Episode 492 || August Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in July. You get 10% off your books when you order your August 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 492” 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:
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hildebrand
It Had to Be You by Eliza Jane Brazier
What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci (releases 10/15)
Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger (releases 10/29)
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson (unavailable to order)
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman
JFK Jr. by Rosemarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil
Annie's August Reading Recap Bundle - $69
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hildebrand
Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy
Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman
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 It Wasn’t Roaring It Was Weeping by Lisa Jo Baker.
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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]
“... What I would like is the opportunity to remain at a certain age of my choosing for an extended period. Just take a slight pause in the aging process, for, let’s say, ten to twenty years. I think this is a perfectly reasonable request and someone needs to make it happen. If that someone is interested, I would choose to remain forty years of age for a decade or so. At forty, one is mature; is experienced in both love and loss, success and failure; is probably not yet in need of eyeglasses; can still awaken in the morning and move through the day without joint pain and muscle aches; and has a memory that is still intact. At forty, one is not old; one has just reached the beginning of middle age and is on the cusp of being distinguished.” -Stanley Tucci, What I Ate in One Year
[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 August.
[00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. What I would like is the opportunity to remain at a certain age of my choosing for an extended period. Just take a slight pause in the aging process for, let's say, 10 to 20 years. I think this is a perfectly reasonable request and someone needs to make it happen. If that someone is interested, I would choose to remain 40 years of age for a decade or so. At 41 is mature, is experienced in both love and loss. Success and failure is probably not yet in need of eyeglasses, can still awaken in the morning and move through the day without joint pain and muscle aches, and has a memory that is still intact at 41, is not old. One has just reached the beginning of middle age and is on the cusp of being distinguished. Stanley Tucci. What I ate in one year. I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf and independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week I'm recapping the books I read in August.
[00:01:29] I know we are over halfway through the year, but as a reminder, if you like the reviews you hear on our reading recap episodes of From the Front Porch, you might be interested in joining Annie's five-star books on Instagram. For $50 for the year, you can become a part of this bookish community online. Through this private Instagram account, you'll get access to my book reviews, which includes, of course, backlist and frontlist titles. I host monthly Instagram Story Q&A and share about the books I start but never finish. If you follow me personally on Instagram, you've seen my book reviews there for years.
[00:02:03] And of course, From the Front Porch listeners will always have access to these free monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five-Star book club members also can choose if they want my five-star reads mailed to them each month from The Bookshelf. For more information or to sign up for 2024, (you'll have access to all of the years reviews thus far) https://anniebjoneswrites.com/fivestar-book-club. (There’s also a link in the shownotes.) I'd love to see you there this year. Now, back to the show.
[00:02:39] Okay. August was a fun month, but also a blur, a blip-- I'm not sure. So I wrapped up July in Europe. Jordan and I took a belated 15th wedding anniversary trip. We went to Paris for the Summer Olympics. We went to Paris and Leone, then London and Bath. It was a wonderful two week vacation, the only two week vacation we have ever taken. And I am not saying that was a badge of honor, like, as a badge of honor. I am saying it as I question why in the world I had never taken a two week vacation before. Obviously, The Bookshelf has changed so much over the last decade, and one of the ways it's changed is that I no longer run The Bookshelf alone. I never ran it alone, but it was a very, very small team in those early years. And so a two week vacation felt like something that would never be possible. And thanks to our wonderful staff, a two week vacation is entirely possible. And it was really so good to rest and to regain some creative energy. Travel is a way that fills me up. It is something that fills me up. And so it was so good to be gone for a little bit and to have a change of scenery.
[00:03:59] So I spent the latter part of July in Europe, and also the first part of August. I told Jordan what a great way to start my least favorite month of the year. I am really hard on the month of August, and it's simply because it's that very weird-- I think a lot of us want it to stay late summer. But at least here in South Georgia, kids are already back to school. They went back, I think, August 5th. And so when kids go back to school, even though I don't have kids, it definitely feels like we've entered a new season. The temperature here would disagree with that. And I've seen your Instagram stories listeners, and I know that it's getting cooler where you are and you're wearing sweatshirts in the morning and I want to congratulate you and I'm happy for you. That is not the case here. I think the other day we are so confused that as a staff we were talking, we were like, it feels a little chillier this morning. And that's simply because it was 80 degrees instead of 90 degrees, and the high was still 98 that day.
[00:05:04] So it's still really hot here. You know this. You've listened to the podcast. Perhaps you even live in our neck of the woods. So August can also, to me, be a weird reading month because I am frequently reading for fall. I'm reading books for fall Shelf Subscription titles, for our fall Literary Lunch, which tickets for that are on the store website. I'll try to put a link in the show notes for that as well. So if you want to hear me talk about fall books, you can. And so I'm doing fall reading, but it's also kind of a fun time to still read some backlist titles, books that I want to read, books that feel like summer. And I think all of this is reflected in this month's reading recap. So the first book that I finished really at the end of July, but I did not get a chance to review it in the July reading recap episode is the perfect Couple. This is by Alan Hildebrand. This is my first one of Hildebrand books. She's extremely popular locally-- obviously not just locally. She's also extremely popular nationwide. A New York Times best-selling author, and I had never read her.
[00:06:11] I kind of felt like a lot of her books are similar. They're set in similar locales; they have similar covers. And it would be too late to get into Ellen Hildebrand is a little bit how it could feel. But someone sent me-- and I wish I could remember who, but someone sent me on Instagram the trailer for The Perfect Couple adaptation on Netflix, and I watched the trailer and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm all in. This looks so fun. It's, starring Nicole Kidman. But really, I'm mostly excited about Meghann Fahy. I'm very interested and invested in her career ever since The Bold Type. So it's got a great cast. Looks like fun, White Lotus, Big Little Lies, bougee, Nantucket Wedding murder. So I was immediately like, oh wait, this is a book. And it's a book The Bookshelf typically we have carried in the past, but it is a backlist title that came out a few years ago, and so we did not have one. And I don't know about you, dear listener, but there are a few times in a reader's life when you just want instant gratification, and I think that's probably why a lot of folks love their Kindle because you can immediately download a book or what have you.
[00:07:23] But I immediately thought maybe the library has it because The Bookshelf didn't have its Midtown Reader in Tallahassee did not have it. And this is no shame to indie bookstores, because you can only carry a certain amount of things. And I knew they could order for me. The Bookshelf could order it for me, but I wanted to read it right then. I had watched the preview, I'd watched the trailer, and now I needed this book. And sure enough, the Thomas County Public Library in Thomasville did not have this book, but the Thomas County Public Library in nearby Coolidge did. So I drove 20 minutes to Coolidge, which is a rural community outside Thomasville, and I found their little library, and it was like a little adventure. It was like a little after work adventure. Generally, after a day at The Bookshelf, I am pretty wiped and I don't even work the floor of The Bookshelf like I used to.
[00:08:17] The Bookshelf is a high energy work environment, and so typically I am too exhausted for fun after work adventures. But I was determined to get this book, so I drove there, had a lovely interaction with a couple of the librarians there who happen to be podcast listeners. That was just delightful to see. And I found this book and checked it out from the library and read it in two days. So The Perfect couple is part of Elin Hildebrand series of books. I think it's technically number three in the series, but I am here to tell you I've not read any of her other books. This was entirely enjoyable standalone. You can see as you're reading that some of these characters probably have been introduced to you previously. I think several of these characters appear in her other works, but it never bothered me and I never felt like I needed to read the others. I think that's apparent by the fact that Netflix is adapting this book, and to my knowledge, not her other books. That may not be true. I loved this. Obviously, I read it in two days.
[00:09:25] I loved it because it was exactly what I want out of summer reading, and I hadn't gotten to read a ton of summer books. It was fast paced. Basically, this really wealthy family on the East Coast, I believe in Nantucket, is having a wedding and the morning of the wedding a dead body is found outside the family home where the wedding is going to take place. And so the local police get involved and all of these different characters are interviewed. There are occasional very brief flashbacks, but mostly this is just a really fun murder mystery. And also, I guess maybe the right way to say it would be maybe a domestic thriller, but it's also about this wedding that's taking place. So it reminded me a of Bad Summer people, which is a book I think I read last year. I've talked a little bit about it. I really like that book. And it really does remind me of Big Little Lies, where you have this large cast of characters, you know something has gone wrong. There's no spoilers. The moment the book opens, someone is found dead. But then the book takes you through all of these different characters and what they were doing leading up to the wedding. Like I said, a few flashbacks to try to figure out who might have wanted this character dead.
[00:10:53] I highly recommend this book if you are trying to maybe wrap up summer reading. I also highly recommend this book if you want to read it before the series debuts on Netflix September 5th. I think it's going to be like a mini-series. It was fantastic. Look, not maybe a 'five-star read'. Meaning at the end of this year, I will not remember details about this book, but I don't need to remember details about this book. It was fun. It was a good time. That is The Perfect Couple by Elin Hildebrand.
[00:11:26] Then I started to really think about my trip. So it was the end of July. I had just finished The Perfect Couple in just a couple of days, and I was still kind of riding that instant gratification book serendipity high, like where you actually get to read what you want to read the moment it's available, if that makes sense. I feel like that rarely happens for me, so it feels special when it does. So I brought home from The Bookshelf the book It Had to Be You. This is by Eliza Jane Brazier. I think I had seen maybe this book on Bookstagram, but the reason I brought it home is I could tell immediately it was like Mr. and Mrs. Smith. It's two contract killers who fall in love as they chase each other around Western Europe. But they have this murderous meet-cute on a train to Paris. And look, there are all kinds of books out there. We did a whole display in the store of all these books set in Paris. None of them appealed to me in the moment, and instead I brought home this book about two contract killers, and it is definitely Mr. and Mrs. Smith. If you liked the book Killers of a Certain Age, that was what it reminded me of.
[00:12:44] Also, all of the different locales, these characters, Eva and Jonathan, visit reminded me of the Gray Man. I've not read the books, but I did watch the movie with Ryan Gosling on Netflix and I really liked it. I don't think it got good reviews. I think it was pretty much panned. But Ashley and I went and saw it in theater and we had a great time. So this really is just about two contract killers. You get a little bit about their background, why they became contract killers. I suppose to endear them to us a little bit more despite their careers. And they have this meet-cute on a train that has nothing to do with each other, but maybe has to do with a client who they don't realize is maybe a mutual--- or a hit who's a mutual hit. Client is a weird word. So, anyway, they have this very intimate, steamy sexual encounter, and then their bosses put out hits on each of them. And so they are now each other's targets. This is fun, fast paced, nothing to it. And again, much like The Perfect couple, this is exactly what I needed it to be. I could also see I think part of the reason I was drawn to it is because obviously I'd gone to see twisters starring Glen Powell, which I had seen The Hitman with Glen Powell. And so it was this was kind of a fun hitman story.
[00:14:19] And so, yeah, it kind of scratched a lot of metaphorical itches this summer and was a good time. It is a steamy romance. So if you are a closed door reader, there were some parts that were not as closed door as maybe I would prefer. I think if you're just looking for a fast paced romance novel, that's maybe a little bit different from your typical-- and that's why I mentioned Killers of a Certain Age, it's just kind of a fun take on contract killing, but that seems weird to say. But there you go. So It Had to Be You by Eliza Jane Brazier. Really great end of summer and maybe even going into fall reading. And if you missed the Paris Olympics and you want to read a book partially set in Paris, this would be a fun one.
[00:15:07] Then in July and August on my trip, I took a handful of books. I took a handful of books and I took my Kindle. True to form, only read my physical books. I really do use my Kindle, but I only am using it for Advanced Reader Copies that I cannot get physical copies of it. And so looking back, maybe I should have just taken my Kindle just because I bought a lot of books in Europe, and then I had to decide what books am I going to leave? The first book that I read on vacation-- and I totally planned it this way. I got the ARC and I was like, I'm saving this, was What I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci. That's right, folks, Stanley Tucci has a new book coming out. It releases October 15th. Market on your calendars. Preorder it. If you did not read Stanley Tucci Taste, please do yourself a favor. What an absolutely delightful book. Listen to it on audiobook. Here is the truth about these books. He narrates them so they are fantastic in audiobook format. He's going to narrate this one as well. I listened to the audiobook of Taste.
[00:16:17] However, I also read the physical Book of Taste because it has recipes in it. This one is no different, it also has recipes in it. And this new book is exactly what it proclaims itself to be. So Taste is really a Stanley Tucci's memoir about his life and work. It is well-written, entertaining, funny, snarky. Loved it. What I Ate in One year is literally his journal, his diary from 2023. And so there's a little prolog, there's an epilog, but most of it is just his diary entries from 2023 and what he ate. Sometimes, of course, the details about what he ate are accompanied by details about his marriage, raising his children, acting, traveling, etc., but it's exactly what it says it's to be. It's what somebody ate in the year, which I find super intriguing. Listen, he's a little curmudgeonly. There were moments in this book where I was laughing out loud because I thought there must be something about as you get older-- and I do think this is true.
[00:17:33] So Stanley Tucci is, I want to say, in his 60s and some of what he was saying, I was like, wow, he must not care if people like him. And I was like, of course he doesn't care. He's Stanley Tucci, he doesn't need me to like him. Because he says some things that are so kind of curmudgeonly and a little bit highfalutin. Like he's clearly lived in a certain kind of world for a really long time. And honestly, I love reading about that world. I like reading fiction about wealthy people. Why wouldn't I like nonfiction about wealthy people who go to the Cotswolds for the weekend? And so he talks a lot about, for example, plane travel and how he hates plane travel and "I was packed in a sardine on a plane." And I was laughing because I thought, this is somebody who probably flies first class but still can't stand flying. And look, I get it. So there were very funny tongue in cheek moments. And I think he knows what he's doing. He's also a celebrity married to celebrities. And so it's very funny to get a story about his brother in law, John Krasinski, Jim from The Office. And it's a namedrop, but it never feels like a namedrop because it's literally just his family.
[00:18:51] If you liked Taste, you will not be disappointed. Isn't that a relief? And if you did not read Taste, I think you should read it. But I think you could also start here, and that would be fine. I loved it for my purposes. It was really fun to read on vacation in Europe because he talks a lot about Europe. He lives in the UK. But this would also just make such great fall reading. He writes about food in a way that makes your mouth water. He clearly not only loves to cook, but he loves to eat. He also had a bout with cancer. He writes about that in Taste and how it affects and has affected his taste and his eating habits. So he writes about that a little bit in this book as well. It's delightful. I've liked Stanley Tucci for a long time. Long time listeners, customers will know that one of my first events I tried to do at The Bookshelf was a Stanley Tucci night. No one came. It was very rainy that night. There might be other reasons, but no one came. And that's fine. Because I like Stanley Tucci, and I'm thrilled he's kind of having his moment. He's been famous for a long time. He's been an actor for a really long time. But during the pandemic, I think people loved watching his cooking videos on Instagram.
[00:20:02] And listen, here's what I will say. Yes. Occasionally curmudgeonly, maybe sometimes seems a little out of touch, but he is totally consistent. If you watch his show-- and his sense of humor is hilarious. But if you watch his show, if you watch his videos on Instagram or on social media, he's the same. His tone is the same, his sense of humor is the same. It's vaguely his character in Devil Wears Prada. And he writes about him being famous. He's very honest about being famous and how it makes him feel when people stop him in restaurants and things like that. I like this book a lot. Can you tell? It is What I Ate in One Year. This is by Stanley Tucci, releases October 15th. Rarely would I tell you need the physical copy and the audiobook, but you kind of do. And maybe that seems excessive, but I have held on. So this just goes to show I finished the book while on vacation. And typically I bring ARCs on vacation because I'm going to leave them. Like I'm going to read them and then leave them in the airport. Or I'm going to leave them on the plane for the next person because I don't want to make room for them in my bag if I've already read them.
[00:21:18] This book I took with me all over Europe. I brought this book back home because I knew I wanted the physical copy. And when this book releases on October 15th, I'm going to download the audiobook so that I can have Stanley Tucci in my ear. I think this would be wonderful in audiobook format as well, because Taste was. So read Taste. Preorder what I Ate in One Year by Stanley Tucci releases October 15th.
[00:21:42] The next book I read on vacation was not a vacation book. I really planned the Stanley Tucci; I knew I wanted to read that on vacation. He travels a lot. I was traveling, I wanted to read that. The book that I read next, Like Mother, Like Mother, is by Susan Rieger. It releases October 29th, so it's not out quite yet. Another fall release, but I brought it with me on vacation because I was intrigued by the premise. Now, I wish I'd read it at home because it was not vacation vibes, but it was really good. So this is a mother daughter story. Mostly a mother-daughter story between Lila and Grace. Now Lila is the mother of three daughters. Grace is her youngest. Lila is a newspaper executive, which of course I loved. You get a lot about newspaper journalism in this book. It's just a wonderful detail that I especially appreciated as a reader. It was very niche for me. And then Grace, her youngest daughter, is a writer and novelist. So the first bit of this book-- I can't remember, if it's divided into two parts or three. But the first part of this book is about Lila, but really flashbacks to Lila's upbringing. And you realize that Lila had an abusive father and his parenting and his violence affected Lila and affected how she chose to parent.
[00:23:15] So this is a book about generational trauma, which does not sound like a good time. But it is a good time because you really like these characters. I really liked these characters. I thought they were super interesting and original. I felt like this is new. This is different. This is something a little different. I feel like I read a lot of books that deal with generational trauma. And this book felt different to me, and I don't know if it was the newspaper of it all or just that these female characters were so rich and well drawn. But Lila gets married. She loves her husband dearly. They have a great relationship. He wants children. She really doesn't because of her own childhood experiences. They decide to have children anyway, and she tells her husband you raise them. Kind of like I'm not going to risk raising them. I know how I was raised and I don't want to slip into any horrible family patterns. Anyway, really interesting. And so her two older daughters have no problem with this. But Grace, her youngest, consistently is like where's Lila? They call their mother Lila. Where's Lila? Why is Lila never around? Why doesn't Lila love me?
[00:24:27] So then the book switches to be more about Grace. And Grace has written a book, a novel where she has fictionalized her upbringing but also not really. It's like autofiction. And this decision she has made has an impact on her family. If you like Writers and Lovers, if you like a little talked about book-- because it's a backlist title, it was talked about a lot when it released. If you like The Imperfectionists, which is about a foreign newspaper service. I love that book. If you like Meg Wolitzer, I think this will be for you. Now, I really like this book. I think it's like four, four and a half stars for me. I really liked this book. I'm just here to push back slightly. I don't know what the final blurbs will be. I read this in Advance Reader Copy format, but someone-- and I cannot remember which author. But some author blurbed this book as hilarious. I have a good sense of humor, I'd like to think, and I appreciate subtle humor and dry humor, and there were some funny parts of this book, but I cannot stress to you enough that this is not a hilarious ride. This is a book about mothers and daughters. And it's about generational trauma and breaking the patterns of generational trauma. I'll also say it is not heavy. I did not finish this book and feel like a weight was on my chest, which I have read some books where I do feel that way.
[00:26:10] I did not cry while reading this book. I really liked this book. I really liked the characters in it. I think it was for the ARC mis-marketed. It will be interesting to see what the final blurbs are once this book goes to publication in late October. So I'm here to tell you when you see Like Mother, Like Mother make the rounds-- I think somebody even blurbed it and said the humor of Nora Ephron lives on. That is fascinating because this book is really good. It's really well-written. It's really well told. Also, if you are from Tallahassee, Tallahassee plays a role in a way that I have questions for Susan Rieger. Because some of the parts about Tallahassee are spot on. One of the minor characters in this book is from Tallahassee, and then some of it is just slightly off. And I wanted her to have a fact checker because I am from Tallahassee and I was like, that high school wasn't even built yet. I felt so old and nitpicky. So if you are from Tallahassee, there are some Tallahassee connections here. I looked, and I don't think Susan Rieger has any ties to Tallahassee, but I did think that was kind of a fun almost Easter egg for me.
[00:27:26] This book did feel for me in very specific ways: the newspaper of it all, and then the Tallahassee of it all. So when this book releases on October 29th, I just want you to know it is excellent. It's got a beautiful cover. I really do think if you read like me, if you subscribe to my Shelf Subscription, if you like books with strong female leads, if you like literary fiction, I think you will like this a lot. But this is not, in my opinion, Nora Ephron cutting sense of humor. I don't fully know where that blurb came from. And so I just wanted to say that because sometimes I think books are mis-marketed. And I want you to know this book is really good, but don't go into it thinking it's going to be like a wild, funny ride because it's not. It's really thoughtful about mothers and daughters. The book is called Like Mother, Like Mother. It's by Susan Rieger, and it releases October 29th.
[00:28:23] Then still on vacation-- I was still on vacation, y'all. It was a long vacation. I read Notes From a Small Island. This is by Bill Bryson. This was a book someone had DM’d me about my trip. I don't even know why it came up, but she said "I hope you love Bath. I went there and wound up picking up the book Notes From a Small Island, and it was one of my favorite souvenirs." So we arrived in London. Our hotel was not ready for us to check in, so we dropped our bags and right across the street-- I was exhausted. We'd been traveling by train, which I do love traveling by train. How I wish the United States did better with the high speed rail service. But anyway, we arrived in London and I was pretty exhausted, and it was a bummer to not get to check in to our hotel. But then, like a beacon in the night, like a lighthouse, I looked across and there was Waterstones right across the street from our hotel. And I was like, I know we're going to do it until our hotel room is ready. So we went to Waterstones and literally one of the first books I saw was Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson, and so it felt serendipitous.
[00:29:30] I picked it up. I immediately started reading it because this was my first ever Bill Bryson. My brother and dad read the Bill Bryson book about the Appalachian Trail and they really liked it. This is my second time I'll describe a male author as curmudgeonly, but he is like a curmudgeonly travel guide. And he's from America, but he spent a lot of time in the UK and lived for a long time in the UK. I think that's where his wife is from. And this book is from the 90s. I think it was published originally in 1995. And before he and his wife decide they're going to raise their children partially in the US-- so they're going to leave the UK and go to America. Before they leave he's like, I want to take a trip all around the UK. And basically each chapter in this book is dedicated to a different city or a different region of the UK. It is deeply funny. It is very David Sedaris and it is very 1990s. So there were some things where I was a little bit like, oh my, that's something you wouldn't be able to word that way in 2024. But once I figured out it was written in 1995, I was like, oh, okay, sure. It's a little bit like rewatching Friends where you're like, there's a lot of fat phobic language here. And I still really love friends. And you can love something and still be like, that's not great.
[00:31:01] And so I was reading Notes From a Small Island and I was, like, this is so funny. And then I would hit some language where I was, like, that is not the way we talk anymore, thank goodness. And so just go into it knowing it was written in the 90s. I think this book is for a very specific person. I really do think this book is great. If you have gone on or are going on vacation to the UK. I think if you're an expat, if you are an American living in the UK, if you're an American traveling to the UK-- I did think this was funny, when I bought this book from Waterstones the woman at checkout, the bookseller said, "This was my English teacher's favorite book." So I do think it is popular in the UK because he's kind of riffing on and poking fun at the UK, while also this is a love letter to the UK. And so some of it, to my American senses, occasionally felt harsh. I was like, jeez, he is really picking some nits about the UK. But I think he is writing about this place that he really loves, and also because he loves it he is able to criticize it and critique it. So I think this is for a very specific type of reader. If you've been to the UK, you might like this, if you travel a lot over there. And I do think traveling a lot over there.
[00:32:28] I think one of the things I liked about it was we went from London to Bath, and then previously I had been on a trip in 2019 and I'd been able to go to Windsor and Oxford. And we went to Oxford on this trip too. So anyway, if you have traveled a lot there, he talks about a lot of different parts. I marked up my copy because I was like, oh, I want to go here. Like it made me have some other places I want to visit. So this feels like a pretty specific recommendation, a deep backlist title from the 90s, but I really liked it. I'm really grateful to the person who DM'd me about it because she was right. It wound up being not only a great souvenir, but a great accompaniment to the back half of our trip. I literally read it starting our first night in London, and I finished it before we boarded our plane home. And it was a lovely guide. Bill Bryson felt like my fellow journeyman. So Notes From a Small Island by Bill Bryson. After reading this, I totally understand Bill Bryson's appeal. We sell a lot of him at the store, particularly when he has a new book out. I think his most recent book was about the body. Lucy, one of our former booksellers, she was a Bill Bryson fan. I think she read that book and really liked it. So if you like humorous nonfiction, you might want to try Bill Bryson. And he writes a lot of books about travel as well. I think he was originally a travel writer. So notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson.
[00:33:54] The other book that I bought at Waterstones was Sipsworth. This is by Simon Van Booy. I want to say I had seen this book everywhere, but that is not true. I had seen Meg Crenshaw-- shouting out first and last names, if that's okay. Meg Crenshaw, who is a podcast listener, she's a long distance friend of the store, she is a long time customer. She posted about this to her Instagram constantly, frequently. She was like a one woman evangelist for this book. Now, I do know this book was blurbed by Ann Patchett, but I'm going to credit Meg because Meg is who I saw talking about it. And when I saw this in Waterstones and I realized it was set in the UK-- that was the key. When I buy books over there, that was kind of my question to myself. Was like, not only is this book beautiful or would it be pretty on my shelf, but does it feel like a souvenir? Is it about this place that I am visiting? And it is. Sipsworth is set in the UK, which I did not know going in and so I grabbed it. And this is the book I started on the plane. Here's why I started it on the plane. Because on the plane home I watched Ratatouille. So that was my movie of choice. It was a nine hour flight, so it was one of my movies of choice.
[00:35:15] I watched Ratatouille because of the Paris of it all, and it was delightful. I loved that movie when it released, still love It. And Ratatouille is obviously about a rat. And little did I know, but Sipsworth is about a mouse. So if you are not familiar, Sipsworth is the story of Helen. Helen is returning to her British home after spending decades in Australia, and she is moving back really to die. She in the later years of her life, in the twilight of her life, and she believes she is going to die soon and she kind of comes back home and comes back to her childhood village. And it's almost like Helen is determined that she is going to die soon. She's not going to participate in village life. She is not going to start over. This is just where she's coming to put her life to rest. And then Helen spots a fish tank outside and it reminds her of her son's fish tank he had in childhood. There are a lot of memories associated, some nostalgia. She brings it in and there is a mouse. And I'm not going to tell you anything else about this book because I was just completely charmed. Here's what I said about this book in my Instagram review, "As I was reading this book, this delightful, charming book, I felt like a kid." And maybe it's because typically I, as an adult reader, am not drawn towards books about animals.
[00:37:00] I never read, for example, A Dog's Purpose or books like that. I liked books like that as a child, but I just am not drawn to them in adulthood. I don't know if I think I'm too grown up for them or what, but I am not drawn to them. Without Meg's constant praise of this book, I don't think I would have picked this one up. I really don't. It definitely is reminiscent of Britt-Marie Was Here, which is one of my favorite Frederick Bachman books. I do love a book about an older protagonist. This is curmudgeon reference number three. Kind of a curmudgeonly or grouchy or steely character. Helen is that. Helen has her wits about her. She's a little bit tough, and yet she is also extremely tender. And that is why she and this mouse develop this really lovely story that did remind me of Ratatouille. And so it's Britt-Marie was here meets Ratatouille. If you read the book Perestroika in Paris, that was again a Lucy favorite a few years ago. And she constantly said Perestroika in Paris is was like reading a grown up Charlotte's Web. Okay, that is what I felt like. I felt like I was reading an adult Stuart Little because the themes of this book are about grief and aging and reaching a peace point in our life, like coming to terms with our lives.
[00:38:42] But it's also a book about a mouse, and so any time it started to feel heavy or sad or touching, there also was like this lightness to it because you're reading a book about a woman and a mouse. And I felt like a kid. I loved this book. Five stars for me. This is Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy. If you have not read this yet, you are in for a treat. I finished it and immediately texted my mom and I was, like, you have to read this book. I will let you borrow my copy. You have to read this book. Because I think if you're a Suzy Reader, I think you will really love this. And here's the good news. If you're a seasonal reader, this is a wintry cup of tea kind of book. I did drink tea while reading this book, but it was 90 degrees. And so if you have been reluctant to read it or hesitant to read it or it hasn't crossed your path yet, I think you're really lucky because I think this is going to be a great end of year book. So that is Sipsworth by Simon Van Booy.
[00:39:47] Big, big shift in vibe. Next, I picked up my first book I read upon arriving home. And boy, if this doesn't tell you the difference between British literature and American literature, I came home and immediately picked up Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman. Erin and Olivia and I all love TJ Newman. We've read all of her books. We've loved all of her books. It's very fun because Olivia and I frequently have an overlap. Erin and I frequently have an overlap. But very few books are like an all three of us Venn diagram overlap. And TJ Newman is one of those things. And they both had read this already. It released, I want to say, two or three weeks ago at this point. And so I brought it home, read it in one sitting just like they told me I would. TJ Newman, if you're not familiar, is a former flight attendant. She has written two thrillers previously, Falling and Drowning, both of which I really liked. I listened to Falling, which is a great audiobook, and then I read Drowning. And then now she has written Worst Case Scenario. She's putting out about a book every year or every couple of years, which I'm always impressed by, especially if the books continue to be good.
[00:41:16] And Olivia and Aaron both this was their favorite one of T.J. Newman's. I truly don't think I have a favorite. I really do just love her writing style. I know I've said this about her before, but it feels like reading a 90s Harrison Ford movie. She's like Blake Crouch or early John Grisham or something like that where it's really fast paced. John Grisham is to the legal field as T.J. Newman is to aerodynamics and Blake Crouch is to physics. Does that make sense? I feel like I did a good job there. I feel like I aced the SAT just then. So Worst Case Scenario is what if a plane crashed into a nuclear energy facility? And Olivia loved this book because she's obsessed with Chernobyl. I loved this book because I love an action thriller, and there just aren't a lot that I will read. In fact, Jordan saw me reading this book and he said, well, that looks like a departure. And I said, well, it isn't. Like, this is my third book of hers. But you're right, this doesn't look like a typical Annie book. It's set in Minnesota, the site of a nuclear power plant. And a pilot has a heart attack. And, look, this is worst case scenario, and I had just gotten off a plane.
[00:42:44] Olivia thinks you should read these on planes like as some preventative measure. So take that for what you will. But if you have a fear of flying, I don't know, this could be immersive, maybe therapeutic literature for you. But this may not be for you, may be too triggering. Basically, a pilot has a heart attack while flying the plane. It is a worst case scenario. The plane crashes. You know this within just a couple of pages. You know that this plane is not going to make it. This plane of passengers is not going to make it. And but then the book quickly shifts. Her previous books have been mostly focused on the flight itself, or on what happens after a disaster on board a flight. Now she's taking the drama and the tension to land. And so the plane has crashed, but what is crucial is where it has crashed. And then you see all of these people at the nuclear energy facility, the nuclear power plant kind of goes through their emergency protocols trying to prevent a Chernobyl-like event. This book is fast paced. I know I already referenced Blake Crouch, but Blake Crouch does this great thing with physics where he helps you understand just what you need to know in order to enjoy and read the book. And that is how I felt about this book. It's how I feel about all of her books, but this one obviously is dealing with nuclear energy.
[00:44:09] I don't know anything about nuclear energy. I watched HBO's Chernobyl, so I don't know anything other than that. And there were parts of this book where I was like, wait, I don't understand. And then I was like, oh, right, I don't have to. T.J. Newman is going to help me know what I need to know. And she does. This is read it in 24 hours, read it in one sitting, read it by the pool, read at the beach. It's so fast paced and there are lots of really good characters. And I think that's what Erin and Olivia really pointed out, is that there's a really diverse cast of characters. I think this would be weirdly a fun book club book because there is some stuff to discuss. There's almost some philosophy, worst case scenario questions that you might ask yourself as a person, as a reader. As you're reading, you might wonder, what would I do in this situation? So it could make a fun book club book, perhaps a departure for your book club? It would be a departure for mine. Really great. I told The Bookshelf staff that the most unrealistic part about this book is that there's a handsome 40 year old president character where I was like, wow, that would be fun. But alas. So anyway, this was fantastic. Loved it. Worst case scenario by TJ Newman.
[00:45:31] And then I finished the month with a book that I'll just talk very briefly about. I finished the month by reading JFK Jr. This is by Rosemarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil. It is an oral history of the life of JFK Jr. I can't remember if I reviewed it on the podcast or not, but earlier this summer I read Once Upon a Time, which was a biography about Carolyn Bessette Kennedy. I guess the term now is hyper fixation. This is just one of those Roman Empire type things for me. I remember JFK Jr's plane crashing. It was one of those early news moments I paid attention to and right alongside with Princess Diana's death kind of thing. I was a teenager. I should have figured out how old I was, but I was a young teenager. But I thought JFK Jr was so handsome, and I was even back then interested in journalism. And so I was weirdly interested in his magazine, George, which was like this political magazine that he had launched and created. And so his death was obviously extremely tragic. I also grew up with women in my life, my aunts, my mom, who were really interested in the Kennedys and the Kennedy curse and that family.
[00:47:01] I mean, even reading this book, this this family has just been through the wringer. And that was the thing about Once Upon a time. I went into it just thinking this is going to be obviously not fun, but reading a book about one of your Roman empires can be fun and entertaining. But Once Upon a Time wound up just being really sad. And JFK Jr is also sad. I mean, there are funny light moments. You really get a sense of his personality. But obviously, you know going in that it's not going to end well. This is an oral history format, which I love. So I'm already liking this more than Once Upon a Time. I think it's extremely well researched. If you are interested in the Kennedys or specifically in JFK Jr, this is obviously made for you and the oral history format it's fantastic. Because what I've been doing is just reading bits and pieces all throughout the month, which has been a fun way to do it. So that's JFK Jr by Rosemarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil.
[00:47:57] What an eclectic reading month. I'm just sitting here, like, that was a wide range of literature. Those are the books that I read in August. And like with our other reading recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for this month. So for August, the Reading Recap bundle is $69 and includes The Perfect Couple, that's the Elin Hildebrand. Sipsworth, the book about Helen and her mouse. And Worst Case Scenario by TJ Newman. Again, what an eclectic grouping of books that I think you will really enjoy. You can find more details and the August bundle online through the link in our show notes, or go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type today's episode number, that's 492, into the search bar.
[00:48:41] This week I'm listening to It Wasn’t Roaring It Was Weeping by Lisa Jo Baker.
[00:48:43] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website:
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
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, Gene Queens
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Susan Hulings
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