Episode 371 || May 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:
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison by A. J. Verdelle
Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz
Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner
You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
The Golden Season by Madeline Kay Sneed
Olivia’s List:
The Marvellers by Dhonielle Clayton
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A F Steadman
The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
Breathless by Amy McCulloch
The Change by Kirsten Miller
Disappeared by Bonnar Spring
Gieger by Gustaf Skordeman
Hide by Kiersten White
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 The Bridesmaids Union by Jonathan Vatner. Olivia is reading The Measure by Nikki Erlick.
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.
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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] You were too old to love forts. You were 16. A girl with a learner's permit and a boyfriend now. But I didn't remind you of this because that was the fun of being sisters. Sometimes you got to be younger than you were. And I got to be older. Alison Espach, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance.
[00:00:45] I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, I'm joined by retail floor manager Olivia Schaefer to chat about books releasing in May. Don't forget, our summer Literary Lunch is coming up later this month. If you've never joined us. These are the bookshelves, quarterly virtual events designed to work around your literal or metaphorical lunch breaks. I discuss my favorite books of the upcoming season, and I do so with your readers decision fatigue in mind. Tickets are on sale now for our summer conversation. You can find them online at Bookshelfthomasville.com. Just click events or tap the link in our show notes. Don't forget too, as Olivia and I chat about these new titles, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about today, you can enter 'New release please' at checkout for 10% off your order. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com. Click or tap 'Podcast' then 'Shop from the front porch' to see today's tittles. Hi, Olivia.
Olivia [00:01:44] Hey.
Annie Jones [00:01:45] I know we used to do this weekly, which I cannot honestly begin to comprehend, but it feels like these monthly chats come along pretty quickly.
Olivia [00:01:55] They do.
Annie Jones [00:01:57] The months really are flying by, and I don't know what to do about it.
Olivia [00:02:01] I know I don't want to say this aloud, but I'm going to. But we're like almost halfway through 2022, which is crazy to me.
Annie Jones [00:02:10] It is crazy. I kept thinking, oh, end of the first quarter is coming up. I was like, no, we're done with first quarter.
Olivia [00:02:14] We finished that quarter.
Annie Jones [00:02:19] We finished it. It's over. We're well into quarter number two. Yeah. I don't know what it is. I think time is even weirder than usual after the -- I don't even know. It's not after the pandemic. The pandemic's not over. The pandemic's still here. Jordan started to talk to me about something about the pandemic the other day, and I said, "No, just tell me when or if I need to require masks again, that's all."
Olivia [00:02:45] I can't do it.
Annie Jones [00:02:48] I can't think about it. So, yeah, I think that has affected time. But you were the one last week who was like, "Oh, I'm reading in preparation for next week's podcast." And I thought, oh, what's next week's podcast? Tell me more. And then I realized, oh, it's the same episode that we record every month. I don't know why it's a surprise every month. How many books do you have today?
Olivia [00:03:09] I have eight, which I believe is the same number as you.
Annie Jones [00:03:12] Oh, okay. Good. Then we can just go back and forth. Do you want to start?
Olivia [00:03:16] I can start. I'd love to start. Let me go.
Annie Jones [00:03:18] Okay, great.
Olivia [00:03:25] Almost all of my books, weirdly, for this month -- actually, not that weirdly are out this past Tuesday, May 3rd. I really tried to read for the end of the month for this podcast and then realized release dates changed and I'm just reading for June. So it is what it is.
Annie Jones [00:03:43] That's okay. That's how I felt too. I was like, oh, I'm sure I've read a lot of these books because I've been prepping for Summer Lit Lunch.
Olivia [00:03:48] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:03:48] And then I looked and I was like, nope, I read for June and July.
Olivia [00:03:53] None of these are accurate dates.
Annie Jones [00:03:55] Great.
Olivia [00:03:56] Okay. But my first book I'm super excited about, it's called The Marvelous By Dhonielle Clayton. I say this knowing that this phrase has been said so many times, but I think this is the next best Harry Potter.
Annie Jones [00:04:14] Okay.
Olivia [00:04:16] And I genuinely mean that. I tore through the first one. It was so well done. But it is about a girl. Actually, I have to pick up the book because I don't remember her name. Ella Durand. And in this world there's two types of magical folk. There is the conjurors who can pull something out of nowhere. And then there are the Marvelous who all have specialties that they can focus on, but they can't just, like, create a coffee out of nothing. I sayed that and I showed you my coffee. But Ella Durand is the first conjuror child to go to this magical school. It's the first year that they're letting them integrate together. And so she's already very much exiled from the community and feels a little bit vulnerable going to school here. And then she gets this great roommate, Bridgette, who her magical powers is she goes into these like trances where she starts to knit these squares and their future predictions, which is super cool.
Annie Jones [00:05:26] Oh, that's cool.
Olivia [00:05:28] And then she has another best friend who, I don't think he can, talk to animals, but he can understand them, if that makes sense.
Annie Jones [00:05:36] Like Dr. Doolittle?
Olivia [00:05:38] Yeah, like Dr. Doolittle. What a throwback.
Annie Jones [00:05:44] You're welcome.
Olivia [00:05:46] Thank you. I might be watching that now. Also, this magic school is up in the sky. Like, all of the magical cities are up in the sky because they have such a bad history with conjurors and non magic world that they have just taken it to the skies, which is super cool.
Annie Jones [00:06:07] I like that.
Olivia [00:06:08] But while Ella's up there, there is an escape from a magical prison where this evil conjuror has just broken out, and now Ella is kind of looked at like is she a part of what's going on and what not. That starts the whole series. It's just so good. And it's so well done. And it's so inclusive to everyone's different ethnicities in the school. The way this author did this was so thoughtful. Also really fun if you're an adult reading this, because you can catch some of the other student names are like her favorite young adult and middle grade writers, which I really I love catching stuff like that. So I just couldn't get enough of it. Next best Harry Potter world in my opinion.
Annie Jones [00:06:52] Okay. So this is a kid's book and it's the first one.
Olivia [00:06:57] Yeah. This is middle grade and nothing scary happen, so I really think it's the same age group as Harry Potter.
Annie Jones [00:07:07] Okay. That does sound fun. I feel like we're always on the hunt for -- because we get so many kids who come into the store who are like, I read Harry Potter now what? And there's only so many times we can do Artemis Fowl or the Mysterious Benedict Society. I'm glad we have another option.
Olivia [00:07:23] Yeah. And this is a really good one. It was really entertaining.
Annie Jones [00:07:26] Okay. My first one is a book I feel like many of our customers and fellow readers will have already heard of, but I did want to mention it anyway. Also out this past Tuesday on May 3rd, Book Lovers by Emily Henry. So Emily Henry is the romcom author of Beach Read and the People We Meet on Vacation. Actually, I have not read book lovers. We did not receive ARCs of this. So I am waiting along with the rest of the reading community for this one because Beach Read is a book that I think caught a lot of people by surprise, including I think even the publisher. I think they knew it was a good romcom, but it wouldn't surprise me if publishers weren't quite sure which romantic comedy was going to take off, you know what I mean? And Beach Read came out, I want to say, peak pandy, like, May 2020. I will never forget Beach Read because I took it home to read because we were selling so many online. And neither you nor I had read it. We didn't know much about it, but it sold. I mean, really consistently. And we sold a lot of copies. And then we did the same thing with people we meet on vacation.
[00:08:36] So this is her third book, third romantic comedy. It already has a starred review from Kirkus, which is always a good sign, and I think pretty rare especially for this particular genre. It features Nora and Charlie. Emily Henry always has these characters involved in the literary world somehow or another. Like, I think people we meet on vacation, they were travel writers. So I do also like that, that these are books kind of set in the literary world. So Nora is a literary agent and Charlie is a book editor. They wind up both being in this small town at the same time, so you get the small town tropes. And then Nora also has an interesting relationship with her sister. And so the Kirkus Review especially talked a lot about how this is a romantic comedy, but it's also a sister story. And so if you like your romantic comedies to have a little bit of depth or if you need really interesting side characters, it sounds like this is going to deliver that. I really like her. I think she's consistent and reliable.
[00:09:30] I had the opportunity to interview her many -- it feels like many, many, months ago -- years ago for From the Front Porch like a bonus episode on Patreon. And I really liked her. I think she's really smart about the romantic comedy genre, and her books are definitely heavy on the romance, but there are comedic elements to her. I really enjoy these books too. So Book Lovers by Emily Henry came out this past Tuesday and it's a paperback original, which I also like.
Olivia [00:09:57] Awesome. Also in my head Beach Read came out in 2019 and then you said 2020 and I was like, man, did it again.
Annie Jones [00:10:05] It did, right? I'm not making that up.
Olivia [00:10:07] No, I think you're right. We sold a lot in the pandemic.
Annie Jones [00:10:09] I just remember because for so long until I think Caroline came back you and I were packaging all the orders. And I think at the time you were running register and I was packaging. And so I just remember wrapping that book -- like I had it down to a science. I was like Laura with shelf subscriptions. Like, I had it down to a science because we sold so many.
Olivia [00:10:31] That was at the point to where Tim, our UPS guy, was dropping off like three dollies full of books every day. And I would stand and I would separate them into Publisher and Ingram.
Annie Jones [00:10:42] Yes, that's right.
Olivia [00:10:43] One of or several of those Publisher boxes were just Beach Read.
Annie Jones [00:10:47] That's right.
Olivia [00:10:47] Beach Read. And then Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires.
Olivia [00:10:50] That's right.
Annie Jones [00:10:52] It would be fun to go back and look and see what were our bestsellers during peak pandemic and to kind of analyze because they were pretty different for our store. Also, God bless Tim. Honestly, there wasn't a big enough Christmas present for Tim, the U.P.S. man. He really was the only person at the time we were seeing other than our husbands.
Olivia [00:11:12] Yeah, he really was.
Annie Jones [00:11:14] He was part of the bookshelf team.
Olivia [00:11:16] And I would like to think that we made him smile and he made us smile. And that was maybe the only time that three of us would smile.
Annie Jones [00:11:25] Yeah. I hope he thinks as fondly of us as we do of him.
Olivia [00:11:31] Yeah. Okay. My next book is another middle grade fantasy novel that I did not read. This is a shout out to Dumbledore's army, Hannah, who talked about this book in our last meeting, and she just raved about it. And I realized it was coming out this month. So I want to give her little review. And she's awesome. [Inaudible] Wings of Fire, Warriors series. I think you could follow any of Hannah's recommendations and your child would love it. This is Skandar and the Unicorn Thief by A.F. Steadman. And this is out May 3rd, already out. So I'm just going to straight up read her review for everybody. Skandar and the Unicorn Thief is a great book for adventure and mystery lovers. It is about a boy who is invited to be a unicorn rider, something that all people dream of. Something goes wrong, though, and a mystery rider, an illegal rider, wreaks havoc in the world. Skandar needs to become a good rider of the unicorns who are murderous beasts and solve the mystery. So the unicorns are murderous beasts.
Annie Jones [00:12:40] Yeah. I get it.
Olivia [00:12:42] And he has to solve the mystery. I read that with the wrong inflection. She raved about this book. And she loves anything with dragons and mythological creatures. And this is the first in a series. I think it's -- I don't want to say this and be wrong, but I'm pretty sure it's one of [Inaudible] publishing imprints that's coming out.
Annie Jones [00:13:03] Okay. Looks fun.
Olivia [00:13:03] But it looks really good.
Annie Jones [00:13:04] I love a kid review because then you know it's legit. As much as I love your reviews, Olivia. No shame.
Olivia [00:13:12] I'm an adult reading kids books. Like, that is always something to keep in mind.
Annie Jones [00:13:16] Yes. There's something lovely about hearing it from the -- oh, I'm sorry. Children are not horses, but the horse's mouth.
Olivia [00:13:24] I mean, she was talking about a unicorn. Almost like --.
Annie Jones [00:13:30] I heard it from the unicorn's mouth. Okay. All right. Mine is a little less fun, but just as interesting. So out on May 10th, I wanted to include this because as I think many listeners know, I'm trying to read more Toni Morrison this year. So this new book is called Miss Chloe: A Memoir of a Literary Friendship With Toni Morrison. It's by AJ Verdelle. AJ Verdelle is an award winning author of the novel The Good Negress. And she is obviously younger writer than Toni Morrison. And they developed kind of this friendship because apparently Toni Morrison read The Good Negress and then unsolicited promoted it and talked a lot about it. But the publisher didn't ask her to do that. Because I didn't realize, but I guess perhaps Toni Morrison did not give freely of her blurbs or her promotions. And so it was a really big deal for her to laud this work. And so she and AJ Verdelle became friends. AJ Verdell is now a professor at a historically black college and university, and she has written this book kind of about the friendship and mentorship that she and Toni Morrison developed.
[00:14:45] She apparently does not shy away from spilling some tea. But she also speaks really highly of Toni Morrison and their relationship and the impact she had on her as an author. So I'm really curious about this one. It's like I said about Emily Henry's new novel. It also has a star review from Kirkus. This is nonfiction. I imagine you would appreciate it more if you were a reader of Toni Morrison. And so actually I got an ARC of this one and I'm saving it till the end of my year so that I can kind of read it as my reward for reading some Toni Morrison work this year. So it sounds really good. I'm always curious about writerly relationships and how writers sharpen one another and make each other better, and I think this is a case of that. So it is called Miss Chloe: a Memoir of Literary Friendship with Toni Morrison by AJ Verdelle. Out on May 10th. And it has a really beautiful cover as well.
Olivia [00:15:36] Okay. My next one is a young adult novel called The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson. And this is pretty much what it sounds like. The Agatha is about this girl who's obsessed with Agatha Christie. And then a mystery happens and she starts to figure it out. So it takes place in out on the West Coast. Somewhere in California is what the vibe was like. The main character, Alice Ogilve, which is a incredible name.
Annie Jones [00:16:07] Great name.
Olivia [00:16:08] She reminded me of the main character from Julie Buck's Bom's admission, where she comes from this very wealthy family, and she isn't always aware of how affluent she is. And so at first I was just like, oh, Alice, you're not my favorite.
Annie Jones [00:16:25] Yeah.
Olivia [00:16:26] But then this girl cooked up some gumption along the way, and I ended up really liking her because she was more self-aware than she does first let on. But Alice is not doing well at school. And the summer prior to this, she went away to Egypt with her parents, and while she was away, her best friend and her boyfriend got together.
Annie Jones [00:16:48] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:16:49] And so when Alice got back, she was so upset about this that she just pulled an Agatha Christie and disappeared for five days without telling anyone. And so she's kind of like the school's bad girl where she was popular, but now she's just this kind of, like, social outcast type. But then she's starting to fail classes. So she gets this tutor, Iris, who is from a poor neighborhood, like, has some trouble at home. But one night, Alice's best friend, the one who cheated with her boyfriend, goes missing. And Iris is the last person to have seen her. And so together, Alice and Iris team up to solve this mystery. It was so much fun.
Annie Jones [00:17:34] That's sounds fun.
Olivia [00:17:35] I love this book so much. And I think they're going to make it into a series where Alice and Iris go off and, like, solve more mysteries. But the characters were so well done. Oh, it was great. I loved it. It was very Agatha Christie to the way you slowly start to put pieces together and you're starting to pin down this one person that seems like a very obvious suspect. And then all of a sudden you're like, wait, what? It was so good.
Annie Jones [00:18:01] I think I might want to read that. That sounds really fun.
Olivia [00:18:03] It was really fun. And I was like, this is my true bookseller confession. I have attempted to read Agatha Christie novels and I always put them down and never pick them up. And it's so bad. My grandfather loved her. But any Agatha Christie type contemporary novel I absorb, I'm like obsessed with. But I don't know what it is. I know it's bad. I know it's wrong of me, but this one is so good if you like that kind of Agatha Christie murder mystery. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:18:37] Okay. My next one also comes out on May 10th. It is called Jameela Green Ruins Everything. This is by Zarqa Nawas. Look, every review I read of this talks about how zany and satirical this story is. So I do think you need to go in knowing this is a satire. Because there were several reviewers that I don't think enjoyed satire and maybe even were offended by some of it. And then some people were like, this is amazing. It's so satirical and funny. And so I think a lot of your enjoyment of this novel will depend on if you enjoy satire or not and if you enjoy kind of zany hijinx. So Jameela Greene is our main character. She has this deep desire to have her memoir. She's a writer, and she wants to write a memoir that will land on the New York Times bestseller lists. Like, that's her goal. And so she's tried everything and she finally decides to go to her local mosque and basically bargain with God to get on the New York Times bestseller list. And while she's there, her imam is taken by the CIA, and so she takes it upon herself. She thinks they've taken him kind of without cause and maybe they think he's a terrorist. And so she takes it upon herself to rescue her imam from the CIA.
[00:19:56] So in this way, I hadn't seen anybody make this comparison, but I immediately with the cover and then the description, it just sounded like Finlay Donovan a little bit like somebody who stumbles upon, but also through her own decision making winds up at the heart of this not good situation. And it's really kind of her fault, but also kind of not her fault. So Jameela sounds a little bit like she'd be friends with Finlay. They sound a little bit messy. The author is a TV producer. She wrote a show called Little Mosque on the Prairie. And so just that title alone, I feel like, gives you an idea of perhaps what of writing and what kind of storytelling you're going to get when you read. Jameela Green. So this sounds deeply funny and dark, definitely a satire on racial stereotyping, on perhaps religious stereotyping. It just sounds like the author Zarqa Nawaz is not afraid of maybe shedding some light on issues that we typically don't like to talk about, but doing so with a funny story. So it is Jameela Green Ruins Everything by Zarqa Nawaz. It is out on May 10th.
Olivia [00:21:12] I remember looking at that and thinking it sounded really good.
Annie Jones [00:21:16] It does sound really good. And the cover, like I said, the cover has like that Finlay Donovan Where'd you go Bernadette Vibe.
Olivia [00:21:22] Yeah, but also almost like comic book, like.
Annie Jones [00:21:25] Yes, yes.
Olivia [00:21:26] Like to.
Annie Jones [00:21:27] Like Miss Marvel a little bit.
Olivia [00:21:29] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:21:30] Yeah. And the more reviews I read, the more I realize how satirical it was, the more I thought, maybe I would really like this. So yeah, it does sound really good.
Olivia [00:21:38] Okay, my next one. And now I'm in the adult stage of my new release rundown, ground up rundown. We're running down.
Annie Jones [00:21:47] Front. We're running down, not rounding up.
Olivia [00:21:50] Why is that the hardest part of the story?
Annie Jones [00:21:54] I don't know. And I still never know what it is. Is it Rundown?
Olivia [00:21:58] I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:21:58] I think it's rundown like the remember in the office when Charles Miner is like, Jim, give me that rundown. And Jim is like hours later, what's a rundown? He's-.
Olivia [00:22:11] That was in the middle of the podcast.
Annie Jones [00:22:15] What's a rundown? Are we doing it? Did we do it right?
Olivia [00:22:20] My next one out May 3rd is Breathless by Amy McCulloch. This book is so good. This was about a journalist, Cecily, who is known for like she is a mountain climber, but she has never summited, meaning she's never reached of any mountain. This is the book that after I read it, I was like, I know so many mountaineering terms. It was like, I can practically climb a mountain right now. I would never survive.
Annie Jones [00:22:53] Serious face. I wish everybody been able to see that. One minute dying the next minute, to be clear, never.
Olivia [00:22:56] Listen, it's my ideal environment. There are no bugs. But I would never. Nope. So Cecily wrote an article about herself. She has failed to, like, summit every single mountain. And now she gets this opportunity through the newspaper or magazine that she works for, where she gets to interview like the biggest, like most well-known mountaineer. And he is going to go summit like this crazy mountain. And he wants her to interview him. But his condition is that she can only start the interview and have the entire interview once they both summit the mountain.
Annie Jones [00:23:34] Oh, wow.
Olivia [00:23:35] She has to make it to the top. And as she does as thrillers do people do start dying. Still want to do. But it was so well done like. This was so accurate. About how to actually climb a mountain. Like I was looking up stuff because I was like, does it really take this long? It does in fact take this long. And the the author, Amy, knew this because she also climbs mountains. In fact, she climbed the mountain Manaslu, which is the mountain that they climb in this book. I then immediately upon finishing this book, watched the documentary 14 Peaks, which was incredible. I highly recommend everyone to watch that documentary because again, you'll walk away feeling like you can climb a mountain, but knowing that you shouldn't. I thought that was incredible. And then I realized that like the main guy in 14 peaks, like who they're following, actually blurbed this book and how. So I was just like, look at that. It was meant to be.
Annie Jones [00:24:40] Yeah.
Olivia [00:24:40] But it's really, really good if you like someone who is like a professional in what they do but also great at writing this is that book kind of like Violent Conspiracy.
Annie Jones [00:24:51] Yeah. Do I need to read this?
Olivia [00:24:54] I mean, it would be a fast read. If you're looking for a thriller.
Annie Jones [00:24:56] I think I'd like it. My brother's a mountain climber.
Olivia [00:24:59] I did not know that.
Annie Jones [00:25:00] Yeah. He finally stopped doing, like, no strings attached. Free soloing. He stopped.
Olivia [00:25:10] Why is this not live forever? But it's-
Annie Jones [00:25:15] Me doing, like, insane.
Olivia [00:25:17] Dance. Inspired, no strings attached everywhere. Yeah. No, I did know that term when I was reading this book, but now I can't tell you that term.
Annie Jones [00:25:28] I think it's free soloing where you don't use any paraphernalia.
Olivia [00:25:33] That's the name of the documentary.
Annie Jones [00:25:34] Yes, but he's a free solo work. But he does it.
Olivia [00:25:37] Maybe. I think you're probably right.
Annie Jones [00:25:39] I don't know. Anyway, my point is, maybe my brother would love me even more if I read this book.
Olivia [00:25:47] Or maybe you should get this book for your brother.
Annie Jones [00:25:49] Yeah, maybe so. I would like to read it. It just sounds like the right combination of really good fiction, suspenseful storytelling, but also nonfiction expertize, which I appreciate.
Olivia [00:26:00] Yes, I do too. I love a good, realistic thriller. And this was exactly that.
Annie Jones [00:26:06] And somebody that's done their research, done their due diligence.
Olivia [00:26:09] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:26:10] Okay. My next one is a book that I have read called Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance. This is by Alison Espach. And I loved this book. Now, Alison Espach wrote a book called The Adults, which I think was like an indie next pick, maybe. I know I had seen it, though it's not one that we sold a ton of. However, I think we will see a lot of this one. So the book is about Kathy and Sally, and it's narrated and told from Sally's point of view. So it's all told from Sally, the younger sisters perspective, and it's also told from her perspective as an adult. The narration actually is really interesting and one of my favorite parts of the book. So Sally is looking back on her childhood with Kathy, and they were sisters raised in the early nineties and the book kind of spans a couple of decades and something happened. I really don't want to spoil things because I really think the less you know, the better this book might be.
[00:27:04] But the family experience is a tragedy and it completely changes the trajectory of Sally's life. And I think publishers might try the cover doesn't say this like the cover doesn't lend itself to this, but I think some publishers or publisher reps might try to sell this one as like a romance. And that is not what is happening here. To me, this is very much a sister story. It's really about Sally and Kathy. But at the kind of on the other side of the triangle is a guy named Billy. And Billy is like this stereotypical 90s heartthrob who dates Kathy. And the moment that Kathy and Billy start dating, all the names are so perfect. The moment that Kathy and Billy start dating like Sally finds herself a little bit outside her relationship with her sister. Like her sister is getting older. That's kind of where that line at the top of the episode came from where her sister is getting a little bit older and so Sally feels left out.
[00:28:00] But she's also enamored with Billy, like she really loves him and idolizes him. And so anyway, all of the characters are so deeply drawn and interesting. Aaron, just read this one and loved it. She gave it her stamp of approval. So I'm not the only one who really, really loves this one. It comes out on May 17th. And to me, it is for fans of Celesting not just little fires everywhere, but Everything I Never Told You is actually the comp to me that it reminded me most of. So if you like Celesting and you like family dramas and you're okay with sadness, then I think you will really like this book. It's called Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Allison Espach.
Olivia [00:28:40] I'm a good sister story like that one. Especially from an adult younger sister.
Annie Jones [00:28:46] Yes. Look. And I don't have a sister, but so much of their dynamic felt really real. Like the way that Sally idolized Cathy and the way that Cathy kind of loomed large in her life and how she and Cathy started off so very close. And then as Cathy starts to get older, the divide grows larger. I thought it was so I thought that part was so, so well done.
Olivia [00:29:09] Well, I might have just added to my TBR list. My next one I'm pretty excited about. It's called The Change by Kristin Miller. And this is again it was out on May 3rd. I'm almost done with those May 3rd releases everywhere.
Annie Jones [00:29:23] Look. This first Tuesday of every month is a big release day.
Olivia [00:29:26] It really is. And this is about these three women who live in Long Island, New York, or Staten Island. No, I think it was Long Island, one of the islands in New York. And these three women, as they hit menopause, get these like witch like gifts to them. So like the one lady can grow these like super poisonous plants. Another lady has like these like fire powers, and then another woman can see ghosts and dead people. And so together they like team up because there is this string of murders that they've started connecting in their town. And it's all been hushed up by the police and they are done with it.
Annie Jones [00:30:09] They are not having it.
Olivia [00:30:10] They are not having it. Which and so I love this book because right off the bat, it's like the author did such a good job of setting the tone of like what it's like to live in this community in Long Island, where, you know this is about three women who hit menopause and get these witch like powers. But it all starts with references of their husband and their relationship to their husband. So like you meet them through each of their husbands or their spouses, which I thought was super interesting because then you start to get to know them and their spouses are like never mentioned again.
Annie Jones [00:30:45] Okay. And we get to know them.
Olivia [00:30:47] There is one good husband, but he is mentioned again, but like nobody else is just like because their whole lives they were the wife of so. Like that's how they were known. So that's how you meet them and then you realize how strong they are on their own. I think this is perfect for the people who loved a Southern Book Club Guide to Slay Vampires, but the people who didn't think that they would like that book and then picked it up and loved it. That's who going to love this book. Like I think those people who went into Southern Book Clubs Guide one thing that like quirkiness, you'll still like this book, but those people that were like, I don't know. And then Victor were like, that was pretty good. You're going to love this book.
Annie Jones [00:31:26] Okay, that's good to know because I saw this author interviewed in one of those like book preview sessions and she was fascinating. Like, she you can tell why she wanted to write this book. I think she herself was either experiencing perimenopause or menopause. And she was like, nobody talks about this. Nobody writes about this. Nobody talks about what your body does. And everybody actually has something to be ashamed of and it's not. And so she comes at it from kind of this perspective, and it sounded interesting. But then I wasn't sure if I would like the witchy elements of it all, but I loved Southern Vampires. So then book clubs. What is it?
Olivia [00:32:02] Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampires.
Annie Jones [00:32:04] I loved that book, but I was one of those people who was very surprised by it. Like I picked it up. I don't even know why I picked it up now that I think about it.
Olivia [00:32:11] Yeah, well, it's like their powers are short, they're important to the story, but it's also just like their redemption of getting their lives back that were owned by their husbands for so long. Like, and I loved that part of it, like, seeing their comeuppance happen.
Annie Jones [00:32:29] And you're right, a lot of those women in Southern Book Clubs Guide have similar issues. Yeah, yeah.
Olivia [00:32:34] But this the northern version of that story.
Annie Jones [00:32:38] Okay. All right.
Olivia [00:32:39] Yeah, it was really good.
Annie Jones [00:32:41] Dang it.
Olivia [00:32:42] I know.
Annie Jones [00:32:43] Dang it. Well, did we did we wait? Do we have an ARC of that?
Olivia [00:32:48] We did. I think Esmie is reading it right now.
Annie Jones [00:32:51] I'll borrow it from her. My next one is another book that I feel like most people or many people will have heard of already. But it is this time tomorrow. It's by Emma Straub. It's out on May 17th. I am so bummed and a little bit better that I did not get an ARC of this book, and so I'm just going to put that into the universe and now I'm going to be over it. Okay. So-
Olivia [00:33:12] I cant' believe you didn't get an ARC of that book.
Annie Jones [00:33:14] I can't either. You know, to be fair, you know what I think it is. Remember our wonderful penguin rep?
Olivia [00:33:20] Yes. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:33:22] Virginia got promoted, and I got another wonderful penguin rep named omar but there was a dead area. There was a span of time where we were just a little bit without a rep. And so I think, honestly, that's when this happened where I really didn't have anybody to request airspace from. So I think that's what it is. So I forgive them. It's fine. And so you know what I did, though, because I was feeling sorry for myself one day. I special ordered this from books are magic instead of buying it for my own bookstore. Because I was just feeling sorry for myself and I was like, I'll just order a book.
Olivia [00:33:56] I am a little excited.
Annie Jones [00:34:00] Retail therapy for bookstore owners. I'll just buy this from another bookstore. I love Emma Straub. I love her books. They're very much. If you read Amy Poppel or Katherine Heiny like these are, in my opinion, pretty feel good books about complicated, dysfunctional families. But as I think Kate Storhoff has helped me discover, there's a difference between like a dysfunctional family book and then a dysfunctional family that loves each other. And so I think Emma Straub does a really good job of writing about dysfunctional families that love each other. And this new book, to me, based on the description, sounds very much like it could be Emma Straub's most personal book. So it's very much a father daughter story. The main character is about to celebrate her 40th birthday, and I think she's looking around her and she's kind of, making observations on how her life has changed or who she's become. And she's especially noticing her aging parents, particularly her aging dad. And the morning I think of her 40th birthday, she wakes up and she's 16 again. So it feels like it's going to be like Freaky Friday or.
Olivia [00:35:10] 13 going on 30.
Annie Jones [00:35:12] Yeah, 13 going 30 about time. Like books kind of they're a little bit about time travel, but they're really not. They're really about figuring out who you are and figuring out who your parents were as people. And so she wakes up and she realizes she's 16, but the first thing that strikes her isn't her 16 year old self. And like celebrating that instead she realizes, my dad was really interesting and cool and young and I didn't really know him when I was 16. And I just think this whole thing sounds so weirdly moving. And I think Emma Straub just celebrated her 40th birthday. Like, I'm pretty sure I saw that on Instagram. And I know her dad was perhaps in the hospital during the pandemic. So I think this book perhaps comes from a really personal place. I have a very close relationship with my parents and I oh God, I can't believe I'm saying this. I'm approaching 40. It's terrifying. So I'm not there yet. Jordan is always like you're not 40. But I'm 36. Forty is there. It's right there. And so anyway, I justI think I might really like this book, I suspect. I don't know. Are you noticing this? I think there is a trend and maybe it's the age, the average author's age, a lot of books set in the nineties. Is this true for you as well? A lot of-
Olivia [00:36:34] I've been noticing that as well.
Annie Jones [00:36:36] Yes, a lot of books I'm reading are set in the nineties because there are elements of, of notes on your sudden disappearance that are in the nineties this time tomorrow. There's a book coming out later this summer anyway. So there's something I think nostalgic about that, but it is called This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub out on May 17th. And if you haven't read Emma Straub's backlist titles, I would highly recommend them. They're great summer reading. I'm looking at one literally right now. It's called The Vacationers. It's, I think one of my favorites of her. So I highly recommend her backlist as well.
Olivia [00:37:05] Okay. My next one is Disappeared by Bonner Spring. This one's the last one that I will talk about that's out on May 3rd. It was out on the 3rd, but this was a really good story. Again, another sister story. But I don't know that the sister dynamic was the main part of this story. I will warn people. I think the main part of this story was the Moroccan setting, which was vivid and beautiful. But this is about two sisters who they always go on these faraway vacations together. It's like their yearly ritual. And this time the younger sister pushes for Morocco and like the very one of the first or second nights, they're there she leaves her sister a note. She's like, I have to go run an errand for my husband. I'll be back by tomorrow morning, but then she's not back by tomorrow morning. And so her older sister kind of has to piece together what's going on and find her younger sister. This is one of those that's like it is a very slow moving snowball at first. But I kid you not that last 20 pages. You are like. You can't put it down. It speeds up really fast at the ending in the best way possible. Like I'm not saying that in any sort of bad way because the setting is so beautiful and you do want to sit with that while you can, because I've never been to Morocco and now I feel like I kind of maybe have been a little bit.
Annie Jones [00:38:27] Okay.
Olivia [00:38:29] Yeah, it was really well done. The set, it was so, so well done. But it was also just a really fun mystery thriller ride with these two sisters finding each other again in Morocco.
Annie Jones [00:38:41] That sounds good. Okay, my next one, I imagine it will be a Susie approved book. She's not read it yet, but I think she will really like it. It is called Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner. This is out on May 17th. Natalie Jenner is the author of The Jane Austen Society, which I really enjoyed. And I say that with a note of surprise in my voice because it's not a book I would have normally picked up. I'm honestly not even sure why I picked it up, except maybe for the Jane Austen of it all. I don't know, but I read it and really liked it. And then I read the description of this and thought, maybe I'm going to pick this one up too. So this is set in post-World War II, London. It's around the 1950s. And there's a rare books, but also I think they just sold like used books. It's a little bookstore in London called Bloomsbury Books, and it's male owned and operated. But the world is changing. It's 1950 and the world is changing. Men have been off to war and women have held down the home front and the women that work at Bloomsbury books are ready to make some changes so that they can ensure the legacy and the sustainability of Bloomsbury Books.
[00:39:52] So it really revolves around much like Natalie Jenner's other book, The Jane Austen Society, which revolved around a group of people striving to save Jane Austen's legacy. And it was kind of loosely based on true events that led to Jane Austen's legacy and her home still being protected in England. Bloomsbury Books is about three women who are trying to save and run and maintain Bloomsbury Books, and the three characters just sound really interesting and really lovely. They all kind of are, they're all very different in terms of how they survived the war and their romantic relationships. They all are kind of coming from a different place. And yet they also sound a little bit like the women you were talking about in the change, where they're used to being described in certain ways and they're realizing that they have skills and gifts and things that they can add and contribute in their own rights. And so anyway, I thought this one sounded really lovely. I really liked the Jane Austen Society. I thought it was a very pleasant read, like just a book that kind of I enjoyed sitting with for a bit. I really loved the the British setting it is this new one is called Bloomsbury Girls it's by Natalie Jenner and it's out on May 17th.
Olivia [00:41:03] Do you think that bookstore had anything to do with the Bloomsbury publishing imprint?
Annie Jones [00:41:08] Did it?
Olivia [00:41:10] I wonder?
Annie Jones [00:41:11] Maybe it did. Wouldn't that be lovely? Because I know Jane Austen Society was loosely based on a true story. So maybe this one is too.
Olivia [00:41:18] I would bet so.
Annie Jones [00:41:19] Yeah. In true state.
Olivia [00:41:22] How many in Bloomsbury could be in the book world, you know.
Annie Jones [00:41:23] And it's spelled the same. It's spelled the same.
Olivia [00:41:25] I'm going to Google that after. My next book is out May 10th and this is called Geiger by. I can say the first name and the last name. I'm so sorry. I did not have time to look up but it's Gustaf Skorderman I'm going to go with and this is about okay it has a really great press right off the bat and I'm like, I will warn people. I think I'm like 50, 60 percent of the way through. And I can say that with some some shortness because I'm reading it on my e-reader. So it tells me the percentages the way through. But this is about a family they live in. I forget. So I'm not even going to go there. But it's in Europe, Western Europe. But they're like all together for like this cute little Sunday lunch date. And then the two daughters leave and it's just the mom and the dad and they're like settling down for the evening.
[00:42:16] And they get a phone call right as soon as their second daughter leaves and the mother picks it up. And all that said over the phone, it's just Geiger. And she hangs up the phone, she goes over to her husband, shoots him in the head, and leaves. What? Yeah, I know. So that got me right off the hook. I was like, but why? And then without giving away too many spoilers at all, you do start realizing there's some like a Cold War spy situation happening, but I can't tell who the real spy is and why she's killed her husband. And I am like over halfway through the book, and this mystery is still lingering. But you have these two detectives come in and they went to like police school together, but now live in like different communities. So they police separate areas. But the one girl grew up with the two siblings. So you start to learn like a little bit about the family history too. And that like, I don't know, things might not have always been how they seemed and whatnot, but great start to a book, I will say.
Annie Jones [00:43:24] Dang, Olivia, I'm going to read this one too.That sounds so good.
Olivia [00:43:28] So sorry. I can do a vivid recap for you if you'd like to.
Annie Jones [00:43:34] I just. I'm so intrigued by the beginning. And what is it about Scandinavian novelists? They really know what's up.
Olivia [00:43:40] I know what you mean. And they do such a good job of just like, inserting small details where you didn't realize you needed them to create a full picture. I don't know how to word that any better, but I'm just like, I can vividly picture every scene in this book, and it's still concise. Writing is verbose.
Annie Jones [00:44:01] No, it's so sparse. Yeah.
Olivia [00:44:03] Yeah. Yeah. So it's really good so far. Enjoying it?
Annie Jones [00:44:08] My next one has changed release dates a couple of times, but I assumed this is final. It is, You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. What a title. I'm going to read it again. Because You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty. It's by Akwaeke Emezi. They wrote the book that I loved. Gosh, I guess it was 2020 now. The death of Vivek Oji. But they've also written several books. It's really honestly astounding to me how many books they've written Pet Fresh Water. There are many more. They're just relentless in publishing. Yeah, in publishing books. And the other thing is, they publish these books and they're all across genres. So this new one is a romance novel, and it's about a woman named Fay who has lost her husband. He died five years ago in an accident, and she's officially kind of ready to reenter the dating world. And the book opens with her, like, in a club. And she's experiencing a romantic encounter. And it's like the first romantic encounter she's had since her husband's death.
[00:45:14] Then we realize she also runs her own art gallery with her friend Joy, this guy that she's kind of interested in, that she meets at this club. He invites her into this world of, like, art and yachts and galleries. And then she finds herself attracted to a different man who I think potentially I've read part of this book. I've not read the whole book, who I think may be related to the guy who she found at the bar who kind of interacted with at the bar. So it to me sounds like a love story with a really rich, opulent setting. And almost wondered if it might be for fans. Remember the book? I read it last year, I think called Seven Days in June. That was I loved that book. It was very much a romance novel. But I love the characters and I really did like the love story. And so I'm wondering if fans of Seven Days in June might like this one, but it is so different from what Akwaeke Emezi has written before. So I think that's what's so great is I love Death of [Inaudible]. This will be totally different from that. But the writing is still really great because you can trust them as a writer. So this is called You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by a Akweake Emezi out on May 24th.
Olivia [00:46:30] I don't even really read romance, but honestly, just that title alone.
Annie Jones [00:46:33] Right. Isn't it so good?
Olivia [00:46:36] If that alone would just, like, prove how great their writing is. If you can create that title.
Annie Jones [00:46:42] Yeah. So poetic.
Olivia [00:46:44] Yeah. Okay, my last one. I'm going to throw this out for the Grady Hendricks fans of the podcast, but this is Hide by Kiersten White and this is out May 24th and this has an amazing cover. First off, it's just all yellow and then it's like the silhouette of this broken down amusement park. But this is about essentially this hide and seek game that takes place at this abandoned amusement park that if you win, you get $50,000 and you go through and you get to meet all the contestants who are doing this because it's like their first time, their trial run of doing this game to see if it'll work. Maybe even for fans of like if people read Reprieve, that book, that I can't name the author of right now.
Annie Jones [00:47:33] Watch Hunger Games.
Olivia [00:47:34] Yeah, I could see hunger. For sure. Hunger. That was a much better reference, Annie.
Annie Jones [00:47:39] Thank you.
Olivia [00:47:42] Again, that was one of the YA series that I weirdly missed.
Annie Jones [00:47:46] Yeah.
Olivia [00:47:47] Hunger Games. Yeah. Okay. But this is about this girl who she has grown up in, like, poverty, because her family faced like, a very dark trauma when she was young. And so ever since then, she's just been kind of running from that trauma. And then at this homeless shelter that she always goes to sleep at, one of the counselors there is just like, hey, just, this game is happening you win $50,000. I think she might be good at it for reasons that become very obvious as you get through the story when you start learning about her past. But it was so well done because it's like every day two contestants get out, but they never. And there's a camp that they go to every night because during the day they have to stay completely hidden. And only at night when those floodlights come back on can they go to the camp and like refresh and get again and whatnot. But as soon as the two contestants are found, they never get to go back to the campsite to collect any belongings. They're just escorted out of the park. Weird things start happening and people start getting skeptical and people start turning on each other and making claims. It was very, very good. I flew through it just because of the premise was so fun.
Annie Jones [00:48:57] Yes, that does sound really good.
Olivia [00:49:00] Yeah. It was great.
Annie Jones [00:49:02] All of yours have sounded good. Now I'm looking at your list, trying to figure out what I want to try. Okay. My last one is called The Golden Season is by Madeline K Sneed. This comes out on May 31st. I have a copy of this ARC and I'm going to read it because I just love the premise so much. So again, I know I talked about Emma's Jobs book being a father daughter story, but this one sounds like one as well. So Emmy is one of our main characters. She comes out as a lesbian to her dad. Her dad's name is Steve. They live in a small town in Texas, very conservative Christian. And Steve, at the same time his daughter comes out to him, is also trying to become head coach of the local high school football team. And so he's under a lot of scrutiny going through kind of the hiring process.
[00:49:49] And so he wants Emmy to keep her sexuality a secret. And in the meantime, Emmy also maybe is tentatively falling in love with a young woman who has moved to Texas, I want to say, from, like Massachusetts, maybe somewhere in the northeast. And she kind turns her nose up at Texas. But Emmy loves where she's from. And so, like the tagline, which I know publishers write this, but the tagline is what got me, because it was like, how do you love a place that doesn't love you back? And I was like, so beautiful. And so I just am so intrigued by this kind of Friday Night Lights situation where it's small town Texas football, but it's really about Amy and her dad and them coming to terms with one another. The author is a grad from Baylor University, so Christian College in Texas. And that makes me think she's pretty familiar with her subject matter and probably is a voice we can trust on this kind of subject. And so, I don't know. I'm very curious about it. The setting sounds like something I would love, and I love books that deal with faith in a complicated way, and this sounds like it's going to do that. So it is called The Golden Season by Madeline K Sneed out on May 31st. That's it.
Olivia [00:51:09] May's got some good books.
Annie Jones [00:51:10] It really does. And books I have not fully read. Like I said, I was reading a lot accidentally, I think, for June. And so I think a lot of May books are going to be a fun surprise for me.
Olivia [00:51:21] I think so too.
Annie Jones [00:51:22] As a reminder, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talked about today, you can enter "New release please" at checkout for 10% off your order. You just need to go to Bookshelf thomasville.com, Click or Tap Podcast, then "Shop From The Front Porch" to see all of today's titles. This week I'm reading The Bridesmaids Union by Jonathan Vatner. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:51:46] Too many books at once. But The Measure by Nikki Erlick.
Olivia [00:51:51] 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.
[00:52:12] 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.
[00:52:21] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler, Angie Ericson, Cami Tidwell. Sean Tall Carl's,.
Executive Producers (Read their own names) [00:52:28] Nicole Marcy, Wendy Jenkins, Laurie Johnson. Kate Johnston Tucker.
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