so be prepared! In our “Just Read” segment, we talk about books by Lois Hamill, Hisashi Kashiwai, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, Josie Silver, James R. Benn, Alice Hoffman, Kate Jacobs, Tiago Forte, Julie Alvarez, Luanne Rice, Elizabeth Acevedo, Ann Hood, a…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast, where all our bookclub meetings and bonus events are made available for listeners to enjoy. On this episode we discuss "The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture" by Dr. Darrel Ray. "The God Virus" uses the analogy of religion as a virus to explain the psychology behind it. Dr. Darrel Ray, uses…

Welcome to our fourth annual Top Ten Reads of the Year episode with BookTuber Russell Gray of Ink and Paper Blog! We each talk about our top ten reads of 2023. Some books were published in 2023, and others are a bit older, but they all stirred our hearts and minds and we want to sing their praises. Russell, Emily, and Chris all have such different …

Welcome to our last episode of the year! We reflect on our 2023 reading intentions, announce our 2024 readalong theme, and have a delightful conversation with Australian author Pip Williams to cap off our year of reading Books About Books.Some of the books we just read & discuss:– THE HELSINKI AFFAIR by Anna Pitoniak– THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND by Do…

Welcome to the Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This book club episode is a discussion of Johnathon Haight's "The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom." "The Happiness Hypothesis" is a book about ten Great Ideas. Each chapter is an attempt to s…

Once again, we are grateful for the miracle of modern technology that allowed us to record this episode from two locations. Chris was recovering from the flu and, to keep Emily healthy, we recorded over Zoom.In our Just Read segment, we talk about nine very different books in a variety of genres: epic poetry, memoir, biography, and novels, includin…

Welcome to our 8th Annual Bookish Holiday Gifts episode!The first time we recommended holiday gift ideas was on Episode 2, way back in December 2016. Listeners enjoyed it so much that we’ve done it every year since. We hope you enjoy our ideas this year. Links to items discussed are in the show notes. We would like to note that none of our suggesti…

The Earth teems with sights and textures, sounds and vibrations, smells and tastes, electric and magnetic fields. But every kind of animal, including humans, is enclosed within its own unique sensory bubble, perceiving but a tiny sliver of our immense world. In An Immense World, Ed Yong coaxes us beyond the confines of our own senses, allowing us t…

Episode 194 is bookended by Poetry and Romance. We begin with the poem “Only Love” by James Crews from the poetry collection, THE PATH TO KINDNESS: Poems of Connection and Joy. We end with an Author Spotlight with Sarah MacLean. Sarah is a powerhouse reader, advocate, and writer of romance fiction. Her new release is KNOCKOUT, book three in her Hel…

Chris and Emily were thrilled to sit down and talk with Davina Morgan-Witts, the Founder and Publisher of BookBrowse. Founded in 1998, BookBrowse is one of the earliest independent online book resources. Davina and her team of editors and reviewers are committed to being “Your guide to exceptional books.” If you are not yet familiar with BookBrowse…

Author Spotlight: Chris and Emily have a great time talking with Fancy Feast about her new (and debut) essay collection, NAKED: ON SEX, WORK, AND OTHER BURLESQUES. We bid adieu to Scarlet Summer with a recap of our Biblio Adventure to Boston where we visited sites related to Nathaniel Hawthorne. The first stop was the land upon which Brook Farm ope…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. On this episode we feature our regular The Good Book Club meeting and discussion of Carl Sagan's wonderful book, "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark." How can we make intelligent decisions about our …

Chris and Emily are happy to welcome back author SHULY CAWOOD to talk about her new poetry collection, SOMETHING SO GOOD IT CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH. Shuly reads a poem and talks about her poetic process, and we ask her to discuss our favorite(s) in the collection. We enjoy Shuly’s poetry in part because it is so accessible.Biblio Adventures are always …

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. Today’s book club meeting featured a variety of books written on the topic of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Prior to our bookclub meeting, a group of bookclub members spent the weekend at the actual site of the Mountain…

It’s another 10th episode which means we’re hosting a giveaway for newsletter subscribers! One lucky winner will receive a copy of DEMOCRACY IN CHAINS: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America by Nancy Maclean and THE DANTE CLUB by Matthew Pearl. To be entered to win, head to www.bookcougars.com/subscriber to join our newsle…

The Book Cougars are thrilled to welcome Laurie Lico Albanese, author of HESTER, our second readalong for Scarlet Summer. Laurie dishes on Hawthorne, shares her inspiration for Isobel, and talks about her writing process. Don’t miss our Author Spotlight with Laurie at the end of the episode.Other highlights include:In our “Just Read” segment we tal…

We had a great time talking with Erin Flanagan and Katrina Kittle. Both authors have new books coming out: COME WITH ME (8/22) and MORNING IN THIS BROKEN WORLD (9/1). Don’t miss our Author Spotlight conversation with them at the end of the episode. What We’ve Just Read:Emily: LET US DESCEND by Jesmyn Ward (out 10/3), a tough but rewarding read, and…

Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we all our Bookclub meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. This episode features our The Good Book Club discussion of “The Unfolding of Language: An Evolutionary Tour of Mankind's Greatest Invention” by Guy Duetscher. This groundbreaking book looks at the origin of language in a new a…

A Book Cougars first: we interview a writing duo! In our Author Spotlight segment, we talk with Alli Frank and Asha Youmans about their new novel THE BETTER HALF, how they started writing together, their path to publication, and their writing process. Spoiler: matching pajamas!Some episode highlights:We both read Ann Petry’s powerful 1946 novel, TH…

Welcome to Episode 186! We chat about what we’re currently reading (How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens and Come with Me by Erin Flanagan) and books we’ve finished ( Morning in This Broken World by Katrina Kittle, Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann, and Devil in the Grove by Gilbert King). We also discuss our third quarter readalong pick…

On this bonus episode of The Good Book Club, we collaborate with Mormon Book Reviews to bring you a discussion with author Chris Thomas about his wonderful book, "Unexpected: The Backstory of Finding Elizabeth Smart and Growing Up in the Culture of an American Religion." Chris was thrust into the spotlight as the family media spokesman for the Smar…

Welcome to The Good Book Club Podcast where we make all our episodes and bonus events availalble for listeners to enjoy. This podcast is our The Good Book Club discussion of The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore, with the discussion led by book club m…

We both recently headed to the Midwest for some family & friend time. Chris went to Chicago and met up with Colleen, our guest on Episodes 27 and 145. We had a browse in Women & Children First, a legendary feminist bookstore and one of Chicago’s oldest indies, after which we had lunch across the street at Lady Gregory’s, an Irish pub named after th…

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 n…

Welcome to The Good Book Club podcast where we make all our book club meetings and bonus events available for listeners to enjoy. In this discussion we dive into Brene Brown’s “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone.” Brene tells us that “True belonging doesn’t require us to change who we are. It require…