Episode 362 || March New Release Rundown
In today’s episode of From the Front Porch, Annie, Olivia, and Lucy are discussing their favorite newly released titles of the month and highlighting books you’ll want to add to your TBR list!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Annie’s List:
The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh
The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith
Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman
All the White Friends I Couldn't Keep by Andre Henry
French Braid by Anne Tyler
Olivia’s List:
Girl in Ice by Erica Ferencik
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys, Andrew Weiner, and Brittany Williams
Atlas Six by Olivie Blake
Those Kids From Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly
Nine Lives by Peter Swanson
The Rhino Suit by Colter Jackson
Lucy’s List:
The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard
Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
Conversations by Steve Reich
The Great Passion by James Runcie
We Don’t Know Ourselves by Fintan O’Toole
Half Baked Harvest Every Day by Tieghan Gerard
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, The 101st annual Rose Show and Festival, here in Thomasville, Georgia. If you want to come for the weekend and experience the flowers, fun, food, and shopping in beautiful Thomasville GA, plan your visit at thomasvillega.com.
This week Annie is reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. Olivia is reading Aquanaut by Dan Santat. Lucy is reading African Founders by David Hackett Fischer.
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, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online book orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Libro.FM:
Libro.fm lets you purchase audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore (Like The Bookshelf). You can pick from more than 215,000 audiobooks, and you'll get the same audiobooks at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name). But you’ll be part of a different story -- one that supports community. All you need is a smart phone and the free Libro.fm app.
Right now, if you sign up for a new membership, you will get 2 audiobooks for the price of one. All you have to do is enter FRONTPORCH at checkout or follow this link:
Flodesk:
Do you receive a weekly or monthly newsletter from one of your favorite brands? Like maybe From the Front Porch (Or The Bookshelf)... Did you ever wonder, ‘how do they make such gorgeous emails?’
Flodesk is an email marketing service provider that's built for creators, by creators, and it’s easy to use. We’ve been using it for a couple of years now, and I personally love it. And right now you can get 50% off your Flodesk subscription by going to:
Transcript:
Annie [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
[00:00:24] "It might not be right, but just you keep in mind that it can be hard for folks to do the right thing when they've got something to lose". Adele Myers, The Tobacco Wives.
[00:00:38] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week we're talking new March titles in our new release rundown. I'm joined by The Bookshelf's floor manager, Olivia Schaffer, and from the Front Porch contributor, Lucy Stoltzfus to talk through the books we're most excited about this month. And as a bonus for podcast listeners, we did this last month and I think it worked pretty well, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about today, you can enter 'New Release Please' at checkout for 10 percent off your order. You just need to go to bookshelfthomasville.com and click or tap 'Podcast', then 'Shop From the Front Porch' to see today's titles. Again, that code is 'New Release Please' and you can find all of that information in today's show notes. Hi, friends.
Lucy [00:01:25] Hey.
Olivia [00:01:26] Hello.
Annie [00:01:28] Welcome back, Lucy. It's been a minute.
Lucy [00:01:30] I know. I miss you guys. I'm still in Pennsylvania.
Annie [00:01:35] Still in Pennsylvania. And what's happening next month?
Lucy [00:01:39] Well, we are recording this March preview before March.
Annie [00:01:44] That's right.
Lucy [00:01:45] And that's good for me because come March 10th or thereabouts, I will have a new baby.
Annie [00:01:55] Yay!
Olivia [00:01:55] Yay!
Lucy [00:01:59] And she will be a girl and she will be wearing a lot of flower patterns.
Annie [00:02:07] Have you had so much fun buying things?
Lucy [00:02:10] Yes, in the past couple of weeks I've been nesting pretty hard and that includes buying stuff. And I keep telling myself, like, she has clothes. You know, you don't need all that much new stuff. But it's like, well, she's going to just wear a navy blue, long sleeved onesie? [Inaudible] his brother, like that doesn't make any sense when Target has so much cute stuff.
Annie [00:02:37] They really do.
Lucy [00:02:40] So, yeah, I've been buying some stuff. So she's going to be the first girl in Zach's family for a while, and so I think she'll get some gifts as well. So I've managed to tone down my purchasing as much as I possibly can.
Annie [00:03:03] Tell us how Gabriel is going to be a good big brother.
Lucy [00:03:07] I don't know. I'm currently dealing with the guilt of that. I've ruined his life. You know, it's not real. It's not real. I know his life will be better for having a sister, but right now I'm like, oh, I'm ruining your life because you just have such a happy time being with mom. But, yeah, I went the book route of buying a bunch of books about becoming a big brother, and he has less than no interest in reading them. So I'll pull it out and he'll be like, "No, no, no, no, no." and throw it on ground.
Annie [00:03:46] And he's such a reader. Like, he has his hands on a book constantly.
Lucy [00:03:51] Yeah. He's just over two years old, so I feel like he's at this place where he pretty much can understand what's about to happen, and he knows but he's not interested.
Olivia [00:04:02] He's not going to like it.
Lucy [00:04:05] I will give this tip to any about-to-be second to my mother. The one thing that has worked is I made him a personalized book all about when he was born. So it's like first it was mommy and daddy. And then, you know, we got pregnant with you and we were waiting for you. And then here you were. And I have pictures of him cuddling with me. And I have pictures of us changing his diaper, and he's been really interested in that because it's about him. But I think it's like getting him into the mindset of having another baby around, hopefully. Anyway, but his current obsession is Charlie Brown. He's obsessed. Which is why we now have the names of Violet and Frida on our list of potential baby names, because those are Charlie Brown characters.
Annie [00:04:58] Oh, very fun.
Lucy [00:05:00] Marcie and Peppermint Patty is not so much on the list.
Annie [00:05:07] Patty Stoltzfus doesn't have a nice ring to it.
Lucy [00:05:08] Well, he says Pepper Patty, which is really cute, but I don't think it would last.
Annie [00:05:14] Yeah.
Lucy [00:05:14] You know, Pepper Patty Stoltzfus into adulthood it doesn't sound right.
Annie [00:05:21] My mom was a preschool teacher for 26 years or something. And it is like family lore. She had a little girl in her class named Pepper. And Pepper pooped her diaper once and my mom accidentally called her pooper. And we've never forgot this as a family. I think the family joke is pooper let's go change your pepper diaper. Like, it was like just a mash up of poop and pepper. On that note, shall we? Are we ready?
Lucy [00:06:00] Let's discuss books.
Olivia [00:06:00] Let's do it!
Annie [00:06:02] So Lucy is back for this new release rundown episode, which Olivia and I continue to call New Release Round-Up. I think we're just confused as to what these episodes are called, but I think it's rundown. But throughout this year, we're going to have a rotating cast of hosts and co-hosts who will come on and talk to us about new releases. But we want to have Lucy back before she goes and has her baby. So we do this round Robin style. It's going to be me, but then Lucy and then Olivia because Olivia has seven books, so she'll go last. So I'll go first. My first book that I want to talk about is The Love of my Life. This is a book by Rosie Walsh. It's out this week, March 1st. I believe it released in Great Britain first and now it is coming to the US, is my understanding.
[00:06:49] You might be familiar with Rosie Walsh because she was the author -- she's not the author of the books Ghosts. She's the author of the book Ghosted, which was a New York Times bestseller when it came out a few years ago. And so this is her newest book, It's about Emma and Leo. Emma is a marine biologist. She's been happily married to Leo for several years. Leo is an obituary writer, and something happens to Emma like she becomes sick. I don't know if it's cancer or if she's in a car accident, but she is at the brink of death is my understanding. And to kind of cope while they wish and hope for Emma's recovery, Leo decides to do what, of course, an obituary writer would do, which is he begins to kind of write about his wife's life.
[00:07:37] And he begins to do research on who she was as a person and who she was as a child. And this is when he realizes that Emma is not his wife's name and he doesn't actually know who she is at all. I wish you could see Olivia's face.
Olivia [00:07:51] I did to too until that point. You have me now.
Annie [00:08:00] Because I do think in the mash up of our literary preferences, I do think this could be a potential Annie and Olivia kind of Venn diagram because it's this family drama and this story of this husband and wife. But there are these deep seated family secrets, and apparently all the blurbs and all the reviews say this is quite the page turner. So you're kind of uncovering Emma's secrets and why she lied to her husband. And, anyway, it does not sound quite like a domestic thriller. Like, I don't think this is like girl on the train, husband, wife, murder story or something. I do think it is more family drama, but with the secrets that come to light and the page-turner element makes me think it could be an Olivia read as well. So it is called The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh. I do have the ARC and I will be reading it. And if it's good, Olivia, I'll pass it on to you, and if not, we'll just pretend it doesn't exist.
Olivia [00:08:59] Perfect.
Annie [00:09:02] Lucy, what do you have?
Lucy [00:09:04] Okay. My first book is The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard. I feel like I sent this to you at some point, Annie. It is by the author of The Rib King. Did Olivia end up reading that?
Olivia [00:09:20] I didn't. I wanted to, but I didn't have the time.
Annie [00:09:23] I started it and I liked it, but didn't finish it.
Lucy [00:09:27] My memory of it is that I also started it and really loved the writing and then realized it was going to be extremely violent. And I couldn't do it at that time and probably still couldn't. I'm not a violence person. Although I can say that a lot of the books I choose have violence in them. I don't know.
Annie [00:09:52] Lucy is less violent and more into incest.
Lucy [00:09:57] Yeah, I guess. And that is the thing, it's more of a requirement. I don't know. I didn't finish it. I think it kind of had a horror vibe, which maybe is my issue.
Annie [00:10:11] You know, the writing to me did remind me of like the author of Deacon King Kong. But there was like an underlying darker element. And I just didn't finish it. So I don't know what direction it took, but it did remind me of James McBride a lot.
Lucy [00:10:25] I remember really loving the writing. So this new one, The Last Suspicious Hold Out is a series of short stories. They're fiction, and they take place between I think, 1992 and 2007, but in the same neighborhood. And like a main character from one story will appear as a side character in another story. So just the description had me thinking of 145th Street. It also is about race. But I don't think it's in the city. I think it's more like a suburban setting. And so, yeah, it looks super interesting to me. I read one of the stories and really enjoyed it, loved the writing. And I would be really interested to read the rest and kind of see how it compares as a modern kind of avocation of 145th Street, which we read for the young adult book club.
Annie [00:11:25] Still one of my favorite ones we read last year. That sounds good.
Lucy [00:11:29] That's comes out on March eight.
Olivia [00:11:31] Do you know what the title is pertaining to or just suspicious hold out?
Lucy [00:11:35] It's the title of one of the stories. But I haven't read that one.
Olivia [00:11:41] Okay, got you. Let me know when you read that one.
Lucy [00:11:47] Okay.
Olivia [00:11:48] My first book is out March 1st. It's called Girl in Ice, and it's by Erica Ferensik. I had to look up that last name because it sounds like forensic, but it doesn't look like Ferensik. Looks like Feren-Cick. I don't know. Whatever. It doesn't matter. It was besides the point. This was so good. This was about a woman who gets kind of like called to the Arctic. She's a linguist. And the small team just found like an eight year old girl frozen in the ice on this small island off of Greenland. And when they thaw her out down, she becomes alive. She's alive still. But then they realize that they can't speak with her because she's like thousands of years old and has just been frozen this whole time.
[00:12:49] And she speaks a dead language. So which is why they call in the linguist. But while she is there, this remote like Arctic station is where her twin brother suspiciously passed away within like a year of this all happening. So now she's going there to kind of help translate and be able to speak with this young child, but also kind of to figure out what happened to her brother. But she's also a woman who lives with a lot of anxiety. So like, you see that happening to you. It was so good. It was one of those where I picked it up and then I don't think I put it down until it I finished, because you just have to know what happens. It was really good.
Annie [00:13:28] It sounds really good, and it definitely sounds like an Olivia book. Although you did lend this to me and I think I'm going to try it.
Olivia [00:13:34] It's a quick read. I'm pretty sure the chapters are short.
Annie [00:13:38] Love it. Love a short chapter. My next one is The Tobacco Wives, this is by Adele Myers. This released on March 1st. This is a debut novel historical fiction. Lucy, you may have some interest in this one as well, but my mom read it and loved it. And it has gotten rave reviews. It is set in 1940s 1950s like post-World War Two North Carolina in this town where tobacco is a huge industry. So big tobacco has a hold on this community. But because of that, the community is really prospering. And then this woman notices that the wives of a lot of these tobacco executives are having mysterious health issues. And so it's kind of based on maybe some true stories of that time period when people started realizing that cigarets and that tobacco had harmful side effects.
[00:14:34] And how do you convince a community and a town and an entire industry that their product is detrimental and that's going to totally change the lives and the landscape of your community? And so it's about these women, I guess, activists, these young women activists who took on big tobacco in the 40s, in the 50s. And I gave it to my mom to read because my family, my dad's ancestors, I guess, had a tobacco farm in Kentucky. And I remember as a kid learning that they had a tobacco farm and because I was little Annie Sue Butterworth, it really made me angry. And I was just so confused and bothered, and it bothered my conscience. I didn't understand how our family could be a part of this anyway. And so it's very interesting.
[00:15:24] My mom said the book was excellent. It was blurbed, I think, by Fiona Davis. So if you're a historical fiction fan, I think you'll want to pick this one up. But I also like that it's historical fiction about something that I haven't read about yet. So I feel like a lot of historical fiction is very familiar. Or it feels like maybe I've read something similar to it before or something like that. And I like that this sounds like it's dealing with an issue in a community and a time period that I have not read about yet. And so my mom loved it. It's a debut novel. It's already gotten really good reviews. It is called The Tobacco Wives by Adele Myers out on March 1st.
Lucy [00:16:04] I'm up here in Lancaster County. You just see the tobacco barns and like, you know, you can watch the people harvesting it and putting it up to dry it. It's so beautiful. It also is this morally questionable.
Annie [00:16:20] Yes. We went to visit the farms as a kid, and I remember seeing it and it has this very powerful smell. Anyway, but I remember thinking, how do I think this is pretty? But also this is terrible. You know, like, you're a kid and you're trying to grapple with these things.
Lucy [00:16:37] My next book is Booth by Karen Joy Fowler. I just loved it. I actually, to be honest with you, when I was reading it, I was like, when was the last time I felt like this reading something? And I don't know if it's just because I have a little bit more time nowadays to really invest in reading or the pressure's off right now, but I just felt like it was a really exciting moment to feel so into a book. Again, so this is a historical fiction about John Wilkes Booth family. He's in it, but it does not revolve around the assassination. The assassination is in it at the end. But it's really not about that, it's about his family. And you have like different sections that are narrated by different siblings of his. Or from their perspective, not necessarily narrated but from their perspective. And his family life growing up was really hard, especially before he was born. He had a number of siblings die young, and his mom was not in good mental health because of that.
[00:17:56] And his dad was really not in good mental health and also wasn't around and was an alcoholic. He was a famous Shakespearean actor, and then the whole family kind of followed in his footsteps, all the men to be Shakespearean actors. It's just so fascinating. I learned so much about that period of history, about the politics.The Both family chapters are interspersed with little vignettes about Abraham Lincoln and his life. And just moving. Beautifully written. It's about something I think is kind of timely, which is like how somebody becomes an extremist and how their family reacts to that. And I just can't say enough good things about this book. It comes out also on March 8th. The Booth.
Annie [00:18:50] I want to ask. So I have a copy of this and I started it and I love it. The length has deterred me slightly because of all the other reading I have to be doing. I know you said you have maybe a little bit more time or bandwidth, but is this one that you can read in snippets or can you get enmeshed in it once you pick it up?
Lucy [00:19:15] I got enmeshed in it. I don't know. This would be interesting to ask you guys, because I know that Annie you only read physical ARCs right? And, Olivia, you do a lot of ARCs on your e-reader. And because I'm not at the store, I'm only doing them on my e-reader now. It's like the length never occurs to me when I pick up a book. So I just keep reading it. I don't start it like, here's a big one. I just start it like, here's a book. So I didn't even know it was long.
Annie [00:19:56] Well, that's that's fascinating. It is. It is long. I mean, but it makes sense that it's long. It looks shorter, a little shorter to me than something like The Goldfinch, but it is to me a thick book.
Lucy [00:20:12] Oh, okay. That's so big to me. It read fast and I'll tell you why. It's because I was telling you that you get the different perspectives. So you're listening to the oldest sister in the family for a certain number of chapters and then you change perspectives to the next younger son. I mean, it keeps you interested and hooked. I never felt like I was reading a long book.
Annie [00:20:42] Good. That's helpful. And, I guess, one point for the e-reader.
Olivia [00:20:48] I was going to say I actually think I read faster on my e-reader because at the bottom it'll tell you your reading speed and it'll give you like two hours and this so and so minutes till the end of the book. And I'm always just like, I can do better than that. And then I start to read faster.
Annie [00:21:04] Engage that competitive nature.
Lucy [00:21:06] You are also like, I can maybe make it to the end of this next chapter or whatever. Like, oh, it's only two minutes to the next chapter. It propels you to read. I mean, I think objectively, I prefer having a physical book in my hands, but there are obviously positive things about the e-reader.
Annie [00:21:25] That's one I hadn't thought about before.
Olivia [00:21:27] Yeah. My next book is a new Y.A. fantasy novel. It's Gallant by V.E. Schwab, out on March 1st. I think a couple customers have already preordered this, which good job everyone because it is excellent. I actually haven't read V.E Schwab before. This is my first time reading her, and now I'm kind of like, I should go back and read more of her work. But this is about a house that basically protects the world from the shadow world. So it's kind of like the shadow world is like a reflection of ours. In my head I thought of that episode of Seinfeld, where it's bizarro world and Elaine befriends a whole group of people that mimic like Jerry, Georgian and Kramer, but less funny, more dark. Like way more dark and not funny at all. But it was really good. And what was weird, though, was the main character was named Olivia. And I have never read a book with the main character named Olivia besides Olivia the Pig picture book which didn't even faze me. And I don't know if you guys have read books where the main character is your name. It's a little bit weird at first.
Annie [00:22:46] Yes, it is.
Olivia [00:22:47] It takes a minute to get used to it, but this one was so good. And she did leave it off where like if she wanted to make a sequel, I think she could but she doesn't have to. If she did, I would read it. It was really well done.
Lucy [00:23:02] I will just say I played Lucy in my third grade school's production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Olivia [00:23:09] Actually, that's a perfect character.
Lucy [00:23:12] I know.
Annie [00:23:14] It is. Good job. My next one I'm very excited about, but I have not received an ARC or anything, so I'm anxiously awaiting it just like everybody else. So this is The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith. It was out on March 1st. Jennifer E. Smith is like a prolific young adult author. I know her from the book Windfall, which I read and loved. But she has written like, I don't know, something like 18 or 20 young adult books. But my understanding is this is her first adult novel. And Greta, the title character, is a musician. She's kind of this famous artist who sings, and her dad always really asks that she not sing, that she go into something more practical, like a career that was more practical and that could be more sustainable, I guess. And my understanding of this book is that her mother dies. And Greta is performing on stage and she all of a sudden like in the wake of her mother's death get stage fright or just kind of freezes.
[00:24:24] And it's one of those moments that kind of goes viral. And she basically, like, has this little breakdown on stage. And, of course, her father, in the midst of his own grief, is kind of telling her, I told you so, you should have gone into a career where there's a better backup plan, that kind of thing. And then her dad invites her to go with him while she's like trying to hide from the spotlight. Her dad asks her to go with him on what would have been her parents' 40th anniversary cruise. And so the dad and the daughter go on this cruise together. It almost sounds like Daisy Jones and the Six kind of world. Like this music world meets This is Your Life, Harriet Chance. Or Olivia that book you and I weirdly read and love during the pandemic Big Finish where you're dealing with this older father figure, and in this case father, and then his daughter who they're both grappling with their own grief and loss.
[00:25:24] And then. I don't know, I think it's just so interesting, especially right now during these pandemic times to be reading a book also that's set on a cruise where you can't leave and so they're really having to face their demons together. And then there's also, I believe, maybe a sort of love interest for Gretta. A young historian who's doing some research for The Call of the Wild. The cruise is this Alaskan cruise. So there's just all these elements that I think sound really lovely and interesting. And I am really excited to read it. I'll be reading it when it comes out. It's The Unsinkable Gretta James by Jennifer E. Smith.
Lucy [00:26:02] A romance between a musician and a historian, you say?
Annie [00:26:06] Did your ears perk up?
Lucy [00:26:12] It's a good combo. So my next book is Conversations by Steve Reich. Steve Reich is one of the foremost, if not the foremost, contemporary composer in America. And he said that he was influenced by reading this book by Robert Kraft, who was best known for his close relationship with Igor Stravinsky, who was a 20th century Russian composer who also then moved to America and so was, I suppose, an American composer as well. And he has a book called Conversations with Igor Stravinsky, where it's just basically interview conversations they had together. And so Steve Reich thought he would like to do something like that, but he doesn't have this like protege.
[00:27:09] So he said, "Oh, I'll just do interviews with various artists, musicians, cultural figures that I have become close with, but they're about him. So there's a lot of them. I don't know how many, like, maybe like 18 or 20 chapters of interviews that he's done. And each person that he interviews has some kind of a connection to a piece of music that he composed. And so they've done it together or they performed it together, or they had some connection. So they're talking and they're talking about that piece. But they're also kind of arranged chronologically. So they kind of tell the story of his life as well. I find it very interesting. We have a customer that I know that you guys can sell it too.
Olivia [00:28:03] I just wrote it down to special order it for.
Lucy [00:28:07] Anybody who's interested in contemporary music -- I mean, it reads like a conversation. I'm sure it's just transcribed from audio recording, but super interesting if you care at all about contemporary classical music. So that one comes out again on March 8th. Conversations by Steve Reich.
Olivia [00:28:29] My Next Book is a young adult graphic novel which, Lucy, I may need your musical help with this. It is by Alicia Keys, and it's called Girl on Fire. I was going to ask Studio D to give me some music in the background. Then I was like, "Well, we probably have to pay for like copyright."
Lucy [00:28:49] Is it good? Is the book good?
Olivia [00:28:52] Yeah. Oh, it's excellent.
Lucy [00:28:54] Would you say it's on fire?
Olivia [00:28:5] Oh, it's on fire.
Lucy [00:28:56] So you could say, "This book is on fire!"
Annie [00:28:59] There we go.
Olivia [00:29:02] Thank you. No one wanted to hear me sing that.
Annie [00:29:07] We love Studio D, but we don't need their music. We have Lucy.
Olivia [00:29:11] That's all that played in my head as I read this graphic novel. But this is about a girl who lives with her brother and her father and her grandmother, and her brother gets like almost arrested by the cops for something he didn't do. And she, in a moment of I'm going to stand up for my brother and stop what's happening, discovered she has powers. Very like Marvel adjacent powers sort of thing happening. But then she proceeds to, like, help her family get out of trouble with this local gang leader who is now asking for money for "protection." But it was so good. It was so much fun. I am still in that Marvel mindset, so I think that made it even more enjoyable while reading it. But it was great, and I actually think a lot of people would really enjoy it.
Annie [00:30:07] Is it a Y.A graphic novel or middle grade or is it for grown-ups?
Olivia [00:30:10] It's Y.A. And I would probably keep it Y.A. just because of like the gang related happenings within it. But I would say a good like 12 and up age group could handle this book. It was so well done. And, again, they left it where it could be a sequel. But does it have to be a sequel? But I would love for there to be a sequel, Alicia Keys, if you are listening.
Annie [00:30:45] Alicia, if you are listening.
Lucy [00:30:50] Miss Keys, if I could. Mrs? I don't know.
Annie [00:30:51] Next up for me is the book Chorus. This is by Rebecca Kauffman. This was out on March 1st. This is Rebecca Kauffman's fourth book. And I discovered I've read two of them, so I will be reading this one as well, because I've really liked her work before. So I read her book The Gunners for a book club book a few years ago. And then a couple of summers ago, I read the book The House on Fripp Island. What I find interesting about Rebecca Kaufman is so far her books are completely different from one another. Like, you would never know they were written by the same author, which I just find fascinating when an author can write that differently about things.
[00:31:26] So the book is about the Shaw siblings. I already love even the IARC has all the chapters listed out, which I feel like never happens in literature anymore. But each chapter is told from a different perspective of a different family member, and it goes from the early 1800s to the 1950s. And what you are supposed to gather from this book and from these siblings stories is kind of the two pivotal moments when their family's life changed. The first is when their mother died unexpectedly and mysteriously under mysterious circumstances, and the second is one of their sisters teenage pregnancies. And so the book is really about this one family told through the eyes of all of these different siblings over a span of years and then all trying to kind of understand how they became who they became because of these events in their family history, which I find fascinating.
[00:32:25] It sounds exactly like something I would love to read, and I'm very anxious to get started on it because I really do like Rebecca Kauffman's writing. The Gunners was about a group of friends. It reminded me of like, I don't know, a great 80s movie like About Friends and Having a Reunion. And then The House on Fripp Island was more of an almost mystery kind of family mystery. And so it sounds like this is going to be really different as well, kind of more historical fiction and more family trauma and drama. So it is Chorus by Rebecca Kauffman, and it was out on March 1st.
Lucy [00:33:01] My next book is The Great Passion by James Runcie. Once again, Olivia, if you'd like to preorder this for subs specific customer, it's about it's about your Johann Sebastian Bach. It's a historical fiction. Often with historical fiction, when there's a real life character of such renown, I kind of like rolled my eyes. He plays a secondary role, not tertiary. Like, he is pretty central to the book, but he is not the main character. And I think that helps. I like the writing this guy, James Runcie, wrote the Grantchester books that were turned into a show, the PBS. So he's got that PBS masterpiece vibe to him, as does the book. Really good, it's about this young boy whose mother dies and his dad is an organ builder and sends him off to the school that Bach works at. That's associated with the church that Bach works out. And so he becomes a boy soprano in the choir.
[00:34:22] And then he develops a particularly close relationship with Bach and becomes like a keyboard student of his, an organ student of his, but also lives in his house with him. So, I think one of the things that makes it less of a cliché historical fiction is because he's having his own emotional journey as well, having lost his mother and then being separated from his whole family. And he gets bullied at school because he has red hair and all those things. But over the course of you listening to his story, you're also learning about what it would have been like to be in the kind of musical environment that Bach was working in. And then it tells the story of the composition and performance of the St. Matthew passion towards the end. So for music nerds, for sure. For historical fiction nerds, probably they would also like it. I really enjoyed it. Not my number one favorite book, but I really did enjoy it. That one is out the 15th of March. Great passion.
Annie [00:35:34] It sounds like that. And Booth almost maybe have slight Hamnet vibes where, like, there's a secondary character. You know what I mean? Like, Shakespeare wasn't the main character in Hamnet, but it's revolving around that world.
Lucy [00:35:47] Yeah, that's true. I really got big Hammett vibes from Booth, partly especially because of the beautiful writing.
Annie [00:35:56] Okay.
Olivia [00:35:57] You know how I know that I read a lot of thrillers is that when you said the words organ builder, I did not [Inaudible]. And I got very confused,
Annie [00:36:12] Like building human organs like Frankenstein?
Olivia [00:36:18] Yes, that is what went through my head.
Annie [00:36:22] Oh, a Bach horror story.
Olivia [00:36:29] It did click like immediately after. But I just did have a moment. Okay. My next book is called the Atlas Six. This again is out on March 1st. I promise after this one, my next one is not out the beginning of March. But this is by Olivie Blake, which I found out today is a pen name, but then I forgot to write down her real name. So I just thought that was fun. And this was self-published, I believe, in 2020. And then a big publisher picked it up because it was doing so well just on its own. So now this is technically like the second printing of this book, and it's going to be a trilogy and it's excellent. This is about six people who have these magical gifts, and they're all selected for this very niche program where they get to basically go into like the Alexandria Library and go through all of that to gain more knowledge to then become like better magicians. But they're not called magicians.
[00:37:34] She made another term for it that I can't pronounce because it was never set in the first book how to pronounce it. But it is magicians adjacent, but then they find out that after the first year of that program, only five of them can move on to the next year of the program. And so it adds to the competitiveness of the group. But it's really well done because it's not actually a super plot driven. It's more character driven and the characters are fascinating. So that's Atlas Six by Olivie Blake.
Annie [00:38:12] My next book is out on March 22nd, it's called All the White Friends I Couldn't Keep. This is by Andre Henry. So I follow Andre on Instagram. He's @theandrehenry, and I first came across his work in, I guess, 2020. It was pandemic times through his video series or a video series produced by the author Austin Channing Brown. And the video series was called The Next Question. And they interviewed Andre, I think, in one of the episodes. And so that's kind of how I became familiar with him. He was a really fascinating interview. So I started following him on Instagram and now he's got this book coming out. And people who follow reviews or reviewers will understand what a big deal it is to get a starred review in Kirkus. But this has gotten a starred review in Kirkus and in Publishers Weekly.
[00:39:00] It is part memoir, part call to action. So it's about his own journey to activism and as in navigating the world of social justice and what it really means to be an ally, particularly if you are a white person. His personal story to activism and then also kind of calling white people into the work and what that really looks like. And so, anyway, it looks fascinating. I really like following him on Instagram. He always offers a perspective that I have not thought of before. And I find him to be a little more willing to step on people's toes than some of the other kind of activists that I follow. And so I appreciate his perspective, and I'll be interested to read this book. So it is called All the White Friends I Couldn't Keep by Andre Henry. You can follow him at the Andre Henry. And the book comes out on March 22nd.
Lucy [00:39:53] My next book is We Don't Know Ourselves by Fintan O'Toole. And this I haven't yet read, but I'm super interested in. It's a kind of combination of memoir and analysis, cultural and historical analysis of the Irish history of the 20th century. This has been blurbed by Patrick Radden Keefe, who wrote, Say Nothing. So I think if you were interested in Say Nothing, I think that this would be another great book for that. And Fintan O'Toole apparently is just like the greatest mind in Ireland right now and super, super, well respected about the way he talks about the changes that happened in Ireland in the 20th century, and what brought them about, what they mean. I'm really interested to read this one. It comes out on the 15th. We Don't Know Ourselves.
Annie [00:40:57] My Norton rep talked about that. And she just raved about it. She was like, I have no interest in Irish history, but because it was blurbed by Patrick Radden Keefe, she was like, I decided to try it. And she was like, It's fascinating. And he is like the it guy when it comes to modern Irish history.
Annie [00:41:20] My next book is a middle grade novel out March 8th, and this is Those Kids From Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly. Which I'm pretty sure I read another book by her, but I don't remember right now, but she's an excellent author. This is about a very small town in Louisiana, where the, I think, it's the eighth grade classroom has 13 kids in it, so they've known each other their entire lives. So they know each other's tropes and they can't really deviate from that because they've known each other for so long and they have their little clicks. And then one girl moves away because her parents get a job in a nearby town and a new girl moves in and she has seemingly like traveled the world. Her name's Orchid. They're all very thrown off by her name being orchid which I just find funny. But she came from Paris, but she was born in New York City.
[00:42:17] And as they find out more and more about her, they find out all these places that she's traveled. But I think as an adult reader, I'm starting to look at this and be like, hmm, has she? Or is she trying to make up something interesting about herself? But I'm only a quarter of the way into the book. Through her newness and her world traveldness, it's making all of the other kids kind of start to second guess their own personalities and where they lay in the group dynamic that is their tiny class. And it's really fascinating. I actually just finished a chapter where they each pair it up for a group project and you get a snippet of each pairing and their initial conversation with each other, which everything is about Orchid and who she is and where she came from and what that means for them. So far, it's really good and I'm really enjoying it.
Annie [00:43:08] That does sound good. My last one, which I'm realizing I did this wrong, Olivia should have started. But here we are. We're already 45 minutes in so my bad. My bad everybody. My last one is French Braid. This is by Anne Tyler, comes out on March 22nd. I've already seen so many readers I love rave about this one. I'm bummed that I do not have a copy to also join their rave, but I trust them. It is Anne Tyler's 24th book. Which much like I am blown away by a debut novelists and like really beautiful first works, I'm equally blown away by people who continually -- like I feel like maybe I have one good idea. I for sure don't have four. Like, I just feel like it's stunning for four authors to create these worlds and to create so many of them. So, anyway, this is her 24th work. She's quite prolific.
[00:44:09] My first Anne Tyler book was, I believe, Clock Dance, which is a book I really read and loved a few years ago. I think it was even a shelf subscription book for me. And, anyway, this is a book about the Garrett family. It honestly sounds like you could read it in pairing with Chorus by Rebecca Kaufman, because it's about the Garretts it takes place from 1950s to today. Apparently, even maybe make some references to the pandemic world that we're living in. But anyway, you follow this one family through it's kind of modern history. And one thing I like about Ann Tyler, I liked about Clock Dance, is that the books are quiet but they're never boring.
[00:44:48] So if you're looking for something that's a little less bombastic and a little less maybe plot driven and more just a quiet look at quiet lives, I'm thinking about authors like Wallace Stegner or, oh, the author of The Goodwood Girls. I think that was the name of it, or, oh, that beautiful book the Dearly Beloved. So all these books just kind of about marriages, about families where nothing major really happens is just about a family, I think Anne Tyler does that really well. So my understanding is that is what French Braid is about. It's about the Garrett family, and it's kind of just their history through the years. It sounds lovely. Readers I trust have read it and loved it already. It is out on March 22nd called French Braid. The cover is gorgeous also.
Lucy [00:45:33] Speaking of gorgeous covers, my last book is a cookbook that has, I think, perogies on the front in like a sage brown butter is what I'm seeing. So that looks beautiful to me.
Annie [00:45:55] It is lunchtime, so that also sounds beautiful to me.
Lucy [00:46:00] It's a Half Baked Harvest Every day by Tieghan Gerard. But I just know her as Half Baked Harvest on Instagram. Do either of you follow her?
Annie [00:46:11] I don't. But, boy, Suzie B. is a huge fan, so you and Suzie. Yeah, my mom loves her.
Lucy [00:46:17] Yeah. The recipes seem involved, I feel like I've tried maybe two of them. The reels make it look super easy, you know, but there's a lot of crap that happens probably before she films those. Anyway, her food, almost everything she posts, I'm like, that sounds good. She makes it look good. Anyway, I would be very excited for my mom or whoever is bringing me meals to use this cookbook.
Olivia [00:46:52] Wink. Wink.
Lucy [00:46:55] It comes out on March 29. It's Half Baked Harvest Every Day.
Olivia [00:47:01] My last two, get ready, everyone. Buckle up, we're in for a whirlwind. First one is a thriller, out on March 15th by Peter Swanson. He was the author of Eight Perfect Murders. And I think he had one in between that one and this one. But I didn't read either of his first two books, which I now regret after sitting down with Nine Lives and finishing it in two hours flat.
Annie [00:47:24] Wow.
Olivia [00:47:25] So this book is about a group of nine people who all receive a list of their names in the mail, and nothing else is on that list. It is just a list of nine names, including theirs, and they don't know how they're connected at all. One of them happens to be an FBI agent and starts to kind of look into this because right off the bat, one of the names on the list is murdered. And then the next day, another murder happens. And so you keep going. It was so good. I can't say much more because I will give spoilers away. But it was super fast paced, short chapters, interesting characters and great character dynamics within them. I loved it and I truly did not see the end coming. So much so that when I read the big reveal, I actually had to go back and re-read the big reveal because I was like, wait, did I read that correctly?
Annie [00:48:22] Okay.
Olivia [00:48:24] My last one is a picture book.
Annie [00:48:29] Totally switching genres.
Olivia [00:48:31] Yeah, that's why I was like, buckle up everyone. Out March 29. I think this might be my favorite picture book of the entire year. I have now sent it to almost everyone on staff to read and then cheer up with me. It's called the Rhino Suit by Colter Jackson. But get your tear ducts ready.
Annie [00:48:53] Get that Kleenex ready.
Lucy [00:48:56] We're ready.
Olivia [00:48:56] It's not like sobbing sad. It's just like, I think as an adult, you're just like, oh, no, you're right. It's about this little girl who she feels so many emotions. I think one of the pictures is like her dad accidentally hammers her thumb and he starts to tear up, so she starts to tear up. Like, she just feels everything so deeply and everyone's telling her get a tough skin. And she just learned about rhinos in her classroom. So she makes a rhino-like -- you remember [Inaudible] rhino robot, is what I picture, but it's not that. It's a lot cuter. But she does essentially do that. And so she starts going around the world in this rhino suit to protect her from feeling all these emotions. But then she starts to realize that she can't feel her mother's hug anymore or like a breeze going through a field of flowers. Like, she can't feel the beautiful things, as well as the painful things. And so she realizes that she has to let in both to be able to experience the joy of life. It's beautiful. The illustrations are so simplistic and it's so well done. I really can't recommend it enough. It's so good.
Annie [00:50:10] Well, that was a wonderful one to end on. Now we want to cry. But that was a wide range of literature and we got an Ace Ventura reference. So thank you so much.
Olivia [00:50:23] I'm actually sorry I put it to that book. It doesn't deserve it.
Annie [00:50:34] If you liked any of the books we talked about today, you can find all of them either available. They're either out now because it's March 3rd as of this recording date. Or you can preorder them and you can do that at bookshelfthomasville.com Click or tap "Podcast" and then "Shop From the Front Porch" and then you can use the "New Release Please" to get 10 percent off your order. So thank you guys. Lucy, we'll be thinking of you in the days to come.
Lucy [00:50:58] Thank you.
Annie [00:51:00] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by the 101st Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Last week we hosted our first ever post-pandemic reader retreat, and it was a delight to host so many readers from all over the country in downtown Thomasville, Georgia.
Annie [00:51:21] It is our pleasure. My pleasure to show off this town and to get to spread the love to local businesses, restaurants, to get to introduce long distance customers and friends to the city that we love so much. We had a wonderful time together. The weather was perfect. We sat outside on the patio at Fuzzy Goat. We ate dinner together inside The Bookshelf and the dinner was catered by my friend, chef John Gregory from Empire Bagel. We hosted a live podcast at Sass, a local restaurant inside an old train depot. The whole weekend was just a beautiful glimpse at what fun there is to be had in downtown Thomasville.
[00:52:03] This week, I'm reading Beloved by Toni Morrison. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:52:08] I am reading Aquanaut by Dan Santat.
Annie [00:52:12] And, Lucy, what are you reading?
Lucy [00:52:14] I'm reading African Founders by David Hackett Fischer, and also Snoopy and Friends the little golden book about 40 times a day.
Annie [00:52:24] Can't forget Snoopy and friends.
[00:52:27] Thank you again to our sponsor, the 101st Annual Rose Show Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. If you want to come for the weekend and experience the flowers, fun, food and shopping in beautiful Thomasville, Georgia, plan your visit now at thomasvillega.com
[00:52:47] 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.
[00:53:07] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at fromthefrontporch.com
[00:53:13] Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which that's the perfect, warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
[00:53:30] If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, leave us 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 up From the Front Porch, scroll until you see, 'Write a Review' and tell us what you think.
[00:53:48] Or, if you're so inclined, support us for $5 a month on Patreon, where you can follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic and as I participate in live video Q&As in our monthly lunch break sessions. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
[00:54:05] We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.