Episode 388 || September New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, The Bookshelf’s Online Sales Manager Erin joins Annie and Olivia for another New Release Rundown. They’re sharing the September 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 website:
Annie’s list:
On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland
The Net Beneath Us by Carol Dunbar
All That's Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
Less is Lost by Andrew Sean Greer
Olivia’s list:
Learning to Fall by Sally Engelfried
Enigma of Room 622 by Joel Dicker
Billion Dollar Girl by Megan Shull
Odder by Katherine Applegate
The Vanquishers by Kalynn Bayron
The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
Erin’s list:
The Attic Child by Lola Jaye
Ithaca by Claire North
Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoferry
How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water by Angie Cruz
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
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 Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Olivia is reading The Vanquishers by Kalynn Bayron. Erin is reading We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky by Emma Hooper.
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.
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] "People are oftentimes hideous or tedious. Sometimes they are both. So is the world. We would have no use for myths if the world were neither hideous nor tedious." Yiyun Li, The Book of Goose.
[00:00:42] 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 rundown with retail floor manager Olivia Schaefer and hip hip hooray! Online Sales Manager, Erin Fielding. Another session of From the Front Porch Book Club meets this month. Earlier this year we added new levels of support over on Patreon, and for $20 a month, you can become a book club companion.
[00:01:08] This Patreon level includes all the benefits of our $5 tier, plus you get access to our From the Front Porch Book Club. In August, we discussed CJ Hauser's essay collection, The Crane Wife. And this month, Olivia will be hosting a conversation about Margarita Montimore's Acts of Violet. Both books were selections in our Shelf Subscription program and can be found in our online store. Become a $20 a month Patreon supporter to join our book club conversations. This month's meeting is on September 22nd, and we'd love to see you there. Don't forget to as we discuss these titles today. If you purchase or preorder any of the books we talk about, you can enter a NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order. Just go to www.bookshelfthomasville.com Scroll down our homepage to see this week's titles or Click Podcast Fix and New Release Rundown. Hi guys.
Erin [00:02:02] Hello
[00:02:03] Hello.
Annie Jones [00:02:04] Oh, then there were three. We're growing. We're not shrinking. We're opposite of Agatha Christie.
Olivia [00:02:11] We're doing Agatha Christie in reverse.
Annie Jones [00:02:13] Yes, that's right. Hi, Erin.
Erin [00:02:15] Hi. Hello. This is honestly a dream come true to be on the podcast with you guys.
Annie Jones [00:02:21] Yay! This is so exciting. Erin is our online sales manager. If you are an online customer of ours or if you deal with customer service issues, Erin is your go to girl and now she is here on From the Front Porch to help us talk about new releases. Erin, tell us a little bit about your reading life. You're reading genres, what you enjoy, what's your reading tastes? How would you describe it? Elevator pitch it for me.
Erin [00:02:47] I've had to think about this a lot since starting my work at The Bookshelf. But, for me, I just love a well written book with characters who are complex. That's what always really gets me. It's when a character good, bad, villainous hero-- they just have to be well-written. They have to be believable. I like it when dialog is believable. I like it when the plot is believable. I'm a very literal person. And so when things tend to skew towards the mystical, the magical, the unbelievable, I'm a little like, no, thank you. That's not for me. But I really read it across all genres. I love nonfiction. I love fiction. I love sci-fi. I do love mystery. Only when I'm kind of not as partial to as romcoms, I'm finding out. But that's okay. Just not for me. For other people.
Annie Jones [00:03:41] That's right. Good for you. Not for me. I think that's The Bookshelf's tastes mantra. I do feel like I would love to draw a Venn diagram of Erin, Olivia, Annie's tastes because I do feel like there are some books we all three have loved.
Erin [00:03:55] Absolutely.
Annie Jones [00:03:57] And then you mentioned Erin, like when things start to drift to the magical and I literally saw Olivia's face light up at the word magical. I'm so sorry Olivia, but it did.
Olivia [00:04:08] I'm not offended.
Annie Jones [00:04:14] But I thought but you guys also read similarly, like you will often trade book recommendations back and forth. And so I was like, man, how would I draw a Venn diagram? I guess Acts of Violet really is a book that we all three read that might be the last ones.
Erin [00:04:29] We read Wrong Place Wrong Time project [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:04:34] Erin, did you read Sea of Tranquility?
Erin [00:04:36] Not yet. I kept it. Like, I cleared out my ARCs
Olivia [00:04:40] [Crosstalk] Like, I actually don't know if you would love it or not. But Erin and I both really like that one.
Annie Jones [00:04:45] Hunter thinks I'd like it. And I feel like Hunter often steers me straight. He'll be, like, no you can skip that. So I did keep it because I thought, I do want to try that. But as we were talking off air, it's a real numbers game. Like, I finish a backlist title yesterday that I was dying to read and I loved it and I finished it and then promptly was like, well, that was a waste of time.
Erin [00:05:10] Yeah. You feel guilty. You feel guilty.
Annie Jones [00:05:13] Yeah. Got to read a new book. Anyway, Erin, we're so glad to have you. So this is going to be like our typical new release rundowns or roundups depends on the day what or what we decide to call these episodes. So I picked-- gosh, did I pick five or six books let me see.
Olivia [00:05:31] I think you did six.
Annie Jones [00:05:32] I did six. How many did y'all do?
Olivia [00:05:34] I have six.
Erin [00:05:35] I have six also.
Annie Jones [00:05:36] Oh, okay. Good job. And we're going to ignore that that's six, six, six, the number of the devil.
Erin [00:05:50] Olivia has two to mention at the end. So can we can we call it eight? Okay. There you go. That was close.
Annie Jones [00:05:59] Close call. Okay, I'll get us started and then we'll just do Annie, Olivia, Erin. My first selection releases on September six. It's On The Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton. I read this book it feels like many years ago, but it was in fact just a couple of months ago. Margaret Wilkerson Sexton is the author of The Revisioners and A Kind of Freedom, both which were critically acclaimed, well-reviewed, and which I did not read. But when we received the ARC On the Rooftop, I immediately snagged it because it sounded reminiscent of a Brit Bennett style book a little bit. We have four women at the heart of the book. It's a mom and her three daughters. They're living in 1950s San Francisco, and they're living in this black neighborhood that is undergoing perhaps against the residences desires. It is being gentrified. And so the neighborhood is kind of ever changing. But while that landscape is changing, at the heart of the book are these four women and this ambitious mom whose three daughters sing beautifully and are almost like in a temptations style singing group. And so you get these really lovely scenes on the rooftop where they're practicing their singing. That's where the book gets its title from. And then in some clubs in this neighborhood. And the three daughters all feel very differently about their mother's ambitions for them and whether or not they want to continue in the singing group.
[00:07:31] And so the book is told across those four voices, the mothers and her three daughters. And I just loved all of these characters quite a bit. It's a lot of character development if you are plot driven versus character driven or whatever. I think this is probably more character driven, but there is plot happening. Like, these women are making decisions. They're trying to figure out who they're going to become, whether they might disagree with their mother or stand up to their mother or what have you. I also read a review of this book and I didn't realize it until I read the review and I thought, oh, of course, that it is reminiscent also of the broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof, which is a musical that my family loves, that my dad loves. And so there is very much that generational tradition, what does family mean, how are you going to represent our family out in the world? And I love all of those themes. So this book I really, really, loved. It is out on September 6th. I think I've not read her other two, but I think if you're going to try a Margaret Wilkerson section book, I actually think this one might be the most accessible. So I think all of her works are considered literary fiction. But I think this one has a commercial appeal as well. So On the Rooftop by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, out on September 6th.
Olivia [00:08:49] Okay. My first book is a middle grade novel. Actually, a lot of my books today are going to be middle grade novels. This was a fun month for me. This is Learning to Fall by Sally Engelfried. And this is out September 6th as well. And this is her debut novel and I was blown away by it. If anyone has heard me talk about the book Blind Tender or All the Grays on Green Street, it had those vibes where you have this kid kind of going through a hardship to really learn to trust the people around them. But this is about a little girl named Daphne who lives just with her mother, but her mother is about to go to Europe because she just got casted in a big movie. And this is like her make or break moment. So she sends her daughter for the summer to live with her father out in California. But her father hasn't really been a part of her life very much because he was dealing with alcoholism. But he is on their recovery right now and going through those steps where he learns to, like, make amends with people that he may have hurt while he was an alcoholic. And one of those people was Daphne, because he let her down the one time. And so she goes to spend the summer with her dad. And at first she's very hesitant about it, but then they kind of rekindle their relationship through their love of skateboarding, which was a really fun aspect of this book since my husband does know how to skateboard and I know how to scooter.
Annie Jones [00:10:28] Remember that time to you scootered to the bookshelf and then you were, like, it's too hot here to do that.
Olivia [00:10:34] Mistakes were made. But, yeah, this was just a very heartwarming book. I really love the character Daphne. And I loved her father in this book, too, because it was just a very realistic portrayal of someone on the mend. And I will say, for those who are worried about the alcoholism concept of the book, he never once has a drink of alcohol in this entire book. Like, he is doing this the right way and he is taking the correct steps. It was a really, really, good book.
Annie Jones [00:11:09] That sounds really good.
Erin [00:11:10] Okay. My first book is The Attic Child by Lola Jaye. Comes out September the sixth. I listened to the Sun on Libro FM, which I would recommend because it has different narrators, which I always love. Thank you audiobook narrators when you pick different people for different characters. It's written by a British author. She's an author. She's also a psychotherapist and was a foster child herself, which I think is really important to the story. It's sort of two concurrent storylines. It's about Dikembe who's a little boy in Africa and is brought to England sort of in order to pay off some debts that his family has accrued to some British people where he lives. And so he's brought as sort of a servant slash companion to England. This is in like 1903, 1904. And then concurrently, you're also learning about this girl named Laura, who is in Britain in the 1970s. And it's sort of almost like a Cinderella story where like her parents were married, her mother died, her father remarried. And the lady he remarried is like a terrible stepmother, basically, and is abusive. The storyline kind of comes together because Dikembe and Laura both in that locked up in a attic of the same home two different years. And so it's a dark storyline. That sounds terrible. So there is talk of abuse and there's some icky things in there, but it's told really well and it's well-written. And I just really enjoyed it. So Laura is finding all these things that were left by Dikembe in the attic. So she's finding them, she's uncovering the history, she's uncovering his story. And I just thought it was really good.
Annie Jones [00:13:13] That sounds intriguing. Okay. My next one is very different. It is called The Most Likely Club. This is by Elyssa Friedland. I have not read this, but I saw it on the release list for September and I thought, now that sounds like a good time. So this is a paperback original. All of Ellysa Friedland's books are that way. You might recognize her from a book called The Floating Feldman's or the Intermission, or I think most recently Last Summer at the Golden Hotel. And they all kind of have these very comforting covers. They're I feel like a little bit like romcom covers. But these are not romantic comedies. They're like family dramas, paperback originals, staff you can maybe stuff in your beach bag kind of thing. This one sounds fascinating. So the most likely club is about a group of four friends who all graduated in 1997. So I think that will be a fun nostalgia element to this book. I've also seen it almost feels like a trend where I've read a lot of books set in the nineties in the last few months, and I think that's starting to be considered historical fiction and I feel like--
Erin [00:14:15] Not okay.Totally not okay.
Annie Jones [00:14:18] We're starting to see a lot of it. But anyway, these four women graduated in 1997. They're approaching their 25th high school reunion. And I believe they go to their reunion and one of their fellow classmates like announces something or says something, and it causes these four women to really look at their lives. And they all were considered most likely to. So they all receive senior superlatives their senior year, like most likely to join a Forbes 500 company, most likely to-- I think one had to do with food-- win a michelin star. And so they decide to make a pact that they're going to do their best to live into their senior superlatives. And I just think this is such a funny concept, because Jordan and I were just talking about like successes we had in high school. Like, I wish if I could turn back time-- I think I was thinking about this because of Emma's troup book too. If I could turn back time, I would go back to 18 or 17-year-old Annie and kind of tell her, "Hey, none of this really matters. You're doing great. You could have some fun if you wanted." And I had a lot of fun, but my fun was very nerdy fun. And I just want you to know that it doesn't really matter. Like, nobody asks about her GPA. Nobody asks about her senior superlative. Like, no one cares. And so this sounds very fun to me. And I think if it's written well, the premise is really great. So it's called The Most Likely Club by Elyssa Friedland. It's out on September 6th.
Erin [00:15:46] Did either one of you receive a senior superlative in high school?
Olivia [00:15:49] I was just going to ask that.
Annie Jones [00:15:51] I did.
Olivia [00:15:52] You did? What did you get?
Annie Jones [00:15:55] I did actually. And my college was tiny. So in high school and in college.
Olivia [00:16:01] You got two? No continue.
Annie Jones [00:16:09] In high school and in college I got the same superlative most likely to succeed.
Erin [00:16:13] Oh, my gosh. I didn't know that.
Annie Jones [00:16:25] Yeah. Anyway, that's Annie.B.Jones in a nutshell. My friends asked me the other day, Olivia, because we read that Tara Burton book, the World Cannot Give. We read that in book club. And in that book, she, the main character, is obsessed with a work of literature. And they all were like, what book were you obsessed with and would you have like become an advocate for in high school? And I definitely read like Fitzgerald Books, but my quick gut response was the Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens, which I just really took to heart. I was a certain kind of person. It's not even your typical nerd, honestly. It's not even like good grade. It was very much the most likely to succeed versus most intelligent, I really cared more about success, which is gross. Here we are. Olivia, please tell us about you're book.
Olivia [00:17:36] I wanted a senior superlative so bad, but I didn't have enough friends. I wasn't well-known enough. I ghosted my way through high school and college.
Annie Jones [00:17:43] Which one did you want?
Olivia [00:17:45] Probably either to succeed or-- I mean, my high school did like weird ones because it was a performing arts. So they did one based off of like the arts too. I would have loved something about dance, but [Inaudible] we are.
Annie Jones [00:18:03] We're fine. No one's bitter. We we're great.
Olivia [00:18:05] I loved high school. My next book out September 13th is The Enigma of Room 622 by Joel Dicker. This one for me was like Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz meets a murder mystery written by Wes Anderson. I loved it so much because it was also like two books in one. This was a story of Joel, the author, kind of dealing with the death of his publisher that had been working with him for like 15 years. They were really close. So it's him kind of telling his publisher story and how he came to write his his last book, this book essentially. But then in the middle of all this, his book is about this murder mystery that happened in a Swiss hotel in Room 622. And the characters in that part of the story are just so much fun. And truly, if you like Wes Anderson type characters where you're like, okay, this is slightly realistic, but also too quirky to be real, if that makes sense.
Erin [00:19:16] Yes.
Olivia [00:19:17] I loved it so much, mostly because like I'm a huge fan of both those things. Anthony Horowitz and Wes Anderson. This was really my sweet spot, but it also had this heartwarming story of Joel and his publisher running throughout it that I thought it was a really nice touch. This one is out September 13th. I think it might be in my top 10. I really, really, liked it.
Annie Jones [00:19:41] Oh, okay. High praise.
Erin [00:19:42] Okay. My next one I actually haven't read. I will say that, but I'm going based off a couple of things. Keila recommended this book. It's called Ithaca by Clair North. It's coming out September the sixth. It is a retelling of the story of Penelope, who is the wife of Odysseus. So as we all know from ancient-- or maybe we don't know. I don't know what you were taught in your high school. [Crosstalk]. But he goes off on a journey, he's gone forever. Everyone assumes he's dead. And meanwhile, this is sort of the story of Penelope back at home. She's trying to hold together the kingdom, and it's mostly women based which I think will be a fascinating point of view from the women who were left behind to sort of fend off attackers and keep the kingdom going. And at the head of it is Penelope, and her daughter is a character as well. So what I found interesting about this author is that she uses Claire North as a pen name, but her name is actually Catherine Webb. She's also written things under the name Kate Griffin. So if you've ever read anything by any of those people, it's all the same person, which I think is fascinating. I'm always here for a good retelling of, like, a Greek-- like, bringing a myth, a Greek myth, and things like that. Should be good.
Annie Jones [00:21:08] That does sound good. And I am curious of the-- I do think it's so valuable to like look at the women's perspective and get that story because for so long we're just told one side of the story. So that'll be good. My next one is one I've talked about a lot, so I won't talk about it too much here today, but it is called The Net Beneath Us. This is by Carol Dunbar. This is her debut novel. She is actually a woman who is living off the grid with her family in rural Wisconsin. And this book is set in rural Wisconsin. And the main character, Elsa, is trying to decide if she's going to continue living off the grid after her husband's tragic accident. So her husband and she moved out there. They decide to raise their kids out in kind of the woods of rural Wisconsin, where he was raised. And he is in a lumber accident. And she really has to now decide, like, can she do this on her own? Can she raise her children? Can she finish building the house? It's set over the course of a year. I love books that are set and you get one section in fall-- like, it's told seasonally. And the nature writing is great, which I would have certainly expected, where you get to see Wisconsin in fall, winter, spring and summer. But really to me, the star of the story is Elsa, who's the main character, and an uncle who helped raise him. They're essentially her in-laws, more or less, but they are very Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert vibes from Anne of Green Gables. Like, they're just kind of-- especially the woman's kind of this tough Wisconsin woman and she doesn't think Elsa knows what she's doing. And so there's some tension there while they're all grieving their loss of this person they love. And so the book is about living off the land, I guess, which is certainly what I thought it was going to be about. But it's also even more, I think, about grief and coping and family and what that looks like, perhaps in an element different from what it looks like living on the grid in a different city. So I really liked this book. I thought it was great. I was surprised it was the debut. The writing is really lovely as well. It's The Net Beneath US by Carol Dunbar, and that is out on September 13th.
Olivia [00:23:26] Okay. Speaking of off the grid living [Crosstalk]. But my next book is another middle grade novel. This is Billion Dollar Girl by Megan Shull. And it's out September 13th as well. And this is about a little girl named River Ryland. She's 13. And like I was, she was five foot nine at 13. So she just appears a lot older. The struggle is real. Everyone who ever was five foot nine at age 13. I'm so sorry. I hope you also grew into it. But River lives with her mother. She's never met her father. She's never met any of her mother's family. And her mother had her when she was a teenager. So it's a pretty neglectful living. River just eats cold ramen packets for dinner. Like, it's not great. And the principal is starting to notice that it's not great. And so she goes to her house after school one day because this is like the last day of school. She wants to make sure River is safe for the summer. And when River gets home before the principal gets there, there's an eviction notice on there. The locks are changed so she can't get into her house. So everything just starts to spiral right in front of River. But River breaks in by going through the back window of the house. And she finds an address for one of her mother's sisters. So she takes this bus ride by herself and goes to this island. I think it's off the west coast of the United States of America. I wasn't totally clear whether it's like California, Oregon or Washington area, but it's this island where her mother's family lives there and it's completely off the grid. There's like no electricity. They live off of the land, they take care of the land, and she starts to meet her family. But she doesn't tell them that it's her. She pretends to be an intern for the summer, helping out with like the guests who come in. But as we all know, everything starts to entangle itself together and River kind of has to come clean about some stuff. It was such a good book. Like, you're hanging on pretty much every moment because you're so obsessed with River and you want to see her through this. I put it like Akin to Echo Mountain by Lauren Wilke. It's such a great character running through the whole thing, and I loved her family and the resolution in the end was incredible. So that's Billion Dollar Girl by Meghan Shull.
Erin [00:26:07] My next book is Back to the Garden by Laurie R. King. It comes out also September six. That's going to be a big day for releases. This author has written a lot of other mystery type novels. She has a character called Mary Russell, she's sort of a Sherlock Holmes type detective. This one is a departure from that. It is set in California like around this San Francisco area. And there's a huge estate. And the man who owns it is this reclusive billionaire. And he's letting them use that as an art museum. Nobody can find him. And one day they go to move a statue and they discover human remains below the statue. So, of course, this detective is named Raquel Lang, and she's working to uncover-- like, they think it could be from a serial killer that was active back in the seventies. And that was sort of like when the estate was being used by this recluse for sort of like hippie love, almost cult like activities. And so they're trying to figure out, like, was it an accident or was it someone killed by a serial killer? And in the same time, they're also trying to find this man who's just gone off the grid. Speaking of, I think he's gone off the grid again. And they're looking for him to try to see was he involved. It's just really good. If you really enjoy this sort of cold case type books, I would recommend this one. This is pretty good.
Olivia [00:27:43] This is fiction?
Erin [00:27:44] Yeah, it is fiction.
Olivia [00:27:52] [Crosstalk] I'm on board. I love it.
Annie Jones [00:27:55] Did you see what I love? I don't know if they'll set this clip apart, but me and Olivia, like, our eyebrows both went up when you were like serial killers. Or you said the remains behind the statue. We're both like, oh, tell us more.
Olivia [00:28:09] Oh, do tell.
Annie Jones [00:28:10] I guess that's the Venn diagram. Dead remains.
Erin [00:28:14] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:28:19] My next one actually I do think this would be a book that we all might enjoy, actually speaking of. So it's called All That's Left Unsaid. This is by Tracy Lien. It comes out on September 13th. I'm listening to this one on Libro FM.
Erin [00:28:35] I started listening to that one.
Annie Jones [00:28:37] The audio was great, I think.
Erin [00:28:38] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:28:39] Okay. So the audio was great because I did not know this going in. I really knew nothing about this book. I just downloaded it from Libro because it looked interesting. But anyway, the author is Australian and it's another debut novel, great on audio. It is about a family of Vietnamese refugees in Australia in the nineties. So again, kind of that nostalgia factor. And I know nothing about the history of Australia. I really don't know much about the history of Vietnam and so I find all of that kind of being woven into the story in a really interesting way. The book itself is about Ky. Ky has a younger brother named Danny and I feel like I want to say it in Australian accent because that's what I've been hearing this whole time
Erin [00:29:23] Do it
Annie Jones [00:29:25] But anyway, so Ky is the older sister and she's living away from home and her parents call her and they're very kind of traditional Vietnamese parents and they call her and tell her that her brother has died. And so she rushes home and finds out that her brother was murdered at a restaurant in view of a lot of people. But for some reason, no one knows who killed him, supposedly. And so Ky is a journalist and she's, like, I need to help the police with this case because the Vietnamese refugees are not being honest with the police, they don't trust the police here in Australia. And so the only way I can find out what happened to my brother is by being a detective for him. And so what results is so far like alternating chapters of the different interviews that Ky conducts trying to figure out what happened to her brother. It feels a little bit like the book Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I feel like I make that comp a lot, but there are quite a few books I feel like that are reminiscent of that. But then you also have this history of Australia, history of Vietnam, Vietnamese refugees in that country, which I did not know very much about. And so that has been a really interesting part of the story. And then it's a brother-sister story, which I always really love. And it's about this older sister trying to figure out what happened to her parents. And then also it's like first generation versus second generation immigrants trying to-- like her parents didn't want an autopsy because of their beliefs. And an autopsy would have helped figure out the cause of death. And so there's just all kinds of little things that I thought made the story really true to life and complicated and nuanced in a way that I wasn't anticipating. So I really like it. I've not finished it. But it is called All That's Left Unsaid by Tracy Lien on september 13th.
Olivia [00:31:24] Is it like written in interview style?
Annie Jones [00:31:26] It's not written in an interview style, but at least in the audio book. Like, for example, one of the chapters all of a sudden is narrated by a child and you're like, what is happening? But it was a classmate of Danny's. And so it's told from that person's perspective. Then the next chapter is told from a teacher's perspective. So it's not interview style, but each of the people she's interviewing, it's their point of view. And they all talk about this Vietnamese sister coming to ask them questions. So anyway, it makes for really interesting audiobook narration, but also just really interesting storytelling.
Olivia [00:32:07] That does sound good. Okay. On a different note, this next book is called Odder by Katherine Applegate. It's out September 20th. That's the author of like One and Only Bob and One and Only Ivan. And I think she had another one last year that I can't remember right now, but that I also really enjoyed. She does really great books about animals, and this one is no different. This is about a little otter. And the title is called Odder, but it's about an otter.
Annie Jones [00:32:37] Adorable already.
Olivia [00:32:40] I it basically has adorable written all over it, but what's really cool is it's actually based off of research about otters that the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California has conducted. So some of the otters, this is their story but she just changed their name a little bit protecting the otters identity.
Erin [00:33:04] They are very private animals.
Olivia [00:33:09] But this is about Otter, who at first he gets separated by his mom when she goes fishing. And the Monterey Bay Aquarium helps him out, rehabilitates him and gets him back into the wild. But then Otter is like out there playing with his friend and there's a shark attack. But sharks don't eat otters. Everyone calm down. I saw your faces. They don't eat otters. They don't like the fur. There's no blubber. So he gets bit by a shark, but the shark immediately releases him. And then the Monterey Bay Aquarium comes back and catches Otter and helps him heal and whatnot, gives him space away from the wild ocean to heal. But then his best friend shows up and his best friend bring in a baby otter for this otter to, like, start to mother and like nurse back so they can put it back in the ocean. It's just a really cute story. It's written all in verse. There's little illustrations throughout. I read it in one sitting because it was so cute. But I loved it so much. Catherine Applegate, I think is a great author to follow, especially if your children are into animals. And this one, especially since it has a realistic side to it, I think and the fact it gives more information about the otters in the book as well.
Annie Jones [00:34:28] Oh, that's great. I would have loved that as a kid.
Erin [00:34:33] That sounds adorable. My next one is a series of short stories. It's called If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery. It also comes out September the sixth. I really love this one. It is about a Jamaican family who moves to Miami to escape some political unrest in their home. They are immigrants and they face a lot of opposition from everyone. From whites for being black, from blacks, for not being black enough. It's basically a mom and a dad and their two teenage young adult sons. And then there's another cousin who kind of features into the stories. And all the stories are separate, but they're all connected because they're a part of this family. So it's kind of showing how their son is the one that although the parents keep experiencing difficulties, the one brother kind of keeps getting into these get rich schemes to try to make money. This one younger brother named Trelawny is the one that sort of holds the family together and keeps everyone grounded. And it's humorous. I mean, they do talk about stuff that's deep, like racism and immigration and things like that. But it's just funny and it's just a lovely look at a family, even though the family's sort of falling apart. And how hard Trelawney tries to keep them together and the heartbreak that comes when you fail at keeping your family together. But I thought it was really, really good. This is his debut book, which I'm amazed by, but it just kind of shows America from the perspective of an immigrant, which I always enjoy that perspective, seeing your own country through the eyes of someone new. So I really liked it.
Annie Jones [00:36:24] Did you listen to that, Erin, or did you read?
Erin [00:36:26] No, I read it. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:36:28] That's the book I started last night. And it's really good. The writing is really good. You're kind of hooked immediately.
Erin [00:36:35] Exactly.
Annie Jones [00:36:36] I'm worried some readers are going to be like, oh, short story is not for me. But they're connected. And so it doesn't feel like a short story collection.
Erin [00:36:43] I wouldn't even call them short stories. I would have called it a novel, but the way it's told is in a series of short stories. So you do kind of jump from perspective to perspective, but they're all tied together. So, yeah, I wouldn't be put off if you don't like short stories. I think this will be well liked by people who just enjoy a good novel.
Annie Jones [00:37:04] Okay. My next one is going to be in my top 10, top five top book-- I don't know, it's going to be up there-- of the year, which is the Book of Goose. This is by Yiyun Li. I read a quote from this book at the top of the episode. This book releases on September 20th. I wrote in the notes why is this book so good in all capital letters. Because I was, like, how am I going to explain this to people? If you are a long time podcast listener or bookshelf supporter, to me this is an Annie- Lucy hybrid. I immediately finished this one and told Lucy she needed to read it because I think it's very much in her wheelhouse. But basically the book is about Agnes and Fabienne. I'm not sure how to pronounce those. They are two French young women living in post-World War Two France. The book is told from Agnes's perspective in her adulthood. And just so she is looking back on her childhood and her childhood friendship with this young girl named Fabienne. And basically, I don't want to give too terribly much away. It reminds me a lot of Elena Ferrante is My Brilliant Friend book. But basically these two girls are living in the French countryside and Fabienne is a bit of a troublemaker, a bit of a scamp. And she tells Agnes that she thinks they should write a book. And Agnes is the one who goes to school and so she writes what Fabienne kind of tells her. And Fabienne kind of creates these gruesome, fantastical stories about their French village.
[00:38:33] And they befriend the local postmaster. And the book winds up becoming published. And Agnes is selected as the writer. So no one knows that Fabienne actually created all these stories, and Agnes just wrote them down. And so there's just adult Agnes kind of looking back on this and why this happened and why she and Fabienne were even friends. It's a lot about childhood friendship and who you kind of gravitate towards and would you still be friends with them if you met in adulthood. And then why they chose to kind of live this lie and the consequences of this lie. So the consequences for Agnes and the consequences for Fabienne. I thought it was so, so good. The chapters are really short, which I think contributed to my ability to read it fairly quickly because it's a book that I think you can really get lost in. I adored it. It felt outside my typical genre because it's a little bit more historical fiction. But the themes are themes that I really love. There's a lot about creativity and the writing life, and again, lots of thoughtfulness about friendship that I really loved. And the cover, ya'll, I don't know why I love it so much. It's just the most beautiful thing. It's like a work of art. So this is the Book of Goose. It's out on September 20th. I love this book.
Olivia [00:39:52] Is the book they write called The Book of Goose. Where does the goose come in?
Annie Jones [00:39:58] I don't want to spoil things, but geese play a role.
Olivia [00:40:03] Okay, got you. I'm going to love that book just because I have a cat named Goose. And then every time you say it, I just go "It's a book about my cat."
Annie Jones [00:40:12] You should buy it and put it on a book stand in your home, like on your mantel.
Erin [00:40:16] You should read it to him.
Olivia [00:40:19] I think. Really great picture in my head. Okay. On a very different note, my next middle grade book is called The Vanquishers by Kalynn Baryon. This is out September 20th, and this is about a group of kids living in a world after all of the vampires were vanquished from their town. But it's really fun. I'm like three fourths of the way through it right now, and I slowed myself down because I'm just enjoying it a lot. This is her middle grade debut. She's written a why fantasy series before this. I think it started with This Wicked Fate. If anyone is familiar with that, I did not get a chance to read it. But this is about three best friends Malika, Cedric and Jules, who they all live in, like the same little cul de sac. And their parents are best friends, but their parents were around when the vampires got vanquished. One of the vanquishers, the people who killed off the vampires was like I think it was Jules's grandmother was one of the big vanquishers. So like, she's kind of infamous in that way.
[00:41:31] But these three kids are kind of like the uncool kids at school because their parents still like vampire proof their house and they have to be in before dark and like they still have a lot of rules because of said situation. And then a new kid, Aaron, moves into town, into their cul de sac and they start hanging out with Aaron. And then one day at a skating rink, a party for the school, Aaron goes missing and everyone starts to think that the vampires are back and these three kids try to figure out what's going on. It's a lot of fun. The book is just is really great. There's a lot of respect for the children and their thoughts in this book that I really appreciated. Some people don't take them too seriously, but you can tell they're actually on the right path of things. I don't know how to better explain that. I just really appreciated the writing in this book and I've enjoyed it a lot.
Annie Jones [00:42:24] What's that kids book series about zombies? Last Kids On Earth.
Olivia [00:42:29] Last Kids On Earth. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:42:30] Were those people like this?
Olivia [00:42:31] Absolutely. I think this would be like the next step up from that. There's a lot of pictures in that book and there are no pictures in this one. But I think the plot would keep them contained.
Annie Jones [00:42:42] Okay, good.
Erin [00:42:44] Okay. My next book is How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water, which I just love that title. It's by an author named Angie Cruz. This one comes out September the 13th. It is fiction. It's about a lady named Cara Romero. She is from the Dominican Republic and she's currently living in Washington Heights, like the Washington Heights. And like in the Heights. That's right. But she, the whole book is basically her. Her story is told in the format of her going on job interviews, talking to people. Like it's sort of like a staffing agency doing interviews with them. So it's all from her perspective, it's like you're only hearing her side of the conversation, but at times she'll stop and almost like answer the person, but like you don't hear the question. So I just found that really cool. That was a cool way to tell a story. And it's some of the chapters are like job applications. And so you're finding out more information about her through her filling out these job applications. So the whole story, it's like sitting, it's like she's sitting in this person's office and she's just telling them her life story and they're kind of like, yeah, let's get back to the job application, you know? But it's so fun because she is just telling her story about her. She tells about her sister, about her son, about all these working jobs she's had and these working conditions and living as an immigrant in America again. There's that theme again. But it is it's just funny. She's sassy. She also uses a lot of Spanish, which I love. I've been taking Spanish for the past three years, and so I loved to try and I know. Side note.
Annie Jones [00:44:28] It is so complicated. I love it.
Erin [00:44:32] I love being able to know what she was saying in Spanish without having to look it up. But it's not so much that if you didn't know Spanish, you wouldn't understand the book. Like, it's just kind of those little fun little nugget for me to find. But it's not very long. It's kind of a short it's a short book. So I think you just fall in love immediately with this lady, like, you know who this lady is in the first chapter, and you cannot wait to get to know her better. And I found it very humorous and very heartwarming and I really enjoyed it.
Annie Jones [00:45:06] That's good. I have that. I literally have that one. I'm looking at it over here. It's one of the books I'm hoping to read.
Erin [00:45:11] It's good books. You're hoping to read.
Annie Jones [00:45:16] One of those that I'm hoping to talk about today. Okay. My last one is Less Is Lost. This is by Andrew Shawn Greer. It's out on September 20th. Again, I feel like I've talked about this one quite a bit just in recent podcast episodes, but Hunter and I read Less, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel from 2018. We read that this year for a backlist book club episode of From the Front Porch, and I did not. This was totally serendipitous. We recorded that episode and in preparation for it I realized, the sequel is coming out this fall, which before had not super been on my radar. Because when I first tried to read Less back in 2018, I didn't like it very much. And you can hear kind of all about that on that other episode of the podcast, but this is the sequel. It is called Less is Lost. I will be honest, I don't I'm not always a huge fan of sequels like I think, Erin, you're going to talk about some sequels that they're the only sequels I really believe in but Less is back his this is Arthur Less he's kind of a quirky middle aged gay writer and he and his boyfriends have been together for a few months. So the book is set just a few months after Less ends. And so the book Less is kind of about a global journey that Arthur Less takes. This is a cross-country American journey. So I almost thought about the book Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck or something like that. It's like a road trip novel set across America, which I do think will be interesting because Arthur Less is a very funny character and hijinks ensue wherever he goes. So I do think this will be interesting. I don't know the book and it's Less ended so beautifully. The part of me is very much like, just leave those characters where we left them. That was a lovely way to end. But if you're interested in a sequel it is releasing on September 20th. The reviews have been okay. Like I don't think it's going to be another perhaps Pulitzer winner, but I think if you liked Less, you will probably also like this because the character is the same and his personality is the same, so Less Is Lost by Andrew Shawn Greer, out on September 20th.
Erin [00:47:26] Have you heard whispers that this could be more of a series or do you think this will really be the last one?
Annie Jones [00:47:31] I think this will be it because of the reviews are fine. Yeah, I so I think this is going to be it. I'm so curious. I can't wait to hear. I'm sure Andrew Shawn Greer will make the rounds in interviews, and I'd love to hear why. I mean, of course, there's the obvious. Well, the first one was successful, so I might as well right a second one. But I'm just curious, as a writer and a creator, as an artist, did he want more of Less? Did he want more of that? Yeah. Did he want more of that character? So I'm just curious to kind of see the impetus behind it.
Olivia [00:48:09] Okay. My last one is a middle grade novel. This is for sure 10, 11 and up. But this is The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander out September 27th. And this is the first of a trilogy that he is writing. Kwame Alexander is really known for writing in verse. And in my very humble opinion, he wrote Crossover and Booked, which was a series. And then he also wrote Becoming Muhammad Ali with James Patterson, which I thought was a really great middle grade book. This one is super interesting. This follows a boy, Kofi, who lives in Africa at the time where Africans are starting to be taken and made into slaves in America. You first meet Koffi going to school and just living his everyday life, talking to his best friend, hanging out with his brother. He makes a, he gets into a competition with his cousin to see who's the fastest swimmer. He is just a little boy living his life. And then him and his brother get taken. And there's some definite hardships in there that make for why I say 10 and up. I think this is perfect for kids who love like Alan Gratz's Allies and Ground Zero and those sort of books too, who want to know more about the history of certain situations and are prepared for what they are about to find out. Hopefully I have given that forewarning. But I do think this book for adults and kids both is a necessary read. This follows Kofi as he is taken into slavery and you leave him off as he is looking upon the shores of America on a ship that he is boarded. It is so beautiful. Again, it's written in verse and I think Kwame Alexander does that so well. And I do love books written in verse. I mean, Honor was also written in verse. And I think it adds a level of seriousness to it, but also takes away a little bit from the trauma of the situation, which is probably necessary in a book like this written for children. But it was so well done. I'm really excited for the sequel and then the ending. This was tThe Door of No Return by Kwami Alexander.
Annie Jones [00:50:32] And it's going to be a trilogy, you said?
Olivia [00:50:33] Yes. Yeah, a trilogy.
Erin [00:50:35] I have that one on my list of like audio books to listen to, so I'll have to let you know.
Olivia [00:50:40] A good audio.
Annie Jones [00:50:41] I googled it too.
Erin [00:50:41] Yeah, I think that sounds fascinating. My last one is Lucy By the Sea by Elizabeth Strout. It comes out September the 20th. This is about Elizabeth's character, Lucy Barton, who has been featured in other books, as well as her ex-husband, William, who has also been featured in other books. So it is set during the pandemic and it almost feels like to true to life. Like if I didn't know it was a fiction, a fictional book about a fictional character, it's very realistic in the sense that they start to hear about the pandemic in the book. And her ex-husband, William, says, I think is going to get pretty serious. We should probably go and live in my friend's cabin in Maine. So even though they're not together, they do have two grown daughters together and they are friendly. So they go and live in this cabin up in Maine to sort of protect themselves from the virus. And they are living in a literal bubble on this. I mean, they are it's just the two of them. They don't have any activities except for what they can do that keeps them alone, which is like walking, sitting, reading, talking, things like that. And so this it feels so intimate because it's just about them and what they're going through and their feelings about the pandemic. And it creates this sense of vulnerability that they both start sharing secrets and they talk about their past.
[00:52:07] William cheated on her multiple times and is sort of they sort they're able to just talk about these things that would normally be taboo, but because they're stuck together, they kind of just figure like, why not? We should just talk about these things, get them out in the open. And meanwhile, their adult daughters, their lives are also kind of changing because of the pandemic and things are happening there. So it was so beautiful to me. I think I told someone it felt like a quiet novel. It was just so focused on the relationship between Lucy and William and their daughters. And the pandemic was almost itself a character in this book. But I just found it so enjoyable to just kind of read about someone's inner thoughts, about their relationship, about how they dealt with the pandemic. It was a little bit triggering to read about the pandemic when it feels like it was, like feels like we're just kind of coming out of it and it just felt like kind of jumping back into those same emotions that we all had during that time. But if that's not a thing that is triggering for you, then I definitely think if you have enjoyed Elizabeth Strout's other books, you will also find this one very good.
Annie Jones [00:53:16] I'm so excited about that one. I like I feel like I rarely get her books in ARC format. So like I get a lot of joy when they come in and I get to buy it like a normal. Like a normal store and I get to take it home. Yeah. Olivia, you had a couple of books that were parts of series that you were just going to mention, I think.
Olivia [00:53:37] Yes. Just very quickly, I don't want to go into plot because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone. But I want them to know it's coming out this month on September 13th, the sequel to Once Upon a Broken Heart, which is the spinoff series of Stephanie Garber's Caraval. The sequel comes out, I read it over vacation. It was incredible. Probably one of the very few romance series that I will read. And then the final in the trilogy, The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik, comes out September 27th, and that is the Golden Enclave's I have not gotten an arc or an e galley of this, so I am anxiously awaiting the release so I can finish the series that I really, really loved.
Annie Jones [00:54:19] Good. I saw that one in the catalog and thought of you.
Olivia [00:54:21] I'm so excited.
Annie Jones [00:54:23] Yay! Thank you. Also, y'all, that's a lot of books in September and we barely scratched the surface there is so much coming out.
Erin [00:54:32] Yeah, get ready. Get ready people.
Olivia [00:54:36] [Inaudible] Just all the books missing.
Annie Jones [00:54:37] Yes because there are so many. It was so hard to narrow it down, and I just try to tell myself people want us to narrow it down for them. I just keep telling myself people like this, they want it to help them with decision fatigue because you feel a little guilty for leaving books off, like for not mentioning all the books. But there are lots of books coming out in September. Get your pocket books and your library holds ready because a lot of books are coming in. And it was a delight to have you. Thank you for joining us. I think you'll be back, right?
Erin [00:55:08] Thank you. Absolutely, any time.
Annie Jones [00:55:11] Yes. We're hopeful that this will become a regular-- what's a different word from threesome?
Olivia [00:55:18] I was like where's she's going with this?
Erin [00:55:24] Triplets.
Olivia [00:55:26] A trio. A trio.
Annie Jones [00:55:28] That was right. That was it. We hope this will become a regular trio for you. Don't forget one last reminder that if you purchase or pre order any of the titles we talked about today, you can go to the bookshelfthomasville.com. It's just bookshelfthomasville.com. And you can tap podcast, shop From the Front Porch and you'll see all today's titles and then use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and that'll get you 10% off your order.
[00:55:58] This week I'm reading Everything Sad is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:56:04] I am finishing up The Vanquishers by Kaylnn Bayron.
Olivia [00:56:08] Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:56:10] I just started to listen to We Should Not Be Afraid of the Sky by Emma Hooper.
Annie Jones [00:56:16] 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 at @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) [00:56:46] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler, Angie Erickson, Cammy Tidwell. Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Kate Johnston Tucker.
Annie Jones [00:56:59] 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.
[00:57:17] 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.