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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. Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South. The locals of the town wanted to grant anyone who came to town the one freedom Americans typically refused to honor, the freedom to fail without punishment or censure. Ron Rendo Life and Death and Giants 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 September. Before we get started, as usual, a thank you to everyone who has left reviews for from the Front Porch. Itunes, reviews and ratings are how new listeners can best find out about from the Front Porch and as a result, find out about our indie bookstore too. Here's a recent review from Roxy Listening to From the Front Porch is my comfort cast. I appreciate the bookish discussions, recommendations and above all else, the calming voices from a Southern bookstore that helps a stressed out woman in beautiful northern Michigan. Thank you, thank you Roxy. And I am so thrilled and delighted that we can be a little bit of calm maybe in the chaos. If you haven't left a review yet, 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 if you're keeping track. I believe I read in the double digits in August and I am here to tell you that is not the case for September. Pride cometh before the fall and I was so proud and excited and thrilled that I read so many books in August, especially coming out of maternity leave, re entering life at the bookstore, having life with a baby and man, September just slapped me right in the face. And I think that's just because work became stressful in September and I also became quite frenetic in starting a lot of things but not finishing a ton of things. And that is a unusual and b what's interesting is I didn't not finish because I didn't like the books. I just didn't finish because my brain feels broken and so bear with me. But I only read a handful of books in September. The good news is they're good books and I'm excited to talk about them. But it is different in terms of quantity than August, which felt like an abundance of riches. So one good thing that happened in my reading life in September is I fell back in love with audiobooks I never fell out of love with. That has not been easy for me postpartum. I don't know if that's because even without a baby, I have to. It has to be the right kind of audiobook because I am not an auditory learner. And so I often don't feel like I'm taking in or comprehending what I'm listening to. So I really have to be strategic about what audiobooks I try. But with our little one at home, I have, I don't know, I have not gravitated towards audiobooks very much. And my commute is laughable. I don't have a commute. Jordan has a commute. I don't have a commute. So when I went back to work late August, early September, Keela, who is our shipping coordinator at the bookshelf, she and I have. Olivia and I have a Venn diagram that overlaps in certain ways. Aaron and I have a diagram that overlaps in certain ways. That's really probably the case for every person on staff at the bookshelf. But Keela and I, where we overlap is with our love or appreciation for scary movies. And so she. And she's a huge audiobook listener. She listens to audiobooks while she packages your orders. And she told me immediately upon my return to the bookshelf, she said, you have to read your favorite scary movie. This is a new book by Ashley Cullens. It came out at the end of August. It's a paperback original. It is literally called you'd favorite Scary Movie, and it is a history of an encapsulation of the Scream movie franchise. So the audiobook and the reason Keila really wanted me to read the audiobook is because it is narrated by Roger L. Jackson, who, if you are familiar with the Scream movie franchise, Roger Jackson is the voice of Ghostface, who's the villain, the scary figure in those movies. So I immediately downloaded it from Libro fm, and I am pleased to say Keila was right. I really liked this book a lot. I actually, my only regret is I kind of wish I had held it for October. Though it did immediately make me want to rewatch or watch all of the Scream movies. I think I've seen almost all of them. I believe, Gosh, it's Scream three or four of. Upon hearing the recap, kind of each chapter or each couple of chapters are devoted to different movie in the franchise. And there were a couple movies where I was like, oh, I don't know that I've seen that one. The book is extremely thorough. It's not too long. Well, it's not a long book. I do think maybe it's slightly too long for the subject matter. I mean, it is in depth. It is a lot. So many interviews, you can tell. I believe Ashley Cullen's background is journalism. So this is almost like an extended Entertainment Weekly article or something like that because she has interviewed almost everyone involved with these films. She has done a lot of in depth research and she even talks about the upcoming Scream movie that I think is coming in 2026. This was fun. A great trip down pop culture memory lane. Like I said, it made me want to watch the Scream movies this October during Spooky Movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this. I think it's good for. If you read the Friends book called I'll Be There for your. This isn't an oral history. So it's not like, you know, Live from New York, the SNL history book. This is like reading about your favorite TV show or your favorite movie and each chapter is about a different movie in the franchise. I learned a lot. I consider myself, and perhaps you're listening to this wondering, well, how big of a Scream fan do you need to be? I probably am not the Scream fan that Keela is. And yet I got a lot out of this one. And I, I thought it was really interesting. I had no idea. I'd always thought Wes Craven was a fake name. I. I honestly thought, who names their kid Wes Craven? And so I thought that was a pen name this whole time. It's not. That's his real name. And so I learned a lot and really enjoyed this despite perhaps not being a super fan. And I don't think you have to be a super fan to appreciate this book. Now, again, in depth for each movie. And I will say by the time she was kind of recapping or giving a history of or a deep dive of Scream, it was either five or six. I did start to lose a lot of interest. Maybe it was the Scream 6 discussion, but it also is fascinating to learn about this movie as it goes through the years and to kind of see how culture and pop culture have shifted and changed. I liked learning more about Kevin Williamson. He also created Dawson's Creek, which I've always thought is really fascinating. Fascinating to do both the Scream movies and Dawson's Creek. I liked this one a lot. I think it's highly entertaining, great for spooky reads season, and a little bit different obviously than your typical spooky book or thriller or rom com. This is a nice change of pace if you're looking for a change of pace this spooky reading season. So that is your favorite scary movie by Ashley Collins. Next I downloaded so Old, so Young by Grant Ginder. I downloaded this. Is it Grant Kinder? Or gender? Or gender. I should have looked it up and I didn't, and I apologize for that. But it's Grant G I N D E R the reason I downloaded this one because you're all about to get real mad at me. But I saw this on Instagram, I'm pretty sure Posted or reposted by Mary Laura Philpott, who blurbed it, this book doesn't come out until February. That's right, February of 2026. I'm sorry about it, but it's my job, okay? This is literally my job now. Is it my job to be reading for spring? Publishers would say so, yes. I'm still trying to read for shelf subscriptions next month. But I did go ahead and download so Old, so Young to my Kindle, and this is one perk. I hesitated so long, I mean, for years on getting a Kindle, and I still do not prefer reading electronically. It is not my preference. I don't particularly enjoy it, but it's hard to deny the convenience for a bookseller of seeing a book on Instagram, knowing you may or may not get an ARC of that book, depending on how many they printed, depending on which influencers they go to, who they, who they send one to, and just going to Edelweiss, which is our catalog system, and downloading the E galley, it's so much faster. And that is another way that Amazon monopolizes the book business, because here I am, an independent bookseller and I'm beholden to being able to download a book to my Kindle. Okay, that's my rant. That's my. That's my frustration. This book is great. This book is so good. So again, it's called so Old, so Young. You might recognize Grant's name. He also wrote People We Hate at the Wedding, and let's not do that again. I did not particularly love People We Hate at the Wedding, though it was turned into a movie, which I did not watch because again, I did not love the book, even though it sounded like one I should love. But I did really like and gosh, did I send it out as a shelf subscription. I loved the book. Let's not do that again. It felt very timely without being a bummer, because some books that are timely and of the moment are a real bummer, because the moment we're living in is a bummer. But let's not do that again. Felt really timely. So Old, so Young is about a group of friends they meet in college in the early aughts. They're slightly older than I am, so I think the characters, by the time I finish the book, they're in their mid-40s. So if you graduated college around, I'm going to say between 2004 and 2007 or 8, you're around the same age as these characters. So it's a group of friends they meet in college. And here's what. Here is what hooked me. And this is why I immediately downloaded it. Because I have read lots of books about friends. I like them a lot. Like this books about groups of friends, books like, you know, books for fans of Emma Straub. I love books about quirky friendships and friendships that last decades. What stuck out about this one was the premise, which is the book checks in with these friends over the course of, I think it's five parties, meaning we get a Halloween party, we get a New Year's Eve party, we get a housewarming, I believe, anyway, over the course of probably in total a little over a decade, maybe maybe two decades. It's probably between 10 and 15 and 20 years. And so we get to like peek in on these friends every few years when they see each other again at a party. And maybe they've seen each other other times throughout the year, but we are not privy to that. So it's almost like one day, if you remember that book and that show, which I thought was a great show, a great adaptation, if you liked that. I think this premise is similar where it's a group of friends, but we only get to see them once every few years at a different party. The parties are fun again. Feels like a bit of a time capsule depending on the year in which the party is set. If you liked the Celebrants by Stephen Rowley, I think you will love this book. Not all of the characters are likable. One of them absolutely drove me nuts. And yet it did not matter. Because don't we all have a friend who might. Who we love, even though they drive us nuts like Isn't, isn't that the point? Maybe we are that friend again. If you like Emma Straub, the Big Chill, the movie St. Elmo's Fire. If you like these kind or I know if you liked and I just talked about another book like this, but if you liked the television show Four Seasons, I think you're gonna really love so Old so Young. There are so many. I highlighted so many little excerpts because it's got great insights into motherhood, friendship, middle age, figuring out who you are, grief, loss of loved ones. It just covers a lot of territory. If you were interested or liked Angela Flournoy's new book, the Wilderness. Similar kinds of kind of concept going on here. It's got a beautiful cover. It is called so Old, so Young by Grant. Let's go with gender. G I N D e R releases February 17, 2026. I'm so sorry but you can pre order it and I think you will be very glad that you did. Okay. Back in the current timeline. Back in the current timeline. A book you can read right now. I after finishing the audiobook of your favorite scary movie, I knew I needed something to keep the momentum going. So I downloaded Life and Death and Giants by Ron Rindo. Now, I don't know if you have seen this one everywhere like I have seen it everywhere. The reason I have seen it everywhere is because Erin here at the bookshelf, it was her shelf subscription selection. If you are not familiar, we have a book of the month program called Shelf Subscription where a few of our staffers send out their favorite book of the month. So my selections tend more toward the literary. Often a female protagonist, Olivia, sends out a book every month that is a cozy mystery, a thriller or a science fiction kind of book. And then we have this year we started this one called the Revolving Shelf Subscription. We did this for all kinds of reasons to ease the burden of choosing a shelf subscription. It's actually harder than you think to ease that burden from a few of our staffers and volunteers like my parents. So the revolving shelf subscription is shop mom, Susie, shop dad, Chris, Aaron and Nancy. This way, Aaron and Nancy aren't scrambling to pick a book every month, which does not feel fair for folks who don't work 40 hours a week. And then my parents, who are volunteers but whose literary tastes really do line up with a lot of our customers. It also takes the burden off of them so they're not having to read a book every month for this program. Instead, my poor dad just wanted to read more than just shelf subscriptions. So the revolving shelf subscription has been really popular. I think it's perfect for the adventurous reader. In September, it was Aaron's turn to pick and she picked Life and Death and Giants. This one had been on my radar because of publisher blurbs and going through the catalogs. This one sounded interesting. It was the favorite of one of our publisher reps. She really liked it and it sounded intriguing. I honestly just didn't make time for it. And then when I saw Aaron picked it, I thought, okay, maybe I should give it a go. And the audiobook is so good. The audiobook is narrated by a rotating cast of characters. It's narrated by Christina Moore, Johnny Heller, Roger Wayne and Will Dameron. Honestly, I almost didn't download it because it's 11 plus hours. And I think you've heard me say here before that I really. My sweet spot for audiobooks is seven or eight hours. Beyond that, I just can read faster than I can listen. I am not. No shade. Maybe a little bit of shade, but. But honestly, no real shade. If you listen to audiobooks at like 1.5, 1.8 or 2, it's just. I can't. I truly can't. I think my brain would break. It works at that speed anyway. And I. That just feels like it'd be overkill. So I, I rate myself soundly at 1.1 or 1.2 at the most. So this is an 11 hour audiobook. It's beautiful in audiobook format. I was very tempted to move to physical book because I wanted to read more quickly than I could listen and I wanted to know what happened. So if you're not familiar with this one, Aaron has talked about it. And then our friend Meg, who is a supporter of us on Patreon, she is a longtime customer of ours and she has the blog. I'm sorry, the blog. What is this, 2008? She has the podcast Meg's Reading Room and she has talked a lot about this book as well. So I've seen it in my. In my neck of the woods quite a bit. But if you are not familiar, this is a story about a young boy who is born to his mom and he is 18 pounds, so hence the book's title, Life and Death and Giants. His mother dies after giving birth to him and he is raised ultimately by his Amish grandparents. The book is told in a few different storylines. It is told through the grandmothers perspective. She is Amish. She is raising this unusual little boy. There is the town veterinarian who is one of my favorite characters and he is the person who helped deliver this giant baby and plays an important role in the little boy's life as he grows up. Then there is the town bartender, bar owner. Feels extremely realistic, like your favorite Jay Ryan Stradel character. Also, this book. This book could be cousins with a lot of the J. Ryan Stridel books. And I think that's because it's set in Wisconsin, it's set in the Midwest. And then you also get the voice of the football coach who winds up discovering this giant young man and recruiting him to play for his football team. So, so many boxes. I think, when I originally read the blurb and let this be a lesson to us, you know, lesson to me to pick up books even when they sound slightly out of my genre. So I was hesitant to read this one at first, I think because of the giant of it all. I just wondered if it would be more folklore than I was interested in. I don't love books that dive too much into magical realism or folklore or fairy tale. This isn't like that at all. It reminds me of how I almost didn't read Buckeye because Buckeye had this. This. I can commune with the dead element. These books just aren't as weird as they sound. And if you like weird books, you will be equally delighted. But I do think, and maybe I should do a podcast episode sometime on what it's like when you choose to read outside of what you think you'll like, maybe sometimes taking a chance on a book that is out of genre for you. So Life and Death and Giants felt slightly out of genre for me. It wasn't at all. It totally is in my wheelhouse. And then it. It feels very autumnal. The COVID if you've seen the COVID naturally lends itself to that. But the football of it all felt very seasonal. And so this feels like a seasonally appropriate book. This is five stars for me. I loved it. I loved it. And I have heard a lot about it in my corner of the world, thanks to Aaron and thanks to Meg. I'm so grateful for people who champion books because it helps me pay better attention, but I haven't seen this a ton of other places. I think in the fall, what we get is so many books, and really good books can easily slip through the cracks because so many books have come out. This totally reads to me like a Jenna Bush Hager book. A Jenna pick. But she had picked Buckeye, which Buckeye also felt like a Jenna pick. And so there's only so many celebrity book club selections that can be picked every month. So this is one that I feel would have been deserving of that, of that sticker, even though I know we all hate the sticker. So if you like Remarkably Bright Creatures, I think about the multiple storylines or multiple narrations or narrative voices in that book. If you liked that, I think you will really like this. This is going to sound odd, but we were listening to the audiobook in the car, and Jordan heard the Amish character, the woman in the book, the grandmother figure, Hannah, she is saying. She says something about English people. And Jordan hit pause and he said, why does she keep talking about talking about the English? And I said, oh, that's what the Amish call us. Anyone not in the Amish community is English. And Jordan was like that. Oh, I had no idea. And I was shocked. I was like, you had no idea? What do you mean? First of all, have you seen Witness? Second of all, did you not read in the 1990s so much Christian Amish literature that you bought from your local Christian bookstore? Is that just me? READER TURNS OFF of course it was just me. It just was so funny because I don't know why, and maybe this is still the case, but in Christian fiction publishing, there was a real push. There was a real push to put out so many books featuring Amish characters. I don't know if that's because they were more likely to be pg. I don't know if that was part of it. But, man, when 90s, I'm trying to think, was her. Was the author named Beverly Lewis? Was that her name? I just feel like a whole population of us wound up consuming a lot of Amish culture and literature. And then my family did, because of course we did. Of course the Butterworths took a vacation to Amish country up in Pennsylvania. And so, and so I have memories of that as a kid. But it was funny to me when I told Jordan about these, like, Amish romance novels and he looked at me like, what are you talking about? And I thought, well, somebody missed that bit of 1990s evangelical culture and what a shame. So if you like me, weirdly as a 13, 14 year old, maybe even younger, to be honest, if you also read a lot of Amish literature, there's a part of you where that interest, that little part of your brain is going to be delighted by this book, even though this is in no way, shape or form a romance novel. But I felt, because I was back learning, and I think the way Ron Rindo, the author, is Ron Rindo, the way Ron Rindo handles the Amish community in Wisconsin and handles them with such respect and handles their faith with such respect. Is really interesting and well done, but it, like, scratched that part of my brain that had read about the Amish when I was a kid. It was just funny that that kind of sparked the memory for me. So that is Life and Death and Giants by Ron Rindo. I think you can't go wrong. Print or audio? I did audio, but again, kind of wished I had done print just because then I could have read it even faster. That is Life and Death and Giants. Okay, then, last but not least. And yeah, I know what you're thinking. Wow, Annie, not a lot of books. Yeah, I know. It is. It is what it is. But last but not least is Best Offer Wins. This is by Marissa cascino. This releases November 25th. I'm sorry, but you don't have to wait that long. This releases November 25th. It is a debut novel, guys, I was hooked. Now, various folks have blurbed this one. Alex Michaelidis, who wrote the Silent Patient. Correct. And then somebody blurbed this as, like, the next Gone Girl, which we all kind of roll our eyes at that now. Or at least I do, because for a while there, every thriller that came out onto the market was the next Gone Girl. And really almost none of them were. So I'm always a little hesitant or apprehensive, suspicious. I'm a little suspicious of that descriptor. But this is a debut novel, and it is about the Washington, D.C. housing market. If you live in D.C. i kind of think you have to read this. But I think if you live anywhere, even in my tiny Southern town, Jordan and I often will joke that if we were to sell our home, we might be able to get, you know, an amazing deal on it because we bought it in 2019. We might really get to sell it for what it's worth. But. But we wouldn't be able to afford anything else. Like. And so if you are a millennial who is overwhelmed by, irritated by, frustrated by, consumed by the housing market wherever you live, this is going to be very fun for you because you will feel seen. And then you will also check yourself because our main character is kind of in a bit of a crisis. She and her husband have been looking for a home. They're about to. They really want to grow their family. She's reaching her late 30s. She's feeling a lot of pressure. They've contemplated IVF, but instead they really want to find a house first. And after their. I think it's like their 11th contract goes through or their offer doesn't happen because it's such a competitive housing market. She gets well, she becomes unhinged. She. She kind of loses her mind. Her name's Margot. And honestly, I don't know if it's just because of the character name, but there was, to me, some of this that was a little bit reminiscent of Margot's Got Money Troubles, which was a book I loved. I did see that that book was like 3.8 on Goodreads. And I am sorry, no, that is incorrect. Books are subjective. But also, no, that book was really good. And kudos to Rufi Thorpe because I still think about Margo. And so this character's name is Margot. And Margot's realtor, or real estate agent calls her and says, hey, there's this house. It is not on the market yet. They're going to list it soon. If you want to do a drive by and see if you like it. And this might be your chance to be the first one to put in an offer. And already I was like, oh, this is funny because when I moved to Thomasville, when Jordan and I moved to Thomasville, we were looking for like a smaller kind of starter house. It was our very first home buy. We were so excited. And Thomasville at that time was more affordable than Tallahassee. And so we were like, oh, it was meant to be. And the realtor or real estate agent, I remember her telling us, just let me know if you see a house that you're interested in, because then I could, I could do some digging for you. And I was like, oh, like, you know, if it has a for sale sign out front or she was like, no, no, if just any house, if you see any house that you're interested in, you just never know. And I was like, what? And apparently that is now that I have lived in Thomasville for a while. I do think that is something that is true here where, like, if you know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody. There have been so many houses that have been sold and bought without there ever being a for sale sign in the Y, which is bonkers and also feels wildly unfair. What if you're interested in that house but you don't know anybody anyway, you're at a real disadvantage if you move. If you move here without knowing anybody is what I'm saying. And I know this because I did. So I love that Margot is told by her realtor to do drive bys, to do a drive by, and Margot does. She falls in love with the house. And you can already tell Margot is is maybe already coming apart at the seams a little bit because she does the drive by with her husband. But instead of that just being it, she like goes into the backyard and looks in the back window, which no, like I, I think that is when I knew, oh, okay, this is gonna, this is gonna go wonky. And what unfolds then becomes a very darkly funny satirical thriller in my mind. Maybe thriller is the wrong word, suspense novel, but Margot takes it upon herself to start befriending the people who own the house who are potentially going to sell it. She starts to weave and tell some lies that are going to really come back to bite her. The premise of this is fantastic and then the execution is really great. I loved this one. I thought it was so fun and it had been a minute since I had read a really fun thriller, probably Happy Wife, which I read over the summer. So if you're looking for like an autumnal, sadly, this one does not come out. Which I am bummed about this. It doesn't come out until late November, which I think does it a bit of a disservice. But I thought this one was fun kind of satirical play on a current millennial problem. But it's a pro. I guess it's probably a problem for everyone, but this novel does feel distinctly millennial, and that is Best Offer Wins by Marissa Cascino releases on November 25th, so you can pre order it now. And those are the books I read in September. As usual with our Reading Recap episodes, we are offering a Reading Recap Bundle for this month. But due to release dates and my own limited number of books I read, the September Reading Recap Bundle is a pairing. So it's $46 and it includes your favorite Scary Movie, which is a paperback original, and Life and Death and Giants, which has a beautiful cover that if you decorate with books, if you're like me and you decorate seasonally, this book will look beautiful every fall. You can find more details and the September Bundle online through the link in our show notes or go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number that is 5:48 in the search bar. This week, what I Am Reading 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. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com News When I moved to Thomasville, one of my favorite organizations I discovered was the Thomasville History center, and it was just such a good way to learn about this place where I was moving. Thomasville is only 30, 45 minutes from Tallahassee, but it's really different and I was able to learn more about why Thomasville is the way that it is and what makes it so special and what has made it so special over the years by visiting the Thomasville History center and doing a tour there. I would be remiss if I did not go ahead and put in a plug for one of their upcoming events in early October is their Crate to Plate dinner. So many events that the History center puts on are beautifully, beautifully done. And the fall is really fall and spring are really Thomas Hill's time to shine. And the Crate to Plate dinner feels like a really beautiful way to kick off the autumn season in Thomasville. And So they're celebrating 200 years. Can you believe that? 200 years of Thomas County. On October 2, 2025, you can have this dinner featuring Thomas Sowell's favorite recipes from the Pines and Plantations Cookbook, which is a cookbook that is no longer in print. But I mean, we sold at the Bookshelf so many copies of that book. So that's where the recipes for this year's crate are going to come from. And you can literally pick a crate picnic on the grounds or take it home to your family. We have done Crate to Plate for the last couple of years, and it's just a fun way to support the Thomasville History center, but also to take part in a really lovely autumn tradition. So that is the Crate to Plate Dinner at the Thomasville History Center. This week I'm listening to the Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lyon by Beth Brower. Thank you again to our sponsor, Discover Thomas Thomasville. Here you discover the soul of the South. Here you discover Thomasville. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com News 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 @bookshelf tville 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 Producer 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 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 Friday the Front Porch we're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
From the Front Porch — Episode 548 || September 2025 Reading Recap
Host: Annie Jones (Owner, The Bookshelf Thomasville)
Original Air Date: September 25, 2025
Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia, recaps her September 2025 reads. This month’s theme centers on quality over quantity: while Annie read fewer books than usual, she found them thoughtful, well-crafted, and often seasonally appropriate for fall. She discusses her renewed love for audiobooks and highlights titles fit for spooky season, millennial woes, and the value of reading "outside your genre." Annie weaves personal stories and Bookshelf team insights, providing not just book summaries but reflections on the reading life itself.
Fewer Books, Deeper Enjoyment: Annie acknowledges she read less due to stressful life events and a busy month after returning from maternity leave, describing her brain as feeling "broken" and laser-focusing on unfinished books.
Audiobook Renaissance: After struggling with audiobooks postpartum (due to not being an auditory learner), Annie credits Keela (The Bookshelf’s shipping coordinator) for recommending an audiobook that reignited her enthusiasm.
Audiobook narrated by Roger L. Jackson
[Segment begins ~08:30]
eARC, Releases February 17, 2026
[Segment begins ~19:40]
Audiobook & print available
[Segment begins ~31:55]
Debut Novel, Releases November 25, 2025
[Segment begins ~47:55]
The episode is warm, conversational, and gently humorous, weaving personal anecdotes with thoughtful book analysis. Annie maintains her calming, Southern storytelling style throughout, connecting her reading life to her community and listeners—especially those who love books as much as she does.
For purchase links, details on the Reading Recap Bundle, or to support The Bookshelf, visit bookshelfthomasville.com and search for episode 548.