Episode 348 || November Reading Recap
This week, Annie is recapping the books she read in November. Whether you’re listening while you prep your favorite side dish or in the middle of a post-meal food coma, we’re glad you’re here.
Don’t forget: From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, an indie bookstore in South Georgia, and this weekend is Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Online customers earn $5 off their $100 purchases, and $10 off their $200 purchases, including Shelf Subscriptions, our shop’s book of the month club. No discount code is needed, just go to www.bookshelfthomasville.com and shop between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Local and nearby customers, we’ll be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. offering in-store discounts, prizes, and tote bags, and we’d love to see you there!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca
Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian
Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho
Jennifer, Hectate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E.L. Konigsburg
No Land to Light On by Yara Zgheib
I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer
Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close
Taste by Stanley Tucci
The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousens
Prayers for the People by Terry Stokes
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Thank you again to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are passing through, I hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia: www.thomasvillega.com.
This week, Annie is reading Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest.
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Episode Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:02] [squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
[as music fades out]
“how the dead / must cringe at our resistance / to look as if We’ve lived.
― Kate Baer, I Hope This Finds You Well
I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and, in the words of the incomparable Rose from You’ve Got Mail, “Happy Thanksgiving back.” This week, I’m recapping the books I read in November. Whether you’re listening while you prep your favorite side dish or in the middle of a post-meal food coma, I’m glad you’re here.
Don’t forget: From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, an indie bookstore in South Georgia, and this weekend is Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Online customers earn $5 off their $100 purchases, and $10 off their $200 purchases, including Shelf Subscriptions, our shop’s book of the month club. No discount needed, just go to www.bookshelfthomasville.com and shop between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Local and nearby customers, we’ll be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. offering in-store discounts, prizes, and tote bags, and we’d love to see you there!
Annie Jones [00:01:52] OK. I read a lot of books this month, but I should disclose that I try to record these reading recap episodes really the week before the month ends. And so you're going to hear today several books that I finished at the tail end of October and then books I've read up until the middle of November. And so December is going to be ainteresting. It's a kind of a smorgasbord of books and literature, but I think you're going to be able to tell at what point I reach November reading because that is when I read mostly Rom Coms, and that's pretty par for the course, given the holiday chaos, my reading life drastically changes in November and December just becomes a lot more focused on lighter literature, I feel like or books that I can finish very quickly. And so, yeah, I think you're going to be able to see kind of the rhythm of my reading months in the books that I was reading.
Annie Jones [00:02:44] First up, Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout, this book is gorgeous. I started it and like, broke my rule. Normally, when I travel on a plane, I try to only take advanced reader copies or books that I don't mind leaving behind. But I was in the middle of Oh William! when I left on a very quick trip to Chicago at the tail end of October, and I took Oh William! with me because I just desperately wanted it like I. I wanted it with me on this trip and sure enough, I finished it on the plane. What a delight to be reading Oh William!. While the elderly woman sitting next to me was reading Olive Kitteridge, it felt very serendipitous and fun. I adored this book. I think if you were to ask me which Elizabeth Strout books I recommend and recommend starting with, it's going to sound weird because I tend to break the rules here. She's written a lot of books, and I don't think you have to read them in order. And maybe that's a little sacrilegious. I don't know, but I loved Olive Again so very much, and I think still it is my favorite of her works. This is close, though. Oh William! is considered to be a kind of sort of sequel or continuation or flash forward from the book My Name is Lucy Barton, which came out a few years ago and I really did. Like, I really liked that book a lot. I loved this one, though, so our narrator is Lucy, and she's just this beautiful narrator. She's a writer. But I like that she's a messy writer because this book that is being written from her perspective is not perfect. She writes like a person talks. It feels like so it feels like a very intimate story she's sharing with us. Lucy and her ex-husband, William, come together when William has this kind of crisis of sorts, like an identity crisis and figuring out who he is. His latest marriage has ended. He has discovered something about his family. So he reaches out to Lucy, his ex-wife, and they kind of join together and take this trip to Maine. I obviously enjoyed this book because of the setting and because of kind of being able to picture the roads that Lucy and William are traveling. But I really loved it because of the writing and because of the story. It's yes, set in Maine, but I I don't know. It's really these characters and their lives. And if you are looking for a plot driven book, Elizabeth Strout is not for you. These are not plot driven novels. These are books where Elizabeth Strout writing is just at the very forefront, and I am never not blown away like her writing is so beautiful and so. Oh, so reminiscent of what I wish that I could write like, she's she's definitely an aspirational author for me, but I love these people. I loved Lucy and I love William, and I desperately wanted to spend time with them. This book is a treasure. Much like the last several books I've read by Elizabeth Strout, if you've never read her, I urge you to pick her up. I would actually start with Olive Again, which I know is technically a sequel to Olive Kitteridge, but I loved it so much more than Olive Kitteridge, and I think it might be even more accessible for you if the short story collection presented in Olive Kitteridge has been a little hard for you. Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout is out now. It's Elizabeth Strout latest, and I highly recommend it as you finish out the year, it was perfect for reading.
Annie Jones [00:06:08] While I was in Chicago, I had the pleasure, I was only in Chicago for 48 hours, but I had the pleasure of visiting The Book Cellar in Chicago, it's an indie bookstore there. And I picked up on a whim. I always try to buy something at an indie bookstore if I just feel like I need to write because I own one. I understand. I understand the plight and the business of an independent bookstore, and so I always try to buy a little something. And I decided to leave the ARCs that I had kind of started, but wasn't really feeling. And instead, by the book Well Matched by Jen DeLuca. Now here's what you need to know about Well Matched. This is a rom com. I picked it up because I had seen somebody on Instagram, and I truly don't remember who, but somebody had talked about it, and I thought, Well, that sounds kind of fun. I definitely think you have to be in the right mood because it's presented as this Renaissance Fair romance, and that originally is not something I would ever have been interested in. But maybe it was the rainy Chicago day. Maybe it was the thought of traveling on a plane by myself and just being alone, and I don't know, but I was looking for something light and fun and romantic, and Well Matched is part of a series. I did not know that going in, and I want to be clear that it did not hinder my reading to not have read the previous two works. This is number three in Jen DeLuca's Well Met series. I was vaguely aware of that when I picked it up, but I really, I don't think I would have been able to tell you that I did not know that until like as I started reading, I thought, Oh, this reads like, I should already know this world, I should already know some of these people. That being said again, it did not harm my reading. It did not hinder my reading to be reading this out of order. Am I interested in Jen DeLuca's other works? Yes, now I am, because this was a delight. It is PG 13. It is open-door, in my opinion. You are going to hear me talk about some other rom coms later in this episode that I think are more PG and more appropriate for closed door readers. This one is definitely steamy. I adored this for. Yes, the Renaissance Fair setting, which I did not anticipate enjoying, but I also enjoyed it for the Luke and Lorelai vibe. So our main characters are April, who's a single mom? Her daughter has just graduated high school, and April is finally looking to get out of this small town where she's been living her whole kind of adult life as she's raised her child. She is in the bar. Like the book opens where she's in the bar, and this guy, Mitch, who's a friend of hers, kind of steps in and intervenes when a guy starts to hit on her. Mitch, to me, is probably younger than Luke, although who knows? Honestly, looking back at how old Luke Dana was really supposed to be. But in my opinion, in the book, he feels a little younger. He is younger than April in the book. And so Mitch is this Luke type character where he except he is less gruff. I think he's very beloved by his town. He's the town darling. He's very handsome and he loves the community that they live in, whereas April is desperate to get out. And so I really liked that aspect of it that this is somebody who has made her life small so that she can raise her daughter and she's ready now that her daughter is graduating. But then she kind of, you know, asks herself, Well, maybe her community is bigger than she thinks it is. So I really like the questions that Jen DeLuca is asking in this book about small towns and small communities. I liked the Renaissance fair aspect. I thought it was very fun. There's a scene that felt a little bit reminiscent of the final scene in Grease. Only more for 2021, I guess. So, yeah, I had a lot. There was a lot to really like about this book. I found it to be very enjoyable, compulsively readable could not put it down. PG 13 Lovely Romance with Luke and Lorelai vibes.
Annie Jones [00:09:54] Then I began listening to a book recommended to be by my friend Marcy Solomon. She is Marcy Darling on Instagram, and she often posts about books. And she and I were DMing back and forth, and I have been in a weird headspace for a lot of this year. It feels like and that has definitely affected my reading. And Marcy suggested I try my hand at some young adult novels, but through audiobook format. And so I picked up a book on her recommendation called Stay Sweet. This is by Siobhan Vivian, but I listened to it on audiobook through Libro.FM and I only listened to this one. A lot of the audiobooks I've been doing lately, I've balanced and and read parts of them and listened to parts of them. But this one I strictly did via audio. Here's what I will say I really enjoyed this book. You, dear reader, should read this book in the summer. This is a summertime book. The whole time I was listening to it, I was like, This is great. I wish it was 90 degrees outside, and I was listening to it on a warm summer day. So you need to file this one away because I do think it is delightful and wonderful, but I think you should read it in the summer. The audiobook is also really great. I do agree with Marcy's recommendation that I think young adult novels are easy to follow and therefore good for a reticent audiobook listener like me. Stay Sweet is about Amelia. Amelia is 17, 18. She's graduated from high school, and every summer of her high school career, she has worked at Mead Creamery, which is this small little ice cream shop in her very tiny town, very tiny tourist town. Mead Creamery has been owned by Molly Mead. Molly Mead came to own it during the World War Two era, so you actually get a little lovely look at some historical fiction as well. We kind of get Molly Mead when she was starting the creamery back at the height of World War Two. And then you get Amelia and right as she starting her senior year as head girl, basically manager of this ice cream shop. She things come crashing down. I don't really want to spoil anything but things. Things break down, a chaos ensues and she is left to try to salvage the business and also her career of sorts, trying to figure out what she wants to do after high school, but also falling in love and really adoring this ice cream shop. The love interest This is a little bit of a romance, but I actually think the romance is mostly between Amelia and Mead Creamery. However, there is a male protagonist who I found to be really fun and entertaining. His name's Grady. He's like a business major in college. He he's Molly meets grandson who's come to save the ice cream shop. But, you know, it's just fascinating. There's a lot of discussion. As a small business owner, I found it really charming. Like, there's a lot of discussion about minimum wage and, you know, perks of working at the ice cream shop and all this kind of things. Different marketing tools. And should we get a food truck? Just really fun business conversations. And the whole time I just kept picturing Amelia as somebody who grows up to become Jenny of Jenny's ice creams like the way that Amelia falls in love with making ice cream is really, really wonderfully done. And that, to me, is the heart of the book. The little romance between her and Grady is sweet. You know what drove me crazy is Amelia and her relationship with her best friend, Kate, and I think this happens a lot. Sometimes when I read young adult literature, I have to remind myself these are books about teenagers, and Amelia and Kate are figuring out who they are. And so their personalities are really interesting and they kind of are at each other a little bit in a way that I sometimes find frustrating. I found Kate to be a particularly difficult personality. She was who I was most often talking to as I was listening to this book. But when I look back on it, I just think it's probably pretty a pretty accurate portrayal of some of our friendships in high school. Not all of them, but some of them and some of the antagonistic relationships we have with people we really respect and admire. But people whose personalities are very different from ours and Amelia and Kate have very different personalities, and it was really interesting to read. And I, yeah, I just really like this book. I thought it was very fun. I appreciate the recommendation from Marcy. If you read it, I highly recommend you do so during the summer when I think it'll hit best.
Annie Jones [00:14:02] OK. After listening to Stay Sweet, I picked up an advance reader copy of Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho. This book releases at the very beginning of January, I think January 4th, 2022. And it is a connected short story collection. To me, it did not read like short stories. I understand. I mean, that is what it is. It's connected short stories. But because Fiona and Jane are at the heart of the book, to me, it reads more like a novel. So if you are wary or unsure of short story collections, don't let that deter you from Fiona and Jane. Yes, they are technically short stories, but because of how connected they are and because of the main characters in the protagonist staying the same throughout the book, I think it reads a lot like a novel, so don't let that short story descriptor scare you. Fiona and Jane have been best friends since high school. The book shows them both in high school and then in adulthood, which I love. I love looking at friendships through the decades, and I definitely felt like I knew Fiona and Jane, even if I myself did not maybe identify strongly with one character, the other that really didn't matter. I just knew them. I feel like their friendship was very familiar to me. I certainly saw myself in aspects of it, but also the era in which Jean Chen Ho is writing. I felt all of that was very familiar. And Fiona and Jane and their complicated up and down friendship just felt very realistic. I guess that's what I mean when I say familiar, I just mean, it felt very realistic, very true to life. I adored this book. I think it's very smart, original. I had trouble honestly coming up with a title for it because it just it just as Fiona and Jane and I finished the book and was kind of sad to see them go. I've always loved that one of my customers has said that before that she just misses these people like she misses the people in this book. And this is one of those books that once I finished, I just felt a little sad because I thought, Oh, I really wanted. I really wanted more of this kind of similar. I feel like last month I recommended the book and read the book Joan is OK. That is what this a little bit reminds me of, just in the sense that I really liked these people and I appreciated because of the short story format which did. There were some elements of it that did remind me a little bit of Lily King's writing. There's a short story in in the latest Lily King collection that kind of reminded me a little bit of Fiona and Jane, but the the story is kind of alternate between Fiona and Jane, and so you get their different perspectives and it also goes back and forth in time. And so it's not linear storytelling. It's really picking up and putting you down at different spots, in different moments in Fiona and Jane's relationship. And that I really liked, too. I thought I would get maybe distracted or lost in the storytelling, but instead it was almost like a puzzle, like figuring out, OK, at what point had one of these characters lost their parent? At what point had one of these characters broken up with their significant other? Like, I was kind of piecing that together while I was reading so that you could see how these characters grew individually and then also how they grew and came back together. I especially loved how the story collection ended. I really thought the ending was quite lovely, and I really, really recommend this book. It's Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho out on January 4th.
Annie Jones [00:17:36] Very, very different. I next picked up Jennifer, Hectate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. This is by E.L. Konigsburg. It's one of the titles I've been wanting to revisit since I re-read From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frank Wyler, and I read this book years ago. I remember I read my mom's copy. I'm pretty sure it was my mom's. It might have been my cousins, but it was very old, like from the 70s, 80s, whatever, and I anyway bought a new copy, picked it up. It is perfect seasonal reading, but much like Stay Sweet is great for summer. I highly recommend you read Jennifer, Hectate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth in the fall. So I think like you're just pass it. To be honest, I know I'm coming to you late with this information, but I think it would be great Halloween, early November Reading. The book starts the evening of Halloween. Elizabeth is our narrator, and she meets a young girl named Jennifer, who she becomes friends with. Jennifer is a witch, and Jennifer is going to teach Elizabeth how to be a witch, and they're working on this potion together. And throughout the whole book, they're gathering the materials they need for this potion. I remember reading this book as a kid and loving it definitely got me very interested in other witch books. If that makes sense, I don't know if anybody else went through that phase. I'm thinking the Witch of Blackbird Pond, the Salem Witch Trials like you name it, I probably tried it, picked it up. The Crucible came later, but you know what I mean. So I really, really liked revisiting this one, I did not love it as much as I loved From the Mixed Up Files. But I mean, that's because The Mixed Up Files is pretty much a perfect book. I think that book is so, so good. And so it was always going to be hard to kind of follow it up. But I just think E.L. Konigsburg you can't miss like she doesn't miss. She doesn't mess up. I really have loved every book I've ever read by her. There have been some books that I've read in adulthood that I've been disappointed, and I've kind of been sad that I reread them because it messed with my childhood memory. Reading this one, while I maybe enjoyed it a little bit less than From the Mixed Up Files, I read this and immediately thought, of course, of course. Middle School, late Elementary School Annie loved this book like that is not shocking when you read it. And I just think it's so funny. I didn't. I didn't mean for this to be kind of serendipitous, actually. But the the friendship in Stay Sweet, the friendship and Fiona and Jane, and then the friendship between Jennifer and Elizabeth in this E.L. Konigsburg book. Actually, all kind of connects to all three of those books felt so very different. Young adult literary fiction and then middle grade. And yet they're all there. Actually make a lovely book flight all about female friendship. So I highly recommend Jennifer, Hectate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth if you are read aloud parent who likes reading aloud to your kids. I think this would be a very fun book. It is not scary in any way. You know, Jennifer is a young witch trying to try her hand at potions, but there's nothing scary about this book. I think it make a very entertaining read aloud for both you and your kids.
Annie Jones [00:20:38] Then I picked up on a very different note this time, I don't think this would belong in the book Flight on Female Friendship. The book No Land to Light On by Yaa Gyasi. This is a beautiful book, also out on January 4th. It starts the night of the first travel ban that President Trump wrote into executive order in 2017. And I didn't know if I was going to like this book. Interestingly, my mom passed this along to me. She was looking for a January Shelf Subscription, and she passed this one on to me and said, I really think you will like this book. And so thanks, mom, because I picked this one up and could not stop reading. I think it is so lyrically written, so beautiful, written, almost poetic in parts, and I just didn't know if my head was in the right space to read about such a dark time in our country's history. And I just wasn't sure if I was going to like the political nature of this book. And instead, it is just a beautiful story about Summer and Hardy. They are a couple deeply in love with one another. They live in Boston, and Hardy goes to his home in Syria to mourn the loss of his father. So he leaves Boston. He is in America legally, but he goes back to Syria to grieve and bury his father when he comes back. He is. He arrives back in Boston, but he arrives the night that the executive order is signed. And I don't know. I feel like I have very vivid memories of just those images that came out that evening. Whether it was through social media or through news reports and kind of the chaos that ensued when that executive order was signed and people not quite knowing what it meant for different people of varying immigration statuses. And you really feel as the reader that sense of confusion and chaos. And he's just trying to get home to his wife, who is very pregnant, and she heads to the airport to pick him up. And next thing you know, Harry and I'm hope I'm pronouncing that right. I've been unable to find pronunciation guides, but he's put back on a plane to Jordan. And so the whole book there is. Make no mistake, this is a tense read like it definitely felt heavy because you've got these characters who are really grappling and they're being kept apart from one another. So it's very it's very hard to read, and yet it's not hard to read at all because you just fall in love with these people and they are so deeply in love with one another and the night, that's how he gets put back on a plane. Sama actually goes into labor. And so she gives birth to this son, who she desperately wants to meet his father. And there are so many little side characters to you. I mean, this book really is about Summer and Harry and their little boy, but there are some side characters that come and appear just in these very brief scenes that are so, so well written and well thought out. The pacing I think of this book is perfect because again, I hope I'm not presenting it. It is heavy, but it's also very hopeful. I did not. Heavy books have been hard for me this year, actually harder this year than in 2020, if I'm being honest. But this did not feel too heavy on my shoulders, right? I read this and instead was wrapped up in hope and also was blown away by the story of these characters and them grappling with who they are and where they're from and where they're going to call home and kind of their cultural and geographic goal geographical identities. I, I really, really like this book. I don't know if I'm doing it, doing it justice, but I really love this one. It is out on January 4th. It's called No Land to Light On. You might recognize Yaa Gyasi from The Girls at 17 Swan Street. That is not a book I read, but I do remember when it came out and it was pretty popular, so you may recognize her from that, but I am very much looking forward to hand selling this one. I think this would make a great book club book. And I think this is probably going to be one of those books that we see a lot of places like I'm I don't know. I'm kind of wondering. I always hope I feel like I want for a book and for an author. Great publicity. Right? Of course I do. But then there's a part of me that wants to keep a book's beauty for myself. But it would not shock me if this became like a Jenna Bush Hager book or something like that. Like, I could definitely see that happening because it lends itself to conversation, but it's also just a really good novel. No Land to Light On by Yaa Gyasi.
Annie Jones [00:25:33] OK. Then I sat down and read in one sitting I Hope This Finds You Well, the new poetry collection by Kate Baer. Kate's debut collection What Kind of Woman Came out this time last year. It was a best selling book for The Bookshelf in 2020. It continues to do very well for us in 2021. I adore that book. I stand by it as it being a great book to gift to the women in your life, no matter what stage of life they are in. I also think Kate Baer writes really accessible poetry, which, when you're a bookseller, is really important, but also when you're a reader. Not every reader is drawn to poetry. And so what are ways to introduce people to the genre to welcome them into the genre with open arms and I think Kate Baer collections are great for that. I Hope This Finds You Well is eraser poetry, where what Kate has done is taken cruel, unkind, mean DMs, emails, messages she's received, or even political speeches, quotes from famous people. And she has erased some of the language to turn them into really gorgeous bits of short poetry. And so I think what I consistently I adored what kind of woman what I really consistently appreciated about I Hope This Finds You Well is Kate's uncanny ability to turn meanness and cruelty into beauty and poetry, like it's really a gift she's giving us, right? And I've seen people on Instagram and I, you know, people were doing this perhaps before Kate, they will do it after her. But I've seen people ever since, right, showing, Oh, I turned the steam. I turned this comment into this work of art, and I really appreciate Kate for being part of the movement to pave the way for that and to show us how to turn unkind words into something beautiful. And there are just some. I led with one of the poems at the top of this episode because it was one I marked a few that just absolutely blew me away, that I just marked and thought, and I I wonder, you know, it's it's difficult to read these works aloud because they're very visual. You want to see the original message that Kate then turned into something new. And so I read some of them aloud to Jordan, but really wound up showing them to him. And Jordan, too, was in search or a Kate's creativity and her her ability to play with words. What a wordsmith. I just really I loved this book so much. I will wind up, I'm sure, recommending it just as highly as I did. What kind of woman and I encourage you to pick it up. I really liked it. It is probably best seen and held in your hands. I just think there is something very visual. Perhaps this is obvious, but very visual about this particular book. And so it's not a book I would really do on audiobook or even really at the library. I think it's a book I would I would want to own. So that is I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer.
Annie Jones [00:28:31] Then I picked up another ARC and I am so very sorry because I know how some of you feel about ARCs when I read them so far in advance. I'm so sorry, but this is called Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close. I love Jennifer Close. I think I've read everything she's written. I read the hopeful's. I read Girls in White Dresses. And so I was very excited to see that this book was coming out in April. So this book releases April 26th, 2022. Again, my apologies. But I'm also not going to apologize because it's so good I have a giant smile on my face. I don't know if you can tell this book is about the Sullivan family who lives in Chicago. Maybe it's because I had just gotten back from Chicago, but I really loved that particular aspect of the book. It very much is a book tied into a place. So this book could not have been set anywhere. This book feels very Chicago, and the Sullivan family owns the restaurant. J.P. Sullivan's and their patriarch has died, and here's what I love as a reader. I'm a little bit over books written on or around or about 2016. It's why I was a little bit hesitant about No Land to Light On. I just feel like we're kind of been hit over the head with it, and I'm here to tell you. Read No Land to Light On. But also Marrying the Ketchups is set right by the late summer and fall of the 2016 election, but also when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. And so the book opens and we know that the Sullivan family patriarch has died before he got a chance to witness the Cubs winning the World Series. I have a friend who's a deeply devoted Cubs fan, and so I also love that look, I love anything sports adjacent. I really do. And so I love those aspects of this story. But this is also at its heart, a dysfunctional but likable family story where The Sullivans are trying to really decide What do we do with this restaurant and. The kind of main characters the whole family really is at the heart of this book, but the three cousins are kind of the main characters. There's a Gretchen who's the lead singer of a 90s cover band. Jane, her older sister. His marriage is kind of falling apart. And then Teddy, who's their cousin, who is recovering from a breakup and really desperately wants to take over the family restaurant. But the whole family, this is definitely an ensemble cast. It reminded me a lot of certainly Amy Pascal and musical chairs. But you know what it reminded me most of was kitchens of the Great Midwest. I think because of the strong Midwestern setting and because of the food writing. I just gosh what was not to like about this book? I can tell I'm gushing. But yes, I love a book about baseball and hotdogs and food and restaurants and the restaurant industry and living above a restaurant to get your life together and family dynamics. I love it all. I thought this book was really wonderful. And look, I have loved Jennifer Close other books a lot, but I think this one, maybe it's because of when it met me. Maybe I, you know, I don't know, but I think this one might be my favorite of hers. If you've not read her, take the time now to read her back list titles. There is girls in white dresses and the hopeful's. You can read those now and then you can read Marrying the Ketchups by Jennifer Close very fun, especially for fans of J. Ryan Stradale, who wrote Kitchens of the Great Midwest and Lager Queen of Minnesota. I definitely think this book belongs in those books company.
Annie Jones [00:32:09] OK, then I really was on a roll, and I picked up Taste by Stanley Tucci. Here's the thing I had already picked this one up and really liked it. But guess what? Then my friend, former The Bookshelf staffer Kate, posted about the audiobook and I thought, Wow, I bet Stanley Tucci reads that book to you. And sure enough, he does. And let me tell you my favorite audiobook of the year. Can I say that? Let me think. Yes, I think that it is because I boy, I also loved some Jane Austen the audiobook, but I really think this is the best audiobook of the year. I found it so entertaining. His voice is obviously very fun to have in your head all day, and the writing is really good. You know, you never know with a celebrity memoir like how much did the celebrity write? How much was ghostwritten? I don't care, because this book is so good. It is a great food book, a great food memoir. I was laughing out loud in parts. I can tell when I love an audiobook, when I find excuses to keep listening. And this is rare for me because audiobooks are not always my favorite thing. This one, I could not stop listening to it like I would listen to it. As I dozed off for a nap, I would listen to it in the bathtub. And then when I wasn't listening to it, I would pick up my ARC because here's what I will tell you, and this is going to sound this is going to sound extra, but but I stand by it. You should listen to it and you should buy a copy. And that's not just a book store owner trying to get you to buy a book. It's a beautiful book and it has recipes in it, and I think you're going to want them in writing. So I think you need to listen to the audio book so that you can get the real vibe and you can get Stanley Tucci reading it to you. And then I do think you need to buy the book because it's got this really great cover, beautiful and pages and recipes that I think you're going to want to try. Even I, a notorious Blue Apron meal cooking person, was very interested in some of the recipes Stanley Tucci was missing, mentioning he obviously also has some backlist cookbooks that you might be interested in. The Turkey Table, I know, was very popular at The Bookshelf for a while, but I think you should own this book. It's so, so good. It also made me want to revisit some of Stanley Tucci films. He has a lovely section in the book about Julie and Julia, because that particular movie was a lot about food. He also writes about his experience, filming and writing and working on Big Night. He unabashedly name drops celebrities like Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively like he name drops, but in a really fun way. I just found him to be utterly charming, which is not shocking at all. But this book, honestly, there were moments when I thought, Is this one of my favorite books of the year? And guys, maybe I don't know it could be. It was so, so good. Taste by Stanley Tucci.
Annie Jones [00:34:54] OK, and then again, I know this sounds weird, but I actually think this is a little book flight. So we did Marrying the Ketchups, Taste and then I finished it off with The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer. What a lovely romcom that you need to get right now. Like if I love holiday rom coms because it it often is the case that around November, December, that's all my brain can handle. And this one is about Rachel, who is a Jewish writer of Christmas romance novels. She loves Christmas, and she hides it from everyone. It's like her secret thing about herself that she hides from her very Jewish parents, her rabbi father. And so she loves Christmas. But her book editor wants her to write a Hanukkah romance, and she is mortified. She doesn't want to write a Hanukkah romance, so you've got that going on, and her relationship with her parents is really sweet and fun. And Jacob, of course, is the love interest, and Jacob is a childhood friend and a crush of Rachel's. They went to Summer Camp Jewish summer camp together. And Rachel has very different memories of their growing up and their summer together than Jacob does. And Jacob is coming back to New York City from a life spent in Paris, and he comes back to New York to host a Jewish Hanukkah party called the Matzo Ball. And there is a lot of really great food writing in this book, like really great food writing. That's why I think it would make a great pairing with Taste and Marrying the Ketchups. So it's really great food writing. The romance is delightful. PG closed-Door and I did not know this going in, but this book is also really great because it talks a lot and really well about chronic illness. So the main character, Rachel, is someone who deals with chronic illness and fatigue. And I felt like Jean Meltzer, who I think also struggles with those things, writes really beautifully about that. So I really appreciated that aspect of the novel. The romance is very sweet. And again, the food writing is so good, and I really love the familial relationships in this one. So I found this to be a very fun holiday romcom. It is called The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer. I highly recommend.
Annie Jones [00:37:14] Then I picked up The Holiday Swap. This is by Maggie Knox, it is a Christmas holiday rom com as well. Charlie and Cass are our main characters. Their twin sisters who switched places switch places in adulthood because Charlie, who is a food just like a Food Network star more or less, and she suffers a head injury on the job and loses her sense of smell and taste. And she's just trying to finish up right before the holidays, so she switches places with her twin sister cast. Cast lives in a small town outside of L.A. in Northern California, and she owns a bakery. She runs the family bakery, and so there's a lot of good food writing in this book as well, so it could certainly be part of this flight. But it is very hallmark to me. So again, Peggy, if you're looking for Peggy romcoms closed door, this one would certainly qualify. But maybe it's because of the Parent Trap esque premise. Maybe it's because Vanessa Hudgens, the Vanessa Hudgens of it all. But it definitely felt more hallmark. Then maybe then maybe Well Matched or The Matzah Ball did. I mean, you know, but I think there are people who will love this book like I know I can hand sell this book. And so I did want to point out there that for for me, I like some other rom coms I read this month. However, I know for a fact that some people who love the Vanessa Hudgens of it all will really appreciate The Holiday Swap. And there are some really fine love interest in this book as well. So that's The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox.
Annie Jones [00:38:55] I'm not done yet, though, because I also picked up Just Haven’t Met You Yet. This is by Sophie Cousins, and I think this might be one of my favorite rom coms I read this month, so it is not necessarily holiday themed. In fact, I don't think it's holiday themed at all, which maybe I needed a breather from that. And to be honest, I know I typically read mostly rom coms in November December, but I might. I might need to read something else here pretty soon. But I really like this book, especially for fans of New Girl in Little Cove. And the reason is because this book is set on one of the Channel Islands, and so it very much feels again tied to a specific place. The main character is Laura. She writes, There's almost when Harry met Sally element here because she writes for an online. Of course, she does an online publication, and she writes people's love stories like their Meet Cute and she interviews them. And I'm picturing like those moments in When Harry Met Sally, where the couples tell their love stories. And so that's what she does, and her parents have a really beautiful love story that she wants to share, and she wants to revisit their history by going to the Channel Islands. OK, here's what you need to know. This was another audiobook for me. I think the audiobook is fantastic, so I wound up listening to most of this and then because I enjoyed it so much. I had finished cleaning my house, but I had not finished the audiobook, so then I picked it up and read the physical copy. So this is a book I did both with, and I really liked the main character. She is trying to. She's just so well intentioned. She's trying to tell her parents love story. There's a lot that she doesn't know about her parent's love story, as you maybe might have guessed, and she winds up landing on the Channel Islands and her suitcase gets mixed with somebody else's and she opens the suitcase and she's just very romantic. She is someone who has lived her life in hopes of her own romantic comedy More or less, and she opens the suitcase. It belongs to someone else and realizes that this person might be her dream man. Is that accurate? Based on the contents of the suitcase? Probably not, but I appreciated that. I thought it was very funny. And when someone and anyway she gets in the cab to go back to the airport to try to swap her suitcase. And of course, the cab driver is so, so grouchy. He's just such a grouchy cab driver with a really big beard. But maybe his eyes are handsome, I don't know. And so obviously we get a love story, almost a love triangle, really, which I really liked. This one is very fun. One of my favorites I read in terms of rom coms this month again, might be done with the rom coms just for a minute. Feel like I need my brain needs something else, but really like this one and loved it in audiobook and in physical book format. That's Just Haven’t Met You Yet by Sophie Cousins. The audiobook narrator is lovely.
Annie Jones [00:41:54] OK, and then the last book that I read slash am reading during November is a book that I always feel kind of bad for books that are compilations of things or books that you're not going to read in one sitting, because how are you going to review them? Like, how are these books going to get reviewed when they were intended to be kind of keep sakes or things that you read throughout the year, and so I'm going to stick this one here because I started it, I picked it up last week and I have read through a few of the prayers. It is called Prayers for the People by Terry Stokes. If you are a fan of Eric Thomas, our Eric Thomas, that's the same if you're a fan of his. If you are a fan of Sarah Bessey, if you like liturgical prayers, but you also have a sense of humor. I highly recommend prayers for the people. I have been following prayers from Terri on Instagram for quite some time. And he would post these really lovely, heartfelt but also occasionally deeply funny prayers to his Instagram. They have now been turned into this lovely book called Prayers for the People. It is certainly reminiscent of a book of common prayer if you are a Christian reader listener, but they're also like prayers for when you listen to James Taylor and a prayer for when you are a person of color attending a predominantly white church. Prayers for prayers for small businesses. That was a prayer that I saw last weekend and prayed a little bit throughout my week, so there are some really lovely. Oh, he's such a wordsmith again. You know, I use that term to describe Kate Baer, but it's true here as well. He's really having fun with words, which is something that I can appreciate. And I really love this book. And even though it's not a book that I read all in one sitting, I'll continue reading it throughout the year. I just wanted to plug it here because I feel like I feel like people might not have heard of it, and I really have found it to be a helpful resource and also a bit of joy of bringing a bit of joy to my to my faith. So it is called Prayers for the People by Terry Stokes.
Annie Jones [00:43:56] OK. That's what I read in November. What a wide range of literature, except then it felt like not a wide range because then it was mostly Rom Coms. It'll be interesting to see what my reading life holds in December. I wish you nothing but the best as we embark upon this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving. If you are here in the states, thank you for listening and I can't wait to hear what you read in November.
Annie Jones [00:44:20] [with faint music playing] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Annie Jones [00:44:56] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. This is the most magical time of year in downtown Thomasville, and that is coming from somebody who's pretty biased towards the fall. I really love fall. We are right in the heart of it. The leaves outside my window are beautiful, bright yellow, and yet the lights are in the trees downtown. The sidewalks have been pressure washed. Merchants are preparing their events and their festivities for Victorian Christmas, set for December 9th and 10th in downtown Thomasville. Hotels are already booking up because, as one of my fellow merchants said in a meeting recently. Christmas in Thomasville is like walking around in a snow globe and minus the fact that we don't actually have snow. I do find that to be a pretty accurate portrayal of Thomasville. I know I mentioned Hallmark movies in the episode today, but that is honestly the vibe of downtown Thomasville. Every year around this time of year, it feels like walking around in a Hallmark movie. Not only do we have Victorian Christmas scheduled for December 9th and 10th, we also have a movie night scheduled for December 11th, Saturday, December 11th, where we'll be watching Elf at the local amphitheater. We have special shopping nights every Friday night and every Saturday night in downtown Thomasville. Shops and restaurants will be open late to accommodate your holiday shopping Sundays, which are traditionally closed in our downtown. We will be open not only at The Bookshelf, but several other businesses throughout the downtown will be open again to accommodate your holiday shopping. It's just the very opposite of shopping online. It's the very opposite of shopping online or shopping with a big box store. It's coming. Parking on one of our brick streets, walking and wandering and meandering through shops, talking to business owners and their staff, and really finding the perfect gift and also just falling in love with a beautiful town. This is the most magical time of year in Thomasville, and I hope you will join us. Hotels are booking up quickly for Victorian Christmas, again set for December 9th and 10th. We also have some fun festivities in downtown, planned for December 11th that I hope you will get to join us for. And if you can't do Victorian Christmas, don't forget Fridays and Saturdays in December, shops and restaurants will be open late to accommodate your holiday shopping. It really is just the most wonderful time of year, and I hope we get to see you. To find out more about how you can visit Thomasville, go to www.thomasvillega.com.
Annie Jones [00:47:32] This week, I’m reading Grave Reservations by Cherie Priest.
Annie Jones [00:47:37]
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We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.