Episode 537 || Summer Readings: It's a Love Story - From the Front Porch

Summary

Podcast Summary: From the Front Porch – Episode 537 || Summer Readings: It's a Love Story

Podcast Information:

Title: From the Front Porch
Host/Author: The Bookshelf Thomasville
Description: A weekly conversational podcast on books, small business, and life in the South, produced by The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia.
Episode: Episode 537 || Summer Readings: It's a Love Story
Release Date: July 10, 2025

1. Launching the Summer Readings Series

In Episode 537, Annie Jones, the owner of The Bookshelf, introduces the podcast's new Summer Readings series. This initiative aims to blend book narration with the podcast, offering listeners excerpts from selected summer reads. Annie emphasizes the importance of keeping grownups engaged in being read to, stating:

“I want grownups to be read to too. It's honestly why we start each episode with a book quote...”
(00:32)

The Summer Readings series ensures continuity of content during summers, especially as Annie anticipates her own maternity leave.

2. Engaging the Community and Upcoming Events

Annie provides updates on The Bookshelf's events, highlighting that although summers are typically quieter due to the hot and humid weather in Thomasville, Georgia, there's still a vibrant schedule planned. She invites both local and long-distance listeners to participate in various events such as:

Fall Reader Retreats
Literary First Look Programs
Holiday Shopping Nights

To stay informed, listeners can follow The Bookshelf on Instagram, subscribe to the weekly newsletter, or visit the bookstore’s website. Annie shares:

“We plan specific events for our long distance customers and friends too. We don't want you to be left out.”
(02:15)

3. Managing the Podcast During Pregnancy

Annie candidly discusses the challenges of maintaining the podcast’s regular schedule amidst her pregnancy. She mentions the introduction of two new podcast series to accommodate this period:

From the Archives: Featuring new introductions for three backlist episodes, making them suitable for both new and returning listeners.
Summer Readings: Brief episodes featuring excerpts from favorite summer books.

“We rarely if ever run reruns on this show... So for the rest of July and August, we are launching two new podcast series.”
(03:10)

Annie draws a parallel to her co-host Olivia, who is also expecting, emphasizing the need for flexibility during this significant life event.

4. Spotlight on Annabelle Monahan’s "It's a Love Story"

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to highlighting Annabelle Monahan’s latest novel, "It's a Love Story." Annie delves into her admiration for Monahan’s work, recounting how she discovered the author’s debut novel and became an ardent fan.

“I have no publishing experience, I just am reflecting on episodes of younger that I've seen, but it seems like the same high you would get from finding something in the slush pile.”
(05:45)

Annie praises Monahan's ability to blend romance with substance, featuring mature characters and relatable plotlines. She shares her personal journey with Monahan’s books, including multiple re-reads and emotional connections, notably:

“In 2024 came Summer Romance, which I could not wait to read... I cried while reading it, which again, not something I typically do, particularly with a rom com.”
(09:30)

5. Personal Connection and Collaboration with Annabelle Monahan

Annie recounts the collaborative relationship between The Bookshelf and Annabelle Monahan. Despite The Bookshelf's location being off the beaten path, Monahan has been a supportive and recurring guest, lending her support to both the store and Annie personally.

“Annabelle came for one of our reader retreats... She's still one of my favorite author guests we've ever hosted, and has been supportive of the store over and over and over again.”
(11:00)

Monahan's generosity extended to agreeing to blurb Annie’s own book, "Ordinary Time," showcasing the mutual respect and support within their literary community.

6. Excerpt from "It's a Love Story"

The highlight of the episode is an excerpt from "It's a Love Story," where Annie reads a passage that encapsulates the protagonist Jane’s struggles and aspirations in Hollywood. The excerpt provides a glimpse into Jane’s internal conflict and her longing for recognition:

“...My office door is closed and I just need a minute in this small space to regroup. The hard plastic mat that my chair rolls around on feels cool under me... I can't bear the thought of being part of the next round of layoffs...”
(12:05)

This reading not only showcases Monahan’s engaging storytelling but also sets the tone for the Summer Readings series, inviting listeners to delve deeper into contemporary romance novels.

7. Promotional Details and Special Offers

Towards the end of the episode, Annie promotes the availability of "It's a Love Story" and other Annabelle Monahan titles on The Bookshelf’s website, offering a 10% discount using the code Summer Readings.

“It's a Love Story, released on May 27 as a paperback original. You can purchase it and any of Annabelle's backlist titles from the bookshelf website... Receive 10% off this week by using code Summer Readings.”
(13:10)

Additionally, Annie mentions her current read, "One Last Summer" by Kate Spencer, signaling her engagement with seasonal literature.

Conclusion: Episode 537 of From the Front Porch seamlessly blends community engagement with literary exploration. Annie Jones not only updates listeners on The Bookshelf’s activities but also fosters a deeper connection through the introduction of the Summer Readings series and her heartfelt discussion of Annabelle Monahan’s works. The inclusion of a live reading enriches the listener experience, making the episode both informative and emotionally resonant for book enthusiasts.

Transcript

A (0:01)

Your message amplified. Ready to share your message with the world? Start your podcast journey with Podbean. Podbean Podbean Podbean Podbean the AI powered all in one podcast platform. Thousands of businesses and enterprises trust Podbean to launch their podcasts. Launch your podcast on podbean today. My school uses Podbean. My church too. I love it. I really do.

B (0:27)

Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and.

A (0:32)

Life in the South. This feels like wealth. I think this is the thing you save up for. You live your whole life so that you can be surrounded by too many people in too small of a room and tell the story of how it all happened. Annabelle Monahan It's a Love Story I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week we're kicking off our Summer Readings series. Before we get started, are you keeping up with all of the Bookshelf's events? It is true summers are a little quieter in the shop. I don't know if you've heard, but it gets a little hot and humid down here. But we still have plenty going on and plenty that is already being scheduled for the fall. Maybe you think our events are just for locals, but even if you are not a nearby listener or customer, we've got plans in the books for you too. From our fall reader retreat to our literary first look programs to our holiday shopping night, we plan specific events for our long distance customers and friends too. We don't want you to be left out. So to keep up, you've got a couple of options and you can choose the one that makes the most sense for you. You can follow us on Instagram, where we post regularly about in store and virtual happenings. You can subscribe to our store newsletter, which lands in your inbox every Thursday and has a complete rundown of our shop events. Or you can check our website, which Erin keeps updated with event dates, tickets and more. Links to all three Instagram newsletter website are in the show Notes. Summer may be quiet, but we are already gearing up for fall and we cannot wait for you to be a part of it. Now back to the show. When I found out I was pregnant and realized it was really happening, I tried to brainstorm ways to keep the podcast coming to you regularly this summer. We rarely if ever run reruns on this show, and even though I'm not opposed to taking a break, we just haven't really. Maybe ever. I mean, we do a lot of batch recording holiday episodes look a little different, but when Olivia also announced she was pregnant and her own summer due date, much like Nancy Meyers, I knew something's gotta give. I could only batch record so many episodes before my own maternity leave, whatever that maternity leave winds up looking like. Like. So for the rest of July and August, we are launching two new podcast series. Next week you will hear a From the Archives episode where I've recorded new introductions for three backlist episodes with guests I love and they're all perfect for summer listening for new and old listeners alike. I really did go deep in the archives, you guys. I went deep. And this week, perhaps what I am most excited about our Summer Readings episodes. Even before I recorded the Audiobook of Ordinary Time, I have tried to find ways to incorporate book narration into our episodes. I want grownups to be read to too. It's honestly why we start each episode with a book quote and why each holiday season I read yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. I'm supremely aware of copyright issues. Hello husband who is an attorney. So for this new podcast series, we did receive permission from publishers to read to you excerpts of some of my new favorite summer books. These episodes will be short and sweet, much like our yes Virginia episodes, but hopefully they will provide you with a taste of some new summer books I think you'll really love. Each book featured can be found on our store website. That is of course, bookshelf thomasville.com and each week you can receive 10% off that week's featured title. We are launching Things with Annabelle Monahan's latest book. It's a Love Story. Just a little bit about my love for Annabelle Monahan. If you've been around for a long time, you know that I stumbled across her first romance novel, Nora Goes Off Script well before it was released in the summer of 2022. I grabbed it off of a stack of arcs sitting at the store and was immediately hooked. Delighted. Agog. I imagine this is how book editors feel when they pick something off of the slush pile and it turns out to be a winner. I have no publishing experience, I just am reflecting on episodes of younger that I've seen, but it seems like the same high you would get from finding something in the slush pile. A rom com with substance? Yes. A romance featuring mature adults and precocious but not irritating children? Yes. A believable miscommunication plot point? Yes. Characters I could picture vividly in my head looking at you, Chris Evans and Rachel McAdams. Why don't you star in anything of substance anymore. I'm not a RE reader, but I do believe I ultimately have reread Nora Goes Off Script five times, which maybe seems a little ridiculous. And sure, it could be because 2022 was as fragile and fraught as the two years that came before it. Maybe I was still trying to find feel good fiction to massage my broken brain and psyche. But then a year later, Annabelle released Same Time next summer, and guess what? I liked it too, even though there was a blonde male protagonist. In 2024 came Summer Romance, which I could not wait to read. So much so that despite my preference for seasonal reading, I wound up devouring a book called Summer Romance at my dining room table on a cold January night. I wound up featuring it on my list of top 10 books of the year so far. Back in 2024, I was so surprised and delighted once again by its depth, the rich characters Annabelle creates, and I cried. I literally cried. I'm not making this up. I cried while reading it, which again, not something I typically do, particularly with a rom com. And then sometime in the middle of all that, in the Middle of Publishing 3 Writing and Publishing 3 Books, Annabel Monahan came to Thomasville. Not a lot of authors accept our invitations. We are, as has been well documented, a bookstore that is off the beaten path, and it can be pretty inconvenient to get here. We also cannot guarantee a crowd the size of, say, the Strand or Books Are Magic or Fabled. I mean literally insert name of almost any other bookstore here. But Annabelle came for one of our reader retreats. She mingled with customers, gamely appeared on the podcast. She's still one of my favorite author guests we've ever hosted, and has been supportive of the store over and over and over again. And she's also been supportive of me in ways I couldn't have imagined when I was curled up with Nora way back in 2022. Annabel agreed to blurb my book Ordinary Time, which I could not believe and was still such an act of generosity and kindness. We are so lucky to have writers who miraculously create new stories for us every year. And this summer, Annabelle is back with It's a Love Story, a book I distinctly remember her researching when she came to visit the bookshelf way back when. It's a Love Story has already received rave reviews. Readers I trust, have already called it their favorite of Annabel's books. I find her work to be refreshingly consistent, and although I was originally saving my reading for maternity leave, I found an excerpt of the book that I'd like to read to you today. It's a Love Story is about Jane, a former child star turned Hollywood exec who's trying to get her first big project greenlit. The only problem? Well, she's maybe made some promises she might not be able to keep. And of course, there's always a guy who you hate who might be able to help. I sit under my desk where it's safe. There's no place left to fall. When I'm down here, it's where you'd sit in an earthquake. My office door is closed and I just need a minute in this small space to regroup. The hard plastic mat that my chair rolls around on feels cool under me. My knees are pulled up to my chest, and I look up at the underside of my desk drawer where I've written the word Please six times since my promotion. I can't say exactly why making it in this business means so much to me. Show business was a lifeline for my mom and me when I was a kid, and I mean that literally in the way a lifeline can be food and shelter. But it was also such a weird way to grow up, on television always being a joke. I just want to be taken seriously for once, and preferably in the world I was raised in. I can't bear the thought of being part of the next round of layoffs, sent home with a cardboard box and a pity smile. I want Hollywood to give me a hug or a gold star or or at least a better table at the Ivy. My current office has a view of the very top of Pantheon Television and the soundstage where Pop Rocks was filmed. The show followed four middle schoolers, unlikely friends who started an after school band and became pop stars. If I get a film made, there's a chance I will move to an office on the other side of the building where I won't have to look at it. Inside that studio was our fake high school classroom, fake recording studio, and fake auditorium where we were discovered and given our own fake record contract. My character, Janie Jakes, is immortalized as a meme, the one you send your friends after they accidentally reply all or pull out of a parking lot with a bag of groceries on their car. Oof. I'm 33 now and people seldom recognize me, but it happens. They see me at Starbucks making my famous Oof face while trying to force open the cream container, and they sing the familiar show ender, Poor Janie. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. I smile politely at their joke and pose for their selfie, but honestly, it's a nightmare. Haley Soule, the lead singer, went on to be a soap opera star and is now a Manhattan mom of three kids with a million Instagram followers, including me, who like to see what she's wearing and harvesting in her urban garden. Haley has long legs. She has a dad who used to surprise her on set and calls her Cricket. Haley and her husband have a meet cute story that involves a horse. Haley is the haver of good things. Haley is an eternal frontliner, even in sweatpants, plucking leaves off her basil plant for the camera. She is a star like Jack Quindlen. Haley is a measuring stick for me. It's not healthy, but I scroll her Instagram and keep score Me one small house. Hailey two large ones Me an awkward side hug after a third date with an orthodontist. Haley a surprise trip to Lake Como for her fifth wedding anniversary. My manifest, a solid partner project, was born just after her third child when she posted a photo of the baby in her arms, wrapped in cashmere and bathed in the soft light of her East Hampton fire pit. I reach on top of my desk for a pen and write Please one more time on the bottom of the drawer before crawling out and standing up like a normal person. Annabelle Monahan's It's a Love Story, released on May 27 as a paperback original. You can purchase it and any of Annabelle's backlist titles from the bookshelf website. Receive 10% off this week by using code Summer Readings. Make sure you include that S at checkout. Again, summer readings for 10% off your purchase of Annabelle's books this week. This week I'm listening to One Last Summer by Kate Spencer.