Episode 323 || Nostalgia Reading

This week the co-hosts of The Bookshelf’s I Want It That YA book club, Lucy Stoltzfus, also The Bookshelf's online sales coordinator and Olivia Schaffer, shop manager, join Annie to discuss nostalgia reading.

The books mentioned in today’s episode are available for purchase 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 Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. Olivia is reading Holdout by Jeffrey Kluger, and Lucy is reading Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr.

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

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

"When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does." 

- Meg Ryan as Kathleen Kelly in You've Got Mail. 

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today, we’re talking about nostalgia reading. I’m joined by my co-hosts of The Bookshelf’s I Want It That YA book club, Lucy Stoltzfus and Olivia Schaffer. Lucy is the online sales coordinator for The Bookshelf, and Olivia is our shop manager. 

Hi guys. 

Olivia: Hellooo.

Lucy: Hey. 

I am so excited to talk about this today because we are almost like exactly a year removed as a recording from the launch of Baby-Sitters Back, Alright! So that is the book club we launched a year ago. It was like peak pandemic, trying to get excited or feel joyful about anything. One of the few things that had brought me joy in March, April of last year was rereading Bloomability and An Old Fashioned Girl, two books from my childhood and I then saw that the The Baby-Sitters Club was becoming a Netflix adapted TV show and I approached you Olivia, one day I have a very vivid memory of this. I like came into the Bookshelf. It still looked like a shipping warehouse. There was bubble wrap everywhere and I looked [00:02:00] at you and I was like, how would you feel about reading the Baby-Sitters club together this summer? And I like had a name for it and everything and I'm curious. You, I then discovered, had not even ever read the babysitters club before. So what did you, what was your initial response to this idea? 

Olivia: [00:02:19] Absolutely. Yes. I think I was just like anything, anything that felt like forming a community in a time where like we were just so isolated. As Lucy said it was low stakes reading, so it was exactly what we needed. 

Annie: [00:02:36] Yeah. Cause we were still very much living through a pandemic. I mean, we still are, but when I think about May of last year, like we were really still deep in it. We were not seeing customers very frequently. Lucy, I don't even remember. Were you still in Tallahassee?

Lucy: [00:02:51] I was. We didn't move until the beginning of July, but I had not come back. Like my maternity leave ended when the [00:03:00] pandemic began. So I had come back, like, I think I came back a couple of Mondays and did some online stuff and I wore Gabriel on my chest and he took naps and stuff. Um, and yeah, I had only come in a couple of times, but, um, I was, so I just was excited to be included in something and I have not read Kids Lit in a long time because I, you know, my child is not ready for a middle-grade or YA and I just had not been part of my adult reading. So I was like, uh, not excited to begin with, but like open. I was like, I think I might like this. Let's see.

Annie: [00:03:46] I forgot Olivia till you mentioned, but really the community aspect was important. Like I think I just needed something fun and I was like, Hey, this idea came to me in the middle of the night. What do you think? But I also missed even a [00:04:00] comradery of staff. Like we were doing zoom staff meetings, but it was like we had, we weren't seeing anyone. Olivia and I were just seeing each other and then the occasional customer at the door and so to get to actually talk with you both, and then to incorporate our customers in an interactive way. It had been a long time. We weren't doing any virtual events at that time. We weren't, we weren't really doing anything. We didn't quite have the bandwidth for it. 

So we launched this, I believe, may of last year and immediately sold out. I think we thought, oh, we're going to do 25 spots, I think was our initial thoughts and, and like sold out before we could really even blink and so then I, I want to say, did we add 25? What was our, what was the cap? 

Olivia: [00:04:45] I remember going back and forth with my Scholastic rep being like, oh, sorry, we actually need more books but I think I emailed her two or three times.

Lucy: [00:04:58] I think you guys had 25, 25, [00:05:00] 25. We ended up having like 75. 

Annie: [00:05:02] Yeah I think that's right and we should have, we're going to talk about this. We should have been, been better prepared for a young adult book club in January, but for whatever reason we weren't, I still under ordered. Um, so, okay. So we kept it at 75 and really we started doing these virtual book clubs and once a month we would get together and work our way through The Baby-Sitters Club, the series by Ann M. Martin. So had either neither of you had read those before? Lucy, did you have any connection to The Baby-Sitters Club?

Lucy: [00:05:35] I didn't know. I don't. I never read them. 

Annie: [00:05:39] Olivia, did your sister read them or no? 

Olivia: [00:05:42] My sister had, and I maybe picked up one or two, but I didn't. I had no memory of them. 

Annie: [00:05:48] So. Yeah, it's it's uh, there were a couple of people who did too. They would like say like type out the theme song in the chat. Um, so I'm [00:06:00] curious when you look back, we wound up reading when it was all said and done, we were intending to do it only for the summer and then I think we all became very attached, uh, including the customers, the fellow readers who were listening and watching along with us.

So by the end of the summer, we decided to tack on more and we wound up doing it pretty much through the end of the year. So we read 11, the first 11 of the Babysitters Club books, we hosted then 11 meetings. We did like a virtual Netflix party with the TV show, which was really fun by the end of the year.

 What did you kind of think about the overall reading experience of reading the Baby-Sitters club? Neither of you had read them before, um, you maybe were excited or at least considering, you know, you know how fun something could be in a year where nothing was fun. And I'm curious by the end of the year, when you looked back at reading the Baby-Sitters club, especially Lucy, maybe start with you because you had no kid lit you hadn't read kid lit in a long time. So how did you feel by [00:07:00] year's end? 

Lucy: [00:07:02] Oh, I feel like we've talked about this before, but it was like one of the highlights of that period of time in my life. It's just especially being a reader who started to work at a bookstore and then got pregnant and had a baby, I felt like my reading life had suffered so much and like my reading life was based on like, uh, like, uh, get it at, you know, there's another book down, like I've chosen my shell subscription or, you know, and I felt like this was just pure joy and like Olivia said, low stakes, but still dramatic. 

Like I would sit in bed, go like, oh and Zach would be like, did the boy say something to the girl? And I'm like yes, you know, or like these, these girls are trying to steal the The Baby-Sitters Club idea, you know? Um, so it's like still very exciting, but obviously, you know, not pandemic level or like world war two level, like [00:08:00] one of the other books I read. So just so joyful and fun and everything I really, really loved about it was our customers and how we came to know their names and we came to know their personalities just from the chat. And, you know, you feel like they're your friends now. It was just so great. 

Annie: [00:08:19] Olivia. What about you?

Olivia: [00:08:20] I was so sorry. I forgot the question a little bit. I really liked Lucy's answer.

Annie: [00:08:36] I wanted to know by years and like we'd read 11 books., We really thought we'd stop at six and, or maybe even four, I'm not sure, but we thought we'd stop I think about halfway through that. Um, w what did you, kind of, what was your overall feeling about the club? Like, were you grateful to have read them that kind of thing?

Olivia: [00:08:53] Oh, yes. It was just such a happy feeling. I mean, it was, it was what I looked forward to every single month [00:09:00] was reading that book. Well, mostly cramming that book in that last week, but almost every page so I was like, I can't believe Kristi said that. I was, I think I was a little bit worried at first because I do read so much kids lit that with a series this long and books so short that it would start to feel a little bit, what's the word episodic, episodic, but it never did. Because it continued on their lives, I think and it wasn't just on every single book. I love series where you get to know the characters so well, and then I loved that I was able to then talk to other people about these characters that I knew so well, because that doesn't always happen.

Lucy: [00:09:44] And I just feel like the other thing that really helped with. The slow character development was like, um, getting a different person's narration every time, because then you learn more about that person, but also about all the other people through their [00:10:00] eyes and so every time you're just getting a little bit more of like, oh, I now know why Christie is the way she is.

Olivia: [00:10:07] Yeah. That's why you got to like characterize yourself into them, you know? Yeah. I'm a Christie now.

Annie: [00:10:17] Yeah by years and I think I had maybe some of the same concerns. So I'm always keeping an eye on when the excitement is going to wear off. Like as a business owner I think I'm always looking for, okay, when is this gonna lose steam? And we need to have like a new idea, but it never lost steam, like by the end of the year, I was still really invested. Like I could have kept reading The Baby-Sitters Club books, like we, and we talked a lot about that. Like in 2021, what did we want to do with this group? Like, did we want to keep reading and I could have kept reading The Baby-Sitters Club books. 

I thought they would get. Olivia, like you said, maybe redundant or more episodic like I was concerned about that, but they, I was attached the entire time and was [00:11:00] super invested and by year's end was a little bit sad to give them up. Like I like even still sometimes I'll think, would it be weird if I read The Baby-Sitters Club on my own? Like, like if I, if I could just continue this journey by myself, um, Because I did become really attached and invested and in a year where we did not have a lot of customer interaction and where we gained a bunch of new customers who we still have not had the privilege of meeting face to face because they're long distance. 

It was really fun to like, like I could name you, who gets snarky in the comments, like who is funny in the chat, who has random fun facts, who will go Google something for us and bring back like the mathematical statistics, which believe it or not comes up in Babysitters Club and so like, I could name you those things, just like Olivia could name you different in-store customers. Like, and so that attachment that I think as a bookseller at a local independent bookstore, like [00:12:00] that's what you're looking for is like that customer connection and to get, to have it virtually felt really special and, and really rare, especially for 2020, like very unusual.

So years end, we like we're addressing, what do we want to do next? And we decided, and I don't even remember why we decided this, but we decided to do a plethora, like a pretty wide range of young adult, like nostalgic reading for 2021. Could you guys have kept reading The Baby-Sitters Club and been satisfied?

Olivia: [00:12:30] Absolutely. 

Lucy: [00:12:32] Yes. And I do remember that final meeting. We were all kind of like aww, like everyone was just kind of sad, but I do think it was the right move. Um, something fresh I do feel like for a business owner, I think you don't, you want to get out, you don't want to be Tom Brady.

Annie: [00:12:54] Lucy just pulled out the sports reference. [00:13:00] But it's true. Like you want people to stay excited and you do get worried that like, if we had kept doing Baby-Sitters club, at what point, I mean, there are like, what are there like 60, 80 books? Um, there's so many. Yeah, so many. And so anyway, we decided to launch this. I want it that way book club, and it was you know, the kind of variety of eighties, nineties, I feel like a radio show hosts like eighties, nineties, and today, young adult literature. 

Um, but I kind of made this list and when I sent it out, I believe to the two of you, just to kind of gauge your reactions cause I had tried to pick like a wide range of decades, genres, et cetera, and so what were your thoughts on the list? Um, did you, did any books immediately stick out as you being excited about? Where their books you hadn't read before? There were, so there are 12 books on the list we're working our way through them throughout the year. What were your thoughts on that initial kind of rundown?

Lucy: [00:13:59] I have [00:14:00] not read I don't think I've read any of them and I've been asking myself why, like I record, I recognize the titles of probably two-thirds of them um, but had never read them. Uh, my excuse is that my parents are not American. I feel like I read more, a lot more like British. I don't know, but, uh, I have not read any of them, but I mean, I'm excited and just like the way I want to read as many classics as I can. I was like, oh, if these are classic kids lit, I do, I want to read them. I'm excited to know about them. 

Annie: [00:14:43] It is a very American list. I didn't, I hadn't really thought of that till you said it, but like it's not Mary Poppins. It's not Roald Dahl. Like it's, it's very, it's very much an American millennials list. Olivia, what did you think of it? 

Olivia: [00:14:58] I was excited [00:15:00] because a lot of the titles just like Lucy, I recognized, but most of them, I had not read before. Maybe a handful I had read, but not really remembered the plot to them. So it was kind of fun to go back and like, I was always looking forward to going back and read like classics of that era, you know and finally remembering the plot. 

Annie: [00:15:23] It's been long enough now where even the ones I had read before, I really didn't have much recollection of what happened. And because that's kind of how I am as a person. Like I can remember how a book made me feel, but characters names I lose almost immediately. Um, so for those listening, so the full young adults book club lists we will put in the show notes, but it had books like Babysitting is a Dangerous Job, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler, All-of-a-Kind Family, 145th Street, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.

 So like it kind of covered even a wide range of [00:16:00] it's both middle grade and young adults. And I, cause I think that's the other thing. It's not just YA books. It's really middle grade classics too and so I'm curious, did you, w if you had been making your own lists and Lucy, this'll be interesting for you, especially thing, but like if you had been making a list of like books you wanted to revisit as an adult that you read in your childhood, what books would have made your list?

Olivia: [00:16:25] Oh, I feel like you should have prepped us for this question Annie. Throw that question at me.

Lucy: [00:16:35] Make sure we're worthy of being on staff.

Annie: [00:16:36] On your toes. 

Olivia: [00:16:40] Mine would start with like, A Series of Unfortunate Events, uh, Artemis Fowl, Charlotte's Web. I would still keep From the Mixed-Up Files in there. I love that book. I think it's a classic. Maybe Narnia, but I read as a child probably more dramatic DNC than anything. 

[00:17:00] Lucy: [00:17:01] Yeah, I guess mine would be all of the, um, the deep cuts of Roald Dahl, none of the hits of Roald Dahl. I have like very vivid memories of reading Betsy-Tacy, and then later Tib, Betsy-Tacy and Tib um, but I couldn't tell you basically anything about it now, except for that they have brown blonde and red hair. Um, so I would definitely want to go back and re reread that probably Narnia as well. Um, maybe the Hobbit, cause that's like more attainable for that age group than the full Lord of Rings. Yeah. Maybe Charlotte's Web too and like some of the sweeter classics, Secret Garden. Hmm. 

Annie: [00:17:50] Did y'all read Madeleine L'Engl? Like growing up, Wrinkle in Time obviously is like her, you know, her big hit, although she's written obviously several more, [00:18:00] but like, I actually had not read that as a kid. I read it as an adult a couple of years ago when the movie came out but one of my favorite memories of reading growing up was reading The Austin Family Chronicles, which gosh, I really did try to push at the Bookshelf for a long while and they just did not go, but I loved those books so much, but I don't remember anything about them except a scene in Antarctica. There's like a scene, a cold weather scene that sticks out to me, but I love those books so much. Were you guys fans of her at all? 

Olivia: [00:18:27] Um, I had heard of her was like, I had heard of A Wrinkle in Time, but I think I watched the movie. My Girl once and it scarred me. I knew something sad would be in that book. Um, so I was just like I'm okay.

Annie: [00:18:47] Okay. Wait, that's actually the perfect segue because we've been reading w we're we just finished our fifth meeting of the year and the last book we read was Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. It was [00:19:00] a book that moved even Olivia to tears like we were all very tearful about it and it led me to think, gosh, like as an adult, I like or I am certainly not afraid of sad books. Like I don't necessarily pick them out, but if they find me, I am not offended. Like I don't mind a heavier book and as a kid, I loved that kind of stuff though. I don't think that's what I would've said. Like, I don't think I would have said, oh, I love Bridge to Terabithia because it's sad like I just thought it's a great book.

Lucy: [00:19:30] You'd be a monster.

Annie: [00:19:33] Well, I did. I told you guys this before. I told Hunter this the other day and he was appalled, but like I loved the movie jaws, but like, especially the bloody parts, like I would make, I would make my, I would make my childhood best friend rewind to the blood. So I was not scared of like [00:20:00] a darker, sadder, heavier subject matter and I wonder, and in fact, I, I really believe this is true now, there was a great article in the New York times about Baby-Sitters Club, introducing this man to literary fiction, like in how he thinks reading the Baby-Sitters club as a child, helped him like literary fiction as an adult and I definitely feel the same way. 

Like Walk Two Moons moved me in the same way Gilead by Marilynne Robinson moved me. Like I find the themes that I liked in childhood and even the heavier subject matters that I enjoyed and stuff in childhood, I find myself enjoying the same things in adult reading, and I wonder has the nostalgia book club, or I want it that YA book club made you guys investigate and analyze your adult reading life and, and did the books you read as a kid affect your adult reading life? 

Olivia: [00:20:50] I feel like I'm constantly questioning my reading life as someone who like loves kids live, but then goes and reads like dark thrillers are just like, yeah. [00:21:00] And I do remember the past, the past, uh, club we did with Walk Two Moons, I was wondering the whole time I was like, because I remembered as a child really loving Walk Two Moons, but also not enjoying heavier books. Like books with having a lot of depth in them but then I clicked that like Walk Two Moonsand like, Because of Winn-Dixie, Olive's Ocean, those were all books that I read in school and Star Girl by Jerry Spinelli. Like all those, like heart renters are books that I read in school, so I would not have picked them out but then when I was forced to read them, I enjoyed them. 

Annie: [00:21:42] Interesting. Yeah. 

Lucy: [00:21:44] I feel like I just analyzing this recently. I did read a lot of like silly books. Um, funny, humorous, silly, um, Books and I don't do that now at all, but [00:22:00] if I were to like, try and find a through line, I think I did really like a lot of historically informed books as a child. I sent you guys that picture of me reading with my belt, my beauty and the beast sheets and I zoomed in on it. I was reading a book about Pocahontas and I'm like, yeah, I would have read like a biography book of Pocahontas at the time. Um, and then the other thing I like Betsy-Tacy. It's about relationships. Like it's about friendships and I'm pretty interested in books about relationships, but now I recognize that it's like, I'm interested in the heart, like the psychological reasons why people behave the way they do and how they interact, um, in that way so but I don't read silly, crazy books anymore.

Annie: [00:22:48] I don't know that I would have been able to say, I mean, I like kids literature, but Olivia you're certainly on staff, the person who is mostly reading that genre. So I'm not somebody who [00:23:00] is reading a ton of modern kid lit, but by rereading these books from my childhood or some of these books that I'm reading for the first time, I am struck by how profound some of them are. There are silly elements to some and Walk Two Moons is fresh on my mind, but even some of the other books we've read, like I, in the last book club we had, I think I said out loud, like, did I even need to read adult literature anymore? Like, is children's literature really the masterful, like, I just feel like Sharon Creech is a master of her craft and I'm not sure in adulthood, we talk about her anymore. 

I think in libraries and schools, people are still lobbying and praising Sharon Creech, but like in the literary community that we inhabit as booksellers, I just don't hear her name mentioned very often. Um, partly because, you know, we do a lot of adult literature, but I just there's a part of me that is like, do I just need to give up adult lit and read children's lit from [00:24:00] now on, because it is so much more profound than I remember it being and maybe it's because I'm reading it as an adult now and so I'm seeing underneath even maybe things that I wouldn't have picked up on as a kid. 

Lucy: [00:24:10] There's that quote by there's a couple of quotes, I think by CS Lewis about like a children's book. But this only enjoyed by children is not worth reading at all or something like that or if you enjoy it at age 10, you should enjoy it at eight 50. Yeah. But that's good kids lit.

Annie: [00:24:33] That's true. Well, Jordan and I are rereading and problems with JK Rowling aside, but we're rereading Harry Potter and I. Okay, I do not remember at all crying, uh, except the end of the Harry Potter series. Like I do, I do remember that, but, um, I was about 11 when I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone for the first time and we were rereading it together and I was reading aloud and like, I stopped [00:25:00] because I was, I was getting emotional. I didn't like sob or anything, but it's when Harry is standing in front of the mirror of erised and he sees his family and he doesn't want to leave because he finally gets to see his family and as an adult person, I was very moved by that in a way that I don't know that I was when I was 11.

 Like I think when I was 11, I thought, oh, how cool? Like Harry gets to see his parents for the first time but as an adult, I'm like this child who is orphaned is getting to see his parents and his grandparents and he is immovable, like he will not move from his spot because he so desperately wants to see his family and so I was deeply moved by that and was kind of caught off guard by it. 

Like, I really did not expect to feel anything, uh, anything other than perhaps nostalgia and enjoyment until maybe the end of the series but instead I was deeply touched by it and I'm also finding myself deeply touched by Harry's empathy. Like things that I don't think I picked up on as a [00:26:00] kid reader, I am very much picking up on as an adult reader.

Lucy: [00:26:04] And I think there's also to an innate nostalgia and just reading books where all the narrators are young, you know, like you're in your back in your 12 year old self. Um, and, but now you can see like more complex emotional issues as an adult, or even like a lot of our book club members are now parents of children that age or about to be that age and so there's that added extra layer of emotional stuff. 

Annie: [00:26:38] Yeah. Um, so far we have red, I'm going to name them to help you remember but so far, other than the Baby-Sitters Club, we've read Babysitting is a Dangerous Job, Thwonk,  145 Street, Are You There, God? It's me, Margaret and Walk Two Moons. I'm curious, which is your favorite we've read so far [00:27:00] and had you read it before? Olivia, what's your been your favorite?

Olivia: [00:27:04] I'm really torn between 145 Street and Walk Two Moons but I think I'm leaning towards 145 Street, just because there were so many stories in that book that I still think about in certain situations. Um, and I still go back to a lot and as, as moving as a Walk Two Moons was, I think there is like a staying power of 145th Street and the fact that it was written years ago, but it's still relevant today so I think that one was my favorite.

Lucy: [00:27:38] Those were my top two as well, but I would go with Walk Two Moons. I feel like both of them though, I need to reread like, almost immediately, because I did, as we do a little bit, cram it and but they both have like so many things to just sit and mull over. Um, yeah. They're so [00:28:00] complex, but yes, Wal Two Moons is my favorite. I hadn't read it before. 

Annie: [00:28:04] I, so my top two are interestingly the same as your top two and I actually think if we were to pull the club, I think they would be the club's top two as well, which is interesting because I look back and I, so I love Joan Bauer. She's one of my favorite authors I read as a teenager and I loved Thwonk as like just a fun kind of throw away book and I like, and I throw away sounds so harsh, but I just mean like, as a fun, lighter read and I definitely could see why I liked that as a senior in high school cause it's about a senior who's trying to make decisions and so I certainly can look back and know why 18,17 year old annie really liked that book. Um, but it's 145 Street and Walk Two Moons that I think I put at the top of my list and I wonder if, because I don't know, themes are more adult.

 Like, it's almost like I liked those less for the nostalgia and more just they're really good literature. Like, [00:29:00] like even though I, I had read Walk Two Moons before both of those books, just to me are outstanding works of literature. 145 Street, it's a great collection of short stories. And I told, I was trying to describe it to Jordan. I was like 145 Street, despite his publication date is surprisingly timely and then I was like, and Walk Two Moons to me, it's timeless. 

Like it could have been set in the great depression or the fifties and instead, I think it was set when it was written during the nineties. And I loved it in 2021. So I don't know both of those books to me have serious staying power and I liked them perhaps less for the nostalgia than just, I really liked them as books. I thought they were really great, well written books. 

Lucy: [00:29:43] Interesting too, because the other books that we didn't choose as our favorites are more like. Babysitters club to me and like, that's what we started with and we loved that. That was like what we needed at the time. I'm like if I had walked read Walk Two Moons last may, [00:30:00] I don't know. I feel like maybe we've just done a really natural, nice progression back into being able to be moved again. 

Annie: [00:30:10] Yeah. Yeah, that's true. That's fair. I don't think I could have handled it. And, um, in may of last year, I don't think. What has been the biggest challenge to you in reading these young adult books or these books from like the eighties and nineties? I was, I was a little worried, you know, when you w where are you put on your 2021 lens, like, what, what do these books look like under a 2021 lens? But I've actually been for the most part, pleasantly surprised, but I'm curious what the challenge to you has been?

 For me, the biggest challenge has been, um, reading them, like finding the reading time to read them and then every time I do it is like Baby-Sitters Club. Like I wait till the last minute, like Walk Two Moons, partly through no fault of our own Olivia and I both read and I think you did too Lucy, like the day of the day of book club, [00:31:00] which is not maybe my ideal way to read, but because of reading for shell subscriptions or reading for a summer reading guide like that's how my reading life looks. But when I do read them, I'm never disappointed. Like, I'm never like, oh, this is a slog. 

Like, no, instead I have a lot of fun or I'm laughing or I'm crying. Like I. Every single one of these books that we have read, I have had an enjoyable reading experience. It's like the buildup to reading them that for me has been one of the biggest challenges. But what has the biggest challenge been for you guys?

Olivia: [00:31:31] I think for me, it's taking away the, um, I don't know how to word it, but it's like, I don't, I don't.

Lucy: [00:31:47] I'm happy to go. Biggest challenge for me is childcare. I need childcare once a month, which sounds like really, you know, not very [00:32:00] frequently, but somehow it's always a problem. So yeah, childcare for the actual book club, I feel like as soon as you. Finding, you know, on that Monday, I'm usually like, oh, it's a book club week, I guess it's better get reading. Um, and I mean, it's not, it doesn't even feel like a challenge when I'm saying yes, but finding the time to read it and then getting childcare. 

Olivia: [00:32:26] Okay. I think mine, I always picture these books in like from a while ago. So I'm like, oh, these won't be relevant or I have these preconceived notions of what I'm about to read and it's, it's stopping myself from letting those notions kind of guide me in that book and just like removing that. Hm, because then once I remove that and I get into the book, they're great. They're great books, but it is like, it does take me a minute to be like, to not judge it. 

Annie: [00:32:58] That's fair. Um, [00:33:00] and I wonder too, so like I enjoy watching old movies. Like I, I certainly am highly nostalgic. Like I, and I almost have to catch myself, like from being a too nostalgic of a person. Like Jordan is constantly, sometimes I'll be like, Jordan, don't you just miss being a kid? And he'll look at me and be like, no, I get to eat pizza whenever I want now.

And so do like tend to look at things through the kind of this rose colored lens and I. I think it's been so interesting to kind of read these books, both from the nostalgia factor, but also just analyzing them as works of literature and to try to go in kind of with an open mind and to go in without these preconceived notions of yeah, like I do with maybe some old shows or things that I watch, like the same kind of guidelines I guess, apply to my reading as well. What do you think? So that's the challenge, what do you think has been the benefit of rereading these old favorites or just reading kid lit? Because I know, [00:34:00] um, we haven't, these haven't entirely been reread. Some of them we've been reading for the first time. So what has been the benefit or the biggest joy? 

Olivia: [00:34:08] I like just going back and finally knowing these plots to some of these books. Like I think I could tell parents before they're like, oh, walk two moons is amazing. Like I loved it as a kid and now I like knowing that, okay. I maybe can't recommend anyone who walks in the store. It is great, but it's hard.,It's a harder read. Um, and so I think it's just the fun, isn't that like, knowing now that I can talk to these books that I maybe couldn't before. 

Lucy: [00:34:37] Did you guys know I have a baby? Do I ever talk about it? So for me, it's been like rediscovering the joy of reading after like pregnancy, which I loved, loved, loved working at the bookshelf, but I was gone from nine to seven and I was [00:35:00] fully pregnant. So I got home and I was like, Unable to get off the couch. So you're like too tired to read. Um, so that was difficult then obviously there's the newborn stage and then you're trying to like rediscover the joy of reading and, you know, you need things that are, you can read quickly that are exciting or moving, or, you know, just interesting and I I had, um, for our Valentine's day, Galentine's day, um, both dates, somebody choosing you because she was a new mom. 

And she was like, what? Give me some things too, that will make me want to read as a new mom. And this is what I would say. Yeah. Young adult children's literature, things that you loved when you were little or things that other people loved, you know, when they were little. It's such a good way to rediscover that joy, that page turning joy, and then [00:36:00] like, you know, feeling of accomplishment having finished something quickly.

Annie: [00:36:05] Yeah, I think I have been pleasantly surprised too, by the wide ranging genres available in kid lit because we don't often talk about that. Like we talk about it in adult lit like things are literary fiction or their mystery suspense or their historical fiction and you forget all of that exists under the umbrella of kid lit as well and so when we talk about the books that we've read so far, we've read this mystery suspense. We've read like, you know, coming of age, this little girl grappling with her, um, the onset of puberty and also her spiritual awakening. We've read a book, a book about, uh, Like a romcom kind of, sort of like girl who wants to fall in love. We've read about grandparents. 

Like it's really run the gamut and you forget that when you, I don't know when you're just going through a kid's literature catalog or your trying to recommend [00:37:00] books to a grandparent in the back of a store. Like it's easy to just kind of say, oh, all of these books are children's chapter books or they're middle grade and we divide them up by age group more than by genre, I guess. And so it has been nice to discover that like, oh, kid lit covers so many different categories and that's been fun for me to rediscover that there really is something for every kid. Um, and, and as an adult getting to experience those things has just been really fun.

And I have had a lot of fun and my reading life, isn't always fun. Like my people have asked that before, like, oh, did the bookshelf change your reading life for just reading feel like work? And I've always said no, like, cause I still really liked to read and I would hate for reading to feel like work, but it kind of does feel like work sometimes. Like trying to find a shelf subscription or trying to read for a certain event or something like that and reading these books, even though we're reading them for book club, conversation has felt like fun. 

Like it's just felt like, oh, this is what I do for fun and [00:38:00] I think part of the reason I wanted to record this episode today is because yes, it's the year anniversary of The Baby-Sitters Club. But as we embark on summer reading, I think summer is a great time to just read for fun and to revisit kid lits if maybe you haven't read it in a long time. Like, I think, I think there is something to be said for taking the next two or three months and reading alongside your kids, the book they're reading the books, they're reading for summer reading or something like that. 

There's something about summer to me where I think reading reading should be fun and maybe a little bit nostalgic and, um, If I didn't already have, uh, I want it that YA book club, I think I would be drawn to and I was last year. Like I was drawn to rereading Bloomability. I was drawn  to rereadA n Old Fashioned Girl because getting to reread is rare for me, but summer is a good time to do it. 

What book are you most looking forward to reading? I've got the rest of the list if you'd like to hear it. Uh, so w next step, we're [00:39:00] reading The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Finding My Voice, All-of-a-Kind Family, From the Mixed-Up Files, the Face on the Milk Carton, Anastasia's Chosen Career and my favorite title, DRAT! We're Rats. 

Lucy: [00:39:17] Um, I'm most excited for From the Mixed-Up Files,of, we're going to have to decide basal, basil? 

Annie: [00:39:23] I have always said Basil. What have you said, Olivia?

Olivia: [00:39:26] From the mixed up files? I say Basal. 

Lucy: [00:39:29] Put it in a poll

Annie: [00:39:30] Interesting.

Lucy: [00:39:35] Yeah, that's the one I'm most excited for. 

Olivia: [00:39:37] I was going to say the same thing cause I just, that was like my all time favorite book. I remember reading that one and then packing up a little sack and like attempting to run away, getting halfway down the block and realizing this is not a good idea, but like, I just, I want to know if it still holds u. Like if I still love it just as much as I haven't re-read it ever since then, [00:40:00] so. 

Annie: [00:40:01] That would be mine, except I re-read it a couple of years ago, I read it aloud to Jordan. He had never read it and it it's delightful. It's so good. It's so good even as adults but the other one I'm going to say is, um, the face on the milk carton, just because I remember being terrified by that book as a child, but like in a good way. Like I liked to be good, scared, and I'm just curious, is it going to be that or are we going to read it and be like, oh, this is cheesy or are we going to be like, Why were we allowed to read this as children? Like, I was just curious, like which category it's going to fall into. Like, like it wasn't a good idea or why did Annie ever, why was she ever allowed to read this? So that's the one I'm I'm kind of looking forward to.

 Okay. At the end of 2021, do you think continuing to read kid lit whether in book club format, or as, or just as readers and Olivia, the answer will be different for you because you read kid lit all the time, but I'm curious, like at the end of 2020, I was sad to see Baby-Sitters Club go. [00:41:00] Like I was sad and also just really grateful cause it was a highlight of my year. I'm curious where I Want it that YA book club will fall, do you think in your 2021? Like, will it be a highlight? Is it something you would want, you think you'll want to keep doing? Will it have changed your reading life? Like even if you didn't have the book club, would you go back to reading the occasional work of kids' literature? 

Lucy: [00:41:23] I think so for me, yeah, definitely. There have been a number of kids lit books that have come out recently that I hear Olivia talk about and I'm like, I think I would love that. And one that I even started, um, what was the world war two one, olivia? Do you remember what I'm talking about? Yeah, it was like a couple of years ago. It had a really cute cover 

Olivia: [00:41:47] is it the echo mountain? 

Lucy: [00:41:49] Thank you. Sorry. It's not where it WW1. It was great depression. I started reading that. I was like, oh, this is so good and then I was like, I don't have time for this and I feel like this book club has told me, yes, you [00:42:00] do. You read it in two days. Like, just read it. Um, it's not like you're not going to be able to find a shelf subscription if you stop and read, um, a children's book that looks good to you and obviously I'm also coming up on like in a number of years, um, needing to needing a collection of books to give to Gabriel. So yeah, I do feel like it's changed. It's going to have changed my reading life. 

Olivia: [00:42:26] Yeah. I mean, I obviously am still going to continue reading kids lit. I do. I feel like I look at it differently now because the books that we have read feel like there's a certain stain power to them and now I just try to read and I'm like, does this have that same staying power? Because a lot of the books that are coming up now are just so timely for what's going on right now and that's not to say that it won't be timely and you know, in a year or so. I think the book club has been like such a big highlight for [00:43:00] me, just because I, you know, I read all this kids lit, but I don't necessarily have other people to talk about it with who have also read it. So it's really fun getting to read these books and knowing that like at the end of the month, like, I got a lot of people I get to chat about these books with her now also know exactly what I'm talking about. 

Annie: [00:43:23] Yeah. Yeah. There, the club itself has brought a lot of joy too. And I have struggled with my in real life like I have struggled with my book club and I've struggled because of, um, my reading life changed during the pandemic and I've had a really hard time finding the rhythm. And I feel like I can't keep up with my book club books anymore, but lucy, you mentioned like the time commitment for this is so low. Like I even took home a new children's books this weekend and I read it in two hours, like, and it was delightful and super fun. And I was done in two hours and you're right, Lucy, like there is time to read a kid. Like there is time to read the kids' [00:44:00] literature. 

It doesn't take as long whereas, you know, if we're reading adult led, I think sometimes we're like, oh my gosh, it's going to take me a week to slog through or a few days to slog through and kids lit really isn't that way just because it is a quicker for me as an adult reader. So I think no matter what, I hope that I'll continue reading the occasional work of kids' literature because I feel like it can easily find a home in my reading life in a way that it's been, it's been hard to keep up with my regular book club. It's not been that hard to keep up with this one.

 Like, I feel like I know the week of, or like I could never read Belcanto the day of my book club. That's an example from actually today. Today is my, today is my book club and I've not read Belcanto like, and I'm not, there's no cramming Belcanto so. Yeah, I think the club itself has also just been a real bright spot for me and low stakes and, and I hate to say it, but low commitment. Like I still love my book club and I'm not, I'm not giving up on my book [00:45:00] club, but like, this has been nice at a time where it feels like every small commitment feels huge. Like as we leave, as we kind of exits ish the pandemic, like all of a sudden, I feel like my calendar is starting to fill up and commitments feel high, but this really isn't like, this is just kind of low key. Oh, yeah. I can read that two days before. No problem.

Lucy: [00:45:20] I'm here to represent the average Josephine's listening. Uh, when you say that you could slog through a book in a couple of days, I could easily take a month  to slog through a book. It's a bookshelf life. I'm sorry. I'm telling somebody like you should get your friend a hundred dollar gift and they're like, do you have anything cheaper? And she's like cheaper?

Annie: [00:45:51] I just will. I'll just remember that you compared me to Oprah for the rest of my life. Uh, [00:46:00] thank you guys, guys so much for talking nostalgic reads with me. If you are interested in the books, we are reading for the young adult book club, you can find that list in our show notes, and you can also find the books that are available from the publisher, because several of them are struggling to be in print right now, but you can find the ones that are available on our website. 

Thanks guys. 

Olivia: [00:46:21] Thanks! 

Lucy: [00:46:21] Thank you.

Annie: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com. 

A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com. 

Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. 

This week, I’m reading Razorblade Tears by S.A. Cosby. 

Olivia, what are you reading? 

Olivia: [00:47:08] I am reading Holdout by Jeffery Kluger. 

Annie: [00:47:11] Lucy?

Lucy: [00:47:12] I'm reading Cloud Cuckoo Land, the new book coming out by Anthony Doerr.

Annie: [00:47:18] 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.

kids table, episodesAnnie Jones

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