Episode 411 || New Release Rundown: February
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Olivia, and Erin are sharing February releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR.
Don’t forget, if you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, you can enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10 percent off your order.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website:
Annie's picks:
Stealing by Margaret Verble
Maame by Jessica George
B.F.F.: A Memoir of Friendship Lost & Found by Christie Tate
My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin (Releases Feb 14)
Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head (Releases Feb 28)
Erin's picks:
Someone Else’s Shoes by Jojo Moyes
The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane (Releases Feb 14)
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai (Releases Feb 21)
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill (Releases Feb 28)
Enchantment by Katherine May (Releases Feb 28)
Olivia's picks:
The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln
Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
Come Home Safe by Brian Buckmire
Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O’Shaughnessy (Releases Feb 21)
The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz (Releases Feb 21)
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 My Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin. Olivia is reading Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. Erin is reading Age of Vice by Deepti Kapoor.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, and Laurie Johnson.
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
[00:00:24] "Aunt Rosa likes to send away for all sorts of gifts. And sometimes those gifts are for me. I get them from different companies that make different things like soap and chocolate drinks, and they give me something to look forward to and hope for. It's odd how just the littlest thing like a plastic ring or a badge can give a person something to go on like gasoline does in a car." Margaret Verble, Stealing.
[00:00:51] I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, I'm joined by Bookshelf floor manager Olivia Schaffer and online sales manager Erin Fielding. We're giving you our rundown of our favorite new books releasing in February. Before we get started, a reminder that one of our main goals for 2022 was to grow the show to 10,000 listeners. And we are continuing to work toward that goal. We are so very close. The best way to grow the show is to have listeners like you leave 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 Jencam22:. "I was looking for a podcast that gives honest book reviews, and surprisingly enough, that was a difficult task. Then I came upon Annie's podcast and it feels like I'm having coffee and talking about books with friends. Everything about From the Front Porch is cozy and delightful. From the introductory sounds of the porch swing to the inclusion of what Annie is reading at the end. Annie makes Thomasville so lovely that it is now my dream to retire there and spend my days at the Bookshelf!".
[00:02:00] Thank you, Jencam, and thank you to all the reviewers who left kind words and thoughtful reviews for us back in 2022. We're so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends. Thank you for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore. Now, back to the show. Welcome back, Olivia and Erin.
Erin Fielding [00:02:19] Hey.
Olivia Schaffer [00:02:21] Hello.
Erin Fielding [00:02:21] Feels like it's been forever.
Olivia Schaffer [00:02:22] I know.
Annie Jones [00:02:23] It has been forever.
Erin Fielding [00:02:24] I was just thinking we have lived a lot of life since we last recorded, [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:02:29] I had a moment this morning where I thought it is just January 25th or something as we're recording this, it feels like we have lived three months in one, does it not?
Olivia Schaffer [00:02:39] Yeah. I was just thinking in my head, I was like, "It feels like it should be March."
Erin Fielding [00:02:42] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:02:44] Yeah. Like, how is it only day 25 of this year? I just feel like a lot of stuff has already happened. Not even necessarily bad stuff, it's just been real full.
Olivia Schaffer [00:02:52] Yeah.
Erin Fielding [00:02:53] Yeah. We've really crammed a lot into this January for sure.
Annie Jones [00:02:57] Okay. Friends, if this is a new episode for you, we are going to go through February's new releases, kind of round robin style with each of us featuring a few different titles that we're really looking forward to, that we've read and enjoyed or that we have not yet read but are looking forward to reading. So as we go through these new books, keep in mind that Erin has made browsing our podcast book selections easier than ever on our new website-- one of the things we have done in the first 25 days of the month. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and now you can type the episode number. So Episode 411 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed ready for you to purchase. So again, just go to the search bar at Bookshelf Thomashawk.com and you can type Episode 411 into the search bar and see all of today's books listed. Don't forget you can still use code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order of any of today's titles. Okay. Are you guys ready?
Erin Fielding [00:03:57] Yeah.
Olivia Schaffer [00:03:58] So ready.
Annie Jones [00:03:59] How many books do y'all have? Five each?
Erin Fielding [00:04:02] Yes.
Olivia Schaffer [00:04:02] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:04:03] Okay, great. Then I will start. Then we'll go Erin. Oh, I think I messed that up in the notes. We normally go Annie, Olivia, Erin. But my notes say Annie, Erin, Olivia. So...
Erin Fielding [00:04:14] Well, well, well. Look how the turns have tabled or however [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:04:18] Well, look at the turned tables.
Erin Fielding [00:04:24] Look at the turned tables.
Annie Jones [00:04:24] So, yeah, we ended up. So we're just going to go round robin. Here we go. My first book is the book that I started the episode with Stealing by Margaret Verbal. This released on February 7th. And when I was asked last week during our in-store Literary Lunch what my favorite book of the year was so far again on day like 25 or 26, whatever it was, I had no trouble answering that it is Stealing by Margaret Verbal. This book is reminiscent in some ways of What the Fireflies Knew or even, yes, like the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. Primarily because our narrator is Kit Crockett. She is a, I think, probably pre-teen, like 11 or 12-year-old, maybe 13-year-old little girl. And she lives with her father. She's recently lost her mother and her father is still grieving. And so she lives kind of this free range childhood full of adventure and whimsy and exploration. And the way that Margaret Verbal writes in Kit's voice is so remarkable, like it doesn't feel like a precocious 11,12-year-old that's too smart. Like you don't actually know any 11 or 12-year-old like that. Kit sounds like a very realistic 12-year-old girl. And the way she views the world is really lovely. The book, though, is a little heavier. I think the author handles it with real tenderness and beauty. But basically the new stories that we all heard maybe within the last couple of years, all about these schools in Canada and also in America where they would educate-- I'm using air quotes for educate. But they would educate young indigenous children, frequently orphans or children who they took from their homes and they would re-educate them so that they would become more civilized.
[00:06:20] And not only were those schools just a horrible idea, but then we in our recent history have begun to discover that they didn't educate those children or when they were educating those children, they were also frequently abusing those children. So, Margaret Verbal has kind of taken those true stories and based the story of Kit around that. So we are introduced to Kit kind of living this really adventurous young life. She kind of loves the life she's living, although she desperately misses her mother. Her mother was a Cherokee and her father is white and she is eventually-- no spoilers. You could get this from the title. She's eventually stolen from her home and taken to one of these schools. And so the rest of the book is kind of her trying to get home and her family, particularly her mother's family, her mother's siblings and grandparents, are trying to bring her back to her father and kind of trying to prove that he can take care of her. So I love this book. I think it is fabulous. I think it is beautifully written. I know all of that sounds really heavy, but I can't quite explain how hopeful and funny this book is, because Kit is hopeful and funny and I think because it is her narration, the book really, really sinks. So anyway, I love this book. It's Stealing by Margaret Verbal. It came out this past Tuesday.
Erin Fielding [00:07:42] Okay. Do I get to go next for real.
Annie Jones [00:07:46] Sure. It's on my notes. Go ahead.
Erin Fielding [00:07:47] Okay. Well, if it's in your notes, it must be true. So my first book that's coming out next month is called Someone Else's Shoes by Jojo Moyes. It came out February the seventh, so it's out now. Jojo Moyes is an incredibly prolific writer. Some of my favorite books of hers are Me Before You, which I think was turned into a movie. And then also The Giver of Stars, which to me was like a sort of a departure from her usual style and subject matter. But I really enjoyed that too. The premise of this book is a little bit like The Prince and the Pauper. I feel like in the Prince and the Pauper the two people got together and they decided to sort of swap lives. These participants are a little bit more unwilling. Basically, two women are at a gym and they leave their bags on the bench and they accidentally pick up the other woman's bag. And so it leads them both on this life trajectory where the one woman who's sort of your average, I would say, 40-year-old, sort of stuck in a job she doesn't love. Her bag, she opens it and she realizes, oh, there's these fancy Christian Louboutin heels and a fancy blazer. And she decides it can't hurt to wear them for just one day. And so she wears them and she starts closing all these business deals. And it sort of takes her on this life trajectory where it kind of gives her that little spark that she needs to change her own life. Her husband is out of work. Her daughter is like a grown up daughter and is sort of out of the home and is unavailable anyway. So that's where it takes her. And then the other woman is a person who is like living the penthouse life. Her husband suddenly leaves her and takes all of her money. All her assets become unavailable to her. And in her bag-- as she opens the other lady's bag-- it's got dirty tennis shoes and gym wear. And so that's all she's left to wear. And it takes her on this path where she becomes more humble. But she also sees how "real people" live. And she has to work hard for once in her life to make money. And she doesn't have access to the friends and the people that used to kind of be her fairweather friends. And she finds actual real friends that are there for her. So it's just fun. It kind of reminds me of - I just finished reading - Flying Solo by Linda Holmes, and it kind of has this same -- not the same storyline really, but it just sort of has that same fun vibe, like nothing too deep. But there are some moving parts and it's just interesting to see how this simple swapping of bags takes these two ladies on completely different trajectories than they were on before.
Annie Jones [00:10:29] Sounds fun.
Erin Fielding [00:10:30] Yeah.
Olivia Schaffer [00:10:31] Okay. I am starting off this year with a middle grade novel. No shock to anyone. This is The Swifts. What is it? It's like a dictionary of something.
Annie Jones [00:10:43] A Dictionary of Scoundrels?
Olivia Schaffer [00:10:45] Yes. I was going to say the subtitle is so important to this. Thanks you.
Erin Fielding [00:10:52] It's in your notes. You did a great job.
Olivia Schaffer [00:10:54] I have a small piece of paper in front of me. There's many composition books that I got Dumbledore's Army. I've actually got very far into my life.
Annie Jones [00:11:05] But they are American Girl Doll sized composition books, everybody. So Olivia holds it up. It's like an SNL skit. Her notebook is so tiny.
Olivia Schaffer [00:11:14] It's like Olivia, who's been using a reusable notebook for the past two years, has finally switched to an American Girl Doll sized composition book.
Erin Fielding [00:11:23] Well, when you hold it close the camera it looks normal sized.
Annie Jones [00:11:25] No. Yeah, it looks huge. No big. Good job.
Olivia Schaffer [00:11:32] So anyway, the Swift's: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln out February 7th. And I think you've looked through some of my winter catalogs for children's books. There are a lot of kids books that come out dealing with heavy topics nowadays, and this one is just pure fun. This is about-- were you so worried when I said...
Annie Jones [00:11:52] Yes. I was waiting, I was like, oh boy, which direction is this going to go?
Erin Fielding [00:11:54] Which savvy topic is this going to be.
Olivia Schaffer [00:11:57] No. I was so delighted by this book. First, it plays with so many words and phrases throughout it that I think that only children will enjoy it, but I as a grown adult also really enjoyed it. And I think someone who wouldn't typically read middle grade would still enjoy it. But this is about this unique family where whenever a child is born, they pull out their big old family dictionary. Like the mom has just given birth, they pull out the dictionary, she closed her eyes, flips to a random page, points at a word in the dictionary, and that is the child's name. Because they believed that this child will grow up to become the qualities of this word. So we meet the three siblings: Shenanigan, Phenomena and Felicity. Who all ring very true to their names. And they are in this big house. And a family reunion is happening because the matriarch has called the reunion. They're setting out to find this missing family inheritance, but along the way, stuff happens, things go wrong. Their great aunt who takes care of them-- oh, and her name is like Schadenfreude because she was born in Germany and they didn't have the family dictionary.
Erin Fielding [00:13:17] That's brilliant.
Olivia Schaffer [00:13:17] When you first meet this Aunt, she's making everyone practice for her funeral-- because she wants it done a specific way-- so the family knows exactly what to do. It is very fun, super hilarious, filled with lots of hijinx. Shenanigans is adorable and her sister phenomena is great as well. But it is just pure fun. The Swifts: A Dictionary of Scoundrels by Beth Lincoln.
Annie Jones [00:13:42] That sounds so fun. Olivia, am I making this up? What if I dream this? Are you reading Phantom Tollbooth this year? Did I see that?
Olivia Schaffer [00:13:48] Yeah, I am. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:13:49] Okay. I think this kind of sounds like that. The wordplay is so fun in that book. I think you're going to really enjoy that. And I think if people enjoyed that, maybe they'll enjoy the Swifts.
Olivia Schaffer [00:14:00] Yes, I just recently download the audiobook, so I'm very excited.
Annie Jones [00:14:03] Oh, yeah. Fun.
Erin Fielding [00:14:05] How fun.
Annie Jones [00:14:06] Okay. My next book is called Maame. This is by Jessica George. It released this week. I partly listened to Maame and then also read a physical copy. And I think people who enjoyed Queenie or People Person both by Candace Carty-Williams will really like this book. The main character is Maddie. She lives in London. Her family is originally from Ghana, but Maddie never grew up there and so feels very loose ties to Ghana. And instead, she lives in London kind of taking care of her father. And she and her father kind of have a weird relationship. But Maame's brother will not take care of the father. And then her mother prefers to spend like half a year in London and half a year back home in Ghana. And her mother just prefers living in Ghana and so is not coming home to kind of take care of her husband. And so Maame is Maddie's nickname and it's kind of what her family calls her because it's a play on the word mother, and so she's like this maternal figure. But she comes to really resent this nickname because she feels like she is bearing the family's burdens. And the book is a lot about coming of age in your mid-twenties, right? Figuring out who you are. It's about caregiving and familial relationships. And it's about standing up for yourself. Maddie kind of embarks on this journey of personal discovery to figure out what she really enjoys to start to date outside of the traditional boundaries her mother has set and her mother's religion has set. So I found it all to be really interesting. Here's what I will say about Maame. I wound up really loving all of the characters who kind of interact with Maame. Like all of her family members. Her brother is really interesting and complicated. I really liked her friends. She has a really good or interesting group of friends kind of helping her along as she figures out who she is. She has a therapist. I found all of those characters really interesting. And Maddie sometimes she drove me a little bit bonkers. Like, I just wanted to kind of take her by the shoulders and kind of steer her in the direction I wanted her to go.
[00:16:26] But I think that's what is so lovely about Jessica George's character that she's created in Maddie. She is imperfect, she is flawed, and she also is broken by the system that she faces. She's a black woman who is trying to make it in the publishing world in London. Most, if not all, of her coworkers are white. And so there is a lot about race, particularly in the publishing industry, but also just in industries in general. She works both in publishing and then partly, I think, if I'm not mistaken, in theater. I listened to this a while ago, but she also overcomes all those things. And much like the narrator in Stealing (Kit Crockett), Maame or Maddie is somebody with a lot of gumption. And I really came to appreciate that about her. And I loved how Jessica George kind of brought the family together. The family is definitely chaotic and messy, and Maddie ultimately winds up dealing with quite a bit of grief. This is no no spoilers, but her father kind of dies toward the beginning of the novel. And so Maddie's identity as a caregiver is now lost. Like, the person she was caring for is no longer there for her to take care of. So anyway, we get to see Maddie kind of muddle through adulthood a little bit later than other people might. She feels like she's a late bloomer, trying to move out for the first time, buy her own groceries, find a job, all of those things. So I really like this book. I think it'll be enjoyable. I love the audiobook. I think the physical book has a beautiful cover, so you may want it for that. I wound up doing both and enjoyed both, but I do think the audiobook is great. I listen to it on Libro fm of course. That is Maame by Jessica George, came out this week.
Erin Fielding [00:18:07] My next book is called The Sun Walks Down by Fiona McFarlane and it releases on February 14th. This is her second novel. She wrote one before, and she's also written some short story collections that were actually prize winning like some Australian prizes. She is an Australian author. This book was blurbed by Elizabeth McCracken and Geraldine Brooks, who wrote March and also Horse, so there's good company there. I really, really love this book. The cover is kind of boring. It's just like orange and the words kind of fade into the colors. So there is that. So the cover is not going to catch you probably, but the story for sure is a hidden gem within that orange cover. But it's set in 1883 in I want to say Australian outback, but it's really more like Australian farmland. But the visual that she gives us is just a lot of flat sort of maybe rocky terrain with people who are farmers. This book was set in 1883, it did not feel like. When I read it, I didn't think, oh, this is a book set in another time. It felt modern. It felt like it could have been set last week or it could have been set like it was in 1883. But the story begins when there's a dust storm and there's a little boy named Denny who wanders away from home and goes missing. And so that's really the impetus of the story. And from there you get this whole cast of characters. You get his family, he has a large family. His mother's [Inaudible] and his father is just a sheepherder farmer. So they're trying to go around and round up people to help search for him. So this cast, the people who are out searching for him and the people who stay behind are really the most interesting parts of the story. You do actually hear from Denny. There are chapters that are from Denny's perspective being lost, and it's both adorable and also frustrating because he doesn't see things like adults would see them. Like he sees the lights of the searchers and we know it's the lights of the people searching for him, but he thinks they are these gods that are chasing him. And so he's trying to hide from the gods. So every time these people get close to him, he hides and you're screaming and you're like, "Denny! No. It's your parents." What kept me reading was the chapters are broken up by day one- night one, day two- night two. And it's just over a week, so it's not a long period of time. I won't spoil it. I won't spoil whether they find Denny or not. You have to read it for that. Or should I? I don't know. Probably people are, like, I'm not going to read it if they don't find Denny.
Olivia Schaffer [00:20:57] I know. I would like to know.
Annie Jones [00:20:59] No, don't tell.
Erin Fielding [00:21:00] Yeah, I won't tell. You how to read it, Olivia. Or we'll talk about it later.
Annie Jones [00:21:06] It does sound good. I'm kind of intrigued now.
Erin Fielding [00:21:09] Well, it kept me reading. The way that the author describes Australia, I've never been there but after I read this book, I both feel like I've been there and also I really want to go there. These host of characters and the way that this little boy's disappearance impacts their life-- like there's a police officer that had just gotten married and Denny goes missing on the night of this police officer's wedding. And because everyone's at the wedding and no one notices that Denny is gone. And so the police officer then has to go out for this whole week and search for him and not be with his bride who he just married. And so you get the perspective of the bride who's left behind all this time and her longing for her husband and what she gets up to while he's gone. But anyway, it just feels very epic to me. It feels like if you like Properties of Thirst by Marianne Wiggins, which I did, it feels like in that same vein. It feels big. It feels epic. I can see it as a movie. I love the title. It's called The Sun Walks Down, and that comes from-- in the story, there's a couple. One of them is like a Swedish artist and they're there in Australia and he's trying to capture the sunset. That's why he came to Australia to try to paint the sunset. And he keeps saying like English doesn't have the right words for some beautiful things. And he said in Swedish they have their word for sunset basically which translates to the sun walks down slowly. And so I just thought that was really beautiful. I think I'm going to start saying that the sun is walking down and not the sun is setting. Anyway, it's a really great book. I can't wait for everyone to read it.
Olivia Schaffer [00:22:41] I want to want to go to Australia, but there is a huge part of me that knows I could never do it.
Erin Fielding [00:22:48] Oh, I never will. I'm sorry to say, I never will.
Annie Jones [00:22:51] That's a long flight.
Olivia Schaffer [00:22:51] I'm not worried about the flight. I'm worried about the spiders I can do a long flight. I can't do large spiders.
Erin Fielding [00:23:02] Well, I saw some news story yesterday which made me laugh because I knew I was going to talk about Australia today that, like, let's say that there's 29 species of snakes, like 28 of them live in Australia. There's a lot of snakes in Australia, y'all.
Olivia Schaffer [00:23:16] I can't do snakes either.
Erin Fielding [00:23:17] Yeah, so do I.
Olivia Schaffer [00:23:19] I'm out on both counts. Which leads me to my next book. Segway, my next book is Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. And this is about basically survival in Antarctica, which I actually feel like I might be able to survive in because of no bugs.
Annie Jones [00:23:36] No, that's true. You could be safe.
Olivia Schaffer [00:23:38] I can do that. So I'm going to phrase this in the right way to grab the right audience. But this does start with an alien apocalypse, which sounds immature and like a little bit juvenile. But the way it's done, it is very well done. Think of like The Passage by Justin Cronin like the way he did a zombie apocalypse. It's not the right words for it, but it's the only words I have for it. So aliens descend from the sky and they basically tell everybody across the world that they have 30 days to make it to Antarctica. That's the only place that we are allowed to live from then on.
Annie Jones [00:24:24] Okay.
Olivia Schaffer [00:24:27] You meet these two characters, Lysa and her soon to be boyfriend, and they met in this trip that she was going on. She's from America, but she's in Europe on a trip. And they meet and they kind of fall in love almost instantly, but like the next hour the aliens come down. And he kind of rescues her family who are like trying to evacuate the city, but at this point traffic is at a standstill and everyone's panicked because as soon as something like that would happen, all rules go out the door. And so they end up on a boat because his family owns a rather large ship and they make it down to South Africa where they realize they're not going to make the 30 day mark. And so they board another ship to get them there. And they kind of make some trades and her parents can't come because the ship won't take anyone older than 45 or anyone who's sick or anyone who's younger than a certain age, or just would need extra care and wouldn't be able to survive Antarctica to begin with and so what would be the point. And so then they cross the Drake's passage, which I then did a deep dive on the Drake Passage, which is crazy. And they make it to Antarctica and they're along this fleet of ships that are just lining the coast. And everyone's staying in the ships because why would they leave the ships? It's like -50 degrees Fahrenheit outside. They would never survive. But Lysa gets this idea and she's, like, "Aliens don't realize that we're in Antarctica territory." We're pretty sure they mean continental Antarctica. So she makes it off this boat, grabs as many people as she can to come with her. And sure enough, she was right and everyone else is. And then it flashes forward 20 years and you see how like they have started establishing different like colonies in Antarctica. Some of them are on like research bases that were already there prior to this. And the one that she lives at she started basically from scratch with her husband. But they started doing this genetic mutations on people to try to make them be able to survive the cold in a way that a human already can't. It is so well done. The chapters are like 3 to 4 pages long, but they grab you right away. It was like you were saying, Erin. Where I can already see this as a movie playing in my head because the characters are so fascinating. And I do love when-- this is going to sound morbid, but I don't mean it in that way. I love watching people in like hard to survive situations or like survivalist situations. Like I think of Project Hail Mary, he wakes up in a whole other solar system by himself. What would you even do? You made it to Antarctica and now you have nothing. What would you even do? And these people have found a way to adapt and move forward. And he just started introducing other characters and how they survived, where they were coming from. It is so well done. And it really doesn't feel like an alien apocalypse. It's apocalyptic.
Erin Fielding [00:27:44] Yeah but it's like a survivalist story, like a pioneer story really.
Olivia Schaffer [00:27:49] Yeah. It is really, really well done.
Annie Jones [00:27:52] My next book is completely different from that. It is BFF: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found. This is a book that actually was recommended to me by Ezmie. I believe she either listens to the advance listening copy of this or something. But Christy Tate was the writer of Group, which was a book that was part her personal memoir about being in group therapy, but also kind of investigative group therapy from maybe a kind of nonfiction perspective. And so BFF is the same kind of thing where she is investigating friendship, particularly female friendship. And so she's taking stock of the friends she's had over the course of her life and why some of those friendships lasted and why some of them didn't. And really kind of analyzing them and trying to figure out the role she played in those relationships. Ezmie thought it was really good and really well done. It reminds me a little bit of a book I read probably ten or 11 years ago called MWF Seeking BFF, which was one woman's journey to find a friend in adulthood, which I think we all know is actually really challenging. And so I like the idea that this is a book where this woman, Christy, is looking back on her friendships and kind of almost inventorying them and trying to figure out why are some relationships seasonal? Why do some friendships last forever? What is it about childhood friends that we can still occasionally pick up right where we left off? And through it all, she's kind of got this woman who she is friends with, who actually has kind of nudged her and pushed her to investigate her relationships. Perhaps because Christie is one of those people who in adulthood does not have very many friends. She is married. She found the love of her life, but she does not have a ton of female friendships. And this mentor, this friend of hers, is trying to get her to understand why that might be. And their relationship I think as a result, both strengthens and also suffers a little bit because of Christie's kind of investigation of these relationships. So it sounds really good. I am very curious about it. Ezmie was talking about it and was excited about it, which made me excited about it. So that is BFF: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found by Christie Tate. It also came out this week.
Erin Fielding [00:30:16] My next book is I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai. I think I'm saying that correctly. It comes out February the 21st. Her previous book was The Great Believers, and I think it did really well at the store. It's been very popular, obviously was a finalist for Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. So this one is pretty hefty. It's 448 pages long, so get ready. But it is based on this woman named Bodie Kane. She's a successful podcaster and film producer, and she's invited back to her boarding school in the Northeast to come and teach like a two week class about podcasting. And so while she's there, she has her students start investigating a murder that happened when Bodie was there. When she was a senior, there was a girl that was murdered and there was a black athletic trainer who was accused of the crime. And he ended up being convicted and sent to jail. And since that time, this is about 25 years between when she was in school and when she came back to teach this class. Between that time, there's been evidence that he was wrongly accused. And so she takes her students on that journey to try to figure out really investigate was he wrongfully accused. And while she's back at the school, some things happened in her own life that sort of are reflective of like the MeToo movement. And she thinks back about her time when she was at this boarding school. And she also realizes that there were probably some abuse of power going on at the same time in her own life with teachers and things like that. So it's sort of set in this-- I do believe, for the good that we are moving into a time where thanks to a lot of nonprofits and justice organizations, that people are starting to really push for ( like Kim Kardashian) people to really see were they accused rightfully or were they wrongfully accused and can we release them. But so this sort of pulls a lot of cultural things in as she is also going through looking back on her own life and also walking her students through that process as well. So that's I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai.
Annie Jones [00:32:37] I think I'm going to read that. It sounds so good.
Erin Fielding [00:32:38] Yeah.
Olivia Schaffer [00:32:39] Kim Kardashian's doing that?
Erin Fielding [00:32:41] Yeah, she went and got a law degree. So that she could like-- she really has been working, I guess, mostly behind the scenes because you don't really hear a lot about it. But she really has been working to try to free people who have been wrongfully accused. And I really cannot believe I'm saying things about Kim Kardashian, but...
Annie Jones [00:33:03] Here we are.
Erin Fielding [00:33:04] Here we are.
Olivia Schaffer [00:33:05] Okay. My next book is Come Home Safe by Brian Buckmire. And this is out February 7th. This is a really short one. It's like less than 250 pages, almost like a novella the way it's done. But Brian Buckmire who's an attorney, but now he's like an ABC legal analyst. And so he goes over a lot of the cases that are going on, especially when they deal with racial injustice. And he wrote this because in 2020, when so much was happening, his brother came to him and was just kind of like, what am I supposed to do if I get into an altercation with a cop or something happens, how am I supposed to be prepared to handle this in a way that I make it out okay? And Brian at first was, like, I don't know if I'm the person to tell you this because legally it's different everywhere. But his brother was basically, like, if you're not the person to tell me this, I don't know who is. And so Brian talked to like a bunch of different families, all of whom are in the legal field in some way. And he came up with this story, and it's basically a story about legalities. And it's written very academically, but it's like for children. So it's about this brother and sister read an olive and they go through to pretty big moments with cops where their parents have kind of prepped them for these moments. It's like all of the codes and rules that black kids learn growing up to keep them safe that their parents teach them, that other people teach them. A lot of it was like I had no idea, which is not shocking as a white woman that I had no idea. I should know. I should have done my research. But it was very interesting to read.
[00:34:58] Reed picks up his younger sister Olive from school and they get on a train to go home. And they pass these three black kids at the top of the stairs. They were chatting for a second because they were congratulating Reed on doing really well in soccer, and then they offer them to smoke some marijuana with them and Reed and Olive were like no. And so they go into the train, but the three kids end up hopping the turnstile and getting on the train and cops are chasing them. And people have given them a description. Reed does not fit that description, but the cop says he does and takes him off of the train with all of them in the whole thing. It was hard to read, but like one of those hard but necessary reads where the treatment of Reed was appalling in every degree. And like the way Reed walked away from it was pretty traumatized and a little bit injured, but mostly just like mentally traumatized. But you see them go through it. You see them talk with their parents about, like, did I do this correctly? What could I have done differently? And a lot of it is like, no, you couldn't have done anything differently, but you got home safe and that's the whole point. And then they go through another incident with basically a Karen claiming that Olive stole her phone when Olive did not and the cops not believing Olive over the white woman, but then their mother, who is white, comes over and changes the whole scene because she's a white woman. So it's one of those where it's short.
Annie Jones [00:36:33] Is it for children?
Olivia Schaffer [00:36:35] It's for young adult.
Annie Jones [00:36:37] Okay.
Olivia Schaffer [00:36:38] Yeah, the book said 12 to 14. And I think that feels pretty correct. Honestly, it's just a little bit more of like an awakening than like a scare. I mean, it is scary to think of what possibly happens to children. But it was really well done. And it's one that I'm just like teachers, if you're out there, make your children read this.
Annie Jones [00:37:02] And librarian. Yeah. Because of books like this, I think Olivia frequently will see books like this and they're hard to sell in a bookstore. Do you know what I mean? Like when people are browsing at the bookstore sometimes they're coming for a resource, but a lot of times they're coming for something fun or a treat. But libraries are resource centers and so hopefully schools and libraries-- and I mean, we will stock it too. But I think in bookstores books like this are a harder sell than in a library or in a classroom setting.
Olivia Schaffer [00:37:33] Yeah. And I think this is one that would start really good conversation as well.
Annie Jones [00:37:40] Okay. My next one is called My Last Innocent Year. This is by Daisy Alpert Florin. It comes out on February 14th. It reminds me ever so slightly of the Rebecca Makkai book that Erin was talking about. This is a book about a young woman. It's the nineties and she's in college and she has two sexual encounters in the book. The first is this encounter with a peer, and she is having trouble deciding if she actually consented to it or not. Like in the moment she kind of asked him to stop and he didn't, but she is having trouble labeling that as assault. And so that's kind of one experience that she has. And then she proceeds to kind of have this affair with an older professor. While this is happening to our main character, in the world the Bill Clinton scandal with Monica Lewinsky is happening. And there are several things. I finished this book last night. I read it in a day. I really, really liked it a lot. It reminded me in some ways of a book I loved a few years ago that was not for everyone. I just feel like I need to tell people. Not everything I read you might enjoy. But I loved a book called Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro, and there were parts of this book that reminded me of that, particularly the young woman's relationship with her professor and the things that they talk about. And it also reminded me of Writers and Lovers by Lilly King, because the main character is an aspiring writer and she's in this prestigious university where she's learning creative writing. And then it also reminds me of Young Jane Young, which is a book that was almost a fictional retelling, reimagining of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal with the Monica Lewinsky character as the main character. So the book obviously has a lot to say about the MeToo movement without ever talking about the MeToo movement, because it's the nineties. And so you're really getting this adult narrator looking back on her last year of college and that these two encounters that meant a lot to her and that she still in adulthood is trying to unpack all of their layers and what they meant.
[00:40:02] And this is no spoilers, truly you know all of this kind of going in, but the sexual encounter that she had with her peer was actually more traumatizing to her than the sexual encounter she had with her professor. But then the encounter she had with her professor was obviously objectively problematic. You can just hear in the narration her trying to figure out what that means. I loved this book. It's very fast paced. The main character is also in a close knit group of friends who I found really interesting. There's three of them who I really loved reading about. The writing program that she's in, I loved reading about. I love campus novels, and this definitely to me qualifies as a campus novel. You feel like you are there and you feel like you are living this last year of school with her. I also like this kind of adult narration, but at first you can't quite figure out is an adult narrating this or is she narrating this in real time? But you soon realized no she's narrating it, she's looking back and she is trying to figure out what did these two things mean to me? How did they affect and change my life? I loved this book a lot. It's a debut novel, which I was pretty impressed by. I'll be interested to see what Daisy Alpern Florin does next. I really like this one. I think it's a striking cover. I think people might be talking about this one. I really liked it. And while I've read some things like it, it felt really unique and kind of its own thing, which I think is hard to do around some of this subject matter. So my Last Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin.
Erin Fielding [00:41:35] All right. My next one is The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill. It releases on February 28. I'm very excited about this book. Kelly Barnhill, she wrote one of my favorite books of last year When Women were Dragons. This one is really slim. I don't know if you can call it a short story. It's 128 pages. I read it in one sitting. It is a book. It's being published as a hardcover book, but it definitely feels like a short story. But it's not a rebuttal to C.J. Hauser's memoir. It's really different.
Annie Jones [00:42:12] The irony of this too. It is funny to me. Crane Wife and Crane Husband.
Erin Fielding [00:42:14] I know. I was like, is she trying to you know-- I don't know what. But C.J. Hauser's story was based on this Japanese folklore about the crane wife. That's what it was based on. And so this one is also based on that, but it's a modern retelling. So it is based on the Japanese folklore of the story, is that there's a crane who falls in love with a man and so she wants to make herself like a woman. So every night she's plucking at her feather, she's becoming a woman, and they're very happy together. And then it just gets to be too much for the woman, basically, like she cannot keep this up. She cannot keep being a crane and a woman. This one, I loved the way that she retold this. It is a single mother who has a 12-year-old daughter, and I would say maybe like a six-year-old boy. The mother is an artist. She weaves tapestries and she makes collages and things like that. Their father passed away, got very sick, passed away. And so they've been on their own for a while. And she's literally doing everything. She's making the website, she's doing the sales, she's running the bank account, she's buying the groceries, she's doing everything while her mother is just sort of artistically absent and making the art so that they can live on it. But there's one day that her mother brings home a crane, like a six foot crane. And that's her mother's new boyfriend.
[00:43:42] At first I was like, okay, can I get around the fact that they are literally trying to sell me that this mother is dating this crane. And at first I was like, I don't know, it's maybe too much for me. Because When Women Were Dragons, like, I think people found that hard to get around. They were like women who were literally dragons and the story just commenced with a talking dragon. If you can get around the literal device that there is a crane that this mother is dating, you will not be sorry because this book is so good. So basically the crane has bad intentions and you come to find out that he is a man sometimes and then he's a crane sometimes. And when he's in both forms, he is abusive to their mother. She has cuts and bruises and scrapes and everything. And she's just not eating. She's not sleeping. And they're working on this artistic masterpiece, her and this crane together. And the daughter decides after a while, like, no, he's basically killing my mother. And I cannot let this happen. So I won't spoil it, what she does, but it's just beautiful. When I was done, I just moved and also tearful, but like in a happy way. It was just so, so beautiful. Again, I think you could sit down, just grab it, sit down with it and read it in one sitting because I could have put it down when I was done. So if you can get past the crane man, this will-- especially if you like When Women Were Dragon, it's very similar writing this one. So it's the Crane Husband by Kelley Barnhill.
Olivia Schaffer [00:45:20] Sometimes I feel like I read such odd books and then you'll talk about a book that you loved and I'm just like, no, I'm not alone.
Annie Jones [00:45:28] No. We all like something weird.
Erin Fielding [00:45:30] Yeah.
Olivia Schaffer [00:45:31] Yeah.That sounds like people who would like Woman Eating would like that.
Annie Jones [00:45:36] There was a book a few years ago that came out that I read where the woman was a bird. Like, she literally became a bird.
Olivia Schaffer [00:45:42] I was thinking about that one too.
Annie Jones [00:45:44] And now I can't remember the name of it. It was so good. I think it was by Megan Hunter. Anyway, the point is, the woman became a bird and I loved it.
Olivia Schaffer [00:45:54] Harpy.
Erin Fielding [00:45:55] Yeah. The Harpy. Good job.
Olivia Schaffer [00:45:57] Okay. On an extremely different note, moving back into middle grade Lasagna Means I Love You by Kate O'Shaughnessy comes out February 21st. I read Kate O'Shaughnessy's first middle grade book-- was it like two or three years ago now? Which is crazy. It was The Lonely Heart of Maybelline, and I adored it. The cover is beautiful. The writing was wonderful. She knows how to capture like a young 12-year-old's brain so well. And this one felt exactly like that. So you meet Mo right after her nan passes and Mo lives with her nan. Her mother wasn't able to take care of her. She just has never been in the picture really for Mo. But her nan kind of knew this was coming, and so she had made this plan for Mo where she was going to go live with her uncle (her mother's brother) and nan has taken care of her financial needs and everything. So she was going to be fine. And Mo was aware of this plan as well. But as soon as her Nan passes, her uncle decides he can't take that responsibility on. He's done a lot for Mo and her mom throughout his life. And he's kind of-- I don't know truly how I feel about him in the book, but he's kind of like he needs to put himself first for the first time in his life. So there is resentment there, but there's also just like you're my only living relative. So I don't fully hate you. But because of that, Mo ends up in foster care. And Mo goes to one family where the brothers just like pick on her constantly and it's just a temporary family.
[00:47:38] And then she finds this couple who had been trying for a baby, but it wasn't working out. And Mo came along and it feels like such a good fit, except for the fact that Mo is coming from a place where she didn't have a lot of money, a lot of resources to her name, and now she's living with these people where it's like they have like the living room where it's just for show, but they have another. You know what I mean? Like that level there. They're grandmother has a house out in the Hamptons. Mo is not used to living this life, so she feels a little bit like an imposter. But while at the foster care center, she finds this family cookbook and it has all of these family recipes. And her nan was always pushing her to get a hobby. So Mo's like, I'm going to start to cook. And the foster family is all about this thing. They buy her all the ingredients she needs and she starts to collect family recipes from other people and she'll cook them. And then she writes about them in a little blog and it takes off. A New York Times reporter like writes about this because she'll just go out onto the street and ask random people for like a family recipe. And she gets this really heartfelt story and a recipe from it and then she makes it. But things start to really take off for Mo right before they come crashing back down on her. It's one of those stories where it will tug at your heartstrings a bit, but it has really a really beautiful ending to it. And Mo does find like a family that really cares and loves her. But it is beautifully done. Kate O'Shaughnessy nailed it again.
Annie Jones [00:49:17] Well, that sounds wonderful. My last book-- and we're going to do this quick. The last round, super quick. But my last book is Time's Undoing by Cheryl A. Head. This comes out on February 28th. I am super curious about this one. I did not receive an ARC, but I think I will be reading it because a lot of it takes place in the city of Birmingham, which is where Jordan is from. It's where I've spent a lot of time. And so basically a young black journalist, It's 2019 and she's living in Detroit and she's working for the paper there and she decides to investigate this kind of family story. It's not really folklore. They all know it happened where her great, great grandfather or her great grandfather was murdered in Birmingham in 1929 and their family knows about it, but no one knows who did it or kind of what happened to him. And Birmingham has a unique history that I really did not know. I just assume a lot of southern cities like Montgomery or Savannah or even Atlanta have been around a long time, but really Birmingham came up during the. And the nickname for Birmingham is the Magic City because it like appeared overnight like around the steel industry. And so it just has this really, I think, unique kind of Southern history. And it was the site, as most of us know, of significant race riots, racial injustice.
[00:50:47] The Freedom Riders went through there. Martin Luther King Jr spoke there. It was the site of the 16th Street bombing. So lots kind of took place there. At one point, the city was even nicknamed, I think, Bombingham because the bombs would be set in these black people's homes and in these churches-- just really horrendous, horrific stuff. And so, anyway, this young black journalist in 2019 decides she's going to use her credentials now to go back down to Birmingham and to see if she can figure out what happened to her family and what happened to her great grandfather / great great grandfather. And that premise alone sounds fascinating to me. But it's based on a true story, and so I'm very curious what role Cheryl, the author, had kind of played in that true story. But it is based on true events and I am super curious about it, partly because of my relationship to that city, but also just it sounds like a really, really good book. And we're getting a lot of books, it's so funny, where there's like a podcaster or a reporter who goes to an area. I feel like I saw that description in a lot of different books this season, but this one sounds unique and interesting and I'm very curious about it. It's called Time's Undoing by Cheryl A Head, Out on February 28th.
Erin Fielding [00:52:02] Okay. My next one is a nonfiction release coming out February 28 also. It's Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age by Katherine May. Katherine May's previous book was Wintering, which did very well, continues to do very well. We keep selling it at the store, so it's a perennial favorite. But she is back with another book. Basically, she realized after the COVID 19 pandemic that she was living in a constant state of burnout. Much like all of us.
Annie Jones [00:52:32] Oh, really?
Erin Fielding [00:52:33] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:52:34] Really, Kathryn, you say?
Erin Fielding [00:52:38] And then we've even talked about this internally. Just finding the wonder, finding that sense of childhood excitement, that sense of play, that sense of just your eyes being open to all the beauty around you. And that's what this book is about, it's separated into different sections like Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. And it is part memoir, like her re-telling us how she attempted to find and is attempting to find wonder and enchantment in her own life. And it's part self-help, mind, body, spirit, sort of how you can recreate those same things in your own life. And her big push is that you don't need to do all these fancy experiences. You just need to kind of open your eyes to what's around you. Like if you are on a walk with your dog, just notice the clouds, notice the sounds around you, things that we can all do in our everyday life to try to fight the burnout and just really-- I don't know, it's not become one with nature. That sounds dumb, but you know what I mean. Like just find the beauty all around us, whether it's in people or the nature, whether it's in our own homes or in our relationships or in our business. So I know that's going to do really well when it comes out because everybody needs that.
Annie Jones [00:54:00] Yeah, I'll be reading that one.
Olivia Schaffer [00:54:02] All right. My last one comes out February 21st, and it's The Writing Retreat by Julia Bartz. I can't say much about this because I'll give away too much of the plot, but that's perfect for lightning round style. This is about two ex-best friends that had a huge falling out a year ago. Alex and Ren. And they get invited to go to this exclusive month long retreat with this writer, Rosa Valo. And Rosa Valo is like a feminist horror writer. Think like Mont Dixon, if you will. Like who is a Mont Dixon type person. And they get there and there's like three other women who are also attending this retreat. And Rosa just drops it on everybody that you're not just going to be like casually working on your writing during this retreat. You have a month to finish a whole book with a brand new idea that you're picking today. And whoever finishes the best book and we all agree on it, they get like a seven figure deal to get this published. So the stakes automatically jump. And then Rosa starts playing weird games with them, like creepy, horror type games. Like go down into my basement without a light and blow out a single candle type games.
Annie Jones [00:55:10] Do you ever wonder who goes to stuff like this? I'd be like, we're not doing this. You are not the boss of me, bye. Keep your seven figures.
Erin Fielding [00:55:22] [Crosstalk] going in your basement. No.
Annie Jones [00:55:24] I'm not going to your basement to blow a candle. I am not a sucker.
Erin Fielding [00:55:31] We wouldn't have any great mystery books if no one went to a basement to blow out a candle.
Annie Jones [00:55:36] That's true. There's somebody out there is going to a basement. I don't know who it is, but somebody is doing it.
Olivia Schaffer [00:55:41] Well, all five of these women go into the basement to blow out a candle.
Annie Jones [00:55:49] Sure, sure.
Olivia Schaffer [00:55:49] You know the things people will do for money.
Annie Jones [00:55:51] Yeah, that's true. That's true.
Olivia Schaffer [00:55:53] But things just keep getting odder and odder and stakes keep escalating. It was really, really well-done. Again, like short chapters. You just fly through it. Really interesting characters. This felt like the plot meets who is Mont Dixon in Lucy Foley style. So I think it'll grab like a pretty big audience around it. It was excellent.
Erin Fielding [00:56:20] I'll read that. I'm all about reading about people.
Olivia Schaffer [00:56:24] It's a lot of fun.
Annie Jones [00:56:25] I'll read about them. I won't be that person, but I'll read about them.
Erin Fielding [00:56:28] You can read about it [Crosstalk].
Olivia Schaffer [00:56:30] I really hope none of us would be that person.
Annie Jones [00:56:32] I don't think we would.
Olivia Schaffer [00:56:33] There's a lot of things that people do in thrillers that are [Inaudible].
Erin Fielding [00:56:36] I love these roundups or rundowns or whatever we call them because it's such a wide range. I feel like there's something for everybody. And so if you enjoyed listening to the books that we discussed today, you can go to our website Bookshelfthomasville.com, type Episode 411 into the search bar and you can see all the titles we talked about today. Don't forget to use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order of today's titles.
[00:57:05] This week, I'm reading My Last in Innocent Year by Daisy Alpert Florin. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia Schaffer [00:57:10] I'm reading Cold People by Tom Rob Smith.
Annie Jones [00:57:14] And Erin what are you reading?
Erin Fielding [00:57:15] I am listening to Age of Vice by Depti Kapoor.
Annie Jones [00:57:21] 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:.
[00:57:35] Bookshelfthomasville.com.
[00:57:37] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at Fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:57:42] Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music which sets the perfect, warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
[00:57:51] Our executive producers of today's episode are Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell.
Erin Fielding [00:57:58] Nicole Marsee. Wendi Jenkins. Laurie Johnson.
Annie Jones [00:58:02] Thank you all for your support of From the Front Porch. If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see, 'Write a Review' and tell us what you think.
[00:58:20] Or, if you're so inclined, you can support us over on Patreon where we have three levels of support. Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts and giveaways. Just go to Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
[00:58:39] We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.