Episode 401 || November Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in November. As always, we’re offering a Reading Recap Bundle, which features Annie’s three favorite books she read this month.
Get your November Reading Recap Bundle or your favorites of Annie’s November reads on our website:
November Reading Recap Bundle (includes The Road, Have I Told You This Already?, and Holiday Romance)
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Have I Told You This Already? by Lauren Graham
Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh
Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
The Family Game by Catherine Steadman
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Maame by Jessica George (releases 1/31/23)
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.
Thank you again to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Spend Christmas in Thomasville! There is something truly special about the holiday season in Thomasville. From shopping for those must-have presents for everyone on your list, to the twinkling lights, sparkling window displays, and tempting smells wafting from restaurants all add to the festive feeling of the season. From downtown hotels, to delightful vacation rentals, book your getaway to Thomasville and add a little more sparkle to your holidays! Learn more and plan your trip at www.thomasvillega.com or @thomasvillega on Instagram.
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] "I think you actually have to have all of your dreams come true to realize they are the wrong dreams." Matthew Perry. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
[00:00:38] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, I'm recapping the books I read in November.
[00:00:48] As you shop for holiday gifts this season, I'd like to encourage you to think outside the box. Of course, we love when folks support The Bookshelf by shopping with us in store and online- that's Bookshelfthomasvillecom. But another way you can show your support while also giving, I think, a pretty unique gift this holiday season is by gifting a Patreon membership to a friend or loved one. We offer at The Bookshelf and From the Front Porch three tiers of patron support $5, $20 or $50 a month, and you can gift a monthly or annual membership. We've already announced, as of, I think this week, our Conquer a Classic selection for 2023. Bleak House by Charles Dickens. At the $5 a month level, you can read along with me and guest Hunter McLendon as we conquer this classic and recap each section in bonus episodes of From the Front Porch.
[00:01:36] This week we wrapped up our 2022 selection, which was the Count of Monte Cristo, and I think the gift of reading along with us would be fun this holiday season. Visit Patreon.com/Fromthefrontporch for more information and to read along with us. Okay. November is over. It is hard to believe. What a month? This is the month that my reading life collapses every November. And that's just the way it is. It is a rhythm I am very accustomed to. I do not get discouraged by it. It just is what it is. Every November, I wind up reading a smorgasbord of maybe possible shelf subscriptions for 2023, but also maybe whatever audiobooks will hold my attention or the occasional nonfiction or something quick, young adult, cutesy. I just feel like November is always the time of the year when my brain really doesn't focus as well on books. And it's because this is the time of year when things are very busy at The Bookshelf. And I do find it ironic that a bookstore owner's reading life kind of diminishes in the waning months of the year. But I also think if you work retail, this makes a lot of sense and this is familiar. Also, I don't even think you have to be working retail to understand this. I feel like teachers or people who are trying to get their families festivities in order, all of us are just hanging on by a thread around this time of year. And so it makes sense that for some of us our reading lives kind of follow suit. That being said, I sat down at my computer and I thought, well, I'm not going to have much to talk about because I didn't read much in November, but I read more than I thought I did. And we're not fake here at From the Front Porch. Yes, some months I read eight books. Some months I read four books and that's fine. My reading life comes and goes depending on what my actual life looks like.
[00:03:29] So first up is a book I actually finished in the latter days of October. It is Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson. This is an ARC you've probably maybe seen a little bit on the Internet. If you're a bookish person, I feel like the cover lends itself to Instagram. But this book does not release until March of 2023. I had seen it a couple of places, a couple of readers I trust. Tyler, former manager of Avid in Athens, Georgia. Kate current manager of Bookmarks in North Carolina. And so I had seen it enough places that I thought I need to request the ARC and see if I'm going to like it. So this is exactly the kind of book I have loved for a really long time. It's wealthy, dysfunctional family literature. So this is about the Stockton family of Brooklyn, New York. They're like the point 1% of the 1%. So in my mind, unimaginably wealthy more than my brain can really comprehend. But they're old money. So there's a really great house in this book on Pineapple Street that I think is a character in the book just as much as the siblings are characters in this book. And that, I think, is something that contributed to my love and appreciation for it. But this to me is The Nest. I think even the author of The Nest is going to or has already blurbed this book, but it definitely feels like The Nest meets Everybody Rise, which is a book by Stephanie Clifford that I read a few years ago and adored. Look, I like reading about rich people problems. I love it. I eat it up. If it's well-written, I eat it up. And I thought this was really well-written. The book kind of follows three people in the Stockton family. The first is Dali. And the names are perfect, y'all. So Darley, she is the eldest daughter who got married. And when she got married, she forfeited her trust because she didn't want to sign a prenup-- as I recall. And so she is still incredibly wealthy. Her husband is very successful. She was financially successful. Then she began having children and so she wound up quitting her job-- I believe in finance. And now she's kind of trying to figure out, is that what she wanted to do? Did she mean to quit her job in finance? Should she have kept doing that? How do you do that with kids and with a growing family? And some other things happened in her marriage. So we get a lot about Darley and her life and her marriage and her relationship. Then we get Sasha. Sasha is the daughter in law who has married the middle son. And I loved her character because I think she in some ways is the audience. Because most of us reading Pineapple Street are not going to be in the point 1% of the 1%, and neither is Sasha. And Sasha kind of marries in. And she and her husband wind up living in the house on Pineapple Street. It's like the old family home. The mom and dad have moved into a super nice condo or something that they've downsized into. And they have given their son and his wife the Pineapple Street house to live in. And so Sasha not only has married into this money, she also now lives in this house that doesn't really feel entirely hers. And she is a graphic designer and an artist and is really coming to terms with what it means to be married into this super wealthy family. So I loved her character because I think for many of us, she's the character who we can most easily relate to or find ourselves in. And then last but not least, we also get Georgiana the baby. Again, these names Darley and Georgiana, it's perfect. So Georgiana is the youngest member of the Stockton clan and she is very comfortable with her lifestyle. She works for a nonprofit. She's a tennis player. And she begins having a relationship with a coworker. And you can see her grappling with a little bit of the guilt maybe that can come with being so wealthy and trying to figure out what do you do with that kind of wealth when you inherit it? What is your responsibility? So I really thought Jenny Jackson, who I believe works in the publishing world, did a great job of fleshing out these characters. They could have been so unlikable. And I think that's the thing that I most I'm looking for when I say I like to read dysfunctional family lit. And I think Kate, actually from Bookmarks, is who kind of tweaked my definition, which is I love dysfunctional family lit. I do like the people to like each other. And while I don't always need likable characters in my literature, if they're in this dysfunctional family, I do want to at least care about them. They don't all have to be people I would be best friends with. They don't have to be people I can identify with, but they do have to be people that I can understand or if not understand that I'm at least intrigued by. And all of these characters, while outrageously wealthy and occasionally doing things that I just find completely foreign, I was very invested and I cared about them. I really did care about what happened to these people, and I liked spending time with this family. And that really is the key. These weren't people that I was constantly rolling my eyes at or I was annoyed by. These were people who I thought, oh, how interesting. They're interesting. These are interesting people who I enjoyed being around, even though on the page we might not have a ton in common. And I think that's the mark of a good author. And I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I read this book with a smile on my face, which is more than I can say for some of the other books I read this month. This book was just very enjoyable and I cannot wait to hand sell it. I think it will be an easy hand sell. It'll be one I can recommend to a lot of readers, a wide range of readers. But if you, like me, are drawn in by dysfunctional family literature. If you like New York settings, I'm talking about writers like Emma Straub who write about their sections of New York so very well. If you like that, if you are struck by fish out of water stories, if you like reading about wealthy people, trying to figure out what to do with their wealth, which for whatever reason I do find that really interesting, then I think you'll like this book. And it's got a great, gorgeous cover, which I think you will be seeing on Instagram a lot. So it's Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson. Doesn't release until March, and I am sorry about that but you can go ahead and mark it on your calendars. You can request it from your local libraries. You can preorder it from your local bookstores.
[00:10:03] Then I read The Road by Cormac McCarthy. You've already heard me talk a lot about this in our Backlist Book Club episode. That's episode 399. If you tend to skip backlist book club episodes, that's totally fine. You don't have to listen to every episode of From the Front Porch. But I will tell you that Backlist Book Club is one of my favorite series of episodes. This year, Hunter and I decided to read Pulitzer Prize winners. And let me tell you, if you're going to read backlist titles, read Pulitzer winners, you're almost guaranteed. At least I feel like I'm almost guaranteed to love those books. And that's something Hunter and I talked about in episode 399, is which award winning genre do we most follow or do we most enjoy? Like, do we like National Book Award winners? Do we like Booker winners? Do we like Pulitzer winners? And I think we landed on the fact that I really love a Pulitzer winner and The Road was no exception. The Road is my brother's favorite book. My brother Chet [Sp], it's his favorite book. He's begged me to read it for years. And I put off reading it. And you can hear a little bit more about why I put off reading it in last week's episode. But because of Backlist Book Club and because of From the Front Porch and the work we do here, I picked it up. It felt like homework. And I never don't do my homework, so I picked it up and could not put it down. And November, as I've already said, is a notoriously difficult reading month for me. This month it certainly was. I found myself starting-- if y'all knew how many books I had started. I started so many books in November and then just didn't finish them. Not because they weren't good, but my brain is not in the right headspace to read a lot at this time of year. And so I kept starting these books and not finishing them. I kept trying to read for shelf subscriptions and not finding the books I was interested in. And so it was a real joy to get to pick up this backlist title. I did not think it would be a joy to read about a post-apocalyptic universe, a post-apocalyptic world, and instead it very much was. I immediately from page one was hooked on this book. It does not have quotation marks and its punctuation is unique. I started this while at lunch by myself and I thought this may not be for me or I may not be able to do this. And then truly immediately, I was two pages in and was already like, oh, is this going to be one of my favorite books of all time? And I think it will be actually in my top 10 favorite books of all time. I adored this book, and I'm mad at myself that I haven't read it before, but no need to be mad. I'm just glad I read it and I'm glad I can say that I've read it. And if you have not read it, if you're like me and you kept putting it off because you thought it was going to be too bleak, or maybe you also were hesitant because of the lack of quotation marks, I guess I'm just here to tell you, I think this is worth it. I think it's worth looking past some of the maybe pet peeves we have about certain kinds of literature. And I would encourage you to give this one a try. I did not find it to be bleak. I mean, it is. But instead, I was struck by its tenderness. It's a father-son story. So beautifully written father-son story. I could not get over the poetic nature. The writing is stellar. I was blown away and I was not expecting that at all. I don't know why. Maybe my own biases against certain kinds of literature, but I just did not think beautiful would be a word I would attribute to The Road. And I adored it. And after I finished it, I could not stop talking about it. I made Jordan sit down and watch the movie with me, the movie starring Viggo Mortensen. I liked the movie. I watched it the day I finished the book. And I kept just thinking, but there's so much more. I just kept finding myself doing that thing that sometimes us readers do, which is kind of critiquing because "the book is better" which the book is not always better. But I liked the movie. I loved loved the book. And if you have not read it or you're wondering why I loved it so much, I would encourage you to go listen to Episode 399. There's really nothing like talking to Hunter McLendon about a book that you love. And I thoroughly enjoyed that conversation and I'm so glad I read so many great Pulitzer winning novels this year and backlist titles. I don't know that that was a goal of mine, but it's something I got to do and that's really fun.
[00:14:27] Next up, I began the audiobook. Have I Told You This Already by Lauren Graham. Obviously, Lauren Graham is the star of Gilmore Girls and Parenthood. I read her novel Someday, Someday, Maybe which I loved. I actually think that's a great novel if you're looking for kind of a backlist coming of age, sort of autobiographical novel. I think you might really like that. I actually think it's quite good. So, Erin, at The Bookshelf, she read it and mentioned it at Reader Retreat and talked about how much she liked it. And I thought, oh, I don't know. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did not read Lauren Graham's previous memoir or previous collection of essays. I don't know why. I just didn't. Maybe I wasn't interested. I'm not sure. I'm a big Gilmore Girls fan. But anyway, I decided to listen to this one on audiobook because I had been in a reading slump and I thought if I could get into an audiobook that will help me get back on track, that will help my attention span. And I remembered Erin had told me about this book, and so I downloaded the audiobook Libro fm. And it was delightful. I cannot compare it to her previous memoir or collection of essays. This is an essay collection, but it is a memoir in essays. It's little snippets of her life, of her childhood, her relationship with her parents. But also there are a few Gilmore Girls stories. There are a few tidbits about parenthood, about her relationships, about her breakup, about her love of New York City. They're just delightful essays. Erin love the printed copy, but I think my reading was certainly aided by the fact that this was the audiobook. I just loved having her in my head. She's a great audiobook narrator, and I don't think that's true of every author, nor is it true of every actor. But I really thought she was quite a compelling narrator, and it was fun to hear it in her voice and to hear some of those stories. I also found her incredibly down to earth. And I'm going to compare it to another celebrity memoir that I read later this month. But I think what I liked about this was it didn't just feel like a celebrity memoir. It also felt like I was listening to a memoir by somebody who was growing up and older. She talks a lot about looking older and the impact that has on her career and how her career has changed over the last few years and what it's like to go from the engineer, to the single mom, to being that's all you can ever play, to being older and what's expected of artists when they grow older. And I love that, too. It felt like I was listening to a big sister or an older aunt or just somebody who's kind of paving the way. And I really enjoyed it. Like I said, I cannot really compare it to her previous memoir. But what I kept thinking of over and over again while listening to it was The Wreckage of My Presence by Casey Wilson, which is a celebrity memoir that completely surprised me. I loved that book. And I think part of the reason I loved that book was because Casey Wilson narrated it. And I'm not quite sure about the age difference between Casey Wilson and Lauren Graham, but the writing styles are incredibly similar, and I just thoroughly enjoyed my experience listening to Have I Told You This Already? I took it with me to the grocery store. It was one of those audiobooks that I didn't want to put down. I think because I just really like her voice and find it to be comforting, it also probably helps that this November I got back into rewatching some of Gilmore Girls. So I grew up watching that show. You've probably heard me talk about it many times on previous episodes of From the Front Porch because it's one of like those pop culture touchstones that just kind of grows up and older with you. But I hadn't rewatched it in a couple of years, I think, since Year in the Life. So remember when they did that-- I thought it was pretty terrible-- Gilmore Girls remake. And I don't think I'd watched it since then because I kind of thought, oh, that kind of cured me. I don't need to keep rewatching this and I rewatch a lot of stuff. But. Anyway, I put Gilmore Girls to [Inaudible]. And then this fall it's been a hard season and I was, like, what could I watch that would be comforting and feel fall-ish? And so I found one of those Instagram posts that showed all the fall episodes of Gilmore Girls. I think Lucy actually sent it to me-- former Bookshelf staffer, Lucy. And I wound up watching some of those fall episodes and got back into it. And so listening to Lauren then talk a little bit about Gilmore Girls, but also talk about her other work as an actor and what it was like to come of age in that industry, I just found it really lovely. Her relationship, her friendship with Mae Whitman I found to be enjoyable to listen to. So I really like this. It's called Have I Told You This Already by Lauren Graham. Turns out celebrity memoirs are great for reading slumps if you're curious.
[00:19:14] Okay. Then I picked up Holiday Romance. This is a holiday romcom by Catherine Walsh. This was my book club selection for December. We decided to do a November December combo meeting because this time of year is just utter chaos. So we were set to meet early in December and this is the book we chose. We wanted a holiday romantic comedy. We-- the host of our book club-- which it was me this month. So I picked three different romcoms that were coming out this season. And then our book club cast their votes. And this was the one that won. So Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh. It is pretty PG. I think it's relatively closed door. There are a couple of scenes, but I think they mostly end pretty close. I was unembarrassed while reading this. And it is set, I want to say, in airports. Okay, let me just tell you the premise. So it's a friends to lovers kind of trope, romcom story, where Molly and Andrew kind of met in college, where Andrew was dating Molly's roommate, Or one of those friends in college that you don't understand why you're friends, but you somehow are friends. So anyway, Andrew was dating Molly's friend, and they both were traveling back from Chicago to Ireland. So they're originally from Ireland, but they live and work in Chicago. And so they were both traveling home for the holiday season and they get on the plane and then-- this is no spoilers, but Andrew's girlfriend, Molly's roommate, winds up breaking up with him over the phone and then they endure this awkward, seven hour long plane ride to Ireland. And they leave each other completely embarrassed and he is humiliated. But over the years-- it just at first is serendipitous and I think it becomes clear that they kind of plan it this way. But over the years, they begin making that same track from Chicago to Ireland together, and they don't spend the holidays together or anything like that. It's literally they wind up running into each other at O'Hare and then they both wind up on the same flight. Maybe they're not even seated together and it just becomes kind of this tradition. And then as the years pass, it becomes clear that it's kind of more intentional, that they just decide we're going to sit by each other, we're going to get tickets together, and we're going to fly over to see our families. So they developed this really lovely friendship. And I loved their relationship. I love a friends to lovers trope. I like when a fictional couple or a real life couple are friends first, and they kind of have this fun, witty banter. This pre-romantic relationship is what I really enjoy in a good romantic comedy. And so I was all in kind of immediately because I really liked these characters. They didn't feel like characters I had read before, which I feel like is saying something because I think the last book I read that took place over travel, the last romcom I read kind of in this vein is The Layover, which I really liked. But this is just like these friends who've been friends for a decade and they just wind up on the same plane every year. And they kind of talk throughout the year, but the only time they really see each other at length is on this long plane ride, which I thought is just a lovely idea for a book. And it reminded me ever so slightly of Leap Year, the movie, which is not my favorite movie or anything, but the way antics ensue and hijinks ensue while traveling. Because what happens is you get flashbacks to all the different plane trips they've kind of taken together. But the modern plot line, the recent plot line, main plotline is that they are trying to get home and their flights are canceled and they can't get home and trying to get to Ireland while there's this storm in the Atlantic, they wind up taking all of these roundabout routes and ways. And so while they're taking those roundabout routes and ways, they toy around with the idea, like, oh, maybe we should date. We spend too much time together; should we date? Anyway, I love this book. I thought it was very cute. I feel like I always try to read one or two holiday romantic comedies a year. This is the one I happen to pick. And, look, some of them are duds. We all know it. Not all of them are great. Not all holiday romcoms are created equal. But I really like this one. So if you are looking for a holiday romcom and you've been reticent because you're not sure which ones are going to be good this holiday season, I'm here to tell you, this was delightful. I thoroughly enjoyed. I can't wait to discuss it with my book club. I thought it was very pleasant and a good time, and I enjoyed hanging out with these people. So it's called Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh. Pretty closed door. So if you're a more closed door reader like I am, I think you'll enjoy this one. My gosh, my reading life just feels like it was all on top of each other this past month.
[00:24:04] So while I was also reading The Road and things like that, I was also listening to Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry. I listened to this on audiobook. I think I was always probably going to read this. Much like Gilmore Girls, it's a pop cultural touchstone in my brain. Friends is obviously a cultural touchstone for me. I was a little young for it when it came out, but I remember my senior year of high school was the year that Friends had its series finale. And so I grew up very much aware of the Friends cast and very much aware of their presence on People Magazine covers. My aunt and uncle were big Friends fans, and so I would watch it when I went over to their house. And it was kind of my one act of rebellion in high school was to watch Friends, even though my parents did not really want me watching Friends. Anyway, you didn't need to know any of that. But a few years ago I read a really great book about the TV show Friends, if you're looking for one. I believe it is called I'll Be There For You. And it's a history of Friends and the Friends cast. And if you're looking for a Friends book, I think that is a good one. It's called I'll Be There For You. There's a couch on the cover. It's great. This is not that. And I knew it wouldn't be because we kept hearing about it. He kept doing interviews, and so I kind of knew what I was getting into. But in case you don't know what you're getting into, I'm here to gently tell you that this is not a memoir to me. Despite maybe some of the clips that I think made the rounds and some of the excerpts that made the rounds, I do not think this is a celebrity tell all. To me, this is the memoir of an addict, and I think that's what he wants it to be. I don't claim, obviously, to know Matthew Perry and his intentions, but this is a book about a man's addictions and his struggles toward sobriety and for sobriety. And maybe I am alone in this. I found this book to be brutal and depressing. I finished The Road and was listening to this and thought maybe-- and that's when the holiday rom com came into play. Because I think I finally was like, ooh, I might need a little something light because this is very heavy. This book is brutal. And perhaps unlike The Road which has this element-- it's a very subtle element, but there's an element of hope-- there's this tenderness between father and son, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing is a lot of terrible things. It's a lot about Matthew Perry's upbringing and pretty much his life long struggle with addiction. And I was stunned by it. I actually think it's incredibly well done. And if we're talking about compelling writing, I think this is compelling writing. I believe the publisher has come out and said (I think I read this in The New York Times) that this is not ghostwritten. Matthew Perry wrote this himself. I don't doubt that at all because it feels just so breathtakingly personal. Like, I would listen to a section and then I would put it down and I would tell Jordan I think Matthew Perry's goal in writing this book was to bring awareness and to, I think, honestly try to save lives. I really think that's why he wrote this, was to save lives. And I'm grateful for that. I don't know what it must have been like for him. It feels like showing the inside of your skin. It feels like turning yourself inside out for the public. It feels intensely private. A lot of what I'm reading and listening to or was reading and listening to feels intensely private. But I do think it's doing its job, and I think it is well done. And, again, I've seen him interviewed, but I haven't heard too many people talk about actually reading it. Maybe Jamie Golden on the Popcast talked about it. There are moments where he's not entirely likable, but he's a person, right? He's not a TV character. He's not Chandler Bing. I mean, I think he's a lot of Chandler Bing. We're getting a lot of Chandler as in Matthew Perry. But this is about a person and this is about a person who has struggled mightily and who I think is choosing to tell the tale to help other people who might also be struggling. And I just haven't read anything like it. Like last fall I think I read a book by a dad whose son had struggled with addiction. But I don't know that I've ever read a book by someone with an addiction who is actively-- I mean, at the time he wrote the book, I want to say he was just eight months sober. And I think it's a lifelong battle and a lifelong struggle with addiction. I really liked it. Like feels like the wrong word for it. This is not a book about friends. This is not the James Burrows book that I read earlier this year. This feels like an addict's memoir, but I don't mean that in a bad way. I'm very glad I read it. The audiobook is excellent, much like listening to Lauren Graham. It feels really important to listen to this book in Matthew Perry's voice and to hear in some cases the pain. There are the occasional moments of lightness. But I'll be honest with you, there aren't a lot. It is not a light book. There are the occasional funny stories, but it's mostly heartbreaking. And if you watch that show-- and I watch it still. Literally every night I cook dinner, I watch that show. And so if you watch that show, the fact that behind the scenes-- and we all knew because of his fluctuating weight or just tabloids, we all knew he was struggling. But I don't think anyone knew. Maybe with the exception of some of those cast members, I don't think anybody knew how much he was struggling. I think he even talks about hiding it and hiding it for years. But it'll be interesting now to rewatch Friends and to see, like, will I ever not be able to see that now? Anyway, if you've been hesitant about this, maybe because you thought it was going to be too navel-gazing or an eye rolling celebrity memoir. Or maybe you're like me and you saw that Keanu Reeves quote and you were like, oh, that's unkind. I guess I'm here to tell you that Keanu Reeves is a little unkind. I also think what we're listening to or what we're reading is a man struggling to understand why he's still alive. I really do think Matthew Perry is trying to figure out why am I still here? And all these other stars and artists, talented people, struggled with the same things I struggle with and they're gone. I should be gone. So what am I supposed to do with this? Like, I think it's written from a place of pain, and so I don't find him to be a jerk or navel-gazing. I find him to be writing through pain, which I think could be can be admirable. Anyway, I don't know. I really liked it. I don't know what else to tell you. But it struck me and it's far more intense and heavy than maybe I was anticipating. And I mean that in all kinds of senses of that word. Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry. I'm glad I read it.
[00:31:20] Okay. I also listened to the book, The Family Game. This is by Catherine Steadman. This was ever so slightly outside of genre for me. This is definitely kind of your run of the mill thriller. That sounds negative. Run of the mill seems like it has negative connotations. I don't mean it negatively. It's just kind of a thriller that Jordan and I picked while we were traveling. We took a road trip in October, and so this is the book we chose. And I think it's kind of fortunate that we chose it because we picked it in October. So it felt appropriate for like a spooky thriller read. But it is set at Christmas. And so it really was like great for smack dab in the middle of the season reading. If you like seasonal reads but you don't want to read a holiday romcom, I think you should try this. It's a holiday thriller. It's a holiday suspense novel. I can't speak for the physical book, but the audio book is great. The narrator is Catherine Steadman, which I could not believe. And I won't lie to you. I did doze off in a couple of parts I'm just being honest because Catherine Steadman, I believe, is British and her voice is incredibly soothing. And so there were a couple of moments where I dozed off, I was the passenger, but I would wake up and quickly figure out kind of where we were in the storytelling. So the book is about Harriet Reed. Harriet is a writer and she has published a book and she is marrying into the Holbeck family. So much like the very wealthy family in Pineapple Street. We have a very wealthy family in this book called The Family Game. The Holbeck family, old money in New York. In New York? Oh, dear, now I'm doubting. I think they are in New York and Harriet is British. Anyway, she's marrying into this family. And the father, the patriarch of this family, decides he wants to confide in Harriet. And he gives her these tapes. He gives them to her in confidence. And he's, like, do with these what you will. And you just realize maybe he's confessing something in these tapes. I don't want to give too much away, but Harriet has to figure out how much the family knows about the patriarch. And she has her own secrets she's hiding because, of course, she does. And so it feels a little like if Succession were a thriller, does that make sense? Because you've got this patriarch who's not very likable. He's kind of gross. And then Harriet-- Jordan and I kept looking at each other because she's the main character. She's the protagonist, and she's dating one of the sons. But she has this very weird sexual tension with the father, which we both thought was really strange and added to the strangeness of the book. The other thing that adds some strangeness is Jordan kept being, like, is this about vampires? For a while we couldn't tell if this was going to go horror or if this was going to go suspense Thriller, you know what I mean? But very enjoyable for like a road trip audio book that you need to kind of hold your attention. And it felt like a great bridge between spooky season and holiday season. And this is a weird dysfunctional family. We've been talking about dysfunctional families in which dysfunctional families be like this dysfunctional family is weird and kind of creepy, but I liked it and I thought it was enjoyable. Jordan did too. It has his stamp of approval. It was good for us to listen to together. Nothing like groundbreaking but enjoyable. The Family Game by Catherine Steadman.
[00:34:40] And then I wish I could do a drum roll. Drum roll, because finally in the month of November, I finish the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. And I will not go into too much detail here because I have gone into 11 hours worth of detail in From the Front Porch Patreon episodes. So if you do not know, From the Front Porch Patriot for $5 a month and up listeners supporters, we do conquer a classic. We started this in 2020 because of the pandemic. I think we may have started before the pandemic. I think it launched in January 2020 and then it just happened to be like a pandemic thing that we did. I decided to tap Hunter to be my partner in this endeavor. So Hunter and I read Anna Karenina in 2020. That's like my lifelong bucket list book. And then 2021 we read Middlemarch, which was former bookseller Lucy's one of her favorite books. And Hunter was interested in it, so we read that one together. And then this year we took a vote and the people spoke. And Count of Monte Cristo was our 2022 selection, and I am so glad it was. It's incredibly readable. If you have ever hesitated because this is a giant book-- like it's over a thousand pages. But if you have ever hesitated, I think of the books we have read together Anna Karenina, Middlemarch and the Count of Monte Cristo, Monte Cristo is the longest. The Count is the longest. I think it's the most easily readable. I also want to stress to you, if you're a newbie at this, this is a translated novel and the Penguin Clothbound edition is an excellent, very accessible translation. Hunter did some audiobook listening. The audiobook did not match up to the Penguin Clothbound. I just can't recommend the Penguin Clothbound enough. I thought it was incredibly accessible, easy to read. It's a page turner which you probably know if you saw the Wishbone version or saw the version with Jim Caviezel. But I loved it. If you're like me and you were only were familiar with the Wishbone version or the Jim Caviezel of movie adaptation, then there is so much in here. And there were times where I was like, oh my gosh, the pacing just is a little abrupt. But I think that's just the nature of a thousand page book, and I don't read a lot of those, quite frankly. And so there were occasional moments where I was like, oh, my gosh, this is too long, or can you wrap it up? But, overall, just an outstanding five star reading experience. Hunter And I read it section by section. So we did this on Patreon where we read it section by section, month by month, almost like they might have done originally because this was a novel that was released serially. And readers followed along with us. We have 600-ish people on Patreon. Gosh, I'd love to know the statistics, but I think at least 100 folks were reading along with us. I think some people might have just been listening to the episodes, but I think a lot of people were reading along too, and it's been a joy to see everybody kind of wrap up at the same time and finish this really big accomplishment. Some people finish in advance because I do think Count of Monte Cristo lends itself to pretty quick reading, actually. Maybe my friend Juliana even did this in a summer. I think you could do it in far fewer than 12 months if you wanted to, but I loved reading it in 12 months-- 11 months, I guess. I think it wound up becoming almost a spiritual practice for me to only read something one section at a time and to kind of have to read it slowly. That is not easy for me. That is not something that comes naturally to me. And so I think it was actually good for me to do this. I think it's been very good for me for the last couple of years and I'm thrilled to get to do it alongside Hunter. I'm thrilled to do it alongside so many of you. This book was a joy and it was a really fun exercise this year, and I really loved doing it. And so, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, we've already picked our 2023 selection, which is Bleak House by Charles Dickens. I have never read any Charles Dickens, and so I'm very excited to try Bleak House to see what I think. So that's our 2023 selection. It'll start in January. We have the Penguin Clothbound book in stock at The Bookshelf and if you purchase it from us, you do get a copy of our reading guide. You can follow along in Patreon. We would love for you to join us there in 2023. You also don't have to if you just want the Reading Guide. You can buy the reading guide in its digital format on the store website so you can download it, print yourself, or you can order the book and get a physical copy of the reading guide. Or you can join us over on Patreon and we'd love to have you. This is just such a great, fun thing that I'm so glad we do. And so much of any job can feel like a chore. And there were occasions where reading the Count of Monte Cristo felt like a chore, but overall it really didn't. It felt like a really fun book club that I got to be a part of. So that's the Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I'm incredibly proud of myself, and I'm proud of all of you because we did it. Well done, everybody.
[00:39:43] As usual, with our reading recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for November. This month's bundle is $52 and it includes The Road, Have I Told You This Already (that's the Lauren Graham memoir) and Holiday Romance, the holiday romcom. You can find the November bundle, that's two paperbacks and a hardback, through the link in our show notes. Or you can go to Bookshelfthomasville.com, click or tap Podcast and then Shop From the Front Porch. From the Front Porch picks are also featured weekly on our stores homepage. Erin does that for us and she changes it every week, which we are thrilled and grateful for. So that's what I read in November. That's the November reading recap bundle. I'd love to know what you read in November. You can follow us @Bookshelftville and tell us what you read. I'd also love to know if you guys also had a reading slump this month. If your energy for reading died at all this time of year or if you come alive this time of year in your reading life, I'd like to know that too. So go comment @Bookshelftville on our recent posts about today's episode.
[00:40:48] This week what I'm reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. Spend Christmas in Thomasville. There is something truly special about the holiday season in Thomasville, Georgia. From shopping for those must have presents for everyone on your list to the twinkling lights, sparkling window displays, and tempting smells wafting from restaurants all add to the festive feeling of the season. From downtown hotels to delightful vacation rentals, book your getaway to Thomasville and add a little more sparkle to your holidays. Friends, as of this recording, it is officially the holiday season in Thomasville. I'm recording this a little bit early because of Thanksgiving and all that kind of stuff. But my family decorated for Christmas at The Bookshelf, put out all of our product- - so much product, please come see us. And it was so fun to decorate and then to poke my head out and see other downtown merchants also decorating their windows, decorating their stores. My block in particular of Broad Street looks lovely. All of my neighbors have decorated beautifully. The twinkle lights are out in full force. This is just so much fun. And Victorian Christmas is the obvious fun Thomasville thing to do. If you are local or kind of sort of local, you may have already heard of Victorian Christmas, but it is our big wintertime festival. Basically what Rose Show is in April and in the spring, Victorian Christmas is to December and to the holiday season. So December 8th and 9th in downtown Thomasville is Victorian Christmas, 30,000 people come to Thomasville, which is just nuts to say out loud. So 30,000 people come to Thomasville across that span of a couple of days. And there is a live nativity. There are horse drawn carriages. There are live reindeer. Santa is in town. It's just this lovely festival. Picture your favorite small town festival. Picture festivals from Gilmore Girls. You know what I'm talking about. That is exactly what it's like in downtown Thomasville. People are dressed up in Victorian garb. If you don't know about Thomasville history, the Victorian era was a time of booming possibility and prosperity in Thomasville, and so every year the town really loves to celebrate that time. So anyway, Victorian Christmas, December eighth and ninth is like the landmark event of the season. However, 30,000 people come to town. So if you maybe are like, Annie, I wanted to come and there's no more hotel room, so we don't know what to do. Here is what I'm here to tell you. Every Sunday in December, with the exception of Christmas Day, all the shops in downtown Thomasville are open, more restaurants that are open than usual. It is a really calm time to still get that quaint downtown holiday vibe, but with less perhaps chaos and crowds. Fewer crowds. So if you can't get to Thomasville for Victorian Christmas, Sundays are a wonderful time to come. It could be a great day trip if you're coming from Birmingham or [Inaudible] or even of course closer, like Tallahassee or Valdosta. I'll also tell you that Fridays and Saturdays in December are sip and shop nights. So you can grab a drink from a local restaurant and shop the streets of Thomasville. And music is being piped in. I think even live musicians are going to be on the streets for some of those days. So Fridays and Saturdays in downtown Thomasville, stores are open late for sip and shops. We are open at the bookshop until eight, and I think that's pretty much the case for several of our downtown merchants. So if Victorian Christmas is not in the cards for you this holiday season, don't get discouraged. There is plenty of fun to be had throughout the rest of the season and we would love to see you there.
[00:44:28] This week I'm reading May Meh by Jessica George. Thank you again to our sponsor Visit Thomasville. To find out more about how you can visit Thomasville this holiday season, go to Thomasvillega.com.
[00:44:43] 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. A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:45:04] 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.
[00:45:13] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler. Cami Tidwell. Chantalle C.
Executive Producers (Read their own names) [00:45:19] Nicole Marsee. Wendy Jenkins. Laurie Johnson. Kate Johnston Tucker.
[00:45:25] 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.
[00:45:43] 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.