← From the Front Porch
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A
Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. The kids who surround her every day are in the process of creating their personhood. Despite all the bumps in the road, Audrey thinks it's exhilarating to watch. Ellen Hildebrand and Shelby Cunningham, the Academy I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today I'm joined by the Bookshelf's online sales manager, Erin, to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in September. If you are a new or newish listener, you might not realize that from the Front Porch is in fact a production of the Bookshelf, a small, independently owned bookstore in rural South Georgia. By listening to our show and recommending it to your friends, you are helping keep our indie bookstore in business. And if you like what you hear, one way you can financially support us is through Patreon. Last year we read the classic American novel Lonesome dove with over 1000 Patreon supporters. And this year we kicked off our 2025 reading in January of Don Quixote Quixote. So for $5 a month you can access our monthly Conquer A Classic recaps as well as our porch visits, which are monthly live Q&As where we talk about everything from pop culture to nail polish to what books you should take on your next vacation. I'll also give you a hint that we are wrapping up Don Quixote in October, which means we are already brainstorming our 2026 conquer a classic selection. So if you want to be the first to know about what book we're choosing, you can join us on Patreon and we'll be continuing those episodes and looking Believe it or not Believe it or not to 2026. So to learn more about Patreon tiers and benefits, visit patreon.com from the FrontPorch. Now back to the show. Hi Erin.
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B
Hi. I'm so glad we're doing this again. I missed this. I missed you. Feels right. All is right in the world again.
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A
It does feel a little bit normal. Today is my batch recording day so I already recorded reading recap and I did have a moment where I was like do I know how to do this? Do I remember how to talk? And I think I do. I think we're gonn be fine.
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B
Yeah yeah.
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A
It's been a minute. We and I want to thank listeners. I thanked them last episode but I do want to thank listeners for their patience during this season and customers during this season. This has been a weird, I mean, an exciting time in the life of the bookshelf, but a weird time where both Olivia and I have been on maternity leave. And also in April, I wrote a book. Like, yeah, that was a book that was this year. And so it just feels like things have been wonky for a long time. And I am, I look forward to fall every year, but this year I'm like, okay, I think it's gonna feel. I know it's a new normal. Nobody has to DM me that it's different. I understand. I know you're living different. Thank you so much. But I am looking forward to, like getting back in the swing of things. And podcasting is one of those things. So it's so nice to get to see you and talk to you.
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B
I know you too.
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A
Okay, so as we go through our September new releases, please keep in mind that Erin always makes browsing the podcast selections so easy. You can just go to booksh Ralph thomasville.com and type episode 545 into the search bar. You'll see all of today's books listed ready for you to pre order or purchase. You can then use the code New Release please at checkout to get 10% off your order of today's titles. Before we get started, I also am going to put in a plug for our fall literary first look, which is happening on September 10th. These are our seasonal. We do lunches in person, but we do zooms for our long distance customers. So this is our seasonal zoom where I preview my favorite books and the staff's favorite books for the next season. Fall is one of my favorite times in the publishing industry and so there are lots of fantastic autumnal books coming out. And so if you want to hear me preview a bunch of titles and kind of let you know what should be on your fall TBR in terms of new books. You can purchase a ticket for the fall literary first look. It's happening Wednesday, September 10th at noon. You can watch live or we always record these so it's something you can definitely watch later. So just go to bookshelfthomasville.com and click Events. We'll put a link in the show notes so you can join us for that event. We'd love to have you there. Okay, I'm gonna kick us off. We each have three books today.
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B
Yes, it was hard to choose.
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A
It was hard to choose.
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B
Talking about autumnal books. I am so excited about September, October, November reading. It's gonna be.
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A
It's Hard to narrow down. Yes, it's been hard to narrow down. So I'm gonna kick us off by talking about Buckeye. This is a book that, if you listened to the August reading recap, I talked a little bit about this there. This book released this week. It's by Patrick Ryan. This is a little bit different for me, I think I was saying on the August reading recap that it's really more of a sweeping, epic novel than I typically am drawn to. There are four kind of main characters. Cal, his wife Becky, Margaret, and her husband Felix. And these are two couples living in. I'm guessing the pronunciation here, but Bon Ami, maybe, or Bon Ami, Ohio. Guessing small town, Ohio. The book is set from kind of the middle of World War II to the Vietnam, through the Vietnam War. And so this is historical fiction. It feels epic in terms of length. It is a longer book, and in terms of the ground it's covering. So you've got these huge kind of global events happening with World War II, then the Korean War and then the Vietnam War. And then you also have this really kind of narrow focus on Cal and his wife and Margaret and her husband. I love this. And I'm almost hesitant to say too much about it, because at first, this sat on my TBR for a long time because one of the characters in the book communicates with the dead. And I was almost like, okay, like. And listen, other readers could love this. But, like, I almost thought, is there a magical realism element here that I am not going to enjoy? It's. There is. It is not. It is not magical realism at all. There's just a character who really does, like, perform, for lack of a better term, seances or conversations that she has with the deceased. And it wound up being perfectly grounded and rooted in the rest of the novel, which is. Which is very kind of realistic historical fiction. So I'm sorry this one sat on my TBR for so long because I thought, I'm going to crack this one open and it's going to be magic. And it's not. It's not. Instead, if you liked the women, if you liked In Memoriam, even if you liked something like Florence Knapp's the Names, I think you'll like this. I actually think, Erin, you would really like this.
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B
Well, I almost tried. I almost picked this for mine. And then I was like, no, she's gonna talk about it. I'll let her have it, but I'm going to read it.
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A
Yeah. And I don't know, you know, in terms of audiobook, it it could be pretty lengthy. Cause it's a. This is a. This is a chonker. This is a big one. But I. It never felt long. It really didn't. I was. And this is a season in my life where the shorter the book, the better. But this was one where my attention was held throughout the whole thing. I was easily able to keep up with each of the four characters and I cared deeply about what happened to them. I also found it to be almost comfortingly timely in that sometimes reading about different tumultuous times in America's history, it's just nice to know we survive it because it does feel like we are living in just. There is a 24.7news cycle that it is very hard to keep up with. There's a lot happening globally that is troubling. And so it is weirdly nice, which is probably not the right word, but it's weirdly nice to know, oh, this has happened before, it will happen again. And so there was something about this novel that I also found really comforting as I watched these characters and these couples endure not only the everyday events of their life in small town Ohio, but then also the larger kind of global events happening. So I loved this. I thought it was fantastic. It is Buckeye by Patrick Ryan, and it came out this week.
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B
That sounds amazing. And I've seen it start to pop up everywhere. Like, I think it's gonna be big. I think it's gonna be.
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A
Listen, I said it on the last episode, but my prediction and I have nothing. Nobody told me this, but it feels like a celebrity book club pick.
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B
It does.
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A
Like, it feels like it could be read with Jenna, maybe a Good Morning America. I don't think it would be a Reese pick, but anyway, it seems like one that's gonna be pretty popular and I'm here to tell you it's worth the buzz.
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B
I love that. That's always good when it lives up to the hype.
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A
Yes. Yeah.
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B
My first book is called to the Moon and Back. It's by Eliana Ramage and It comes out September 2nd. This is the story of Stephanie Harper and her relentless quest to become the first Cherokee woman astronaut. Now, if I. You'd asked me earlier this year if I was going to read two books about. About lesbian astronauts, I would have told you what. But it's very similar. So from her very beginnings, Stephanie and her mom and her little sister Kayla, who is. That's also my little sister's name, Kayla, which is a weird name to see in a book, but they've Been on the run from an abusive father, an abusive home life situation. They don't go into detail. So it's not. That's not a trigger, but just they've been on the run and now they're living on this Cherokee reservation. They're very steeped in their Cherokee culture. And Stephanie just doesn't fit in. She doesn't want to settle for the life that her mom has, that her little sister's looking forward to. She wants to go to Phillips Exeter Academy. And she tries to. She works very hard and she applies for it. She never hears back from them. And so she just assumes like, well, I didn't get in. Which is. That's a, what I call it, Chekhov's gun, like for later. But anyway, so she ends up, you know, she ends up achieving her goal of not being the first woman ash. But like, she gets into, like she becomes a scientist. She does all these things to work her way towards it, but she's sort of so narrow focused that she ends up burning through people as she goes through her life. Like she ends up sort of wanting to burn the bridge between her and her family because she kind of wants to leave that to her. It feels like at times, baggage of her cultural heritage behind her, even while she's trying to use it to be like this historic person. You know, she vacillates between being proud of her heritage and wanting to leave it behind. She's sometimes proud to be a lesbian and then sometimes she wants to fit in and doesn't want to be known as that. So, you know, whenever I talk to books, talk about books like this with Olivia, she's like, how much space talk is there?
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A
Yes.
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B
Like with atmosphere, like, there's a good bit of. So if you really do like the behind the scenes of NASA, of space, of. Of a mission, you will get some of that here. But it's much like. It's much like Taylor Jenkins Reid atmosphere, where the focus is on the people and the relationships. Like, this is not a project Hail Mary or anything. You're not going to get that kind of stuff. The relationship. You know, this is a really long book. It's like 448 pages.
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A
I have the arc and I've put off reading it only because. And this is sad, but because this does happen a lot, which I think is such a weird. I think, Gosh, I think Elizabeth Gilbert kind of talks about this in Big Magic. But like, sometimes it does feel like we get a smattering of the same kind of book in the same season. And I almost feel sorry for Eliana Ramage because now she's accidentally competing with atmosphere 2.0.
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B
Right.
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A
Yes. You know, with Taylor, Jen's Reed. And I think this is a, I think, is this a debut by Elliot?
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B
I think so.
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A
But anyway, I have wondered about it, so I'm glad to know. It's.
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B
Yeah, it's very, it's very long. It got a Kirkus starred review and I, as I was reading it, I thought this also might be a celebrity book pick just because of the content and the, you know, debut novelist. But it, the Kirkus review made me laugh. I said there are three novels worth of material here. And I agree, like, yeah, I do think, and I would say what could be edited, I'm not sure, but it was, all of it was beautiful. But it's just a lot, it's a lot to take in. But it was all good. You know, I wish some of the relationships between her and her sister, her and her mom, were slightly more realistic. But that's the, it's just a small ding to what is otherwise a really great and heartbreaking and heart wrenching story of watching someone try to achieve their dreams while they have so much to carry on their shoulders. So that's to the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage. It's already out. Came out this past Tuesday.
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A
Hey, this is Annie and I'm taking a quick break from this episode to tell you about Discover Thomasville Gracefully tucked within the storied red hills of South Georgia, Thomasville curates a distinguished downtown experience that meanders along several blocks of our iconic red brick streets. Here, bespoke boutiques, master craftsmen, coveted antique art purveyors, and celebrated culinary artisans converge in harmony with the cultural richness of the Pebble Hill Plantation Art tour and the tranquil allure of Birdsong Nature Center. Here you discover the soul of the South. Here you discover Thomasville. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com News Foreign what Life is like with a phantom screen.
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B
It's magic.
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A
It is.
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B
Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
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A
What is that?
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B
This is amazing.
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A
Retractable screens for your home make life better. Visit phantom screens.com well, and you and I like, I think that's what's interesting is summer in my mind is typically like where it's meant for shorter books or books books you can really speed through. And then fall, which is when other people will be reading these. You and I have been reading them, you know, in the sweaty summer season. Yeah, but other people will be reading Them, you know, cozying up, taking their time with them. And so maybe you could read. Maybe you read Atmosphere this summer. And this is like the autumnal equivalent.
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B
Absolutely.
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A
Okay. My next one is also a debut novel. It is Little Movements by Lauren Morrow, comes out next week. I have not finished this one just yet, but I have been reading it on my Kindle. This is, like I said, a debut novel. The main character is Laila. She is a dancer, and she is. She's been married. They're struggling, maybe with having kids and having that conversation, kind of what's going to happen next in their relationship type thing. And she gets asked to work at the Briar House, which is this kind of. I almost picture, like, the Thomasville center for the Arts. Like, it's this. It's this cultural center, this artistic center in rural Vermont. So New England setting.
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B
Love it.
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A
Love that. So she has been offered a role as a dance instructor there. So she moves to Vermont for the season. This is, I believe, set in the fall, as I recall. And so she heads up there. She is, if not the only one of the only black instructors. And so she is so excited, but she's also a little apprehensive because it's a predominantly white environment. And she is now being asked to choreograph one of the season's dances. And they're really encouraging her to, like, lean into maybe unpacking cultural and racial trauma and issues. And she's. I think she's kind of wondering, am I being tokenized? You know, what if I don't want to unpack my racial or cultural trauma? What if I want to choreograph something else? And so there's a lot in here about racial dynamics and being the minority in your field. It's also, though, got, like I said, this great New England setting, kind of this small town. And then a great character study of Laila herself. And not only in her role as a black woman and a black dance instructor, black choreographer, but also just as a wife, a mom, or potentially future mom. And so you get a lot of different aspects of her character. We miss Olivia, if you can tell. Space books. Dance books. Olivia notoriously doesn't read dance books because they stress her out. Yeah, me too, man. That's right. You both are. What is it about the bookshelf that we attract musicologists and dancers?
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B
Dancers and theaters.
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A
I'm so glad to have you here. Yes. Theater kit. Big theater kid energy. The bookshelf, which is fun. I was never a theater kid, but I was friends with all the theater kids. So this feels right. So Olivia notoriously does not read dance books. You don't either?
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B
No, it's like an. I don't know. It's like when you've been that close to it, you just. It's like it's not glamorous anymore.
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A
That's how Olivia feels. And I think Olivia almost feels. Not triggered by it, but she's like, no, I don't need that. So I love a dance book because I cannot dance at all, but I am fascinated by it, and so I love books that kind of deal with that culture. I haven't finished it, but there's like, the new show on. I want to say it's on Amazon, but it's. Oh. By Amy Sherman Palladino.
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B
That's fall.
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A
Yes, yes. So anyway, if you've been watching that this summer, maybe this one will be of interest to you. So it's called Little Movements by Lauren Morrow. It's a debut novel out next week. Got this really great setting, and I think could maybe be to dance what the writerly world was to something like Yellowface or something like that, where you're dealing with, like, some racial tension in these kind of predominantly white industries. So I'm really excited to finish it.
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B
That's a great title, too. Little Movements. Like, it's. It feels like it holds a lot in those two words. Yeah, I'm excited also, what a great Vermont. Great setting.
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A
Like, yes, that's really what I want out of my. Out of my fall reading is I just want it to feel like fall because it really doesn't hear. Sweet. Jordan the other day was like, oh, you know, it's only going to get cooler. And I said, no, no, I mean, that's a. That's a sweet thought, but honestly. And Olivia and I have discussed this before, maybe even on this podcast, but August is my least favorite month. But Olivia hates September because September is when it definitely should feel like fall.
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B
And it usually doesn't.
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A
Definitely doesn't. Like, it definitely doesn't. So I need to read about rural.
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B
Vermont, because I feel like you got to put on a little sweater while you read.
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A
That's right. You know, I almost put on a long sleeve tee to record today. And then I was like, are you crazy? No. Don't.
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B
We all just are out here striving for the sweatshirt and shorts. Weather and desperate. We could have that. We'll get it come November. Well, it'll be here. Yeah, Come November. Just in time for Christmas. Yeah. Okay. My second book is called At Last by Marissa Silver. It comes out September 2nd. I was really just intrigued by the COVID at first. I don't know if you've seen the COVID of this book, but it. I just was like, I don't know what that's about, but I want to read that book. It's nothing fancy, it's just sort of like a. I don't know how to describe it, but maybe if you're reading Two faces, right? Yeah, it's two women's faces and it sort of looks like one of those old school, like photos where the, like, like art prints where the woman. Where everything is like dots. I don't know if you're listening to this podcast, just go Google At Last by Marissa Silver and go to our website and look at the, at the COVID But this is a very character driven book. I will say if you don't, if you want a plot driven book, this is not for you. But if you love a good character study, this is for you. We meet Evelyn and Helen. They are two women in their middle age whose children, Ruthie and Tom are getting married. And so we meet them. So they're sort of the mother in laws, right? The mothers. The mother in laws. And we meet them on the wedding weekend when they have to run an errand together to get like flowers for the wedding. So. And even from that car ride from the very first chapter, you can tell exactly what this relationship is like and that it's. It's not a good one. It's a little tense, it's a little terse, it's a little. There's a lot of history there that we come to find out through the book. So that's. The rest of the book is glimpses back at Helen's life, glimpses back at Evelyn's life. And they're growing up sort of how did they get to be who they are today? And then we get glimpses of Ruthie and Tom's relationship and how they met. And there's no, like bombshells, there's no twist. It's just, it's just like. It's like you're drinking your coffee just watching the lives of these people go by. And they're just fascinating because they're.
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A
Sounds right up my alley.
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B
Yes, you would like this book. And the chapters themselves are even. They're not short stories, but they could, the chapters themselves could almost stand alone sometimes as little short stories, little vignettes of these people's lives. Just. It does have an arc in the sense that we meet them at the wedding, then we jump back, and then we sort of go forward in time from there. But I just find the stories of women fascinating, especially at this time. It kind of feels like it's set. It probably has an actual date that I did not write down in my notes, but it feels like it's set not in this time, like modern times, but maybe in the late 70s, early 80s, maybe.
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A
I'm not exactly cover even I don't. And I'm with you. I don't know the year, but the COVID makes it seem not present.
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B
Yes, exactly. And it's only 228 pages, so it is a quick read. And it's just a collection of characters that I won't soon forget. Like, again, nothing happens, really. But it's those kind of books, to me, that make the most impact sometimes because they really, Dave, you know, dive deep into these characters and you. You'll remember them. So if you like stories about women, strong women, funny women, women who are maybe not likable or whatever, this is the book for you. And it's called At Last by Marissa Silver. And it's out already.
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A
Did you read that on your Kindle or.
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B
Yes, I read on the Kindle.
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A
Okay, I was. I'll go. I may have already downloaded it. The COVID is really striking, and I remember seeing it in the catalog and I wondered. It sounded like it was really good. It also sounds good for fans of Three Days in June, the Ann Tyler book.
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B
Yes, absolutely. If you liked that, yes.
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A
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- [22:50]
B
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- [22:55]
A
Use Podbean to record your podcast. Use PodBean AI to optimize your podcast. Use PodBean AI to turn your blog into a podcast. Use Podbean to distribute your podcast everywhere. Launch your podcast on Podbean today. Okay, so my next one is one that people have already heard of. So it feels weird to highlight an Ellen Hildebrand book like everybody's heard of and reads Ellen Hildebrand. But y', all, this is so good. So it's called the Academy by Ellen Hildebrand and her daughter, Shelby Cunningham. So Ellen Hildebrand's daughter and son both were students and graduates of boarding schools. And so as soon as Shelby graduated from boarding school, Ellen apparently went to her and said, okay, are you ready to write about your experience? And so the book is set on fictional tiffin Academy, which is a New England boarding school, and it's set over the course of a year. I love a boarding school novel.
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B
Yes, you do.
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A
Please never forget. God. Moving to Thomasville was such. I don't know if I put this in the book. I don't think I put this in Ordinary Time, but I notoriously. Now, thanks to Ordinary Time, I played boarding school all growing up. I read boarding school books and I went to, like, a book club or a dinner party. I went to something here in Thomasville and found out the girl I was talking to, the woman I was talking to, had been to boarding school. And I was like, oh, my gosh. I used to play boarding school. And the look on her face was like, what? And like, Thomasville is the only place I've ever lived. I haven't lived that many places, but it's the only place I've ever lived where, like, a lot of kids go to boarding school here. Like, have you noticed that?
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B
It is. And it's just. To me, it's like a world I feel like I'll never know, but I'm fascinated. I want. I want to live that boarding school life just for a little bit. Like, I want to go back in time.
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A
I know I'm like, could Jordan and I be teachers at one? Like, how can we. Because now. Because now I'm 39. Like, times run out for me. Like, I'm not going to boarding school. But, like, could Jordan be a teacher at 1:1? And then our child Isaac could grow up on the campus of one. That sounds great.
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B
It does. And I have. I've had friends who did that. So.
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A
Okay, see, I would love to do that. So anyway, much like those who can't dance, read about it.
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B
Those who didn't go to boarding school, also read about it.
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A
Here's what I really like about this book. First of all, I really do believe Ellen Hildebrand is a great writer. I had a lot of fun this summer reading her some of her books. I'm going to keep reading Ellen Hildebrand. She is somebody who I had not devoted a ton of my reading time to because she sells herself here at the bookshelf. Like, it's not. These aren't books necessarily that I have to read and be super knowledgeable about. They sell on their own. But because of Netflix and their adaptation of the Perfect Couple, I kind of tiptoed into the Ellen Hildebrand waters last year and this summer it was kind of fun to continue that and so downloaded the Academy to my Kindle Devoured it. It's set over the course of a year. I also want readers to know something I did not know, which is this is the first in a duology. So when you get to the end and there's like loose ends that aren't tied up and you're like, what happened here? You'll find out later when they publish book two, I suppose, next year. So you aren't maybe getting a full story. Although definitely it felt like a totally standalone book. There were just like a couple of plot lines where I thought, oh, and they will be continued, I suppose, in book two. This is a group of kids who are high school students their junior year. So again, now this makes a lot of sense to me. Next year's their senior year. There isn't really, I think in some Ellen Hildebrand books there's like a mystery element. I would not call this a mystery book at all. It's definitely not a suspense thriller. The students are grappling with the death of a student from last year. And so that kind of is a shadow that overhangs. But it's not really a mystery per se. A lot of boarding school books, I feel like, are darker or grittier. This is not. To me, this is very fun. Fun without being too light and fluffy. It feels a little bit like reading an elevated teen soap opera. I had a great time. And if you're a little worried about, like, oh, teenage protagonists, like, young, you know, maybe that feels too young for you as a reader. There are lots of teacher characters and admin characters throughout the book too, that we get insight into. This, to me, is the perfect blend of character driven and plot driven. Like, I'm trying to think of the movie that Jordan and I watched. It's set at Christmas. It has Paul Giamatti and this.
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B
Oh, the Holdover.
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A
Yes, the Holdovers. Thank you. And the guy with the nose and the hair. Anyway, we love the Holdovers. This felt like. This felt a little bit like that, where you get both the students and their personalities, but you also get the professors and the admins personalities and even some behind the scenes of like, how the school is financed and things like that. So I loved this one. I thought it was great, great fun. It is the Academy by Ellen Hildebrand and Shelby Cunningham, and it comes out on September 16th.
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B
Have you seen any interviews about how they did the writing process? Like, I'm curious, was her daughter a writer before this?
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A
So this is my big question. Did Ellen Hildebrand write it and then Shelby, like, contributed the idea?
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B
She gave her credit for it.
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A
Right. That's what I don't know. I don't know if Shelby, you know, like, I think Christina, Lauren, that duo, like, I'm pretty sure they have like a shared Google Doc that they. Because I'm always curious about, like, how you would collaborate as writers. But I can't tell if Shelby, like, came with the anecdotes and came with the stories and then Ellen, you know, crafted it into what it is. I'm not sure yet, but I will be anxious to see interviews. Yeah.
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B
And do you come away from the book with a positive view of boarding schools? Like, maybe she's from someone there.
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A
I would go there.
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B
Tiffin Academy, here she comes.
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A
If only I could turn back time. Where I wanted to go was the American school in Switzerland. I think I've said this before, but I ordered all of their materials from their. Can you believe? I mean, I guess I was an early adopter of the Internet, but you could, like go to their website and, you know, go to the admissions office. Yeah, maybe I told my classmates I was doing that and not coming back the next year.
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B
Who's to say? Wow.
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A
But I didn't. I stayed in Tallahassee, Florida for my entire educational career. So it's fine.
- [29:15]
B
That's all right. It's okay. There's still time for you and boarding schools and if, until then you can read about them. That's right. I'll just read about them and it'll be fine. My last. My last book I haven't actually read yet, but I'm so excited about it that I wanted to talk about it today on the podcast. It's called the Book of Guilt by Catherine Chidgi. I'm gonna say that's how you pronounce it. It's a lot. There's two consonants together there. And it comes out September 16th. So I'm very excited about it. I have. I downloaded it a while back and I just haven't gotten to it yet. But it has a bit of an alternative history timeline, which. Check. I'm down for alternative history. In this setting, Hitler was assassinated. And I'm sorry. Like saying Hitler on a podcast just feels like so sad. But sorry we had to bring him.
- [30:04]
A
Here we are.
- [30:05]
B
But here we are. But good news in this world, Hitler was assassinated by German conspirators in 1943. And then World War II ended with a treaty. Like, there were no winners, there were no losers. And this is set in 1979 England, and it really focuses on these 13 year old triplets William, Lawrence and Vincent. And they live in what's called the Sycamore Homes, which is. I haven't done the research. I don't know if this is fictional or this is true, but it's a program set up by the British government to take care of like children who lost their parents during the war. So sort of an orphanage, but like, but nicer and better. Like less, less Matilda and more like more nice. Although I haven't read it yet, so I don't know. But, but when the government is forced to cut this, these, these programs, these turn. These 13 year old boys have to be rehomed somewhere. And so the, I think the rest of the book, I think there is a, there's a, there's a creepy scientific experiment aspect to this. Like sort of Allah Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, which I loved that book. I love all of his books. But it's, it's, you know, darkly creepy. And I don't think creepy like, like the ring creepy. I think it's just, yes, there's probably that sense of foreboding, that sense of something isn't right here. Something has been done to these children. Not, not abuse per se, but like some, these children are being used for a purpose that, and maybe have a secret that is a little darker than just like sweet orphans living at, at a home. So yeah, that makes me sound bad that I'm excited about that.
- [31:43]
A
But listen, it sounds good and I, I think I saw this one in the catalog too and I was struck by it because, yeah, it's not that World War II never happened.
- [31:54]
B
Right.
- [31:54]
A
It's just, it's just that it ended two years early. So like that makes, it does make you wonder like, oh, how much would change, right, if only. I don't know. I do think that's an interesting thought experiment.
- [32:06]
B
That's why I love books like that. It just, it is a thought experiment. Like what would happen? What are the ramifications of things if things had gone differently? Wars and you know, all these things and so, and just the setting. England. Check. I love that. The fact that it's got us a slight sort of dystopian slash alternative history, slash scientific technology type aspect to it is also fascinating to me. So I'm really excited to read this one. I hope I don't have to come back next month and say, oh no, guys, it was, it was harsh, but I'm sure it will be fine. And I'm excited about this. I've seen it a lot of places too. So I wonder if we'll start seeing the buzz around.
- [32:43]
A
Yeah as well. I think you're right.
- [32:45]
B
It's called the Book of Guilt by Katherine chigi comes out September 16th and.
- [32:50]
A
Those are the books we're previewing for September. We are really excited because Olivia should be back from maternity leave in October. So you'll be hearing I don't really know what the plan I don't know what the plan is. You'll either be hearing from me and Aaron or you'll be hearing Olivia back. But thank you again for your patience as we navigate this fun but super unusual season in the life of the bookshelf. And I really am super excited about fall books and already I'm literally making notes of the two I need to download and move to the top of my TBR after we're done with this show. So if you want to purchase or pre order any of the books we've talked about today, don't forget that you can do that through our website. That's bookshelfthomasville.com youm can type episode 5:45 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed there. The discount code to get 10% off your order is New release Please this week the what I Am Reading segment is brought to you by. Discover Thomasville Gracefully Tucked within the storied red hills of South Georgia, Thomasville curates a distinguished downtown experience that meanders along several blocks of our iconic red brick streets. Here you discover the soul of the South. Here you discover Thomasville. You can learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com News I do have to say that while on maternity leave these last two ish two and a half months, I've been exploring Thomasville in ways I have not previously. And one of the places we visited with our son Isaac is Birdsong. I had visited Birdsong. It's kind of between Thomasville and Tallahassee if you kind of drive those back roads. And I had been there before because I almost got married there. I thought it would be a fun wedding venue and it would make a beautiful wedding venue. But we got married at Tall Timbers instead. Another kind of Thomasville Tallahassee gem. But we took Isaac for Family Day and it was just me, Jordan and Isaac traipsing along the trails. Bird song they have a beautiful bird viewing window where you can like sit and watch all of the cardinals. We saw raccoon. Like I could tell it was just the kind of place where if we keep going, it'll become a really special place for Isaac to get to see our part of the world and how beautiful our part of the world is. We absolutely loved it. We will be back and it was just a reminder of all the things Thomasville has to offer, even beyond the brick streets where the Bookshelf is located. So thank you again to our sponsor, Discover Thomasville. Here you discover the soul of the south, here you discover Thomasville. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com News this week I'm reading One Golden Summer by Carly Fortune. Erin what are you reading?
- [35:36]
B
This week I am reading A Rather Peculiar Poisoning by Crystal Schleier from the.
- [35:42]
A
Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow the Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram ookshelftville and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, bookshelf thomasville.com a full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at. From the frontporchpodcast.com Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of from the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. Our executive producers of Today's episode are Cami Tidwell, Jamie Treadwell, Linda Lee Jost, 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, support Support us over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to patreon.com from the front porch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Sam.