Episode 328 || What Would Susie Read?, Vol. 3

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie is joined by her mom, Susie to discuss books for sensitive readers.

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

What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins
The Sweet Taste of Muscadines by Pamela Terry
The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty
The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence
God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney
When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash
Very Sincerely Yours by Kerry Winfrey
Rock the Boat by Beck Dorey-Stein

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 Survive the Night by Riley Sager. Susie is reading When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash.

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

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

“Life was devastating and heartbreaking and hard, but it was buoyed by love and dappled with both comic relief and joy where you least expected it. With enough sunlight and the right angle, shattered glass always glittered.”

- Beck Dorey-Stein, Rock the Boat

I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today, I’m joined by my mom Susie, a sensitive but avid reader. Together, we’ll be breaking down our favorite recent “PG to PG-13” reads; if you’re a new listener who Susie-like reading tastes, you might enjoy the previous episodes my mom’s co-hosted: Episode 312 and Episode 279.

Hi Mom.

Susie: [00:01:00]Hi, Annie.

Annie: [00:01:07] Welcome back.

Susie: [00:01:09] Long time. No see.

I know we really haven't seen each other in a few weeks and you were last on the show in March, March. So I thought summer would be a good time to have you back and I think this might be the last episode for this year, cause we're already kind of scheduling things out. So I'm excited to have you and to kind of re reconvene about PG, PG 13 reads, which I did want to talk about it a little bit. Is sensitive reader the word you want me to use when describing you. Does it have a negative connotation?

Susie: [00:01:49] I think it does to some people, yeah. I think it does to some people, because they might think that that means I don't read anything with any [00:02:00] depth, gumption or grit, and that's not true. Right. So I'm really not sure.

Annie: [00:02:07] I know. I was just trying to think, like what should the descriptor be and sensitive kind of makes sense. Maybe it's my own sensitivity to that word. I like, I don't want to be thought of as sensitive, which is my own probably issues that I should discuss with a therapist. Um, but it just, I don't know, then I thought, oh, we've often used the phrase PG reads to describe yours and Nancy's and Nancy and I were talking the other day and PG reads are hard to find.

Susie: [00:02:34] They are very hard to find and guess what, everybody's idea of PG is different.

Annie: [00:02:41] Right and so Nancy and I really think what we're really probably saying is you and Nancy do PG 13 reads. I think that is probably more accurate and Olivia and Lucy, and I tend toward the R, which I hesitate to say, but I do think that's probably more [00:03:00] true. Right. Um, I think PG. Is it really hard.

Susie: [00:03:04] You're just looking at hallmark books. Yeah.

Annie: [00:03:07] And that's well, and that's just a hard criteria to meet because like in a PG 13 movie you're allowed like one f word and that's what's your laugh and so I feel like if we're talking about, in terms of literature, PG 13 is probably what you and Nancy are trying to read in terms of shelf subscriptions. So if you're a new listener, we have a monthly shelf, subscription service, and Susie, my mom and Nancy alternate and select kind of PG 13 reads. And I think we've been describing that as PG and I just think that's doing you and Nancy, that's making your, and Nancy's job harder.

Susie: [00:03:42] But really is hard because you almost have to read children's books, middle those middle readers.

Annie: [00:03:48] And if you're thinking and movies, isn't that what a PG movie is, is often children's right and so I think PG 13 is probably the more accurate.

Susie: [00:03:56] My preference is not a lot of [00:04:00] bad, you know, inappropriate words.

oh, we know.

And so, so that's my preference. However, I read Dear Edward in one day and it was-

Annie: [00:04:11] Well, yes, but you know that.

Susie: [00:04:14] I, because there's some times I was thinking about this this morning, there's some just like, I don't want to be judgemental in my life because I don't know people's back stories. Sometimes there are characters in a book and their language is pretty salty, but the character, the reason there's a reason.

Annie: [00:04:34] Right.

Susie: [00:04:35] There is and there are some books that if I hadn't read them, I'd be really sorry that I didn't read them even though that's not my preference.

Annie: [00:04:43] And that might not be the language you choose to use.

Susie: [00:04:46] Sometimes there is a character in a book that it's their background is such that that's just the way, they don't there's they don't know any difference.

Annie: [00:04:57] Right? Well, and sometimes I'll look a [00:05:00] well-placed curse word, come back a punch sometimes. Sometimes we need them. Okay. So that being said, I, that kind of, I think might segue into us talking about your first PG selection because it is on the, it is on the edge.

Susie: [00:05:16] This is the one I was reading when we talked last time and I couldn't say what it was and I thought about it being my shelf subscription.

Annie: [00:05:23] Yes. You thought a lot about it.

Susie: [00:05:24] But I didn't and the reason I didn't is because I was trying to think of everybody else that might be looking at me and saying, uh, wait a minute. No, I signed up for a PG. There's sex in that book and there's some F words in that, but see the background of the girl in this book is horrific.

Annie: [00:05:46] Yes. So tell us the name of it.

Susie: [00:05:47] The book is What Comes After and I quite honestly couldn't put it down.

Annie: [00:05:53] I read it so you recommended it to me after you finished and you had decided to not pick it for your shelf sub [00:06:00] and I had the opportunity to interview the author, Joanna Tompkins. I did. I just, well, I'm going to put it if it's not already there, we'll put it on Patreon. Um, it's my interview with her. I think it could already be there. If it's not we'll put it there. She was, she was phenomenal and part of the reason I found her to be interesting was she's a former attorney and so we talked a lot about how that influenced her writing and her ability to kind of see people from all sides. Plus she had visited, if I'm not mistaken, I hope I'm not. Um, I hope I'm not completing her with someone else, but, um, she had visited a, uh, the home of some Quakers and so she that's how she kind of developed this character in this book.

Susie: [00:06:40] So, because I thought that was fascinating, the most fascinating parts of the book was how he reacted to things and how he, there wasn't a ton in there about the true chief.

Annie: [00:06:53] No, but just certainly

Susie: [00:06:56] his whole persona has

Annie: [00:06:57] had infiltrated.

Susie: [00:06:58] Yeah. His whole being and [00:07:00] how he reacted and how he, um, just treated people and it was.

Annie: [00:07:08] Just, I think his life was very much affected and his decision-making was affected by his faith. Yeah. So, okay. So this is complicated. Yes. So this book and part of the reason you didn't choose to do this yourself, a shelf subscription is because the varying plot of the book is kind of dark, like.

Susie: [00:07:24] Murder, suicide. Yes. Yes. So not my typical first choice.

Annie: [00:07:30] Right? So the book is set in the Pacific Northwest. When the book opens, we know that there has been a murderer. Yeah. Suicide we think is being hinted at, but we're not quite sure, but you've got these two neighbors whose sons, all we know is that they're friends and they both are dead. Yes. And then this girl, and part of the reason I have compared this book to Where the Crawdads Sing is because there's a young girl character who kind of appears out of nowhere and all of a sudden kind of [00:08:00] befriend the father of one of these boys and you don't know her back story, you don't know where she's from and so you spent the book really viewing the relationship between this father who's lost his son and then this girl who has appeared out of the woods of the Pacific Northwest.

Susie: [00:08:16] Reading in the rear view mirror, you know, trying to you, you had the beginning story, but then layers begin to peel back as to where she comes from. She literally just appears, and homeless and so that's why sometimes you just have to be very careful not to be too judgmental about characters because, um, I am glad I've read this book. It was a very good book, but I'm also glad I didn't do so as my shelf sub.

Annie: [00:08:48] So you're right and you and Nancy again, I hope we haven't done you both at a service, but you, we do advertise you both as the PG readers and so that [00:09:00] does. There is a note. Yeah, there is some pressure. Um, but I do, I'm glad you read it and I'm glad you pass it on to me, cause I'm not sure I would have read it without your nudging. So thanks for hand selling you that.

Susie: [00:09:10] I knew you could handle it, R rated reader.

Annie: [00:09:13] Yeah, no problem here.

Susie: [00:09:15] Just FYI, everybody. She didn't start out that way.

Annie: [00:09:19] Soiled by the world. Okay. What next? Okay.

Susie: [00:09:24] Um, let me see. Next was. Um, oh, next was one of Nancy's subscription. Yes and I loved it, so did Aunt Lisa. I couldn't put it down. The Sweet Taste of Muscadines. Legit PG book. Fascinating, wonderful story. This, I think this is her debut novel.

Annie: [00:09:49] I'm not, I think you're right about that. I'm not a hundred percent sure. I think you're right

Susie: [00:09:53] She, now some people describe this maybe as, uh, uh, on the back, it says will [00:10:00] appeal to fans of Where the Crawdads Sing and Lisa, and I think it's because of her descriptive writing about the south, but also there's a piece of it later on in Scotland and she just does this amazing job of making you think you are there and of course it's easy for me in the south because when she describes the humidity, we can feel it. I can feel it, but she did. This is a book that's got mystery. It's got some surprise elements to it. Have you read this one?

Annie: [00:10:35] I have not.

Susie: [00:10:36] Okay. Well, one day the Lisa and I were in the store and Nancy told us about this and I, we fell in love with it. Both of us who read it at the same time, so we could talk about it and I loved it so much and it's about. Um, interesting story about a woman, young woman who has moved away from her family, but she was raised in the south or daddy was a preacher, but he went off to war to be a [00:11:00] chaplain and then never returned and so can I tell them about it a little bit?

Yes but no spoilers, please. Oh, well then I better not about it but it was.

Annie: [00:11:08] Can tell about it and she comes back home?

Susie: [00:11:10] She comes back home because her mother now has died. Okay. And so she comes back home and. Um, they just discover, oh, Hmm things aren't as we thought they were and they, she had, she, they find her in the great barber and so she had gone out there to find something. So they go digging around and they dig up this box full of pictures. Oh, I want to tell about it so bad. It's just so good because it turns out, it's a lot going on in this book.

Annie: [00:11:44] She packed and that I'm looking at it cause What Comes After is quite thick. This is not as, this is not.

Susie: [00:11:48] No, she packs a lot into this book. There is, um, I don't know how to talk about it now without selling a little bit of spoiling but anyway, it's just a really [00:12:00] neat story about her father and her best friend's father had a relationship and they were young, but did never, they never succumb to it and they went their separate ways and they both got married and they both had children and then the best friend said the best friend kills himself. Okay. Because it's tormenting him to lead the sort of double life and so the, the dad never comes home, but it's a sweet, redemptive story.

Annie: [00:12:34] It's wonderful that you love redemption.

Susie: [00:12:37] I do and I like it when something good comes out of something sad or bad, and this is legit PG Nancy recommended it. It was wonderful. Go buy it. You will not be sorry. The Sweet Taste of Muscadines.

Annie: [00:12:52] Okay. If only,

Susie: [00:12:53] and I'm showing it on video from my own preschool teacher way.

Annie: [00:12:59] If only [00:13:00] people could see us

Susie: [00:13:00] and here's what happens to me after I read a good book, I have a really hard time leaving the characters because I lived them.

Annie: [00:13:06] Yeah. Book hangover.

Susie: [00:13:07] And so I really have a hard time going into the next one.

Annie: [00:13:10] It's real. And sometimes the next book is set up to fail then a little bit.

Susie: [00:13:14] It wasn't.

Annie: [00:13:14] Okay. It wasn't.

Susie: [00:13:15] Because this book I mentioned last time we had just gotten it, dad and I started to read it out loud to one another, but Nope, grabbed it on my own. Picked it up, went to the beach. Bam.

Annie: [00:13:26] Oh, you cheated?

Susie: [00:13:27] I did. And you know what? Oh my goodness. I, well, first of all, I just liked Sean Dietrich.

Name of the book?

The Incredible Winston Brown. Okay. And this is Sean Dietrich. And I thought when we were reading it out loud, it was kind of going a little bit slow and I discovered Lisa, Lisa read it ahead of me and she was like, oh, and I couldn't get into anything. She said, one, you need to read cause it's the one you and Chris are reading together and you need to just read it just to live through it and I couldn't put it down. I went and took it to the beach and read [00:14:00] the whole thing. So this is just a wonderful Southern he's a Southern writer and this book came out in the pandemic. Yes. He was supposed to come to the store.

Annie: [00:14:11] Oh, believe me. I know.

Susie: [00:14:12] So I felt so bad. Yeah. And I remember it made me think back to when he first came to Tallahassee, that we knew him at a word of south.

Annie: [00:14:21] Oh. And it poured rain.

Susie: [00:14:22] Yeah. it poured rain but you went over there, dad and I manned the tent. Yes. And you went over and you called us over. You've got to come over here and hear this.

Annie: [00:14:30] Oh yeah, I did. I forgot about that.

Susie: [00:14:32] And then he made to cry because he started singing. Yeah. And so we went over there to. Tent was left it with one of your helpers, probably Ashley and dad and I went over to hear the end of his song and for him to play this guitar and sing.

Annie: [00:14:46] He's incredibly talented and really just really nice.

Susie: [00:14:49] He really does seems like such a nice, nice guy. This is just a fabulous small town story.

Annie: [00:14:56] Set in, so I feel like one of his previous books was set in a [00:15:00] different decade? W w is this a modern book? Is this a, is this 1930s?

Susie: [00:15:05] I think this is in the past. I sh you asked me that on these books and then I'm like, oh, blah blah.

Annie: [00:15:10] Because we read so much

Susie: [00:15:12] because I go on, but it is setback

Annie: [00:15:14] because Stars of Alabama was historical fiction as well.

Susie: [00:15:17] Not too terribly, far back. Okay. Yes. And it's almost Mayberry ish. I fell so in love with these characters in this book, everybody in this, but Winston Brown is dying and the very first pages he says, he's dying. So I'm like, oh my word, I'm not going to be able to read this. It was fantastic. He's sheriff of a small town, very small town in the panhandle. If this is a fake town, it felt very real to me. I feel like, Hey, I've been there.

Annie: [00:15:50] Yes.

Susie: [00:15:50] And so I love that and it was just a, if this compare, let me see what I can compare this to Wendell Berry. Read Hannah [00:16:00] Coulter. Yes. And so it's just character driven and it's just the really neat people of this town and how they come together in different ways. He's sort of like the he's a hero. but In the midst of becoming a hero of being a hero, he creates new heroes. It's beautiful. You would love it and you would fly through it. I love Southern writing too.

Annie: [00:16:26] Yes. Well, yeah, I'm sensing a theme for sure.

Susie: [00:16:28] So that's, that really occurred to me that I'm like, I really like ones that I feel familiar to me and this is, it's just a great fiction book. It's got a little baseball in there. Small town life is just wonderful. Totally PG, PG. Okay. Go buy this book. If you are sensitive reader and trust me, The Incredible Winston Brown, but that does not mean it's boring. It was very good. I could not put it down. Okay. [00:17:00] So shall I keep going?

Yeah, keep going.

Okay. Then the next book I read was called The Personal Librarian.

Annie: [00:17:08] Okay. You raved about this to me.

Susie: [00:17:09] Oh my goodness. So good. First of all, it's co authored, right, which I always find fascinating and read all about that. Oh, can I tell a little bit about that?

Of course.

Okay. This is about, uh, JP Morgan's personal librarian that he hires and she's a Black woman so the author, cause I read a little bit of back stuff on it because I was fascinated. I thought, well, I can't write this book, the story, this white woman.

Annie: [00:17:40] Because Marie Benedict has written a lot of historical fiction. Nancy is a big fan of hers and so Marie Benedict has written some books. I think about Einstein's wife, maybe Churchill's wife as well. So she writes a lot of historical fiction based in real characters, real people. Yeah. That this is a real person. Yeah. Yes. So she, so she kind [00:18:00] of knew which good for her for knowing.

Susie: [00:18:01] I know and so she knew to bring in someone else.

Annie: [00:18:05] A person of color.

Susie: [00:18:06] Yes. And so this woman is, oh gosh, I wish I could remember the year. Oh, 19, early, early, like 19 hundreds. Okay. And so she's a, and I had no idea because I'm ignorant that in some places it was really already better um, for people of color and then it got worse.

Annie: [00:18:26] Yeah. The Richard weep, yeah. So the south went back.

Susie: [00:18:31] Yes. Yeah. So it was shocking. So this family is light skinned, but they're Black family and,

Annie: [00:18:40] but she's light-skinned and if I'm remembering right, she's light skinned enough to pass.

Susie: [00:18:44] Their mother, their mother there and the children so it's the mother's idea. Okay. Because the dad, her father was the first. Uh, Black man to graduate from Harvard. Okay. So listen, so see, we're talking about education, all these things [00:19:00] in 1900 that I thought didn't exist, but it did. Right. And so, and then it goes, then it goes south, no pun intended and um, so anyway, the children are all light-skinned and the mother's light-skinned light-skinned enough that some of them really passes and the mother decides that's what she's gonna do to give her children and to give them opportunities, which is heartbreaking. Yeah. It's heartbreaking. Cause their family's Black, all their extended family. Yes. And so this is not looked upon very well.

Annie: [00:19:35] They're probably turned, they're probably rejected a little bit again. Can't family.

Susie: [00:19:39] Yeah, you absolutely can't win. Can't win. She does this her whole life. Hmm. She passed us off as a white woman her whole life. Wow. As, um, uh, Portuguese, they say she's got like a Portuguese grandmother so she, because she is, um, olive skin and so they pass her off as being her Portuguese grandmother. She's [00:20:00] brilliant and savvy and she's so intelligent about art and books.

Annie: [00:20:07] Sounds like a New York socialite or, you know,

Susie: [00:20:12] Yeah. Oh, she works at, she works the system, but it's still heartbreaking. Yeah.

Annie: [00:20:17] Well, because she's having to hide part of a big part of her identity, her cultural identity. Um, so Marie Benedict partnered with

Susie: [00:20:26] Victoria Christopher Murphy. Okay. Murray

Annie: [00:20:29] Murray. Victoria Christopher Murray, who also I realized, had written, has written a lot of books and so they partnered together and worked on this story. Yes. But, and this is what I'm always curious about when people coauthor but it was not distracting. It did not feel discombobulated, which I find isn't that amazing that two people can partner together and create something.

Susie: [00:20:47] I would expect it to be difficult to think about your book side by side. Hey, what about this? What about that? Right? No, that's not. How were they? Weren't even together.

Annie: [00:20:54] Right? You're researching and emailing probably.

Susie: [00:20:56] Might've been writing this during the pandemic. I can't remember that part, [00:21:00] but

Annie: [00:21:00] that sounds great and it sounds.

Susie: [00:21:01] So true story.

Annie: [00:21:04] Yeah, based on a true story. I still think you would like the book, um, the Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett, which deals with some similar themes. Um, and as I recall, it is fair. It is PG 13 ish, I would think. Um, but it was one of my favorite books I read last year and it was about twin sisters who grew up in, in a small town in Louisiana. Grew up surrounded by this Black community, really vibrant community and then the twins are light skinned enough, but one of them chooses to continue living as a Black woman and one moves away and chooses to live as a white woman and it is fascinating. Um, and so their sisterhood is completely changed by that decision.

Susie: [00:21:43] And we know possibilities in the future looks completely different for them.

Annie: [00:21:48] So just so when you told me about this book and I just, I'm very intrigued by the story of the story. Yeah. Did Nina read it? I think Nina would like it.

Susie: [00:21:56] Yeah. So I needed to pass this on to her. Yeah. [00:22:00] She will love it. It's so good and it's and so it's bittersweet. It's fascinating how she worked it, but in the end, she burns everything about her and so that no one has no one ever knew, but there's a little kind of twist in there that want to JP Morgan's daughter thinks, teases her about it kind of goats are about all along and then it's in she-

Annie: [00:22:27] but don't tell her you're like an SNL character. Like, let me tell you about this movie. Oh. And then they die but I was gonna tell you, I thought you would appreciate this. So Olivia and I were talking about this book, um, cause it released, um, and we talked about it on a new release Tuesday podcast and Olivia has been to the JP Morgan library.

Susie: [00:22:50] I would be, I would love to do that.

Annie: [00:22:51] So the library on the cover of the book, she said, when you go into that library, it looks too, like when you walk into the room, it looks two stories, but [00:23:00] you can't figure out how to get to the second story and it's because they've hidden ladders throughout it, which I thought was so interesting. So anyway, fun fact.

Susie: [00:23:08] Yes. Well, that was a fascinating book and we discovered that many of my picks that I have done in the past, I've been leaning towards historical fiction. I didn't even know it.

Annie: [00:23:19] I think historically to be fair, I think historical fiction is often more PG and PG 13.

Susie: [00:23:25] Yeah. I have no regrets because I've read some awesome books. Yeah.

Annie: [00:23:29] Anyway. Okay. What's up next?

Susie: [00:23:31] Okay. Well, you know, also my library at home is always filled with self-help.

Annie: [00:23:37] Oh yeah, you're really in personal growth

Susie: [00:23:41] and it is.

Annie: [00:23:42] Yeah, you are.

Susie: [00:23:43] Books are going to be, there is a lot of fiction now there's a lot of historical fiction and then there's a lot of, how can I be a better person?

Annie: [00:23:53] You always read that.

Susie: [00:23:54] And I always have, and I love it because I always striving to improve and [00:24:00] I know I'm quirky so I like to.

Annie: [00:24:02] So do you have a personal growth

Susie: [00:24:03] recommendation?

I do that. I'm reading. This is what I'm reading right now. Okay. And I'm almost done. I'll finish it today.

Okay. What's it called?

It is called Think Like a Monk.

Annie: [00:24:14] Okay.

Susie: [00:24:14] Uh, discovered, uh, Jay Shetty on Instagram. Okay. So positive plus, does he look like a monk? Oh, I wish you all could see the book I'm holding up. He's very handsome.

Annie: [00:24:25] He's Very handsome.

Susie: [00:24:27] He's very handsome.

Annie: [00:24:30] So did you know him from anywhere? How'd you find? Like, was he on insta?

Susie: [00:24:34] Aunt Lisa found him cause we're always looking for positive in this negative world. So he's very positive and then I kept reading about him. She did too and he was a monk for three years.

Wow.

Gave up everything. Oh, went into train and became a monk.

Annie: [00:24:54] Oh, that is fascinating

Susie: [00:24:55] For years and now he helps everybody with the [00:25:00] practices and principles that he has to have a better quality of life.

Annie: [00:25:05] Okay. And that reminds me of that little book that you and dad read years ago about Brother Lawrence.

Susie: [00:25:12] Oh, I love that book.

Annie: [00:25:13] That, what is that? Because dear, I'm so sorry. Practicing the Presence of God. But it reminds me of that a little bit where he wound up and that obviously was for the Christian will be, but like he was, he passed along what he had learned. Wasn't he a monk as well?

Susie: [00:25:30] Yeah. And so, yes, he was a monk and it was, that's a wonderful little book. I read, read that little book from time to time. This is by Jay Shetty on Instagram and he has a, I forgot what the name of his business is now, but he's a coach, I guess and he has his own big business from training and help people.

Annie: [00:25:51] What's the best thing you learned because you love to write in your books. Yes. You're my highlighter

Susie: [00:25:57] Yes i am very highlightery and [00:26:00] very, um, uh, some of this isn't that new to me

Annie: [00:26:03] because you read a lot of this.

Susie: [00:26:05] I do and I've learned about meditation and I've learned about trying to reframe and fogs and so forth but so it's in sections and some of it's going to be about putting your phone down and some of it's going to be about your breath taking and you know, I'm big into that. Oh, yeah. I was into breath before breath was cool.

Annie: [00:26:27] Yeah, you were at all.

Susie: [00:26:29] And then I had to learn how to do it myself.

Annie: [00:26:31] We had a, I did a lunchtime talk for Patreon and we had just the worst technical difficulties and it quit on me, like in the middle and I had to restart and I literally said when I got back on air, I was like, okay, everyone let's take deep breaths. Like, I think I said it in the chat because I just have, I do have your voice in my head, like, okay, just take a deep breath. Everything's fine.

Susie: [00:26:53] And then after getting old or, and I've started having [00:27:00] more issues with some anxiety so I didn't want to take a pill for anxiety. I found a therapist to talk to about it, for a time I saw her. I learned that breath is legit, man. Yeah. It's legit. It is you're right. Yeah. Okay.

Annie: [00:27:15] Could you say that one more time?

Susie: [00:27:19] So this is all about just, I have so much time and so much at so much. I want to share with you.

Annie: [00:27:25] I love that. Well, good. Then, then I don't have to read, you can just tell me about it.

Susie: [00:27:28] It's just wonderful practices and things that you can do to help you. Um Take a moment.

Annie: [00:27:36] That sounds like something we all could use. Especially. I'm just thinking about when the fall hits and people go back to school for the first time and read the title of this page. She's opened it to there's lots of green highlighter everywhere and this page says Single Tasking.

Susie: [00:27:51] Listen. You're right. Take a lot of, I took a lot of pride in being the queen of multitasking [00:28:00] all my years of raising children working. I could, I could spread it out, man. I wouldn't do that anymore. Yeah. I wish I hadn't. Yeah. I wish I hadn't been so great at multitasking, but this is really not all.

Annie: [00:28:15] It's really not good for you.

Susie: [00:28:16] It's really not and so this is just a, a great, um, read about just like what you think, what he learned in the process about negativity, fear, um, your purpose. Okay. Routines.

Annie: [00:28:34] Oh yeah. So it's um, well that sounds lovely.

Susie: [00:28:37] Yes. And I'm almost finished and I'm learning, I'm reading about gratitude. So I will say that some of this is not brand new to me because I have read a lot of books about this, but I really liked him. Okay. Hello. I've read a lot of books, but they weren't by monks. Right, right. So, so

Annie: [00:28:56] yeah, this is, he can kind of back it up a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

[00:29:00] Susie: [00:29:00] So, um, that's something I'm finished. I'll finish that one up today. All right. Another one I read that you haven't read yet.

Annie: [00:29:07] No and I want to, so tell us the title of this one

Susie: [00:29:11] and is it out now so I can talk about it? God Spare the Girls.

Annie: [00:29:13] God Spare the Girls. So you can talk about it anytime. I do think it is out though. Yeah. I think I've seen it on the show.

Susie: [00:29:18] Um, this is an interesting book. I'm about, as you read this, it's about a big, uh, You know, what do we call the big preachers? The big tilt, not

Annie: [00:29:29] like an evangelist, like a Billy Graham.

Susie: [00:29:32] Yes but yeah, big time.

Annie: [00:29:35] Like a tent revivalist.

Susie: [00:29:36] Okay. Piecre Maddock.

Annie: [00:29:38] I think. I feel like I'm playing taboo.

Susie: [00:29:40] Big.

Annie: [00:29:44] I'm trying to guess the word. Okay. So some mega church, mega church preacher.

Susie: [00:29:49] Mega church preacher.

Annie: [00:29:50] Or pastor.

Susie: [00:29:50] Pastor. Yes and so and he has two daughters. Okay. And they are, this is very strict. They're very strict. [00:30:00] This is fiction. This is fiction, but they're very, they're raised very strict with their dresses, the way they fight.

Annie: [00:30:06] They probably part of the charismatic movement set during the modern era.

Susie: [00:30:11] And he has a little whoopsie. Okay. Okay. And it's about how they react to this.

Annie: [00:30:22] Interesting.

Susie: [00:30:22] The girls go to their grandmother's farm to try to process everything.

Annie: [00:30:28] Because their whole world fault, he makes a horrible mistake.

Susie: [00:30:30] Yes.

Annie: [00:30:31] And repentant mistake?

Susie: [00:30:34] Yes. Okay. Interesting. But it's fascinating how the wife responds. Okay. And then how each daughter responds one daughter's really, um, by the book and one daughter's a little bit, not bad, but just a little bit more spicy for it wants to, you know, sow a little, few wild oats, but [00:31:00] basically, they're really good girls they're, they are really good girls and it's just how they cope with what has happened and what he does, how the church takes him right back and embraces him right back in to the fold has a little bit of stuff he has to do and then he's right back at it again and how the wife reacts to that and how the daughters react to that and I'm just going to say that I wanted it to be better. I wanted people to be matter. I wanted people to paint. I wanted them to be a little bit more.

Annie: [00:31:35] What are they going to be angrier?

Susie: [00:31:37] Yes.

Annie: [00:31:38] Okay. So it's interesting. I had a couple of PG books that I have read since March and one of them that I think you would really like is called Revival Season by Monica West. Okay. I picked it as my shelf subscription a few months ago and if I thought about it I would've pass it onto you. But the reason I bring it up now is because in that book, um, it is a [00:32:00] Black evangelical family set in the modern era, but they travel around during the summer for tent revivals and it is about this daughter named Miriam and her dad is this prominent evangelist who goes around and does healings and then she sees her father do something. Wrong. Okay. And it's the fallout to Miriam's own faith. Yeah. And also it talks, it's a lot about women's roles because how she feels called to heal, but she's a girl and so what does that look like? So I think these books would be great pairs, a great pair.

Susie: [00:32:36] One of the daughters. She's really the father. Oh, okay. Interesting. She writes the stuff so that is very much like this.

Annie: [00:32:47] Oh, that sounds like they would make a great pair.

Susie: [00:32:49] Not quite sure he would have been able to do all he did without, without daughter who can't, because she's female. Read the sarcasm [00:33:00] in my face.

Annie: [00:33:02] So yes. Yeah. Okay. So I think you would really like Revival Season and I, I took it from you. You brought it back to me cause I wanted to read that one.

Susie: [00:33:11] You'll fly through it. It's it's PG. Okay. Very good. Okay. All right. Last step. Okay. And right now I'm reading something that's an arc that you've given me to read, and I don't think this is going to be my pick for the future so I can tell a little bit about it. Yeah, you can see, I'm not quite to start the way through maybe and it's called When Ghosts Come Home

Annie: [00:33:37] hmm. By Wiley cash who's a very popular Southern writer. Okay.

Susie: [00:33:42] Because I like this book so far.

Annie: [00:33:44] I think you'd like him.

Susie: [00:33:45] I really do like the book so far. I don't know where the ghosts come in yet. So honestly, I'm not that far into it yet, but it's very, it's a mystery.

Annie: [00:33:55] And you don't read a lot of those. I think it's a good thing.

Susie: [00:33:57] I know. I think this is more turning into going to [00:34:00] be a mystery and, um, so far you don't want to put it down. Okay. So things are happening and, um.

Annie: [00:34:09] I mean, I think he would be right in your wheelhouse. He kind of reminds me of Sean Dietrich, maybe a little darker.

Susie: [00:34:14] And so far, this is definitely a little bit different in that. Um, it is a little darker and it's up and you can see that there's a mystery unfolding.

Annie: [00:34:22] More Southern Gothic,

Susie: [00:34:23] but, um, Really good so far, I'm really liking this one. So that's the one that I've got going now as well.

Annie: [00:34:33] Okay. I just have two other, I want to recommend Revival Season. So I'm glad you talked about God Spare the Girls, but then I did have two that I just finished that I think you might really like. So one is Very Sincerely Yours, which is a new rom com by Kerry Winfrey and Kerry Winfrey, I think, I think we had talked about if you would like Waiting for Tom Hanks or Not like the Movies and I felt like maybe they'd be a little young, like the characters are so young, but I've read her [00:35:00] new one and I actually think you might like it so Very Sincerely Yours.

It's delightful. I think she's a great writer, but it is about a young woman. Who's kind of, um, she's been broken up with and she's aimless and she seeks solace and finds comfort in this children's television show, kind of Mr. Rogers esque okay. Only picture Mr. Rogers, young and handsome. And so she kind of thinks to herself, like she kind of find solace in him and then she starts writing him emails.

So it's kind of got a, you've got mail thing. So I think he would like that.

Susie: [00:35:30] I can take it home with me.

Annie: [00:35:31] Yes. I got it. I just have to take a picture for Instagram and then you can take it. Um, but I really like Carrie Winfrey and this is fun. I was reading it in the car on the way back from Birmingham and I got, I always love to read acknowledgements and I'm in there. It's so exciting. So anyway, so she thinks a lot of bookstores for supportive her work. So that was really fun. Um, but the book is really good and I think you'd like it and then the other one that I just finished last night that I think is PG 13. I think you could like it. I don't know, but I [00:36:00] think you could, it's called Rock the Boat and I quoted it at the beginning of the episode.

Susie: [00:36:04] Should I sing that right now?

Annie: [00:36:07] That's funny, restrain yourself, uh, is now that song is stuck in my head. It's all I'm thinking about. So the main character is again, kind of a down on her luck, young woman who has been living in New York, but her boyfriend breaks up with her and she moves back home to the coast of New Jersey and the writer really writes so beautifully. I've never in my life, wanted to go to New Jersey and now I'm kind of like, do I want to go? So she goes back home and she, her two childhood friends are there and some drama unfolds, but it's also about a town trying to save a library. So there's some elements that I think you would really like.

So it just came out this week. I brought it home on a whim and really liked it. But I think you had to have already read it. Of course, I read it last night.

Susie: [00:36:50] So I can have two books to take home.

Annie: [00:36:52] So I just have to take pictures of them. Okay. Thanks mom for all the great book recommendations.

Very fun.

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, what I'm reading is brought to you by a Visit Thomasville. a couple of weeks ago. I was wrapping up reading book five of Middlemarch, and I needed a change of scenery.I was kind of desperate to get out of the house. Middlemarch is brilliant, but easy reading it is not so Jordan and I had taken a picnic dinner to Thomasville's rose garden, and [00:38:00] I knew it would be the perfect spot to finish out book five. I had not ever chosen that place has a reading spot, but I wound up driving over to the rose garden and found an empty gazebo where I then kind of nestled myself for an hour to wrap up my reading.

It was hot. it's summer in Thomasville, but it was breezy and the garden was filled with blooming roses. It was beautiful and the perfect way to finish Middlemarch so the whole day felt like a gift. It was kind of the perfect summer afternoon. If you want to visit Thomasville and visit our beautiful rose garden, you can go to Thomasvillega.com.

This week, I’m reading Survive the Night by Riley Sager. Mom, what are you reading?

Susie: [00:38:40] I'm reading the book that we just talked about, When Ghosts Come Home by Wiley Cash and so far a plane crash has happened and the mystery there's no one on the plane everyone's gone And the sheriff who’s maybe forced into retirement is, [00:39:00] um, or he's up for reelection is now on the hunt.

Annie: [00:39:04] Interesting, intrigue. Okay.

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

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, special guestAnnie JonesJuly 8, 2021