Episode 324 || The Kids' Table: Summer

Listen in this week as Annie and guest, cousin and Bookshelf Community Manager, Ashley Sherlock chat about their Summer reading, listening, watching and buying lists.

The books mentioned in this week’s episode can be purchased from The Bookshelf.

Reading:

Watching:

  • Mare of Easttown

  • Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar

  • Law and Order: SVU

  • Friends: The Reunion

Listening:

You can join The Bookshelf on Libro.fm!

Buying:

  • Iced chai latte with vanilla sweet cream cold foam and cinnamon dolce syrup from Starbucks

  • The Common Room Shop

  • Pickleball set

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 Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford and Ashley is reading Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford.

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

210610_FTFP_Episode 324_Kids Table_mixdown

Annie: [00:00:00]  Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

"Together, they eased back the plastic wrap and picked at a few bites. Chocolate, banana creme, coconut, lemon, key lime. They stood there in comfortable silence; only with family can total silence be this agreeable. 

- Steven Rowley, The Guncle 

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today, we’re back with our summer edition of The Kids’ Table. Ashley, welcome back.


Ashley: [00:00:57] Thank you. 

Annie: [00:00:59] If you are a new [00:01:00] listener, Ashley is the community manager of the Bookshelf's, but she is also my friend and cousin and we spent and still spend much time together sitting at a kids' table at various family holiday functions. Our conversations are quarterly and are designed to mimic that delightful comradery. Okay.

So welcome back. We are going to talk about what we have been reading, watching, listening to and buying. Right. 

Ashley: [00:01:31] Yeah. 

Annie: [00:01:32] Okay. Okay. So these are supposed to be summary themed things, kind of, sort of Ashley, the big hit for you during our spring conversation was your beverage selections. 

Ashley: [00:01:43] I know I'm so flattered. I hope people liked it.

Annie: [00:01:47] Okay. Let's start with what we are reading. I have two books and a magazine situation. Okay. Would you like me to start?

Ashley: [00:01:57] Yeah, you go first.

Annie: [00:01:58] All three or alternate.

Ashley: [00:02:00] [00:02:00] Alternate.

Annie: [00:02:01] Okay. All right. So my first one is the book that we, that I quoted at the top of the episode, which I have officially passed along to you. It is the Guncle by Stephen Rowley. This was a book that we did not get advanced copies of and it arrived at the bookshelf and the cover is summer perfection. It is bright and pastel, my nails accidentally matched. It just felt meant to be so I took the book home and absolutely devoured it over the course of, I don't know, a couple of days. I loved it. I read it. It was one of those books I read every chance I got. I briefly mentioned it in our summer literary lunch, but because I had not received a copy, I had not had a chance to read it so I didn't do a huge blurb about it but now that I've read it, I feel like I can officially say with gratitude toward one of our listeners and Instagram followers, Emily Gulca, I believe that's her name. She said, this is the book of the summer, and I have to agree with her.

 I just feel like it's [00:03:00] so seasonal. It's set in Palm Springs, California so it fits my requirement of my summer books, which are, they have to take place somewhere warm. I'm not interested in reading about people who are not sweaty during summer and so I loved that it was set in kind of this hot, steamy environment. It is about an uncle, a gay uncle who takes care of his two nieces or a niece and a nephew after the death of their mother. The premise obviously is a little bit sad because we're dealing with grief and the death of a loved one, but it is also just a really charming book and the relationship between this uncle and his two charges is really sweet and I just can't say enough good things about this book.

Ashley: [00:03:39] I'm really excited to read that one. 

Annie: [00:03:40] It's so good. You're going to love it. 

Ashley: [00:03:42] Okay, so I'm going to talk about two books. Um, the first one being Klara & the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. That's totally not something I would normally read, but thoroughly enjoyed. I took it to the beach. Um, not overtly summery, but I pick it up [00:04:00] because it had the word sun. Im pretty easy to please, but, um, I wanted to read it because it's kinda blowing up on social media.

I have not 

Annie: [00:04:10] read it. I'd heard about it because Erin read it, Erin on staff read it and really liked 

Ashley: [00:04:14] it. Hunter read it too. I actually borrowed his arc. Um, and I actually think that came out back in March. Um, it's about artificial intelligence, um, which I'm not usually here for right. Little too science-y for me, but it's artificial intelligence with heart and I am very much here for heart. Um, it's, uh, it's, it's quiet and soft. Um, good for, uh, Summer afternoon rain.

Annie: [00:04:39] Okay. Okay. I'm curious about that one because Erin has read it and loved it. Hunter has as well and now you have, and I feel like those are three very different reading tastes like all three of you have very different tastes, but you all have liked it. So 

Ashley: [00:04:53] yeah, it's been, it was really interesting. I'd love to know your take on it.

Annie: [00:04:58] Okay. So mine is very [00:05:00] different and I do think my reading during the summer tends to be pretty light is like how I tend to like things so my next one is also recommendation for you. So it is Love & Gelato. This is a book by Jenna Evans Welch. Have you read this? No. What I've seen is it's been out for a while. It's been out for awhile. Let me tell you the story about this book, which is like, I don't feel guilty about it, but I would have a few years ago so Jordan and I went to a movie for the first time in Tallahassee, like post COVID, although are we post COVID, it's hard to say. 

Um, but we felt comfortable. We are vaccinated. We felt comfortable into the theater. We were the only, I think there were two other small groups, small, like, I don't know, couples there so anyway, we go to the movies and we leave and in the complex where the movie theater is in Tallahassee, there's a Barnes and noble and back in the day, we used to frequently like do movie and Barnes and noble for date night. So we go to Barnes and Noble and we're just looking around, but then I like come up to Jordan and then I said, will you buy me a book here? [00:06:00] Which I have not done in years? Like I have, I will buy books at independent bookstores, but I truly have not bought like a chain. Bookstore book in probably a decade either and so he looked at me and he was like, sure. So I got really excited. So I went to the young adult section. Don't want to give Barnes and Noble all my money, but, but a paperback, young adult book felt safe. 

So anyway, I picked up Love & Gelato, but there at Barnes and noble was of course, like, because I feel like you see this more at chain bookstores, but it was a book that encompassed both books. So it included Love & Gelato and love and luck, which is the sequel so I got like a two for one, essentially and I had texted our friend, Kimberly Berg, and I had said, which one of these will I like, and she kind of gave me the rundown of each and so then I just got both and I read Love & Gelato, which I preferred a little bit to love and luck, but it's delightful.

It is a little young adult romcom, again, dealing with grief, um, which I think seems to be a [00:07:00] theme for me this year, but it is set in Italy where I have been and so I think that might be part of the reason I enjoyed it more than love and luck was because I but like, oh, I've been to these places. Like I can picture it and so there was like a certain bit of nostalgia even there for me, the characters are really fun and I just think the Italian setting it's perfect for pretending like you can go on vacation to Italy right now. Oh, that's what I want. I can't stop thinking about Italy in New York. Yeah, you should read this. It was very fun.

Ashley: [00:07:28] Good to know. Um, so you have New York, my other summer book, which is not a summer book, but I did read it at the beach on your recommendation is, uh, Take Me Home Tonight. It's by Morgan Mattson. 

Annie: [00:07:40] Did you like it?

Ashley: [00:07:41] It was so good, so Good. It's a New York theater kids and a dog, which is all I really need.

Annie: [00:07:48] It's scratched every itch.

Ashley: [00:07:49] It did. It's so good. It's not, it's not summer. It's snowed. Yeah, but I mean, it's still did the trick for me.

Annie: [00:07:55] For me, it's very fun and I knew you'd really like the New York setting and [00:08:00] also there's very much a theater. That book is for theater nerds. Yay. Oh, I'm so glad you liked that one. Okay. My last recommendation is you and I, I think are still brainstorming the idea of an article club. We're trying to figure out how that would work in the, in the business model of the Bookshelf but in the meantime, I am recommending a series of articles written by Jo Rodgers for House and Garden UK. So I follow House and Garden UK on Instagram, highly recommend just very soothing feed, but Jo Rodgers is an author and I believe she might be American. I'm not a hundred percent sure about that, but she lives in London but during the pandemic or post pandemic, whatever, in the recent months she has been renovating her London home and so she and her husband and son have moved out to the countryside and the, she now writes a monthly column about moving to this old kind of cottage in the English countryside and it is everything my dreams are made of.

Ashley: [00:08:55] That sounds delightful.

Annie: [00:08:56] It is those articles are lovely and it just is [00:09:00] very like, I don't know that that's ever something I'll be able to do, but in my imagination it is and so I really like that I'm kind of getting to experience it because Jo RoDgers is experiencing it. So you can Google, we'll put in the show notes, Jo RoDgers, her House and Garden column, but it is really wonderful. Okay. Ready to move on to watching. 

Ashley: [00:09:19] Yep.

Annie: [00:09:24] Shall I start? Okay. The first one is one that other people are talking about already because it just ended, but it's not too late to start. If you have not watched it already, it is Mayor of Easttown.

Ashley: [00:09:36] I want to watch that, I think. I think I do.

Annie: [00:09:39] Okay. I actually think you do it's on HBO, max. It is definitely like a dark gritty suspense show for sure. Like it's mayor at the heart of the show is a detective and she's trying to solve this grisly murder, which put it in my veins very much here for that. Let me tell you something Kate Winslet [00:10:00] is an icon, like she is so good in this, and there's a fantastic profile per in the New York times that everybody should read. It's really well done but this show I'm dying to get Olivia's take on this show because it's set in Pennsylvania. SNL did a whole like spoof on Mayor of Easttown and like gritty detective stories and so that was very funny, but the reality is the show is quite excellent and it's only, gosh, five episodes, five or six episodes so it's low commitment.

 Jordan and I watched it over the course, like we didn't binge it, but you totally could binge it because each episode kind of ends on a cliffhanger. It also introduced me and I know I'm behind everybody.,Please forgive me but it introduced me to Evan Peters who was in Wanda Vision, but I did not recognize him until he played this nerdy detective, which then became my type and so I now am very invested in Evan Peters', uh, career trajectory. Apparently he's going to start as Jeffrey Dahmer in an upcoming project so we'll see about that, but I [00:11:00] found him to be delightfully blandly handsome and charming in the show.

Ashley: [00:11:02] That was my next question.

Annie: [00:11:04] I think he's a blandly handsome and the majority of people agree with me according to my Instagram polls. So it was very fun to get to introduce, be introduced to his character but what I really loved and what I think will now take up space in my brain for a little while is not just Mayor, but the women of this show. Olivia and I talk a lot about how in these detective books that she and I are both drawn toward, sometimes the woman detective is super flawed and that's often true of detective stories anyway, just a flawed character but we don't like these women detectives who are bad at their jobs. Like we want to see people who are good at their jobs. Mayor is good at her job. No, she makes mistakes. She makes some significant errors, but mostly they have to do with her personal life. They, but she's a good detective and so I loved Mayor as a character and I also just thought the women in this show, her Mo mayor's mother, her daughter, her best friend, all of them are played with such [00:12:00] depth and dignity that I that's I think what I'm going to spend now a little bit of time chewing on and thinking about is the women in this show. I really, really liked it. Can't reccoment 

Ashley: [00:12:08] enough. Nice. Um, okay. So I just told you that most of my free time in the summer is spent outdoors so the things I've been watching are, I don't know how to describe them, but I, I was alone one night and I bought Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar.

Annie: [00:12:30] Is it good?

Ashley: [00:12:30] I don't know. I haven't, I haven't, I didn't have time to read reviews, so I don't know what anybody else has thought.

Annie: [00:12:39] Okay. 

Ashley: [00:12:40] My main thought is that this movie was written solely by people who were under the influence of something and I think it might be best watched if you are also maybe under the influence of something.

Annie: [00:12:56] Okay. Fair enough.

Ashley: [00:12:57] There were some points where I did like laugh out loud and I do [00:13:00] enjoy Kristen Wiig in general. Yes. This was just extremely weird. 

There was like a talking crab and Reba McEntire showed up.

Annie: [00:13:10] Did you get excited about that?

Ashley: [00:13:12] I did, but it was weird. Okay. She was like some spirit of the sea. 

Annie: [00:13:18] See, I'm going to be honest. A friend of mine did watch this and told me like, go watch it now. And I trust this friend, don't get me wrong, but I looked at it. I did not read reviews. I just like watched the preview. You know, I'd seen the same previews I feel like everybody else has seen and I just thought I'm concerned that this is too weird for me, for me to pay this much money. 

Right. So all I did was rent and I paid like $5 to rent it with whatever service I have.

Um, So maybe worth the $5.

Ashley: [00:13:45] I'm glad I did it, glad I watched it because I've been wondering about it since the previews started. Yeah. Would be interested to know your take because it, like, I didn't hate it. It was just weird. 

Annie: [00:13:57] Well, and as a person, not often or ever [00:14:00] under the influence of anything but a stress gummy, I just don't know. I just don't have I'm the target audience, but it does strike me as a movie that I would really had a fun time going with a friend to the theater to see and like laughing hysterically. 

Ashley: [00:14:12] I think it might be best, if you're not going to be under the, I was not under the influence and I don't condone that. I'm not suggesting you do that, but since it was clearly written by those people, I would assume that it was assumed to be watching it would also be that way. Yeah, it's probably best done with a friend. 

Annie: [00:14:32] Yeah. It's like, I think of when hunter and I went to see Bad Moms, like, I feel like those kinds of movies, as much as I enjoy a solo watching experience, there are some things that I think are best shared.

Ashley: [00:14:43] This is definitely beset shared cause you talk about things and genuinely, there were some hilarious parts.

Annie: [00:14:49] Well, I do like Kristen Wiig, I'm invested there. Um, okay. I have one like kind of dumb thing to talk about and then I feel like the other thing we're both going to want to talk about. 

Okay, I think [00:15:00] you're right.

 So I'm going to go ahead with mine, which is my it's basically my confession, which is that for whatever reason about let's see, how long has Jordan been done with session? About a month ago, we had had a not great week, not like me and Jordan in our marriage, but just like, as people we had not had a great week and so for whatever reason, we watched law and order SVU, which is a show like many white women that I have devoured over the years but then we just kept watching it. Like every night before we go to bed, we watch one or two episodes of law and order SVU. Like that's what we watch before falling asleep. It's great. Like, I, I just I've always liked that show. I liked it as a teenager, like did, as a college student, if it was on in, you know, I mean my dorm room, like, I feel like I would watch in the background of a lot of things. So I've seen a lot of these episodes, but now we are weirdly watching it on Hulu in order start to finish, I guess.

Feel like you're another comfort show now?

 I don't know that we're going to [00:16:00] finish it because it's still on air. Like Olivia Benson is still wrong. Yeah. 

Ashley: [00:16:04] W how many seasons is that like? 

Annie: [00:16:06] Yes, it is. I think it might be, I know it's the longest running law and order show, but I think it might be one of the longest running shows on like evening shows on, on TV. Um, I want to say. I think it's more than 13 seasons because we're officially, I hate to say it out loud, but I think we're on nearly season four. Like, um, we've just, okay. Yeah.

Ashley: [00:16:31] I just realized, you said you've started this probably less than a month ago. 

Annie: [00:16:35] It's fine. Um, but it, it is weirdly comforting because I've watched so much of it and it is a procedural, so you know exactly what's going to happen even if you can't maybe predict the guilty party, you know, by the end of the episode, things are going to be wrapped up. Like, yeah. So there's something to be said for that and I like a procedural and Jordan and I have watched many [00:17:00] detective shows like that is something that we like to watch together. This is just very traditional. It is also kind of laughable sometimes. Like we have. We have rewound and rewatched Iced-T, Ice-T. Sorry.  That was too, I over pronounced his name. I feel like that's a disservice to what he's trying to accomplish. Ice-T, we w we have rewound his lines many times and his facial expressions. Just very great meme content, honestly. So it's just been kind of fun. I don't know how long we'll keep doing it, but, but we're still here. Still watching it.

Ashley: [00:17:31] Is it bad that I've never seen?

Annie: [00:17:34] Not a single episode. 

Ashley: [00:17:35] Not that I remember.

Annie: [00:17:36] Of Law and Order SVU, Criminal Intent or Regular?

Ashley: [00:17:40] The entirity of.

Annie: [00:17:42] Oh my gosh .

Ashley: [00:17:43] I was a criminal Minds girl. 

Annie: [00:17:46] Criminal intent to me is the closest thing to criminal minds. But I think if you, like, I also watched criminal minds, but it w it got real dark for me. Like some of those episodes were troubling to me, law and order SVU is also kind of troubling, [00:18:00] but is it, uh, No. See things are sometimes I turn my head during the medical examiner parts. Um, but you will love Olivia Benson. She is a hero for our generation and George Wong. He's so good. So, and you got to pick your favorite district attorney. You watched Younger, right? 

Ashley: [00:18:26] Yeah. Okay. I haven't seen the new season. Ah, I should have watched younger in preparation for this moment. Fail, fail.

Annie: [00:18:33] Peter Herman. Yeah. Okay. He's married to Mariska Hargitay who's Olivia Benson. Yeah. Okay. They met on SVU so you see him show up. She plays one of the, he plays one of the defense attorneys. It's very fun.

Ashley: [00:18:45] I need something. Something that'll last me for a while. That's not Love Island. 

Annie: [00:18:49] Yes. Agreed. I had to take, take a break from love island because I started season four, which I've watched way more than you. 

Ashley: [00:18:56] Im on season Six.

Annie: [00:18:57] Okay. That's worth your time. Season four, I have [00:19:00] discovered is probably not worth my time. Um, so I've, I just saved you just let me pave.

Ashley: [00:19:04] Save the time, because man, the seasons are not ending. 

Annie: [00:19:08] They're so long.

Ashley: [00:19:09] 40 something episodes.

Annie: [00:19:11] That I will say SVU, you could jump around and okay. You wanna know what's great on, I like a walking advertisement for Hulu. On Hulu, you can just watch, like, it shows best of Benson and Stabler and so you can just watch those and they divide it up. Like, that's just my favorite pairing, but like, it shows you best stuff or, um, celebrity castings, like, so you could just go to Hulu and pick the 12 episodes they've highlighted.

Ashley: [00:19:36] Oh, my ADHD, my Enneagram one are fighting over this and watching order or do I go where I want?

Annie: [00:19:42] So anyway, I put that gift in your hands. You're welcome. Nice. All right. Do you want to go? You want to lead this one?

Ashley: [00:19:49] The Friends Reunion

Annie: [00:19:51] Look, the last thing people need is for two white women to talk about the Friends Reunion, we're going  to do it 

Ashley: [00:19:56] We're so unique everybody. Listen to our voices. 

[00:20:00] Annie: [00:20:00] We're going to do it anyway. What'd you think?

Ashley: [00:20:02] Oh my goodness. Okay. I was not in like, was not interested when they announced it. I'm not interested in, um, revivals 

Annie: [00:20:10] Me neither.

Ashley: [00:20:10] Not here for any kind of revival ever anymore. Never again. Um, And so like, I just like, kind of put it on the back burner, but then I watched it, the data that came out and I was like, okay. Like as soon as it started on here, like I'm in it to win it. 

Annie: [00:20:25] Right.

Ashley: [00:20:25] I, it didn't take long for me to have already like died, laughing and cried real tears.

Annie: [00:20:32] I was like, you anti reunion, anti revival, whatever. I saw it so while I was cooking dinner, I was going to watch an episode of friends and then I saw on HBO, max, it was like, Reunion is up and I thought, oh, okay so after dinner, That's what we sat down to watch and I became immediately invested and tearful because these are people. I mean, you and I are definitely younger than I think, but your parents loved it and that's who introduced me to it. [00:21:00] Um, so I think we're younger than maybe the typical demographic, but essentially we've done some growing up with these characters and we know them as people in their twenties and thirties and so even just seeing them come on screen one by one and just being older, like that alone was a little tear inducing because it was like, oh, they're grown up. Look like they're adult people with like almost adult children. Okay. Who was the character or the actor or actress that you most appreciated being there or you were like pleasantly surprised or or whatever? Um, 

Ashley: [00:21:37] okay. Well, I guess I have two different answers. Favorite actor that I was happy to see again, Lisa Kudrow, but the happiest surprise was, um, Ross and Monica's parents in the audience. That's what sent me. 

Annie: [00:21:53] It was wonderful. They're such good castings anyway and then for them to sit there and be like, we really [00:22:00] thought of you as our kids. 

Ashley: [00:22:01] My goodness. They seem like the sweetest people.

Annie: [00:22:04] Jordan was even Jordan was invested. He was like, are those guys really married? Um, look, Lisa Kudrow to me is the star like even still sometimes when I mean, I rewatched that show like constantly on repeat it's my cleaning the house show. Occasionally it's my cooking dinner show, whatever but Jordan and I both talked, I don't know, a couple of years ago about who our favorite characters were and it's hard because that is a true ensemble cast and they talk about that but I think Phoebe's character is an icon. Like she's just so interesting and unique and, and really, I think Lisa Kudrow brought a lot to that role, but I'll tell you who showed up at the reunion that I was like, Giddy over because he was so giddy and it was Matt LeBlanc. 

Ashley: [00:22:45] He look like he had a great time.

Annie: [00:22:47] He just looked like he was having the best time and I told Jordan, I was like of all six of these people, I think he's the person who literally watches the show. Like I think because, and he even said where his daughter an episode came [00:23:00] on and he was like, you guys watched this and then when they were talking, it was just a really brief moment but they were talking about the episode where they throw the ball back and forth and David Schwimmer did not remember that episode at all and Jennifer was asking and Matt LeBlanc was like, yeah. it started with me. Like he could name. Yes. He knew. Yeah. And I thought, oh, this is a guy who's really proud of his past work. He's there's no shame here. Like, he's really proud to have been involved. I just really liked that. 

Ashley: [00:23:27] So pure.

Annie: [00:23:28] Yeah. It felt so pure. Um, obviously it was documentary style, which I find I much preferred to, like, I'm very glad I didn't have to watch these less than, but like 50 year old actors, like live in the central park apartment or something 

Ashley: [00:23:44] I would not have wanted to see that.

Annie: [00:23:45] Did not though necessarily though. Look, it's even hard for me to be critical because obviously there are some things missing. They did not address like James Corden was not asking hard hitting questions of this cast. Like he didn't ask them about the lack [00:24:00] of characters of color. He didn't ask about Matthew Perry's struggle with addiction. Like this was a very light handed reunion, but I find myself even finding it hard to be critical cause like, did I like. What is her name? Cara de Levine like dressed up as a potato? No. Did I laugh at it? Yeah, I definitely did. Like, did I think the fashion show was dumb? She didn't even wear the potato. Justin Bieber did.

Ashley: [00:24:29] Like, oh yeah, she was, she was a holiday.

Annie: [00:24:31] Like, did I think that that was stupid? Yes. Did I laugh? I did. I gave it, I laughed anyway. So like even the stuff that I thought maybe was kind of dumb, I still also managed to enjoy and then the table reads, I really loved for sure. Yeah. What made you cry?

Ashley: [00:24:50] Um, the parents, them seeing each other for the first time. When they started talking to all the people around the world who've been influenced by the show. That [00:25:00] probably send me the most. 

Annie: [00:25:01] I thought that was really, really sweet and kind of a neat testimonial to, to comfort art, I guess. Um, I got teary when Matt and Matthew got in their recliners and kind of just looked at each other with joy. I don't know. I just kinda lost it there and then um, just them sitting together. I think just seeing all six of them together was really meaningful and special. Were you shocked by the supposedly and I guess seriously shocking discovery that David Schwimmer and Jennifer Anniston had a crush on each other?

Ashley: [00:25:33] I was shocked. I, for whatever reason, that question had never even entered my mind.

Annie: [00:25:38] Me neither. Cause they all six of them has such great chemistry, but you know, Janice asks that in the actual episode of Friends, like who's slept with who. And so I thought it was an interesting question for James Gordon to ask, but I was surprised by the answer, but at the same time, I thought, well, I guess that's not that surprising. They were all really attractive 20 somethings, but I was intrigued that they both. They [00:26:00] reciprocated each other's feelings was new information.

Ashley: [00:26:02] And they admitted it.

Annie: [00:26:03] Yeah. Yeah. Didn't, didn't shy away from it. Yeah. Well, I really liked it. Honestly. I have to say I've had to watch it again. I finished it and I thought I could easily watch that right now for the second time. Right. Why, why is that? 

Ashley: [00:26:18] I don't know. Honestly, Friends, like the show already has such rewatching ability in my opinion. Yeah. It was just another thing to love. 

Annie: [00:26:26] Yeah, just comforting. Okay. Moving along to listening. Yes. Okay. I am still, I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but Phoebe Judge, did we talk about this? She's the host of the podcast Criminal, but she also has a podcast called Phoebe Reads a Mystery, and she reads a chapter of a book every day.

Ashley: [00:26:45] I remember you talking about this.

Annie: [00:26:47] So she reads it to you. So anyway, I have been listening and I'm not quite finished. I think I'm 10 chapters, maybe 12 chapters left. Um, I'm listening to Sense and Sensibility, you would think I would just listen to a chapter every day, but I don't, I don't, I don't know [00:27:00] why. Um, so she did that back in April, so she's long moved on to another book, but I am still listening to the backlog of episodes, um, about Sense and Sensibility. 

Ashley: [00:27:10] Her podcast is her reading a chapter from a book?

Annie: [00:27:14] And she goes in order and she finishes the book. So it's like listening to an audio book, a chapter a day. Okay. I think it's a really cool concept. I think she started it during the pandemic and she's done a number of books because it is shocking how fast you can move through a classic work of literature that just a chapter a day. I, as I'm telling you out loud, I'm a little ashamed that I'm somehow on season Four of law and order SVU, but I can't finish Sense and Sensibility.

Ashley: [00:27:39] Hey it requires different parts of your brain.

Annie: [00:27:41] It does. So anyway, I need to finish. Um, but it is just a chapter and I think it's kind of a cool idea. 

Ashley: [00:27:48] Yeah. Um, okay. I think I'm going to steal this one from you, so you can't say it, but, um, Sour by Olivia Rodrigo has been playing. I [00:28:00] needed something.

Annie: [00:28:01] Fair.

Ashley: [00:28:02] There. Okay. So I have three favorite songs on this album.

Annie: [00:28:04] What are they?

Ashley: [00:28:05] In order, they are Good For You, Favorite Crime and Happier. 

Annie: [00:28:12] Okay. Happier is so good. Um, one of my favorites, I really do like Traitor and then I really like, but I'm now I'm blanking on the name, but it sounds, it really honestly sounds a lot like a Taylor swift inspired song to me, but it's like one step forward, three steps back. Yeah. I love that the rhythm and the limits of that. Song at the whole album. There's not a skipper among them. 

Ashley: [00:28:36] I do, I skip Driver License and Deja Vu just because you've heard them so much. Oh, okay.

Annie: [00:28:44] I love Driver's License and I loved Deja Vu, but I understand they're the most played songs. I've heard them a lot.

Ashley: [00:28:50] Yeah. It's interesting that you mentioned Taylor swift because I haven't done research on this, but I would like to know who her influences are for these songs, because there's a lot going around about [00:29:00] the song Good For You and it being very heavily taken from a Paramore song.

Annie: [00:29:05] Oh, interesting. Yeah. Well, you know, one fun thing I saw, I wish I could credit who I saw it from, but I think it's true. Was that okay, remind me of the Taylor swift album, not Evermore. What's the other one, the better one? 

Ashley: [00:29:19] Folklore.

Annie: [00:29:20] I, that might be an unpopular opinion, but I love Folklore.

Ashley: [00:29:23] Which one came first?

Annie: [00:29:23] Folklore. So there was really great to be fair, but folklore was last summers so th this person on the internet, again, wish I could credit them, said, you know, Folklore came out last summer and that's when we were all sad. It's a sad album and now Sour came out and it's angry and we're all angry and like, so like, like basically Folklore was the pandemic summer soundtrack and Sour is the post pandemic summer soundtrack and there's a great think piece. I'm going to, if I can remember where I read it, I will put it in the show notes and it was like a tongue in cheek think piece that the line from, It's Brutal Out [00:30:00] Here, like is us entering the puberty that is post pendulum applied. And it's so perfect because I just want to have it says it's brutal out here cause it is. 

Ashley: [00:30:11] It's brutal out here.

Annie: [00:30:11] It's brutal here and I love how she says it. I also love the meme. That was because I was a big fan of the freaky Friday remake and it was super angsty and angry, but like Disney angry and I love the soundtrack and there's a meme of like Jamie Lee Curtis, like looking like a rock mom and she, and it's like, this is millennials listening to Sour. It's like, you're so true. I feel like an old mom.

Ashley: [00:30:37] An old mom in a stable  marriage. 

Annie: [00:30:40] Yes.

Ashley: [00:30:41] Singing Traitor.

Annie: [00:30:42] And Erin Ray Berg sent me, she's one of our customers. She sent me, um, a Reductress like jokey article that was like, um, how to listen to sour when you never dated in high school. 

Ashley: [00:30:54] Wait, I need this.

Annie: [00:30:56] I'll send it to you because that is so true. Like I don't Jordan, I don't even [00:31:00] have anything, anything to be angsty about. 

Ashley: [00:31:01] Right. Like, you're fine. 

Annie: [00:31:06] Yeah, that's a good one. Okay. I'm just going to name two other audio books that I've been listening to.

Ashley: [00:31:10] I have an audio book too.

Annie: [00:31:11] Oh, good. Okay. So I've been using Libro.FM to listen to two audio books. The first is The Wreckage of my Presence by Casey Wilson. You will want to download this ASAP, even if you know nothing about her. So she was on the show, Happy Endings, which is another delightful binge. I think that just made its way to Netflix. Okay. Very friends adjacent. It's like six friends living in Chicago. It starts Adam Pally too, who I also really like, he was in the Mindy project anyway, highly recommended.

So she was on the show, Happy Ending. She was on SNL for like a season and a half back in the day and it's her memoir and she reads it and I don't know what it's like to read the physical book, but the audio book is excellent because she does such a good job. 

Ashley: [00:31:51] Oh, she's the one that reads?

Annie: [00:31:52] She's the one that reads it and so, and it's like a six hour audio books so easy. So that's my first recommendation. What's yours? 

[00:32:00] Ashley: [00:31:59] Mine is That Summer by Jennifer Weiner. 

Annie: [00:32:03] Oh, is it good?

Ashley: [00:32:04] It's not my typical read, but I'm recommending the audio book because Sutton foster narrates it. 

Annie: [00:32:10] Does she really? 

Ashley: [00:32:11] She does. I could listen to Sutton Foster read the phone book. I know that's something that people say all the time, but I think I might have mentioned Sutton Foster in every single one of these episodes.

Annie: [00:32:23] Yes, it's fine. It's not weird yet. Not yet. It's getting there, but not yet.

Ashley: [00:32:29] No, but it's, um, it is a possibly triggering book for certain people. Um, so there's a trigger warning but there's a Mary Oliver poem, Wild Geese at the beginning and Foster reads that too. It's an absolute delight. 

Annie: [00:32:43] Did you just record that on your phone?

Ashley: [00:32:45] I honestly should. 

Annie: [00:32:46] Yeah, you should.

Ashley: [00:32:47] Listen to it. It's cute. It's definitely a summer book.\

Annie: [00:32:51] Okay. Um, did you know this is sad, but Jennifer Weiner's mom died on like a couple of days before her book released. So she's had a hard time being able to [00:33:00] promote it. 

Ashley: [00:33:00] Oh that's so sad, I didn't know that.

Annie: [00:33:02] So, yeah. Okay. My next one is another audio book and surprised that I've been listening to audio books, but I've been doing some driving to the beach. I've joked. 

Ashley: [00:33:10] I've been doing some driving. 

Annie: [00:33:12] Yeah. I've been at the beach so much. And I feel like I'm just on a tour, like I've been on St.

George island, Pensacola beach, Cape sandblast. We're going to Ormond beach.

Ashley: [00:33:21] Did you see Caroline's text message. She wants to do like a beach a month or something. 

Annie: [00:33:26] And we can do that. Yeah. I mean, you've already done this. She wants to do it. Let's do it because it's really good for my soul. I'm discovering, there's a part of my personality that's like, oh, if I can't go for three days and it's not worth it, and that's not true. 

Ashley: [00:33:40] I'm here, I'm here for the day trips. 

Annie: [00:33:42] You know how to reach me. Okay. So one of the books I've been listened to, it's called Mergers & Acquisitions. This is by Kate Dottie. She was a writer for the New York times, but in their wedding announcement section. So this is her memoir about being a [00:34:00] writer for this very like upper echelon, kind of blue blood like wedding announcement section. I'm really liking it. She also weaves in her own personal memoir. She's a great narrator audio. So she, the author narrates the audio book. She has a great reading voice. That's been great and I love the parts about the New York times. 

Some of the other stuff I'm getting a little bogged down in, but I still think it's a great listen because she's a great narrator. So highly recommend that one that's murders, Mergers & Acquisitions. Murders and Acquisitions. Different, different kind of show.

Okay. Purchasing. What have you been buying lately? 

Ashley: [00:34:37] Not a whole lot. We're balling on a budget right now, but, um, I guess to get started, I'm going to recommend another drink from starbucks since the last one did so well. And then I think they go well together. The last one was like the fruity drink. This one is if you're in for something creamy or wanna go to Starbucks, but you don't want coffee. I may or may not have recommended this to you before? I don't remember, [00:35:00] but my go-to is a grande ice chai latte with the vanilla sweet cream cold foam. Okay. If you want to go crazy, add cinnamon Dolce syrup.

Annie: [00:35:10] Uh I'm I'm I'm so I'm amazed that you, it must be so. It must be the path to growth for an Enneagram nine. I am so, I'm sweaty just thinking about ordering something like that at Starbucks, because of the faces I would get, because it sounds so complicated, but you're saying it's not common.

Ashley: [00:35:27] So once you've done it, it's not complicated in it. The key is to, you know, like get what you want, but don't go crazy. So I was doing a little bit of research for this recording, um, and I ordered. Something, it was a mango dragonfruit refresher, and I found it on the internet. Okay. Mango Dragonfruit refresher, with a lemonade and apple syrup and some other kind of syrup, I think it was raspberry and I ordered it in the drive-through, which I never do. Um, but the guy responded, he was like, That's interesting.

[00:36:00] Then I was pulling up to the windows, like, I'll show you like the internet says, this is a great drink and I got it and it was absolutely disgusting. 

Annie: [00:36:09] Oh no.

Ashley: [00:36:10] I don't know if I did it wrong or if he misunderstood that it was not good. So I think it's because it was too complicated. 

Annie: [00:36:16] Okay. I do like the refreshers a lot. That's my go-to drink is a Dunkin donuts refresher, my country, myself to that. Right. Okay. So my. One is I think, uh, I think a website I sent you before, but I pretty much have bought my entire summer wardrobe from a shop called the Common Room shop. She got her name. She made up her shop named based on the Harry Potter books. So it is literary inspired clothing, but it's less like bookish t-shirts, although boy, does she have cute ones of those, but it's like regular clothes, but she names them after like bookish characters. 

So she did a Little Women collection, which is how I think I first discovered her or found her, [00:37:00] I own a really fun Laurie shirt and also if, I own a lot, I own a lot of these clothes. Um, but so it's not just because t-shirts though, it's also like a pair of dainty socks is called best feet in the family socks and it's based on that line, Amy says, so there's just really fun clothes. I have bought, this is what I was really going to share, two pairs of high-waisted shorts for the summer and I was worried because a high-waisted and I feel like high-waisted shorts. It's not just worrying cause I have long legs. So it makes my torso look like extra short. Um, but it's also just man, those zippers, they have to do a lot of work. Like yeah. 

Like we have to eat food everybody, like, I don't know where, where do we expect our food to go? It goes in our stomachs, which expands our pants. Okay. So here's the thing. The two highways, two pairs of shorts I bought from her have elastic waist in the back. Okay. Game changer. Now I'm officially on [00:38:00] board with the high-waisted shorts movement. Um, I wore a pair at a beach weekend with my friends and somebody DMD me and said, I looked like Jennifer Aniston from Friends and so I will now be wearing them all summer long every day, every day, every day of channeling Rachel from friends, um. So anyway, the Common Room Shop, she has a very cute Instagram and sh I think she does drops every Tuesday, which is not great for my bank account, but I have really tried to refrain because sometimes it's a bookish like I think this last one was from a, for a young adult series I'd never read, so I wasn't as invested. But she's got like a really cute sweater that's maroon and it's called like, Maroon is my favorite color or something. It's based on Ron Weasley hating the color of room. So it's very fun, like inside jokes about, about books, but it's not just, um, bookish looking apparel. It's like she's named it for the characters and based it on their taste or whatever. So I think it's really cute, clever idea and concepts, and I just really I've loved everything I've bought from her and I've bought a lot. 

[00:39:00] Ashley: [00:39:00] Yeah. I've seen the last one, it was really cute but I would'nt have bought it.

Annie: [00:39:03] I, at first I thought some of it was too young for me, if that makes sense that I always shorts were a bit of a risk, but I bought a pair of pants from there. I'm sold on it now. Like I think you can make it work for you. 

Ashley: [00:39:13] All right. I'll give it a shot. Okay, what else do you buy? 

Annie: [00:39:17] Okay. The only other thing that I am going to say is, um, that we bought a pickleball set to play pickleball. 

Ashley: [00:39:25] Okay. Wait, you asked me about this. 

Annie: [00:39:27] Yeah. Jordan and I are playing pickleball.

Ashley: [00:39:30] First of all. What is the pickleball? 

Annie: [00:39:32] Okay. The best I can tell is it's like racquetball or tennis, but it's essentially tennis, but shorter, compact, compact tennis with racquetball, like rackets and a wiffle ball. Yes of all with holes in it, and then a flat solid racket, like a paddle, you might say

Ashley: [00:39:55] Okay like Bigger ping-pong. Big ping-pong, small tennis.

Annie: [00:39:58] Yes. Yes. [00:40:00] That's exactly right. Yes. It's big ping pong. That's what it is. And okay. Guess what? We've only played once and so we are far from experts. Like I could not tell you the rules, we're just playing essentially like tennis, but also we're just trying to get in the habit or getting load with them of like batting it back and forth, essentially paddling it back and forth but Jordan is not good at it. I think, I think I might be better than Jordan at this. Okay. And that says, never happens

Ashley: [00:40:31] This is huge in our family.

Annie: [00:40:33] Jordan is the best at everything,.

Ashley: [00:40:35] Especially sports.

Annie: [00:40:37] And especially stupid sports, like stuff you would not think you'd be good at, or anyone should be. Nobody should be good at these things, but he'll like pick it up automatically, but. He was not good at pickleball. He's a great tennis player and so that's probably the issue. I'm a terrible tennis player, but I'm actually pretty good at pickleball so far. Okay. Stay tuned. So we did, that was one of our we're trying [00:41:00] to make summer fun because unlike you, it is not always my favorite holiday.

I am very affected by the heat. It is my reddish hair, perhaps in my pale complexion, uh, that make the heat a little hard for me, but we're having a good time. We're doing fun stuff. Good. So, yeah. So that's the last thing I bought. Um, okay. Anything else?

Ashley: [00:41:19] That's all for me. 

Annie: [00:41:20] Have a great summer, everybody. 

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 Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford. 

Ashley, what are you reading?

 I'm reading somebody's daughter.

Of course we made it through that whole episode with no duplicates and just at the end.

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.

episodes, kids tableAnnie Jones

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