Episode 419 || New Release Rundown: April

This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing April 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% off your order.

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

Annie's books

This Bird Has Flown by Susanna Hoffs (4/4)
The House Is on Fire by Rachel Beanland (4/4)
Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee (4/11)
Life and Other Love Songs by Anissa Gray (4/11)
If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook (4/18)

Olivia's books

Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin (4/4)

Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef (4/4)

Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb (4/18)

Lolo Weaver Swims Upstream by Polly Farquhar (4/25)

In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune (4/25)

Erin's books

Homecoming by Kate Morton (April 4th)
The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong (April 18th)
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan Stradal (April 18th)
Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo (April 18th)
Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (April 25th)

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. 

Thank you to this week’s sponsor, the 102nd Annual Rose Show and Festival in Thomasville, Georgia. Come visit us for the weekend of April 28th-29th and experience the flowers, fun, food, and shopping in Beautiful Thomasville. Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.

This week Annie is reading Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. Olivia is reading Drowning by T.J. Newman (May 30th). Erin is reading Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo (April 18th).

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...Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Donna Hetchler, 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] 

“How much could forgiving someone matter if they were already gone?”  - Cat Shook, If We’re Being Honest 

[as music fades out]  I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I’m joined by Bookshelf floor manager Olivia Schaffer and online sales manager Erin Fielding to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in April.  Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? Spread the word by leaving a review on Apple podcasts. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. 

Here’s a recent review from Carrier Jere:  Well rounded & informative  As a male author, I found the perspectives and insights surprisingly practical, not to mention full of depth from many angles. I expected the southern billing to be too narrow in its scope. But what I found was the southern hospitality included even me. I love that they have such a huge palette of interests and suggestions. It helps to know which books are passing the muster these days. 

Thank you so much for this feedback, and thank you to all of the reviewers who’ve left kind words and thoughtful reviews over the last few months. We’re so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends; thanks for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore.  Now, back to the show!  As we go through March’s new releases, keep in mind that Erin has made browsing our podcast book selections easier than ever. Just go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type Episode 419 into the search bar, and you’ll see all of today’s books listed, ready for you to purchase. You can use code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order of today’s titles.  

Annie Jones [00:02:15] Hi, Olivia and Erin.  

Olivia [00:02:18] Hey.  

Erin [00:02:19] Hello.  

Annie Jones [00:02:21] Welcome back. Can you believe we're talking about April books?  

Erin [00:02:24] No.  

Olivia [00:02:24] No, but I'm so excited.  

Annie Jones [00:02:27] I said this at a literary luncheon store this week that I feel like spring is a really fun time for books. I know fall is a huge publishing season, but sometimes fall's almost overwhelming in how many books there are. I feel like spring like summer is on the horizon, which feels like maybe it's my imagination, but feels like there will be more free time [inaudible] all the books that are coming out. Yeah. So, I'm excited as well. Okay. Typically, these episodes last a long time, so we're going to get started. Do y'all have five books? I did not count.  

Olivia [00:03:02] Yes.  

Erin [00:03:03] Yeah.  

Annie Jones [00:03:03] Okay, everybody has five. So, I'll kick us off with this new book by member of The Bangles, Susanna Hoffs. She has written a book called This Bird has Flown. It released this week on April 4th. So, I liked it. I think some people are going to love it. This book is about Jane. Jane is a musician who has had better days. She's kind of waning in popularity. She had more or less kind of a one hit wonder that was written by this other guy who she toured with a little bit. And she's really struggling to find her footing. And her friend, an agent, encourages her to fly to London where she can kind of have a fresh start and have a writing session and maybe even put out a new album. So, Jane gets on a plane and she is seated next to Tom Hardy. Not that Tom Hardy. It's a whole big joke. It's not that Tom Hardy. It's an Oxford professor. He's got like elbow patches on his coat. And, of course, they kind of hit it off. And when they land in London, they wind up embarking on this kind of romance. There's to me a couple of things happening in this book. The first is Jane's music career and trying to navigate midlife and what happens post success. I thought that was what worked best about the novel, and it's what I liked the most about the novel. Then you have a very steamy romance between Tom and Jane. This is the part of the book that I think other people will really love. And I kind of skipped some pages and was like, okay, that's interesting. And then the third part of the book is that some of what transpires between Jane and Tom and some other characters in the book is very much Jane Eyre inspired. And I picked up on that a little bit later through the book, and all of a sudden I was, like, wait a second. And then I flipped to the back. I was reading an ARC and it said, Bridget Jones meets Jane Eyre. And I was like, oh, which I had not read the blurbs before picking this book up. So, that is a very accurate description of what is happening in this book, and it's why I think maybe I just liked it. But I think other people will love it. I always like reading the acknowledgments. There's a lovely acknowledgments section where Susanna Hoffs kind of talks about how classic literature and being a reader kind of shaped her life and shaped her storytelling. You can definitely see some of those influences in the book. I think it's worth picking up and throwing in your beach bag this spring. That is This Bird has Flown by Susanna Hoffs and it released this week.  

Olivia [00:05:46] Did you know Susanna Hoffs name from The Bangles, like right off the bat, or did they say somewhere?  

Annie Jones [00:05:53] They said it somewhere. No way I could know that.  

Erin [00:05:54] I was like, I would have never. I can't even name a Bangles song right now.  

Annie Jones [00:06:01] No, I know the Bangles. This is going to age me. There are going to be people who are rolling their eyes at us because they are older than us. And I know the Bangles because of Gilmore Girls, because of the Sea. But then also, I feel like everybody knows a Bangles song, but you don't know that it's the Bangles.  

Erin [00:06:18] That's true. 

Annie Jones [00:06:19] It's how I feel about that. But I would not have known her name as a member of the Bangles, except I'm pretty sure it's on the back cover.  

Olivia [00:06:27] Okay. That makes me feel a little bit better. [laughter] Okay. My first book I am so excited about is Panther Gap by James A. McLaughlin and this is out April 4th. This is like a follow up, almost companion novel to Bearskin, which came out in 2018. For all of those who are wondering if you need to read Bearskin beforehand, I read Bearskin in 2018, can't remember a single thing from it, and thoroughly enjoyed this book.  

Erin [00:06:57] Good.  

Olivia [00:07:00] A five year gap between novels is quite a gap.  

Erin [00:07:03] It is.  

Annie Jones [00:07:05] It's like the new season of Ted Lasso. I'm like, Wait. A minute.  

Olivia [00:07:07] What happened?  

Erin [00:07:09] Where are we at?  

Annie Jones [00:07:11] I don't know anymore.  

Olivia [00:07:12] Yeah. And the character from Bearskin really only pops in towards the very end of this. This is for people who I think like Peter Heller, Tim Johnston. Like, that type of just nitty gritty nature writing. It's about these two siblings, Bowman and Summer. And they grew up in Panther Gap, this like crevice of a land, I don't know, up in Wyoming. But their family had owned it for generations and generations. And so, they've just been maintaining it. But then Bowman and Summer are about to inherit a huge amount of money after their grandfather passes. But they don't realize that this money is connected to the cartel. Well, Bowman realizes this because he has gotten tangled with it through his father's misdoings. But Bowman is this character who, if you've ever read C.J. Box or, watched Joe Pickett-- not really watch Joe Pickett, this character is not the same in the show. He's like Nate Romanowski. I know a certain sect of people are going to get that reference. [laughter] But if you get that reference, it is like it's dead on in the best way possible. Bowman is just like one with nature. He's into a lot of indigenous folktales about men being wolves or becoming Panthers and Jaguars. And so, as a child, he had this eagle and he would wear this wolf pelt and throw a chicken over his back so that the eagle would attack him, but eat the chicken. Like, it was the way of feeding the eagle. Bowman just started becoming like one with this Wolf, like he thought he was becoming a wolf. And this is done in the most-- I don't know how to put it. It doesn't ever feel corny in the book. You're just like, wow, Bowman is just like this-- he's meant to be out in the wilderness on his own, and then he gets called back by his sister Summer when they start inheriting this money. And Bowman's like this isn't a good idea, but Summer needs the money to maintain Panther Gap. So, it's a slow burn of a thriller. But it was a five star book for me. It was so well done. And, listen, I live on a plantation now. I read looking out into the woods. [Laughter]. So, it might be just the setting, but I also love Peter Heller and C.J. Botts and books like that. And this was just like right up my alley. But it is so well-done. The relationship between the siblings, I could talk about that for hours.  

Erin [00:10:00] That's good. I do love a good book with interesting character names. And Bowman is a great name.  

Annie Jones [00:10:03] Yeah, it's a good name.  

Erin [00:10:08] All right. My first pick is one that I think a lot of people already know about. It's Homecoming by Kate Morton. This is I will call it historical fiction meets mystery. Like, a little bit of a murder mystery. It's set in Australia in 1959, and also it jumps to the present in 2018. So, it's got that alternating timeline storytelling plot that a lot of people love. I also laugh like this is the third book I read in 2023 alone about Australia, and I'm like, did they get a new marketing manager? [Crosstalk] [Laughter] I don't know what they're doing down there, but they are making great books. I don't think Kate Morton herself is Australian, but Australia is really having its moment I think in literature.  

Annie Jones [00:11:02] Australia is like the mushroom. I feel like mushrooms are having their moment.  

Erin [00:11:11] Exactly. It's a [inaudible] season. This book opens in a way that it grabbed me from the beginning because it opens and within the first few chapters you realize that their whole family has died and somebody comes upon them. It's like a mother and her three children and you don't know why, and it doesn't look like there's been foul play, so it's very confusing. So, you're like, oh, I've got to find out what happens. I'm not spoiling anything that's absolutely in the first few chapters. And we jump to the present, which is 2018, where a character named Jess, I would call her a journalist that is kind of down on her luck and is out of her job. She is from Australia. She was raised by her grandmother in Australia and she gets called. Her grandmother has fallen from her attic stairs and she is like, why would my grandmother have been in the attic? I don't understand that. So, she flies home. Her grandmother is saying a lot of things that aren't making sense. She's in the hospital. And while she's there, Jess is exploring the home that she grew up in with her grandmother. And so, she's looking for clues about why her grandmother was up in the attic, first of all. And as she's looking through the house, she realizes that there's this book there that connects her family to this murder back in 1959. She's now trying to uncover what happened to her grandmother, what happened to this family back in 1959. And you do jump back and forth, so you go almost like back in the 1959 timeline. You're starting with this tragedy and then you're going back and finding out what led up to it. Which is a plot device I just love because you already know what happens, but then you're like, but why? Why did it happen? It is 560 pages long, guys. So, do you think it could have been edited? There's quite a bit of buildup that, in my opinion, isn't necessary. I think it definitely could have been shorter. But I think the mystery and I think the family dynamics in this book will help readers want to persist throughout the whole book.  

Annie Jones [00:13:15] Okay. I am curious. I used to read a lot of Kate Morton in my pre Bookshelf life or maybe early when I was manager at Bookshelf, Tallahassee. And I really liked everything I read by her, honestly. But I think in my bookselling life that page count is a hard [crosstalk].  

Olivia [00:13:31] Oof, yeah.  

Erin [00:13:33] And all of hers are like that, they're thick books.  

Olivia [00:13:36] Yeah, they're thick. But I am intrigued by this one. I might pick it up.  

Erin [00:13:41] It was good.  

Annie Jones [00:13:43] Okay, my next one released this week. It's The House is on Fire. This is by Rachel Beanland. She wrote Florence Adler Swims Forever, which is a book I really loved and one of the few books that captured my attention during the summer of 2020. And I really liked it. I think it was one of my shelf subscription titles, so this is a departure from that. But I had an interview with Rachel Beanland that actually is what made me want to pick this one up. Where she was talking about while she was doing research-- I don't know if it was for Florence Adler or another novel-- but basically I think she wound up moving. Maybe that's what it was. She wound up moving to Richmond, Virginia, and on the tour of the town, somebody told her, "Oh, yeah, that's the theater that burned down." And she's an author. And she was like, "Wait, what?" And so, she wound up doing a lot of research on the Richmond Fire of 18/11, the Richmond Theater Fire. So, this is a fire that occurred in Richmond where the theater in town kind of completely burned down. This book is set, I believe, on December 26th. I'm a little intrigued by the spring release date, but never you mind. So, the fire took place around Christmas, and that is when the book takes place. It takes place almost-- at least the parts that I have read thus far-- entirely on the night of the fire. And you know the fire's going to happen. But you watch like everybody walking to the theater and you get all these different characters leading up to the fire. And then the fire happens and you see these different characters and how they were affected, how some of them became heroes in that moment. Some of them fled in that moment and left other people to die.   So, she tells it from a variety of characters perspectives and then talks about--- and I have not gotten to this part in the novel yet, but my understanding is then some of the novel does take place kind of after the fact and the long term effects of the heroism or the lack thereof, and particularly dealing with a couple of characters, including one who was formerly enslaved. And what does his life look like after he makes heroic efforts to save some people who probably, definitely would not have saved him. And so, she deals with some of that, though. What I've read so far is really good. It is clearly well researched. I think book clubs will really like this. I think fans of Fiona Davis will really like it, where it's historical fiction, but it's outside-- and, look, there are some really wonderful historical fiction books about World War Two. I'm not diminishing that. But if you are a little fatigued, maybe by historical fiction that kind of all sounds the same or all is dealing with the same types of stories, I think this will be appealing to you. I think it will especially be of interest if you-- weirdly, we have several customers who have lived in Virginia before, or who are living there. Also, our long distance customers are living there now. So, if you live in Virginia, if you live in Richmond, I think this will have particular interest, perhaps even if you just live in the South. But I appreciate the work that Rachel Beanland has done on this novel, and I like that it's a little bit of a departure from maybe your typical historical fiction. This is called The House is on Fire by Rachel Beanland. It came out this week.  

Olivia [00:16:56] That one sounds really good.  

Erin [00:16:57] Yeah.  

Annie Jones [00:16:57] Yeah, it does.  

Olivia [00:16:59] Okay. Going into middle grade, my next one is Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef, and this comes out April 4th. And this is for everybody who liked Fantastic Beasts, but maybe wanted something a little bit with more depth to it. Fantastic Beasts was great, but it treated the animals with like a sense of humor; whereas, this book has such respect for it. This is about this Iranian-American 15- year -old girl, Marjan, and she just lost her father. In fact, her guardian is now her elderly neighbor, but she gets to stay in her house and the neighbor just will leave pizza on her door to make sure she is fed, like, randomly. And then whenever she sees her, she's just like, "You're not on drugs, right?" And Marjan is like, "No drugs." And then they just carry on. It's a really cute relationship.  

Annie Jones [00:17:53] It's every kid's dream. To live in a house by themselves with pizza.  

Olivia [00:17:56] But Marjan's father owned this veterinary clinic, and he would go off on these trips, which she assumed was to, like, help other animals outside of there. But once he passes, she gets this mysterious visitor at the vet because she also helps out there. I mean, she's 15. She's very mature, which is why I think this is like older middle grade, almost like I could easily sell this to Y.A. easily and they would never think twice about the age range of it. But she realizes after this mysterious stranger comes to visit her that her father has been going on trips to heal these mythical creatures all around the world. The first one she heals is a griffin. But what's great is that after these people start coming to her, bringing them her animals to help heal them and whatnot, you'll meet the animal in the situation they're in. And then the next chapter is the Persian fairy tale of how this animal came to be. And there are all these tales that her dad would tell her at night, which is how she learned all this information about them without even realizing it. So, she kind of takes the place of what her father was doing. But then she finds out that there's two groups of people who are trying to manage these mythical creatures, and both of them are corrupt in different ways. And she's kind of caught in the middle of how do we best treat these animals? Because Marjan is a girl who, like, she'll look a dangerous creature that only does bad things and see where it's hurt and still want to help it. She's so good and she's so caring and she has such respect for them that these institutions don't. And so, she tries to face them head on. This book is so well done. I can't stress that enough. It didn't ever read like middle grade to me. I was shocked to learn that it's like 10 and up middle grade book because not that anything explicit happens to her, but it's just the maturity level of Marjan dealing with these animals and helping these people. And the writing was just so well done. It was really, really good. Five stars.  

Erin [00:20:19] Yay!  

Annie Jones [00:20:19] Two five stars in a row for you.  

Olivia [00:20:22] Almost all of the five star books that I've read this year are out in April. [Laughter] [Crosstalk].   

Erin [00:20:30] All right. My next book is a little bit darker, a little bit deeper. This is The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong. It comes out April 18th. This is really outside what I would normally read, but the cover is so colorful and fun. It drew me in. This book literally comes with a trigger warning. There is a trigger warning inside the book before you start reading it. But it's about Benson Yu. He's a comic book author who is struggling with depression, struggling with anxiety. And it stems from some childhood abuse that took place in his life at the hands of his karate coach. And he's doing well as an author, but he's just mentally not doing well. And he gets a letter from the karate coach basically saying like one of the characters in your comic book is so reminiscent of me and says, the things that I said that I think you need to pay me money because you're basically using me as a character and I think you owe me money. So, he's dealing with not only this perpetrator reaching out to him, but also his demand for money. And so, he decides, you know what? I'm going to write a different book about a completely different character. So, he writes this book about a boy named Benny who lives in Chinatown in the 1980s, and there's a whole other cast of characters in that book. So, this book is not for everyone. There's a multiverse. There's different versions of Benson throughout the years. Like, there's him as Benny, there's him as his current self, there's him as a father to his younger self. So, again, I think this is one of those books if you read it, a lot of reviews were like, you're not going to enjoy this book. I mean, it's not one of those books you're going to read and be like, wow, that was such a great book. But the way that they deal with such deep topics about suicide, about abuse, about all these things, is beautiful in seeing the way that this comic book author, this fictional character sort of finds ways to deal with that in an external way. So, like I said, it's not for everyone. But I think that people will be interested in the way to see how this author deals with these character's pain, and they sort of like take it and put it externally through comic books, through art. And we've seen characters do that before in books.  I just think that's an interesting way to show what someone's going through. So, it's The Double Life of Benson Yu out April 18th.  

Annie Jones [00:23:08] I wonder if people who liked Everything Everywhere All at Once might like that book?  

Erin [00:23:13] I think so. I think it's a little bit darker topic-wise, but I do think if you have the brain for being able to comprehend all multiverse and like which characters this and what timeline are they in, and that's really up your alley, I think that people would find this fascinating.  

Annie Jones [00:23:30] Okay. My next one is not set in the multiverse. It is Pomegranate by Helen Elaine Lee. This book releases next week, and I really loved it because of our main characters. The main character's name is Renita. Renita has spent the last four years in a correctional facility where she was doing time for opiate possession, and she, while in prison, fell in love and has become sober. And so, when she leaves the facility, her goal is to kind of rebuild the life that she lost and to receive custody of her two children and to regain their trust. So, the book is told in part in Renita's first person voice as she leaves prison, starts to go to therapy, tries to prove herself to the system so that she can get her kids back, and also to prove herself to her aunts who kind of helped raise her and became really disappointed in what happened to her. Okay. And then the other portions of the book are told in third person, as we look back at how Renita became who she is and how she became addicted to drugs, kind of the path that she took, some of the emotional abuse that was inflicted on her in childhood. And all of that I think is fascinatingly told through third person. I think the book is really playing with memory and who we once were and how we become who we are. This book is not necessarily what I would call plot driven, although certainly you follow Renita as she's trying to resettle and regroup. But it is really Renita story and her character development. It's a father-daughter story. She has a really lovely relationship with her dad. It is about addiction and certainly it is a lot about the criminal justice system and the prison system. And then when people leave the prison system, what resources they are and are not given to cope with the outside world. And I found Renita struggles for sobriety to be particularly compelling. I hesitate to say the word heartbreaking because actually what Holland plainly has done is created a really strong, resilient character. So, I don't ever feel pity for Renita. She's strong and she's tough and she's determined. But I certainly feel an empathy for her.  

[00:25:57] And once I started the book, I could not put it down because I really wanted to know what happened to her. I was very invested in her story. I love the storytelling mechanisms that Helen Elaine Lee used. I love the first person narration but also then going back in time and looking at who Renita was through the third person. And I thought that was really smart and clever. I just really liked this book, and I think I read the acknowledgments and it sounded to me like Helen Elaine Lee had done a lot of work in the prison system, perhaps through teaching, writing workshops or things like that. And I think you can tell that she really. I think writes about this women's prison in a really nuanced, thoughtful way where I was compelled by a lot of the women characters. I think I would have loved even to have gotten even more about the women that Renita met in prison and the relationships that she developed there, particularly her relationship. She fell in love with a fellow inmate and kind of what the love between them looked like. I really liked this book a lot. I think other readers will too. Particularly if you liked Tayari Jones's American marriage. That is a book that comes to mind. Yeah, maybe Orange is the New Black. Not the show, but the memoir. There might be some similarities there. Anyway, it's called Pomegranate. It's by Helen Elaine Lee, and it is out next Tuesday.  

Olivia [00:27:15] She has a great author name.  

Annie Jones [00:27:17] Yes, she does.  

Erin [00:27:18] I'm curious what pomegranate is. Is that a part of the story or is pomegranate used as a metaphor for something?  

Annie Jones [00:27:25] It's part of the story. It's something she and her dad share. And it winds up being a really beautiful title to the book.  

Erin [00:27:33] Oh, good. I love that.  

Olivia [00:27:35] Okay. We're back to adult now for me. This next one is Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb, out April 18th. This is his second book. His first one was Violent Conspiracy, which Dad and I both loved. I actually think I loved this one even more. It was just so good. And it grabs you right from the start. It has dual timelines, which normally I hate. But in this book, I don't know. He did it so well, so I couldn't hate it. And I think it was each timeline had such a competing plot that I was drawn to both ends of the plot. In the first part, present day we meet a man Bern Hendricks. And Bern is a musicologist who has studied this composer, Fred Delaney. He went to the Delaney Foundation as a child to get his education and whatnot, and now he teaches his work at a college level. But Bern gets this phone call from a woman who works for the Delaney Foundation because they just found a missing composition out of nowhere. It's this infamous composition called Red, because Fred had done a whole song for each of the rings of the Olympics. It was known that he lost the original. And when he rewrote it and finally debuted it, it was terrible. The audience just walked out of the theater. And at this point it was like his climax of his rise to fame. And then he just plummeted. And so, the foundation recently found the original composition of Red, and they hired Bern to put it together so that he could put it on an orchestra. Then we go back in time and we see Fred and his upcoming rise to fame, but we meet him first he's playing in this little like dive band and they're about to kick him out of the band because he's so terrible. But this woman, Josephine, who just sits there in the bar and loves listening to music, starts to coach him on his piano skills. And Josephine is this musical savant, like, she's incredible. But you can tell that she definitely lives on the autism spectrum somewhere. She sees music as colors and that's how she vocalizes it. So, when she tells Fred he's playing something wrong, she's like, the red isn't the right shade. I don't know, I'm not trying to... But you see Fred and Josephine form this bond together where he starts to pay her to be his piano coach, and then he realizes that she's living on the street and she's a black woman in the 1920s, and things are not going well for her. And a black woman living with autism in the 1920s, the intersectionality there is out of this world. And so, he takes her and he lets her stay in the apartment, and then he realizes that she can compose music. You slowly see this corruption start happening in their relationship. And Bern on the parallel side of this is looking at this piece of music and starting to like put together pieces that like this seems a little bit different than what Fred normally does. And he starts to investigate. But the foundation clearly does not want that to happen. It is so well done. It was so much fun of a read too. You just flew through it because the chapters were short and the characters were addicting to read about. It was great.  

Olivia [00:31:19] Hmm. That sounds good.  

Erin [00:31:21] That sounds really good. My next one is one I'm really excited about hand selling. It's Saturday night at the Lakeside Supper Club by J. Ryan. And I looked up how to pronounce his last name. Sounds like I really want to know. He says it's "straydool" like Stradal. So, I've been saying "straydol" my whole life. It's "Straydool". 

Olivia [00:31:43] Me too.  

Erin [00:31:45] I'm a total fan of his. His first book, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is really one of the first books I read like right out of college. So, one of my first sort of adult books. You know what I mean? Being an adult, not being in college, just working at my job, picking up books to read for fun. Kitchens of the Great Midwest was one of the first ones I picked up. And it was so good. And it sent me on this trajectory where I just love to follow his works and I've read all of his other ones. The Lager Queens of Minnesota is fantastic too. This one does not disappoint. It's so good. As with his other books, it focuses on the sort of multigenerational family in the Midwest as to be expected in Minnesota. The main character, Merrill, is working at the Lakeside Supper Club and Birch Lake, Minnesota. She inherited it from her grandmother because her mother doesn't want anything to do with it. Her mother doesn't want to be a part of that life, doesn't want to own it. And so, it comes to Merrill and she loves it. It has so many great memories for her. She loves running it. She loves the community. Except that then she meets Ned on a chance encounter at the Supper Club, and he's there with his family who also runs a restaurant chain. So, they're sort of like a romcom where the two people meet and they, like, own-- it's sort of like You've Got Mail. Like, he owns a big bookstore. She owns a small bookstore. That's sort of like this. Like, he owns a big restaurant chain and he's rising within this family organization. And she is in love with the Supper Club and wants to keep it exactly the way it is.  

[00:33:19] And they fall in love, of course, beautifully. And then it's a matter of whose dream is going to win. Like, does she give up her dreams, allow Ned to keep rising within his family organization and this restaurant chain? Or does he give up his place and his family's legacy to allow Merrill to keep her restaurant? That is sort of the first part of the book. And then there is a tragedy that happens in the middle. I don't know if I should spoil it because it is kind of a trigger. There's a child death. I will say that because I know some people that do not want to read about that. And the Supper Club becomes their lifeline for them, for their family. It's a way, even at the end, that brings sort of restoration back to their family after there's been a lot of unforgiveness and separation due to this tragedy. But it's just so beautiful. He writes women characters so well. I don't know how he does it, but he does such a good job in that. And I love how he focuses. There are male characters in the book, but his focus is always on the women and how they hold up the communities around them. If you have loved his other books, you will love this one. It's out April 18th. If you have not read any of his other books, you can just pick this one up. You don't need to read any of the other ones and you'll enjoy it just as much.  

Annie Jones [00:34:42] I loved it. I still think it'll be potentially in my top 10 of the year because it just holds so much. I was so curious how you were going to describe it, because the plot is so kind of all over the place a little bit. It's hard to figure out what's the overarching thread other than the Supper Club itself just because a lot happens, but he handles all of it so beautifully.  

Erin [00:35:06] Yeah. The Supper Club itself, it's almost a character in a sense.  

Annie Jones [00:35:10] Yeah. Okay. My next one is Life and Other Love Songs. This is by Anissa Gray. This is her sophomore novel. She wrote The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls, which came out a few years ago, and I really liked it. This one, though, I really loved and I really thought, oh, this might be the book she was meant to write. Anissa Gray is a Georgia author. I think she might be from Atlanta. And this is one of those books just like last time. Erin talked exclusively about books narrated by three different voices. This is another book told in three alternating voices, though it is mostly told through the eyes of the women, Deborah and Trinity. Deborah's husband, Ozro, to me, is the other main character. Although we don't always fully get things from his perspective, he certainly looms large in the novel. So, on Ozro's 37th birthday, he leaves his house after breakfast and he never comes home. And there's no rhyme or reason why he would have done that. His daughter and wife, Deborah and Trinity, they cannot figure out what happened to him, why he might have left or if something horrible happened. They don't know if he was murdered or kidnaped. And so, the book really goes back and forth, not only amongst those three voices, but also amongst different timelines, really showing, oh, this is what happened to Ozro before he even got married and had a daughter. This is what happened to Deborah before she fell in love with Ozro. This is what happened to Trinity when her dad was home. This is what happened to Trinity after her dad left. It kind of does a really good job of telling the whole drawn out story across decades.  

[00:36:56] The book does take place across a span of years. And as a result, it also is at least in part, historical fiction. You kind of learn about Ozro moving during the Great Migration and what it was like for him having left the South. And I think what I have said it's partially could be compared to is The Many Daughters of Afong Moy where that book takes kind of one ancestor's trauma and sees how it affected the rest of the family. And so, Ozro's pain and his trauma have an impact on Deborah and on Trinity. It also reminded me of Margaret Wilkerson's Sexton's on the Rooftop. That book is a lot about music, particularly black music, and how it kind of saved communities and brought communities together. And in the book, Deborah has a beautiful singing voice, and she pursues singing, but then kind of puts it on the back burner when she marries Ozro. And then Ozro goes missing, and she potentially has this opportunity to maybe start singing again. It deals with how we all handle our pain. And so, Ozro deals with his pain in different ways. Deborah deals with hers by drinking, and Trinity deals with hers by moving away from her family. I think it just has a lot to say about generational pain and trauma and how we handle it and how we hold it. At the same time, I really was invested in all of these characters and in all of their stories and all of the threads kind of holding the story together. I really like this book a lot. If you read The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls and you liked it, I think you'll love this. If you didn't like that one, I think that's okay. This is completely different to me. It's telling a completely different kind of story, and I think it really showcases Anissa's great talent for storytelling. So, Life and Other Love Songs by Anissa Gray out next week.  

Olivia [00:38:58] Okay. My next one is told in one voice.  

Annie Jones [00:39:03] Lucky you.  

Olivia [00:39:07] And it's a middle grade novel. This is Lolo Weaver Swims Upstream by Polly Farquhar, and this is out April 25th. It's a tiny little book. It'll take you, as an adult, a couple hours to read-- not even, I think it took me like one and a half, two hours to read, but it was so good. This was another five star book for me. I loved it so much because it felt like in the vein of Sharon Creech and because of Winn-Dixie, where you have this child at the heart of it, Lolo, who she's going to summer school. She lost her grandfather a couple of months ago and she's upset about it. But as a child, she doesn't know how to place these emotions. And so, you kind of see her act out a little bit. I mean, one, she's in summer school. But she's in summer school with a teacher who she's pretty sure hates her. Like, she's just convinced herself that this teacher hates her. And this teacher gives them a writing prompt every day for their journal. And Lolo will just cover her journal and just pretend to be writing. So, she's never actually written in her journal. But that's the way in which Lolo acts out, if you will. She's not a bad kid. She's just like there's a lot of inner turmoil happening because Lolo and her grandfather were really tight. And her grandfather used to foster dogs and the last dog that her grandfather fostered was a dog named Hank who was scared of doorways. And after he passed away, Hank was too big a trouble for her elderly grandmother to take care of. And so, they sent Hank to live on this farm across the lake. But not like the farm that like as an adult we think, it's a legit farm.  

Annie Jones [00:41:02] A real farm.  

Olivia [00:41:04] A real farm. The dog does not die in this book, everyone. [Laughter] No triggers.   

Erin [00:41:12] A natural farm. And a happy.  

Olivia [00:41:15] A literal happy farm.  

Olivia [00:41:19] Lola one day decides her grandmother is upset, and the only way to help her grandmother is to get Hank back. Her grandmother does not want Hank back. Her grandmother is actually dealing with this pretty well, but Lolo has convinced herself that her grandmother needs Hank. So, Lolo takes her kayak by herself and goes across the lake, gets to this farm and meets this little boy who she didn't realize is Noah from her class and he is the one who's been taking care of Hank. And Noah loves Hank. They have a really good bond. So, Noah's kind of like, "Alright, if you think this is what Hank wants and this is what's best for Hank, then I will help you get Hank back across the lake." They set off back across the lake, and a bunch of things happen. They run into their teacher who ends up having to help them.  It's one of those stories that just feels so classic and timeless and in a way that I think children will love this book. As an adult, I loved this book. Lolo is just such a fun character. And it never felt heavy. It doesn't feel heavy because really, ultimately it's the friendship between Lola, Hank and Noah that happens. It has a very happy ending. No one has to worry.  

Annie Jones [00:42:33] Delightful.  

Olivia [00:42:34] Yeah, it was great.  

Erin [00:42:37] My next book is Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo. It's out April 18th. This is Christine's debut novel. And I see a lot of promise here. I do love an alternative timeline. It is set in 2023, like not a multiverse thing again. It's set in 2023, but you can tell by the setting that it is not our 2023 because there is a second American civil war going on. Already I was grabbed because I was like, yes, tell me more about this. But Hestia Harris, she's the main character. She's been married. Her husband just left her to go join like a pro-union paramilitary group. Like, he's so invested in the cause, he leaves her. He's just not coming back. She joins a dating app. She's just trying to live her life in the midst of a civil war. So, she starts to wade into the dating world. And it's funny because she's trying not to get matched or to flirt with people who are Confederate sympathizers. I don't know. I just love the juxtaposition of dating apps. I'm sure are insanely difficult anyway, but set in this fictional civil war and you're trying to figure out, like, is this person a Confederate sympathizer? I really like that plot device. Her parents are moving to one of the states that have decided to secede. She decides to leave her career writing. She doesn't feel like it's safe as a journalist anymore. And she thinks like, you know what, I'm just going to work at a retirement facility because this is a quote, "I told myself it would be a safe workplace because not even a Confederate would bomb a facility full of the elderly, right?" So, that was funny. It does definitely feel like a book of satire about our current state of affairs politically in this country and how divided we are, because they do kind of talk about like how the Civil War started and that everyone should have seen the signs.  

[00:44:38] And it was like the stuff that is kind of currently happening in our world. So, it feels a little bit like satire, but it follows her. Like I said, she's just trying to live a normal life. She's trying to figure out, where can I go out to eat? Well, let me pull up my Safe Zones app and see where safe places to go eat. Or she has this other app on her phone called Conflicted App. And it gives her war updates every day.  It's got a funny cast of characters. The people she meets at the elderly home, they decide to do an oral history project, and so she walks them through this oral history project. So, there's a lot of their stories in there as well about their lives and how they got here. But it's like if you took the background of The Hunger Games, but you just juxtapose someone's life on it that's just like trying to live a normal life and just have fun and like works at an elderly facility. It sort of has that look around like the world is kind of falling apart, but also I'm just trying to go to the grocery store and I got to buy food for my family. It is not a very long book. I think people will enjoy the humor of it, the sort of dark humor,. But, yeah, it snagged me right away. And I think people will like it.  

Annie Jones [00:45:55] I am so curious about this one because as I said in lit lunch this week, it feels like a book about what we all just lived through to some extent, like trying to figure out what restaurant can I safely go to. Weren't we all just Googling that in 2021? Where can I safely eat? Is there outdoor seating?  

Olivia [00:46:16] Yeah.  

Annie Jones [00:46:19] I think it feels so timely; although, it sounds upon your description that it's funny and like would be handled well. But at first while I was reading the description I was, like, I don't know if this is too close to home or not. Like, I can't tell if I want to read about a book about this or not.  

Erin [00:46:35] It's like all of us we reached the point in the pandemic when you kind of were just like rolling your eyes and stuff and you were just like, well, I have to do this. I think all the characters seem like they're like, "Yeah, I mean, it's happening, but you want to meet me at this bar for a drink?" It's not a big deal. So, they just kind of compartmentalize that what's happening out there. And it's different what's happening in their lives.  

Annie Jones [00:46:57] Okay, I might have to try that one. Okay. My last book is If We're Being Honest. This is by Cat Shook. It releases on April 18th. It's a debut novel by a Southern writer. Cat Shook is from Georgia, but now she lives in New York. I feel like I love these books set in Brooklyn neighborhoods or in the Upper West Side. I'm thinking of pretty much Emma Straub's entire backlist. I'm thinking of the Sweet Spots by Amy Poeppel, and I love all of those books. And I love reading about New York and its quirky neighborhoods. But it was delightful to read a book about really quirky, complicated, slightly dysfunctional families and people but set in the South. And so, if you like Emma Straub but you're ready for a change of scenery, I think this would be really great for you. So, basically we've got the Williams family. They live in a small town in Georgia, and I also selfishly just liked that it was a small town. And I want to say she said South or Central Georgia. It just felt like even books set in Georgia are set in Atlanta. And it's like, okay, that's great.  

Erin [00:47:58] Or Savannah or something like close to that.  

Annie Jones [00:48:00] Like, what if we just live in the middle of the countries? Like, what if that's where we live? Like, could we write a book about that? I'm trying to think like what is around here? It's just fields. What if we just lived where our air smells like smoke because of prescribed burns? Like, what if a beautiful spring day is ruined by smoke? Can we write about that? So, I felt like Cat Shook knows from whence we come. And the Williams family lives in this small town in Georgia, and their patriarch has died. Their patriarch Jerry. And so, the whole family, of course, comes back home. Many of them already live in the small town. And we get all of these different characters, including Jerry's wife, including his adult children, and including the adult grandchildren. And those adult grandchildren, this set of cousins is really who we spend the most time with. But I was amazed at how Cat Shook made all of the characters fully fledged multi-dimensional, despite there being quite a few of them. It's a pretty large family. I really don't want to spoil too much for anyone. I will just say that at Jerry's funeral we are given kind of a twist to the story that the family has told themselves about themselves, and there is fallout from that. So, the book is set over the course of one week. We start with Jerry's funeral and then we end with a neighborhood wedding. I loved that kind of bookends of those two big events. And the book takes place over a week as this family kind of grapples not only with Jerry's death, but also with these kind of family secrets that come out. It's deeply funny. Great if you were a fan of This is Where I Leave You, I would highly recommend this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't wait to see what she does next. It's If We're Being Honest by Cat Shook. Out on April 18th.  

Olivia [00:49:44] I keep thinking of like Death at a Funeral. Have you seen that movie?  

Annie Jones [00:49:49] No, I never saw that. Should I see it?  

Olivia [00:49:51] Oh, you should. Mr. Darcy or Tom Lamb's games is also in that movie.  

Annie Jones [00:49:57] Okay. Wow, he really makes the rounds, doesn't he?  

Olivia [00:49:58] He really does. It was great. Okay. I saved this book for last on purpose. I'm so excited about it. It's in the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. And you guys it's finally coming out. Well, at the end of April. I'm sorry, everyone. It's April 25th. You still have to wait.  

Olivia [00:50:21] It's almost here.  

Olivia [00:50:24] This one for me gave more House in the Cerulean Sea vibes than Under the Whispering Door. House in the Cerulean Sea was kind of like the uplifting book we all needed in 2020, and also feels like TJ's rise to fame.  

Annie Jones [00:50:38] Yeah.  

Olivia [00:50:39] It's like he put out that book and everyone knew his name. And then you had Under the Whispering Door and everyone sobbed and grieved together because it was towards the end of a pandemic. And we also needed that. And now we have In the Lives of Puppets. It's more fantasy than either of those two for sure. This is set in the woods where this father, Giovanni, (who's a robot but also this inventor) lives with his son Victor, (who's a human, but also an inventor) because he follows his father's footsteps. And they have like this scrap yard nearby that Victor will grab scraps from and he's in the process of building a heart that can replace Giovanni's if anything happens so that his father can still live. But they have these two quirky little robots that live with them. One's a nurse who is extremely dry and sarcastic and brings a lot of humor to the book. And then you have this little vacuum robot-- think Roomba style.  

Annie Jones [00:51:43] Oh, yes.  

Olivia [00:51:45] Who is adorable and both easily excited and easily scared at the same time. All the time. But Victor one day goes out to the scrapyard and he finds this robot, Hap, who he never finds living robots out there. And he rescues Hap. And in order to do so, he has to put the heart that he built Giovanni into Hap. But doing so alerted the robot race that they were living there. And so, they steal Giovanni and this group of ragtag individuals has to go after Giovanni. I feel like TJ Klune does the best found family trope I've ever read, and I think it's one of the best things he brings to the literary world. It's like you feel like you're part of the family just reading the book and it's amazing. This one, I think they comped it to like Pinocchio meets, like Wall-E. To me, this gives like Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams vibes.  

Annie Jones [00:52:53] Wow! I had not thought about that movie in probably 30 years.  

Olivia [00:52:58] Major throwback. It's all you think about during this book. It played like a movie. But they have to venture to this big city called the City of Electric Dreams. And I was like, oh, it's like-- what did they call it in Bicentennial Man? It wasn't Manhattan, but it was something like that.  

Erin [00:53:13] It's been a while since I've seen that movie.  

Olivia [00:53:19] Bicentennial Man I would say is much more sad than this book is.  

Annie Jones [00:53:24] Good to know.  

Olivia [00:53:26] But if you love TJ Klune and anything he's written, you'll love this book just like you did everything else.  

Erin [00:53:34] I'm just curious why is it not called like The Lives of Robots instead of The Lives of Puppets [inaudible]?   

Olivia [00:53:43] After I read the book, I probably could have told you why. But currently... 

Erin [00:53:49] Just get back to me or [crosstalk].  

Olivia [00:53:52] I literally read this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down. It was so good.  

Annie Jones [00:53:55] That's nice.  

Olivia [00:53:56] Yeah, but there was something. The title made sense. 

Erin [00:54:02] I got you. I'm sure it did. He wouldn't have called it that for nothing.  

Olivia [00:54:05] You should read it to find out.  

Erin [00:54:06] Oh, I will.  

Olivia [00:54:10] I'm a great saleswoman 

Erin [00:54:13] I don't know. You read it. You tell me what it is about. Okay.  

Annie Jones [00:54:18] You tell me. 

Erin [00:54:18] My last book is Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane. It comes out on April the 25th. Again, I don't think this is necessarily up my alley, but I think it turned out to be. You may know Dennis' other works. He has written Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River, Shutter Island. All have been turned into movies. In fact, this book already has a deal with Apple plus to make a series based on it. Get it now, order it, read it, and then you can watch the series when it comes out. It is based in Boston in the summer of 1974, and he just describes it so well. You can just imagine the heat, like it's sweltering, it's Boston and the schools have been ordered to integrate via court order and no one is happy about it. And as you can imagine, there's a lot of tension there already. And our main character is Mary Pat Fennessy, which is like a great like Boston-Irish man. And she is doing the best she can to make ends meet. Of course, she's kind of down and out. Her gas is turned off, electricity gets turned off. Her teenage daughter, Jules, goes missing one night. And Mary Pat works a retirement facility. Two books with that, so sorry. But she has a coworker who in the same night her son is mysteriously killed in a subway train accident. And they don't know how and they can't find Jules. Both of these mothers, one white, one black, is dealing with the disappearance and murder of their child. And so, they're dealing with it in different ways. Then there's this racial tension in Boston about integrating the schools and the two camps there. And as Mary Pat starts to look for answers about what happened to Jules that night or where she could be, she starts to bump up against the Irish mafia, the Irish mob, I guess, in Boston. And they're not happy about that. And she gets a lot of pushback from them to stop asking questions about Jules’s disappearance. I do enjoy these kinds of books. Almost like the Last Summer on State Street, where you just have that summer, you get a glimpse of these families in this time period. And I really do love that because you're all in, you're invested because you know it's not going to last forever. It's just going to last this one little summer. And there's a lot of non-Susie approved language in this book. So, maybe if you are a Nancy/Susie reader and you prefer not to read a lot of profanity as you can imagine, it's like watching a Ben Affleck movie but you're reading it.  

Annie Jones [00:56:56] Yeah.  

Erin [00:56:56] Imagine that kind of language that they might be using. But there's already a lot of rave reviews for this book, and I have a feeling it's going to be one that whether in the book form or when it comes out in series, is going to spur a lot of good conversations just about what happened and also about bussing in schools and things like that. The author said he's been waiting his whole life to write a book about bussing in Boston. Because he's like the story of bussing is the story of Boston, which I think is a fascinating quote and such a good book.  

Annie Jones [00:57:31] I'm super intrigued by that because I've seen a lot of his movies, like a lot of those movies you named. But I've never read one of his books. And I think dad did and liked it. I can't remember.  

Erin [00:57:42] This seems like something your dad would like.  

Annie Jones [00:57:45] Yeah. I think I would like to try it as well. Okay. So those are the books that we are looking forward to releasing in April. Don't forget, you can shop on our website. That's bookshelfthomasville.com and use the code newreleaseplease, at checkout for 10% off your order of any of today's titles.  

[00:58:05] This week, what I'm reading is brought to you by the 102nd Annual Road Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Come visit us for the weekend of April 28th and 29th and experience the flowers, fun, food and shopping in beautiful Thomasville. Plan your spring visit at ThomasvilleGA.com. Rose Show is coming up and I am so excited. It's one of my favorite times of the year. There's something so vibrant about our city and all of the visitors who come for the Rose Show, which we talked about on last week's episode. We talked about actually walking into the tents and getting to see all the pretty flowers, the Rose Parade, the street dance, which I mistakenly said was on Saturday. It's on Friday night, everybody. Nobody panics. Saturday night is fireworks. Friday night is dancing. There's a whole weekend's worth long of events. I am curious. People have heard about my favorite things. But since y'all are here, I'm curious what your favorite parts of Rose Show weekend are. Erin, what's your favorite part?  

Erin [00:59:01] I do like going in the tents where they have all the roses. I mean, you've never seen such beautiful roses as these amateur gardeners grow and then come in to compete for this prize. They're fascinating. The smell is, of course, amazing.  

Annie Jones [00:59:16] Last year was my first year to go in the rose tent because it's always right by the Bookshelf, but for whatever reason-- I don't know. Bookshelf life-- I've never gone in. And last year, I got to go in the rose tent and then the orchid room. And I just couldn't believe the beauty that people had crafted and cultivated. I can barely water my fern.  

Erin [00:59:35] The variety. I Know. 

Annie Jones [00:59:37] I was so impressed. Olivia, what's your favorite part?  

Olivia [00:59:41] My favorite part is always the parade. Thomasville puts on some of the best parades of any small town. That is so great.  

Erin [00:59:49] And everybody comes out.  

Annie Jones [00:59:51] Yes, everybody supports it. Do you know Chris Butterworth will be mortified that I'm saying this, but my dad, we brought them to Rose Parade one year. So, my dad loves-- Like my dad used to take us to all kinds of festivals. I've been to Rattlesnake Roundup. I've been to Mule Day. I've been to all-- I've been to Swine Time. That's right. Lots of Southern festivals. Olivia's making awful faces. I've been to them all.  

Olivia [01:00:15] Yeah.  

Annie Jones [01:00:15] So, we brought my dad to Rose Show and the Rose Parade, and I was like, "Dad, how do you like the parade?" And he was joking. He swears he was joking, and I know that he was. But it's like a line that Jordan and I say to each other all the time. He goes, "You see one parade, you seen them all." [Laughter]  

Olivia [01:00:34] How dare you Chris?  

Annie Jones [01:00:36] It's so unlike my dad. And the truth is, the Rose Parade really isn't like every parade. I think it's really fun. The marching bands are great. The floats are great. So, yeah, I'm with you, Olivia. I love a parade.  

[01:00:48] This week I'm listening to The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. Olivia, what are you reading?  

Olivia [01:00:54] I am reading Drowning by TJ Newman.  

Annie Jones [01:00:58] I'm jealous.  

Olivia [01:01:01] It's so good.  

Erin [01:01:02] I know me too.  

Annie Jones [01:01:02] Okay. Erin, what are you reading?  

Erin [01:01:03] I'm listening to Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo.  

Annie Jones [01:01:07] Thank you again to our sponsor, the 102nd Annual Rose Show and festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Plan your upcoming visit and come see a really great parade at ThomasvilleGa.com.  

[01:02:42] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:  fromthefrontporchpodcast.com  Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. Our Executive Producers are… 

Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell 

Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson 

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.