Episode 372 || What Would Susie Read?, Vol. 4
In this episode of From the Front Porch, Annie sits down to chat with her mom Susie about books for more sensitive readers.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Think Again by Adam Grant
This Boy We Made by Taylor Harris
The One You’re With by Lauren K. Denton
Millennial Nuns by the Daughters of St. Paul
No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
Wild Spectacle by Janisse Ray
A Woman of Endurance by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
Fly Girl by Ann Hood
Back to the Prairie by Melissa Gilbert
Bitter & Sweet by Tsh Oxendreider (not available through us, check your local library!)
Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week Annie is reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry. Susie is reading Vacationland by Meg Mitchell Moore.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie johnson and Kate Johnston Tucker.
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Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
[00:00:24] When people reflect on what it takes to be mentally fit, the first idea that comes to mind is usually intelligence. The smarter you are, the more complex the problems you can solve and the faster you can solve them. Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet, in a turbulent world, there's another set of cognitive skills that might matter more. The ability to rethink and unlearn. Adam Grant, Think Again.
[00:00:53] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, I'm talking to my mom about books for more sensitive readers. As of this recording, we are coming off a whirlwind couple of weekends at the Bookshelf, first Rose Show in Thomasville, followed by Indy Bookstore Day. If you couldn't make it in-store for both of these fun celebrations, don't worry. You can catch up with the store's adventures and happenings by following us on Instagram @Bookshelftville. We post plenty of behind the scenes pictures and remind customers of updates like new book and merch releases, upcoming events, and special deals. So follow us on Instagram @Bookshelftville to stay up to date on all of our fun happenings. Now, back to the show. Welcome, Mom.
Susie Butterworth [00:01:42] Hi, Annie.
Annie Jones [00:01:43] You were last on the podcast in August -- July.
Susie Butterworth [00:01:47] July.
Annie Jones [00:01:47] July. It's been a long time. That was unintentional. It was just sometimes I schedule things out and then forget to plug things in. So here we are.
Susie Butterworth [00:01:55] Well, right before Mother's Day is a good time to say you forgot to plug in your mom.
Annie Jones [00:02:00] No, I planned this on purpose. It's Mother's Day. I totally looked at the calendar and put those two things together.
Susie Butterworth [00:02:07] You are so smart.
Annie Jones [00:02:07] I did that on purpose. Thank you so much. So tell people your name.
Susie Butterworth [00:02:12] I'm Susie Butterworth, and I'm your mom.
Annie Jones [00:02:16] And mom comes on the podcast every few months to talk about books she has read because we've discovered Mom is an avid reader, but a more sensitive one than I. Do you like that phrase? What do you prefer?
Susie Butterworth [00:02:29] I guess that's okay. I like that better than prudie.
Annie Jones [00:02:32] I mean, I call myself a prude, but you are more prudie than I am for sure. So a more sensitive reader. And not only is Mom a more sensitive reader, but a lot of our customers are. And so we have discovered that it's sometimes helpful to have mom come on and tell some of her favorite, I would say, PG 13 or PG reads. PG sometimes.
Susie Butterworth [00:02:56] Yes. That's a little too difficult if you want to read children's book.
Annie Jones [00:02:59] Yes. That's right. So if you like mom's reading tastes, a few of the books she's going to talk about today are books she's featured on her shelf subscription. So Mom and Nancy, who's one of our booksellers in the shop, they alternate and provide a shelf subscription every month for, like I said, more sensitive, PG minded readers. Although, again, for Nancy and Mom, that PG is a hard
Susie Butterworth [00:03:24] It is hard.
Annie Jones [00:03:25] It is very hard. So PG 13, I think, is more accurate and more helpful for Nancy and for Mom. So if you like the books that you hear my mom talk about, some of them she has chosen in the past for shelf subscriptions. And you might be interested in a Susie shelf subscription. Do you like picking books for the shelf subscription?
Susie Butterworth [00:03:42] I love it. I love it. I think it's important. And it goes to show that you can be a sensitive reader, but still keep very much up to date on nonfiction, fiction, self-help, all kinds of books.
Annie Jones [00:03:54] That's right. A wide range of genres. So I told Mom to come prepared with eight book titles. She brought 15 or 16. So we're going to just start talking about books you've enjoyed. So tell me one.
Susie Butterworth [00:04:07] All right. Well, I want to start off with the book that you just took a quote from.
Annie Jones [00:04:11] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:04:11] To begin today's podcast, Think Again. Because I always tell that I love a variety of books and I always plug in some self-help or some challenging books that might make me think about personal growth. I like that.
Annie Jones [00:04:27] Like Sally Albright, your twin. Mom is Sally Albright. So personal growth books. And I should say you've always liked those.
Susie Butterworth [00:04:37] All my bookshelves are filled with, over the years, books that I have discussed. And I'm always still learning. There's still something fresh all the time. But I really loved this book.
Annie Jones [00:04:49] Why did you pick this one out?
Susie Butterworth [00:04:51] Well, because I feel like that's what I'm doing in my life all the time now, is re-evaluating the things that I've always held to be my truth or my thoughts. And I know that now how good it is to come back to some of the ways that you thought you were right and rethink that and go, "Hmm," well, maybe not even just say I was wrong, but also to say, "But gee, I really understand where somebody else is coming from."
Annie Jones [00:05:20] Yes, that's a good point.
Susie Butterworth [00:05:22] And we don't do that very well in our country right now.
Annie Jones [00:05:25] Yes. And he talked about that in that quote. I loved that quote. This idea of rethinking and unlearning.
Susie Butterworth [00:05:31] I feel like I am the little ball of yarn that's just sort of unfurling all the time with, okay, well, that doesn't work for me anymore or maybe I need to rethink this. So I loved this book and it was just -- I didn't bring that one with me today, but it was chock full of great ways to handle conflict. And that's another thing that's terrible right now. That might be why I read it. Because our world is so ugly to each other right now. And there's a better way. There is a better way to resolve conflict.
Annie Jones [00:06:08] Than just leaving. Or yelling.
Susie Butterworth [00:06:08] Yes. Or yelling at one another. Or that cancel culture you talk about.
Annie Jones [00:06:16] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:06:17] So there's a better way to do it. And that book was excellent and I follow him on the gram now.
Annie Jones [00:06:25] He has a good Instagram follow I think. And is he, I believe, a psychologist, a social psychologist, I want to say. That's right.
Susie Butterworth [00:06:32] I think so. And every day there's something positive, even in all the negativity around, there's a way to turn it into a better way to think about it or a better way to help.
Annie Jones [00:06:44] And he's a good teacher because he turns something into, okay, here's what's happening, but here's a lesson. Here's the way we could handle it better. I do like following him, and I think I'd like his book a lot, though I have not read it.
Susie Butterworth [00:06:56] Well, well, well. Listen to your mother.
Annie Jones [00:07:01] Okay. What did you read? What's another one you read?
Susie Butterworth [00:07:03] Well, I want to jump in to this year to keep a little bit more current. I started out in January. Although I read this last year, my January shelf subscription was This Boy We Made. I'm going to tell that January was [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:07:19] January is a notoriously -- I think we've talked about this on the podcast before. It's a notoriously difficult publishing month.
Susie Butterworth [00:07:26] [Inaudible] I love you, Nancy. But this was hard and I honestly wasn't sure. Okay, I'll read it, but I really chose it because it would be a PG 13 book. And then I loved it because it's just so much about the resilience of a mother, the lengths she will go to to help find out what's wrong with her son. And I learned some things about health care and the chasm that exists between races.
Annie Jones [00:07:58] Oh, yeah, the disparity.
Susie Butterworth [00:08:01] And so it was very good for me. Listen, we can sweep things under the rug or we can go ahead and be enlightened and realize, well, no wonder you're out protesting. Well, no wonder you feel the way that you do. Because it's not fair. Right. And so she had a battle.
Annie Jones [00:08:18] So this is a mom.
Susie Butterworth [00:08:19] This is a mom. This is a memoir. So it's truth about finding out what's wrong with her son, who starts having just these quirky, unusual things that happen that he displays. And yet he's really smart, but it's buried and then it starts to come out. But she's got to figure out what is making...
Annie Jones [00:08:41] And she has to advocate for him.
Susie Butterworth [00:08:45] Yes. And you have to do that. You have to advocate for yourself. She's advocating for her son. And so it turned out to be really a good book.
Annie Jones [00:08:54] Look at you with nonfiction.
Susie Butterworth [00:08:57] I know so. And, again, we move on to The One You're With by Lauren K. Denton.
Annie Jones [00:09:04] Oh, yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:09:05] And you know I really like her.
Annie Jones [00:09:06] Yes, we do like Laura Denton.
Susie Butterworth [00:09:07] And I've loved all of her books.
Annie Jones [00:09:08] And she's a Southern writer.
Susie Butterworth [00:09:10] That's what I think I love about her. So this book was just in her style. And, to me, I can just relax and sit on the porch swing and just read her books. And so that is a really important part of reading. Sometimes you want to grow, sometimes you want to learn, but you got to balance it with some fun reads.
Annie Jones [00:09:31] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:09:32] Hers are always interesting and this one's kind of about the perfect couple that everybody loves them. They're successful. He's a doctor. And then you uncover a little secret from when they were college kids and they broke up for a little while and he wound up, oopsy! And had a child he didn't know about. So he has his perfect family in his perfect world. And then 19 years later, bada-boom, bada-bing. Surprise.
Annie Jones [00:10:04] Oh, interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:06] And it's all about how the family dynamic changes and how the support and sometimes the not support and how they all come back together. It's really good.
Annie Jones [00:10:18] You and I like a lot of dysfunctional family literature. You read more PG 13 dysfunctional family. My dysfunctional family is Sarah Little.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:29] And I always want a happy ending and I'm not ashamed of that.
Annie Jones [00:10:33] That's right. You want a happy ending.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:34] I want a happy ending.
Annie Jones [00:10:35] And so Lauren Denton is from Birmingham. Is this her latest book?
Susie Butterworth [00:10:39] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:10:40] Okay. Because she puts out one about every year.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:43] I'm looking forward to the next one. And did she come to word of South?
Annie Jones [00:10:46] Oh, I don't know that she did.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:48] Somebody [Inaudible] came to word of South and I missed it that weekend.
Annie Jones [00:10:51] I can't remember if she did or not. But we've had her on the podcast.
Susie Butterworth [00:10:52] I really like her.
Annie Jones [00:10:54] And I or we interviewed her, I can't remember now. It was like one of those pandemic blur things, but I am pretty sure we did an event with her or something.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:03] There's an part of needing her type of literature. And she's a good writer.
Annie Jones [00:11:08] Yeah. She is a good writer. I like her a lot.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:10] And if you live in the South or want to pretend like you live in the South, she's so descriptive. You will love it.
Annie Jones [00:11:15] I know. I was going to ask, did you read the book -- it was a Nancy Shelf subscription, I think, called Sweet Taste of Muscadines?
Susie Butterworth [00:11:21] I loved it.
Annie Jones [00:11:22] Lauren Denton, is that same -- yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:25] Their writing is similar. So descriptive. You feel like you're in. I love that book. That was very good.
Annie Jones [00:11:31] Okay. Good. So that one was by Lauren Denton called, The One You're With. Aright, next up?
Susie Butterworth [00:11:36] And also, there are always cute covers if you happen to judge books by covers.
Annie Jones [00:11:37] Oh, they have cute covers.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:40] The next one is Tobacco Wives, which has that come out?
Annie Jones [00:11:44] That came out. And that is a cover I love.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:46] And that was my shelf subscription. And this is fascinating because you thought I would like this because your grandfather on your dad's side lived in Kentucky. They had a tobacco farm.
Annie Jones [00:11:59] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:11:59] My daddy in the poor South, when he came from New York to live with one of his family members, picked tobacco when he was 14 years old. And so you thought, mom, you'll really like this.
Annie Jones [00:12:13] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:12:13] Well, it was different from all of that.
Annie Jones [00:12:15] Okay.
Susie Butterworth [00:12:16] It's set in post-World War Two in a small town in North Carolina where tobacco is king. And now women are working in this tobacco industry because the men have been all fighting.
Annie Jones [00:12:32] Oh, right. They've been at war.
Susie Butterworth [00:12:33] Okay. So it really is about a young girl. Her mother's sons are off to live with her aunt. Her aunt is a very good seamstress, and sews all these beautiful ball gowns and all the dresses for these fancy, rich tobacco wives. But a mystery unfolds. It's not a mystery to those of us living today. Of course, this is fiction. But I got to tell you some very fun facts.
Annie Jones [00:13:00] Okay.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:00] So it's totally relevant about corporate greed, the courage it takes to expose something that this is a small town and these small towns that relied on tobacco, you blow the whistle on it --
Annie Jones [00:13:16] Your town goes away.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:17] Your town goes away. I think you'll love reading it. It is totally PG. Look, this is about a cigaret made for women. Okay, anybody my age is going to remember cigaret commercials on television which you didn't have.
Annie Jones [00:13:34] Which I would not know. Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:36] But I remember as a little girl, and I can still sing the jingle today to the cigaret that was made for women.
Annie Jones [00:13:44] Interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:44] This is in the sixties. So this is, like, 20 years later.
Annie Jones [00:13:49] Post Tobacco Wives, though.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:51] Yeah, post this. And so this was a commercial in the sixties for Virginia Slims.
Annie Jones [00:13:57] Okay.
Susie Butterworth [00:13:58] You want me to sing it?
Annie Jones [00:13:59] Sure, you can sing it.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:00] You come a long way baby, to get where you got to today. You got your own cigaret now, baby, you've come a long, long, way.
Annie Jones [00:14:11] Wow. Feminism.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:13] Let me tell you, if you're a marketing person out there, jingles all the way.
Annie Jones [00:14:19] Stuck in your brain forever.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:21] I was a child. I think I was probably nine or 10.
Annie Jones [00:14:25] But you've never forgotten it.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:26] I've never forgotten it. When I read this book, I was like, "Oh, my word." And so yesterday I Googled that to be sure I had -- I really did. And I did. I remembered that jingle
Annie Jones [00:14:36] You remembered the whole thing.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:38] So marketing people, you need a jingle. And this lady starts out in Victorian clothes, this beautiful supermodel, and she's ripping off these layers into this bell bottom [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:14:48] Oh, sure.
Susie Butterworth [00:14:50] And they talk about this long, slim cigaret that'll fit between the lady's fingers so that her smoking is so elegant looking. But think about all of that with this book. And so in this book, what uncovers is, oh my gosh, all the babies are being born with low birth weights. All the babies are being born with problems. There's something going on here. Nobody wants to know that it's tobacco, right?
Annie Jones [00:15:19] Oh, interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:15:20] Fascinating. So what I'm telling you is this book is set in post-World War Two, but there it was fresh again in the sixties.
Annie Jones [00:15:29] Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:15:31] We're still doing it and we know better. So big corporate.
Annie Jones [00:15:35] Money.
Susie Butterworth [00:15:35] Money, baby. Yes.
Annie Jones [00:15:38] Okay, that sounds good. I think I'd like that one.
Susie Butterworth [00:15:41] It's well written and I think that you'll really like it. What I want people to know is it's not boring to read clean books.
Annie Jones [00:15:50] No. And that one really does have a gorgeous cover and it sounded really interesting and a little bit different from the typical historical fiction.
Susie Butterworth [00:15:58] It was. And this was really about women's rights after the war. They wanted to get paid for their hard work. So it's really much more than just tobacco. But it does expose some interesting things. And, again, fiction, but more true than we want to probably admit.
Annie Jones [00:16:17] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:16:19] Okay. Moving on to Millennial Nuns.
Annie Jones [00:16:21] Millennial nuns. I loved this book.
Susie Butterworth [00:16:23] And it was a book that you could pick up and kind of put down. It's essays. It's essays by different millennials that are looking for -- many of them were raised Catholic.
Annie Jones [00:16:36] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:16:37] But weren't practicing. And they start this journey. Every one of the women had a story of their journey to restore, rekindle or find a faith. And so that was just a collection of memoirs, if you will.
Annie Jones [00:16:53] Yeah. Personal essays. And I think you and I talked about it. Like not perhaps the best edited or best written, but each essay is different because it's written by a different woman.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:07] I kind of connect with not being perfectly written because it feels so human.
Annie Jones [00:17:12] Yeah. Very authentic. And I really wound up liking them a lot. I really liked spending time with them.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:17] Well, I did too. And I felt like they were just not untouchable. Often some little convents where --
Annie Jones [00:17:23] Right. Like our stereotype of a nun. What a nun looks like.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:25] Exactly. And they have an Instagram. They're out in their communities.
Annie Jones [00:17:31] Right. I thought that part was fascinating. It just was very interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:34] And it was interesting about their family dynamic.
Annie Jones [00:17:36] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:36] Those that supported it.
Annie Jones [00:17:38] Yeah. And those who maybe were a little disappointed.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:42] And maybe were a little disappointed in what they could have become.
Annie Jones [00:17:42] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:43] But this was their destiny. And so I liked it.
Annie Jones [00:17:47] I did too.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:48] And then we go to a book that was very hard for me to read.
Annie Jones [00:17:52] Oh, interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:17:54] No Cure For Being Human, by Kate Bowler. I love her on Instagram, but I didn't know her story. Now I know her story. I had this book for a long time before I could read it.
Annie Jones [00:18:06] That's so funny because I read it in a day. I sat down at The Bookshelf and it had been a hard week. And I sat down and I read it. I loved it so much.
Susie Butterworth [00:18:18] Welcome to my world. I had to be in the right frame of older.
Annie Jones [00:18:21] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:18:22] She's young.
Annie Jones [00:18:23] She's a little bit older than me. Yes, just a couple of years older than me.
Susie Butterworth [00:18:26] So that was her journey into her cancer diagnosis and how she handled. So I was kind of like, oh, this is going to be so heavy. I don't know if I can read it, but then she's so witty.
Annie Jones [00:18:40] She's very funny.
Susie Butterworth [00:18:42] She's incredibly talented at making lemonade out of lemons. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:18:47] And she's very down to earth.
Susie Butterworth [00:18:49] And she had a baby, and it was just -- so, for me, it was a harder read because I was like, oh my. But then I kept telling myself, "She's alive, Susie. She's on Instagram. Everything's going to work out fine." But this book where it might not one day turned out fine. And me and my happy endings.
Annie Jones [00:19:08] That's right.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:08] But my happy ending was knowing I was following her on Instagram.
Annie Jones [00:19:12] That could get you there.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:13] And what an inspiration.
Annie Jones [00:19:16] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:17] I bet she don't even like being called inspiring because she's so down to earth. And she's brilliant.
Annie Jones [00:19:24] Yes. Very smart.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:24] But she's so relatable and she is down to earth. And so I really turned out to love the book. And I'm very glad I read it. Next is Wild Spectacle by Janisse Ray.
Annie Jones [00:19:39] Yes. Another Southern writer.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:40] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:19:42] And more nonfiction.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:45] This is also a collection of essays again.
Annie Jones [00:19:47] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:48] What was her famous book?
Annie Jones [00:19:50] Ecology of a Cracker Childhood.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:51] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:19:53] Famous here in the South.
Susie Butterworth [00:19:54] Yes. Which I loved. Oh, everyone should read it anyway.
Annie Jones [00:19:57] No, I agree. I think everybody should read it. And I really like Janisse Ray a lot. She's a really great writer.
Susie Butterworth [00:20:02] That is partially why I love this book even more, is because it was your first book post pandemic.
Annie Jones [00:20:12] Air quotes, post pandemic.
Susie Butterworth [00:20:13] Yeah. Air quotes. Because I don't know when that day will ever be.
Annie Jones [00:20:15] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:20:16] But she came to the bookshelf and this wasn't the first time I've seen her. She's come to One Book. But this time it was so much more personal because it was in the shop.
Annie Jones [00:20:30] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:20:31] It was oddly attended because of coming right out of the pandemic. Normally people would flock here to see her.
Annie Jones [00:20:38] Yeah. Because she's a Georgia writer and she is a stunning writer. She also writes some really beautiful essays. People outside of Thomasville or outside of Georgia might have seen her work in The Bitter Southerner. Like, she is pretty prolific nature writer.
Susie Butterworth [00:20:51] Well, this book, if you want to be a weenie like me who doesn't really -- I go to the mountains. I go to the beach. I don't do exotic vacations. But if you want to travel the world in its most natural way, then read this book.
Annie Jones [00:21:11] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:21:11] Because this isn't just for Southerners. She's been everywhere. And she's not drinkin margaritas at a little beautiful space in these exotic places.
Annie Jones [00:21:25] Like a resort. I can't even picture her there.
Susie Butterworth [00:21:28] Me neither. But she is in the dirt, in the woods. And she's truly an amazingly gifted writer to take you there with her even if you will never go. And she's also incredibly authentic and gifted in loving this earth, loving our space.
Annie Jones [00:21:49] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:21:51] And she's inspiring that way to make you make little changes. Little changes can make a big difference. So her book can take you from butterflies in Mexico to Montana, back to south Georgia. She's all over the place. And it's fascinating. Again, if you want to -- and I thought that I would do that with this book, pick it up, read an essay, go back to what I'm reading. But I couldn't. I was so fascinated with where'd she go next? And this took over a period of years.
Annie Jones [00:22:29] Yes. These are her essays written reflecting back on her years of travel and her years of conservation work. And so it covers a wide range of territory.
Susie Butterworth [00:22:39] Yes, it does. And she's so nice.
Annie Jones [00:22:42] Yeah, she really is. She's the real deal.
Susie Butterworth [00:22:44] You should read her books just because she is delightful and just very real.
Annie Jones [00:22:49] Yeah. And doing a lot of legitimately important work.
Susie Butterworth [00:22:52] She really is. She's doing very important work. Next is Woman of Endurance, which I thought was going to be my shelf subscription.
Annie Jones [00:23:02] That's right. We talked about this.
Susie Butterworth [00:23:03] Because it was a big book.
Annie Jones [00:23:04] Yes, it was a big book. Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:23:07] It was so good. But I worried that it might be too intense to be for everybody. Although, I think that you should read it because we need to read hard things.
Annie Jones [00:23:24] Thank you, Mom. That's what I've been saying forever.
Susie Butterworth [00:23:27] We need to know -- now, listen, this is about the slave trade, but this is different.
Annie Jones [00:23:32] Particularly, I was about to say, different than probably what you and I are maybe a little bit more familiar with.
Susie Butterworth [00:23:38] That's right. But the story pathetically is the same. That's what's so sad. It was quite graphic, and so I couldn't do it for my PG/PG 13. However, it was an excellent book.
Annie Jones [00:23:53] So tell us, where did it take place?
Susie Butterworth [00:23:56] In Puerto Rico. The Puerto Rican slave trade. And so here she is, this beautiful little girl, just a sweet little girl living her life. And she is taken captive and becomes a slave, becomes a slave to birth. Her job is to birth new slaves.
Annie Jones [00:24:20] That is intense.
Susie Butterworth [00:24:21] But you know what? It's real life. It really happened.
Annie Jones [00:24:24] Yeah. It really happened.
Susie Butterworth [00:24:25] And it really happened here. In my sensitiveness, I would be ashamed of myself if I didn't want to connect and read and understand what really truth happened. And we can try to hide it, but mamas -- I know more young people are listening to this. You need to make sure your children know the ugly truth so that we never repeat it.
Annie Jones [00:24:50] That's right.
Susie Butterworth [00:24:52] And that's why it's important. And so this was her perseverance.
Annie Jones [00:24:58] And this is fiction. But we certainly highly researched and -- yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:25:03] Yeah. This is fiction. [Inaudible]. Just like tobacco wives, it's fiction but we know what cigarets did. And we know what it did to babies. Pregnant women smoking. We know what it did because we have hindsight.
Annie Jones [00:25:19] Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:25:20] Now we know this is true because of hindsight. And that's why history [Crosstalk] not to hide it. And I sheltered you about as much as any mother would have sheltered you.
Annie Jones [00:25:33] You tried really hard.
Susie Butterworth [00:25:36] I really did. I blacked out with a Sharpie the word hate. But I also want you to know the truth when it was appropriate for you to know the truth.
Annie Jones [00:25:45] And I read a lot of books. You did not protect what I read really at all. We teach you about this the other day. You and Dad protected what we watched to the extreme, perhaps.
Susie Butterworth [00:25:56] But remember, I was protecting you at a little age. And the reason I did that was because in the future, I didn't want you to feel such great, passionate anger and hate towards much of anything.
Annie Jones [00:26:09] No. You told us we shouldn't ever hate anything.
Susie Butterworth [00:26:13] There are certain things that now we know you can. But I was really wanting you to understand --
Annie Jones [00:26:18] You did not --
Susie Butterworth [00:26:19] I know you outread me a long time ago.
Annie Jones [00:26:21] Yes. You did not protect or censor what I read.
Susie Butterworth [00:26:26] No. But we always talked about what you read.
Annie Jones [00:26:27] We did talk about it.
Susie Butterworth [00:26:28] Yeah. Because you were reading things that I hadn't read. And I couldn't keep up with you. There was no way I could keep up with everything you were reading. But guess what else? I trusted you. I trusted you. And I trusted you weren't reading something you shouldn't have been reading. But I hate it that people think today that maybe about stories like this we should know them. And that is not true.
Annie Jones [00:26:52] That we shouldn't read them.
Susie Butterworth [00:26:53] So if you want a book and you're not afraid of a little bit of graphic, what happened to her. Rape. Obviously, to birth other.
Annie Jones [00:27:04] Sexual assault, rape.
Susie Butterworth [00:27:06] And never see her babies. And these are biracial babies stolen from her to become more slaves.
Annie Jones [00:27:14] I had posted about Beloved by Toni Morrison and you had asked if I thought you could read it? I think I said no.
Susie Butterworth [00:27:22] You definitely said no.
Annie Jones [00:27:26] Because I just read Beloved and talked about it on the podcast with Hunter, it does sound like this could be an interesting companion read because the whole premise of Beloved is awful and gut wrenching, but it's based on a true -- it's an imaginative story written by Toni Morrison. But because she had seen like a news clipping or something about an enslaved woman who killed her children so that they would not also be enslaved. And so that is the whole kind of premise and heart, I guess, of Beloved.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:00] Because she knew what --
Annie Jones [00:28:02] She knew what they were going to face.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:03] So what a horrific story of the greatest love imaginable that you wouldn't want your child to go through what people have. I want to also tell you that this book -- I love this little synopsis. A novel of triumph of the human spirit, even in the most brutal of conditions, which goes back to me. Like now was it happy, happy, but it was a win. She wins in the end.
Annie Jones [00:28:33] So it ends with a hopeful tone.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:36] She's a slave, but she wins in her soul. And gosh, that was such a good book. I would buy that book in hardback to keep on my shelf because a reminder of --
Annie Jones [00:28:47] I'm glad you read that because that was also just in general a thick book.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:52] Then I had to hurry up and read another one.
Annie Jones [00:28:54] That's right.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:54] To really present it.
Annie Jones [00:28:56] That's right. For shelf subscription. That's the hard part about shelf subscription.
Susie Butterworth [00:28:59] Yes, it is.
Annie Jones [00:29:01] So as of this recording, people should have their shelf subscriptions. So tell us what you read for May.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:06] Okay. Fly Girl.
Annie Jones [00:29:07] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:08] Now, let's move on to something a little bit lighter.
Annie Jones [00:29:10] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:10] All right. I do not fly.
Annie Jones [00:29:14] Mum has never been on a plane.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:16] I have once.
Annie Jones [00:29:17] Oh, you have?
Susie Butterworth [00:29:18] I flew to Miami. My boss gave me that when I quit my job. You need to go on a plane ride. So I went to visit my friend in Miami.
Annie Jones [00:29:25] I didn't know this.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:26] It was the worst experience ever. I'm claustrophobic.
Annie Jones [00:29:32] Mom doesn't ride elevators.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:33] We don't have to share all that.
Annie Jones [00:29:37] Well, I'm just saying.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:39] But it does make market super fun.
Annie Jones [00:29:43] Yeah, all escalators, all the time.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:46] Anyway, so I picked up this book and I thought, okay, I'll read it. But I'm like, I don't even fly.
Annie Jones [00:29:54] Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:29:55] But she's the same age as I am.
Annie Jones [00:29:57] Okay. This is by Ann Hood.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:00] Talk about a great writer.
Annie Jones [00:30:01] She is a great writer.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:02] I haven't read any of her books.
Annie Jones [00:30:03] You'd probably like her other work.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:05] I loved this book. This is a memoir, again. She's very smart. She just starts out as a flight attendant. What did they...
Annie Jones [00:30:15] Stewardess.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:17] When flying was in its glory. It's an incredible story, whether you've flown or not.
Annie Jones [00:30:26] Okay. Yeah. I felt this was so interesting that you loved this one so much.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:29] I loved it because her experience watching the industry change. You don't have to be somebody that flies to see that the industry has changed.
Annie Jones [00:30:41] Sure.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:41] She talked about wearing her stiletto heels on her feet all day long. This is a college graduate. Many of her friends thought, you are crazy. You're just going to go be a waitress.
Annie Jones [00:30:53] Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:30:54] But she wanted to travel. This was her way to travel the world. And, gosh, it's just a fascinating -- I hope everybody that got it this month is going to really love it because it's a great story about feminism.
Annie Jones [00:31:10] It is. Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:31:11] You think it's not about feminism because you ought to hear the criteria.
Annie Jones [00:31:17] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:31:18] The weight, the length of the skirt, everything she went through in the airline that she wanted to work for the most and how she wound up going to so many different airlines because of the changes that were happening and the the big strikes. This is before your time, but the big strikes and the big -- there are no big gigantic, I mean, the big Boeing triple layer airplanes. That's not how people fly anymore.
Annie Jones [00:31:49] Right.
Susie Butterworth [00:31:50] I bet if you thought about it back then, regular flights feel like first class.
Annie Jones [00:31:57] That might be true. Yeah, that could be true.
Susie Butterworth [00:31:58] Full meals.
Annie Jones [00:31:59] Way more glamor.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:01] Where she had to learn how to cut steak however many feet in the air you are.
Annie Jones [00:32:05] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:06] You hear a lot about where she gets to travel, the way she lived almost dormitory style. Because a set of girls would rent a nice apartment together, but then they would hardly ever see each other.
Annie Jones [00:32:19] Right. They were never home.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:20] Fascinating. She's a very good writer. So she took me on adventure even though she didn't convince me to fly.
Annie Jones [00:32:27] She didn't convince you to get on a plane.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:29] She didn't convince me to do that, because that's still not my preferred mode. My preferred mode is not even interstate.
Annie Jones [00:32:37] Oh, no. It takes you a long time to go places.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:39] I like back rides. Because I like to see how people live.
Annie Jones [00:32:42] I like to travel backwards too.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:43] To get out on the squares.
Annie Jones [00:32:45] There's a time and a place.
Susie Butterworth [00:32:45] Yes, and I like to go slow now. And I don't like to hurry. I hope everybody's going to love that book. It's funny. It's shocking when you think about where women are today and what was expected of them in the early seventies to become a stewardess, and flight attendant, then adding men into the flight attendant. It's big changes. So it's nostalgic but then brings you right in to how we are today. I think people will love it. And I want to talk about a separate thing, if you love reading and going slow. This is not a book, but it's an essay that I get in my inbox every day. But it's about a writer, Sean Dietrich.
Annie Jones [00:33:35] Oh, yes. We like Sean Dietrich.
Susie Butterworth [00:33:36] We love Sean Dietrich. If you're listening out there, Sean and Jamie.
Annie Jones [00:33:40] Mom want's to be Sean's best friend.
Susie Butterworth [00:33:44] I love his wife.
Annie Jones [00:33:45] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:33:46] I'm sorry. I hope this doesn't hurt your feelings, Sean, but I thought you were older.
Annie Jones [00:33:50] It's been a big topic of conversation in our extended family.
Susie Butterworth [00:33:54] Yes. I thought you were like -- Well, we could be friends.
Annie Jones [00:33:58] You can be friends.
Susie Butterworth [00:33:59] We can be friends. And when I saw his wife, I knew he was younger because she's young, but he's got that beard. Let me tell you about him. The reason you think he's older is because his soul is.
Annie Jones [00:34:10] Yeah, his writing it.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:11] But if you want to read any of his books. We talked about him before. His latest fiction, Winston Brown. I loved.
Annie Jones [00:34:18] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:18] We loved his more of a memoir book, Will the Circle Be Unbroken. I read that loud.
Annie Jones [00:34:24] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:24] But if you want an essay in your inbox every day that's just so delightful about just life.
Annie Jones [00:34:30] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:30] It's a hard life. Sad things.
Annie Jones [00:34:31] I can't believe how many essays he writes. It's astounding.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:36] He writes one every day. I get one every day and sometimes they're sad. Sometimes they're so funny. They've recently moved to Birmingham.
Annie Jones [00:34:44] Yes.
Susie Butterworth [00:34:44] Which part of the reason I just loved them so much is they were right up here in the panhandle. But now Birmingham is my birth place, so my top half of my family was raised in Birmingham. So now he's talking about his Birmingham life that resonates with me too. Yeah, I'd have two siblings that still lives there.
Annie Jones [00:35:03] Yeah. You're familiar.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:04] And so that's kind of fun. So I just want to throw that in there if you want a cute or a nice essay in your box, PG, every day of the week, sign up for Sean Dietrich.
Annie Jones [00:35:15] For his newsletter. We'll put a link in the show notes.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:17] That'd be great. Because he's been here and he's been at your shop.
Annie Jones [00:35:20] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:21] Okay. And the next book I read was Back to the Prairie.
Annie Jones [00:35:24] Okay, I saved this for you. It was so odd to get an ARC of this because typically we don't get celebrity memoirs like advance copies. I wonder perhaps she's not a huge celebrity anymore. But anyway.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:38] Well, I only read it because I truly love Little House on the Prairie. Loved old books.
Annie Jones [00:35:41] Yes. What is her name? Melissa Gilbert.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:45] She's married to the guy off of West Wing. What's his name? Tim something.
Annie Jones [00:35:56] What? Keep talking. I'll look it up.
Susie Butterworth [00:35:57] Okay. But this is actually a little bit of a memoir about living during the pandemic. As an actress and an actor, they move, they have a little shack they buy in the Catskills and they wind up actually going there.
Annie Jones [00:36:13] Timothy Bussfield is her husband? And he played -- sure enough, he played Danny. He played Danny on West Wing.
Susie Butterworth [00:36:22] Which we loved Danny on West Wing.
Annie Jones [00:36:23] What in the world.
Susie Butterworth [00:36:24] I know. That in itself was a little fascinating. And so this is really about them surviving the pandemic in their little shack that they redo in the Catskills.
Annie Jones [00:36:34] So this is not about like her acting in Little House on the Prairie, it's about her really, truly --
Susie Butterworth [00:36:41] This is her adult life where she's finally come into her own. She's very candid about the things that she's done to herself cosmetically to try to keep up with Hollywood. And for this part, I appreciate her authenticity. I appreciate the fact that she's done with all of that implants removed. She's let her wrinkles show. She's letting her hair gray and she doesn't have to stay the little redheaded, freckled. And she's still very pretty. She's still very pretty.
Annie Jones [00:37:11] Sure.
Susie Butterworth [00:37:11] A very beautiful woman now. But so this is her coming into herself and then finding how to survive as actors in the pandemic.
Annie Jones [00:37:22] Okay. Oh, interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:37:23] And the life that they build in the Catskills, in this shack that they redo. Raising chickens, the wildlife. So it's really just a kind of a fun read. She starts doing DIY projects. So it's really funny. You go from Botoxed to DIYing, letting yourself come into. She sounds very happy now.
Annie Jones [00:37:47] Okay.
Susie Butterworth [00:37:48] She sounds very happy.
Annie Jones [00:37:48] Good for her.
Susie Butterworth [00:37:49] So good for her.
Annie Jones [00:37:50] All right. What else?
Susie Butterworth [00:37:51] Okay. This is going to be my next --
Annie Jones [00:37:54] If it's going to be your shelf subscription, people don't like to know that.
Susie Butterworth [00:37:57] And so that's going to be my next one. And I've got two. I read Bitter and Sweet, which was just a beautiful little lit.
Annie Jones [00:38:05] Oh, yes. The little lit by Tsh Oxenreider
Susie Butterworth [00:38:08] And you should just buy those books because she's wonderful at helping you walk through the season if you never have before and if you're a newbie.
Annie Jones [00:38:15] Yeah.
Susie Butterworth [00:38:16] And her books are so beautiful.
Annie Jones [00:38:19] They're so beautiful.
Susie Butterworth [00:38:20] They're beautiful. I mean, I display them on my coffee table. This is another ARC, VacationLand by Meg Mitchell Moore.
Annie Jones [00:38:32] Okay, I'm curious about this, so please tell me about it.
Susie Butterworth [00:38:34] Love it.
Annie Jones [00:38:35] Love it? I want to read it. The cover's great.
Susie Butterworth [00:38:37] You always say the covers are going to be great. Great summer book.
Annie Jones [00:38:43] I think I like it. VacationLand, does it take place in Maine?
Susie Butterworth [00:38:47] Yes. And it's gorgeous. And she's quite descriptive as well. So it's about their summer home. Her dad's a judge. A retired judge. He's suffering with some Alzheimer's. I don't know how much to tell. But, anyway, they have this picture perfect looking life. She's an only child. She's come for the whole summer. She's never done that before, but she's come for the whole summer to work on her book. She's going to do a great job of that because all the life that's going on around her. But you can just picture yourself [Crosstalk] right on the ocean. You can just picture yourself there. And her father is a retired judge, so he's very famous in this in the Portland camp. And this is their summer home. But, again, a secret unfolds of the past.
Annie Jones [00:39:36] A mystery. Okay. Don't tell me too much.
Susie Butterworth [00:39:42] I won't you know, the books that are written like it's so-and-so's chapter. It's Annie's chapter or it's Susie's chapter. I kind of love books like that.
Annie Jones [00:39:54] Yes, I do too if they're done well.
Susie Butterworth [00:39:55] And this is done well.
Annie Jones [00:39:56] Okay. Is it her and her dad?
Susie Butterworth [00:39:59] No.
Annie Jones [00:39:59] Oh, okay. Interesting.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:02] It's another character that comes to Maine.
Annie Jones [00:40:04] Okay.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:05] This is so beach reading.
Annie Jones [00:40:08] Yeah. The cover looks like it.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:09] Everybody's going to love it.
Annie Jones [00:40:10] When does it come out? July.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:12] Is this in July?
Annie Jones [00:40:13] Yeah, July.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:14] Go buy it when it comes out. Everybody, I won't tell you too much more about it, but it's so good. It's totally a Susie, Nancy --
Annie Jones [00:40:22] Okay, a Susie, Nancy book
Susie Butterworth [00:40:23] Everybody that likes our books that we pick, are going to love this book.
Annie Jones [00:40:28] And that was a lot of books, mom. You've read a lot this year.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:34] I'm trying to read two every month.
Annie Jones [00:40:36] One shelf subscription. Like, do you have a criteria? Or, no, just two books a month.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:41] I'm just trying to read. And then that also filters in the devotional books or any other kind of books. But that's my goal each year. You keep me very busy going through ARCs.
Annie Jones [00:40:54] At least you can just read every other month. Poor dad has to read every month.
Susie Butterworth [00:40:57] He has to read every month. But it takes me a while to dind them. And so I wind up reading more than I needed to. Like this month I could have had both of these as my shelf subscription.
Annie Jones [00:41:10] Well, that's fun.
Susie Butterworth [00:41:11] This totally could have been my shelf subscription.
Annie Jones [00:41:14] Well, good. Well, thank you, Mom. Before we leave, I do have two book recommendations for you. Good.
Susie Butterworth [00:41:19] Good. I've got that can add it to my stack.
Annie Jones [00:41:21] Okay. Because I didn't know if you knew Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner. So she wrote The Jane Austen Society, which I really liked. And I think you read it too. If you didn't, we talked about it. But she's an author I think you would like. But the Bloomsbury Girls, it takes place in London, post-World War Two. And it's like a little bookstore that, of course, is now being operated by women because the men have been at war. And they're trying to be innovative to think about a way for the bookstore to survive, but the men are also coming back. And so anyway, it sounds really good.
Susie Butterworth [00:41:56] Is it out?
Annie Jones [00:41:56] I think it is out now, but I think you would really like that. And then I know we've talked about Mary Laura Philpot before and you did not love I Miss You When I Blink as much as I did.
Susie Butterworth [00:42:07] I liked it, but not not as...
Annie Jones [00:42:09] However, I do think you are going to love her new one. Her new one is called Bomb Shelter. And it's a little bit more about motherhood, particularly as she moves toward an empty nest and she's kind of sort of taking care of some aging parents. But I loved it. I thought the writing was really good.
Susie Butterworth [00:42:25] She is a great writer.
Annie Jones [00:42:26] She's a great writer. And it's gotten rave reviews everywhere, which I love, because it's just a book about a normal person with normal everyday issues. It's out. I think you'd like it. And then I also think you'd like Left on 10th, which is by Delia Ephron, which is Nora Ephron's sister. And it is her memoir about love after loss. She loses her husband, but then she falls in love. But it's also a little bit of a medical memoir like the Kate Bowler, but very hopeful. It's all very hopeful. And it's honestly about her friends and how her friends really give her the strength and the hope she needs to survive. But I think you'd really like it. So those are three PG recommendations from me to you.
Susie Butterworth [00:43:14] Well, thank you. I'll add to my list.
Annie Jones [00:43:16] You're welcome. Thanks, Mom. This was delightful. This week I'm reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry. Mom, what are you reading?
Susie Butterworth [00:43:24] This week I am finishing up Vacationland by Meg Mitchel Moore.
Annie Jones [00:43:31] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelves daily happenings on Instagram @Bookshelftville. And all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website. Bookshelfthomasville.com. A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:43:53] 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.
[00:44:02] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hartzler, Angie Ericson, Cami Tidwell, Shantelle Carls.
Executive Producers (Read their own names) [00:44:09] Nicole Marcy. Wendy Jenkins. Laurie Johnson. Kate Johnston Tucker.
Annie Jones [00:44:15] Thank you all for your support of From the Front Porch. If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch. Scroll down until you see, 'Write a Review' and tell us what you think.
[00:44:33] Or, if you're so inclined, you can support us over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support. Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits, like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.