Episode 496 || September Reading Recap
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in September. You get 10% off your books when you order your September 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 496” 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:
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
The Undercurrent by Sarah Sawyer (releases 10/8)
Life’s Short, Talk Fast edited by Ann Hood (releases 11/12)
Intermezzo by Sally Rooney
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
Passion Project by London Sperry (releases 4/8/25)
Crush by Ada Calhoun (releases 2/25/25)
One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman by Abi Maxwell
Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold
Annie's September Reading Recap Bundle - $77
Colored Television by Danzy Senna
The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave
One Day I’ll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman by Abi Maxwell
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison.
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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 most urgent moments in our lives contain powerful opposites — laughter and sorrow, togetherness and aloneness, all mingled up with one another.” - Rand Richards Cooper in Life’s Short, Talk Fast
[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 September. This month, The Bookshelf has joined the Thomas County Library to celebrate our area One Book program. For 11 years, the Thomas County Library has hosted South Georgia’s first (and only!) One Book program, where our entire community reads the same book together and celebrates that book with a variety of literary events. This year, our town is reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby van Pelt, and our celebration of this beloved book will culminate in a visit from the author at the Thomasville Center for the Arts on Thursday, October 3. Tickets are just $10 and can be found in-store at The Bookshelf or online at www.onebookthomascounty.org. You have plenty of time to get tickets and to read Remarkably Bright Creatures along with us! You can grab your copy at The Bookshelf, the library, or read along with us from far away by snagging a copy at your own local indie. Visit onebookthomascounty.org for more details about this year’s event; we hope to see you there!
Annie Jones: [00:01:58] Now back to the show. Hello, September. What a chaotic month. Do I say that every month? September is definitely the on ramp to Q4 at The Bookshelf. And there were multiple times this month where Olivia and I looked at each other and thought, is this too much? I mean, are these too many events or is this just right? So I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how much reading I got done and with how varied the books I read were. The genres are all over the place. I was prepping for Fall Literary First Look, but also was doing spring catalog ordering. So some of the books out now, some of them out in November, some of them not out until next April. It's fine. Honestly this month I feel like encapsulates what the reading life of a bookseller looks like. It is on the one hand, extremely planned, trying to read for certain events or for certain requirements like Shelf Subscriptions, but then also reading, yes, based on mood, but also "my rep just told me about this and even though it doesn't come out until April, I want to read it now." So it kind of turns the concept of seasonal reading on its head.
[00:03:27] There will be pockets of time this fall when I truly read fall books and I've got a few fall books on the list today, but just a really eclectic month of reading in September. And I'm pleasantly surprised with how much I was able to read during a really busy month at The Bookshelf. So the first book I finished in September was Colored Television. This is by Danzy Senna. You have probably seen this book on Bookstagram, on Good Morning America-- I believe it was a Good Morning America Book club selection. Danzy Senna is the author of Caucasia. She also is part of the literary power couple. She is married to Percival Everett. And so just chew on that for a second and imagine what their conversations at the dinner table must be. So I had not read Caucasia, but Colored television was getting a lot of buzz before its release. And I read this one and I did include it in my Literary First Look conversation that we had several weeks ago now, both in store and online. So Colored Television released early September.
[00:04:39] The book is about Jane and her husband, Lenny. Jane is a successful author who's had a great debut novel but now has been working on her sophomore work which, as I think we all maybe assume or understand, is perhaps more difficult than getting that first one out into the world. So she is busy working on her second work. Her husband, Lenny, is more of the starving artist type. He's kind of content to live a more bohemian lifestyle, but they both live with their two children in and around L.A. And the bohemian artist's lifestyle does not exactly pay, and so Lenny and Jane wind up often renting in short term rentals or house sitting for perhaps more successful friends and family. So when we start the book, Jane and her family are staying at the home of a friend in the Hollywood Hills while he goes off on, I believe, a film shoot or something like that. This book is laugh out loud funny to me. It's darkly humorous. Snarky. It is full of commentary on the biracial experience in America. It is full of commentary on academia versus perhaps pop culture.
[00:06:04] So in the book, Jane is working on essentially the next great American novel. But her friends, whose home she's living in, is a TV writer. And she's looking around at what his money can afford versus what her money can afford. So the book is also an examination of class. But I think I found particularly interesting the conversations around like academia or perhaps a more literary existence, the literary publishing world versus writing for TV or writing for entertainment. And those are the parts that I really laughed out loud during. This is great for fans of Come and Get It. The book that released earlier this year by Kiley Reid. I also think if you enjoyed Yellow Face, this will be really enjoyable to you. It's not quite a suspense book. I did not find it particularly suspenseful, but I did find it a good combination of plot driven versus character driven. You learn a lot about Jane and her family, but also you're wondering how long is Jane going to stay with her family in this rental? Will she be satisfied with a short term rental? What is she going to do to make the money that she feels like she needs to support and raise her family?
[00:07:24] So lots about money. Lots of class. Lots of our modern culture and modern entertainment and a literary world versus a TV writing world. I thought it was all really well done and super interesting. And yes, although it reminded me a little bit of Yellowface, I thought it was completely its own original work making different comments about, like I said, the biracial experience in America. And what it's like to look around and to realize half the money you're bringing in doesn't quite compare with the money your friends are bringing in and how you think that comparison game might stop in early adulthood, but no, no follows you well into middle age. So this is Colored Television by Danzy Senna. I really like this one. I especially liked the length. I liked how much story Danzy Senna was able to pack in to a pretty few numbers of pages. I think this one would make great book club fodder as well.
[00:08:22] Then also while reading for fall, I read The Undercurrent. This is a debut novel by Sarah Sawyer. This is published by Zibi Books. I'm always intrigued. I know I've said this on the podcast before, but I'm always intrigued with what books they select because it's a fewer number. The books that they choose to publish each year, it feels really strategic and intentional, so I'm always fascinated by what books they're putting out. This is what I would categorize perhaps as a literary suspense novel. It is a book about motherhood. The main character is Bee. She is the mother of a newborn baby, and she's really in the throes of it. If you catch my drift, she's really grappling with what has she done? And who shows up on her doorstep but a former neighbor from childhood. And Bee is living her new life, her perhaps more idyllic life in Maine as an adult. But when Leo, her former neighbor, shows up on her doorstep, she realizes she might have to revisit some of her Texas past.
[00:09:35] So most of this book takes place in and around Austin, Texas. Bee, Leo and Bee's brother Gus were all childhood friends when one summer night, a peer of theirs, a girl around Bee's age, went missing and was never found. And that is kind of what has brought Leo back to Bee's door. The truth is, though, that Leo and Gus are not particularly memorable characters in this book. Instead, the book is told in alternating voices, including Bee's. So we get her perhaps more modern day perspective and then B's mother and the neighbor’s mother. And so we hear the story of this missing girl in Texas through the eyes of three moms. And I really loved that aspect of the book. There are many ways in which this book reminds me of Long Bright River, of Knife River, which released earlier this year. So if you find yourself drawn to more literary suspense novels, not necessarily the commercial maybe James Patterson or John Grisham, but the quieter thrillers, quieter suspense books, I think you will really like this one.
[00:10:51] I suspect Olivia would like it if she has if she had read it, but she has not. This is a suspense novel that I am busy hand selling. I do think Erin read this one and really liked it. Erin did gently inform me, hey, there are like some sensitivity warnings. And I thought, really, what? And apparently there are some instances of child abuse. I regret to say that I did not remember that. And so I'm so glad Erin read this so that I could pass along that content warning to you. I really liked this book. I thought it was great fall reading. It releases October 15th, so I think it will be perfect for later autumnal perhaps spooky season. Although, this book does not read particularly spooky to me. Instead, it's a book about mothers and daughters, and it's really a Texas book. So if you are in Texas, I think you might enjoy the setting of this one. Again, it's a debut novel. We always like to support debut writers. This is The Undercurrent by Sarah Sawyer. It does not release until October 15th.
[00:12:01] As you all know-- well, I think you do-- one of my favorite parts of fall reading is reading during football games. Now, let me be very clear. Some people misunderstood me last year. I do not take a book to football games. That is a Rory Gilmore vibe and that is not an Annie B. Jones vibe. I care deeply about the game I am watching. What I mean is, when your team is terrible or when your team is on commercial break or during a timeout because we all know they don't play three straight hours of football, there's TV timeouts, there is a halftime, etc., you should have a book in your hand. So when I'm at home on my couch watching the Florida State University Seminoles-- not be great in this particular year, which is fine-- I'm reading. I have a book in my lap, but it requires a certain kind of book. And that is why throughout this month I was reading Life's Short Talk Fast, which is an essay collection about Gilmore Girls edited by Ann Hood.
[00:13:01] So you might recognize Ann Hood. She is a prolific author. The Stolen Child, The Book That Matters Most. My mom read, and I believe it was her Self Subscription, Fly Girl, which is Ann Hood's memoir about being a flight attendant, especially in the early days of airlines. Anyway, you probably have read something by Ann Hood before. That's part of the reason this was appealing to me. There are always books coming out about the shows I like or we like. Gilmore Girls is no exception to that. There have been cookbooks. There are obviously books like The New One, written by Kelly Bishop, a memoir. Books by Lauren Graham, etc.. But I was intrigued by this one because it's a short little paperback essay collection, which means pick up and put downable, edited by a well-respected, pretty well known author. So I loved this collection. I will tell you they redesigned the cover from my beautiful ARC and I have thoughts about it.
[00:14:06] But if we move past the cover art and we focus on what's inside, I think if you are a Gilmore Girls fan or if you know someone who is, this would make a great gift book this holiday season, even for a non-avid reader. I'm going to buy this one for my cousin Caroline. She doesn't listen to this podcast. I don't think so. I think I'm safe to say that. Because I really think she is not a huge reader, she read some, but I think she will appreciate the essay format. There are all kinds of perspectives in this book. So somebody writes an essay where they're like, "Actually, I don't understand Gilmore Girls, but here's why it's important in my family." There are a couple of essays about mother-daughter relationships. There's a beautiful essay written by an author about why Lane Kim is important. And there's also I think one essay is called like In Defense of Rory Gilmore.
[00:15:01] Anyway, I really liked this. There is not a ton of depth here. It was one of those essay collections that I did finish and think, I feel like I could have submitted an essay like this. But it was a pretty diverse collection in terms of thought. It wasn't just like fans writing about the show, its critics and authors and members of Ann Hood's own family, which I thought was adorable. I think her daughter writes an essay; her partner writes an essay. But if you just are looking for a book to read during sporting events this fall, or if you want a book that you can pick up and put down, maybe you are post-partum or maybe you're pregnant and you can't focus, I think this one would be lovely especially if you're participating in a Gilmore Girls rewatch this fall. I don't do that every fall, but I am doing it this fall. I did that last fall as well and it brought me a lot of joy. So if you're re-visiting the Gilmore Girls this autumn, I think this book, Life's Short Talk Fast would be a fun accompaniment. it releases on November 12th.
[00:16:09] It's a paperback thin little book, probably with about a dozen, maybe 12 to 15 essays. Some of my favorite ones were about the setting of Stars Hollow and why that setting is so memorable and important to many of us. I also liked that the essays were written by a wide range of ages. I grew up watching this show. I'm a year younger than the fictional Rory, I think. I definitely grew up watching this with my mom. And one TV household, so when I was watching this in the living room with my mom, my brother was watching, too. My dad was often watching, but falling asleep. And so I appreciated that several of the essays were written by people who had witnessed friends and family loved this show, even if they did not love it themselves. So that is Life's Short Talk Fast, edited by Ann Hood. A great paperback as a collection about Gilmore Girls.
[00:17:09] Then I finally picked up my ARC of Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. This is perhaps one of the most highly anticipated books of the year, at least if we're talking how many questions I got about Intermezzo over the last couple of months, how many preorders The Bookshelf received. This is a book that a lot of our customer base is talking about, and I suspect that is indicative of the larger and wider conversation. Sally Rooney has written Normal People, Conversations with Friends, Beautiful World Where Are You, which is my personal favorite, and now Intermezzo. I saw a lot of reviewers say that this book was a departure for Sally Rooney. I would disagree. I really like Sally Rooney. She's an Irish writer. Her books deal, I think, beautifully and interestingly with relationships. Normal People is about a romantic relationship that kind of starts in adolescence and moves into the early 20s. Then Beautiful World Where Are You is a novel about friendship.
[00:18:14] Intermezzo is a book about two brothers. We meet Peter first. He is the older sibling, maybe the more stereotypical eldest son. Has a "normal job", he's an attorney, he's the responsible one. Then his younger brother, Ivan, is a chess prodigy. And the book has a really eye catching kind of chess inspired cover. I would argue this book is not as much about chess as I thought it was going to be based on the cover. Instead, this is a book about two sons, two brothers coping with the death of their father. And I think one of the things I really liked about this book was we don't learn a ton about their dad, but what we do learn is generally positive, loving and kind. I feel like we get a lot of books about what happens when someone who's inflicted a lot of pain or trauma, what happens when they die? But I haven't read a ton of books recently where the question is what happens when somebody who genuinely loved you dies? What happens when a patriarchal figure who was a positive influence in your life dies? So I thought that was, first of all, pretty different from maybe some other fiction and even nonfiction that I've read in the last couple of years.
[00:19:39] The book is told in two different voices. We get Ivan's story pretty much every other chapter. And then we get Peter's story. Peter's story is told in a more stream of consciousness type voice. And that took me personally a minute to adjust to. The book opens with Peter's perspective. And at first I thought, I'm not going to be able to do this. And that really has very little to do with Sally Rooney, who I think is an incredibly gifted and talented writer. And it has more to do with me as a reader. And sometimes that stream of consciousness voice can be difficult for me. And so it took me a little bit to adjust to the rhythm of the voices in this book. Ivan's storyline was far easier for me to read, and he is admittedly, perhaps, the more sympathetic brother. And so I found myself really drawn in particular to his story. So the book is told in those kind of alternating voices, alternating stories. Both of these young men are dealing with the loss of their dad, and then they are also dealing with their own fraught relationship with each other. And they are having some romantic issues, as you might expect, from a Sally Rooney book.
[00:21:05] So Peter has a longtime girlfriend who clearly was beloved in his family, but they broke up. There are hints as to why they broke up, but we are not given a ton of info. He is still in contact with her. And then he also has a young woman who he, it seems like, met online. Maybe the way they met was a little unconventional. She's much younger than he is and so there's kind of some stickiness there. Ivan happens to meet an older woman at a chess event he's participating in and embarks on a really lovely and interesting relationship with her. So there's some romantic relationships. There are sex scenes, as Sally Rooney is want to do. If you're new to Sally Rooney, there's always some sex scenes. They're relatively open door. This is a literary work and so it feels less open door maybe than a traditional romance novel. But make no mistake, the sex scenes Sally Rooney rates are open door. If you watched the Normal People adaptation, it was very accurate to the book itself. So there is romance here and certainly a lot about Ivan and Peter's romantic relationships and the role they play in those romantic relationships, I think is supposed to talk about their upbringing and how they were raised and maybe the impact of their dad and their mom's relationship.
[00:22:40] The book, though, really is about Ivan and Peter and their relationship. I really liked this one. It's not my favorite Sally Rooney. I still think my favorite is Beautiful World Where Are You? But I think Sally Rooney is one of those people where you have to say both of her names. Have you noticed that? Anyway, she is one of those writers where I just feel like she is consistent. If you like Normal People, if you like Beautiful World Where Are You, you will like Intermezzo. If you didn't like those books, you will probably not like this one. Like I said, other reviewers have said this is her best work. I would say this is excellent, on par with what she's written previously. I don't know if maybe people think it's her best because the protagonists are male. She's addressing a different kind of relationship than just a romantic relationship or a friend relationship. She's addressing a sibling dynamic. Or if people just think the writing has gotten better. I think the writing is consistent and I mean that with compliments. So Intermezzo by Sally Rooney. If you love her, you'll love this one. I'm excited for people to start getting it in their hands.
[00:23:49] While I was reading that, physically I was listening to-- not at the same time, let's not get carried away. I was listening to The Night We Lost Him. This is by Laura Dave. The audiobook is narrated by Julia Whelan, which is part of the reason I picked it up. As we have discussed on this podcast, Julia Whelan can be hit or miss for me, but the reality is she is consistent and I know exactly what I'm getting. And sometimes when I'm in an audio book slump-- which I was in August, I was not listening to a ton of audiobooks in August. I think sometimes you just want something that's familiar and Julia Whelan is familiar. I have read Laura Dave before. I really like her books. She has recently taken a turn into the suspense thriller genre. Some of her previous works-- I'm thinking of Eight Hundred Grapes. I really liked those, but this is my first suspense book by her. Nancy on staff at The Bookshelf really likes her suspense thrillers, so The Night We Lost Him falls in that latter category.
[00:24:54] I'm just going to tell you how the book opens, because I think that will hook you like it did me. The book opens with a man who is standing outside his beautiful California home. We learn in the opening pages that he is maybe a hotel magnate, real estate mogul. He owns this beautiful land off of Highway one in California. And he's standing on the edge of his property, looking out at the Pacific Ocean and thinking about his legacy, his three adult children, and the role he's played in their life, his multiple marriages. He's kind of in a moment of reflection. And then the next thing you know, he falls over the edge of the cliff. And we, the reader, spend the rest of the book wondering, did he fall, was he pushed, or did he jump? I really liked this book. The audiobook is fantastic. The book is mostly, if I'm remembering correctly, told from Nora's perspective. Nora is one of his three adult children. One of the patriarchs, three adult children.
[00:26:03] Nora and Sam (Sam is her half brother) they kind of play the biggest roles in the book. Sam comes to Nora begging her to help him because he believes that something happened to their dad. He does not believe their dad fell off of his own property. He believes someone else was there that night and may have pushed him over the edge. And so we spend the whole book kind of with Nora where Sam is convinced Nora is less so. And so Nora tries to maybe temper Sam's enthusiasm and despair. Sam is distraught, but he really believes his father was murdered and Nora is a little reluctant to buy into that theory. I loved this book. I thought it was so fun in as far as books about murder and suspicious deaths can be fun. I just thought it was great. It's The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave, fantastic audiobook.
[00:27:01] And really to me, because I listen to the audiobook, I don't know, but I imagine this would be the page turning suspense book that you might enjoy it. It's a little bit different from The Undercurrent of the book I talked about earlier. The Undercurrent to me is quieter and is dealing a lot with character development. The night we lost him really is maybe a more traditional what happened? Was this a murder, was it not? The characters are interesting, but it's way more plot driven, propulsive, just a really fun, more traditional suspense thriller novel. So that is The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Julia Whelan.
[00:27:49] Then you can see that my reading took a turn for the spring because I have been doing spring catalog appointments this month. That means that I have been going through spring book catalogs with each publisher. And because I now own a Kindle, which is something that is complicated but also I have discovered is extremely practical when living your life as a bookseller. Because of that, I am not having to wait on ARCs. I still have to wait on a few, but I'm also able to download them to my Kindle. I have also learned Kindle, much like audiobook format, does not work for me with every book. I cannot read a literary fiction book on my Kindle, but I can read a romcom, I can read a thriller, I can read a memoir. And in this case, I started with a romcom. I downloaded to my Kindle the book Passion Project. This is a new romance written by London Sperry that does not release until April 8th, 2025. So get mad if you must, but a girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. And this book does not release until April.
[00:28:52] I really liked this book. If you remember earlier this summer when I raved about Summer Fridays and not everybody bought into Summer Fridays because there was that infidelity plotline that can be tricky for some people? Okay, if you liked the thought of Summer Fridays, which was where the main characters were going on these dates and having these kinds of excursions on a New York summer Friday, then I really think you will like Passion Project. There is no infidelity plotline, but the concept is kind of similar. So our main character is Bennet. Bennet has anxiety and we learn throughout the book maybe perhaps what has triggered this anxiety. I think books that write about mental health well are so important. And also it reminds me of Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, which is about a character who has OCD, which I believe John Green also has said he he grapples with. And that book was so good, but also so nerve wracking because it really puts you in the mind of someone with OCD.
[00:30:02] This book really does put you in Bennet's brain and it makes you realize what it would be like to have clinical anxiety. She struggles to get out of bed some mornings, and you learn throughout the book the impetus behind this, which I appreciated. And so I liked that her character became more and more developed as the book went on, and I thought it was handled really well. I thought her mental health was handled tenderly, while also she has some really wonderful friends who try to help her, and Bennet maybe doesn't always accept their help. And I thought there was some really great insight into what it's like to be struggling with your mental health while also trying to hold on to your friendships. So in the book, Bennet meets Henry. They're supposed to go on a blind date. Bennet winds up more or less ghosting Henry because of her anxiety. She kind of has a panic attack. She can't go on the date. And so she and Henry meet each other kind of in a more spontaneous way. And Henry decides to take it upon himself to introduce Bennet to her passions-- that's not as sexual as it sounds.
[00:31:14] This book is relatively closed door, but what Henry is trying to do is he can tell that Bennet is anxious and perhaps struggles to get out of her apartment. And Henry says, "Why don't we embark on this project where we try to find something that you're passionate about?" And so one day they go to an adopt a pet clinic and work at it. They do these different kind of things, much like it felt like the characters did in Summer Fridays. So Passion Project, I think is a fun romcom that actually is also dealing with heftier, weightier issues. Again, dealing with clinical anxiety and what that might look like in friendships and in romantic relationships. I thought this one was pretty fully fleshed out. I really liked it. I read it on my Kindle, finished it very quickly. If you liked Summer Fridays, I think you'll love this. And if you were maybe a little hesitant to pick up Summer Fridays, you should pick this one up instead. It is Passion Project by London Sperry.
[00:32:15] Also downloaded to my Kindle Krush by Ada Calhoun. I was curious about this. So Ada Calhoun wrote years ago an essay collection called Wedding Toasts I'll Never Give, which I really liked. And then she wrote a book about like a more traditional nonfiction book about why women can't sleep. And now she has written a work of fiction that is apparently also slightly autobiographical. And so I was hesitant about this subject matter. You'll see why in a second. But I really like Ada Calhoun, and I am so intrigued by authors, I think, of like a quick [inaudible] They are writing in different genres all the time. And my brain, especially now that I'm dabbling a little bit in writing myself, can't get over the talent that people have to possess in order to jump from genre to genre. So I was curious about this new novel by Ada Calhoun. She also wrote more recently the book Also a Poet, which was more memoir. And I think and Bhogle on the What Should I Read Next podcast, really sang the praises of Also a Poet.
[00:33:24] So this is Crush. Crush is an autobiographical novel, and I say autobiographical. Apparently, it was inspired by Ada Calhoun's own life, though it is not a memoir. So our main character in Crush is happily married. They have been married for 20 ish years. They have an 18 year old kid who is on his way to becoming a freshman in college. And one day this woman's husband looks at her and he says, I think you should kiss other people. I think that would spice up our marriage. Okay. And what ensues is chaos, but really beautiful, well-written chaos as the main character almost experiences a kind of rumspringa where she is kissing people, but perhaps more importantly, she indulges in her crushes, which I think is where the title of the book comes from. So she finds herself flirting more openly. She finds herself, yes, kissing people on occasion, but also just maybe experiencing life as she would have as a single person without having necessarily sexual relationships. Does this help her marriage? I'll let you read the book to decide that.
[00:34:55] But the reason I kept reading-- so this was not subject matter I would normally be drawn to. Although, I did read years ago a book called The Arrangement more or less on accident. You can go back and listen to previous podcasts about that, but I really did like that book. And it was a book with sort of a similar premise. This one reminded me of The Arrangement meets Fire sermon. Now, if you have heard me talk about Fire Sermon by Jamie Quatro, you know that it has a lot of sexual content. There is some sexual content in Crush, but not nearly as much really. Instead, part of the reason I was so drawn to this novel is Ada Calhoun is a genuinely wonderful writer. And then in the book, one of the characters who this wife befriends is a professor of religion. And so much like In Fire Sermon, or in my beloved book Francis and Bernard, what follows is a lot of high minded thoughts about religion, faith, romantic relationships, friendship, spirituality because of this correspondence in this friendship between our main character and this religion professor.
[00:36:14] And so we are talking quotes from Evelyn Underhill, quotes from C.S. Lewis, references to early church fathers. I mean, really interesting to me and so I could not put this book down. I started it fully intending to perhaps not love all that was happening, but instead I was super intrigued. I immediately finished it and had to talk to Jordan about it because it's an interesting look at fidelity marriage. What is marriage? What do we promise each other? When we promise marriage, what are we saying no to? What are we saying that we won't do anymore? What does friendship look like? Is platonic friendship possible? Anyway, I love all of those types of questions, and this book attempts to answer some of them. I thought the writing was great and the references came constantly. Speaking of Gilmore Girls, it was just constant references to authors I really liked, to thinkers I really like. And so I was just super intrigued by the maybe more high minded ideals, high minded conversations that were also happening on the page. So this one does not release until February 25th, 2025. It is Crush by Ada Calhoun. I really liked it. I liked it quite a bit. I think I'll be thinking about it for a long time.
[00:37:39] Then I was going through my Kindle and I was organizing it. I don't know what people do with their Kindles. Do you guys organize them? Do you delete stuff? Olivia, I think, doesn't delete stuff off hers. I feel like I need to delete files off of mine just so I can know-- it's almost like purging books from your TBR. Realizing, okay, I'm not going to read that. And so because I was adding all of these spring titles. I was going through my fall books and I was like, okay, it's mid-September, what am I not going to read? What of these classes that I downloaded three months ago am I not going to have time for? And then I came across this memoir by Abi Maxwell called One Day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman. And I thought, that's a really gorgeous title. And so I went to the Internet, looked up the book so I could remind myself of what it was about. And then I thought, well, let me give this a try. It released mid-September.
[00:38:36] This is a memoir, like I said, by Abi Maxwell. She's written other fiction works before. This is her first memoir. And the book is really about Abi and her daughter, Gretta. Gretta is trans, and Abi and her husband are trying to raise Gretta in this beautiful, idyllic town in New Hampshire. And this is a place that Abby loves. She grew up there. Her family is deeply rooted in this corner of New England. It is gorgeous. She writes really beautifully about this part of the country. But when Gretta changes her name and her pronouns, all of a sudden this beautiful place that Abi has lived her whole life becomes a lot more complicated and a lot more sinister. And what unfolds is an extremely tense, really gorgeously written memoir about what it's like to raise a trans child in America. And I was reading this book and it just felt like my eyes were being forced open. Years ago, I read-- probably a lot of you did too-- the fiction book This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel. I talk about it a lot. I really like that book. It is still on my shelf. Laurie Frankel wrote a new book earlier this year that I also enjoyed.
[00:40:00] This book because it is a memoir, hits and it cuts even deeper. It is really a book about motherhood and advocacy. Greta is also on the autism spectrum. And so Abi Maxwell finds herself advocating for her daughter in multiple ways and really having to advocate for her daughter in ways she never envisioned and she receives pushback that she never envisioned. This is a lot about legislation, school board meetings. I will say I loved this book. I really loved this book. Almost every chapter ends with this feeling of foreboding. I kept reading this book because I thought, oh, my gosh, I need to finish this. Because it was so heavy. It was so heavy. And Abi Maxwell really-- like I said, I felt like my eyeballs were being forced open. Abi Maxwell does not hold back in the challenges her child faces and the challenges she faces. And every chapter I just felt like, oh, my gosh, is this going to get better? Is this going to get better for this family? Is this ever going to get better?
[00:41:16] And so this is not a book that is for the faint of heart, but I am always grateful to fiction and nonfiction for expanding my worldview and for opening my eyes, for getting me to ask questions that maybe I wasn't asking previously, getting me to pay attention to things I maybe wasn't paying enough attention to. If that is you, if this is appealing to you in any way, I think it's also just an exceptionally good memoir. The title is Great. One day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman. I think you will fall in love with Gretta and Abi and their family. I also have been thinking a lot. I have written a book about staying. We'll talk about it, I'm sure, in the months to come. But I've written a book about staying and being rooted in community and what it means to be known in a community and choosing to stay when it might feel easier to leave. And then you read a book like this and you're like, staying is too hard. Sometimes staying is too hard and leaving is exactly what you're supposed to do and exactly what you have to do.
[00:42:25] So this book also just came at a really good time for me as I'm thinking about leaving and staying a lot. I'm thinking about what it means to leave a place, what it means to move from a place, why you would do that, and then what it means to stay in a place. And if you're going to stay in a place, what that might require. So Abi Maxwell was speaking some of my language there, and I think this book is really worth your time. So One Day I'll Grow Up and be a Beautiful Woman by Abi Maxwell.
[00:42:56] Last but not least, just ended the month, I will say on maybe a heavier note. But the National Book Award longlist came out. My friend Hunter at shelf by shelf on Instagram always does such a good job of getting us hyped for the National Book Award. I don't know if you follow him there, but he does such a good job of getting us all excited. And I noticed on the nonfiction longlist was a book that I had started but had not finished. I had tried to read it for, I think, like a Literary Lunch or a Literary First Look, and I liked it but didn't finish it. And that is Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold. I then was talking to my friend Jennifer, she suggested the audiobook, so I downloaded the audiobook and I am loving it. I'm almost done with it as of this recording. This is a nonfiction book, so it's a longlist finalist about a church called Circle of Hope in Philadelphia. And listen, I am really loving this book. It feels like investigative journalism, narrative nonfiction, genres that I really like and subject matter that I really like.
[00:44:06] A conversation about the American church and insight into one particular American church and how it navigated the pandemic post pandemic, the loss of their founding pastor. Only he stuck around, which I have questions about. So I'm not finished with this yet, so I do not yet know the fate of Circle of Hope, nor have I looked it up because I'm very invested in this book. So I have not Googled the current state of Circle of Hope in Philadelphia. But if you liked the podcast that came out years ago about Mark Driscoll, if you liked Jesus and John Wayne, if like investigative journalism about our institutions, I think this book could be for you. I am really liking it. The audio book is fantastic. It is narrated by Jennifer Pickens. She's a great narrator. I feel like I'm listening to like an NPR deep dive. So sometimes the best audiobooks for me are ones that sound like a podcast. And so this feels like a nonfiction podcast that I would really enjoy. And like I said, a deep dive into one particular church in America and the issues that I think are plaguing a lot of churches and how this one Anabaptist movement kind of addresses those issues. I think it's incredibly interesting, plus it's going to give me a checkmark on the National Book Award longlist, so might be worth your time. That is Circle of Hope by Eliza Griswold. The audiobook is narrated by Jennifer Pickens.
[00:45:49] And those are the books I read in September. Do you see what I mean? Some spring titles, some fall titles, some nonfiction, some memoirs, some thriller. I feel like pretty eclectic group of books. So, as usual, with our Reading Recap episodes, we are offering a reading recap bundle for this month. Our September Reading Recap bundle is $77 and it includes three books, Colored Television, that's the book by Danzy Senna. The Night We Lost Him, which is that thriller by Laura Dave. And the memoir, One Day I'll Grow Up and Be a Beautiful Woman. You can find more details and the September bundle online through the link in our shownotes or go to bookshelfthomasville.com. and you can type today's episode number, that's 496 into the search bar. This week I'm reading First-Time Caller by B.K. Borison.
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:
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Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Jennifer Bannerton, Gene Queens
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Susan Hulings
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