← From the Front Porch
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- [00:02]
A
Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. Because staying young forever wasn't just impossible, it was exhausting. No one was meant to shoulder that amount of possibility for very long. Grant Ginder so Old, so Young I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today, I'm joined by the Bookshelf's operations manager, Olivia and Bookshelf floor manager Erin, to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in February. Do you like hearing from Olivia and Erin each month? Well, what if I told you there was a way to have book selections by Bookshelf staffers like Olivia and Erin delivered to your door each month? Our shelf subscription program offers just that. Each month, members of our team select their favorite book of the month to mail out to shelf subscribers. There's a local pickup option, too, for those closer to our home in downtown Thomasville. This year we're offering two adult shelf subscription options. The Annie Lots of literary fiction and nonfiction and the Revolving Shelf Subscription, perfect for the adventurous, eclectic reader. Revolving Shelf subscribers will receive books chosen by Olivia, Shop Mom, Susie, Shop Dad, Chris and Nancy. If you are more of an audiobook listener, we have good news for you. This year we have you covered with our audiobook subscription offered in partnership with our friends at Libro fm. You'll receive digital audiobooks selected each month by Bookshelf floor manager Erin. For more information about our shelf subscription program, including kid lit options selected each month by me and Isaac, though Isaac doesn't know it, you can visit bookshelfthomasville.com pages shelf subscriptions or simply click Shelf Subscriptions at the top of our homepage. There's a link in the show notes, too. This year is the 10th anniversary of Shelf subscriptions, and we are so proud of what literature we send out into the world each month. If you love our tastes here, I suspect you'd love them delivered to your mailbox, too. Now back to the show. Hi, guys.
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B
Hello.
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C
Hi.
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A
Welcome. Listen, I did new calls to Action at the beginning of the year and typed them all up and I feel like I'm reading like literal ad copy, like a professional ad reader. Like I'm asking you to buy a Casper Mattress. But instead, I mean, in some ways.
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B
That is exactly what you were doing.
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A
It is an ad for shelf subscriptions. A shelf subscription ad. Maybe we could sell it.
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B
Business.
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A
Yeah, I do think people forget that we we are a business enterprise. We love talking to you, but also you know, we're trying to, we're trying to run a store back here.
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B
Keep us here.
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A
So if folks are joining us for the first time in 2026. Just a reminder for new listeners and old listeners alike that as we go through these new releases, we typically talk about two to three books a person. Olivia. I was on it, going to say Aaron, but it changed this month. Olivia has made browsing our podcast book selection so easy.
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B
I have. That's right.
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A
It's such a. Guys, we are still, we're in the process of hiring an online sales manager. It's new year, but still, same old.
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C
Us, just same old transition team here just trying to run a business.
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So Olivia has made browsing our podcast book selections super easy. You can go to bookshelf thomasville.com, type episode 567 into the search bar 567067. The youths. You're welcome. You'll see all of today's books listed there ready for you to pre order or purchase. You can use code new release, please, all capital letters at checkout for 10% off your order of today's titles.
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C
I wonder how many youths we have listening.
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A
I wonder that, too. Well, somebody told me there's. I know, maybe one. You think one somebody did write in and I thought it was adorable. They. They didn't write in. They voice memo'd in to the literary therapy episode and they said their son listens with them like they listen on their drive to work.
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C
I love that.
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B
Cute.
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C
Yeah.
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A
So shout out. Wish I remembered their names, but I don't.
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C
So, so welcome.
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B
But we appreciate you.
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A
That's right, Shout out. Welcome to the bookshelf youth. Just one. Thank you so much for being here. Okay, so let's get started. We have a lot to chat about. It's been a minute since we've all three recorded together. We kind of skipped. We took a little break for January so that we could, you know, again, situate our store, recover from the holidays. And now we're back. So we're talking about February releases. The first one I want to talk about is this is not about us. This is by Allegra Goodman. I am kind of in awe. Not kind of. I am in awe of Allegra Goodman. She wrote Sam, which I picked as a shelf subscription. Gosh, two or three years ago in January. I think it was a beautiful coming of age story where she followed this young woman named Sam from early childhood, adolescence into adulthood. I thought it was excellent. Then last year she published Isola, I believe is how you pronounce it, which was historical fiction. Did either one of you read that?
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C
I started it, but I didn't finish it. Not. Not any, you know, reason.
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A
Yeah. But I thought it felt like maybe an Aaron kind of book. An Aaron, Annie, Potential overlap. And I just never. I never read it. But historical fiction based on actual events. Kind of Charlotte McConaughey feeling, as I recall, like, very atmospheric. It got great reviews. Okay. That is totally different from a coming of age story. And now she has released this connected collection of short stories. It definitely reads like a novel to me, but it is short stories all about the Rubinstein family. And the Rubenstein family has three Jewish matriarchs, three sisters, they're in their 70s and 80s, who kind of rule the roost, and they kind of guide the family. And one of them, at the very beginning of the book, in the very first short story, one of them is on her deathbed and her sisters are visiting her and they're mourning and they're grieving, sitting shiva after her death. But before that, there's a little bit of a family argument about some apple cake. And so. And the apple cake is on the COVID of the book. And it is because the apple cake is the inciting incident that causes a rift in this family, essentially forever. And so the two remaining matriarchs and their families, and then the. The sister who has died, her family. You kind. I think there's a family tree at the beginning of the book. You don't need it, but there is one. And each story follows a different member of the Rubenstein family and community. I loved this book. I thought it's great dysfunctional family literature, but it also is a little bit different because of the short story format and that each story is a different family member, so you're only getting kind of glimpses. Erin, it reminds me of one of the books that you're going to talk about later. There's some overlap, I think, between this and one of your titles, but I loved this book. I thought it was super smart, very funny. Also poignant because it's all about this. This. These sisters, and kind of, I don't know, the kind of silly thing that causes this family drama that then maybe has more serious repercussions. It made me think about my own, you know, every family's got their lore. And it made me think of, like, family lore and like, you know, who showed up to whose birthday party with the wrong outfit on or, like, the thing that causes, you know, family drama. I loved it. I thought it was excellent. I cannot believe this is the same person who wrote Sam, who also wrote Isola. It just all feels totally different. I'll also tell readers, if you want to try this one, the New Yorker published one of these essays, like in the last couple of weeks. So it was in a recent issue of the New Yorker, so you could read it and see if you kind of want to keep reading about the Rubenstein family. My understanding is Allegra Goodman did publish one of these stories and then readers were like, we need more. And so she wrote this book. So anyway, I think it's wonderful. I really liked it. It comes out on February 10th.
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C
Nice. I would like that. I'll probably read that.
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A
It's good. And, well, it's not too long, so I think you. I think you actually would be able to read it.
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B
Kate can do so much. I hope she gave the recipe for it.
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C
I know.
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A
You know, I wish she did. I don't. It's not in the E galley because again, I'm just a bookstore owner asking a publisher to send her physical copies. And Allegra Goodman is an author. I've already supported. Like, I've already proved that I like her.
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C
You know? You know, we want the art. Just send it to us.
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A
Low hanging fruit in egaly format. It frustrates me. And it frustrates me at the end of the year when I'm trying to like, take a picture of my top 10 and I'm like, well, crap, I read these on my Kindle anyway. Yeah. So I wonder if in the final version she'll include a recipe for the apple cake. I hope so.
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B
That could be fun. Unless she just like made up apple cakes and then she's like, oh, well, now I gotta make one.
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A
Yeah. It feels like she's made apple cake before. I mean, it feels like a character in the book, to be honest with you.
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B
The way she describes it sounds like she's baking.
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A
It was so good. I made a lemon cake after reading the book. That's how inspired I was.
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B
Almost apple and guys.
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A
It was good. It was good. I didn't ruin it.
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C
Oh, good job.
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B
Yay.
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A
I didn't use powdered sugar instead of flour. It went great.
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B
And you had salt.
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A
It had salt. It had everything could possibly need in a cake. It was good.
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It was so good. You needed that redemption.
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I did.
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I did not feel like a failure.
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B
Okay, well, my first book is Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra. So, like a sharp turn away from all excited.
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A
But I do love Tracy Sierra.
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B
Oh, she is so good. She. She knows what she's doing. This one is out February 10th, and it's. If you read Night Watching, this is that same author, which Night Watching definitely was not for everybody.
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C
No, acknowledge.
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A
Scary. So scary.
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B
But I do think warning signs could grab a larger audience who maybe isn't there for children being harmed.
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A
Oh, was that in that book? Whoops.
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B
No, there is still children being harmed.
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A
Oh, Aaron. Sorry.
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C
All right.
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B
Yeah, no, they're harmed. Okay.
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C
Okay. Well, at least you. There you go.
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A
And anyway, just the one.
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B
This is about a 12 year old boy named Zach. And Zach goes on this, like, father son trip with his dad, Bram, who, as we slowly start to learn, Bram is not a good guy, not a good father, pretty verbally abusive, has been his whole life, very controlling, maybe a little bit physically abusive with his mother. And now he's stuck on this trip. His mom has passed away recently, and the trip is for these people that Bram wants to invest in his company. So he's like out there trying to schmooze with people while they're on this, like, isolated mountain house where they're gonna go skiing. And what, what you find out is like, Zach's mom was this ski instructor survivalist, so. So she taught him everything he knows about skiing, about being out in the winter, about like trekking through possibly dangerous lands that might have, like, avalanches and like, stuff like that. And Bram just thinks he knows what he's doing, so he just like plows on through. And Zach doesn't want to upset his father, so he just kind of like tiptoes around him and is just like slyly suggesting, like, hey, maybe take off your wet clothes and put on dry ones. That sort of thing. And the trip goes south very quickly. And all of a sudden it's Zach running away from his father, from some of these guys on the trip, and from this, from natural weather events that start to happen. And then also there's this other element of this animal, this thing that has been leaving tracks that Zach can't place as to what it is. And it, like, not to get graphic, everyone, but I'm going there not to get graphic, but here's the graphic part, is that this animal thing will like eat its prey down to the bone, like almost surgically, where, like, it is just clean bone, no blood to be found. Like, it is very strange. And so Zach is facing all of these things and you're just kind of rooting for him the whole time, but also, like holding back. You're like, just be careful, please, sir.
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C
Just be careful.
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B
So it is very edge of your seat, but not. I will say, but not as edge of your seat as Night Watching, where almost that entire book of night Watching, you were just like, he's right there.
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A
You were holding your breath the whole time for Night Watching. Like, you were. You were holding your breath. I've, like, I have a distinct memory of reading that book and feeling like I can't breathe until she's sick.
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B
Yes. And this one, you get to know Zach and his family a lot more than you got to know the characters in Night Watching, so there is, like, a breath you can take in between these, like, snowy scenes on the mountain.
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A
Is it like, oh, who's that author we all love? TJ Newman. Is it like. Does it feel like.
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B
But TJ Newman in the snow, on the ground.
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A
Okay. Yeah. Not in the air or the snow.
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C
Not in the air.
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Swift.
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A
Not in the air. The sea, the sky, whatever.
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Yeah.
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Anyway. Okay.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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B
Exactly. Yeah, that sounds great. It was really, really good. You guys would. I. Annie would for sure. Like this.
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A
I'm gonna read it. Did you read it? E reader or physical copy?
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B
Yes, I did. E reader. They didn't send us a physical copy.
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A
Okay. Again, putting you on notice.
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Publishers finding a pattern here.
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A
Okay. But I will go. Maybe I'll go to Edelweiss and download it then. Because this sounds like a wintry thriller. You know what I mean? Like, I need a wintry. Okay. All right. Good deal.
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C
Yeah, that sounds amazing. Scary, but amazing. Okay. My first book. I do hate to say there is also a child harmed in this book, so. But no spoilers.
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Children being harmed.
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C
It gets better, people. It gets better on our list here. This is Good People by Pat Mina Sabbat. It comes out February 3rd. I could not put this book down. I read it in again, E galley, where we get all of our books, but I could not put it down. I read it during the. Our break, you know, between, like, Christmas and New Year's, and I just. I avoided every. All of my responsibilities to finish this book. But it begins with a. What I love is it begins with a fictional disclaimer which ends with senior investigators from the law enforcement departments of Fairfax county and Fulton County, New York, declined to participate, citing the open nature of the investigation. So you already know something criminal took place and that it was not good. So you know that throughout the whole story that something bad is going to happen. So that's what keeps you reading. Right. But there's. First of all, this is a debut novel. Incredible. Impressed so amazing. The family at the center of this book are a mom and a dad who are refugees from Afghanistan and they have two kids they bring with them and then they end up having two kids, like, later on in life. So, like, the first two are like close in age and the second two are like a good bit younger. But we really only hear a lot about the oldest two, which is a boy named Omer and a girl named Zora. But the story is only told through the testimonies. It's almost like someone is doing like, like oral history or a documentary on this situation. And so they're interviewing all these people. So it's told through the testimonies of the family members, other, the cousins, the neighbors, the police officers, the guy running the hotel. You know, like when you go into a hotel, like, sorry, this is like pre menopausal brain. You know, when people check in, there's a desk and the people that are there, receptionist. But what I love is that. That's what I love about this, this concept is that you never really hear from the people who are the main characters of the story. Truly, it's their story, but it's being told through the. The sights of other people. So you don't know if these people are reliable. You don't know what. What they may have against or for this family. And I love. I think she uses that on purpose to show us that there's always two sides to someone's story. And especially because the story involves immigration, it involves culture and religion, which are things that are not as black and white as we'd like them to be. I think this is a great story to show how things are not as black and white as they seem, but it is. It is in its heart a murder mystery. Like there is a murder mystery aspect to this book because something happens and you don't know who's at fault for it. So I. The book never really draws a conclusion. It doesn't say this is what happened. It just leaves you to think what did happen and who was responsible and why did they do it. So it's coming out February 3rd. It's going to be a great audiobook. Wink, wink. So if you love audiobooks, this would be a great audiobook too. So that's all.
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A
So I'm so glad you said that because I do have to confess, I have the arc of this. We did get a physical arc of this, but I will be reading this. So now I'm going to read one from each of you, I suppose, because that sounds excellent. And it's been sitting. I have my TBR list. Olivia probably sees it in my office, like, divided by shelf subscription possibilities. And so anyway, I will be reading this one. It sounds really good. Okay. My next one I actually read months ago again, E galley. Didn't. Didn't read the physical version, but did read the E galley. This is so Old, so Young by Grant Gender. I did finally look up how to pronounce his name and I am pronouncing it correctly now. So Grant Gender. This comes out on February 17th. You might recognize him. I think I'm a completionist for all of his books. Like, he wrote People We Hate at the Wedding, which then became like a. I think it became a movie. I did not like that book. But then he wrote a book called let's not do that Again that I loved, and it became a shelf subscription selection. So this is his third book called so Old, so Young. I love A Friendship Story. And this is a book about, I believe, six, six friends. Like a group of six college friends. But it follows them over the next 20 years. But we only get to see them at, like, I think it's five different parties over the course of those 20 years. So, like, there's a Halloween party, there's a New Year's Eve party, and that is when we kind of like get to peek in on them. It feels like that could be gimmicky, but it's not. It makes total sense. And I loved it. If you liked the show and I did last year. If you liked the show, Four Seasons with Tina Fey, Colman Domingo. Like, if you liked that show, I think you will love this book. So it takes this group of people and then follows them from college to middle age. And kind of maybe like Erin's book she was talking about, there's no mystery here. There's no mystery element here. But you kind of see where the cracks in the friendship are. Like, who's maybe the outlier. Which friendships are going to last, which marriages are going to last, which partners. Partnerships are going to last. I loved this book. I loved the people. I miss them all. Like, even the. And there are some obnoxious friends in this friend group. Because when they're. Listen, when there's six friends, somebody's going to be obnoxious. And so there are, like, some obnoxious friends in this group. But I loved them all. I was very attached. I thought it was fantastic. So Old, so Young by Grant Ginder. It comes out on February 17th. If you like Emma Straub. If you like all adults here. Or if you like Stephen Rowley's the Celebrants, I think you will love this book. Beautiful cover.
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B
I do love a friendship that starts in college. Like a story about those two fundamental. They're strong.
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A
Yeah. And there's nothing like them. Like, it's almost. Well, maybe I don't know because I'm anti camp, but it might be like camp friends.
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C
Yeah. It's similar.
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A
Like where you're kind of thrown together and you might have nothing in common except the place that you landed and anyway, I think there's nothing like college friends. And I think it's fascinating. Like Jordan and I, to some extent, we have a group of people who we still keep in touch with and like group texts with from college. And it's fascinating, like how you can stay even though you are vastly different the older you get and the different decisions you start to make. Anyway, I loved it. I thought it was great.
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B
I mean, I think that's what it is. It's like no one's their best self in college. So if you still have friendships from then, they're for life.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Kudos to you.
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A
Like, you still have.
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B
Good job, guys.
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A
Yeah. It's like together forever or something. Yeah.
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C
Yeah.
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B
Okay. I'm going middle grade for my next book. And this I did also read on my E reader, but I caveat. I read from 12 in the morning to 4am Whenever my child is awake.
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C
So I can't. Reader works for you right now, but.
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B
The system is really working for us when he sleeps through the night and I'm not reading anymore. I'll have to figure it out again.
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A
Gotta re regroup.
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B
Looks like that won't happen anytime soon. This is Birdie by N. West Moss. I hadn't read this author before. I guess they wrote some other stuff, but not middle grade. So this was their first middle grade novel from my snooping into their background. It's out February 17th and it's so good. I loved it so much. It was about this girl, Birdie, and her little brother, Mouse. They live in New York City. That's their like family nicknames for each other. They don't call them that in front of anybody else. Only when they're by themselves because it's like their mother's like sacred nicknames for them.
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C
That's sweet.
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B
Their mom has like very recently passed away from cancer. And from what you learned from Birdie, like, it was kind of a long road through cancer. So it was really rough. And Bertie took the brunt of it and Taking care of her brother and just making sure that they were safe and that her mom was okay. And now that her mom has passed away, they're going to stay with like, six second third cousin outside the city. This is the first time they're meeting them and they're like, older. And so Birdie's like, I don't know if this is gonna last. They give it. The social worker gives it like six months. And so Birdie, the whole time is just like, this is temporary. Like, it's not gonna. It's not gonna stick. They don't want us past six months. And so she's still finding ways to, like, claim independence and stay separate from them so she doesn't get hurt at the end of six months. Whereas, like, Mouse is this little. Like, he just. He immediately loves them. He, like, immediately falls full heartedly in love with the life that they have out there, even though it's very different from their life in the city. And Birdie, the whole time is just like, be careful, like, it's not going to work. And then they have this Uncle Clay come. And Uncle Clay was like a step sibling to their mom, but there was a huge age gap, so he only ever met their mom once when she was in college.
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C
And.
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B
And Birdie's a little bit mad because she was like, why don't I know about you? Why have you never met us? But Uncle Clay is like a naturalist. Like, if he could live outdoors, he would. He comes with a goat and a raccoon.
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C
Wow.
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B
And obviously Mouse instantly loves him, of course. And Birdie starts to, like, slowly learn to appreciate him because he's very quiet, just like Birdie. And so they get along very well. And it's very much a story of, like, found, but also literal family. And it was so good. You just love Birdie so much and you want to protect her and you want things to go well for her. It was like, I don't think you guys read this, but I know other podcast listeners have. But the remarkable journey of Coyote Sunrise was very much akin to that story Billion Dollar Girl, which looked up this morning. They don't even print it anymore, which was very upsetting because that was like one of my favorite books by Megan Shaw. But, like, those kinds of stories where it's like this kid who's just trying to find their place in the world and they didn't realize they had one the whole time.
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A
It's so wonderful.
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B
It's Birdie.
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C
Very sweet.
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B
She's so. She's so sweet. I love her.
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C
Okay. My second book I'm excited about. It's called the Reservation by Rebecca Kaufmann. Amy, have you finished this one yet?
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A
Oh, yeah. I loved it.
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C
Loved it. So good. I was so mad because usually that's a perk of being a bookseller, as we know when books are coming out in the future, we hear about it. I knew nothing about this until Meg Cranshaw posted that she had read it. And I was like, oh, my gosh.
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A
And you love this author?
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C
I love her, yes. Her book. I'll come to you.
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A
Okay. Because I was my first. I think I read her first. Her first two books or two of her first books. Like House on Frip Island.
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C
There's Chorus. The Chorus, I think.
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A
And the Gunners.
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C
Oh, the Gunners.
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A
I've read the Gunners and House on Frip Island. House on Frip Island. I don't know if you remember this, but at managerial workday, I was like, aaron, you know that House, the book with the house with the pool, and it's that author we like.
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C
That was what you're talking about?
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A
That's what I was trying to say.
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B
Okay.
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C
Recognize it? Because I did not read that book. But I know what you're saying. Same way.
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A
Yeah.
- [26:41]
C
But her book, I'll Come to you, was my shelf subscription, I think in January of two years ago, maybe a year ago. But I was so excited. She is just. The way she writes is. She writes about things in a way that if you were to describe it to someone else, you would be like, well, that sounds boring, but it's not boring at all. This is set. Our favorite. Our favorite tactic. It's set over one. A very specific time period. It's set over one day at this family restaurant called Aunt or says, which is like a fine dining restaurant in a nondescript, like, Midwestern town. But it feels like you could be anywhere. Like, they don't really ever describe the setting, but each chapter is from the point of view of each employee. So you've got the bartender, the. The. The line cook, the chef, the dishwasher. All these people are a part of it. And each chapter provides so much character development about these people that is there. They share stories and things that don't even really add anything to the overall story, but it helps you to know these people in such a way that you feel like when you're finished, that you have just met every. All these people. Like, I feel like I know all these people now. So there's a few plot points that kind of do lend some movement to the story, which is they discover that 22 ribeye steaks have gone missing that morning. It's just such a fun plot point, you know, and they can't find them. And so the owner of the. Who's Orsa. She's the lady that is like really vivacious and sort of crazy lady that owns this place. She is gonna determine to find out who stole those stakes. And so they. They're going through every possible thing. She's interviewing everyone. But another thing that's happening is that John Grisham, which I'm like, how did she get the. How did she get so good? Yeah, like there have. They have two big parties coming that night. They have a big party of doctors who are there to hear from a pharmaceutical republic. And they have a big party coming from a university where John Grisham will also be a member of that party because I think he's there speaking or lecturing or something. So the author, John Grisham is coming. Everybody's on edge because they got these two big parties coming. Stakes are missing. And so that helps lend some. Some beginning and end. Not just the beginning of the day and the end of the day, but kind of tells. Shows you how a day in the life of these people might be. So you easily fall in love with these characters. They're so complex. There's a quote that I. What I love is she put these little Easter eggs of quotes in there about the writing about writing a book like this. It almost feels like she was trying to passive aggressively like, talk back to any haters she might have. But this is. These are two characters talking to each other and says, so what's your book actually about? If there's no mystery, just little bits of this person and that person and some thoughts about. Some thoughts. And Byron lifts his shoulder. Just life. Nothing dramatic, just life. And I think this encapsulate, encapsulates Rebecca's writing so well. It just. She kind of describes herself in the words of these characters that her books are just about life. Nothing dramatic, just glimpses of people. So if you liked any of her other books or if you love a great character, a complex character novel with honestly, a little bit of plot, I think this has enough plot to keep it moving.
- [29:58]
A
You want to know what happened to the ribeyes?
- [29:59]
C
You want to.
- [30:00]
B
I was going to. Do you find out what happened to the stakes?
- [30:03]
C
Yes, you do.
- [30:04]
B
You do.
- [30:05]
A
It's satisfying.
- [30:06]
C
And that's a lot of money.
- [30:08]
B
It is.
- [30:08]
C
Oh yeah.
- [30:09]
A
A lot of money.
- [30:10]
C
A lot of money.
- [30:11]
A
Olivia, if you read this book which you would not. But if you did, you would. I. I loved this book.
- [30:16]
C
Yeah.
- [30:16]
A
Let me tell you, nothing infuriated me more than how the owner dealt with the stolen stakes. I was like, there has got to be a better way to do this. And I think you would read it and feel the same way. You'd be like, this is a mess. This is a sham investigation. You could have done this.
- [30:29]
B
I probably would have put off the investigation to another night since there's such big parties coming in.
- [30:35]
A
Since John Grisham's on the way. Don't you want to know? I'm dying to go to one of her events and be like, why'd you pick John Grisham?
- [30:41]
C
Yes. Or did you ask him if you could use his? Was he okay with this? Right. Right.
- [30:46]
A
I think John Grisham and Ann Patchett, people can just, like, put in their books and nobody cares. Do you know what I mean? But I do want to know what's the relationship?
- [30:53]
C
Me, too.
- [30:54]
A
I. I also will just say this is a weird comp, but to me, hear me out. If you liked the Correspondent, I think this is same vibes where, like, you've got, instead of one character, you have a lot of characters. But there's so much in this book about life and story and art that the Correspondent also deals with. I think if you're the core, if you've read the Correspondent, you're like, oh, no, what do I read next? And yeah, maybe you read Theo of Golden, but maybe you also could read the Reservation.
- [31:29]
B
I won't lie to you. I've seen this book, like, about. And I haven't read anything about it. This is the first time I'm hearing about it in my head. The plot of this book was like that movie where they all go to that fancy restaurant and. Yeah, the food or something.
- [31:42]
C
Yeah.
- [31:43]
B
I haven't seen it because I don't do scary movies, but I'm like, this is what that is.
- [31:47]
C
In my head, there's way less. Way less gore. In fact, there's zero gore in this book.
- [31:53]
B
I would have read it.
- [31:54]
C
I know it comes out at the end of February, and I'm very excited about it. February 24th.
- [32:00]
A
Sorry, but I do have to just say, I got an email from a publisher today. I do not remember the name of the book, but the book is about a guy. It's a horror book, and he goes on a GLP1, but then he winds up becoming a cannibal. So that's kind of.
- [32:16]
C
Sure.
- [32:16]
B
Why not? We don't.
- [32:18]
C
There's no reason like that like Ryan Murphy, I feel like is doing a new show on FX or something where like people take a GLP1 type substance but like it has disastrous effects. Like they start to like be aggressive and we'll, we'll let all the GLP1 storylines come on.
- [32:36]
A
I think that and trad wife stories are going to hit us this year.
- [32:39]
C
Get ready.
- [32:39]
A
2026 Wild Ride okay. I loved the Reservation and Aaron loved this book that I'm about to talk about. So I read again months ago. More than Enough by Anna Quindlen. I'm a big Anna Quindlen fan. She has written a lot of books. It would be dumb for me to try to name them all here. But after Annie is probably her most recent book, I think Still Life with Bread Crumbs. Every last one is one that I remember. Black and blue, lots of candles, plenty of cake, I think was one. She's written nonfiction and fiction. I fell in love with her fiction. I went through a real, like, she just had a ton of books at the library, so like I checked them out one at a time. So I, I kind of encountered her that way. And then for a period of time she was a columnist for Newsweek. And when Jordan and I first met, that was one of the gifts he gave me was a year subscription to Newsweek magazine.
- [33:32]
C
Yeah.
- [33:32]
A
Which is as cool as it sounds. So anyway, she, yeah, she was a columnist there and I loved her work. So this is her new work of fiction. And I'll be interested, Aaron, to see what you think because I have a feeling the pub is going to push this one as like a book about book clubs and a book for book clubs because Polly is our main character. She's in a book club with two other women. I use the term book club very loosely. They don't read the book, talk about the book. They don't read the book, they just buy the book. That's like the thing. They buy the book and then they use it as an excuse to get together. This book to me is not about a book club. To me this book is about Polly. Polly is a middle aged woman. She and there are a couple of women in the book club, but particularly Sarah, who she is kind of best friends with. Her friendship with Sarah to me is the heart of the book. And through her friendship with Sarah, you kind of get to know who Polly is. So they have this really deep and loving relationship. I also feel like we get a lot of requests, or at least I do through DMS or through the podcast. I Think a lot of people are searching for books about midlife and, you know, books about. We get a lot of books about people in their 20s because a lot is happening in our 20s. But what happens after your 20s are over and what does life look like? And so this to me is a great midlife novel. The book starts with a DNA test and so you think you're going to get maybe a Danny Shapiro type story where there's this DNA test and Polly finds out who she's related to and there's like kind of a surprise, but really that is such like a quiet through line. The results of that DNA test matter, but not really. Really what matters is Polly and her friendship. She also has a lovely relationship with her brother Garrison, who is such a fun character. This is not in my mind a particularly plot driven book. This is a character study about Polly and a character study about female friendship. But I care deeply what happened to Polly over the course of this novel. I was very attached to her. I think if you're a Kathryn Newman fan, definitely. If you're an Ann Tyler fan, if you like Three Days in June, really Anything by Ann Tyler. I think you will love this book. It is called More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen and I thought it was fantastic.
- [35:49]
B
I have no segue, so I'm just.
- [35:50]
A
Gonna go right in, go right in, dive in.
- [35:53]
B
I am not clever, but my next book is Postscript by Corey McCarthy. It's technically young adult, but I would probably put it in that new adult, basically adult vibe. It's out February 17th. This was probably a different one for me to talk about, but I read it again from 12am to 4am at night and I couldn't put it down. Like Rory would be asleep in my arms and I would just continue reading because it was so good. It was also short. Like I think it's 250 pages and the chapters are short. So you, you do go through it very quickly. It's the end of the world, post apocalyptic, which is what got me. Yes, we know climate change has like ravaged the earth and then on top of that there was a virus that came and wiped out the majority of the population. And now we see we meet like the four or five last people on Earth essentially. And one of them is this 18 year old boy named west and, and west as. Okay, I wrote it down because the publishers really went hard on his description. They he's described as the prophet of instinct and the last amateur anthropologist.
- [37:11]
A
Oh, okay.
- [37:13]
B
In my eyes, west, when everything happened and he calls the World from when the grids went out the post. So he was 12 when all of this happened. He didn't hit high school. He got like, maybe a middle school education. And then the world went dark and everything changed. He lost his parents, who sound like the type of people who are very glass half full. We're going to look at things with a new lens. His dad, I believe, was a literal anthropologist. So he had a lot of these lessons growing up. And now he carries with him that point of view as he goes through the world. It's like this child has never, ever let himself get bogged down in what could be a very negative situation. He's always been able to switch the flip. And so he meets Emile, who is just lost in the world and trying to find a place. He meets Annie, who lost the love of her life and is just so angry. And then he meets this woman, Karen, who just holds so much anxiety about everything that's happening that she's chased away the only people who stayed with her. And Wes just comes in and changes their life for the better because his point of view is so opposite of what they have been living in and holding with them. And then at the very end, I'm not gonna spoil it, but what's really cool is that towards the end of the book, you get these really micro chapters from death itself. And death is looking at these last people being like, I know at some point I'm going to take them. And I'm just so happy that they've kind of come together in this moment. It's so good.
- [38:59]
C
It's so good.
- [39:00]
B
Like, if there were a literary fiction genre within young adult, this would be it. And I can get down with young adult literary fiction because I can understand it.
- [39:11]
A
I mean, this does sound good. And it all honestly sounds good for our current cultural moment. Like, how are you gonna. Like who. How are you gonna face the cultural moment? Are you gonna be like, west? Are you gonna be filled with anxiety? Are you gonna be filled with rage? With anger? Like, which route are you gonna take? Yeah. Interesting.
- [39:27]
B
It. It was. It was really good. I liked it.
- [39:29]
A
Okay.
- [39:30]
C
I also love a good personification of an idea. Like. Yeah, you do let Death have a good chapter. Yeah, it was the Bog Queen. The Bog Queen with the Bogg and Helm. Helm the Wind got its own chapters.
- [39:44]
B
The Tortoise's Tail, that's Aaron.
- [39:47]
A
The whole genre. You could do a whole in a.
- [39:48]
C
Cap, writing this down somewhere. Personification of ideas. Okay, well, I. That's a hard follow up, but we're going from the end of the world to 1995. So let's go.
- [40:04]
B
We're gonna say the start of the world.
- [40:07]
A
Genesis.
- [40:07]
B
There was no Internet, you know, 1999.
- [40:12]
C
This book is called A Good Animal by Sarah Moore. It comes out February 24th. It has a gorgeous cover. It's like, there's a house and a field, and it's. You see, like, the sky. And it's just very evocative of what the book is about, which is farming. And, you know, it's set in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and I recommended it on my Instagram, and somebody was like, I'm from Michigan, and I take books about Michigan very seriously. Like, they want the people to know that they really know what they're talking about. And this author is from Michigan, like, so she knows what she's talking about. So Michiganers. Michiganders. Don't worry. She's got you covered.
- [40:48]
B
Michiganders.
- [40:50]
C
I don't know. What do they call it?
- [40:50]
A
That's what it is. That is Michiganders. Michiganders is right.
- [40:54]
B
I recently read a book to children with gander in it.
- [40:57]
A
Yes, the gander. Yes. The hat.
- [41:00]
C
In the hat.
- [41:00]
B
Yes. Jan. Brett.
- [41:03]
A
Yeah, I just read that one, too.
- [41:05]
C
But the main character is a teenage boy. I think he's a high school senior. His name is Everett Lint. And his family are their sheep farmers. That's what his dad does. They raise, like, prize sheep, both for, like, mating and for me and things like that. He raises his own prize lambs, and he's got a little sister that does the same thing. They show them every year. It's, like, part of his life, you know, he just. He works on a. He works, see, bales hay during the summer. There is a much more simple time, right? Like, there was a landline. That's what he had to use. He had to call his girlfriend on a landline, take it into a closet, and stretch the cord, you know, like, we always. I don't know. Maybe y' all are too young, but I definitely knew that before we had a landline.
- [41:44]
A
Okay.
- [41:45]
C
But he. We meet him when he meets this new girl who's come to town named Mary. And she's there with her father, who's like a Coast Guard man, and they've been assigned to Michigan. And all she wants to do is just finish her senior year of high school and get the heck out of there. She wants to go to California. She wants to be an artist. But they meet and they kind of fall in love. And they're teenagers. They fall in love. They love each other. And you get to see again, there's not. It's not a super plot heavy. It's not like, what's gonna happen, but, you know, something is. Something regretful happens because the book starts off with him as an older person saying how much he regrets what happened during those nine months. So you're like, what happened? You know, what happened during this year of school? And so they. I don't want to spoil it too much, but something happens where they have to come to a decision point and they have to decide, like, are we going to stay together? Are we going to separate? And they want different things, but they're tied together by this event. That happens again. I won't spoil it. But we. What I love is that we come to see Everett. He. He's a dutiful and loving son to his mother. He's a kind older brother and protector to his sister. And he and his father kind of have a little bit of a. Because he wants to, like, make a name for himself and sheep farming. And his father just kind of wants him to do what he tells him to do. So what I loved about this book is there was, you know, nothing special about it. It's just that the writing is so good that it felt so realistic. Especially when someone's writing a high schooler, you know, you. Sometimes it can feel off, like someone just watched a movie about high schoolers and then wrote the dialogue that they thought it should sound like. But she. Sarah is a mom. I think she has two kids. I did look that up because I was like, a mom would know how, you know, how people talk, like how teenagers talk and stuff. And listening to the dialogue about this boy reminds me. I have a son who's 14, and it reminds me of the kind of dialogue that boys would have, you know, not. Not too. Not trying to be too bravado, not trying to be too soft, but somewhere in the middle. So it reminds me. I loved a book last year that came out that I feel is a hidden gem called We Burn Daylight by Brett Anthony Johnston. Completely different plot line. That one was based at a cult. This one is based on a sheep farm. But it both had this. This love story at the heart of it, of two teenagers. And so that it reminded me of that. It's just sweet. It reminds me of, like, a William Kent Krueger book. Like, very rural, with great characters and supporting characters. And there's a little bit of, like, tragedy and trauma, and it's like, how do they make it through there? So it's called A Good Animal by Sarah Moorer. Olivia I recommended this book to just folk because I said it's all about sheep. You would love this book. Like you should.
- [44:29]
B
You just got a lamb.
- [44:31]
C
I know, like going to specifics about sheep farming and you know, I was like, just listen, you're gonna love this book.
- [44:39]
A
This one we did get a physical arc and I have it because I was considering it. No spoilers, but I wound up not picking it for my shelf. So. But I'm gonna read it because I it's relatively short and it sounds really good. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna read this one.
- [44:51]
C
I like when we sell books to each other. This is my favorite part.
- [44:54]
A
Yes. Well, I'm already like, okay, gotta make a note. Gotta read good people and gotta read the Tracy Sierra. And then I'm I'm a little bit tempted to by postscript. So we hope you are. We hope you, the listener, are as tempted as we are by the books that we selected. So don't forget that you can pre order any of today's books through the bookshelf website. Bookshelf thomasol.com this is episode 567 567. You can use the code New Release please at checkout and get 10% off your order of of today's titles. This week I'm listening to Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block. Olivia, what are you reading?
- [45:31]
B
I'm reading Detour by Jeff Rake and Rob Hart.
- [45:34]
A
Okay, Erin, what are you reading?
- [45:36]
C
Well, this week I'm listening to Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser.
- [45:45]
A
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of the Bookshelf, an independent book 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 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 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. Podbean your message amplified Ready to share your message with the world? Start your podcast journey with Podbean. Podbean, the AI powered all in one podcast platform.
- [47:49]
C
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A
Use Podbean to record your podcast.
- [47:56]
B
Use PodBean AI to add optimize your podcast.
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A
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