Episode 470 || March Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in March. You get 10% off your books when you order your March Reading Recap bundle! Each month, we offer a Reading Recap bundle, which features Annie’s three favorite books she read that month.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (type “Episode 470” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie's March Reading Recap Bundle - $68
James by Percival Everett
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
Ladies' Lunch by Lore Segal
Run Towards the Danger by Sarah Polley
Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols (releases April 30)
Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
James by Percival Everett
Happily Never After by Lynn Painter
Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie
They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraquib
The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center (releases June 11)
Ladies’ Lunch by Lore Segal
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, the 103rd Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Held in historic Downtown Thomasville, the Rose Show & Festival is sponsored by the City of Thomasville and has been a southwest Georgia tradition since 1922. Enjoy rose and flower shows, live music, an artisan market, an antique car show, a parade and fantastic shopping and dining in Downtown Thomasville. This year’s 103rd annual event is April 26-27. Plan your visit at thomasvillega.com.
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 listening to Worry by Alexandra Tanner.
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Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing]
[00:00:02] Annie Jones: Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“Girls are born with all of the eggs they will ever make. Tiny future fighters are nested inside infant bodies of baby girls. Men are dead ends, but girls are infinite backwards and forwards.” - Rita Bullwinkel, Headshot
[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 February. It’s not too late to join Annie’s Five-Star books on Instagram. For $50 a year, you can become a part of this bookish community online. Through the private Instagram account, you’ll get access to my five-star book reviews, backlist and frontlist titles. I’ll host monthly Instagram lives, hop on stories to chat books, and occasionally even share about the books I start but never finish. If you follow me personally on Instagram, you’ve seen my reviews for years, and of course, From the Front Porch listeners will always have access to these free monthly Reading Recap episodes. The private Instagram is a place where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five-Star Book Club members can also choose if they want my five-star reads mailed to them each month from The Bookshelf. For more information or to sign up for our 2024 group, visit https://anniebjoneswrites.com/fivestar-book-club. (There’s also a link in the shownotes.) I'm grateful to all of you following along there, and I would love for you to join us if you haven't already.
[00:01:56] Now back to the show. Okay, who can believe we're already through another month? We have finished the first quarter of the year and my reading life has felt good. It's felt eclectic and fun. A nice mixture of books I have to read or feel like I have to read for work, and then backlist titles that I'm reading because I'm interested in them. And so I'm excited to share what books I was able to finish in the month of March. March is typically a pretty good reading month for me, and this year was no exception. Although I can't tell if I'm reading a little bit less. Like maybe I'm reading at a slower pace than I did in 2022. I don't know why I think that, numerically, I feel like I'm on track-- whatever that means. I don't have a numeric goal this year, but I feel like I'm on the same pace as previous years, and yet I feel like I'm not finishing as many books a month. I don't know, maybe it's my imagination, but I may be reading more slowly this year and that would be okay. That'd be fine. So I wanted to start this episode with a book that I mentioned at the end of my February reading recap. So at the end of the February reading recap, I was in the middle of two books. One of them was Run Towards the Danger. This is by Sarah Polley. Sarah is an Academy Award winning screenwriter. She also is a former child actress. She was in a show called Road to Avonlea, which I'm sure Canadian listeners are familiar with, but I was also very familiar with it. I think it may have just been called Avonlea when I saw it, but it was on the Disney Channel. And, my grandparents had the Disney Channel, and so I could watch that show at their house.
[00:03:44] And when I went through my rewatch of Anne of Green Gables last month, I posted about discovering that Sarah Polley, the star of that show, went on to become the screenwriter for the movie Women Talking. And how I did not know that and it was this huge-- not huge, but it was this revelation for me. And so many people slid into those DMs and talked about how much they loved Sarah Polley's memoir, Run Towards the Danger. So I immediately downloaded it from Libro fm and listened to the audiobook, and I finished it in March. It was one of the first books I finished in March, and I loved it. I think it's incredibly well written. The book I think it could be best compared to is I'm Glad My Mom Died, by Jeanette McCurdy. Certainly the same vibes that exist in that book exist here. Sarah writes in detail about her time as a child actress, and how damaging that was for her, and how she felt like adults did not advocate for her or show their care for her. She (and I think even as an adult) really advocates now to make sure children are not exploited on sets. Those chapters in particular were really heartbreaking. One differing or way that this book is different from I'm glad my mom died, is Sarah is a little older, and so you do get some more of her life experiences, and including her really poignant and visceral descriptions of-- she as a child, she suffered from severe scoliosis. And so she writes in detail about the surgical procedures she had to experience in order to kind of rectify that.
[00:05:33] And then she also in adulthood-- this was another kind of mind boggling moment for me. I didn't realize she was screenwriting the script for Little Women, the 2019 version. And then she suffered a bizarre head injury, and it wound up plaguing her for years. And actually, her experience of living through that is where she gets the title Run Towards the Danger. It's a really well-written essay, and that's what I was going to say. This is definitely a memoir. However, it's also, I believe-- I don't have the book in front of me because I listened to it, but I think it's sixish long form essays that then certainly are Sarah's personal stories and anecdotes. I loved this one. I also highly recommend it in audiobook format. Sarah Polley narrates it, and she's a fantastic narrator. That's not always true of authors, but it certainly is true of her. It's also deeply unsettling. When I say visceral, people who listen to this podcast know I'm not a super sensitive reader. But every so often, something really gets me. And certainly Sarah's depictions of really the abuse she suffered, those are certainly extremely hard to listen to, but also her experiences in the medical world and in the health care system in both Canada and America. So the details about her spinal surgery, the details about her head injury, all of that was so visceral. I wanted so badly to finish this book because it did sit pretty heavy. But I think it's a good read. It's an important read. It's well written. It's really quite a beautiful book. I think maybe Sarah from Fiction Matters had told me that, in her DMs. She had said it's really well-written, and it is really well-written, which shouldn't be a surprise.
[00:07:30] She's an Academy Award winning writer, but I was blown away by the writing and this book was one of those pleasant surprises for me. It came out of nowhere. I happened to have a credit on Libro fm, and so I immediately could download it. And it's just sometimes fun, even in the bookselling world, to get to read something immediately that somebody recommends. That just feels like it happens so rarely. So that was really fun for me, and I wanted to update because I don't think I had fully finished it before last month's episode, so I did just briefly want to recap it here. Okay. Then I took a trip in March to Kansas City, a girls trip, and so on the way there one of my plain books was Granite Harbor. This is by Peter Nichols. This book does not release until April 30th. I'm sorry. But you can preorder it or request it from your library. Get on that list early. This is a pretty gritty suspense thriller book. If you are not familiar with Peter Nichols-- I'm fascinated. He's written quite a few things, but I am familiar with him because of a book that came out a few years ago called The Rocks. It is not at all a mystery thriller, and so this felt like a departure until I read about other things he's written, and he just kind of runs the gamut. He's not somebody who sticks to one particular genre, which is always amazing to me. I'm quite jealous of writers who can just skip around genre to genre. But Granite Harbor is a suspense thriller. It's pretty dark, and so it reminds me a little bit of HBO's True Detective, maybe the book The Mid Coast. There were aspects of it that also reminded me of Tana French, but this is obviously an American version of Tana French.
[00:09:15] One of our main characters is a detective named Alex. He is like a Booker Prize winning finalist. He's a writer who has moved to Maine, but then got divorced and decided he needed a full time job. And so now he's a detective, which I loved that detail. I just thought that was kind of a fun character quirk. So there is a serial killer on the loose in this small town in Maine. We immediately are greeted by a depiction and a description of a pretty gruesome crime. Again, I am not a super sensitive reader, but I would describe this book is pretty violent and very descriptive of the crimes, and of the killings being committed in this small town. I want you to know I loved this book until the ending. And so I have really struggled with how to describe it, because I think it's a great mystery. I found it to be really fun. I've seen some reviewers compare it to something like Silence of the Lambs. Sure. I think I compared it to Tana French and The Midcoast, true detective. All of those types of things are what it reminded me of. But the last 50 pages, I just have some qualms with how this book ended. So I do not want to spoil it. I do think this is worth reading. I think it would be extremely fun spring break reading, later summer reading, like stick it in your beach bag kind of thing. It's a good mystery. And then when you read it, come back and tell me what you thought of the ending. We have to be so kind of picky with what new releases we read because of the podcast, because of Shelf Subscriptions. But I've even tried to convince Olivia to read this one just so I could have somebody to talk about it with because I do think it's really good, and I think it's really well written. I just did not love how some things were resolved, but definitely worth picking up. Releases on April 30th. Granite Harbor by Peter Nichols.
[00:11:27] Then I read five star book Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel. I started the episode with a beautiful quote from this book. I adored this. This is literary fiction. Feels like, in some ways, a connected short story collection, but it's a novel about young women boxers competing in a tournament. And I was drawn to the book because I like sports books. And I opened this one, and it starts with a bracket. And I thought, oh, how fun for March to start my reading with a book that literally includes a bracket in the front. And so these young women are competing in this boxing tournament in, I believe, it's Reno, Nevada. And each chapter is a boxing match. So the book opens with the bracket, and then the first chapter is two young women boxers competing. And the chapter then completely describes and encapsulates and depicts the boxing match. So you get kind of punch by punch. I have no interest in boxing, by the way, this is how we know it's a great book. But the match is detailed. But at the same time, the match is being detailed in the chapter. We're also getting flashbacks and flash forwards to each of these young girls lives. So it's very character driven. And I hesitate to say that because there's definitely a plot. Like we're moving through the tournament, we're trying to see who ultimately wins this tournament. And so it moves the plot forward, but it's very much a character study. Each chapter is a character study of the two young women competing against each other. And then at the end of the Saturday, when the first round of matches are done, there's a couple of chapters about what happens the night of the tournament, and then the next day it's back to two women competing against each other.
[00:13:31] I just think this format is so original. I've honestly never seen anything like it, never read anything like it. Where the book is certainly about boxing, it's about sports, it's about the role competition plays in the lives of young women. And I loved all of that, but it also became a book about girlhood and young womanhood and coming of age. And each of these young women is so different, and you can see how their personalities come into play when they box each other. It's astounding. I and I have not seen it very many places, which is really fun because then I get to tell you about it. But also I do not understand because this book is so good. It is so good. So this is Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel. I say I've never read anything like it and I really haven't. The format is so unique. The setup is so unique. But it most reminds me of a book I chose for a Shelf Subscription, I think, last year called Sam. And Sam was about a young woman and really showed her complete, growing up, her coming of age from early childhood to early adulthood. And I loved that book. And that's another book that a lot happens and the plot moves you forward. But it also was a character study of Sam. And so that is the kind of best comparison, the best comp title I can give. But if you like sports books, I think you'll like this. I think the sports writing is great. It made me care. I'm not going to go watch boxing on TV, but I was very invested in the boxing tournament that Rita Bullwinkel was portraying. I did not play a ton of sports particularly in high school. But I think most of us participated in sports in one way or another. And it kind of takes you right back to the feelings that competing gives you and sports give you. I think, particularly the role sports played in the lives of women, and young women. And I don't know, I really loved this book. I wouldn't be surprised if it winds up in my top 10 of the year. So that is Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel.
[00:15:45] Then I read another five star book that could be in my top 10 of the year. I read James by Percival Everett. Percival Everett is a prolific writer who, I am sorry to say, I have never read before though now I will be reading more. You might be familiar with him, particularly recently, because his book Erasure was turned into the movie American Fiction, which was nominated for some Academy Awards this year. So Jordan and I watched American Fiction after I had read James, and I was so taken and so delighted by the overlap that exists between that story and the story I encountered in James. If you are not familiar, I think this is a book that we're going to see a lot of places. But if you're not familiar, James is a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the American classic novel by Mark Twain. It's been a while, but I recall really liking The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when I was required to read it in high school. I can't remember if it was-- I think it might have been summer reading. I don't think it was something we read as a class, but I recall really liking it. I liked the adventure story elements. I liked those characters. I also liked the Wishbone version. I recall there being a really fun Wishbone version of this on PBS, but that is the last time I encountered that story. I have not reread Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and that is why I had an ARC of James, but I kind of put off reading it. So I put off reading it for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's a little thick. And so I was kind of waiting for the right time to read it. I was worried that it would be the kind of book where I really needed to be familiar with Huckleberry Finn, and I wasn't sure I was.
[00:17:31] And then I also thought, well, it's a modern retelling, maybe it'll be like Demon Copperhead. In which case, I have not made time for Demon Copperhead yet either. Not because I don't want to, but in my mind it's not a stigma, but I guess it's kind of a hang up that these books, because they're reworkings of classic literature, they're going to take my brain more time and energy to read. And I just wasn't sure. I just wasn't sure I was going to have time to read it. So I was working on our spring Literary First Look, which is where I preview my favorite titles of the upcoming season, and this one just kept grabbing my attention. It's got a great eye catching cover. And then I saw Hunter had read it. And as I often do when Hunter reads a book that I am interested in, I text him and I said, "Hey, I'm really interested in this book. Can you tell me how long it took you, did you like it?" And he told me that he loved it. And he said, "I was surprised by how fast paced it was." And by he said, "I read it in two sittings." Because it just was a thicker book-- it's not like 700 pages or something-- I just had been not intimidated by it, but had thought I would need to wait until I could really hunker down with it. So when I was on my way back from Kansas City, this was my plane book. And it surprised me. Typically, I like to read a thriller or a romcom, something fast, on a plane. But I decided to try James, based on Hunter's recommendation and encouragement. And y'all, from page one, I was completely enraptured and completely captured by the story, and I flew through it. I absolutely loved it. And yes, it is a re-imagining of Huckleberry Finn. This time Jim is James, and we get to hear the story from James perspective. I thought this was so imaginative, brilliant, creative, funny, really funny. The original book is funny. That's what Mark Twain is known for.
[00:19:49] But I loved getting to see James's sense of humor and James's storytelling abilities. And there's a lot of playing with language and characters, and it really is an adventure story. It reminded me-- although this book I'm about to name is so much heavier. I would like to be clear. But it reminded me a little bit of Jesmyn Ward, Let Us Descend. And the fact that Jesmyn Ward does such a good job of writing these quest novels, and this is definitely a quest book. James and Huck Finn are on the run, and so there is that quest element, that adventure element, that journey element. And, gosh, I just loved this book. The writing is fantastic-- which if you're familiar with Percival Everett, is not a surprise. But if you have been on the fence about this, maybe you have seen this places, but maybe you are like, oh, I didn't read Huckleberry Finn in high school, or I haven't reread it since high school and so maybe I won't get it, I would argue you don't need to be super familiar with the story of Huckleberry Finn. And I would also say most of us, especially if we were raised in America, are vaguely familiar with that story, even if we have not read it. It feels like a story that just kind of lives in the air. And maybe that's just me as a child and product of the American South, but it feels like a familiar story. And certainly I think your reading will be enhanced if you have an understanding and a familiarity with Huck Finn, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But I think you could try it. And I think you could really enjoy it even without that history or that education. And so I would encourage you to give this a try. Don't put it off like I did, because it's really quite good. I think this is a book we'll be seeing a lot of places. I think my dad would love this book. I just thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it and that is something I was not expecting. I thought it might feel like reading a work of classic literature, in that it's good, but maybe not the most fun thing or the most enjoyable thing. This was fun. It was fun, thoughtful, thought provoking great book club fodder. That is James by Percival Everett.
[00:22:16] Okay. And then more audiobook listening. This month I listened to Lynn Painter's newest book, Happily Never After. The audiobook is narrated by Helen Laser and Sean Patrick Hopkins, and I'd like to give them kudos because I thought they really enhanced this book. I am on the fence about listening to romcoms. Sometimes what I think is fun, flirty, electric banter, in writing sometimes feels cheesy when it's being read to me. That's my own personal hang up. That's not true for everyone, but it is a little bit true for me. And so that certainly may have affected my appreciation for Happily Never After. However, I think these audiobook narrators are great, and in fact, I wound up downloading another audiobook also narrated by Helen Laser. So Helen Laser and Sean Patrick Hopkins are the audiobook narrators. This book is about a wedding objector, who is often hired to stop a wedding. The moment that we all see in movies and TV. I've never seen it in real life. But in that moment, in movies or TV, when you're given the opportunity to speak now or forever hold your peace. And so this guy is hired by brides or by grooms to help stop a wedding that maybe they don't want to have to stop themselves. So our main character is Max. He is the wedding objector. He objects in the middle of Sophie Steinbeck. Which, I got to tell you, I think it's a real pet peeve of mine when people just call each other by their last names as terms of endearment. Not in real life. In real life, I think I find it adorable, but for some reason it's in romcom.
[00:24:00] So a lot of this book, I just remember the main character or one of the main characters, Max, just constantly calling Sophie Steinbeck, Steinbeck. And it got on my last nerves, but that's fine. So, anyway, Sophie Steinbeck, her wedding is interrupted by Max. I think you know what ensues from here. But Max and Sophie begin working together, and maybe they fall in love. This was not my favorite romcom I've ever read. First of all, I love Lynn Painter. And after doing some internet searching and reading, I believe a lot of people are like me where they love Lynn Painter's YA romances, but they are less enthusiastic about her adult romances. That is the case for me. It does not have to be the case for you, but it is the case for me, I think. And so this is an adult romance. In my mind-- now, you all know that I'm a bit of a prude, so take this with a grain of salt. But it was quite open door for my tastes. I am very used to a romance or a romcom that maybe builds to either closed door sex scene, or an open door sex scene that I can kind of skip or skim. Again, that's my personal preference. Doesn't have to be yours. But this just had so many. I found myself in the audiobook just like skipping for 15 seconds and constantly being surprised that, nope, we're still in the room. We're still here, right here with them. So that was part of it. But I would also argue that was not why I didn't enjoy it. I really struggled with Sophie, our main character. I had a bit of a hard time understanding her motivations, her insecurities.
[00:25:38] And then I had just finished a Lynn Painter young adult book either maybe last fall that I really liked. Betting on You, I think. And I believe one of my critiques of that book, which I really liked, was that those were teenagers acting so much older. I kept thinking, gosh, these people are at least in college. And they were teenagers. And then in this book, which is an adult book, these adults kept behaving like teenagers. I was so surprised. And so I had a bit of a hard time with this one. But I've read other reviews. I went on Goodreads. I think this one is worth trying if you like romance novels, if you like romcoms, if you like Lynn Painter, particularly if you like her adult work. I have a feeling that this is pretty in line with her other adult romances, so I think this one could still be worth trying. It was just not for me. And I want to always make sure I'm honest about that. But Happily Never After by Lynn Painter will certainly not prevent me from reading Lynn Painter in the future. Also on audiobook and quite different, I was listening all month long to Mostly What God Does. This is by Savannah Guthrie, the Today Show co-host host. I downloaded the audiobook, honestly, with very low expectations. Now, I love Savannah Guthrie. I would like to be friends with Savannah Guthrie. I think we could be friends, if she got to know me. But I just didn't know fully what this was going to be. I knew what it was not going to be. She's been very clear about that in her press tour that this is not some kind of memoir tell-all. This is not her personal story of journalism or rising to the top of her field or Matt Lauer. This isn't that. In fact, it's a pretty straightforward book about Christian faith.
[00:27:27] And I will tell you, I have spent the last, 10 years, 12 years-- there's a Bible verse that talks about working out your salvation with fear and trembling, probably also known as deconstruction. And so I feel like I have been grappling with things like that, with questions, with doubts, with church issues, with issues of theology for years. And I think a lot of us have. And so I've read a lot of books that deal with either deconstruction or, I don't know, progressive Christianity or issues of theology. Books, of course, by the likes of Sarah Bessey or Rachel Held Evans. And I love those books. But it had been a long time since I read a pretty simple, even sweet, book about faith. Now, when I review books about faith here, they often to me have pretty wide crossover appeal. This one does not. I would argue that this is a very much a Christian book for Christian readers. And so if that's not you, this won't be for you. It was very much for me. I went in not thinking too much about it, and instead I was really delighted. And turns out, after years of heavy thinking, I needed a sweet, simple book. An earnest book about God and Christianity. I think for some people, I could imagine a critique of this book might be that it's too simple, that it's maybe too earnest, maybe it doesn't grapple enough with things. I think there's plenty of grappling in this book. But I also was rather relieved to just rest in a book for a little bit. I don't know if that makes sense. I don't know if that will make sense or not, but that is certainly what I felt. And I loved Savannah Guthrie's audiobook narration. And I will also tell you, I wish I had a print copy. Just because I could have underlined, I think, quite a bit.
[00:29:37] But one of the perks of the audiobook is that at the end of every chapter-- and the chapters are relatively short, but at the end of every chapter there is built in 30 seconds of silence. And Savannah Guthrie will literally say, "Thirty seconds of silence starting now," and then nature sounds will play for 30s. And it was like free meditation. I just thought, can all audiobooks please come with 30 seconds of built in silence? I found that incredibly life giving. She, at the front of the book, really says that this one is meant to be read bit by bit. And so I really tried to abide by that, and I tried to listen to it slowly over the course. I started it in February. So it really became something that I spent my entire lent with and I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I think shop mom Susie will love it. I don't know if you will. I think a lot will depend on your background, your faith story, where you are right now. But as it turns out, I was in a season where I really needed, like, a back to basics, simple approach to God's goodness. So it very much worked for me. You will have to decide if it works for you. So that is mostly what God does by Savannah Guthrie. I listened to the audiobook, which was narrated by the author. Okay, then you have probably heard me talking about how excited I am for Hanif Abdurraqib new book, There's Always This Year. It is a book, an essay collection about sports, basketball in particular. And so I have been really excited about that book. I have not read that book yet, but I think-- I'm trying to remember how this happened. I think I must have posted about how excited I was about reading that book. Maybe. I can't remember.
[00:31:24] Somehow someone on my Instagram DM'd me and said, "I love Hanif Abdurraqib. I love his books." And I thought, you know what, I've been so excited about this new book, but on my shelf currently is his essay collection from several years ago called They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us. And so I decided on a whim to go grab that book off my shelf. Listen, I purge my books pretty frequently. I get rid of things. I use my little Free Library, I donate. But also I hold on to books because sometimes I buy a book and I know I'm going to read it, I'm just not going to read it right now. And I bought that book years ago. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us. I bought that book years ago, probably when it first came out. Because when it first came out, it was everywhere in indie bookstores. If you have been to an indie bookstore, if you were in an indie bookstore in 2019, you probably saw that book. It's got a blue cover with a wolf on the front. And I bought it because everybody was talking about it. And here we are years and years later, and I finally read it and I loved it. It is a collection of essays about culture, pop culture, music, books, art. I loved every essay, even when some of the essays were not about works of art that I was familiar with. So maybe I wasn't familiar with the punk band that he was talking about. Or maybe I wasn't familiar with the particular movie he was referencing. But I still enjoyed it, which I think is a real testament to his talents that I just could enjoy this, even though not every chapter-- now some chapters, I immediately was like, oh yes, I know this band or I know this song. There's a whole chapter on Carly Rae Jepsen.
[00:33:11] So I had a great time with this book. It was also like reading a time capsule. So because it was talking about culture, pop culture, history, particularly in and around I think 2016/2017. So coming off that election year, not yet having lived through a pandemic, I was struck by how much it felt like I was reading a time capsule. So it was published in 2017, and he references a little bit the 2016 election. Certainly references a lot of the black men and women who died at the hands of police violence. And I was reading it and I found myself saying to Jordan, I can't believe how eerily timeless this is in that we are still dealing with the things he's talking about. And then it was also a little poignant, bittersweet to see that he's writing and he's like, I hope things get better from here. And then we know they really don't. And so that made it for really interesting reading. But if you have not read this, if you've not read Hanif Abdurraqib, I think I'm one of the last readers who has not read him, but I would encourage you. This one sat on my shelf forever, I think partly because I thought, well, what if I don't get it? What if I don't understand the music references? No, he's just a good writer. He almost reminds me of Wesley Morris, who's film critic and culture writer for, I believe, The New York Times. I hear him sometimes on ringer podcasts. Anyway, he reminds me a little bit of Wesley Morris and how he's writing, particularly about pop culture or Sam Sanders. So if you like those types of writers, those types of personalities, journalists, I think you'll really like this. Hanif Abdurraqib is a great writer, and now I am even more excited to read his new book, There's Always This Year. They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, that was a backlist read, and I was pushed to read it by somebody on Instagram. So that is by Hanif Abdurraqib.
[00:35:36] Then I read the Rom-Commers. This is by Katherine Center. So sorry, it releases on June 11th. Erin took this ARC home, and then she brought it back and she was like, I haven't finished it, so why don't you go ahead and give it a go? So I read it. I really liked it. I still think for me nothing is going to top The Bodyguard. I really liked that book by Katherine Center, and I think it met me at just the right time. My enjoyment of this book might have been affected by my lack of enjoyment of Happily Never After. However, I did think this one was really fun, really pleasant, and I liked it a lot better than Hello Stranger. I did not particularly enjoy that one. This one, I loved. I still like The Bodyguard more, but very fun about a writer named Emma who has spent her adult life taking care of her father after an injury. And so she has become his sole caregiver, and therefore, her career has kind of gone by the wayside. And then her agent tells her that Charlie Yates (which is a great character name) is like the world's best screenwriter and he is in the middle of writing a romcom, and it's terrible. And so her agent convinces her that if she goes to LA and helps kind of doctor the script and work alongside Charlie Yates and kind of fix this romcom, her career will get back on track. So the premise is fun. Reminds me of a lot of those other romances I've read where two writers come together and they're holed up in a house. Is that beach read? I don't know. But, anyway, just where they're holed up in a house trying to write a book together. Only this time they're writing a romcom movie. And so you also get, I think, some pretty fun scenes where she's trying to convince him why romcoms are great and why some of the tropes are great. Their chemistry is good, main characters are charming. And I think for the most part the conflicts are realistic and don't feel too contrived. I liked this one. I thought it was a good time. Great for summer reading. The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center out on June 11th.
[00:37:51] And then all month long I was reading the short story collection Ladies Lunch by Lore Segal. I picked this up on a whim from Barnes and Noble last year. And it was one of those situations the ones where it's like buy two to get one free, or buy three get a paperback, whatever. They do those deals all the time. And I had not participated in one of those deals in years, but I was at Barnes and Noble and it was really fun. And so I picked up this slim, tiny little paperback called Ladies Lunch. It is a collection of 16 short stories by Lore Segal, who I did not realize is 96 years old. She's a Pulitzer finalist. She's been writing for 60 years, and she's a prolific writer for The New Yorker. I didn't know any of that. I just thought, oh, how fun. A short story collection about a group of friends who've been having lunch together for 40 years. And that sounded charming and delightful to me. And you know what, it was. You can read this one bit by bit. Literally I've been reading it since, I don't know, mid February. I've just been reading one story at a time and I love it. I particularly love it because we get a lot of questions from customers about, "Hey, where can I find a book about older women protagonists that's not a romance or that's not a rom com." Well, here you go. This one is about a group of friends. I think I was prompted to pick it up because I was going on my girls trip and so I took it with me there. Just a charming short story collection. And I know short story collections are hit or miss. I think this one's worth a try because it is so short. It's so short. So it's low risk. So if you're not a short story reader, this one would be a good one to try. Also, I was blown away that this writer is 96 years old and still just putting out original content. Original stories. I couldn't get over it. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can't wait to hand sell it to people. It was a pleasant surprise for me. It came out last September, and so it's been really fun to discover it at just the right time. And now I hope it's just the right time for you to read it too. So that is Ladies Lunch by Lore Segal.
[00:40:03] And those are the books I read in March. As usual, with our reading recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for this month. Our March Reading Recap bundle is $68 and it includes Headshot, that's the book about boxing by Rita Bullwinkel. James, the retelling of Huckleberry Finn by Percival Everett. And Ladies Lunch, the short story collection by Lore Segal. You can find more details and the March bundle online through the link in our show notes, or go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number, that's 470, in the search bar.
[00:40:46] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by the 103rd Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. Held in historic downtown Thomasville, the Rose Show and Festival is sponsored by the city of Thomasville, and has been a Southwest Georgia tradition since 1922. Enjoy rose and flower shows, live music, an artisan market, an antique car show, a parade, and fantastic shopping and dining in downtown Thomasville. This year's 103rd annual event is April 26th through 27th. Plan your visit at Thomasvillega.com.
[00:41:23] Okay, so I've been trying to highlight through these little ad spots my favorite parts or different aspects of Roadshow and Festival because it's not just a flower show. Although the flowers are amazing and getting to walk in those tents is actually really lovely, fun and kind of an old fashioned thing to get to do. And I love that we're still doing it 103 years later. But there have also been kind of modern updates given to the festival. And one of those, I think, is the addition of the artisan market. So this event has changed a lot over the last few years, but I think they've really solved it in the last couple of years. So at the amphitheater, which if you come to Thomasville, is behind the Bookshelf. So at the beautiful city of Thomasville Amphitheater, they host all kinds of tables and booths set up by local artists, local makers. And it's almost like a farmer's market kind of setting, but it's all artists. And I have seen so many of the goodies and I even have friends who set up booths there, and it's just such a fun springtime thing to do. And so when you come to Rose Festival and Rose show and you shop downtown, then you can also go to the amphitheater and shop local handmade goods. Really, I'm thinking of some beautiful paintings and drawings that a friend of mine does. Anyway, highly recommend the Artisan Market at Rose Show and Festival. It's on Saturday and it's a really fun time.
[00:42:59] This week I'm listening to Worry by Alexandra Tanner. Thank you again to our sponsor, The 103rd Annual Rose Show and Festival here in Thomasville, Georgia. You can plan your visit at Thomasvillega.com.
[00:43:10] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Jennifer Bannerton
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, 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.