← From the Front Porch
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- [00:02]
Annie Jones
Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and.
- [00:07]
Leila Motley
Life in the South. Motherhood makes you lonely, but more than that, having everyone turn away from you in the moment you need them most is a betrayal that lingers like a chipped tooth for you to drag your tongue over and remember all that was lost and wouldn't return. Leila Motley the Girls who Grew Big I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week we are back with another episode in our Summer Readings Series series. Before we get started, our reminder Are you keeping up with all of the Bookshelf's events? It's true summers are a little quieter in the shop. I'm not sure if you've heard, but it does get a little hot and humid down here. But we still have plenty going on, and plenty that our team has already been scheduling for fall. Maybe you think our events are just for locals, but even if you are not a nearby listener or customer, we have plans in the works for you too. From our fall reader retreat to our literary first look programs to our holiday shopping nights, we plan regularly specific events for our long distance customers and friends. To keep up, you have a couple of options. You can choose the one that makes the most sense for you. Follow us on Instagram, where we post regularly about in store and virtual happenings. You can do that ookshelftville. Subscribe to our store newsletter, which lands in your inbox every Thursday and has a complete rundown of our shop events. Or check our website, which Erin keeps updated with event dates, details and tickets. Links for all of the above are in the show notes, so there's an Instagram link, a newsletter link, and a website link. Summer may be quiet, but we are already gearing up for fall and we want you to be a part of it. Now back to the show. When I found out I was pregnant and realized it really was happening, which which took a minute to settle in, I tried to brainstorm ways to keep the podcast coming to you regularly this summer. We rarely, if ever, run reruns on the show, and even though I'm not opposed to taking a break, we just never did. Maybe ever. I honestly don't know. I mean, in the holidays we record a little differently, but when Olivia also announced her own pregnancy and her summer date, much like Nancy Meyers, I knew something's gotta give. I could only batch record so many episodes before my own maternity leave started, whatever that maternity leave might look like. So for July and August, we are bringing you two new podcast series. Next week you'll hear another from the Archives episode. I've recorded new introductions for three backlist episodes with guests I loved and they are all perfect for summer listening. This week I'm back with another Summer Readings episode. Our first was a couple of weeks ago, all about Annabelle Monahan's new book, It's a Love Story. It's episode 537 if you haven't listened yet. Even before I recorded the audiobook for Ordinary Time, I have always tried to find ways to incorporate book narration into our episodes. I want grownups to be read to too. I quite frankly want to be read too. So it's why we start each episode with a book quote. Why each holiday season I read yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. I'm supremely aware though, of copyright issues. Hello husband who is an attorney. So for this new podcast series, we received permission from publishers to read to you excerpts of some of my favorite new summer books. These episodes are short and sweet, much like our yes Virginia episodes, but hopefully they will provide you with a taste of some new summer titles I really think you'll love. Each book featured can be found on our store website, that is bookshelfthomasville.com and each week you can receive 10% off that week's featured selection. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it's almost the equivalent of in store. We have this chalkboard that says Plot of the Week on it and customers come in and like to guess which book it is. Or we have an end cap devoted to that particular selection for that week. So it's kind of like our Plot of the Week. This week I'm previewing Laila Motley's the Girls who Grew Big. Listen. I was immediately drawn to this one because of its cover. Please stop what you are doing and google the COVID of this book. I think we all know it's a big fat misconception that we should not judge books by their cover, especially when most of us spend our days shopping online. A cover is what most of us have to go on, and books have become more and more these beautiful, tangible, physical works of art. So I was drawn to this striking cover. And I have also, admittedly this year, been reading quite a few fiction books that feature pregnancy or pregnant women. That's not necessarily intentional. Like I haven't gone looking for them. I don't think I'm seeking them out or if they're finding me a little bit of background. Last summer I experienced something similar when I wound up reading Even After Everything, which is a work of nonfiction, then Sandwich by Kathryn Newman and Same as It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo. All of those books. And two, it was a total surprise to me. But all three of those books dealt heavily with pregnancy loss, and I was not necessarily seeking those themes out intentionally, but I definitely was paying attention because of my own life experiences last year. So I am wondering if I've been drawn to books like Tilt or like the Girls who Grew Big because of my own pregnancy. Or maybe I'm just more aware of it because I'm living it 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 Florida Influencer 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.
- [07:07]
Annie Jones
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- [07:09]
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- [07:14]
Annie Jones
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- [07:28]
Annie Jones
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Annie Jones
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- [07:39]
Leila Motley
Whatever the case, you might recognize Leila Motley from Night Crawling, which I did not read, although now I am going to because now I'm so curious and invested in her work. But that book took the literary world by storm. It was selected as an Oprah pick before being nominated for the booker. And if you didn't know, Layla Motley was 1616 when she began writing that book, 20 when it was published, which is just absolutely mind boggling to me. So aside from the gorgeous cover, the Girls who Grew Big appealed to me because of its panhandle Florida setting. I am always on high alert for people who write about Florida without being from Florida. You can spot them from a mile away. But I'm pleased to report that Layla Motley, who is from O California, somehow captures the Florida panhandle exactly as it is sticky, unbearably hot, reminiscent of South Alabama, but also somehow its very own entity. And the girls in this book are all believable, relatable, held with tenderness, even as they themselves clearly are striving so hard to be tough. These are teenagers raising children while still being at least partially children themselves, though they may not admit it. I fell in love with Simone, Adela, Emery, and all the girls who combined to form a village to care for their children. This is a book about girlhood and Florida and coming of age. And yes, motherhood. And I loved was also, it should be noted, my shelf subscription selection for July. You have to understand we're not what you think. If you're thinking me and the girls are some kind of ratchet group of reckless teen, you clearly haven't ever had to learn how to massage gas out of a baby's stomach before you learned the basic laws of physics. And if you think I don't make sense with all of them just because I'm white, you wouldn't believe what happens when a girl these days gets knocked up suddenly. It's the most important thing about you. Suddenly. You don't have green eyes or a two bedroom shack on Willow street or straight A's in biology. You are nothing but a young mother. Besides, Padua beach is full of all kinds of people. I could walk two minutes and be on a street full of African Americans. Another minute and I'd be standing in a Filipino's driveway. We coexist here. There's even a couple of other mixed babies. But Pawpaw and Grammy don't understand that because they're from a different time. A time when Jay and I couldn't hold hands on the same beach. A time when plenty of girls got pregnant younger than me and no one batted an eye as long as you were married. But it's not like that anymore. Now folks aren't shocked when we show up with swollen stomachs. They're disgusted. They think we're stealing their welfare and ruining the image of God. They think we shouldn't have been so stupid. The smartest thing any of us did was join the girls. I didn't intend to set up until I was about 30 weeks along. I'd never be one of them. But then I began to feel it. The eyes shifting along the circumference of my stomach. Whispers that traveled from church ladies to high school hallways. Boys who no longer sought me out at the beach parties. But found me in an empty room at school asking if effing would hurt the baby. Nobody got it. I was used to that, though. I'd spent my whole life baking under a cruel sun, and even when I felt crisp, I still knew how to suck water from damp places beyond sight. I was from Florida, after all. I could survive any summer, pretend like I was made for this harsh heat. But things changed quick in the weeks when the pregnancy embedded and became real. One degree of heat tipped the scale, and suddenly I couldn't handle the sun. I was burst beneath. I was downright dying, felt like a tropical plant gasping for life in a drought, and I looked around and saw everybody else thriving, their leaves reaching for the sun like a toddler's outstretched hand. But I was choking. I was tired of feeling like I was hanging in the trenches of hell with the devil. That's when I really started to pay attention to they were boiling and burdened by the same air, but they'd found ways to irrigate, to stretch and assemble their own life source. They knew how to survive when you could no longer pretend you were perfect. The sun was theirs, the glory they glowed beneath Leila Motley's The Girls who Grew Big, released on June 24 in hardcover format. You can purchase it as well as Motley's Night Crawling from the Bookshelf website. Receive 10% off this week by using code SUMMERREADING. Make sure you include the S at checkout. Again, get 10% off the girls who Grew Big and Night Crawling by using the code summerreadings at checkout this week I'm reading the Secret History of the Rape Kit by Reagan Kennedy.
- [12:55]
Annie Jones
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 @bookshelftville, 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 Front Porch for special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production, for production of from the Front Porch, and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. Our executive producers of today's episode are Cami Tidwell, Jamie Treadwell, Linda Lee Drost Jean 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, subscribe. Support us over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support.
- [14:14]
Leila Motley
Each level has an amazing number of.
- [14:16]
Annie Jones
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.
- [14:37]
Leila Motley
Sam.