Episode 345 || November New Release Rundown
In today’s episode of From the Front Porch, Annie, Olivia, and Lucy are discussing their favorite newly released titles of the month and highlighting books you’ll want to add to your TBR list!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Annie's List:
The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu
How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by K.M. Jackson
Wholehearted Faith by Rachel Held Evans
Dear William by David Magee
The Family by Naomi Krupitsky
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer
Olivia’s list:
Tiger Skin Rug by Joan Haig
A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske
Thursday’s Child by Noel Straetfield
The Legend of the Christmas Witch by Dan Murphy & Aubrey Plaza
Hornswoggled by Josh Crute
Kid’s Book of Sticker Love by Irene Smit and Astrid van der Hulst
Stuntboy, In the Meantime by Jason Reynolds
Lucy’s list:
Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables by Jo Wimpenny
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America's Heartland by Dick Lehr
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H.W. Brands
Dvorak's Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music by Joseph Horowitz
The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story by Nikole Hannah-Jones
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water (children's picture book)
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
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 Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho. Olivia is reading Loveless by Alice Osman. Lucy is reading How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online book orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
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episode transcript:
Annie [00:00:02] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the south.
[00:00:24] "On the way back to Vermont, I thought about words and how if you put a few of them in the right order, a three-minute story about a girl and her dog can get people to forget all the ways you've disappointed them. Lilly King sized Tuesdays in winter.
[00:00:45] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And today, Olivia, Lucy and I are back with November's new release round-up, our last one of the year. We're discussing our favorite newly released titles of the month, highlighting new books without overwhelming. You're probably already daunting TBR list. Welcome back, guys.
Lucy [00:01:06] Hello.
Annie [00:01:08] OK, so this is our last roundup of the year because December is a notoriously slow publishing month, so this is it. This will be back in December with our best books of the year. But these are like the last newly released titles we're going to talk about. How do you guys feel about your list?
Olivia [00:01:26] Yeah, it's pretty fun. I think it's pretty fun.
Lucy [00:01:31] Mine's not quite as fun, but I see a lot of gifting books on here, so that's good.
Annie [00:01:37] Yes, I feel like when I came up with my list, like at first I thought, what's coming out in November and release dates are changing all the time. That's like the caveat we should give before we start this episode. Like publishing dates are changing constantly, especially right now. But I did look at my list and thought, Well, this is a well-rounded genre list, like there's a lot here. So OK. Shall we begin?
Lucy [00:02:00] Let's do it.
Annie [00:02:02] OK. My first two are romcoms, and the part of the reason I wanted to talk about these is because this is the time of year when that's almost all my brain can handle. Like we're about to get to the point in the year where I, my reading life is going to really quiet down, and I'm going to pretty much stick with the rom-com genre because I can't process anything else. So there are two really cute-looking rom coms coming out on November 2nd. Both of them are paperback originals. The first is called The Donut Trap by Julie Tieu. This is a debut rom-com, it has gotten rave critical reviews, which critics are not always kind to rom coms for whatever reason. But this one really did get lovely praise, and I've heard that it's good for fans of Frankly In Love, which I know Olivia, you also read and enjoyed.
[00:02:54] So it's about a young woman named Jasmine. Her parents own a donut shop, and she finds herself having to move back home, having to get a job at the donut shop. And of course, the donut shop is kind of sort of failing. And so she has to like partner with a nemesis to help revive the donut shop. So all the rom-com tropes you love, but also dealing with issues of identity and second-generation immigrants and things like that because she's very different from her Chinese-born parents. And so it sounds really lovely. It is called The Donut Trap.
[00:03:30] And then the second, albeit sillier sounding, like I almost didn't include this. And then I was like, It's so bonkers that I have to. It's called How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days. This is by K.M. Jackson. This is part rom-com part road trip because the main character, Bethany Lu, finds out that her long-time Hollywood celebrity crush, Keanu Reeves is getting married. She is distraught because she believes he is her true love. And so she gets together with her best friend, and they take a cross-country road trip from New York to L.A. to find Keanu Reeves and break up his wedding. But apparently on the way, there's a lot of references and like reenactments of like Keanu Reeves famous movies. And so it just sounds so ridiculous that I kind of need to read it.
Olivia [00:04:24] I think I need to read it. I like Keanu Reeves and seems like.
Lucy [00:04:30] That's for like a night where you've wrapped like a hundred fifty presents and you're like, My brain can't do anything other than Keanu Reeves.
Annie [00:04:41] Can't do anything other than try to figure out which movie is this trying to represent? Like, Where's The Matrix reference? Where's the Bill and Ted?
Annie [00:04:48] Yeah, where's speed? I just think it sounds so clever and funny and outlandish. It is called How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by Kim Jackson. Both of those rom coms are paperback originals out on November 2nd.
Olivia [00:05:03] Olivia might start reading rom coms.
Annie [00:05:06] I tell you this like, Lucy said. Like, there are days where we just are on our feet a lot. We've wrapped a lot of presents and I really I can't quite do the Hallmark movie. I just can't. But reading a light kind of enjoyable rom-com is fun to me, and so that's probably what I'll be doing all December long.
Olivia [00:05:29] All right, am I next?
Annie [00:05:30] Yes.
Olivia [00:05:31] OK. My first one is called Tiger Skin Rug by Joan Haig, and this is out beginnIng of November. Next Tuesday, November 2nd. And this is about two kids, Lal and Dilip, who move from India to Scotland into this like this old woman who's passed away it's like her, her house, but it's this huge mansion type house and no one from the neighborhood has ever been allowed to enter said house. So like when they go around and meet kids from the neighborhood, all of them ask to see the house because they feel like something magical is inside. And they're right because the younger brother finds this room that is like a little too casual TV room but has a tiger skin rug in it. And when he whispers into the tiger's ear, the tiger comes to life. And together with the tiger, they have this magical adventure because the tiger has unfinished business to take care of, and they end up back in India. But they learn, you know, home is where your family is, not necessarily where you grew up. And it was so good and nothing like nothing traumatic happened. It's a refreshing, fun adventure, I think. Excellent for kids like eight to 12 and could be a great read-aloud for younger if they're interested.
Annie [00:06:52] OK, really appreciate when a children's book is light on the trauma.
Olivia [00:06:58] Always, always appreciate that. Yes.
Lucy [00:07:01] OK, my first book is Aesop's Animals: The Science Behind the Fables. This is by Jo Wimpenny, and she is like a behavioral scientist of animals. And so this is kind of one of those books to me. That's like when you're reading it, you're like looking for people around you like, Listen to this. It this fact, like, I kind of felt that way about it was a couple of years ago. Bill Bryson's body bug. Oh yeah. It's just like chock-full of interesting facts. But this is about animal behavior and. The past, I don't know, 20, 30 years of research and what we've learned about the way different animals behave.
[00:07:43] And then she goes back and kind of tries to say, like, are these things from Aesop's fables? True? And how have they formed the way we think about how animals behave and how is that? How can we update those thoughts now? So just like a lot of really interesting facts? One that was about this largest ant colony spans multiple continents. It goes, it's like part here, part of Japan. It's like part in Australia, New Zealand. So if you took an ant from any part of that, like California and put it in an ant colony and like Japan or Australia, like, they would accept that ant because it's that part of the same like underground colony. It's like the poles, somehow. If you but if you took one from a different colony, then and put it in there, then they would rip apart the way. Stuff like that stuff. Yeah, stuff like do dogs like dogs recognize themselves in a mirror-like those sorts of things. So just really interesting. And I think a good gift for anybody in your life who really likes animals or science or behavioral science. Really a fun nonfiction book.
Annie [00:09:07] I think that sounds really interesting. OK, my next one is quite the departure from that. It is Wholehearted Faith. This is by Rachel Held Evans, Rachel Held Evans is beloved, particularly among progressive Christians, many of whom found themselves outside. I think the typical evangelical bubble or world, she came from an evangelical background. And so I think had a real ability to reach a wide range of people of the Christian faith. She passed away in 2019, and so at quite a young age, she was my age. And so this is being posthumously published, but I think it's really lovely. I've already started it, but it is a little sad to read because her words are so... They make such an impact on the reader.
[00:09:59] And she, her best friend or one of her dear friends is Jeff Chu. And so Jeff Chu has taken Rachel's writings and compiled them and added his own words in order to really let Rachel's words shine. And so even the kind of forward I think Rachel's husband drove forward and then Jeff wrote an introduction, I think, and just the way he wrote about his friendship with Rachel and the way he took her work and tried to keep her spirit in it while also having to, you know, make edits or make additions because she was not in the room with him is really just very lovely. It's very powerful. I like a lot of her work. I think I've read multiple books by her, but this one is just as powerful and as well-written as her previous works. I'm thrilled by it, and I think other people who really love Rachel held Evans and appreciated her voice will be so comforted to get to hear from her again. So this is Wholehearted Faith by Rachel held Evans. It's out on November 2nd as well.
Olivia [00:11:02] OK, my next one is an adult novel. I think this is my only adult novel of the day, but I just finished it last night. It was great. It's called A Marvelous Light and it's by Freya Marske and it's out November 2nd and it's going to be the first in a series that probably I don't know how many books are going to be in the series. I would imagine upwards of two to three, but this is about a man who gets hired for a new government position. He's like this magical liaison where he's almost like the cleanup crew of this world. The only problem is that he was accidentally assigned to this government division, and he doesn't actually know that magic is in the world, so he gets a little bit of a rude awakening.
[00:11:50] There is an LGBTQ+ romance in there. Some of it, I will say, is a little bit open door, but it was absolutely delightful. I love the magic in this world. They needed strings like they pulled out of their pockets and then the string would help them conduct magic. But it was like only you only get a certain amount of magic per day and everybody has a different amount that they can use. So the guy who shows Robert the accidental new magical liaison, his name's Edwin, and he's actually like, he only has a little bit of magic. He's like the only one in his family who doesn't have, like a ton of magic comes from this like, really powerful family. So it's really good. It was really good.
Lucy [00:12:38] That would be like your saddest like life story to be you, specifically, Olivia to be like the least magical member of your family, really.
Olivia [00:12:50] Or just like to know that there's magic out there, but I cannot do it.
Annie [00:12:55] It's unavailable to you.
Lucy [00:12:57] It's weird. I just thought, what is the point just to see?
Annie [00:13:03] She looks so upset. It's a completely hypothetical situation. This sounds House in the Cerulean Sea adjacent. Like, if people like that, would they like this?
Olivia [00:13:13] Yes, absolutely. I had compared to Red, White, and Royal Blue as well. I think that is mostly like the queer romance side of it. But then I would say it's like red white royal blue meets House in the Cerulean Sea.
Lucy [00:13:27] OK? We used to get so many people asking for another book like red, white and Royal Blue. I feel like, yeah, we were always like looking for something to give somebody like that.
Olivia [00:13:38] Yeah, it's out now when it's ready.
Lucy [00:13:44] OK, I realize I forgot to say my last book was out November 2nd and this book, my next book is also November 2nd. This is called The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak. Annie, I think you would like this. OK. OK, good. Read this It is a it is beautiful. Writing is just stunning. And it's it's set in both London and Cypress. And so it opens in London where you think your main character is this like daughter who lives with her father. And she recently lost her mother to cancer, and she's struggling socially and she's struggling in school. But then you go back in time to Cyprus, where her parents met, and part of their meeting story is they met at this taverna because it was like a secret location where they could be together because one of them was Turkish and Muslim, and the other one was Christian and Greek.
[00:14:53] And that was like it was like a time in Cyprus of great political tension. And then there was following that a civil war. And so they fell in love. They met at this taverna that was like secret. And in the middle of the taverna is this fig tree. And so the fig tree plays this huge role in their relationship. They eventually like, take a piece of the fig tree cutting, and they moved to London and then they plant that fig tree. And so every other chapter or so is narrated by the fig tree. Oh, so there's like an aspect of magical realism to it. But then you also have this part of the story that's like the daughter that she has not been told why her parents had to leave Cyprus. She doesn't know any of her family members from Cyprus. She doesn't know the history of Cyprus or her parents' relationship.
[00:15:42] And so she's feeling like she's coming of age. But she's also like, unmoored from her own identity, which resonates with me as a person who moved from my homeland at a very young age to so just a really, really exceptionally beautifully written book and interesting you kind of have to be OK with the concept of reading from the point of view of a tree. I think there would be people who would say, I know I'm not like that and that's fine. Don't read this book, but it's called The Island of Missing Trees out November 2nd.
Annie [00:16:16] It does sound really lovely. I will have to pick it up. OK. My next one is Dear William. This is by David Magee out on November 2nd. This is a memoir I picked up kind of on a whim. Like, you know, we get a lot of air seas at The Bookshelf. And if it's not shelf subscription material, sometimes like I put it to the wayside, but I pick this one up and just decided to read, I don't know, a chapter or two just to see if I would like it, maybe to talk about it, a literary lunch or something. And instead, I think I wound up reading the whole thing when I got home, like just kind of devoured it. It is a memoir written by David about his son's struggle and ultimate death from addiction. And so it is not for the faint of heart, it's not light or fluffy, but it is a really loving tribute to his son and also to their family and to what their family endured, what their son endured.
[00:17:10] I think this would be great for people in recovery, or perhaps maybe even better for families with people in recovery, because I really loved reading this dad's perspective and kind of what he observed in his son and the way the ways that he felt he was a comfort and a gift to his son, and also the ways that maybe he struggled and wasn't there for his son in the ways he needed to be. So I think this would be really valuable. I also appreciate reading books like this because I feel like I read a lot of nonfiction like I'm thinking about the book dope, sick or something like that where it's kind of journalistic and scientific and tells me about the pharmaceutical industry or drug companies, or the history of addiction in a certain area and really understanding how it affects people on like a tiny microscopic level where it's just one family and they're one story and how this young man's life and death impacted his siblings. I just thought it was really beautifully written. It reminded me a lot of the book, different subject matter, but the writing in the book In The Sanctuary of Outcasts, which was a book I loved years ago, so kind of southern in the telling. David McGee is from Mississippi, and I think that southern storytelling plays a role here. I just love this book. It's called Dear William out on November 2nd.
Lucy [00:18:29] And that's not Oh William! correct. Not to be confused.
Annie [00:18:34] Not to be confused, literally. When I when we I just finished, I think Oh William! and I started to do a ten-second book review for it, and I called it Dear William and I was like, Oh, no. Two very different books with very similar titles.
Olivia [00:18:48] OK, my next kid's book is the one I said last time we recorded this podcast for October releases is what I was reading. This is Thursday's Child by Noel Straetfield comes out 11 nine November ninth, which I think was supposed to come out a lot earlier. And then I just actually looked up the release date and took the books off the floor.
Lucy [00:19:15] lucky, lucky, whoever already bought it.
Annie [00:19:19] Yeah.
Olivia [00:19:21] So this is like an older title of Noel's that is now being republished and there's two in the series. But this is about Margaret Thursday, who was is an orphan and was dropped off at this little church with all these nice clothes and a nice basket belonging to her. And she was raised by like the head of the church there and then this other woman. Because every year her mom would sneak and leave some money every Christmas for Margaret, for the rest of the year. Until one Christmas, her mom stops dropping off money because there's nowhere left. So Margaret gets sent to this orphanage, which is very like Annie type orphanage, where, like the matron is not great, but she meets these three siblings. And together they all sneak out of the orphanage and wind up on this great adventure and end up with a theater troupe, which is where you find Margaret at in the next book.
Annie [00:20:24] A theater troupe! Yeah, that does sound delightful. It sounds a little actually like A Little Princess, right? Like this child who has money. And then when the money runs out, the people stop taking good care of her. Should we remind people that Noelle, Strathfield, you will recognize from our beloved you've got mail because she wrote theater shoes and ballet shoes? I can't wait to read this one. You gave me the ARC and I'm saving it for a, you know, downer of a day.
Olivia [00:20:53] It's a Christmas kids book too! Takes place all around that time, and Margaret is such a delight to read about. She's so cute.
Annie [00:21:03] Sounds lovely.
Lucy [00:21:05] Well, my next book is not lovely. This is called White Hot Hate. Sorry, quite a departure. So different. White Hot Hate: A True Story of Domestic Terrorism in America's Heartland by Dick Lehr. This is non-fiction. This is also one of those books I could see Annie picking up, but obviously not right now. In a few months when you're back to reading dark. But it is a story about a group of men in a small Kansas town. I believe it's Kansas who, after the Pulse nightclub massacre, they decide that they're going to take their town safety into their own hands. And what that means to them is that they are upset about the large influx of Somali immigrants in their town. So they start planning some attacks, and there's a person who just happens to be a man who just happens to be kind of in that group, but he doesn't agree with it, and he ends up turning into an informant. And so he infiltrates their group and then acts as an informant and they get busted. But it's also like talking about domestic terrorism, which is, I hate to say, a hot topic right now, but a necessary type of topic right now and how people get radicalized and how they radicalize each other. And I think the publisher is saying it's good for fans of all. Be gone in the dark, too. So kind of a true-crime type story. White Hot Hate that it's out November ninth.
Annie [00:22:54] Yeah, I'd read that. I definitely would. I read a book at the start of this year. Now I'm going to, I don't know, the name culture wars. It was a book about internet ideology and like how hate grows on the internet. And I was glad to have read it. Like, they're not easy books to read, but I don't know. I like informing myself in that way. I don't know. I like kind of doing a deep dove into subjects like that. OK, my next one I am very curious about. I have not read it, and I honestly, I feel like I might have had an ARC at some point. Oh, I do. I'm looking at it right now.
Annie [00:23:33] I see it on my cart right now, so maybe I'll pick it up because I think it was delayed. Like, I think this was. Yeah, the original release was in September sometime, so I think it's been pushed back. It is called The Family. This is by Naomi Krupitsky. Publishing as of this date should have been published. 11/2. Who knows? But this is a debut novel. I wondered after reading the description if it would be good for fans of Elena Ferrante because it's dealing with these two best friends growing up in 20th century Brooklyn Sophia and Antonia. Antonia? Unclear. I never know. Hard to say, but they're best friends and their families are involved with the Italian mafia, and eventually it's kind of just their friendship, their coming of age and their coming of age in this particular culture, in this particular time. But Antonio's dad goes missing. And so the book unfolds like what and how? What happened to her dad and how it affected her friendship with Sophia and how it affected their upbringing, particularly being raised. You know, these children of the Italian mafia. I am very curious, and I loved the kind of two best friends who are trying to navigate, navigate this world that they don't quite understand. And that's kind of why it reminded me a little bit of Elena Ferrante. Yeah, it kind of sounds a little bit outside my typical genre, maybe more historical fiction, but I don't know. I'm very curious. It's a debut. It's called The Family by Naomi Krupitsky.
Olivia [00:25:07] OK, my next one is it's technically a picture book, but it's pretty long for a picture book, so I actually think it would be a great like, early chapter book read-aloud for families. But this is The Legend of the Christmas Witch by Dan Murphy and Aubrey Plaza, best known as April Ludgate from Parks and Recreation, and it's out November 16. Leave it to April Ludgate to put her name on a Christmas witch book. While you're reading it, you can kind of tell where maybe her inputs were. But it's really fun. It is this lore about Chris Kringle and his sister getting separated as children. They get lost like almost Hansel and Gretel style in the woods, and Christopher ends up with the Kringle family getting adopted by them. And they live in this town where they're like, they own a woodshop. So they make all these toys and whatnot goes down that path that you would know and love.
[00:26:11] And then you see his sister and I forget her name right now, which is terrible. It's some form of like Christmas something, but she ends up getting picked up by this witch who lives in the woods and getting taught like all this like nature magic. And so one day she then sets off to find her brother because she knows they're supposed to be reunited, and she accidentally. She knows she's supposed to go north, but she ends up going down to the South Pole. So, yes, it's about Santa and his sister, but it is. It is like a good two, three paragraphs on each page, which is why I think it would actually be a great read-aloud. Not so much for a younger picture book reader because I don't know that they'll be able to sit through the entire story. My sister and I used to read Christmas books in our bed like Christmas Eve, and I feel like this would be a great one like that because I could easily see kids falling asleep to this story. Christmas Eve. It was really cute.
Annie [00:27:14] It's very clever. I could see it being turned into a movie or something like it's kind of shocking that we haven't, I don't know, imagined Santa's sister before.
Olivia [00:27:22] We have there is. So I'm glad you said so. We totally plan that last Christmas, there is a new movie that came out with Anna Kendrick called Noelle. I ended up watching it three times because I don't know why, but it struck the chord that I needed that holiday season.
Annie [00:27:43] Now you know what it's like to work retail on the holidays. You'll watch Anna Kendrick, the newest Christmas movie three times.
Olivia [00:27:51] It was delightful. She's Santa's sister.
Annie [00:27:52] OK.
Lucy [00:27:52] And did you know Santa's?
Olivia [00:27:54] Gene, instead of her brother, who I believe is Bill Hader
Annie [00:27:59] back, oh, that's OK.
Olivia [00:28:01] I'm great. I mean,
Lucy [00:28:04] I cannot wait to read Gabriel Christmas books this year. I'm so excited. I'm about to order him the jolly Christmas postman, which I, I don't think I've read since I was like six years old, but it was like a huge part of m,y childhood. I'm so excited to play. Probably not that one, though, because he's one year old. Yes.
OK, my next book is Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution. This is by H.W. Brands, who we knew last Christmas season. We were pushing his Zealot and the Emancipator about John Brown and Abraham Lincoln. So perhaps for a person that you purchased that book for as a Christmas gift, this one would work as well. I had not read it yet, but the concept is thinking about. The American Revolution as a sort of civil war in which each person had to choose their side and the kind of paying attention to familial relationships and friendships that get broken in that way, I think it was Thomas Jefferson himself who had a son who was remained a loyalist to the crowd. Oh, yes. So really, it sounds like an interesting book. H.W. Brands is really good at writing history. That's it's like popular history, so accessed and accessible. Read great for your dad or grandpa and that comes out. Let's see that is out on November 9th.
Annie [00:29:46] The first time I began thinking about whether I would have been a loyalist or a revolutionary was when I read it, when I read Felicity Books. The American Girl books because in the Felicity story, her one of her dear friends is a loyalist and I'd never thought about that before. And in fact, if you grow up in America and you just sit in on your traditional history classes, there is not a lot of love given to people who would have been loyalists. And Jordan and I I don't know this is me just chatting. But Jordan, I think we would have been loyalists, probably actually in the family.
Lucy [00:30:24] I love this
Olivia [00:30:25] idea. You guys go home now
Lucy [00:30:27] and he's like the first time I thought about being a Loyalist, but certainly not the last, I guess, when I was a young girl, colonialism. But I have to say, I think all three of us here would have been loyalists. These are this is a rule of rule followers.
Annie [00:30:44] It's a rule about like we discussed this when we were in college. Like because there's part of me that's like, Oh, like America and I. I feel like I'm occasionally a patriotic person. But the older you get, I mean, not to get controversial, but the more you learn and the more you're like, Oh, I'm not sure what patriots wanted is what I would have wanted.
Lucy [00:31:07] So I would have been like, Let's not shed any blood here, you guys. Right, right.
Annie [00:31:13] Yeah, you just kind of learn as you get
Lucy [00:31:16] older, paying the taxes. It's gonna be fine.
Annie [00:31:22] It's fine. Just fascinating. Something to think about for sure.
Lucy [00:31:27] Shining Olivia's giant you on.
Annie [00:31:34] I will move on, but I could talk about this all day, OK? So my next one is Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King. This comes out November 9th. I love Lilly King. I should have discovered her long ago like she wrote the book, I believe called Euphoria. But I read my first book by her was writers and lovers, and I read it so much. I loved it so much. I think it was even maybe a shelf subscription selection back in the day. But this is her new short story collection, and I feel, I don't know ambivalent about short story collections. Like sometimes I love them, sometimes I don't. This one I love. And speaking of like not having much brainpower during the holiday season, I highly recommend trying an essay collection or a short story collection because you do not need to read them all the way through. Although Lilly King is such a great writer that I wound up easily kind of devouring the whole thing.
[00:32:28] I just read another short story collection last night, like, I just, I don't know. It's like they're digestible. The format is easily digestible and is good for when your brain feels a little all over the place. So this is a particularly lovely collection. The title story five Tuesdays in winter, I think, might be one of my favorites in the collection. It may be my favorite, but sometimes I hear people say, Oh, I don't like short stories because you get so invested in these characters and then you, you know, the next story has nothing to do with them. But I think that's why I kind of like it. Like, it's like a little snapshot into these characters lives, and you can kind of keep imagining what's going on with them, but you only get a quick glimpse. And I think in the hands of a writer like Lilly King, they can be very powerful. So I really love this one. It's called Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King, out on November ninth.
Olivia [00:33:18] OK, I have another picture book next, and I am actually yet again really excited about this one. This is called Hornswoggled by Josh Crute, and it's out November 23rd. And this is so it's part mystery, but also part educational on words we don't use often anymore, such as Hornswoggle. And so any time they use a word like that, they do put in like a little definition for kids as well. Cute. But this is about a deer who wakes up one morning and he really reaches up to double-check his antlers. And he realizes that in his sleep, somebody took one of his antlers and replaced it by duct taping a tennis racket. And I just think that's hilarious. So the mystery is, is who hornswoggled the deer for his antler? But it is delightful.
Lucy [00:34:19] At that point. You just go double tennis racket, right?
Annie [00:34:23] For sure. You just get rid of that antler.
Olivia [00:34:26] You would think so. But then don't you think like the actual racket part would kind of like clank? You've got to be the man.
Annie [00:34:32] you really have to put him apart
Lucy [00:34:34] wide, wide
Annie [00:34:35] pigtails, did you? I don't know. Isn't in friends? Doesn't Ross date someone named Elizabeth Hornswoggle? I believe that he does.
Lucy [00:34:46] That sounds familiar. But sadly, because of Netflix, I haven't seen it in a long time.
Olivia [00:34:52] I can't tell you the last time I watched friends because it's
Lucy [00:34:55] no longer I can tell you it's it was 20 18. Because Netflix, when you're in France, they have like an extremely limited number of shows that you can watch. But Friends was one of them, so I watched every season.
Annie [00:35:09] Oh, that's funny. I watch it every night while I cook dinner, and I'm pretty sure there's an Elizabeth Hornswoggle.
Lucy [00:35:17] OK, I will skip ahead to These Precious Days by Ann Patchett, and that is just to confirm what Annie said about holiday reading and shorter pieces. So this is an essay collection by Ann Patchett. And so you can. I mean, there's some longer ones that will take up a chunk of your time that would be like reading before bed. But there are some even shorter ones that you could read. I know in a while your mom is making her mashed potatoes and your dad's watching the football and you just have 15 minutes before you need to help them. Five eggs and it looks like it's beautifully written. If you love Ann Patchett, you'll love this. The title essay, which is at the end, is these precious days, Annie, did you ever read that one? Yeah, I love it. Yes. So it was originally featured in, I think, Harper's Magazine. Mm hmm. And it's about Ann Patchett. It's the kind of unlikely friendship with Tom Hanks as secretary. Did you ever read that Tom Hanks book?
Annie [00:36:32] I did the short stories.
Lucy [00:36:34] Yes, I did. Yeah, I never. They're good.
Annie [00:36:38] They're good. They're not the best thing I've ever read, but they're pretty impressive for a guy where that's not his main gig, you know?
Lucy [00:36:44] Yeah. She says. In the beginning, she's like, I had this ARC just sitting on my desk and I was not going to read it because actors shouldn't be writers. But then one day I just she was like that. One day I just decided, Why can't Tom Hanks? Exactly? Why not? Of all people, you know, of all people, he can do it. So this is just it's exactly what you would expect of Ann Patchett. It's funny, it's tender. It's touching, it's sweet. I loved it. These Precious Days, and that's out November 23rd.
Annie [00:37:18] I'm curious, Lucy, if you feel the same way I do, I like Ann Patchett's fiction. I loved Commonwealth, that's my favorite one of hers, but I actually prefer Ann Patchett, the essayist like I. That is where I first fell in love with her, and I've read more of that than I have her fiction, so I'm very excited about this one.
Lucy [00:37:37] I feel exactly the same way. Yeah, yeah.
Annie [00:37:42] OK. Next up for me is a book called The Sentence. This is by Louise Erdrich. I am sorry to say that I've never read anything by Louise Erdrich, but I'm going to be fixing that next year. Hunter and I are going to do some backlist titles together, including The Roundhouse by her, but this is her new book called The Sentence. I was immediately curious about it because it is set from All Souls Day 20 19 to All Souls Day 2020, so it starts pre-pandemic and then ends mid-pandemic. And I again like. I wasn't I was curious about that, but I also an't tell if I want right now out of my pop culture an acknowledgment of the pandemic, like sometimes when it shows up in a TV show, I'm like, No, no, I want to pretend it's not happening like I don't. I don't want creators and artists talking about it. But at the same time, when a really talented creator or artist is talking about it, I think it's helpful to help us process what the last 18, 20 months have held. And that is the category I put The Sentence in. So it's set from All Souls Day of 2019 to All Souls Day 2020. Louise Erdrich actually owns an independent bookstore in Minnesota. I also did not know that, and the book is definitely fiction. But Louise even is a small character in the book. It is all about this bookstore and a ghost that lives at the bookstore between those all souls day time periods.
[00:39:13] And it is kind of about how one of the booksellers is in during the pandemic, enduring grief, enduring racial justice issues that were especially obviously they were nationwide. But this book is set in Minnesota, so dealing a lot with that and then just, you know, life in a bookstore. So I think it's really great for people who love books about bookstores. I thought about The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, which was one of my favorite books a while ago, but it is definitely grittier than that. Like a little darker than that because it's dealing with the trauma we've endured over the last year and a half in the hands of a lesser writer. I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much as I did. Instead, I devoured it like I consistently wanted to pick it up and read it, and I really think the storytelling is so good. It has now made me want to go back and explore. Louise Erdrich's backlist. So that is called The Sentence out on November ninth.
Lucy [00:40:08] Which Bookshelf staffer do you think is most likely to make friends with a ghost in the bookstore?
Annie [00:40:17] Keila.
Lucy [00:40:17] That's what I was going to say and I don't even know her!
Annie [00:40:21] Keila, is that what would your answer be Olivia? Absolutely. Yeah. Like, without a doubt. Yeah. If the ghost showed up today, Keila would be it.
Olivia [00:40:30] Yeah, she would become like best friends with the ghost.
Annie [00:40:33] So in the book, the funny, like if you were a bookstore or retail life, like, this book is really great because so the bookstore goes like the woman who inhabits the bookstore. She's a she's their most annoying customer, and so is she. Their most annoying customer dies and doesn't leave the bookstore. And so it's all about this. It's kind of all about, Oh no, what do we do? And she only really haunts or is around and like all of this unfolds and there are reasons. But like she only really is around with this one bookseller is around because she really pushed her buttons the most. It's really, really well done. But it did make me think about, you know?
Lucy [00:41:17] So there you have the name you have in your head. It's so, so funny.
Annie [00:41:25] You if you if you work retail or bookstore in a bookstore, you will feel seen and known.
Olivia [00:41:33] OK, my next book is not a novel. It's more of an activity book, but I wanted to include it on the list because it comes out end of November, but I'm really excited about it. So it's the Kid's Book of Sticker Love by Irene Smit and Astrid van der Hulst and we have in stock The Kid's Book of Paper Love, which is this really cute little book that has all these. Each page has a different activity of like some type of like origami project or something that you can do with the paper that's in the book. So it has everything you need to do, all of these activities right there. And now they're doing a sticker version of this book and the projects that are in it look really fun, like one of them is like an octopus. And then like other ones, they just give you like pages with different scenes that you get to decorate. It's very creative, and I think kids will really love it. I actually like I as an adult would really love it. And we did really well with the paper loved one. So I think it's going to be just as exciting. This is out on November 28th.
Lucy [00:42:37] I feel like my nieces need that.
Olivia [00:42:40] Yeah, keep them busy.
Lucy [00:42:43] OK, so this book is kind of neat. I'm showing you my colors as a music history major here, but it's called Dvorak's Prophecy: And the Vexed Fate of Black Classical Music. This is by Joseph Horowitz, who has written a lot of music history that gets published in The Popular Vein. And so it's about Dvorak, who came to America and studied black music and kind of foreshadowed he thought that the future of American classical music or the way that American classical music would become its own, have its own identity, would be through using black music. And so he wrote the Ninth Symphony, the New World Symphony, and he included in many of his works actually like old spirituals that he learned from a black man that he became very close with. And so this book is exploring like, why didn't that actually happen? Why wasn't that the future of American classical music? So if you know somebody who's interested in classical music and also in racial justice, I think this would be an interesting one that's out November nine.
Annie [00:44:00] Dvorak's Prophecy. We’ll wait on an order from Barbara Lee.
Lucy [00:44:05] Exactly.
Olivia [00:44:06] And we'll put one on hold for Barbara.
Lucy [00:44:08] We got you.
Annie [00:44:13] OK, my last one. Last year I talked about the poetry collection. What kind of Woman? By Kate Baer. It became one of our bestselling titles of 2020. She is very popular on Instagram. She's even been called the Instagram poet, and somebody an interviewer asked her how she felt about that. And she was so gracious about it. I do feel like that kind of does her a disservice, but I appreciate what it's trying to say, which is she is a very accessible poet. And so I feel like if you are somebody who maybe struggles to read poetry, especially without the help of like a professor guide. I think Kate Bear’s collections are really lovely. And What Kind of Woman was one I just thought every week I really want to mail all my friends a copy. Well, she has a new collection out called I Hope This Finds You Well. This is out on November 9th, and it's the same kind of size as her other collection, like it's a little paperback original. But what is unique about these is for years and I have followed it. I found Kate back on the internet. It feels like a decade ago.
[00:45:12] But she has taken her unkind DMs comments, letters that she has received. And she then does like, I don't know, it's got a word for it, but like blank out poetry, she like, blinks out and creates her own poem from essentially what feels like hate mail. So it's like she takes the words of the unkind words of strangers and turns them into beautiful works of art. And I'm so excited about this. I love. When she posts these to her Instagram, she will frequently take a DM and sometimes they're not. I say they're unkind. They're often mean, but I think unintentionally mean like they're trying to be giving advice or whatever. Like, maybe they're well-meaning if you want to give people the benefit of the doubt. But these are questionable DMs at best, and then she really turns them into something special and lovely. So I feel like that's what honestly a lot of us are doing, perhaps not in poetic form, but a lot of us over the last couple years are really having to take ugly things and turn them into something beautiful. And so I like the idea that she has done this in poetry and it's a collection that you can then share with the people who are enduring hard things alongside you. It is called I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer out on November ninth.
Olivia [00:46:31] OK, my last one is part graphic novel, part chapter book. This is called Stuntboy, In the Meantime by Jason Reynolds, and it's illustrated by Raul the Third who I was not familiar with Raul, but apparently, he's a pretty popular comic book artist. So it was a really big collaboration that they were excited about, and it's out November 30th. But this is about I forget his real name, but he calls himself Stuntboy. It's like his superhero name, and he lives in this apartment building. It seems like New York. I don't know if they ever actually label it as New York, but his parents are currently going through a divorce, so they're splitting up their stuff in the apartment. But one of them is keeping the apartment. One of them is just moving to the first floor. So they're still going to be together, but it's stunt boy. Every time he goes up to his parents are fighting over a different thing. And so then they just tell him, like, in the meantime, while we're doing this, can you do something else? And I don't think he understands the meaning of in the meantime. So he'll always go running to his friend. And so just like, Oh, your parents are in the meantime? Yeah, but it was. It's really cute, and it's really not super heavy on the divorce. I mean, you can tell that like, you know, he's still sorting it out emotionally, but it's the first in a series and nothing comes to a real conclusion. So I think there's going to be a lot more to it. But like he faces a bully in the building and then ends up friends with him and like his best friend, is also into the same superhero show that he is. So like always, he'll tell her it's going on with his parents and then should be like, Oh, it's like that one episode of. So-and-so which always ends in a giant explosion, so it sends stunt boy running back to his parents only to like, either break what they're fighting over or just like throw himself into the room in some dramatic way. But it was really cute. I was laughing aloud during it. It was really sweet. I think it's going to be a fun series.
Lucy [00:48:41] OK, Lastly, this is one that I understand why, but I could not get my hands on an ARC. I don't think anybody can. But it's the 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones and many, many other contributors. This is you'll know if your family member does not want to be gifted this already, but I find it. I'm interested in it. And I think that before we critique too much, we should probably understand what's in it. And so I did listen to the podcast, which was based off of the series in The New York Times, but this is apparently a widely expanded version of those two projects talking about the history of slavery in America and how it contributed to the history of America. And it combines historical nonfiction essays with poems and small pieces of fiction. So I'm very excited to read it. There's also I don't know Olivia if you've seen this, but there's also a children's book, a picture book that's gone along with it. Yeah, the 1619 Project: Born on the Water. So I'm also really excited about that one, too. And that comes out November 16th.
Annie [00:50:07] I still have my copy from the 1619 project for the New York Times from 2019. I really appreciated it when it came out, and I am anxious to get my hands on the book. I think I'll really it'll be a good one to have at home. OK, those are November releases. We will in December bring you our each of our top 10 lists of the year. So stay tuned for that. But this is our last new release roundup because December is such a kind of slow month in publishing so stock up on November and other titles from earlier this year. And yeah, thank you guys so much!
[00:50:49] 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:
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
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.
[00:51:25] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville.
[00:51:29] On Sunday, November 21st Holiday Open House will be hosted in downtown Thomasville. This is an annual event that is one of my favorites of the year. All of the downtown shops and restaurants will be fully decked out for the holiday season. In fact, this week I watched from my office as they installed Christmas lights in the trees upstairs. I was able to get a bird's eye view, so all of the shops and restaurants will be decorated. They will have live music and food trucks. This is something downtown Thomas puts on every year. It's Sunday from one to five. It automatically feels special because most of the shops and restaurants are closed on Sundays. And so it lends this kind of festive spirit in the air. It is again one of my favorite days to work. If you participate, if you come visit downtown Thomasville for every 20 dollars you spend at a local business, you get a chance to win $100 in downtown dollars. Downtown Paula Sutton, like downtown Thomasville, is cash money like it's like our own currency that you can spend in downtown shops. So the whole thing is very festive and fun, in my opinion. It's a great day to get your holiday shopping kind of wrapped up and done. If you're an early birder because November 21st is right before Thanksgiving, so you can kind of have it all taken care of before the holidays, get the best of you. So it is Sunday, November 21st. It is one of my favorite days. I hope you make the time to come visit whether you are local or far away. To find out more about how you can visit Thomasville or maybe even call Thomasville home, just go to ThomasvilleGA.com.
[00:53:02] This week I'm reading Fiona and Jane by Jean Chen Ho.
Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:53:08] I'm reading Loveless by Alice Osman.
Annie [00:53:11] And Lucy, What are you reading?
Lucy [00:53:13] I'm reading How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur, writer and producer of The Office, The Good Place, and Parks and Recreation.
Annie [00:53:22] If you liked what you heard on today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic and participate in monthly lunchbreak Q&A videos. Just go to:
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.