Episode 501 || October Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in October. You get 10% off your books when you order your October Reading Recap Bundle. Each month, we offer a Reading Recap bundle, which features Annie’s favorite books she read that month.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search “Episode 501” to find the books mentioned in this episode), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt
The Barn by Wright Thompson
The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak
Casket Case by Lauren Evans
Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough
October Reading Recap Bundle - $88
The Barn by Wright Thompson
The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak
Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten
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, Tiktok, and Facebook, 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 From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough.
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...Jennifer Bannerton, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Susan Hulings, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, and Amanda Whigham.
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]
“If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.” - Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I’m recapping the books I read in October. Before we get started, a thank you to everyone who’s been leaving reviews for From the Front Porch. iTunes reviews and ratings are really and truly how new listeners can best find out about From the Front Porch and — as a result — find out about our indie bookstore, too. Here’s a recent review:
I Look Forward to Thursdays!
I started listening to book podcasts at the start of the pandemic. I work in healthcare and while everyone else was hunkering down, I was suiting up to go face this unknown virus day in and day out. Book podcasts became my life line - they grounded and calmed me and none did it better than From the Front Porch. Annie is so cheerful, knowledgeable and trustworthy. Obviously a chip off the old block, her parents who are occasional guests of the show are the same.
I also love the March Madness episodes she does with her husband (he's hilarious!) and those she does with her friend Hunter, my personal favorite. Staff from her bookstore also sometimes join in, they make you want to get in the car and make a visit. You can tell every person who has a hand in this show puts their all into it. It's always a good mix of books discussed for a wide variety of readers. I don't think there has been one episode I have missed since 2020 and credit this podcast with being instrumental in carrying me through the hardest days of my life. Thanks Annie and Team, and long live From the Front Porch!
[00:02:08] This review was so incredibly kind. Olivia and I talk a lot about those early pandemic days especially, and we were doing these new release podcast episodes for Patreon supporters back then, and we were doing them every week and we kept doing them through the pandemic. I kept doing this show with a variety of guests and it was much like we're going to talk about today Conquer a Classic, recording these episodes and recording this Patreon episodes was a grounding force, and we've heard from a lot of listeners who found us during the pandemic or who rediscovered us during the pandemic. And we have heard from listeners like this one about how nice it was to have this regular thing during a chaotic time. And I just want you to know the feeling is very mutual. I don't think we fully knew what we were doing or the comfort we were providing. But just recording, I think, was also a comfort. It became something regular in an irregular time. So I loved this review because I feel so much of it deeply in my bones. So thank you for understanding the mission of our store and our show.
[00:03:26] If you have not left review, all you have to do is open the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, then scroll until you see. 'Write a Review' and you can tell us what you think. Your reviews help us spread the word about not only our podcast, but about our brick and mortar business, too. Now back to the show. Well, well, well. We're just trucking along. This year is almost over. How does that make you feel? October has come to a close. It was a fine reading month. It'll be interesting to see how I feel after I'm finished recording this episode. Typically, this is the first time I'm sitting down to reflect on what my reading life has looked like for the last month. But I don't really know how I feel until I start talking about it. And I think October was a good reading month. I think it was a relatively diverse reading month in terms of genre, but we'll see. We'll see how I feel as I wrap up recording.
[00:04:23] Looks like I finished about eight books as I record this almost at the end of October. So I feel pretty good about that. Eight books would be in my sweet spot I think if I were not employed at a bookstore. And that eight books feels good to me. Certainly part of the reason I was able to finish eight had a lot to do with audiobooks once again, because truthfully, I did not feel good most of the month of October. I had this cold that I could not shake. Perhaps you can still hear it in my voice. And as a result, my brain just felt muddied. It wasn't my favorite month of the year, which is a bummer because I really love October. But man, when you don't feel good, it kind of messes with your head.
[00:05:09] So we're going to start by talking about Lonesome Dove. This is the classic American novel by Larry McMurtry, published originally in 1985. It wound up spawning some prequels, the sequel. And of course, Larry McMurtry went on to write several other things, including the screenplay to Brokeback Mountain, for example. This was my first Larry McMurtry novel, as I think you probably know by now. We read this as our Patriotic Conquer a Classic selection. This is something Hunter and I-- Hunter who frequently appears on the show. Hunter and I have done this since 2020. Speaking of things that saved us during the pandemic in 2020, I finally decided to try to conquer Anna Karenina, and I could think of no better person to do that with me than Hunter. So Hunter and I essentially buddy read Anna Karenina and I and invited Patreon to go along on the ride with us and we recorded monthly recap episodes. That's what we did in 2020.
[00:06:11] In 2021, we moved on to Middlemarch. In 2022 we did Count of Monte Cristo. In 2023 we did Charles Dickens, Bleak House. And then in 2024, we chose a much more modern and very American classic. And I've got to tell you, I'm so glad we did. I have probably been a little too critical of Bleak House. It was just a hard book to read for me. I don't have a master's degree in literature. I am not a lawyer. And Bleak House was my first ever Dickens. And I'm proud. Oh, my gosh, I'm so proud of myself for reading it. But it was very, very difficult. And the thing about owning a bookstore and recording a podcast is that it just feels like you're juggling a million homework assignments. It just feels like you're juggling, which I'll be honest, I was pretty good at. Back in the day, I was good at juggling homework assignments. But in 2023, Bleak House felt like a homework assignment that I could not keep up with. And so when Hunter and I were deciding on the book for 2024, I told him, I said, we've got to pick something easier. I have to have something easier in order to be able to keep doing this and all the other things that we do.
[00:07:37] And so Lonesome Dove had been on our radar for a long time. I think we'd hesitated because we wondered if it counted as a classic because it's a relatively recent pub date, but we went for it. And this has been the joy of my reading life this year. When I look back on 2024, I will always associate it with Lonesome Dove. Hunter and I have been very vocal on the podcast about-- he said he faced a literal move this year. He had a-- I won't say cross country, but sort of. He moved from Florida to Pennsylvania. I have had a lot of other things going on this year, including the soon to be publication of my books. I was writing a book, going through that process. And to have these cowboys, to have Gus and Carl and Newt and Lorena and Clara join us and be on their own journey while we were on ours, I found it incredibly meaningful and fun. Just so much fun. I have a lot to say about this book. We have talked about it obviously at length over on Patreon where we've been doing our monthly recap episodes. You can still join us over there.
[00:08:54] We have a lot of folks who even did Lonesome Dove this year, but finished more quickly than we did. Maybe did it in three months instead of the nine to 10 months that we normally take. And so some people listened to Lonesome Dove, but then they went back and listened to our Middlemarch episodes while they tackled Middlemarch. So it's not too late if you are like I have been inspired to read Lonesome Dove. Great. It's actually probably the most accessible classic we've read so far in this way, which means it doesn't have to take you a full year if you don't want it to or a full 10 months if you don't want it to. And so those episodes live on Patreon. And so if you want to try your hand at Lonesome Dove or Middlemarch or Anna Karenina, you absolutely can. You can go back and listen to those episodes.
[00:09:44] So I won't talk too much about Lonesome Dove here, except I will say it is a Western book. It was probably my-- well, I don't know if it was my first Western. Ironically, this year I read The Bullet Swallower, which is a book I really liked, and so it might not actually be my first ever Western. Certainly the longest Western I've ever read, and it's really the characters for me. I just absolutely loved the characters, the character development. I thought the pacing and plot of this book was absolutely brilliant. It doesn't remind me of The Road-- or maybe it does. But certainly my reading experience of The Road, which was a book I wound up just adoring when I read it a couple of years ago-- Hunter I read that one together for the podcast. This wound up feeling similarly to me in that I just fell in love with the journey, with the characters, did not want to put it down, did not dread reading it every month. Instead, I felt like I was getting back with my friends every month. And in fact, I've really missed it.
[00:10:53] I've really missed it since I finished it. And I chose to finish reading during Hurricane Helene. We just weren't quite sure what Hurricane Helene was going to do in our neck of the woods a few weeks ago. I can't believe that was just a few weeks ago. And so I decided I wanted to read something comforting. So our power was out and I thought I'm going to go ahead and finish Lonesome Dove. And I'm so glad I did. I've since begun the miniseries which is equally enjoyable; although, the book will always hold a very special place in my heart. And I'm going to listen to The Watch. The Watch did a podcast series about Lonesome Dove, so I'm still in Lonesome Dove world. I can't quite give it up yet, but just a really outstanding reading experience. And if you have not read this book, I think one of the most impressive things about it this year has been the wide range of readers who've read along with us.
[00:11:52] We did not have this many people reading along with us for any of our previous classics. Maybe Count of Monte Cristo might have been up there, but we had men reading with us, women reading with us. My mom, who is a pretty sensitive reader, she's on the show frequently, she read this book and loved it, raved about it. She flew through it. She finished it back in, I think, February. And so it's just been a wide range of ages. The most wonderful surprise is how many different kinds of readers have loved this book. So if you have never read it, I would encourage you to give it a go because it's not something I would have picked up without Conquer A Classic. It's just not. And, man, I really would have missed out. I would have totally missed out because this is such a wonderful reading experience and such a really great work of American Lit. So that is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
[00:12:50] If you are curious about what we're going to be doing for our 2025 conquer a classic, you can either join us on Patreon or we will make a public announcement on Instagram on Friday, November 8th. So we'll announce to our Patreon friends during our book club. We kind of do a book club wrap up on Zoom. We'll do that on Thursday, November 7th. And then Friday, November 8th, we will announce on Instagram as of this recording, but we don't know yet. I've narrowed it down. Hunter and I have narrowed it down. I've gotten input from staff and I'm still unsure. It's very difficult to choose one that will follow up Lonesome Dove well. And two, we are looking ahead to 2025 and knowing I have a book coming out. Hunter's life has changed a lot with his move and a new job and things like that. So really trying to be mindful of our personal lives and how we can fit a book in there. So by November 7th we will have decided, and then we will announce on Instagram November 8th. We may do a little bonus announcement here on the podcast feed as well. So if you are curious about our 2025 program and you'd like to join us, that is when we will be announcing our new selection.
[00:14:05] Speaking of homework, the other first book that I finished in October was Remarkably Bright Creatures. This is by Shelby van Pelt. It's been out for years. So many of you have read this. Many of you have recommended it to me, including in store customers who really loved the audiobook or who loved reading this with their book club. This was our towns, our community's One Book selection this year. If you have been here for, I don't know, a lengthy period of time, you may be familiar with our community's One Book program. One Book is where our whole town reads the same book together. And we also incorporate our local school systems into the readings. And the author of the book will come visit and visit our local classrooms, our local students, and then we do a big author event with them. In the past, those books have included The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin Picking Cotton-- I'm trying to think of some others. The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom. We've just done a wide range. We're on I want to say year 10 or 11; though, the pandemic threw us off a little bit, so maybe it's more like eight or nine.
[00:15:19] Nevertheless, this year the selection by our local library was Remarkably Bright Creatures and Shelby van Pelt came to Thomasville. She was delightful. And I think probably a lot of us feel this way. I liked Remarkably Bright Creatures. If you are not familiar, the book is about a woman named Tova. Tova is recovering from loss in her life, and she has a job at a local aquarium as a custodian in the evenings and she develops this unlikely friendship with Marcellus. Marcellus is an octopus, and they develop this relationship. That was the highlight of the book to me. I adored Marcellus. I could have read an entire book told and narrated by Marcellus. I think for-- I'm going to talk about my mom for a second. For a reader like my mom, an octopus narrator might be unusual. I think for a reader like me or even somebody like Olivia, that's not unusual. We read weird books all the time, so I didn't think it was at all weird to have an octopus narrator.
[00:16:28] I think if you fell in love with Shark Heart a few years ago or last year, then you totally understand that sometimes weird books just are where it's at. And so this could have been even weirder in my opinion, but I really liked it. I think it's great for book clubs. So my favorite part was the relationship between Tova and Marcellus. Now there's also a lot at play here regarding Tova and her friendships, her various relationships. There is at the core of the book a little bit of a mystery as we know that Tova lost her son and she is trying to make sense of that loss. And so there's a slight mystery element. I think part of the reason this works so well as a one book selection is because it really did tap into a lot of different genres. One year for our One Book, we chose Where the Crawdads Sing. It was a no brainer for our community because author Delia Owens is from Thomasville originally. And so that was just a truly an easy pick back in, I want to say, 2019.
[00:17:36] Those books are very, very different from each other, but I think the broad appeal of where the Crawdads Sing comes from the various genres it kind of touches on. There's a murder mystery element, there's a nature writing element, there's a coming of age story. In Remarkably Bright Creatures, there's a friendship story, there's a slight mystery story, there's a grief and overcoming and redemption story. So I think there's something for a lot of different readers. I think it's why it really resonated with book clubs, too. And it was fun when Shelby came to town to see all the different book clubs from Thomasville and Tallahassee, who came to hear her speak. So if you have never read Remarkably Bright Creatures, I really did enjoy it. It maybe you're like me and you, for whatever reason, missed it. It was a Read with Jenna pick when it released a couple of years ago.
[00:18:33] It comes out in paperback I want to say next spring because I think I maybe just ordered the paperback version. So it's not out in paperback yet, but it will be. And if you've not read it, it is a great book club book. And I really loved my audiobook listening experience, so I wound up doing both for this. I both read the physical copy and I listened to the audiobook narration and Michael Urie does the voice of Marcellus and it was perfection. Just absolutely absolute perfect. So Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.
[00:19:09] Then I took a hard turn and I think I was just ready for some nonfiction, so I picked up The Barn. This is a new book by Wright Thompson. It came out in October. Wright Thompson wrote Pappy Land and he is also an ESPN sportswriter. But Pappy Land did really well for us at The Bookshelf when it released a few years ago. But I was curious about this because Wright Thompson, I think maybe during the pandemic-- he is from the Mississippi Delta, and he discovered that his parents land kind of butted up against the land where the barn exists, where Emmett Till was murdered. And so Emmett Till's murder was like a shocking death that really moved the civil rights movement even more forward. It kind of was one of the inciting incidents you read about. And I remember learning about Emmett Till, if not in high school, then I guess in college. But I certainly learned about him. I can't speak to the depth of my knowledge. I knew of him. I knew where it happened. I knew it happened in Mississippi, but maybe that was about it.
[00:20:39] Oh my gosh, The Barn is really such a unique work of history because it's certainly historical nonfiction about Emmett Till and his murder. It is also, of course, about the civil rights movement. But Wright Thompson then comes in and brings in this incredibly, oh my gosh, rich, in-depth history of the Mississippi Delta. So several years ago I read Devil in the Grove and I remember how much that opened my eyes to race relations in Florida history. I think every Floridian should read the Devil in the Groove. I now think every Mississippian should read The Barn. I'd also say when I say Floridians, Mississippians, really just Southerners. I mean, anybody, of course. But these things, these acts of violence took place on our land, the places where we live. And that's one of the things Wright Thompson addresses so well. He gives this in-depth history of the land. I thought I was going to be bogged down in it.
[00:21:52] I'm not from Mississippi. I've been to the Delta, but that's not where I'm from and so I'm not super familiar with it. I worried it was just going to be this dense, dense history. It is. It is a dense history of the Delta, but Wright Thompson is a fantastic writer. And then the connections he makes between the history of that land and what takes place there and then the violence it leads to, what he's doing is, I think, relatively unique in terms of historical nonfiction. I was mesmerized. I took this book with me. This is a pretty hefty nonfiction book. I took this book with me everywhere. I read it at the Longhorn Steakhouse on a lunch break. I read it in my car while waiting for a doctor's appointment. I took this book with me everywhere because I was so enthralled by it. If you're not much of a nonfiction reader, I think you should give this one a try. Now, what I will say is it is divided into three large sections rather than multiple chapters. And we've talked about on the podcast before how sometimes that's a deterrent to me. I like chapter breaks because it gives me like a natural stopping point. It gives me a thing to work toward. And when you're reading these books that have longer sections, that's harder to do.
[00:23:13] But it wound up not bothering me. It did not affect my reading rhythm. I'm trying to remember, but I think the book's sections are The Barn 1955 and maybe The Land. And then I think maybe there's a fourth section that kind of wraps everything up. I think that's right. So I think in the South-- and Wright Thompson thinks in the south there is such a history in land ownership, in what can grow on the land, what the soil looks like and then he really brings that around to the violence that then ultimately begins occurring on the land. I think this book is outstanding. I'm not quite sure how else to talk about it because it's not very helpful always to just be like this book is great. But if you like well-researched nonfiction, I think you will leave this book knowing Wright Thompson is not only a great writer, but he and his team-- because I read the acknowledgments and I do think he had a team of people helping him with research and fact checking and things like that. I think you'll be very impressed.
[00:24:30] I have not finished this one yet, but if you like Sharon McMahon's The Small and the Mighty, if you like Isabel Wilkerson's books like Caste, South to America-- I'm going to talk more about this one. We have a podcast coming up in November about nonfiction books. I'm going to talk about this one again. But I really, really appreciated this book and really liked it. I think it's great and would actually, despite the really heavy and intense subject matter, make a great holiday gift this season.
[00:25:05] Then I needed a bit of a palate cleanser. And Olivia had talked on a recent podcast episode about a thriller suspense novel called The Last One at the Wedding. This is by Jason Rekulak. I thought this book was so fun. And when I look back at my October reading, there's just a couple of books that really felt spooky season worthy. This was one of them. So this book is really about Frank and his daughter, Maggie. Frank is, as Olivia said, a Pennsylvania dad. She can speak to that because she has a Pennsylvania dad. But he's just your average dad. Hardworking. He works for UPS. He has really raised Maggie on his own after the death of her mother. Maggie is now in her 20s and she and Frank are estranged. And we don't really know what caused that estrangement. But Maggie calls Frank up one day and lets him know, hey, I'm getting married. I'd like for you to be there. And so Frank is beside himself, as any dad would be. And he is so anxious to kind of make amends with his daughter, and then he meets Maggie's fiancé and strange things start happening.
[00:26:14] He goes to Maggie's apartment, and she no longer lives in this kind of little dumpy apartment. Instead, she lives in a sky rise, high rise where the elevator opens into her apartment. She's clearly marrying into some serious wealth. And when Frank is there for dinner, he uses the restroom and, of course, goes to fix the toilet as a dad is want to do. And there he finds like a duct tape package inside the toilet lid. And he wonders what is that? And what unfolds is Frank and his annoying sister, Tammy. I mean, super annoying. Frank and his sister Tammy and then one of Tammy's foster kids, they all go to the wedding at this wealthy family’s compound. And lots of mystery and mayhem unfolds during this wedding weekend. I thought this book was really clever. I really liked some of the twists and turns that it took. Olivia raved about this one in probably a new release episode and then maybe one of our new release, Instagram Lives. So she had talked about this one quite a bit and it really lived up to her hype.
[00:27:38] I thoroughly enjoyed my reading experience. It had been a minute since I'd read a satisfactory thriller. And, of course, it sounds like a familiar premise over a wedding weekend, who is Maggie marrying? Is there something nefarious going on? I mean, all of that is territory that I think suspense and thriller novels have covered before, but this one felt pretty original. And I really liked Frank. I think he's the heart of the book. And if you are looking for a thriller suspense novel this fall, this one was great. So that is The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak.
[00:28:14] Then on recommendation of podcast listener Amanda, I picked up a Casket Case. This is by Lauren Evans. It's got kind of that traditional romcom, cartoonish, illustrated cover. And so I definitely went into this thinking, oh, this is a romcom. And it is kind of. So Casket Case is about Nora and Garrett. This is the other book, by the way, that I felt like qualified for spooky season. And I think that's mostly just because it was called casket Case. But Nora is living in small town Alabama. The Alabama setting of this one was very realistic. I immediately flipped to the back of the book and realized Lauren Evans is originally from Alabama. And I thought, of course she is, because this did not feel engineered. This felt like someone actually knows what Alabama is like. So Nora is living in small town Alabama. Her parents died in a car accident a year previous, and now she is running the family casket business. And there is a delightful chorus of small town characters who I really liked, including Nora's grandfather. It was very Heart of Dixie, Gilmore Girls, Stars Hollow-esque. Then Garrett comes on the scene. Garrett is a handsome stranger.
[00:29:29] I'll be honest, I knew nothing about this book going in except the title and so I was like, is he a vampire? Because he's so handsome? Lauren Evans goes to great lengths to describe Garrett as handsome, and he and Nora really almost immediately hit it off. And as a person who loves some slow burn banter, this romance unfolded really quickly. And that was perhaps not my favorite part of the book. My favorite part of the book really was the small town characters. But Nora and Garrett immediately kind of engage in this romance and we know Garrett is hiding something. The back of the book is very clear as to what Garrett is hiding. I did not read at the back of the book, and so I totally took Amanda's word for this. And also, cute cover called Casket Case; I wanted something spooky for the season. I don't know that I would qualify this as spooky, but basically Garrett is a-- what is the word I'm looking for? He's a logistics coordinator for death. Yes, death with a cap with a capital D.
[00:30:35] So there's a little bit of-- I would not call it magical realism, but this book became a little bit different than I thought. Because not only is there some added depth, because Nora is dealing with the loss of her parents and then the town is slowly losing people and that is because death has come to town and it's time for a couple of these people to die. And Garrett is there to help with the logistics of that. And once Nora knows his secret, that is when things kind of hit the fan. I liked this book. I think I'd rate it three and a half stars. I liked it. I finished it relatively quickly. Amanda had pointed out to me that Nora has a thing for Sam Malone in Cheers. She loves the show Cheers. I thought that was fun. I thought the Alabama setting was great. I thought the small town characters were great. The romance was fine. But you do just have to know going into this it's really more than a romcom because once death enters the picture, the novel takes a turn in some ways for the serious. And now there's still plenty of lightness to be had.
[00:31:52] There's another kind of romantic antagonist/protagonist who comes on the scene. This was fun and yet there were also some sad moments that were kind of surprising to me. So I've tried to think what I would compare this to, and I think I've landed on Fried Green Tomatoes or Steel Magnolias meets Smoke Gets In your Eye, which is the nonfiction book about cremation. So it's kind of this mishmash of sweet and serious, depth, deep and light. I think it's worth giving a go because here's what I will say. It did not take me long. I read this in the course-- and this is what Amanda told me. I read this in the course of like a day and it did what I needed it to do. Is it going to go down as one of my favorite romcoms or works of women's fiction? I don't know. I don't think so. But it was good and good for the season and certainly it's kept me thinking weirdly about some things.
[00:33:02] And so that is Casket Case by Lauren Evans. I do want readers to know they're going to get a little bit more than the cover would suggest. That's what I'll say. It is less romcom to me than southern fiction. There is a large romance element, but there's also just a lot more happening. And so I just don't want you to go into it thinking this is a fun romcom. I mean, kind of, but also no. So that is Casket Case by Lauren Evans. I am glad I read it and I'm grateful to Amanda for loaning me her copy.
[00:33:40] Then I picked up perhaps a more traditional romance novel, Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff. I had taken a couple of books on a trip with me to Greensboro to visit my cousin Ashley. And Big Fan is the one I wound up finishing. It is super short, which is part of the reason it appealed to me. I was like I can take this and read this on a very short flight. And I pretty much did read it on a short flight. And then maybe a little bit while I was at Ashley's. So it's 160 pages. I'm looking at it right now; 160 pages. The reason I wanted to read this is because I had seen it on Instagram, and I'm a sucker just like anybody else. And there is a new publishing imprint called 831 Stories. And my understanding is during the pandemic there are a couple of women, I want to say it's two women, who fell in love with romance novels and they decided they wanted to launch their own publishing imprint and bring more romance novels into the world. That's my understanding. There's a website. I think it's 831stories.com, I want to say.
[00:34:49] Anyway, I saw this online and I asked Kindle to order it for the store because I was super intrigued. I was just intrigued by the whole concept. I bought a copy because I was, like, oh, the cover is great. There's merch. I think these are some marketing savvy people who have created this publishing imprint. And so they had this big launch in New York. There's merch that goes along with it. So I say all that to say that is what drew me to this book. It's this new publishing imprint and it's kind of going a different route than that illustrated cover we were talking about earlier. So the main character in this book is Maya. Maya is a powerhouse in the political world. She lives in DC and she is really trying to get her feet back under her after her ex-husband had an affair and it was all over Washington kind of this sex scandal. And Maya was on the other side of it and now is trying to get her career back after the scandal. And she is profiled in the same magazine as Charlie. Charlie is a boy band singer who now is all grown up in adulthood and trying to make a solo career for himself.
[00:36:19] Maya, when she was a teen, ran a fandom. She ran a fan club for this boy band and for Charlie and his bandmates. So this to me reminded me a little bit of The Idea of You, except I think this is so much better. Y'all, I loved this book. It is traditional romance. It is steamy. I skimmed a couple parts. So it's pretty open door, but 160 pages, pretty succinct, great storytelling. Maya and Charlie crossed paths because of her career prowess and because of his own solo career kind that's kind of coming up. And their chemistry is great, their sexual tension is great. I loved this book. I thought it was a great time. It's also been a minute since I've read a book that so deftly handles politics. I really liked that this book is set in D.C. mostly, and Maya is really good at her job and there's a lot of talk about Maya working for this candidate in Massachusetts who's running for governor. And there's a lot of policy talk about universal basic income and things like that, which maybe that's not appealing to you, but I loved it probably.
[00:37:48] So it reminds me a little bit of The Idea of You, probably because of the boy band of it all. And then it a little bit reminded me of I think it was The Hopefuls by Jennifer Close. That was another book that I'm pretty sure was set in D.C., around the political world. We just haven't gotten a lot of those romcoms lately. I think because politics is such a hot button issue right now and the real life dating world is so divided based on political party and which candidate you support, etc.. But I really thought this was smart, funny, sexy, just a great time. And I will be very curious to see what else this publishing imprint puts out and how it looks. It's a 1499 paperback. That honestly doesn't exist anymore unless you're reading YA. So it's a 1499 paperback, and there was like a QR code.
[00:38:44] I'm telling you I think there's some marketing savvy here, but there's a QR code at the end of the book where you can read an epilog, you can listen to the music and you can get your own merch. So I think it depends on how you look at it. I think they're being incredibly smart and savvy with what they're doing and probably the Bookstagram and book talk of it all I think would love something like this. But I also thought it was a love story, a romance story for grownups. I really liked it. If you like Emily Henry, if you liked The Idea of You, The Hopefuls, I think you'll like this. And it's low risk because it's 160 pages. If you don't like it that it took you less than a day. So that is big fan by Alexandra Romanoff.
[00:39:33] Then I really throughout the month was listening to two audiobooks. The first was Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten. Y'all, I am not the Ina superfan that I think everyone else is. I like her a lot. I understand she's married to Jeffrey and she cooks and we sell a boatload of her cookbooks whenever a new one comes out. She has a devoted fan base. I think I had maybe seen one or two of her shows, but that's about it. My comfort show in high school with Nigella bites. That was my comfort show. I loved Nigella so much. So I'm no stranger to cooking shows. I like Ina, but because I'm not a super fan, I didn't know if this book would be for me. But I think I want to say it was an advanced listening copy or maybe I just had a credit through Libro.fm Nevertheless, I downloaded the audiobook because I saw that Ina narrated it and I thought, well, that sounds delightful to have Ina in my ears. And you know what? It was. And I say this all the time, but I'm not a huge business book reader.
[00:40:39] I don't read a ton of business books. I don't typically like them. Or I'll start them, but don't finish them because I find them to be redundant or whatever. But what I do find are glimmers and snippets of wisdom in a lot of books like this one. And sure enough, I listen to the audiobook, but I'm going to buy a physical copy because there was so much in here about entrepreneurship and trial and error and business ownership. I mean, I was hooked. I was particularly hooked I want to say through the first half of the book maybe. Ina talks a lot about her-- I don't know if I'd use the word troubled, but maybe sad childhood. She had a fraught relationship with her parents, particularly as a young person. Then, of course, her love story with Jeffrey. And then she talks all about the Barefoot Contessa, which is the business she started to run in in the Hamptons. Man, this book was a great time, full of wisdom and thoughtfulness and also just a really interesting story of a person's life.
[00:41:53] This book is five stars for me, and I had no expectation that that would be the case. And so if you are a super fan, you will probably adore this. But if you're like me and you're like, yeah, I like Ina Garten, that was how I felt. Yeah, I like Ina Garten. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by this book. Toward the back half, she talks about the latter part of her career and the more recent parts of her career. She's got some fun, celebrity anecdotes. But just truly a charming book that I really loved listening to. I really loved the audiobook experience, but I am going to buy the physical copy because there's photos and such and I want to underline some things, but I really liked this and it made me want to buy the original Barefoot Contessa Cookbook. I'm now very interested in cooking and baking some this fall. We'll see if it actually happens, but I'm very interested. So that was the one of the audio books I was listening to. Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten.
[00:43:00] Then I closed out the month by listening to From Here to the Great Unknown. This is the new memoir/biography by Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough, her daughter. I listen to the audiobook. The audiobook is narrated by Julia Roberts. That's who reads Lisa-Marie's parts. And then Riley Keough reads in her own voice, Y'all, again, this was a no expectations book. I am not a huge Elvis fan. I, like many of you, have a couple of songs that I like. I also knew nothing. I think all I knew about Lisa-Marie was that at some point she dated Michael Jackson. That's all I knew. And I knew that she passed away last year and that Riley Keough was kind of finishing this for her. But that is the extent of my knowledge and understanding. I knew nothing about Priscilla Presley. I've not seen any of the recent Elvis movies. I didn't know anything. And this book is so touching. I don't know if it's because in the audio book you hear actual tapes from Lisa-Marie. And then Julia Roberts will read Lisa-Marie's parts and then Riley Keough will interject.
[00:44:19] It is really just an incredibly touching mother daughter story of how Riley Keough has taken this project and tried to finish it for her mom. It functions like a lot of recent celebrity memoirs. I'm thinking about Britney Spears, Jennette McCurdy, Matthew Perry, where obviously there's a lot of childhood trauma, there's abuse, there's addiction. And Lisa-Marie Presley does not shy away from those parts of her story. She's incredibly vulnerable in this book. And then it's incredibly poignant because obviously it's been published posthumously. And so I think that adds something to it. Once again, I had no idea what to expect. And I have really been blown away. I really like it. I'm wrapping this one up as I finish the month, so I'm not quite finished with it yet. But I think it'll be up there in terms of star ratings. So Bookshelf staffer Keila is very invested in the Elvis of it all. She is way more familiar with all the tea, and I think somebody like Keila will love and appreciate this, even maybe even more than I do.
[00:45:40] But if you don't know really too much at all, this is just a sobering celebrity story. I like a well-written celebrity memoir, and this counts. And I think what I'm learning about myself is it doesn't really matter who the celebrity is, if it's well-written and well told. I didn't know anything about Jennette McCurdy. I had aged out of the Nickelodeon stuff. I did not watch her show. But that book is incredibly well done. And that's a little bit how I feel about this. I'm not super invested in the Elvis of it all, but this book is just really good. And I think what I'm discovering is if a celebrity memoir is well told, it really doesn't matter how invested in the celebrity I am. What matters is that it's a compelling story and this is a compelling story. So that is From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by Julia Roberts and Riley Keough.
[00:46:44] So those are the books I read in October. A lot of nonfiction, I'm discovering. People associate nonfiction in November. But I guess I went ahead and checked some off my list. As usual, with our Reading Recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for this month. The October Reading Recap bundle is $80, so a little pricier, but that's because it's three hardback books. It includes The Barn; that's the Wright Thompson book about the Emmett Till murder and the Mississippi Delta. The Last One at the Wedding, which is the great suspense thriller about Frank from Pennsylvania. And then Ina Garten Be Ready When the Luck Happens. You can find more details and the October bundle online through the link in our show notes. Or you can go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number, that's 501, into the search bar.
[00:47:38] This week I'm finishing listening to From Here to the Great Unknown by Lisa-Marie Presley and Riley Keough.
[00:47:40] 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:
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
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Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Jennifer Bannerton, Gene Queens
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Susan Hulings
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