Episode 268 - Goodbye Big Book Summer, Hello Shorty September!

Welcome to Episode 268! We recap our Big Book Summer reads, which were all good. There wasn’t a DNF among them, although Chris hasn’t yet finished ROOTS. Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo All We Hide by Robyn Gigl 11/22/63 by Stephen King Obstinate Daughters: The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women Who Ignited the American Revolution by Denise Kiernan Land by Maggie O’Farrell Point of Origin: Scarpetta #9 by Patricia Cornwell Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg The Witches of Cambridge by Alice Hoffman, release date 9/8/2026 American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee, release date 9/29/2026 Time marches on, so although it is goodbye to Big Book Summer, we now say hello to Shorty September! This year, we’ve challenged ourselves to choose books that are <200 pages. Emily plans to read: Zorrie by Laird Hunt Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto Morning Star: Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot Tokyo Ueno Station by Miri Yu, translated by Morgan Giles Consider the Oyster by M.F.K. Fisher When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka Chris plans to read: My Mortal Enemy by Willa Cather for an upcoming event via the National Willa Cather Center Murder at the Tavern: A Guilford Mystery by Juliana Harris (Don’t) Call Mum by Matt Wesolowski The Night Library of Sternendach: A Vampire Opera in Verse by Jessica Lévai Gibbons or One Bloody Thing After Another by James Morrison Cinder House by Freya Marske If you’re playing along, what short books do you plan to read this month? (Seriously, we want to know.) If you share on social media, use the hashtag #ShortySeptember for others to find your picks and recs, and vice versa. Oh, and we announce our Q4 Readalong pick for our year of reading Page-to-Screen Adaptations. It’s a novel that grew out of a song and was then adapted into a movie. As always, we talk about more books than are listed here. Thanks for listening, and we wish you lots of Happy Reading! https://www.bookcougars.com/blog-1/2026/episode268