Episode 384 || August New Release Rundown

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie and Olivia are back for another New Release Rundown. They’re sharing the August releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR list.

Don’t forget, if you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, you can enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10 percent off your order.

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:

Annie’s list:

Olivia's list:

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 listening to Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Olivia is reading The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart.

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, 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.  

[00:00:25] "Dorothy remembered what Dr. Shedhorn had said about score cards and echoes. How each generation is built upon the genetic ruins of the past, that our lives are merely biological waypoints. We're not individual flowers. Annuals that bloom and then die. We're perennials. A part of us comes back each new season, carrying a bit of the genius of the previous floret." Jamie Ford, The Many Daughters of Afong Moy.  

[00:00:59] I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, we're hosting another new release roundup with retail floor manager Olivia Schaffer.  

[00:01:10] The From The Front Porch Book Club meets this month. Earlier this year, we added new levels of support over on Patreon, and for $20 a month, you'll become a Book Club Companion. This Patreon level includes all the benefits of our $5 tier plus access to our quarterly soon to be bi-monthly book club. I'm hosting our conversation in August about S.J. Houser's essay collection, The Crane Wife, and in September, Olivia will be hosting a conversation about Margarita Mont Moore's Acts of Violet. Both books were selections in our Shelf Subscription program and can be found in our online store at bookshelf.thomasville.com. Become a $20 Patreon supporter to join both book club conversations. We would love to have you just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. Hi, Olivia.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:02:00] Hey.  

Annie Jones [00:02:01] How are we? We're great.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:02:03] Everything's going really well.  

Annie Jones [00:02:04] We're great. Remember, I am getting flashbacks. I don't know if you are, too. This month has made me feel like, remember the pandemic and how stressful that was? Remember? Remember when we would record news Tuesday episodes and just be shells of ourselves?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:02:24] And I hate to tell you, but I'm pretty sure we're still in a pandemic.  

Annie Jones [00:02:27] No, we definitely are. I went to the movies last night. Like, that was my. I think Erin posted on Instagram that she coped by, like, cooking her family dinner, and I coped by sending myself to the movies with Ashley. And I walked into the movie theater and I was like, this is a lot of people. Because it turns out in Tallahassee, they do something called $5 Tuesdays, and man, I put a mask on so fast, I was like, this was not what I was anticipating. I took it off in the theater, but I thought, I guess we're still doing this. I guess we still could get sick.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:03:08] Can I give you my hot take on movie theaters?  

Annie Jones [00:03:11] Yes. You and I. This would not shock me if this is a place where Annie and Olivia diverge. I am very romantic about my ideas about movie theaters, but please tell me yours.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:03:22] But I hate to possibly burst any bubbles, but we went to go see Where The Crawdads Sing.  

Annie Jones [00:03:29] Yes.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:03:29] And that was the first time I had been in a movie theater since Cats came out in. I don't know what year that was.  

Annie Jones [00:03:37] I think it was 2019, but could have been 2018. I don't know.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:03:41] And maybe I should not have admitted the name of that movie. But that's okay. And I'm sitting there thinking like, wow, as an introvert, there is no appeal to this for me, sitting in a dark room with a bunch of strangers watching a movie. Like especially When The Crawdads where, like, you have the possibility of getting emotional if you wanted to.  

Annie Jones [00:04:07] Sure.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:04:09] I was just like, this is. No, I don't want to do this, it was a great movie, but like I learned that I don't think I need to go to movie theaters.  

Annie Jones [00:04:21] The movie theater experience is not for you. I would love I need Jordan to analyze this because I am highly introverted as well. I love a movie theater experience. Like I love sitting in a dark theater. I don't love sitting next to people who I don't know. So like a full theater is maybe a different situation. But I generally speaking, love I love air conditioning, potentially having to wear a sweater. I love popcorn. I love a Coke. I love laughing with other people.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:04:58] All that you can do at home. Like laughing with other people.  

Annie Jones [00:05:01] Yeah, there is a communal aspect that I do really like, which may be surprising for an introvert. I'm going to get Jordan to research this. I do have questions because I don't think you're the only introvert that feels this way.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:05:13] It's the communal aspect that I am not feeling at all. I don't want to feel emotions with other people.  

Annie Jones [00:05:20] I get that, I am generally now in my older age. I am different, but I am not generally a movie crier. The exception to that was Little Women in 2019, and thank goodness I was with Ashley Sherlock. I wept like a child and like that is very roles reversed. Ashley cries at everything and I typically cry at nothing, and she looked at me and she was like, are you okay? And I was like, clearly not. Clearly, I am not okay, and I was like still.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:05:51] Looked okay.  

Annie Jones [00:05:51] Yeah. I was still weeping. That's the thing. Normally a movie has an emotional arc, and then there's, like, more scenes, and then it ends, so you have time to recover. But I cried the most at the end of Little Women because her book is being published. I could cry just thinking about it. And I just was weeping, and the lights went up and I was like, not ready for that. Like, I needed to stay. I needed to stay dark during at least a little portion of the credits so that I can, like, ease back into real life. I don't know. I think that's what I like about a movie theater experience. Is it feel. I thought about this last night. It's the only place aside for me from, like, church where I don't have my phone on. Like, I am not Annie B. Jones. Like, I just get to be a person at a theater. Nobody's paying attention to me. I get to be anonymous. It is dark. It feels otherworldly. I'm starting to sound like Nicole Kidman, and I don't know if you've seen. Actually, I know you haven't. When you go to AMC Theaters, Nicole Kidman comes on screen and she, like, introduces you to the movie theater experience and tells you how special and magical it is, and that's what I feel like I'm trying to do.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:01] I hadn't what? I swear. I was just great. But what?  

Annie Jones [00:07:07] I don't know. It really doesn't make any sense.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:10] No.  

Annie Jones [00:07:11] Yeah.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:11] I think it's also that I am just too aware of the people next to me and then I'm just like, am I laughing at the right moment? Am I. Like have you looked at my face during this scene? And I'm just kind of like, what? I'm like.  

Annie Jones [00:07:28] That's true. That is-- 

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:28] Aware of what's happening around me.  

[00:07:30] Yeah. You can't get lost in it.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:33] Yes.  

Annie Jones [00:07:34] Isn't? Correct me if I'm wrong, because I could be. Isn't that true of you generally?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:39] Like, I just absolutely.  

Annie Jones [00:07:42] I feel like even I think you have said before, you don't really love watching movies in general.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:07:47] I don't. I really don't. They're just acting. They're so long, and honestly, I feel they're even the best of them are so predictable. Like the arcs and how they go. Yeah. It's hard for me. No, actually, it's not hard for me. It's hard for Walt. My husband who loves movies?  

[00:08:11] Yeah. See, and Walt. Does Walt like going to the movie theater?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:08:17] I don't know. I'd have to ask him.  

Annie Jones [00:08:19] Please ask him so I can give Jordan the appropriate number of data points. I just feel like I.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:08:25] All mean.  

Annie Jones [00:08:27] Just Im like. I would be so curious because Walt and I are similar personalities. I love movies. I would love to go to the movies. I love to go to the movies. I'd be curious if he also does or if he is highly introverted and is like, no, that's not for me. I'd rather watch it at home.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:08:43] Well, now I'm getting extremely self-conscious. Like, what if Walt does love going to the movie theater, but we just avoid it because I hate it.  

Annie Jones [00:08:50] That would be true love, Olivia. That's what love would look like. Lucky you.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:08:59] Because I want to know.  

Annie Jones [00:09:02] Well, shall we talk about books?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:09:04] Yeah. Those [Inaudible] conversation. Movie theaters.  

Annie Jones [00:09:08] That's what new release Tuesday used to be. You're welcome, everyone. Look, the truth is, there are a lot of books coming out in August, and I did not look at your list, but mine are almost all and I tried hard, but all of mine, except for one, I think come out on August 2nd. So they are already released when this episode releases.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:09:27] Yeah. A lot of mine come out in the beginning, mine are like all in the beginning and then all at the very end.  

Annie Jones [00:09:34] Yeah, there are a couple at the very end. I wonder if that's because there's a Labor Day holiday situation and if that affects publishing at all. Well, since we have the same amounts, I'll go ahead and dove into my first book, which is A Curious Faith. This is by Lore Ferguson Wilbert. I have followed Lore on the Internet for some time. She is @lorewilbert on Instagram and I loved her book Handle with Care. So Handle With Care was a book that came out in 2020, early 2020, and it was all about and this is going to sound weird, but I promise it wasn't. It was all about touch and kind of how touch and tenderness work. And I, as an enneagram five, don't love touch or feel touched. And so it was really interesting because she looked at touch as like spiritual care and then also the ways in which touch has been abused. And so it was really interesting that that was a fascinating book. It was also interesting because it came out right before a pandemic like I think the book released in February. And then there was a pandemic where we isolated and quarantined and we didn't touch each other and we didn't hold hands or hug or whatever. And so I weirdly find that book to be super poignant looking back on it.  

[00:10:51] But I think it is a lovely book if you are a religious person and particularly, yes, a Christian person. But it's just an interesting look at spiritual practice. Her new book, A Curious Faith, is being released, I believe, as a paperback. And so it's paperback, religious nonfiction, and this is looking at curiosity as a spiritual habit. So Handle with Care more about touch. A Curious Faith is about curiosity. The older I get, the more I realize what a large role curiosity plays in my own faith and the questions I ask and how those questions, when I asked them as a teenager were sometimes frowned upon. And now as an adult, the comfort I find in questions. And so I'm very much looking forward to this book. I love Lore's style of writing. I think it is very accessible and very gracious and tender and kind. I'm very looking forward to this. This is a book that I have preordered and I will be reading the week it comes out, I believe. So if you are a spiritually minded person, a religious person. Although I do think her books are accessible enough, even if those are not interest of yours, or even if you are not somebody who practices faith regularly. So that is A curious Faith by Lore Ferguson Wilbert came out on Tuesday.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:12:06] My first book is Wrong Place, Wrong Time. This is out. Wait.  

Annie Jones [00:12:15] This book came out this week.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:12:17] This book came out this week. I was in my head trying to do dates.  

Annie Jones [00:12:22] It's doing the math.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:12:23] It's not the kind of math I'm good at. This is Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. It was such a good thriller. I need more people to read this book so we can talk all about it because it had so many great plot twists, like some that I definitely saw coming, but then other ones that I literally had to sit down the book. I was like, [Inaudible]. It starts out with this mom and it's like late at night, maybe like midnight, almost 1 a.m.. And she's waiting up for her teenage son to come home. I told Erin at the beginning of this or no. Who was I talking to?  

Annie Jones [00:12:58] Me. I was like, you were talking to me. You also told me this.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:13:02] No, I was talking to Holly she was like, yes, I've been there. I was like, but wait.  

Annie Jones [00:13:09] But wait. Have you really, Holly? Wait until you hear this.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:13:11] So the mom watches her son walk up the driveway and this guy steps out from the corner like this grown man. And she watches her son stab this grown man and ends up killing him, and so the cops come, they take the son to jail and they're just like, hey, come back in the morning with a lawyer. So her and her husband are both very frantic about what's going on. But they go home and they figure out somehow how to fall asleep. And then she wakes up and it's the day before everything has happened, and she remembers what her son did, but no one else. Her husband forgot. Her son forgot. Like they just know that it is the day before, but they think it's just that day. She knows it's the day before the event. And so every day she wakes up, it's a day earlier and like, it does start skipping back further and further. But she starts to realize that, like, she has to put this together or figure out how to stop it. But like retroactively, it was so good. I haven't written anything like that before and I just loved every second because at first I was a little bit worried where I was just like, is this going to be super interesting? How can you really put something together before it actually takes place when no one else knows what's about to happen? And then I read this book and it was so good.  

Annie Jones [00:14:34] I can't wait. You left this on my desk, I think. And I brought it home because the premise sounded so fun. I think I told you and Esmie it reminds me of a show I used to love called Early Edition, where the guy got tomorrow's newspaper today, and then he would be responsible for trying to, like, figure out if he could fix anything, but then in fixing things that he messed other things up. It was such a great show and so this sounds so fun, and I've been looking for a really good suspense thriller, but one that felt original, which I think is hard to do with thrillers, quite frankly. And so I'm really looking forward to this. I'm going to read it so we can talk about it.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:15:13] It was great.  

Annie Jones [00:15:14] My next one is Thank You For Listening. This is by Julia Whelan. It comes out. It came out this week. Julia Whelan is a beloved audiobook narrator. She's also a former actress. I think she was on, I think, a show called Brothers and Sisters many years ago. Anyway, she's an audiobook narrator. She narrates a ton of books. She also is the writer of My Oxford Year. I believe that was her debut novel. I thought My Oxford year was fine. It was not for me personally. However, I'm intrigued by this because Julia Whelan narrates a lot of audiobooks, including a lot of romantic comedies. She narrates Emily Henry's books. She narrates Linda Holmes books, and her new book is a rom-com about a former actress turned audiobook narrator. Does that sound familiar? It should. It's literally her life. So is a former actress turned audiobook narrator who winds up narrating a romance audiobook with a guy who is also a famous but kind of recluse of an audiobook narrator.  

[00:16:18] Recluse of an audiobook narrator where people don't really know who he is. His identity is kind of weird. And so I'm assuming she and this audiobook narrator are going to potentially fall in love, but there will be pitfalls because it's a romantic comedy. But I'm intrigued by this because although I felt ambivalent about My Oxford Year, this obviously sounds like she's writing about something she has a lot of experience with. And I remember years and years ago Ann Bogle had on her podcast an audiobook narrator, and I thought it was fascinating, just the career trajectory of an audiobook narrator and what that process looks like. And so I will be very interested to see I'm going to try this book because I would love a little bit more insight into the audiobook narration experience. And Julia Whelan obviously has that experience and I like and I think you are similar to me in this way where I like a book that kind of dives into a thing like that I can learn more about. And so even though this is a romantic comedy, the fact that the main character is an audiobook narrator, I'm excited to maybe learn more about that. And I think Julia Whelan is the perfect person to write that. So I'm looking forward to this, even though maybe her first book wasn't my favorite thing. So it's Thank You for listening by Julia Wayland. It's a paperback original, although obviously I think the audiobook would probably be a great experience as well.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:17:40] Does she narrate the audiobook?  

Annie Jones [00:17:42] I think she does, which is really meta. It feels really meta. I'm just so I don't know, I, I think I might try to listen to this. I got an ARC, but I think I'd rather it just feels like a book that maybe you should try in audiobook format anyway.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:17:58] Yeah. I mean, if anyone knows how to write a good audiobook, it would be a narrator.  

Annie Jones [00:18:04] Yeah.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:18:05] That's cool. My next book is a middle grade graphic novel, which I feel like I don't talk about too many graphic novels on the podcast, but I just really liked this one. This is Invisible by Cristina Diaz Gonzalez, and it is out this week. And this is about five kids and they're all put in the same community service group helping out at the school kitchen. But they're all there for different reasons, and one of the reasons is that the school constantly groups these same five kids together, and the five kids don't understand why, because they are all very different kids. They have different interests, different likes, everything. But then they start to realize that they're always grouped together because they are all, if not bilingual, they all speak Spanish. So it's, you got that going on in there. But the kids together find that there is this new mother who, like, meets at the playground just right outside the schoolyard, and she's just recently gotten evicted from her home. And so they start sneaking her food from the cafeteria and like, at first, it causes some trouble. But then they have the grumpy cafeteria lunch lady turned into like the warm hearted woman who like helps them out. But I just thought it was so good. The arc of it was really well done. And like there are parts of it that have Spanish in it, but like the English translation underneath. I love the illustrations. I feel like anyone who likes like Jerry Kraft, the Classic Act New King and you would love this book. It was just really fun, and I kind of hope they have a sequel because the kids, they start to group together a little bit within the group, but it was just really well done. I liked it a lot.  

Annie Jones [00:19:51] That sounds really good. Sometimes I like a graphic novel because you can read them so quickly and there never cease to astonish me because of how much work goes in. Like it is amazing how much work goes into it. Yeah. My next one is the book I read an excerpt from at the top of the episode. It's The Many Daughters Of Afong Moy. This is by Jamie Ford. It released this week. This is one of my favorite books of 2022. I keep saying that Hunter and I did a podcast episode a few weeks ago that was like our best book so far, and I think I'm going to have a hard time. I think I've read a lot of like three and a half ish star books this year, and I read a lot of five star books like books that I have really enjoyed. This is one of them. It is a little bit outside my genre in that it is at its heart historical fiction, but it opens in the modern era. In fact, there are elements of the book that even are a little farther into the future. But basically the premise of this book is that perhaps just like we can inherit traits from our ancestors, like physical traits, we may also inherit trauma. And I love books with authors notes.  

[00:21:02] I love reading more about the author's inspiration. Author's books are often at the back of the book, which I think is fine and often a really fun thing to read after you've finished. This author's note is at the front of the book and it immediately set the tone for what I was about to read. So basically Jamie Ford was talking about running into his son like his son was in his bedroom. And Jamie walked past the door and he heard his son, I believe, listening to some music or something. And Jamie Ford was like he was listening to one of my favorite songs that I had loved at his age, but we had never talked about it like we had never talked about that. I love that music artist that I love that song. And it occurred to me maybe he has inherited my taste in music, but I didn't know he couldn't inherit that. So then Jamie Ford started doing some research into can we inherit other things like not just physical traits, but can we also inherit character traits or can we inherit our family's trauma and our ancestors trauma? So that's how this book was born. Afong Moy is a real person. She was the first Chinese woman to set foot in America. And this book really starts with a woman named Dorothy, and Dorothy goes through some therapy and uncovers some traumas from her ancestors. And so we as the reader get lots of flashback points through different eras in American history and different eras in the Moy family's History. Dorothy is one of the ancestors of Afong moy. This book is stunning. The writing is beautiful. The story is original. Like you said earlier about a book you read.  

[00:22:38] I have never read anything like this. Maybe kind of sort of Homegoing by Jessie is kind of similar in what it's dealing with. I love looking. It goes back and forth. I was never confused. But it goes back and forth among all these different daughters of Afong Moy and all these different time periods and somehow is all woven together really beautifully. It all makes a lot of sense. I was never confused as a reader with where Jamie Ford was taking me. This is fabulous. It's a mixture of historical and family fiction. Jamie Ford's book Hotel On The Corner of Bitter and Sweet is a book that was super popular when I very first took over The Bookshelf. Like, I remember a lot of local readers had read that book. I have not read that, but it was popular in our area and I suspect this one will be too. This would be a great book for book clubs. I can already name you customers so I could hand sell this to you. Like Suzanne Alexander will love this book. I just know there are so many people, I think, who will really like this one because it also then begs further questions and makes you kind of examine your own past and what your ancestors may have passed on to you. Anyway, super interesting out this week. Really loved it. The Mini Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:23:50] On a very different note, my next book, I haven't read it yet, but I'm taking it on vacation with me because I'm so excited. This is the Book Eaters by Sunyi Deen out this week and this is about this secret line of people who they devour, but like they eat books, but they retain the content from them. And so, like, if a spy novel is kind of like a spicy little snack and like, a romance, it's like, almost like a dessert. Like, very sweet, always delicious. Women are raised on, like, fairy tales and, like, cautionary tales. And so in this family, you have this woman, Devin and Devin just gave birth to a son, but her son doesn't have any interest in eating books. He wants to eat human minds instead. I should note this is a horror slash threat. Noted that earlier. But that's all right. Just I had to make you tune in for the whole thing.  

Annie Jones [00:24:56] You did. That twist was really something.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:25:01] I think this one's going to be one of those books where you're like, you go into it for one reason and you leave having a whole different vision of this book. So I'm very excited. It feels to me like if you liked Woman Eating the literary vampire. The vampire novel. I think this one would also be really good. I think it definitely has like a greater meaning behind everything that's and I'm about to find out when I read it. I'm very excited. Very excited.  

Annie Jones [00:25:31] That also sounds really original and I can't wait to stumble upon you reenacting the whole plot to  Esmie one day on the floor. Because I feel like.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:25:43] So then see ate this book.  

Annie Jones [00:25:44] I just feel like that will be so fun to overhear in conversation. My next one is again quite the departure. It's How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jaina Casale came out this week. I will be honest, I read this book months ago and for some reason already thought it was out. I don't know why I thought that. I feel like I've seen this cover already, but I was wrong. It comes out this week and this is what I would call literary women's fiction almost a little bit. I think people are going to compare it a little bit to Sally Rooney. I can see that it is kind of Sally Rooney esque, but basically it's three women told from their different perspectives, it's Joy, Annie and Celine. I read this book just to give you perspective. I read this book when the movie was filming at the bookstore. That's how long ago I read this book. It was so long ago. But what I do remember is immediately finishing it and I was filled with rage, not at the author. It's just the book is such an interesting look at women and the way we communicate and the ways we have been trained to think and act and even occasionally treat one another. It is, it was infuriating in a good way. If you like Kate Baer's poetry, I actually think you'll really like this book. I retold many parts of the plot aloud to Jordan because I was just like, you're not going to believe this. But it's these three women. It's told from their different perspectives, but they're all kind of sort of related. So Annie and Joy, I believe, are roommates.  

[00:27:17] Annie and Joy have a third male roommate who I think Annie falls in love with one of them kind of falls in love with him and then realizes he has a girlfriend. His girlfriend is Celine. And so the way because we're getting kind of the most intimate thoughts of these women, you just get to kind of see what goes on in women's brains and why, like. What we have read or what we have been trained to think or how we've been treated and how it all kind of affects us psychologically. It was really good. It just made me mad and that's nobody that's not the authors fault. It's just the fault of the world. But I did really like it and I think it is really well written. That's why I say literary women's fiction, because I do think the writing is really great. And again, you're going to probably get that Sally Rooney comparison. But I think the best comparison is, if you like Kate Baer's poetry, I think you will like this book. So It's How to Fall Out of Love Madly by Jenna Casale.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:28:14] Yet again on a very different note, this is The Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka. This is out next week, so August 9th. And I was so excited about this book. I think Kotaro Osaka has quickly become one of those authors who's like, I will read anything you put out. I just he's so good.  

Annie Jones [00:28:35] Did he write Bullet Train or am I making that up?  

Annie Jones [00:28:37] Yeah, but this is technically like the prequel to Bullet Train, but I read that obviously I did not read them in that order, and I don't think you need to. I actually think it's better if you start with Bullet Train and then go to the Three Assassins, because Three Assassins is really like the not the origin story, but like a deeper, a closer look at just one of the assassins that was like hinted at in Bullet Train, also Bullet Train, the movie is coming out. So let's just all note the lack of Asian actors.  

Annie Jones [00:29:11] I do so many questions about that. And then I have that. I have not done my research, but now I am thinking it was already a film overseas and they've remade it.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:29:22] Really? I did not know that.  

Annie Jones [00:29:26] Well, I don't know. I feel like I heard that on a podcast as I need to do my research, but because you and I both because you had read the book. And so I was like, what is going on here? Like.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:29:38] I was very confused.  

Annie Jones [00:29:40] From you. But now I can't. I need to. I'll figure it out and report back. But I think it could be like an American adaptation.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:29:48] That would make sense because Bullet Train and Three Assassins were previously published in Japan like years ago, and this is the English translation to it.  

Annie Jones [00:29:59]  Interesting.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:30:01] Yeah. But what I really love about his novels is that it's you get that, like, classic spy novel feel, but there's always this element of comedy to it. Like, these people are just very odd in the best way possible. This one is all about this guy named Suzuki, who is just this regular, regular guy. The only thing is that he is a widower and his wife was killed by this gang of assassins. And so he joins this gang as just a side guy. He just, like, runs people to them. But in order to, like, eventually get revenge for his wife and so he like, he's in this tricky spot where like he just brought them the two people that he's supposed to deliver. But now they realize that, like why he's a part of the gang. And so, like, in order to, like, test him, they're like, hey you have to go do this. But then they watch like the head guy's son get pushed into a car, he passes away, but it's done by this assassin called the pusher he's known for, like pushing people into oncoming traffic, but no one ever catches him. And so they send Suzuki, this regular guy after this assassin called the pusher. Suzuki ends up befriending his whole family. So I will give like there are definite trigger warnings in this book.  

Annie Jones [00:31:30] Sure, sure.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:31:32] Blood, murder. Murder. But to there is assassin called the whale who does help people commit suicide. So I will just throw that out there for anyone who has that trigger warning. But again, everything is just so well done. Suzuki ends up competing against, like, two other assassins to kill this guy that he's now befriended and doesn't know how to do the job. It was just so good. I love his work. He does such a great job of blending thrillers with comedic timing very well.  

Annie Jones [00:32:00] That sounds good. That really does. I just saw The Gray Man in theaters, which the Gray Man is a spy. It's a novel about assassins. And I like a good, I don't know, Bourne Supremacy. Like, I love all those movies. And so but I've not tried really reading them except unless you count Blake Crouch. And so I think it'd be fun to kind of try reading some. Next up for me is Mika in real life. This is by Emiko Jean. She is a young adult author. She wrote Tokyo Ever After and Tokyo Dreaming. This is her first. My understanding is this is her first novel for adults, much like the Many Daughters of Afong Moy. I think this would be a great book club book. The main character is Mika Suzuki and Mika is 35 years old and she's kind of having a little bit of a crisis like her life didn't turn out like she thought it would. And we come to find out that she gave birth to a daughter when she was a teenager. And that daughter is Penny, and Penny has found kind of, despite maybe Mika trying to do her best to only keep up with her daughter through the adoptive parents, Penny has now found out that Mika is her mother. And so Penny wants to come see Mika, and the whole premise is that Mika's life doesn't look like she wants her daughter. She wants her daughter to see a different version of her life. And so she kind of rallies her friends together and she's like, how can I make my life look like I want it to look in time for my daughter to come see me?  

[00:33:37] And so she kind of puts on this charade a little bit of this life that really isn't her life. So, like, she stays in her friend's house but claims it as her own kind of almost kind of slapstick kind of stuff. But the friends in this book are really lovely. And then the book takes a much deeper turn because of course, Mika can't keep up the charade forever, and so you get a lot more into Mika and Penny and their vulnerabilities and their relationship. It's also a really good look at transracial adoption and the fault lines sometimes in transracial adoptions and what can happen there. And I think it handles those things with a lot of care, and that's why I say I think it would be good for book clubs because I think it would open up some conversations that maybe some of us as readers have not had before. I really like this book a lot. I loved the cast of characters. Mika is a very believable, relatable protagonist, even though you're also kind of like pulling your hair out like, Mika, why are you behaving this way? But you also kind of feel for her. It's a very fast read. I have a lot that I would love to talk about. This is why I think it'd be a good book club book because I have so many things, so many of the storylines that I'd like to unpack with a group of readers. So really liked it. I think other readers will too. It's compulsively readable and really enjoyable that's Mika in Real Life by Emiko Jean out this week.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:34:58] My next one is a picture book. This is All Our Neighbors by Alexandra Penfold and Suzanne Kaufmann. And this is out. We are now at the end of August. This is out August 23rd. Who knows what's coming out in the middle.  

Annie Jones [00:35:13] This middle week, man. That's when you should publish a book. Not on the weekend.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:35:20] But these are the same authors and illustrators of All are Welcome and Big Feelings. I think The Bookshelf is definitely triumphant. Both those books very well.  

Annie Jones [00:35:28] Yes.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:35:28] What's really fun about those books is when you open up the paper covers, there's always a poster on the inside. And this one has the same thing. There is already like a picture of it in the catalog. I was very excited. But this takes place on like, it looks like a almost like a block in New York City. But you get to see like all these different neighbors and like how important every single person is to each community and how everyone helps each other and works together to create a neighborhood. It doesn't just happen on its own, but and how important diversity is within that neighborhood, too. It was so well done. The same illustration styles as the other two, which I really, really like.. So I am very excited about this book.  

Annie Jones [00:36:13] They're good read-alouds too I think.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:36:15] They are, there's generally like a rhyme scheme throughout them that you keep going. This one actually has like a couple of lines that repeat throughout the book, so it almost felt like a melody while you were reading it.  

Annie Jones [00:36:29] That's lovely.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:36:30] Yeah, I really liked it. I'm very excited for this one. Out August 23rd.  

Annie Jones [00:36:34] One book that we as a staff are pretty excited about is Just Another Love Song. This is by romantic comedy writer Kerry Winfrey. It came out this week. It's a paperback original. Many, many of our customers and readers and listeners love Kerry Winfrey. We have championed her books for a while now, Waiting for Tom Hanks. She wrote some young adult novels before, so it's not like she was new to writing, but Waiting for Tom Hanks was the book I think I discovered her and that was just a really fun rom-com that paid a lot of homage and tribute to some Nora Ephron movies that I love. Then Not Like The Movies and Very Sincerely Yours. And now she's got Just Another Love Song. She, to me is a really reliable author. Like, I know that I am going to like her. I know that she will be an easy hand sell. Locally it is important we sell a lot of a wide range of romance lit, but closed door rom coms are important for us as a bookstore because we have a lot of customers who prefer closed door. And so that's one thing we also appreciate about Kerry Winfrey is if you are closed door romcom or romance reader, then I think you might really appreciate Kerry Winfrey's work. This one I am intrigued by. I've not read it yet, so I am looking forward to this, hoping to take it home this week. But Just Another Love Song. So the two main characters were like high school sweethearts kind of thing, and they were going to leave their small town in Ohio together, but instead one of them kind of leaves and moves on. Hank, and then the main character winds up staying in her small town.  

[00:38:07] She helps her parents with their bed and breakfast. She runs a greenhouse. All kind of lovely things you would expect out of a romantic comedy. But the twist to me is that Kerry Winfrey and I are about the same age. And so I think that's one of the reasons I really like her, is a lot of her points of reference I am super familiar with. And I follow Kerry Winfrey on Instagram, and so I know for a fact how much nineties country music influenced this book. And that is so different from her other books like Yacht Rock played a big role in Waiting for Tom Hanks. I love Yacht Rock. I also have a weird, weird, nostalgic love for nineties country music. And so I am so intrigued with how that is going to play into this book. But Hank, who has left town and lives in a I think he lives in Boston, Massachusetts, or something, lives in a much bigger city. He returns home and he's like an alt country singer or something like that. And so I am so intrigued obviously sparks will fly like he's going to come back home. Like, it's going to be a romantic comedy as we have come to expect out of Kerry Winfrey.  

[00:39:13] But I am so intrigued by this slight departure in how is nineties country music going to play a role in this book? This is one of the fun parts I think about following an author on the Internet is you kind of get a behind the scenes look at what goes in to a novel and and what goes into their work. And apparently, Brooks and Dunn, like, played a significant role in Just another Love Song. And I am very curious. So just another love song, a paperback original by Kerry Winfrey. Her backlist is great. If you've not read her before, I would encourage you and I tell people to start with Waiting for Tom Hanks. You could probably start with Very Sincerely Yours if you wanted, or you could start with this one. But I really I like the world she's created. I find it very comforting and cozy, and so do a couple of our staffers.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:39:59] So is Brooks & Dunn an artist?  

Annie Jones [00:40:01] It is. It is. Olivia. Have you ever heard the song Boots Scootin' Boogie?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:40:07] Yeah.  

Annie Jones [00:40:08] Yeah. Brooks & Dunn. Yes.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:40:11] I used to watch just like Sing Along Show. There was like a whole dance to it that I would do.  

Annie Jones [00:40:17] Yeah. Line dancing. I learned to line dance to Boot Scootin' boogie.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:40:22] Yeah, yeah I did.  

Annie Jones [00:40:24] Couldn't do it now. Couldn't do it if you paid me. Only if somebody did it in front of me and I could mimic the steps exactly.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:40:30] Also, I forgot to tell you, I got in my car after Walt was driving it and Yacht Rock was playing.  

Annie Jones [00:40:37] Yeah, it was. It's the perfect time of year for it. So great.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:40:46] My next book is a middle grade fiction novel, which there are so many great middle grade novels coming out this year. It is a great year for those readers. This is Three Strikes Summer. It's out August 30th, and the author is Skyler Shrempp. Sorry. In my head. I know you're saying it too. I love shrimp. I was like the author has a great last name.  

Annie Jones [00:41:17] The author is deep love shrimp.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:41:19] Skyler I love shrimp. Sorry, Skyler. I hope [Inaudible].  

Olivia Schaffer [00:41:27] I hope you do, too. Otherwise, it just sounds like we're being mean. We're not.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:41:30] We're not. It's a great name. Truly.  

Annie Jones [00:41:32] It is.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:41:34] This is set in the Dust Bowl, which I just thought was such a unique setting. I haven't read a middle great novel set in the Dust Bowl before. I know there are some out there. I just haven't particularly read it, but I would put this one up there with Echo Mountain. I think this is a great top title to that where you have this like star protagonist Gloria, who is very like set in her ways. So Gloria is the youngest child and they live in Oklahoma, but the family is going bankrupt. So they have to drive out to California in order to find work to do. So Gloria is very upset about this. She wants to stay at her family home. And when the debt collector comes to evict them, she is like a hundred yards away by like a creek in the backyard, and one thing you should know about Gloria is she loves baseball and she has a really good arm and she chucks a rock from the river and it hits the back window and cracks it of the debt collector. And he's, like, looking around for her, like, about to, like, make this family pay for the window that they can't afford. And so the family just, like, hops in the truck, and they're just like, nope, this is all of us. And they drive down the road. But apparently this has happened before because she cuts through the forest and meets your family at the road. She gets in trouble. But that just really sets the tone for Gloria.  

Annie Jones [00:43:00] Yes.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:43:01] So they drive out to California and they get this like room, board and work situation at this corrupt peach farm where I think everyone gets paid like $0.16 an hour and one's allowed to unionize. It's not a great situation, but it's the only place that they could find. And Gloria, who loves to play baseball, but no boys will ever let her on the team finds a baseball team on the peach farm. She beats the pitcher in a competition, wins the spot as pitcher, and then takes the baseball team to like the biggest game of the year, facing off against the kids who run the apricot farm next door.  

Annie Jones [00:43:44] My gosh. I want to read this so badly.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:43:47] You would love it. It's very sports adjacent, but also fun. I loved Gloria as a character. She was so great, so true to exactly who she was. But I just I loved it so much. It was just so wholesome, but also had so many different parts to it that, like, I was never bored at all. Not once. That one was great. Three Strike Summer.  

Annie Jones [00:44:12] I want to read that. My next book also has Summer in the title Long Past Summer. This is by Noue Kirwan. It came out this week. It's a paperback original. It's a romance novel, but I think it deals a lot with friendship as well. So this got a start review in Publishers Weekly. It features Mikaela as our main character. It got my attention because the cover is really striking. But Mikaela lives, I believe, in New York City. She's like a high powered attorney, but she grew up in small town Georgia. And so I was immediately kind of curious. I brought home the ARC because I thought, this will be interesting. So she grew up in small town Georgia, but like has made it big in New York as a lawyer. She's a high powered attorney and then she's like walking, I don't know, in Times Square or something one day and she sees a billboard or an advertisement that's a photograph of her and her childhood friend Julie, like a picture that was taken of them, and it's now being used in an ad campaign.  

[00:45:09] And this is news to Mikyala and apparently it's news to Julie as well. Julie and Mikaela are estranged, but Julie winds up suing the ad company because of this photo. And unbeknownst to Julie, Mikaela is the attorney defending or protecting or arguing for the ad company. And so that immediately I don't know, I do love some legal elements. That is Jordan's fault. I also worked for the Florida Bar for a period of time, so I'm intrigued by that already. And then the photographer of the person who took the picture is Julie's ex-husband, who Mikaela also maybe had a fling with or was in love with. So there's clearly a love triangle situation. But I will tell you what I am most intrigued by is the relationship between Mikaela and Julie. So I think it's not even really being billed fully as a romance like the cover features who I seem to be Mikaela because I think the book is really going to be about her and her and potentially Julie's relationship just as much as it is about her and Cameron's relationship. So I'm very curious about this. It's a paperback original. It's out this week. It's called Long Past Summer by Noue Kirwan.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:46:24] My next sorry. You always have such good segways into your books. And then I'm just like for the next one I want to talk about.  

Annie Jones [00:46:31] I did it all.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:46:32] Summer in the title like, did you talk about it at all? My next one is called patchwork. But anyways, my next book is called Patchwork and it's by Matt de la Pena, who wrote The Last Stop on Market Street.  

Annie Jones [00:46:51] Yes, I knew I recognized that name.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:46:53] Yes. First off, the illustrations in this book are gorgeous. They look like almost all watercolor and maybe like pen in there. It's gorgeous. And this is essentially about like how kids are all so different. And a lot of times I think when they're young, they get praised for like this one hobby that they have or this one thing that they really like, and then it starts to stick with them. But they forget that you can grow out of that and grow into something else and that's okay. You have different aspects to you. So like it goes through all these different kids. Like, one of them is this little girl who, like, loves ballet. And so everyone knows her as this ballerina always dancing. But what they don't realize is that she also gets into coding and she ends up as like a coder for her job. And then there's this boy who loves basketball. But what people maybe don't realize about him is that he also loves writing poetry. And there is this class clown who just loves giving the teacher trouble and making everybody laugh. But the class clown grows up to be a teacher who now knows how to appreciate the class clown in their own classroom. It just said all these beautiful revelations in these kids, in these children's lives, and I just thought it was so well done. Like, if you're a crier, you might just going to throw it out there.  

Annie Jones [00:48:19] It does sound lovely. It almost sounds like one of those children's books that you could almost sell as like a graduation gift. Do you know what I mean? Like, it just sounds. What an important lesson for adults too like you don't have to be who you always thought you were going to be.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:48:34] Great. And that's totally okay.  

Annie Jones [00:48:38] That's wonderful.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:48:39] It was beautiful.  

Annie Jones [00:48:41] I will not name names, but the class clown in my class wound up being a member of the Peace Corps, I believe. And so it's just important to like. Yeah. Like, it's fascinating. It's. I don't know. Good for you, Mat De la Pena. I appreciate this. My next one, my last one is Carrie Soto Is Back. This is by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Shout out to Olivia for reminding me that this release is in August. Because, again, the Labor Day of it all, it just seems like a big title and normally these big titles come out at the beginning of the month. And when I didn't see it on August 2nd, I didn't think about it. Anyway, it comes out on August 30th. Here's the truth, everyone. I think a lot of people are worried because Taylor Jenkins Reid puts out books a lot like one or so a year. And we have a lot of high expectations of her now, I think ever since Daisy Jones and The Six. The good news is she wrote a lot of books before Daisy Jones and The Six and they're all good, everybody. So the good news is you don't have to worry. Carrie Soto Is Back is wonderful. It's a five star book for me. Will be, I think, in my top 10 of the year, depending on what some other of the other books are. I love sports adjacent books. We know this. This is a book about a tennis star, Carrie Soto. She makes a brief appearance in Malibu Rising, and this is one of the things I do love about Taylor Jenkins Reid, I'm not huge into picking up on what do they call them? They don't call them cookies. What do they call them?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:50:04] Cameos?  

Annie Jones [00:50:05] No. What do you call it? Like a Marvel. My gosh. Like in the Marvel Universe, there's a lot of donuts. What is it? I feel like it's a dessert.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:50:15] Cookie? No.  

Annie Jones [00:50:17] No, it's a lot of.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:50:19] But I know what you're talking about.  

Annie Jones [00:50:21] It's not cookies. That's the Internet. A lot of. Wait a minute.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:50:29] Popcorn's?  

Annie Jones [00:50:30] Marvel Universe. There's like secrets. What do they call that? No. What? That's going to drive me crazy. Can you Google okay?  So basically, Taylor Jenkins Reid just leaves a lot of hints and like this, things that you can pick up on, which I am not always great at, but Carrie Soto does make a brief appearance in Malibu Rising. So she is a tennis star. We open when she is watching the U.S. Open. She's in retirement and she watches someone, a young tennis star, about to basically outdo her personal record and her record that she's held for some time. And so Carrie Soto decides to come out of retirement. What is it?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:51:16] Easter eggs.  

Annie Jones [00:51:17] Easter eggs.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:51:20] You want to know how I got there? I Googled Marvel Universe secret tidbits.  

Annie Jones [00:51:28] I'm dying cookies, cupcakes donuts.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:51:32] Easter eggs.  

Annie Jones [00:51:36] My gosh. Easter eggs, Taylor Jenkins Reid is so good with Easter eggs and you know who's good at picking up on them is Keyla. Keyla picks up on an Easter egg. I think because Keyla naturally has, like, fandom brain. And I don't really. So it takes me a minute to pick up on Easter eggs, and that's just not what I'm naturally drawn toward. But if you like the Marvel Universe and their Easter eggs, you like to read Easter eggs. Anyway, I'm so sorry. I digress. Obviously, but I did have a couple of readers ask me, okay, this book is a lot about tennis. I don't like sports. I don't like tennis. Will that matter? I do not think that it will matter. I like sports adjacent books, but I knew next to nothing about tennis.  

[00:52:18] Taylor Jenkins Reid made me care about tennis, which I think this is what Taylor Jenkins Reid is really good at. Like Malibu Rising is about surfing, but it's not really about surfing. It's about other things. Daisy Jones in the Six is about rock music, but it's not really just about rock music. So if you to me Daisy Jones in the Six is to rock music as it is to tennis. So I think she gives you exactly what you need to care about tennis and to care about tennis as it relates to Carrie Soto, our main character. So the book spans across different tournaments and different games and matches that she plays. The sports writing is excellent. It's almost irritating to me that somehow Taylor Jenkins Reid, who also was really good early in her career about writing, kind of really convincing women's fiction, almost romance, adjacent kind of books is also good at sports writing. It's infuriating in a good way. Congratulations to Taylor Jenkins Reid for being good at everything.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:53:12] I'm so happy for you.  

Annie Jones [00:53:16] But I think I started this year by watching King Richard, which is the Will Smith's movie about the Williams sisters. And I really loved that movie. And so if you liked King Richard, I think you'll really love this book. I finished it and asked Jordan, should I care about tennis? Like I feel like I should start watching tennis. This book is fabulous. Carrie Soto, I think, might be my favorite Taylor Jenkins Reid protagonist. She is not entirely likable, which I love. She's competitive and ambitious and cutthroat, and I love it. So that is Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, featuring Easter eggs.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:53:55] But not Easter eggs from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  

Annie Jones [00:53:57] That's right. Different Easter eggs, everybody. Different Easter eggs.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:54:02] Well, speaking of a prolific author, my next book was [Crosstalk].  

Annie Jones [00:54:09] Good job.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:54:11] But honestly, this next middle grade picture book is Midnight's Children by Dan Gemeinhart. This is out August 30th. I love this author. He wrote The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise, which you probably heard me talk about a lot a couple of years ago when it came out, because I was a sobbing mess at the end of that book in the best way possible. And so when I saw he had another one coming out, I was just so excited. He is such a great author. He has such a unique way of writing things and looking at situations or like inviting you into the scene. He does such a great job of that and I sat down very quickly last night and read the first two chapters of this before going to my nephew's birthday party. So this is about a young boy named Ravani. I'm pretty sure I'm pronouncing that right, because there is a kid in the book who makes fun of him and calls him ravioli and I feel like Ravani and ravioli. But this little boy, he lives on this road, like, kind of on the outskirts of his town. Like, you meet him, and it feels like you're watching, like, a movie go down because you're, like, swooping into this town like going over a bridge, and then you find Ravani's road, and it's just his home where him, his mother and father live.  

[00:55:29] And then a house across the street that's been abandoned for years. And the very first scene, he wakes up in the middle of the night, he doesn't know why, but then he realizes he hears this car driving down his road. He goes out to his window and he sees this car drop off these seven children, and they all rush into the house. But the one little girl looks back and catches him in the window and just like motions to like her finger to her lips, like, be quiet. Don't tell anyone. So he goes back to bed and then he wakes up and he's like, is that a dream? And then slowly I haven't gotten to this part, but I'm very excited too. He starts to befriend them more and more and figuring out, like, the secrets of why they're there, why there's no really adult with them at all and he realizes that they're kind of in trouble from something, and he starts to befriend one of them named Virginia and really help them out. Dan does such a good job at not only setting the scene, but creating these characters that you just fall in love with and you just want to be with them every step of the way. It was how I felt about Coyote when I read The Remarkable Journey, and I already love dRavani so much. And I'm at chapter three.  

Annie Jones [00:56:42] You're only two chapters in.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:56:44] Yeah. He is, I would put him along the lines of like a Katherine Applegate or like a Kate to Emilio, where you have these, like, adventurous stories but with like so much heart involved in them. So I am very excited about that book.  

Annie Jones [00:57:00] You're right. A lot of good middle grade.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:57:02] So much good middle grade.  

Annie Jones [00:57:04] You know they earned it.  

Olivia Schaffer [00:57:06] They really did.  

Annie Jones [00:57:07] Middle grade folks have had a rough couple of years. I just think about how the pandemic affected school. So Dave earned having some really lovely books to escape into. Don't forget these titles are all on our new website. Just go to bookshelfthomasville.com. There's a whole section for books featured on From The Front Porch. And then if you do purchase or pre order any of the books we talked about today, you can enter a new release, please, at checkout, and that gets you 10% off your order. So just go to bookshelfthomasville.com. New releases are listed on the home page, and then they're also in the podcast from the Front Porch Picks section, and you can buy to your heart's content and then enter a new release, please at checkout to get 10% off. There are a lot of good books this month, so happy shopping. Thank you, Olivia. This week I'm listening to Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Olivia, what are you reading this week?  

Olivia Schaffer [00:58:04] I am reading The Midnight's Children by Dan Gemeinhart.  

Annie Jones [00:58:09] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram @bookshelftville and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website. Bookshelfthomasville.com. A full transcript of today's episode can be found at fromthefrontporchpodcast.com. 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.  

Executive Producer (Read their own names) [00:58:39] Our executive producers of today's episode are, Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell. Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Lauri Johnson, Kate Johnston Tucker.  

Annie Jones [00:58:52] 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.  

[00:59:09] 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 patreo.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.  

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a weekly conversational podcast on books, small business, and life in the South