Episode 483 || June Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in June. You get 10% off your books when you order your June 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 (type “Episode 483” 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:
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
Middle of the Night by Riley Sager
A Big Storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin
The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant
The Favorites by Layne Fargo (releases 1/14/2025)
Even After Everything by Stephanie Duncan Smith (releases 10/14/24)
Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell (releases 7/23/24)
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Annie's June Reading Recap Bundle - $68
Sandwich by Catherine Newman
Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo
Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell
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 listening to I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue.
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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]
“The children become the adults. It’s too beautiful to bear — and too much to be worthy of.” - Catherine Newman, Sandwich
[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 June. Well, I guess, we are beyond the halfway point of the year. But 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 host monthly Instagram story Q&As and 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 show notes.) I’d love to have you following along this year.
[00:01:52] Now back to the show. Well, I thought my reading year was fine. A little discombobulated. Just okay. And then June, what a gift June was. I read so many books. As of this recording, I'm not done. The month's not over, but I read a lot of books. And I am so excited to tell you about them, because I'm scanning through my list. Most of them were like four and five-star reads for me. So, so many good books to tell you about and quite a few. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started. The first is Sandwich by Catherine Newman. I was looking forward to this new release very much. I loved her book, We All Want Impossible Things, which if you're looking for a backlist title, I think you should try that one.
[00:02:43] This is her latest book. The main character is Rocky. Rocky is in that awkward place where she has children who are becoming grownups, and she's taking care of her aging parents. So, she is in this sandwich generation that we all, hopefully, probably many of us, will get to be a part of. And so, she is smack dab in the middle of it. She is in the middle of finishing raising her children and then also caring for her elderly parents. This book is poignant, touching. I cried. I also cried during We All Want Impossible Things. And so, it was not surprising to me that this book would be poignant. This book is also laugh out loud funny, and this is my favorite kind of book. I love a book that will make me laugh. It will make me cry.
[00:03:35] In Sandwich, Rocky goes with her family to a New England beach where they have been going every year. A favorite summer trope of mine. I was about to say I long for a place where your family goes every year. My family goes to Saint George Island or the beaches off 98 almost every year. But I was telling Jordan how I would really love one house, because so many of these books-- and I think you as readers know what I'm talking about, where so many of these books talk about not only a particular place in the country, like a New England beach or a Gulf Coast beach, Mary Kay Andrews, Tybee Island. But they talk about a very specific house. It's one of the reasons I loved Paper Palace, which came out a few years ago. I love books where there's this one spot that a family returns to year after year after year.
[00:04:23] So one of the things I really liked about Sandwich is that Rocky and her family don't own this house. It is literally just the same rental that they've been renting every year for the last decade plus. And now it is Rocky, her son and his girlfriend, her daughter and her husband, and then her parents join them later in the week. It all felt very familiar to me. The changing family dynamics as more people get added to the family, as people get older. And it's set over the course of one week. So, we're ticking just a slew of boxes. I love a strong female protagonist, love a New England beach, love a home place that is a character unto itself. And then I love a bottle episode kind of book where this book takes course over the place of just the week that they are at the beach.
[00:05:20] I can't tell you enough good things about this book. I do not often do a ton of content warnings or trigger warnings. You know this. I think it can be hard to cover all of the different topics that might be sensitive to certain readers, but I will say that this one did address pregnancy loss in a way that was not revealed in the plot or in the blurb on the back of the book. And so, I do want to make you aware of that. I found it all handled in a really realistic, beautiful way. And Catherine Newman is such a good writer and such a good storyteller. This is definitely a book that probably veers more toward the character driven. We get a lot about Rocky in her role as a mother, but also in her life as a woman. And it's a dysfunctional family story and things do happen. I would also just like to say so.
[00:06:11] Although this is a quiet, maybe character driven book, plenty of hijinx are ensuing. The relationships in this book are top notch. I think if We All Want Impossible Things was more about friendship, it was about the main protagonist and her dear best friend kind of navigating an illness together, this book is about motherhood and family. I have seen rave reviews from across the internet. I think Sean Nyquist plugged this one recently. Kerry Winfrey plugged this one recently. Mary Laura Philpott. So, all of those types of authors really loved this book. I'll also give you some inside scoop, which is I don't think I've confessed this here yet. I think I've only confessed it on the five-star Instagram. But I bought a Kindle. I finally took the plunge.
[00:06:59] I think it's probably pretty obvious, I have thoughts and feelings about the Amazon of it all. But two months ago, when I was talking with Anne Bogle, she was telling me about some of these books she had read. And I finally was like, how are you getting access to these books? I request these ARCs, but post-pandemic, the publishers just aren't printing quite as many ARCs, in as great of quantities. And she said, "Oh, well, I read electronically." And I did not want to have to read electronically, but Anne was talking to me about it. Olivia has tried to convince me for years. And so, really, the reason I bought a Kindle was so I could read Sandwich. It was an ARC that I had not gotten. I was so envious and jealous of all these readers who I saw reading this book, and I knew I was going to love it.
[00:07:49] So I read this book on my Kindle Paperwhite, and I adored it. I absolutely adored it. And guess what? Now I'm going to need a hardback copy because I highlighted all of these lines that I really love. And now I need a physical copy. So, Sandwich by Katherine Newman is absolutely fantastic. I think there are a lot of books this summer I have read that are quite large. I'm thinking of Long Island Compromise and a book I'm going to talk about a little bit later. This book is just slim. It's If you're familiar, it's about the same size as We All Want Impossible Things. It's a slim little novel that I think is just perfect for summer reading and holds a lot of meaning about family, motherhood, womanhood. I just loved it. So that is Sandwich by Catherine Newman.
[00:08:35] While I was reading Sandwich-- I mean, not at the same time, please. Not at the same time. But during that same week or so I was listening to This Summer Will Be Different. This is the latest by Carley Fortune. I had tried Carly Fortune's book Every Summer After a few years ago when it released. I read it on a plane and I thought it was fine. So, I tried this one because I think one of the important things about reading, especially if you read for your job, is to realize-- and I think this is true, by the way, even if reading is not your job. I think it's important to figure out which authors or which types of books are for you and which are not. And I do think it's important to stretch your brain. I think it's important to try new things, but I also think it's okay to acknowledge, oh, this author is not for me. Or this type of book is not for me.
[00:09:23] And so, I really had kind of thought, I don't think Carley Fortune is for me. And I say that because I did not enjoy Every Summer After, but a whole lot of people did, which kind of lets me know his author or this type of book just might not be for me. However, I saw that this Summer Will Be Different, her new book, was set on Prince Edward Island, and I thought, I really want to try it. And then I was talking to Kyndall on staff at the Bookshelf. She's our inventory coordinator. And she was reading this, and she said, "I really liked it better than Every Summer After, I think you should try it." So, I tried it on audiobook. This audiobook was narrated by AJ Bridel. I thought she was a fantastic narrator. I thought she did a really great job.
[00:10:04] The book is about Lucy, who goes to visit her best friend Bridget on Prince Edward Island as part of their vacation. When she arrives, Bridget's flight has been canceled or delayed, and so Lucy kind of explores the island by herself. She stumbles into an oyster restaurant where she meets a very handsome man named Felix. They immediately sleep together. She wakes up with Felix the next morning and realizes horror of horrors, he is Bridget's brother. And that sets the tone. The book goes back and forth across-- I'm not going to say a decade, but maybe a five-year period. I think Carley Fortune does a good job of never being confusing with that timeline. I think what other readers will really appreciate about this book is the friendship between Lucy and Bridget.
[00:10:54] Now, this is where audiobook narration is so important and interesting. The last couple of audiobooks I've listened to-- and now I'm trying to remember what the other one would have been. But one of them was this book. There was a friend character who absolutely drove me bonkers, and I had to ask Kyndall in this case especially, I was like, "Is the friend as obnoxious in the book? Or is it because I'm listening to her and the voice choices made by the narrator have made me dislike this friend?" know what it was. The other book was Emily Henry's Funny Story and Julia Whelan, choices she made with the sister of the male lead. I can't remember his name off the top of my head. But anyway, so these narrators are kind of making choices about these maybe younger sister friend type characters.
[00:11:44] So, the Lucy and Bridget friendship was not something I particularly enjoyed about this book. The chemistry between Lucy and Felix is quite strong. This is a very steamy romance novel. I was listening to it. And I think when you listen to it, you're even more aware of how steamy it is. But this is quite open door. I mean, they sleep together within the first chapter. And so, this is a book with more sex scenes than maybe I would typically enjoy. That being said, what I loved about this book was the Prince Edward Island setting. It was just what I wanted it to be. I was reading this while finishing Pierce Oysters, which I mentioned in the May Reading Recap, and there was actually a lot in this book about Prince Edward Island and their oyster industry. I thought that was fascinating.
[00:12:31] I have been to Prince Edward Island; Jordan and I went for our 10-year anniversary. I think if you read Anne of Green Gables, if you've been there in real life, it's very special. And so, I loved the Prince Edward Island setting. It felt like I was traveling there, which is what you want, I think, in a summer read. So, I felt like I was on Prince Edward Island. The other thing I really liked about the book was Lucy is an entrepreneur, so she has inherited/bought this floral shop that was owned by her aunt who's a beloved figure in her life. And there's a lot I think of realistic parts about business ownership in this book, and Lucy is constantly trying to figure out how to grow the business without having burnout. Is the floral shop really what she wants, or is there something else she wants? So, those are the two things I loved about the book. I loved the Prince Edward Island setting, and I loved the small business aspect.
[00:13:28] Otherwise, this still was not my favorite romance of the summer. It feels like I've read quite a bit of romcoms. I think there's even a couple today that I'm going to talk about, and this just wasn't my favorite. But I do think the audiobook narration is good. And I think if you like Carley Fortune, so if you already are sold on her, I actually think this is her best work. It's certainly, in my mind, better than Every Summer After It, and I'm not alone in that opinion. Kyndall has read, I think, all of Carley Fortune's, and she really liked this one. So, if you like Carley Fortune, I do not think you are going to be disappointed. If you're like me and Carly Fortune is okay, then I think you could give this one a go. Again, I loved the setting, but I also think there are other summer romcoms and romance novels that you might be more interested in if her previous works have not worked for you. So that is This Summer Will Be Different by Carly Fortune.
[00:14:25] Then I finally dove into Same As It Ever Was. This is the latest by Claire Lombardo. You might recognize her from the book The Most Fun We Ever Had, which I have not read, but I will probably go back at some point and read it because I loved Same As It Ever Was, so, so much. I had put off reading this one because I was prepping for our summer Literary First Look, and I read Long Island Compromise, and that was about a 500-page book, and it was the only tome that I really wanted to include on the summer reading guide. Same As It Ever Was, is also about 500 pages. I have the physical ARC. That's how I read this one. Erin was who encouraged me and gave me the push to read it. Erin who is our online sales manager, she was listening to it and she said, " This just feels like an Annie book to me." And I said, "Well, I have it, but I just have kind of put off reading it, but now I'll move it to the top of my pile.".
[00:15:24] So I did. And let me tell you something, I was hooked in the first sentence, just like I was with Long Island Compromise, and never did I ever notice that this book was 500 pages long. I adored it. The main character is Julia Ames. Actually, like a lot of the protagonists I read about this month, she is middle-aged. Her daughter is about to graduate high school, her son is in college. She is not having a midlife crisis, but probably much like Rocky in Catherine Newman's Sandwich, she is in that kind of middle place in her life. And she goes to the grocery store to pick up something for her husband's like-- I think it's his birthday dinner, and it's this grocery store she doesn't normally go to. And she walks in and she sees a woman who she immediately recognizes they bump into each other. They have a conversation that is extremely awkward. And you, the reader know, well, something happened here.
[00:16:26] Something must have happened between these two to make this encounter so awkward, so unpleasant. And the woman who she bumps into is an older woman named Helen. I've got to tell you, Helen's going to stick with me for a long time. Julia is the main character of this book, but there is something Nancy Meyers-esque about Helen, and I adored her. I was as intrigued with her as Julia is in the book. So, this book goes back and forth between the present where Julia's children are approaching adulthood. She is about to perhaps be an empty nester with her husband. And then it goes back in time toward after her son was born. And she really struggled postpartum. And so, the book goes back and forth between the present and then this period in her life when she felt a little lost. And when she was postpartum with her son, that is when she met Helen for the first time.
[00:17:28] I really don't want to tell you any more than that, but what I will say is online sales manager, Erin, she reached the halfway point and she told me, she said, "I just don't know where this is going." Because we've kind of already figured out who Helen is and why she's important in Julia's life. That was kind of the plot point that we all thought was going to be a mystery. But Claire Lombardo takes this book-- I mean, I was sold. I was sold the entire way through. But there are so many twists and turns. The book is all about Julia. It's about her character growth. It's about this family. It's about her womanhood, her motherhood. It would make a great reading companion to Sandwich, actually. But there's also just twists and turns. It's about marriage. It's about aging.
[00:18:18] And what I want you to know is this book was always a solid four and a half stars for me. The whole way through, I thought, this is probably going to be a five-star book. But what really pushed it over the edge was the last chapter in which I was crying so hard in bed that Jordan was concerned. He reached over his hand and he put his hand on my leg and said, "Are you okay?" And I said, "This book is just so beautiful." The way Claire Lombardo closes this book. And Hunter and I've talked about this before on the podcast; if an author ends a book, it's automatically five stars if they end the book well. I want you to know, this book is excellent the whole way through. I was never bored. My interest was always piqued. I was always intrigued by Julia, by Helen, by what was going on in these women's lives. And I like that because of the Helen character and because of some other characters in this book, we don't just get one portrayal of motherhood, we get a variety of different portrayals of motherhood.
[00:19:18] But this book is also about a marriage. It is about forgiveness and grief and it's a dysfunctional family story, but it is way more than that. And that closing chapter just absolutely sealed the deal for me. This book is stunning. I'm pretty sure it will be in my top 10 of the year. I wanted to think about that before I said it. But yes, it will be my top10 of the year. I just thought it was so good. That is same as it ever was by Claire Lombardo. If you're like me and you did not read The Most Fun We Ever Had, well, enjoy being introduced to Claire Lombardo. And then if you liked The Most Fun We Ever Had, I'm sure you will love this. I just thought it was stunning that, gosh, I marked so many pages. It's one I kept. So sometimes when I read an ARC, once I'm done with it, I'll put it in the little Free Library. And this is a book that I'm keeping. That's how much I loved it. So Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo.
[00:20:15] Then I finished that book while I was at the beach, and my book that I really wanted to read at the beach was Summer Fridays. This is by Suzanne Rindell. Speaking of romances or romcoms, this is one that had been on my radar, but I had not received an ARC. I didn't want to download this to my Kindle. I wanted to read it the good old-fashioned way. And so, I waited and read it in paperback format at the beach, which is exactly how I wanted to read it. You might like reading it on a plane. You especially would like to read it if you are planning a trip to New York anytime soon, because this really is a love letter to New York. So, this is a-- I'm struggling. And if you have been a long time podcast listener, you know I struggle with romance or romcom. I think This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune was a romance novel.
[00:21:00] This felt like a romcom. I laughed at parts of this book. The main character is Sawyer. We meet Sawyer in 2001, but immediately the most of the book takes place in the late 90s. The publisher had sold this as You've Got Mail for a new generation. And I get what they were saying, but it did make me laugh because You've Got Mail is set in 1998 and so is this book. So I was, like, I guess the readers are a new generation, but this book is set in the 90s. Sawyer is an aspiring editor at a publishing agency, and she has Summer Fridays where she gets off at noon. And Sawyer is engaged and she goes to her fiancé’s law firm's gala. They are seated at a table with his coworker, who is a beautiful woman dating someone named Nick. Quickly, we realize there is some chemistry between Sawyer's fiancé and Nick's girlfriend. Sawyer and Nick certainly notice, but Sawyer and Nick do not hit it off.
[00:22:07] They have a pretty negative encounter. Nick quickly apologizes via email and lets Sawyer know, hey, I think our partners are having an affair. The banter in this book is fantastic. The email of it all will take you right back to You've Got Mail, to Rainbow Rowell's Attachments. I love an email in a book. It's an epistolary novel in a way. But really what I loved was the summer setting in New York. So, Nick and Sawyer wind up developing a friendship. They do all these kind of New York adventures on their summer afternoons off. He also has Summer Fridays. The only negative reviews I've seen about this book do deal with the-- I mean, I think you could probably guess from me talking about it, but the slight infidelity plotline. Because Sawyer is engaged, Nick is dating. They think their partners are having an affair, but they are perhaps having an emotional connection of their own. So, I do want to put out this disclaimer that did not bother me, but I do know readers for whom that would be bothersome. And so, I want to throw that out there.
[00:23:19] But other than Annabel Monahan's Summer Romance, this was the other summer romcom I would put in people's hands. This is the one I would want you to read. So Summer Romance is my favorite, followed closely by Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell. The publisher is not wrong. Like if you like, you've got mail. You will probably like this. Never forget that and you've got mail. They're both dating other people. I know we don't like to talk about that, but they were they were living with their significant others. Anyway, so if you like, You've Got Mail, you will like Summer Fridays. If you like witty banter, if you like a New York-- oh, gosh, there was another great New York romcom fairly recently. In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer. That's what it was. If you liked In a New York Minute, I think you will love Summer Fridays. I really loved it. I thought it was great. Good beach read. Good by the pool read. Good plain read.
[00:24:17] Then the next book-- and I do like to kind of tell how I read these. This one I read on my Kindle. Middle of the Night by Riley Sager. Again, did not receive an ARC. I was so tired (in a good way) of hearing Olivia talk about this, that I was like, I've got to read it. I read Riley Sager every summer. I love how reliable it is. And even though I read this one electronically, I love reading it in the summer pretty much in real time with other readers. Because I think he's such a prolific kind of regular writer, he's got a book that comes out every year like clockwork, we do not get ARCs of his work very often. And so, typically I read his books alongside all of you. I don't really read him very early. But Olivia had read this on her Kindle. She had read it electronically. And so, I downloaded it because I thought, and I am discovering that I can only read electronically certain types of books.
[00:25:13] So I tried, for example, the book Enlightenment by Sarah Perry, which I quickly switched to hardback, but I was reading that on my Kindle and I didn't like it there. It was too much for me there. So, I think genre books are going to be good to read on my Kindle, probably certain types of nonfiction. It'll be a little bit like audiobooks, I think. It will not be my preferred way of reading, and it won't be my best way to process, which is why a thriller actually was a great thing to read on the Kindle. So, Riley Sager, this book is, I think, going to be one of my favorites of his. I have like all of his books, but lately he's done some supernatural type of stuff and that is not always my favorite. I really like real life, real tangible, suspense that occasionally veers into horror, which his books do.
[00:26:06] This book was, to me, his most reminiscent of Stephen King. And the reason is, although I have not read a ton of Stephen King, I am familiar with his work. And the way he writes about boyhood and childhood, I think is extremely accurate and nostalgic. And this book is about Ethan and his best friend, Billy. Ethan and Billy are neighbors. They are friends because of proximity. One night they spend the night in Ethan's back yard in a tent. They go camping, and Ethan wakes up and Billy is missing, and there's a slash in the tent. And the book then flashes forward to Ethan in adulthood, still dealing with the fallout of Billy's disappearance. Billy's body was never found. Nobody knows what happened to Billy. The neighborhood where Ethan grew up, the cul-de-sac where he grew up, people never left because they were afraid to leave. That the police would think they were involved with Billy's disappearance somehow.
[00:27:02] So this is something that has kind of haunted the neighborhood ever since. And Ethan finds himself living back in his childhood home after some personal upheaval. And the twists and turns this book takes, always surprising, but always realistic and believable. And unlike some of his more recent works, this one did not deal a ton with the supernatural. This is really Ethan dealing with his grief and something that clearly had an impact on him in childhood. I know I said Stephen King. The other thing that this reminded me of-- and I think if you read the book you'll understand why. But this did have vague Stranger Things vibes. Now, Stranger Things obviously takes some supernatural turns. This really doesn't. I mean, there's some, but really not. But certain parts of the setting, certain aspects of the setting really reminded me of Stranger Things.
[00:28:01] And maybe it's like kids playing in the woods kind of thing that reminded me of Stranger Things. But if Stranger Things met Stephen King, I think you would have middle of the Night by Riley Sager. I love all of his books. I've read every book as it released each summer. I believe that is true. I don't think I've missed any. My favorites have been some of his earlier works. Final Girls, I adored. His second book I recall really loving, but this is my new recent favorite. I really, really like this book. And I think if you've never read Riley Sager before, this would be a great place to start. Olivia loved this one too. So, it's not just me. I think actually, now that I'm saying it, Keila also read this one, which again was part of the reason I felt like I finally had to read it. So Middle of the Night by Riley Sager. If you're looking for a summer suspense novel, this one is so very good and so well written. And has a lot of depth to it as well.
[00:29:00] Okay. And then the last book I read at the beach was A Big Storm Knocked It Over. This is by Laurie Colwin. This book was posthumously published. Laurie Colwin is an author who died too young, in her 40s in, I believe, the early 90s. People have been telling me to read Laurie Colwin for years, and in fact, I bought A Big Storm Knocked It Over. And Another Marvelous Thing. That's the other one I own. I bought them both from The Strand and it still has a sticker on the back. I bought these in 2021. And this is why it's okay to buy books. Ultimately, you will read them. I mean, I clean out my bookshelves, but I've held onto these because I knew they would just meet me at just the right time. And I think this one did. So, this was my first Laurie Colwin book to read. A lot of people compare her to Nora Ephron. I totally see that comparison.
[00:29:50] She also was quite a great food writer, and although this book didn't deal a ton with that, a lot of her other works do. And so, I will definitely be trying more Laurie Colwin. I liked this book a lot. I think I will read other Laurie Colwin, and maybe even like them better. This was the last book that was published, like I said, after her death. So, she has lots of other books, but I picked this one up at The Strand. It is about Jane Louise, who is in her late 30s. She is recently married and she and her husband become pregnant. And the book really takes place mostly over the course of that nine-month period. And it's very important to Jane Louise that she and her friend have babies at the same time. The book is very New York. These are two Manhattanites who are kind of yuppie. They're of that era. It felt like reading a book, like-- do you guys remember Baby Boom? Do you guys remember Diane Keaton in Baby Boom? I love those kinds of movies.
[00:30:57] Those '80s, '90s movies where it's these hardworking, wealthy yuppies living in New York. I love that kind of thing. And so, it's not surprising that I would pick up a book like this. By the end of it, here was my issue with this book. Although, I'm not sure that's the correct term because I finished this book, and when I looked back on my reading, I had marked so many lines. So, I obviously loved the writing, but I kept waiting for something to happen. So, the book, I say it's about Jane Louise's pregnancy-- it's not. It's about Jane Louise, who happens to be pregnant. And we get a lot about the inner workings of Jane Louise's mind. We also see Jane Louise at her workplace. She's an artist at a publishing house. She has a really sexist, flirtatious boss. I kept waiting for something to happen there, nothing ever did. I kept waiting for some big climactic moment with Jane Louise's marriage, it never did. I kept waiting for there to be conflict with her best friend, there never was.
[00:32:10] So I kept waiting for major plot points that never came. This book is just a really-- I keep using the word quiet, but that's just the truth. This book is just a quiet look at one couple as they begin to grow their family. And it's about their friendships, their relationships to their families, their relationship to the city. Jane Louise is constantly looking for a place to call home. The writing is outstanding. Once I realized, oh, this is like Crossing to Safety. Look, it's not as good as crossing to safety. I just want to say that. But Crossing to Safety, nothing really happens in that book. Nothing really happens here. This book, to me, is Heartburn meets The Best of Everything. So, Heartburn is a novel about divorce. The Best of Everything is a novel about your early 20s and making your way in the world. This is a book about approaching middle age, starting your family, but still wealthy upper echelon of New York.
[00:33:17] Heartburn to me is the best comp. Although, Heartburn is obviously dealing with other types of relationships. So, I really liked this book. If you've never read Laurie Colwin, you could start here. I will be anxious to continue to read Laurie Colwin. But when I looked back despite maybe wondering, well, wait, is nothing going to happen in this book? I looked back and just had marked so many passages and so many lines that I really liked. And I think that shows that it was a really good book. So that is A Big storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin. Also, I love getting to read a wide range of backlist and frontlist titles. It makes me very happy. Okay, then once I got back from the beach, Jordan and I have started watching the show Alone. I think it's because we were watching Survivor. We're still going back and watching old seasons of Survivor. We've not watched the most recent season. Please, no spoilers. But we're just watching kind of random seasons of Survivor.
[00:34:15] But then somehow or another, I discovered this show. It's a History Channel show. It's on Hulu called Alone, and it's a survivalist show where these people are left out in the woods Vancouver Island. And then we're watching a season right now set in Patagonia where these people have to survive on their own in the wilderness. The last person standing wins. And so, that was on my mind when I saw in my giant TBR stack full of ARCs the book The Nature of Disappearing. This is by Kimi Cunningham Grant. She wrote a book that I read with my book club a couple of years ago called These Silent Woods. I listened to that book in audiobook format. It is a fantastic audiobook. So, if you're looking for a road trip audiobook this summer, you could try These Silent Woods. I don't know if the same narrator narrates The Nature of Disappearing, but if so, this would probably make a good audiobook. I just happen to have the ARC and decided to give it a try.
[00:35:13] The main character is Emlyn. She is a hunting, fishing guide. An exploration guide out in Idaho. You can tell that she loves what she does. She loves the wilderness and she loves being a guide. You can also tell that she does this job because maybe she's hiding or recuperating or recovering from something in her past. And she is at a restaurant or bar one day post job, and she's sitting there and she looks up on the TV and she sees that her best friend-- who she doesn't keep in touch with, which the book discusses-- is missing. She tries to get in touch with Janessa. She doesn't really know what's going on, but she recognizes the picture on CNN. And she teams up with her ex-boyfriend Tyler to go looking for Janessa, who's like their mutual friend. And the book deals a lot with the landscape of Idaho, the National Forest Service. I loved the nature writing so much.
[00:36:29] And if you're traveling out West this summer, this would be a fun one to read. It reminded me of the River by Peter Heller. If you like Peter Heller books, I think he would like this because this is a suspense novel. You're wondering what happened to Janessa. You're trying to figure out what happened between Emlyn and her ex-boyfriend and why their relationship is so fraught. You're trying to figure out why Emlyn works as a guide in the wilderness, and really doesn't have any contact with her friends or her family. So, there's a lot of mystery at play here, and it is a suspense book, but it's also a book about the wild. That is also how I felt while reading These Silent Woods. I don't know why more people aren't talking about Kimi Cunningham Grant. And maybe they are out West. Maybe this is a book that does really well regionally.
[00:37:17] But this is my second book by her and I feel like she's great. She's a great suspense writer. Okay, what else? Okay. The River by Peter Heller, it's Tim Johnston. If Olivia and I are big fans of Tim Johnston. If you liked Tim Johnston, I think you would like this book. I loved it. I thought it was excellent. I flew through it. I read it in like a day, which I really like during the summer. I like feeling like I'm reading something all the time, and that is how I felt this month. And that was because so many of the books I read were so good and so compelling. The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant.
[00:37:53] Okay, and then some reading took a turn because I am working on fall catalogs. So, I am the adult book buyer for The Bookshelf. Olivia is the children's buyer for The Bookshelf, and that means it's time to be looking through fall catalogs and picking books for the last quarter of the year. I came across in, I believe, the Random House Catalog-- now I'm thinking it was Simon & Schuster. Regardless, I came across the book The Favorites. This is by Layne Fargo. This does not release-- hold onto your hats-- until January 14th, 2025. So, my apologies, but let me tell you something. What a blast. If you liked Carrie Soto by Taylor Jenkins Reid, I think you are going to love this book. Here is the reason I downloaded it so quickly, because you're probably like, "Annie, don't you have other reading to do?" Yes, I do. Fall reading particularly. And this book releases in January. What was I thinking? I'll tell you what I was thinking.
[00:38:52] I was thinking this looks like a book that was inspired by Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, the Canadian ice dancers who took the world by storm in 2018. And I have not forgotten them. No, I have not. And when I saw that this book was about a couple of Olympic ice dancers, like pair Olympic ice dancers, I thought somebody likes Virtue and Moir just like I do. And so, I read this book on my Kindle. I realized upon reading this book the perk of the Kindle, which is a book coming out in January, I could read right now. And I texted or I messaged my friend Marci, who also appreciates the Virtue of it all, and I said, "I think I found a book that was maybe partially inspired by Virtue Moir." I still don't know if it was, but in my heart it is.
[00:39:39] The book is about Katerina. She is an ice dancer who, in childhood, partners up with Heath. So, they have been pair partners for essentially their whole lives. It is their dream to go to the Olympics. They both have pretty complicated childhoods and pasts. Their relationship certainly reflects that. It's a little bit messy. There's some messiness here that Hunter would probably appreciate. But they wind up catching the eye of this prolific ice dancing and ice-skating coach out in California. So, Heath and Katerina uproot their lives in Colorado and move out to California. Look, I'm not going to tell you anymore. It's a book about a couple of Olympic ice dancers. There's nothing else to say. You're either into that or you're not. And boy, was I. I had a great time. I had an absolutely great time reading this book, and I am so glad I got to read it.
[00:40:42] Because often what happens is when I'm going through a catalog, I see this is what always happens; I make a list of the ARCs I want and I request them from the publisher. And I either get them a few weeks or months later, or we don't. And not every book is available this way, but to be able to immediately download this to my Kindle and read it over the course of two evenings was so delightful. And so, score one I guess for e-reading. I still have my qualms. I still don't think it's my preferred way of reading, but there are perks. And the perk is I got to read this book that doesn't release until January. This is for you if you like specifically Carrie Soto. But if you like books about sports with a slight perhaps romantic element, I cannot stress this enough, this is not a rom com.
[00:41:29] So this is not the book about Virtue and Moir that I wanted, but it is a really good book, I think, about the sport. And if you liked the cutting edge, this is for you. If you're of the cutting-edge girly, here you go. So that is The Favorites by Layne Fargo. Doesn't release until January 14th, 2025. I'm sure that release date is subject to change, but go ahead and get your preorders in because how fun. What a fun winter book.
[00:41:55] I also downloaded to my Kindle Even After Everything. This is a book by Stephanie Duncan Smith. She is an editor with Baker Publishing. I have been following Stephanie on the internet for years. I had no idea she was writing a book. I saw this in the catalog and gasped and screamed and downloaded it immediately. This book releases October 15th. So not quite as long of a wait. It's nonfiction. And this will be one of my favorite books of the year. I could cry just talking about this book. I loved it so much. So, Stephanie Duncan Smith will link to her Instagram in the show notes. She is a really great Instagram follow, particularly if you're an aspiring writer. But even if you just like really good storytelling, it is not surprising to me that Stephanie wrote a book because I do think she's an extremely talented writer.
[00:42:45] And I read this book and thought, well, this is one of the best books I've read this year, which is true. And then it also made me mad because I thought, man, this is the kind of book that I would love to write. It was so beautiful and well done. So, the books, I guess, theme or thesis statement is that the liturgical calendar is designed to be reflective of our everyday lives. Meaning over the course of our lives we will encounter grief, brokenness, hardship, joy, celebration. We will encounter all of those things and the church universal's liturgical calendar reflects the ups and downs of that life. And she writes specifically about, miscarriage and pregnancy loss and pregnancy and childbirth, and the rhythms in a woman's life. Typically, these are not subjects that I enjoy.
[00:43:51] As you know, I believe the staff has this quote written down. I do not like gratuitous birthing in books. I do not like talking about womanly things. Probably, I'm sure, from my slightly purity culture adjacent upbringing. I thought this book was beautiful. I thought this book was absolutely beautiful. And I've never heard anybody write or talk about the liturgical calendar in this way. There's a reason Jordan and I were drawn in our early adulthood to the liturgical calendar. It was not something either of us grew up being familiar with or celebrating or practicing at all. And so, in adulthood, it has become really meaningful for us both. But Stephanie's book brings, particularly for me as a woman, new meaning to it. Poor Jordan, I read paragraphs of this book aloud to him. I could not stop talking about it. I highlighted portions I DM'd Stephanie before I even finished. That's how much I loved this book.
[00:45:04] If you are a Christian reader, I think you will especially enjoy this book. I think you could read this book even if you do not practice the church calendar, even if you are not a practicing Christian. I think Stephanie has written something that is accessible for a lot of us, particularly again, if you are a woman and dealing with your own cycles every month. I think there's a lot to really like about this book. The writing is stunning, but I think it will especially be meaningful for those interested in or practicing the liturgical calendar. So that is Even After Everything by Stephanie Duncan Smith. Beautiful book about grief and celebration and honoring both of those things in our lives.
[00:45:50] Then I read Slow Dance. This is the new book by Rainbow Rowell. Y'all, she has a new book coming out. How exciting. I didn't know I was waiting for a Rainbow Rowell book, but I was. This book releases July 23rd, so even a shorter amount of time to wait. And this was a blast. I think I went into it thinking, oh, this is going to be like a romcom. To me, Summer Fridays was a romance/romcom. This is a novel with romantic elements. I think that this book just is dealing with a whole lot. I told Keila-- because Keila's going to read this next-- it felt like a dysfunctional family book that happened to have a romance. Or a dysfunctional family book where the dysfunctional family is a couple of people. So, Shiloh is in her early 30s. It's been almost 15 years since she graduated high school. She's going to the wedding of a dear friend, but a friend that she's kind of lost touch with named Mike. She goes to Mike's wedding, and you can tell that she's dressed up kind of nice and she's looking for somebody, but also trying not to look like she's looking for somebody. And then she sees the man she's been looking for, a man named Cary.
[00:47:10] Cary, Shiloh and Mike were friends in high school. And let me tell you, their friendship is delightful, and feels familiar, feels like the Brat Pack. Feels like an '80s movie. Their friendship is so lovingly and tenderly portrayed. So that's why I say this book is not a straight romance novel. There's just too much other stuff going on. So, Shiloh, Cary and Mike were all friends in high school, and they've lost touch for various reasons. Cary has been in the military. Shiloh is still in her hometown and has just gotten divorced from her husband. She's raising two little children. The kids in this book are fantastic. Annabel Monaghan would be proud there's not an annoying child among them. They're realistic and interesting. And Shiloh and Cary were best friends in high school, but they never were anything more than that. And obviously-- no spoilers, but there's clearly some feelings there.
[00:48:15] And I think the title is so clever because slow dancing plays a role in this book multiple times. It's a slow dance between these two people, and between these two characters. I adored this book. I loved it so much. And I really do think you will, too. If you like a romance novel, there's plenty to like here. But if you are a reluctant romance reader, there is a lot in this book that is dealing with Shiloh and her own confidence, her own character development. Cary and his relationship with his family. Cary and Mike and Shiloh's friendship. This push-pull to stay or leave a place, which is a theme that is very familiar and very close to my heart. Staying in your hometown versus leaving. The relationships that we experienced in childhood, what do they mean beyond childhood? I just thought this book was so smart. And I was delighted to read a book set in Nebraska because Rainbow Rowell's one of the only authors writing books set in Nebraska. So, I loved this book. Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell's. Releases July 23rd.
[00:49:32] Oh my gosh, you guys. Last but not least-- and I want you to know I finished all of these books. I am not even talking about books that I'm halfway through. That's how busy I was this month reading books. Last but not least, I read The Women by Kristin Hannah. This is outside genre for me. Bookseller confession, I have never read Kristin Hannah. I have never felt the need to because she just sells herself. Those books just sell on their own. And Nancy on staff typically reads her books. Erin also had read The Women, so this was definitely a book that I just really was, like, other staffers have read it; I don't need to. But y'all, there are just some books where customers they buy them at The Bookshelf, they read them and then they report back. That is not always the case. That does not always happen. I mean, how often do you go back to your bookseller and tell them you liked or didn't like a book? Probably pretty rarely, I would imagine.
[00:50:24] The number of people who have come back in the store talking about The Women. The number of people who have begged me to read The Women. Most recently my mother, she was like, "Annie, please read this book." And you know what? I make my mom read a lot of books and I recommend a lot of books to my parents. And so, sometimes I should return the favor and read the books they tell me about. So, I read The Women, and it took me 50 to 100 pages to like it. I did not love the writing. But once I got truly about 100 pages in-- and I talked to my mom about this and she felt the same way. I don't know if Erin, Nancy-- and then my other really good friend Erin, she read it and loved it-- I don't know how they felt. But it took me 50 to 100 pages to like the writing, to get into the story.
[00:51:12] The book is about Frankie McGrath. She is a Vietnam nurse who goes to the front lines of Vietnam. There she becomes friends with Barb and Ethel, who are also nurses. And the whole premise of the book is that so many people after Vietnam said there weren't women in Vietnam. Hence, this book called The Women that is about these women who were on the front lines of Vietnam. I said this to customers who came back and told me about the book, Vietnam is just not something I've read a lot about. In high school or in even in middle school, our history classes, it felt like Vietnam was always around April. In terms of school curriculum, it felt like Vietnam hit around April. And so, we just didn't learn a lot about Vietnam. I think there were probably other reasons we didn't learn a ton about Vietnam. I could speculate. But reading this book made a huge impact on me.
[00:52:10] I have uncles who fought in Vietnam. They don't talk about it. I think it part of the reason my mom was drawn to this book. Nancy was drawn to this book. I really finished it moved to tears and desperately wanting to go to DC and revisit the Vietnam War Memorial. Because I just feel like I have a newfound appreciation for what a fraught and troubled conflict that was, and how much we could probably learn from it today. In fact, The Women is a Sharon Says So book club selection. I'm in her book club; though, I rarely get to finish the books or read the books in real time. But I'm excited to go back and listen to some of the book club discussions about this book because I just felt like I learned a lot. And I think what happened in the Vietnam War era probably has a lot to teach us about our current era.
[00:53:05] So I loved this book. If you've been hesitant to read it because maybe historical fiction isn't your genre or, I don't know, maybe war novels aren't your general-- gosh, I really liked this book a lot, and I felt very connected to Frankie, very invested in her story. I'm glad my mom pushed me. And I'm glad to all the people who told me, "Annie, you should read this book." Because I didn't think I needed to. I really didn't think I needed to. And it turns out I did need to. And so, those are the books I read in June.
[00:53:39] As usual with our June Reading Recap episodes, we have a reading recap bundle for the month. The bundle includes Sandwich by Catherine Newman, Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo, and Summer Fridays by Suzanne Rindell. I wanted to try to include a paperback original, and then I really want you to read Sandwich and Same As It Ever Was together. I think those books are in conversation with each other. Anyway, that's the bundle: Sandwich, Same As It Ever Was and Summer Fridays.
[00:54:08] You can find more details about the June bundle online. See the link in our show notes. It's $68. That's how much the bundle is. That's not how much the link is. And you could go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number, that's 483 in the search bar. I cannot wait to hear what you read in June. I'm curious if I am alone in how prolific my June reading was, or if you also had a great reading month. So come tell us on Instagram at Bookshelftville.
[00:54:37] This week I'm listening to I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue.
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.