Episode 367 || April New Release Rundown
In today’s episode of From the Front Porch, Annie and Olivia 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:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Sign for Home by Blair Fell
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
Hope and Glory by Jendella Benson
Search by Michelle Huneven
Olivia’s List:
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum
Karthik Delivers by Sheela Chari
When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle
Donut: the Unicorn Who Wanted to Fly by Laura Gehl and illustrated by Andrea Zuill
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda
The Boy with Flowers in His Hair by Jarvis
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 Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. Olivia is reading Metropolis by B.A. Shapiro.
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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] I am still drawn to what I don't understand, because I imagine that if I can understand more, I might better anticipate what happens in life. I'm old enough to know better, but old habits die hard, and it's tempting to think that if I can just find all the foreshadowing, then I will know how does everything turn out. Mary Laura Philpott, Bomb Shelter.
[00:00:47] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, we're talking April books in our new release rundown. I'm joined by The Bookshelf floor manager and children's book buyer, Olivia Schaefer, to talk through the books we're most excited about this month. Before we get to today's episode, though, I wanted to let you know that this week we officially announced our Jenny Han Summer Book Club. This is the third and final installment in our nostalgic YA book club. We first gathered over Zoom in 2020 to reread the Babysitter's Club books. Then in 2021, we read Young Adult Lit from the 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s.
[00:01:27] This summer, we're reading Jenny Han's Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy in advance of the TV adaptation, which is coming later this year. You can join our summer long book club just three months long May, June and July by purchasing a book bundle of all three books in the trilogy. Just click or tap the link in our show notes or go to Bookshelfthomasville.com. Our virtual meetings begin in May, and we would love to see you there. Now, back to the show and the business of new releases. Hi, Olivia.
Olivia [00:01:56] Hey.
Annie [00:01:56] Can you believe this is going to be the end of our Young Adult Book Club journey together?
Olivia [00:02:02] It's weird.
Annie [00:02:04] It's so weird.
Olivia [00:02:05] It's super weird. It's been like a two year long nostalgia book read
Annie [00:02:11] Yeah. Yeah. And it was so fun and it still is fun. It's coming to an end, I think, at the right time, we're no longer really required to meet on Zoom. And so the world is changing, so it makes sense. But I was thinking, especially there is something about that 2020 book club and reading Baby Sitters Club together that I think will always be a really fond pandemic memory for me.
Olivia [00:02:37] I do like too that we started it in the summer and we're ending it in the summer. Like, it feels like the perfect closure to everything.
Annie [00:02:44] Yes, I think so too. The timing is right.
Olivia [00:02:47] Yeah.
Annie [00:02:48] So we've got some April books to talk about. As a reminder to listeners, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about today, just enter 'New Release Please' at checkout and that'll get you 10 percent off your order. As usual, you can just go to bookshelfthomasville.com and click or tap Podcast, then Shop From the Front Porch and you'll see all of today's titles. Did you have a hard time narrowing down to seven or no?
Olivia [00:03:13] Yeah, I had a real hard tIme.
Annie [00:03:16] Is April a bonkers publishing month and I just forgot or are we still dealing with a backlog of titles?
Olivia [00:03:23] It's really hard to say because I also feel like a lot of the books that I'm about to talk about today, except for any of the children's ones, are like ones that I don't know that I would have necessarily had. Like, they're not like my normal mystery thriller.
Annie [00:03:39] My genre of literary fiction, I do feel like there's an influx of those in spring and fall. Is what it feels like. Winter, there's kind of a dearth, and summer is more about I feel like commercial beachy things, and so I don't know. I had a really hard time narrowing down. There's a lot of books coming out this month.
Olivia [00:03:59] I'm so floored that you just used the word dearth so naturally. Wow. I was like Lin-Manuel Miranda thrown in quagmire into a rap. You know, like that was amazing.
Annie [00:04:15] Thank you so much. Lin-Manuel and I. I'll take that compliment. So I will start. The first book I wanted to talk about, you have probably already heard me talk about. So this book released this week, it's called Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This is her debut, and this is going to be in my top 10 books of the year. And it's a book that I actually think could appeal to a wide range of genres. There's a world in which, Olivia, I think even you would like that. Like, I feel like you and I had a lot of overlap, particularly in 2020. And this book kind of reminds me of some of the overlapping. Like, there's an element of this book that is kind of feel good, but there's a strong female protagonist who is one of my favorite characters I've read about in recent memory.
[00:05:05] So the main character is Elizabeth Zot. She is a scientist. This is where I think, Olivia, you would really like this book. She's a scientist. She's really good at her job. She's a chemist, but it is the 1960s and she is a woman. And so she faces a lot of harassment and discrimination because of being a woman in the science field and through a series of unfortunate events, she becomes a cooking show host like on a small cable TV program. And it winds up becoming this scientific feminist cooking show that audiences, and particularly housewives of the 60s, wind up loving. That is kind of the premise of the book, but all around we get these really great side characters, including -- never thought I'd say this, including a dog character that I adored named 630. And then Elizabeth's daughter and her relationship with her daughter's father and other scientist, the across the street neighbor, which I think could have been this kind of type character from the TV show -- I don't know if you ever watched old TV shows, but like the TV show Bewitched, where there's like a nosy across the street neighbor.
[00:06:20] And it could have gone in a totally different direction, but instead she and Elizabeth form this really wonderful friendship. And there's a lot in here about faith and doubt. Elizabeth is a scientist and sees the world very scientifically, and she becomes acquaintances with a priest who struggles with accepting science and interacting with faith. So all of that is fabulous, especially for a reader like me who is drawn to those themes. But the book is laugh out loud funny in parts. It's one of the books where I finished and it needed to finish when it did. Like, she ended it perfectly, but I missed it. Like, I thought, oh, no. Oh, no, I've gotten to the end. I just adore this book. I think it is really unique and original. I feel like the longer I read and the more I read, sometimes I feel like, oh, I've read this before or I've read these plots before or these character types before. And, instead, I thought this was completely and wholly original and I just loved it so much. So it is called Lessons in Chemistry. It is a debut novel by Bonnie Garmus, and it came out this week.
Olivia [00:07:27] My bookseller friend Jill also told me to read that one because she loved it.
Annie [00:07:31] I think I really do think you would like it.
Olivia [00:07:33] So maybe it is in my wheelhouse. But also, can you just explain 6:30? Like the time?
Annie [00:07:38] That is correct. And there's a lovely story and how he gets his name. I'll leave that for you to read about because it's lovely.
Olivia [00:07:46] Okay. Weirdly, that was the part that I was like, okay. Yeah.
Annie [00:07:52] Well, let me tell you, I just don't -- I like animals. Sure, they're fine. I loved my dog when she was alive.
Olivia [00:07:59] Sure, they're fine.
Annie [00:08:01] But sometimes I meet other people's animals, and it's almost like meeting other people's babies where there's an expectation in how you react. And I'm not good at giving appropriate reactions when asked for them. And so dogs and animals in literature, I can feel kind of ambivalent about, like, whatever. But, instead, this dog completely captured my heart. And I read it and thought if I could have a dog like 6:30, I'd get another dog. Like, I don't know. It was so lovely.
Olivia [00:08:35] I do get that. Walt and I talk a lot about how our cats are the cutest things in the world, but we understand that not everybody has an opinion about our cats.
Annie [00:08:45] Right.
Olivia [00:08:46] So I will only show pictures and videos if I know it's really good.
Annie [00:08:51] Yeah. Yes.
Olivia [00:08:52] And if it's worthy of the praise.
Annie [00:08:54] Yes, it's going to get the natural reaction instead of the sometimes forced reaction we have to give when you're shown a video or something.
Olivia [00:09:04] It's also why I don't care if animals die in books. I'm just kind of like, they're fictional. Well, but I know that's a hot take.
Annie [00:09:12] I guess that is a hot take. I mean, death is coming for us.
Olivia [00:09:17] I can't believe you said that. Not me.
Annie [00:09:23] I just feel like death comes for us all. The better the sooner we can just acknowledge that.
Olivia [00:09:29] But we're okay everyone.
Annie [00:09:33] Mentally, I'm fine. Sorry, I didn't mean to go dark. It's fine.
Olivia [00:09:41] All right. My book is also out. It was out this Tuesday. This is Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. I feel like I don't actually need to say too much about this book because she's so profound of an author that hopefully everyone has already bought this book. But it's almost like a sequel to the last one, The Glass Hotel, but only because the character Vincent, you kind of finally get some closure with her in this book, which I really appreciated because Vincent was such an elusive character. But this one you see from several different points of view this moment in time of this man stepping out into the Canadian wilderness, and all of a sudden he sees like an airship come down and there's an old man playing a violin. And no one knows why this has happened, but a hundreds of years span and there's still people talking about this moment in time when they saw this man playing this violin on this airship. And so this man named Jasper goes to investigate what's going on. I can't really say much more because I will give away too much of the plot. But I will say, Aaron read this in like almost one sitting.
Annie [00:11:02] I couldn't believe that. I saw that on Instagram, and I was like, okay, I need to do this.
Olivia [00:11:07] Yeah. I had a moment where I put it down and I was like, could go either way for me. And then I think I read like literal the next chapter and I was all in. Here we go. Let me finish this. So I would think a bunch of readers would have that dilemma where you're either you were all in from the beginning and you were reading straight through like Aaron, or you're going to have a moment of hesitation and then you're like, yup, this is for me.
Annie [00:11:32] Here's the thing. I loved Station Eleven. Like, Station Eleven is one of my top books of the last five years. Five years? I don't even know when that book was published. It's one of my favorite books in recent memory. We'll put it that way. You and I both read and really liked The Glass Hotel. I could not tell you anything about that book anymore, except for maybe the setting. I have vividish memories of the cold weather setting, but I have hesitated about this one and I keep telling myself, though, Glass Hotel was not an easy read. Like, that was not an easy compulsively readable, propulsive novel. So it makes me think Sea of Tranquility, I don't know why I'm hesitating so much. If I could read Glass Hotel and enjoy it, I feel like I could probably read Sea of Tranquility and enjoy it.
Olivia [00:12:19] Yeah. Well, Glass Hotel was weird for me because I read it because I was so intrigued by the characters within it and how you saw all of their decision making, but none of the behind the scenes of why they're making those decisions. And so, to me, that kept me going. But then I finished it, thought it was great, forgot about it a week later. This one, it was so much more readable, in my opinion. Wasn't too dense or too heavy at any moment. And it has stuck with me since I have left that book.
Annie [00:12:54] I finally found my ARC because I think we got a couple when they were promoting it, so I finally found my copy. So I may move it up the TBR.
Olivia [00:13:03] It's got short chapters. So you really can fly through it.
Annie [00:13:07] My next one is a book that I admittedly have not read yet. It is called The Sign for Home. This is by Blair fell. It came out this week. It looks like it's going to be one of those books that Suzzie might enjoy. Like short mum Suzzie might really like this book. That is based on the cover alone. Part of the reason I wanted to recommend it is because a couple of weeks ago, the movie Coda won Best Picture at the Oscars, and I love that movie. I think it's fabulous. And The Sign for Home, the main character is Arlo, who's a deaf, blind young man. And he also is a Jehovah's Witness. He just is kind of this quirky character who wants desperately to fall in love. But his uncle, who is kind of his caretaker, is super protective of him and I think partly protective of him because he is deaf, blind.
[00:13:58] And so Arlo, as a teenager, goes to a boarding school of the deaf, and that's kind of where he falls in love for the first time. But then he graduates or he leaves the school, and he's desperately like trying to get back or trying to find the young woman he first fell in love with in boarding school. That's my understanding. But at the point we begin reading, he's in college and he's trying to kind of come into his own, become independent from his uncle. And Arlo just sounds like a really memorable character. And maybe if you like books with quirky leads, then this book might be for you. I'm thinking of sure, books like Eleanor Oliphant. But there is also a book that weirdly former bookseller Caroline read and my mom read and they both loved it. And I can picture the cover and I don't know what it was. And it was this bright colored cover.
Olivia [00:14:55] Yeah, now I know exactly what you're talking about. I can't remember the name.
Annie [00:14:59] Anyway, point being there are these books that I feel like are both feel good but also really well written with interesting characters, and I think this one could qualify. I also think it's worth noting that Blair Fell, who is the author, is a TV writer. He wrote for the show Queer as Folk and several other, I think, Emmy award winning shows. But he has been an American sign language interpreter since the 90s. And so I appreciate that that is the perspective from which he's writing the character of Arlo, because of his own work within the deaf community and perhaps even the deaf blind community. So it sounds really good. It sounds like good feel good fiction. It is called The Sign for Home by Blair Fell.
Olivia [00:15:41] My next book, I actually feel like I've talked about so much and still have not done it true justice yet. So here we go. This is Atomic Anna by Rachel Berenbaum. Everyone stick with me after I the next two words. It is time travel meets Chernobyl, but it was so good. And I think everybody remembers, I spiraled over Blackbird Girls which was two young girls running away from Chernobyl after the explosion. This one is about Anna, who was one of the main scientists who created the nuclear reactor which blew up during Chernobyl. And you meet her at the very beginning of this book, and she is like on this mountaintop. She meets her daughter who has just been shot, and she's asking her to save her and change her life. And then she realizes that she has made this time machine and she has an option to either save her family or to go back and save the world from Chernobyl, which is a pretty big dilemma.
[00:16:51] But within the book, it's not just time travel about Chernobyl. Like, it's her family's story. Her coming of age of her daughter and then her granddaughter. And the family story was actually the part that got me more than the Chernobyl part because it was just so fascinating to see how all their small decisions trickled down to affect each one of their family members and where they ended up going. It was so well done. I don't think it was too heavy on the time travel part. I think for me, it was fairly easy to follow. And I think if you just disregard that time travel is happening, you can still enjoy this book for the semi dysfunctional family that is happening within it.
Annie [00:17:37] Is this in your top 10 of the year?
Olivia [00:17:39] Oh, I don't know.
Annie [00:17:42] I know. It's one of those. I feel like I've heard so much about Atomic Anna and The Cartographers. Like, those are the two books that I feel like I must associate with you right now.
Olivia [00:17:52] Cartographers, for sure. Atomic Anna might be up there. Cartographers was the one where I first started thinking about what my top 10 will be. This one, I think it was just there are so many elements to it that I was like, that's me and that's me. Like, I am fascinated with Chernobyl in it. And his daughter, Molly, is this artist and she draws these small comics about who she thinks her mother was as a woman because she never actually got to meet her. And I read this while I was going through the whole Marvel series. So I loved that part of it too. But then there was this deep, dysfunctional family happening too that I really like. Maybe I am now talking myself into it.
Annie [00:18:34] Maybe it'll make the top 10.
Olivia [00:18:36] It might now. It was really good. There are just so many elements to it that I think were so well done.
Annie [00:18:43] Okay. It sounds good. It sounds interesting. My next one is actually when I've talked to you about because I think you would really like it. It is called Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. This is a debut novel that released this week, and it is being billed by publishers as Oceans Eleven meets The Farewell, which are two very different movies that I really, really, loved. I love both of those movies a lot. However, you and I were just talking that sometimes which, look, publishers got to do their jobs. Marketing teams have to market books. It's literally what their job entails. But sometimes it feels like things are described one way, but then the reality is very different. And there were some other books I feel like that have maybe been described in this manner that didn't really wind up being high stories. And so I thought, I'll try it, but I kind of went in with low expectations, like, not sure. And, in fact, this was kind of fun.
[00:19:39] So I went to the beach for a day this week and I told Jordan I was like, I'm only bringing one book. And I was like, I need you to help me pick which one. And then I proceeded to bring in a stack of 12. And Jordan was responsible for helping me narrow down. And Jordan immediately picked this one. And so I picked four that then I read the first page of each. And this one, I was hooked from the first sentence. Like, I just immediately thought, oh, this is interesting. So it's five Chinese-American students. Most of them are either about to graduate college or they've just graduated college. They're in their early 20s. And one of them is Will. And Will is an art history major at Harvard, and he is obsessed or fascinated with this idea that the West stole or acquired through questionable means really important Chinese relics and Chinese artwork that really belongs in China.
[00:20:40] And so he works like at a museum part time as a college student. And then the Chinese government has an organization that has reached out to him to ask if he would -- they've like recruited him to perform a series of heists to finish acquiring, I think, four or five different zodiac symbols that belong back at this museum in China to complete the collection. And the zodiac pieces are four or five different museums across the globe. So, anyway, Will then recruits his friends and his sibling, and it's five really interesting characters, and the book kind of goes back and forth among their different points of view. And it does feel very Oceans Eleven esque because one of them is really good at coding. My favorite character so far is Lily, who is a I think public policy major or something at Duke. But she drag races on the weekends and she's obsessed with the Fast and Furious movies. And so she's their driver. She's their getaway driver.
[00:21:50] Like, I just I think all the characters are so interesting and they're also grappling with this idea. One of the characters is Daniel. His dad is an FBI agent who investigates art crimes. And so anyway, all of these students are also kind of grappling with being immigrants in America with where is home? Is it here in America, where our parents made a new life or is it back in Beijing? And I just I'm loving it so far. I literally finished last night kind of them prepping for their first heist in Sweden. And, anyway, I'm about to read whether or not they succeed with their first heist. And I'm really enthralled by it. And I'm also wondering if somebody -- and I wish Hollywood was listening to this podcast, just Hollywood in general. I wish they were listening to this because I think this would be such a good fun movie. I've loved it so far. It's called Portrait of a Thief by Grace Dee Li. It came out this week.
Olivia [00:22:56] That would be a good movie as long as they don't whitewash it, because that's what they did to Bullet Train.
Annie [00:23:02] Every time I hear Bullet Train mentioned, I think about you and I don't understand what they have done. I don't get it.
Olivia [00:23:08] I don't get why they did it. It could have done so good, but that one sounds really good. I did really enjoy the Ocean's Eleven movies.
Annie [00:23:18] I love them. And so I don't know. It'll be interesting to see if the whole thing can be wrapped up well. But, so far, it's very promising. I really like what I've read.
Olivia [00:23:29] My next one is middle grade. It was out this past Tuesday and it's called Karthik Delivers by Sheela Chali. And I read this. I think I read it in one sitting. It was just delightful. It was really, really, fun. Not always fun, a little bit heartbreaking at some points. But this was a boy, Karthik, who he runs deliveries for his family's grocery store. And I believe it's set in Philadelphia. And he started doing deliveries because his father's grocery store wasn't doing well because an Indian restaurant opened up down the street and it started taking business away from them. But Karthik is this boy who like he's a really good son and he's a really good listener. So he started making friends with all the people that he delivers to. And one of the people is this girl who is this college student, and she's putting on this play about Leonard Bernstein creating West Side Story. And Karthik looks a lot like Leonard Bernstein, and so she asks him to play Leonard. And he's never been in a play before, like, he's never been put in the spotlight, and he's never really been allowed to kind of find what he wants to do in this world.
[00:24:43] His parents have always kind of guided and directed him in one direction or another. And so he says yes to this play and he starts to, like, rehearse with her and learn his lines. And more and more he starts to see how his life is almost mirroring West Side Story in a way way less tragic than West Side Story. Let me be clear. But there is a girl at the restaurant that he has a crush on and it's like their rival at the time. And so he, like, wants to be her friend. But at the same time, she's also friends with the people who bully him in school. So it's like this weird intersection of like, will they? Won't they? I mean, they don't. It's a middle grade book, but like it was just I really loved all of the characters, and I love the the West Side Story theme running through the entire book and how well done that was. It was just delightful.
Annie [00:25:42] Oh, that's very fun. That sounds really good. I think I'd probably like that one.
Olivia [00:25:45] I really liked it. And the cover's really good.
Annie [00:25:49] Well, and we just watched West Side Story, the new West Side story, and so it'd be fun to follow it up with that.
Olivia [00:25:56] Oh, yeah. Perfect time for this book.
Annie [00:25:58] Yeah, it is. All these Oscar related titles. My next one is a memoir. It is Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott. This comes out next week on April 12th. I love Mary Laura Philpott. Her first book, I Miss You when I Blink, is one of the memoirs where I read it and thought somebody else thinks these things or somebody else believes these things? I felt so understood and seen by that book. And Mary Laura Philpott was gracious enough to come to one of our first reader retreats back in 2019. And I just really adore her writing, her writing style. This is her new memoir, and it is really about mothering. And I don't think obviously you have to be a mother to read this book. I am not a mother, and I completely enjoyed and appreciated Mary Laura's perspective. But it is in my mind a book about motherhood and about the relationship between parents and children and mothers and their children.
[00:26:57] The way Mary Laura writes is so relatable and yet still profound. I just felt like I was reading a book by a person who's like a few life stages or life stage or two ahead of me. And receiving that kind of perspective is so valuable. And there were moments where I was laughing out loud and furiously like, I don't underline in my books anymore, but tearing the corners and making marks to mark lines that I really loved. And then there were also moments I reached the end and wept. And there are in particular, some things that Mary Laura writes about. It's not just about her being a mother, it's also about her being mothered. And so she writes a lot about her relationship with her own parents. And those parts very much made me emotional and made me tear up. I just really liked this book a lot.
[00:27:52] If you liked, I miss You when I Blink, you will certainly love and appreciate bomb shelter. But even if you didn't -- and I actually know some customers who did not feel a scene maybe as I did with I Miss You when I Blink. I don't know anyone who wouldn't like or appreciate this book. I think it would especially be good because of its release date. Obviously, yes, Mother's Day. But also I think about graduations and maybe giving a gift to the parents too, or to the mother as well. I think this would be really great for that. And it's honestly just about changing life stages too and what happens when you're kind of in between life stages. So this is called bomb shelter. It's by Mary Laura Philpott out next week. I really loved it.
Olivia [00:28:35] My next one is another middle grade book out this past Tuesday again. I promise my next books are coming out later in April. It's a lot of great releases right on the start.
Annie [00:28:45] I was going to say April 5th was a big release date. There's a lot coming out.
Olivia [00:28:50] Yeah, we're going to have a lot of boxes coming. But this is called When the Sky Falls by Phil Earl. And I mean, it prefaces was saying we have an end cap up right now, which is books we loved that are hard to hand sell, and this one is the perfect one for that category.
Annie [00:29:08] Oh, interesting.
Olivia [00:29:09] This is a World War Two book for middle grade readers. I would definitely say like 10, 11 and up just because of some of the hardships that the main character goes through in the book. But it was just so well done. I loved every second I was reading in this book. Even the moments that were like almost a little bit hard to read, I was like, I have to get through this with him because he needs help. But this is about a boy named Joseph, who his mother left when he was born. So he lived with his father and grandmother for a long time. And then the war happened and his father had to go fight in the war. And he was struggling to behave with his grandmother. There were a lot of tension and problems there that have kind of gone unsaid. So she sends him to go live with her best friend, Mrs. F. It's not said exactly where she lives. But you can tell it is within the territory that is like getting bombs flying over them. And could be pretty timely if people are sensitive as to what is going on, which I am also sensitive to as well. But I was able to take myself out of it while reading this book.
[00:30:23] But Joseph and Mrs. F form this companionship that is just so heartwarming to watch happen because he has got a lot of anger issues and abandonment issues that he's struggling with. And she's just this little old lady who's not going to let him be by himself while going through all of this. But she is also in charge of taking care of a zoo. Part of her job is watching over this really giant gorilla named Adonis, because if something happens to the zoo and his cage gets broken, he could hurt the townspeople. So she knows if that happens, it is her duty to put down the gorilla. And Joseph doesn't understand this at first. But then he starts to also make this bond with Adonis and which is also just really fun to see and just really heartwarming to watch happen. Like Adonis saves him from a school bully at one point, and then he like protects him from soldiers that are coming to hurt him. It was just so well done and your heart is going to get torn apart, but then it'll get sewn back together right at the very, very, end.
Annie [00:31:37] You won't be left in a pile of emotions.
Olivia [00:31:40] Exactly. I think if any of your children like Alan Gratz is writing where he doesn't shy away or talk down to people about what's going on during these wars and these times, then they would also really like this story.
Annie [00:31:56] It also sounds like maybe ever so slightly like One and Only Ivan, do you think?
Olivia [00:32:00] Yeah. Absolutely.
Annie [00:32:04] My next one is another memoir. It is Left on Tenth, this is by Delia Ephron. It comes out on April 12th. I think this is my favorite Delia Ephron book. So she's written some fiction. She's the sister of Nora Ephron, one of my favorite writers of all time. Delia has written some fiction that I have read or dabbled in, but just liked it. Like I enjoyed it, but I didn't maybe love it. This is my first book of hers I've really loved, and I kind of think it's the book she was meant to write. The issue, I think is going to be that it is just so many different things. Like, it's an amalgamation of a lot of different genres of memoir. Like it is supposedly about the loss of Delia's husband and how then she soon thereafter fell in love with a new man. And so she was still grieving but also falling in love as an older person. And so it definitely has those kind of second chance vibes, although she very much was in love with her first husband. In love again as an older person. So that is kind of the premise of the story.
[00:33:17] But then Delia also is given a really terrifying medical diagnosis, and it's particularly terrifying because of her genetic makeup and because her sister Nora famously died of this similar type of cancer. And so Delia is having to grapple with this medical diagnosis. So it's partly a medical memoir, and she also has to decide how vulnerable she wants to be with this new man that she loves and with her friends, because Nora Ephron was immensely and intensely and famously private. One of the themes about the book is, is Delia her sister or are they just wonderful sisters and they are allowed to kind of do their own things and process in their own way? So I think it's a novel of sisterhood or a memoir of sisterhood, a medical memoir, a grief memoir, a love second chances memoir. She also writes beautifully about New York. That is where she has made her life for the last several decades. And so she, she just write so lovingly and tenderly about New York.
[00:34:22] And then, in my opinion, it's a memoir of friendship because it's about choosing what you share and how much you share with your friends and how much you're willing to let your friends bear for you. And I just thought it was really beautiful and a beautiful tribute to female friendship in particular. So I loved this book. I thought it was great. I think it's really well-written and, again, very funny, but also tear inducing and a really good spring book. I know that sounds kind of strange, but because of the theme of second chances and because of how she writes about New York, it feels very coming of age, but coming of older age, which I just don't think we get a lot of perspectives on, unfortunately. So I really like this one, it's called left on 10th. It's out next week
Olivia [00:35:04] Because aren't we always coming of age?
Annie [00:35:07] Yes.
Olivia [00:35:08] Okay. Completely switching gears, my next one is a picture book, and this is out April 12th. This is Donut the Unicorn Who Wants to Fly by Laura Ghel.
Annie [00:35:18] Done. Sold. No more.
Olivia [00:35:21] Honestly, I'm like, I don't really feel like I need to say anything else, but I will because it's illustrated by one of my favorite kids' book illustrators, Andreas Zuill. She did Business Pig, which is a bookshelf classic. Sweetie, which I also adored about the naked mole rat who is just a little out there. She likes dancing, as I remember. And then she also illustrated Regina is Not a Little Dinosaur, which was a pass subscription picture book about Regina, who wants to go hunting with her mom. But she is reduced down to only hunting bees, I believe. And this one is about a unicorn named Donut who looks up into the sky one day and sees a bird flying and thinks I want to do that. And so Donut tries all these different ways to fly without having wings.
Annie [00:36:18] Sure.
Olivia [00:36:19] And then she finally enlists help of all the different forest friends she can find to get her into the sky and flying. The pictures are hilarious. The way Andrea Zuill illustrates animal emotion is just top notch. The adults will laugh as hard as the children will laugh as well. I loved it so much, and if you're looking for like a unique unicorn book that isn't Uni the unicorn, this is like a great alternative. Because I would imagine there are parents out there who are now tired of rereading Uni the Unciorn as amazing as it is.
Annie [00:36:59] Yeah, and it's a great book, but maybe even just tired of the trend of unicorns. This one sounds like a different take on it.
Olivia [00:37:06] Yeah, like a little bit of a clumsy unicorn.
Annie [00:37:09] Love it. Next, I've got Hope and Glory. This is by Jendella Benson. It comes out on April 19th. Well, first of all, the cover is gorgeous if you buy books based on covers, which really there's nothing wrong with. And I sometimes do it too. But this is being built by the publisher as kind of a lot of different things, but all things I like. So it's being built as Transcendent Kingdom meets Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows, meets The Girl with the Loudest Voice. So a lot of books that were favorites. I also I'm like, Is this going to be a Jenna Bush Hager pick? Because it sounds like just right up Jenna Bush Hager alley. So this is about Glory. She is a Nigerian woman, British Nigerian woman living in Los Angeles. And she goes home to London to honor the death of her father. So this is, you know, a book rooted in family grief and also with immigrant dynamics and identity dynamics.
[00:38:07] And so she comes back to London to honor her father, and she has this vision of what it's like to be among her family. Like, she loves her family and prides herself on this kind of raucous Nigerian family. And, instead, when she gets back, she realizes her family has kind of fallen apart. So the book is kind of this family story. Maybe even perhaps, yes, dysfunctional family story about what happens after the death of the patriarch and also maybe even what happened before the death of the patriarch, and what happens when those of us who live away from our families return home, which I am fascinated by that concept. And so Gloria is a character who has moved to America. She's literally gone across the globe. She lives in Los Angeles, and now she's come home.
[00:38:55] And she ultimately decides to stay to try to reconcile her family and try to make sense of her family's grief, but also who her family is now. Like, how can you honor who your family was, but also celebrate who they are now. So it sounds really fascinating. I love dysfunctional family stories. I weirdly love stories that deal with grief and family tragedy and kind of how a family response to those things. It also sounds like it might be good because I just read and finished Yinka, Where's your Husband? And I love that book, and it sounds like the setting will be quite similar. So it's called Hope and Glory by Jendella Benson. It's out on April 19th and I think really worth your time.
Olivia [00:39:36] My next one is Woman Eating by Claire Kohda. This is out on April 12th. And this is a literary vampire novel. There's really no other way to describe it. It's very accurate. And I believe it's written on the book that it is a literary vampire novel. But this is about a girl named Lydia, who is a vampire. And her mom is a vampire. Her dad was a human, so she is kind of this cross intersection of vampire meets a human. But her mother has recently hit an old age point in her vampire life, where her vampire teeth fell out. And so she started to lose that whole side of her, even though she still needs, you know, blood like a normal vampire. She can't remember that she is a vampire. She only remembers her human side and her human memory. So Lydia puts her into this nursing home and goes off for the first time in her entire life to live on her own. And the whole book is really Lydia trying to get a full meal in because she does not drink from humans. She has lived up until this point off of pig's blood supplied by a local butcher in their small town. But now that she's in a city and on her own, she can't seem to find any source of blood for herself. It just feels very crass that I'm talking about eating blood.
Annie [00:41:06] Thanks so much for saying blood so much.
Olivia [00:41:10] Yeah. So there are these interesting moments where you're really looking at her humanity within her being a vampire and having to drink blood instead of just being able to eat like a normal person. But then there's this really darkly funny moments where, like, I told you about one. And this is not a spoiler to anyone. But at one point Lydia is so desperate for a meal that it's like the middle of the night, she goes on a walk down to a park, sees a duck and looks up and there's a man looking at her and then she just looks down, she picks up the duck and she walks away. And I just thought, this is this novel was so well done and so fascinating. There are so many thought provoking moments that will happen in this book, so just give it a chance. If you like southern book clubs guide to slaying vampires, just know that this is actually way less gruesome than that, because it is more a look at her trying to figure out how to be human without being human.
Annie [00:42:17] I mean, it sounds interesting, and it sounds like we were talking about earlier wholly original. Like, I can't think of a book that sounds like that.
Olivia [00:42:25] Yeah, I have never read a vampire novel like this.
Annie [00:42:28] So my next one is Search by Michelle Huneven. This comes out April 26th and it's being blurbed by Ruth Reichl, who is a food writer that I really, really, like. And it also has elements. It feels like of kind of Kitchens of the Great Midwest. I have started this one and I've liked what I've read so far. So the main character is Dana. Dana is a restaurant critic and a food writer, but she is kind of in a writing slump. She hasn't written anything in a while, she's trying to figure out what to do next in her career. And she's also a member of a Unitarian Universalist Church, which is in Southern California. And I am not super familiar with the Unitarian Universalist Church or its beliefs or movement. But what I do know about it is that it's very inclusive. And so this church includes -- I wanted to read it because I thought, oh, this is so funny. So the Unitarian Universalist Church has like a baker and microbrew master, and then somebody who identifies as both a witch and an environmental warrior. To me, it's just so humorous. Like, all the different people who kind of come together and are part of this church.
[00:43:37] So Dana is trying to write her next book, and she realizes that her church is searching for a new minister, which is like a big [Inaudible] no matter what kind of church you're part of. Like, who's going to be the preacher of this church? Who's going to help lead this church? So she joins the search committee. And she kind of has maybe not the most ideal reasons for joining the search committee, but she joins it. And then she decides what she's going to do is write about it, and she's going to kind of write this cookbook as it relates to her church and to the search committee. And so it's very meta because the book kind of includes the book that she has written about this church.
[00:44:21] And so, anyway, it's like a book within a book, but I really like what I've read so far. Dana is a complicated character, like I don't find her to be entirely sympathetic, but I do find her deeply interesting. And I also find the members of this congregation of people very interesting. And the role that this particular church plays in its community and in the search process for a new leader for their congregation is fascinating so far. I've not gotten very far, but it sounds again really unique. I've not read a book like this before. So it is called Search and it's by Michelle Huneven, and the cover is also really great.
Olivia [00:45:00] My last one is a picture book out April 26th, and this is called The Boy with Flowers in his Hair by Jarvis. Because Jarvis is like Beyonce.
Annie [00:45:13] Just Jarvis.
Olivia [00:45:13] But this is a really sweet look at this friendship between these two boys. And I feel like in picture books, you get friendships between the boy and a girl or girl and the girl, but you don't always get two boys. Important to know that they can be friends, and it can be this really sweet, beautiful thing. So there is this little boy, forgot his name in the book, but he has flowers as hair, and he's known for being just like this happy guy. And his best friend loves being chased by the bees that follow his hair and like all these fun things. And then one day he loses a petal, and then the next day he comes in with a hat. And when they ask him to take the hat off, all of his petals have gone away. And he's really sad all of a sudden and not his normal self. And his best friend comes over and he makes some paper flowers, and he tapes them to the sticks in his hair. And so he makes like a whole bucket of fake flowers so that he can keep replacing them as they go away. And then, finally, the little boy starts to regrow the flowers and his hair. It was just so sweet and so adorable and just a good show of how like friendship can bring so much happiness to people. And the illustrations are really great. I believe their watercolor, and they're very simplistic. It's very beautiful.
Annie [00:46:31] Oh, I think I'd like to look that one up. I agree with you. You don't often see -- I think it's why I even like adult books about male friendships because you just don't get them very often. Those are the books that we're looking forward to this month. Again, as a bonus for you who are listening to this episode, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talked about today, you can just enter 'New Release Please' at checkout that'll get you 10 percent off your order. Go to Bookshelfthomasville.com, click or tap Podcast, and then Shop From the Front Porch and you'll see all of the books we talked about today.
[00:47:03] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by the 101st Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Well, I guess these past few weeks, Thomasville has been abuzz with some movies filming in downtown Thomasville, including some filming done at The Bookshelf, which was very bizarre and exciting and otherworldly, it felt very surreal. Our store was filled with camera equipment and studio producers and tech gurus. Olivia and I were both there and wasn't it out of body? Was it weird to you?
Olivia [00:47:42] It was. It was like being in like Bizarro World from Seinfeld.
Annie [00:47:46] Yeah. Yeah. Everything just felt slightly off. Even after the crew left, they were at our store for two days, they, of course, graciously put everything back. But even though I think things were put back for the most part exactly where they were before, everything has ever since just felt slightly...
Olivia [00:48:04] Yeah, it's like everything's an inch off.
Annie [00:48:06] Yes.
Olivia [00:48:07] You're just like, are we okay?
Annie [00:48:10] Yeah. So it was just a really exciting experience. But the reason I wanted to mention it is because movies are being filmed and produced in Thomasville because Thomasville is a really cool and unique town. And I think these movies that need really distinct locations and need this kind of quaint atmosphere, they want to film in Thomasville. And it's one of the reasons I think you should plan to visit is because we look like something out of a hallmark movie or out of an episode of Gilmore Girls. That is not an exaggeration. It is really what life looks like around here. And so if that is appealing to you, I think you should pay us a visit.
[00:48:49] This week, I'm reading Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:48:54] I am reading Metropolis by B.A. Shapiro.
Annie [00:48:58] Thank you again to our sponsor, the 101st Annual Ross 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, plan your visit at ThomasvilleGA.com.
[00:49:16] 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.
[00:49:32] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:49:37] Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect, warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
[00:49:46] Our executive producers of today's episode are Dana Hechler, Angie Erickson, Cami Tidwell, Chantal Karl.
Executive Producers (Read their own names) [00:49:53] Nichole Marcy, Wendy Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Kate Johnston Tucker.
[00:49:59] Thank you all for your support From the Front Porch. If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see 'Write a Review' and tell us what you think.
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