Episode 393 || New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie and Olivia are sharing October releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR.
Don’t forget, if you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, you can enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10 percent off your order.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website:
Annie's list:
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken
The Night Ship by Jess Kidd
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Olivia's list:
Malice House by Megan Shepherd
A Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz
This Story is Not about a Kitten by Randall de Seve
Undercover Latina by Aya de Leon
Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega
Outside Nowhere by Adam Borda
Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen
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 Podcast 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 People Person by Candice Carty-Williams. Olivia is reading The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik.
If you liked what you heard in 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 and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, and Kate Johnston Tucker.
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
[00:00:24] Waldo Shankman, the latest in a long line of Shankmans, heir to all of it-- the rage, the fear, the kindheartedness, the confusion, the loneliness, the instinct for survival that stretches back from the hospital in Avalon to a house in New Jersey to a shuttle in a country that no longer exists. This, too, he will carry he will move through his life, as we all do, without knowing what has preceded him or what lies ahead. Dani Shapiro, Signal Fires.
[00:00:57] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, we're hosting another new release rundown with retail floor manager Olivia Schaefer. Another session of From the Front Porch Book Club is getting ready to meet in November. Earlier this year, we added new levels of support over on Patreon. You've heard me talk about them a lot. But for just $20 a month, you can become a Book Club Companion. This Patreon level includes all the benefits of our $5 tier. That's monthly Q&As, Conquer a Classic episodes plus access to our from the Front Porch Book Club. In August, we discussed CJ Houser's, the Crane wife. In September, Olivia and Erin discussed Acts of Violet. And in November, we'll be discussing my October Shelf Subscription selection, which I'm thrilled to talk about.
[00:01:45] All of our book selections for From the Front Porch Book Club are selections by our Shelf Subscription program, and they can be found in our online store. To become a $20 a month patron supporter, just go to www.fromthefrontporchpodcast.com and click Support. You can also go to Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. Our next meeting is Wednesday, November 2nd, and we would love to have you. Don't forget, as we chat about these new release titles, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about today, you can enter NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout to get 10% off your order. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and scroll down our home page to see this week's titles or click Podcast Picks and New Release Rundown. Hi Olivia.
Olivia [00:02:33] Hey.
Annie Jones [00:02:34] How are you feeling about October books? Can you believe we're talking about October books?
Olivia [00:02:38] No, it's a little wild, but I actually feel really great about October books. There's a lot of good stuff coming out.
Annie Jones [00:02:43] I had a hard time narrowing it down a bit, to be honest. There are lots of books coming out, especially-- man, it's that first week in October.
Olivia [00:02:51] Yeah, I have a lot of release books on that week.
Annie Jones [00:02:53] There's so many releases. So, anyway, I think I have nine books. How many do you have?
Olivia [00:02:59] I want to say eight.
Annie Jones [00:03:03] Okay. I'll kick us off. I want to talk about this book that I have not read. Erin is reading it right now, is my understanding. I have downloaded the audiobook. I'm very excited about this. It's called Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. It came out this past Tuesday. And, look, my senior year of high school, I went through a real Nathaniel Hawthorne phase. We read The Scarlet Letter in school. I really loved that book. I don't know. I don't know what it was. I don't know if it's because I went to a Christian school, but I felt like anything that pushed the envelope ever so slightly, I was here for. I wanted to have book club discussions. I wanted to talk about it with my teacher. So I really was obsessed with the transcendentalist movement-- it sounds so nerdy. I was really obsessed with the transcendentalist movement and with Daniel Hawthorne and with The Scarlet Letter. So this book is historical fiction based on a real relationship that Nathaniel Hawthorne had with a woman that inspired the writing of The Scarlet Letter. So Nathaniel Hawthorne was living, I believe, in the Northeast. A woman named Isabel Gamble had moved to the Northeast from England. She had come over and she was waiting for her husband-- is my understanding, from kind of what I've read. And Nathaniel Hawthorne and Isabel kind of developed this friendship. I am always here for a platonic male female friendship. I feel like those are rare. They're rarely talked about in real life. They're rarely talked about in literature. And so, I don't know, I'm anxious to see kind of what this is about, to see how historically accurate it is. It looks like the author did some research. Of course, this is historical fiction, but I'm very curious about it. And I think it would kind of make me feel a little bit nostalgic for my teenage self while also being really informative and interesting. So this is called Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese. It came out this week. It's got a gorgeous cover. A really beautiful striking fall cover. Kind of like the hardback cover of the Essex Serpent is kind of the vibes I'm getting anyway. It's highly, highly, anticipated by me.
Olivia [00:05:02] Okay. I'm starting off with what I think is a great October spooky read. And this is Malice House by Megan Shepherd out this week on October 4th. Did I get that date right?
Annie Jones [00:05:13] You did. Good job.
Olivia [00:05:17] Thank you. First time ever after two years of this.
Annie Jones [00:05:25] It's great.
Olivia [00:05:26] This is an adult thriller, I think, for fans of like Riley Sager's Home Before Dark. I loved Riley Sager's Home Before Dark. I read it at the wrong time. So I actually loved this one so much more. I'm so sorry, Riley. I just read it at the wrong time, I feel so sad about that. But this is about the daughter of this famous literary writer. And after her father, the writer, passes away she goes to move back to his house, kind of take care of his belongings and get away from some sort of relationship issue that she was having previously. So while she's there, she finds this manuscript of her father. And in the last year or two of his life, he started going through dementia. And so this is his writings from his dementia stage of life. And she is an artist who always has drawn this like creepy horror type art. And so she was, like, this is perfect. I will add drawings to this already creepy story that he wrote. And she tries to sell it. And there are three people who are in this book club with him and immediately they're just, like, absolutely not. You probably shouldn't be an artist. And she is so obviously hurt by this. But then weird things start to happen. And this neighbor shows up who she thinks is really nice at first, this girl who works in the bookstore that is named after her father shows up and is, like, hey, let's go through his things and start to sell some stuff. It does have this supernatural element to it that I really, really, enjoyed because it was done in a very realistic and creepy way, which I really like. But this is, I think, the start of a series. It's apparently called The Malice Compendium. So I'm thinking a trilogy, but it doesn't say and it doesn't necessarily leave it on a cliffhanger, but you're just, like, there's more to this story.
Annie Jones [00:07:34] Yeah, you could get more.
Olivia [00:07:36] Yeah, the characters were so good. I loved it so much.
Annie Jones [00:07:41] Has Keila read this yet? Because it sounds like a Keila book, too.
Olivia [00:07:44] No, but I immediately finished The Arc and gave it right to her.
Annie Jones [00:07:48] It sounds right up her alley for sure.
Olivia [00:07:50] Oh, absolutely.
Annie Jones [00:07:51] Okay. My next one also released this week. It's called The Hero of this book by Elizabeth McCracken. I am annoyed I haven't read this because my mom took my ARC and I have not seen it since. And so I have a bone to pick with Suzie. But I saw this because Kate from Bookmarks, she read this and loved it. She gave it kind of rave review in her Instagram stories. And I like Elizabeth Crackin, but I feel like I don't always-- this is a me problem, not an Elizabeth McCracken problem. I feel like I am not always fully on board with what she's doing. But this book sounds like a lot of books I really love. So there's an unnamed narrator. Check box number one, we love an unnamed narrator. So there's unnamed narrator who is really close with her parents. Her mother has died, and she goes to London after her mother's death. And my understanding is this was a trip that she and her mom were kind of supposed to take together. And instead she kind of winds up wandering the streets, thinking about her mom, who was a very private person and the daughter is a writer, that's my understanding. So the mom was this very private person, but very interesting person. And the unnamed narrator is a writer, and she's wandering the streets of London thinking about her mom, thinking about her relationships with her parents, but also trying to figure out, is there a story here? Is there something I can write here or will it be doing my mom a disservice to write about her when she was so private? Like, I want the world to know about my mom, but I don't want to break this kind of trust that we had by not sharing her stories. Look, I like a lot of things about this. I like the fact that it's about a daughter and her parents. That sounds like something that would be very poignant to read. I like that it's about grief. I like that it is about kind of grappling with what stories are we allowed to share and what are we allowed to talk about. And is it good for our grief and our relationship, our changed relationship to talk about these things, to write about these things, or is it better to hold them close? I think about that stuff a lot. And so I'm very curious about the themes of this book. It's a little book. This is not a big, thick book. So I kind of like the fact that it's limited to this woman wandering around London, thinking about her relationships and her parents. So I'm very curious about this. It's got a really cool cover. It's Elizabeth McCracken who has written books like All the Way, I think was one of the recent ones she's written. She's a very prominent author. You've probably heard of her. You've probably read books by her. But this does sound a little bit different. I said that it reminded me of other books I read. It just sounds like a quiet novel. That's what I mean by that. It sounds like maybe an Elizabeth Strout kind of story where this isn't about plot, this is more just about relationship and about mothers and daughters and children and their parents and that kind of thing. So it's called The Hero of This Book. It's by Elizabeth McCracken and it came out this week.
Olivia [00:10:52] That sounds perfectly Annie.
Annie Jones [00:10:56] Doesn't it? I am going to have to text my mom when we're done with this to be, like, hey, I need that book back.
Olivia [00:10:59] Yeah, it sounds like a book that you will read with tears in your eyes.
Annie Jones [00:11:03] Yes, that I will just--
Olivia [00:11:05] It's segue.
Annie Jones [00:11:05] Okay. I see where you're going.
Olivia [00:11:09] Yeah, I read this next book, finished it with tears in my eyes.
Annie Jones [00:11:13] Okay.
Olivia [00:11:14] So, yeah, this is A Rover's story by Jasmine Warga, out this week on 10/4. This is a middle grade novel, even probably chapter book, I would say, too; although, there is not a illustrations in it. I think there's maybe illustrations at the start of the chapter but not through out. This is about a little Mars rover. Space is my sweet spot, my soft spot. This is what gets me. But you see the life of this rover, it's fictional, but it is kind of based off of the Perseverance Rover. But it's you see him being built, befriending, and getting to know the two scientists who worked closely on him. And the second rover that ended up staying on Earth to kind of mimic what's going on with him on Mars. You see him travel to Mars. You will see him on Mars just learning new things, being curious about the landscape, trying so hard to make it worthwhile all the time and energy and money that NASA has put into sending him here, and trying to figure out exactly what they need to bring him back. He has like a little helicopter buddy that lives inside of him, and they're like best friends and they help each other out. And then there's the guardian that's like the satellite that goes around Mars and kind of helps describe landscapes, if he needs to be careful or not. If there's dust storms coming, that's a big issue. And then you see him be brave on Mars all by himself with limited communication back from Earth and the people that he knows. But all the while you're getting his point of view and then you're getting these letters. And they're from the daughter of the scientist who worked on him. She's writing to him. And it starts as a school project. You're just supposed to write a letter to someone, and she chooses the rover. And then as she gets older, you watch her go from grade school all the way up into an adult. And she just always writes these letters to him because she saw how much hard work her mother put in and time away from her and spent with the rover. It was so heartwarming and I was so touched by it. I loved it so much.
Annie Jones [00:13:48] It sounds so good. Did you read the ARC or did you read the digital copy?
Olivia [00:13:51] I had the digital copy.
Annie Jones [00:13:55] Dang it. I think I want to read this. It sounds so good.
Olivia [00:13:57] It was so good. And it just makes you appreciate so much all the hard work that the NASA scientists put into everything they do because going to Mars it's literally out of this world. It's wild and I love it so much. And I just love that there's now this book that's dedicated to all of their hard work, but you see it through the eyes of the robot. The personification of the robot in this book is just so well done because he's starting to learn these human words and human emotions. But you're just a robot, you don't actually feel those things but you know them because you've seen other people feel them. I don't know, maybe Perseverance up there did feel things.
Annie Jones [00:14:46] It sounds a little bit like a Disney movie, but like a really well done. I think underappreciated. I love the movie Wall-E. I really did. I was very attached to Wall-E robot. And so this sounds like a really well-done Pixar film. Do you know what I mean? Could represent-- yeah. Then it does sound like it's got that mother daughter element. I love a novel and letters. I think I would like to read this as well.
Olivia [00:15:12] It's so good. I feel like kids will finish this book and want to watch Wall-E, adults will finish this book and want to watch The Martian because one point he also goes in search of curiosity.
Annie Jones [00:15:22] Oh, interesting.
Olivia [00:15:24] It was so good.
Annie Jones [00:15:25] Okay, that sounds really good.
Olivia [00:15:26] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:15:27] Is it going to be in your top 10 of the year?
Olivia [00:15:29] Very possibly.
Annie Jones [00:15:30] Yeah, it sounds like it.
Olivia [00:15:32] I have to start narrowing down that list.
Annie Jones [00:15:35] I do too because I feel like I've said it kind of offhandedly, like, this will be in my top 10. And now I'm, like, have I said that more than 10 times? I feel like I said that more than 10 times.
Olivia [00:15:45] Possibly.
Annie Jones [00:15:45] Somebody asked me on Instagram, they were, like, man, a lot of five star reads. And I thought, have there been? And I was like, yes, I've read some duds this year, or I've started some duds and I've not finished them. But there have been some really good literature that I'm very grateful to have read this year. I don't know what my top 10 will look like. My next one is another-- I know we talked about kind of a Keila pick. This book is a book that Keila referenced at our August Reader Retreat. It's called Night Ship by Jess Kidd, came out this week. Jess Kidd has written several novels. One is Himself, Things in Jars and Mr. Flood's Last Resort. I'm pretty sure that's a typo for me. But I was trying to remember I know I have read a book by Jess kid and I think it must have been Himself. I don't think I read Things in Jars. So I have read one of Jess Kidds' previous works. This is historical fiction based on real life events and it goes back and forth between 1629 and 1989. So you've kind of got two timelines happening. In the 1629 timeline, we have a young girl who is living on a boat that is traveling to the Dutch-- I think it's the Dutch West Indies or the Dutch Indies. And she is really imaginative and she is living on this boat and thinks there might be monsters, but turns out maybe there are monsters on the boat rather than outside the boat. And then you also get flash forward to 1989, where this young boy has just moved in with his grandfather on the coast of Western Australia, and he discovers that they live near the site of a shipwreck. And so you get these two timelines with these two kids as the protagonists, which I do love when a kid protagonist is done well. And it sounds like that might be the case here. So you get to go back and forth between 1629 and 1989. I'm very curious about this. This is not a part of history I knew anything about. And I think Keila read this and really liked it. Like I said, I like Jess Kidd. I've read some of her works before and so I'm very curious about this one. Night Ship and even the cover almost sounds like there's a spooky element. I do not think there is a spooky element. I do think there are some sinister elements what's happening on the boat. And maybe the young man and his grandfather kind of learned those things, too, as they learn about this shipwreck. So, anyway, don't go into this perhaps looking for a spooky read. This is more historical fiction and then perhaps learning what happened to this young girl aboard this boat. So it's called Night Ship by Jess Kidd, and it came out this week.
Olivia [00:18:35] This one sounds good. I think I wanted to read that one.
Annie Jones [00:18:39] Yeah. It does sound good.
Olivia [00:18:40] Now I really I don't have time.
Annie Jones [00:18:43] Tis the season. I feel like I'm looking at my books going, okay, what do I want to read before I can't anymore? Because I'm already letting myself a little tired. I got home yesterday and I intended to finish a book and instead I watched Gilmore Girls while I work on this podcast. And then I finished and was like, I have no capacity. And I thought, uh-oh has it begun?
Olivia [00:19:09] Yeah, I went to bed at 9 p.m. last night. It was wild, but I did finish this next book last night. Another great segue for Olivia.
Annie Jones [00:19:22] Yay!
Olivia [00:19:23] So this was Two Degrees by Alan Gratz, which is also out this week, October 4th. And what a timely read as I watch Hurricane Ivan travel up the Gulf of Mexico into Florida.
Annie Jones [00:19:36] Yes.
Olivia [00:19:37] Alan Gratz is a phenomenal writer. I'm sure many people have already read his work or their children has read his work. This one is just as great as everything I've read by him. This one follows three different children experiencing different effects of climate change in their areas. So you have one girl out in California who gets trapped in the middle of a wildfire with her horse. And then you have these two boys who are a hilarious duo. It's Owen Mackenzie and George Greer, and they call themselves Mac and Cheese.
Annie Jones [00:20:13] Oh, adorable.
Olivia [00:20:14] So good. But then Owen leads tours for just his area. It's up in Manitoba, Canada. So it's extremely rural. So everybody tours. Everyone always wants to see polar bears. He lets them know all about it. And then him and his friend go on this trip and they run into a polar bear, which apparently I also learned in this book are extremely deadly.
Annie Jones [00:20:43] Yeah. Like, they kill you?
Olivia [00:20:45] Yeah. Apparently, if they're brown, lay down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, say good night.
Annie Jones [00:20:55] I didn't know that. Okay, to be fair, I didn't know the white one. I knew the first two. But perhaps I've not learned the white one because the thought of, me, a Floridian seeing a polar bear are slim to none. I've definitely heard the black, brown thing. Say good night, that is brutal.
Olivia [00:21:11] Brutal.
Annie Jones [00:21:13] So that is an intense saying for you to learn when you grow up.
Olivia [00:21:18] Yeah. And honestly, in my head, all I could think of was that polar bear in Los that showed up on the island and I was just like, oh, my gosh.
Annie Jones [00:21:27] And we never knew why.
Olivia [00:21:28] A lot of things on that show never knew why.
Annie Jones [00:21:32] They were just there.
Olivia [00:21:34] But anyway, then there's a third child down in Florida in the Miami-Dade. Is it Miami-Dade area?
Annie Jones [00:21:43] Correct. Good job. Yeah. Look at you.
Olivia [00:21:44] And a category five hurricane comes through-- which I also don't know if this is true or not, maybe you can let me know. But apparently Miami is just like Florida is just like waiting for the big one?
Annie Jones [00:21:59] I mean, yeah. They talk in the Florida legislature all the time about the effects of climate change and what they're going to do. Like even today watching Hurricane Ian, if it were to hit Tampa-- Tampa is so low lying-- that would be devastating. It would be devastating if it's a strong hurricane no matter what. But there are certain parts of Florida that, like, there would be no chance because the houses are built too close to the ocean or to the gulf or low to the ground or whatever. Yeah, it's true.
Olivia [00:22:36] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:22:39] Thanks, Alan Gratz. You know what you're writing about.
Olivia [00:22:41] In this book, the big one came and all of these kids kind of hit survival mode because of these things, and you see them running away. In true Alan Gratz fashion, I would say this is 10 and up. just because of what they're experiencing and going through, and as we adults know, there's a high chance of death just seeing it in any of these situations. All of the kids make it through. I want to be clear.
Annie Jones [00:23:10] Thank you for clarifying.
Olivia [00:23:14] But one does go through a Category five hurricane. One gets trapped in the middle of a wildfire, and two of them get attacked by a polar bear. But what was really great is at the end, all three of them wind up in Washington, D.C.. And they present their stories at this climate change conference.
Annie Jones [00:23:38] Cool. That sounds like a good-- okay, that's good. I like that.
Olivia [00:23:41] Yeah, he did a great job. I love how he always brings it together in the end. And this one was just as fast paced as all the others. So it's a really great book. I highly recommend for any child who has read Alan Gratz and already knows what they're getting into, get them this book.
Annie Jones [00:24:01] Is this Alan Gratz's like first futuristic novel, rather than-- because he normally writes about past historical events. This feels new.
Olivia [00:24:11] Yeah. It might be. I'm trying to think because there is World War Two, there is 9/11. There is another one that I can't remember. I mean, it's present day I would say. Yeah. But not historical fiction.
Annie Jones [00:24:27] Yeah. But nothing that has happened yet.
Olivia [00:24:30] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:24:30] Stuff that's perhaps on track to maybe happen but that has not happened yet. Interesting.
Olivia [00:24:34] Yes. Well, I do think like the wild fire and the polar bear probably has happened. Just knowing the amount of wildfires in California and Oregon have seen.
Annie Jones [00:24:46] Yeah. Let me tell you, I need to remind myself every year-- is it around this time? I know it's in the spring when we have a beautiful day in Thomasville, but the air smells of smoke. And then I remind myself, no, no, this is so important. They're doing good work here to prevent horrific wildfires. Like, prescribed burns are important and they're good. And so it's good to remind myself of that when I'm grouchy because it affects the air quality. I get a little selfish and it's a good lesson too to not be.
Olivia [00:25:17] Well, and he pointed out in the book, too, that some wildfires are actually very helpful to the ecosystem. Like the Sequoia National Park, those trees kind of rely on wildfires. Their bark is apparently two feet deep.
Annie Jones [00:25:33] Oh, fascinating.
Olivia [00:25:34] Crazy. But it protects them against wild fires and their their leaves and leaves sprouting branches are so high up that generally we don't ever catch on fire. But they benefit from the small fires below them.
Annie Jones [00:25:49] Prescribed burns, y'all. Do your research. It's really important.
Olivia [00:25:54] I learned a lot in this book. Florida is looking out for the big one. Polar bears are deadly. And some wildfires are good, but most are bad.
Annie Jones [00:26:08] That's great. Good takeaways all around. Okay. My next one is one that I'm sure many readers are already aware of. But Erin did read this and love it, and so I wanted to talk about it. This is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan. This came out this week. Jodi Picoult, like a lot of people, I think she's an auto-buy author for them. So we typically do really well with Jodi Picoult at the bookshelf. I like that she writes in, I think, a pretty thoughtful way about current culture and current events. So it turns out, I think, Jennifer Finney Boylan tweeted that she wanted to write a book with Jodi Picoult, and Jodi Picoult tweeted back and was like, okay. And so this book kind of came to be because of a tweet. And during the pandemic, they kind of wrote this book together. So I feel like people are really familiar with Jodi Picoult, but they may not be familiar with Jennifer Finney Boylan. So she has written several books. I heard her speak at an American Booksellers Conference once, and she was hilarious. She wrote a book, a memoir, I think, back in 2003 called She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders. And it was kind of this groundbreaking work about being transgender and a memoir about what that was like or what that experience was like for her. And so it was kind of this groundbreaking work. She since has gone on to not only write other books, but she also, I think, has served as like a consultant on TV shows that have trans characters, things like that. So, anyway, Jodi Picoult Jennifer Finney Boylan come together to write this book. The book is about two families, Olivia and her son Asher and Lilly and her mom. And so Olivia and her son, Asher, I think they are living in New Hampshire or have moved back to New Hampshire. The mom has kind of been through something and is having to live back in her hometown and where her parents live. And then she brings her teenage son, Asher, with her.
[00:28:03] And then Lilly and her mom have also moved to the area and they're kind of trying to start over. And Lilly is trying to find her place in school. She and Asher become really, really, good friends. They may even be dating, I'm not quite sure, but they develop a relationship either way. And then, of course, as we are accustomed to with Jodi Picoult, I feel like there's always like two families. And then in this particular book, Lilly winds up dead and Asher stands accused of the murder. And Olivia is fervent that her son is not guilty, but she's trying to figure out what happened. So there's a mystery or a suspenseful element to this book. Parts of it sound a little bit like Defending Jacob, which is a book by William Lynn Landay that Jordan and I really loved. It's a TV series, but it's a really great book. It's a really page turning kind of suspense novel. And this sounds a little bit like that where it's kind of dealing with the criminal justice system, which I am always interested in, but it's also dealing with families and family dynamics and mother-son relationships, mother-daughter relationships. And I'm very curious. I'm always fascinated by books that are co-written. I feel like I had the opportunity last year to interview a couple of authors who co-wrote a book together, because I'm always like, how do you do that? Like, do you have a Google doc? Like, what is it? How do you have a cohesive novel come out of two voices is always stunning to me. So I'll be curious to see what this one is like. But Erin already read it and really liked it. She highly recommended it. And I think she even said she has read some Jodi Picoult but it's not like she's some Jodi Picoult super fan. She just thought this one sounded interesting and she really enjoyed it. So this is Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boyland. And it came out this week.
Olivia [00:29:51] My sister and I in high school read almost every single Jodi Picoult we could get our hands on.
Annie Jones [00:29:56] Because you can fly through them and you really do. Almost just kind of speaking of Alan Gratz, you kind of learn about a lot of current issues. I will be honest, I'm sorry, I do not remember the name of this book, but I listened to a Jodi Picoult book as part of like that Fuzzy Goat Yarn book club we did for a while. And I wound up listening to the whole thing, and it was about white supremacy and neo-Nazi culture. And I was flabbergasted. Like, I needed to read a book like that that would kind of open my eyes. And I've since read some nonfiction about that world, but man, I think she does a really good job of doing some research. I think she spends, I don't know, but it feels like she spends a year researching, a year writing, and then she publishes. Just based on how far apart her books are spread, it feels like she really does a lot of work on the front end of kind of doing this research. And you walk away feeling like you've read a really compelling story-- her storytelling is just really good-- and then you feel like you know a little bit more about the world we inhabit.
Olivia [00:31:03] Yeah. I have vivid memories of finishing My Sister's Keeper. It was when my sister was in college and I finished it like probably like midnight or 1 a.m. and I just immediately called her and she just said she was like, You finished? Like she knew because why else would I call her that? Right.
Annie Jones [00:31:24] Oh, my gosh. That book messed me up a little bit.
Olivia [00:31:27] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:31:30] I bet it really did for y'all. Gosh, oh, brutal.
Olivia [00:31:33] In any case, not a great segue, but moving forward, my next one is a picture book called This is Not A Story About a Kitten by Randall de Seve. And this is out this week on October 4th. And truly, this book is not about a kitten. There is a kitten in it, which I did enjoy. But this is about a community who finds this kitten underneath this car. And it's really about the actions that everyone chose to take to help the kitten. There was a person who gave it water. There was the dog that barked to alert people that the kitten was there, there'[s the family who then opted to take the kitten in. And it really just like this little kitten brought everybody together because everyone made the choice to help him. The illustrations feel very like classic to me where it's this long illustration and then you'll have a block of one color where the words are, and it's kind of like built on each other. So it's like this is not a story about a kitten, but it's about so and so who did this. So and so who did that. And then adds a line to every page.
Annie Jones [00:32:47] Oh, I love that.
Olivia [00:32:48] This book just kind of blew me away a little bit because, truly, I read the title and I was like, ooh, love about a cat. And then it wasn't. And it had such a great meaning behind it. And I just think every library, every school, classroom should have this book. It's really great.
Annie Jones [00:33:08] Oh, that does sound good. Next up for me is on my personal, highly anticipated list. I did not receive an ARC for this and so I'm waiting. I'm not bitter about it. I'm waiting alongside everyone else. It's called Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng, came out this week. So if you're not familiar, Celeste Ng has written two really great backlist titles. Everything I Never Told You was her debut Little Fires Everywhere, I think was a Reese Witherspoon pick. It kind of blew up. I love both of those books. I think they're both excellent and I am really anxious to read this one. I feel like it's been a while since I've read a Celeste Ng book because I read both of those books kind of as they came out. So I feel like I've been waiting for a while. This book is about 12-year-old Bird. I wrote in my notes post-apocalyptic. It's not really post-apocalyptic. We're talking in the near future where American culture looks different. American culture has taken a turn. And so I think Celeste Ng is kind of imagining what life would look like if America goes in a certain direction. And so I said post-apocalyptic setting, but it's not a post-apocalyptic story. It's just like this is what life looks like in our country now. And basically, for decades, all of the lives in America have been governed by laws written to preserve "American culture". And Bird's mother was a Chinese-American. She was kind of a dissident. Chinese-American, dissident. She wrote beautiful and profound prophetic poetry. And so as a result, Bird and his dad are kind of ostracized from the community because of their affiliations with their mother. They also are Asian-American. And so that has resulted in them being treated certain ways.
[00:34:58] So Bird kind of is unpacking and learning about his mother's past. So, basically, he kind of goes on this journey-- not necessarily a literal journey, but he kind of tries to uncover the history of his mom and why his mom wrote the poetry she did and what implications it might have for now. It sounds really interesting. All of Celeste Ng books have this underlying tension to them. So Everything I Never Told You, you almost want to say they're thrillers, but they're not thrillers. And they're and when I say suspense, I think that makes it sound like they're mysteries and they're not necessarily mysteries. They're just suspenseful stories. Like they're tense. There's this underlying tension of what's going to happen, what is the conflict here? And that's part of the reason I love her books, because I feel like they kind of defy category a little bit. And so this one sounds like it will be really interesting, especially in light of the last couple of years and what America looks like in a post-pandemic landscape. I'm very curious about this. I'm really anxious to read it. I feel excited that I get to read alongside everybody else. That's the pro side to not receiving the ARC, is I will get to read it alongside of the rest of the world. It is called Our Missing Heart's by Celeste Ng, came out this week.
Olivia [00:36:22] That was a good way to spend the bad part of not getting and ARC.
Annie Jones [00:36:26] That's right. Because like, for example, this week when we were recording the end of one of your favorite trilogies came out, did you get an ARC for that?
Olivia [00:36:36] No.
Annie Jones [00:36:38] So here's the thing, the pro is that you get to read alongside everybody else. Now the con is making the time to read this book that's already out. I mean, I think that's the con for a bookseller. Yeah. Especially a book like the end of a trilogy or like a Celeste Ng book that may potentially just sell itself. I mean, I think it will be valuable for me to read it so that I can talk about it with customers. And it'll be interesting to see how it compares to her previous two works because sometimes a second or third book is for a totally different audience than for the other book. And so it's interesting as a bookseller to kind of read and try to figure out who is this book for, who can I sell this? Do I really am excited to read it kind of not in a vacuum, but I'm also like when am I going to find time to read this book?
Olivia [00:37:20] Yeah, that's the [Inaudible] side of it, I think.
Annie Jones [00:37:23] Yeah.
Olivia [00:37:23] My next one is a middle grade book. It's called Undercover Latina by Aya de Leon. And this is out next week, so October 11th. And this one is about a Latina girl whose parents are in the spy organization that focuses on BIPOC issues that other governmental factions maybe look over and don't start to pursue. And she is awesome. And so she also becomes a spy.
Annie Jones [00:37:57] Okay, of course.
Olivia [00:38:02] She's done like a little bit of work here and there to help her parents on their missions. But her and her mom, who are both white-passing, go into this small Texas town where there is a boy with an estranged father who they have heard, like, the hints of a possible white supremacist terrorist attack plot. And so her job is to befriend this boy and see if she can kind of uncover what's going on. So the majority of the book is just her kind of grappling with like now she has to pretend to be this whole different culture that she has never been before in her life, while also befriending this boy who truly doesn't know his father and doesn't want to know his father. But she, like, makes friends with this boy and his best friend who all play this card game. I'm trying to relate the card game to anything else other than like [Inaudible] come on. Because I feel only card game that has characters that you pull out and, like, play.
Annie Jones [00:39:12] Magic. Those magic cards. Magic the gathering.
Olivia [00:39:16] I've never heard of that.
Annie Jones [00:39:23] Sure. Sure.
Olivia [00:39:24] But she learns this game to play with them. You just have this girl who's living her best life, being a spy, fitting in with a new crowd, facing fears, making new friends. It was honestly fun. But then it had this serious underlying note of like, but, hey, this is still an issue.
Annie Jones [00:39:49] But that's what I kind of like. I feel like especially in kid lit-- although sometimes I'd like it in adult lit too-- where like the issues are definitely there and being addressed, but the story is fun or adventurous or interesting. Like about her being a spy. I'm picturing-- I loved the show Alias. I don't know. So that sounds really great.
Olivia [00:40:10] Yeah, I think I read it almost in one sitting just because it was so much fun. And the way the author did it was so good. It was genius almost because it was, like, as a kid reading this, I think you would read it and not realize the stuff that you were absorbing. You're just having fun with this girl who's being a spy on her first solo mission. Which what child doesn't want to be a spy on their first solo mission?
Annie Jones [00:40:39] Right.
Olivia [00:40:39] Yeah, it was so great. Highly recommended. But I would say, like, probably 10 and up. Yeah. But really, really great.
Annie Jones [00:40:50] All right. My next one is Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet. It is also out on October 11th. I loved this book. Now it is a weird little book, which I love weird little books. And I'm borrowing that phrase, I think one of our patron supporters, Gillian, uses that phrase-- weird little book. And I love it because sometimes that's just the exact way to describe a certain type of literature. So Lydia Millet, you may be familiar with, she wrote A Children's Bible, which I still have not read, but now I think I would like to go back and read because I loved this one so much. Here's the thing. This book is so difficult to describe. It's called Dinosaurs. It kind of gets its name from birds as they are the last living dinosaurs. And so the main character, Gil, moves from New York to Arizona. He has this breakup and he walks from New York to Arizona to start over his life. And once he arrives in Arizona, he buys a house and the house happens to be next door to-- like in the back is kind of this wildlife sanctuary, which is where he encounters a lot of these birds. And then next door is this glass house where this family moves in. And it's mom and dad and two kids. And Gil is a single guy, and he winds up kind of befriending and developing relationships with his neighbors because their house is glass. And so Gil sees a lot of things. At first I just thought, oh, my gosh, is this going to take a turn? I think it's because I read a lot of sinister books and also I live in this life. And so I just thought, oh, there's no way this ends well. But let me tell you, no spoilers. This is a lovely book. There is nothing sinister happening here. What is happening is Gil is a little bit of a trust fund kid. He's in his, I believe, thirties to forties.
[00:42:43] And he has not had to work a lot for very many things. And he has a lot of money from a trust from growing up a certain way. And he is trying to figure out more or less what it means to be good and what it means to be a good person. And he knows he's a person of privilege. And what is he supposed to do with it, and how is he supposed to function in the world? He's also a human and so he's dealing with this break up that he experienced, this newfound friendship he has with his neighbors, including he has a really lovely relationship with the neighbor's son who kind of winds up staying home a lot like after school or whatever. And I just love their friendship and their relationship. And he also has two best guy friends who he left behind in New York. And their relationship is really lovely. I don't know what it is about me, but I like reading about male friendships. I find that to be a really interesting thing to observe and to pay attention to. And so, anyway, I wound up falling in love with Gil. I don't often say that about a male protagonist, but I really liked Gil a lot. And I felt very attached to these people because I thought for the most part these are people just trying really hard, and that's the kind of person I want to be around in real life, and it is the kind of person I got to read about. And so I found that to be really enjoyable. I love this whole book. It's unique. I haven't really read anything like it. It's a little bit quirky. It's not got some bombastic climactic moment. It's just kind of a book about these people. And I loved it. So it's Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet out next week.
Olivia [00:44:22] I really thought it was going for that creepy peeping Tom, sort of, with the glass house.
Annie Jones [00:44:27] Me too. And then I was so relieved because it was more unusual that it wasn't.
Olivia [00:44:33] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:44:34] I would have read a book about a-- okay, what does that say about me that I would have read a book about a creep.
Olivia [00:44:39] Don't ever think of it.
Annie Jones [00:44:42] I would have read that book and I probably would have been intrigued, but I liked better that it was just this man who kind of befriended this kid who was trying to make a name for himself in this new town. I just wound up thinking I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it never did, I was so relieved because I loved them all. I was like, oh, okay, these are people doing their best. Like, I like reading about people who are doing their best.
Olivia [00:45:11] Well, it just went off.
Annie Jones [00:45:12] Yes, it was charming. I loved it.
Olivia [00:45:15] Okay. My next one is a middle grade graphic novel, and I feel like I don't actually talk about graphic novels a lot on here, but the last time I did it was by the same author. So great job, Claribel A. Ortega. This is Frizzy, out on October 18th. And it's really about this girl and her mother who they go to the salon every single Sunday and the little girl hates it because her mom has her hair straightened every time. And this little girl she loves running around, she loves playing, and so her hair just gets so frizzy so quickly and her mom always gets so upset with her. But what she starts to realize is that her mom just doesn't want her to go through the same type of bullying that she faced about her curly hair. And so she does this with her daughter as like a mother daughter bonding moment, but also just as she wants to protect her from what she went through. But then this little girl spends a weekend with her aunt, and her aunt has this gorgeous, curly hair, owns it, it's all natural. And she shows her how to care for her hair, keep it healthy and style it the way she wants it to be styled. And her mom eventually comes over to their side and sees it like really hair. Like, embracing your natural hair is important. Yeah, it was just a very touching book. The illustrations were so good because it has this like pink hues throughout the whole thing. And I love when a graphic novel takes on like a certain color tone throughout it, and this one definitely did. It was really great. I think any middle grade chapter book reader would love this book, especially ones with curly hair and have to deal with the chaos that comes with that.
Annie Jones [00:47:15] Yeah. That sounds great.
Olivia [00:47:16] It was awesome.
Annie Jones [00:47:17] Okay. My next one is Demon Copperhead. This is by Barbara Kingsolver. It's out on October 18th. I love Barbara Kingsolver Poison Wood Bible, Unsheltered. I really like her work. My dad read this book and loved it. I hesitate to say this, it's a retelling of David Copperfield, but you don't have to have read David Copperfield-- which I have not-- to appreciate it. But what she has done is she set it in the contemporary American South, so it's set in southern Appalachia. And so she really wanted to showcase that the trials of Charles Dickens, England, they did not disappear. We have not solved them. So the same issues that arose about poverty and homelessness and things like that, those are not issues that were just specific to Charles Dickens and his day. Instead, they are very much a problem in current America and in this case, in the case in which she's writing, the current American South. I'm fascinated by this and I love how she writes in a way, I feel like she does a really good job writing about different parts of the world. She seems to be a woman who really does her research and treats her characters with dignity. And so anyway, this is about a family growing up in southern Appalachia and about how they came into poverty and what systemic issues led to them living this way, and then what can kind of be done about it. Again, I have not read David Copperfield. Charles Dickens is a missing piece of my literary life, but I am very curious about this one. And I trust Barbara Kingsolver a lot. Like Unsheltered was a bit of a tome for me and I still really read it and loved it. And Demon Copperhead is thick, like, this is a big book, but I think you'll fly through it. I really like her writing style a lot, and I don't know if people knew that this was coming out. So I wanted to make sure it was on everybody's radar. So this is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, out on October 18th. You do not have to have read the Charles Dickens of it all before you dive into this one.
Olivia [00:49:25] Okay. My next one I feel like this is right in between a chapter book and a middle grade novel. But I think either age group could really enjoy this. This is Outside Nowhere by Adam Borda and it's out October 18th. This book is hilarious. It's heartwarming. It's also just really fun. But this is about a little boy. I wish I could remember his name. Parker-- no, I don't want to guess. This is about a little boy. And it starts off with he got this summer job at the public pool. He does not want to do this summer job. He wants to go to Outer Banks with his best friend while his best friend works at a surf shop and he just [Inaudible] all day.
Annie Jones [00:50:08] Nice. Me too.
Olivia [00:50:09] So in order to get out of his summer job, he pours gallons of Kool-Aid into this pool and turns it purple.
Annie Jones [00:50:19] Oh, my gosh.
Olivia [00:50:21] Dies the entire pool. They have to drain it. They have to bleach it, scrub it, do all the stuff. And this woman who's kind of like a caretaker in the community, but she looks after him, she has a little soft spot in her heart for this kid who's just an absolute troublemaker. Also, he wears suits because he feels like he wants to look professional wherever he goes with just [Crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:50:48] Yeah, we love a good quirk.
Olivia [00:50:49] Oh, yeah. And so in order to get him to take life more seriously, they sent him to this farm in the middle of nowhere. And he starts to see all of these wild things. Like one night he wakes up in the middle of the night and there's a goat flying past his window. And then he wakes up one day and there's a cow stuck on top of the barn. And everyone's kind of, like, we don't know how it got there. But all this farm plants harvest is just turnips and they take deliveries in the middle of the night. Like, they're up all night with people calling to get like two or three of these turnips and this kid is just like, what is going on?
Annie Jones [00:51:35] I also am wondering that.
Olivia [00:51:37] Yeah, I don't want to spoil it. But it was so much fun. The kid figures out what the turnips are about, and he kind of learns that you have to put in the hard work to reap the benefits of just life and enjoying things. So much so that he ends up taking his best friend there the following summer but his best friend does not know what he's getting into. The book is just so much fun. There's illustrations throughout it. He meets this group of kids on the farm who are also all there and very confused about the turnips. But you just do what you got to do. You harvest the turnips, you do deliveries, and you watch cows get stuck on roofs.
Annie Jones [00:52:28] This sounds delightful.
Olivia [00:52:29] It was so fun.
Annie Jones [00:52:30] I do like a funny book. We've talked about that before. Some kid lit just needs to be funny and fun.
Olivia [00:52:36] Yeah, exactly. And it did have, like, a little bit more serious turn at the end, but it was worth it because you had to see this kid learn why these turnips are important and that the hard work that you put in does pay off. That it's there for a reason? It was so good.
Annie Jones [00:52:58] Okay. My last book is Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro. This comes out on October 18th. I loved this book so much. I think it would be very good for book clubs. Really good. I bet, if I'm not mistaken, probably some celebrity is going to pick this as their book club book. But Dani Shapiro a few years ago wrote the book Inheritance. She has written lots of books. Inheritance is not her only book, but it is certainly one that captured the zeitgeist I feel like for a while, where it was a memoir about her taking one of those at home DNA tests and realizing that she had a family she really didn't know about. And so that is a great book. If you've not read that, that'd be a good book to go back. And I think it was a good audio book as well. I read the physical copy, but I think it was a good audiobook. This is a work of fiction, so Signal Fires is a new novel by her. She hasn't written fiction in about 15 years, so this is kind of exciting. And you can definitely see the ways in which Inheritance and probably her research for that book certainly affected or maybe even inspired this book. So Signal Fires is really a book about two families-ish. The book opens in 1985 and you witness just immediately-- no spoilers-- there's a car accident and the three teenagers involved, one of them dies. And now you, the reader, are witnessing-- it's pretty horrific and violent kind of inciting incident at the very start of the novel. And then the book goes a little bit back and forth between 1985 and then various other years until about 2020. And so to present day. And you get these two families that live in the same neighborhood and how their lives kind of intersect.
[00:54:45] Other than that big kind of inciting incident that opens the book, there are other kind of suspenseful moments throughout, but the book is really about these two families and why their lives interact. And, to me, it's also about the effects of trauma and generational trauma, or inherited trauma and what happens when you don't kind of take care of that. In that way, it also reminds me of the themes of the book The Many Daughters Afong Moy. They're very similar to me in kind of tone and how they kind of go back and forth between generations. And so you really become attached to these two families and to the roles they play and even, to some extent, to the neighborhood in which they live. The little fires everywhere took place in kind of this very distinct neighborhood and setting, and that's how this neighborhood feels to me. I spent some of my childhood in like a neighborhood like suburbs, and you kind of know what that feels like and like having a cul-de-sac and everybody knows everybody. And then what happens when your family grows out of that, and when your children grow up and move away and kind of what's left. I also like that this book dealt with different characters at lots of different ages. So there's not just one protagonist you're dealing with. You're dealing with a lot of different people, and you see them as children or young adults or early in their adolescence, and you also see them as full fledged adults nearing retirement. And so I really liked getting to see kind of the whole of a person and how one moment or a few moments kind of impact a life. I love this book, I could not put it down. I finished it-- not necessarily tearful-- but definitely like, wow, I just love books. Do you ever have a book like that where you're like, wow, we're so lucky.
Olivia [00:56:39] Yeah. [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:56:40] We're so lucky to live with these artists who can put to words what some of us are feeling or what we're fascinated by. I loved this book a lot. I think people will be talking about this one. It is Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro and it comes out on October 18th.
Olivia [00:56:55] Also I feel like a lot of your books are set in the eighties.
Annie Jones [00:56:58] Yes, I think that's happening right now. I do. I feel like it is almost being considered historical fiction. I say almost because I'm like, oh, I was born in '86. But no, no, it's historical fiction now. It's fine.
Olivia [00:57:11] Yeah, I think the nineties are historical fiction now.
Annie Jones [00:57:13] They totally are. And, you know, that's okay. It's okay.
Olivia [00:57:18] It's fine. So my next book is The Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. This is out October 18th, and I loved this book so much. One, because I love a great mystery. Two, I love a great found family. That is a trope that will never get old for me. And this book did it so well. This is set in the 1950s, and it's about this police officer who gets fired and blacklisted after his colleagues raid this gay club one night and he is caught in the bathroom. And you see him, I think, like the day or two after this happens and he's just kind of like, this is it for me. That was my whole life. That was my job. And now what do I do? Everybody knows. But then this woman approaches him and she offers him a job at the home where she lives, the Lavender House, because recently her wife has passed away and she is unsure as to if this was an accidental death or a murder.
Annie Jones [00:58:22] Oh, interesting.
Olivia [00:58:23] And she heard about his recent firing, the whole incident behind it, and she was like, you're perfect for this because everyone who lives at the Lavender House is a part of the LGBTQ community. And we like to keep private. We like to keep it quiet in the house, and we know that you'll keep our secret. So she hires him to work on this murder mystery, and he starts investigating. You meet all of these people who live in the house and you just start caring about each one of them. And so when it gets to the point where he does figure out this is unfortunately a murder and one of the people in this house is the person who did it, you're just kind of like, no. Which I love because truly it could have been anyone and you didn't want it to be anyone.
Annie Jones [00:59:14] Right. Okay.
Olivia [00:59:15] So it just had this awesome mystery at the heart of it. The Lavender House was known for the woman who passed away made soap and she owned this soap company, and she died while creating this new scent of soap. And so he, like, deals with that. It was so much fun. You got so attached to the characters. The author left it on a note where, like, it could possibly be a series. I think if it were a series, I would for sure read the next one. If it weren't, I would miss it. But he did an amazing job. It was just well done.
Annie Jones [00:59:53] That sounds really good. I think I had seen this in the catalog and it did look like right up your alley.
Olivia [00:59:58] Yeah. I had constantly been telling Keila and Kendall all about it as I was reading it, keeping them avidly updated on it.
Annie Jones [01:00:06] It almost sounds [Inaudible] kind of with the cast of characters, but with a murder mystery at the heart.
Olivia [01:00:14] Yes, I think so. I loved all these characters so much. Yeah, it was great.
Annie Jones [01:00:20] Okay. That's a lot of good October books, everybody. So one last reminder. If you purchase or pre order any of the books we talked about today, you can do so from The Bookshelf and you can enter NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout to get 10% off your order. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com click or tap Podcast, then Shop From the Front Porch to see today's titles. Don't forget, you can also preorder listening copies. If you prefer listening to audiobooks, you can go to Libro.fm and preorder the audiobooks there.
[01:00:48] This week I'm reading People Person by Candace Carty-Williams. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [01:00:54] I'm reading The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik.
Annie Jones [01:00:59] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram @Bookshelftville and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com.
[01:01:15] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefront orchpodcast.com. Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music which sets the perfect, warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
[01:01:29] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler. Cami Tidwell. Chantelle C.
Executive Producers (Read their own names) [01:01:35] Nicole Marsee. Wendy Jenkins. Laurie Johnson. Kate Johnston Tucker.
Annie Jones [01:01:41] Thank you all for your support of From the Front Porch. If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see 'Write a Review' and tell us what you think.
[01:01:59] Or, if you're so inclined, you can support us over on Patreon where we have three levels of support. Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.