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- [00:02]
Annie Jones
Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. It's okay to let yourself change, to let an environment change you, a city change you, a season change you. You are who you are. And also it's okay to love one thing and then another. Shauna Nequist I guess I haven't learned that yet. I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week it's time for an episode of Literary Therapy. If you like my monthly book reviews here on the podcast, you might be interested in joining my private Instagram account, Annie's Five Star Books. For $50 for the year, you can become a part of my bookish community online. Through the private Instagram account, you'll get access to my book reviews, both backlist and front list titles. I host monthly Instagram story Q&As, share about the books I start but never finish. And if you follow me personally online, you've seen my reviews for years. And of course, from the Front Porch listeners will always have access to my free monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place separate from the Bookshelf where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five Star Book club members can also choose if they want to order my Five Star reads each month from the Bookshelf. For more information or to sign up for the 2025 group, it's never too late. You can visit anniebjoneswrites.com fivestar book. There's also a link in the Show Notes. Now back to the show. If you are new to from the Front Porch, every once in a while I dive into the metaphorical mailbag and peruse your readerly hangups and bookish conundrums like a literary Frasier Crane tackling your issues on air. If you have your own readerly riddle you'd like me to solve in a future episode, you can leave me a voicemail at the from the Front Porch website. That's from the frontporchpodcast.com conference. As always, there's a link in the show notes too. Just scroll until you see the orange button on that page that says Start Recording. You can click or tap there and voila, start recording your message. I would love to hear from you. First up, we have this message from Melinda.
- [02:43]
Various Listeners
Hi Annie, this is Melinda. I live in Southampton, New Jersey and I am in a serious postpartum book slump. I'm wondering if you have recommendations for either essay collections or short story collections that are easy to digest. Typically, I like any books like literary fiction, but I just can't, like, I don't have the attention span for a lot of those longer, you know, more involved books. Right now I just read I Miss you When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott, and that was the perfect sweet spot for right now. Short essays, approachable, relatable. So I'm just curious if you have anything to recommend.
- [03:25]
Annie Jones
Thank you, Melinda. I love this question and I do have some suggestions for you. I also think it's kind of funny because I unintentionally am bookending this episode. We're going to start with Melinda's question about kind of a postpartum reading life and reading in pieces and parts. And then we're going to end the episode with a message, a voicemail from my friend Christina, who is actually pregnant as well, and she wants to talk about what her reading life could look like in new motherhood. So we're kind of bookending this episode with these two types of questions. But first up, Melinda, the good news for you is that there are so many good essay collections and short story collections out there. And I'm always quick to recommend essays and short stories to not only new moms, but busy women, busy men, people who have a lot going on. I think short stories get a bad rap. We've talked about that before on from the Front Porch a little bit. I think in a recent episode with Olivia and Aaron, we talked about poetry and short stories and how a lot of people maybe are intimidated by them because of negative, perhaps experiences in English classes growing up in high school or in college. But I actually think short stories and essays are such a great solution to the attention span problem. No matter what is causing the attention span problem, whether you're postpartum, whether you are living through a pandemic or a national crisis, or you've got your own personal crises on. I think short stories and essays are a great way to keep your reading life going in the middle of difficult seasons. So I have a couple of old standbys that I've probably recommended on this show many times before, but I also have a couple of new recommendations. One of the newest is Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld. This is Curtis Sittenfeld's latest short story collection. I adore her. I think maybe I'm a completionist of her work. I need to look that up. Exactly. But this is her new short story collection and I. You what? Not a dud among them. Every short story is great. Every short story held my attention. They ended with just enough ambiguity. If you're a reader who prefers, you know, a bow at the end, some of the stories provide that bow. There is a short story that is a sequel, perhaps to Sittenfeld's novel Prep, but I do not think you have to have read Prep to enjoy that short story. I think your appreciation of that story was will be enhanced if you have read Prep, but I don't think you have to. So Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sinfeld is a new favorite collection. And Melinda, you mentioned that you're an Annie reader, so all of these. This is not always the case, as we'll see with some other books. I'm going to recommend this episode, but all of these are Annie approved. So these are all books that I think are like just literary fiction enough if that's your vibe. But I also acknowledge that in your current season, literary fiction may not be hitting right for you, and certainly I have found myself in that position in recent months. So I think Show Don't Tell is really well written. Each story is well composed, but also they are interesting enough where they hook you from the first page and you will be able to pick these up and put them down pretty easily. 5 Tuesdays in winter by Lilly King is another longtime favorite short story collection of mine. And just because the title has winter in it doesn't mean it's just a wintry book. You could even skip that story if you wanted if seasonal reading is more your thing. But I love Lily King and again, I think each of those stories, there's not really a dud among them. Show Don't Tell and Five Tuesdays in Winter were both shelf subscription selections for me as well, because every so often I do read a short story collection that I think is worth including as a shelf subscription, even though some readers are reluctant to try them. Another favorite author is Kathryn Heine. She's written fiction and short stories, so she's written novels and short story collections, but she has a fairly recent collection called Games and Rituals. This was a five star book for me. I absolutely loved it. I thought it was witty and charming and her characters are always really memorable. So I think she would be another short story writer to try if you haven't already. I know that I mention this book every so often on this show probably enough where people are like, okay, Annie, we get it. But if you are in a reading slump of any kind, or if you're struggling to read a full entire book, I cannot recommend heating and Cooling by Bethann Fennelly. Enough. This is a collection of micro essays or so. Some of them are literally a sentence, some of them are a paragraph. But what she is able to do, I think the format is so original, I rarely if ever see anything like this. And I just had to mention it because I do think if you're in the throes of postpartum life or if you're in the middle of a difficult season, this would still be a way to keep your reading up. And even though you might be picking books up and putting them down, this is one you could probably read straight through if you were so inclined, because it's so. It's so little. It's. In fact, I think I want to say I picked this as a shelf subscription. And then I may have gotten some feedback that it was too small. Like it was too small. And maybe people felt like they weren't quite getting their money's worth for shelf subscriptions. I can't remember if I made that up or if I actually received that criticism. But I love Heating and Cooling and I always recommend it to folks who maybe are trying to get back into some form of reading rhythm and reading life. Okay, so I recommended. Well, I guess Heating and Cooling is non fiction, but show don't tell Five Tuesdays in Winter and Games and Rituals are all short stories. And then Heating and Cooling is kind of this micro memoir. Now I'm going to move into essays, which I have been thinking about this a lot lately because of my own book and my own book's release and kind of where I wanted my book to sit on a shelf, who I wanted my book to sit alongside. And so this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. So I think if you have not read, I guess I haven't learned that yet by Shauna Nyquist. I think you would love that. It's in the same realm as Mary Laura Philpot, where it feels extremely relatable, very readable, short chapters. So you can read these in the middle of the rest of your harried days. A deep backlist title that I have mentioned fairly recently because of my own book is Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs. This is by Heather Lind. This is the book that I read. It's really less a collection of essays and more memoir, but it feels like essays. Anyway. This is the book that I read several years ago and I thought, oh, I think I could write a book like that. Heather Lind was an obituary writer. Maybe she still is an obituary Writer out of Alaska, rural Alaska. And I read this book and immediately just fell in love with her storytelling because of her journalism background. I think she just writes really great feature story as well. And the book reads a little bit like that. So again, lends itself to being able to pick it up and put it down. I would always be remiss if I did not mention our Eric Thomas, particularly his collection of essays that released during the pandemic, called Here for It. I found him to be extremely funny, extremely relatable. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay. And then his subsequent books. I think one is called literally the Book of More Delights. And then one is called Inciting Joy. And then last but not least, you could make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. I think any of these should be able to get you through the next few weeks and months as you're trying to find your sea legs, your reading legs, as you're trying to find your reading legs in a postpartum existence. And even if you are listening to this and you aren't postpartum, if you're just trying to live through day to day to day life and you find yourself struggling to pay attention or to sit down and focus, I think any of these books would be a great option for you because again, I think short stories, maybe a lot of us too are hesitant to read short stories because we love binging a book or we love the feeling we get when we read a book in one sitting, or we love the sense of accomplishment we get when we finish a book. Maybe there are some readers for whom those descriptions apply, but short stories and essays really are great because you don't have to read them straight through. And in fact, I think some authors wish you wouldn't read them straight through, but would just enjoy one at a and so if you need permission to read a book, one chapter, one section, one story at a time, let's give you that permission.
- [12:21]
Various Listeners
Hi Annie, it's Jessica from Chicago. I hope you're doing well. I need some literary therapy and I know you can help me out. Slowly but surely, I am turning my husband into a regular reader. He's gone from reading a few books a year to a few books a month. This brings me endless joy. But now he's asking me for suggestions on what to read next and I'm at a bit of a loss. We don't read very similarly, so I need your help. Some of the books and authors he's enjoyed recently are Blake Crouch, John Mars. He likes plot driven books, but not mysteries or thrillers. He leans more towards sci fi, dystopian and similar genres. He's also liked Vox by Christina Adalcher. I hope I'm saying that right. I have him reading Kindred by Octavia Butler right now. The jury's still out on that. So hopefully based on those books and genres, you can give me some recommendations for him.
- [13:27]
Annie Jones
Hi, Jessica, I'm going to give you some recommendations. I do also want to mention that this is not the first time we've had a wife make a plea on behalf of her husband. Last Literary Therapy episode, which I'll put a link in the show notes, but last Literary Therapy, a listener named Lauren had a similar dilemma. Now, it wasn't entirely the same. Her husband read differently from yours, but you might want to go back and listen to that episode, or at least that particular segment of that episode to get some more ideas. But I thought a lot about this question and admittedly sometimes I get questions where I'm like, am I qualified? Or. Or would another Bookshelf staffer be better at this? I. E. Would Olivia be better at this? But part of the role of a bookseller is being able to recommend books across a wide range of genres, even if they aren't our genres. So I tried to tap into my expertise as a bookseller and what I would hand sell someone who came into the store with this same kind of dilemma. I should be able to hand sell a book. If I'm doing my job well, I should be able to hand sell a book to almost anybody. So, Jessica, you know from listening to this podcast, I'm not a huge sci fi reader, but I am the occasional sci fi reader. And then I used that plus Olivia's previous recommendations of her shelf subscription titles, and then also some of our customer favorites because we do have a sci fi section at the store and we do have readers like your husband who shop with us. And so I tried to think about what we've hand sold them. So I'm going to start with the names of some authors. Now, the first one I'm going to name is Tim Johnston. He is beloved by me and Olivia. He does lend himself more toward the suspense thriller, which it sounds like your husband is maybe a little less enthusiastic about. But I think his writing, his style of writing, the propulsiveness of it, even the nature writing, the writing about the natural world I think your husband might like. And all of Tim Johnson's books, like, once you pick them up, you can't put them down. And I think that's really what is key for a reluctant reader or somebody who's just engaging with books maybe for the first time in adulthood. It's almost like when we get a kid in the store and we get them started on a series. And part of the reason we get them started on a series is because what we want is to keep the kids momentum going, keep the reader's momentum going. And so I do think Tim Johnston would be a good author to try, obviously. And of course Andy Weir, who you may have already given a go, but if he likes Blake Crouch, I think Andy Weir is always who we recommend in store. Stuart Turton, who is a favorite of Olivia's, writes a lot of kind of post apocalyptic or otherworldly kind of fiction while also being pretty deeply rooted in reality. There is a local author who has far beyond a local readership base. But we do really well with Jeff Vandermeer's books. You might recognize him from, I believe the first book is called Annihilation and it was made into a movie. He is fantastic. And again, much like we do with our younger readers, your husband might be interested because it's a trilogy and so if he liked one, he would have more to read. And in fact a new fourth book was just released. So that's Jeff Vandermeer. That trilogy is called the Southern Reach trilogy. Olivia also loves Peng Shepherd. You've probably heard her talk about them before on the show. So those are some go to authors I would try. And then as far as some specific book titles, well, one other author and Jessica, you'll have to be the judge of this because I think this could be hit or miss. But one other author I did want to mention is Emily St. John Mandel. It's not just Station 11, it's her more recent books that that do feel like they have dipped their toe more in the sci fi realm. Now she is to me, pretty literary fiction. And I know your husband likes a plot driven book. And I don't always find Emily St. John Mandel's books to be necessarily plot driven. I'm gonna throw her name out there just in case. So she's another author you might wanna try. Okay. And then as far as specific books go, I'm gonna suggest Devolution or Devolution by Max Brooks. Max Brooks is most known for his World War Z kind of zom. This is different from that. This was an Olivia shelf subscription. It deals a little bit with the concept of Bigfoot. There's a mystery at the heart, but it's not, you know, it's not a suspense thriller. I would categorize it as Sci Fi adventure or Sci Fi Thriller, Sci Fi suspense, which is what I would call Blake Crouch's books Light from Uncommon Stars by Reika Aoki this is another Olivia favorite. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin Fairy F E R R Y. You've heard Olivia talk about this one before. The Gone World, the Fold, and then how to Safely Live in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu okay, so I'm going to those are all in the show notes, but I'm going to quickly run through them again. Devolution by Max Brooks, Light from Uncommon Stars, the Ferryman, the Gone World, the Fold, and how to Safely Live in a Science Fiction Universe. So all of those are in the show notes. The good news is you can treat this kind of like a puzzle. You've already had the best success, which is you've gotten your husband reading, which I which is worth celebrating. And that's really fun. And then now you can kind of treat it like a puzzle. You both can to figure out, okay, what do we what do you like? And I think that's really fun to be able to work together to figure out, okay, what books work for me. What don't. You can even maybe start to work on his book words like we've talked about, like Kendra Adachi, the lazy genius, has referenced before. Like what are some of his book words? What are some of his go to descriptions that really work for him. So I think this can be really fun, a fun project for y' all to work on together. Those are some authors and books that I think might be his next read.
- [19:31]
Various Listeners
Hi Annie, My name is Haley and I'm from Missoula, Montana. I now live in Queenstown, New Zealand. I would really appreciate your literary advice on a life transition I'm currently in. My husband and I have been through five years of so far unsuccessful fertility treatment and I'm looking for some book recommendations, fiction or nonfiction with themes around purpose and meaning. My favorite book last year was the Women by Kristin Hannah. I loved the arc of that story, the main character's mental health journey, and the patriotic theme. Thank you for your help. I adore your podcast and I can't wait to read your book this year.
- [20:14]
Annie Jones
Hi Hailey. First of all, what a delight to get a message from an international listener. And second of all, just thinking of you as you and your husband kind of navigate this tricky, somewhat probably disheartening season. And so I tried to pick books. I did mostly fiction. In fact, I'm looking at my list, yes, I chose mostly fiction. I tried to think about your love of the women, but I also tried to think about your current season of life. And so I think a lot of these will work for you, though you will have to decide, of course, which topics you might be currently sensitive about, topics that maybe you don't necessarily want to read about. And I'll try to explain what I mean by that. So first up is the Last Love Note by Emma Gray. This was actually the first book I immediately thought of while listening to your voice smale. And maybe part of it is that Emma Gray is an Australian author, which I know is different from New Zealand. I know that's different. I know that's different. But I immediately thought of her because the Last Love Note to me was such a poignant read that was dealing with a woman who was trying to figure out what was supposed to happen next. I really thought the writing was great. I don't think the COVID is good. I don't think the COVID does the book itself a service. The COVID makes it seem like it's this beachy adventure romcom or something. And I don't find that to be the case for this book at all. I think the book has quite a bit of heft to it. So that is the Last Love Note by Emma Gray. I also thought of Brood by Jackie Poulson. It's been a long time since I've talked about Brood on this podcast, but I adored that book. In fact, if I were to make a which maybe I should make a list of my favorite books of the last decade or last five years, I think this would be on it. It does deal a little bit with the idea of infertility and so again, you may have to pick and choose what what works for you and what doesn't in this current season. But basically the main character and I'm smiling while talking about it because I just loved it so much. The main character decides to raise chickens and you of course can tell why she's trying to do that. You, the reader, get the sense of what void she's trying to fill, but the realizations that she comes to are really beautiful. And gosh, I recommended that book. I think it was a shelf subscription pick. I recommended that book for a long time. I just love it. Department of Speculation by Ginny Offill this book is definitely marriage centric and about a marriage and how marriage can navigate different seasons. It is unusual, it's unusually written, it's unexpected. I certainly would put it in the literary fiction category. It's not necessarily plot driven, but I really liked it, and I certainly think it's dealing with those themes of purpose and meaning and what color comes next. 40 rooms by Olga Greshin. Again, it's been a long time since I've recommended this one, but I adored this book when it came out. It almost reads like connected short stories, but each chapter is a different room in a woman's life, and so one room might be her childhood bedroom, another room might be her dorm room or her art class. And so it's a beautiful homage to me of womanhood and beyond motherhood. So really looking at a woman's life and all that it can hold and all that it encompasses. Okay, then, I would recommend the Wedding People by Alison Espach. Now, this starts dark but turns funny. There is maybe a slight relationship or a slight connection to infertility or pregnancy loss, but that's not what this book is about. This book is about a woman who is in midlife and or approaching midlife and is trying to figure out what on earth she's supposed to be doing, and she is grappling with that. The book is extremely redemptive and hopeful. I thought it was very funny. I just can't recommend this book enough. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck might be an unusual recommendation here, but I loved this book. Many people on our staff read and loved this book, and again, I think it's dealing with caregiving, with marriage. Oh, it's really a love story. It's a marriage story. And the links will go When We Love Somebody. Almost any Elizabeth Strout book I think, could fit in this category, but I always recommend folks Start with Olive Again, which perhaps is an unusual seeming recommendation since it is technically a sequel to Olive Kittredge. I personally would not start with Olive Kittredge. I would start with Olive Again and then Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet. The main character is a male, and this man has just moved into a new house, and his relationship with his neighbors and his neighbor's kids bring out a new sense of purpose and meaning in his life. The only nonfiction book I've included for you, Haley, is a book that I read years ago when I very first moved to Thomasville, called In Praise of Slowness. This is by Carl Honore. I have not reread this, so it's been probably 12 or 13 years since I've picked this one up, but I devoured it when I first moved here, and we may have even done an early, early podcast episode about this book. But I really liked the idea, especially once we moved to a small town. I liked the idea of moving through life slowly and with intention. And I've read a lot of books that have covered this same territory since then. But I think if that is something you are thinking as you try to decide maybe the next steps for your life or for your decision making or for your marriage or for where you live, I think this could be an interesting book to attempt. It's nonfiction, but I found it very readable, really easy to read. I underlined a lot. There's just a lot of practical, I don't know, tips or suggestions for slowing down and living a life of purpose and intention by trying to live a slower life, a slower existence. So those are some recommendations for you. I hope they might work. I'd love to hear if any of.
- [26:26]
Various Listeners
Them do Hi Annie, My name is Talia and I'm from Tallahassee, Florida. My reading dilemma is this. I recently read Hunger Stone by Kat Dunn and it was such an excellent read for me, from the storytelling to the beautifully constructed sentences and descriptions that it's kind of put me in a bit of a physical reading slump. The physical books that I am picking up are not gripping me the way that Hungerstone did. I am currently listening to the favorites by Lane Fargo and I'm finding that I am devouring it. But I'd love to be able to sit with eyes to pages again and not have my mind wander back to Hunger Stone. I'd appreciate any recommendations that could get me back into physical reads. Thanks so much.
- [27:11]
Annie Jones
Talia from Tallahassee. Hello. I love when I know who the voice message is from when I can put a face with a name. So when I do this when I listen to folks voicemails I type up some brief notes and the brief note I wrote down for your message, Talia, was what to do when a book leaves you hungover because that's what you're describing. I call that a book hangover when you read a book and you love it so much that now you don't really know what to start next. And so I, I have a couple of recommendations for you. But really, and I hope it's okay, I'm really going to approach this question more philosophically because I think this happens to a lot of us when we read a really good book. Probably the most recent time this happened to me was I finished Susan Choi's Flashlight, which releases in June. It was a long book like as I recall, I read it on my Kindle and so I can't remember the exact page count, but it was a longer type of book. I had felt really immersed in those characters. And I finished it. And by nature of my job and my work and just my life and enjoyment as a reader, I immediately picked up another book, like, immediately dove into something else. And it did not work for me. It did not work for me. And what I have learned over the years is, well, I've learned a few things. The first is to switch up formats, which you have done. So if you finish reading a physical book that you really loved or you finished reading an ebook that you really love, try the next book in a different, different format. So for you, you've done that in audiobook, you've listened to the favorites, which is totally different in genre. But perhaps more importantly, and I think probably the reason it's working so well for you is because you are listening to it, you are choosing to engage in a different type of format. Because I think really what we're getting at here is you just finished a book you loved and you're not ready to move on. First of all, I think that's okay. I don't think we have to. I don't think we have to rush into the next book. I know we might want to, because a lot of us, me included, feel like our best selves, most like ourselves, when we have a book that we're currently engaged with in reading. But you are. You're engaged with the favorites. You're listening to an audiobook. So I would kind of say don't rush into anything, but when you're ready, switch up formats, which, again, you're working on. Then I think you can go two ways. I think you can switch up genres, which is what I normally do, or you can lean in. So I'm going to go back to my own example. When I finished Flashlight, I immediately tried to pick up another work of literary fiction, which was dumb. That was. Which was dumb of me. I should not have done that. And I immediately was like, oh, I'm not ready for this. And it was not that the book was not good because I since have gone on to finish it, but my headspace was not right. I was not ready to move on from the characters I had encountered in Flashlight. That's really what it was about. I wasn't done with those people yet. And so instead I picked up Yuyun Lee's memoir, which is a lot about grief and the loss of her two sons. That was totally different from Flashlight. Like, completely different. It was short chapters. It was a Little bit stream of consciousness. It's nonfiction memoir. So pretty much as different from Flashlight as I could have gotten. Flashlight was long, it was in depth, it was dysfunctional family fiction, but really far beyond that, incredibly literary. And so Yuyun Lee's memoir was perfect because it was still well written. Because I do think we can do ourselves a disservice when we go from one well written book to a less well written book. I think I'm trying to remember. I used to give an example on this podcast all the time about a particular book. And I want to say it was like a thriller or a romance novel. Oh, I know what it was. Okay.
- [31:09]
Various Listeners
I.
- [31:10]
Annie Jones
Years ago, I read Station 11 for the first time, and immediately after reading Station 11, I started the royal we. And what a mistake that was. And what a disservice I did the Royal We. So we can go too far when we switch up genres and sometimes do a disservice to the book or to the genre itself if we mix it up too much. And so what I appreciated about following up Flashlight with the Yuyun Li memoir is that I knew I was going to get quality writing, so I wasn't going to be disappointed because the writing failed or the writing wasn't great. Because I think that's really what we're trying to prevent is this feeling of disappointment when we pick up a book that's not as good as the one we just finished. Yuyun Lee's memoir is just as good and just as beautifully told a story as Flashlight, but it's just a totally different genre. So same quality, but different genre. So that's one way you can go switch up your genres. The other direction you can go is to totally lean in. And I don't just mean, in fact, I don't mean at all to. To read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. What I mean is lean fully into the book and the genre that you just finished. Do a deep dive. So you just finished Hunger Stone, which, if folks are not familiar with Hunger Stone, it's a sapphic kind of romance. It's a feminist reworking of Carmilla, which is the queer novella that inspired Dracula. So as weird as it sounds, have you read Dracula? Have you read Carmilla? Like, could you do just a deep dive and totally immerse yourself into that world? That would be one way you could go to kind of let Hunger Stone lead you down a path. So I'm trying to think in my own reading life when I've done something like this but it would be like finishing a book like Whale Fall, for example, and then me immediately following it up with A Marriage at Sea, which is a book that comes out this summer and is about. It's a true story about a shipwreck. So it's different from Whale Fall, but kind of deep diving into this idea of, oh, a survival story at sea. And so is there a way in which you can kind of create an immersive experience for yourself? You finished Hunger Stone, so now you're gonna read Dracula. Then you're gonna read Carmilla. That's one option. Or you can just stick to the genre itself, which is maybe like feminist retellings. So recently there's a new book out called Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid. I think that could really work well for you. I think about the book Lucy Undying, which is by Kiersten White, who wrote the book Hyde, maybe even Hyde, would work for you. But really sticking to these feminist y retellings, reimaginings, and see where that takes you. So that's the other thing you could do. So win a book. Book leaves you hungover. So if we're taking Thalia's question and we're trying to make it. Make it accessible, make the response accessible for all of us, I think when a book leaves you hungover, the first thing you try is to switch up formats, which, Talia, you did. You started reading the favorites. You started listening to it on audiobook format, so switch up formats. Then maybe try switching up genres, which, again, you really did like you. The favorites is totally different from Hunger Stone or. And this is the thing that I don't think you've tried yet, and it's why I want to suggest it. Or you can lean in and just, again, create kind of almost a curriculum for yourself or an immersive experience for yourself that says, okay, what did I like about Hunger Stone? Did I like the romance aspect? Did I like that it was a feminist retelling? Did I like the horror story elements? What did I like about it? And then how can you carry those threads into your next book selections? So those are some suggestions for you. Again, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, Lucy Undying by Kiersten White, or Hyde by Lucy White, or, of course, Dracula, Carmilla, et cetera. So, Talia, those are my suggestions for you. I hope something works for you.
- [35:08]
Various Listeners
Hey, y' all, this is Angela from Louisiana. And this year I'm really trying to.
- [35:13]
Annie Jones
Make a concerted effort to read more internationally and read books from authors in other countries specifically. So I Was wondering if you guys knew of a resource where you could look up and see if authors, like popular authors in other countries, have English translations. I don't know if that's something that exists as, like, a database, but I figured if anyone would know, it would be y' all.
- [35:42]
Various Listeners
So thank you so much, and happy reading.
- [35:44]
Annie Jones
Okay. Angela, I appreciate the faith that you have in us. And at first I was like, yes, I can do this for her. I am sure I know where I can point her. And now I really don't know. Now I'm not sure. So here's what I'll tell you. In the Show Notes, I've put some links for finding international or translated titles. The first is the translation database that is provided by Publishers Weekly. I don't think you have to pay for this, but it's hard for me to know because I do pay for Publishers Weekly access. And so I couldn't figure out if only I could see that or if you also could see it. But the translated database, or the database through Publishers Weekly is basically, it tracks all the original publications of fiction and poetry published in the US in English translation. So it has 10 years of data. It can tell you what books are available from which countries and languages published by which, which publishers, and more. So that sounds like it's most likely what you're looking for. I think so. That link is in Show Notes. But I did then start to think, because I've thought about this for my own reading life, I'm not great about reading world literature. I'm not great about reading works in translation. And perhaps there are other listeners who want to improve in that area as well. So the two resources I think are great are the New York Public Library has a World Literature in Translation site, and it's where they give their recommendations for 25 essential titles that have been translated into the English. And so it's a great list. It includes books like Drive your Plow over the Bones of the Dead, Fever Dream, anyway, a lot of books that maybe I'm familiar with, but I haven't read yet. So I think that's a great list, if you're just looking for a list. And then I also think the Booker Prize website is extremely helpful for this. They give recommendations for the best translated fiction, and they. I think they even do it by year. And so I think that could be a really helpful resource as well. So it's not necessarily a database. The Booker website and the New York Public Library site, those aren't necessarily databases, but they are places where, if you're listening to this episode and you're like, yeah, I need to read more translated fiction or even translated nonfiction. These would be places where I think you could start and get some good ideas for what to read next. And then if you're looking for the database itself, maybe Angela, maybe the one I've provided from Publishers Weekly is what you're looking for. So check that out.
- [38:14]
Various Listeners
Hi, Annie, this is Christina from Asheville, North Carolina. First of all, happy book release month. At least at the time of this recording. It is your book release month. So very excited for you. My literary conundrum is related to kind of a new season that I'm entering into of motherhood. We are expecting our first child in early June, and there are so many good books by some of my favorite authors that are being released over the next few months. And I feel like I'm already having some FOMO about how I'm going to make time to read them all, just knowing that my reading life is probably going to be changing over the next few months, both with just kind of my time and energy being a little more limited. And so I'm just curious if you have any tips for how to prioritize reading or reading the books I really want to read. Also, just wondering if you have any thoughts about how you anticipate doing that as you also prepare to enter into a new season of motherhood. Thanks so much.
- [39:15]
Annie Jones
Hi, Christina. We are both preparing for motherhood at the same time. And maybe even by the time this episode comes out, we will already be living it. I do not know. But I wanted to talk about this question because it is one I've thought a little bit about. And I'll tell you again, kind of like I did with Talia, I want to answer first philosophically, which is one of the things I'm telling myself, myself over and over again in this current life season is to hold things loosely. And I'm applying it to everything. I'm applying it to everything at the time of this recording. I'm applying it to my book coming out into the world. I'm applying it to the book tour, which I assume will happen. Maybe by the time this episode releases, it will have happened or maybe it didn't because maybe I gave birth. I don't know. I don't know. I can't predict the future, but I am trying desperately to repeat to myself over and over again, hold things loosely for me. And there may be others who feel differently about this, and that is, well, there will be people who think differently about this, and that is fine. But I am holding my expectations for motherhood loosely. I'm holding my birth plan loosely. I don't even I'm using air quotes Birth plan. Lol. I'm holding my ideas about breastfeeding very loosely. There is nothing I am clinging tightly to right now except except the Lord. But genuinely, in all seriousness, I am trying so desperately to not have too many expectations of how I want things to go or how I think things are going to go. And so that includes my postpartum reading life. I am desperately reading. I'm doing a lot of things desperately. I've used that adverb a lot, and I think that's because it's true. I'm desperately trying to read for shelf subscriptions as far as I can possibly go. I think I've got books picked through September because again, I don't know what my brain is going to feel like. I don't know what I'm going to feel like. I also know reading is something I have clung to my whole life, and I don't think that will change in motherhood. What might change is how I approach it. What might change is the quantity of books I am reading, the format in which I am reading. But if my brain could survive the pandemic as a small business owner, or if my brain and my reading life could survive pregnancy and birthing a book into the world, then I'm going to trust that my brain and my reading life will be able to handle postpartum and a new baby be so that there's also a hope I'm clinging to. But I am trying to be practical. And for me, because I read for work reading things that I know I quote need to read. I'm trying to go ahead and read those now. I'm doing fall catalogs now. Like, I'm trying my best to do that work in advance because I don't know what the next few months hold. Here are some things I'm considering doing for my reading life in preparation for or during those early months of motherhood. First up, I'm going to try to make a list of the things that I want to read. I'm trying to be realistic about that. So like, I don't know that literary fiction will be the way my brain wants to go in June. So instead, what are some fun summer books? What are some fun beach reads? I've not yet read Annabelle Monahan's latest. I'm so excited about it. Didn't get an arc of it and I didn't even complain about that because I thought, you know what? I'm gonna let that be a potentially a postpartum book because I think that could be a really fun memory reading Annabel Monahan's work. She's an author I really love, and I suspect her book will be compulsively readable. So making a list of things like that, that could be feel good fiction, could be a rom com, could be something that I could finish quickly, that would make me feel good, that would make me feel like my air quotes normal self. So have a list of things you read. Keep it on your phone. And the reason I say have a list, I've told Jordan, for example, that I'm holding my feelings about breastfeeding quite loosely. I've seen a lot. I'm 39 years old. I've seen a lot. And so I'm trying to hold my expectations for that aspect of motherhood very loosely. And I want to be very willing to pivot to whatever I need to do if needed. And I have looked Jordan Jones in the eyeballs, and I have said, no matter how I feel, no matter what hormonal state I am in in the weeks postpartum, hear me now. I want you to help me make the decision that is best for me and best for our baby after he is born. Meaning I wanted Jordan to be privy to that aspect of my brain. So the reason I say have a list. I'm sorry I'm comparing books to breastfeeding. I don't even know who I am anymore. But I think you should have a list list so that postpartum Christina still has something like evidence, like, still has proof of who you. Who you were and what you wanted. Even if you might look at that list and think, I don't want to read any of that right now, but at least you have a list to go off of. Instead of arriving postpartum and looking around and being like, I'm not in the mood for anything. I don't want to read anything. At least a list or a stack from the library or. Or a stack of unread books from your shelf. It would have given you a little bit of prep work and a little bit of grounding in a season that might be disruptive along that line. So not only have a list, but I would have a literal book stack. So just like the nursery is, I assume, going to be filled with baby books for your new little one, I would suggest having a stack of books for you. And listen, other moms may be like, don't be ridiculous. You can't pick up a baby while you're doing. I mean, you can't pick up a book while you're holding a baby or while you're feeding a baby or whatever. We'll talk about formats in a second. But I would say have a stack. Remember the advice or the books that I recommended at the top of the episode to Melinda. Maybe have a stack of books like that in the nursery so that they're easily accessible to you. They're pickup and put downable. I think about my favorite books to gift to people postpartum, the moth collections Point of beauty is one anyway, I think having those in the nursery. So it's not just children's books available to you, but it's your own books available to you. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with reading out loud adult books to your baby. By adult books, I mean grown up books. Please don't read adult books to your baby. But like reading like you could read a moth short story or a Curtis Sinfeld short story out loud. And I think that would be lovely and fine. Okay, and then my other two recommendations, and this is based on what I've heard from other moms, is download audiobooks, like have audiobooks ready to go and then purchase or consider an E reader. This is something I never would have considered. And last year I bought one for my job and for my work. It is not my preference, but I can certainly see how in the wee hours of the morning, and this has already been true on the handful of nights I've not been able to sleep, how having a Kindle or having an E reader is, is extremely helpful because you can read it with one hand, you can set how bright the light is. And so I could see how a Kindle or an E reader could be a game changer for postpartum reading. And so if you don't yet have an E reader, and maybe you've been reluctant to adopt an E reader, I was too. And again, still not my favorite way to read. But I'm already thinking, okay, maybe that's how I read the new Catherine Center. Maybe that's how I read the new Annabelle Monahan. Trying to have my Kindle with easy to read, low key. I mean, that doesn't mean those books won't have depth. Of course they will. But I foresee those being easier to read than a new work, a new tome, a new literary fiction tome. I just don't. I don't know that that's what my brain's gonna have space for and just like I said, to have a stack of books in your nursery. I would also have books in all your cozy space spots. Proximity, I think is key. So have a couple books on your nightstand, have a couple books on your end table, have a couple books next to your recliner. I think again, just accessibility, holding things loosely, lowering your expectations, lowering your expectations while also having a hopeful list of things you'd like to read. You know, I'm trying to be realistic about what state my brain will be in, but I also am really looking forward to, oh, what if I get to read, yes, the new Annabelle Monaghan. Or what if I get to read a fun beach read? I have another book that I'm really hoping to read that I bought last year while we were in Europe. It's called at the Pond and it's Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies Pond. It just feels like a summer book to me and I think it's one I could pick up and put down. So that's gonna go in my stack. That's gonna go on my list. And so yeah, I think having a list, having a literal book stack, putting books in cozy places, downloading audiobooks, and considering the purchase of an e reader, those are things that I would suggest, those are the things that I'm going to try. And then holding things loosely and also knowing you're still you and I think you'll still want to read and I think I'll still want to read and it's just a matter of what works. I'm thinking of you, Christina. And those are all the questions we have time for today. Thank you so much to those of you who left thoughtful voicemails. I have a backlog that I will also kind of work my way through in an upcoming episode of Literary Therapy. But if you listened to today's episode and you thought to yourself, wait, I had a question after all. Well, I would love to hear from you. You can go to from the frontporchpodcast.com contact to leave me a voicemail for any upcoming Literary Therapy episode this this week I'm listening to Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry 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 Episode can be purchased online through our store website, bookshelf thomasville.com a full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at. 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