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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. I am an old woman and my life has been some strange balance of miraculous and mundane. Virginia Evans, the Correspondent I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm recapping the books I read in May. Before we get started, a thank you to everyone who's been leaving reviews for from the Front Porch. Itunes, reviews and ratings are still the best way for new listeners to find out about from the Front Porch and as a result, discover our indie bookstore too. Here's a recent review from Esther Love it. This is a great way to find books for my TBR list. That is certainly what we hope. Esther, thank you so much for leaving a review. If you have not yet 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. Okay, full disclosure. Because of maternity leave and trying to get things done, I am recording this episode a week earlier than I normally would be and so my May reading has been somewhat limited. That being said, I have enjoyed the books that I've read in May and I'm tacking on a few books that missed the cutoff for the April reading recap as well. So I've got a few books to talk to you about and I've gotta say this has been a fun season of reading and discovery for me. Perhaps, maybe I don't even know what I want to share because I feel like once you share then people tell you their opinions. But I will say that one of the things I am hopeful about is I know my maternity leave will look different from maybe other people's maternity leaves because I am a small business owner and the Bookshelf staff is amazing and incredible and I have delegated many responsibilities. They have buoyed me up during a book tour, but there are still some things that only I can do, certain bills that only I can pay, certain taxes only I can pay. And so I know my maternity leave is going to look a little different. Flexible, but different. And so one of the things I personally am hopeful about is that I might be able to do some reading and reading for fun. I'm not holding myself at all to any list or quantities, but while I was on Book tour When I was visiting bookstores around the South, I definitely spent some money and bought some books that I really was excited about or had forgotten about or saw on the shelf and thought, oh my gosh, I've been meaning to read that. For example, Joan Didion, the White Album, the History of the Rape Kit, maybe it's called A Short History of the Rape Kit. So anyway, some books, the eights, which I mentioned, I think in a new release episode a couple months ago. Anyway, so there have been these books that have been on my radar, but I haven't made time to read because I've been working on shelf subscriptions or or what have you. So I am weirdly hopeful about my summer reading life. I'll also go ahead and tell you we have new episodes so scheduled for much of the summer, but reading recap episodes, because of the nature of them, I need to be reading and recording in pretty much real time. We are not going to have a June reading recap or a July reading recap. Instead, I will come to you in August and hopefully I'll have quite a list for you of books that I've been reading while on maternity leave and while having some summer reading time at home. Although of course, again, holding it all loosely because I will be a mother of a newborn, which is exciting and bizarre to say. So that is what is going on this summer. Still new episodes. We have a couple of new podcast series that we are bringing you, so there will still be episodes in this feed, but I can't batch record reading recap episodes because of the nature of them. And so this is going to be the last one of these until August. So you'll get another reading recap episode in August. All right, first up, the book that I led the show with, I quoted to you from the Correspondent. This is by Virginia Evans. This book has been on my radar for some time. We did not receive, to my knowledge, a printed or physical arc of this one, but I saw so many people on Instagram and Bookstagram who did get preview copies and did get advanced reader copies. And so I was definitely aware of of this book I had seen, I believe that it was blurbed by Ann Patchett. So many readers I trust, including Meg from Meg's Reading Room and ashley who owns St. Joe's Story Collective in Missouri. They both had reached out and said, oh my gosh, Annie, I think you're going to love this book. And I thought I would love it too, but I really wanted to read a physical copy. I did not want to Read this on Kindle. It is an epistolary novel and for some reason I just really wanted to hold it in my hands. And then I just kept seeing it so many places and I had serious fomo. And so I finally succumbed and downloaded the advanced reader copy in digital format and read it on my Kindle. Then on book tour. I loved it so much that I bought two copies, one for me for my shelves and one for my mom because I loved it that much. Every reader who told me that I would love this book was exactly right. This book is a story told in letters. Letters mostly written by Sybil. Sybil is 73 years old. You know, I sometimes catch myself describing how characters are like, oh, they're older or older protagonists. And obviously that is true of Sybil. But I also am very cognizant of how old my parents are. And Sybil to me is not old, she's just older. But in the book she is aging and struggling with her eyesight. She's been given this diagnosis. She isn't quite sure how much longer she's going to have her vision and. And so she has spent her whole life, her whole life writing and receiving letters. Letters to her friends, letters to her sibling, letters to perhaps the best surprise letters to famous authors. I adored this book. Yes, you will see comparisons undoubtedly to 84 Charing Crossroad. I think that sure, it's an obvious comparison, but it is the correct one because not only is the Correspondent an epistolary novel, but it is deep dealing with and dappling in the literary and the literary world. I cannot believe this is a debut novel. You will fall in love with Sybil just like you did with Helen in Sipsworth or Ove in A Man Called Ove or Brit Marie in Britt Marie Was Here, Harriet in this Is yous Life, Harriet Chance. So many great comp titles that I think the Correspondent can happily sit alongside. I think I could hand sell this book to almost anybody. It is definitely a feel good novel, if you're curious. And I'm sure actually mom is scheduled to record with me in the next week or two. And I know for a fact because I gifted this to her after I got back from book tour and she read it in a day, which I'm sure she will talk more about on her upcoming episode. But she loved it. So this is a book that appeals to a reader like me who maybe likes, you know, things that are a little ambiguous, books that maybe deal with heavier subject matter. And yet I adored this. And then my mom who considers herself to be a more sensitive reader, though I would argue she just likes redemptive stories. She loved this one too. This is Annie Susie Overlap. I also think I could hand sell this one again to almost anybody because of the literary references, because of who Sybil is as a character. I just think this one would appeal to a wide range of readers. I'm even thinking like, I actually think my dad would really like it. Maybe I'll tell Mom to give give it to dad next. But I adored this book. I don't want to tell you too much more. I just want to add my voice to the raves. I like feel good fiction when it's well written. And this is feel good fiction for sure. There's also some heavier subject matter in here, but it is really well written and I am always astonished when a writer. You know, I think about Francis and Bernard, which is one of my favorite books of the last. Oh gosh, I don't know. Now 20 years. I love Frances and Bernard. I can't believe how much we get to know about these characters. Those characters only told through letters. And that is how I feel about Sybil. I feel like I knew Sybil so well and was so deeply attached, even though I only ever knew her through the letters that Virginia Evans was writing on her behalf. And so I just. I'm in awe of an author like Virginia Evans or Helene Hampf who so much is told through this series of correspondences. Anyway, I loved it. It is the Correspondent by Virginia Evans also has a great cover. Looks good on my shelf. I had no qualms with buying the physical copy. In fact, I desperately wanted to buy the physical copy because there was so much in there. I don't want to give spoilers, I will be very careful, but I will just say some of the literary references were really fun for me as a reader, and I suspect that would be the case for many of you as well. Hi friends, it's Annie. If you're looking for the perfect companion to our show, check out the Webby Award winning daily podcast Totally Booked with Zibby. It's hosted by my friend and fellow independent bookstore owner Zibby Owens, who's been dubbed New York City's most powerful book fluencer by Vulture. Every weekday on Totally Booked, Zibby sits down with the best and buzziest authors to share work that is truly worth your time. If you're looking for a place to start, I recently stopped by to discuss my new book, Ordinary Time, and I had an amazing time discussing small Town Life and Lit. So follow Totally Booked with Zibby on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. For Life with Pets, there's Chewy delivering everything fast and at great prices. From food with favorites to fill their bowls and bellies, to fun with all the toys with all the noise to pharmacy with pet meds for pet heads and with 24.7live chat, Chewy even delivers answers to any question at any hour. If a pet is part of your family, Chewy should be too. With everything you need and everything you need to know for Life with Pets.
- [11:45]
Unknown Sponsor
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- [12:45]
Annie Jones
Okay then on the recommendation of staff, I picked up Sunrise on the Reaping. This is by Suzanne Collins. This the newest book in the Hunger Games series. A sentence I did not think I would be saying in 2025. I was trying to remember when did I read the Hunger Games? I definitely read the Hunger Games as part of my Tallahassee book club. So I'm gonna say, when was that? Like 2008? 9? 10? 11? Sometime around there. I loved the original Hunger Games trilogy. I have a very distinct memory of my Tallahassee book club going to the midnight release of the movie Jordan also I believe came. Some spouses came and I had ordered. This is the kind of person I am, certainly the kind of person I was pre bookshelf when the bookshelf began taking over much of my life. But I had bought everybody Mockingjay Pins from Etsy. We all wore them to the theater. Just really happy memories of a series that really captivated a whole lot of us for a period of time. And it was really fun. I think it's really fun to become a part of a fandom. I'm not necessarily somebody who. Who becomes a deep fan of something, but every so often, I become obsessed with something. So for a while, I really loved the Hunger Games. Now, I did not read the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. I did not see that movie because, as I have mentioned on this podcast, I don't read a ton of series. And when I do, kind of once I'm done, I'm done. So, to me, the original trilogy told the story well. And I'll be honest, I had a really hard time with the casting of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta, and I was over it then. And so, anyway, I definitely saw the first three movies and liked them, I guess, were there four because of how they did the last one. Is that right? Anyway, I felt like I had left those characters, and so I did not read Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Did not see that movie. I had no intention of reading this book. And then, of course, as a bookshelf staffer, you do occasionally get FOMO when you hear staffers talking about books. And I heard Keila and Aaron and Caroline all talking about Sunrise on the Reaping, and I knew it was Haymitch's story, and I did think that was interesting. I think his character is interesting in the original books. And so I decided I was going to give this one a go. Now, it's been a minute. I did not reread the Hunger Games. I did not. Which I think somebody else on staff did. I did not. So I went in pretty much knowing nothing except whatever knowledge I had retained from. From my movie viewing and book reading from almost. Oh, my gosh, almost 15 years ago. And I liked it. I have seen people rave about this book, and I suspect after talking to staffers, and it has a lot to do with this being better than the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the vibe that I get. I cannot speak to that because I didn't read that one. And certainly I did love the Haymitch backstory. I could have done without. So many song lyrics. So many song lyrics. I even asked my staffers, I asked our team, I was like, what? Like, were these songs sung in the audiobook version? Like, did somebody sing them to you? But I guess in the movies, it's a very, very big deal. And so that's great. But as a reader, it was a little. When reading the physical copy, it was a little distracting to have so many songs. That is a nitpicky thing to say. I will acknowledge that I think probably Millionaire Suzanne can handle my. My slight critiques. So I did love the Haymitch backstory. I did think. And again, after conferring with Bookshelf team members, I do think this is probably a return to form, meaning you got a traditional Hunger Games. You know, there was an actual playing of the games. I thought all of that was interesting because I do think that's an interesting concept. So I liked all of that, but there were parts of it that just did not work for me. Song lyrics. This kind of romantic storyline felt not fleshed out enough. Did I have a good time? Sure. Yeah, I had a good time. Would I have had a better time if I had, like, made it a thing? Like, I think Caroline on staff, she read all the. All of them. Like, it became something she was deep diving into. And I think if I had done that, I probably would have had a better time. Instead, I just picked this up on a whim because I had fomo. And as a result, I liked it, but I didn't love it as much as I think a lot of other readers have. So if you have also read Sunrise on the Reaping and felt like, wait, what am I missing? That is how I felt. If you read Sunrise on the Reaping and thought, oh my gosh, this is so fun. Nostalgia hit. That's how the rest of the Bookshelf team feels. So either way, there's something here for you. I hope so. That is Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. While on book tour, I needed an audiobook to be listening to, and so I downloaded the Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner. So this is another book that we did get an arc of. I saw it on the shelf. I think I maybe saved a copy for Nancy because I. I know Nancy likes Jennifer Weiner. I was intrigued. There's literally a physical arc, I think, sitting in my office right now. But it was just one of those books that, due to other things I had to be reading, it just kept getting put off. And so I really did not intend to read this one. But then I saw that the audiobook on Libro fm. Well, and anywhere you get your audiobooks, that's just where I get mine. It's narrated by Dakota Fanning, who narrated Margot's Got Money Troubles. And I loved her narration of that book. And so I thought, okay, I'm gonna give this a go. It's a longer audiobook than I normally listen to. I think it's about 15 hours. My personal limit is eight, which is why I listened to this one probably for one third to one half. And then I read the physical copy for the rest because I'm just not in the car. I mean, I was in the car with Ashley driving to all of these book tour destinations. But, you know, we visited, we listened to music. We did not. Maybe we should have, but we did not listen to a mutual audiobook together. And so I was just reading and listening to this one in hotel rooms and things like that. So I say all that to say the audiobook is fantastic. Dakota Fanning does a great job if you're an audiobook listener. I loved the audiobook. It is long, and so it depends on how many audiobooks you typically listen to. I wound up picking up the physical copy as well. This is fun. Solid four stars for me. It's about Cassie and Zoe Griffin. They are the Griffin Sisters. They, in the 2000s, kind of formed this indie folk rock duo slash band kind of right in their early 20s. What we know as readers is that Cassie and Zoe are no longer speaking. They live very different lives, completely alienated from each other. And something happened to their band, Something happened to their desire to make music. And we also then get introduced to Zoe's daughter. And Zoe's daughter, Cherry is her name, and she is an aspiring musician who doesn't fully understand why her mom is so secretive about her past experiences. And Cherry goes on like an American Idol type show. So you've got these three female characters who really are at the heart of the book. You've got Cassie, who was the brains and the musical genius behind the Griffin Sisters. You've got Zoe, who maybe was the more traditionally attractive kind of sex appeal of the Griffin Sisters. And then Zoe's daughter Cherry in 2024, who is trying to on this show. And so there are some flashbacks to the early 2000s. I liked a lot of the musical references. You might be wondering, were there more or less lyrics, more or fewer lyrics in the Griffin Sisters than there were in Sunrise on the Reaping. And I'm here to tell you, I think there were more lyrics in Sunrise on the Reaping than there were in this book, literally, about music. I liked this one a lot. Do I think we've seen an influx in books like this because of Daisy Jones and the Six? Absolutely. But if you liked Daisy Jones and the Six. Or if you liked the final revival of Opal and Nev, if you like books about music. I thought this one was fun. I had a good time with it. It's not my favorite book. By the end of the year I might have forgotten a lot of it, but I found it enjoyable. Much like Daisy Jones and the Six, it made me wish I could listen to the music that Jennifer Weiner had written. The character of Cassie is the most compelling. So in the book, the difference between the two sisters is Zooey is the one who wants the career, but she is not as musically talented as her sister. She is, however, really attractive and again, kind of can be the sex appeal that those early 2000s think, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera that people were looking for. And then in the book over and over again, Cassie is described as the less attractive sister. I mean, she is described over and over again as struggling with weight, body image issues, how she looks to the point where I did it felt like a lot. So I do want to put that out there. However, the backstory of Cassie and Zoe and how they were raised and how they were mothered I found very interesting. And weirdly, this kind of light hearted book about music and feminism maybe kind of, sort of. And womanhood, I think actually also became a little bit about generational trauma. And I mean, it's handled with a really light hand. This isn't, you know, some deep work of literary fiction or something like that, but it does touch on how the messages we receive as kids affect us far into the future. So there was a lot to like about this book. I thought it was enjoyable. I think the audiobook is great if you're looking for a good audiobook. So that is the Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jennifer Weiner. Really good by the pool reading in my opinion. And then the last book I read in May, at least the last one that I finished in its entirety because I am in the middle of quite a few right now. But the last book that I finished in its entirety was Consider Yourself Kissed. This is by Jessica Stanley. It released this week. Week. It's got this pretty, in my opinion, recognizable cover, this bright yellow with like a bird on the front. It's a Riverhead title and I had seen it kind of build as the rom com to read this summer. Now I am going to push back on that. I do not think this is a rom com. I think it is a very good book. I really liked it. Do I think it is a romantic comedy? Absolutely not. So this is about Coralie Coralie and Adam. But it is not really about Adam, it's about Coralie. Coralie is a transplant from Australia, living in London. And this is about the 10 year span in which Coralie meets and falls in love with Adam and they start a life together. And so it's 10 years in their relationship, I think, going from 2014 to 2024. Here's what I loved about it. I loved that 10 year span because I don't know about you, but when I look at the last 10 years, oh my gosh, so much has happened. So many things we have lived through as a country, as a culture and then, you know, keep shrinking down. Like, I think about my Thomasville community, I think about my family, I think about my marriage. So I loved basically glimpsing this woman's life in different seasons across 10 years. I think that it's being compared to one day, which, yeah, sure, I liked one day a lot. I. I don't fully think this is one day, but if you like Dolly Alderton, if you like Nick Hornby, I think you will like this a lot. It's very British because, and perhaps this is why American readers will like it. I think American readers might have been slightly triggered if this was about life in America over the last 10 years. But instead it's about Coralie and Adam and they live in London. And so it's a lot about British politics and British Columbia, British culture. And so you're getting, of course, Brexit. You do get a little bit, though not much of the pandemic. But it's watching how this relationship goes from like, meet cute, falling in love to raising children. Just the ebbs and flows of what I would call mostly your average relationship. Now, I do have some qualms with the things Coralie puts up with, with some of Adam's character traits. Traits. At the same time, I do think it's a pretty realistic portrayal of relationship and the compromises we all have to make and just the compromises we have to make as adults because the older you get, the more you realize, oh, I'm probably not going to do X, you know, I've probably forfeited that. So I really liked this one. It is not a rom com, but if you like Dolly Alderton, if you like Nick Hornby, I think you will really like Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley. I devoured it. I read it in a couple of days. I thought it was great. Just the right amount to me of heft and depth, but also not so heavy that it was bothersome or, I don't know, it was. It did not feel heavy. It did not feel as light as the Griffin Sisters. Like, I'm not sure I would consider this a pool book, but I did really enjoy it and I thought it was a different take on what relationships look like because often we just get in a rom com, right? We get the meet cute and then the kiss and that's it. And so I liked that this was kind of turning that on its head and thinking, well, what if you start with the meet cute and the kiss and then we see what happens next? And that is what I liked. So that is consider yourself kissed by Jessica Stanley. And that came out this week. And those are the books I read in May. As usual with our reading Recap episodes, we are offering a reading Recap bundle for this month. Month. The May Reading recap bundle is $83 and it includes the Correspondent, that's the Epistolary Feel Good novel, the Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits, which I think would best be read by the beach or at the pool and consider yourself kissed. So I think those would be three great books, actually. To kick off any summer reading you're doing this year, you can find more details and the May bundle online through the link in our show notes or go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number. That's 531 in the search bar. Speaking of summer reading, if you are not familiar, last year our team launched Summer Reading Postcards where you could buy a postcard bundle from the Bookshelf website. And we had a list of summer reading titles and you could review those books and mail us back the postcards and then receive gift cards. Receive gift cards in return. And so it was like this summer reading program for grownups. It got a lot of love. It was very fun. It was fun for our team because we got a lot of fun mail and I hope it was fun for you because it gave you maybe the nostalgia boost of doing your own summer reading program. So Olivia and the team have finalized this year's selections. The postcards are available to purchase on the bookshelf website. For $8 you can get the postcards and then you can read these books and review them and send those postcards back to us and be entered to get gift cards and things like that. So if you are curious about our summer reading program, there is a link in the show notes. We also have a kids reading program, but we didn't want the grownups to feel left out and last year. That was super, super fun. So if you are trying to make your summer TBR lists, perhaps you should look and see what we are recommending for summer reading and you can find out more at Bookshelf Thomasville this week I'm listening to A Change of Habit by Sister Monica Claire. 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 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 our Thursday conversations. Our executive producers of today's episode are Cami Tidwell, Jamie Treadwell, Linda Lee Jost, Gene Queens, Martha Stephanie Dean Beth Ashley Farrell, Amanda Wickham, Nicole Marcy Wendy Jenkins. 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 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.