Episode 380 || July New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie and Olivia are back for another New Release Rundown. They’re sharing the July 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:
Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola
Sister Mother Warrior by Vanessa Riley
The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
Big Girl: A Novel by Mecca Jamilah Sullivan
A Lady’s Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin
Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir by Erica L. Sánchez
Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown
Olivia's list:
The First Rule of Climate Club by Carrie Firestone
Chester Keene Cracks the Code by Kekla Magoon
Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
Upgrade by Blake Crouch
Dead Water by C. A. Fletcher
The Witchery by S. Isabelle
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 Midcoast by Adam White. Olivia is reading Dead Water by C. A. Fletcher.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie johnson, and Kate Johnston Tucker.
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Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
[00:00:24] "I'm starting to think that living a dramatic story where the life and happiness are at worst mutually exclusive and at best giving each other a run for their money." CJ Hauser, The Crane Wife.
[00:00:39] 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 Round up with retail floor manager, Olivia Schaefer.
[00:00:50] Barring catastrophe, by the time you hear this, we will have launched our new website and point of sale system. And we are thrilled that years-- and I do mean years of research, work, and effort will have finally resulted in this great change for our store. We hope you'll be patient with us as we work out the kinks in this new system and as you explore our new website for the first time. We have some fun perks for customers who purchase from us over the next couple of weeks as we ensure the full functionality of the site. Just follow us on Instagram @Bookshelftville or visit the new site at Bookshelfthomasville.com for more information. We are thrilled with these fun and exciting and hard won changes, and we hope you will be excited with us. Don't forget too, as Olivia and I chat about these titles, if you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about today, you can enter NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout to get 10% off your order. Just go to the new website at Bookshelfthomasville.com and then instead of shopping around, you can just see new releases on the home page. We're very excited about this and hopefully it's true. By the time you listen to this episode, you will see all of today's titles under the podcast on home page. So we're really excited about that change. Olivia, hi. Hello.
Olivia [00:02:10] Hello.
Annie Jones [00:02:11] It's so weird to direct people to a website that we have seen but no one else has seen. I was like, wait, how do they shop new releases? It's just on the home page.
Olivia [00:02:21] Yeah, it's so easy.
Annie Jones [00:02:24] So easy and with a great search function.
Olivia [00:02:26] A working search function.
Annie Jones [00:02:30] Yes, a working search bar. It's very exciting. We've seen it. We're excited. Yeah. So, are you excited about July books?
Olivia [00:02:37] I am very excited about July books. There's some really great titles out in July.
Annie Jones [00:02:42] Yes. When I sat down to make my list, I thought, oh, is this just going to be a couple of them I've already read? But I thought, is this just going to be my TBR list for the month? Because it sounds pretty good.
Olivia [00:02:52] I know.
Annie Jones [00:02:54] Sounds like a good list of books. Okay. How many do you have today?
Olivia [00:02:58] I have seven.
Annie Jones [00:03:00] I think I have eight.
Olivia [00:03:02] So I'll think you'll start.
Annie Jones [00:03:02] Yeah, I'll go first. My first book released this week, it is Honey and Spice by Bolu Babalola. You may recognize her name from a short story collection she released, I believe, last year called Love in Color. I know her from Twitter. I am not on Twitter very much these days, but I have always liked Bolu Babalola's tweets regarding the romantic comedy genre, and now she has written her own romantic comedy. This is a rom-com set on a college campus in Great Britain. Kiki Banjo is a young black British woman. She's the host of a radio show on her college campus called Brown Sugar, where she encourages young women of color to hold their own and to kind of be independent, be wary of players, etc.. But then she winds up kissing a guy named Malakai Korede and turns out he's kind of a player. So her reputation on campus is shot because she's really supposed to be this tough-minded love expert. And instead it looks like she has just fallen for this player. I don't even really know the circumstances behind their encounter, but they wind up embarking on a fake relationship so that she can keep her radio show. And if you are into rom-coms with that trope where two people fake a relationship but of course then ultimately fall in love, I think you might like this book. I have not read this one yet, but it is on my list of books to read this month. I've got the ARC and I'm hoping to dive in. Also, it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. And a few of the books on my list today received starred reviews, and I always think that's kind of a good sign. It's how I know do I give this a go or not. So anyway, it looks great. I'm really excited about it. It looks like a fun romantic comedy. It is called Honey & Spice by Bolu Babalola. It came out this week.
Olivia [00:04:50] Okay, I'm starting off with middle grade. And an author that I loved her first book, this is author Carrie Firestone. This is her second book, The First Rule of Climate Club. Her first book was Dress Coded, which I believe I also talked about in the podcast because I loved it. It was about a group of students who put together a podcast in rebellion of their schools overstrict dress code. And they won by doing a huge protest at school. Well, this is set in the same world. The girls in this book ride the bus with the girls who were in dress code and who are now in the high school.
Annie Jones [00:05:28] Oh, fun.
Olivia [00:05:29] And so we're back at the middle school, but with this girl, Mary Kate, who just joined the school's climate club, where they meet every week. And they just talk about ways to make the town and the school more climate friendly. And they end up competing for this grant from the mayor for $10,000 to complete their project. I'm kicking myself because I can't remember exactly what their project was. Oh, it was composting. They were composting because they realized how much food in the cafeteria gets thrown away every day and how this is adding to the methane gas that goes into our atmosphere. But Mary Kate join this climate club with her best friend, Lucy. But Lucy got sick the summer before and hasn't been able to return to school because of her unknown illness that they're trying to battle through. And so I would recommend 10 and up. They do talk about topics like systemic racism and Lucy does have like a pretty serious illness. But the way it is all addressed is so well done. And if you have a little activist reader, these would be the first two books that I buy. It is just they are so well done and they explain topics so thoroughly.
Annie Jones [00:06:52] That was really lovely. My next one is Sister Mother Warrior. This is by Vanessa Riley. Do you remember the book Island Queen that came out last year and it was like a thick, beautiful cover?
Olivia [00:07:03] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:07:03] That's Vanessa Riley. But I'm here to tell you, I did some research today because I have not read Island Queen and I have not read Sister Mother Warrior. But now I'm more intrigued than ever because turns out Vanessa Riley is a Georgia writer. So she's from Georgia. She lives in Atlanta. She has written over 20 books. I wrongly assumed that Island Queen was her first book, but she has written over 20 books. She writes a lot of historical fiction, romance and mystery kind of set in the Regency and Victorian eras. So lots of books with kind of romantic covers, kind of genre specific covers. Turns out she also has her doctorate in mechanical engineering and a masters in industrial engineering. I was struck. I was like, wait a minute, what? And so now she still, I think, writes those romantic or mystery kind of more genre specific titles. But she's embarked on these really well-researched books of historical fiction. So last year or the year before, Island Queen came out. And now Sister Mother Warrior is releasing on July 12th, it's a book about the Haitian Revolution, which is something I'm actually pretty interested in. I got the opportunity to visit Haiti a few years ago, and it's a really beautiful country and its history is really interesting.
[00:08:16] And so this book is about the Haitian Revolution, and it's based on two historical real life women. One was the first Empress of Haiti, and the other is Grand Toya, who was a warrior who led the rebellion that freed the enslaved people of Haiti. So I'm very, very, curious about this. And I also think, based on now what I know about Vanessa Riley, that these books are impeccably researched. If you go to her website, she has a ton of research and resources on her site. You can just tell she's really done the work. And I guess knowing her educational background, that makes a lot of sense. So I'm thinking if you are a reader who is frequently waiting for books by Fiona Davis, who I would consider also to be somebody who's really well researched, she's got this great journalistic background, it might be time to try Vanessa Riley and to pick up her books as well and read them as you're waiting on a Fiona Davis book. So this is Sister Mother Warrior. It's about the Haitian Revolution written by Vanessa Riley out on July 12th. And the covers of these books, of Island Queen and Sister Mother Warrior are really striking and beautiful.
Olivia [00:09:22] Yeah, I will always remember Island Queen cover because it had that bright blue and then the [Crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:09:28] Yes. And they're really thick books, which I think has deterred me before. But this-- I don't know. The one about the Haitian revolution, I'm just kind of curious about and I'm realizing sometimes that I learn more even from fiction sometimes than I do from nonfiction. And maybe this would be a good way to learn more about the Haitian Revolution. There was an article in the New York Times recently about the history of Haiti, so I'm intrigued anyway. And who knew Vanessa Riley with her engineering degrees? What in the world.
Olivia [00:10:01] That's Intimidating. She's just accomplished so much in very different realms.
Annie Jones [00:10:08] Good at everything. Yes. It's like best all around in high school.
Olivia [00:10:12] Does an engineering degree help you engineer a book plot? I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:10:16] I don't know. I guess so.
Olivia [00:10:17] I wonder if there's any overlap there. Good for her setting goals all around. Okay. My next one is another middle grade and I think I forgot to put these first two are out July 5th. So this past Tuesday.
Annie Jones [00:10:33] That's right. Good job.
Olivia [00:10:36] Listeners will never understand how [Inaudible] is.
Annie Jones [00:10:41] They will.
Olivia [00:10:43] This is Chester Keene Cracks the Code by Kekla Magoon. And I am like a quarter of the way into this book and I'm loving every single second in this book. This is about Chester, which is amazing.
Annie Jones [00:10:56] Great name.
Olivia [00:10:57] And Chester is the type of kid who like compulsively sticks to a routine. He wakes up, he has his routine down by the minute. He knows exactly where he'll be, and he sticks to that every single morning. He doesn't deviate. And so Chester also just lives with his mom. He's never met his dad, but his dad has always sent gifts for like holidays and birthdays and such. And from those gifts, Chester has started to try to piece together who he thinks his father is. And Chester has determined that his father is a spy because he sends him a lot of riddles and coded stuff and like the history of spies. So Chester is under the assumption that his father's a spy. And then he gets into a rather violent altercation with a bully-- which 10 and up from here, I would say. But again, very well done. The adults around him did the right things. Everything was done correctly in this instance. But Chester got really upset and he found an email that his dad left on one of the packages that was delivered, and he starts to email his dad and telling him what happened. And then the next day he wakes up and on his door is this envelope with two little riddles. But they're labeled number one and number three. And so he's missing number two. And he goes to school and he's trying really hard to figure this out. He goes sit in his little lunch corner where he gets this little four seater and no one bothers him. And this girl comes over, Sky, and she has riddle number two. And riddle number two help-- Shoot, sorry. She has two and four. And so together they start to piece together this mystery. But neither one of them knows who has given them this riddle, but it has led them together. And I think Sky thinks it's her father, and Chester thinks it's his father. They both think their fathers are spies.
Annie Jones [00:12:57] Interesting.
Olivia [00:12:59] But it's really, really, fun because they're like polar opposites. Chester likes things neat and in place and clean. And the first time he meets Sky, she takes off her gloves inside out and just throws them on the table. And he's so grossed out by her. But they're slowly becoming the best of friends. It's really delightful. I'm really enjoying it.
Annie Jones [00:13:24] It sounds like it could be-- I don't know. But it sounds like it could be the start of a series, is it?
Olivia [00:13:28] I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:13:30] It just has that-- Chester Keene sounds like a hero you'll want to read more about.
Olivia [00:13:35] I know. I kind of hope it does. I'm really excited about it. I haven't read this author before. I think she's written something else and I can't remember off the top of my head.
Annie Jones [00:13:46] Okay. It sounds good.
Olivia [00:13:47] But it is absolutely delightful.
Annie Jones [00:13:49] Absolutely delightful also describes my next book, which is The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser. This is one of my favorite books of the year. Highly anticipated. I think I read it in January or February and have been waiting, waiting, waiting, to put it in people's hands. I love CJ Hauser and her writing a lot. She briefly lived in Tallahassee while she was working on her Ph.D. at Florida State University, and as a result, she hosted a book signing with us for her first book, which is called The From-Aways. And then we also fell in love with her book, Family of Origin. Those both were works of fiction. I still highly recommend those as backlist titles. But this is an essay collection. The title essay, The Crane Wife, was actually featured in 2019, which feels like last year, but it actually wasn't. It was several years ago. But in 2019, the Crane wife was featured in the Paris Review, and it was an essay that kind of went viral. Like, I forget how many clicks that essay got. But from there, I think is where she was able to get this book deal where she could write this essay collection. So she writes a lot about a lot of different things. That's what I love about this book. The essays are all about wildly different subjects, but they somehow all are connected. So she's writing about love, robotics, science, queerness, the Philadelphia Story. There are all kinds of really beautiful essays.
[00:15:14] There's one really lovely essay about her dad, about sharing a house with people, about being of a certain age and not being a biological mother. I loved this collection so very much. I don't know where it will land in my top ten of the year, but it will be very near the top I think. I was flipping through it to pick a quote for the episode today and I thought, oh my gosh, I think I need to reread this because it's got these great lines and led with one today. But the lines really are just part and parcel of this really much larger essay, a much larger story. And so it made me want to go back and reread them. I just love this book so much. I highly, highly, recommend it. Again, it is an essay collection called The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser. You can still find the Crane Wife, the essay on the Paris Review website. So what I frequently tell people is go read that essay, go read an essay from an author's work, and then you can decide if the whole collection is worth it for you, but I think it will be. So The Crane Wife by CJ Hauser out on July 12.
Olivia [00:16:25] That's the second time in the past 24 hours that the Philadelphia story got brought up.
Annie Jones [00:16:30] It is. It's because it's so good. I was going to say you should watch it. I don't actually know. Do you like black and white movies? Do you like old movies? I don't know this about you.
Olivia [00:16:39] Sure. I have to be in the right mood. But I can appreciate it.
Annie Jones [00:16:44] Well, the Philadelphia story is lovely and funny, and really the-- what do I want to say? Pique. It's not even a rom-com. I don't know. I think some people would-- that's what all the essay is about. It's not really a rom-com, but it is like if you like Nora Ephron, to me this is like more of that where I think it's really clever, it's really smart. The characters are interesting. It's Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart. It's good. It's really good.
Olivia [00:17:17] I have to check it out. Okay. My next book, finally adult. Super excited. This is Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore. This is also out this past Tuesday on July 5th. And I am 90% positive that this book was written for me.
Annie Jones [00:17:34] I am like a lab.
Olivia [00:17:37] I think she like-- I don't know. I don't think I met Margarita, but maybe she found out about me. This is about Violet Volk who is this world famous magician. And Violet Volk is like she has gone viral in so many different ways. But her biggest show was her final show back in her hometown, where she did a disappearing act, disappeared at the end and just never came back. And she left her sister, Sasha, in a lurch where it was Sasha thought the show was for her because they kind of had a pretty rough history together that you start to piece together throughout the book. And so she kind of thought this was Violet apologizing in her own way, and then she just disappeared and Sasha was left with the press hounding her wondering where she knows where her sister is. And there were just so many viral threads after that, too, that basically Sasha was never able to, like, mourn her sister leaving and without saying goodbye. But Sasha moved forward and she had this daughter, Quinn. Oh, I'm sorry. Quinn was alive while Violet was still around. But you start to see Sasha and Quinn in present day. It's 10 years after Violet's disappearance, and the Internet has blown up again because they think Violet is going to come back for the 10 year anniversary of it, and this is when she's finally going to show up again. So there's a lot to do in their town. And Sasha is yet again hounded with press. And Quinn's asking questions because she also just wants to know what's going on. Does she know more about Violet? Like, their history has really been kept secret from Quinn. And then this true crime podcaster comes to town.
Annie Jones [00:19:28] Of course.
Olivia [00:19:30] Right?
Annie Jones [00:19:31] Of course.
Olivia [00:19:33] And he is determined to get an interview with Sasha, but she is super worried that he is going to turn this around on her yet again like all the press does, because they don't think she's as sympathetic to her sister's disappearance as she should be because they don't know the whole story. But it was every part of the magic that I wanted. And then it was also this really intricate look at this crazy sisterhood story. Because they were on two different levels of their life the entire time and I don't think there was one moment where they kind of saw each other for who they were. Or if there was, it was at different times and they never got to meet in that moment. And then you're also just watching this mother daughter relationship that is kind of broken because of all the secrets that were kept start to heal. So it was just so well done. So much is happening. It was so good. I think for sure this is in my top 10. Absolutely.
Annie Jones [00:20:33] Okay. So I look this up because you recommended it for me to talk about during Summer Literary Lunch. So I picked this up and I think I would like to read it. And I actually looked up, I'm about to wrap up an audiobook and so I thought maybe it would be fun one to listen to. And I'm curious, I think-- I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think when I looked it up on Libro FM, it's got multiple narrators because is the book told in alternating or is there like podcast transcripts? It looks like it's a performance piece almost.
Olivia [00:21:01] It for sure is. And my bookseller friend Jill over at Novel Books, she listened to the audiobook and she said it was phenomenal. So if you're an audio person, I think that would be good. There are like live transcripts of podcasts in the book and like I read this now a couple months ago, but I believe it does change point of views as well. But I heard it's a really great audio book. So I really recommend that way, but I also read the book in a single setting because I couldn't put it down. So either way you're going to get a great experience.
Annie Jones [00:21:34] Okay. I think I may download that when we hang up. Okay. My next one, I think maybe possibly an Olivia-Annie crossover. If I could find the ARC, we could share it and figure it out. But so far, I know I have this somewhere. Okay. This is Our Wives Under the Sea. It's a book by Julia Armfield. It comes out on July 12th. It's a debut novel. Julia Armfield has written, I think, a collection of short stories called Salt Slow, but this is her first novel. And basically when I was reading this, it almost sounded to me like the book, The Wanderers. I don't know if you ever read that book.
Olivia [00:22:13] The Czech [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:22:14] I think that's right. And it's a group of astronauts training for space. Is that right?
Olivia [00:22:19] I think so.
Annie Jones [00:22:21] Is that the book? Anyway, it reminded me of a book I've read about space. So the main characters are Mary and Leah. Leah is a scientist, like a marine biologist, and she is about to embark on a submarine expedition and it's supposed to be a three week thing. And instead something goes wrong on the submarine and she's underwater for six months.
Olivia [00:22:45] I mean...
Annie Jones [00:22:45] Which, honestly, what a nightmare. Like, can you imagine thinking you're going to be gone for three weeks and then instead six months and you're underwater? Like it gives me the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it.
Olivia [00:22:58] Absolute nightmare. I'm 100% on this book.
Annie Jones [00:23:02] Yeah. Okay. Wait. So she is underwater for six months, and the whole time her wife Mary is trying to cope and trying to-- she even joins like a message board on the Internet, I think, of wives who pretend their husbands are astronauts. I'm not sure why they pretend. I'm not sure why she didn't just find a group of people who are actually married to astronauts. It's fine. Anyway, but she's trying to find ways to cope with her wife being gone this long and being gone under really precarious circumstances. Her wife comes home. Leah comes home. Mary is relieved until Leah starts to exhibit strange symptoms. Like, her skin is a little silvery and she has to run the water day and night. Like when she's in the bathroom the water is always running. She has a sound machine that plays water sounds and something is wrong. But Mary doesn't quite know what it is. It's described as slight, maybe horror, fantasy.
Olivia [00:23:59] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:24:00] I think I'm kind of into this. I promise the ARC was a pretty thin-- I wish I could find it. I will find it, but it looks pretty good. And I thought, oh, I think this sounds like the dysfunctional spousal relationship that Annie loves to read about, I don't know why. And then it sounds like-- I do think you and I both think about Blake Crouch who I know you're going to talk about. I think about Andy Weir, like, I do love books like that where it's kind of otherworldly. And she's been underwater for so long. And then when it was her skin starts to have a silver tint, I was like, okay. So anyway, this is called Our Wives Under the Sea. It sounds really good and really interesting. It's by Julia Armfield. If you like Annie picks and Olivia picks mashed up together, I think this is one. It's out on July 12th.
Olivia [00:24:52] This sounds really good.
Annie Jones [00:24:54] Doesn't it? And it's got starred reviews, too. So I think it really is quite good.
Olivia [00:25:01] Okay. My wife beneath the sea?
Annie Jones [00:25:08] Close. So close. Our Wives Under the Sea. Add that to your TBR. I'm going to look for the ARC and if you can find it, we'll share it. It looks good.
Olivia [00:25:16] Yeah, that sounds really good. My next one is the new Ruth Ware, The It Girl. Which just a little funny tidbit about this, every time I see this cover, instead of saying The It Girl, I say The I.T. Girl. I don't know why. [Crosstalk]. I'm trying to think about it like company...
Annie Jones [00:25:35] Different book. Probably a rom-com, actually. Let's write it. The I.T Girl.
Olivia [00:25:42] Oh, but it's The It Girl. And this is out July 12. I haven't gotten a chance to read this yet, but I'm very excited too, because I love Ruth Ware. I think she's a great author. She does really great mysteries. So this is about like a tight knit group of friends that all met in college, which right off the bat I'm already in.
Annie Jones [00:26:00] Yeah, me too.
Olivia [00:26:03] But one of them, April, dies after their first term there, and she dies under pretty mysterious circumstances. They do end up catching the guy. His name is John Nevin, and he's sent to jail. And then years later, two people in the friend group are married and they're expecting their first child when they hear that the killer of April, passed away in prison. And they're kind of met with, like, a sense of relief, like, oh, this has all been put to rest now.
Annie Jones [00:26:34] This is done. Yeah.
Olivia [00:26:34] But then they get a knock on their door from a journalist who is researching into April's death because he found evidence that John Nevin didn't actually kill April. And then they start looking at their friend group and realizing that secrets may be behind them. This sounds like I've read this before. Like, The Secret History meets The Girls Are All So Nice Here type book. But I know Ruth Ware and I know something crazy is going to happen. Like, it's not straight forward.
Annie Jones [00:27:07] What book did you and I read-- I feel like it was just within the last year, and the friends stayed in a house together and, oh my gosh, I feel confident you and I both read this book. And they stayed in a house together and one of the friends had died. Like, this does sound like a book that has been written before.
Olivia [00:27:28] But didn't we not like that book?
Annie Jones [00:27:30] We didn't. We did not like it.
Olivia [00:27:31] It was The Return.
Annie Jones [00:27:33] Oh, no, that book was terrible.
Olivia [00:27:38] It wasn't great.
Annie Jones [00:27:40] That book was a horror book. This one I'm thinking of was more suspense. Now it's going to [Crosstalk].
Olivia [00:27:48] This is The Girls Are All So Nice Here, but like toxic college friendship.
Annie Jones [00:27:52] Did they rent a house together? This was one where they go back and they rent the house and they realize the person whose house it is isn't there. Like, one of their friend group has gone missing.
Olivia [00:28:04] Are they at a college reunion?
Annie Jones [00:28:06] Something like that. Yeah.
Olivia [00:28:08] Oh, what was that book?
Annie Jones [00:28:09] Right. What I'm really trying to say is, you are correct. This Ruth Ware book description sounds like a book we've all read and probably enjoyed. But you're right, it's all about in the hands of a good writer. I'm going to read this book. It sounds great.
Olivia [00:28:24] I will also be reading this. I love Ruth wWare I think she does a great job. So I'm very excited about it. And Nancy is halfway through and she's really enjoying it.
Annie Jones [00:28:34] Oh, good. Okay. Up next for me is a book called Big Girl. This is by Micca Jamilah Sullivan. I featured this in Summer Literary Lunch. It comes out on July 12th. It's a debut novel. I've started it and really like what I've read so far. The main character is Malaya Clondon, and she's a young girl. I think when the book opens, she's maybe seven or eight years old and she's immediately compelling. I think there's been a trend recently to see adult books with child main characters, or at least maybe I am just reading more books like this. Through the course of the novel, Malaya grows up, but the book opens when she's really young. She's growing up in Harlem in the 80s and 90s. And when the book opens, her mother has her in Weight Watchers. And so she's like seven or eight years old and going to Weight Watchers and her father and mother clearly disagree on the best ways to parent Malaya and raise her with both body positivity and then also a good understanding of health and personal care. And so they're really there's some tension immediately between the mother and the father.
[00:29:44] And as the book continues, when Malaya reaches the age of 16, there's discussion about having gastric bypass surgery. There's a lot of conversation here, obviously, about weight and potentially disordered eating, so if those are kind of triggers for you be warned. But the book is also really a lovely portrayal of Harlem in the 80s and 90s. There are a lot of cultural references. Malaya goes to a predominantly white school and so there's a lot of conversation around race and systemic racism. It's really about how people treat black women's bodies and from an early age. I think that's what's so striking about the book is she starts so young and then we watch her as she grows up. The book is also really funny. I think the publisher uses the word compassionate and I think that's accurate. I've really liked what I've read. I think the writing is great and I always like supporting a debut novel. So this is out on July 12th and it is called Big Girl by Micca Jamila Sullivan also another starred review.
Olivia [00:30:41] I also was going to say it also has a really great cover.
Annie Jones [00:30:43] It does have a really great cover.
Olivia [00:30:45] I like it. My next one, I'm very excited about. It is Upgrade by Blake Crouch. This is out July 12th. And if you've ever read Blake Crouch, just go ahead and buy it. It's just as great as everything he's ever written. Ever.
Annie Jones [00:31:02] Did you get to read it? Have you read it?
Olivia [00:31:03] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:31:04] Oh, okay. Is it good?
Olivia [00:31:06] I read it on my e-reader. I didn't have an actual ARC of it, so I couldn't give it to you afterwards. But it is incredible. And I think more along the lines of Recursion than Dark Matter, where I think Recursion had an emotional element to it. And I think that kind of follows the theme in this one. But this one is basically all about genealogical warfare. So, like, our society has figured out how to alter DNA and modify human beings for better or for worse. And you kind of follow this guy, Logan Ramsey, who he works for, it's called the GPA, the Gene Protection Agency, which I think it's just funny because it's also like GPA, like your grade. But Logan is trying to hunt down this big science lab where they're doing all of these experiments that are illegal. And he gets this tip that it's in this one basement type bunker place from this big wig. Think like the mafia of like gene warfare. Like, this is where he's headed. And he goes into this basement only to realize that he triggered a bomb, and this explosion happens. And he's left in the hospital where they think he just has this viral infection that he will go through in a couple of days, he'll be fine. So he goes home at the end and he starts to realize like a week or so later that his perception has become enhanced.
[00:32:43] Like, he notices micro-expressions and he's never been able to beat his daughter in chess. And all of a sudden, he wins every single game. His IQ just spikes off the roof. And then basically the GPA collects him and they're just like, hey, we're going to have to do some more tests. And I can't say too much because I was trying to go off of what was given from the summary. And I don't want to give away spoilers because there is so much that happens in this book that I want to tell you, but I can't tell you. But Logan essentially has to figure out, is this where the human race is supposed to head to these advanced human beings? Or is the human race supposed to advance more naturally? And he's kind of the one person in the position where he gets to decide this. If you've read The Da Vinci Code series, it felt very--Which one was it? Inferno, I think it was. It was so well done because it asks these big questions. As you know, Blake always will ask huge questions.
Annie Jones [00:33:56] Yeah, he's so good about ethical issues, but then it's also just really good action books, if that makes sense. Jordan and I love these.
Olivia [00:34:06] It's science. It's ethics. It's also like philosophical to a certain degree, but then it's also this like family story at the heart of it that you don't know is actually heart warming or not. It's hard to say. I'm still trying to process the whole family thing that happened with Logan, but it is so well done. I highly recommend it and it doesn't go too heavy into science at all.
Annie Jones [00:34:31] Okay, I'm excited about that. I'm mentally trying to decide if I want to read it or listen to it.
Olivia [00:34:37] It was the best one. It was the best. It was really good.
Annie Jones [00:34:40] Okay. Very different, next up for me is a Ladies Guide to Fortune-Hunting. This is by Sophie Irwin. It's out on July 12th. This caught me. I was going through like the Publishers Weekly release dates and trying to figure out like, what books did I want to feature? And this is not one I have read and it is kind of outside genre for me. I feel like I've read a couple books like this and I always feel like, meh, that was fine because they're typically outside my genre. But I'm intrigued by this. And it got so many blurbs. And blurbs aren't everything, but this was a wide range of authors. Taylor Jenkins Reid. And Taylor Jenkins Reid does blurb a lot. But it was just several recognizable names where I was like, oh, maybe I do want to pick this up. So A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting. It's a debut novel, and it's a sassy Regency romance. The main character is Kitty Talbot. Her father has died and has left then her with all of his debts. And so the only way she can think to pay off her dad's debts is to participate in the London season. So like the debutante, I guess, season. So she goes to London and her main goal is to find a man, trap him into not even a real-- like, I guess, a sham marriage so that she can have his money to pay off her dad's debt and to kind of save her family from ruin. So a little bit Jane Austen esq. Apparently, the main character, Kitty, is quite smart and funny and charming and witty and also quite conniving.
[00:36:07] And, of course, there's a man who sees through her and who understands that she is just participating in the season to trap a guy into marriage. And maybe there is some romantic tension there. It sounds really great for people who like Bridgerton and are still riding that wave. The cover is great. I would typically not put this on my TBR just because it's not maybe my standard genre, but I am going to. I think I'm really curious and I kind of like the sounds of Kitty and I'm going to read this. It's called A Ladies Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie Irwin. It's a debut. It's gotten a lot of buzz from other authors. I think the woman who wrote The Princess Diaries, I think Meg Cabot, did a big blurb. Taylor Jenkins Reid did a big blurb. It just there were so many authors championing this work that I thought, well, maybe it'll be worth a shot. And it's a hardback, which is unusual. I feel like a lot of romance novels or rom-coms right now are paperback originals, so I'm intrigued that the publisher decided to go hardback here. And it's nerdy, but I'm kind of curious why. Like, what's the decision making there? So I'm going to read it and find out.
Olivia [00:37:18] Okay. My next one I'm super excited about. This is Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher. I read his first book, A Boy and a Dog at the End of the World back I think it was 2018 when it came out. And I believe it was, if not my number one, it was definitely for sure in my top 10. And a book that I still constantly recommend here at The Bookshelf as well. If you haven't read that book, please go read that book. It is incredible. And this book, I am over halfway through and I actually paused because I just want to give it its time because I'm enjoying it so much and I don't want it to be over. It's one of those slow rolling and I am at the top of the hill about to snowball down. And I'm just excited, but also said that I feel like it's coming to a close so soon. So this takes place on a remote island in the North Atlantic. I'm picturing in my head because it never says specifically, but like off the coast of Greenland type look. This is like present day, though, kids have cell phones, there is technology present. But, oh, I love a good remote island setting so much. And this is a very small knit community of a remote island. And they are all very pleasant people, but they also have their own baggage that they carry with them daily.
[00:38:50] And so far, everything that has happened has been within a 24 hour period, which is another thing I really, really, enjoy. And I honestly didn't realize until halfway through the book where I was like, we still haven't concluded this single day. And so you kind of meet everyone in their normal day life, dealing with their inner battles, dealing with their neighbors, and the constant irritations that happen when you know 10 people on the island that you see daily. But then weird things start to happen. A monument on the island that's been there for hundreds of years gets knocked over and the animals on the island start behaving differently. And at this point in time, this normal day starts slowly folding into like almost this nightmare type thing at night. And this is why I know I am on the brink of this book, just going into pure, unadulterated chaos. And I'm so excited because at this point I'm so attached to the characters, just like I was in A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. I could not let go of those characters. And these characters are also just so well done. I would also like to live on this island without though the weird stuff happening.
Annie Jones [00:40:06] Without the creepy part.
Olivia [00:40:07] I don't know, maybe I can handle it. Who's to say?
Annie Jones [00:40:12] All the reading would have prepared you.
Olivia [00:40:14] Yeah, exactly. And my cats would take care of me, but so far it is excellent. And I highly recommend it. Highly recommend it.
Annie Jones [00:40:23] Okay. My next one is Crying in the Bathroom, which is a great title. This is by Erica L. Sanchez. She is the author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which was a young adult novel that had a really striking cover. The cover of Crying in the Bathroom is Beautiful. This is a memoir told in essay. So she's written fiction before, but this is her first work of nonfiction. And apparently it is laugh out loud funny. She writes about her upbringing. She writes about a lot of things. Though I do just want to say she also writes a lot about dark things. It's very funny, but you should also just know what you're getting into. So if you're wary about any particular kinds of content, she's writing a lot about depression, mental health, abortion, suicidal thoughts, racism. So she kind of runs the gamut and covers a lot of territory, but she does it with insight and humor, which to me makes things very readable and exciting. And I will probably look into this one, but I know some people might be more sensitive readers. I just want to warn those of you who are.
[00:41:26] But it's also uplifting in that Erica Sanchez writes a lot about how she finds salvation in poetry and literature. So she grew up, I believe, as part of the Catholic Church. And at 12, she kind of realizes she doesn't like the Catholic Church. She feels like they don't care about or for women. And so from that point forward, she loses her faith and turns to instead poetry and literature. So I think she's dealing with themes that I find really interesting. And she also talks about motherhood. She's a mom, she's a wife. And so I don't know. I'm just really curious about this. I also am always intrigued by authors like CJ Hauser who do fiction and then they switch over to nonfiction and they do it so well. And so Erica Sanchez is somebody who has done young adult fiction, and now this is an adult memoir in essays. So I'm very curious. It is called Crying in the Bathroom. And it sounds really great.
Olivia [00:42:16] Maybe akin to Crying in H Mart?
Annie Jones [00:42:20] Yes. Side by side. Where can we cry? I actually have [Crosstalk] to do crying titles. Yeah, I love it.
Olivia [00:42:30] Okay. My last book for July is The Witcher by S. Issabel. This is a Y novel, out on July 26th. And this is about a girl named Logan from Canada, but she goes down to Florida because in this town called Hills Ford, Florida, there is this Coven Academy for witches. And she is a new witch. Normally, they get their powers at 13, she got hers at 16. So she's really not great at being a witch. But she joins this coven in hopes of like toughening up and really just immersing herself in this. And then she gets invited to join this exclusive group of girls called the Red Three who are like the top of their skills at the Witch Academy. And they kind of recruit her into their group, and she's not totally sure as to why because, again, she's not great at being a witch. But then you learn in this town that every hunting season, which I believe is like the season surrounding October, it's not made clear. I'm just going off of, like, witch assumptions.
Annie Jones [00:43:46] Witch assumption is my new favorite phrase.
Olivia [00:43:53] So every hunting season, these cursed wolves rise up out of the swamp, and they go and they kill people in the town. It's almost like it's a ritual that happens there. But so the humans that live in this town know that this is going to happen. So they give sacrifices and treasure to witches in order for protection during such time. And so these Red Three, now four-- I don't know if they're going to change their name yet. I'm not that far into the book. But the red quad, they are now trying to be the first witches to break this curse in the town, but they don't realize exactly what they're getting themselves into. It's super good, super dark, very eerie. It gives me, like, Deadly Education vibes but young adult, but probably like a new adult young adult. We all know what I'm talking about. Like, let's take maybe 14 or 15 years older, but the characters are really well done and like right off the bat. Like, I can picture these girls and their personalities in my head. Like, they're very well-constructed characters and I'm really excited for this book.
Annie Jones [00:45:01] Okay. My next and last book for July is Any Other Family by Eleanor Brown. This comes out on July 12th. I recognized Eleanor Brown's name because she wrote a book a few years ago called The Weird Sisters. It was pretty popular I feel like, in my early, early, Bookshelf tenure. And she's also written a book called Light of Paris. But this book sounds really interesting, especially there's a book coming out in August called Mika in Real Life that deals with adoption and adoptive parenting. This sounds interesting. So it's about these, I believe, three Denver, Colorado families, two couples and a single mom. And they wind up adopting four biological siblings. And they have decided to try to keep these biological siblings in very close contact with one another. So even though this is three different families, they try to get together at holidays so that these biological siblings can grow up together still, even though they're being raised now by different parents. And so the goal is to kind of keep these siblings connected. The book winds up becoming about the adoptive mother. So they're all on vacation together. One of them is the single mom who adopted, I think, the oldest kid. So a child in early adolescence. And she's a single mom with like lots of boundaries. She sounds like the Enneagram five of the group where she understands it's important for her child to get together with their other biological siblings. But she doesn't really love the commitment to always getting together with these three families and these women that she doesn't fully understand. And then one of the women is very kind of type A seeming. She's the one who adopted a set of twins, and she kind of coordinates all of these family functions. And then there's another mom.
[00:46:41] So it sounds like kind of each of these moms is supposed to represent maybe a certain kind of personality type or certain type of mothering. And then while they're all on vacation together, they get a call from the birth mom and she is pregnant with another child. And so these three families are trying to decide, what do we do? Like, do we adopt? Does one of us adopt this other child so that they can grow up with their biological siblings? What is our responsibility here? So it just sounds really interesting. I know a lot of adoptive parents and so I am always intrigued by books that address these topics. I hope they're addressed with grace. I have not read this book, but I'm curious about it. I'm curious about the issues that it brings up by the different family dynamics. I as somebody who is drawn to dysfunctional family literature, I'm intrigued by essentially four different families all trying to raise these children who are biologically related, but then all of the parents are not. And so how do those different personalities mesh in the raising of these children? So I'm very curious about it. It sounds to me-- I don't know. I know nothing. I want to preface this. I don't know what movie stars pick as their favorite books, but this seems like a Reese Witherspoon pick situation. It just feels like it could be really popular among book clubs and perhaps, yeah, raise some interesting issues in conversation. So it is called Any Other Family. It's got a beautiful-- I keep talking about covers, but this one's really pretty. It is by Eleanor Brown out on July 12th. Any Other Family.
Olivia [00:48:12] That sounds really good.
Annie Jones [00:48:14] Doesn't it? I'm just intrigued. I am very curious about it. And I do have the ARC, so I may pick it up. Okay. So don't forget, all of the books we talked about today are available for purchase or pre-order on the Bookshelf website, which should look very new and pretty and fun and easy to shop. You can enter NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and get 10% off your order. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com to shop. Thanks, Olivia. This week I'm reading The MidCoast by Adam White. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:48:43] Deadwater by C.A. Fletcher.
Annie Jones [00:48:47] 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.
[00:49:02] 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.
[00:49:17] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C.
[00:49:26] Nicole Marsee. Wendi Jenkins. Laurie Johnson. Kate Johnston Tucker.
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