Episode 445 || New Release Rundown: October
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Olivia, and Erin are sharing the October releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR.
When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (type “Episode 441” into the search bar and tap enter to easily find the books mentioned in this episode):
Annie's books:
Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways by Brittany Means
Heirloom Rooms by Erin Napier
Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward (10/24)
Olivia's books:
The Bell in the Fog by Lev AC Rosen (10/10)
Distant Sons by Tim Johnston (10/17)
Juniper’s Christmas by Eoin Colfer (10/31)
Erin's books:
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young (10/17)
The Berry Pickers by Alison Peters (10/31)
Absolution by Alice McDermott (10/31)
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia! If it’s time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we’re exactly what you’re looking for! You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There’s no better getaway than Thomasville! Whether you live close by or are passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia – it’s worth the trip! Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
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 Penance by Eliza Clark. Olivia is reading Forever Twelve by Stacy McAnulty. Erin is reading The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. 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...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“‘Mama Aza always told my mama she should talk when she was gathering,’ I told Safi as I stooped and dug. ‘That everything, the creatures and spirits and animals, just wanted to be spoken to. Want you to open your mouth and say thank you, or hello. Said it was like calling to like.’” - Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I’m joined by Bookshelf operations manager Olivia and online sales manager Erin to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in October. Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? Spread the word by leaving a review on Apple podcasts. 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. Here’s a recent review from Amanda:
Books - mostly new releases with some delightful banter This podcast with Annie is my favorite book podcast because it’s conversational banter mainly with host Annie along with her rotating regulars. I prefer this style because podcasts with one-time guest interviews can become so tedious with time spent on the thanks for the guest being there, covering the guest bio, and then the high likelihood of off-topic questions and answers. I much prefer a host and some repeat guests (sidekicks) that I get to know over time. Such great coverage of new releases and book adjacent topics. You will also get some insights into life in the south. If you find you love it, consider joining patreon for extra content.
Thank you, Amanda! I love our rotating guests and co-hosts, too! Thank you to all of the reviewers who’ve left kind words and thoughtful reviews about the show. We’re so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends; thanks for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore. (And for more information about Patreon, you can head to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.)
Annie Jones [00:02:21] Now back to the show. Hi, guys.
Olivia [00:02:23] Hey.
Erin [00:02:24] Hello.
Annie Jones [00:02:25] Welcome back. Y'all, we're here to talk about October releases.
Olivia [00:02:30] Yay!
Erin [00:02:30] I know. I love it. It's actually fall here in Thomasville, which makes me feel so happy about reading these fall books.
Annie Jones [00:02:38] Yes. It's a true change in attitude. I feel like my front door opens and closes no problem. I walk outside and my glasses don't fog. Yeah, it is how I mark time.
Olivia [00:02:49] I almost texted you guys on my way to work the other day because it was 63 degrees.
Erin [00:02:53] Yeah. Look, I'm wearing long sleeves.
Olivia [00:02:56] I'm wearing a [inaudible]. Guys, it has pocket.
Erin [00:02:59] Wow.
Annie Jones [00:03:01] I love it so much. Meanwhile, Michelle, who lives in Minnesota, she is like, it was 38 degrees here the other day. I was like, okay.
Erin [00:03:09] No
Olivia [00:03:09] You know what? I'll take it. I want to wear a beanie so bad on my head. I just want to be able to walk outside with a winter coat and a beanie on and be fine.
Annie Jones [00:03:19] I would take that. I mean, I would. My mom said the other day she was like, "Oh, a cold front is coming this week." And I said, "Oh, I'm so excited." And she was right. It's been 60 degrees in the morning. But she said it's in the 80s. Like, that's how we tell our cold friends here. It's no longer 90.
Erin [00:03:37] Yeah. Caroline said yesterday the air is dry outside and that's how you know it's fall. The air is dry.
Annie Jones [00:03:44] So Saturday it will be too late by the time listeners hear this. But Saturday locally is that artisan market. And I was like, oh, I wonder what the weather's going to be like? And the lowest is 60 and the highs 88. That's a large spectrum, but the humidity is supposed to be like 20 percent. And I was like, excuse me, what? Instead of 100 percent humidity. We'll take it.
Erin [00:04:06] So pleasant.
Olivia [00:04:07] We're getting spoiled by the weather.
Erin [00:04:10] I know.
Annie Jones [00:04:11] Yeah, watch out. Halloween it'll be sweating or something. You know what I mean? There's always at least one more true heat wave, but I feel pretty good. But it is hard for me to believe that we're in October because we're getting close here. The year is almost over. But this is one of my favorite reading times. I really do love fall reading. So we each have three books that we want to talk about. If this is the first time you are listening to one of these New Release episodes, each of us highlights a book that is coming out this month, so we're here to talk about October books. We'll just do it kind of round robin style. And as you're listening today, you might want to keep in mind that our online sales manager, Erin, has made browsing our podcast selections easier than ever. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type Episode 445 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed ready for you to preorder or purchase. You can use code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10 percent off your order of today's October titles.
[00:05:09] Okay, I'm going to kick us off. The first book I wanted to discuss is Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways. This is a new memoir. A debut memoir by Brittany Means. It's being compared to Educated or The Glass Castle. And thus far, I'm about a third of the way through, I would agree with those comparisons. Britney is writing about her childhood. She currently lives in New Mexico, but kind of grew up throughout the Midwest and in the West. And she was raised by her mom, but also spent a lot of time with her Pentecostal grandparents. And so really this book is a lot about-- I mean, there are certain triggers, I'm sure. There's a lot about emotional abuse and child abuse and things like that. But she's also talking a lot about religion and the role that religion played in her upbringing, for better and for worse. And so you can tell that adult Britney is kind of grappling with these big questions of faith and what faith looks like and what faith means and what does it mean when it results in bad or questionable behavior from the people who are supposed to love you the best? I really like what I've read so far. It's very poetic. And so I think The Glass Castle and Educated comparisons are true. I also think this book feels more like a poet wrote it. And I don't know a better way to say that. Like just really poetic language. Another good comp I think would be Somebody's Daughter by Ashley Ford.
[00:06:37] And then part of the reason I picked it up is it really reminded me of the fiction book Revival Season, which came out a few seasons ago, a few years ago now, which was all about a young woman who grew up in this Pentecostal family, and she kind of traveled with them as they did these tent meetings. And so a lot of the language Brittany Means uses in the memoir is language of faith and Christianity and even the title I think you can get that sense. And so if you also grew up in faith or close to faith, I think a lot of this language will be familiar to you. A lot of her biblical imagery will be familiar to you. This is a book being published by Zibby Books, which Zibby books also has a bookstore out in California, and this is their first year to be publishing different works. And I've really been intrigued by the books that they've selected to publish, and this is one of them. And, yeah, I really like it so far. I think it'd be so much of the fall book list-- at least my personal fall book list is really rich, good fiction. And I think this would be really interesting if you're looking to break outside of maybe literary fiction or cozy mysteries or something like that, and you need something to break that pattern and change up your reading rhythm, you might want to try this memoir. So it's called Hell If We Don't Change Our Ways by Brittany Means, and it came out this week.
Olivia [00:08:00] Well, if you wanted to stick on the cozy mystery train..
Annie Jones [00:08:03] If you didn't want to get off.
Olivia [00:08:05] Jump on my bandwagon. My first book is a sequel to The Lavender House by Lev AC Rosen. This is The Bell in the Fog. I loved The Lavender House when it came out. I think I've talked about it a couple of times now on the podcast, but this is the sequel with the same detective, Andy Mills, and this time he has based his private detective business-- his office space is in a gay club. This is set in San Francisco in the 1950s. So everything is very undercover. They're trying to lay low as much as they can. The LGBTQ+ community doesn't really like him because they know he's an ex-cop, so he's trying to spread goodwill so he can get more cases and bring in more money for this bar. But he goes up to his office one day and there's a man sitting there who needs his help. And as he turns around, Andy and realizes that this is like an ex that he had when he was in the Navy. And this guy is being blackmailed for some risque photos that were taken of him. And Andy, out of the goodness of his heart, decides to help him out of this situation and, of course, winds up in the middle of this situation as well. I love these novels so much. I think they're perfect for the cozy mystery person. It's not like locked room Agatha Christie style. It's just its own because the time and the place is such a big factor in these books. Like San Francisco in the 1950s is very evident while you're reading these books. And Andy Mills is like just an all star character. I feel like if TJ Klune wanted to read a murder mystery, he should hop on this train. He would love it.
Annie Jones [00:09:46] That's such a good comparison, because that's the same joy that you get on your face when you talk about TJ Klune books, you get when you talk about this book.
Olivia [00:09:55] They're just great. If you love TJ, Klune read these book. TJ, if you listen to this, read this book. Also, come to The Bookshelf.
Annie Jones [00:10:05] Oh, my gosh, if he came to The Bookshelf, I think The Bookshelf stuff would collapse.
Olivia [00:10:09] I don't think I could. I don't.
Annie Jones [00:10:15] Olivia is like I actually retract my invitation because I don't think I could handle it.
Olivia [00:10:19] I screamed and ran away from Tina Fey. I don't know what would happen.
Erin [00:10:26] Okay. My first book is The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young. It comes out October 17th. I'm not done reading this yet. I'm only about halfway through, but I'm so intrigued and it's very interesting. This author, she also wrote Spells for Forgetting, that was published in 2022. This one is set in Jasper, North Carolina. So I love the southern setting. Kind of a small town, and it follows this family of Farrow women. That's their last name, Farrow. And they are well known in this town because the main character, June, her great grandmother or great, great grandmother, started this flower farm and she's able to grow flowers that don't normally grow in North Carolina. And they're flowers that even the highest buyout biologists and plant biologists in the United States are like, how do they grow those flowers there? So there's an element of like magical realism in this book, and they don't know where they got the seeds from. But in the present day, it's a destination florist shop for brides. Everybody wants to get these flowers. They want to get them from this small town flower farm in Jasper, North Carolina. So that in itself is fascinating. But this main character, June, she is found as a baby in an alleyway by a town's person and raised by her grandmother when her mother just disappears. Her mother is pregnant, her mother disappears, a baby is found and they're like, oh, this must be her baby. So she's raised by her grandmother who lives in town. But we meet June right after her grandmother has passed away. And her grandmother started having what they thought was dementia, maybe Alzheimer's, and was seeing things and having hallucinations. And everybody is just like, oh, that's so sad that that happened to her grandmother. She passed away.
[00:12:25] But June knows that it's not just old age because she knows that she's also struggling with that now as a 30 year old and her mother did as well. So it's sort of this curse that she feels like has been passed down from the Farrow women, that they've all had this madness or this problem that they've experienced. And she's determined to let it stop with her. She's determined that she will not fall in love. She will not have kids. But she's determined to find out what's happening. And she gets a very intriguing letter from her grandmother, that her grandmother mailed before she died. And it's a picture of a lady that looks like June's mother and this minister that was killed like many years ago. But it was in 1911 and that's like her mom in the picture in 1911 when that's not even supposed to be possible. So she's like, okay, now I really got to figure out what's going on. And that's where I'm at. And I'm so intrigued. I'm like, now I have to read the rest of it. So if that also intrigues you, I think this would be a great book. It's for fans of people who love close knit southern towns where your business is everyone else's business, but also that sense of family and closeness. And if you love magical realism, if you love sort of that, I would say multiple timelines-- although I don't think it's quite like where people are jumping around in timelines. But there is that element of multiple timelines that maybe people existing in other places that they're not really supposed to be. So that's the Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young comes out October 17th.
Annie Jones [00:14:04] That sounds so much like a book that it feels like a Nancy Shelf Sub from a couple of years ago. Like where there was this family. Maybe it's Sweet Taste of Muscadines, but it was like where you talked about them growing something like that sounds. And then this maybe adds more magical realism than the Sweet Taste of Muscadines did.
Erin [00:14:25] Yeah, this sort of reminded me a little bit of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. If you like that, I think this would be a good comp to that as well.
Annie Jones [00:14:32] Okay. My next one is a little bit of a departure for me. It also released this week. As we approach the holidays, I do always think about like what good coffee table books would be worth handselling this holiday season. But I also really love beautiful, meaningful coffee table book. So books that aren't just beautiful to sit on your table, but also that might have meaning or even have well-written elements. So I wanted to talk about Heirloom Rooms. This is by Erin Napier. She is from HGTV Home Town fame. Actually, fun fact, the Napier's came to Thomasville, years ago pre-pandemic. I can't even remember now what year that was. But they were really nice. And Erin actually I think is a really talented writer. So she had an essay collection that came out a couple of years ago called Make Something Good Today. Of course, she's also written a children's picture book, I think called The Lantern House that some of my friends really love. But this is her new coffee table book. I think what sets it apart is it's not only a coffee table book, but it's essays about every room in her house. And so she is writing the story of her family and the story of their lives, kind of a memoir in essays going room by room. So one of my favorite books, probably, I don't know, 5 to 8 years ago was a book called Forty Rooms. And it was beautiful fiction where kind of the hypothesis was that what if every woman in her life inhabits 40 different rooms? So it's like the dorm room that she went to college, her childhood bedroom, her living room of her home with her husband, whatever. And so it's 40 different rooms. And I loved the writing of it.
[00:16:17] And so the premise of this Erin Napier coffee table book sounds similar to me. I also loved the book, House Lessons by Erica Baumeister. That was one of my favorite books of the pandemic. One of those books that I think really saved my sanity during the pandemic. And it was also about all the work and thought that goes into creating a home. And so I am very curious about this book. I am anxious to get my hands on it. It looks beautiful. Obviously, it has the beautiful cover, the beautiful photographs I have seen actually on Instagram. Some of the beautiful photographs that are going to be included, the kind of page set ups. But I am anxious to really read this one. I think I'm going to buy this one for my house. It's got a great fall looking cover. So yeah, I'm excited. It's a little bit outside the norm of what I would normally pick to feature here, but I'm intrigued enough because of my love of House Lessons and Forty Rooms that I think I'd really love to hear a memoir in rooms. I just love unique kind of memoir premises. So that is Heirloom Rooms by Erin Napier, and it is out this week as well.
Olivia [00:17:21] I feel like I shouldn't be the one to always follow you because you always give this, like, here is this beautiful plot about this person who does this beautiful thing. And then I'm like, and here I come in with the murder.
Annie Jones [00:17:37] That's okay.
Erin [00:17:38] Something for everyone.
Annie Jones [00:17:40] That's right. I think I said this one episode recently, but I always feel like, I'm like, "And here's a book nothing really happens. Just people do interesting things, but quietly, maybe they just talk." And then Olivia is like, "And here's a deep and intense plotline about death and science fiction." And so it is very funny. You can really see the difference. I mean, we definitely have overlap. We have overlap. But I think when we record this podcast episode, we're specifically trying to pick different from one another. And it makes the Segues real hard.
Olivia [00:18:17] Nearly impossible. Actually, this is probably one of the very few books we do have overlap on.
Annie Jones [00:18:26] Yeah, we do.
Olivia [00:18:27] With the entire author, actually. The next book that I want to talk about is Distant Sons by Tim Johnston. This is out October 17th. I think we've both read all of his books now. This is his third one. So when I say all, it's not like a huge long series. But they're very well-written literary thrillers, I would say. And this one was just so well done. I've been thinking about this a lot. I think Tim Johnston is a Peter Heller meets SA Cosby.
Annie Jones [00:19:03] Yeah, I think that's right. Because writes about nature. And I did think especially this book reminded me so much of the SA Cosby book that we both read.
Erin [00:19:13] Razorblade Tears?
Annie Jones [00:19:15] Yeah, Razorblade Tears. I felt like there was real similarities here.
Olivia [00:19:19] Yes, absolutely. Where he doesn't shy away from certain topics, but he also just gives you this beautifully written narrative. This one is a complicated plot, so I'm not going to go into it too much. But this is essentially two men that coincidentally end up in the same small Wisconsin town. And this town has seen a lot of dark times prior to these two men showing up. And incidentally, when these two men show up now see also a lot of dark time. It's more like a story of like bad luck meets I'm trying to do the right thing here.
Annie Jones [00:20:02] Yes.
Olivia [00:20:03] It's what I think. But you mostly focus on the main character, Sean. And Sean is this guy who he has his own past that he's working through, but he's a carpenter. And so he goes around and takes these jobs here and there and his car winds up breaking down in this small town. And so he goes to work for kind of the town recluse, but also like the town doesn't like this recluse at all. They don't want to claim him. They've kind of been the ones to alienate him in his own way. And so Sean ends up working for him and meets this guy and asks if he wants to come help him out. And then the two of them wind up in the middle of this town outpouring of secrets.
Annie Jones [00:20:51] It was so good.
Olivia [00:20:53] It was just so well done.
Annie Jones [00:20:55] Yeah. It is so good. And I think you described it this way-- or maybe I did. I can't remember. But I felt like it was a slow burn but never boring. Like I never was bored with it at all. But it's not like your bombastic, big thriller. I don't know. It just felt so beautifully written and quiet, but also completely compelling.
Olivia [00:21:17] Yeah. And I think the writing is quiet, but the plot isn't quiet. And I think that's how he gets you. It's like you're just sucked into this what you think is a totally normal situation, and then all of sudden you're just, like, none of this is okay. But you're always rooting for that one character, and so you're just hooked. Like Sean Cortland, I think was his name, was such a good character.
Annie Jones [00:21:43] He is a good character.
Olivia [00:21:45] There is so much depth to him. You understood every decision he was making and why he was making it, and you were just rooting for him the whole time.
Erin [00:21:53] I haven't read it, but hearing you both talk about it, it kind of reminds me-- I don't think either one of you read The Lincoln Highway by Immortals, but just hearing you talk about it, I'm like, I think people who like that book may also like this one as well.
Olivia [00:22:06] Yeah, I think so.
Annie Jones [00:22:08] Yeah, that could be a good comp. The whole time I was reading it, I also thought, Oh, my gosh, somebody should buy this and do a HBO mini series. Like, I just felt like it was so visual. I kept picturing it. And it really did remind me-- they weren't totally similar, but it reminded me a little bit of the spirit of Mare of Easttown. That's what I kept thinking of. And so I was like, oh, like, a midwestern like Mare of Easttown with this-- because Sean was such a good character. I could easily see him being portrayed on screen.
Olivia [00:22:42] You've made that comp before, and I just don't know what show that is. I've never heard of it.
Annie Jones [00:22:49] Actually, Olivia, I think you would you not watch it? The Kate Winslet show.
Olivia [00:22:55] What Kate Winslet show?
Annie Jones [00:22:57] Mare of Easttown.
Olivia [00:23:00] No. The only thing I think I've ever seen her in is the Titanic.
Annie Jones [00:23:06] Erin, did you watch Mare of Easttown? Erin is still getting over the Titanic.
Erin [00:23:12] I did not. I'm sorry. I did not.
Annie Jones [00:23:14] I'm pretty sure that's set in Pennsylvania.
Erin [00:23:16] Oh, okay. It's set in Pennsylvania.
Olivia [00:23:18] Yeah, she's not from Pennsylvania, but, yeah, I think it there.
Annie Jones [00:23:21] No, she's not. But I think it is set there, and it reminded me of Long Bright River. I think you and [inaudible] might like it. I don't know. It's a pretty cut and dry like detective show.
Erin [00:23:34] Okay, maybe.
Annie Jones [00:23:35] Yeah, I know. I mean, it depends. I feel like sometimes you guys like just ever, like, a slightly weird element. And so I'm not sure if Mare of Easttown has that.
Olivia [00:23:45] You do enjoy weird things.
Annie Jones [00:23:46] Yeah.
Olivia [00:23:47] I mostly just like comedies.
Erin [00:23:50] After a long day you just like to go home and watch some people make you laugh.
Olivia [00:23:53] When I read a lot of dark things.
Erin [00:23:55] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:23:56] Yeah, that's true. You do. Because meanwhile, that's what Jordan tells the story all the time. Now, when we talk about X-Files, he's like, "Remember when you told Olivia to watch X-Files? And she was like, 'Oh, I cannot watch that in the dark?'" And he was like, "And meanwhile you're like, 'Let's watch an episode before bed every night.'"
Olivia [00:24:14] I'm the one who read a book about a man stuck in a well.
Erin [00:24:17] Yeah. I do think our next we should have a podcast series in 2024 where we each bring a book that we think should be like a movie or a TV show. We just cast it on the episodes.
Annie Jones [00:24:29] Yes.
Erin [00:24:30] Because sometimes books are so visual and so cinematic that I can see it in my mind happening. And I'm like, I already know who I want to play all of these characters.
Annie Jones [00:24:41] Yeah, we did that. Courtney and Julie and I did that series for a while. Yeah, they are fun. It's hard work to cast, but I think I would like to be a casting director in another life.
Olivia [00:24:51] Yeah, I would struggle because I don't know how you just like Google act-- like because I don't know. I heard it.
Erin [00:25:00] Actors.
Annie Jones [00:25:03] Well I think you go to Google.com.
Olivia [00:25:06] No I don't know for any of their name.
Annie Jones [00:25:08] Right.
Olivia [00:25:09] And so I'd be like I need an actor that's like this. Can you Google that?
Erin [00:25:15] You can Google that. You can say actors that are in their forties and then it'll just show you a list with pictures and then you can go from there.
Annie Jones [00:25:24] Erin's like I do this all the time, Olivia, what are you talking about?
Erin [00:25:31] Sorry to take us off track there, but my next book is The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters. It comes out October 31st. I'm about 75 percent of the way through this one, and I have really enjoyed it. Annie, I think you would like this just based on the setting. It's based in Maine. Hello. And Nova Scotia in Canada. Yes. So this follows a family. They live in Nova Scotia. They're of Mi'kmaq heritage, which is also true of the author that wrote this. She's also Canadian and she has that heritage as well. So this is the author's debut novel, and it follows this family as they travel from Nova Scotia to Maine every summer to pick berries, hence the name of the title of the book. As they're working one summer, their four year old daughter, Ruthie, goes missing and they start an extensive search for her. They don't know where she went. Her little brother is the one the last to see her, and he was six years old when she goes missing. So she was stolen by the overseer. We find out later she was stolen by the overseer of the berry fields. And he raises her along with his wife and he's white. And so Ruthie kind of is like whitish enough to pass. And so it follows her as she's raised by this family. It follows Joe as he grows up and deals with her loss and her going missing. He feels responsible. And we meet him as he's an older man, he's about to die and he's really going back and just questioning everything. And so it's so neat to see these two timelines. And I have a feeling they're going to converge at the end. I hope there's going to be some resolution, but it's just a really, really compelling book with this family as they travel and just seeing the difference between their life and the life that Ruthie had being raised by this white family and just all the questions she has as well. So that's the Berry Picker is by Amanda Peters. October 31st is when it releases.
Annie Jones [00:27:44] That sounds so good. Actually, that reminds me of the-- did you guys see the news story where it was two men who I think are in their seventies or eighties now and they just recently realized they were switched at birth. And I'm pretty sure it was two Canadian men, and one of them was raised by an indigenous family in Manitoba. Did you see this?
Erin [00:28:18] I did see that, yes.
Annie Jones [00:28:20] And his daughter was going to get an indigenous tattoo. And she was like, "Dad, you should do DNA ancestry. I would love to know more about our family history." And then he did the DNA ancestry and he was not half--
Erin [00:28:35] Yeah, he was very white.
Annie Jones [00:28:36] He was very white with Ukrainian ancestry and then found this other man who his whole life had been raised, I'm pretty sure, pretty religious and Ukrainian and white. And really he is the person who is half indigenous.
Erin [00:28:55] Yes, that was fascinating.
Annie Jones [00:28:57] Yeah, it is fascinating.
Olivia [00:29:00] I want to know how they found each other.
Annie Jones [00:29:02] I'm pretty sure-- let me see. It was because of Ancestry.com. I want to say it was one of those things where somehow they found each other. I don't know. It's in the New York Times. I'll put a link in the show notes. But, Erin, it reminds me of the Berry Pickers.
Olivia [00:29:16] Yes. Again, I hate that I haven't finished it yet because I'd love to know how it ends. But It's almost like a form of trauma when you-- and it reminds me of even like Inheritance by Danny Shapiro. Like when you find out that what you thought about your life is not true and then dealing with that is so fascinating.
Annie Jones [00:29:39] Okay. My last book in October is Let Us Descend. This is by Jesmyn Ward. It releases on October 24th. I am still in mourning that this was not longlisted for the National Book Award. I do not really understand unless they just thought Jesmyn Ward had had enough recognition because I think this book is equally as beautiful as her other works. If you're not familiar with Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones was her fictional debut Sing Unburied Sing. And then the Men We Reaped is her nonfiction work. I just think everything she writes is fantastic. This book is about a young woman named Annis. She's an enslaved young woman living with her mother in the Carolinas, and they have not been separated yet. But as Annis gets older, I think the mother kind of sees the writing on the wall. And sure enough, through a series of traumatic events, she is sold. And so Annis lives alone now without her mother on this plantation. And her grief is so powerful. And as she grieves the loss of her mother, a spirit comes to see her. And as the novel progresses, Annis has to decide as she encounters these spirits, if they are kind and loving spirits who are going to guide her on her journey, or if they are spirits who mean her ill.
[00:31:12] And so Annis begins this journey because she too after her mother leaves and we even potentially think her mother has died. Now, Annis is also sold and so she has to make the journey from the Carolinas. We see the enslaved be sold on the selling block in New Orleans. And then Annis is sold and lives and is enslaved on a sugar cane plantation in Louisiana. And so we kind of watch that journey. Let Us Descend gets its title from a line from Dante's Inferno. And so that journey elements in Dante and in the Inferno is now a journey that we see Annis take. So I loved those elements that there are lots of little breadcrumbs to Dante into Inferno. But I read and actually listened to an interview with Jesmyn Ward as well. I think she wrote a piece for The New Yorker. She famously lost her partner. Lost him during the pandemic, I think, early pandemic days. And so she wrote this piece about what it was like to be completely overwhelmed and consumed by her grief while at home trying to take care of their children during a pandemic. And this book was partly inspired by her own grief.
[00:32:35] And so it made a lot of sense to me to see that interview and to kind of put those pieces together, because Annis' grief over her mother is so great, you can really feel it through the page. And then the book is this really journey, this almost adventure story, this journey story, this story of her kind of moving from the Carolinas to Louisiana. I loved this book. Jesmyn Ward plays a lot with myth and with the spirit world and with magical realism, which is not always something I am drawn to in literature. But I love it when it is done well and with a deft hand. And I think Jesmyn Ward is incredibly gifted and talented. I think she's one of the great writers of our time. This is a five star book for me. I absolutely loved it. If you have never read Jesmyn Ward and if you're like, oh, where do I start? I actually think this is a great place to start. I think Let Us Descend is really accessible. And although I love Sing Unburied Sing and Salvage the Bones, I think if you've never read her before, this is a fine place to start. So Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, and it releases on October 24th.
Olivia [00:33:38] We should have ended the show with that one.
Annie Jones [00:33:44] We should have closed out with Jasmyn
Olivia [00:33:48] My next book is Juniper's Christmas by Eoin Colfer. A middle grade Christmas novel.
Annie Jones [00:34:01] You said that so deadpan, it sounded like April from Parks and Rec.
Erin [00:34:05] That's exciting.
Olivia [00:34:07] It is really good.
Annie Jones [00:34:09] A Christmas story. That's fun.
Olivia [00:34:10] Probably not as in-depth and emotionally great as that one, but it is really good. It's out at the end of October. I feel like this is the perfect-- like if you wanted to start a tradition of reading a chapter book every Christmas, start here because this book is so good. It's about this little girl who lost her dad, I think like two years ago, and he ran this park. And I'm pretty sure there's somewhere where there's British accents. But her dad ran this Christmas festival where everyone would donate gifts and they give it to the homeless because her mother did a lot of work with the homeless. And so when her mother goes missing, Juniper goes to find her homeless friend to have her help her find her mother. And her homeless friend tells her about this woodsman handyman who comes out of nowhere and will just help all of these people, but no one's ever seen him. And Juniper being the smart 12 year old, but she is like that's Santa. And so she goes to find him. And he is this like curmudgeon of a guy. And she turns him around. It was just so sweet. Have you guys seen that Christmas movie, Klaus?
Annie Jones [00:35:36] I have not.
Erin [00:35:37] Yeah.
Olivia [00:35:39] It reminded me of that. I don't know what the pandemic did to your Christmas movie life, but it really changed mine. I know I watched that every year, along with the one with the girl from Pitch Perfect and that guy from SNL.
Annie Jones [00:35:54] I watched that Bill Hader and Anna Kendrick. I got it.
Olivia [00:35:58] I watch every single year now. Multiple times.
Annie Jones [00:36:01] Is it Noelle?
Erin [00:36:02] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:36:04] Multiple times is real dedication. It's cute. I watched it last year because-- do you ever feel like we're in some kind of time warp or something? Because I'm recommending Mare of Easttown and you're recommending Noelle that you watch multiple times. Are we in an alternate reality?
Olivia [00:36:23] I know everyone talks about how the pandemic changed the reading life, but for me, it most affected my Christmas movie life because those are now my two Christmas staple.
Annie Jones [00:36:33] Okay.
Olivia [00:36:33] All right. But this one really reminded me of Klause, and I love Klause really, but this was just so good. And it's like Eoin Colfer for who wrote Artemis Fowl. The writing is just so well done, but I really think it would be like a great tradition to read this book. It's really good.
Erin [00:36:51] Well, gosh, now I have to follow that with this book. Okay, my last book, I really loved it. I listened to this one on audiobook and it was great. It's called Absolution by Alice McDermott comes out on October 31st. She is a Pulitzer Prize nominated author. I think actually she may have won a National Book Award for one of her works before, but I feel like this book is a little bit of an Annie-Susie crossover. I think Annie would enjoy it. I think Suzy would enjoy it. It's a little bit of historical fiction, but mostly the focus is on this complicated female friendship. To me, it is set in the Vietnam War, but the war is, I would say, more like a background drop. You're not really learning a lot about the war. You're just focusing on these characters who are living in that time. These two women are living in Saigon in 1963 during the Vietnam War. They're both there with their husbands. We meet Tricia, who is this bright eyed newlywed living there with her husband who isn't normally in the armed forces, but he was like an engineer and was needed by the armed forces. So he was assigned to live over there. And she meets Charlene, who is this bossy, sort of fashion conscious hostess of a mother who has a new charitable cause every week or so. And they meet at just some social events. But Tricia actually experiences a miscarriage. So I will say there is a trigger warning for miscarriage in this book. But they meet and Charlene sort of takes her under her wing and they start this friendship from there where it's like very complicated because Charlene is a type of person that has all the best intentions, but sometimes her actions fall flat or they actually end up hurting the people that they're supposed to help.
[00:38:59] This book has an interesting storytelling perspective, which basically most of it is written from the perspective of Tricia as an older, widowed woman now living in D.C. But she is writing to Charlene's daughter, Rainey [sp], who Tricia has known all of Rainey's life, basically from a small child. As Rainey grew up, they grew up and knew each other. And Rainey, who is Charlene's daughter, is reaching out to Tricia to learn more about her mother after she passes. And so Tricia is kind of telling Rainey all of these stories about Charlene, about how they met, about their life there. And then about the last third of the book is Rainey, now has an older woman, almost a grandmother herself, writing back to Tricia and talking about her life now. And so you kind of see it's a little bit of a two timeline thing, but you see how Charlene affected not only her friend Tricia, but also her daughter Rainey, and everyone around her. They're both coming to terms with the effects that Charlene had on their life. But it's just fascinating. I didn't intend to read it. It's not really a book that I would normally gravitate towards, but as soon as I started I loved this friendship between the two of them, and I just wanted to see how it would end. So, yeah, I loved it. It's called Absolution by Alice McDermott October 31st release.
Annie Jones [00:40:29] That really does sound quite good, and maybe I will give it a shot. Maybe Mom and I will do a buddy read.
Erin [00:40:35] That would be a good idea.
Annie Jones [00:40:37] Okay. Those are some books that are releasing in October. They're obviously not all of the books releasing in October. Our goal isn't to bombard listeners with all the books. Instead, we wanted to kind of highlight what we're looking forward to, what we're hoping to read, what we have already read and loved. So if you want to preorder or kind of get more details about any of those, you can go to our website Bookshelfthomasville.com, type episode 445 into the search bar and you'll see all of the books listed. You can also use that code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout to get 10 percent off your order. Thanks, you guys.
[00:41:19] This week, what we are reading is brought to you by visit to Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia. If it's time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we are exactly what you're looking for. You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independently owned stores, and finally relax and unwind. There's no better getaway than Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are just passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia. It's worth the trip. You can plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com. Last week, we hosted our first ever Fall Reader Retreat. We have typically done these in the spring and summer, and this was our first one to get to host in the fall. Fall is my favorite season in Thomasville. It might not be as cool as where you are, but the leaves do eventually turn here and the humidity dips and there is a lot of time spent outside, dining out, exploring. A couple of weeks ago, downtown hosted their first ever artisan market. It's just a really fun and special time to visit downtown. It is when the town feels at its most stars hollow. So I hope you'll get to come visit us this fall. I hope our reader retreaters had a wonderful time last weekend. It was just so fun to get to host them during our favorite season. This week, I'm reading Penance by Eliza Clark. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:42:50] I'm reading Forever Twelve by Stacy McAnulty.
Annie Jones [00:42:55] And Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:42:55] I'm still making my way through the Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young.
Annie Jones [00:43:01] Thank you again to our sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Remember, you can plan your upcoming autumnal visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
Annie Jones: 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:
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.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings Annie Jones: 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. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 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.