Episode 321 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 7

This week Annie is answering listeners' literary conundrums in this episode of Literary Therapy.

The books mentioned on today’s episode are available at The Bookshelf:

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 Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. 

This week, Annie is reading Home Stretch by Graham Norton.

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 hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online book orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.

We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.

episode transcript

Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. 

“When I didn't die, however, and then didn't die some more, I came one day to understand: I wasn't dying; I was grieving. I wasn't dying. Not yet.” 

- Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss 

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today, I’m tackling your literary conundrums and quandaries in an episode of literary therapy. 


[00:01:00] First up is a literary problem brought to us from a local listener. 

Angela: [00:01:07] Hey Annie, this is Angela from Thomasville. My question is how do you process a beloved character being universally hated. Up until this most recent iteration of Little Women, Amy has been pretty universally hated, but she was always who I related to the most out of the Little Women. I would type myself as Amy with a hint of Meg. Greta Gerwig and Florence Pugh gave her the depths I've always read in her character and I feel like she's been somewhat redeemed, but it's still a bit painful when you relate to someone like literally putting a clothes pin on my nose and they are despised by pretty much everyone, so thanks so much.

Annie: [00:01:50] Angela and I have talked a little bit about this in our real life, outside the Bookshelf and I love this question so much because I am someone [00:02:00] who I think relatively notoriously hates Amy. I've always hated that character and hearing Angela talk about Amy and coming across a couple of other people, both through the podcast and through Instagram and through people I know in real life, I have come across a couple of other people who love Amy and who find themselves in Amy. And so talking to Angela is a reminder that sometimes the very characters we hate, someone else loves and someone else sees themselves in.

 The closest I think I can come to this personally is regarding Beverly Cleary. So Beverly Cleary passed away a couple of months ago and her legacy was talked about on all corners of the internet and so many people piped up and said, how meaningful Ramona was to them and how much Ramona meant to them and as a pretty goody two-shoes responsible kid, I saw myself at least partially in Beezus and so I found a little left out of the [00:03:00] conversation, the grieving conversation regarding Beverly Cleary, because I thought one thing I love about Beverly Cleary is how she saw and gave stories to the Ramona's of the world, but also to the Beezuses of the world. 

And so the good news Angela for you is that Louisa May Alcott treats all of those sisters with tenderness and nuance and grace. It's readers right, it's readers who are constantly looking for a good guy or a bad guy, a villain, a villainess and so I think readers are who kind of sometimes twist the narrative a little bit and I'm wondering if it has been helpful to you to have Greta Gerwig adaptation, to see the conversation around Amy be more redemptive or at least more complicated and more nuanced than I feel like it's been given before and I think Florence Pugh really helps that cause right? Not that there's [00:04:00] anything wrong with Kiersten Dunst, but I just feel like Florence Pugh really embodies the character of Amy.

 I think and I know this because I know Angela in real life, I think now is your chance as a mom to change the narrative around this character, you love. In your reading later to your own two daughters, I think you can get the chance to really let Amy shine and to explain Amy a little bit, you know, in our real lives, hopefully we acknowledge that the people that we come across and the people that we interact with on a daily basis are so much more than we often know or give people credit for and I think the same is true in literature. 

Amy is so much more than the time she burned a book, right? We are more than the worst things we've ever done and what a powerful lesson to bestow to young readers who like me, may come across Amy and really despise her, but then to be reminded that Jo does things that are really difficult to [00:05:00] understand and even saintly Beth has things that she does that just don't make sense because we are complicated and Louisa May Alcott does us all a favor by portraying her Little Women in complicated ways and I think the, the beauty of the internet is that I have no doubt you can find, you know, figurative or literal support groups for your fellow Amy's.

 I'm thinking of one particular kind of bookish shop I love is The Common Shop on Instagram. They have really great t-shirts. They have some great Little Women merge and she is an Amy and because of interacting a little bit with her, because of observing her, because of talking to you, Angela, I think I have a newfound appreciation for Amy. So I think the best thing you can do is continue being confident in who you are as an Amy, continue to evangelize on her behalf and in your readings with your kids, show your children that all of these characters in all the [00:06:00] books we read to our kids are so complicated and there's so much more than we give them credit for and we are more than the worst things we ever did. I think that's a powerful lesson that Amy teaches us. This is a great question, Angela. I love talking about this. Thank you for asking it.

 Now on to a specific genre problem. 

Allison: [00:06:17] Hi Annie. This is Allison from Oklahoma city. My literary dilemma is that I cannot finish a fantasy novel. As a kid growing up, I loved fantasy. I read Ella Enchanted. I read Tamora Pierce. I loved strong female heroines in the fantasy genre, but as an adult, I just can't find fantasy books that I can get into. I think I get overwhelmed by the world building and then I just find out quitting before I even get to know the characters. So I'm hoping you can recommend a fantasy novels to get me back into the genre. Could be adult or YA or even middle grade. Thanks.

Annie: [00:07:00] [00:07:00] Allison, I understand this at least in part, because I too grew up really loving books like Ella Enchanted or Harry Potter and now that I'm an adult reader, I don't gravitate very often toward fantasy literature. So I don't think there's anything wrong with that nor do I think it's unusual, but it sounds like you really would like to try some fantasy or magical realism. I think the key here, and you mentioned it in your question, is some of the world-building is often a lot for maybe a non fantasy reader. 

And so I asked my two fantasy experts, Olivia, who is the manager at the bookshelf and Juliana, who is a frequent podcast co-host here on From the Front Porch and she has a great Bookstagram account called JulianaReads. Both of these women read a lot more widely than I do in terms of fantasy and magical realism literature. So I asked them, what are some non world-building or maybe more [00:08:00] accessible fantasy books for the lay reader, for the reader like me, or like you Alison, who might not really be drawn to fantasy as much anymore, but who would like to give the genre a try.

So immediately Juliana recommended The Night Circus  which is a. Commercial fiction or a fiction book that really does incorporate some magical realism and I know for a fact that Olivia really loved and adored Erin Morgenstern's follow-up The Starless Sea. So I think Erin Morgenstern could be a great author for you to try. Also recommended by Olivia is The Extraoridinaries by TJ Klune and if you have been listening to this podcast, or if you've been following the bookshelf, you know, that Olivia loves and actually a lot of readers I know and trust, love The H0use on the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. So he's an author that you might also want to try. Erin Morgenstern and TJ Klune. 

Juliana's recommendation, I also really appreciated, which is that she [00:09:00] thinks some young adult fantasy might be the next best thing for you because the world building is often minimal because it's for a different kind of reader. So she mentioned The Scorpio Races, which I know is one of her most beloved books. She mentioned Cinder, which is a retelling of Cinderella and based on your love of Ella Enchanted, that might be a fun place to start and The Caraval series which I believe Olivia also recommended. Olivia also mentioned a book that just released in paperback called A Deadly Education, Once and Future Witches and Piranesi. 

So these are some titles that I think could really capture your attention without doing too much world-building that would maybe result in you being a little bit lost in the narrative. These books might grasp your attention from the first page and really get you used to the genre again. Also, these are titles that I personally think are accessible like House on the Cerulean Sea is one I am very interested in trying. So that might also be a fun place for you [00:10:00] to start. I hope that helps Alison.

Elizabeth: [00:10:02] Hi, Annie, my name is Elizabeth and I'm an avid reader in Kansas city, Missouri. My book conundrum is this. Every time I finished a book, that's just so, so I think about how great it would be to spend a year rereading all of my favorites. A year of books I know I would love, but I can never make myself commit. What are your thoughts?

Annie: [00:10:24] Elizabeth. I adore this question and I adore this idea. The idea of rereading books sounds really comforting to me and in fact, it was really comforting to me, especially in the early reading days of the pandemic. I found myself drawn to books I had read for the first time in my childhood and kind of revisiting them during the pandemic so I could see how this idea would be super appealing. I'm wondering if what's holding you back from trying the idea is that a year is a long time and maybe you like me find yourself reading a lot of like hot, new fiction or [00:11:00] new books that have just been released and maybe you are a little bit afraid that you might miss out on that or that it might put your reading life off track for a period of time. 

And so to me, the simplest thing would be instead of biting off a year of this, why not do it for a season? And I know summer is coming up so that's the season that makes the most sense to me, but you can really do this anytime. I just think summer is a really fun time anyway, right? Our kids are reading for school. We are reading books by the beach. Why not take this time to reread some of your old favorites and instead of dedicating 12 months to rereading these books that you love, why not spend three months and see how that goes and see if you like it.

 Maybe summer seems too soon for you in which case I think winter would be another great time to tackle this. Why not for December, January and February, December is such a hard reading month anyway, with the holidays, why not let December, January and February be a time when you return to some of your old favorites? Because I [00:12:00] really do like this idea. I find it fascinating. I don't do a ton of rereading myself, probably Elizabeth, for the same reasons you don't, but I find myself when I do reread something, thinking about my former self who read the book and then my current self and the ways in which I interact with the book have how they've changed, how those ways have changed.

So I really do think this is a great idea. I don't know if you just need to kind of like encouragement to do it, but in which case, please let me be the voice that encourages you because I do think this is a really great idea. We're going to talk about in some other people's questions, this pressure, I think a lot of us feel. I feel it because of the focus of the bookstore I own, but maybe you feel it because you're on Instagram or because you're in a book club or because there's this unspoken pressure on the internet to read the best, greatest, newest things out there but I think there's something really valuable in revisiting the books we once loved and finding out do we love them still or have they changed or have we changed and how have we changed? 

So I [00:13:00] actually think this could be a really interesting experiment and I'm wondering if, instead of dedicating yourself to it for a year, what if you dedicate yourself to it for a span of three months and see how that goes? So that's my suggestion to get started. I would love a report back on this. I don't frequently tell people to come back to literary therapy, but I would really sincerely love to know Elizabeth, if you wind up trying this and if so, how it goes for you because I kind of I love this idea and I'm trying to rack my brain for how I, a bookstore owner could do something similar because I do feel a lot of pressure to read the newest, latest, best up and coming things but I can't help but think about the books that I've re-read in the last year and how much they've meant to me and how much rereading them has meant to me. So I love this idea, consider this your encouragement to try it and if you do try it report back.

Emily: [00:13:50] Hey, Annie, my name is Emily and I'm calling from Melbourne, Florida. Something I've been struggling with is knowing that there's only this finite number of books I can read in a year, but not really knowing how to [00:14:00] prioritize my TBR so that I'm using my precious reading time most effectively. 

Annie: [00:14:05] Emily, look, this is a problem for a lot of us and I think it's because if you're like me, you've got, I mean, I'm looking at them right now. I think I've got a TBR stack, um, because of ARC's, because of upcoming summer reading guides, all kinds of things. I think my TBR is about 35 books. And I know for a fact, I'm not going to read all 35 of those books like I'm just not going to read them, but we're also very fast approaching the mid-year point, which is hard to believe, but it's true and so I think as we approach mid year, a lot of us are evaluating a lot of different things, right? We're evaluating how our new year's intentions or resolutions are going. How many books have we read? What goals do we need to accomplish? I thought I was going to do all this stuff in my house and I haven't really done anything in my house. So I feel you on this. In other words, I think this is a common readerly dilemma. 

[00:15:00] I'm going to tell you how I prioritize my reading. First of all, I evaluate, what do I need to read this month? Meaning and this is all about kind of taking things into even smaller bites, but when I look at my month, I know I have a young adult book club that I lead and so I really must finish that book. I know that I am reading Middlemarch and so I know that I need to read that section of Middlemarch. I know that I'm in a book club and like I'm a member of a book club and I haven't been the best member of a book club of this particular book club in a long time but last month I made the goal to read my book club book and so this month I'm going to try to do the same thing though I make no promises. 

And so I know at minimum, I've got a young adult book I need to read. I've got a section of Middlemarch I need to read and a book club book I want to try to read. I also know I have to pick a shelf subscription book. So we read those two months in advance. So I know I've got at least [00:16:00] four books I need to be reading. One of my personal reading intentions for the year was to be reading more non-fiction and was to be reading more Jane Austin and so to me, that's less a monthly goal and more, a quarterly goal. So I like to evaluate my reading and see, okay, how did I do in April? Oh, I read two non-fiction books. Wow. Well, in may, if I don't get to a nonfiction book, then I'm not going to worry because I know I really did a good job with that in April.

 I'm also thinking, okay. I want to read a Jane Austen book a quarter. So I read Persuasion the first quarter of the year, and I'm in the middle of Sense and Sensibility right now and that doesn't have to be done till the end of June. So I do think because of my life, as a bookstore owner, a bookseller, I do have these books that I kind of have to read and then I have these goals that I'm working toward so I keep that in mind while I'm reading.

 I know that can seem a little bit homeworky and a little bit like school, to some people and I'd like to be clear, that's not how I evaluated my reading life before the Bookshelf. [00:17:00] Before the Bookshelf, my goal was pretty simple. I wanted to read four books a month. I really didn't have genre goals. I really didn't have goals of quantity except I thought four books a month seems reasonable. Like four books a month seems like something I could do, seemed like something I could do on top of my regular full-time job. 

So your reading life might look very different from mine, but what helps me and what I think is universal, whether you're a bookstore owner or a regular reader, I think, is evaluating based on the month and biting things off into smaller, smaller pieces. So, what do you want to read this summer? What do you, you know, are you going to read summer reading along with your kids? Are you following along with Middlemarch? Do you want to go heavy on the romcoms this summer because there's time you're going to be spinning at the beach or do you want to read thrillers, because you're going to be on a plane? These are things I kind of evaluate what I'm looking at my reading. 

I'm not one of those people who plans out what they're going to read each [00:18:00] month. I know some readers who that really works for it and that may be a tactic that works for you where you sit down at the start of the month and you know, okay, I want to finish X, Y, and Z before the end of the month. I really do know readers for whom that is helpful. I prefer guidelines. So, like I just said, I know I've got to finish the young adult book, a book club book, shelf subscription book that can be of any genre really and I'm also reading Jane Austen and Middlemarch. So it's sure I planned that out, but otherwise I w I do want to leave room for serendipity, right?

So I would look at what your summer looks like and what your fall looks like and I personally don't really know I'm I'm no longer great at predicting what my seasons hold. The pandemic I think really affected that, but maybe, you know, okay, this summer I'm going to mostly be at home or I'm going to spend be spending a week at the beach and maybe, you know, for you, your favorite beach reading is like I mentioned the wrong com and so I think you could then look at your TBR [00:19:00] that you've got at your house or browse your local library, your independent bookstore, your Instagram feed, and see what are some romcoms that people are really liking right now.

Maybe, you know, you want to read one historical nonfiction book this summer. Maybe, you know, you'd really like to read a book that kind of gives you an in-depth perspective on a particular historical topic. So browse and pick one that you think you could be reading in fits and starts all summer long, instead of just trying to devour it to get your book count up. 

I don't know if this is helpful, but I do really like putting my ARC's for example, by date so I know when these books are coming out. I'm also going to mention later, I put books away. Like there are some books that I just know I'm not going to get to and I take them to the little free library. I donate them to friends. I get them out of my house and out of my sight because otherwise I can, I think a really daunting TBR can sometimes deter [00:20:00] my reading life.

 So I would look at your summer. Ask yourself, what you actually want to read this summer, whether it's an accomplishment you want to achieve, or whether it's fun you want to have, really evaluate what you want your reading life to look like this summer and then maybe break it down by month to help you. Also leaving room for maybe a book that becomes an instant seller that you really want to try or maybe Oprah's got a new book club book coming out and you're going to want to get that from the library. Leave room for some serendipity, and don't be scared to take things off your TBR list. It's okay. It's okay. We don't have to read everything. We can't read everything. I really hope that helps. I know it can be so tricky, especially right now, again, as we're approaching mid year, trying to figure out what we just have such a limited amount of time. What are we supposed to do? But I hope these tactics help you a little bit as you evaluate your TBR list.

Julie: [00:20:55] Hi Annie. This is Julie, long-time listener and shelf subscriber, and [00:21:00] I am from Connecticut. I'm a nurse practitioner. My challenge this year has been we could call it pandemic brain. I'm a nurse practitioner. I'm an oncology nurse practitioner and in the best of times, it's a very stressful job and last year it was beyond and so I am having trouble with my focusing and finishing books. I have, um, books if I look at my good reads, I have 12 books I'm in the middle of, and I had to take like six off so it's probably closer to 16 or 18 books I've started and not finished.

 So what I'm looking for are books that engage me and carry me through, and aren't too long so that I can really get into the flow of the book. Books I've loved recently are Sorrow and Bliss, Crying in H Mart, Early Morning Riser, Rude. I've read, uh, several YA romance books that I've enjoyed. Lucky Color, Our Stop, 10 Blind Dates and I flew through all of the Ruth Galloway [00:22:00] mysteries just because that's all my brain could handle in February and March. So I'm, I would love any thoughts on books that will just grab me and not let me go because I can't add more to my, um, started and not finished list. Thanks. 

Annie: [00:22:17] Julie. Hi. I wanted to include your question here because so many people dm'd or sent similar voicemails talking about how the pandemic has affected their reading life. I can only imagine how your life as a nurse has affected what you want to read and when you want to read it and why. I don't think you're alone either. I think there are a lot of us who find ourselves with dwindling attention spans with limited capacity and I guess I just want to encourage you in that first that you were not the only person to send a message like this and I myself have really, really struggled with my reading life this year, actually, even more than in 2020, if I'm being honest. My [00:23:00] 2021 reading life has been all over the place, so you're not alone.

It does sound like though you've read a lot of really good books this year. So not that you need a pat on the back from me, but let me pat you on the back and tell you, despite maybe being off your reading game this year, you've really read some really great books and a lot of them. So I think that's worth celebrating and honoring.

I just recommended to Emily and I think I'm going to recommend to you as well, don't forget you can take things off your TBR list. I mentioned that I'm looking at about 30 books right now. That is because I am prepping for our summer literary lunch. By the time this podcast episode comes out that will be behind us and I will have cleared out some of these books that I just know because of genre or because another staffers reading them that I'm really never going to get to them and so my TBR list is not going to stay that full. It just cannot, I want to leave room for serendipity as I was sharing with Emily. I really want to leave some room for [00:24:00] serendipity and in fact last night is a great example of that. 

I was in the middle of reading for summer literary lunch, but then a adorable middle-grade book came across my desk and so I really wanted to read that. So I put down everything else and read that instead. You mentioned young adult books. I would encourage middle grade books in this category as well. I just finished a great young adult book called Take Me Home Tonight. I'm so sorry if that song will not be stuck in your head as an ear worm the rest of the day but Take Me Home Tonight by Morgan Mattson was delightful and I finished it in a day. It completely held my attention. It was just what I was looking for. I actually think Julie, because of your location and your proximity to New York, you might enjoy it as well. The middle grade book I just finished was the Best Bad Babysitters Ever and it is adorable and very fun for babysitters club fans. I'll be talking about it in a later podcast episode, but I thoroughly enjoyed that.

So I don't think you're wrong to be gravitating toward young adult or middle grade fiction right now, because I do think that those books are designed to [00:25:00] hold your attention and to be finished quickly, especially if you're a grownup, right. If you're a grownup reading those books, those are relatively digestible, easy books to finish. So I certainly think you're on the right track by putting those maybe toward the top of your TBR. I talk often about how something times for me, it's all about this, this is interesting part of my personality, but it's all about getting to check something off. So I sometimes in order to get back into my reading, mojo need to read something that's going to hold my attention immediately so that I can finish it and feel like I'm no longer in a reading slump.

 I suspect that this might be true for you too. So I think moving those middle grade or young adult books to the top of your TBR would be an important place to start. Some books that I have devoured and by devoured meaning, I've read them in a couple of days or found myself wanting to read them instead of watching a TV show, which that's hard for me. I really do like TV and I especially like TV when my head is [00:26:00] full of so many things and so I have found myself drawn to TV, but these books have attracted my attention more than television, which is a really high compliment for me. So here are some page turners that I have enjoyed and based on what you've read, I think you might enjoy, Julia, as well.

Olympus, Texas. Competitive Grieving. That one was so good. It was deep, but also with the delightful rom common side. Musical Chairs, that's an older title now. It came out last summer by Amy Poeppel. It saved my reading life last summer. Good Company. That's the new one from the author of The Nest and then Olivia just devoured and I, it's an arc so this is coming out in July, but I am very intrigued called Everyone in This Room Will Someday be Dead, which, which is just a fantastic title but based on the themes, Olivia thinks I would like it and Julia, because our tastes overlaps so much I think you might like it too. 

So those are some good page turning books that some in some cases are [00:27:00] light and fluffy, but they're also, they've also got some depths. So a lot of those books really just completely held my attention. Olympus, Texas I read while I was eating my lunch, which again, not something I make a habit of doing all the time, but that's how into it I was. And I think that's what you really need. You need immersive reading right now and I get that and I understand that. I hope that helps Julie. Thank you for the work you're doing too in the healthcare industry, particularly this year, we are grateful for you. 

Katie: [00:27:28] Hi, my name is Katie and I am from Murphy, California. I have listened to a bunch of these episodes, and yet I'm having a brain fart moment where I can't remember if you only want literary problems for recommendations or just like literary problems in general so I'm just going to go with it. I have a couple of books on my shelves that I've been staring at and knowing that they have like a couple issues with them, meaning like recently something has come up about the author and something that they said, or just the, [00:28:00] um, for example, I'm thinking in looking at Americanah and American Dirt, and I was at one point excited to read both of those, but then, you know, learn more, heard more and again, I don't even know all the specifics. 

My question is, do I take them off my shelves and just choose other books that are not as problematic. That's my daughter. I'm on maternity leave. She's about a month old. Um, so should I take them off my shelf? Do I read them? And then if I take them off, where do I give them to? Um, thanks so much. Bye. Hi, Katie.

Annie: [00:28:39] I loved hearing your babbling little one in the background, that was super fun to hear. This is a great question. And it's one, I think a lot of readers and booksellers and honestly, Just people who enjoy pop culture across the board, I think this is a question a lot of us are asking ourselves. I think it's what I ask myself anytime I watch a [00:29:00] movie when Miramax comes across my screen or when I'm in the car and a Michael Jackson song comes on. I think we are having to reckon with what happens when the artists we love say, or do things that we not only disagree with, but maybe, maybe we find morally problematic and so I think the question you're asking is a good one and a legitimate one.

 I have Americanah on my shelves. It is a book that meant a lot to me that opened my eyes that changed my mind and I can't deny that even if the author is saying things that I disagree with or I take issue with, or that I find wrong, and I know that that might be different and I'd like to acknowledge that I'm answering this question as a white, straight middle-class woman, right? So my view on this is going to be a little bit different. [00:30:00] As a bookseller and as a reader, what I often encourage our customers and readers to do is to read widely and to read beyond what they might be drawn to so I enjoyed Americana when it came out. I think there are a lot of authors doing really brilliant, beautiful work that you could read instead of, or a long side Americanah.

 Yaa Gyasi comes to mind, but she's certainly not the only one. There's Akwaeke Emezi who wrote The Death of Vivek Oji, which was one of my favorite books I read last year. They have a new memoir coming out later this summer that I think would be a great book to add to your shelves and they're writing about very similar themes and so they'd be a great author to support with your money and with your shelf space. There are lots of authors. I'm even thinking about debut memoirist, like Michelle Zauner, or Ashley Ford, where those books are going to cover maybe similar themes of identity and cultural identity that you could read alongside Americanah [00:31:00] or in replace of Americanah. 

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie actually has a new book out this month, all about grief and the loss of her father. I flipped through it at the bookstore the other day, and it is stunning. She's an incredible writer. She's an incredibly talented writer. I think I will still put that in reader's hands, but it won't be the only book I put in reader's hands. It won't be the only book about grief that I pass along to readers I know who might appreciate it. The same is true for American Dirt. That's a book I still have not read. I know for a fact it is beloved by some of my in-store customers in particular. By the way, if you are not familiar with the controversies surrounding Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, or if you're not familiar with the controversy surrounding American Dirt, I would encourage you to do your research.

That is certainly what I, an Enneagram five constantly do that. I would recommend you do your research as well. When you do that, there are so many books by other [00:32:00] authors, own story authors that might be a better fit than American Dirt. Again, I have readers in my store who loved American Dirt. We recommended books to read alongside that and when they came to the register, we had other recommendations ready for them because we didn't want American Dirt to be the only book about the immigrant experience that they read. I think that's really, for me as a reader and as a bookseller where the issue lies.

 I just don't want a book by an author who is problematic or has done things that don't mm, it don't make sense to me or that are morally against what my worldview stands for, I would want to make sure readers are reading beyond those titles and so if you do a quick look, there are so many people doing the work and making book lists that could easily substitute for a book like American Dirt. I'm thinking of the Lost Children Archive. Um, there's a memoir out actually by one of the actresses from Jane the Virgin [00:33:00] called In the Country We Love. Lucy did a shelf subscription for A Long Petal of the Sea, which came out last year and then the young adult book that a lot of our staff has read and really loved With The Fire On High.

So these are all books that I think you could read instead of, or alongside American Dirt and get a full reading experience. The thing is those two books you mentioned are not the only books, right? Those are not the only books with problematic authors or with authors who have issues and that's why I mentioned in answering your question also musicians and movie makers, actors, actresses. Jordan has been rewatching House of Cards because that was a show we really loved when it first came out. It's hard to watch that now because of Kevin Spacey, right? That's a hard show to rewatch and yet it's still good television. 

Now there are other things we could be watching and other things we are watching in addition to that but I guess that's an example in another art [00:34:00] form of sitting down and watching a show and realizing, well, the people who are in this show are not really people I'm interested in or people I want to support or people I want to emulate and so I think these are valuable questions to ask. I don't think this is the, you know, the full or the best answer, but I will tell you for me, the key is educating myself and doing the appropriate research. So making sure I try to understand the controversy or the issues surrounding a book or an author or a musician or an actor for that matter. 

So doing my research, educating myself, making sure I read or watch or listen beyond the work in question and also leaving room for a person to change, right? Making sure there is room for grace. That's important to me. That might not be important to you. I mean, I really don't know. [00:35:00] Right. Every person is different and every person approaches these things differently, but that would be my approach and I commend you for asking these hard questions. I don't think there's anything wrong with skipping those two books and moving onto something else and taking those. I mean, as we've already discussed, right? Like, I don't think there's anything wrong with taking those off your TBR and moving on to the works of other writers you might want to support instead.

Supporting somebody's art and paying for books is a great way to show your support of other authors. So I don't think there's anything wrong with taking those things off your shelf and looking elsewhere and reading elsewhere but I also don't think there's anything wrong with appreciating an artist's work while also acknowledging you take issue with the artists themselves. I hope that helps Katie. That's a tough question, but I hope that that helps you to talk through it a little bit. 

Lindsay: [00:35:48] Hi Annie. This is Lindsay from Montana. I always enjoy stories with a woman protagionist who leads an interesting rich complex life, but I'm single 40 and childless and so [00:36:00] many of these books revolve around marriage and motherhood. Do you have any recommendations for me on a book with a single female protagonist who's over the age of lets say 30 or 35? If you could help me.,I'd appreciate it. Thank you so much. 

Annie: [00:36:16] Lindsay, this is a fun question and I really had to think about this and you've opened my mind to maybe an underserved population in literature. These are the titles that immediately came to mind for you. Rules for Visiting, which is a book about a woman who decides to visit all of her friends like and go around and kind of make a quest out of it, almost. The Other's Gold, which admittedly does deal some with motherhood and romance but each of the four girls at the heart of the book for women at the heart of the book are dealing with something different. So I think you would find a character there that you could relate to.

Young Jane Young and actually a lot of these, I realized a lot of the books I read involving 30 something women that [00:37:00] aren't, you know, like a romcom or something are frequently women who work in the news world and I think that really speaks to my favorite genres and what I am drawn to, but I'm going to share them with you anyway. So Young Jane Young is a great book. One of my favorites of the last probably I guess, 10 or so years, I really liked that book when it came out. Loosely, loosely based and inspired on the Monica Lewinsky story and really investigating the women and the women's perspective at, at the heart of a story like that and it's multi-generational, so you've got women of various ages and, uh, varying interests and I, again, think you could find someone in that novel who would speak to you. 

Savage News, Hello, Sunshine and Rise and Shine. Those are three different books, Savage News, Hello, Sunshine and Rise and Shine are all somehow related to the news industry, to journalism, to morning shows like, I don't know what it is, but those were books that immediately came to mind that I thought, okay, these are books about women that are not necessarily about [00:38:00] marriage or romance or motherhood. These are books about women in their careers. There they're also books about women and their sisters or women and their brothers so I think those will be really good. 

And then my last recommendation is The Dutch House. Maeve is a great, great character in American literature, and she remained single throughout the novel and I, she is really one of my favorite characters in recent memory so you might want to try that one as well.

Meg: [00:38:28] Hi, Annie, this is Meg from New York. Longtime listener, first time caller. I was hoping to hear your thoughts on how to remain, present and invested in the book I'm reading without feeling like I need to rush my way through it, just to get to the next book on my list. I'm worried that I could end up losing the love of reading just for readings sake and start to read just adds my yearly tally. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Annie: [00:38:50] Hi, Meg. It's so fun to hear from people who I know have been following along for a long time like I recognize your names. It's so nice to hear your voice. Meg, how do we stay [00:39:00] present in the books we're reading right now when our TBR list is super long or when the internet is telling us something to read, or when TV is telling us something to read, like, how do we stay present? I think this is a great question. I recommend putting your phone on airplane mode, if you can. I also recommend deleting Instagram, even just temporarily. I'm not saying like forever. I just mean temporarily while you finish your book, while you finish the book that you want to read, because I tend to like, you get a little distracted and a little bit caught up in what other people are reading. 

There's a lot of unspoken pressure to maybe this is just my personality, but there's some unspoken pressure to read x amount of books or a certain book or a certain author and maybe you can't right now. Maybe you don't have the bandwidth right now, or maybe you, that book is not available from your library right now, or you don't have the money to buy it from your independent bookstore, or maybe you just need to read what's on your shelf, or maybe you just want to read the books that's in your lap, in which case I do think kind of turning off those electronic devices and, um, maybe muting [00:40:00] Bookstagram accounts or whatever could be really helpful while you enjoy getting kind of caught up in a book.

 I have found that even leaving my phone in a different room is really helpful to me. Like if I'm in the living room, reading a book and I really want to be in the moment I just have, um, one of my favorite books is the Supper of the Lamb and he has this phrase about, and I think I've said it here before, but when you're chopping a carrot, just chop the carrot. When you're reading a book, just be reading a book like I think sometimes I'm like, Oh, could I also have TV on, in the background, but just mute it during commercials and during commercials, I'll read or I could be maybe reading while I'm waiting to do something else. 

I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with that. I'm just saying sometimes it's okay to get immersed in the book that you're currently reading and I think the best solution for that is to eliminate all or as many distractions as possible and we don't want to eliminate our families or our loved ones and so eliminating Instagram seems like the [00:41:00] most, it seems like the best way to do that. So that is kind of my recommendation and I think it's important to acknowledge what books are for you and which aren't for you so that you don't get caught up in, Oh man, everybody's reading this new thriller right now, but I don't like blood or Gore or murder and I feel bad about that. 

Well, don't feel bad about that, that book isn't for you and you don't have to read that book again. I think there is somehow this unspoken peer pressure that maybe we experienced in junior high or high school and now we're experiencing it in adulthood. It's, it's a little bit of FOMO, right? It's this, this idea that we're going to miss out, or we're not going to participate in the conversation if we haven't read the book. Another listener had actually messaged, like what happens if my book club is reading a boring book that I don't want to read, and my gut answer is, well, maybe you don't have to read it.

Maybe you go to the discussion and you listen. Don't go to the discussion and, you know, Talk for 30 minutes doing a soliloquy, because that would not be fair, but you could still go to the [00:42:00] book club and hear other people talk about the book and also know, okay, this one wasn't for me. We don't have to finish books we don't like and so I think that answer could even tie into your question Meg, which is you know, not every book has to be for every person and so it's okay if you narrow your focus or your scope a little bit and turn off the noise. I think there's a lot of noise right now and I think eliminating the noise and focusing on what's in front of you is important.

Sydney: [00:42:26] Hi, Annie, my name is Sydney and I'm from McKinney, Texas. My question is how do you go about finding books that don't necessarily have a big promotion behind them? They aren't being pushed on Instagram by influencers, they're are not showing up in subscription boxes. They don't necessarily have the money behind them that um, these publishers are, are putting so, uh, I would love to find new books, new authors that don't necessarily get the recognition they might deserve. 

Annie: [00:42:57] Thanks, Sydney. This was [00:43:00] one of my favorite questions. All of these questions were so good, but I really did love this one because I think we see on Bookstagram or morning shows or celebrity accounts or big publisher accounts, we can kind of see the same books over and over again and if you're like me, maybe you're also a little hype averse. Um, I tend to be that way and I get it. Sometimes books are very much worth the hype so I'd like to be clear about that. Like sometimes books are worth what publishers are spending on them to promote them and to get them into the hands of readers because they are books that deserve to be read and they are worth every bit of the hype.

 But there are also, and I kind of worded this unsung books, right. There are books that maybe we don't hear as much about because they don't have a giant publishing arm behind them kind of pushing their work. Maybe they're a debut novelist who their name is relatively unknown, but their work is beautiful and deserves to be read. So I think, and look, this is an obvious answer, but I think independent bookstores are great at this. Maybe it's browsing. I think in-person browsing is the best way to [00:44:00] experience an independent bookstore, but I know that can be hard as we kind of eek out of a pandemic a little bit. Um, but browsing your local independent bookstore.

 Some indie bookstores I have visited even have like a small press section and we're going to talk about small presses in a second, but going to an independent bookstore or following one on Instagram. Some indie bookstores, yes, you know, they're trying to sell books, we're trying to sell books. It's true. Um, so we are going to feature books that have been hyped or books that our staff loves, but we're also going to feature unsung books. I I'd like to think that at the Bookshelf, especially in store, we do a lot of both.

So we've got the books that are bestsellers, but we also have quieter books or books that maybe haven't made it big in terms of the publishing world but maybe we really fell in love with them, quiet novels that we loved. So I think browsing and independent bookstore there's really no substitute for it and I think it's a great way to discover unsung titles. 

Following them on Instagram is I guess probably the next best thing. If you can't get inside a bookstore. [00:45:00] Again, small presses are important. So the big presses are, the big publishers are recognizable to you right there. Penguin, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Harper Collins like these are names we all are familiar with. But there are smaller presses who don't put out nearly as many books in a year and they are publishing maybe lesser known authors, maybe smaller books, maybe books, or novelists or writers who haven't gotten as much attention in the past and I think it is worth perusing their websites or their Instagram accounts to see if there might be a book that's right for you.

 Bookstores, I think do a really good job of highlighting some small presses, but again, maybe you're not in a bookstore right now and maybe you just want to browse these websites. So I'm going to name some small presses for you. Catapult. One of their recent books that I have really loved so far, I've not finished, is Low Country and that is a great like Southern book, um, kind of in the same vein as Educated, but again, it's a small press. So Catapult. Counterpoint. 10 House, which you've probably [00:46:00] heard of. Milkweed Additions. I started the episode with a quote from a Milkweed Additions book called Late Migrations. There's also a book that looks so good, we've had it on our shelf for a while called Ruby and Roland. It's a Milkweed book and it looks so good. 

Europa Additions. This press will probably be familiar with, to you if you read or did any research or kind of, if you've got any information at all about the Elena Ferrante books, when they were published, they were Europa Additions. Often these are translations. Lucy's shelf subscription pick last month was a Europa Additions title. It was A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better. There's another Europa title that looks really good called Fresh Water for Flowers. That was a bestseller overseas. 

Grove Atlantic is another small press. Five Tuesdays in Winter is coming out this fall. It is the new Lily King. Lily King is a writer who has kind of made it big so Sydney, that might not be what you're looking for, but I'm very excited about that book. The Harpy, which this was one of my shelf [00:47:00] subscription picks, I think late last year, Megan Hunter is a great writer and really deserving of the praise that she gets and then Hunter, one of Hunter's favorites is Milk Blood Heat. It's one of his favorite books he's read so far this year. 

Grey Wolf press is the other one and there is a memoir from that particular press that I'm interested in called The Dragons, the Giant, the Women. It's a book I put in a lot of surprise book boxes in the last 12 months. Norton is a larger publisher, but they do to me do a good job of highlighting new debut novelists and there's a new one coming out this summer called All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running, which I am loving so far. I'm about halfway through and I really like it. You can also read literary magazines. I'm thinking of Poets and Writers or something like the Paris Review that would maybe get you familiar with authors who might not otherwise have heard of. So you may check out some literary magazines as well.

 So in short, Sydney, browse your local independent bookstore, visit small press websites and then read some [00:48:00] literary magazines and I think that will help you find some of these unsung writers and these unsung books that you're referencing. What a great question.

Terry: [00:48:07] Hi, Annie, this is Carrie from Nashville, Tennessee, and I would love to get some recommendations on books that feature women over 60 as main characters or, um, preferably like, um, one of the title characters and I'd like the books to be uplifting and funny and witty. Mainly women that have overcome some things in their life, but have a lot of wit and wisdom to share. That would be wonderful. Thank you so much. Bye. 

Annie: [00:48:41] Terry, I loved answering this question too, because it kind of almost was like answering Lindsey's question. So Lindsay was looking for books about women who were single and in their thirties or forties, you're looking for books with female protagonists in their sixties, or maybe even older. And I think there are some great ones out there, but you're right. They are a little bit harder to [00:49:00] find. So immediately I'll tell you the ones that came to mind and then some that I think that I haven't read, but I think I would enjoy. 

So Britt-Marie Was Here is a Frederick Bachman books that I loved and that character has stuck with me a long time. I think listeners know, I felt pretty ambivalent I'm sorry to say about Olive Kittridge, but I loved Olive, Again and I think that is a great book about growing older with grace. I loved that book so much so Olive, Again. This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance is about a woman who goes on a cruise. It is delightful and laugh out loud funny. Nancy just read and really liked the upcoming book, The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts. That's nonfiction about a woman who crosses the country on her horse. It sounds fantastic and Nancy loved it. 

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert also came to mind because although yes, in that book, the protagonist spends a lot of the book young, the book is written in letter format. She's really written this really long letter to this person in her life and so [00:50:00] the book is an older woman reflecting really on her coming of age and for that reason, I included it because toward the end of the novel, you get these really great insights that I think can only come from an older woman. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert.

And then some books that I really would like to read, but have not yet and I think they fit the bill here. Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. Afterlife by Julia Alvarez and Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, which I think was like an Ann Vogel favorite a couple of years ago. So those Terry would be a place to start. I hope those are some titles that you haven't discovered yet. I hope those are new to you and that they might be just what you were looking for in your reading life. 

Thank you so much to everyone who sent in questions for this week's episode. If you would like to be featured in an upcoming episode of literary therapy, you can leave me a voicemail @FromTheFrontPorchPodcast.com.

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. r

This week, I’m reading Home Stretch by Graham Norton. 

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a weekly conversational podcast on books, small business, and life in the South