Episode 327 || June Reading Recap

This week Annie recaps her June reads.

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

The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson (listed on Libro.fm)
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle
Beautiful World, Where Are You? by Sally Rooney
Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight
Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen
Cheat Day by Liv Stratman
Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
The Layover by Lacie Waldon
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead

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 Hola Papi by John Paul Brammer.

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

210701_FTFP_Episode 327_June Reading Recap_mixdown

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

“What if the meaning of life on earth is not eternal progress toward some unspecified goal--the engineering and production of more and more powerful technologies, the development of more and more complex and abstruse cultural forms? What if these things just rise and recede naturally, like tides, while the meaning of life remains the same always-- just to live and be with other people?” - Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You?

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today, I’m recapping the books I read in June and they all kind of ran the gamut in terms of genre and even in terms of how I read them. I listened to a couple of audio books this season, or this month and anyway, I think it's best that we just kind of dive right in because there are so many.

So the first book I finished in June was The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson. This was recommended to me by Courtney, who you will hear on the podcast, occasionally on the casting call episodes. She's also our Royals correspondent and then Erin Fielding, who is our online sales coordinator at the bookshelf and she had listened to this book. So had Courtney and they both recommended it to me. I was familiar with Casey Wilson. She's an actress. I was most familiar with her from her television show, Happy Endings, which is now streaming on Netflix and other than that, I really didn't know much about her and I would certainly call this a celebrity memoir, but I also feel like it's just a [00:02:00] humorous essay collection.

So whether you like Mindy Kaling, Tina Fey or somebody like Jessi Klein, who you might be less familiar with, but you really love her writing. Jessi Klein, maybe even Nora Ephron or David Sedaris. I can totally see how Casey Wilson was kind of inspired by those writers as well. So it's a celebrity memoir, but it's also an essay collection and I am convinced that I would have had a very different reading experience if I had not listened to this book. So I listened to the audio books through Libro fm and I loved it. I thought Casey Wilson gave such a wonderful performance of the book that I was really deeply moved. Like I was laughing out loud in parts, and then I was a little tearful in parts. She's writing a lot about her relationship with her mother. Her mother died pretty unexpectedly, um, in her fifties and so um, Casey was an adult when that happened. And just talking about the sudden grief she experienced upon the loss of her mother.

She also writes about her career, her [00:03:00] career as an actress, she got fired from SNL after just, I think a year and a half or so, so not a very long stint on SNL. She writes about her children, but really even just the opening essay, which is about being a, I think she refers to herself as a bed person. She just is somebody that just prefers to do things lying down. I just found it all to be so very funny and I think, I think I would have liked it if I had read it, but I'm really glad I listened to it. I just felt like that really added something to my reading. I really did feel like it was a performance. She was reading it so I thought I really got the full reading experience by listening to her, tell her stories. So I firmly recommend the listening experience and if you are, I know I've said maybe Nora Ephron or Jessi Klein, but really I think the book I've read most like this in recent memory is the Collin Jost collection. I think I read that last summer actually, and really liked it, like, it was very surprising to me how much I [00:04:00] enjoyed it.

I think I'd put the Casey Wilson book in that same category. So if you like the humorous essay collection, if you like a little bit of celebrity memoir, I think this one you really can't miss and even if you are not super familiar with Casey Wilson's work, like I said, she does a couple of essays about her profession. She talks about Happy Ending. She talks about SNL, but a lot of it is about her upbringing, her own parenting, her meeting, her husband, her relationship with her mom and dad. Um, there's a great essay about her relationship to the real Housewives for which she kind of has a podcast and I am not even really super aware of the real Housewives franchise, but I still really thought that was super funny. So I think even if you are only maybe partially aware of who Casey Wilson is, I still think you would get something out of this one, specifically the audio book experience.

I also really liked it because this audio book is like six hours, which I have discovered is really the sweet spot in terms of audio books. Any longer than [00:05:00] that and because I'm a fast reader, I just feel like I'm wasting time. Like I could be reading the physical book myself but if it's four to six hours, I really do like listening to it because it feels like, oh, this, this will take me no time at all. It's this is one road trip, essentially. Um, so highly recommend for your summer travels. Recommended to me, um, by again, by Erin Fielding and by Courtney Kinsey, I loved this one. I thought it was great. It is `, and she actually tells a story of how she came up with this title and that story is really lovely. So The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson.

Then I picked up The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle. Karina is a new author for me. I've not read anything she's read before, um, or anything she's written before, but I picked this one up because it's got this really quirky cover. It's going to be a paperback original coming out in August and I thought it looked like a fun poolside, beach read. Here is the thing. I think romance readers will [00:06:00] love this book. I think rom com readers might like this book, but I think it is written more specifically for a romance audience. So, my friend, Kimberly, if you're listening to this, this book I do think is for you. For me, it was a little heavy on the rom and therefore just fell a little bit flat for me, but I think other people like I can name you as I, as I just have, I can name you other people for whom I think this book was made.

So the premise is that Piper is this school teacher. She is out for the summer out of school for the summer. She lives with her mother who has, um, bipolar disorder and she kind of helps raise and really protect her mother and there is some really interesting, I will say there's some really interesting parts about this kind of complicated mother daughter relationship and, and who the parent is in this relationship and so I really did like those parts of the book. Um, Piper is home for the summer and realizes that the house next door is [00:07:00] being inhabited by British royalty, very much inspired by Harry and Meghan and their time in Canada. So this book takes place in Canada and this fictional Royal couple is seeking an escape and they kind of rent this house in on the outskirts of this small town in Canada and Piper happens to live next door and of course, of course she winds up falling in love with the very handsome bodyguard whose name is Harrison Cole, which I do have to give really, I just feel like that does or deserves props. It's really a great, that's really great body guard name.

Um, so this is about a woman who falls in love with a bodyguard for British royalty and so I do think there is an audience for this book. I think it is a fun book. It was perhaps not my favorite rom com, but I think that's really just because I think it is more for the romance reader. There is lots to like about the book in terms of the neurodiversity represented. There is a lot about mental health here. A lot about, um, the author even has this really lovely author's note at the back of the book, talking about her own [00:08:00] ADHD, CPTSD and how it kind of, those things kind of wove their way into her story and into the story of Piper. I think romance readers will also enjoy this one because there is almost an homage paid to them. Piper in the book is a romance reader and a romance podcaster and there is some, um, conflict there in terms of her work and her work as an elementary school teacher and then what she kind of does with her downtime that I think is really interesting.

So there were really interesting things here and I think for a different reader, this book will really land. So it is called The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle and I think she's also written some other things so you may already be familiar with her, but if you are a romance reader, um, to me, this is one of the more romancey, the more, maybe typical romance genre books I've read. If we're talking spoon ratings, we are talking, I think, I think three and a half to four spoons. If you're not familiar, the spoon rating comes from [00:09:00] the scene in Bridgerton where the duke, is he a duke? The duke licks the spoon and it is just a lot, um, and so we have come up with, we've kind of come up with this tongue and cheek spoon rating and so I think in terms of steam, it's pretty steamy. There are a couple of scenes that I really kind of blushed my way through and kind of skimmed through but I think again, if you're a romance reader, I think you'll really like this one. So it is called The Royals Next Door, out in August.

Then I picked up and I've really looked at this list to try to figure out what was my favorite book of the year and it's close. I mean, not my favorite book of the year. What was my favorite book of June? What was my favorite book of the month? It's close, but I think at least near the top is Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. I wanted to lead with a quote from that book because I highlighted or underlined or tagged so many lines in that book. I loved it so much. If you are not a Sally Rooney fan. So maybe you tried Normal People or Conversations With Friends and you couldn't [00:10:00] do it. You didn't like them then I don't think this one will be for you. But if you loved Normal People, which I did, I really loved that book. I did not finish the TV show, but I loved the book. If you love Sally Rooney's previous work, then I think this one will not disappoint.

Here's what I loved about Beautiful World, Where Are You. It's about, um, two friends and it's about each of their kind of romantic relationships, but also very much about their friendship and the book's layout I think is really smart. So you'll get one chapter about one of the friends followed by a letter written between the two friends. So it's got this kind of a pistol area element that I really liked and then the next chapter will be about the other friend and then followed by a letter and so these are two women in their late twenties, early thirties, kind of figuring life out and figuring their careers out and figuring out their romantic relationships and their friendships and one of them is uh, kind of [00:11:00] a famous writer. And I wonder if it's almost slightly autobiographical maybe, um, about, uh, Sally's own success and so there's a lot about fame and about what fame does to you and, and what criticism writers' space.

Um, there's also a lot in here about faith and doubt, which I knew to expect because I did have the opportunity to hear Sally Rooney at like an author panel, a virtual author panel, I was able to attend, um, a couple of months ago and I just adored. I mean, I finished this book and immediately Jordan kind of was outside by the pool with me and I read a loud, um, paragraphs to Jordan that I just thought were so beautiful about faith. One of the friends in the book is deeply religious and then the other, um, the other people in the book are not and so they're trying to really understand him and his relationship to religion and his relationship to God and so there's a lot of there [00:12:00] that obviously as any reader or reader or listener of this podcast knows like that is something that I am very much drawn to. So in terms of subject matter, it just hit my sweet spot.

Let me be clear. I think Sally Rooney excels at character driven works and so I think that's part of the reason so many people either love her work or hate it. I fall in the love it category. I don't need, I don't need a propulsive plot if, if there is really beautiful relationship building happening and there is some plot here. Don't get me wrong. There is certainly some plot here, but this is really about four friends. It almost reminds me of a little bit of Crossing to Safety in that way. I just like books about people trying to figure out, figure out their lives and yes, there's a little bit of angst, but there's also a little bit of hope and I, I just loved it. I thought it was brilliant. I think Sally Rooney is brilliant. I'm so angry at the way she writes and the way, the way that [00:13:00] she tells stories and formulate stories. So again, if you felt ambivalent about Normal People or Conversations With Friends, or maybe you didn't like those, I would imagine you would feel the same way about this one although some of the subject matter perhaps be more appealing to you, but I loved this. It'll be in my top 10 of the year, maybe even at the tippy top of the list. Like I think this book will stick with me for a long time. This comes out September 7th. It is Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney. Also that title, that title is so good.

Then I picked up Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight. This is another September release out on September 7th. I like Kimberly McCreight. I think she's a pretty reliable thriller suspense writer. I loved her first book Reconstructing, Amelia. Then I read her second work, which was called A Good Marriage and I read that one last summer. So she just kind of faithfully puts out these suspense thriller books that I really like. This one in particular is again about a group of friends and they are [00:14:00] traveling together to the Catskills. So it's got this really great setting. It's not really a reunion per se. It's not, um, quite that organized. It's just kind of these friends kind of convening to almost lead their other friend through an intervention. He has become addicted to drugs and he's struggling with addiction and so they are kind of staging this intervention with him. But underneath all of that are these secrets that these friends have been keeping, um, since they met in college.

There was this inciting incident as is often the case in books like this and I feel like, yeah, I've read a lot of books like this. I feel like Olivia and I talk a lot about, you know, deeply held secrets from these prestigious college students and then they go on vacation and it all breaks. It all comes on, done kind of like oh, kind of like The Big Chill or something like that. Um, but I really liked that genre. I, I really do enjoy those books and for what this is, I really liked it. Like, I just think Kimberly McCreight, like I said, is kind of a [00:15:00] thriller author almost for me in the vein of Megan Abbott or Riley Saker or Tana French, Tana French is more literary um, but if you like kind of commercial suspense fiction then I think Kimberly McCreight should be somebody that you put on your radar.

I just really consistently like what she puts out and even if it's a book where it feels like, Hmm, have I read this before? It doesn't matter to me because I I'm intrigued. If you liked The Heard last year, I think you would like this one a lot. I just don't think you can beat the setting. Who doesn't love a big old home in the Catskills like, I just feel like there's a lot to like about that. So that is Friends Like These by Kimberly McCreight. If you like commercial suspense kind of friends with deeply held secrets, then I think you'll like this book.

Okay, next up I read, I finally finished Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen. [00:16:00] So as you perhaps might know, I have been making my way through Jane Austen's works this year. I really wanted to read one Jane Austen book a quarter. I thought that would be a really, that would be a really lovely year to have, to be able to have kind of read a variety of her literature by the end of the year. So I read Persuasion in the first quarter and then now for second quarter, I have finished Sense & Sensibility. I think I'm going to do Northanger Abbey next. Um, Look Sense & Sensibility is not my favorite. I lovedP ersuasion. I liked Sense & Sensibility. Here's what I liked about it because I'm not here to like critique channels. That's not my job. Um, but I really did like the sister relationship between Eleanor and Marianne. I think if you're reading this book, that's what you're reading it for. You're reading it for their familial, their sisterly bond, their familial relationship. You're reading it because Eleanor is this kind of rational, um, thinks with her head [00:17:00] person and Marianne is kind of this passionate thinks with her heart person and so, yes, I loved those parts of the book.

What I, for me, what felt a little flat was the romantic relationships. Now I've read plenty of look, when I say, when I say I've, I've been reading Jane Austen this year, I've been reading her books and then I've also been watching videos, looking up criticisms. Like I've kind of done my own little deep dives here and there. I've read some really interesting commentaries about Sense & Sensibility and how Sense & Sensibility was not supposed to be about the romantic relationships. It's really a critique of forced romantic relationships and what was required of women of that era and instead, the book is supposed to be about these two sisters and their deep love for one another.

I love those parts of the book and therefore the romantic relationships fell flat and I think that's okay perhaps even intentional by Jane Austin. I. Just don't think the men [00:18:00] in this book are necessary, but I just don't think they are. I did not find them to be particularly compelling. I read this book, but I mostly listened to this book and that's how I've been able to kind of tackle these classics in between my other parts of my reading life. So Phoebe Judge, who is the host of the podcast, Criminal, also is the host of a podcast called Phoebe Reads A Mystery where she reads a chapter of a book every day and I think for like March and April or April and May, she did Sense & Sensibility and I didn't listen every day, um, which I feel like I should have and probably would have finished a lot faster. Um, but I did listen to it pretty often and was able to, I probably listened to 85% of this book, 90% of this book and read the other 10 to 15%. I love listening to it that way. I feel I find Phoebe Judge to have a really soothing voice. I have been known on car rides where I'm the passenger, not the driver, don't [00:19:00] worry. I've been known on car rides to fall asleep, too many episodes of Criminal because I find Phoebe Judge's voice so, so soothing, but I thought she was a lovely narrator for Sense & Sensibility and I did not fall asleep while listening.

I really liked listening to the audio book version of Sense & Sensibility and if you like me find it difficult maybe, or have a hard time reading classic literature, because you're also reading a lot of modern literature and you just find it hard to balance the two, I think audio books are a great way to try to do that. So I listened to Sense & Sensibility. I really did like it. I'm anxious to move onto Northanger Abbey and for those of you wondering, and I think based on my Instagram comments, I think a lot of people are. I did finally get to watch the Emma Thompson edition of the movie. I had never seen it, partly because I had felt like I shouldn't watch it until I'd read the book and so it was such a treat to finally be able to watch Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and I will say I still am not sold on the romantic relationships here [00:20:00] and in fact, I feel like Eleanor and Captain Brandon would have actually been the better, uh, or Colonel Brandon. I'm sorry. Would have been the more, um, more interesting romantic relationship. Um, but I, I did, I guess, appreciate the male counterparts a little bit more upon watching the movie um, but still, I just feel like this book belongs to Eleanor and to Maryanne and not really to their love interests.

I just do want to also throw out here that part of my little Jane Austen course, I've been taking myself through this year has been to take a couple of Buzzfeed quizzes because my whole life I have thought I was either Elizabeth Bennett or Mr. Darcy, like, I'm like a combination of their two personalities and so I've been taking quizzes because I'm like, oh, now that I've read these books, maybe I'm somebody else. Like maybe I've been mistyping myself this whole tim and I really thought perhaps I would be Eleanor Dashwood like, I really thought now when I take quizzes, I'll probably get Eleanor and no, [00:21:00] I still. Doesn't matter what Buzzfeed quiz I take. I am still Elizabeth Bennett every time and so I find that also to be very funny and fascinating. I really did find a kinship in Eleanor though and if you are a fellow INTJ female, perhaps you might too, but I digress. So I finally finished Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen and now I will be moving on, um, for the third quarter of the year. It was third. Yeah. Third quarter of the year, I will be tackling Northhanger Abbey.

Okay, then I moved on to more modern fare. I read the book Cheat Day by Liv Stratman in a day. I love this book. I think it is so fun. I cannot believe I had not read it in arc format. It would have perhaps been one I had thought of for a shelf subscription. I knew nothing about this book going in. I only knew that Tyler Goodson, one of my, um, kind of trusted sources in terms of book recommendations. I saw that he liked it and we had stocked it at the Bookshelf and so I decided to take it home one day after kind of seeing Tyler post about it a couple of times and I thought, well, maybe I'll try it and I [00:22:00] devoured it. Again, one day. Knew nothing about it. I should have known from the title cheat day that we would be dealing with infidelity, but I did not know that going in and at first I was not turned off by that because simply just the plot of the book, but I grew so sad as the book kind of unfolded.

Um, so the book is about Kit and David. They are 30 somethings kind of in their early approaching their mid thirties. They've been married for a long time. Um, college sweethearts and so of course I naturally I think found a kinship in them, right like, because I am in my mid thirties, Jordan and I met when we were in college and so yes, some of the infidelity then made me deeply sad. However, this is such a fascinating book about personal motivation, personal belief systems. Um, Yeah, I guess motivations is really what this book is about. So Kit is our main character. She is notorious in her family and in her husband's family for becoming obsessed with, um, kind of these fad diets. So there [00:23:00] is a lot in here about, um, about eating and eating habits and perhaps if you struggle with disordered eating this may um, this may provide some trigger points for you. I'm not sure.

So I'm just throwing that out there just in case, but Kit is kind of obsessive about these things and she works at her sister's bakery, her sister and her cousin owned a bakery together and kit is kind of known for being a little bit flighty, a little bit noncommittal. She'll work in the bakery and then she'll kind of work and work and work until she just quits and then she goes back to the bakery. So, um, there's a lot, it's just a really fascinating book about Kit and about why she makes the decisions that she makes and why she's pushed to the limit and pushed to the brain and she winds up, um, and this is not a spoiler. If you'd, if you had read the blurbs, like I did not do, you would know that Kit kind of embarks on this, a little romantic kind of affair, um, sexual encounter with the [00:24:00] contractor, the carpenter, who's doing some work at the bakery and what unfolds is so to me, funny and sad and witty and heartbreaking and thoughtful.

I like, I just can't tell you enough. It's it's just a book about a marriage and I finished it feeling, I think a little bit melancholy and a little bit hopeful. Um, but I think the writing is so, so good. This is a debut. If you like Katherine Heiney, if you like Emma Strobbe I think this is right in that genre only, this is a book to me specifically about this marriage. There's also a really lovely sister relationship here that's fascinating and you cannot beat this bakery setting. You cannot beat it. It is so fun to read about and to picture in your head. I read a couple of books this month that I felt like would make great movies or TV adaptations and I think cheat day is one of them. I would love to see this [00:25:00] on the screen, cause I'd love to see this bakery come to life, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one. I am tempted to keep the copy that I took from the Bookshelf. I kind of want to own it. I finished it in an afternoon. I thought it was lovely, delightful, charming. It is Cheat Day by Liv Stratman.

Next up, I finally got to read Finlay Donovan Is Killing It. This is by by Elle Cosimano. I wanted to read this book when Olivia read it, but we have talked many times on this podcast about how, when another Bookshelf staffer reads a book you kind of feel like maybe you don't need to read it or shouldn't take the time to read it because they've already, they're going to be the ones to hand sell it. You know what I mean? So you're trying to, um, read as many books as you can. There doesn't need to be much overlap in terms of other staffers. That being said, Olivia told me I would like this book and then my book club selected it for their book club pick for June. I have not been great about reading my book club [00:26:00] books for the last few, um, for the last year. I was going to say a few months, but that's not true for the last year, but I have been able to read the last couple and I took Finlay Donovan to the beach with me. I read it again in one day. The beaches where I get some of my best reading done but I read it in a day and this is so much fun.

This book is such a blast. So if you're not familiar, Finlay Donovan is a mystery writer, but she's a struggling mystery writer she's behind on her deadline. Finlay Donovan is a mess. Honestly, she's just a real mess and she's trying to raise her two little kids. She's broken up with her husband. They're going through this kind of contentious custody, battle and divorce and she's behind deadline on her book. So lots going on in Finlay Donovan's life and she is meeting with her agent at a Panera bread as one does and she's talking about writing her next mystery novel and the woman, the woman at the table, nearest her [00:27:00] overhears and assumes she's a contract killer and so Finlay Donovan kind of unwittingly becomes a contract killer.

Now I thought this book was going to be like Killing Eve, which for the record loves that show. Um, season one, specifically, this book is not Killing Eve. This is about a mystery writer who really is not good at contract killing. Like I thought this book was going to be, I really did think this book was gonna. About this woman who becomes this master, uh, contract killer and that is not true. This is about a mystery writer who muddles her way through her life and make some serious mistakes. There are two really fun love interests. There is a side character Vero who I adored, who kind of comes on board to kind of babysit Finlay's kids, who takes care of her house, who kind of almost acts as a partner in crime. I love the side characters so much. The highest compliment I can pay this book is that, um, I finished it and it lends [00:28:00] itself and in fact, it's going to be a series. So there's a sequel already in the works planned to release, I think in January and for the first time in a long time, maybe since Tana French, I want to read this series. Like I am dedicated to Finlay Donovan. I am dedicated to these characters. I need to see what happens.

I need to see how love stories unfold, how marriages break apart. I need more Vero in my life. Like I need these characters deeply. This is also going to be a television show. Look, I did a lot of Googling after I finished this book cause I loved it so much and this is going to be a TV show. I think the woman who bought the rights to Pretty Little Liars has bought the rights for Finlay Donovan. This book is so fun, just a complete blast is the phrase I keep using. I loved it. I thought it was great and would be a very fun book club book if you're looking for one, but also just a very fun beach read that's not a romcom. So it is called Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano.

I did read a romcom next. I was at [00:29:00] the beach and the next book I picked up was The Layover by Lacie Waldon. Okay, I picked this one up because we immediately, uh, two weeks ago sold out of Very Sincerely Yours, which is the new Carrie Winfrey. We like sold out of it immediately. Like I couldn't get a copy. I couldn't even buy a copy at the Bookshelf. That has since changed. I do have a copy. I have not read it yet. Um, but I was a little bit devastated. Like I had built my reading week around finally reading Carrie Winfrey's latest book and so I was pretty bummed and I was headed and then I saw that Carrie Winfrey had read and recommended the book, The Layover by Lacie Waldon. So I picked it up off the shelves. We did have several copies of that book and I took it to the beach with me. Again, read it in one setting rather than one day. So fun. I loved this book.

So this is about Ava. She is a flight attendant who is about to take her last flight. She has become engaged to this kind of wealthy, [00:30:00] I don't want to say sleeping with the enemy kind of guy, because he's not that cruel and horrible and awful, but I do get sleeping with the enemy vibes. I don't know if that was Lacey's intent or if, when you start talking about keeping dish towels at the right length, that's just where my brain goes. Um, but she's married to this very wealthy kind of prestigious lawyer and, or she's engaged, I'm sorry. She's engaged to be married to this prestigious young lawyer and they have decided, and she, for the record, she has always wanted to be rooted and to stay at home, to find a job kind of closer to the ground. So they have agreed together. He's, he's not a complete villain. Like they have agreed together that she will quit her job as a flight attendant so this is her, the book opens as she's about to embark on her last flight and she winds up on this team with a guy named Jack who has always kind of worked in the same airline system that she has, but they've never worked the same flight together and she hates him for reasons that become clear as [00:31:00] the novel unfolds.

And so if you love the hate to love, um, Yeah, the hate to love kind of trope in romcoms then you will really like this book. They really do hate each other. Um, she, Ava really hates Jack. Here's what I liked about this book. Again, a good rom com needs to have good, good side characters and so there's a really fun flight attendant named Jen, who I could immediately picture in my head. There's a great pilot who I really fell in love with. I kind of want his love story and then there's Ava and Jack and so there's a lot going on in the book besides just Ava and Jack's love story. There's also a lot of character development for Ava and for figuring out who she is and what she wants. Lacie Waldon, the author. I did Google cause I was so curious. She is a flight attendant and that immediately kind of lended the book like a weight if that makes sense. Like it kind of, it kind of rooted it for me in reality and made me love it even more.

So the book takes place both on the flight and also in this [00:32:00] layover, hence the book's title, this layover in Belize. This is perfect like armchair travel reading. Like if you're not going somewhere this summer weather, because you're not quite ready to fly or because you couldn't snag tickets or that's just not your life right now, this book will take you to Belize. You're welcome and the love story I think, is very believable and, um, Has some depth to it. So I really liked this one. The cover is fantastic. This is The Layover by Lacie Waldon.

Okay. Next I read highly anticipated Project Hail Mary. This is by Andy Weir. This is another Olivia recommendation and again, I put off reading it because Olivia had already read it and I was kind of like, oh, I don't know if I need to read it. Um, even though I like Andy Weir, I liked The Martian a lot. I really am grateful to Andy Weir for being a reliable kind of scifi writer for me. Like I don't, I can't read a lot of scifi. I guess it's strong language, I could. Um, but my preference is not [00:33:00] scifi, but Andy Weir, like Blake Crouch, like just does a really good job of writing these kind of action scifi books that are rooted enough in reality, where I can really get lost in them and really enjoy them.

So I love Project Hail Mary. Olivia said she thinks it's one of her favorite books of the year. I don't know if it will be in my top 10 or not. I haven't decided yet, but I really love this book. I think Erin who I mentioned earlier, I think Erin is listening to it and really likes the audio book and I have heard great things about the audio book so if you're an audio book listener, you might want to try that. I love, I just love, um, Ryland Grace. He's the main character in this book. I understand that you may have pictured him differently, but I personally have pictured Ryland Grace as Chris Evans. If you are supporting us on Patreon, you know that already. Um, but I pictured him as, um, Ryland grace, who is this? He's not even an astronaut. He's a scientist who, he's a junior high [00:34:00] science teacher who has found himself in outer space, in another solar system with his two fellow crew members dead and he is all alone and doesn't really know why he's there and so the book unfolds with some flashbacks, him realizing how he got to this point and realizing that he is responsible for saving the world.

He is responsible for making sure earth is kept safe from this kind of, um, energy sucking, right uh, microbe that is sucking up the energy and the light from the sun and there is tons of science in this book, but here is the great thing about Andy Weir and this is why I think he's so good at what he does. You do not have to be a scientist to read these books. Like what I just described to you is what I understand like that is what I was able to understand of the science in this book. There is a lot of science. Um, I have a feeling because of Andy Weir's background, that it is realistic and rooted in truth and reality, um, [00:35:00] rooted in fact, but I don't know, because I don't know anything about science, but I love this book because without, I don't need to understand the science to understand the stakes, right. Like, I don't need to understand the details to know that Ryland is in trouble and that he has to figure out how to save the planet, how to save the world and picturing Chris Evans doesn't hurt, but I really, I think this book is so fantastic.

So fun for summer. I love I've mentioned it before. I love books that give me like 1990s Harrison Ford action movie vibes and this book does that in the best possible way. So I love this book. Olivia loves this book. Highly recommend, and I, I will also tell you, this is so rare, we have actually gotten feedback from customers. Like it just does not often happen that we hear back from in-store customers or even long distance customers when they love a book. Like we just don't know. Um, but truly customers have come back to the Bookshelf to first of all, find out what else they can read that would [00:36:00] be like Project Hail Mary, and to tell us how much they love this book. I've responded to DMS about how much people like this book. People love this book. So it is Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. If you're on the fence about this, because maybe this isn't your typical genre, or you feel like you can skip this one, I would encourage you to reconsider. I really, really loved this book.

Okay, last up for the month and I am not finished with it yet, but I did want to go ahead and tell you about it because I will finish it before the month is out is Harlem Shuffle. This is the new one by Colson Whitehead, also out in September. Unwittingly, I did not mean to be reading so many September releases, but here we are. Um, look, this book is a departure from the last two Colson Whitehead books, which I have loved and have been in my, I think my favorite books of the year in the years they were released. So I loved Underground Railroad, which is now an Amazon prime series. I've not tried it, but I've heard it's wonderful, um, and very powerful. Um, Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys are two books by Colson Whitehead I've really, really loved and appreciated. They are intense [00:37:00] and what I like about Harlem Shuffle is that if Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys are books about trauma and books about, um, injustice and Black suffering, I think Harlem Shuffle is more about, um, Black joy and at least that's the impression I get from the first, um, first few chapters.

So this book is set in Harlem in the kind of 19, late 1950s, early 1960s. This man owns this kind of furniture store and he like buys people's furniture and resells it, or like he picks it up at a state sale. I almost picture, um, I almost picked your Bill Pullman from, um, While You Were Sleeping like that, that kind of family owned business, right? Where like they pick up furniture from estate sales and then sell it and so this character lives in Harlem. He owns this business. He has this really great life that he's created for himself, but his cousin is a thief and we learned that [00:38:00] he also maybe maybe has dabbled in some illegal activity and there is a heist at the center of this book that is really fun, like, like Ocean's 11 kind of stuff and that is why I think this book so far reads so differently from Underground Railroad and from Nickel Boys, because those books are dealing with such intense, um, intense suffering and trauma and this book instead is dealing with something that feels a little bit lower stakes, I guess, and is just highly entertaining.

Like this book so far is just highly entertaining. I'm about a third of the way through, and I really like what I've read so far and I like that it's a departure for him, at least in terms of what I've read from him in the last few years.And, um, I think, I think customers will really like the change to and kind of like this shift. The good news is if you liked Underground Railroad, if you liked The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead is just an outstanding writer. He's just, he's just brilliant. He's a genius [00:39:00] at what he does and I think that is certainly on display in Harlem Shuffle. I'm really, really liking it so far.

So those are the books I read in June. I feel really grateful to have had such a good reading month. It feels again like my reading has been all over the place this year. It feels like I can't really pick a genre. It feels like I can't really, it feels like you can't really focus on very much, but then I get to the end of the month and I'm like, oh, I guess I did read a lot of things and I read some good things and so I hope there are some books here that you might enjoy, um, particularly books that you might want to take on your summer vacations or your trips. I think there are some good titles here. I would love to know what you have read in June. So you can head to Instagram at BookshelfTville, find the post about today's podcast episode and please let me know what you have been reading this month.

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 Hola Papi by John Paul Brammer.

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.

episodes, reading recapAnnie JonesJuly 1, 2021