Episode 387 || August Reading Recap

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie is talking about all the books she read in August. As always, we’re offering an August Reading Recap Bundle, which features Annie’s three favorite books from the month.

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

The books discussed this week include:

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 A Curious Faith by Lore Ferguson Wilbert.

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.

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] "August is, in my mind, the strangest month of the year." Kerry Winfrey. Just Another Love Song.  

[00:00:35] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, I'm recapping the books I read in August. A couple of weekends ago, we hosted our final Reader Retreat of 2022. We were able to host two this year, and it was everything we could have hoped for. We greeted readers and friends from all over the country and introduced them to our small town. We talked about Emma Straub’s This Time Tomorrow and upcoming fall book titles and how to make time for book clubs. You can see photos and videos of our festivities at the Bookshelf's Instagram account. That's @Bookshelftville. It was a joy filled bookish weekend, and we cannot wait to do it again. A lot of people have asked us when we're doing it again, and plans are in the works for three different retreats in 2023. We would love if you could join us.  

[00:01:27] We'll announce dates in three different ways. The first is through Patreon, then through our store newsletter, and finally through Instagram. I will be really honest and tell you we often sell out during the newsletter phase. So we often sell out of spots during that newsletter phase, which means the two best ways for you to find out about reader retreats is through Patreon, by supporting us there, or through signing up for our store newsletter. Patreon members are always going to get first dibs, and you can support us at the $5, $20 or $50 a month level. We notify patrons of retreat dates in order of support, so we'll start with the $50 level, then announced a $20 a month level and then $5 a month. You can visit Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch, to find out more about Patreon perks and to sign up so we can let you know about our next retreat. If Patreon is not in the budget this time, that is totally fine. You can subscribe to our newsletter for free. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and scroll down to the very bottom of the home page and you'll see in the far right a button to subscribe to our newsletter. We'll put a link in the show too, so this is all super easy for you to find. We'll plan to announce 2023 retreats later this fall, so make sure you're subscribed and following us. We would love for you to come be with us in 2023.  

[00:02:52] Now, back to the task at hand. I am recapping the books I read in August. August is notoriously not my favorite month. I've mentioned that so many times here on from the front porch or in my regular real life. But I've really tried to have a better attitude about August this year, I was set back for about a week with COVID, but here we are, and I still was able to read quite a few good books and it was a really nice, quiet month. And I think you can see in my reading this month how I'm transitioning from summer reading into fall reading. This month definitely had both and I kind of think that's what August is. In my corner of the world, August feels soundly off summer. My front door sticks, I cannot get out of my house. But the kids are back in school and locally it feels like we're headed toward fall, even though the temperature does not reflect that at all. So August is kind of this weird month. It's why I love that line from Kerry Winfrey's book. It's just kind of this odd mixture of both things, both seasons. And so maybe there is beauty to be found in August because so much of life is both things. I don't know, maybe I'm getting too philosophical. Let's talk about the first book.  

[00:04:09] So the first book I finished in August, I actually finished at the very end of July, but I wanted to include it here. It's Girls They Write Songs about. This is a book by Carlene Bauer. I first read Carlene Bauer, her book, her debut novel, Frances and Bernard. And I read that back when it first released, probably in 2013. And the reason I remember it so vividly is because I am 85% sure that it was the first advance reader copy I ever received. The first one I ever received and was curious about, and got to read as manager of The Bookshelf back when we had a location in Tallahassee, Florida. So this book holds a special place in my heart. It was an epistolary novel with these fictional letters between Frances and Bernard. And Frances was based on Flannery O'Connor and loosely based on her real life friendship. And so I loved this book and I loved these letters. It still remains a favorite backlist title. We try to keep it in stock at the Bookshelf because I think it's such a special little book. It's not for everyone. It's very much character driven. But that's kind of my history with Carlene Bauer. She's also written a memoir which I bought but have not read. Guilty, just like so many of you, buying books without reading them. So I've got that one on my shelf.  

[00:05:28] But then I saw she had a new book coming out this summer and it's Girls They Write Songs About, set in 1990s New York City. It sounded about as different from Frances and Bernard as you could possibly get. And so I just wasn't sure. I didn't know if I really liked this author. I knew I loved her first book, but I just wasn't sure. And then I picked this one up and immediately fell in love with it, just like I did Frances and Bernard. The writing is so, so, good. So this book is about two friends, Charlotte and Rose, and it's really a book devoted to their friendship. So this is another, in my mind, kind of character driven book. And when I say character driven versus plot driven, I think what I'm really talking about, a lot of character driven books have a lot of plot. A lot of things happen. But for me, when I'm using these descriptors, I think what I'm saying is there's not this plot that leads up to one climactic moment. It doesn't really have the typical pacing of a plot driven book. That's kind of what I mean. So this book is really about Charlotte and Rose. It follows them through the decades. They began as friends in their early twenties, trying to break out in the music scene of the 1990s. A lot like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which was about video games. And I don't care or know anything about video games.  

[00:06:53] This book is about the music scene in Nineties, New York. I know I don't know anything about that. I did not come of age in 1997, New York, but I immediately felt taken there. I could vividly picture everything happening between these two characters, the very rich and vibrant setting of New York. This book, in my mind, is Almost Famous meets My Brilliant Friend. So if you loved the friendship and the pacing of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels, specifically My Brilliant Friend, but you also love maybe the setting, the music of Almost Famous-- I was going to say the female or feminist empowerment. And now I'm, like, I haven't seen Almost Famous in a while. Is that even true? But Girls They Write Songs about is a lot about feminism. It's about motherhood. It's about two women who become dear friends in their early twenties at this very pivotal moment in their lives. And then they continue in their friendship, but their friendship ebbs and flows and changes. And what does that look like and how do you stay friends with people you met when your life looked completely different from the way it looks now? And how do you stay friends when your lives took different paths and different trajectories? It's really a book devoted, I think, to female friendship.  

[00:08:19] And I think it's why I love the book and it's certainly why I compare it to My Brilliant Friends. It's a book that's doing a lot with female friends. And there's another book, actually, that I think would pair beautifully with this that I read later this month, and that will release later this fall. You can just tell that I have a type of book that I really love, and this is one of them. So Girls They Write Songs about by Carlene Bauer is out now. It's got a really great cover too, and I think would be worth trying. I actually hand sold this to a reader named Giselle who was at our Reader Retreat this past weekend. And I hand sold it to her because she was in a reading slump, but she was looking for something that spanned decades. Something that she could read after tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, which I think left a lot of us almost drunk and hung over from how wonderful that book was. And this book is not exactly like that and I don't think is just right for fans of that book. But I do think if the reasons you love that book have to do with the deep and abiding friendship, I think you will like this one. Okay. That's Girls They Write Songs About by Carlene Bauer.  

[00:09:30] Next up, and this was the first book I read in Quarantine, was Flight by Lynn Stegger Strong. This is a book you probably maybe remember me talking about in a previous episode of From the Front Porch, I mentioned it I believe in my episode with Ashley a few weeks ago. But I also mentioned it in my episode I did with Hunter about our favorite books of the year so far. And we briefly discussed what books we were most anticipating for fall. And this was on my list. And I am so, so, grateful because I finally got an ARC. Thank you for sending me an ARC of this book. Thank you to the publisher, because I really wanted to read this one. It sounded so made for me. The book is about a family who has lost their matriarch. Their mother lived in Florida and these adult siblings in upstate New York, the northeast. And they are accustomed to going to Florida every Christmas for their family holiday vacation and their family gathering. And, of course, this year is different because their matriarch is gone. And so they're all kind of hunkering down in this old home up in upstate New York that belongs to one of the siblings wives. And so they all gather together. This is a quiet book and it's a short book. It's not very long at all. But immediately Lynn Steger Strong kind of introduces you to these different couples in this series of vignettes, which I really loved.  

[00:11:05] She introduces each couple or each sibling in this brief kind of two or three page snippets, and then you get the rest of the book. And so you're understanding as the reader is that not only is this family a little bit displaced because they don't have the traditions that they are accustomed to having, and they're trying to recreate some of those traditions in a new place. But they're also primed and ready to discuss their inheritance and to discuss their mother's home in Florida and what's going to happen to that house. And there is immediate tension, obviously. This book reminds me a lot of one of my very favorite Christmas movies, which is the movie The Family Stone. So if you like the Family Stone, I really do think you'll just eat this up. Lin Steger Strong has written two other books, Want and Hold Still. Both which have done well at The Bookshelf, but which I have not read. So this is my first book by this author and I loved it. Again, character driven. This is not super plot driven, although enough happens in this book to certainly keep you turning the page. The chapters are pretty short and I loved all of these siblings. They're so complicated and interesting and they're so well-drawn. When I say character driven, there's not just two people at the heart of this book.  

[00:12:25] There is a wide cast of characters that Lynn Steger Strong has created. And I really did love all of them, even though some of them are awful, you know, even though some of them are not people I'd want to know in real life. Most of them are really sympathetic. And I think all of them, even perhaps the more unlikable ones, are extremely nuanced and very human and real. And I fell in love with this book. Fell in love with these people. This book releases on November 8th. I would encourage you to hold it because I do think it is holiday specific reading. I think you certainly obviously could read it in November. But I love the fact that this might make its way into people's homes right at the holiday season. The cover is great. The story is lovely. Flight by Lynn Steger Strong, out on November 8th. The next book I picked up in quarantine is a book I talked about with my cousin Ashley in the Kids Table episode. I think that was episode 385. This Is The Net Beneath US by Carol Dunbar. This is her debut novel. We talked a little bit about Carol Dunbar, who graciously then somehow finally found the episode. I don't know, do authors use Google alerts? Sometimes I wonder, how do authors find out that we're talking about their books? But Carol Dunbar wrote us the kindest, loveliest email about what it's like to live off the grid. You can hear Ashley and I kind of talk about that and debate that a little bit in episode 385.  

[00:13:53] But The Net Beneath US is a debut novel releases on September 13th, and it is told over the course of a year. I love books that do this. So the book starts in fall and then ends the following fall, which means this is really great seasonal reading as we enter the fall season. And it's set in rural Wisconsin, a young woman named Elsa has two children and a husband, and they live out in rural Wisconsin. Her husband's a logger. He fells trees. He's working really hard to do so in an earth friendly way, in an eco friendly way, in a way that is sustainable for the land. And they have chosen to live off the grid, mostly led by Elsa's husband. But she really has fallen in love with the land and with this lifestyle as well. So that's kind of the premise of the story.  This is not a spoiler, the book immediately opens with a logging accident that immediately puts Elsa's husband's life in danger. And the rest of the novel, seasonably told, is about Elsa trying to figure out can she raise her children and continue to live off the land and off the grid in a way that she thinks would make her husband proud or would fulfill perhaps the promise they made to each other and and would fulfill the the dreams they dreamed together.  

[00:15:22] And so the book is definitely about the land, and it's definitely about Elsa kind of coming into her own. There's some really beautiful nature writing in the book, but there's also this really great writing revolving around Elsa's resilience. And there's an image I have after reading this book of Elsa chopping wood. There's just a lot of scenes kind of of that and how she slowly kind of builds up this muscle memory, this ability to chop wood. But it's almost like while she is growing in those skills and abilities, she's also growing into a stronger person and trying to grieve her husband. So that's the really what the rest of the book is also about. It's not just about Elsa and her children living off the land and trying to build community for themselves. It's also about Elsa coming to terms with her husband's death. So it's also a novel that's being billed a little bit as a novel about resilience and again that really great nature writing. But I think it's also a book about grief. And there are two really lovely characters in the book. Elsie's Husbands I think his parents died when he was younger, but he was raised by an aunt and an uncle who live nearby in neighboring land. And they also are coping with their nephew's death. And they've never had children. And so they are trying to figure out what role they're supposed to play in Elsa's life now that their nephew isn't around to kind of facilitate that relationship.  

[00:16:53] And I almost found one of the characters, the aunt character, to be a lot like Marilla Cuthbert from Anne of Green Gables, if that makes sense to you, if you're an Ann fan. And I just really liked all of these characters, and I liked the decisions these characters made. They're trying to make decisions that you really shouldn't have to make, that you wish you never had to make. And Carol Dunbar treats her characters with such tenderness. I really liked this book. I think it is a pretty good mixture actually of character driven and plot driven. It's not like These Silent Words by Kimmy Cunningham Grant. So These Silent Woods is almost the thriller version or the suspense novel version of The Net Beneath Us. So it's not like that where it's super propulsive and patroning. This is a quieter book, but I think could be enjoyed by a pretty wide range of readers. I'll be interested to see what critical reviews are. I was not able to find really any. This book releases on September 13th. I think it could be potentially good for book clubs. Again, this is called The Net Beneath US by Carol Dunbar. Really great nature writing. A less suspenseful version of These Silent Woods mixed with maybe a Barbara Kingsolver or something like that, if that makes sense.  

[00:18:30] All while I was reading those books, I was listening to Thank You For Listening by Julia Whalen. I chose to listen this as an audio book because Julia Whalen is a beloved audiobook narrator and Thank You For Listening is her newest. I will call it a romance novel because I think that is the most accurate description. But it is a romance novel with an audiobook narrator as the  main protagonist. That is so meta. It was so meta to listen to this book of Julia's that seems to perhaps also be the most personal book of hers. So she wrote another book called My Oxford Year, which came out a few years ago. And I think I've said before on this podcast that I liked that book, but I didn't really love it wasn't quite for me. I'm going to put Thank You For Listening in that same category with some caveats. So the first thing I want you to know is so many people love this book and I know they love it. I talked to them at Reader Retreat. My own fellow Bookshelf staffers as me on staff at The Bookshelf loved this book. She said it was her favorite audiobook she'd listened to all year. So I want to paint a well-rounded picture for you of this book, because even though it's not for me, I do think it will be for a lot of readers. So we try really hard on From the Front Porch to approach books with a good for you, not for me kind of methodology.  

[00:20:02] Meaning not every book I read am I going to love, but that doesn't mean you might not love it. So that's kind of my first caveat going into this review. So Thank You for Listening, I think should be listened to in audiobook format. That is how I read it and I think that's the way it should be done. And maybe I'm biased, I liked Julia Whalen as an audiobook narrator, but also just because of the nature of the book and the subject matter of the book, I think it really does lend itself well to audiobook listening. Here is what I loved about the book. I loved the relationship between our main character, Swanee and her grandmother. I thought that relationship was very realistic. The grandmother character in Swanee's life and in this book struggles with dementia, and Swanee is her primary caregiver. Her dad plays a small role, but it's pretty small. And so Sewanee finds herself trying to care for her grandmother and get her the care that she needs in the assisted living facility that she resides in. I loved that relationship. I thought it was narrated beautifully. Julia Whalen employs eight or nine accents in this audiobook. And that felt a bit much for my personal tastes. But I will say, when I was listening to this book, her voice for the grandmother is so jarring and realistic and is in contrast to Sewanee's narration in such a way that I found it to be really powerful.  

[00:21:31] And I loved-- maybe it's because of my own relationships with my grandparents over the years, but I really did love that storyline quite a bit, and I think it elevates this book some. I think that's why I've seen some readers kind of debate whether or not this is a romance. I very much think that it is, but I can see where the debate comes from because that storyline plays a pretty prominent role and is really lovely. It was one of my favorite parts of the book. My other favorite part of the book was the fact that Swanee, our main character, is an audiobook narrator and you get a lot of really interesting side notes and tidbits about the audiobook industry, about audiobook narration, and how that career looks and what that job looks like. And I find that kind of stuff fascinating. So I loved that part of the book as well. And you can tell obviously that Julia Whalen has a lot of experience with that and that she writes that into the book. There's also a really great author's note at the end of the book that I don't know if you should listen to it or read it first, as sometimes I think you should with author's notes. But I do find that author's notes always leave me with a better appreciation of the work. And that is certainly the case with Julia's author's note at the end of this one.  

[00:22:41] The things I struggled with a bit most were the things that took up the most room in the book. So there's a relationship between Sewanee and she is an audiobook narrator. She has this really romantic encounter with this Irish gentleman in Las Vegas, at a book conference she's attending. And it's this really kind of magical evening that she experiences with this guy, and then she kind of goes back to her life in California. I liked the Los Angeles setting because I'd just been there, so I was fairly familiar with some of what she was talking about and referencing, so I liked that. But anyway, she gets back into her audiobook world and she decides through a series of events to co-narrate a romance book with a male romance narrator named Brock McKnight. I think we all know that Brock McKnight is a stage name. I think that's fairly obvious. I think it's obvious. It's a tongue in cheek joke in the book as well. So basically Sewanee and Brock become friends as they email and kind of banter back and forth to discuss the narration of this audio book they're working on together. That banter was hard for me and I think I don't know if that was because of the narration, which I actually think is a plus for this book. But I struggled a lot with the banter and the cutesyness of it.  

[00:24:06] And Sewanee is a really interesting character and I do think Julia Whalen did a really good job with the character of Sewanee. I found her to be really interesting. I don't want to spoil anything about Sewanee because I think a lot of you will want to read this one. But I will just say that she has a reason for being an audiobook narrator. She started as an actress, and now she's an audiobook narrator and she has a reason for that. And I did think all of that was really interesting. There's almost an element of trauma involved. And so I did think that was well written and well constructed and well imagined. I just didn't like her very much. And I'm not a person who needs to like my characters. You know this. I don't need to like characters in my books. But I struggled with the relationship between Sewanee and Brock and the romance of it all and the cutesyness of it all. And I think what I'm realizing is I'm not the world's best romance reader. And so this book definitely falls into that category of probably not for me, but I think will be for a lot of readers. And a lot of readers have already told me that it is for them and that they love it. So I'll be interested to hear what you all have to say and if you liked it or not. I'm glad I did it. Like, I'm glad that I finished it. But it was not for me. And it's okay. Not every book has to be for every person.  

[00:25:36] Then I picked up Less by Andrew Sean Greer. So you've already heard me discuss this one at length on episode 386 of From the Front Porch. This was our selection for Backlist Book Club for August. Backlist Book Club is a series of podcast episodes that we do about backlist titles. Hunter and I read them together. It's almost like a buddy read. It is a buddy read. It's not almost like a body read. It is a body read. And we read them together and talk about them on the podcast. I'll talk a little bit about Less here in case you missed that episode. But what I want to say about that series of episodes is if you skip those episodes because you're like, oh, I have not read that book or I'm not interested in that book, that's totally fine. You don't have to listen to every episode of From the Front Porch. But if you're skipping it because you're worried about spoilers, I think first of all, Hunter and I give a lot of warnings for spoilers and we kind of try to save any spoilers for the end of our conversation. But I actually think unintentionally, our conversations really, I hope, will only enhance your reading. These are conversations two friends are having about a book that they read, and for the most part, I think this year we've loved them. And I think if you are on the fence about Less, for example, you should go ahead and listen to the episode and let it prompt your reading.  

[00:26:58] I also think they function well. If you've read the book and you want to revisit that book or you want to remind yourself of why you love that book or why you didn't love that book. So I think you could go back and listen to them as accompaniments to your own reading. But I also think they work really well as props for your own reading. So if you've been avoiding them because you're unfamiliar with the books we're talking about, or you haven't read the books we're talking about, I think you might still get something out of them. There's no pressure, obviously. But I did want to mention that because we've had some feedback on Backlist Book Club episodes and kind of what their purposes are. Are they to ignite your own reading? Yes. Are they to have a book club conversation between two people that might inspire your own book club reading? Absolutely. So those are the reasons we do Backlist Book Club episodes. And I think you might enjoy them even if you've not read the book, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Less is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel that came out in 2018, or at least that's when it won the Pulitzer. I started that book back in 2018 and did not like it and did not finish it and fully expected to not enjoy this read but to enjoy talking about it.  

[00:28:04] Because book clubs, I think, always have the opportunity or the possibility of enhancing our reading. And so I really went into this thinking, I'm not going to like this, but I'm going to like talking about it. But, no, I loved this book. I had a blast talking about it. I may even read the sequel. So there's a sequel coming out in September called Less is Lost. That comes out on September 20th. So now's your time, I think, to read this one. If you're like me and you started it a few years ago, maybe didn't like it, or if you never read it, now might be the time to try. The main character is a lovely protagonist named Arthur Less, and he is a kind of middling novelist who decides to take a semi-epic adventure around the globe in hopes of avoiding his ex-boyfriend's wedding.  There are moments where this book could feel farcical, but instead it feels very real and poignant and lovely and charming. I just loved this book a lot. We talked about other books that we might compare it to, other authors that we might compare it to back in Episode 386. But if you've put this one off, maybe try it again. I really, really, liked this book and I'm very glad I read it. That's Less by Andrew Sean Greer.  

[00:29:31] Then I picked up Just Another Love Song by Kerry Winfrey. Kerry Winfrey is a romance author that I really do like because her books do remind me of romantic comedies that I've loved. Something, I think, Thank You for Listening there were funny moments, but it very much to me qualifies as romance. I think Kerry Winfrey's books fall a little bit more in the romantic comedy category. So, anyway, I'm a faithful Kerry Winfrey reader. Lots of our staffers are. We really like her and we like the work that she does. This is her newest one that came out in August. It is a love story between Hank and Sandy. The kind of trope that Kerry Winfrey is playing with in this book is, I think, the second chances trope where Sandy and Hank were high school sweethearts and really, really, loved one another deeply. But Hank had deep aspirations to be a musician. Sandy had her own aspirations of being an artist. But through-- oh gosh, the scholarship woes, I think befell many of us when we were in our senior year of high school. She just couldn't get out of her small town like she wanted to. So Hank goes off to college, goes off, and begins living his dream as a musician. I almost picture him as like a Jason Isbell type. I think Jason Isbell is even briefly mentioned in the book but like this folk-country alt-country singer.  

[00:30:56] And Sandy stays in her small town of Baileyville, where she ultimately takes over a local kind of landscaping business, greenhouse shop. And her parents run the local bed and breakfast. She very much is living kind of that Stars Hollow, small-town life. Here is what I will tell you. Now that I have lived in a small town for almost 10 years, I found Bailey Ville to be the star of Just Another Love Song. And I love that Carrie Winfrey based it on, I believe, her own hometown. And you can kind of see the love and appreciation Carrie Winfrey must have for her hometown that shine through in this book. I. I just kept reading it and thinking, this is someone who knows and understands small towns because there's definitely that Stars Hollow element. But I think we all know that Stars Hollow was a lovely figment of Amy Sherman-Palladino's imagination. There are realistic bits, I think, that are left out of Stars Hollow, and that's fine. It's a TV show. But I think Kerry Winfrey paints so beautifully the camaraderie that exists in a small town, but also the suffocation that can exist there. And Sandy is like this hometown girl and she's Baileyville's Sandy, I think one of the characters in the book describes her as and she kind of is beginning to flinch a little bit and to push against that reputation. And yet she doesn't really know of a way out. And Hank comes back, comes back to Baileyville, comes back for a season. And with him, he has his son, Henry. And so he has been married and now is I don't think this is a spoiler. He's getting divorced and he comes back. And so Sandy and Hank obviously run into each other when she is at her most disheveled and they embark on this reigniting of their friendship, romance, etc.  

[00:32:53] There's a lovely best friend character. I think Kerry Winfrey does a really great job always of these side characters that are fully imagined in their own right and that become really important characters in the book, which I think is the mark of a true and a truly good romantic comedy. And I just loved all these people. I read this book with a smile on my face the whole time. I also will be honest and say that Kerry Winfrey's books I love because I can immediately share them with my mom. And so I like that Kerry Winfrey's romantic comedies are PG and closed door. They're, for the most part, PG-13 closed door. And that is my personal preference. I know it is not everybody's personal preference. I have friends who are laughing at me right now, real-life friends. My friend Kimberly is laughing at me right now and that's totally fine. You are allowed to love your open-door romances go for it. But my personal preference is closed door. So I love that I have an author that I can kind of count on for that. And also like I know my mom will love Just Another Love Song and it's kind of fun to have a book that I can pass on to my mom. So that book is out right now. All of Kerry Winfrey's romantic comedies are paperback originals. If you've never read her before, I do think Just Another Love song would be a lovely place to start now. I love Waiting For Tom Hanks, the first book I read from Kerry Winfrey she'd written young adult novels before. So Waiting for Tom Hanks holds a special place in my heart. But if you've not read Kerry Winfrey's kind of backlist catalog, I think this is a good one to start with because these characters are new. The setting is pretty new, and I think you'll really enjoy it and get a feel for how Kerry Winfrey writes and whether or not her work is for you. So that is Just Another Love Song by Kerry Winfrey.  

[00:34:37] On a very different note, I picked up the book, The Book of Goose by Yijun Li. This is a book that releases later in the year. I think it releases on September 20th. So you don't have to wait too terribly long. But I picked this one up. I will be very transparent. I picked this one up because of the cover. So I was going through the Macmillan catalog and was picking books for fall creating my fall order. And this book just has the most striking cover with geese on the front, as you might can tell from the title. And it got lots of great reviews from my fellow booksellers, and so I immediately requested an ARC kind of begged for one for my gracious rep and she sent it to me and I immediately picked it up truly before a lot of other books because of the cover. Yijun Li is a very recognizable author, and perhaps some of you have already read her other work, so you might recognize her from Where Reasons End. And then I think in 2020 she released a book called Must I Go. We have carried all of these books before, but I have never read them. And so this is my first Yujin Li novel. I do not think it will be my last because I absolutely loved this book. So when I was talking about Girls They Write Songs About. And I said, that's Almost Famous meets My Brilliant Friends. And then I said, there's another book I'm going to talk about that is kind of similar when it talks about friendship. That's this book.  

[00:36:01] So The Book of Goose, I think, will get a lot of comparisons, will garner a lot of comparisons to My Brilliant Friend. It's set in a post-World War II France in kind of this beautiful pastoral landscape, beautiful but gruesome pastoral landscape. And our main characters are Agnes and Fabienne. And I do not know if I'm pronouncing that correctly, because I am sure they are of the French pronunciation. And so I'm so sorry I did not learn French in college or in high school or anywhere. It's so I'm probably butchering those names, but our main characters are Agnes and Fabienne. We meet them. We meet Agnes as an adult. She's kind of narrating, narrating to us readers. And then through her narration, we're really introduced to both Agnes and Fabienne as young children. So they're probably 11 ish years old and they're dear, dear friends, as I think you only can be when you are 11 years old and they have this deep and abiding friendship that Agnes cannot explain. Like as an adult, she cannot explain it. And there's some really. Very accurate depictions and descriptions of childhood friendships and kind of what they look like and why they exist and why some friendships stick and others don't. And I think it's so it's really quite profound, I think, in its descriptions of little girl friendships and little girl relationships. So anyway, they're in their pre-teens and Fabianne is kind of the more adventurous one of the two, and Agnes is maybe the quieter one, but their friendship really works.  

[00:37:41] And Agnes has these two parents who kind of ignore her. She's kind of their last child. They're obviously a family grappling from the aftereffects of war. And then Fabienne is the kind of louder of the two who is being raised by a single father who spends most of the time drunk. They live in this tiny French village. And Agnes goes to school, learns how to read and write. But Fabienne is kind of left to her own devices, and she decides she tells these kind of wickedly good stories to Agnes, and one day says, I think we should write a book. And so they together write the book. Though it is clear that Fabienne is really the creator of the stories and Agnes is really writing them down, though I think perhaps quietly talented in her own right. But Fabienne is the genius. Fabienne is the one with the wild imagination. And they befriends a widowed postmaster, the widowed postmaster in town to kind of help them craft their stories. And so I don't I truly don't want to give most of this book away. What I will say, it's kind of outside genre for me, it's very much historical fiction or feels like historical fiction. It's set in post-World War II France. I love this book. I love this book so much. And as the book progresses, I wondered if I would still love it because it takes some some turns and some plot points that I wasn't sure I was going to be 100 percent on board with. But the writing is exquisite. The writing is just exquisite. And we follow kind of Agnes as her and Fabianne's book garners more attention than they ever realized it would. Let's put it that way.  

[00:39:29] I don't really want to give more than that because I think it's a book that you best dove into knowing little. I knew very. I truly just saw the cover. I saw the cover and I saw that it was very beloved by fellow booksellers, and I thought, I'll try that. And I just found it to be. Just a really, really beautiful work of fiction. If you are a longtime podcast listener or if you have been a shelf subscriber, this very much reminds me of a Lucy book. Like, I finished this. I haven't even told her this yet, but I finished this book and thought, Lucy has to read this book like it is so much a book. I think Lucy would read in love and that may mean nothing to some of you. But I hope for some of you listening, it will resonate with you and make you think, yes, I'm familiar. Yes, I know who Lucy is. I know what her tastes are. This is an Annie and Lucy crossover book. This is a Venn diagram of our tastes. I cannot even quite pinpoint why I loved it so much, but I think it will be in my top 10 of the year. I just found it to be really moving. The chapters are really short. They kind of range in length. But because of that, the pacing kind of whips along like you're moving along at quite a quick pace and it's just another great. It's just a good tribute to the I just feel like words are failing me. It's a beautiful tribute to female friendship. And in that way, it would make a really good pairing with the Girls They Write Songs about, they're very different in storytelling mechanisms. So that is the Book of Goose by Yujin Li.  

[00:41:09] Then I closed out the month with Dinosaurs by Lydia Millett. She's been a finalist for the Booker for the Pulitzer, and I've never read her. And I'm sorry about it because I loved this book so much like Yujin Li I'm a little bit like, do I need to go back? I feel the same way about Andrew Shawn Greer. I don't know how I'm missing these people's backlist titles, but I am. So you may be familiar with Lydia Millett because of the Children's Bible, which is a book my friend Hunter read and loved. I have not read it, though. I'm very tempted after reading Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs does not release until October 11th. It's a short book, much like the Children in terms of length, much like the Children's Bible. But the main character is Gil. And as I was reading, I thought, is Gil the only male protagonist I've ever loved? And that's not true because I read less and Arthur Less is delightful. So I read a lot of books, I think, with male protagonists. But there is something about this main character, Gil, that I really, really like. So Gil is this trust fund kid, except he's a grown adult man, but he's never had to work too much. His parents died when he was young, and he's got this inheritance that has really helped shepherd him through life. And so his life choices have been able to be made with a lot of privilege and a lot of leeway.  

[00:42:30] He is not really bound by what I think a lot of us are bound by. And anyway, when we're introduced to him, he is a man who has walked across country. More or less he's walked from New York to Arizona, where he buys a house next door and the house next door is this half glass kind of monstrosity. So he can kind of see right into this house. And at the time he buys his home, there's no one living in the glass house. And when I say the glass house, I think of that. Do you guys ever see that horror movie? It's very much of a time. It's of the early 2000, but it was popular when I was a senior in high school. Anyway, Gil lives next door to this glass house and soon a family with two kids, including a son, who's about 10 or 11 move in next door and Gil finds himself not creepily. I'd like to state not creepily, but fascinated by this family and by this domestic life that's taking place next door to him. And so he kind of befriends the family and he particularly takes the young 11 year old Tom under his wing. Like they kind of have this really unlikely friendship that I just thought was delightful and so pure. And I'll be forthcoming. I'm in the middle. I'm like three quarters of the way through this right now. I don't think it's going to take a turn into the creepy. But if you're listening to this and you're like, wait a minute, this sounds creepy. It's not. It's really pure and innocent and kind of much needed.  

[00:44:04] Actually, I think this is the way that Gil kind of falls platonically in love with this family and with the kids in this family. So anyway, the book is really about Gil and his relationship with this family, but it's also looking back at Gil's other friendships and other relationships. And I noticed that the blurb on Dinosaurs really only talks about it never even names Gil, which I find fascinating. But it's really about what is good. What does it mean to be good? And that is certainly a theme of the book, which then it's no surprise why I would love it so much. But Gil has these two great friends that he met in New York, and he frequently corresponds with them even though he's living in Arizona. And then throughout it all, Gil is also. So he lives next door to this family. But he also his house backs up to this kind of wildlife preserve and sanctuary. And so he observes birds a lot and that is where the book title gets its name, just in case you're wondering. So the birds that he observes, he kind of fixates on and thinks about birds as dinosaurs and kind of the evolution that takes place there. That has taken place there. This book is, I think, pretty literary, but I also think accessible. So if you've not read Lydia Millett, I think this could be a good place to start. I've not read her either. I don't want to put this one down. I only put it down so that I could record this podcast full disclosure. And I just. I can't wait to finish it today. I just have I've just loved my time with it. It's a thin book. It's not too long. It's about the same length as Flight, the Lin Steger Strong book.  

[00:45:44] But if you're wondering character driven versus plot driven, which we've talked a lot about today, I think this one has a lot that's going on. Like Gil, it weirdly feels like, well, maybe it's just a look at Gil's real, normal life because so much happens to all of us in our real, normal, everyday lives. But Gil has lots of domestic problems and issues and things that he's facing. And we, the reader, get to come along for the ride. And I find it to be eye opening to the issues that go on in our own lives, in the storytelling that we're capable of. I don't know. I just really like this one a lot. It's Dinosaurs by Lydia Millett. I don't have anything to compare it to quite yet. It feels pretty fresh and original to me, which is also really lovely and unusual. So Dinosaurs by Lydia Millett releases on October 11th. Those are the books I read in August, and I think you can tell how I was starting to prep for fall reading and also wrapping up some summer reading. And I'm really pleased with the books that I read this month and I kind of like that a couple of them were outside genre for me and literary fiction feels like something that I loved and adored. And then during the pandemic, it felt very hit or miss. And this is the month where it feels like maybe it's back and maybe I'm enjoying it again, and that feels really good. So if you are in a reading slump or if you also are struggling with the genres you've you've once loved but are struggling with, I guess I just want to tell you that there's light at the end of the tunnel and that you're going to be okay and your reading life is going to be fine.  

[00:47:29] As usual, with our Reading Cap episodes, we are offering a Reading Recap Bundle for August. This month's bundle is $55 and it includes these three books. So Girls They Write Songs About. That's the Carlene Bauer set in 1990s New York. Less, the Pulitzer Prize winning book by Arthur Shawn Greer and Just Another Love Song, the new romantic comedy by Kerry Winfrey. So those three books, $55 in this month's bundle. You can find the August bundle online through the link in our show notes or go to bookshelfthomasville.com. Click or tap podcast and then Shop From The Front Porch. You might also care to know that our From The Front Porch picks are now featured weekly on the store's homepage. So if you go to bookshelfthomasville.com and you scroll down a little, you will see our From The Front Porch picks from this week's episode.  

[00:48:19] This week I'm reading A Curious Faith by Lore Wilbert.  

[00:48:25] 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 Producers(read their own names) [00:48:55] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Kate Johnston Tucker.  

Annie Jones [00:49:07] 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.  

[00:49:25] Or, if you're so inclined, you can support us over on Patreon where we have three levels of support. Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits, like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.  

Annie Jones

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