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Welcome to from the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South. Isn't that all art is? Judy asks. People having breakdowns? How else are we supposed to get through to each other? Louise Nealon Everything that is Beautiful 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 April. If you like my book reviews here on from the Front Porch, you might be interested in joining my private Instagram account. Annie's five star books for $50 for the year can become a part of my bookish community online. Through the private Instagram account, you'll get access to my book reviews, backlist and front list titles. I host monthly Instagram story Q&As and share about the books I start but never finish. If you follow me personally online, you've seen my reviews for years. And of course, from the Front Porch listeners will always have access to these free monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place separate from the Bookshelf where I get to be more detailed with my reviews and five Star Book club members can also choose if they want to order my five star reads each month from the Bookshelf. There's a quarterly newsletter option for the social media averse too. For more information or to sign up for the 2026 group, visit anniebjoneswrites.com Fivestar Book Club there's also a link in the Show Notes. Now back to the show. Every month here on from the Front Porch I review go over recap the books that I read in the previous month. So today I'm going to talk to you about the books that I read since we last convened here. I want you to know I read a lot of these books in preparation for summer reading. So a lot of these titles are summary books. Summary books in their nature and in the a release date. So lots of these are pre order titles that you may want to have on your radar for summer reading. I'm going to kick us off with Villa Coco. This is by Andrew Sean Greer of less fame. If you read that this releases on June 9th and I loved it. This is a five star read for me. It is about a young archivist who acts as our narrator. We are introduced to him on the cusp of his college graduation. He's not really sure what he's going to do and so he gets this gig as an archivist for a 90 something year old woman named Coco who Supposedly lives in this villa in Italy. When he arrives, it's more like a crumbling mansion. Ish. I don't know. I almost thought of Gray Gardens or something when I was reading this one. Coco is very eccentric, kind of this baroness, but also. Is she. It's hard to say. And what we are given is what Andrew Sean Grier describes a charm novel. There's a great letter to the reader that I hope appears in the final version of the book. It is in the advanced reader copy, but I do not know if it will be in the final copy. But there's this great author's note where Andrew Sean Grier talks about how we used to get these great charm books where they kind of were slow, maybe meandering books that you could pick up and kind of find comforting, where nothing too much happened, but the setting was really vibrant. And so that's what he wanted to write. He felt like our times called for a charm novel. And Villa Coco certainly delivers on that premise. Now, I would argue that things happen in this book, but it is not a bombastic book, a climactic book, like not a ton of inciting incidences. Instead, it's the story of this young man kind of in this, I would say, belated coming of age, but he's in his early 20s, and so he's figuring out who he is, who he loves, and what he wants to do with his life. And Coco and her cast characters kind of help him discover himself. I adored this book. I devoured it. I did not find it to be too slow. I did find it to be very charming. I think what Andrew Sean Grier set out to do, he 100% did. It is the perfect book for summer. I read it in the spring, but I read it while sitting outside. And I do believe this book is meant to be read while sitting outside. If you have a trip to Italy planned, lucky you. You should take this with you. And if you don't, Greer takes us there. So I felt like I was at an Italian villa, even though I was just sitting by my pool. So I adored this book. It is called Villa Coco by Andrew Shawn Grier. I think it should definitely be at the top of your summer reading list. It releases on June 9th, if you're. I think of. I think a Patreon member asked me, so I know I loved Less. We recorded a whole podcast episode about it, Hunter and I did back in the day. It was a Pulitzer winner and so we covered it for Back book club. You can dive deep into the from the front porch archives and find that episode. But I know we had a couple of readers who were like Less wasn't for me. Would this be? And what I will tell you is I think they are very similar in tone. Less kind of gives us insight into maybe an older male protagonist, whereas this is a young man protagonist, but certainly very similar in tone, in vibe, in storytelling. And so if you did not like Less, I don't think that this will all of a sudden be for you. But if you liked Less, you will love this. So I did want to add that note that if you, if you weren't a huge fan of Less, you may also not be a huge fan of this. But if you did like the tone and storytelling mechanism used in Less, then I believe you will love Villa Coco. Next up was a spring book rather than a summer book. I read Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupree Sweeney. This one was on my radar. Like I got an advanced reader copy. I loved the Nest. I loved Good Company. This is an author I'm a big fan of, but I'm going to tell you right now, I had no intention of reading this 100% because of the COVID So if any publishers are listening, I would love to be on a focus group. Because I still to this day do not understand the COVID choice that was made for this particular book. But that is kind of why I put off reading it. And what led me to pick it up anyway was I believe, Knox McCoy of Popcast and Shelf Respect fame. I believe he wrote about this in his newsletter. And so I finally was like, well, let me give it a go. So I picked it up off my literal tbr my TBR book cart. And I devoured it. I loved it. The book opens in 1970s Rochester, New York, where the joy of Sex is kind of taking over. Although the blurb makes it sound like that's going to be a huge part of the book. And it's really not. It's just kind of an underlying oh, a bunch of ladies read the Joy of Sex and maybe chaos ensued. I don't really know why that even needed to be in the blurb, but really the book is about Nina. Nina has been married for a long time, but maybe inspired by the Joy of Sex, she's realizing that her marriage isn't as romantic as she would like and she winds up having an affair with her across the street neighborhood. This is not a spoiler. This happens pretty much from the opening pages. So Nina and her neighbor have this affair. But what Nina doesn't realize is while she is Kind of having this love affair, this spark in her sex life. Her teenage daughter is also embarking on her first relationship crush and maybe unrequited to requited love. And it's also with her across the street neighbor. So Nina has accidentally made a bit of a mess of things. And the book is what happens in the aftermath of Nina's affair and her choice to divorce her husband and marry this man that she's been having an affair with her neighbor. So the book is mostly set in 1970s Rochester, but we do get a flash forward to the 1990s where we get Clara. Clara is Nina's adult now, adult daughter. And we kind of realize what impact Nina's relationship had on Clara and the other children, Clara's sister and also the across the street neighbors. So there's really like four younger siblings who are at play who then we get to see them in adulthood as well. I loved this book. I actually don't want to tell you too much about it because I really do think the COVID and the blurb for me did this a disservice. I did not like the COVID I did not find the blurb to be super compelling. The book opens really strongly with this very funny kind of scene about this woman buying the Joy of Sex at a bookstore. And then what unfolds is so very different from that opening scene. But I loved it. I mean, it's. It's kind of this. I would say it's a comedy, maybe a comedy of manners, a little bit just about these neighborly relationships and then sexual dynamics and kind of these sexual awakenings happening on this block in the suburbs of New York. And then I even I at first was not sure I was gonna like the time switch, but then I really did appreciate the 1990s New York setting. Clara is a food stylist, and that was really fun. So I actually loved this book. But I think a lot of this book's billing is not true. And so I would kind of just say go into it knowing there's an affair between neighbors that then sets two families on a path. There were a couple of characters I would have liked to have seen a little bit more of, but overall, I really liked this one. I'm kind of annoyed I didn't pick it up earlier, but I hope you won't make the same mistake. So I really like this one. I read this one. I did not listen to it, so I can't speak to the audiobook. But I loved the physical book experience. And even though I know we talk about infidelity as a plot line on this show because I know some readers who that's not for them, infidelity here is more the inciting incident and then you get to see the consequences of it. Messy family lives, messy family dynamics, particularly in this neighborhood and these two neighbors and how their lives converge over the years. I loved this. This is Lake Effect by Cynthia Dupree Sweeney. Maybe go into it knowing only what I just told you, and then I think you'll really enjoy it. I was so excited to read the Shampoo Effect. This is by Ginny Jackson. Ginny Jackson wrote Pineapple street, which is a book I loved, and she's also a prolific editor of a lot of books I really like, so I was very excited for this one. It releases on June 30th. It's got a very summer cover that you will, I think readers will just be drawn to. This is a book that I bet will sell itself in the store once it's on shelves. Here is what I loved about it. So this is set in fictional Greenhead, Massachusetts, but as I was reading, and I do not know if my friend Christine listens to this podcast, but as I was reading I kept going, wait a minute. This is very familiar to me and I have had the great pleasure of visiting outside of Boston, the North Shore of Massachusetts, a handful of times thanks to my friends Melissa and Christine. And sure enough, this book is set in fictional Green Head, Massachusetts. Like I do not believe. I think I looked at a map. I do not believe there is a green head, but it is very much based in Ipswich, Massachusetts, which I have again had the pleasure of visiting. And so I loved this for that reason. Now this book. This book is doing a lot. Okay, this book is doing a lot. But I loved the setting and so I do want to tell you if you just need summery vibes, I think there is a lot to like about the vibes and the setting of this book. If you like Ellen Hildebrand because of those beachy settings, this setting is great. Here is the other thing I loved about this book in the acknowledgments or in the back there is an author's note all about how this book was inspired by John Updike. The reason I am mentioning that to you now is I personally wish that had been at the front of the book because it definitely made me like the book even more once I kind of realized what it was doing. Let me tell you about it and then you can decide if you want to read it. So this is about a group of messy. And I do mean messy, messy friends. Rich people. Rich people behaving badly. Yeah, but just kind of rudely. Like there's not a ton happening here. It's just a group of close knit friends who live in New England and then this kind of outsider comes to town. So it reminded me a little bit of a book I loved a few years ago called Everybody Rise by Stephanie Clifford. I know I used to mention that on the podcast all the time, but that really is a book I loved. And that book dealt a lot with socioeconomic status and class. This is playing with that a little bit. So Caroline Lash is this wannabe writer. She. I say wannabe writer. She's had an article or an essay rather, published in the New Yorker, so she feels like this is her chance. So she quits her job in publishing and she receives a grant to begin working on her next book project. And it leads her to Ipswich or to, I'm sorry, fictional Greenhead, Massachusetts, where she kind of encamps and spends a summer. And when she does, she finds herself in this group of really close knit friends who have known each other forever. And I cannot tell you how annoying this group of friends is. They are so annoying. I wanted to throttle all of them. And I really did feel sorry for Caroline. And the reason Caroline becomes involved in this group of friends is first of all because there are very much kind of small town vibes, or at least like maybe old school New England, which very much can feel old school southern to me, where people who have just known each other forever and they've grown up together kind of click and bond and. And Caroline falls in love with this guy who turns out still occasionally was sleeping with his high school girlfriend and whoops, she's pregnant. And so now he's dating Caroline, but he also is going to be the father to his ex girlfriend's baby. And thus Caroline, already an outsider, kind of becomes this, This infiltrator. Like this group of friends really wants the ex girlfriend and the boyfriend to get back together because they belong together. They've known each other forever. And Caroline is just preventing this from happening. So if you like books about messy, messy friends, if you like books about rich people who behave very rudely, if you liked Everybody rise. If you liked so old, so young, I think you will like this. The friends graded on me quite a bit. And this is just. I am discovering some of my readerly pet peeves. I think it's my old age. I think it's turning 40. I do not need to read about your drug use. I just don't. I. I don't need to bring. I don't find it interesting. It's like in a book. I'm sorry. It's like in a movie where there will be this scene where we're supposed to feel the drug high. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like in Book Smart, where we're supposed to feel this hallucinogenic. Hallucinogenic experience. I'm mispronouncing that. I don't want it. Is what I' saying. I don't want that. And there is some drug use in this book where I'm like, do I have to keep reading about this? And so that was my personal pet peeve. That is a personal problem. You may not have that problem. I think if you like beachy books, messy friends, you will like this. There even might be. There's no reunion element. So it's not like St. Elmo's Fire or something. I think so Old, so Young is a good comp. But again, this is not. Not all these people are likable. And this isn't a reunion story. These people spend a lot of time together. They've been friends for a very long time. And the whole point is Caroline has kind of upended their dynamic. Loved the setting. Loved. When I found out it was inspired by John Updike and his writing, for some reason, that flipped a switch for me, and that's why I'm going ahead and telling you about it, because maybe it will do the same for you. I think I might have liked this one more had I known that. Anyway, good book for summer. Good book to throw in your beach bag. I think for me. 3.75 stars. Like, enjoyable. Liked it enough of the characters. Some of the characters made some decisions where I just got a little bit irritated. But I still think there's a lot to like. So that is the Shampoo Effect by Ginny Jackson. Clever title. You're going to find out what it's it is when you read it. Great cover. Really fun setting. If you're my friend Christine or Melissa, and you listen to this podcast, it's fun. It's set in your neck of the woods, so maybe you'll enjoy it. All right. I kept with the summer trends. I'm telling you, I read so many summer books in April, which very much messed with my head. I kept telling Jordan, I feel like we're already in the summer, which we're not. It is still spring, but I was reading very summery. Books. So next I read down with the Shipmans. This is by Meg Mitchell Moore. My mom is a big Meg Mitchell Moore fan. She has written Vacationland, the Islanders. I think Mansion beach, which released last year, will be releasing in paperback this year. So she's just a fun summer author who I don't think. Now I'm second guessing myself. Like, have I read her before? My mom definitely has. She's come on the show and talked about her. I don't know if I have before. But let me tell you something of the summer books I've talked about or I'm going to talk about today. And I'm talking about a lot, but a lot of them are families on the coast, friends on the coast. I mean, Olivia came across a book the other day that was just set in Maine and she immediately handed me the arc. So if you're like me and you're just a sucker, you just wish you lived in New England and it's never gonna happen for you, but you just keep reading books about it just in case. Boy, do I have a lot of books for you this summer. So down with the Shipmans is her latest. Down with the Shipmans is the name of it. It comes out on June 2nd. It is set the week after the 4th of July. So if you love a seasonal read, you could buy this and save it for the Fourth of July weekend. It's set on the New Hampshire coast. So again, another New England kind of story. This one's about siblings Jordan, Natalie and May. They are speaking of reunions. They are returning to their family beach home on the New Hampshire coast. Their mother died a few months ago and this is their first time to all be back together. Their father, Calvin has remarried. Their mom's hospice nurse, which I did have questions about. And he is informing these sisters that, yeah, this is a family reunion. Yes, this is to honor the life of your mother, but also, I'm selling the house. And of course, lots of rage and chaos ensue. The sisters very much have their kind of roles that they've been given. Mae is the youngest sister. She's a little bit all over the place. She can't quite get her life together. She perhaps is living in her car. Natalie is, I think she's the middle sister, but she is married. She is living almost the life of a tradwife influencer. So, you know, I told you guys there's going to be so many tradwife books this year, but this one was subtle enough where I didn't mind it. And then Jordan is the eldest daughter, the eldest sister. She lives a very ambitious New York City, very professionally successful life. And then maybe she comes across her ex girlfriend when she's back home here on the coast. Anyway, this is about a family home. In no way is the Paper Palace a comp to this, but if you read the Paper palace, you know, part of what in my mind made that book so great was this family home or this compound where this family stayed. I love a family compound. So I don't really love reading about drug use or hallucinogenic experiences, but what I do love reading about is if your family has owned a home for generations, particularly on the coast, I am here for it. And so this book is very much about this house and the sisters wanting the house to stay in the family, but also, you know, fighting amongst themselves because maybe one of the sisters understands where her dad is coming from, maybe another wants to keep the house, you know. Anyway. And I love a bottle episode type book where this is set. One week they're spending one week they think they're there for vacation, instead they're there to pack up the house Again, there are and there always are. But for some reason this year I feel like there are a lot of summer books. And what I again mean by that is we've got a book set on the coast with a group of friends or a family. And I mean, I'm gonna tell you about another one. I'm about to tell you about another one, but I'm a little bit worried they're all gonn or people are going to be overwhelmed and they're not going to know which ones to read. So let me tell you, I've started a lot. I finished the Shampoo Effect and really liked it. I finished down with the Shipman's and loved it. I think if you. I'm not a sister, but I think if you are a sister, you will see a lot of yourself in this one. I enjoyed this one so much more even than I thought I would. It is down with the Shipmans by Meg Mitchell Moore. I suspect my mom will read it as well, but I loved this one. A slight departure from my other summer books is Everything that is Beautiful. This is by Louise Nealon. I quoted the book at the top of the episode. This is out in the UK now. I am pretty sure Louise Nealon is an Irish author. You may know her. I did not. But if you're. If you're a listener overseas, maybe you will recognize her. She wrote a book called Snowflake and you may Recognize that if you're. If you're a. An American reader. I just did not. I was not familiar with Louise Nealon, but she wrote a book called Snowflake that was very popular. This is her next book, Everything that is Beautiful. It is a standalone. They are not related in any way. It releases here in the states August 2nd, so you've got some time for this one. But I actually think now, look, if you're in the uk, go ahead and read it. I think it's. I think it's currently out, currently being reviewed, but I actually think August is a perfect release date for this book because it doesn't feel as summery as the other books I've discussed. Instead, this is a book about the Foley family, and particularly the neighbor of the Foley family. It is told more or less from the perspective of three women. The perspectives of three women, including Helen Foley. She's our matriarch. Kate Foley, one of her daughters. And then Neave Ryan. Nev. Ryan is the neighbor. Neve grows up near the Foleys in this small Irish town where Liam Foley, the patriarch, is a very famous hurler. I had no idea what hurling was, but then I looked it up, and this book will make you want to look it up. Beartown istohockie. As everything that is beautiful is to hurling, it is a Gaelic Irish sport. It's called hurling. If it's for men, it is called camgee if it is for women. And so Liam Foley is this famous hurler. And in this village, hurling is extremely important to the community. And it's not something like you just play as a kid. I mean, there are. My understanding is it's a very popular sport played by amateurs, by adult amateurs. So even if they have other careers, they still play hurling. They still. They still hurl on the weekends. I hope I'm. Guys, I'm not Irish. Can you tell? I hope I'm describing this. Well, I honestly don't know if I am. Look it up. Google it. I did. It was fascinating. Okay, so hurling plays a big part in this book. And Neeve, the neighbor of the Foleys, who hangs out with her friend Peter Foley. She is a great Kamji player, and Liam kind of takes notice of her. And the book is all about how much Niamh loves the Foley family and really maybe even has this crush on Peter and just wants to be a part of Peter's family. They're kind of loud Catholic. It's just her and her mom. And so Niamh kind of feels like the Foleys are the family she never got to have. We meet the Foleys after Liam's death. We get to see Helen trying to figure out who she is without her husband. And then we're trying to understand why Kate is estranged from the rest of the family and kind of is living her own life and really does not engage with her family too much, but does come home every year to kind of honor Liam's death. There's a lot of family dynamics in this book. There are reasons that Neve no longer spends time with the Foleys and that Kate no longer spends time with the Foleys. And we kind of learn that as the book progresses. I knew very little going into this book and so much like some of the other titles I've told you about today, I don't want to give too much away. So I think I'm going to leave it there. But if you like Irish lit, this will scratch like, like every bit of that itch. If you like small town literature and if you like complicated family histories where maybe there is some trauma which leads then to drama, I think you will love this book. Google it too. It has this really gorgeous cover. My friend Kimberly, I think saw me post about this one on my Instagram and immediately pre ordered it simply because of the COVID It's gorgeous. I loved it. Each of the women, Neve, Helen and Kate are all very different and they go on very different personal journeys throughout this book. There's not a ton of plot, but at the same time there's not a ton of plot. But I didn't need for there to be. I was very invested in the story pretty much from the first page. It's very well written. Now I would like to go back and read Snowflake. This is Everything that Is Beautiful by Louise nealon, releases on August 2nd. If you're in the UK, it's out already for some reason. I then immediately picked up the Great Believers. This is by Rebecca Mackay. I had not read this this released back in 2018. I'm not gonna give too much about it today because this is gonna be a book that I talk about in detail in a future podcast episode. But the Great Believers, released in 2018, it is a book about Yale Tishman who in 1985 Chicago is this art acquisitions officer getting art for securing art for a gallery at Northwestern University. He is trying desperately to move his life forward. At the same time he grieves over his friends who are slowly dying of aids. And so this is a book more or less about the AIDS epidemic. Again set in 1980s Chicago, but also flashes forward to 2015 Paris, and to the storyline of a woman named named Fiona. Yale and Fiona kind of come of age together in Chicago, and then we get Yale's more or less Yale's perspective in the 1980s storyline and Fiona's perspective in the 2015 storyline. There's actually a lot happening here, far more maybe than I originally thought. But this you've seen, Listen, you've seen this book everywhere. It released in 2018. It was a Pulitzer finalist, a National Book Award finalist. I believe the New York Times named it one of the the best books of the 21st century. And I concur. I absolutely concur. I loved this book. I'm a little mad that I hadn't read it before. I'll discuss on a future episode. I think I just. It was one of those books that I didn't get an arc of and then by the time it released to raves, I just didn't make time for it. And I'm irritated at myself. But I do firmly believe books find you when they're supposed to find you. And so maybe you too would like to read the Great Believers. It's never too late. So. So the Great believers by Rebecca MacKay. Really, really wonderful book. So glad I finally read it and I will talk about it in more depth in an upcoming episode of from the Front Porch. Okay, back to summer reads. Next I read Make Nice. This is by Ryan Efgen. I believe this is his debut. It releases July 14th. It is set on a fictional island off the coast of Michigan, but it is very clearly Mackinac Island. I. I don't understand somebody, do I? I was going to say somebody email me, but do I really want somebody to email me? I could probably Google for this, but I'll tell you, as a lay reader, it makes no sense to me. Why Greenhead, Massachusetts, which clearly is Ipswich. Why you wouldn't just call it Ipswich. And clearly this book is set on Mackinac Island. Why wouldn't you just call it Mackinac Island? And I don't know, it must be some legal thing. I'll. I'll ask my attorney husband, I guess. But I as a reader, it's a little irritating. I'm like, just say where it is. Anyway, this book is set on a fictional version of Mackinac Island. It is about guys. It's a drinking game. Siblings or friends. Is that how you play drinking games? I don't know. This one's about siblings. Pete, Viv and Corey. Pete is Pete was my favorite. He is a scientist who studies snails. Viv is. I was gonna say single mom. She's not a single mom, but she is traveling with her teenage daughter without her husband because she has just found out her husband is gay. And then Corey is the very stereotypical youngest son who comes to Mackinac, fictional Mackinac island, armed with, I don't know, it's like five pounds of cocaine that he has smuggled from New York where he accidentally acquired it. And his goal is to sell it for a large sum of money while he is on vacation with his family. So I literally have in my notes, snails, drugs, what more could you want? And the difference between this and shampoo effect is shampoo effect. There's a couple of characters who just. They just. Drugs are part of their lifestyle. And I just got kind of tired reading about it. This one, ironically, nobody's really doing drugs. They're just trying to sell them. So. So I don't know if that matters to you as a reader, but I found the selling of drugs more interesting. So Corey. Corey's here on Mackinac island trying to sell drugs. Viv is trying to understand her husband's newfound sexuality, newly discovered sexuality. And Pete is studying snails. And I weirdly found that to be one of the most interesting parts of the book. I really liked this. I flew through it. I didn't love it, but I liked it much. Like every other book I've talked about today, this is about siblings whose mother has died and now they're traveling with their dad, who is really just a schmuck. Like, and we're given no, like, at least in Meg Mitchell Moore's book we get a lot more about the dad. And he's a way more well rounded character in this book. The dad is just. I don't know, he is not great. Not great. And he plays a very minor role. The book really is about Pete, Viv and Corey. If you were to ask me, okay, so what was the point? I'm not sure I'd be able to tell you, but I liked it. And isn't that the definition of a beach book? At least for me. I enjoyed it. I had a good time with it. There were a couple of times where I got maybe a little bit. I mean, it wasn't long enough to get bored, but I did. Maybe I just had a couple moments where I was like, oh, what is the point? And I'm not sure, but I could have read a whole book about Pete. That's what I'll tell you. I could have read a whole book about Pete and his snail studies. So for what that's worth, I like this one. It is called Make Nice by ryan Efgen. Releases July 14th. I should put a little. If I were typing this, I would put a little asterisk here, which is I read a lot of summer books. What you need to know is I started so many summer books. And by summer books, I mean they have a beach on the COVID They're a set on the coast. They're, you know, they scream. They literally. The covers scream. They don't literally scream. The covers just scream metaphorically. Summertime. And I picked up so many of these. And so what I need you to know is the ones that I finished were what I consider to be the good ones. So even if Shampoo Effect and Make Nice weren't five star books, for me, they were fun. They were fun and I finished them, which is more than I can say for quite a few books that I started but immediately got bored with or immediately thought, this is not great. So I do feel like if I were typing this review for you, I would put that little note that every book that I'm talking about I finished. And to me, if I finish a book that means I liked it, it because life's too short to read books you don't like. So I. I feel like I make that clear other places, but I'm not sure I've ever made that clear here on from the front porch. So that is my addendum. Okay, then ironically, when I did in fact go to the beach, I didn't read a beachy book at all. Instead, I read Fame Sick by Lena Dunham. I am 40 years old. Lena Dunham turns 40. I. I don't think I saw all of Girls, but I feel like I watched at least a season of it. I am familiar with girls. I also do consider myself relatively in the know about pop culture. And so I know a lot about Lena Dunham. So probably you do too. I mean, maybe you do too. I don't know. I thought it was funny that Jordan saw I was reading this book and he said, lena Dunham, Girls. Which is so bizarre. Jordan knows very little about pop culture, but he knew Lena Dunham. And you know what he knew about her? He knew girls and he knew that Twitter hated her. And that is really what Fame Sick is about. So I read Lena Dunham's first memoir called not that Kind of Woman. Probably an unpopular opinion, though. Who's to say? In the year of our Lord 2026. I loved that book. I really did. I read it for my book club. I thought she was a great writer. I still think she's a great writer. Fame Sick is sad. Famsick is a sad and heavy book to me. This is about her fame and after Girls, and it is about her struggles with her health and particularly chronic illness and how chronic illness affected her career. Yes, there is a lot about Jack Antonoff. Yes, there is a lot about Jenny Connor. I mean, if you've seen some interviews Lena Dunham has done, then you know what this book is about. I think she does a really great job of telling her version of events, her memories of those events. She doesn't shy away from details. She doesn't shy away from names. Although I did have to Google, I did have to google who Jack Antonoff was producing during their breakup. And so that you don't have to Google, I will tell you that it is lorde. You maybe already knew that. I didn't. So she gives you enough details where you're not. Have you ever read those celebrity memoirs where you're kind of infuriated because you're like, well, who are you talking about? Just name, name, names. She names names carefully. And even though she doesn't shy away from maybe their less than great behavior, she also does not shy away from her own less than great behavior. Does that make sense? I appreciated this book quite a bit. I really want to read more from Lena Dunham and I would. I hope it's something happier. She did a great. There's a great Architectural Digest about her home in Connecticut. I weirdly would love to see her write a book about her house or I don't know, because I think she's great at memoir. I really do. And I'm. And I'm interested. I'm interested in what she has to say. She's complicated. She's complicated. She is not without scandal. You can search for that on your own time. There's plenty of it out there. But I do find her an interesting person and an interesting storyteller. I do not find her to be boring. I had no intention of reading this book. And then I really liked the COVID and I thought, well, might as well. And I'm glad I did. But it was heavy. It was heavy. Honestly, I think you should read it. Sure. There's all the stuff about fame and yeah, you can read about it for the scandals or scandals probably isn't the right word, but the breakups, you can read, read about, you know, how her professional life kind of blew up or how her love life blew up. But honestly, I think it gave me a really much needed perspective on what it must be like to live with chronic illness and how it affects every aspect of your life. And so I appreciated it really for that. But I sincerely hope there might be some happier stories in Lena Dunham's future. Also, I just want to put a plug here because it came out during the pandemic and I don't think anybody watched it. But Katherine called Birdie. She took that project on because she loved that book as a kid, which, yes, me too. If you also read Catherine Called Birdie and you did not watch the film adaptation directed by Lena Dunham, this is your encouragement to do so. Andrew Scott is in it, so that's reason enough. So Fame Sick by Lena Dunham was my literature of choice on my beach trip that I did in April. Then I got home and read another summer book. This time it was historical fiction called the Half Life. This is by Rachel Beanland. I love Rachel Beanland. She wrote Florence Adler Swims Forever, which was a 2020 book for me that I loved. If you missed it, I would encourage you to go back to that one. I really liked it. She also wrote the House is on Fire, which is a story I really liked. And then I'm just realizing as I'm talking to you, I never finished it, so not sure what that's about. But I picked up the Half Life. I read this on my Kindle as an advanced reader copy. This does not release until July 14th, so this is a another pre order situation. I like historical fiction when it is done well. I think I sometimes have done a disservice to historical fiction. Or maybe I've just said, oh, that genre isn't for me. But I think it is. It just depends on the subject matter and the writer. And I think Rachel Beanland is really good at it. So this is a book about Eileen. It is set in 1970s Italy where the United States had a military presence. And Eileen, I did not know anything about that. Rachel Beanland knows a lot about it. So this book is long. This is not a book I would ever choose in a million years to read on my Kindle, but that is how I had access to this book and I was interested in it so I picked it up anyway. But I think it is around 500 pages and I would way prefer to read the physical copy. If you liked the women, that is the book I kept thinking about. Now I don't think just because you read the women, you will like this book. But I do think there are similarities. So Eileen is living in Charleston. Her brother Lenny has just been killed in Vietnam. She is living with her parents. She's quit college because her family is grieving. She goes and kind of takes a job at a department store in Charleston. And she meets a Navy man named Paul. And they have kind of this whirlwind romance. And then Paul is stationed, going to be stationed in Italy. He's known the whole time, which is a little sketchy, but whatever. And so. So he tells Eileen that's where he's going. And they decide instead of breaking up, they should just get married. So they get married and Eileen goes with him to Italy, where they live off the coast of Sardinia, I believe. And that is where America has a naval base where they are repairing submarines. I hope I've gotten that correct. Because, guys, this book is so much about submarines. I feel like I learned so much about the military and submarines. And that may not be for you. There were at times I wasn't sure it was for me because there's a lot of detail in this book about the American military, about Italy in the 1970s and their politics, about the environmental impacts of nuclear weapons. Somehow it all works. And I really, really liked it. And when we're talking about summer books, and I just named you, like three or four summer books where, honestly, all the plots sound really similar. Here is a summer book whose plot sounds nothing like anything else. Like, like, I'm not gonna read another book about submarines set off the coast of 1970s Italy. Like, read it for that on its own. Something that is totally different, totally original. And again, a fantastic author's note where Rachel Beanland really details. She really details all of the research that went into the book, but also maybe the personal relationship that she has with this particular subject matter. Here's what I will say, though. Eileen and Paul, Eileen in particular is very young. Paul is a little bit older. Their marriage is brand new. They don't know a lot about each other. And there is. Guys, there is so much open door sex in this book because Eileen is having kind of the sexual awakening, but she's having really terrible sex with her husband. And it is. It was not my favorite to read about. Now, you know, I'm a prudish reader. There's no shame for me in that. It just is what it is. I also just felt like it was out of place in this book. Like, I thought, well, this is interesting. Like, Susie would have no problem reading this book, but I think she would Be very surprised to stumble upon those chapters. And they were a little odd. Like, I just. They honestly felt like they belonged in a different book. Now, did I appreciate Eileen? Eileen narrates the whole book. And did I appreciate the realization that she has gotten to Italy and she's in this marriage that maybe she shouldn't be in, and there's a young, handsome Italian reporter who maybe she has a little bit more of a rapport with. Yeah, I loved all of that. I mean, I thought it was interesting, but I. The sex. The sex scenes and the sexual descriptions in this book were very stark. And it kind of didn't match to me the tone of the rest of the book. Still, there is plenty to like about this book. Lots of science, lots of history, but also a lot about being a Navy wife. The bonds that Eileen had to build with her fellow Navy wives, the ways that she was similar to them, and the ways that she was very different, and then the ways that it wound up not mattering. I loved getting some of that insight. And you can tell, again, Rachel Beanland really knows about what she's writing. I liked this one. This is probably. I don't think I've reviewed it on my Instagram yet. I'm gonna say four to four and a half stars. Really liked it. That is the Half Life by Rachel Beanland out on July 14th. And then last but not least, y', all, all April Long, I listened to Judy Blume by Mark Oppenheimer. This was narrated in audiobook format by Molly Ringwald. So it felt like a natural audiobook choice. I really liked the audiobook. I also think, buy this book. Buy this book. You'll fly through it. I mean, it is long. It is long. But I. I loved the narration, but I could have finished this so much faster if I just. If I just read the book. I liked this. This is probably four stars for me. It's a biography about Judy Blume. What's not to like? You might have seen some rumblings about this because apparently Judy Blume and Mark Oppenheimer have had a. They've had a falling out. I think that's to be expected when you're writing a biography about a living person. And for whatever reason, they've decided not to write a memoir. You know, Judy Blume could have written a memoir. She didn't. And he had her blessing. My understanding is he had her blessing. Certainly. There's so much detail in this book. I can't imagine. He did not have her blessing. So he had her blessing. This is an authorized Biography. But I think just people are people. And for whatever reason, maybe Judy Blume was not pleased, which I honestly could not understand why. I mean, I read the whole dang book and I thought, what's not. I don't understand what's not to like? There's a lot of detail in this book, more than I probably needed. I mean, I like Judy Blume a lot. I like her books a lot. I like what she does for banned books and for censorship in particular. Did I need every last detail? And talk about name dropping. Did I need every last name? No, I did not. Is this book really, really well researched? Yes. Do I think Mark Oppenheimer wanted to do a really, really good job? Yes. It is very thorough. This is a very thorough biography of Judy Blume. I probably didn't need one this thorough, but I loved the parts about her writerly life. I especially liked knowing that there came a point in her career where she, despite her immense success, she literally wondered if she should just go decorate houses. So I like that we all have crises of career. I appreciated knowing that she had 10 years of just hit after hit after hit, but never again. I mean, she continued to write and continued to write to success, but never wrote with the same ferocity that she did within that 10 year period. I enjoyed reading about her bookselling career. Yeah, I mean, she's fascinating. She's a fascinating character. She's a fascinating person. And I think Mark Oppenheimer did a really good job. I really do. So I liked this one. I'm gonna tell you in a minute, but I think you should buy the physical copy. This is Judy Blume by Mark Oppenheimer, and those are the books I read in April. Such a lot of books and kind of all over the place. A lot of beach books. A lot of beach books. I hope you know, I always try to do this for summer literary first look, which is coming up. If you want a ticket to that event where I talk about my favorite summer reads, you can find those tickets@bookshelfthomasville.com so I read a lot of summer books and again, liked all of the ones I talked about today. But I also appreciated kind of the standouts that were a little bit different. And so I hope you at least have walked away from this episode knowing, okay, I'm gonna try this one. Like, I'm gonna try this speech book because you don't have to read all. I'm a bookseller, so I'm trying to read as many of them as I can. But my job is to kind of narrow it down for you. So I hope maybe you'll walk away from this episode knowing which beach books might be for you. And we'll probably cover some more in the May Reading Recap, but those are the books I read in April. As usual with our Reading Recap episodes, we are offering a Reading Recap Bundle for the month. The April Reading recap bundle is $76. It includes Lake Effect, that's the Cynthia Dupree Sweeney book book Judy Blume, which I do think you should have the physical copy of. I was listening to it and then I wanted to underline some stuff and so I got the physical copy and it's just delightfully retro. I love the font and I think it'll look great on my coffee table. So maybe, maybe YouTube. So Lake Effect, Judy Blume and the Great Believers. So you can get that backlist title in there. You can find more details and the April Bundle through the link in our show notes or you can go to our website that is bookshelfthomasville.com and type episode 579 into the search bar. This week I'm reading the memoir Monster of a Land by Lauren Huff 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 at the @bookshelf tville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through Our store website, bookshelfthomasville.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. 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