Episode 439 || Back-to-School Book Flights
This week on From the Front Porch, bookseller Kyndall joins Annie and Olivia for Back to School Book Flights! They’re talking about book flights: a stack of three books curated around a certain theme or topic. Today, they’re choosing books with back-to-school vibes.
Ready to talk fall books? Join us online or in the store for our fall literary previews! Purchase a ticket for our online Fall Literary First Look here. Purchase a ticket for our in-store Fall Literary Lunch here.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website:
Annie's Back to School Book Flight
Stealing by Margaret Verble
Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
Olivia's Back to School Book Flight
Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes
Absolutely, Positively Natty by Lisa Greenwald
Rewind by Lisa Graff
Kyndall's Back to School Book Flight
What Happens After Midnight by K.L. Walther
They Wish They Were Us by Jessica Goodman
Again But Better by Christine Riccio
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 Wedding People by Alison Espach (not yet available for preorder, releases in 2024). Olivia is reading Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis. Kyndall is reading Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out] “The man who teaches magazine writing gave me a paper back with ‘clever as hell’ on it, so I presume I am doing all right in his class.” - Flannery O’Connor, Dear Regina [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 discussing back to school book flights with Bookshelf Floor Manager Olivia Schaffer and bookseller Kyndall Stone. If you’re looking for other titles to add to your TBR list this fall, consider joining us for our seasonal Literary First Look. At noon on September 13, The Bookshelf is hosting a webinar on Zoom, where I’ll reveal my and Bookshelf staffers’ favorite newly released titles for the autumn season. We’ll cover literary fiction, mysteries, rom-coms, and memoirs, all in service to ensure you’ve got just what you need to make your library hold requests and indie bookstore preorders. Tickets are $15 and include access to the live event, as well as the recording; a PDF of our favorite titles; and a discount code in case you want to purchase your books directly from The Bookshelf. Go to www.bookshelfthomasville.com or click the link in our shownotes to snag a ticket. Annie Jones [00:01:41] Now back to the show. Hi, guys.
Kyndall [00:01:45] Hey.
Olivia [00:01:45] Hey.
Annie Jones [00:01:49] Welcome. There's a new voice on From the Front Porch. Hi, Kyndall
Kyndall [00:01:51] Hi, guys. I'm so excited, whoo!
Annie Jones [00:01:55] We really thought, who better than a person not going back to school because you, for the first time, are not going back to school this Fall. How does that make you feel?
Kyndall [00:02:05] Very, very strange feeling. I walked into Target, looked at the back to school section, felt a little hole in my heart. But with change there's good too I guess.
Annie Jones [00:02:17] And you can live vicariously through your friends and you can just read campus novels, you know?
Kyndall [00:02:23] Exactly.
Annie Jones [00:02:25] Well, welcome back Olivia. We last did this-- gosh, it feels like a year ago. But apparently a couple of months ago, we talked about beach reads. And now here we are talking back to school titles. Are you ready?
Olivia [00:02:38] I forgot about beach reads. I'm not going to lie to you.
Annie Jones [00:02:40] Well, I sent that episode to Kyndall if she wanted to get a vibe of how these go. And I thought I was going to have to go deep in the archives. And then I realized, oh, no, we did one of these literally I think two or three months ago.
Olivia [00:02:53] That's right. And I think we even tried to get Kyndall on that one. But then yet again we scheduled it for when you were away.
Kyndall [00:03:00] Yeah, I felt really bad about that one.
Annie Jones [00:03:03] We literally did this time too. We're recording at a really unusual time for us because at the last minute I looked at my calendar and I was, like, we're recording on Wednesday and Kindle is not here. Kindle is moving.
Kyndall [00:03:18] Out of state.
Annie Jones [00:03:19] Yeah [crosstalk]. But don't panic, listeners. She's still here in Thomasville. She's one of our booksellers. She's an FSU grad, former student, and now here she is working as a bookseller at The Bookshelf. So we're here to talk book flights. We're going to do this like we do our New Release Round Up episodes. So if you are new to the concept of book flights, which I'm sure you're not, but if you are, these are bookish pairings where books have a common theme. Obviously, the theme for our book flights today is going to be back to school. I hesitate to even say autumnal. It's really just things that give off school vibes and I think all three of us really do love campus books and campus novels. Did you guys like school? Were you big school people?
Olivia [00:04:06] Yeah. Oh, I loved school. I miss not being in school.
Kyndall [00:04:10] Yeah, I liked school.
Annie Jones [00:04:12] A friend of mine just casually announced she was going back to school this fall, and I am very sorry to say that my gut response was jealousy. Like, I really was irritated. Of course, you get to go back to school and I've got to do this.
Olivia [00:04:27] And what I think I miss probably the most is like back to school shopping and then like organizing your folders with your notebooks, with your binders so that it's all coordinating. Did you guys get those binders where you could put the slide in and still like...
Annie Jones [00:04:43] Oh, yeah.
Kyndall [00:04:43] Yes.
Olivia [00:04:44] I would do artwork for it. And then put it behind there so it looked really nice. And down the side too. It was organized.
Kyndall [00:04:51] Yeah. I liked writing in my agenda.
Annie Jones [00:04:55] I still love that planner. I still write on my planner. And I love to collage for those binders. I think I would like to do collage again. Should I just decoupage something?
Olivia [00:05:05] Why not?
Kyndall [00:05:08] I'd say scrapbooking.
Annie Jones [00:05:10] Man, I got out of this very quickly. I did get out my college scrapbook the other day because Jordan and I were trying to remember, I think, the name of somebody we went to college with or something. And I pulled out my scrapbook and I was like, "Man, this makes me feel old." Not just like the pictures, but just the scrapbook itself. Like, who does that anymore? Like with all the cutesy stickers and stuff.
Olivia [00:05:29] I thought you did one for college.
Annie Jones [00:05:32] Yeah, I did it after I graduated. I had one for high school for sure, but my high school one is massive. It's huge and it is hilarious. But, man, I love scrapbooking there for a hot minute.
Olivia [00:05:43] I'm somehow not shocked at all. [Inaudible]. I'm like that's just Annie B. Jones. She just makes scrapbook for college or high school. [crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:05:55] Yeah, there's a part of my personality that that's, like, a little too cutesy for. But there's another part of my personality that just that was the most crafting I could do. Do you know what I mean? Like, crafting involving paper was what I was capable of.
Kyndall [00:06:10] Scrapbooking stresses me out cause I feel like you need a plan to go into it. I can't just, like, wing it. Something like that. That's too much.
Annie Jones [00:06:20] Your scrapbook would probably be different from mine because my college one there's a page of, like, exploring Montgomery, Alabama, where there was just that brawl at the River Walk-- if you guys watch the national news. That's where I went to school. And I had written down all these historical sites that, of course, no one wanted to go to but me and Jordan. Jordan would tag along with me. And then I wrote down my favorite restaurants: Roly Poly, The Lunch Place, which was just sandwich. It's a chain sandwich shop. And then like, Chappy's Deli. I kept their menu. And I was like, what in the world? So it's just like a menu from Roly Poly and Chappy's Deli in Montgomery.
Kyndall [00:07:08] Once a sandwich girl always a sandwich girl.
Olivia [00:07:13] True.
Annie Jones [00:07:13] Jordan was like, "Wow, on brand from day one."
Olivia [00:07:17] That's pretty... yeah.
Annie Jones [00:07:19] Pretty accurate. Okay, so I'll kick us off. Each of these book flights has three books. At the end of the episode we'll tell you how you can buy these book flights if you also want to get in the mood for back to school. And reading is the best way you can do that rather than take out a student loan or something and go get your master degree. Don't do that, guys; just read books instead. So here's the deal with my book flight. My book flight is a little dark-- not dark like mystery thriller. Let me just get into it. The first book in my book flight is Stealing by Margaret Verble. And I really thought about this. I wanted to highlight it here for a couple of reasons. First of all, I read this book late last year, even though it released this February. And it was a February subscription pick of mine-- I believe February. But I still feel like this book has not really gotten the buzz that I think it deserves. And I do think it qualifies as a campus novel, although it is a brutal one. So if you're not familiar, if this is maybe your first time hearing me talk about this book, this is about a young woman named Kit Crockett, which is a fantastic protagonist name. Kit is a young girl. Her narration of this book definitely reminds me of Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird. She's a very memorable, spunky protagonist, and she narrates the book. She is the daughter of I think it's a white woman and a Cherokee man, but I might have that backwards. It might have been a Cherokee woman and a white man.
[00:08:55] Regardless, she is a member of the Cherokee Nation. Her mother has died, and so she's being raised by her dad. And I love the little glimpses. This takes place in the fifties. Like the bookmobile comes to her area and she falls in love with reading. And then slowly people kind of realize, I think, the government realizes that Kit is alone and she's kind of being raised by a single parent. And so she winds up getting kidnapped really from her home with her father, and she winds up at a Christian boarding school that, of course, tries to indoctrinate her and take away aspects of her Cherokee heritage. There's no denying that all of that is brutal. In many ways, stealing reminds me of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. Certainly it has this kind of ripped from the headlines feel. We've seen a lot of stories like this come out in recent years, particularly out of Canada, but also out of America. And what I really liked about it was it could have felt exploitative, but instead you just really fall in love with Kit's story. And it really allows you to have empathy and understanding for what's indigenous peoples endured at the hands of white people and often at the hands of Christian people. Although this is a rather dark look at the campus novel, I do think it qualifies because of the campus setting and Kit quickly learning that although school is something she always kind of longed for and loved, (she's a learner, she's a reader) this is not the campus for her. And you realize that you are rooting for Kit. You desperately want Kit to get out and to get to become fully her. So I really love this book. I also love that it's pretty thin. The author, Margaret Verble, is a former, I believe, Pulitzer winner or Pulitzer finalist. And she just tells a really complete, pretty epic story in just a few pages. So that is Stealing by Margaret Verble.
Olivia [00:10:53] That sounds great, but also like it might break me like Nickel Boys did.
Annie Jones [00:10:57] Yes, that is a valid concern.
Olivia [00:11:01] Okay. My first book is a book Annie and I both read way back when. Property of a Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes.
Annie Jones [00:11:09] So good. Still timely.
Olivia [00:11:11] I think this came out in 2018.
Annie Jones [00:11:13] Gosh, did it really?
Olivia [00:11:15] Yeah. Very timely. Which is why I had to add it into my middle grade back to school bundle because I feel like middle grade were probably some of the worst years for everybody in school-- maybe high school. I don't know. They were rough for me. But it's also like when you think about back to school, in my head other than like a campus college setting, it's middle grade. No, not for anyone else?
Kyndall [00:11:39] I would say high school. But maybe it's just the books I read. I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:11:45] Not all of us want to go back to middle school. High school I liked to read about middle school not so much.
Olivia [00:11:50] Well, I went to a nontraditional high school, so my normal school experience was middle school.
Annie Jones [00:11:56] Okay, that makes sense.
Olivia [00:11:57] Maybe that's where I'm at. Anyway, Property Of a Rebel Librarian is about this girl, June Harper. And June Harper takes this book home that's about witches, and her parents find she got it from her school library. Her and her librarian are pretty tight, and her parents find out and they're appalled that she brought this book home that it was even offered in her library. So much so that they take it away from June. I think they even like sharpie out words in the book, if I'm remembering correctly. And then they bring it to the principal, who then brings it to the librarian, and it starts a chain reaction where the librarian ends up getting fired and the PTA decides what books are allowed in their school library. And all the kids are pretty upset about this. So June, being an avid reader and very close to the librarian and now pretty upset, finds an empty locker and she gets the idea to do a little free library but with all of the banned books from their school. And so, she starts this covert counterfeit book operation in the school. Not counterfeit, but contraband.
Annie Jones [00:13:09] Yes. She's like a drug dealer, but for books.
Olivia [00:13:13] Yes. The best kind of drug dealer. But it turns out like she obviously gets caught. The local news does like a huge report on her. And at the very end of the book, June does this epic speech in front o the school board, all of the PTA. There's news listening, and it's just about you can ban the books, but we'll still find a way to read them. And the only person who did harm in this situation was you guys by banning books and not us by reading them. But it was so good. It's one of those books you just pick up on a whim and then you're full into it. You're just rooting for June the whole way.
Annie Jones [00:13:56] It's so good. I hope all of our Florida friends are listening.
Olivia [00:14:00] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:14:01] And I say that as a born and raised Floridian. But, man, teachers and librarians there I think are having a hard time. I hope they can stock this book.
Olivia [00:14:11] And may we all raise a June Harper.
Annie Jones [00:14:16] Yes. Amen.
Kyndall [00:14:16] So the three books I picked are all YA. Which I don't exclusively read YA, but I think when I think of campus books or back to school, I think a lot of just like high school drama. Or I found it really hard to read during the school year because I would be so busy and these books are so light and easy to pick up and read that they kind of just were fun in that way. So the first book I picked was called What Happens After Midnight by K.L Walther. So this book is like a YA romance, and it's about our main character, Lily Hopper. She has two weeks left before she graduates from Ames, a private boarding school She's been attending basically her whole life. With her mom being a teacher at the school, she is a very big goody-two-shoes persona. She doesn't like to get into trouble. She's very by the books. Though, when the annual jester prank takes place by one anonymous senior, she gets roped into joining the Jester to complete the biggest prank of the year. Well, come to find out, the jester is actually her ex-boyfriend, Taggart. So we get to watch these two and their group of friends kind of run around campus late at night and try and pull off this huge senior prank and also kind of get this little second chance romance between the two main characters. Yeah, it's really sweet. And this is the same girl that wrote Summer of Broken Rules.
Annie Jones [00:15:34] Oh, that's why it sounded familiar.
Kyndall [00:15:37] Yeah. I really liked Summer of Broken Rules, so I really wanted to read this one. And it definitely was good vibes. It was really fun.
Annie Jones [00:15:45] That author loves a prank because Summer of Broken Rules they're all playing Assassin, I think. So this is a theme for her.
Olivia [00:15:54] Playing Assassin?
Annie Jones [00:15:56] Do you know what Assassin is?
Olivia [00:15:57] No.
Kyndall [00:16:00] Wow, it's a game.
Annie Jones [00:16:03] Yes. And of all people, I would think Olivia would know what Assassin is and play it regularly.
Kyndall [00:16:10] And probably win.
Annie Jones [00:16:11] Yes, for sure. Most likely to win Assassin would definitely be Olivia.
Kyndall [00:16:17] Yeah.
Olivia [00:16:18] I'm flattered, but I wish I knew what it was.
Annie Jones [00:16:23] Yeah. You should look that up Olivia. I think you [inaudible] could team Assassin and probably be whoever you're playing for sure.
Kyndall [00:16:30] Yeah, agreed. Bookshelf Assassin?
Annie Jones [00:16:35] I think Keila would get so nervous she might die first. I might have to read that book because I did K.L. Walther other book and it's very summery, and so it sounds like this one is kind of the back to school vibe we're going for.
Olivia [00:16:52] Yeah, it's fun.
Annie Jones [00:16:53] My next one is a book that I've talked about a lot this summer especially, it's Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor. This is a collection of letters that Flannery wrote her mom back when she had graduated from I think it was the Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, Georgia. And then she moved to Iowa to attend the Writers College. And this is the classic fish out of water story where this deeply southern young woman moves to Iowa and has to adjust to living with other people who aren't her family. If you lived off campus, which I think all of us did, if you lived in dorms or lived in apartments in college, so much of this story will be familiar. It's writing home to your mom and realizing, oh my gosh, you don't have enough winter clothes. Or ew the girls next door don't close the door when they go to the bathroom. It is very funny. If you attended a college and you lived off campus or you lived in an apartment-- even though Flannery O'Connor is an amazing writer, becomes an amazing short story teller-- all of this will feel very relatable to you. The letters are laugh out loud funny. I cannot believe. I mean, this is definitely of a time, but I cannot believe that Flannery O'Connor basically wrote her mother a letter every day. And some of them were short. These aren't necessarily long, like a paragraph or two. She called her mother by her first name, so that's why the book is called Dear Regina. If you all get a chance, you have got to go YouTube Flannery O'Connor reading one of her short stories. Because frequently in this book she will write home to her mom and she'll say-- She's at this writer's college, and when it's time for sharing her work with the group, her professors have to read her work aloud for her because no one can understand her Southern accent.
[00:18:49] And I was like, "I wonder if you can hear Flannery O'Connor's voice anywhere?" You can. She did readings and so you can hear her voice. There's some YouTube videos you can check out. Y'all, if you think I have a Southern accent, which I think I do, but a very slight one, please it is nothing. It is nothing compared I mean, even Jordan Jones accent is nothing compared to Flannery O'Connor's deep south Georgia accent. And you can totally see why professors may have had to read her work for her. I think there's also a real lightheartedness to this book because Flannery left the Iowa Writer's College after graduating and fully intended to live a life in New York City as a writer. And instead she was diagnosed with lupus and she had to move back home to Milledgeville, which was never her plan. And so she lived back home with her mother, and that's where she lived until her death in her early thirties. And so there's a real bitter sweetness to reading this, knowing what we know, but it's very lighthearted, fun. There's a whole series of letters that scholars call the mayonnaise letters, because she's trying to tell her mom that mayonnaise is not the same in Iowa and can her mom please mail her mayonnaise? It is so wonderful. Anyway, I highly recommend Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor.
Kyndall [00:20:06] What's great is I lived with my best friend for two years off site campus, actually post college. But I had my cat Mufasa at the time and I know my friend must've texted and called her mom about me because I tried to potty train Mufasa to use the toilet and it did not go well. He pooped on the floor every single day.
Olivia [00:20:26] How does that work?
Annie Jones [00:20:27] You were that roommate.
Kyndall [00:20:30] I was that girl.
Annie Jones [00:20:30] Somebody definitely wrote home..
Olivia [00:20:38] In any case, staying positive. My next book is Absolutely Positively Natty by Lisa Greenwald. I listened to this book with an AI narrator who is so bad, over pronouns every H. So Natty would be like, "Yeah, go team." And it would be like, "Yea-hhh, go team."
Annie Jones [00:21:00] Oh, that's awful.
Kyndall [00:21:05] No.
Olivia [00:21:05] It was so bad. Also, it never knew when to put inflections in.
Annie Jones [00:21:08] Right. Robots can't rule the world.
Olivia [00:21:11] And so it would just add it sometimes and you're just like...
Kyndall [00:21:16] That's not going to work. No.
Olivia [00:21:17] But despite all of that, I fell in love with this book. It's about this girl, Natty, who moves with her father back home to his parents house. So she goes back to living in her grandparents house. She's sleeping in a futon in their attic. And it's like her mom needed a break from the family. And so everyone's kind of worried about Natty. They're just constantly being like, "Are you okay? I know this is rough." And Natty is a super positive kid and just thinks, like, if I have a good attitude about this, I can change what's happening. Which can be a really great outlook until that's your only outlook, which is what happens to Natty. So Natty goes to the small town school. She's the new girl. This does not faze Natty at all whatsoever. And she decides she's going to start a pep squad, but she ropes in this group of emo kids who got detention or something for writing on the walls. And so she was just like, "Well I'll get you out of detention if you join my pep squad." So they join her pep squad and they start going to all of the school games. And the emo kids at first are like, this isn't cool. And then they get into it. And I think like the group of theater kids gets roped in. And you just love Natty so much because she stayed so positive through everything until it starts to harm her friends too, because she looks at their problems and is just like, "It'll be okay if you just stay positive." And finally they kind of sit her down and they're like, "Natty, It's actually not okay, but that's okay. It's okay to be in your feelings a little bit." And it takes Natty a moment to realize this. But, of course, she turns it all around in the end. And it's just one of those stories where I feel like a lot of the times you have this protagonist who's going through stuff and they're really negative about it and they don't know how to turn it around. And then you have Natty who there isn't an ounce of negativity in her body, and it's just so perfect.
Annie Jones [00:23:21] What a great book for back to school. Like for kids trying to adjust and trying to have a positive attitude about going back to school.
Olivia [00:23:28] Yeah, exactly. She goes through some struggles, but she's always okay even when she's not.
Kyndall [00:23:36] That's so cute. So my second book is actually a debut novel came out in 2020. So I just wish it didn't come out in 2020 because I honestly feel like this author might have blown up a little bit more, but that's okay. It's called They Wish they Were Us by Jessica Goodman. It's a YA murder mystery, which is always super fun. So this one is about a girl called Jill Newman and her best friend Shaila. Freshman year, they start out at Gold Coast Prep as a preparatory school and they end up getting invited into a secret socialist society at their school called the Players. Players are like the most popular click. They get the best grades, they're just the it kids. But after a tragic night that summer between freshman and sophomore year, Shaila actually ends up getting murdered by her boyfriend Graham, who confesses, case closed, mystery over. Jill moves on, and the book actually takes place senior year where Jill is now a Player and she is in the clique. She's kind of running the Players and someone anonymously text her and is like, Graham is innocent and here's my evidence. So now Jill is faced with her reputation, her friends, and also this thing that's kind of taunting her from the past and trying to figure out what she should do. And she she decides that she's going to try and figure out what actually happened to Shaila, who really hurt her. I just remember it being super good. I feel like [inaudible] loves like rich people behaving badly.
Annie Jones [00:24:58] Yeah, we do.
Kyndall [00:24:59] And I feel like this is very much rich kids behaving really badly. So, yeah, very big teen drama. If you like Gossip Girl or Pretty Little Liars, I feel like this'll be right up your street?
Annie Jones [00:25:12] I need to read this it sounds like.
Olivia [00:25:15] I feel like there is such good teen murder mysteries out nowadays.
Annie Jones [00:25:18] Yeah.
Olivia [00:25:19] It needs to be its own genre.
Kyndall [00:25:21] It's really should be. I feel like this one really hit the mark pretty well.
Annie Jones [00:25:26] Last summer maybe I read a really good adult book. I can picture it. Olivia, it was by that author who wrote the creatures that you and I read.
Olivia [00:25:36] Social Creatures.
Annie Jones [00:25:37] Social creatures.
Olivia [00:25:39] Oh, what was that? The World Cannot Give.
Annie Jones [00:25:42] Thank you. The World Cannot Give. That was it. And I loved it. Because, again, I'm a sucker for boarding school, prep school. I think the moment Kyndall said secret society, Olivia's head turned like, what, wait?
Olivia [00:25:58] I do love a secret society.
Annie Jones [00:26:00] Yeah. Anyway, that sound I may have to read the Jessica Goodman book. And I want to support an author who published their book in 2020. Because, man, what awful timing. That is no fault of their own. Okay. My next book, my last book is The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. And part of the reason I wanted to include this one is, of course, it was one of my favorite novels of 2022. It came out last fall and I loved it. I thought it was a perfect fall novel. The book is about Fabienne and Agnes, who are two young girls living in the French countryside. I'm trying to remember around what year, but it actually feels around the same time as Stealing and Dear Regina, where it's I believe maybe the early 1900s, maybe 1940 and 1950s. I believe it's sometime around World War two, so maybe 1940s. Anyway, Fabienne and Agnes are dear friends. Fabienne is the brave one. She's the adventurous one, the spunky one. And she and Agnes love to tell stories, kind of creepy stories about their small French town. And eventually Fabienne decides that together they should publish this book, like they should publish a book of the stories that they've written. And even though the stories are mostly Fabienne's creation, she insists that Agnes write it because Agnes is the better writer. And so the girls wind up actually publishing this book, but under Agnes's name.
[00:27:32] And so Fabienne doesn't get any of the credit. And you immediately see now how they're two very similar lives and paths immediately begin to diverge because Agnes becomes this famous Ingenue like young wunderkind who is this amazing writer. But Fabienne remains just Fabienne. And what I think people forget about this book, or what people may not know about this book is that then Agnes, because of her success as an author, winds up getting to go to boarding school in England. So probably the middle third of this book takes place in an English boarding school. And much like Dear Regina, you deal with Agnes's homesickness and her guilt that Fabienne is not with her. And so she and Fabienne begin to exchange letters. And it's, again, just a really beautiful story about a girl who is forced out of the place that she loves. Interestingly, she really loves her small town, even though Fabienne doesn't really seem to. But Agnes is the one who gets to leave and kind of the toll that that takes and how Agnes's life is is forever changed, but also now filled with guilt because of Fabienne not joining her on this adventure. I loved this book. It is beautifully written. Perfect for fans of My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. And more of it takes place in a campus setting than you might think. And it's a great, cozy, false story. You'll just kind of get enmeshed in that world. So that is the Book of Goose by Yiyun Li.
Olivia [00:29:09] Did you see they were doing a graphic novel of My Brilliant Friend.
Annie Jones [00:29:12] Oh, I thought you were going to say of Book of Goose. I did not see that.
Kyndall [00:29:16] Is it being published this year?
Olivia [00:29:19] Yeah, it is. I ordered it for the shop.
Annie Jones [00:29:22] Oh, good. I would love to see what that winds up looking like. We're seeing this more where adult novels are becoming graphic novels.
Olivia [00:29:28] Yeah. And that one feels like borderline classic at this point.
Kyndall [00:29:31] Yeah.
Olivia [00:29:33] [Inaudible] Hey, do you remember when the Book Eaters beat the Book of Goose in March Madness?
Annie Jones [00:29:41] Yeah. You want to know what I love? Is that Jordan stopped listening to that book.
Olivia [00:29:50] What? Jordan.
Kyndall [00:29:50] The audience gasps.
Annie Jones [00:29:53] I still want him to do a follow up. I think it ultimately came down to Crane Wife and the Book Eaters. But I asked Jordan the other day, I said, "Hey, did you ever finish Book Eaters?" He was like, "Oh, yeah, I stopped listening to that."
Olivia [00:30:06] Wow. That's all I have to say.
Annie Jones [00:30:09] Shots fired. I'm so sorry.
Olivia [00:30:11] Anyways, my last book is called Rewind by Lisa Graff. I recently talked about this on the new release podcast and I put it in the Back-to-school bundle because Annie reminded me of it this morning, and I had a really sad book in its place, which is a really good film, The Labors of Hercules Beal but this one is definitely more fun.
Annie Jones [00:30:35] I asked Olivia, I was like, "Oh my gosh, you put Rewind in your book fight, right?" And she looked at me and she was like, "I didn't." Like disappointed.
Olivia [00:30:48] And then I recapped all four books to Esme and I made her choose. You also have Esme to thank for this book.
Annie Jones [00:30:55] That's really how we make decisions here at The Bookshelf. We just ultimately are like, Esme, let me tell you about these [crosstalk].
Olivia [00:31:00] Esme, what should I do? She a very reasonable person. She's good at her job.
Annie Jones [00:31:06] Yeah, she is.
Olivia [00:31:08] Okay. This is about a little girl- not little, she's in middle school. A girl named McKinlay O'Dair. And at her school every year they do this big function called the Time Hop. The Time Hop is where they pick a decade and they celebrate that decade with like a play and just like a whole festival. It's a big thing. It sounds really fun. I wish my school had done it. This year, they chose the nineties which everyone [inaudible] apparently a decade you can choose for as Time Hop. So McKinley is pretty excited. She is into fashion. Her grandmother taught her how to sew and so she's kind of just run with that. And now she's putting on a whole runway show at the Time Hop. Like this girl made jean jackets and bedazzled them. She made parachute pants. Went full out nineties. It sounded amazing, and she was super excited about it. And then her dad had to sadly tell her that she couldn't go to the Time Hop because he had to work that day last minute. And her grandmother, who had a stroke years and years ago before McKinley was born, she is on a very strict schedule with her medication and what she needs. And now McKinley has to stay home and kind of take care of her grandmother. McKinley is obviously very upset about this and then in turn sneaks her grandmother into the Time Hop with her so she can do this fashion show. And so she's in the middle of the fashion show, like on stage at the fashion show, and her dad just opens the auditorium door and shouts her name.
Annie Jones [00:32:39] Oh, my gosh.
Olivia [00:32:39] And she's mortified, so she runs. She runs into the nearest girls bathroom. And when she finally calms down and pulls herself together, she comes out and realizes she has now literally time traveled to the nineties. But what's great about this is now she gets to see her dad as a kid and she gets to see her best friend's mom. And her best friend's dad also has children, so she befriends her best friend's mom. They do all these fun things, they go to the arcade and play Donkey Kong. There's like a lot of Jurassic Park references [crosstalk]. It's so fun. And she learns a lot about her dad, about how he started as a pretty big bully, like one of those misunderstood bullies. But she gets to meet her grandmother pre stroke and has a lot of meaningful connections with her dad and her grandmother in that way. And there's also this teacher who a time hopped himself one year and he's known as like the villain teacher. And so he just chases her down because he thinks she's going to break the continuum in time space, like, butterfly ripples and it's not going to be good. And he wants her just to like camp out in his garage that she doesn't miss anything up. So he's one of those characters that's just like always around the corner just like, "McKinley!" It was great, full of nineties references. I feel like so many people could enjoy this book just for the references alone. But McKinley is a really wonderful character and it was just a lot of fun.
Annie Jones [00:34:17] It just sounds charming.
Kyndall [00:34:20] So I always like to try and imagine if I would be friends with the high school version of my parents when I was in high school. Have you guys ever thought about that?
Olivia [00:34:28] No.
Kyndall [00:34:28] I just think that's a funny thing to think about.
Olivia [00:34:29] I've never thought about that.
Annie Jones [00:34:32] Really?
Olivia [00:34:33] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:34:34] I've thought about it because of Back to the Future. Because that's the whole thing in Back to the Future all of a sudden he's like, "Who's that beautiful woman?" He's like, "Oh, crap, it's my mom." But I have not spent a ton of time on it because to be honest, I don't think we would be. I don't think I'd be friends with my mum.
Olivia [00:34:55] I came to that conclusion.
Kyndall [00:34:57] Do your parents listen to this?
Annie Jones [00:35:01] I think my parents would be like, yeah, that sounds right.
Kyndall [00:35:04] I think I'd be acquaintances with them. But we didn't do the same activities in high school, so I don't think we would have really crossed that much.
Annie Jones [00:35:12] My dad was actually-- shop dad was a jock, and I probably would have cheered for him on the basketball team or something but not as a cheerleader, that's for sure.
Kyndall [00:35:29] Anyway, my last book is actually kind of similar to Olivia's book in a really strange way, but it's called Again but Better by Christine Riccio. But I actually read this a few years ago. It came out in 2019, but it is just the most charming, underrated book that I really was excited to talk about in this podcast. So it's another YA romance and it has this main character named Shane, and she is in college. She's living a typical college life. She's on pre-med track. She gets good grades, she pleases her parents, she is just doing everything that she thinks that she's supposed to do. But she kind of realizes that she wants to do something different and get out there a little bit. So she's like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to spend a semester studying abroad in London. And so we see Shane kind of go out of our comfort zone and move to London for the semester. And while she's over there, she makes a list of things. She's like, I'm going to make friends. I'm going to go on adventures in different places, and maybe I'll even meet a boy. We see Shane in this story move to London and we see the way that she just kind of finds herself and also just does end up meeting a boy. And we get to see that relationship also flourish in different ways. And it's a lot of like her looking at are the things that she really wanted what she wanted or is what she has over here in London actually what she wants. And kind of trying to make that decision between those two things. And the huge plot twist in the middle-- and I don't spoil anything. But there maybe a little bit of magical realism in this one, which really made me so excited. It was one of those twists that I still think about. And also really the most fun thing is that this book is set in 2011, which seems like a time period that a book set in 2011. But the references to like loss and just like pop culture at the time, and YouTube, and just all these like really cute fun things. So I feel like if you were in high school or college at this time, it would really resonate with you even more. So that is Again but Better.
Annie Jones [00:37:31] That sounds delightful. Gosh, y'all, I think a few of these I would really like to read it. They sound like they'd be fun. And since I was jealous of my friend going back to school this fall, maybe I just need to pick up some of this instead. Let's just quickly recap each of our book flights. So my book flight is really great. I think too if you like historical fiction and nonfiction, it includes Stealing by Margaret Verble, Dear Regina by Flannery O'Connor, and the Book of Goose Yiyun Li.
Olivia [00:37:59] My book flight is great if you love middle grade, or maybe if you just want to dip your toes in middle grade and see if you like it, I think this would be a great starting point. It is Property of the Rebel Librarian by Allison Varnes. Absolutely Positively Natty by Lisa Greenwald and Rewind by Lisa Graff.
Kyndall [00:38:15] And then my bundle is more of a lighthearted YA picks. So we have What Happens After Midnight by KL Walther. We have They Wish they Were Us by Jessica Goodman. And lastly, Again but Better by Christine Riccio.
Annie Jones [00:38:27] So all of the book flights we've created are available for purchase on the website, as are each individual book, in case you're a DIY reader who wants to create their own flight. Just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type 439 into the search bar. This week I'm reading The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:38:49] I'm reading Thieves' Gambit by Kayvion Lewis.
Annie Jones [00:38:52] Kyndall, what are you reading?
Kyndall [00:38:54] I'm reading Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings.
Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at: 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 of today’s episode are… Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell .
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.