Episode 326 || Best Books of the Year... So Far

This week Annie is joined by friend, Bookstagrammer and frequent co-host, Hunter McLendon to chat about their favoirte books of the year... so far.

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:

Annie’s list:

Revival Season by Monica West
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heather
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
Brood by Jackie Polzin
Olympus Texas by Stacey Swann

Hunter’s List:

The Natural Mother of the Child by Krys Malcolm Belc
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
Detransition Baby by Torrey Peters
Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
My Year Abroad by Chang-Rae Lee
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Sarahland by Sam Cohen
Yes Daddy by Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome

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 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Hunter is reading The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemisin.

Thank you again to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are passing through, I hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia: www.thomasvillega.com.

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

210624_FTFP_Episode 326_Favorites_mixdown

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

“She wasn’t the type of mother who yelled for her son from the bleachers. That wasn’t in her. Her love stayed caught inside her body like a crab trapped in a net.”

- Kristen Arnett, With Teeth

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and hey! We’re almost halfway through the year. Today, I’m joined by friend, Bookstagrammer, and frequent co-host Hunter Mclendon to chat about our favorite books of the year… so far.

Hi Hunter!

Hunter: [00:01:00] Hello.

Annie: [00:01:02] I'm so glad you're here. You're my favorite person to talk about like, recaps with, you know what I mean? Like we like to compare, I love your national book award predictions, your Pulitzer predictions and I just like kind of touching base with you mid year to see how our reading lives are going.

Hunter: [00:01:20] Um, yes and I would just like everyone to note that I am your favorite person, that's all I've heard so far. I'm your favorite. Jordan, move over. Ashley, move over. Anyone in the world, move over. It's me.

Annie: [00:01:32] Hunters coming in. I just, I really, this was on the agenda and when I saw that it was actually moved it up a little bit cause I was like, I really want to talk to him about this now because my, my reading life this year has felt a little more odd than 2020 even and I'm not sure if that, if I'm alone in that. Um, but my reading has felt a little bit all over the place. I'm wondering what your reading life has looked like this year?

Hunter: [00:01:57] You know, it's so funny you say that because [00:02:00] 2020, I felt like getting really drunk and then 2021 feels like the hangover.

Annie: [00:02:06] Oh, Hunter. I, as you know, I don't know exactly what you're talking about, but I definitely, yeah, that comparison rings true to me because I do feel like I read a lot of books in 2020. I read a lot of good books in 2020. Like I had difficulty picking a top title and 2021, I feel a little bit, um, sluggish in my reading. I'm reading some things that I don't really like, um, or that I like, but don't love and so it was fun to sit and really think about if I `were to right now have to make my top 10, what would it include? And what I came up with was surprising to me.

Hunter: [00:02:45] I would say whenever, whenever we were texting about this, I went into mine and I had an idea of what I thought it was going to be and then as I was reading, I were looking through my books. I was like, oh my gosh, this is not the reading year I thought I had so far.

Annie: [00:02:57] Yeah. I've had very few [00:03:00] five star books and, and that doesn't mean anything because I've read a lot of books. I really like when I give a book five stars, to me, that means like almost perfection to me. Like it's going to be my top book of the year, whatever so I read a lot of books around four stars, because if it's a book I don't really like, I'm probably not going to finish it. Um, or it'll be around that two and a half star realm, like if I really don't like it. If I like it, it's between three and three and a half. If I like it a lot, it's four and then like, agai. Five star, I really reserve. Um, but I've not read a ton of five star books.

So this is, this is going to be a really interesting exercise. So here's how we're going to do this. We each made a list of our top 10 so as if we were making our top 10 of 2021 right now. This is what would be on it and we're going to go back and forth in reverse order. So we're going to start with number 10. Why don't you start us off?

Hunter: [00:03:51] Okay. So my number 10 pick was My Year Abroad, um, by, oh gosh, [00:04:00] I cannot remember how to say his name. I don't have it in front of me, Chang-Rae Lee. I cannot remember, but that's, it's my, it's My Year Abroad. Um, it's this, it's one of those like Goldfinch type, very like long sprawling books. You started it.

Annie: [00:04:15] I started it. I really liked it. I was considering it for a shelf subscription, but I didn't finish because I was a little daunted by the size.

Hunter: [00:04:21] It is one of those where like, it's so funny. I, so I also recommend the, um, audio book because I don't know why, but there's something about the guy's voice that I don't even know. I can't remember what I compared it to, but it was just, just whiny enough to where I don't know why, but I'm attracted to like slightly whiny men who are also a little bit rugged um, and that's the vibe I got, but I don't know. It was just one of those books where like, there's just so. It read, like a classic where, you know how we we've been reading these big classics past two years and there's, it's some of those sometimes where, you know, it's kind of slow, but then there's these really beautiful gems of human observation.

Annie: [00:05:00] [00:05:00] Yes

Hunter: [00:05:01] And that's what that book kind of gave to me.

Annie: [00:05:03] Okay. Okay. I love again, this is the other reason I wanted to do this because I kind of wanted to evaluate my reading life and see what on Hunter's list. Do I need to move to my TBR like this? So I'm glad we're doing this. Okay. My number 10 title is Revival Season. This is by Monica West. Have you read?

Hunter: [00:05:22] No, but I want to.

Annie: [00:05:23] Okay, so I really liked this book. It is very quiet to me. It is not really a plot driven novel. It is in my opinion, more character driven and it's certainly tackling those subjects that you and I are often drawn towards. So if you are a reader who enjoys reading about faith, I think you'd really like this. This is about a young woman named Miriam who's coming of age and she is deeply religious. She's deeply devoted to her Christian faith and her father is a traveling, a traveling evangelist and so every summer she and her family like [00:06:00] load into their car and they travel across the south to lead these revivals in these Black evangelical communities.

As part of these revivals, they do healings and the book, this is not a spoiler, but kind of immediately as this family kind of embarks upon their revival season, her father does a healing and Miriam sees something wrong and so immediately she is kind of now reevaluating where her faith comes from, how she, as a girl, can live out her faith in a male dominated community and her relationship with her father.

So like all things I am very interested in, but yeah. It's like considering how much ground it covers. It's a pretty thin book and it is very, just kind of unassuming and quiet and yet Miriam sticks with you for a long time. I really, really liked her character a lot and if you grew up religious and particularly if you grew [00:07:00] up, um, a woman in a religious community, I think this would be really appealing and interesting because of some of what is dealing with in terms of what women are permitted to do, what women's giftings are compared to what men's giftings are or how they're traditionally seen. I really liked this book a lot. I liked the writing and I love the character development. Um, so it is that's Revival Season by Monica west.

Hunter: [00:07:24] That sounds so good and it also reminds me of a book I read last year that I loved. Um, Shiner, but Amy Jo Burns.

Annie: [00:07:30] That is still one I would like to read. I remember you talking about that one and it doesn't, it deal with healings as well? Like I feel like.

Hunter: [00:07:38] Her father is like a snake handler, you know, whatever, and he, and something goes wrong or something. Yeah. So, okay.

Annie: [00:07:46] So that could be a good counterpart. All right. What's your number nine?

Hunter: [00:07:49] Okay. My number nine is oh, it's this book called Yes, Daddy by Jonathan [00:08:00] Parks-Ramage, I believe. Um, it is a, listen, this is, you can skip it. It's not for you. Um, there is a TW like content trigger warning for there's a lot of sexual assault in this book, but it is about a young man who gets involved with a much older playwright and he's kind of, and the playwright kind of becomes like a version of like a sugar daddy for him, but it is, it's kind of like where I feel like my life would have gone if I had moved to a big city, um, which I love obviously. Um, I love to see my alternate paths and it's one of those books where I literally it's so funny. I was at a, I was at a friend's baby shower and recently vaccinated and I was like, I literally woke up at 3:00 AM because I had started the book and I was like, I've got to finish this book and I, I just couldn't help it. It's one of those words, it's such a page turner.

Annie: [00:08:57] It's fiction.

Hunter: [00:08:58] It's fiction yeah, um, [00:09:00] and it's, I don't know. I'm trying to even remember. I dunno, it just has one of those things where like the plot just moves so quickly and there's just so much happening. It feels very like, I don't know, I don't, I probably like HBO, like mini series type vibe to it.

Annie: [00:09:16] Okay. Interesting. Okay. My number nine is a memoir. It is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. So I thought a lot about this one because I really liked this book a lot, but I read it accidentally in two parts. Like I started reading it late last year, put it down, really liked it, but put it down um, because I felt like it was reading it too far in advance of publication and then picked it back up and really wound up, especially devouring the latter part. This is another book that combines a lot of genres. I love. I love books about grief and in fact, have read a lot of books about grief in 2021 and I don't think that's a coincidence.

I also love, um, books that deal with food and [00:10:00] family and food as it relates to our identity and Michelle Zauner, if you're not familiar, Michelle Zauner has a great piece in theN ew Yorker on which this essay collection kind of came from this one essay called Crying in H Mart. She is Korean American, and she writes beautifully about her relationship with her mother, her complicated relationship with her dad, and then her relationship to her Korean heritage. I selected this for a shelf subscription earlier this year and one of the things I said in my card, and I think you'll appreciate this now because you're, we talked off air about how you're in the middle of watching Gilmore Girls, but I felt like Crying in H Mart was if GilmoreG irls had been about the Kim family, instead of about the Gilmore family.

I just see such similarities in Lane's relationship with Mama Kim and Michelle's relationship with her mother and I just really loved this. I also think it'd make a great audio book. I've not listened to the audio book.

Hunter: [00:10:55] It is an audio book.

Annie: [00:10:56] Oh, did you listen to it?

Hunter: [00:10:58] Yeah.

Annie: [00:10:58] I thought it would make a [00:11:00] good one because I like memoirs in audio book format and Ashley pointed out rightfully, Ashley, I think listened to the audio book that it was really nice to hear those Korean words pronounced correctly whereas sometimes when I, as an English speaking reader read books, I tend to skip, skip over the words that I know I cannot pronounce correctly and so Ashley said that really brought something kind of rich and meaningful to her, to her listening experience. So that is Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner. Did you like this book?

Hunter: [00:11:28] I did. I totally forgot I'd read this like, oh, that's a good pick. Yeah. Okay. Let's see. My next pick is we're on number eight now, looking back. Okay. The Natural Mother of the Child. Um, it's it's uh, the, the subtitle is, um, A Memoir of Non-Binary Parenthood. It's by Krys Malcolm Belc, I believe. Um, and they identify, he identifies as trans [00:12:00] masculine and it's about his journey of being a, uh, like he he's the birth, he's the parent, the birthing parent of this, uh, like, like, like him and his wife, I believe had had a child before he got pregnant, but it is, it is a very, like it is, uh, it is a very like complicated, very nuanced to look at, um, what it means to be in a trans queer relationship as a queer parent, as a transparent and, and, and it's, I don't know, but it's, I just thought it was, so I literally took me like maybe two and a half hours to read. It was very quick.

Um, but it's just, it kind of reminded me of something along the lines of, uh, like the writing style, maybe of my autobiography of Carson McCullers or, or even something like, uh, In the Dream House by, uh, Carmen Maria Machado. Is that? Yeah. Um, but yeah, like it's just very, it's, it's kind of like, it's kind of [00:13:00] fragmented in some ways, but not in a way that's like distracting, but it really hearing about his experience being like, especially in the medical arena, kind of like that, that was very, it was just, it just brought to light a lot of things that I hadn't even considered.

Annie: [00:13:16] Mm, I love books like that. I, my book eight also deals with queer parenting and I started this at the top of the episode, a quote from this book so my number eight is With Teeth by Kristen Arnett, which I immediately read this book and passed it on to you because it is the kind of book that once you are done, you need someone else to read it almost immediately. If you like The Push to me that is a comp to this particular title, but I loved a lot of different things about it. So I loved Kristen Arnett's writing about Florida. You and I have talked before about how some, some writers, when they write about Florida, you can just tell they've never even, I've never even stepped foot in the state of Florida, but I thought Kristen Arnett wrote beautifully about the state of [00:14:00] Florida and at the heart of the book are these two moms who are parenting this little boy and the relationship one of the moms has with her son is so different from the mom who kind of works outside the home and it is the whole book, you're kind of wondering who's who do I trust here?

Do I trust the mom who's like having a hard time with her son and, and who is acknowledging that he's really difficult to parent or do I trust the son? Like who is trustworthy here, which is the same kind of vibe you get when you read The Push and the other thing that I thought was brilliant in terms of writing. This was my first Kristen Arnett book, but one thing I really liked was it's a very fast paced book. Like you die, you're dying to know what happened but as you're reading in between these chapters where you're mostly getting the perspective of the mother, there are these really brilliant, like two page, um, glimpses at another person's point of view, like a person, very outside the [00:15:00] story.

So at one point it's like the therapist in the therapist's office at another point, it's a bystander at the grocery store and that is the only hint you get that maybe things are not what they seem. Maybe this narrator is not as reliable as she seems. I thought this book was so smart. Like that's kind of the main takeaway for me, like in terms of writing, I thought the writing of this book was stellar and I just thought it was so, so smart and such an interesting look at parenting and about the stress that parenting could bring. I really liked this one a lot, and I'm glad I pass it on to you.

Hunter: [00:15:38] It's also on my list in a different spot. So I'm excited. Yeah.

Annie: [00:15:43] I was wondering if we'd had any overlap, so, okay, good.

Hunter: [00:15:46] Yeah. So, okay. So my number seven is Sarahland. It's a short story collection. It's by Sam Cohen and it's so funny cause actually I have, like, I have at least two shorts for collections [00:16:00] on my, uh, top tens of, or this year but Sarahland was one of those where, all of it's a con if they're not technically linked, but they all feel like they're part of the same world and I guess that's part of the purpose is that they're all stories with characters named Sarah. Um, but there's like some that are just so bizarre and there's one in particular that is very like Heathers, but Sarah and I don't know, listen, like I love books that are about like really complicated, quirky, um, sometimes toxic just like, you know, that, that part of girlhood that I just think is so interesting.

Annie: [00:16:38] You love messy.

Hunter: [00:16:39] I do. I love mess. It's like, I'm like, I'm like Marie, Marie Kondo. I love mess.

Annie: [00:16:47] Okay. My number seven. I'm curious to know if you've read this one. My number seven is Seven Days in June by Tia Williams.

Hunter: [00:16:54] No I haven't.

Annie: [00:16:56] Okay. This was very outside like in terms, if I look at this top [00:17:00] 10, Seven Days in June is kind of outside my typical genre, except it is romantic comedy feeling, it's just more heavy on the romance. So this feels a little bit more romance than I'm typically drawn to. Certainly steamier than I am typically drawn to. However, if we're talking about smart writing, if we're talking about those Gilmore Girls vibes, I thought this book was so good. So this book is about a woman who is a writer and she writes, this is the other thing, it really, there are so many books I feel like they have come out this year that have talked about, or have been adjacent to the publishing worlds and particularly the issue of racism in the publishing world but I think the way this one in particular was handled, I just really liked.

So the woman at the protagonist in this book is a genre writer. She writes almost like vampire, um, kind of Twilight esque, fantasy erotica, like, [00:18:00] um, and so, so that is, and this book, trust me, if you, if you're at a bookstore or a library and you read the first couple pages and it is not for you, then it is not for you. Like, because you'll know immediately that there's a scene where she chokes on her gum while she's engaging in a particular activity and I was die, I was rolling. Um, but it is definitely PG 13 material um, and, and gets to be R rated. So just if you're a, if you're a sensitive reader or a prudish reader, this may not be for you.

However, outside of kind of the sexy parts of this novel, the romantic parts of the novel. Um, there's also just a lot here about motherhood and there is something that I didn't see advertised very much is that the main character also deals with chronic illness and chronic illness, kind of invisible chronic illness, like ill, an illness that doesn't present itself to the public eye and how she, as a writer copes with that and how the coping mechanisms that she has had to kind of create for herself [00:19:00] to be the kind of writer, the kind of mother, um, the kind of person she has to present herself to the world to be there and then the romance, um, and this is kind of fun.

So the guy that she spends these seven days in June with is somebody that she connected with in high school and they had not maybe the healthiest relationship in high school and then they re kind of rekindle their romance and adulthood, and he is a literary fiction writer. So he is a Black man writing in the literary fiction world and there's really some interesting parts about the Black publishing community that I thought was interesting and then their love story as it relates to, to they're very different genres of literature. So there's a lot going on here that I really, I really liked and yeah, it's just an enjoyable book too. It's very summery so it'll be interesting to see if by the end of this. That it stays on the list because it does feel rather seasonal to me, but it is called Seven Days in June. That's my Tia Williams. You should read it.

Hunter: [00:19:56] That sounds so good. I've got to read it like [00:20:00] ASAP.

Annie: [00:20:00] Yeah. Put that one on your list. I think you'd like it.

Hunter: [00:20:02] Okay. I'm excited. My number six is another memoir. Um, which, and I will go ahead and preface this, the mistake. I almost didn't pick it up because I did not like the cover. Um, but it's called Punch Me Up to the Gods by Brian Broome.

Annie: [00:20:16] I remember seeing this.

Hunter: [00:20:17] Yeah and it's like, I'm like just showing you the cover.

Annie: [00:20:20] Yeah. Yeah. I was curious about this one. Would I like this?

Hunter: [00:20:24] I think so. So yeah, it is so good. I it's not only is it a, like, it's a good, like I both read and listened to it. Like I've like listened to it after I read it cause I was like, oh, I want to hear in his voice. Um, And it's just, I don't know, like he, right. He has such a clear, distinct voice and the way that he, the, the framing device that he chooses for this narrative is just really smart, I think and the way it comments on toxic masculinity and, and queerness and all of these things, it was just, I don't know. It's just one of those things where I read it and I was like, [00:21:00] wow, like, this is just a really good book. Um, and I also was like, I don't, like, I don't even know if I can articulate everything that is so, so great about it, but yeah, I just, I think that it was just so smart and so moving and, and also I love, I love when memoir, when people who write memoirs, when they, because we talk about this a lot, like, uh, they're able to capture both the love that people can have for them, but also how they can still be really toxic and abuse at the time and I think he balanced these, straddles that line really well in a, in a way that it's like both fair to himself and people he's writing about.

Annie: [00:21:34] Like Preist Daddy, I feel like she did that really well. Um, I read your Instagram review of this and wondered, and I think I'd like to do the audio book. I just finished a memoir on audio books. I think this would be a good next step.

Hunter: [00:21:47] I recommend.

Annie: [00:21:48] Okay. My number six and I'm realizing, like I only had one nonfiction on here and that was Crying in H Mart, all mine are fiction. Interesting and a short story collection came really [00:22:00] close, but I did not include a short story collection. So I'm glad you're kind of covering genres. Okay. My number six is Gold Diggers by Sanjena Sathian did you read this?

Hunter: [00:22:09] No, but I want to.

Annie: [00:22:11] Okay. This again, a little bit outside of genre for me, because there is a magical realism element and yet the way she incorporates it did not distract me and I also think a reader who typically is drawn to magical realism will enjoy it as well. So I, I think part of the reason I liked this book was because it sets in the nineties in a suburb of Atlanta. So you get these very suburban characters that I think typically for whatever reason, we don't always get good storytelling out of the suburbs, which I think is unfortunate. There are good stories to be told there and certainly you're dealing with these Indian American families and so you've got a lot about cultural identity and particular how the younger portions of these families are dealing with kind of their older family members and kind of the different approaches they [00:23:00] take to maybe adopting American culture and things like that.

But the magical realism element that comes into play is when these two characters at the heart of book, one of them is very ambitious and the other one is more ambivalent and then the young man who is the neighbor of this ambitious young woman who he's kind of got this unrequited love for, he realizes that she is ambitious, partly of her own doing, but also partly because she and her mother are in their basement, like making gold as one would make moonshine and then they drink the gold of the ambitious people they know. So like they steal gold from the ambitious people that they come into contact with and then they turn it into like this lemonade concoction and then they drink it.

I feel like this book just covers a lot of genres because you've got kind of this love story coming of age, the book, then flashes forward to California and incorporates, um, this kind of, [00:24:00] almost little bit of a campus novel, novel, a little bit of a heist story, and then some historical fiction also that I just was not anticipating. There's some stuff about the gold rush that I thought was really interesting. So I really love this book because it was a surprise. I think that's why I included it on this list is because when I go through the books that I've read this year, this one stands out as being unexpected. I did not expect that I would like this book and then I really did. And so because of that, that's why I included it as number six.

Hunter: [00:24:28] Uh, That is another one I really do want to read and I liked the cover too. I think it's interesting. It's like, yeah. Um, so my number five is one I didn't, I wasn't planning on reading it, but then I read the back of it and I was like, okay, which I, it, I act like this is like some, it's like a big book of the year. It's, um, Klara and the Sun. Oh yeah. By Kazuo Ishiguro, I believe it's how you say it. Um, but it's like a book about like, Little like this, about this little girl doll or like [00:25:00] robot AI thing. Um, and she's bought by this young girl and it's, I don't know. It feels, it felt in some ways to me and I know this is like such a dumb comparison, cause it feels so odd, but like AI, artificial intelligence with Haley Joel Osment. That's the kind of vibe I got from it in some ways.

But it's one of those, I, it was the pacing was so great and I could just visualize everything so clearly in my head as I was reading it and it went in a very, it went a much different direction than I expected. Um, there's like, there's about at the halfway point, you expect it to go into some like very dark territory and I found it to be an actually, I think it's a book that you would appreciate because it actually has to me a much like lighter ending than you'd expect.

Annie: [00:25:48] Okay. A couple of our staffers have read this one and really liked it. It's definitely on my radar. I'm trying to decide if I should make time for it before the end of the year. This is the difficulty about reading books that [00:26:00] bookshelf staffers have already read because it kind of feels like, oh, they've got it. They've covered it. I don't know if I need to, but okay. I'm curious. My number five and now we're getting into my top five, which I think will not be surprising at all. Like, like I just feel like these five will sound exactly like the kinds of books and Annie B. Jones would normally like.

So my number five is Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. I love Katherine Heiney. I've read everything she's written. I believe I'm pretty sure about that, including her short story collection, which I love. I just love the way she writes about her characters. Even the characters are unlikable to perhaps the typical reader. This book in particular is an ensemble cast. I think if you loved Amy Propel's books, which those books have brought me a lot of joy, particularly in the last year. If you like Schitt's Creek, I think you would really enjoy Early Morning Riser.

The main character in Early Morning Riser is Jane and Jane kind of lives, this [00:27:00] somewhat kind of prosaic, like normal life and she's a teacher and then she kind of falls in love as one does, then something happens and the wedding doesn't happen. Like there's just a lot going on and yet, I think a plot driven reader could still really like this book, but it is mostly about these people. It is mostly about Jane and this community that she kind of surrounds herself with, including some people who get on your last nerves. There's a character named Gary who should annoy the stew out of you, but at the same time, you're like, I definitely know a Gary. Like, like they just feel like I know people very much like him. Um, for some reason I'm thinking about Jerry Gurgitch from Parks and Recreation. Like, there's just, there's just something about these characters that I just fell in love with and I was not ready to be through with them.

One of our customers, Suzanne. She always, I love how she puts this when she's done with the book, she talks about how much she misses the characters and how much [00:28:00] she just misses hanging out with them and that's certainly the case for, um, the characters in Early Morning Riser. I just really miss them. This is also a book I'd recommend for fans of Kitchens of the Great Midwest, which was a favorite book of mine a few years ago. Um, you just really like the people in this book and the world can feel heavy and this book certainly doesn't shy away from the real world and the issues that you come across in the world in which we live but also it's just really, it's just really lovely. A breath of fresh air. I really liked that one.

Hunter: [00:28:32] I literally have an arc and I meant to read it after I firstly, raved about it and then I forgot about it. I'm glad you put it back on my radar.

Annie: [00:28:39] Because it's just so pleasant. It's just really pleasant reading.

Hunter: [00:28:44] Um, my number four is another book that I'm not really sure it's for you. Um, it's Milk Fed by Melissa Broder.

Annie: [00:28:52] Okay. We've talked about this one a little bit. Yeah.

Hunter: [00:28:54] And I will say like, I, it was one of those books I really did finish in like one second. It is, [00:29:00] there is a lot of like content that is just like, Ooh. Um, and, and I said, like there, and I will also say, like, I didn't even, I guess I didn't realize that it was, somebody commented on my review at one point they were like, they're like, Hey, heads up like, um, concept warning for like disordered eating, and I didn't even realize like, how does ordered her. Like, which I guess just shows like how disordered all of our eating is that we don't even realize like the diet culture stuff being shoved on our faces cause I was like, what's wrong. I'm like, it's a major part of the book. Um, so just being oblivious.

To no, it is it's um, she has such a. I know this is such an overdone thing, but she really does have like a very Fleabag type, it's that very punchy humor that's like that here, you're really uncomfortable at times with, um, and and then she writes such rich characters who are really dealing with so many things [00:30:00] and I, and you know, I love, I love whenever a book really does, like make you cringe, laugh and cry at the same time and that's yeah.

Annie: [00:30:12] Okay. My number four is the Paper Palace. This is by Miranda Cowley Heather. This book is so good. I would like to be clear. This is, uh, this is, I think one of my favorite genres accidentally is like privileged white people make mistakes. Like re rich privileged white people make mistakes. So the main character in this book is Elle. She has this wonderful marriage. She has these kids that she loves. I mean, a couple of them are a little bratty, but mostly they're delightful and the book opens with, they spend every summer, like in the summer home by this lake up in new England, which is my dream. Um, you talked about kind of your alternate lives in my alternate life. I own a lake home, like in Kennebunkport [00:31:00] or something near the Kennedys.

So they vacation here every year. It's kind of a house that's been in the family and I love books where a house almost takes on its own character and kind of becomes a character in the book and, um, the Paper Palace is one of those. So I certainly loved that part, but there is no denying that these are people behaving badly. Like the main character is Elle. The book opens with her waking up the morning after having an affair with her childhood best friend who also vacations with his family, because he also is married with a family at the same lake, and here is why this one is elevated beyond what I just said. The reasons that unfold for why Elle makes decision the books is set over a weekend, but it does flashback. So I also love that. I love that it's kind of compact into this weekend and she's trying to figure out what does she do now that she's made this. Pretty horrible decision.

Um, but the entire book kind of flashes back and forth [00:32:00] showing you why Elle made this decision. And so in terms of character development, which you've heard me talk a lot about today, but there's just a lie here as to why a woman like Elle who seemingly has everything would kind of blow up her life or at least be on the path to blow up her life and I remember I finished this one and I can always tell when I really love a book, because when I'm done, maybe you're this way with Tyler, when I'm done I immediately want to tell Jordan all about it because I know Jordan's never going to read it so I just want to tell him like every minute detail and I remember telling Jordan, like some of what happened in this book and he kept being blown away.

There are, there's a lot of sex in this book, and there's also a lot of, there's some sexual assault in this book as well. So there's a lot happening in terms of content, but. I really, really liked it and I think it could have been like a fun beachy kind of book, but instead it is elevated by this character [00:33:00] development and this uncovering of Elle's kind of childhood and kind of the things that made her become who she is. So I really, I really liked it a lot and the covers great.

Hunter: [00:33:11] Yeah. It's a Riverhead book. It comes out next month though and I've been dying to read it.

Annie: [00:33:18] Oh, I need to let you, I think I still have the arc somewhere cause I really liked it. So I think I kept it. Okay.

Hunter: [00:33:22] Cause like I'm dying to read that one and I do love the cover and I it's so funny too, because I was on my list and I didn't even know what it was about, but I just picked it up. I let you put it out to my TBR because the cover.

Annie: [00:33:32] Look, the cover is so good and again, I cannot stress this enough. Like this is exactly like, this is exactly the kind of book I love to read, especially in the summer. It's like white people on vacation behaving badly. Like, I don't know what it is about me, but I do love it. I think you will too, because there's some mess there.

Hunter: [00:33:47] So excited. Um, so my third one is when the chief tried that I want you to keep pushing on, which is Detransition, Baby which I know, listen, this, this to me feels like a [00:34:00] mix of. As far as like the reading, the reading of it, the reading experience feels in some ways like a mix of Fleishman is in Trouble and, um, Such a Fun Age and I say that because we talked about it's like Fleishman is in Trouble because there is a lot of sexual content in Detransition, Baby in the, in the front, like it is the.

Annie: [00:34:20] In the front.

Hunter: [00:34:20] In the front and it's very clear that it is, it is one of those like books that's trying to shock you into like paying attention but it's about this man who has transitioned into a woman and then detransitioned due to some unknown reasons that become clear later, um, but wasn't, uh, but had a relationship with, um, another trans woman and anyway, long story short, he did not even know that he could get anyone pregnant and he actually gets this girl that he is seeing pregnant and, and then he randomly calls his [00:35:00] ex-girlfriend and was like, Hey, I know that you always wanted a baby and you couldn't have one. Why don't you raise this baby with me and my girlfriend? And he hasn't even talked to the girlfriend yet.

Annie: [00:35:07] Messy.

Hunter: [00:35:07] So yeah, it's very messy and, but it's. I just thought it was I don't, but it has a lot of that kind of like, it's that like, you know, comedy of errors on also social commentary that you get from Such a Fun Age and, and, and that page turning kind of baked into it so I think that it's, I don't know. That's a really good one I think for that.

Annie: [00:35:30] I do want to read that. I, I think I need to remember the Fleischman is in Trouble example because I did not like Fleischman is in Trouble and it took me a while to get past the first, oh, I don't know, 50 to a hundred pages because of the sexual content and Detransition, Baby you're exactly right kind of does the same thing cause I think I texted you and I was like, I don't know if I could do this because it's so much sexual content at the front and, um, Fleishman is in Trouble, does the same thing and then I wound up coming back to Fleischmann is in Trouble and loving it so I think I do just need to try this one again.

Okay. [00:36:00] My number three, this is a surprise because I do not normally, I don't think put a bunch of light literature and I would consider this fairly light. I don't normally put that at the front of my list, but I love this book so much. It's The Guncle by Steven Rowley. I don't know. I just found it to be utterly charming and if we're talking about books that I just absolutely finished and was filled with joy that this would have to be one of them. Like I, and I feel like just because a book is light or joyful, doesn't mean it shouldn't be included among the favorites list and so it I've looked at my books and I was like, I gave this one, five stars. I stand by it. I loved this book.

It's about The Guncle, gay uncle Patrick and there are definitely kind of three men and a baby vibes here, in my opinion, where he has, he had this really lovely friendship with his sister-in-law and his sister-in-law has passed away and his brother is dealing with his [00:37:00] own grief and personal struggles and so his brother asks him to take care of the two kids for the summer and so they go and stay with Patrick in Palm Springs. The setting plays a really important role in the book. I really think this is a great summertime read and I also just loved the character of Patrick. Like I just loved how he had also, as the book unfolds, you realize kind of why Patrick lives by himself and, and the decisions that he has made. He's a former actor, he's an actor, former star.

Like I think you get the impression that he's kind of been a star of a sitcom and, um, so there's some fun, like winks at Hollywood and also just like this is a book that if you do like plot driven, I do think this moves along at a really fast pace. Like you'll devour this one by the pool and just a day or two, but the character development is still really strong and really good. You, I love how Patrick winds up parenting the kids. You also get some of Patrick's very complicated relationships with his own [00:38:00] family and kind of him kind of looking inside to figure out, um, yeah why his relationships look the way that they look. I really, I just found this one to be so enjoyable.

Hunter: [00:38:10] I really liked that one a lot too. I don't know why it's so funny because sometimes I'll think to myself like, oh, I need to add that to my list and then I don't. Um, but I did.

Annie: [00:38:19] Yeah, I think we just sometimes think, oh, like this one's light and fun and it's got this beachy cover and I mean, I am guilty of that, like and I don't know what, at the end of the year, all the side, like it could be that it's included on this list because we're talking about it in June, but, but I just, I also think there are some books that were just meant to suppose we're just supposed to enjoy them and I just enjoyed it.

Hunter: [00:38:41] Yeah. That was when I did really find fun and it was one of the books that helped me kind of get out of my reading slump. So I think it's pretty good. Yeah. Um, so my number two is where we have our crossover, I guess maybe our only crossover of this, um, which is so different, but it's With Teeth by [00:39:00] Kristen Arnett and it's funny too, because I, I didn't, like, I don't know this also just kind of shows that like, I don't know, like where it would break down my normal reading year, but like, it just, I think that because a lot happens and I just really love the drama of it that also, and then also, it hiked up to higher on my list because yesterday my Granny, um, like a copy was delivered to her house, I guess that I like in the publisher need that, that's where he could send it. Yeah and so my granny opens it and then she literally, and so basically I I'm most part of the reason why I love this even more now is because my granny started reading it and my granny never, she, you know, the only book that she's really read in the past 30 years is the bible.

And she goes and she, and she's basically, and at first she didn't realize, cause I guess the opening line is something like, um, the man takes her son's hand and my granny was like, my brain was like, Hunter, I don't know, is this and she thought it was about like a trans, she though it was trans narrative and I was like, oh no, no, no. I was like, it's [00:40:00] just a, it's just how it's phrased the sentence and then she's like, oh, she goes, I was wondering, cause this whole thing just got me all kind of confused and then she started reading it anyway and now she's like invested in it and then I talked about it on Instagram and Kristen Arnett was like, oh my gosh, I love this and so now I'm like, oh, well now you're my favorite.

Annie: [00:40:16] Oh, it's so. Look, I think you're granting not being able to put it down is like the exact thing that we're talking about. Like, it's just one of those books that once you start, you cannot stop. It's so, um, it's so it's kind of a gut punch, like what unfolds is so troubling and so intriguing that you really can't put it down.

Yeah. Okay. My number two is Brood by Jackie Polzin. I so I read this last year. I think, I think I read it in December. I may have read it in January, but I think I read it in December of last year, but it just released this year. It's a debut novel and it is about a woman [00:41:00] who takes it upon herself to raise chickens and it is very much about this brood of chickens and kind of their survival.

You become very invested, but your unnamed narrator is also as you pretty soon discover she is dealing with infertility and miscarriage and loss and so you can tell them that she is kind of transferring those mothering feelings over to these chickens and the way that Jackie Polzin tells the story and deals with this woman is just absolutely beautiful and tender. Yeah. Loved this book so much. I, when I think back on my reading experience, it goes even beyond the experience of reading the book itself and instead it's just very much how the book made me feel when I finished and the writing I think is really stellar. It'll be interesting to see what else Jackie Polzin writes, but I think for a debut, this is stunning.

The cover is also beautiful and I have had, this was a shelf subscription pick, and I did have some customers who I think were not [00:42:00] entirely sold on the like survival of chickens, unnamed narrator concept but then when they read it, I think I won't speak for everyone, but many of the customers who I heard back from really appreciated this story and really liked this story. So it's, it is to me, pretty literary because of the unnamed narrator almost reminds me of a, um, Oh of, um, Department of Speculation, like a Ginny Offill story is almost what it reminds me of, but I, I just loved it. I really did and I was very invested in the lives of these chickens.

Hunter: [00:42:34] That's another one that I've been meaning to read. I'm just such a, it's fine. Okay. So my number one, this was really hard and it's funny too cause actually my number one was a book that I technically read in December, but have since free read several times. It's another short story collection. It's um, Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz. I believe that I think so. Uh, but it's a short story [00:43:00] collection that's takes like there, most of all the stories I believe take place in Florida and I think the reason, like if this is one of those things, right where like reading does become so personal, because I do think it's, I think it's super well written.

I found every story compelling, but it also reminded me of books like White Oleander that I loved when I was, you know, 14, 15, 16 and it's about, like especially that a lot of the stories deal with complicated mother daughter relationships and and a lot of them from reminded me of like stuff with my mom and so it was just one of those things where like, I, I don't know. I, and I think, I think it's also 200 pages. It literally is one of those books that you will finish it in one sitting and I want everyone to read it.

Annie: [00:43:41] To you've recommended this to me. Haven't you? Isn't this I should read? Okay. Okay. I need to move it. Um, this is the thing I knew I would, I knew I would leave here with some, with some books to put to my TBR. Okay. My number one is another debut. It is Olympus Texas by Stacey Swann. I [00:44:00] love this book so much, and I know that there are other readers who will love it even more than I did because, um, So this book is about a family living in the heart of Texas. Texas plays a very big role in this book, but it is a complicated family, full of really messy people making really poor decisions um, but at the same time, you're rooting for them. Like you do, it's not, they're not entirely unlikeable. Like they make decisions that you're scratching your head at and that you hope you would not make, but you're also very much rooting for them. You're rooting for the matriarch in particular, but honestly, all the characters I really love.

How I think I go to enjoy this book even more is if I was into Greek myths and Greek mythology, that is not an area of expertise for me. So I think a reader who does have an interest in Greek myths will love this book, perhaps even more and yet here I am putting it at the top of my, um, best books of 2021 list even without that knowledge. I just, [00:45:00] I love a dysfunctional family. This family really is dysfunctional. Even though I am not an expert in Greek myth, I definitely picked up on those elements on my own so I think even if you're kind of a, a lay reader in terms of Greek mythology, I think you'll be able to easily kind of see some of, some of where she's coming from and there is a moment in this book where things turn on a dime.

Like, I mean, I guess the loud, this is one, this is one of those books that I read during lunch breaks. Like I could not, I needed to know what happened and I just thought the writing, I could not believe this was a debut. I thought it was so good and I suspect it will remain near the top of my list even by the end of the year, I just really love this book. I think you would like it, Hunter.

Hunter: [00:45:44] I'm going to read it. I'm going to read. I swear. Okay.

Annie: [00:45:46] Yeah. And it's got a beautiful cover, so, oh, okay. That's our top 10. What do you think?

Hunter: [00:45:53] I like this. One, it's so fun because like every year, our top 10s type, because there was like one year we had like nine out of [00:46:00] 10 and it's like, just like diverse since then, which is like fun too, though.

Annie: [00:46:04] Yeah, I'm excited. I did walk away with a couple books that I think I'm going to read too so thank you for helping my TBR list grow.

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 Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Hunter what are you reading?

Hunter: [00:47:42] Um, This like I'm reading The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin, which is the second book in the Broken Earth Trilogy.

Thank you again to our sponsor. Visit Thomasville, whether you live close by or just passing through, I really do believe that you would enjoy a visit to beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

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

episodes, special guestAnnie JonesJune 24, 2021