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Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. This was the city he believed in, the city in which knowing somebody once was knowing them forever. Everything beautiful and everything useful about the city could be found in these relationships of dependence. Megham and a guardian and a thief 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 October. Before we get started, a thank you to everyone who's 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 Crystal I'm a busy mom of four and I confess I listen to your podcast every day. Listening to you while I fold laundry or do dishes. Even the car running errands is truly the best. I really enjoy catching up with older episodes while on my morning and evening walks. The new release rundowns are some of my favorites. Annie is sunshine in a podcast. Olivia's laughter is contagious and I love that you can hear the warmth in Erin's voice. I absolutely adore Susie. She has me laughing out loud and truly wishing I was curled up on a couch beside her just chatting all things bookish. Thank you all so much for the hard work you put into everything you do. Thank you so much. If you have not left a review, all you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for from the Front Porch, scroll down until you see, write a review, and then tell us what you think. Your reviews help us spread the word about not only our podcast, but about our small brick and mortar business too. Plus Crystal, you just made so many of us so very happy. So thank you for that. Now back to the show. All right, I feel like September was a little bit of an odd month. October has felt more new normal in that I read a decent variety of it's not genres of literature, but how I read. I read by listening to audiobooks. I read on my Kindle, I read in physical format and I do think that made a difference. So I was able to read quite a few books in October considering it was really a busy, busy month. I also, and you'll hear me say this at the very end of the episode, I also got a little bit bogged down because I decided on a whim to pick up Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and I Have not finished it. But I was like, why am I not reading anything in October? And it's because I was slowly making my way through that book. So I did have to put it down for a minute. Just. Just because I was like, I gotta read. I gotta read something. I gotta read something else. So if that is the boat you have found yourself in at times this year, I totally get it. So let's get started with the book that I started the episode with. Because this is a five star book for me. I would just like to say that I did not receive an E galley of this book or a. I did not receive a galley of this book. So I. I think I read this one digitally. In fact, I know I read this one digitally. But I did read it before Oprah announced it as her book club book. But it is an Oprah Book Club selection. A Guardian and a Thief by Megham Njumdar. I adored her book A Burning. That book released like peak pandemic 2020. I was alone at the bookshelf finishing it. I believe I cried. In fact, I know that I cried in the floor of the bookshelf when I finished that book. I loved it so much. So I was very anxious to read this one, though also hesitant, as we often are when we approach an author's sophomore work. But I wasn't surprised. I believe I said this in a literary first look for fall, I saw that Kirkus or another critic referred to Megham Jumdar as something about she's the kind of writer who addresses things with moral clarity or she's writing about the moral dilemmas of our time. Something about that. Like that she is writing about moral dilemmas and consequences. And that is certainly the case in A Guardian and a Thief. And there may be some people who, some readers who are turned off by that. I, of course I'm not turned off by that. But also I think she handles things with a pretty light touch. Nothing I read by her, not a burning, not A Guardian and a Thief. Nothing feels preachy. This one is, I think it is a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. You can totally see why the writing is absolutely brilliant. The title of the book comes from our two characters. So we have a woman who is a guardian and a young boy who is a thief. Though as the book progresses you are left to kind of decide, wait, who is who? Because the guardian at the center of the book is a middle aged woman or a younger woman maybe with a child. She has an aging father and her partner spouse is living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is living in Calcutta. This book is set in a future, a near future Calcutta. And she is trying to get a climate passport. There has been some kind of climate event. So this is in its own way, this is climate fiction, which has been really popular this year and I've read quite a bit of it. So she is trying to get a climate passport to join her husband in Ann Arbor with her daughter and father in law. In the meantime, she works at a shelter, helps run a shelter in Calcutta that distributes food and perhaps even houses, people. And as she is getting ready to take her family, her climate passports that she's worked so hard to get are stolen from her house. A thief breaks into her house, a young man named Boomba. And Boomba breaks into her house. He's kind of a. We get the backstory of Boomba and we kind of see how he's become who he has become. He's a bit of a troublemaker. He's one of those people who just, no matter how hard he tries, and he does try so hard, he just can't seem to get his act together. And so he, he breaks into this woman's house and she steals her passports. And what unfolds then is the realization that perhaps she has maybe been stealing from the shelter. So maybe she's not quite this moral center that we thought she was. And then maybe Boomba is more complicated than we thought he was. I loved this book. Not only do you get these two characters who are really centrals to the story, but you also, the quote at the top of the book or the top of the episode talks about Calcutta and this place where people depend upon one another. That viewpoint is the viewpoint of the father, the patriarch, the elderly, elderly gentleman who really doesn't want to go to Ann Arbor. He really doesn't see a world in which he leaves India. And so you get other side characters who are just as rich, just as well drawn as the guardian and the thief who are at the center of the book. There's also a lot at play here regarding wealth disparity. What happens to the wealthy when there's a climate crisis versus what happens to the poor when there's a climate crisis. It's extremely prescient, well thought out, interesting, would make a great book club conversation. It reminded me a lot of Land of Milk and Honey, which came out a couple years ago. And I liked that book a lot. But there were some ways in which it fell a little bit flat. For me, it got a little maybe bogged down this was so fast paced. Like, you could read this book if you've got time, you could read this book in one sitting. It's a page turner, which is one thing I think she does really well. Like, this is literary fiction. This is award winning, critically acclaimed kind of fiction. But it's also just extremely readable, which is why I think it's great for book clubs. It's probably why Oprah picked it for her book club. There's plenty to discuss. I will just. I won't say anything except to say the ending. I immediately texted Hunter. He was the other person I knew who had read this one. And we texted about the book and the ending. If you're trying to check off maybe National Book Award longlist or National Book Award titles, you're trying to get them read, put this one at the top of your list. I Love this book. Five stars. It's gonna be in my top 10 of the year. It was not a sophomore slump. I need not have been worried. I loved it. And however you feel like, we've got some folks who will read books because they are Oprah Book Picks. Oprah Book Club picks. And then I feel like we have some customers who just are turned off by any celebrity book club selection. I would encourage you to not let that sway you here. This is just a really good book. This is a really good book and Oprah does know how to pick them. And so anyway, A Guardian and a Thief by Megham and Joumdar. Beautiful cover, really well crafted storytelling, Highly, highly recommend. One of my favorites of the year. Then I think I was, as I was wrapping that one up, I was listening to and finishing listening to the Irish Goodbye. This is by Heather Amy o'. Neill. The audiobook is narrated by Kristin See, and I loved it. I also think it released in late September, but it is set over Thanksgiving weekend. So to me, perfect November reading. It's got a great autumnal cover. The audiobook is fantastic. It's a book about the Ryan sisters. These are. Oh, she reminds me kind of. This kind of reminds me of like a J. Courtney Sullivan book. These are Irish Catholic sisters who. They are each in varying life stages and they are all grappling with the death of their brother. He died by suicide. And so this is the first time, this Thanksgiving weekend is the first time that the Ryan sisters and their mother and father have all gotten together after their brother's death. After their brother's death, the family kind of splintered. And so this is their first time all back together is for this Thanksgiving Celebration. So you've got the three sisters. One sister is living abroad in England. Her marriage is falling apart. She's got two, and I will not lie to you, pretty obnoxious kids. Like, I don't know if it's the audiobook of it all. You know, when an audiobook narrator is trying to do, you know, different voices. And so I don't know if it was the kids voices or what. But truly, whatever delightful children Annabelle Monahan crafted in Nora goes off script, the children in this book are the opposite of that. The children in this book are terrible. So anyway, the eldest daughter left after her brother's death, went overseas, had two children, and now her marriage is kind of in trouble. She's come back home for the weekend. Then the middle daughter, because the eldest daughter left, the middle daughter is who has found herself staying put, staying back home, trying to take care of her parents, trying to take care of their aging home, raising her own children. And this is no spoiler, but in the book, she also is unexpectedly pregnant. And she is distraught, angry, anxious, terrified. She does not want to be pregnant. And so a lot of her storyline is dealing with her pregnancy, that she's kind of keeping a secret and trying to know what to do with. And then the younger sister, the youngest sister is a teacher at this private school, this boarding school. She has recently begun a relationship with another teacher and she brings this woman with her, her to the family Thanksgiving. And so you think that they maybe have the more normal kind of relationship, the more healthy, I guess I should say the healthier relationship. But then you realize this sister has had an affair with a student's parent. So a student's mother at the school. And so she's got her own stuff she's dealing with. So each of these three women brings this drama with her to the family Thanksgiving. This is not a book in which a ton happens in terms of plot. I mean, some stuff happens. It reminds me of, like I said, J. Courtney Sullivan, the book I read recently by Erin O. White called Like Family Flight by Lynn Stager. Strong Flight is to Christmas, as the Irish Goodbye is to Thanksgiving. It's got a great setting. It's off the, I believe it's the Massachusetts coast. It's definitely set in New England. The Thanksgiving New England setting is great. There is no doubt that this book does deal with pretty heavy subject matter because not only do those have affairs, relationships, pregnancies, things that they're each dealing with that they've brought to the table, the metaphorical table, but they also are struggling with their brother's death and the fact that he took his own life. So there is a lot here about that. So if that is something that is troubling for you to read about, consider this your content warning. At the center of their brother's death is this event that took place years before when they were teenagers, this boat accident, this boating accident. And it kind of sent the brother down a path that maybe he otherwise might not have gone down. Although that is kind of discussed and observed at length. I liked this book a lot. I think if you like dysfunctional family fiction, this one will be for you. I will say I loved the first half and the back half did slow down for me a little bit. That being said, overall, I'm pretty sure I gave this one 4 stars. I liked it a lot. I think it's worth your time. I think it's great Thanksgiving reading if you you don't mind heavier subject matter. So the Irish Goodbye, like I said, came out at the end of September. Like Family, which is a book by Aaron O. White, which I think I reviewed on a previous podcast episode. That book is also kind of set over Thanksgiving weekend. It's more friends who are family. That book to me is dealing with lighter subject matter. This book does impart. I mean, this family is grieving. Maybe I said, did I say this somewhere? So Jordan and I both love the movie the Family Stone, which RIP Diane Keaton. That was deeply, deeply sad to me, but we love the movie the Family Stone. But Jordan and I were talking about it the other day and Jordan said, you know, the people in the Family Stone are awful. And I was kind of like, you know, I don't know that they're awful. And he's like, they behave so badly. And I said, you know, they're grieving. Like that's the whole point is at the end of that movie you realize, oh my gosh, they're all so sad and they're trying so hard to have this holiday, even though they are sad in the Irish Goodbye occasionally. Oh my gosh. And one of these sisters, I won't tell you which one. One of these sisters in particular is insufferable to me. And she just is so irritating. And then every time I started getting really frustrated with her, I thought, but she's grieving like they have lost a sibling, which totally changes their. Has changed their family dynamic. I liked this book. Some of the characters are irritating, but then when you know why they're irritating, I think it helps. Loved the first half. Just liked the second half, but overall, think it's worth your I think it's worth picking up that is the Irish Goodbye by Heather Amy o' Neill hey friends, it's Annie. If you're looking for another bookish show to add to your listening cue, check out the Webby Award winning daily podcast Totally Booked with Zibby. It's hosted by my fellow independent bookstore owner Zibby Owens, who's been dubbed New York City's most powerful book fluencer by Vulture. Every weekday on Totally Booked, she sits down with the best and buzziest authors to share work that's truly worth your time. And that's not all. Season two of Totally Booked Live is here. This time around, you're invited to be part of the live studio audience in New York for 16 incredible interviews with stars like Danny Shapiro and Susan Orlean. Every conversation will be released on the podcast feed after, so don't miss out. Follow Totally Booked with Zibby wherever you're listening now. Okay, next up, on a whim, I picked up a backlist title because I went to a used bookstore in New England while I was there for a wedding and honestly I just picked this one. I was not going to buy anything. Used bookstores feel like a treasure hunt, but also can be overwhelming to me and I think it's just from all my years of working in and being around new bookstores. I think past Annie used to enjoy used bookstores more than current Annie does, but we were in this used bookstore that was a mess of a place in the best way possible and so you're just kind of digging through stuff. Jordan loves a store like this. For me, it depends on the kind of mood I am in. So once I decided we were going to spend some time there, I did kind of look at what they had and browsed the shelves. I was not going to buy anything until I saw this little blue book and the title was this. Well, the COVID was, you know, very typography heavy and it said Often I am Happy. That was the title. Often I am Happy. This is by Jens Christian Grundahl. I think I'm pronouncing that right. Grondal this is a work of translation. It feels like an epistolary novel kind of sort of in that. Our narrator is Eleanor. Eleanor is talking to or writing to her dear friend Anna, who has died. Anna has died years previously and the reason I picked it up, I picked it up because of the title. But then as I kind of read what the book was about, basically Eleanor and her husband were friends with Anna and her husband. And then Anna had an affair with Eleanor's husband. But the. The affair is not discovered until Anna and Eleanor's husband are already deceased. If this sounds like the plot of a new Colleen Hoover novel turned movie, I think that's. I think that's because it is like. But this is by a Dutch author. And this came out years and years ago. I want to say. I say years and years ago. It was in the 2000 and tens sometime. I want to say 2015, maybe 2017. Anyway, this is a work of translation. It's a very sparse novel. It's really. It probably qualifies technically as a novella. It's pretty short. And this is just Eleanor writing to Anna because Eleanor's husband is Anna's husband. So after Anna's death and Eleanor's husband's death, Eleanor begins to date Anna's husband and her that husband has now died. It's not as convolute. I promise. I promise I'm doing a poor job. I promise I'm doing a poor job. You basically have these two couples whose lives have become intertwined because of death and affairs. Deaths and affairs. So Eleanor was married to Anna's husband and. And she is now writing Anna because the husband has died and she's like, reflecting back on their friendship. Think of this as like if Dearly Beloved was messy or if Crossing to Safety was messy and filled with bad decisions. That's what this book would be. But I thought it was great and pretty brilliant because it was so short. And I'm not even naming for you the husbands because I don't remember their names because they're not important. What's important is Eleanor and her relationship to Anna. There's some other stuff at play here too. Eleanor's relationship to Anna's sons, who she winds up, you know, pretty much raising and adopting after Anna's death. This is a good. We will sometimes get customers who are looking for books with older or featuring older protagonists. This is a great example of that where you've got a woman kind of looking back on her life now she's a widow and she's also lost her best friend. And. And so what is her life now? There's even a world in which this sits on a shelf with the Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Now, do not go into this thinking it is like the Correspondent. That is not what I have said. That is not what I have said. This is not nearly feel good enough to be that. But do I think they could sit next to each other on a Shelf. Absolutely. Often what I think about world literature or translated literature is that they are far more willing to just do a snapshot. It's almost like how British TV shows are willing to end after season three, whereas America is gonna run that dang show into the ground. I just think when you're reading a work of translated lit, it's just a little bit. It's more of a snapshot. Generally speaking. This is, this is my very limited. I am not an expert in translated lit. This is my limited experience with it. But I think about the book My Husband, which I read a few years ago, where they're just willing to tell a short story or they're willing to only give a glimpse into one character or one character's decision making. Could this book have been longer? Absolutely. Could we have gotten a full fledged view of both of the couples? Absolutely. But is this book just as effective? Only hearing about Eleanor and only here at the tail end of her life? Yes. So this book is a little gem of a book. I'm glad I picked it up. It'll look pretty on my shelf. It's called Often I am Happy by Jens Christian Grondal. I do not know if it is still in publication. I did not look that up before recording. So if it's on the store website, that means it is available. If it is not on the store website, that means it is not available and you should look for it at a used bookstore or library near you to continue my listening habit. So I had finished the Irish Goodbye. I really liked that audiobook narration and I was desperate for an equally good audiobook narration that would hold my attention. So I picked up or I downloaded to Libro FM Fake fake skating. This is by Lynn Painter. Fake skating instead of fake dating. The audiobook is narrated by Aidan Bessette and Sailor Bell Curta. I loved this. We talk on staff that generally speaking, we like Lynn Painter's young adult romances more than her adult romances. This is just when I say we, me and Kendall, Kendall and I. Me and Kendall at the bookshelf. We, Kendall and I have decided this. So this may not be the case for every reader, but we both prefer her YA romances. That being said, I also, when I read or listen to her YA romances, which I really like, I think about better than the movies, which is probably my favorite of hers. I don't know. Teenagers now enough. I used to. I feel like I used to work with teens and now I don't. I don't interact with them very often and So I don't know, but the teens in these books are so. But then I look back at Dawson's Creek and I'm like, okay, but they're so witty, they're so smart, they're so bantery. What? How did I word it to Kendall? They have way more game. That's probably a really lame way of saying it, but they have way more game than I ever did. And so sometimes I'm a little bit like, I don't believe this. Like, I don't believe high schoolers would talk like this. I don't believe high schoolers would be as romantic as this or as. As sexually aware as this. But I am probably the naive one. I am probably. I am probably the person with unrealistic expectations here. But occasionally when I'm listening to her books, I do have to think I just do a double take because I'm like, oh, my gosh, these kids are in high school. But otherwise, my preference is for her YA romances. So this is a YA romance with Dani and Alec. Dani and Alec were pretty much raised together where Dani would visit her granddad. She and her mom would visit her granddad each year. And when she did that, she would befriend Alec. And they kind of maintained this friendship across the. Across the miles and the years because they never lived in the same town. But Danny would visit frequently enough where they could. They could maintain this friendship. And then they kept in touch with postcards throughout the year. So at some point, Danny and Alec have this falling out, and now Dani and her mother are moving back to, I believe it's Minnesota. It is very cold wherever it is. I think it's Minnesota. You know, what might be Wisconsin might be Wisconsin. But anyway, she and her mom are moving there to live with her granddad. And this is her senior year of high school. She has been moved around so much. Her dad's in the military and her parents are separating. So, like, this is gonna be the last move. But, you know, it's her, I wanna say, junior senior of high school, so it feels like too little too late. And all she wants to do is to get out of high school and go to Harvard. She's gonna go to Harvard. Harvard. And she is worried about seeing Alec again because they had out. The book is narrated. The book has two narrators because we bounce back between Dani's point of view and Alec's point of view. Both of these audiobook narrators are great. I think that is part of what. Why I enjoyed this so much was because the narration Was so great. The book reminds me. The book is very setting heavy. Meaning I'm sorry that I cannot remember if it's Minnesota or Wisconsin, but it's super cold. It's super cold. That's talked about all the time. And hockey, hockey, hockey. This book reminds me of Beartown, of the romance graphic novels. Check, please. I loved that kind of sports adjacent thing. Alec was this kind of scrawny nerd that Danny was friends with, and now he's like this big hockey player. And I thought the book did a great job of addressing the stress and pressure that comes with being a student athlete and the pressure Alec feels to graduate and perhaps even go pro in the NHL. So I loved that. Loved listening to that, hearing about that. I actually felt like sometimes the male protagonist in romances can be underdrawn. Alec was not. I felt like Alec was a really interesting character. Would I give this one to my high schooler to read? I don't know. It's so hard for me to know there was. Because I was listening to it. I just. You can automatically. Or I can automatically clock. When I'm reading. I don't notice language as much, but when I'm listening, I notice it a lot. So Alec is an athlete, so he. Yeah. Anyway, there's a lot of language in this book. Would I let my middle schooler read it? No. Would I let my junior or senior in high school read it? Yes. And honestly, what do I know? My child is four months old, so. So what do I know? But that would be. If I'm hand selling it. I would not hand sell it to a 9th grader or an 8th grader, but I would hand sell it to a junior or senior and I would sell it to a college student. Like, it definitely crosses over into, you know, eye roll, new adult lit, if that's something we're still doing. The romance is good. The banter is great. You know what this is so reminiscent of? Oh, my gosh. So reminiscent of is to all the boys I've loved before. This is all very Jenny Han coded in that. There's a postcard element. There's even the character's name. It's repeated a lot. You'd think I could remember it now. But Alec has a last name, so it kept even sounding like Peter Kavinsky. Like, it. Like, at one point I paused it and I was like, what does this remind me? Oh, it reminds me of Peter Kavinsky. And just the fact that the two of them wind up. And this is where the title comes from. The two of Them wind up fake dating in order to get Alec out of a little bit of trouble and in order to help Dani kind of make friends her senior year. Of course, you know, does fake dating work? Well, you tell me. You read it and you tell me. I loved this one. I thought it was super fun. Great for winter reading because of the cold weather nature of it. This would be good if you liked the favorites. This would be really good if you liked to all the Boys I've loved before. AudioBook is fantastic. That is fake skating by Lynn Painter. Okay. And then you can start to see that I am doing spring catalogs. And so it's already time to start reading for another season. So I picked up the arc of More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen. Something you should know about me is that I love Anna Quindlen. Before my life as a bookseller, she was the author who I would go check out books from the library for. Like, if I did not know what else to get, I would go to the QS and pick up whatever Anna Quindlen book I had not writt yet when I think it was the first year I was a bookseller. So I want to say 2013ish. I read lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake. I believe that's the name. It's a nonfiction book by her and now I would love to give it another go because I read that in my mid to late twenties and that book is definitely about middle age, which now I am approaching 40 now it would be more accurate, I think, to read that book, but I remember wanting to like it better than I did and I think that sent me down a path to not read her as much, which is unfortunate because everything I pick up by her I genuinely love. Her backlist is great. So this new book releases on February 24th. I'm so sorry, but this is literally my job is to is to read in advance. So this does not release until the end of February. But the book got my attention because the COVID is pretty and it is a book about a book club, but the book club never reads the book. And honestly, I feel like that was just Anna Quindlen's way of trying to bring a group of women together like. Like the book club really has very little to do with this book. The main character is Polly. Polly is early 40s. She teaches at a boarding school or a private school. And she is best friends with these three women, three other women, all of whom are ranging probably from early late 30s, early 40s to late 50s, early 60s. And so it's four friends, and she is dear, dear friends with one of the women in particular. And the book is, again, I feel like the women's book club. This is not a book about a book club. That's what I want to say. I'm worried the publisher is going to try to promote it as a book about a book club. And that is not what is happening here. It just so happens that these women are in a book club. This is how they met, this is how they connected. But the book is really about Polly's struggle with infertility, and it is also about adult female friendship, middle age. And then Polly's dear friend is sick with cancer. And so I would not classify this, and I'm even sorry this is a thing. I would not classify this as a cancer book per se. But this is very much a realistic portrayal of what happens when your friend, your friend who you love is diagnosed with cancer, with an illness, and you can't really do anything about it. What are you supposed to do? This is definitely a book about friendship. I loved it. I flew through it. It resonated with me. I certainly. Content warning. I mean, Polly, her. The main struggle she brings to this in this book or to this novel is her struggle to have children. And so that is a big piece of this book. But really, I just kept thinking about, like, Hunter's love for beaches. Like, really, this is a book about friends, particularly the two friends that are closer maybe than the others, but even those outlier friendships, and we all have them right, where we're maybe closer to one person, but those outlier friendships really enrich the friendship as a whole. And so we have these kind of quirky other women who are equally interesting, even if sometimes they feel maybe slightly one note, because that's not who the book is about. The book is about Polly. Polly and oh, my gosh, why can't I remember her name? I believe Sarah. Polly and Sarah. Here's what else I will say about. You know, I'm reading this book so far in advance. It'll be interesting to see if the marketing of the book stays the same. But currently, the blurb on the book is about the fact that Polly has taken an ancestry test. Like she's been given one of those DNA kits. Kits. Her book club friends gifted it to her and they gifted it to her. Oh, I can't even remember why, but it was kind of like a joke. They gifted it to her and she winds up getting the results back. And there's a hit for somebody who is related to her. And so there's. Again, if I'm picturing this on a shelf, there's a way in which this book is with Dani Shapiro's inheritance. There's. Because there is that element at play here where this sends Polly down a path to figure out is she really related to this person, who is this person to her? And that plot line, that plot device goes places I didn't think it would go. And I would like to be very clear to me, just again, serves as a stimulator, for lack of a better term, for the plot. In the same way, this book is not about a book club. This book is not about a DNA test. But the book club and the DNA test both serve the plot and force Polly into action, if that makes sense. So to me, the book is about friendship, particularly the friendship between Polly and Ann, and I don't know, why not Pollyanna, Polly and Sarah. So it's about their friendship, but also it's about Polly's relationship with her mother, her relationship to her brother, who I adore. Her brother's name is Garrison. He's a great character. Her relationship to her husband. This is Polly's story, and you can tell that from the blurb. And the reason I think I was struggling with Sarah's name is because only Polly is ever named, named in the blurb. So when I read a book this early, it will be interesting to see what lasts as the book makes its way into the world and is officially published. I really liked this. In case. In case it's not coming across. I loved this. I devoured it. If I were to show you my copy, I'm looking at it right now. So many pages torn. I mean, there's so many good quotes because it's a lot about getting older, grief. I mean, lots of themes that I love and pay attention to. A friendship, particularly female friendship. Okay, so I'm just going to read you a couple quotes because now I'm looking at it. This is somebody talking to Polly, Polly, kind of thinking. Polly says, between Shakespeare and the intro course, I have a free period, a bottle of water and an apple at my desk. You are such a healthy eater. One of the younger teachers said last year, and I didn't say yes, and I hate it. I want a Big Mac and Oreos and an espresso, but my body is a temple. At least until I give in and decide to decide it's not. The longer you wait to do something, the more impossible it seems. Like skydiving. I could have maybe managed it at 20 but certainly not at 42. Is that how it would be if I had a baby now? Gosh, I just. I loved that. And then I like this quote, too. She's talking to her friend Josephine. You'll never know what it meant, she said. And I thought to myself as I walked home across the park, we don't. We never know what's living inside the people around us. We only guess. I love this one. Polly is a pretty memorable character to me. I say this is about friendship. It's also just about Polly. And not just her struggles with infertility, but how she relates to her role as a teacher, how she relates to her mother and brother, how she functions inside her marriage. I liked this one a lot. I'm trying to think. Four and a half. Probably. Four and a half stars for me. More than enough by Anna Quindlen, out next February. And then. Boy, are you gonna be mad about this. I read Cherry Baby. Cherry Baby is the new book by Rainbow Roll. It is out next April. I'm sorry, it's out next April. Here's the good news. You now have time to anticipate something which is, as we all know, statistically half the fun. And so you get to live in anticipation. And isn't that great? Isn't that grand? So this book is about Cherry. First of all, here's what you should know about me. I love Rainbow Rowell books. Do we say Rowell or Rowell? I love her books, so you'd think I would know, but I have read almost all of them. I've not done a ton of her Young Adult. I did do Eleanor and Park and Fangirl, but it's really her adult work that I love the most. Attachments, Landline, Slowdance might be my favorite. Cherry Baby will not replace that as my favorite, but I did enjoy it, so. So Cherry Baby releases next April. So Cherry is our main character. She is in the middle of a divorce and separation from her husband, Tom. Tom is an artist, a comic book artist whose work is being turned into a movie. So he is out in la. Cherry, no surprise, lives in Nebraska, as almost all of Rainbow Roll's protagonists do. And so Cherry is out at a concert one night and she runs back into, like, her college one that got away. And so they hit it off. And Cherry realizes maybe she's been missing romance during the divorce and separation from her husband. Okay, so I would like to be clear. I thought this book was going to be a romance novel, like a second chance romance novel. And I am going to be so Careful here because I do not want to spoil this for anybody, but I was surprised with the twists this book took. And although I didn't love every twist this book took, I will say I never knew what was going to happen. Like I had 40 pages left and I got up from the dining, I was reading at the dining room table and I got up to fix myself a drink or something and I, I said out loud, what in the world? Like I had no clue where this book was going. And so I kind of want to preserve that experience for you. So the only thing I'll say is that this book is kind of sort of a love triangle ish with Cherry and Russ, that's her college friend, he was never her boyfriend. He was the one that got away. So it's a love triangle with Cherry, Russ and Tom. Tom is Cherry's husband, but really just like More than Enough is a book about Polly. Cherry Baby is a book about Cherry. Cherry is by her own definition fat. She's wide hipped, heavy chested, double chinned and her soon to be ex husband Drew Cherry as a character called Baby in his comic books. And so like the very things that Cherry is kind of insecure about. Tom Drew. Though it should be noted Tom didn't draw them in a derogatory way. Tom and Cherry had a lovely, lovely seeming, maybe kind of sort of marriage. Tom was being complimentary when he drew Baby, but Baby is complicated for Cherry, extremely complicated for Cherry. So a lot of this book is dealing with body image, how we feel about ourselves in our bodies, particularly as women. The book. This is the first time I've read a book that is dealing with oh, what is the term? Is it GLP1 meds? Like this book is tackling that because Cherry comes from again, by her own definition, she comes from a fat family. All the women in her family look like Cherry, except one of her sisters has just gone on a GLP1. And so that is addressed in this book in a way that I've not seen before. It doesn't mean it hasn't been done, but I do think this is a relatively new thing that we're talking about. And so that was interesting and I thought was handled pretty well. This book was not what I was expecting. If you want a romance book, I think that's slow dance. If you want a book about a female protagonist who's trying to figure out her life and there also happens to be a romance element, then I think you will like Cherry Baby. I did after I read a book like this where I'm reading it so far in advance. I did go to Goodreads to read some of the reviews. I don't personally like to read reviews before I read a book, but I'm going to leave it up to you. What I will say is the Goodreads reviews run the gamut and I think do a good job of explaining why I really liked some of this book. Like, I liked that it kept me guessing and kept me unsure of what was going to happen. At the same time, this was not a predictable romance novel, not in my mind by any stretch. So this was something very different. I do not know what the marketing around this one will be like, but I want to prevent you from knowing too many things going in. But what I do think you should know is that this is, in my opinion, not a romance novel. I'm trying to think what this is like. Let me think what I could compare this to. It is like, did you ever read Diet Land by Sarah Sarai? I think it was Sarai Walker. There's a way in which these would sit next to each other on a shelf because again, I don't think this is a romance novel so much as it is Cherry figuring out who she is, if she's comfortable with who she is. Like maybe a middle aged coming of age. Although I think Cherry is in her 30s, early 30s. I liked this. I liked this. If you like Rainbow Rowell, you will like this. I just want you to go into it knowing what it is and. Okay. Weirdly, because of the ways in which she keeps you guessing and the ways in which this maybe deviates from a more traditional romance novel, I think that would lend itself to a good book club selection. So I think this one could be done really well in a book club or as a buddy read somewhere where you're in conversation with somebody else about it, which may be why I'm struggling to. To recap it, because I really would like to talk about it with somebody. It's why I went to Goodreads, because I just was like, who else has read this and what are people saying? And what people are saying on Goodreads kind of runs the gamut, which feels accurate. I think there's a lot of different ways in which you could leave this book. And I mean that as a compliment. So that is Cherry Baby by Rainbow roll releases April 14, 2026. And then throughout this month, and I will be honest, I am about 50% through. I just suspect I'll be finished before the end of the month. I have been Listening to Bone Valley by Gilbert King. The audiobook is narrated by Gilbert King, the author. I loved Gilbert King's book the Devil in the Grove. Devil in the Grove and highly recommend that, especially if you live in Florida. But really no matter where you live. Gilbert King does really well researched nonfiction revolving around the criminal justice system, the civil rights movement. Devil in the Grove deals with Thurgood Marshall and a case in central Florida. It really opened my eyes to racism and the role that racism plays in the criminal justice system, particularly in my home state. And so I really like Gilbert King. This is his new book in which he is looking at the case of Leo Scofield, who was accused of and found guilty of murder back in the 80s in Florida, Polk County. And so Leo Schofield has always claimed his innocence. And so I need you to know. I need you to know that I went into this book knowing nothing and I still know nothing except what the book has told me. So I have not. I have somehow refrained from looking up the Leo Schofield case. I've refrained from Googling. I just want to read the book. And then at the end of the book I will allow myself to research whatever I want. But I knew nothing about this going in. You might know something about it because I believe it is a podcast as well, but I was not familiar with the podcast. I just knew Gilbert King has a new book coming out and I'd like to read it. The audiobook is great. He's actually a really good narrator, which is not always true of authors. But if you like true crime, criminal justice stories, if you liked the podcast Serial, he even references serial in the book. I think you will like this. I've mentioned before my interest in cases like this because of some. I use the term work very loosely, but because of some work that I did when I reported for the Florida Bar Journal and news around the Innocence Project of Florida and things like that. So this is subject matter that is of interest to me. In particular, if it is also of interest to you, I think you would enjoy this one. My dad is also reading this. So those are the books I read in October. Do you see what I mean now? They really ran the gamut. They really covered a lot of territory. As usual with our reading Recap episodes, we are offering a Reading Recap bundle for this month. The October Reading recap bundle is $82 and it includes three hardback a guardian and a Thief, the Irish Goodbye and Bone Valley. You can find more details in the October bundle online through the link in our show notes or go to Bookshelf Thomasville and type Today's episode number that's episode 553-5-53 into the search bar. This week I'm reading Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi. 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 frontporchpodcast.com Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of from the Front Porch and for our theme music, 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, support us. Over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus action 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.