Episode 364 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 14
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s time for another episode of Literary Therapy! Every few weeks, Annie listens to your literary hangups and bookish conundrums, and much like fictional Frasier Crane in the 90s, she tackles your issues on air. If you have your own readerly riddle you’d like her to solve in a future issue, leave a voicemail at the From the Front Porch website.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
South to America by Imani Perry
Here for It by R. Eric Thomas
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson
Downeast by Gigi Georges
Dreaming the Beatles by Rob Sheffield (back-ordered)
Furious Hours by Casey Cep
Going There by Katie Couric
I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
R. Eric Thomas on Substack
The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
Sorrow & Bliss by Meg Mason
Build Your House Around my Body by Violet Kupersmith
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 The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard.
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.
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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] The beauty of Paris is reassuring. Its constancy. I'm grateful for places that haven't changed because I have. A year and a half later, Notre-Dame will burn. Delia Ephron, Left on Tenth.
[00:00:43] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, it's time for another episode of literary therapy. Our very first of the new year. Before we get started, I wanted to talk about the new From the Front Porch Book Club we're hosting on Patreon, exclusively on Patreon. We've launched a new $20 a month tier of support, which includes access to our first ever Patreon Book Club. The group will begin with me hosting quarterly conversations about one of my shelf subscription selections. Then, later this year, retail floor manager, Olivia, will join in the fun by hosting her own virtual chats. We're going to kind of alternate as we head into the latter part of the year. This new Patreon tier launched this month, and I've already announced our first book club selection, The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. Our first book club meeting is set for Thursday, April 7th, and you have until April 1st to join Patreon and be automatically registered for our group. Just go to Patreon.com/ fromthefrontporch, and sign up to be a book club companion for $20 a month.
[00:01:49] You'll find everything you need, all the information you need about this new book club on Patreon at Patreon/fromthefrontporch. If you are new to the show, every few weeks I dive into the metaphorical mailbag and peruse your literary hang ups and bookish conundrums. And much like fictional Frasier Crane in the 90s, I tackle your issues on air. If you have your own literary riddle you'd like me to solve in a future episode, leave me a voicemail at the fromthefrontporch website. That's fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact. You can scroll to the middle of the page and you will see a place to leave me a voicemail. No need for a microphone, maybe a pair of headphones if you've got them, but you can just leave me a voicemail and I will potentially feature your issue in an upcoming episode of From the Front Porch. Now, let's dove into our first quandary.
Amanda [00:02:42] Hi, Annie, this is Amanda calling from Maryland. And my literary question is I find myself toward the end of a story, end of a book, skipping paragraphs, pages, et cetera, just to get to the end of the book to get back to the meat of the story. And what I'm finding is in some of the books that I've read this past year, and even before that, is that once you get to the end, like, the actions rolling, everything's going and then all of a sudden the writer starts to get more wordy, more verbose with their style. So I find myself skipping. For example, the Paper Palace, I skipped a lot in that book. A lot. Just to get to the story. But, however, in books like Project Hail Mary, which thank you so much for recommending, I absolutely loved it. And also recently in the story The Beach House by Mary Alice Munroe, I found myself really dedicated to those last pages and really savoring them. So I was curious what your thought was about skipping in general, but more specifically about skipping at the end of books to get back to the meat of the story to find out what happens. Thank you so much.
Annie [00:03:59] Amanda, thank you for trusting me with this literary quandary you have. Because, I will admit, I got a little squirmy thinking about someone skimming or skipping the last few pages of a book. I am a rule follower at heart. And then I thought, well, I've been there. I've done that mostly with books that I don't like very much. But I have been there and I have done that, and I personally think we can solve part of this problem by addressing what kinds of books you like and what kinds of books you don't like. And I think from what I heard in your voice and in your question, is that really this boils down to an issue of plot-driven literature versus character-driven literature. And we talk about this all the time on From the Front Porch. We talk about it as a staff. We talk about it with our customers because I really do think there is a difference in readers and a difference in what readers like based on whether they answer this question, plot-driven or character-driven. And I think you like a plot-driven book.
[00:05:04] So let's talk about the Paper Palace because this is a book I love. We're going to talk about it later in the episode as well. And that book to me is a character book. Now, a lot happens in that book. A lot of trauma happens in that book. Trauma and drama. A lot is going on. But at its heart, that book is not a plot-driven book. That book is about one woman and why she makes the decisions that she makes. And that's why I think at the end you wound up maybe skimming a little bit because we're learning about the character's motivation. We're learning about what makes her tick, who she has become. Now, I love that stuff. Like, that is catnip for me. I love it. Love it. Love it. But not everybody does. And it is okay if you are primarily a plot driven reader. So while I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with skimming the last few pages of a book, I find myself skimming when I've lost interest or when I really don't like a book.
[00:06:02] And so I'm wondering if you really just didn't like that book and if maybe you're forcing yourself to read things that maybe you don't want to read because many books end well. Now not all of them do, but many of them end well. And an author has crafted a great ending or crafted these last few pages to really mean something. Now, sometimes it's like the end of a movie where, you know, we already know the story really already ended, and the author has just chosen to go on for 20 pages. Like, we've all watched a movie where we're like, "This ended. We didn't need this final scene." That's about editing. That's about editing and we could talk all day about books with subpar endings. But I think if we want to tackle the larger issue, the larger issue is you finding books that hold your attention all the way through.
[00:06:51] And I think, for you, that means plot- driven books. Many plot driven books end right when they should. Not all of them, but many of them. They end where they should because the author is not concerned too much with character development or digging deep into somebody's motivation or unpacking larger principles. It's about plot, and it's about wrapping things up and finishing things up, and I think that's what you're drawn to. So I think if you love a book, you'll finish strong. If you don't like a book maybe you're going to kind of force yourself to the finish line, right? And I think that's about do you like a book or not? If you were here with me, I would so want to know if you actually liked the Paper Palace because I think maybe you didn't like it, or maybe you liked parts of it, but the ending just wasn't one of those parts. Whereas, to me, the ending of that particular book was fairly critical to her character development. It wasn't particularly critical to the plot.
[00:07:54] I won't spoil anything, but that book has a fairly memorable ending. By memorable, I mean divisive. So the book is a fairly divisive ending. I have heard from a lot of customers and a lot of fellow readers, and that book has a divisive ending. So I think, Amanda, my wish for you is that you would start to when you go to the library or you go to the bookstore or you're downloading books from Libro Fm, you look for books that are plot-driven. How do you find those books? Well, that is a separate question for another day, but I think mysteries and thrillers are a great place to start. Those are often very plot-driven. I think women's fiction -- what I mean by that, I do not have another term for that and I'm sorry about it, is the Liane Moriarty's of the world. The Rosie Walsh. The Jodi Picoults. To me, those are plot-driven books.
[00:08:45] Even somebody like, Emma Straub, I would consider a beautiful Venn diagram of plot and character-driven. But that's what I would have said about the Paper Palace, too, which is why I kind of think I'd love to know your thoughts about thrillers. I'd love to know your thoughts about Liane Moriarty or Rosie Walsh. If you were here with me, we would kind of dig into this together and kind of really figure out what you like and why you like it. But these are assumptions I'm making based on your voicemail. And so, look, I'm not going to judge you for skimming the last few pages of a book. Time is precious. But my hope for you, my want for you, is that you will want to finish a book, that you will love to finish a book. And so I think to do that, you need to start looking for plot-driven fiction.
Emily [00:09:35] Hi, Annie, this is Emily from Montana. Overall, I'm really happy with my reading life, my choice of books, the characters in those books, how often I'm reading. But where my literary conundrum comes in is how long it takes me when I start a new book to be invested in the characters or to get to the faster paced back half of the book that I can just fly through. So what are your tips for what I need to do? To either change my pace at the beginning of a new book or to get to the good part? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Annie [00:10:11] Emily, I wanted to include your voicemail in this particular episode because you have almost the opposite problem of Amanda, which I find to be so serendipitous and fun. So Amanda struggles with the end of books. You were like, I race to the end. I love the end. I'm constantly flipping pages to get to the end, but I can't get started. And so, Emily, my advice to you is a little bit different from my advice to Amanda. Because I think Amanda's conundrum had to do with what kinds of books she liked and getting to these endings that really mean something to her. I think for you, this is about time and this is about time management. So I want you to really evaluate when you start a book, are you starting a book right as you lay down at night and put your head on a pillow? Do you start a book at nine o'clock and you fall asleep by 9:30? This is not the time to start a book. Now, this is when I start books, but you and I are different people, Emily.
[00:11:09] And so I'm here to tell you you need to set aside a fun, carefully crafted and curated time of day to start a book. And maybe that sounds romantic and impossible because you're busy just like everybody else. But I really think if you set aside and create time to curl up in a cozy chair and give yourself 15 minutes to set a timer and get started, I think this is going to help how you approach a book and how you enter into a book. Laura Tremaine, she's the author of Share Your Stuff, I'll Go First. She's a podcast host. I follow her on Instagram. I think a lot of you do too. She talks a lot about setting a reading timer. I don't always need that, but I think it would be really helpful for you in starting a book because it sounds like you don't have a problem finishing a book. Once you get into something, you're into it. But I think what could be happening is that you're starting books and then you're falling asleep. Or maybe you're starting a book in line while you wait for your kids to be picked up and you're not having an immersive reading experience.
[00:12:11] I think starting a book has to be immersive. So when I'm starting a new book, it's not like I have one chair that I sit in or one place that I start to read or one time of day. But I do typically start books when I know I can settle in for a second because I know that I need more than just a couple of pages or more than a chapter to really nestle in deep with a certain character or a certain plot. And so I think you need to make sure you're starting a book when you have time to start a book. I don't think this is as important when you're finishing a book because I think you can finish a book almost anywhere. You can finish a book on a plane in the waiting room of a doctor's office, while you wait in line for your kids, while you wait for a doctor's appointment, before bed. Like, you can finish a book any time because you're already invested. You're already wrapped up in who these people are and what they are doing.
[00:13:09] But at first, you need a minute. It's like meeting people for the first time. If you meet someone in like the grocery store and you shake hands. I don't know if we're doing that anymore, but like you metaphorically shake hands. And then you move on with your life and you finish and go about your grocery shopping. You probably don't remember that person's name. But if you both have name tags on and you're at a mixer or a happy hour and you spend five minutes talking to them and you learn what they do, how many kids they have, whether or not they're married, what they like to do for fun. If you ask really good questions, you're going to remember that person's name. Our goal is for you to remember the first few pages of the book you read, right? And so we want you to be invested. I want you to be invested in the book that you're reading. And I think the best way to do this is to start strong.
[00:14:01] Craft some time, set aside some time to really let yourself bury, nestle in to the plot and to the characters of a book. you need to allot yourself enough real time to start a book? This is not about like finishing it in snippets when you can. That's fine. This is about carving out time in your day to really start a book. You know the time that's best for that. Maybe it's 30 minutes. For me, truly could be 15 or 20 if it's, like I was talking to Amanda, a plot-driven book. You just need enough time to kind of get invested before you put it down. So set aside enough time where you can get invested before you put it down and go on about your life. That is my advice to you, Emily. I wish you the very best.
Angelica [00:14:48] Hi, Annie, this is Angelica from Tallahassee, Florida. My literary conundrum is that I want to read more non-fiction. However, I work as a political campaign staffer. And as much as I love my job, I don't want to hear more about the state of our country or politics at the end of a long workday. In the past, I've mostly read and left political nonfiction books like Border Crime and a Promised Land. With the exception of a great recommendation from the ladies of The Bookshelf, Don't Call it a Cult. So do you have any nonfiction topics or book recommendations for me? Thank you in advance.
Annie [00:15:23] Angelica, I feel like it is my responsibility to tell you that I am an elder millennial and therefore I only want to sing your name to the tune of the musical Hamilton. And I'm sorry about that and I will refrain from doing that today. Thank you so much for your literary question. This one is a little easier because it's just book recommendations, and so I do have some recommendations for you as if you were shopping at The Bookshelf. These are the books that I would put in your hands. I really like journalistic nonfiction, but I also like memoirs. And it sounds like you do too, because you mentioned and, of course, these were kind of political in nature, but you mentioned Born a Crime and a Promised Land. And so, yes, those are political, but they are memoirs at their heart. And so I do have some memoirs to recommend to you today. I also wanted to include a couple of essay collections and then some books that maybe deal a little bit with politics, but at their heart there's something else.
[00:16:17] So the first book I want to recommend to you is South to America. This is by Imani Perry. I just finished this book. I chose to listen to it on audio, but I think it would make an equally compelling read in print as well. So this is part travel book, part memoir, part journalistic nonfiction. It is written by Imani Perry, who is born and raised in the South. She was born in Birmingham, and she dedicates each chapter of her book to a different part of the South. And since you live in Tallahassee, you're like me, and you live in the south or at least south adjacent Tallahassee. I can say this, and from there, Tallahassee is kind of its own weird thing. But Southern culture is something that is probably innate to you or understood by you. And I loved reading Imani Perry's experience and expertize. She's an academic, so she's writing this from an academic perspective. But she also has a love for the South, and that is what I really appreciated about this particular book.
[00:17:13] You can get of travel book about the South. You can get a funny memoir about the South. You can also get a scathing look at the South. This is kind of all of those things. And that is what I really loved about it. As somebody who grew up in North Florida, who then went to school in Alabama, who now lives in South Georgia, now I feel like I have lived in different parts of the South and can tell you about the different cultures of the South. And that's what she talks about as well, because not all parts of the South look the same. There are certainly things that bind us together, but they are very different cultures in different pockets of the South. And so she's talking about that really beautifully and the writing is great. And so I would really recommend that. It is certainly politically adjacent, like there are things she is talking about that deal with our politics. But I think you would be able to really enjoy it and really appreciate it.
[00:18:03] For a funnier thing, I love the book Here For It by R. Eric Thomas. Now, this is an essay collection, but it's a memoir, and each essay kind of is a standalone thing. So you could read a couple and see what you think. But I love this book for how funny it is. And it sounds, Angelica, like your job is serious business. Like, you have a lot going on. And, look, the world is on fire literally and metaphorically. And so I think we need a little bit of humor to help us navigate our jobs well. And if your job is serious and hard, sometimes you do need something else so that you can go back to work every day and feel like, okay, I've had a little bit of a breather now I can go back and tackle this head on. And so, Here For It by R. Eric Thomas is fantastic for that. He does not shy away from tough topics, but he always writes them with a tongue firmly in cheek. And it is laugh out loud funny. And then also I did cry in parts, but like in a good way, angelica, in a great way. So Here For It. By R. Eric Thomas.
[00:19:01] I quoted at the top of the episode the new memoir by Delia Ephron. This is Left On Tenth. She is Nora Ephron, sister. I have been pronouncing Ephron wrong my entire life, so it's Ephron. I looked it up and Left On Tenth is her new memoir. It comes out in April, and I thought the writing of this was really beautiful. It's a little bit of a medical memoir, meaning Delia had some health issues, and that is very much addressed in this book. But it's also a love story, and it's about her grieving the death of her husband and then falling in love again, which I found to be really lovely. I also appreciated that Delia Ephron is older than I am, and so she writes from a very different perspective and a different place. And she writes beautifully about New York City. So this is a tribute to New York. It's a tribute to her newfound love. Really, though sneaky, it's a tribute to her friends. It's a really beautiful novel about friendship over and over again, just really glowing quotes about the power and the importance of friendship, particularly female friendship. I love this book. I thought it was great. I thought the writing was really great. Highly recommend.
[00:20:07] You also referenced a cult book, and we all love a cult book. Just kidding, I do, I don't know if everyone does. But I did want to mention some kind of true crime esque books that I think could really fit the bill if you liked that book that the staff recommended about cults. So first up, American Sherlock. This is by Kate Winkler Dawson. This is more history meets true crime, and it's dealing with the person who was described as America's Sherlock Holmes. It was recommended by Sharon McMahon from the Sharon Says So Podcast or Sharon Says So Instagram. Jordan and I started this book on audio on a road trip, and we loved it. We just haven't finished it because we've not been in the car together. But I do recommend that one.
[00:20:46] Then I also wanted to recommend Furious Hours by Casey Cep. This was super popular a few years ago, so you can find it in paperback now. I adored this book. Again, set in the South, but you do not have to be a Southerner to appreciate it. It is about Harper Lee and the book that she was writing after To Kill a Mockingbird and what happened to that book and why she was writing that book. It was based on a crime in Alabama. I thought this book was so well done, and I think Casey Cep is a fabulous writer. I can't wait to see what she does next. She writes a lot I want to say for the Atlantic, maybe. And, anyway, I've read a lot of things she's written, and I really stand by her writing and her research. I thought this was great. So that is Furious Hours by Casey Cep.
[00:21:30] I'll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara. This is pretty true crime. Like this is not historical true crime. This is not a southern true crime. Literary true crime. This is more traditional true crime. If you are familiar with, like, My Favorite Murder or a podcast like that than this would be right up your alley. I really like this book. I read it solely because it was part of the zeitgeist there for a while. Patton Oswald's late wife wrote it. She was investigating the Golden State Killer. And so this is her book about that research and about uncovering the suspect who was ultimately caught and charged with that crime.
[00:22:09] Killers of the Flower Moon is also fantastic. Again, kind of an amalgam history, true crime, journalistic nonfiction by David Grann. I'm also recommending this because it's going to be a movie. And I'm not necessarily one of those people who's always liked the movie adaptation, you know, read the book then go see the movie. But I do think this is going to be probably worth your time. I believe Leonardo DiCaprio is involved somehow, and therefore, I think you should read it now before it becomes super popular. It was popular already. It was like a New York Times notable book, but I highly recommend it. Really liked it. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann.
[00:22:41] And then if you want to go a totally different direction, I read and loved earlier this year, and obviously I'm obsessed, but I read Dreaming The Beatles, which was this really great nonfiction book by a music journalist. I don't read a lot about music at all. And so it wasn't just that I'm currently obsessed with The Beatles, it's just it was a really nice look at music and our music moves us and shapes us.
[00:23:03] And then last, I want to recommend a book that is on my TBR and that is Down East by Gigi Georges. So I visited Maine last year. This book is about five young women growing up in, I believe, northern but at least rural Maine. And it's kind of a true coming of age then. So it's about these women and how they cope with growing up in this rural area and what happens to them next and what happens to their peers. And kind of their personalities, their trials and tribulations, they're growing up and becoming who they are. It sounds fascinating. I gave it to one of our reader recruiters a couple of weeks ago. I really, really, would like to read this book, so I'm recommending it now to you, Angelica. I hope this gets you started. I totally see where you're coming from about working in a place that is great, but that makes your reading taste need to skew a little differently, and I hope this helps.
Julie [00:23:56] Hi, Annie. My name is Julie, and I would like advice on the best way to simultaneously read a physical copy of a book as well as listen to the audio, especially if the book doesn't have short chapters. In other words, they have long chapters. I tend to get lost in keeping up with the physical book when I'm listening to a book and would love your advice on this. Thanks.
Lisa [00:24:30] Hi, Annie, this is Lisa from Mechanicsville, Virginia. And this is my reading quandary. I am a reading specialist at an elementary school and so a very strong passion for literacy for children. And part of that job is to really work hard to get kids to actually read the words on the page. So my quandary is this, because that's so embedded into my mind and my thinking for my work, it's really hard for me to consider listening to audiobooks. Because I can't get past the thought that maybe it's just not really reading because I'm not actually reading the words on the page. I know this is kind of silly, but it's a hang up that I have, and I'm hoping you have some advice for me. Thanks.
Annie [00:25:14] Hi, Julie and Lisa, I wanted to include your voicemails together because I think a lot of readers have turned their attention to audio books in the last two years. I know I certainly have. So, Lisa, your kind of conundrum about how you kind of change your frame of mind. I totally get that. I think if you were to go back and listen to old episodes of From the Front Porch, you would probably hear me turn my nose up a little bit about audiobooks or, at the very least, say audiobooks are good for you, not for me. And there is a part of me that still stands by some of that because I am a very visual learner, and it sounds like you might be too. And so when I listen to an audiobook, I just know I am not getting everything that I personally would be getting if I were reading it physically. That is not true of everyone.
[00:26:05] My husband, Jordan, is a great example. He is an audio learner, an auditory learner. And so he listens to audiobooks constantly, and his retention rate is astounding to me and much higher than my own when I listen to audiobooks. Because for him, that is the way that he learns. And so I think you and I probably learn either visually or kinetically., Like we do not learn auditorily or we did not learn as well auditorily. And so, audiobooks are never going to be for us the same that they are for my husband, Jordan, or for other readers who really use those as a way to retain information. I use audiobooks to enhance my reading. And so Julie mentioned kind of reading simultaneously. That is not something I do. It is something some other readers I know and trust do, where they have the physical copy of the book and they listen to it. And Lisa, that might be something that works for you.
[00:27:01] I personally am utilizing audiobooks to listen to nonfiction, or I'm using it to listen to get something new out of a book that I would not have gotten. I think about Recetatif by Toni Morrison, which I read recently. I could have read that in short story format, but for some reason, the audiobook just worked so much better for me. I think of South to America by Imani Perry, which I mentioned earlier in the episode, and that is a book that would have taken me a really long time to read the physical copy of. But, instead, I could listen to it while I did a mind numbing task at work or something like that. I don't listen to audiobooks while I do mind engaging tasks. I cannot. I will just type whatever is being spoken to me in my headphones.
[00:27:49] So I don't listen to audiobooks all the time. But when I do, it is primarily to enhance my reading experience. It's to read a book maybe a little bit faster than I would have otherwise. It's a way to retain some information, but not all. I know that I would have probably retained even more of the book cast if I read the physical copy. But I listened to it and I got a different thing out of it by listening to it. So I'm just using these as examples. So, Julie, I don't do a ton of simultaneous reading. I really listen to audiobooks kind of on their own. However, I will tell you one thing I do, which is when I hear a line or a sentence or a phrase that I really love or a passage that I love, I screenshot where I am. And then if I have the physical copy of the book, which often I do either in advance reader copy format or something else, I will flip to it and mark that page so that I can go back and read that passage physically. And so that is something that helps me.
[00:28:50] But I do not do a ton of sit and read the physical copy while I'm listening to it. You may want to fiddle around with and play around with your reading speeds because I think that could also help you. If your goal is to listen while you read, you may need to set the reading tone a little faster or a little slower to match your physical reading pace so that your brain doesn't get ahead of your ears. Does that make sense? I feel like I know what I'm saying. I hope you know what I'm saying. And then, Lisa, it's just a mind reframe, I think. I think for me or for you, it's just knowing this is one way in which I can experience an author's work. It might not always be the best way for me, it might be for other readers. Might not be the best way for me personally, but it is one way I can really enhance my reading experience. I can read something I would not have otherwise made time for, or I would not have otherwise had time for.
[00:29:48] Nonfiction takes me a long time. And so it is a really lovely way to get to experience nonfiction in a way that I would not get to otherwise. And so I think it's just about the reframe and maybe choosing what you listen to. I'm a big podcast listener. Podcasts tend to hold my attention much more than books do, and I feel like that is really because podcasts are like little radio shows, right? And so when I'm talking about fiction audiobooks, one of my favorites is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. I was talking about this book recently, and I love the audiobook experience because it was told by a slew of narrations and a slew of voices, and therefore it felt like I was listening to a stage production. And so that might be something you also could look for is what is going to feel like listening to a radio show. And maybe if you think of it that way, rather than thinking of it, as you know, a book to be read, maybe think of it as a show to experience. And that might help you as well.
Kerry [00:30:44] Hi, Annie, this is Kerry from North Carolina. I am a big library reader and only commit to buying books from my favorite authors as a very small way to show support to them financially for their talents. There has to be some other ways to financially support authors outside buying books, right? Is there the equivalent of Patreon for authors out there? If not, can you please create one?
Annie [00:31:08] Kerry, what a great question. And I think one that a lot of readers have, we do not have infinite budgets, right? We cannot buy all the things all the time. Even I, as a bookstore owner, am aware that pocketbooks have limits and that budgets are important, right? And so how can we support art and artists without just buying their books? I think buying their books is obviously the, I won't say best, but the most notorious way, the most known way for supporting an author. But I do think you mentioned Patreon. And I don't have an author Patreon for authors; although, thank you for the business idea. But I will tell you, many authors do have paid newsletters and Substack. Some of them that's even where they test out their new work. I'm thinking about Knox McCoy. You might recognize him as the host of the Popcast. But he, I know, has a paid version of his newsletter, where he is like trying out new material and writing a book. And so there are many authors doing things like that.
[00:32:10] I think also about R. Eric Thomas. I mentioned his essay collection earlier for Angelica. He has a paid newsletter. I think I subscribe to both. But he has an unpaid newsletter and a paid newsletter. And those paid newsletters are going to be at least at first glance slightly cheaper than buying a new hardback book. Now, over the course of the year it's one and the same. You might pay Eric Thomas five dollars a month, but if you do that for 12 months that's a couple of hardback books. So it totally depends on how you and your budget work. But there is a way to be like a sustaining patron of these authors. And I think the best way to do that, if you wanted to do it in a sustainable way beyond just buying their hardback books, is to support them on their paid newsletters or their paid platforms. You might have to do some Googling. But if you have a favorite author, what I would do is Google their name. Go to their author website, see what they're working on, see what they got going.
[00:33:04] And I would also tell you it doesn't always have to be paid. Obviously, I think paid support is a really helpful way to make a difference in the lives of artists. But one of my favorite authors is Claire Gibson. I just subscribe to her newsletter because I really like what she has to say, and I don't pay for that. I just subscribe to that. And so you may just subscribe to some authors whose work you really like to let them know you support their work, and then they will let you know, by the way, on those newsletters, hey, you can support me in this way. You can buy my new book. You can preorder. You talked about the library Kerry. You could ask your library to make sure that your favorite authors are stocked there because the library might have a bigger budget than you. And so the library might have more funds to support these authors by buying their books. That book purchase counts. If you call your local library and they don't stock so-and-so's book but you ask them to, will they'll buy it and they'll stock it.
[00:34:05] So I think support artists in other platforms on other platforms, support authors through their Substack, through their newsletters, through paid and unpaid subscriptions. Work with your local library and your local bookstore to just ensure that certain books get stocked and then share their work. Follow them on social media platforms. You know, for an entity like The Bookshelf, which is obviously very different from an author-producing work, it is just as helpful for us when you post about The Bookshelf to your Instagram as it is when you buy something. Because you might be sharing us with people who have bigger budgets or larger pocketbooks who can support us in other ways than you are currently capable of. And so sharing about an artist's work or an author's work on your own social media platforms or in word of mouth, that is my favorite way. I love talking about books on this podcast.
[00:34:58] I love talking about books on Instagram, but I really like talking to people in my real life and telling them, "Hey, I know you, I know what you'd like. This is what you'd like. Here's my recommendation." So spread the word about authors and their work. You know, support them monetarily when you can through buying their books and through supporting their paid platforms. But also subscribe to them when it's unpaid. Subscribe to their newsletters. Follow them on Instagram. Share some of their posts. Share about when it's time to preorder their books. Doing that from your platform would be very helpful and a really lovely way to show your support and to champion writers. You know, I think about the writer Harper Lee, who was able to write To Kill a Mockingbird because of literal patrons who paid for her to live in New York and take time off work and write a book.
[00:35:49] I don't have patron of the arts kind of money. But I can buy a book or I can follow somebody on Instagram or I can subscribe to their newsletter and let them know I support their work in that way. There are all kinds of ways to support an author. People became patrons of Harper Lee and enabled her to write To Kill a Mockingbird and then other people bought To Kill a Mockingbird and other people talked about To Kill a Mockingbird. There are multiple ways to support and care for a writer, and supporting them financially is just one of those ways. So I hope that helps a little bit, and I hope it helps you to know you're not the only pebble in that pond. Do you know what I mean?
[00:36:32] Like, there are lots of people who are also trying to buy books to financially support artists through fellowships or through patronages. So, like, you're not a lone read doing this all by yourself. There are lots of people, some with bigger budgets than you, some smaller budgets than you who are helping authors put their work into the world and finding the right people for their work. So I hope that helps, Kerry. I thought that was a lovely question.
Elizabeth [00:36:55] Hi, Annie, this is Elizabeth in Kansas City. Here is my conundrum. I'm putting together a trivia night for my book club because we are celebrating our five-year-anniversary this summer, and I'm wondering if you have any great ideas for categories. So far, I have an identify the author category where I put up their jacket photo and you have to say who it is. And the category where I list characters from a novel and you have to say what the novel is. But I'd love some other creative ideas. Thanks so much.
Annie [00:37:28] Elizabeth, this sounds so fun, so delightful. I want to join your book club. A trivia night is a work of genius, so I think you're on the right track here. I love a trivia night and I love book clubs, so you've really found me at my sweet spot here. Look, I don't know how your book club works, but something I would do in my book club -- you've met, I think you said for like five years, which is a long time. In my book club, the host picks three books for the month and then we vote and whatever we vote on majority rules and that book wins. So I think if I were hosting this for my book club, there are a couple of things I would want to do. I would want to make a list of all the books that had been in the running, which, believe it or not, somebody in my book club -- Kimberly if you're listening, God bless you. She made a spreadsheet of all the books we've read.
[00:38:20] But you wouldn't have to go back that far. You could just make a list or include random titles, whatever, and then have people circled the ones you've read and see if anybody, you know, picks a book that we voted on, but we didn't actually read. So, like, see if you can get your book club members to circle the books you've actually read. Like, can they identify all 30 or all 20, whatever it is. So that's one thing. The other thing I would do is to identify who picked the book. So we rotate hosts and each person kind of has a different month assigned to them, and so it would be fun to have a list of books on one side. I'm picturing a test. Elizabeth, you might be doing this on PowerPoint. I don't know. But, basically, you have the list of books on one side and then the book clubbers names on the other side, and you have to kind of match who picked what. I think that would be very fun.
[00:39:07] I think it would also be fun to list a bunch of snacks. And maybe your book club does themed snacks. I don't know. Mine sometimes does. But I think you could really just list any snacks, any food items, but put them with the book. So here's an example. So like, you could have spaghetti bolognaise or whatever it is listed and it would match with Taste by Stanley Tucci. Or you can have coconut cake and it would match with this book we read in my book club which was okay, not great, but I think it was called like the importance of coconut cake. So, like, you could match books based on their food or something like that. And then I very much think it would be fun to have a charades round. So we do this at the Bookshelf in our -- I don't know if we did it this year at our annual holiday party.
[00:39:51] We do charades and you have to act out the book title and we all have to guess. So I think that would also be very fun. You mentioned showing the author photo and having to identify the author from the author photo. I think it would also be interesting if you like took -- I wish you could see me, but you can't. I'm basically drawing a circle in the air. But if you, like, took a little snapshot or a little screenshot of a square of book covers because so many book covers look similarly now. So you could take a square of like the back of a woman's head, you know, and be like, which book is this? Oh, it's We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. You know, take a square from Vanishing Half, and it's just all these kind of multicolored things, and people have to identify the book based on that just screenshot of the book cover. That is another fun thing I would do.
[00:40:38] And then the Wordle playing person in me would do like a scrambled letter situation. Like scramble up the title of the book or something like that. Or do like a silly type like look up in a thesaurus different synonyms for different words in a title, and see if people can identify the title using only the the phrase that you've given. Does that make sense? I'm picturing like games Jordan and I have played before, so like scrambled words, but also just something that like is using synonyms or is like the Amelia Bedelia version of the book, and you have to come up with the title from that. Does that make sense? I feel like I didn't describe that well. I don't write games for a living. But these are my ideas. Your book club sounds like an absolute blast. I'm very jealous.
Maddy [00:41:25] Hi, Annie, this is Maddy from Columbus, Ohio. And I am wondering today about price long list in general, and in particular the women's prize for fiction long list that was just announced today on the day that I'm sending you this message. There are 16 books on this long list, and they all look fantastic. And I'm wondering if you or any others at the Bookshelf have read them or recommend any in particular. So far, I have read the Final revival of Opal & Nev, Great Circle and The Sentence, and I'm currently reading a book A Form of Emptiness. So of the rest of the list, I'm wondering what you think looks good or what you've read and recommend or others at The Bookshelf. Thanks so much.
Annie [00:42:08] Maddy, I wanted to include your conundrum because it is so timely. So while I'm recording this, yesterday was the announcement of the longlist for the women's prize in fiction. And, Maddy, I have not looked at it until I listened to your voicemail. And the truth is, I don't always pay a ton of attention to awards except for the National Book Award. And I try to be aware and abreast of, but it has gotten to the point where I don't always read a lot of the award winning titles. And so then I just get disappointed in my reading life. And I want it to be something that enhances my reading life rather than just drags my reading life down. So I do pay attention to the National Book Award, and I am aware of when awards are up for the longlist because we do in-store displays for them or whatever.
[00:42:56] That being said, I actually thought this list was really good. Now. It is a long list, hence the name long list. It is a long list. I would kind of be intrigued by the shortlist, but on the long list, I had read a couple and a couple that maybe you had not read. And so I did want to mention the Paper Palace, which is a book that has already been mentioned this episode. It is a book full of trauma and drama, but I loved it. I really did. I was amazed at the ways in which trauma was handled in this book, and I do highly recommend it. And I think of the selections on this long list, I think this is a more commercial selection. So I loved the Paper Palace and I would find it to be worth reading now. I also think it would make a great summer time book. As I recall, it's got this very summery setting. And so I think would be fun to read right now.
[00:43:45] Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason is another book that I really loved last year. So many books came out in the last couple of years, kind of capturing and capitalizing on the Fleabag train, like the the prominence of Fleabag. And so if you like Fleabag, Sorrow and Bliss is actually one of those books that claimed to be that and actually was that. So I felt like it dealt really well with mental health and mental illness and also just a really interesting, captivating female protagonist. And I really liked Sorrow and Bliss. I don't know if it wound up in my top two of the year, I can no longer remember, but it was close. It was a close call. I really like that book a lot.
[00:44:27] Then I wanted to mention the Island of Missing Trees because this was a book Lucy read and adored. And she did tell me I would like it as well. And therefore now that it has been long listed, I am very curious about it. She read it and she loved it, so I wanted to mention it here. And then while I was looking at the list, I will tell you the book that most appealed to me outside of the ones that already read is Build your House Around my Body. I just thought the premise of that one sounded really interesting and intriguing. And of the long list that is one that sounds like it would be fairly accessible to me. And by accessible, what I mean is a page turner and interesting to read because I really pay attention to my reading rhythm. And I don't mind things that bog it down, but I always want to be aware of things that are bogging it down. And so Build your House Around my Body sounds like one I could pick up and really kind of hunker down with, if that makes sense.
[00:45:17] So, Maddy, that was a great question. And I really wanted to include it as it was timely. So thank you so much for submitting it. And those are the literary conundrums for today. Again, if you have a literary problem, you would like me to try to solve, I would love to help you with that. You can go to fromthefrontprochpodcast.com/contact then kind of scroll to the middle of the page and you will see a spot like an orange button, I think, to tap, click and leave me a voicemail. No need to have a microphone. You can just record it into your phone and I will be happy to feature it on a future episode of From the Front Porch.
[00:45:52] This week, what I'm reading is brought to you by the 101st Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Spring is starting to be sprung here in Thomasville. The weather has been really lovely. The exception, of course, is today the day I'm recording this when it is kind of gloomy and rainy. But we have had a real stretch of beautiful weather and that always signals to me that Rose Show is on its way and that other things in Thomasville are starting to happen. It's like we hibernate for the winter, despite winter being pretty mild, and we come out for spring. And last week I was able to attend the Flaunt Art exhibit opening. Flaunt is a program put on by our local Center for the Arts, and it is a public art festival and celebration. This year, Flaunt chose the theme Monopoly.
[00:46:34] And if you follow The Bookshelf on Instagram, maybe you've seen the Thomasville version of Monopoly called the Tomopoly You can buy it in-store or online at The Bookshelf. It is a really beautiful kind of work of art, and it is a real monopoly game that you can play, and it is themed around our very quaint small town. So throughout the remainder of March and into April, there is this public art walk, all themed around monopoly. These really marvelous, fascinating murals, colorful, bright murals, all set around monopoly art pieces, 3D art pieces created out of money and inspired by money. You should see like these big wooden structures built to look like monopoly houses, and when you look inside their windows, it's different art installations created by various artists here in town and in Tallahassee. Absolute gorgeous works of art. Like this 3D bar scene that just Jordan and I were absolutely in awe of. This life sized, actually much larger than life size, these plywood creations of the play tokens from Monopoly.
[00:47:41] So like a giant thimble made out of plywood is sitting on the lawn. Two really big dice are sitting in the middle of the downtown, so there's just so much really cool, quirky stuff to see. And it's one of the things I love about Thomasville. So, Jordan and I spent a Saturday afternoon walking around and looking at the different creations and just reveling in the creativity of our town and in the creativity of the people who live here.
[00:48:06] This week, I'm reading The Last Suspicious Holdout by Ladee Hubbard. Thank you again to our sponsor, 101st 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, Georgia, in April, plan your visit now at Thomasvillega.com.
[00:48:30] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf daily happenings on Instagram @Bookshelftville. And all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website Bookshelfthomasville.com.
[00:48:49] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com
[00:48:55] 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.
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[00:49:30] 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. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.