Episode 349 || Best Books of the Year
December is a great time to look back on your reading year. In this episode of From the Front Porch, Annie, Lucy, and Olivia are talking about their favorite books of 2021.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Annie’s List
Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann
Matrix by Lauren Groff
Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
Brood by Jackie Polzin
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Bewilderment by Richard Powers
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
Lucy’s List
A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib
Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace
The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle
Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe
Zorrie by Laird Hunt (back-ordered)
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits
Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain
A Ghost in the Throat by Dioreann Ní Ghríofa (not available)
Olivia’s List
Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
Pony by R.J. Palacio
Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka
The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker
Hell of a Book by Jason Mott
The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson
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 Anastasia’s Chosen Career by Lois Lowry. (not available) Lucy is reading Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk. Olivia is reading The Maid by Nita Prose.
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 and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Libro.FM:
Libro.fm lets you purchase audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore (Like The Bookshelf). You can pick from more than 215,000 audiobooks, and you'll get the same audiobooks at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name). But you’ll be part of a different story -- one that supports the community. All you need is a smartphone and the free Libro.fm app.
Right now, if you sign up for a new membership, you will get 2 audiobooks for the price of one. All you have to do is enter FRONTPORCH at checkout or follow this link:
Flodesk:
Do you receive a weekly or monthly newsletter from one of your favorite brands? Like maybe From the Front Porch (Or The Bookshelf)... Did you ever wonder, ‘how do they make such gorgeous emails?’
Flodesk is an email marketing service provider that's built for creators, by creators, and it’s easy to use. We’ve been using it for a couple of years now, and I personally love it. And right now you can get 50% off your Flodesk subscription by going to:
episode transcript:
Annie [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]
“Some occasions were magical, like that, and some occasions were the opposite of magical, whatever that is. Real, Jane supposed.”
― Katheine Heiny, Early Morning Riser
I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, Olivia, Lucy, and I are talking about our top ten books of the year. Buckle up, because we’ve got a lot of territory to cover.
Annie [00:01:00] Hi.
Lucy and Olivia [00:01:01] Hey.
Annie [00:01:04] So we each have a top 10. When we did this last year, did we do five top five?
Lucy [00:01:10] Yes.
Olivia [00:01:10] I think we might have yeah.
Lucy [00:01:11] Yeah.
Annie [00:01:12] So I expanded it, which I think is to the benefit of each of us trying to come up with our list. But now we're going to have to do this rapid fire, it's a lot of books.
Lucy [00:01:26] I got to say, I don't really believe in us.
Olivia [00:01:29] I'm excited. I think we can do this.
Annie [00:01:33] So our goal, we're aiming for forty five minutes. If you're a listener who knows what the actual episode minute total is, we'll see. But but that's all we're shooting for. But before we get started, I really did want to talk about top 10 in general because I do think different people have different criteria for this. So Lucy, why don't you start and tell us what is your criteria when developing your top 10 your best books list of the year?
Lucy [00:02:00] OK, so mine is a mix of nonfiction and fiction, and it's pretty eccentric as my reading tastes tend to be. So it's hard for me to think about exactly what I what I require for a top 10 book, but it looks like it has to be thought provoking. Whether fiction or nonfiction, so something that's really going to grab my attention and make me think and make me want to talk about it with other people, it has to have something to do with the human experience. And I really do require beautiful or interesting writing. In nonfiction, it doesn't necessarily have to be beautiful, although I have a couple of those, but definitely compelling for nonfiction. So those are my criteria.
Annie [00:02:52] Olivia, what about you?
Olivia [00:02:54] Well, I'm laughing because the Enneagram one in me was like, Surely all three of us have the same criteria?
Annie [00:03:01] Surely this is not subjective in any way?
Olivia [00:03:05] Well, those were amusing reasons, and I'm second guessing everything, but it's fine. I have three criteria. Number one is, did it make me happy and or did it further my love of reading? Number two is how badly did I want to discuss this book with other people after finishing? And then number three was how long did it stick with me after the final page?
Annie [00:03:27] Hmm. OK, mine. See, I love this because unlike you, Olivia, I do dwell in the gray. And so...
Lucy [00:03:34] I was going to say...
Olivia [00:03:38] That's why I have to do that, in order to further my love of reading.
Annie [00:03:42] So because I do think every person is different. And Hunter and I recorded a bonus episode for Patreon, where we revealed our top ten to each other. And his criteria is different from my criteria. Mine is a lot about how I look for a five star book. It is. Did it make me think? Did it prompt me to discuss with other people whether that means I'm reading it aloud to Jordan in bed or I'm bothering Olivia with it in store? Or I'm texting my friends? Like, Did I become an evangelist for the book? And definitely up there is well-written but similar to one of Olivia's criteria. Did I enjoy it? Because that to me has been a real criteria over the last couple of years. Like, there are books I read this year that I really valued that made me think that prompted conversation. But when I finished it, I I didn't feel joyful, maybe about it. And maybe it's because I value those pockets of joy in 2020 and 2021 more than I did in 2019. But I do feel like for a couple of my books that I selected, it's not that they're going to be National Book Award winners, but I definitely am glad I read them this year, and they brought me hope in a year that didn't feel always very hopeful. So with that being said, let's get started. So I will start with my 10th book, and I think we agreed that we were going to try to keep it pretty short. I know that I will set the tone here, so the pressure is on. And then when we get to kind of our top three, we can spend a little bit more time. My number 10 is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. This is one, of wait a minute. This is my only nonfiction book on the list. Book on my personal list. It's a memoir that I started reading in 2020. Liked it. Put it down. Picked it back up in 2021 and adored it. I think the writing is stellar, but it also made me think obviously about my own relationships with my mom. I found myself gravitating a lot this year towards books about grief, and I think this one handles those topics very well. I loved her discussions of identity and self-discovery, and I'm also curious to see if Michelle Zauner will write anything else. So that is my number 10 Book Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Olivia, what's your number 10?
Olivia [00:06:04] OK, my number 10 is a middle grade novel, The Bookshop of Dust and Dreams by Mindy Thompson. It just brought so much joy into my life, mostly because the bookstore itself in the book Rhyme and Reason had a life of its own. It had a personality. It had likes and dislikes. But also, this Middlebury novel just had so much depth to the character that was not shied away from that I really appreciated. I think this is perfect for fans where maybe growing out of the book wonder series but are still looking for something book related. It was beautiful.
Annie [00:06:37] Lucy?
Lucy [00:06:38] OK, so my number 10 is something I don't even know if I've discussed with either of you. It's nonfiction. It's called A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance by Hanif Abdurraqib. Your guys are both making faces.
Annie [00:06:54] Yes, I wondered if you'd read this. And this is fascinating because Kay, former bookseller at The Bookshelf, she loved this book and you guys are both musicologists.
Lucy [00:07:03] That's right. From the same program, I actually listened to this one and really loved the reading of it, which I'm pretty sure was done by the author. This is kind of a mixture of memoir of black experience and history, cultural history. And I just it's hard to explain. I mean, he talks about funerals. He talks about magic, which Olivia would be interested in. He talks about dancing and singing and all kinds of things. His experience is woven into the story, but he also we'll talk about renowned black performers like Josephine Baker, and I just found it to be absolutely captivating, really for a nonfiction book, very exciting and thought provoking. I loved this one.
Annie [00:07:57] Oh, I'm going to have to. I like that you said listen to because I've gravitated more toward audiobooks this year as well, and maybe I can read that one then. OK. My number nine is my October Shelf Subscription book called My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson. I read a few short story collections this year that I really liked, and I know short story collections can be a hard sell for readers. But part of the reason I liked this one was it really consisted of two or three short stories and then a novella. The novella is called My Monticello, but there is a short story from this collection. My Monticello is going to stick with me a while. I think I wouldn't shock me if somebody adapts it into like an HBO mini series or something like that. But there is a short story from this collection called My Control Negro that I thought was absolutely stunning. And as you both know, when you're reading an ARC, you're reading an advance reader copy. No one else or very few people are reading it along with you, so you're kind of reading in a vacuum. And I remember being in my living room, reading this short story and being like, I can't believe there's no one to tell this. Like, there's no one for me to talk to you about this. And that's part of the reason I said it as a Shelf Subscription because I wanted to hear other people's reactions to it. I just thought this entire collection cannot believe it was a debut. I cannot believe this was an author that I had not heard from before. And that goes to show that I think she will be writing other things and I think probably other stunning works of literature. But I just absolutely loved the writing of this one loved the kind of shocking nature. I'll borrow one of Olivia's phrases like she did not shy away from tough conversations. The characters were well-developed, which is always in a short story. Particularly difficult, I think, to kind of create this full character in a span of 20 pages. And so anyway, love this one. I highly recommend. Think you could pick it up now and thoroughly enjoy it. It's super short, and the stories obviously are short as well. It is called My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson.
Olivia [00:09:57] All right, my next one is Hell of a Book by Jason Mott. This one is one that I left and immediately, just like Amy said, I needed to talk about with people and I have struggled to handle, mostly because I think there is so much in this book that everyone can take away something different from it. So I will do my best to give you a description, but just know that like if you pick up this book or already have your view of it might be different. But this is about a black author who is going on his first book tour, book signing tour, and he was followed around by this invisible child who you start to kind of put the pieces together towards the end. But throughout it, you know that there was a shooting of a child of a black child in America at the time, and his audience continues to ask him for his words on what happened. And he struggles to put that together. There's humor thrown in there somehow within this crazy story thrown in there, but I just remember leaving this book and thinking, Wow, that really was one hell of fun. Sounds so corny. And the line is used throughout the entire book, but there's really no other takeaway from it other than like, Wow, what did I just get?
Lucy [00:11:09] OK. My number nine is Covered with Night: A Story of Murder and Indigenous Justice in Early America by Nicole Eustace, another nonfiction look. I'm actually looking at my list. There's quite a few nonfiction books out here. I don't know if I was just in that mood this year, but covered with night is a story of a murder in early America of a Native American hunter by a pair of fur traders and kind of the repercussions of that. I found it especially compellingly written, really easy to read and beautifully written, actually thought provoking. And she talks about the difference between American and Native American imaginings of what justice and restoration looks like, and I found that really relevant to today. Covered with Night by Nicole Eustace.
Annie [00:12:08] Look at your reading National Book Award finalist and long list like, look at you guys, you're so literary. Oh, my number eight falls in the category of very well written. In my opinion. This is an author. I've followed for a while, but very enjoyable and a book that I will remember for bringing me a lot of joy in a hard year. It's Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. I led the episode with a quote from this book. It is a dysfunctional family story for lack of a better term, but reminds me a lot of Amy Papel in that all of the characters are pretty likable, like even the quirkiest, weirdest, maybe most difficult. If the character came to life, you would find them to be difficult. But in this book, you find them to be very lovable, and it takes place over the span of a few years. And so you kind of get to follow these characters. But the pacing is really great, which I find to be difficult when an author spans a certain period of time, I feel like pacing can sometimes be thrown off. But I think the pacing of this one is great. The character development is good. If you are interested in plot driven fiction, this is probably not for you. This is about a couple. It's about a person. It's about a family. It's about character development and who these people are and what happens to them. But it is not really particularly about climactic moments, and that is fine with me. Character driven works are my favorite, and I just found myself smiling through a lot of this book, which again feels like magic in twenty twenty one. Like when an author can bring me and move me to happy tears feels like a really remarkable thing. So that is Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny.
Olivia [00:13:49] OK, on a very different note, this this book maybe did not make me happy, but definitely furthered my love of reading. My next one is the The First Day of Spring by Nancy Tucker. I remember reading this in one flight and layover, and I was just floored by it. I believe I immediately came to The Bookshelf and then tried to push it on everybody and realize that this is not a book for everybody, but this is about in the very first chapter, so no spoilers. You meet Chrissy, who is an eight year old girl, and she lives in a very neglectful home and she has just murdered a boy and Ben and his eyebrows just went. And then in the very next chapter, you see Chrissy grown up. She is now a twenty five year old, and she's taking care of her own child. This was one that was definitely more character driven than plot driven, but it was also just fascinating to get inside this girl's head of her dealing with her trauma that not only was put on her, but she caused in her own childhood, but now trying to raise another human and be protective of someone. It's not what she was used to doing at all. It was fascinating and amazing.
Lucy [00:15:01] I was going to ask, Is this an adult book or a kid's?
Olivia [00:15:04] Yes. Adult.
Lucy [00:15:07] Usually kid's books don't have murders in them. OK?
Annie [00:15:12] Good point of clarification.
Lucy [00:15:14] I was going to say so I I don't think I finished this one, not because I didn't like it, because this book from the first page really does grip you like she has a way, I think from the first sentence, which is always just kind of stunning to me. But like the first sentence.
Olivia [00:15:30] The first sentence is literally I killed a little boy today. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry, Lucy. It's it's hard, but it's fascinating. OK. Not good.
Lucy [00:15:47] And also a departure. My next book is The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness by Gregory Boyle. It is a Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Ministries in L.A., which administers to former gang members. And this one is it's kind of a work of theology, a popular theology. But he says in the introduction that Jesus didn't do a ton of theology, he told Stories. And that's what he was going to do as well. So it's really full of stories of gang members and their experiences and their changes of heart and letting your idea of God be changed and broadened and letting yourself think of him as tender and loving. I just thought this was a really interesting one. It was thought provoking theologically and also really humbling, and the stories will just make you cry. I really love this one. The Whole Language by Gregory Boyle.
Annie [00:16:54] I would like to read that. I think I said my dad likes Gregory Boyle, and I'm tempted. I'm trying to narrow down what to what book to give to my dad for Christmas this year. OK. My number seven is again a book that brought me a lot of joy. I do think it is well-written, but it certainly falls maybe in the more commercial fiction category than the literary fiction category. And that is The Guncle by Steven Rowley. I thought a lot about this. I also would like to say I read Steven Rowley, other book the editor and I liked it. But I always love when you can kind of watch an author's progression. And I actually think this might be the book that Stephen Rally was meant to write. I liked the editor. I appreciated it. But to me, this one really capitalized on and highlighted his gifts as a storyteller. It is about gay uncle who takes in his to his niece and his nephew, and he takes care of them for the summer. It's light and fun, but also underneath. It is not light and fun because the reason he is taking care of his niece and nephew is weighty and heavy. It's not just that they're having a fun summer with their uncle, they're they're they're on purpose. And so there's a lot of underlying heaviness about grief and family dysfunction and acceptance. And I just loved the people in this book so much. I felt, I think the common comparison and the one that I certainly made was to like three men and a baby or something, which is a very fun movie that Jordan and I still watch on the regular highly recommend. But it's also just about these people. And I like even a song that Steven rarely talks about in the book made its way to one of my playlists for the year. Like, I have very vivid memories of reading this book in the summer here in South Georgia and loving reading about Palm Springs and this gay uncle who's trying to teach his niece and nephews the ways of the world. But at the same time, his niece and nephew are really teaching him a few things, and it's very, very heartwarming. And yet, I will say not super cheesy like this is certainly a feel good novel, but I did not feel like it was schmaltzy or too sentimental. I think it hit just the right note. It is The Guncle by Steven Rowley.
Olivia [00:19:01] OK, my next book is Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka. I sukkah. This is another adult novel, but I think I've talked about several times. It's just so much fun and this is a perfect, like dead book, I think. But this is about five Japanese assassins who all get on the same bullet train with five different missions that all end up messing each other up while it's happening. It is humorous. I was laughing aloud during this book. You get chapters from each different assassin, and it is. It is just so much fun. That's all I can say about this book. I have a lot of fun reading it.
Lucy [00:19:41] Hmm. From funny assassins to really horrible pharmaceutical industry families. My next book is Empire of Pain by Patrick Radden Keefe. If I were reading it right now, I think it might not be on my top 10, and that's because I'm very sick of feeling angry right now. So I'm like, I have tapped out of politics and anything that's going to make me feel angry. And this book will probably make you feel angry. But in terms of investigative journalism and nonfiction writing, I mean, this was, I think, the top book this year. It's the story of the Sackler family, an extremely wealthy family who got that way by peddling OxyContin despite knowing that it was going to be a plague on the society. There have been a lot of recent lawsuits against the Sackler family over the course of those lawsuits, documents, emails and so on were revealed. And so he used all this kind of new information to paint a picture of the Sackler family. He starts out with the first Sackler, who actually got wealthy by selling Valium and kind of created the handbook for how to do that then. And so that's probably about the first third of the book. Then you have the story of OxyContin, and then at the end, I thought it was really interesting. He talks about his experience while writing the book being followed and threatened, and it just makes you think about the courage it takes to be a journalist in this day and age. So really fascinating and intriguing book of nonfiction Empire of Pain.
Annie [00:21:48] That's also great about a top 10 list because you have to have the books that make you angry. And then you also have to have the books that make you feel good because both of those things look, life is being really angry and then really joyful. It's all of the above. OK, my next book is Bewilderment by Richard Powers. This was my first Richard Powers book. Now I am very curious about his other work. I am tempted to go back and read over story. This book is a father son story. If you are familiar with the book Flowers for Algernon, then this book may mean even more to you. I did not read that book. I still have not read that book, but I certainly don't think you have to have read that to enjoy the prose that Richard Powers is writing his writing, and I think this will be true for my next. Like the writing of these next few books just absolutely blew me away and I kept. This book is very short chapters about a father and a son, and the wife and mom has recently died and the son is having some behavioral issues. And the psychiatrist or the school, like the people at his kid's school, want this child to be medicated. And so there's a lot of interesting, I think, political perhaps themes in this book. But what I kept coming back to was this father son relationship and what I think Richard Powers does very well based on what I've read about his work is that he writes about nature so beautifully and the scenes where this father and son are out in the wilderness, watching the stars and the dad makes up together, they make up before bedtime. These stories about other planets and those little stories and moments are so gorgeously written and very powerful and sweet and tender, and I just I loved it so much. The main character, the dad, is also a teacher and a professor, and so as I was reading, I immediately thought about my friends who work in the educational system. I immediately thought of my brother and the impacts they have. And then the little boy winds up doing these kind of experimental not really procedures, but he like, goes to this educational facility and they kind of use his mother's thoughts and feelings to help him learn how to have joy. And so it's very it's a lot about, I'm sure, political underlying messages about like, what do we put our children through? What should we test like? Should children be tested for things like should children be our test or control group for experimentation? But it's also about this little boy who loves his mother and who's grieving his mother and then who is also deeply in love with his dad. And so I don't know. Just very powerful, meaningful book that has a lot going on in a short number of pages like I absolutely. This through this one and how I know that it deserves a place in my top ten is I would like read it in parking lots like while waiting for a meeting to start or like in line for pickup at target or something like that. Like I read it everywhere, I could get a chance. It is Bewilderment by Richard Powers.
Olivia [00:24:59] OK, speaking of another Father-Son story, my next one is a middle grade book Pony by R.J. Palacio. She is the author of Wonder, but this is extremely different from Wonder. But just as great in writing style, I would think this is about a little boy, Silas, who lived there in a very secluded area with his father. And then he has this imaginary friend, Mitton War, who always travels around with him and he doesn't know how he got his name. He doesn't know anything about this imaginary friend. Other than that, he's always there for him. And then a group of outlaws come and they take his dad, but they leave this horse that has this bone white face. So it almost looks like a school, but it just it's not. It's it's for him. And then Silas sets off with this horse and mitten wool to go track down and find his father and ends up on this epic journey. I keep comparing this book. I like to say it's like the western version of the never ending story, so it's not set in outer space, but set here in the West and multiple western times. So good highlights for adults and children, but children 10 and up.
Lucy [00:26:16] OK. My next book is something I don't think I've discussed with either of you also. It's older. It was from the beginning of the year. It's called Zorrie by Laird Hunt. Annie have you heard of this or read this?
Annie [00:26:29] I had heard of it, but I have not read it.
Lucy [00:26:31] This isn't any book, and it's relatively brief. So.
Annie [00:26:36] OK.
Lucy [00:26:37] You can fit it in. This is just really beautifully kind of vastly told story of an ordinary woman's life. It takes place in the Midwest, in Indiana and Illinois, and it kind of reminds me of Marilyn Robinson. It examines hopes and grace and just life moving on for a normal person. This woman who is at the heart of it? You meet her at the beginning of her life. You, you hear what happened to her and then in a short span, you hear her entire life story. She, one of the parts of her story is that she was a radium girl. She worked painting the clock places with radium. And so you get a look at her health scare caused by that later in her life. I just thought it was a wonderful thing. Read, especially for a woman. This was recommended to me by my sister in law, and I just I really loved it. It was beautifully written and very touching story by Laird Hunt.
Annie [00:27:55] OK, now I'm going to have to read that I don't know how I missed it. It does sound like an Annie book.
Lucy [00:27:59] I missed it too, when my sister in law told me about it, I was like, Did it come out five years ago? Like, I've never I had not heard of it. And no, just this year.
Annie [00:28:09] OK. So, OK, we're entering our top five. We're at 30 minutes. So just a time check. Just a time check. OK, I will just say this about my top five. Not shocking. None of these are shocking. You will not be surprised. I don't think by any of them. They're all similar in theme, tone, subject matter. I am nothing, if not consistent. So my number five book is Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. I love Sally Rooney. I know that she is a fairly polarizing figure and writer. I think she's incredibly talented, not just given her age in general. She is incredibly talented and a gifted storyteller. If you like character driven novels with people who talk a lot and think a lot. And I love that, but I know not everybody does. So I adored normal people. I actually think I might like beautiful world. Where are you more? It doesn't pack quite the punch that normal people did. It feels a little quieter to me. But part of the novel is about two friends and then the two kind of love interests, kind of. I call them like side friends, but they're all in this friend group together. And then the two female friends at the heart of the book write letters back and forth. And so the setup of the novel is like a chapter of action and storytelling in prose. And then the second chapter or the next chapter is a letter between two of the characters. And so it's half an epistolary novel, and I love that these are characters you think deeply about things. Sometimes they think wrongly about things, but I love books where you kind of get to delve into the inner workings of a character's mind and motivations. And again, this is not for plot driven readers, but if you are a reader who I don't know who likes to think about stuff, then I think this is for you. She writes a lot about faith and belief and home personal identity coming of age. All these themes that come up, I think all the time in the books that I like, and this one is no different. So it is Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. I absolutely love this book.
Lucy [00:30:16] OK, my number five pick is Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. This is one that just stuck with me long after the pages, and it was one that I wanted to discuss with everybody. I will say it is violent, and he made me aware of that because maybe I was a little blind to it. So but this is about two fathers, one black, one white, who after their sons were in a relationship, both got killed. They end up going to avenge them together in teamwork, but they both see the world in very different viewpoints, so it takes them a lot to come together to this point. And they weren't always they didn't have the greatest relationship with their sons when they were living. So there's a lot of like coming to terms with how they reacted to those situations and then coming to terms with how they're going to move forward from their death. But it was action packed. It was so well done. I don't think it dragged at all in this book. I will absolutely be reading anything else, he writes from here on because it was just so well done.
Lucy [00:31:28] OK. My faith, you guys may be surprised that this is my fifth, but my fifth book is Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr, and I think part of the reason why it's maybe fifth is there's just kind of a weight of sadness to a lot of it. And maybe that's not what I need, although now I'm looking at my house for it. They're all kind of sad too. Anyway, talking grand is many different stories that are not interwoven. They're given to you side by side, and they're kind of pulled together at the end. And it's historical. It's relational. It's about love books and people who promote books like librarians and not really booksellers. But we're booksellers and it's just it's beautiful. It's about the ways that we're connected, and I really loved this book. I think maybe one of the reasons why it's effort is I don't I don't know. I didn't love the writing as as much as I thought I would. So still very much worth your while and good writing. Not about writing it all, but Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.
Annie [00:32:50] OK. My number four might be a surprise because it surprised me because I read it at the tail end of 2020, but it's a 2021 publish date and so I did not include it in my 2020 list and it feels like it certainly deserves a spot in my twenty twenty one list. And that is Brood by Jackie Polzin. And I love this book could tell you right where I was when I was reading. It could tell you that I read bits and pieces aloud to Jordan. The book is narrated by this woman who remains nameless throughout the book, and she takes care of a brood of chickens and she nurtures them as she cares for them. And as you begin reading the novel, you realize that she has had multiple miscarriages and she and her husband are struggling to have children, and so she is taking that kind of desire to have children of her own. She's taking that maternal instinct and she's directing it toward these chickens. You become very invested in these chickens and whether they live or die. Anybody who has raised chickens or knows people who raise chickens. They are. It is risky. It is a risky business because of all that can befall a chicken. But I became very emotionally invested in this story, very attached to the chickens and cared deeply. This is again testament, I think, to Jackie polls, and I care deeply for this narrator who I do not know her name. I don't know anything really about her, except her deep desire to mother, and I just fell in love with this book. I love an author who can tell a full, complete, beautiful story in such a succinct way. This is not a long book. This is a one sit, in my opinion, a one sit, read, and I know I've been saying Character-driven that this book is certainly character driven, but because of those chickens, you really do care. It is a quick compulsive, I think, fairly plot driven book as well, because you care a lot about what happens to these chickens. You become characters in their own right and that is Brood by Jackie Polzin.
Olivia [00:34:50] I forgot that you had read that book this year.
Annie [00:34:52] Yeah.
Olivia [00:34:53] Just like when I made my list, I forgot that I had read this book this year, but it made my top five. It is A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better by Benjamin Wood. This was my Shelf Subscription, I think pretty early on in in this year, and it was. It's it's a hard story. It's a pretty dramatic story, which I'm now looking at my top five realizing that apparently I either needed to be in the present crying or in another galaxy. But we digress. So this is about a little boy, Daniel. In nineteen ninety five, he was like maybe 12 or 13 at the time. And right from the get go, you know that he is about to go on a trip with his father that he was pretty much looking forward to, but that this is the last time he'll see his mother and he goes on this car ride with his father. That is this journey filled with just so much trauma, so much. But at the end, the way he brings everything together makes everything that you just went through with him. So understandable. And you now understand, like why he's telling this story, why he needs to get it off his chest, and that maybe the things that stuck out to him then are different from what sticks out to him now looking back at it. It was so well told. I found out today that it was blurbed by Emily St. John Mandel, which makes actually a lot of sense. After reading it, she said it was gorgeous and harrowing, so I'm going to use her words. It was just. And heroin, I highly recommend it. It is so much more than like a father son story, it is. It is mostly just like a father reflecting on how he wants to parent going forward. But it was beautiful.
Annie [00:36:40] So many Father-Son stories this year, you guys.
Olivia [00:36:43] Yeah.
Annie [00:36:44] So many.
Lucy [00:36:45] So my number four is not a father son story, but it's a fun, fun, fun and fun story. And it's The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles. This is a it's so funny. I want to call it character driven, but it's also pretty good on plot too, and an adventure story with two brothers and kind of tracing the steps of their mother who had left them in their youth and following the Lincoln Highway. Really lovable and interesting and well-drawn characters. Beautifully written, compelling read makes you want to makes you want to pick it up in the parking lot like Annie said. And I think this one especially has extremely broad appeal. If you know somebody who loves reading but you don't know what they like reading specifically, I feel like this would be just a great, safe gift to get so many different types of people. So The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles.
Annie [00:37:50] My third book also deals ever so slightly with a road trip. It is Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout. Elizabeth Strout does not miss. I don't understand it. Don't know how she does it. I say she doesn't miss. I did not love Olive Kitteridge. I feel like I should get that out of the way. I feel like that's a bookseller confession. But lately, I feel like every time she puts out a book, I am so relieved to fall back in love with her characters. This is technically a continuation of sorts of the book. My name is Lucy Barton. One thing that Elizabeth Strout does really well, I think, is her books are entirely, in my opinion, standalone. Like, I'm not convinced. Do you have to read these books in order? But they all exist in this same world? And so you recognize names, you recognize characters. This book, Oh William!, is narrated by Lucy Barton. She was married to a man named William, and he is now her ex, and they are still in relationship with one another. They're still friendly with one another. And William is like at a point of crisis. He has broken up with his most recent wife, and he was sent off for a DNA test and now has discovered some truths about his family he didn't realize. And Lucy kind of narrates this whole thing and is talking about her relationship with with William. These Elizabeth Strout books are deeply about character development and about people. What I find fascinating about Lucy Barton as a character is she is a writer. And yet there are parts of Oh William! that are very messy and like fragmented language and starts and stops in terms of sentence structure. Because we're really just getting Lucy's thoughts on her marriage to her husband, her family and then her relationship with her ex-husband now and their kind of friendship and how they help one another. It is beautiful. Lucy mentioned Marilyn Robinson earlier. I think there are elements of Marilyn Robinson in Elizabeth Strout writing, because they're just writing, in my opinion, about the current age and what is happening in the world. I also think Elizabeth Strout is particularly gifted about writing, writing about characters who are a little older, and I appreciate reading about older characters as, I mean, even as I get older, right? Like realizing that story doesn't just happen in your early 20s, it also happens in your 60s and it happens in your 50s. And exciting, interesting things can happen to you, no matter how old you are. And so I think Elizabeth Strout does a great job of that. The writing in this is stellar. I don't even know what else to say. It's Oh William! By Elizabeth Strout.
Olivia [00:40:25] OK, my number three book, and I can't tell much about the plot because almost all of it is away. But it is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I love Andy Weir, I am a fan of everything, he wrote. Except they didn't read Artemus. I haven't heard great things about it, so probably. But this one is about an astronaut, Ryland Grace, who you first find him in a space station in a whole other solar system, and he has woken up by himself. There's no one else with him. And you slowly find out that our son is dying because there is a virus around it. And he was sent to this other solar system to figure out what is going on with this virus and how can we stop it? But this was so much more than just a survival story out in space, which we all know Andy Weiris amazing at from the Martian. I cannot go into what else it is because that is a spoiler, but everyone who I have suggested to read this has left it. I don't think you need to be a huge science fiction fan. The math is present, but you do not need to follow along if you are not interested in it. It was so well done it looks like a big old tomb that's going to take you a while, but you fly through it. It's it's just so good. I loved it so much.
Lucy [00:41:48] Perfect, Olivia book.
Olivia [00:41:49] It really was.
Lucy [00:41:53] OK, so my number three is The Slaughterman’s Daughter by Yaniv Iczkovits. This was a Shelf Subscription for me. A huge. Look, that has a particularly Russian feel to it. I think I described it as like Dostoyevsky, me, it's a tale of two cities meets adventure story or something like that. It does have some moments of graphic violence, which is probably why it's not my number one. They just made me feel a little bit askew. But overall, the writing is interesting and compelling, and it felt like I was reading something like a couple centuries old, almost not like outdated language or anything, but it felt almost timeless. There's moments of humor in it as well, and just an amazing novel. So The Slaughterman’s Daughter.
Annie [00:42:55] OK. My number two is a book I think, Lucy, if you haven't read it yet, I do think you would like this one. I think you'd like Elizabeth Strout too, but I've struggled between my number one and my number two. I feel like they could, I don't know, be alternated or flipped given the day. But my second favorite book of the year is Matrix by Lauren Groff. I went into this honestly a little bit reticent and kind of put off reading it. I really loved fates and furies again, a fairly polarizing title, but Matrix felt daunting to me in a year where my attention span has been a little bit all over the place. I just wasn't sure that reading about a medieval nun was going to be for me. And instead, it took me no time at all to be hooked. I had, like, heard from other readers Oh, give it 50 pages. No, no. For me, I was hooked from the very first page. This is soundly in the historical fiction category. It is about Eleanor of Aquitaine and it is about it is about a medieval knight and what I loved about it. I could not stop talking about it to Jordan. Jordan even came up with comp titles. It was very exciting night in our home. Like as I started talking about it, because it's not just about like this historical fiction, about a medieval nun. It's also about what happens when women are in power instead of men. And what does a matriarchy look like instead of patriarchy? And is it the is it the idealistic thing we think it would be, or is it just as complicated and just as fraught? And I love that question. I think it's fascinating. I could talk about it all day. Maybe I could even write a thesis. I just I just loved it. I think it's so clever and well done, and it made me immediately for for our fellow readers who enjoy like doing deep dives after the fact it made me. I've never before cared about honestly medieval anything, and all of a sudden I was Googling Eleanor of Aquitaine. I was Googling about medieval times because I was so curious about Lauren Groff's research methods and I listened to interviews. This is a book that sent me down other paths, and I guy just loved it. I've almost convinced myself it should be my number one. I don't know it is Matrix by Lauren Groff. I loved it so very much.
Olivia [00:45:10] My number two of the year is Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Which I recently found out McMillan has sold out of all their copies. We can still get some from Ingram, but I am just so happy for this author that that has happened. This is a little bit of everything but I like. So this is about a transgendered violinist who comes across this violin maestro who made a deal with a demon for her soul and has to deliver seven souls of her prodigies that she trains and the transgender violins if the final one. But then they find this like mother daughter friendship. This found family friendship. I so appreciate. And then there is also a little bit of extra terrestrial mass in there, thrown in by a family of aliens who are escaping their galaxy because there is a war happening. And so they go to Earth as their safe haven and open and run a donut shop in L.A., of which this violin maestro starts to go there to pick up donuts, to treat to the island prodigy. And they become friends and lovers and to the magazine. I just I it was one of those books where, like, I can tell you the moment I started this book exactly where I was, what time of day, and I just remember falling straight into it and then never wanting to speak to another person, it was incredible.
Annie [00:46:39] Demons and aliens. A book that has it all.
Olivia [00:46:44] How could you say no? I think for you, Lucy.
Lucy [00:46:52] I was like, I didn't realize that was a requirement for Olivia, but it is as added bonus. That's right. OK. My number two is also kind of from earlier in the year, so I feel like, especially with the recent publication of the 1619 project, it might get forgotten. But I just found this to be an incredibly impressive historical book. Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619by2019. The editors are Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain, but they're not the only authors. There's, I think, something like 90 contributors to this book. Each person gets a span of five years, I think, to do what they will. And so you have an incredible diversity of viewpoints of writing styles. There's like there's poetry, there's kind of ruminative memoir type stuff. There's also just straightforward history. And each of them is quite short. So it's an easily digestible work of history, even though it's unbelievable in its scope 16 19 to 20 19. And I just was so blown away it was like every essay I needed to talk to Zach about it. And even just recently, Rethink is thinking about it again. I picked up another essay and needed to talk to Zach about it. Just incredibly thought-provoking. Well-written, interesting, easy to read, wide ranging, important, really, really important book. Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain is my number two book.
Annie [00:48:48] OK. My number one Book of the Year is also from a little earlier this year. Came out this spring summer, and that is Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann. I cannot believe this was a debut novel. She has written this really epic novel in, I think, 300 pages, maybe fewer, which is quite the feat about this family living in Texas. It definitely, as I have mentioned in many previous podcast episodes, it has connections with Greek myths and Greek mythology, which is a subject that I am not super proficient in, and it is not an area of expertize for me. And yet I could certainly pick up on it throughout the novel. But I also think it's got that underlying underlying storytelling. If that is of interest to you, I think the book would only be enhanced by your knowledge of that subject matter. Yes, this is a dysfunctional family story. Almost never. Even I was flipping through it today and I thought, Oh, this is almost succession esque where it's got like this rich family living in Texas and this kind of problematic patriarch. But somehow, and I've talked about it all throughout my top 10, somehow, this book is this character driven and plot driven. So much happens in this book. Part of the reason I wanted to include it is I remain. No, vividly where I was while reading it. I had to read it during my lunch breaks. And I remember a moment when something happens in the plot, I will not give it away. But like, there is a moment of true shock where I gasped aloud. I could not believe what I was reading, and I just, I guess I couldn't believe how well-crafted this story was, how well paced the story was for a book written by a debut novelist. I think it's deserving of any and all praise it has received this year. I almost wish it had received more, which is part of the reason I wanted to give it the top spot. Often when I think about my top two books the year, those are the books that I remember next year. So I feel like in twenty twenty two I won't remember anything I read, except I will remember that I read Matrix and Olympus Texas, just like I don't remember what I read in Twenty Twenty, but I remember I read the vanishing half and transcendent kingdom book. And so I think my top two books are always the ones that I associate with that year. And I associate Olympus Texas with a South Georgia late spring, early summer with being shocked and also curious about and in love with this very complicated, not particularly nice family. I just loved it. Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann.
Olivia [00:51:29] OK. My number one book of the year, as no surprise to anyone, is Under the Whispering Door by T.J. Klune. And I have such sweaty hands right now. I always get so nervous to talk about this book because I never feel like I'm doing it enough justice. This is for fans of households, really and see the library. It is about a man who was a lawyer and made some harsh choices in his personal and professional life, to the point where not many people thought he was a good person. And then in the very first chapter, he has a heart attack and dies, and you see him getting greeted by this woman, May, who brings him to Hugo's tea shop at this beautiful little. It's called Sheeran's Crossing, and Hugo sits him down with a cup of tea. And basically, Hugo is the person who like, make sure everyone is OK before they move on. And his relationship with Wallace is just so compassionate and empathetic and beautiful, and it was everything I wanted. I think T.J. Clune does an amazing job of putting out a book when you didn't realize you needed it. He did it perfectly with House's resiliency when you know the world was in the middle of a pandemic and America was in the middle of a racial reckoning. And so we needed something that had some form of hope and love, and you got that in house and see, and now we're all maybe not consciously but subconsciously dealing with everything that happened in the past couple of years. And he gives you under the whispering door just as a nice big hug and your entrance into the world again. I sobbed my way through it. You will, too. But it feels so good. The most cathartic cry you will ever get. So.
Lucy [00:53:19] The most cathartic cry I ever had was when I was nine months pregnant and I went to see Little Women at Christmas time by myself. I didn't know I had that much water in my body. Unbelievable amounts of tears. Anyway, and I'm pregnant again. Maybe, and it's about to be Christmastime. Maybe I need to rewatch. Just to really undo the twenty twenty one thing. You know, I'll just let it all out. OK, so my number one is A Ghost in the Throat by an Irish poet whose name I'm not going to try to pronounce. Out of respect, you can read about it on the website. A Ghost in the Throat is, I mean, this was not a Shelf Subscription for me because it was published in paperback. I think everybody should read it, but I also think it was specifically for me. This is a woman who is a young mother, and she writes absolutely beautifully and poetically. She's a poet about being a young mother and a new mother. And so that was especially touching for me. But she also is an intellectual, and she has this obsession with researching this poem from the seventeen seventies. And so as also a researcher myself, I related to that aspect of it as well. So it was especially moving for me in those ways. This is a book that defies categorization. It's got aspects of memoir. It's got auto fiction in it. It's it's got nonfiction. I mean, I think it's been categorized as both nonfiction and fiction somehow. And the writing is just. Glorious. So this woman is has discovered an old poem by a woman, an Irish woman in, I think, Gaelic in the Irish language, and she finds herself aspects of her life reflected in this poem, and she develops this obsession with researching this poet, and she's relating it to her life. She talks about breastfeeding in the first chapter, which is a huge part of my life in the past few years as well. I just was stunned, honestly, by the beauty of the language and by the creativity of the storytelling. I loved this book so much. A Ghost in the Throat.
Annie [00:56:01] Fun. That was a surprise. I think I could have easily predicted mine and Olivia's, but I didn't know yours. So that is exciting. Guys, we did fail, as Lucy predicted, but I think we did a pretty decent job honestly, given that we just talked about 30 books. So well done. Good job.
Lucy [00:56:22] It was under an hour.
Annie [00:56:24] Yeah, we did it. I'm proud of us. I also think I just think you can really get a sense of each of our reading tastes through each of our lists, which I love. And I think that just goes to show that despite Olivia's original intentions, top 10 lists are subjective, and it is just always very fascinating. If you would like to share your top 10 with us, I would encourage you to find us on Instagram at @bookshelftville and under the Instagram post about this episode, we would love to hear your top 10 or your top two. Just share with us what books you absolutely love this year. Thank you, guys.
Olivia [00:57:01] Thank you.
Lucy [00:57:02] Yay, this was so fun.
Annie [00:57:07] [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 This Week I am Reading is brought to you by The City of Thomasville. To find out more about how you can visit Thomasville, go to www.thomasvillega.com.
Annie [00:57:42] This week I'm reading Anastasia’s Chosen Career by Lois Lowry. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:57:49] I am reading The Maid by Nita Prose.
Annie [00:57:52] Lucy?
Lucy [00:57:53] I'm reading Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk.
Annie [00:57:57] 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 for $5 a month on Patreon, where you can follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic and participate in live video Q&As in our monthly lunch break sessions. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.