Episode 453 || November Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in October. You get 10% off your books when you order your November Reading Recap bundle! Each month, we offer a Reading Recap bundle, which features Annie’s three favorite books she read that month.
November Reading Recap Bundle - $59
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring (paperback)
Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed (hardcover)
Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey (paperback)
Get your bundle here.
You can get the books mentioned in this episode on our website (type “Episode 453” into the search bar and tap enter to easily find the books mentioned in this episode):
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
The River by Peter Heller
Play for Me by Libby Hubscher
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins
The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan
Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey
Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed
Begin Again by Helly Acton (releases 4/2/24)
Columbine by Dave Cullen
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 Mercury by Amy Jo Burns (releases 1/2/24).
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]
"A wedding is rarely the best day of anyone's life. It's a beginning, an ending, the middle of the road. The past drags behind everyone, a train of memories and regrets stitched together with lace, delicate and ornate, years spent threading together."
- Madeleine Kay Sneed
[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 recapping the books I read in November. This year, prompted by the women in my Mastermind group, I started sharing my book reviews on a private paid-for Instagram account, Annie's Five Star Book Club, and it has been one of my favorite things I've done in 2023. I love the quiet stress-free community we've created there, and I love getting to share my bookish thoughts in a smaller space.
[00:01:21] In November, I opened the doors for our 2024 group. For $50 a year, you can become a part of this bookish community online through the private Instagram account, you'll get access to my five star book reviews, backlist and frontlist titles, I'll host monthly Instagram lives, hop on stories to chat books, and occasionally even share about the books I start, but never finish.
[00:01:45] If you follow me personally on Instagram, you've seen my reviews for years, and of course From the Front Porch listeners will always have access to these free monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five Star Book Club members can also choose if they want my five star books mailed to them each month from the bookshelf.
(00:02:04) For more information or to sign up for 2024, you can visit anniebjoneswrites.com/fivestar-book-club. There's also a link in the show notes to make it super easy. I would love to have you following along in 2024, and a special thanks to those of you who joined me there in 2023.
(00:02:25) Now, back to the show. Okay, it is, as I am recording this really quite frankly mid-November. And because it is mid-November, and because November is hard anyway, I've finished four books, which is fine. That's a full episode. But I went back to look at my October episode and realized that, thanks to my five star Instagram account, I saw that I had finished books after I recorded my October reading recap. So sometimes the reading recap episodes fall before the end of the month, obviously, to record them. And I actually read quite a few. This is fairly rare, but I had read quite a few books since October's episode dropped, before November technically began. Does that make sense?
(00:03:14) So I thought I would kick off the episode by talking about some of the books I finished in October, after the last October reading recap episode dropped. Is that too much behind the scenes information? It's too late. It's too late, I already told you.
(00:03:28) So at the end of October, I read the book, The Road to Dalton, by Shannon Bowring. And part of the reason I wanted to go back and mention some of these books is because this book might be one of my favorite books I read of the year, and it would have been a bummer to not feature it here on the podcast.
(00:03:44) So The Road to Dalton is a paperback original. It's a Europa title, and it released, I want to say the summer, maybe even the spring. But I did not pay much attention to it, except I did see that Kate, from Bookmarks, read it and really liked it. And then after I finished Empire Falls and talked about how much I enjoyed Empire Falls, people came out of the woodwork off the top of my head. I remember listener Michelle reaching out and saying, "Hey, you should read this book. I think you would really like it. It's right in line with Empire Falls." And she was right. So I finished Empire Falls, we had this stocked at the bookshelf, I picked it up, and in fact, I loved it so much, I was out in Colorado and I found it at a bookstore there and bought a copy to gift to somebody, because it was just such a great book. I read it on the plane out to Colorado. And it is set in 1990s, Dalton, Maine over the course of one year. I love a book like this. I cannot stress this enough. I love a book that kind of spans the seasons. And so this book starts at a New Year's Eve party, and it goes to the next year's new year. And it's just all about this town. It's all about Dalton.
(00:04:56) I would name you all of the characters, Trudy and Bev come to mind, but there are lots of characters in this book; Nate and his sweet, beautiful wife who have a baby. There's just a lot going on here, and it's all quiet, but also very poignant, bittersweet, troubling. There's a lot that happens in this tiny community, and I think that's what I really appreciated about the book. Small Towns aren't just Mitford. I love Mitford, you know that from listening to the podcast episodes with my mom. But Real heartbreak happens in small towns, and real heartbreak happens in the Mitford books too, I should say. But this book was almost startling, just like Empire Falls has that... If you've listened to our podcast episode, or if you read that book, you know that book has kind of a startling ending.
(00:05:47) I think The Road to Dalton has some startling moments where you realize, oh, right, small towns aren't just idyllic, beautiful places for kids to grow up. They're also full of heartbreak, just like anywhere else in the world. And so, anyway, I loved the Maine setting, loved that it was set in the nineties, and really thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all the different characters. And if you finished Empire Falls, maybe you read it because of the podcast, or you read it because I talked about it on Instagram, whatever, if you finished Empire Falls recently as a backlist title, or you read it years ago and would love to read something similar, I think The Road to Dalton would be just a great pairing and a great follow-up. I really liked this book, The Road to Dalton by Shanna Bowring.
(00:06:34) Then, as you just heard, I was in Colorado and picked up The River by Peter Heller, which somehow I had never read Peter Heller. I obviously have heard of Peter Heller. I knew that that was a void in my reading life. A lot of customers really love him, and I think Ann Bogle, I hear her talk about him a lot. And so it felt like past time for me to read it, but this was the perfect time because Peter Heller is a Colorado author, so he was on their regional shelf, and I picked it up and read the entire thing on the plane ride home.
(00:07:06) I loved it. I love an adventure story. It reminded me a lot of Tim Johnston, who you've heard us talk about on the podcast before. So if you're a fan of Tim Johnston, try Peter Heller and vice versa. Like if you're a Peter Heller fan, but you've never read Tim Johnston, I think you should give him a go. You could start with Dissent, would be my recommendation. Anyway, if you, like me, have not read Peter Heller before, he writes a variety of books, but this one is a nature adventure story. I'm a big fan. Is this weird? I don't want to say I'm a big fan of Deliverance, that feels not great, but I have enjoyed, I enjoyed the movie Deliverance. I've watched it. I've watched it several times. Is that weird that that's a re-watchable movie for me? I specifically rewatched it during COVID, when I had COVID.
(00:07:53) And so, anyway, very much tense, two guys in Peter Heller's book go on a river rafting trip, Wynn and Jack. As much as this is a nature adventure story, and it is, it's tense like Deliverance, where Wynn and Jack run into a couple of really suspicious guys, and Wynn and Jack tell them, "Hey, we've noticed there's a fire. There's a forest fire. We think it's going to start heading this way. You might want to go ahead and head down river or whatever." And the two guys kind of laugh at them. They're drunk, they kind of laugh at them, and Wynn and Jack move on, and they come across two people arguing, a man and a women arguing. And then, further down river, farther down river, and further into their journey, they run across that same man, but he's no longer with a woman. And I cannot describe to you how tense this book is, but in addition to being a great nature story, beautiful nature writing, it's set on a river. I pictured it in, and forgive me, Canadian listeners, but it's set on a river in Canada. I kind of pictured it in the really upper north-northeast, at the Canadian-U.S. border.
(00:09:27) And yes, it's tense, it's a great adventure story, but it's really just about Wynn and Jack. I love a book about male friendship. I don't know why. Throwback Special immediately off the top of my head comes to mind. But I love books about male friendship, and guy friends. And Wynn and Jack are such wonderful characters. They meet in college. This book takes place after their freshman year. They're having this adventure together. They've planned it for a long time. I wonder if it comes from me having a brother, and my own brother is really outdoorsy, loves camping mountain, mountain climbing, bouldering, rock climbing, bicycling, all the things, all the things Chet loves. And so I really loved reading this book because I felt like these guys were guys I knew. And these could have been friends of mine, or friends of my brothers. And so I loved that aspect of the book.
(00:10:25) So it's got gorgeous nature writing. It's a tense adventure tale, kind of suspense, but it is also just a really beautiful book about friendship, which was the part of the book I was not expecting to love. So if you have never read Peter Heller, if you're like me and you've never read him, I think this is a fine place to start. This is where I chose to start. I have a lot of reading to do. He's got a lengthy backlist, and customers and readers saw that I read this and immediately told me all the Peter Heller books I need to read next. And I believe that I will continue reading him. I really liked this book a lot. I also felt like it met me at just the right time. So if you are wondering to yourself, well, I've never read Peter Heller either. That's okay. I think books meet us when they're supposed to meet us. I loved getting to serendipitously pick this one up at a Colorado bookstore, supporting a Colorado writer. So, The River, by Peter Heller could also be, since we're at Gifting season, could also be a really great book to gift this holiday season.
(00:11:23) And while I was reading those, I was listening, through Libro.fm, to Play for Me, by Libby Hubsher. This was a rom- com recommended to me by my friend, Kimberly. I have said this before, but I really like when my friends and fellow readers and customers recommend books to me. I don't always get to them as quickly as I would like, but you all, after listening to me for years, some of you for years, you know my reading tastes. And Kimberly is my real life friend, and she texted me one day and she said, "Hey, I just finished this book I think you'd really like it. It was too closed door for my taste," I believe were her words. I don't want to put words in Kimberly's mouth, but she was basically saying, the prudish reader that I am, those are my words, not Kimberly's, she thought I would enjoy this one. And she was right. This book was charming.
(00:12:09) She texted me, and I had been in an audiobook listening slump, and you know, if you've been listening to this podcast this year that one of the kind of reading resolutions, or decisions that I made regarding my reading life was that I was not going to listen to a ton of rom-coms in audio book format because it felt like, for me, that was not a great way to interact with those books. I enjoy them more if I read them in physical format, but I was in an audiobook slump, and I saw that this was available on Libro.fm. I had a credit, and so I thought, well, I'll try this, it's fast. My audiobook rule is generally under 10 hours, and so it's narrated by Lauren Fortgang, and I loved it. I thought the narration was great.
(00:12:55) It's got this really fun Boston setting, set over the course more or less of a school year. Part of the reason I think Kimberly thought of me was because of the Boston setting, the boarding school element, so we'll talk about that in just a second. But the boarding school element, and then yes, it's closed door, and also it's sports adjacent. So it ticks all of these boxes of mine.
(00:13:19) So our main character is Sophie. She's a trainer for the Boston Red Sox, and she has just been unceremoniously let go. And Boston is a big sports town, they don't like a decision that Sophie made regarding a player, and she is pretty much a pariah in her beloved city. And her best friend, who is a lovely character, her best friend kind of comes from her rescue and says, "Hey, I went to boarding school up in Vermont, like in New England,"... I think it's Vermont; a very fally setting. But anyway, "I went to boarding school in Vermont. They're looking for an athletic trainer. It's more of a fine arts school. Their athletic program leaves something to be desired, but I think this could be a really great break for you." Which, what a good friend.
(00:14:01) So this friend recommends that Sophie go there. Sophie winds up getting the job, and she immediately meets her roommates, very new girl vibes where all of her roommates are men, including Jonas. And Jonas is a musician slash music teacher at the school. He's extremely grouchy. He is British. They hate each other. This is a... Oh no, what is the trope? Enemies to lovers. This is enemies to lovers. And just absolutely charming and delightful, for all of the reasons I mentioned. I actually think, and Kimberly may have made this comparison to me already, but I think, of all the rom-coms, this one reminds me most of a Linda Holmes book. Maybe it's because of the Boston of it all, or because of the baseball of it all, but if you like Linda Holmes, I think you'll really like this book.
(00:14:59) I think it's also because there's more going on here than the romance. There is definitely... It is a rom-com, this is a romance book... But it is also about Sophie and her dad, and it is about Sophie and Jonas, and their relationship to their work, which I really liked reading about. I really enjoyed this one. Great in the audiobook format, but would be equally fun, I think, to read in the physical format. It's not necessarily holiday. I'm going to talk about a more Christmasy rom-com later, but I still think it's pretty timeless because, much like When Harry Met Sally, it is seasonal, meaning you can watch it in this fall, you can watch it at New Year's, this book, because it goes over the course of a school year. It really hits some really lovely scenes throughout. There's a couple of unrealistic things. There's like a prom-adjacent scene that I was like, okay. But mostly so cute, so fun, great recommendation from Kimberly that now I am passing on to you. That's Play for Me by Libby Hubscher.
(00:16:04) Then to continue my audiobook listening experience, I of course listened to The Woman in Me. This is by Britney Spears, narrated by Michelle Williams. I was not going to read this. I was not going to read it because I don't know that I'm a... Well, I'm not a Britney fan. I certainly grew up with her in the air. I know all the words to her... Or know most of the words, I'm actually terrible with lyrics, just in general... But I know a lot of the words to all of her hits, just by osmosis, because of her literally just being in the air that I breathed in high school, and maybe even middle school, mostly high school, I think. But anyway, so I wasn't going to read this, but then I saw one of our listeners, Meg, post about it. Meg and I believe are close in age. We have a lot of the same kind of pop cultural references, and she posted about it, and she was like, "It's our millennial duty." And I thought, you know what? It is my millennial duty to read this book, to listen to it.
(00:17:03) What I will say is this, I think you have to listen to this. I don't know that it would've made quite the impact It did had I read it. Instead, I had a really great experience. Michelle Williams, Oscar winner or just Oscar nominee? Michelle Williams should narrate all the audiobooks. I know she's busy doing other things, but I thought she was a fantastic narrator, and really told Britney's story so beautifully. I didn't know how that was going to work, I didn't know how it was going to be having such a really personal story narrated by somebody else. But I think in this case, it's also a reminder of the power of ghost-writing, and that is no shade: most celebrities have ghost writers.
(00:17:45) In fact, it was a big deal that Matthew Perry did not have a ghost-writer. His publisher kind of made that clear that Matthew Perry had written that himself. But Prince Harry's memoir, ghost-written, we all know that. Britney Spears' memoir, ghost-written. I think what I actually liked about having Michelle Williams as the narrator is that it was a reminder that this is Britney's story, but being still told through a couple of different voices, and so I liked that aspect. Also, just Michelle Williams: great narrator. This is a sad book, and we knew that. Much like, in fact, I kept thinking about Matthew Perry because he died as I was wrapping up my listening experience of the Britney Spears book. And I had already thought, "Gosh, these stories are so similar in how sad they are." I listened to Matthew Perry's book last fall, and so to read Britney Spears memoir this fall felt poignant and sad, and like the Matthew Perry story, I think the Britney Spears story is still being written. She is still living her life, and it'll be interesting to see where she goes from here.
(00:18:55) The comp title other than Matthew Perry's book to me is perhaps it's pretty obvious, but it's the Jennette McCurdy, I'm Glad My Mom Died because so much of Britney's story is wrapped up in her family and the decisions and choices that her family made. There's a lot of talk about Justin Timberlake, and I've never been a huge Justin Timberlake fan, and that was just cemented here. But to me, the real antagonists in Britney Spears' story is her family, which that is so very heartbreaking. And reading books like this makes me question the role I as a consumer play in fame. And it's just something interesting I think, to explore maybe in your book club or what have you.
(00:19:39) But yeah, a lot of my friends read and loved and I need to go back and listen to it, I've never read it, but the Jessica Simpson memoir. And a lot of my friends really loved that book and talked about how interesting that book was, how well-written it was. And I think even in some parts how fun it was. This book is zero fun. This book is not fun to me. This book is sad. And yeah, it's just a sad story about the cost of fame, and the pain that it can cause, especially I think if you don't have people in your life who genuinely care for you as a person, not for what you can do for them. And so anyway, there's just a lot to think about in reading and consuming books like this. I really do recommend it, but I specifically recommend the audiobook experience. I'm not sure I would've gotten the same out of it if I had read the physical copy because it's not maybe the best, most well-written book I've ever read. It's really, I think, supposed to be her story, yes, ghost-written, but in her words, how she would tell it, and I think this is how she would tell it. So, The Woman in Me by Britney Spears, specifically the audiobook narrated by Michelle Williams.
(00:20:55) Honestly, I'm looking back and I'm like, "Wow, what a wild ride the end of my October reading was," yeah, I'm still in October books. I read Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins. I was already planning on reading this. I've just been intrigued by Mitt Romney for a long time. Do you guys remember his documentary on Netflix, that film that came out after he lost the election? Just really interesting. And then, I saw McKay Coppins interviewed on Seth Meyers, and the interview wasn't the most compelling thing I've ever seen, but I had already whetted my appetite, is that the right phrase? Because the Atlantic, which McKay Coppins is a writer for the Atlantic, and they had featured an excerpt of the Romney book about a month ago. And so, that's when this book first came across my radar.
(00:21:43) And so I picked it up at The Bookshelf, and already loaned my copy to a friend, I have a lot of thoughts about this one, but I think it is a very well-written political biography. It covers Mitt Romney's childhood, his adolescence, him falling in love with his now wife Ann, all the way until his almost retirement from the Senate. It covered things like, I forgot that he took over and ran the Salt Lake City, Utah Olympics. And so yeah, it runs the gamut in terms of what it covers. And also it's just a really interesting look at ambition, and at what we require and expect out of our politicians, and what happens when a politician changes their beliefs or ideologies: can we trust that? Do we trust it? Do we hold them hostage to their ideas forever? It's just really interesting. I really appreciated that aspect of it.
(00:22:57) Also, as I am wont to do, I found a lot of interesting little tidbits about running a team. I get inspiration from the weirdest places when it comes to building a team and running a team and leadership and yeah, I don't know what you will think about this one. It's been interesting. At least locally, this hasn't sold like I thought it would in store. That's who I thought would purchase this one is especially our in-store customers. That hasn't been the case, which I'm intrigued by because it's well-written, is a really in-depth look. Mitt Romney gave McKay Coppins, I think full access, which is just really intriguing. And I think it's kind of a testament to the politics of our time, particularly maybe the last 30 years and what has transpired on a federal level over the last 30 years. So, I really liked it. I appreciated it, I already passed my copy along to a friend. Yeah, it was a good book for me, Romney: A Reckoning by McKay Coppins.
(00:24:11) Then, I picked up The Happy Couple. This is by Naoise Dolan. You might recognize Naoise Dolan from her book, Exciting Times. She is an Irish writer, very much in the... And I'm sure Irish writers really hate this comparison, but the fact of the matter is it's very Sally Rooney-esque set over the course of a wedding weekend, and in fact, told in parts... We're going to get to another book that actually is very similar to this book but American. So this is very Irish reads, very Irish, it's set at over the course of a wedding weekend, told in parts.
(00:24:50) First we get a look at the bride, then the groom, then I think it's like the best friend, the best man, and the wedding guest. And so it's set, I want to say in five distinct parts. And it is just drama, drama, drama. It is messy, messy behavior, none of these people is good or likable, but they are extremely interesting. And you do find yourself really caring what is going to happen to the bride and groom. Basically, you realize that the bride might not be marrying the groom for the right reasons and vice versa. Perhaps they're in love with other people, perhaps some of the other people are in the wedding party, and so it's just very messy and fun. I'll also say this, and this is why I love reading: one of the main characters, the bride in The Happy Couple is a pianist, a musician. And Jonas in the rom-com Play for Me that I had listened to earlier this month was also a pianist, and they talk about how important their hands are, and they're really careful about their hands in a way that to you or me might seem super obnoxious or odd.
(00:26:02) And I loved that it came up in both books. I just love when that happens, when a book I've read that's still on my mind kind of comes up the same subject matter or the same types of characters or characterizations come up in another book. It was just so fun for me. That doesn't matter to you, I'm sure, but to me it was a really fun little bit of bookish serendipity. So if you like Sally Rooney, if you like wedding books, I'm going to talk about another one in just a moment, but that was the last book I read in October. It was fun. It came recommended to me by Esme on staff at The Bookshelf. She really liked it. I had the ARC, so I picked it up and gave it a go. That is The Happy Couple by Naoise Dolan.
(00:26:40) Now November, in November, the first book I finished was Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey. I put it off as long as I could. I received an ARC of Kerry Winfrey's book, I want to say in July, maybe August, and I wanted to read it right then. But my cousin Caroline is the Christmas year-round person. I am not: I like Christmas for Christmas's sake. I like Christmas in its proper season, and if you want to call me a stick in the mud, that is okay. And so in November, the first weekend in November, that felt early to me to decorate The Bookshelf for Christmas, but it's really not honestly in retail time. And it really wasn't because the shop mom and dad were going on an anniversary trip the next weekend, and so we had to decorate the store the first weekend in November.
(00:27:27) But I was having trouble getting in the season. It was not as chilly as I needed it to be outside. And honestly, decorating The Bookshelf is so fun. Everybody in my family will tell you it is also stressful because they watch me slowly lose my mind over how much money I spent at market, and slowly stress as we start to put it all out over how much we spent, how much I spent. My family, literally, they're always like, "When's Annie's meltdown going to happen?", because I always have one year it was over how many candles I bought. They all sold. It was fine. But anyway, the point is decorating The Bookshelf for Christmas is equal parts magic and stress. And when I come home at the end of the day with an inevitable backache and maybe on the verge of tears because of how much money I spent back in July, I needed something festive. And lo and behold, there sat Faking Christmas in my little TBR stack, and I thought, "It's time."
(00:28:26) And what a delight. And I knew it would be, and that's why I put it off because one of my favorite Christmas movies is Christmas in Connecticut. I encountered this classic black-and-white movie probably three to five years ago is the first time I saw it, and now it's part of our annual rotation. So when I saw that Kerry Winfrey was writing a book loosely based on Christmas in Connecticut, I thought, "Yes, that's exactly what I'm here, here for." This book is going to get a lot of Hallmark comparisons. And I said this on my Five-Star Books Instagram, that's fine. But as a reluctant Hallmark watcher, I really don't watch very many of those, good for you, not for me. There really is no judgment. It's just they're not my favorite thing. As someone who is a reluctant Hallmark watcher, I just have to say this book is better than that. This book is so good. This book is so fun.
(00:29:19) If you have read Kerry Winfrey's rom-coms, I think you already know what to expect. And I'm just here to tell you she consistently delivers. And I really value consistency in my friendships, in my relationships, in my personal life, and in my books. And what a delight to encounter an author who just consistently puts out great stories. So Laurel is a social media, and I loved the specificity of this: she's not just a social media influencer because who isn't? This is somebody who writes for a little regional magazine in Ohio, she talks about farm life because her sister owns a farm, so it's very regional, which I think is one of the most realistic parts of this story, which is just a girl living near her hometown who happens to have found a job writing about the state that she loves and the town that she mostly loves. And anyway, so you've got Laurel who is a writer for this regional publication, and she also covers and does their social media.
(00:30:24) You've got her boss Gilbert, who I just kept picking... Kerry Winfrey told us who to picture, I wish for the life of me I could remember because when she came to The Bookshelf, she told us, she said, "This is who Gilbert was inspired by." All I could think of, and now I'm going to laugh if this is exactly who Kerry mentioned, but all I could think of was one of the characters in, what is that musical show that was on the CW? My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. And you know what? This is who she told us to picture. Kerry, if you're listening, can you tell me, is this who you told us to picture? Because it is who I pictured the whole time: the character Daryl from the show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, played by Pete Gardner: that is who I pictured the whole time as Gilbert.
(00:31:09) Gilbert is Laurel's boss, and he is a mess after a breakup. And Laurel in her desire to be good at her job not only writes about her sister's farm, but she writes about it as if it were her own. And so the column that she writes, the social media that she posts is all about the farm. Her sister owns, her twin sister actually, but Laurel claims to be the owner and claims to know all the things that there are to know about running a farm. And Gilbert begs Laurel, "Can I please come home with you for Christmas? You've made it sound so lovely. You've made the farm sound so ideal. Can I please come be with you?", and Laurel panics, and she and her twin sister, Holly/// Laurel and Holly, get it? It's wonderful. Laurel and Holly create this scheme as twins are wont to do, and they create this scheme where Laurel will pretend to be Holly, Holly will pretend to be Laurel, and vice versa.
(00:32:08) But of course, Holly doesn't want Laurel to pretend to be married to her husband, so they bring in their good friend Max. Max is a good friend of Holly's and her husband's. He is not a friend of Laurel. They are enemies. This is another enemies to lovers story, which I've got to tell you, I really like that trope, and Max has to pretend to be Laurel's husband. Chaos and calamity ensue in the most delightful and funny and charming of ways. I am picky about my holiday rom-coms, okay? I'm picky about the holiday movies I watch, and I am picky about the rom-coms that I read. And I'm here to tell you this is going to go up there with The Matzah Ball and 10 Blind Dates as a book that I would enjoy reading, I think every holiday season. It's such a fast, quick book, and that's part of the reason I put it off because I knew I would fly through it. And once it was done, it was done. And so, I'm glad I read it when I did. But if you are just now getting in the spirit of things and in the holiday mood, please pick up this book. It is so wonderful, Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey.
(00:33:09) Okay, then I read Today, Tonight, Forever. This is by a Madeline Kay Sneed. Let me tell you, I went to The Bookshelf on a Sunday night with Sam, Jordan was not feeling well, we needed to get out of the house, Jordan... Not Jordan. Jordan was at home sick. Sam loves nothing more than a car ride. And so we got in the car together, drove to The Bookshelf, and I browsed the shelves because I had started some books that I had not enjoyed, and I knew if I don't find a book here pretty soon, it's just going to be nothing from now until the end of December. Nothing, because life is hectic, and if I don't have a book to read, I'll watch TV instead. And so, I was browsing the shelves and saw this beautiful, and I do mean beautiful cover. And then I saw the author's name and I thought, "Madeline Kay Sneed? I loved her book, The Golden Season. I had requested an ARC of this and did not get it, and that's fine. I'm not bitter. And so lo and behold, did not know this book was coming out, and here it is. So Today Tonight Forever is written by Madeline Kay Sneed. She wrote The Golden Season, which was a wonderful book set in the heart of Texas about a family and a woman who came out to her family in Texas. It revolves around football. Just a really great book that I believe I read a year ago. Really loved that book. And so that was her debut. This is her sophomore title. The cover makes a lot of sense because, unlike being set in Texas, it is set in Watercolor Florida, which is a part of the country I'm very familiar with. So it's set on the Gulf Coast over the course of a wedding weekend.
(00:34:47) So if this sounds familiar to you, that is, I think, because it is. I think the happy couple and Today Tonight Forever could definitely be a great pairing because, like I said, The Happy Couple is very Irish in its sensibilities and Today Tonight Forever feels very American in its sensibilities, so this is a wedding weekend. Athena is in her mid-thirties. She is back in the bridesmaids game. It's been a minute since she's been a bridesmaid. It's also been a minute since she divorced her ex-wife, Sydney. And Athena is very much still reckoning with that decision and with their breakup. And she really does not want to be at this wedding weekend because her good friend, her childhood friend Daisy, that's who the bride is, Daisy has invited Sydney to the wedding.
(00:35:36) And I think I have a lot of questions about friendship code and who you're supposed to invite to your wedding. And if you have a bridesmaid, do you really invite her ex-wife to the wedding? I don't know, but I also know it gets complicated. This book is for sure complicated. It's a little less messy than The Happy Couple in that I was rooting for all of these characters. Now, I was rooting for Nisha Dolan's characters, but I also just didn't like them very much. Most of the characters in Today Tonight Forever I really liked and I really wanted the best for. So you have Athena who's grappling with the possibility of seeing her ex-wife. You have Daisy and her brother, who are lifelong friends of Athena and her brother, so it's two families. They're not marrying each other. That's not the case, but they've clearly been in each other's lives for a very long time.
(00:36:31) And The Happy Couple is told in five parts, with each part being told by a different member of the wedding party. Today Tonight Forever is told in rotating chapters. So one chapter is Athena and from Athena's perspective, another chapter is from Daisy's perspective, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I love this book, and Athena is certainly the character at the heart of the story. She's who we're introduced to first, and she is who the back of the book makes it sound like the book is entirely about. And I'm just here to say, yes, we are introduced to Athena first. She gets the first word and the final word, but it is all about all the other members of this wedding party, including Athena's mom who is grappling with the loss of her husband and trying to get back in the dating game. All the brothers that I mentioned, their names escape me at the moment, but they play an important role.
(00:37:24) So there are a lot of voices in this story, and I liked all of them and I cared about all of them, and I wanted to know what happened to all of them. As I've already said, I love a book that takes place over a certain span of time. So this is just over the course of one weekend. And let me tell you something, in the right hands, this would make a great Netflix movie or little miniseries. I just found it charming. Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed.
(00:37:49) Then I read Begin Again. This is by Helly Acton. I also just want to give a word of appreciation to Today Tonight Forever, because that got me out of a reading slump. Post-Faking Christmas, I was in the mood for nothing else. I started two books and couldn't finish them, and so it was a relief. I think part of the reason I loved Today Tonight Forever so much is because I feel like I owe it. I owe it an expression of my gratitude for getting me out of a reading slump.
(00:38:18) And then I picked up Begin Again off the ARC rack at the bookshelf. So browsed the shelves, picked out a new release, and also went upstairs and browsed the ARCs. And it was just nice to do off hours. I kept the lights off. I only turned on the Christmas lights and Sam and I had a great time. So I picked up Begin Again. This is by Helly Acton. This I believe is already out in the UK, came out this past summer, I want to say, but it releases here in April. So you've got some time, though if you're a UK listener, it's already out. But it releases in the US April 2nd. I picked this one up partly because the cover seemed fun and I think I was coming off the Britney Spears memoir, the Mitt Romney biography. I was ready for something a little lighter, and that's what Faking Christmas was great for. Today Tonight Forever was a little heavier. There was more going on. There was more drama, I guess.
(00:39:18) And then Begin Again felt like... Remember Taylor Jenkins Reid in her early years, pre-Daisy Jones? That's what this book reminded me of. Basically, Frankie, I think she's 36. She's in her mid to late thirties and she looks around at her life, and she's on a blind date and it's not really going great. And so she leaves early, she ghosts him, she ditches him at the restaurant. It's her birthday and she realizes her best friend is married with two children. Her other best friend is recently engaged, about to be married, and her life just feels stagnant. And she stops at her favorite kebab stand on her way home, and she's down in the dumps. And then, gosh, just like J-Lo getting her heels stuck in the wedding planner, Frankie falls down her stairs with a kebab in her throat. Not the actual kebab, the meat from the kebab in her throat, and she dies.
(00:40:19) She hits her head. What is it called? Oh, no. Temporal. Nope, I'm not even going to try. I'm not going to try to be a doctor here. She hits her head and she finds herself in the afterlife. And I think this is Midnight Library esque, although full disclosure, I've never read Midnight Library. So Frankie is in the middle place, and this woman greets her and says, "Part of my responsibility is for you to see if you're ready to die or if you want another chance." And I'm going to take you..." It's not a Christmas book, but it felt very Ghost of Christmas Past. "Basically, you have five main moments, five key moments in your life where you make key decisions that affected the rest of your life. And so I'm going to take you back to those five moments. You're going to get to relive them so that you can see what your life would've been like if you chose differently." I love this. I ate this up with a spoon. Give it to me. I love it so much. First of all, I just like the thought exercise. This is where my brain goes. What are the moments in your life where you made a choice, and had you chosen differently, your life would've been very different? And so I love that in this book, there are big moments like choosing to walk out of a job interview or not, or choosing to continue with a relationship or not. And then there are some quieter moments that she didn't even realize, Frankie didn't even realize, would impact the rest of her life. So it's a great thought exercise. This will be a very fun book club book. It's very easy to read. Very fun. Reminds me of Sophie Kinsella. I think I already compared it to Taylor Jenkins Reid, the early years, but I really had a good time reading this.
(00:42:20) I've got to say that it was hard to put down, which is what I need. I was just talking to Olivia about this in the store. When it comes to my November and December reading, if it does not hook me from page one, I cannot. Now is not the time to try to power through to get to the middle, because I think we all know that there are books that maybe start slow but become really great, and that is awesome any other time of year. But for me, this is not the time of year to have a book that I've got to give a few pages. I need to be hooked from page one. With Frankie, I was hooked from page one. I think this book is light and frothy and actually really meaningful if you think about it. And I did think about it. I thought about what are my own life's moments that maybe affected the trajectory of my life. So that is Begin Again by Helly Acton. It's out in the UK now, but it releases in the US on April 2nd.
(00:43:17) Last, and in a very different tone, Jordan and I listened to the audiobook Columbine. This is the nonfiction book by Dave Cullen, narrated by Don Leslie. This book came out years ago. Dave Cullen is a really excellent journalist that has since written books about Parkland. He writes a lot about gun reform, but he was a journalist and did a really deep look into Columbine. I have heard for years, mostly I think from Jamie Golden, about how great this book is. I don't know. I had just never read it. And Jordan and I were in Colorado and we were driving around and we saw signage for Littleton, and immediately started talking about where we were when we heard about Columbine.
(00:44:09) And so we decided to download the audiobook together, and we listened to it over the course of probably a month, because we didn't finish it until this month. This book is heavy. I think that's quite obvious. It's heavy, it's intense, it's exquisitely reported. Detailed, brutal. At multiple points, Jordan was like, "Oh, this is heavy." And it is heavy. I also think it's important, and I know people get weird about the word important when it comes to our books, but I love a frothy Christmas rom-com. I also like in-depth reporting about an event that changed the course of people's lives. Jordan and I, we had a lot of really rich conversations while listening to this book. We realized how much of our lives were impacted by Columbine. Columbine happened in 1999 and I was 13. Jordan and I both were 13. And so realizing that that is right at the age when you're starting to pay attention. Do you know what I mean? You're starting to pay attention to the news. You were really on the cusp of adulthood and figuring out who you are.
(00:45:26) And I told Jordan so many things. I look back and I'm like, "Oh, pre 9/11, this was the biggest thing in the news that felt like it could affect me." Meaning yes, Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky were in the news. The Oklahoma City bombing was in the news, but this felt closer because of the school element, and so I remember paying attention to that. It also is when my school started doing bomb threat drills or bomb drills. We did not do school shooting drills when I was a kid, but I definitely remember going out into the football field to wait while we did bomb threat drills. And I think about, there was a young man in my high school who wore a trench coat, and for a hot minute I was like, this feels bad. I associated that as something bad because of Columbine. Jordan and I were both raised in very religious Christian homes. The martyrdom of Cassie Bernal and the Michael W. Smith song.
(00:46:32) And as a 13-year-old, thinking to myself, would I be able to do that? Truly, that's what I was thinking as a 13-year-old. So to listen to this book with Jordan, I'm really glad we listened to it together and unpacked what myths around Columbine still existed in our minds. This myth of, oh, they were out to kill the jocks and the Christians and the nerds. And anyway, just all of these falsehoods that we learned from watching those early days of the reporting in Columbine, and how Dave Cullen really talks about how the early reporting was not often accurate, particularly on the national level. And the local reporting was a little bit better, but I wasn't watching Colorado local news. And it's just a reminder, I think even today we are watching that play out where there's a misleading headline or there's a story that gets retracted later and it doesn't matter. It's already out there. And so what becomes of these myths? Well, they grow. And you can be 37 years old and realize you were wrong about Columbine.
(00:47:48) Anyway, one of my favorite non-fiction reads in recent memory was the book Fall and Rise, which was about September 11th. If you like books like that where, I hesitate to even use narrative nonfiction because it's really just excellent journalistic nonfiction. That's what it is. If you like journalistic nonfiction, if you like excellent reporting, in-depth reporting, I think you will like this book. Obviously, the subject matter is heavy, but I think there is a lot to still be learned from this book, clearly. We are still living in this world. Americans are still grappling with Columbine and what do we do with school shootings and do we continue to do nothing and why do we continue to do nothing? And so anyway, that is the book that I ended November with, which is not a great note to end a podcast on, I'll be honest with you. But that is the book I closed out November with.
(00:48:46) It'll be interesting to see what I am able to make time for in December, but those are the books that I read in November. As usual, with our reading recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for the month of November. Our November reading recap bundle is $59, and it includes the Road to Dalton. That's the book about Maine, the paperback original. Today Tonight Forever, the book about the wedding set in Watercolor, Florida. And Faking Christmas, the Kerry Winfrey rom-com. You can find more details and the November bundle online through the link in our show notes, or go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number, that's 453, into the search bar. This week, I'm reading Mercury by Amy Jo Burns.
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.