Episode 346 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 11
Welcome to another episode of From the Front Porch! Annie is back to answer your literary dilemmas like a bookish Frasier Crane in volume 11 of Literary Therapy.
Before we get started, this is your friendly reminder that From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, an indie bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. We’re in the throes of our second holiday shopping season held during a pandemic, and remarkably, our spirits are high. As you support indies like ours this holiday season, please remember to shop early, to be open to our suggestions when your first book preference might already be back-ordered, and to trust our deadlines. This year, December 1 is the deadline to purchase something from us and have it arrive by Christmas.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Finding Freedom by Erin French
Educated by Tara Westover
So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow
Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel
Ecology of a Cracker Child by Janisse Ray
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson (currently unavailable)
Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson (currently unavailable)
The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington
Where I Come From by Rick Bragg
Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby
A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Black, White, and the Grey by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano
Memorial Drive by Natasha Tretheway
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny (currently unavailable)
Misfortune of Marion Palm by Emily Culliton (currently unavailable)
Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer
Limelight by Amy Poppel
Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
Strangers and Cousins by Leah Hager Cohen (currently unavailable)
This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith
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 Taste by Stanley Tucci.
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.
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Episode Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:02] [squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
[as music fades out]
“What recurs more often than not is possibility. Opportunity. Odds. The groundwork laid, the conditions met, the stars aligned, the critical mass reached. What happens then may go either way. One generation’s unforgivable error becomes the next generation’s act of grace. One generation’s epic lament becomes the next generation’s comic relief. One generation’s reconciliation becomes the next generation’s rift. The same threads surface again and again, but the weave is riddled with deviation, tessellation, transformation. No design is replicated verbatim. This is the ecstasy of life.”
― Leah Hager Cohen, Strangers and Cousins
Annie Jones [00:01:18] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week I'm getting out a pencil and paper, settling in a comfy chair across from a metaphorical couch and answering your literary conundrums and questions like a bookish Frasier Crane. Before we get started, this is your friendly reminder that From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, an indie bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. We are in the throes of our second holiday shopping season held during a pandemic, and remarkably, our spirits are high. I promise. As you support indies like ours this holiday season, please remember to shop early, to be open to our suggestions when your first book preference might already be back ordered, and to trust our deadlines. This year, December 1st, is the deadline to purchase something from us online and have it arrive by Christmas. We think this is early enough to work around the Postal Service's issues, but also late enough to allow you some shopping time. Thanks for supporting our small business and others like us when you shop this holiday season.
Annie Jones [00:02:22] If you're new here, Literary Therapy is a series of episodes devoted to addressing your literary concerns. If you have an issue you'd like me to address on air. I'd love for you to leave me a voicemail. Just visit www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact. Scroll down to the middle of the page until you see an orange button that says Start recording. Leave your name, where you're from and your literary conundrum, and you could be featured in an upcoming episode of From the Front Porch. Now, without further ado, our first literary issue.
Crystal [00:02:59] Hi Annie, this is Crystal from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I just joined a book club last month and we're taking turns rotating on who will bring books to vote on for what we should read next. My turn comes up in a couple of weeks, and I was wondering if you had any good suggestions for a new book club. All of us have seen our reading styles change over the past two years. In light of this pandemic life, we're living, but we all still agree that we like good character development and enjoyable plots. We're not looking for anything too terribly heavy because life is heavy, but we do want good stories that will provide great discussion. I'm looking forward to your suggestions. Thanks!
Annie Jones [00:03:40] Crystal. First of all, congrats on starting a book club. It sounds like your book club functions a little bit like mine, where whoever is hosting for the month picks three books and then we vote. We love this method. I love this method. It's the method I employed of my old book club back in Tallahassee because it takes a little bit of pressure off the host's shoulders. And if you guys all hate the book, no one is to be blamed but yourselves. So not one person can be blamed. It's a democracy, so I do think we probably host similar book clubs. I have some recommendations. I don't know a lot about your particular club, but what I look for in a good book club selection is something that is going to be relatively easy to read. Our book club meets every month and we have lots of people with kids in our book club. We have people working very stressful jobs. Our book club is made up of lots of busy people, and so we want our book club to be the kind of club that is accessible to all. And so a book that is relatively easy to get through and to finish in time for Book Club. I also want a book that is going to foster discussion kind of naturally. Sometimes this is a really light and fluffy book. Sometimes this is a heavy book, but it's always a book that is going to ignite discussion. So based on those criteria, my first suggestion is My Sister, The Serial Killer. This is by Oyinkan Braithwaite. It is short to the point plot driven, but there is so much to talk about. This book is very fun. The title might suggest otherwise, but I think it's a very fun, accessible book about two sisters, one of whom is, as the title suggests, a serial killer. The other of whom is a nurse. And she winds up helping her sister and trying to take care of her sister. So I actually think there's a lot of great stuff in here about sibling dynamics, about older sisters or older siblings vs. younger siblings that I think would really get a book club talking. Similarly, like, very fun. Very still, kind of, I guess, has its roots in maybe dark humor. Finley Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano. I think actually My Sister, The Serial Killer and Finley Donovan pair really well together, but that's beside the point. Finley Donovan is laugh out loud funny, a very fast paced read. And yet I think there's plenty to discuss about, hmmm what would it be like to be a hit woman? Oh, you know common Book Club questions. What would it be like to go one day from being a wife and a mom? And then the next minute accidentally, maybe on purpose, killing someone? And so I just think there's a lot to be said for these fun books, but also if you dig a little deeper, have real questions that you can start asking one another about your actual lives, whether it's about sibling dynamics or about, you know, who's most likely to become a hit woman? I think that's a great question. Next up, I and this is controversial, but this is why I'm picking it. I think Normal People or Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney would make great book club books. Here's why people either love Sally Rooney's books or they hate Sally Rooney's books. There really is no in-between. I've not met anyone who doesn't have an opinion, and what I like about Book Club is it's our chance to share, to discuss, to kindly debate. And I think Sally Rooney's books lend themselves to that. I fall in the category, as you probably already know of loving Sally Rooney's book. But I have dear friends and fellow readers who absolutely hate her books. And so some of my favorite book club discussions come from when I either hate the book and then my book club talks me through it and I at least am able to appreciate why they loved it. Or it comes from a book that some of us love. Some of us hate. And then we kind of get to talk about the ins and outs of why. So if you want to really foster discussion, I think Sally Rooney is just controversial enough that you'll get a good discussion out of it. Then I just have some books that I think again, lend themselves to good conversation. I'm thinking Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. I did select back in the day. Olive Kitteridge for my book club, and that was not a good choice for whatever reason. I don't know if I reread it now, if I might enjoy it more. But that was not great. Olive Again, however, I think would be a great book club book. Don't be afraid to pick sequels of things or third or fourth books of authors who then your book club can go back and explore their backlist as well. So I like Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. I like Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. That's one of my favorite book club discussions we've ever had is from that book and again covers a lot of territory. But short enough where you could easily finish it in a month. Then I really enjoyed recently Finding Freedom, not the book about Harry and Meghan. This is a memoir by Erin French. A book that made the book club rounds over and over again a few years ago was educated by Tara Westover, and I feel like book clubs are constantly looking for like the next educated. Weirdly, I think this food memoir this memoir about a restaurant in Maine actually has some really similar elements to educate it. I think the writing is great. I love books about food. If your book club eats together, I think you would be inspired by this book and many of your book club members might have already seen the show on Erin French's restaurant The Lost Kitchen. So I think there's a lot in this book that you could kind of unpack together. Recently, I finished the book So Many Beginnings. This is a young adult book by Bethany C. Morrow. I like young adult books for their accessibility, for their often fast-paced nature. These are plot driven books, and what I really loved about this book is if you have readers in your book club who loved Little Women who loved historical fiction when they were growing up, like the American Girl books, this will scratch that itch and will also blow your mind in terms of how Bethany Moreau has turned a little women on its head a little bit. It's a Little Women remax about a black family living during and post Civil War. I learned so much from this book, and I would love nothing more than to discuss it with somebody. And so I think it'd be a great book club selection. Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. I really like her in general for a book club book now. I haven't loved her last couple, but I remember in my Tallahassee book club reading what Alice forgot. So I think you have a lot of options with Liane Moriarty, but her newest one has a lot. I think that you could talk about in terms of aging protagonists. So much of the books we read, especially in my own book club, tend to be about protagonist our own age. And so I like that. The main character in Apples Never Fall is older. She has retired, she has adult children, and I just think you could really enjoy a conversation specifically about her, but also about the family dynamics in this book. There is a lot about at overachievement and sports parenting and things like that that I think a book club could really delve into. Last but not least, the backlist title The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel. This is a book I just read this year, but I remember when I posted about it, many people in the comments wrote, I read this book in my book club, and it was a great discussion like a two or three people commented in the comments about how great it was as a book club book. And I tend to agree with them because like Finley Donovan or like My Sister, the Serial Killer, I think there's a lot of Could I do this about The Stranger in the Woods? Like, Could I live in the woods? What would I do if someone I loved left and never came home or when they did come home? It was decades later? What would I do with that? Could I survive? Like, there's a lot of questions that come up just when reading it solo. And so I think reading it in a group would be really fun. Crystal, I hope you guys pick a book club book that is perfect for you and for your book club as you start meeting. I'd love to hear what you all pick. Next up, a question about Joanne, also about book clubs, but in a different vein.
Joanne [00:11:56] Hi Annie, it's Joanne from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. I have a book club dilemma. We're reading a book that is controversial, that has been in the news about being not authentic in terms of what the author had to contribute. I don't want to blow a book club by bringing this up, and it's not my job to tell people what to believe, but at the same time, I don't want people to think that this book was written based on the author's experiences? I'm not sure how to bring this up nicely. So any advice you have would be great. Thank you.
Annie Jones [00:12:37] Joanne. I think so many of us know what book you are probably referencing, but I don't want to make assumptions. And so instead, I'm going to give my general advice because I do think this is going to come up more and more. When we read books in our book groups and often our book groups probably are pretty homogenous. They probably look like whatever we look like and whatever our neighborhoods look like. And I think we're also learning a lot more about authors behind the scenes and authors' lives. And much like we're having to kind of reexamine the music and the TV shows and the movies we love because of things the actors or directors or creators have done. I think a lot of us are looking at literature under that same lens, like, what do we do with a book where we have issues with the author? Or What do we do with a book where we have issues with how the book was marketed? What do we do when we have issues of authenticity about a book? And so I don't think this is a new conundrum, and I don't think it's going to go away. So here's what I would suggest. One of the great parts about a book group to me is the safe space they provide. And so when you're in your book club, my hope for you is that it is a safe space to have difficult conversations. I'm with you. I don't want to blow up Book Club. And I frequently have these issues and these questions come up in the bookstore, right? And I don't want to blow the bookstore. So I think you have a real opportunity here to gently bring this up just like you brought it up to me. You know, what do we do with this author who's writing from a perspective that might not be her own? What do we do with this voice that might not be the voice of the people she's writing about? And I think that's a fair question to ask her book club. I also think book clubs are very open to further reading. Some of the very best book clubs I've had or hosted or been a part of the discussion eventually reaches the point where we're sharing other book titles. I think you go into your book club discussion and you may have already had it by the time you hear my advice. But I think a great solution is to go into your book club meeting and say, you know, read this book. I have thoughts about it. Maybe I appreciate some of it, some of it I have issues with, but it definitely led me to do some digging about some other books by authors of color or by own voices authors. And it led me to read more widely than I might have read otherwise. So come armed with other book recommendations for your fellow book club members. Hey, you all like this? Could I point you to some other books written by authors of color authors living on the border? Authors who are telling their stories in their own voices? Here are some recommendations. That is one thing we love to do at The Bookshelf, right? Because Joanne, you said it. We can't always make people read what we want them to read. We can't always deter them from reading. I don't really want to deter people from reading. But what if instead we offer them options? We offer them alternatives? Oh, you liked this? Great. Could I point you in the direction of some other books that are similar, but they're written by authors who are telling their own stories? I think that's a great way to go into your book club. So I think there is a way to again gently bring these issues up. I think it's going to come up in your book club anyway if your book club is like mine. There are probably a couple of members like you, Joanne, who maybe have googled or done their research and they've seen, Oh, this book was more controversial than I thought. You also might have book club members who didn't know it was controversial at all. One of my booksellers recently talked about, I think, the book that you're talking about. And she had no idea. She's a relatively new bookseller. That book came out a couple of years ago. She had no idea kind of the history of its publication or what issues kind of came up with it. And so you're going to have in a book club, despite perhaps being a homogenous group, you're going to have a wide range of opinions of worldviews and of expertize. And so you might have people like you who are familiar with the controversy and you might have readers who are totally unfamiliar and who loved this book. There's a way to meet in the middle to talk about these things. There's a way to, I think, kindly, kindly and gently. Those are two words that I just constantly come back to when I have conversations of any kind. I think a lot of us are wary of the word polite. But there's nothing wrong with being kind. I was being gentle and was being tender when we bring these things up and approaching them from a state of grace and from a place of grace. So I think it's your great that your book club is reading something a little controversial, as I mentioned to Crystal. I like books that are going to be heavy on the conversation. I know what you mean. I know that you don't want to blow up your book club. But I think these questions are valid. I think they're fair. I think they are worthy of discussing in groups with people we love because if we can't discuss them with the people that we love, then how are we going to discuss them anywhere else? Like, I think the best places to have these conversations are with the people we already know and are in relationship with. So, Joanne, good luck. I think you're on the right track. Talk about the author, talk about the controversy, but more importantly, go armed with other titles that your book club might read together, or that your book club members might go off and read on their own and then approach the book with a new lens. Right? That's what Reading is all about.
Ashleigh [00:18:24] Hi, Annie, this is Ashleigh from Columbus, Georgia. My literary conundrum is I'm a place reader. I recently just moved back to the south from living abroad in Italy for three years. While living in Italy, I found my reading life thrived when I was able to read about places, people, culture. And then after the book was finished, I was able to visit and kind of bring my literary life to actual life. I was wondering if you could recommend books focusing on the South in a variety of genres, and that could give me that literary inspiration to read and then bring that literary story to life. Thank you so much, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Annie Jones [00:19:06] Ashleigh, you're in luck because I live in the south. Born and raised in Tallahassee, which I didn't think was the south because I moved to Alabama and that felt like the South. Now I live in Georgia and I can acknowledge Tallahassee is a southern town and I have a lot of thoughts on southern literature. I will spare you those thoughts. But I do think it's a really wonderful genre filled with a lot of subgenres, right? There's Southern Gothic lit, their Southern Family Lit. There are Southern Memoirs and Southern Mysteries. And so I created just a list of kind of a smorgasbord of southern titles. I love this idea. I like that you've moved back home and you want to read literature that is going to make you appreciate where you live, because I imagine it is quite the adjustment to go from living overseas in Italy and then coming home and living in Georgia. I just imagine there might be some angst with that. And, you know, maybe some bittersweet, right? Good, good and hard things. So here are my recommendations. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray. I know I have readers who I have met who love this book. I have readers who had to read this in school and therefore they hated this book. I think it is worth reading if you live in Georgia, especially because it is very much about Georgia, about the nature and ecology of Georgia, which the longer I live in Thomasville, the more I realize how important the ecology of a place is, particularly in the south. I think the South loves its land, and there's a lot to unpack there about what that means. But I think Janisse does a really beautiful job of writing about nature really well. I like a lot of what she writes, and I really appreciated this work. That is ecology of a cracker childhood by Janisse Ray. I love the fiction works, Salvage the Bones and Sing Unburied Sing, both by Jesmyn Ward. I read them. In that order I read Salvaged the Bones first and then later when Sing Unburied Sing came out, I read that one. I don't think it matters which one you start with, but I do think she is a wonderful voice in southern literature to be listening to, and her works feel wholly original like I've never read anything like them every time I pick up a Jesmyn Ward book. I think this is new to me, like I've never read anything like this before. If you want easy to read southern fiction that also still has good kind of discussion points. I recommend Joshilyn Jackson a lot. Gods in Alabama, I think is one of my favorites. I've read all of hers and so it's kind of hard and I read them when they came out. So I read some of them years ago. So it's kind of hard to remember. But I remember really loving Gods in Alabama, and then my book club read together and discussed Almost Sisters, and I think it is especially southern feeling. And again, I know you're not Crystal or Joanne asking for book club recommendations, but I do think that's a fun one to read and then kind of unpack together. I loved the books, The Fortunate Ones by Ed Tarkington. This is dealing with more southern like prep school culture, which I find fascinating. Like give, give, give it to me. OK, you keep it all to me. I just am absolutely fascinated by it. So this is set in Tennessee and is. Really well-written and easy to read. I love the essays and short, not even short stories, they're really essays and journalistic nonfiction by Rick Bragg. You will hear his name come up, I think in most, if not all, conversations about southern literature. I'm here to tell you that I believe that is valid. Not that anybody needs my approval or validation, but I find Rick Bragg's writing to be the south I am most familiar with, whether it's because of growing up in Tallahassee or because of going to college in Alabama. I find Rick Bragg to be most like the people I know. And so he has an essay collection. It's really his works that have been featured, I think, in garden and gun. There is no there is no more Southern a magazine title than Garden and Gun or Southern Living magazine. So his collection is called Where I Come From, that is by Rick Bragg. But really, anything by him, I think would be worth your time. If you're looking for more southern, gothic and mystery. I like the new book Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. He's written others, but Olivia and I both read Razorblade Tears and absolutely adored it. More classic southern gothic. Of course, you cannot go wrong with Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man is Hard to Find. I also adored if we're going to go with classic literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. This was a book I had not read in childhood, but I read it in adulthood, and so I'm so glad I did, especially as a Floridian. I think it's very specific to Florida, but I think you'll appreciate it regardless of where you live. Then this one I have not read, but it is on my list and I actually think it would make a great audiobook listen. It's Black, White and the Grey. This is by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano. They own the restaurant The Grey in Savannah, and this is their food memoir about becoming friends and kind of becoming business partners and running this restaurant together. I love food memoirs. And so and look, I won't say nobody because I'm reading a book right now about food and I love Ruth Reichl, but there is something about southern food culture that I just think I don't want to say it can't be beat. But like it is so powerful, food plays such an important role in the South. And so I think that would one be really fun. If you want to stick with memoirs, I loved, it broke my heart in a million pieces, but I loved the memoir memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey. I mentioned Yaa Gyasi earlier. Interestingly, I think Homegoing is great, but if you're looking for southern literature, Transcendent Kingdom, I think, is where you should start. Because, Yaa Gyasi emigrated and lived in Huntsville, Alabama, and Huntsville plays an important role in Transcendent Kingdom. So the book doesn't stay, it's not entirely set in the South, but her upbringing and the character's upbringing, Gifty is her name. Gifty's upbringing is so entrenched in southern evangelical culture that I think it would be familiar to you. Then the essay collection kind of memoir adjacent I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott, she is laugh out loud funny. Something that I think sets southern writers apart is their sense of humor. I'm not saying other books aren't funny, but again, much like food plays an important role in the South. I think humor and storytelling play a very important role. And Mary Laura Philippot is a beautiful, wonderful, hilarious storyteller. And I think her as a collection will be really fun. So those are my best southern picks for you. I hope you find something that makes you feel even more at home than you already do.
Carrie [00:25:55] Hi, Annie, this is Carrie, one of your long time listeners over the past couple years, really happy to just connect with you this morning. We love hearing all about Thomasville and The Bookshelf, and it's really warmed our hearts all the way here in Denver, Colorado. I wanted to connect with you to get your thoughts and some help on my own reading conundrum I've had lately, which is we have recently just had a little boy in August of 2021. Before his arrival, I was pretty into reading a lot of contemporary fiction with a lot of food for thought behind it, or just some more heavy novels. Some things that come to mind are things like Push that you had mentioned earlier this year I read. The most recent one was The Paper Palace. Although I love books like that, I'm realizing I just don't have the bandwidth for it right now when I'm here postpartum. And so I started looking at romance and just women's fiction kind of lighter reads and then most recently finished Very Sincerely Yours and found that to be way too light. So I wanted your thoughts on something that would fall in the middle and you know, something that can feel good and light hearted. Probably more Suzy type picks that I know you always talk about on the show, just a little bit less on the side of contemporary fiction. That's heavier right now until I can kind of get back into the groove of that. All right, I really appreciate your thoughts. Thanks so much. Have a great one. Bye.
Annie Jones [00:27:25] Hi, Carrie. Congratulations on your new little boy. Look, we get this question a lot at The Bookshelf. Our customer base often is of that kind of childbearing age where they're having kids and they love reading and they love their reading life. But now they're reading life has been turned upside down. Here's the good news. The rest of us, if even if we haven't born a child in the last year, we have endured a pandemic and the ways that has affected our reading life feel very similar. So I do have some recommendations for you. I know what you mean about some literature feeling too light, and sometimes I am very much in the mood for that. In December, pretty much all I will read is a rom com, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I also know what you mean about wanting something with it a little more with a little more heft. And so I do have some books that I think are very accessible, very fast paced, contemporary lit. But maybe they're dealing with a little more dysfunction or a little more. I don't know a little more issues underneath, a little more meat, a little more meat meat on those bones. So here are here are contemporary literary fiction books with meat on their bones. I love Katherine Heiny for this. I know I recommend her all the time, but that is because I really do find her work to be compulsively readable, page turner, which I think could be what you need right now, Carrie, to just keep your reading rhythm going. And then I also just can't stop thinking about the people in her books. I find them to be very memorable and just the kind of people I would want to be friends with, or at least be neighbors with so Early Morning Riser is her most recent that came out this year. But I also love her backless title Standard Deviation, which I don't know how well that was reviewed when it came out. I'd have to look, it's been a few years, but I loved that book. So if you've already heard me talk about Early Morning Riser and you weren't quite sold or you've already read it, try her back list as well, that is Standard Deviation. I put, you know, remember, remember when everybody read Where'd You Go Bernadette? Remember when everyone read that book? Look, we all loved that book, but we've already read it. So so I really like and I think it is an unsung hero. I really love the book Misfortune of Marion Palm by Emily Culliton. This is a book that came out a few years ago is very much in the same vein of Where'd You Go Bernadette. But I think equally enjoyable and not as often talked about. So that's Misfortune of Marion Palm. One thing that kind of struck me, I often recommend to new moms, books that are either short story collections or essays or something like that. A category that I think could work for a new mom because of the rhythm of them are epistolary fiction or epistolary novels. And one of my very favorite and it's a backless title. It's been out for a few years now, and one of my very favorites is Frances and Bernard. Now this book does to me deal with... There's a lot of meat. There's a lot of meat on those when it deals with a little more heft and weighty ness that there's some weight to this book. But because of its epistolary nature, I have a feeling you could read it fairly quickly and also read it in snippets if you needed to. It is a backlist title. I keep on the Bookshelf's shelves despite the fact that it is occasionally hard to stock because it's it's a few years old, but I really do try to keep it stocked regularly because it's one of my favorites I may even revisit it because I feel like I've talked about it a lot recently, and it's been a long time since I read it. But I do think the recommendation holds up. I've had other customers read recently and report back that they loved it. So Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer. If you like Katherine Heiny, the other author I kind of put in her same category is Amy Poeppel, one of my favorite books I read through the pandemic. And I think the book that will stick out to me as like the pandemic read was Musical Chairs by Amy Poeppel. She also wrote Limelight, which is a book I very much enjoyed because of its Broadway attachments, as well as its Justin Bieber like protagonist. It's very fun. What more do you want, Broadway and Bieber? And then musical chairs is just one of those. I'm using air quotes, dysfunctional family books, but where you like everybody in the family and where you really want what's best for all of them? Speaking of dysfunctional family lit, I started the episode with a quote from the book Strangers and Cousins. I think that quote shows you that there is some heft to this one, but it is set over a wedding weekend, so it all takes place in a brief span of time, which I think is fun to read and I think would hold your attention easily. And the people are just so, so lovely. And so if you like Amy Poeppel, if you like her characters, I think you'd like Strangers and Cousins. I adored Kitchens of the Great Midwest. Part of what I loved about it was, again, it's likable characters, but also it's told in connected short story format. And so again, you can pick this up, you can put it down. But I think you won't want to put it down too much. I loved this book so very much. That's by J. Ryan Stradal. His more recent one is Logger Queen of Minnesota, which I also thoroughly enjoyed. I think you would really like both of them based on what I know about your reading tastes. I can't help but mention Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, which is a book I picked up and didn't like it initially, then picked it up again and absolutely devoured it and loved it. It is very light, but at the same time, dealing with interesting family dynamics with interesting cultural issues that I think you will think are great. Plus, then you can reward yourself by watching the movie adaptation. I'm very sad that we did not get a follow up to Crazy Rich Asians in movie format, but the first one is great. And then last but not least, I read earlier this year and really liked it, and I actually wish I had read it now is This Close to Okay. That's by Leesa Cross-Smith. I read it when it, I think, first came out and loved it. Think it came out in February, but it's set in October. So if you're listening to this now in November, I think it'd be a great time to read it. I like Lisa Chris Smith. I'd really like to read her back list. Somebody once recommended to me, I think Whiskey and Ribbons, which is one of her other titles, but I'd like to do. I'd like to do more Leesa Cross-Smith because her settings are so cozy. Like again, her characters are dealing with some stuff in this book, but the cozy factor is very high, which is great for Fall. Carrie, those are my recommendations. I hope they're a little bit outside where you were finding yourself, and I hope they're also a little bit outside maybe what I even typically recommend, which is often, like I said, The Moth's short story collections or essays or whatever I hope these might might fill the void you've been filling. And congrats again on your little boy.
Wendy [00:34:18] Hi Annie, this is Wendy from Michigan. I was calling because I wanted to know your advice on how to create a tbere for a month. I'm definitely a mood reader and I've been struggling because every month I want to read certain books and it seems like I always get caught up by the new titles coming in. And I'm never really quite getting to other titles. I feel like I really want to read, but just don't make an effort enough for. I know people love doing the monthly TV hours. And I was just wondering what your advice was when it comes to trying to stick with that and not being so much of a mood reader, but still being able to enjoy what is I'm reading in the moment and not thinking about all the other books. I also want to get to at any given time. Thanks and I just also wanted to say that I do enjoy your podcast a lot and I hope you have a great day.
Annie Jones [00:35:14] Wendy, this is a great question, and I feel like ties into a question I might have addressed in a previous episode of Literary Therapy, where we were talking about monthly reading plans. If it makes you feel any better, Wendy, I am very much like you. I am a mood reader. Now there are times of the month when I cannot be a mood reader, when I have to read for shelf subscription, for example. So this past week, the first week in November, I was reading for January shelf subscriptions. And so my life then was not really mood reading. It was very much dictated by my work. So my reading life kind of ebbs and flows, my preferences, mood reading. But because of the nature of my work, I sometimes have to plan my reading, so I totally think it's OK and normal. If you're reading, life holds all of the above. Like, I don't think you just have to be a mood reader. I don't think you just have to do planned monthly reading. I think you can do both of those things or none of those things or one of those things, like none of it, is wrong. I think sometimes just like, just like Instagram, there's a lot of comparison. I think in bookstore gram, it's the same way. Right? And so this is just me telling you, you can read however you want to read. But if you would like to do more planned monthly reading, I have a couple of thoughts on that. For a previous listener, I recommended doing a different genre every week. So and if you look at your even maybe looking at your calendar and knowing, OK, I am super busy the last week of every month, maybe I'm an accountant. I don't know. Maybe I'm an accountant, and the last week of the month is real busy for me or something like that. And so maybe on your busy weeks, you read a rom com on your slow weeks where it looks like your family doesn't have too much going on. You do a literary fiction, maybe on weeks, or it looks like you're going to be in the car a lot, either doing drop off and pickup or traveling or something like that. You pick an audiobook. So I think basing your reading life on your regular life is kind of important because our regular lives are important and they do affect our moods and they affect what we have time for and they affect whether we have the energy for. So looking at your regular calendar, your regular work life family calendar and then basing your reading life on the circumstances of your actual life, I think that could be helpful. I think rotating by genre is one way to do it and I think sounds really fun. I don't think that is for me, but I love that idea because I think for books a month is really admirable. And also for many of us, not all of us, but for many of us, it's pretty accessible. And so I like the idea of rotating by genre. I'm also wondering, though, if there is an option here where maybe you look at your reading life more seasonally. And so maybe you know, OK? And maybe this is maybe this is my own. Is this what therapists do? They bring their own stuff into therapy? Is that professional? Because I'm talking about my own life and. A monthly reading schedule sounds really fun, but not necessarily doable for me. But if I look at my life seasonally, I think there is a time and a place in a season for different types of literature. And so is it spooky books during October? Cozy books during November. ROM coms during December? Or is it just a fast paced, propulsive fiction for the last quarter of the year? Because that's the reality. I am probably not going to read a journalistic work of nonfiction in October, November, December, but might do that in January when my husband works more and I'm working a little bit less. And so maybe January, February is more for my heavier nonfiction or my literary fiction or my big tomes I've been putting off. I think about Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, which I really wanted to read before the end of the year. And now it's looking like, why can't they be January? Why can't I hunker down for January, February and then March, April? Maybe those are my springtime fun, fluffy books. Maybe summer is all about thrillers and rom coms or, you know, books you take to the beach and you want to share with your family. So I'm just wondering if there's a way where you look at it more seasonally instead of monthly. I do like a monthly rotation like where each week you're reading something different, where you incorporate an audiobook or where you know that you're going to be slow. And so you read something that's that's more in-depth. Like, I totally think looking at your regular life and knowing that it has an impact on your reading life and basing your reading life accordingly is smart. But if you are like me and you sound like you are Wendy where you prefer mood reading, why not do kind of a seasonal model where then there's more room for serendipity built in? Because I could see how if you're doing monthly reading goals or if you're trying to tell yourself, I'm going to read a I'm going to read a fantasy the first week of the month, I'm going to read literary fiction. The second week an audiobook, the third week in a mystery thriller, the fourth week. That's great. What happens when you get behind? Like, I could see how that could become stressful, and I am all about not necessarily avoiding stress, but trying to overcome it. And so I'm wondering if a seasonal model might work better for you based on your love of mood reading, because I don't think there's anything wrong with mood reading. And if you're in the mood for a cozy mystery and it's literary fiction week, well, I think you're going to wind up not reading at all because you're going to feel like you should be reading literary fiction, but you want to be reading a cozy mystery. So instead, you're just going to throw your hands up and watch TV show. So anyway, does that help? Wendy, I wish you were here. I'd love to talk to you in person because, because I think I think I see what you mean, but I also just want you to know it's OK to be a mood reader. Those are my tips. I'm not sure if that was helpful, but I gave it my best shot.
Marissa [00:41:28] So my conundrum is, do you devour a series as quickly as you can? Or do you savor this series so that it lasts a while?
Annie Jones [00:41:42] Marissa, you gave a short and sweet voicemail, and I would love to answer it in a short and sweet way. I'd love to just be able to tell you devour or savor like one or the other. But naturally, as I am wont to do, I say both. Well, I say both, partly because I'm not a huge series reader. I think mostly in adulthood, that is true. I find it to be difficult to read series given my job at The Bookshelf. As a child, I would have said Devour, that is the whole point of a series that they're there for you to consume. And so you should consume them. And so when I was a kid, I devoured a series. The exception of that was Harry Potter, because Harry and I are approximately the same age give or take. And so I read a Harry Potter book every summer for most of my childhood because they came out every summer. Talk about savoring a series. I am so grateful for that because I would have devoured it otherwise, for sure. And getting to savor those books, I look back as a true gift of my childhood. But Harry and I grew up together and that I was able to savor those books and read one a year, which I cannot fathom doing. I do not have the self-control. And so I am so grateful I got to savor this. I think my gut, I'm definitely both, but I think my gut is devour because of forgetting what I read so and so nowadays, much like in my childhood, I devoured them. I think in adulthood I would be prone to devour them because I'd be afraid I wouldn't pick them back up. I know that people love Outlander and I have not read Outlander. I've not read the Louise Penny books, all because I just don't know that I can devour them like I'd want to devour them. I'd probably let them utterly consume my reading life, and I I can't. I can't do it. But I think my answer is firmly, soundly both devour and savor. Kids, I think, should devour series. Adults should devour them if they have the time, because what an awesome fun reading experience and what a gift. And then savor them when you have to. So Louise Penny is still writing her series, so savor this. I don't think there's any rush to read those, right? Because she's still writing them. I think about I've mentioned it once already, but it's because I'm so excited because it was such a finer book like, gosh, I just don't read a lot of fun books I read. I read a lot of heavy, thoughtful books, which I'm grateful for, but I love some books. I think about Finley Donovan, right? And I think about her new book Coming Out in February. I never get excited for a sequel. Never. Not a sequel person. But I am really looking forward to Finley Donovan, and I'm going to read that the moment it comes out. But to me that savoring a series because I didn't read books one and two back to back, I read Finley Donovan and now read the sequel. And so I think savor it when you have to devour it, when you don't devour it, when they're already out already, because why not? Why not get lost in a world? We need it. We need to get lost in a world. Is that helpful? These last two questions. I'm not sure if I was able to help, but those are my thoughts and opinions and you asked for them and therefore I gave them.
Annie Jones [00:45:18] Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of Literary Therapy. Again, if you have a literary issue or conundrum that you'd like me to address on air, you can go to www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact and send me a voicemail. You might be featured on an upcoming episode of From the Front Porch.
Annie Jones [00:45:41] [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.
This week, what I'm reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. Don't forget, we are approaching Sunday, November 21st, which is downtown Thomasville Holiday Open House. The stores downtown and restaurants downtown will be open. There will be food trucks giveaways. Stores will be open, mostly from one to five p.m. We are never open on Sundays, and so this is a real treat. It is one of the most festive days in downtown Thomasville. I really do feel like it will get you in the Christmas spirit if you're having trouble mentally getting there, which I totally understand, that is valid. I also wanted to share some of my favorite stores in downtown Thomasville because I don't get to talk about them very often because I'm often shop keeping instead of shopping. But I absolutely love the yarn shop Fuzzy Coat, which is owned by my friend Cadence. Look, even if you are not a knitter, which I would not call myself a knitter, but Cadence, will get mad at me if I said that. So I'm a knitter. I have knit things. I am knitting and I am knitting only because Cadence and her team taught me how and they taught me accessible projects that I could complete fairly quickly, which is my M.O. That being said, even if you are not a knitter, I think Fuzzy Coat is a must see shop in downtown Thomasville because of what Cadence has done to the beautiful building where she has put her business. She has worked so hard to create a cozy, warm atmosphere. You will walk in there and not want to leave. It is so, so warm and inviting. And even if you're not a knitter, I think you'll find something there that you can take home. I have long loved the store Firefly, which is right across from The Bookshelf. I love. I can see her beautiful yellow doors from my front door. And I loved Firefly long before I owned a business in Thomasville, when Jordan and I would come up for date nights. We would go to The Bookshelf, of course, and I would try to pop my head into Firefly because I think Nan, the curator of Firefly, has absolutely impeccable tastes. Her store is filled with beautiful, beautiful things that you will look at and either want for yourself or you will find ready for gifting to somebody else. South Life Supply is two doors down from The Bookshelf. I think it's a must stop in Thomasville because again, of what they have done to that gorgeous historic building, but also because they are makers in the truest sense of the word. They make their products on site, they make beautiful leather goods. Heather and Kelley are the curators and the owners and the creators of that shop and of the products there. And I think it is well worth your time. You can actually see them making some things, like when you walk in the door, you can see their team building and creating things, and I think that's pretty special. I also love the store Relish, which again, kind of across the street diagonal from The Bookshelf. I can see Cameron's business from my place of business, and it is a really fun kitchen store. Again, not a huge kitchen person, not a great cook, but I really love that store. I always go there and I always find a Christmas present there, like without fail for my dad or for my mother in law, somebody is getting a gift from Relish, so be sure to pop your head in these stores when you visit downtown Thomasville. To find out more about how you can visit Thomasville and come to our holiday open house on November 21st, go to Thomasvillega.com!
This week I'm reading, actually listening to Taste by Stanley Tucci, a fantastic audiobook if you're looking for one. Thank you again to our sponsor. Visit Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are just passing through. I really do believe you would enjoy a visit to beautiful Thomasville, Georgia.
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.