Annie Jones (0:01)

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Eric Thomas Congratulations. The best is over. I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm recommending some nonfiction books for Nonfiction November. Before we get started, a thank you to everyone who has left reviews for from the Front Porch. Itunes, reviews and ratings are really and truly how new listeners can best find out about our podcast and as a result, find out about our indie bookstore too. Here's a recent review that thrilled me to no end. Modern Day Kathleen Kelly Vibes I love this podcast. Annie is so relatable and fun and a true storyteller. This is a podcast that makes you feel like you're chatting with a friend over coffee or drinks about books and life and all your favorite things. My favorites include off the Shelf and the monthly reading recaps. Thanks Annie and all your guests for putting on a truly delightful podcast. Thank you so very much. Thanks for capturing so beautifully the spirit of our show. If you haven't left a review, all you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone. Look for from the Front Porch, scroll down until you see, write a review and then tell us what you think. Your reviews help us spread the word about not only our podcast, but about our small brick and mortar business too. Now back to the show. This is an episode series I believe that we started at the beginning of the year. Although, I don't know. Could be last year. Could be last year too. Basically, we have done several of these. Annie recommends episodes you can find them in links in our show notes episode 463, 473, 481, and 498 because sometimes you just want a good book. Listen, we know this because customers come in the store or email Aaron all the time asking for recommendations based on a specific genre or criteria, like the age of their kid or something like that. And a bookseller's favorite task, at least in my experience, is to go around the shop and pull together a stack of books for a customer who's on the hunt. Even if they don't buy every book in the stack we pick. The fun is in the discovery. So in these episodes this year, that's what we've been trying to mimic. Every so often, I'll put together a book stack around a certain theme. This month, in honor of Nonfiction November, I've made a short list of some of my favorite nonfiction titles to help you read outside perhaps your typical genre in case you're like me. And maybe you gravitate primarily toward fiction. Or maybe you just want to tackle some nonfiction books this month to join the literary trend, the Bookstagram trend. Just like I wouldn't overwhelm customers with a towering stack of titles, I'm not going to overwhelm you either. I'm going to give you five books I think you'd love, whether you're new to nonfiction, trying to read outside of your typical box, or maybe you even read nonfiction on the reg. So yes, I did just say reg, as if it was something normal that I totally say in everyday sentences. So I've got five books for Nonfiction November, and I'm going to dive right in. The first is Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold. This book originally released this year in August and has since been longlisted for the National Book Award for Nonfiction. Previously, Eliza Griswold was, I believe, a Pulitzer finalist. She is a journalist and she is religious in background. Her father was a priest in the Episcopal Church in America and this is her latest book that was admittedly intriguing to me. I think I maybe even got an advanced reader copy, but I was hesitant. So I am religious. You probably have gathered that or put that together when listening to this podcast. I assume you have. I also am curious. I hope and ask a lot of questions and maybe occasionally am critical of the faith of my childhood. I also am fond of the church and religion of my childhood and so this is kind of an interesting line to cross. And so I am. I'm admittedly intrigued by books about the exvangelical movement books about progressive Christianity. A few years ago, I read Jesus and John Wayne along with my dad. I think he read it. I can't remember if we read it at the same time or who read it first, but we wound up talking a lot about it. My family gravitates towards subjects like these, and I typically enjoy engaging in pop culture or culture that engages with modern American Christianity. That being said, I also am fatigued by it. It's part of the reason earlier this year, you heard me rave and appreciate a book like Savannah Guthrie's Mostly what God Does. I found that book immensely comforting after a lot of time I generally spend perhaps engaging with the more critical side of faith and belief. So I saw this book, Circle of Hope. I saw that it was about an American church in Pennsylvania, and I was curious, but I didn't pick it up. And then I saw that it was a finalist for the National Book Award, a long list long listed for the National Book Award for nonfiction. And I thought, well, that's interesting because you don't see a ton ton of religious or particularly Christian nonfiction or fiction, obviously, perhaps obviously long listed for the National Book Award. So I thought, well, that's intriguing. And then my friend and podcast listener Jennifer said, oh, I've actually been listening to that book in audiobook format. And I thought, well, that could be interesting. Nonfiction typically works with me, works for me in audiobook format. I think it's because my ears and my brain are accustomed to listening to nonfiction podcasts, and so sometimes nonfiction books are actually easier for me to listen to and easier for me to comprehend than fiction. So I downloaded this audiobook through Libro fm. The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Pickens, who narrates quite a few audiobooks. So she was a fantastic narrator and I really enjoyed my listening experience. I would say this book is going to be especially appealing to folks like me who maybe are curious. Maybe you're a recovering Christian, maybe you're a deconstructing Christian, maybe you're a reconstructing Christian. Maybe you are just curious about modern American Christianity and about the American Christian church. And I don't think you have to be particularly religious to be curious about that. And so if those types of descriptors describe you, then I think this book would be interesting to you. I also think if you listened to the book, to the podcast. I'm sorry, if you listened to the podcast the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, then this is certainly in that same vein. I really liked this book. It also poked at me because it's talking about so many things that I don't just think are prevalent in our churches or in our religious institutions. I also think this book, and perhaps this is why it was long listed for the National Book Award, I also think that book is really uncovering some truths and some hard parts about what life has looked like in America, generally speaking, since 2016. The pandemic of 2020. So many things that I've seen in my political institutions, in my neighborhoods, in my communities, are talked about in Circle of Hope. So Circle of Hope is the name of a church group, an Anabaptist church group in Pennsylvania. And Eliza Griswold is a journalist, like I said, she has a religious background herself, but she is a nonfiction writer. She's a narrative nonfiction storyteller, journalistic style storyteller. And she was curious about this church that she had heard about in Pennsylvania that really had more or less, and I'm using air quotes here, kind of risen above the issues of our time. Like, it was a church that was growing at a lot of American churches, were shrinking. It was embracing and capturing a progressive Christianity that was inspiring and refreshing for a lot of people. And it felt like it had somehow perhaps missed the drama or the frustrations that had plagued other American churches. So this is this. She wanted to research and study this church as kind of a radical outpost of Jesus followers, people who were dedicated to the Sermon on the Mount, working toward justice for all. If you are a reader or follower of Shane Claiborne, this is kind of sort of the movement he was vaguely adjacent to. He was not a member at Circle of Hope, but kind of that Anabaptist movement he was a part of. So this was like an influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism. Circle of Hope had grown for 40 years, planted four congregations, and then all of a sudden, during the pandemic and after it found itself in crisis. And so one of the things that I found most intriguing about this book is that Eliza Griswold went in, I think, thinking this was going to be one. One type of story. And my understanding is I read articles after I finished this book. That's how. That's how intrigued I was by all of it. I think she went in thinking it was going to be one typ. Then the pandemic happens, and all of the fissures that I think we started to see in different parts of our societies and our communities, she began to see and the church began to see in their own congregation. And so the book is. Is super in Depth. Well reported because Eliza Griswold spent years covering this church and following the pastors there. The book is told through the eyes of, I believe, if I can remember correctly, four different pastors and the ways that they navigated and helped their four congregations under this umbrella of Circle of Hope, navigate the pandemic, racial relations, post pandemic, the LGBTQ affirmation issue, et cetera. So this is a super multi layered story about church, political activism, the American religious landscape, and then it's also deeply personal about these four pastors and the humility and wisdom that it takes to run a congregation. It's maybe not. I compared it, I know, to the rise and fall of Mars Hill. But the thing is, this isn't necessarily a church seeped in in some kind of abuse. And I think that's an interesting story to tell. And sadly, it is a common story to tell. That's not entirely the story that's happening here. There could be perhaps some, some issues about abuse of leadership or people who maybe clung to leadership too long. I think that's a common, I think it's a common issue in churches. But to me, this book covers more ground than that. So this is not necessarily a book about spiritual abuse. Instead, I mean, it was kind of an anxiety inducing read about how different, truly personal issues and conversations, how they are impacting our churches and our communities and our relationships with each other. I think, obviously I'm a Christian, I come from a Christian perspective, but I think even for example, as a business owner, I would have found this really interesting, just as a business owner, because I was somebody who was having to make tough decisions that affected other people. And some of those decisions were popular, some of them were unpopular. And how do you make decisions for a diverse group of people? And of course, in my case, my group of people was small, was quite small, much smaller than a church congregation. But these pastors who are around my age, I think they're mostly elder millennials, are trying to make decisions for their congregations. There is also currently, just like there's a substitute teacher shortage and an issue in education, there is also currently a crisis in terms of church leadership and pastors leaving pastoral care. And I think you can, you can read this book and totally see why. Burnout is real, decision fatigue is real. And so this book not only was interesting to me as a Christian, an American Christian who attends an American church, but it was also just intriguing to me as somebody who had to be in a leadership role at a time when it was excruciatingly. Difficult. So I wanted to mention this kind of book because when I am drawn to nonfiction, what I am looking for is narrative or journalistic nonfiction. That is one of the genres that I love. This was incredibly well researched. I had a couple of questions just about just like journalistic questions, choices that Eliza Griswold made. But overall, I was really just stunned by her in depth reporting here and how much work she had done and with Witness and the way she reported with compassion, the way she didn't make herself the story. I really liked this book. I especially so probably about halfway or three quarters of the way through again, I started to get kind of stressed and fatigued because it's almost like I We have some readers or podcast listeners who say, oh, I cannot read anything about the pandemic too soon. And I don't quite find myself in that camp. But I will say there are things where I'm like, oof, that's like touching a bruise. That's something I still haven't kind of resolved in my head. That's kind of something that still is a knot for me, like a knot I haven't quite untangled. And there were things about this book that I was like, oh, that is stressful. Like, reading this book felt stressful at times. But then the way Eliza Griswold closes this book to me sealed the deal. Like, to me was the reason to persevere. And Hunter and I are always talking about, we will give a lot of grace to books, and this book does not need a lot of grace. It's quite well done. But we will give a lot of grace to books as long as they can stick the landing. And Eliza Griswold really sticks the landing in a beautiful way. If you are a curious Christian reader, if you're a deconstructing Christian, if you're a Christian, a recovering Christian, or if you are just curious about American life and culture because church is still a relatively big part of American culture, particularly in the South. And I think what was interesting about this was this is not a book set in the South. This is about a church in a big metropolitan area in the Northeast. And I think if any of that applies to you, then I think this book could be appealing to you. I think it's certainly an interesting follow up to something like Jesus and John Wayne. But perhaps again, the reason that this was appealing to the National Book Award foundation is because a lot of what Eliza Griswold is reporting on isn't really just about church. It's really about our institutions and our communities and our neighborhoods as a whole. And I think there's a lot to unpack here. So this is my favorite kind of nonfiction book. I think this is an excellent example of it newly released this fall. And if it's somehow missed your radar or if you're trying to read books off the National Book Award longlist, I would highly recommend this one. So that is Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold. I wound up listening to this one on Libro fm. It is narrated by Jennifer Pickens. The second kind of nonfiction book that I find myself drawn toward is the oral history. I love an oral history. I think they're incredibly easy to read. So if part of the reason you don't love nonfiction all the time is maybe because it takes longer, at least for me, I really like nonfiction. But it does take longer to read. And so if. If that is something that deters you from reading nonfiction, oral histories are a great thing to try. Because typically, if you're not familiar with that format, these are set up almost like interview style. So it's not traditional prose or text. Instead, it's interviews and it's excerpts from different people in history or different people. I've read some true crime books that are oral history. I've read one of my favorites is the oral history of SNL of Saturday Night Live called Live from New York. And so that book is told in different interviews with different SNL writers, with obviously Lorne Michaels and then the actors and actresses who have been in SNL over the years. Another favorite oral history of mine is the Only Plane in the Sky. This is about 9 11. It's almost a book you could read annually on 9 11. Incredibly well reported. But there's something about the oral history format that it's like reading. It's like reading a documentary. It brings to me these moments in history or these. It brings these things to life. And I think it's because they are essentially first person accounts because they are told in interview style. And so I find them incredibly easy to read, really easy to pick up and put down and then quite visceral in the telling. I think part of the reason the Only Plane in the sky is really affecting is because it is told in this oral history style. So this year I accidentally went on a little bit of a Kennedy kick. I've always been intrigued, particularly by JFK Jr. I believe I've probably talked about that this year because I read. I read the book that released about Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I read that book earlier this year. The Kennedys are just. They're intriguing, right? They're kind of sort of our royal family. Maybe you disagree with me on that. But they're also extremely tragic. I mean, there's a lot of storytelling revolving around their family, much of it tragic. And so I had kind of. I'd read the Carolyn Bassett book and I kind of was like, I don't need to read anything else like that. That did enough for me. But then this oral history came out, this oral biography. It's called simply JFK Jr. It's written by Liz McNeil and Rosemarie Trencio. This is the first oral biography of JFK Jr. And I guess the word that I've been looking for this whole time is intimate. That's how oral histories feel. They feel like you are in the room talking to the people who were there. And the Carolyn Bessette book was good, Fine. I thought this was really well told, affecting the authors or editors. They brought together stories from his closest friends, confidants, lovers, classmates, teachers, colleagues. And you get a really well rounded portrait of who JFK Jr. Was. So there's, you know, the back part of the book talks about a lot about his career with George magazine, which I definitely, I definitely found really interesting. The first half of the book is about his early, early childhood and the death of his father and the impact his dad's death and then Bobby Kennedy's death had on him, his uncle's death. I. Oh, my gosh, I just found this book to be. If I'm going to read nonfiction, I want it to be well researched. I want it to feel like the person I'm reading is smarter than I am, who has done a lot of digging into the subject matter. And this one definitely felt like, wow, somebody took a lot of time to interview all of these people, to put together all of this information. And it told a really compelling, beautiful, tragic story. It also, I mean, it paints JFK Jr. And Carolyn Bessette Kennedy in a positive light, but it also doesn't shy away from, you know, their struggles, their humanity. If you're going to read. This is a weird thing to say, but if you're going to read one JFK junior Book, I think this should be it. And I mentioned it here as an example of the oral history format. But even if you are not like, one of my. Our younger staffers were like, who's JFK Jr? Because I was talking about how handsome he was. I'm not sure they fully agreed with me. And that's fine. But Even if you are not familiar with JFK Jr. I think if maybe Ethel Kennedy's death was sent you down a rabbit hole, maybe that's just me. But if it sent you down a rabbit hole and made you want to do some other research, this would be a good place to start. I really loved this book. I would immediately. I recommended it to my mom, to my aunt. People who I think are equally fascinated by the Kennedys. But I particularly was intrigued by this generation of the Kennedys. JFK Jr died really younger than I am now, I think. And so it's really a sobering story as well. You just. I think some of these news stories that, for example, I. I was probably a young teen when JFK Jr. And Carolyn and her sister died in a plane crash. And I. It was one of those things that was like on the COVID of People magazine. It was all over the news back. Cable news was kind of just starting. And so it was on the news constantly. And I remember it vividly. But I think because some of those, like the death of Princess Diana or some of those big news stories, it's almost good as an adult to now do some reading and research into those big news stories, because what I know is what People magazine told me or what the Today show said, and it's really not very much. And so it was. I think I was deeply saddened by what could have been. And the book does a good job of gently wrestling with that question. Like, what would have happened if. Because he was kind of one of the shining stars. He had flaws, but he was one of the shining stars of the Kennedy family. And I think there's some speculation as to, well, could he have grown up and become a politician and grown into that aspect of his career? So anyway, I think if you, if you are interested in the 90s, if you are curious about the Kennedy family, if you wonder what 90s politics, how 90s era politics have affected today's politics, I think this would be interesting to you. So JFK Jr. By Liz McNeil and Rosemarie Terencio. I do just have to say that my staff knows I like this book. And a gentleman came in the store the other day looking for a nonfiction book. And so my staff, our team, one of them recommended this to him and he like rolled his eyes and was like, absolutely not. So obviously this book won't be for everyone, but the whole point of a book stack, the whole point of a stack of books is that you, the reader, get to choose which ones would be most appealing to you. JFK Jr. May not be fascinating to you at all, but if he is fascinating to you, then we would probably be friends and you'd probably like this book. The next kind of nonfiction book I want to focus on is the, well, we're going to say the well researched, slightly scientific essay collection. So one of my favorite books of the last 10 years was the Anthropocene, reviewed by John Green. I adored that book. I don't think I'm alone in adoring that book. It was a departure for him at that time, and at the same time, not really. Like, if you follow or are familiar with John Green and his work, the Anthropocene review made a whole lot of sense. But basically it's an essay collection focusing on different aspects of the world and science, things like Canadian geese and Dr. Pepper. And anyway, then he gives each thing a star rating at the end of the essay. Jordan and I listened to this on audiobook. We absolutely loved it. So that's been one of my favorite books of the past 10 years. But I was trying to think of a more recent title that if I was walking through the store, I would put in my stack. And the book that I came up with is the Age of Magical Overthinking. This is by Amanda Montel. It released back in April. You might be familiar with Amanda Montel because of her book and podcast. The book was called Cultish, and we did really well with that book. I think it was appealing to a pretty big part of our customer base. Our online customer base especially is predominantly female and kind of, if I had to guess, 30 to 50 age range. And anyway, she just, Amanda Montel did so well with Cultish, and so did we. So this is her latest book, and she now, I guess Cultish was a lot about sociology, and now she is kind of writing about the human mind and psychology. So the book gets its title from Magical Thinking, which is this belief that your internal thoughts maybe affect the unrelated events in the external world. So maybe that you can manifest your way out of poverty, or you can stave off poor health with your positive vibes, or you can thwart the apocalypse by learning how to can your own peaches, et cetera, et cetera. So Amanda went from writing kind of about sociological explorations to writing about what I would call these kind of psychological phenomenons that we use to cope with the world. Things like the Halo effect, the Sunk Cost Fallacy, which Jordan and I weirdly talk about a lot. So if the Anthropocene reviewed was interesting to you, I think this is equally interesting and quite good in audiobook format. This is another audiobook I wound up listening to this year. It is narrated by Amanda Montel, and she does a great job narrating her work. It feels really personal. It felt like listening to a podcast, which I hope you know what I mean by that. But it felt like, yeah, like each essay was a different episode of the podcast. And she ties in pop culture examples as well as her own personal history and some personal anecdotes. So there's a little bit of a memoir kind of element. There's some deeply funny parts. It's also just really interesting. She talks about the halo effect and how, particularly how it relates to a celebrity, like, for example, Taylor Swift. She talks about not only the sunk cost fallacy is this idea that, like, for example, for us readers, it would be, oh, I've got to keep reading this book because I've already put in all this time. I've already read 100 pages. It would be wasteful to not finish, and in reality, you should just quit. And she takes that idea and points it toward relationships and how often we stay in relationships and in friendships even after they've kind of run exhausted their expiration date. So I thought this book was super interesting. It'd be fantastic for book clubs. Nonfiction can be a hard sell for book clubs, but this one is short enough and the chapters are short and interesting enough, where I think it would be a pretty easy book for your book club to read. And then I think you'd have quite a bit to discuss. I like to recommend books like this, my friend. I guess because of our age range. My friend group, my book club often is talking about books for moms or books for post women who are postpartum, who maybe don't have the attention spans that they used to have, or even working women who maybe don't have the attention spans because our work is really busy or we're in a season of busyness. So I think this book would be really appealing to somebody who maybe doesn't have the attention span, who maybe just needs to read one chapter at a time. Essay collections are great for that. I would definitely qualify this as an essay collection. Although we're going to talk later about another kind of essay collection that I really like when it comes to nonfiction. I also think while this certainly would appeal to the women in my book club, I think men would like this, too. Jordan I was listening to this audiobook in the shower, and Jordan was overhearing it, and he was like, that's really interesting. And so if you and your husband are like me and my husband and listened to the Anthropocene reviewed together and you really liked it, this could be a great follow up. So it is the Age of Magical Overthinking by Amanda Montel. It released earlier this spring, moving toward perhaps more traditional fiction, what I would call historical nonfiction. Your Erik Larsons, your Isabel Wilkersons, et cetera. We're gonna about the Barn by Wright Thompson. This released in October. You have heard me talk about this book on a couple of different podcast episodes now, but I did want to spend more time with it because it will be one of my favorite books of the year, which is I had note this was not on my radar. I did not predict this would be one of my favorite books of the year, but it certainly will be because it is so memorable. So Wright Thompson wrote the book Pappyland, which is about the kind of famous liquor, Pappy Van Winkle. Is that right? Happy Van Rinkel, y'all. I don't know. Teetotaler here, party one. I don't know. But Wright Thompson is also a sports writer. He writes for espn. And so you may have somebody in your life who's very familiar with Wright Thompson and his work. Pappyland did really well for us. So admittedly the reason I ordered this for the store was because Pappyland had sold so many copies for us. And so I thought, okay, great, we'll go ahead and stock this one. This is a very different kind of book, but boy is it interesting. And it definitely makes me want to read Wright Thompson's other works because turns out he is a fantastic storyteller researcher. Wright Thompson is from Mississippi. He's from the Mississippi Delta. And during the pandemic he realized that his family farm in Mississippi, which his family has owned for, you know, generations, is just 20 some miles from the site of Emmett Till's murder. And yet he barely knew who Emmett Till was until he went to college. And to this day, in parts of Mississippi, and then I would argue parts of the south, since I was reading this book in public one day and somebody asked me about it and they didn't know who Emmett Till was. I think not just in Mississippi, but in other parts of the south, there are truths about the crime that aren't really known, including exactly where it took place and how many people and who were involved. And that is because, of course, the COVID up began at once and it is still ongoing. So Wright Thompson Talks about the 1955 murder of 14 year old Emmett Till. He also writes in great detail, though never boring detail, a really in depth history of the Mississippi Delta and how land and southerners beliefs about land really begat the violence that took place there. And he approaches this. I talked about journalistic nonfiction when we were talking about Circle of Hope. This definitely feels okay. This feels like a journalistic perspective. It feels incredibly well researched. The endnote the at the, at the back of the book are vast. You can also tell he worked alongside a lot of kind of expert historians in this field, but he also writes about this in a personal way. He is from Mississippi. He both loves and loathes where he is from. He makes what I would call some personal confessions toward the end of the book where he acknowledges his own ignorance about some of the subject matter. There is a way in which this book is a true crime book. A book about a really dark time in our country's history and a terrible tragic crime and murder that took place and then the covering up of it. It's also a book about the Civil Rights movement and how Emmett Till's mother's decision to keep the casket open made this a made her son's murder a pivotal moment for the modern civil rights movement. Wright Thompson approaches this, this piece of history in such an interesting way because of his own personal connection to it, because of his having grown up in that part of the world. And so, I mean, I marked so many parts of this book, but part of what I remember, part of what I marked was he's talking a lot about Mississippi history. And at first you're a little bit like, okay, buddy, like, wow, this is a lot about the Mississippi Delta, more than I ever wanted to know about the Mississippi Delta. And then you start to see and of course, if you grew up in the south and maybe in other parts of the country too, but if you grew up in the south, you know, everybody's related, everybody's related to everybody, everybody knows everybody. And somebody definitely knows what happened to and who murdered Emmett Till. It is not actually some unsolvable crime. There are people who have been covering up details since the day it happened. And these families are all enmeshed with one another and trying to protect one another. And then he again, there's so much in here about land and property and money and power and gosh, it is just, it is just extremely well done. I loved this book. I think in previous podcast episodes I said it was a book that I thought because of its heavy nature and because of its detailed nature, I honestly thought it would take me a long time to finish it. And instead I took this book everywhere. I mean, I took it everywhere with me, which is typically something I reserve for like a page turning fiction book. And instead I was just absolutely transfixed. The book is, and again, this is something that normally would deter me as a reader, but this book is told in, I believe, three sections plus an ending section. So maybe four total sections rather than several chapters. And so there was a moment when I was reading when I thought, oh, I'm not going to be able to find stopping points. This is going to be hard to read. And in instead, weirdly, the format of this totally makes sense. I believe one of the sections is about 1955. In particular, one of the sections is about the barn itself, and one of the sections is about the land. And then he closes with some really interesting modern consequences, repercussions, things that have taken place within the last five to ten years in Mississippi that have maybe helped the story of Emmett Till come even more into the I thought this book was fantastic. I think it should be required reading in Southern schools, Southern high schools, I really do. I also think I talk a lot about the South. I'm a Southern reader, I'm from the south, which has not always been an easy thing for me to say, simply because I never felt like a Southerner. I mean, when you're from Tallahassee, Florida, and then you go to school in Alabama, you're a little bit like, oh, I guess I'm not Southern after all. And even when you move to Thomasville, you kind of think, well, I'm not really sure I identify as a Southerner, but I am just by nature of where I live and where I'm from, I am a Southerner. And I think when you're a Southerner, and I would argue when you're an American, you have a responsibility to read about some of these horrible, awful things that happened in our history and to talk about them and to raise awareness of them. And I think Wright Thompson is doing it in a way where he still very much acknowledges, hey, this is where I'm from. I love Mississippi. There's also parts about it I really hate and I really liked that about this book. Just incredibly detailed, well told account of Emmett Till's murder and what led to it and then what happened after. Like I said, this is probably when people think of nonfiction, this is probably what they think of and it's incredibly readable. If you like Caste by Isabel Wilkerson or South to America by Imani Perry. I the Barn should be on your list for nonfiction November. To be fair, the gentleman who came in and did not really appreciate JFK Jr. I think might instead appreciate the barn. Okay. And then my fifth and final book that I would put on top of this stack is a humorous memoir essay collection. In this case, I would say congratulations, The Best Is over by R. Eric Thomas. This book released in paperback in August. It came out in 2023, but it's now out in paperback. And whenever I'm doing a stack of books, I do like to. You just never know. You never want to make assumptions about what folks can afford. And hardback books are expensive. And so I always like to try to include a paperback if I'm doing a stack of books for a customer because I don't want them to feel like you have to buy a hardback. And so the fact that this book released in paperback, I thought made it perfect. And also one of my favorite genres of nonfiction is the humorous essay collection we're talking I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloan Crosley. Or Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me By Mindy Kaling. Samantha Irby, if you like those types of writers. Well, can I please introduce you to our Eric Thomas. Our love for Eric is well known here. He came to one of our reader retreats in 2023. He's extremely funny. I subscribe to quite a few substacks, but as I have talked about on Patreon, I get real serious substack fatigue. But somebody's substack who I always make time for is Eric Thomas's. I think he it's basically like reading a rat tat tat episode of Gilmore Girls. His writing about pop culture is so fast paced and funny and then you meet him in real life and it's the same. It is consistent. So you might be familiar with Eric because of his first book, which was called Here for It. It released during the pandemic, which I think that was tough for a lot of writers. But Jenna Bush Hager did pick it for one of her as one of her book club selections. And so it was a read with Jenna Pick. And I don't know if I read it because it was a read with Jenna Pick. I don't remember if the popcast read it first, but somehow it crossed my desk in 2020, his first book Here for it. And I loved it. I mean, I laughed, I cried. I thought it was outstanding. My favorite kind of humorous essay also sometimes makes me cry. And so when he released his second book, I was able to get like a bound manuscript, which never happens. I always feel, oh my gosh, I feel like Miranda Priestley when I get a bound manuscript. It fills me with so much joy and power. And so I got a bound manuscript of Congratulations, the Best is over. And read it out loud to Jordan. We, like, were going to the movies or something in Tallahassee and I insisted on reading it out loud to Jordan. I just really liked it. So we talked earlier about books that are about the pandemic or that touch on things that happened during the pandemic and whether or not that's triggering for readers. Basically, Eric was living his best life. He was having a great time. And then everything changed. And it partly changed because of a pandemic. It changed because he moved. He moved to his hometown of Baltimore, which is a place he never wanted to come back to. And so what happens when you come back home? There is a very memorable essay about him going to his high school reunion. And I've always thought about going to my high school reunion, but I don't even know if my high school has reunions. And maybe it's just those of us who watched Romy and Michelle's high school reunion. Maybe we just have pictures of what that would look like. But Eric goes to his and then he shows up to pick up his name badge and there's a different face on the name badge. And it's just an extremely memorable essay about going home again. And then he talks about moving into more or less a suburban area. And does that really suit him? Now he has a backyard. What's he supposed to do with it? And so what happens with the life you thought you left behind? And now you're back home, but you're trying to be a grown up too. I loved this book. It's not surprising that I loved this book because these are the kinds of things. I don't think I'm quite as witty nor as pop culture heavy as Eric, but these are the kinds of things that I am also interested in writing about. The concept of home, the concept of life not going according to plan. Yeah. What are we supposed to do when our life doesn't look like we thought it would? And Eric writes about that so beautifully and so well. I couldn't tell you which of Eric's books is my favorite. I really genuinely like both so very much. And he's also written fiction. He wrote a great young adult novel called the Kings of Be More, which I highly recommend. But when it comes to the nonfiction humorous essay collection, I think Eric Eric Thomas is one of the very best writers out there, and the way he tells a full, complete story in a relatively short number of pages, you know, in this essay format, I think he's an incredibly strong essay writer. So I wanted to mention that because I think if you're reluctant to read nonfiction, you might try something funny. I do think sometimes humorous essays could be maybe when you think of nonfiction you think of something like the barn, but instead you need to read something like Congratulations, the Best Is Over. So Congratulations, the Best is over by R. Eric Thomas. And those are the books I would put in your nonfiction November stack. All of these books are listed on the website. You can go to bookshelfthomasville.com and put episode 504 in the search bar. I hope one of these books might work for you as you maybe try to read a little bit more nonfiction this November. This week, what I Am Reading is brought to you by Thomasville, Georgia. There is something truly special about the holiday season in downtown Thomasville. The twinkling lights, beautifully decorated store windows, and holiday events all add to the festive feeling of the season. Let us be your shopping and dining destination this holiday season, so spend Christmas in Thomasville with us. Activities are held every weekend leading up to Christmas, including this year's 38th annual Victorian Christmas on December 12th and 13th. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com or call 229-228-7977. Speaking of activities, every weekend, this weekend is one of my very favorite events. It is the Holiday Open House in downtown Thomasville. So if you frequent Thomasville, maybe if you're a local or local ish listener, perhaps you have wandered on into Thomasville on a Sunday and you have wondered, wow, nothing is open. Well, that changes the Sunday before Thanksgiving. So this Sunday from 1 to 5pm downtown restaurants and businesses will be open for our annual Holiday Open House. To me, this is really what kicks off the season. I love witnessing customers who have just come in from out of town, kids home from college, all kind of mingling downtown and greeting each other. So you've got this great kind of local, fun, festive vibe. And then you also have out of towners coming in to kind of kick off their Christmas shopping. It's so fun because Victorian Christmas is magical and there's something about nighttime and twinkle lights. But if you prefer a little bit of a quieter way to kick off your season, if you're looking to really hunker down and get some shopping done, if you want to just stroll the streets, I think holiday Open house is the best time to do that. So this Sunday, November 24th from 1 to 5pm you can visit not only the Bookshelf, but all of our friends and neighbors in downtown Thomasville for our annual holiday open house. This week I'm listening to the third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop. Thank you again to our sponsor, Thomasville, Georgia. You can learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com from the front Porch is a weekly podcast production of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow the Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram ookshelftville and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, bookshelf thomasville.com a full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at. From the frontporchpodcast.com Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of from the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. Our executive producers of today's episode are Kami Tidwell, Chantal Carle, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drost, Jean Queens, Amanda Wickham, Martha Stacy Lau, Chance Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Farrell, Nicole Marcy, Wendy Jean thank you all for your support of from the Front Porch. If you'd like to support from the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and helps us reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for from the Front Porch, scroll down until you see, write a review and tell us what you think. Or if you're so inclined, support Support Us. Over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to patreon.com from the front porch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.