Episode 352 || December Reading Recap
In today’s episode of From the Front Porch, Annie is talking about the books she read in December.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
Drat! We’re Rats by Jahnna N. Malcolm
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
The Ballerinas by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
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 Admissions by Kendra James.
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episode transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:03] [Squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out].
[00:00:24] [as music plays out] "The last complete sentence she ever utters is, it's a good thing there's birds."
[00:00:30] - Julie Otsuka, The Swimmers.
[00:00:39] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I'm recapping the books I read in December. How is everyone? We are creeping perilously close to Christmas, to the smack-dab middle of the holiday season, and I hope you're hanging in there. My December reads certainly reflect the state of my brain. Over the last few weeks, I have had trouble focusing on the written word. I don't want to say I've had trouble focusing because somehow I've been able to watch the Beatles documentary, two seasons of the show Catastrophe. Like, I'm obviously not having that much trouble focusing, but I am having trouble focusing on the written word, and that is certainly going to reflect in my reading list this month.
[00:01:32] I'm also recording just a little bit earlier in the month than normal, and so I don't know if this will actually reflect all of my December reading, although, if it did, I'd be okay with it. I have really decided if I don't finish any other books this month/this year, it will be okay. I would love to finish Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. But otherwise, I feel like I've had a really good reading year. I'm pleased with the books I managed to finish in December, and so it'd be okay if this was it. So I would love to know how your December reading went. Make sure you're following The Bookshelf on Instagram @bookshelftville. So you can leave your notes about what you read in December, what you're reading life looked like. I think it's just always a good idea to reflect back on what our lives look like in a given season.
[00:02:21] And this season is our busiest at The Bookshelf and I think it's one of the busiest seasons in our personal lives, and so my reading certainly was affected. Nevertheless, I did read some really good books this month and I wanted to talk about them. So the first is These Precious Days by Ann Patchett. Ann Patchett is beloved in the indie bookstore world, partly because she owns the independent bookstore Parnassus in Nashville, Tennessee, but also because she is a truly talented, prolific writer. I happen to prefer Ann Patchett's nonfiction. Now, I loved Commonwealth, loved the Dutch House, so I do like Ann Patchett's fiction. In some cases, they have been in my top 10 or final two or three books of the year, so I do love Ann Patchett's fiction.
[00:03:12] But I first fell in love with Ann Patchett's nonfiction. I was not an early Ann Patchett adopter. I still have not read Bel Canto or State of Wonder. I met her fiction later. When I first encountered Ann Patchett, was in her essay collection, This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, and I absolutely just loved her way of writing. And look, I am drawn to feature writing. That is the term I learned in journalism classes. It is the term for, you know, if not personal, certainly human stories, human portrayals. And so that is partly, I think, why am drawn to Ann Patchett, she writes like a feature writer to me. And so her nonfiction is very easy to read and very well captured. And so I've always loved her nonfiction.
[00:04:10] This is her latest collection of essays. It's called These Precious Days. You might recognize that title from the title essay which was featured in Harper's Magazine. I think I want to say peak pandemic, but it's honestly hard to know what was the peak anymore. But late 2020, I want to say that that article at least made the rounds on my corners of the internet or the corners of the internet where I spend my time, and I was blown away by it. It's a story about Suki, who is the assistant to Tom Hanks and the unlikely friendship she and Ann Patchett formed. And so that essay you can, I think, still find in Harper's Magazine. So you could Google that and see if this essay collection would be for you. My thought is, if you appreciate and enjoy that title essay, you will undoubtedly enjoy the rest of Ann Patchett's collection.
[00:05:05] She writes about things like Kate DiCamillo, and graduate school, and owning a bookstore, and not having children. I knew I liked this book because I took it with me wherever I went this month and I picked it up in all kinds of places. Whether it was while waiting in line for something or in the bathtub or whatever, I read it everywhere. I love that Jordan notices when a book makes me audibly react. As the person who lives with me, Jordan notices when I gasp or when I get a little tearful or when I laugh out loud, and I think I did probably all of the above while reading Ann Patchett's collection. I felt really seen in some parts of her book, really understood, and then I also just felt like my eyes were opened to some things they hadn't been opened to before. And, I don't know, I just absolutely love her writing.
[00:06:06] If you are like me and you've had trouble focusing on books this season, I do think an essay collection is a lovely solution. I know we talk a lot about young adult books, helping you find your reading rhythm or light and fun rom-coms. There is a place for that. This month, those did not really work for me; and instead, I think an essay collection this time of year, when everything feels a little bit fractured and I'm running from Point A to point B all the time, it was nice to just cozy up with a couple of essays each evening. And even though I devoured this book, I also took my time with it and read it over a few days because that's what my brain could handle. So if you're reading pace has changed this season or if your tasts have changed this season, I would recommend trying a nonfiction essay collection. And I really love this one.
[00:06:59] In fact, there may still be a world in which -- the year is not over yet. As of this recording, the year is not yet over, and there may be a world in which this ekes into my top 10 rather than the original top 10 I came up with a couple of weeks ago. So this is Ann Patchett's, These Precious Days. Next up, we finished our nostalgic young adult book club called I Want It That Way. We finished that book club this month and the last book we read was called Drat! We’re Rats, and that is by Jahnna N. Malcolm. What I love about that is it's actually two people. It's a husband and wife team Jana and Malcolm, and they turned it into a pen name. I had never read anything by them before. This is part of the series, the Bad News Ballet. And think of it as like Babysitter's Club gone bad. [laughs] That's what it feels.
[00:07:50] This is a middle grade novel. These young girls are like the least responsible. They're very fun and charming, but they're the least responsible young girls you could read about. And so it wound up being a very fun read. With a couple of these books we read at the end of the year -- and really throughout the year, it was interesting to note things that we would now consider maybe problematic or that we took issue with that maybe we didn't take issue with when we first encountered these characters or these stories in the 80s or the 90s. Drat! We’re Rats is lovely, and charming, and very funny, and cute about a group of bad ballerinas who perform in The Nutcracker. So it was very seasonally appropriate.
[00:08:36] What was sad to me about this book and about the book we read in November Anastasia's Chosen Career, is that both of these books really did so much body shaming and negative body talk. And it's interesting to me that those things -- you know, when we read at the Babysitter's Club together, some of our book club members had original copies at the Babysitters Club. And so changes have been made to those books to make them more modern -- and not entirely. Like the books have not changed, but maybe little things here or there specifically relating to like technology or a pop culture reference or something like that. And what I find interesting is that we've changed or adjusted books to reflect that, but there's no change in these books.
[00:09:25] The authors are still alive. I actually do understand, perhaps not changing the book itself, but it's interesting to me that there's no author's note, no editor's note, no publisher's note just saying, "Hey, this is a really fun, classic work of kids' literature. We love that it's still in publication. We love that readers love these people, these characters. But, you know, there is some language here that we hope, you know, no longer is being used." And maybe that's naive. Maybe it really is being used. But the body shaming in the last two books we read, it put a damper on things. And I have had such a wonderful time reading these young adult books. So if you did not join us, this was The Bookshelf Book Club and Lucy, Olivia and I every month gathered virtually with a group of readers who had bought all of these books in advance.
[00:10:15] Like we sold the books last January in a bundle. If you bought the bundle, you got to join us for the year and we read books by Joan Bauer, by Lois Lowry, Walter Dean Myers, all of these books that were written -- actually, I think we wound up hitting almost every decade since the 50s. So All of a Kind Family, I think, was maybe our 50s representation. We read books from the 60s and 70s and the 80s and 90s and then early 2000s, like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. And so for many of us, it was a revisiting of those works. And then sometimes it was a new test book. Like I had never read Drat! We’re Rats! And it was so fun to discuss these books, to see the similarities, to see how children's lit has changed through the decades, to see the themes, the similar themes through books written in the 80s or written in the 50s or whatever. So I loved our conversations. I loved reading these books.
[00:11:10] There were some cases, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, where I did not enjoy my reread of those books. And in fact, occasionally it was a reminder why I don't typically reread. And then other times it was lovely to reread those books, and still other times it was fun to get to be introduced to a new book. So I really did love this book club. Drat! We’re Rats is very fun, and I think Bad News Ballet books could be a fun thing to check out for your kids if they're into Junie B. Jones, or Ramona Quimby or anything like that. Or if they like the Babysitter's Club, maybe it would be fun to introduce them to this very different group of girls. But I do think books like this that were written a few decades ago or a couple of decades ago should just be examined and maybe talked about. I mean, maybe that's really the key, right?
[00:12:04] Like, I wouldn't want to hand a kid this book and not talk to them about some of what they're reading. And I think that's what's probably very hard. I think back to my parents and I could read just whatever because they couldn't -- this isn't to brag on childhood or any, but they couldn't keep up with me. And so I feel for parents because you can't always keep your finger on the pulse of what your kids are reading. But some of these books are so fun, and I would love to and may even introduce my kids to them -- my future kids to them. But there are some things in terms of language or storytelling that I wish weren't there. And I think that's okay. And I think that's okay to say while also saying Drat! We’re Rats is really funny and cute. And I think for young middle grade readers, I'm thinking about maybe eight to 10 year olds, I think this would be a fun series. So that is called Drat! We’re Rats by Jahnna N. Malcolm.
[00:13:01] Then I cannot believe I was able to do this, I really did not know what I would be able to read in December. So I had read this essay collection. I had read a very short little middle grade novel, and then I picked up an ARC by Julie Otsuka called The Swimmers. As of this recording, The Swimmers is scheduled for publication on February 22nd, and I know that's hard. I know it's hard when I read books well in advance. But think of it this way, I read books well in advance so that I can give you the reader plenty of time to preorder, to request it from your library, to download it to your e-reader, whatever. I'm doing it for you. It's all for you, the customer, and reader, and listener.
[00:13:50] The Swimmers is not out until February 22nd. I really did pick it up for two reasons. The first is that it's very short. The second is, I believe, I'm pretty sure this is right -- I had been scrolling through Instagram and I follow author and indie bookstore owner, Emma Straub, on Instagram, and she had posted, I think, in her stories that this book saved her from a reading slump. And so when I saw it in the in the ARC pile at The Bookshelf, I snagged it and brought it home and read it in I think one sitting, now I'm wondering if I read it in two. But I read it very quickly and one of those devouring things. Like not only is it short, it's just, oh my gosh, it's so well-crafted that you can't put it down and it's unusual.
[00:14:38] So it is -- and stick with me here, this book is about a group of recreational swimmers. And the public pool or the pool where they have a membership, where they are swimming gets a crack in it. And you're reading as this group of swimmers, some named some unnamed react to this crack in the pool. And when the pool is ultimately closed, you learn what some of these swimmers do with this. So the first half of the book is a really quite literary, in the same vein, I would say as a Jenny Offill. If you like Jennie Offill, if you like Dept. of Speculation, if you like Weather, so I loved it. Like I absolutely loved the first part of the book. I kept saying, I think even out loud to myself at one point I said, "Why do I like this?".
[00:15:35] Because it's almost claustrophobic while you're reading it, because it's just about these swimmers at this pool and their collective and individual response to what happens at the pool, why they swim, why they're drawn to swimming, and then what happens when catastrophe strikes. I just didn't understand why I was so invested, but I was so invested, and I think that's a testament to Julie Otsuka's writing. So then the second half of the book -- and this is no spoilers, but I actually think it might help you if you're reading it, because if you're a little bit like, why would I read about recreational swimmers and a crack in a pool? The second half really opens your eyes to why you would read this thing.
[00:16:17] So one of the swimmers is a woman named Alice who is suffering from dementia, and the second half of the book really becomes Alice and her daughter's story. I loved this book so very much. Five star read for me. I cannot believe -- I grabbed it, wasn't honestly sure what I was going to think of it, and I can't believe I was able to read a literary fiction in December. I'll be honest with you, literary fiction is typically my favorite genre. And if you're wondering, Annie what is literary fiction, that is a good question. And it's a term I had not heard prior to entering the book world through bookselling. So if you have not heard that term, don't feel bad about it. I think it's an insular term.
[00:17:01] But frequently, in book world, there are novels referred to as literary fiction, and then there is fiction referred to as commercial fiction. Commercial fiction is often like mystery thrillers, books that maybe like rom-coms or books that will be consumed. They often hit the New York Times bestseller lists like books that appeal to the widest, most common denominator. Does that make sense? I like commercial fiction. There are some commercial fiction books that I absolutely love. I am most drawn to literary fiction. Literary fiction to me frequently comes up in awards conversations or in discussions about the Booker or the National Book Award or whatever. If you follow my friend Hunter @shelfbyshelf on Instagram, to me, Hunter is the epitomy of a literary fiction reader.
[00:17:58] I find myself reading both most often. I feel like partly because of my job and partly because I just really like some commercial fiction. I wind up reading both. I love -- and what often makes my top ten is literary fiction. So I hope that maybe clarifies it a little bit for you. There are terms I honestly don't know why we use them, except if for me it helps to know does a reader prefer commercial fiction or do they prefer literary fiction and why. Why do they prefer one or the other? I would hesitate to go much further than that. Sometimes literary fiction feels more character driven to me, but that is not always the case. There is sometimes really good plot driven literary fiction, and there is sometimes really good character driven commercial fiction.
[00:18:47] So anyway, I hope that helps a little bit. But literary fiction is typically a genre I really love. But during the pandemic, I have sometimes found literary fiction to be harder than usual for me to get lost in. And I think that has a lot to do with what's happening inside my brain. I think that has a lot to do with attention span. So it was a real delight to encounter a literary fiction work that I absolutely fell in love with and devoured in the middle of a season where that was a complete surprise and completely unexpected. It's not something I would have thought I would have been able to handle right now. I loved it. It comes out February 22nd. If you are a Jenny Offill fan or a literary fiction fan, I encourage you to try it. It is called The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. One other thing to note, I mentioned that it's quite short.
[00:19:35] I wouldn't quite call it a novella, but it is very short and I cannot believe how much she made me care. I can't believe how much she made me care about these people in such a short span of pages. I think it's absolutely brilliant. For a departure, I next picked up In A New York Minute by Kate Spencer. I'm so sorry again, but this comes out on March 17th, 2022. I would have picked this one up no matter because it very clearly is a rom com. It looked cute. It has a cute cover, so I picked up the ARC, but then was encouraged to read it by seeing former Bookshelf bookseller, Kate, now manager at Bookmarks in North Carolina. Kate had posted it to her Instagram Stories that she loved this one.
[00:20:17] And so I thought, okay maybe I'll give it a try, because I'll be honest, I felt a little burned by an earlier holiday romcom I had read, I think, in November. And so I was feeling a little disinterested in romantic comedies as of late, which is interesting because I really thought I would read many of those throughout the holiday season. And instead, I read a couple and then was like, tapped up, I'm out. So anyway, I picked up In A New York Minute because the cover was really cute and because of Kate's recommendation, and I'm so glad I did. This is exactly the romantic comedy I really like. I felt like it was very smart. Clever. It's about a young woman named Franny who loses her job. That happens within the first couple of pages.
[00:21:04] She loses her job and she gets on the subway in New York City and her dress gets caught in the subway door and rips. It's like this horrific, you know, horribly awkward, embarrassing moment. And then, of course, a man offers her his suit jacket. The man's name is Hayes. He offers her his suit jacket to cover up, and then they go their separate ways in the city of New York. But , ofcourse, we know that then they run into each other time and time again and ultimately have this romance. Here are some things I loved. This felt like a in my mind traditional romantic comedy because of the New York setting. The author, Kate Spencer, spent time in New York and lived in New York, and I think you can tell. I really felt like the setting was authentic, and I felt like I was reading a romcom I love.
[00:21:54] My favorite romcoms are set in New York, and I really love the setting of this book. The meet cue was fun. The side characters were funny. This is another important thing. I've talked about this before. I want a romcom to have really well-constructed, interesting, thoughtful, friend side characters. Like I need the friends to be interesting. And Franny's friends are really lovely. And I think you, the reader, will fall in love with them. Franny's relationship with her friends is almost as important to the book as Franny's romance with Hayes, and I felt like that was really special. This is a typical rom-com, like, there's no spoilers nor surprises here. I'm not going to go into any more detail about the plot, but if you like clever Nora Ephron style romantic comedies, I think this will scratch that itch a little bit better than some of the more hallmark inspired romcoms.
[00:22:49] And look, no shade to anyone, you pick the brand of romantic comedy or romantic drama that works for you. Rom-drams don't work for me. Hallmark movies don't work for me. My sweet spot is truly that.
[00:23:03] 90s era of Nora Ephron romantic comedies, and I think Kate Spencer's In a New York Minute really does fit that bill. It comes out March 17th, and I think you might really like it. The next book I picked up was completely different. It's called Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. This one is out on January 25th. So you have a little shorter time to wait. You don't have to wait until March for this book. This is another five star read for me and I think again would fall in the category -- you know what, I was going to say literary fiction, but I actually think this is a great example of a book that I think is both literary and has commercial appeal.
[00:23:47] So if you're a reader who likes commercial fiction, I think this one could be for you. And if you're a reader drawn to literary fiction, I think it could be for you. So Danya Kukafka, you might have read before she wrote a book called Girl in Snow, which I am 77 percent sure I've read. I don't know if I have that book confused with a book called History of Wolves because they had similar covers. I honestly don't know. I know I read one or both of those books, so you might be familiar with Danya Kukafka's work because she wrote the book Girl in Snow. I want to say I had read that book because when this ARC came in, I immediately snagged it for myself, even though at first glance it is probably more of an Olivia book.
[00:24:30] And what I mean by that is if you are a Bookshelf shelf subscriber, I typically send out literary fiction or nonfiction often with female protagonists; whereas, Olivia typically sends out cozy mysteries or dark thrillers, occasionally with a fantasy twist. So this book came in called Notes on an Execution definitely could fall under the Olivia category, but I snagged it and brought it home, in part because I recognized the author's name and got very excited, which is why I think I did read Girl in Snow, but who knows? So anyway, this book comes out January 25th and I was immediately hooked from the author's note. So I grabbed this one off the top of my ARC pile because -- I don't know. It comes out in January, and so I thought I better try to read some more January books.
[00:25:20] I really am not sure what my thought process was. But I picked this one up and the author's note in the very front -- I'm assuming it will be the same in the final published book. This was in the Advanced Reader copy. The author's note was basically all about how Americans are obsessed with serial killers, and Danya Kukafka talks about that. And then she talks about we're obsessed with serial killers, but we never or rarely think about the victims, and we rarely think about the victims beyond the crime itself. So if a young woman is murdered, we think about that murder, we think about that killer, but we don't think about who that young woman could have become or who she was. And this book was Kukafka's way of correcting that, and I think she does an absolutely mesmerizing job.
[00:26:17] So the book is told from a variety of perspectives. Yet I was never confused or blindsided or, you know, wondering who's talking now? I don't know. It was very clear how the pacing and characters of the book were drawn and set up. The book opens from the narration of a murderer on death row who's about to be executed. And so this is part of the reason why I wound up reading this book in yes, one, for our sitting. I'm laughing because I realize how ridiculous this sounds. But I didn't have to go to work until one p.m. one day, and so I just sat at home and read this book. So, basically, the book opens from the viewpoint of this person on death row, and you see that we're at the 12-hour mark. And as the book progresses, you get more chapters from this character's perspective and each time the hours are dwindling.
[00:27:16] So the pacing of the book is such that you began 12 hours before an execution. By the end, you were at the execution. I need you to know this is not a book for, I think, the sensitive reader. I think you probably know that just by the title alone. But if you are a sensitive reader, this book does not shy away from the gruesome details of an execution and from what life is like on death row. I, for one, was grateful for that perspective and needed to know that, needed that information. But I understand some readers might not, and so that's just a sensitivity warning for you. The book then, though, because in the author's note, we were promised this bringing to life of what happens to victims of of crimes of gruesome crimes, we get many other perspectives throughout the book of both women this murderer has committed crimes against, but also just women he's in relationship with.
[00:28:21] So we get perspectives from his mother, from his friend, from a childhood acquaintance, from the detective on his case. Like, we get all these different female perspectives. What I liked is, yes, we do get their relationship to the murderer, but we also very much get these characters in their own right. My particular favorite character is a woman named Saffy. She is the detective who is on this man's case, and the book goes back and forth in time. I loved her character and so appreciated that character development. But you also get his wife's character development, his sister in law's character development. And again, yes, in relationship to him, but also each of those characters develops on her own. And I thought that was really gratifying. And upon reading the author's note, made a lot of sense.
[00:29:13] I think Danya Kukafka certainly met her metric. I think that was her goal, and I think she met that goal. This entire book somehow works seamlessly. I realize what I've laid out for you might sound rather complicated, but the structure is brilliant. The pacing is brilliant. I could not put this book down. Equal parts, plot driven and character driven. I think I could recommend this to my friend Julianna. I recommended it to Olivia immediately, but I also texted Hunter about it. So I think it's going to appeal to a wide range of readers and also is just really thought provoking. I think this would make a great book club book. If your book club can handle some of maybe the tougher parts of this book, I think it would open up a really interesting conversation about the death penalty and where people stand on the death penalty and why.
[00:30:00] I mean, look, I love that kind of stuff like. I love having those kinds of conversations, and I think books enable us to have those conversations in ways we might not otherwise be able to have them. So I highly recommend this one, comes out January 25th. I loved it. Five stars for me, notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka. And then in what potentially could be my last book of the year --, although again, my goal before the end of 2021 is to finish Mansfield Park. But if I finish with this last book, that would be okay too. So the book I read most recently is The Ballerinas. This is a debut novel that released this month by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. I never get to read December releases. Even my December shelf subscription was a book that wound up being published in November.
[00:30:51] This is partly because December in publishing is so weird. Yes, there are still books coming out, good books coming out, but often December is more giftable books. It is certainly when publishers are focused on reprints of bestselling titles from the year, especially in this year where printing has been an issue. There's a paper shortage, there are warehouse shortages, et cetera. So I do not have access very often to December releases. Sometimes we'll get some ARCs, but many times December releases are a surprise to me, and I often don't get to read them because I'm too busy. And if I'm reading anything, it's to prepare for the next year's shelf subscriptions or reading guides or whatever. So sometimes December is like the lost month for me.
[00:31:41] I don't know who this was and I'm sorry, but I feel like I've seen a couple people on Instagram be like, "Why are top 10 lists really so early?" And I honestly think it's because December is such an odd part of the publishing year, and a lot of us are just crawling to the finish line. And so for many of us, it feels like we've read our best. We've already done our best. That being said, you've heard me mention some five star reads I've already read in December, and this, I think, is close. I think it's a four or four and a half star read for me. It's a debut novel. Again, if we're talking about Annie tastes versus Olivia tastes, this one to me roundly or soundly fits in the Annie Olivia Venn diagram -- like the middle of the Annie Olivia Venn diagram because I would have picked this book up anyway. It certainly might at first glance look like an Olivia book, but I mean, I love this stuff.
[00:32:34] So this is a book about a group of just top of their class world class ballerinas living in Paris and performing at the Parisian Opera House. And you watch these three ballerinas grow up. The book goes back and forth in time between their adolescence and their adulthood. Our main character is Delphin. Hmm. The audiobook might be fun here because there are a lot of Parisian terms, and I think it'd be interesting to see who the narrator was. But, anyway, Delphin is our main character. She is best friends with Lindsay and Margaux. I think any of us who have been in like a three musketeers situation know that groups of three are interesting and there is an interesting dynamic there, especially in a three person friend group.
[00:33:22] And so certainly lots of tensions and ambitions begin to show in adolescence and also in adulthood. Here's what I really liked about this book though, at multiple points in the novel, it could have gone one or it could have gone a certain direction, we'll put it that way. So the book is about these three friends and yes, their ambitions and yes, their secrets. So we go back and forth in their adolescence. We know something has happened, but we don't know what it was. And, anyway, there are moments when this book reads like a thriller. And then there are other moments that are just like, this is what it looks like to observe three really talented, ambitious, women, and this is what that friendship and that relationship looks like. I loved both tones of the book equally.
[00:34:13] So I appreciated the moments when it felt a little bit like I was reading a thriller, like trying to find out the hidden secret. And then I also just really liked the character development and the character arc of these three women, and I loved reading about their ambitions. So there were a couple of points where I felt like the book could have gone more thriller, and instead it didn't. And I really liked that. I really liked that this book wound up being about ballet and about these three dancers and what life was like for them in adolescence at their peak, when they're on the cusp of everything. And then in their mid-thirties, when the best seems like it's behind them.
[00:34:56] And Delphin has come back to the Parisian opera house to choreograph a dance, her friends, Margaux and Lindsay, are still there. And I can't say enough good things about this book. I also want to give a shout out, the reason I picked this one up. It definitely looked like a book I would like. I love books about dance. I do not know why I am not a dancer. I think that's what it is, right? Like those who can't read. Like it's not those who can't teach, it's those who can't read. I admire dancers so very much. One of my dearest friends growing up was a dancer. But there is not a bone in my body that could ever do that, ever. And so I am fascinated by it. It's a little bit like reading about the Olympics or something like that, like reading about these world class athletes who are masters of their craft.
[00:35:41] So I would have been drawn to this book anyway, but I do want to give a shout out to Sarah's Bookshelves. I follow Sarah on Instagram, but you might listen to her podcast. So she's @sarah'sbookshelves. And she and I have seriously overlapping tastes I think we often talk about like who our book twins are, and I think Sarah is one of mine. And so I follow Sarah on Instagram, and she had posted like something about maybe it was her December reading recap. Or maybe it was books you might have missed, which I always appreciate those lists because I do think we're getting to the end of the year and we've missed some things. Or maybe it was like books released in December that are actually really good or or something like that.
[00:36:21] But Sarah released -- she posted a picture with a variety of titles, and I saw this one and I knew we had it at The Bookshelf. And I knew I had liked the looks of the cover. I had liked the looks of the story. And so when it had Sarah's stamp of approval, I decided to give it a go and I'm so glad I did. I really loved this book and, again, if you're like me and your attention span has been all over the place this holiday season, this was one of those books that I read over a couple of days because I could not stop reading it. I really, really, liked it and I think you will, too. I just highly recommend it. The writing is outstanding. I can't wait to see what this writer does next. And the characters, I think the characters will stick with me for a while because the author surprised me in how she dealt with these women.
[00:37:06] I think we as readers -- I find a lot of books, and I am perhaps drawn to a lot of books about ambitious women and particularly ambitious women in friend groups and sometimes their representation does not feel real or accurate. I felt like these three women and their friendship felt so very real. I have a lot more to say about it, but I don't want to spoil anything for you. So if you wind up reading The Ballerinas, let me know because I would love to talk about it. Because, again, I just feel like the author made so many smart decisions and choices that I'm so glad she made because I think in the hands of a different writer, this book would have been very different. So, anyway, it's called The Ballerinas, it's out right now by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. And those are the books I read in December.
[00:37:56] I really am so pleased. December is such a hit or miss reading month for me, but I actually feel really good about the books that I finished. I'm grateful for wrapping up my book club and how much fun we had together. I love that I have gone ahead and read some books that release in the New Year. I feel ahead of the game in that respect. And then I also like that I read books that came out right now and I'm reading it along with everybody else. Like, I read the Ann Patchett alongside everyone else. It's fun. That way, I feel like I get to talk about it in real time with readers. And so anyway, I'm pretty pleased with how my reading month turn out. I'd be curious to hear how yours did as well. Don't forget, you can follow us @bookshelftville on Instagram. Find the Instagram post where we talk about today's episode and leave what you read in December.
[00:38:47] [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 daily happenings on Instagram @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website: www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
[00:39:05] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at: www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:39:11] Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which set the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
[00:39:23] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. A couple of weeks ago, we finally had our town's Victorian Christmas festival. It was every bit as magical as I remember it being. You know, in 2020 we had a pandemic we were living through. I know we're still living through it, but it looked very different in December 2020. And in 2019 and in 2018 it rained during Victorian Christmas. And that is a very different kind of event. Our city does such a good job of pivoting and solving problems, but a rainy Victorian Christmas is quite simply just not as fun as a sunny Victorian Christmas. And this year it just felt like such a balm to look out our shop's doors and to see a crowded street.
[00:40:14] The air was a wintry. It was cold on Thursday. It was not as cold on Friday, but on Thursday evening it was chilly. Everybody had on their coats and their hats and walking the streets and eating at food vendors and popping into shops. And it was every bit as wonderful as I remember it being. As a shop owner. I'm especially grateful for nights like Victorian Christmas because our store gets the chance to be open later. People who may not typically come into our doors get to discover us and it's really exciting. It's also really fun. We ran into -- I say we ran into. I was working, and there was a family at The Bookshelf and I thought I recognized them. And then they informed me that they come to The Bookshelf every year, Victorian Christmas, they told me that they come sometimes other parts of the year, other times.
[00:41:04] But the Victorian Christmas is like their family's tradition, and they always come to The Bookshelf and they buy a new book together. And that made me so very happy to have the privilege of being a place where a family makes their traditions is absolutely not lost on me. And I think that's what makes downtown Thomasville so really so special. Yes, there is a place for shopping malls and for Targets and Walmarts. We need those places. I'm grateful for those places. But I love that in my quaint and quirky downtown, we are a place where people make their family memories and that is a real privilege. And so if you have not yet visited downtown Thomasville, I would encourage you to do so and to make your own family memories.
[00:41:54] To find out more about how you can visit us, just go to Thomasvillega.com.
[00:42:00] This week, I'm reading Admissions by Kendra James.
[00:42:05] 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. I also want to give a shout out to all the people who did visit beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, for Victorian and Christmas. I want to give a shout out to all the podcast listeners who we got to meet over the last few weekends. It has been such a joy to meet you. I especially want to shout out Lisa and her sister Tricia. You guys were just an absolute delight, and so many of you were. I'm sorry that I don't remember all of your names, but I certainly remember your faces, and it has been such a joy to get to introduce you to our town.
[00:42:43] So thank you for listening to the podcast for listening to me rave about Thomasville, Georgia for the last several episodes and for coming to see us. We are so profoundly grateful.
[00:42:54] If you liked what you heard on today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes or if you're so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and you can participate in monthly lunchbreak Q&A videos. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
[00:43:12] We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.