Episode 519 || New Release Rundown: March
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the March releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search “Episode 519”), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie's books:
One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter (3/4)
The Antidote by Karen Russell (3/11)
Tilt by Emma Pattee (3/25)
Olivia's books:
The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi (3/4)
Once for Yes by Allie Millington (3/25)
The Other People by C.B. Everett (3/25)
Erin's books:
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (3/4)
Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley (3/11)
Early Thirties by Josh Duboff (3/18)
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 The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley. Olivia is reading This is Not A Game by Kelly Mullen. Erin is listening to I've Got Questions by Erin Hicks Moon.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, 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] “I suspect that to have made it so far, to have survived in an ocean so wild, she must be strong, this woman.” - Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore [as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And today I’m joined by Bookshelf operations manager Olivia and online sales manager Erin to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in March. If you’re a new or newish listener, you might not realize that From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, a small, independently-owned bookstore in rural South Georgia. By listening to our show and recommending it to your friends, you’re helping to keep our indie bookstore in business, and if you like what you hear, one way you can financially support us is through Patreon. Last year we read the classic American novel Lonesome Dove with over 1,000 Patreon supporters, and in this year we kicked off our 2025 reading of Don Quixote. For $5 a month, you can access our monthly Conquer a Classic recaps, in conjunction with Hunter @Shelf by Shelf, as well as our Porch Visits, which are live Q&As where we talk about everything from pop culture to nail polish to what books you should take on your next vacation. To learn more about our Patreon tiers and benefits, just visit patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. Now, back to the show! Hi, guys.
Erin [00:01:54] Hello.
Olivia [00:01:55] Hi there.
Annie Jones [00:01:57] Welcome back. We're just breezing through the year. It's already time to talk about March books.
Erin [00:02:02] Yeah.
Olivia [00:02:03] I can't believe it.
Erin [00:02:04] You can’t believe it.
Annie Jones [00:02:05] Yeah.
Erin [00:02:06] I'm excited. I do feel like these are some of the books I read in my-- I think I read about 15 books in January.
Annie Jones [00:02:14] Yeah, you were on a roll.
Erin [00:02:15] These are some of the ones that I read and. And now, guys, I'm in a slump. So just thoughts and prayers for that.
Annie Jones [00:02:22] Fun while it lasted.
Olivia [00:02:23] As it goes. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:02:24] That's okay. That's how I was, too. Like at the start of February, the end of January, early February, I was like, man, I am reading five star books left and right. And then I haven't finished a book in, I don't know, two weeks, which that's a long time in bookselling life. That's a long time to not have finished a book. So we're entering, I think, what publishers call like spring reading, but I feel like it's still tail end of some wintry book. So if you're new to this, this episode series where each going to talk about three books, we'll tell you the release dates. They all come out sometime in March. I'll kick us off. I'm going to talk about, actually, two of the three books I'm talking about are historical fiction, which feels like a real departure for me.
Erin [00:03:10] Wow!
Annie Jones [00:03:11] Yeah. Thank you, Erin. So the first one I had to highlight is One Good Thing. This is by Georgia Hunter. It released this week. Georgia Hunter wrote We Were the Lucky Ones, which was a Thomas County One Book Selection a few years ago, and I loved it. And, listen, that book looks just like any other historical fiction book. Like Caroline has talked about recently in a Facebook Live where it has like the back of a woman facing away.
Erin [00:03:35] Looking off at a distance. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:03:36] And it's set during World War two, but Georgia Hunter really based We Were the Lucky Ones on her own personal family story. And I think she's done a similar thing with One Good Thing, which released this week. So in 1941, we meet Lili and Esti. They have been best friends since they met at university, and when Esti's son is born, they become even closer. And We Were the Lucky Ones was set across a variety of countries because she based it off her pretty large family's history. But this one is mostly set in Italy. I almost wonder if you like stories like My Brilliant Friend, you might like this. So they're basically coming to terms with Mussolini's Racial laws that have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an inferior Jewish race. But they continue living their lives until Germany invades northern Italy and they find themselves living in occupied territory. So Esti is the older, more confident friend and she convinces Lili that they need to flee. And here's where I get intrigued. They flee to a convent in Florence, where they pose as nuns, and they begin forging false papers for the underground. So, listen, I just read this fantastic New Yorker article about these nuns.
Olivia [00:05:01] I know. It's Annies favorite things.
Annie Jones [00:05:08] It's so specific. I trust Georgia Hunter, first of all, but I am intrigued by this almost thriller esque element where now these two best friends also become people who are helping people flee. And so, anyway, I have not read this one yet. I didn't get an advance copy of this one, but if you like historical fiction, I hope that you will try Georgia Hunter because I think it's a testament to her that I, who am not typically drawn to those stories as a reader, really do love and trust her work. I think she does a ton of research. We Were the Lucky Ones also became a TV show on Hulu, which I've not watched yet, but it stars Joey King, I think. Anyway, We Were the Lucky Ones is already out. It's her backlist title. One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter, released this week. So that's her latest.
Olivia [00:05:58] There are so many stories coming out about World War Two, and none of them are ever going to be boring.
Erin [00:06:04] That's true.
Annie Jones [00:06:05] And do you think maybe that's the pro of living in the 2020s is that one day there will be books about this and someone like you will say, oh my gosh, one thing about those 2020s is there was never a boring story written about that time.
Olivia [00:06:20] There was never a boring day in that year. Except maybe like January 1st.
Annie Jones [00:06:26] Wasn't that comforting?
Erin [00:06:27] The one thing about unprecedented times is it does create great fiction later.
Annie Jones [00:06:32] That's right. Fiction will be too stressed to read about. But yeah.
Erin [00:06:35] Yeah.
Olivia [00:06:36] One day. Okay, well, I will say my three books, for better or worse, really describe my reading tastes. Just keep that in mind as I go through these. And I'm so sorry. My first one is a middle grade novel, although I think it would skew kind of younger, like a little bit in between that chapter book, middle grade level of reading. It's called The City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi, and it's out March 4th, so out this week. I'm very excited about this one. It is so cute mostly because there was like a lot of cats in it. And the cats get their own point of view, which brings a definite element of humor to the story. Because cats are just so territorial.
Annie Jones [00:07:18] They are hilarious. You can easily picture them as character; whereas, dogs, many dogs are like the same. They're friendly. You know what I mean?
Olivia [00:07:28] Yeah. Cats are brooding, they're angry, but then they're happy, but then they're excited, but then they hate you and they love you and they need you at the same time. There's so much there. There's so much emotions to play off of. As an author, I don't know how more cats are written about. Okay, so this is about a little girl named Fiona. And this world to me it's very Roald Dahl esque, where everything is exaggerated, which is just a fun world to be in, in my opinion. But Fiona lives with her aunt. Her aunt is also dating this guy who Fiona is not a fan of. He just does not care about her. And her aunt trying to impress this man also is kind of neglecting her a little bit. But she's signed Fiona for ballet camp this summer, but she didn't realize that Fiona hates ballet and does not want to go to the gym.
[00:08:19] So Fiona pretends to run away one day the night before ballet camp and she finds this one street that has all of these abandoned old houses. I picture like Broad Street, Thomasville old houses, these historic, beautiful homes. And she goes into one and it is filled to the brim with cats. And Fiona feeling akin to these cats is just like, well, let me help you. Let me provide safety, water, food, whatever you need. I'll give you the love you need. These cats are very confused as to why Fiona is there. And then the house is about to get taken down by these builders who have been assigned to take down this house by Fiona's aunt's boyfriend. And so it turns into a whole big thing. It was so delightfully fun. There's also two parakeets who accidentally end up in the house, and you get their point of view as well because their lives are in danger 24/7.
Erin [00:09:16] That's dangerous. Yeah.
Olivia [00:09:17] Yeah, they do also find their home. But Fiona kind of just, like, saves the day in this house. It was really fun. I think for fans of Leeva at Last I think it's Sarah Pennypacker, I want to say her name was. I think this is very akin to that writing style where there's a deeper meaning if you want to find it there, but it's also just a cute, funny story as well. So that's the City of Lost Cats by Tanya Lloyd Kyi.
Erin [00:09:46] I love it. I think the cover I've seen just has a bunch of cats and they're just hanging on like a roof with Fiona, it's so fun.
Olivia [00:09:55] Yeah. Cause who wouldn't want that?
Erin [00:09:56] Who wouldn't want that? That draws me in for sure. My first book is called Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy. It came out already this week. And you heard the quote earlier in the podcast. Listen, I feel like I'm stealing this one. Olivia, you've read this one too and I also loved this one.
Annie Jones [00:10:15] I'm listening to it right now.
Erin [00:10:17] Oh, are you? Good.
Olivia [00:10:19] It's our Venn diagram book.
Erin [00:10:20] We did it. We found another one.
Annie Jones [00:10:23] I'm loving it. It's so good.
Erin [00:10:25] It's so good.
Olivia [00:10:27] It's so good.
Erin [00:10:28] And after I posted about it on my personal Instagram, a lot of people were like you should read her other book. It's so good. So now I've got to go back and do that of course. But this is the first time I've read a book by her, and it's already in the running to be one of my favorite books of the year. It's very early in the year. I realize that. But Dominick Salt, he's a widower who lives with his three children on this remote island called Shearwater, which is fashioned after a like a real life remote island. It has got a research station and it's got a seed bank. Which did I do a deep dive on seed banks? Yes I did.
Annie Jones [00:11:04] Who wouldn't want to? It's fascinating.
Erin [00:11:06] Who wouldn't want? It's fascinating. For those of you who don't know what a seed bank is, just go look it up. It is really fascinating. But the only people on this very remote island-- and that's one of the things I love about this book is the writing. You can feel the cold, you can feel the wind, you can feel the wetness of the water all around them. The author does a very good job at describing this and making you feel like you're right there with them. But they're taking care of this island and as we meet them, they're in charge of packing and sorting all the seeds because we find out they're about to leave. The water is getting too high. It's a little adjacent to cli-fy. You can tell there's some climate stuff happening and the water is getting too high. And this is becoming a place that's not safe for these seeds anymore. It's getting too warm. It's not cold enough to really kind of keep these seeds going well. And so they're packing out. They're waiting for the ship to come and get them. I didn't question at first why they was the only people there. I just thought it was solitary lighthouse keeper sort of vibe. There is a lighthouse in this book. I just feel like Olivia we've talked a lot about books lately that have lighthouses in them. And that's your vibe.
Olivia [00:12:24] [Inaudible] Cli-fy and lighthouse.
Annie Jones [00:12:28] My next two books are cli-fy. I think it's very much becoming-- I mean, it's always been a thing, but I think we're going to see a lot of those this year.
Olivia [00:12:38] And I love it.
Annie Jones [00:12:40] Yeah. I do, too.
Erin [00:12:41] I'm here for it. So they are there and this mysterious woman washes ashore. She's battered, she's bruised, they take her in, and they obviously help her to recover from her wounds. And as she's recovering and they're all getting to know her, she's getting to know them. And these three children that Dominic has are getting to know her. And especially the youngest one named Orly, who was such a great character and he really clings on to her. He never knew his real mother. She died shortly after giving birth to him. And so he kind of really clings to Rowan and sees her as this mother figure. And the other two really open up to her as well. She's a good listener. And of course there's some attraction between her and Dominic, but he's suspicious of her. Why is she here? This is a very remote island. Why did she come here? How did she get here? And she's suspicious of him because there are no other researchers there and they're supposed to be. There's supposed to be a lot of people there and they're not there anymore. And she's asking questions and he's being very vague about what happened to these people.
[00:13:47] And so that's my favorite part about this book, is that we as readers spend the whole time trying to decide is Dominic a bad guy? Is he hiding something evil that he and his family have done? We can tell there was a murder of some kind involved, but you don't know who it was or what happened until the end. And we're all so suspicious of her as why is she here? Does she have bad intentions showing up at this island? And so you do get a bit of back and forth about her life prior to coming there and why she's there. You do get a bit of Dominic's life and with his wife while she was still alive and how he's dealing with her death. But it's the perfect pairing to me. It was like a beautiful nature novel, plus this thriller aspect where there's murderers and there's questions about who's telling the truth. And then there's just a beautiful story about parenthood, and Dominic trying to be a good parent without his wife and these kids having lived on this island almost all of their lives and not really knowing anything about the outside world, and they're just trying to deal with it in the best way they know how. It's gorgeous, it's stark, and I just love it. I want everyone to buy it and read it.
Annie Jones [00:15:01] It's so good. I'm loving it so far. And it's a great audiobook, too. Like there's a full cast.
Erin [00:15:05] Yes, I think I listened to it and it was really good. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:15:09] Okay. My next one I don't know technically if this would qualify as climate fiction. It is historical fiction, but it's by one of my favorite authors. I would say it's a departure for her, but she doesn't really have a lane that she sticks in. So maybe this is just more of who Karen Russell is. So The Antidote by Karen Russell releases next week on March 11th. She is the author of Swamplandia and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. I love her. Her books are weird in the best Ways.
Erin [00:15:44] I'm actually reading this a little bit, too, and I'm like, okay, I'm going to stick with it, but it's a little weird at fast.
Annie Jones [00:15:49] It is weird. And I've not read this one. I'm highly anticipating it just like everybody else. I think Hunter might have read it already. He's a huge Karen Russell fan. It's one of the things he and I connected on when we very first met. So I love Swamplandia, loved Vampires in the Lemon Grove. This is her latest, and it's been a minute since she's released a book, so it's kind of like a big publishing deal. This is set during the Dust Bowl era, which was a fascinating time for like Annie Sue Butterworth loved reading about the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
Erin [00:16:22] Me too.
Annie Jones [00:16:25] I don't know what that says about me, but the adult me is very interested. We are introduced to five different characters in this small Nebraska town. The book opens on Black Sunday, which is when a historic dust storm tears through Nebraska and this small town called Uz. Uz is already not a thriving city, probably already on the cusp of depression. And then it also has kind of a violent history. What's interesting to me about this book, and it does remind me Swamplandia had some-- I don't even know how I would word it. I struggle sometimes between magical realism versus fantasy elements. But Swamplandia had some unusual elements, and I think the antidote is going to as well because basically there's a prairie witch whose body is where people's memories and secrets are stored. Fascinating. Then there's a farmer who is a kind of taking care of the land here in US, Nebraska. His niece, who's a basketball star and she's a witch's apprentice, so I'm already automatically most interested in her. A scarecrow. And if you're sensing a theme, I do. I am like, okay, this is Wizard of Oz inspired, right? The vibe feels similar to me. Anyway, a scarecrow and then a photographer whose time traveling camera threatens to tell what is going to happen to the town.
[00:17:53] So those are your five characters, and it's supposed to apparently talk a lot about what happens when we forget our histories, which is something that maybe we're talking about right now in our culture. What happens when we share stories from generation to generation, what gets left out? And then it also all is spinning around this climate emergency, and it apparently almost serves as a metaphor for what we could be experiencing soon or now. I'm very curious about this one. I've not read it myself, but I am curious if the Oz thing is true. I just feel like as I was reading, I was like, oh, this sounds-- maybe it's Wicked on my brain, but there are some similarities to me. So I trust Karen Russell. This has received starred reviews from all the places. Publishers Weekly, Kirkus. Every review, has been stellar and so I'm curious because I trust her but this sounds a little bit outside my wheelhouse, but I think I'm going to give it a go and just see what I think. So that is The Antidote by Karen Russell. It releases next week, I think historical fiction, climate fiction, also literary fiction. So if those are some categories that you typically find yourself drawn towards, you might enjoy this one.
Erin [00:19:04] I did not even put the Oz, like now you're saying it and I'm like that makes perfect sense. What a great idea.
Annie Jones [00:19:11] Now, look, I could be way off, but it feels like, okay, you've got a scarecrow, you got a witch, you got an orphan. I don't know. It just feels like maybe there's something there. We'll see.
Erin [00:19:19] There's wind blowing. There's tornado dust.
Annie Jones [00:19:24] There's a weather event. Yeah. We'll see.
Olivia [00:19:26] Whenever I think of the dustbowl, I just think of Interstellar, which I know is incorrect.
Annie Jones [00:19:32] Different kind of dust storm, but sure. Yeah. Olivia's version.
Olivia [00:19:39] My kind of dust storm.
Annie Jones [00:19:41] Olivia's dust storm. Yeah.
Olivia [00:19:43] Hopefully, I'm not the one left on Earth. Hopefully, I'm up in space. Okay. My next book is also by one of my favorite authors. It's Allie Millington, her newest one, Once for Yes. This is another middle grade novel. I would say this is probably more ten and up, and this is out at the end of the month. It's out on March 25th. Allie Millington, you might know, wrote Olivetti, which was a huge seller for us.
Annie Jones [00:20:07] Yes.
Erin [00:20:09] Yeah. One of your favorite.
Olivia [00:20:10] It was so well done. Allie has like a couple of things that she always does, and one is there's going to be like a familial hardship going on. In this case, there's three daughters. The middle one has just passed away from an accident that you slowly start to learn about. And then there's always some sort of anthropomorphic object happening that has its own chapters, has its own voice, and in this case, it's a building called the Odenburgh. An apartment building, a really old one, the last of its kind on the block, just surrounded by new shiny buildings. And the Odenburgh knows every one of its tenants. They care about all of their tenants. And they've just been sold to a developer who's about to bring the building down and put in a new one. So the Odenburgh is very familiar with this little girl, Prue, who is the youngest in the family. Lina is her next oldest sister, who's the one who passed away. And Prue is obviously struggling, as is the rest of her family.
[00:21:15] But she feels very alone in her grief and she doesn't really know what to do with it. And so she keeps doing things in honor of Lina's memory. Like her and Lina used to sit in the bathtub. They had this phone, like a wall phone with a cord, that they would bring into the bathtub. And the phone didn't work because the building was so old. They couldn't call anyone, but it was how the building would listen to them and they would just put on these little talk shows. And first it was the three sisters and then the oldest sister got too old for it, and then Lina got too old for it. And now it's Prue's way of like talking to Lina is through this phone, which is just so sweet. But then she finds out that the building is about to be sold, be brought down, built a new one. Every one of the tenants is about to have to find a new home. And for Prue it's like the site of all of Lina's memories is about to disappear and that's not acceptable. That's not okay. And so she figures out a way to kind of talk to the Odenburgh, which she thinks is Lina.
Erin [00:22:25] It's so sweet.
Olivia [00:22:28] And one of it is like she'll ask the building a yes or no question, and it's flash the lights once for yes, twice for no. Which is where the title comes from.
Annie Jones [00:22:40] Oh, I see.
Olivia [00:22:41] Yeah. And she meets this kid across the street who lives like at the same level as them so they can see window to window. His name is Lewis, and he's all about helping Prue save the building. And slowly she starts to realize Lewis might actually know more about Lina than he first let on. And so more of Lina's death, the mystery behind it starts to be uncovered with the help of Lewis and saving the building. It was such a beautiful story. I definitely teared up at the end. She just has a way of writing a hard story, but always making it a good ending where you don't feel like you're leaving anyone in a bad place. Everyone has made it to where they need to go. That's Once for Yes, by Allie Millington. It's so good. If you loved Olivetti, you're going to love this as well.
Erin [00:23:29] That sounds amazing. It sounds sad, but it also sounds really heartwarming and hopeful, too.
Olivia [00:23:35] Yeah, it definitely was sad. She didn't harp on Lina's death so much that you were crying throughout the book.
Erin [00:23:42] Yeah.
Olivia [00:23:42] It was just kind of this thing that was in the background that you knew was there and propelling the plot, but it wasn't brought up constantly. If that makes sense.
Erin [00:23:52] Well, I'm sure her trying to save the building is a way of trying to also save Lina's memory, like you said, and do something hopeful for her. Yeah.
Olivia [00:24:01] Yeah.
Erin [00:24:02] Sweet. Okay. My next book is called Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley. It comes out next week, March 11th. This book is just fun.
Annie Jones [00:24:13] We need fun.
Erin [00:24:15] I know. It was so fun. It was just what I needed. It's about Jane and Dan, obviously, they're about to go out for a date, for their 19th wedding anniversary at this very fancy restaurant in California. It's like on a cliff overlooking the ocean. It's a place where celebrities and tycoons and sports figures go, and there's like an $8 million dessert that you can buy there. It's that kind of place, very, very fancy. You can't get in. So they're going to go there and celebrate. But Jane is going to ask Dan for a divorce at this dinner because she's bored. I know. They've been married for 19 years. She found some texts on his phone, which leads her to think he might be cheating on her, and she just Is ready. She's done. She's over it. They have two grown kids. She's ready to be done. So they start their meal, and as soon as they start their meal, before they can even really get into it, some terrorist armed with guns come barging into this restaurant and take everyone hostage.
[00:25:19] So these terrorists, they're very sophisticated, but they're looking for one specific person, which is they're waiting for this incredibly rich entrepreneur to come, who's supposed to helicopter in and meet his family for a dinner there. So they're looking for him and you don't know why, but as the story unfolds, you come to figure out why this man is so important to these terrorists. And Jane she's a novelist, she's a writer; she starts to realize that what's happening in this restaurant feels a lot like the plot to her first failed novel. And she starts to be suspicious that someone of these terrorists has actually read her book and is copying and or is taking their ideas from what happened. And so she's scared because she thinks, well, I know what happens in this book and it's not good. And if that's what they're going to do to us... So the whole time all these hostages are trying to, of course, get themselves free. They're trying to think of any way they can to get out. There's a lot of bickering between Jane and Dan because they're here they're still trying to talk about their marriage and their relationship even in the midst of all this.
[00:26:30] And to me it almost had a-- campy has a bad connotation, but it had a fun, romcom, sort of campy, but almost like a thriller type feel to it because there is this very tense situation with these terrorists and you don't know how it's going to end. But it kind of reminds me, I haven't seen that movie Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling, but it gives you those vibes where there's explosions and there's this and there's that, but in the middle there's parts that will make you laugh out loud because you're like I cannot believe they're trying to talk about their marriage or someone has a gun to their head. That kind of stuff. Some parts of it are poignant. Jane and Dan think a lot about their relationship. They talk a lot about their kids and how they raise their kids. And so they're having these deep, poignant conversations in the midst of this insane situation where there's police coming in and all that stuff. So there's a good mix. It's not a thriller; it's not a romcom; it's something sort of in between. But it's a vibe that when I was done, I just thought, that is so much fun. And that was so satisfying. What a fun book. It's got a fun cover. I know it's been hyped up by like Annabel Monaghan. She loves this one. She's talked a lot about it. So if that is your vibe, you want something fun, it's not too deep, but it has enough deep moments that it doesn't feel just like fluff, then this is a great book to pick up. It's called Jane and Dan at the End of the World. It comes out next week.
Annie Jones [00:27:57] Did you ever see Game Night with Rachel McAdams and...
Erin [00:28:02] I haven't.
Annie Jones [00:28:02] Oh, my gosh. So it's a movie where Jason Bateman and Rachel McAdams are married and they have game night like every week, but they are in their marriage trying to figure out if they want to have kids and they've maybe struggled a little bit with having children. And so they're in the middle of this kind of trying to have some serious conversations, but they keep hosting game night and then game night takes a very nefarious turn. They're having a murder mystery party, but it becomes real. Anyway, it is a wild, funny, and that's what this sounds like to me.
Erin [00:28:35] It feels a lot like that.
Annie Jones [00:28:36] And that's what this sounds like to me. Game Night is one of our favorite feel-good movies because it's so rare to find something that's not straight a thriller, not a romcom, but something that's just kind of a mixture and kind of funny. And so, anyway, that's what this sounds like to me.
Erin [00:28:52] Yeah. It was so good.
Olivia [00:28:54] Did Jane already tell him that she wanted to divorce before the terrorist came in.
Erin [00:28:59] I think she had just done it before they came in literally. He's still in shock, of course, about the whole thing.
Annie Jones [00:29:08] Okay. My last book is again a work of climate fiction, but I absolutely loved it. This is the one that I have read and I thought it was so good. It's called Tilt by Emma Pattee. I'm not quite sure how to fully enunciate her name, but Emma Pattee. The main character is Annie. Annie is nine months pregnant and she's shopping at IKEA for a baby crib. She knows she was supposed to buy the crib already. She's waddling through IKEA. And IKEA is stressful when you're not nine months pregnant. And it is very stressful to Annie as she's trying to find this crib. She winds up, of course, making her way to the warehouse portion of IKEA to find said crib. She has kind of a negative interaction with an IKEA employee. And then an earthquake happens. And Annie lives in the Pacific Northwest. There are big climate things happening on the Pacific coast all the time right now. We have watched it. And what is fascinating to me is at the end of the book author Emma Pattee talks about the potential for an earthquake of this magnitude, which I really liked.
[00:30:20] So, anyway, the whole book it reminded me a lot of The End We Start from by Megan Hunter or The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Because what starts as this domestic story of this young pregnant woman trying to shop for a crib, instead becomes young, pregnant woman tries to survive to go find her husband across town because he is in a different part of town. It feels like the apocalypse has happened. There's no way to drive. There's no way to get access to her car. And so, anyway, she meets all of these various people throughout her journey to try to meet up with her husband. I was on the edge of my seat. The publisher sent us like five copies of this, which sometimes to me, I'm like you're trying too hard. But in this case I think they probably just really believed in this book because it did wind up being really good. But I picked this one up partly because of its length. It's quite short. And what she is able to pack in such a short number of pages is pretty astounding to me. And then it is plot-driven in that I think plot-driven readers are going to love this book. You're going to fly through it.
[00:31:31] And then also there is a character element not only with Annie herself, but with all the different people she meets. The best and the worst in humanity. I was telling Jordan all about it, and I do have some thoughts about how Annie was treated at various points in her journey. I'd be curious if her experience would be different in a different part of the country. Anyway, it was fascinating to read. Again, also interesting to just tie in maybe the real life climate element and the research that Emma Pattee did. Jordan and I are also watching right now this show on Hulu called Paradise, and there's some overlap. Anyway, just really fascinating, post-apocalyptic type literature where like this major climate event happens. But what happens to the normal people who are just-- she's pregnant, she's ready to have her baby. And while she's traveling, you get some flashbacks to her origin story with her husband. So that's why I say it's great for the plot-driven reader, but if you're also a character-driven reader, there's a lot about that unfolds about Annie and her relationship. I loved it, I thought it was fantastic, couldn't put it down. Its Tilt by Emma Pattee.
Erin [00:32:43] I think I literally read it over the course of a day. Like a little bit at night, and I couldn't stop reading in the next day. And I think I even woke up one morning before anyone was awake just so I could finish it, because I had to know how it finished. I think I might even like have messaged to like 7:00 in the morning.
Annie Jones [00:33:01] I did it.
Erin [00:33:01] I can't believe this book. It's so good.
Annie Jones [00:33:03] It's so good. I really liked it. I actually think Olivia you would like it. It feels like another potential Venn diagram story.
Olivia [00:33:10] I did take one of the ARCs home, but I'm getting so ahead on my reading that I'm like I can't backtrack now.
Annie Jones [00:33:17] I know. I get it. Yes, I totally understand.
Erin [00:33:21] Hold it till the end of the year until we're all in that period where we can kind of do whatever we want.
Annie Jones [00:33:26] Do whatever you want. December.
Erin [00:33:27] Hopefully, you'll still enjoy it.
Olivia [00:33:28] Yeah. I'll remember. My next book is finally an adult book, but one where trigger warnings abound left and right, everyone.
Annie Jones [00:33:41] Prepare yourselves.
Olivia [00:33:43] Yeah. If you're getting into this book, don't judge its by its cover because its cover looks like a cute little mystery. That is not what this is.
Erin [00:33:52] And now I'm shocked that you tell me it has triggers because it does not look like that.
Olivia [00:33:55] No, in fact, I picked it up thinking, oh, this will be fun and then was shocked. It's called The Other People by C.B. Everett and it's out at the end of the month, March 25th. It's a locked room mystery, but everything happens within a 12-hour period, which was really fun and fast paced. You meet these 10 strangers who wake up in this old, dark mansion of a house. No one knows how they got there. And then the dinner bell rings and everyone just slowly makes their way downstairs to the dinner table. And they're there. No one knows each other from previous experience. It's like a mother and her young child, an old army captain, a young college student. Just a really random assortment of people. Some not great-- actually, a lot not great. But after the dinner bell rings and they all get down there, they open up their little, what is it called, a cloche?
Annie Jones [00:34:56] Yeah.
Olivia [00:34:56] Yeah. And everyone has their favorite meal that they've ever had, which also gives to the personality of the people around the dinner table. And they're like, okay, so there's more people here, obviously, because someone had to cook this meal and put it here and get us here.
Annie Jones [00:35:13] And know all about us.
Erin [00:35:14] Yeah. That's creepy.
Olivia [00:35:15] And so this woman walks in the room. She's in a rush. She's panting, obviously panicked. Her name's Amanda, I believe. It's one of the very few names that I remember. She ran into the room, and she couldn't tell them why they were there except for the fact that they were chosen to solve this mystery. This is the first part where you learn how dark this book is. So they are chosen to solve the mystery of a kidnaping of a girl named Claire. She is the most recent person kidnaped in a string of kidnappings where this man buries them alive and gives them 24 hours of oxygen, and then he gives clues to the detectives, and if they don't solve it in time, they don't solve it in time. And so far, they haven't been able to save a single person. And so all ten of these people apparently know something about this girl. There's clues in the house, and they have to figure it out. And there's only 12 more hours of oxygen that Claire has. So they have 12 hours to figure this out. And so they start trying. Murders abound in this house.
Erin [00:36:26] Of course.
Olivia [00:36:27] And it gets more and more wild as you're reading. If you do pick up this book, you're going to be like, Olivia, what did you get me into? Because these people are not good. And I will be like hold your horses till the end because I almost put this book down. One, because it was very dark. And two, because the writing to me was just like, oh, this is a guy writing women. A lot of the women were just overly sexualized. And I was just like I don't know if I can do this. And so I looked up reviews and no one mentioned it. And I was like that's weird that no one else had the same thought.
Annie Jones [00:37:07] Normally Goodreads is pretty on top of that kind of stuff.
Olivia [00:37:10] Yeah. And so I was like, well, I'll just keep going and see what happens. And then the plot twist at the end, I literally gasped out loud. It was so good. Everything forgotten. It was just well done.
Erin [00:37:23] All forgiven.
Annie Jones [00:37:23] Now, that's what happens. That's why it doesn't come up on Goodreads. He nailed the landing.
Olivia [00:37:28] But truly I think if you're like an S.A Cosby reader, if you can handle that kind of like every single pages maybe will have a trigger in it, then go for it. If you are one of the people who likes a good whodunit, maybe pause. This might not be it.
Annie Jones [00:37:46] If you're a little cozy mystery reader, this might not be for you.
Olivia [00:37:51] Just take a second glance. Maybe relisten to everything I've just told you about this and then decide again. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:37:58] Is C.B. Everett somebody you've read before?
Olivia [00:38:02] No. I had never heard of him.
Erin [00:38:05] Feels like a pen name.
Annie Jones [00:38:06] It does sound like a pen name.
Olivia [00:38:08] I can't remember everything in his bio, but he's done a lot. And then it said he worked on, I believe, a couple TV shows, but I think they were European TV shows that I didn't know.
Annie Jones [00:38:19] Interesting. All right. I'm kind of intrigued by this now. You've kind of got me interested.
Olivia [00:38:25] It was so good. I was pleasantly and shockingly surprised.
Annie Jones [00:38:30] Disturbingly surprised.
Erin [00:38:32] It's one of those books you probably are like why did I like this? Does it say something about me or no?
Olivia [00:38:39] I will be recommending this in person to very specific people.
Annie Jones [00:38:43] At the top of the episode you did say this was a glimpse at your reading personality, and I'm looking and you know what? It is.
Erin [00:38:50] It's fitting.
Olivia [00:38:51] For better or for worse, this is me everyone.
Erin [00:38:53] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:38:53] This is her in a nutshell. These three books.
Erin [00:38:56] Okay. Well, my one's going to take a turn. There are no murders that I know of in this book. But it's called Early 30s by Josh Duboff. It comes out March 18th. I haven't finished this one yet. I'm about halfway through this one, but it follows Zoey and Victor. They're longtime friends who are, as the title says, in their early 30s. And they're experiencing all the angst that kind of comes with that age, which is marriages, break ups, losses of jobs, hating your job, dating, and obsession with celebrities are all sort of main themes in this book. It's told through different points of view. You'll get a chapter or two of Zoey's point of view. A chapter or two of Victor. Victor's is a very compelling but ultimately unlikable character. And I just put in here, spoiler alert, most of these characters are unlikable. When we meet him he was just broken up with by his long term boyfriend and he tries to end his life. Again, I would say that's a trigger, but they don't spend a lot of time on it. It's more like in the past, but that is in there. But we meet him and he's still alive, and so he's going to try to make the best of his work situation, of his life situation. Going to try to ask for more responsibility at work.
[00:40:14] And Zoey is an account executive for a fashion app startup. It's an app where you can put in who your favorite celebrities are, and they will tell you the clothes that you can buy that will make you look like the celebrity. So she's working there. She hates her boss. She hates the whole thing. She's about to get married to Tom, who's her fiancé who is not well liked by Victor or anyone else in Zoey's life. But she decides to go for it. Victor and Zoey's friendship is very deep. You can tell they have a deep love for each other, but it's very complicated. Their lives are sort of pulling them apart. One is going into a suburban marriage, and Victor is very much in the single dating scene, I guess. And they're having a hard time. Zoey thinks what's good for Victor is one thing, and she thinks he shouldn't drink anymore and yet he continues to drink. So they have that kind of relationship. But the one thing I will say is a downside to this book-- I haven't finished yet, so maybe my opinion will change once I finished it. But it does have a lot of secondary characters who don't get fleshed out very well, but their lives intersect with Zoey and Victor. Somebody mentioned in a review that it's a lot like Love Actually, where there's like all these characters and then you find out later how they know each other and how they interact with each other.
[00:41:32] So if I could say anything I wish would be different, I wish that either there was less secondary characters. Because I am all in on Zoey and Victor's point of view, their relationship. I'm loving that. So I'm not quite sure about these little other characters, but I'm interested to see how it all comes together. But I wrote it here I think it's tempting with a book as someone who hasn't lived a life like these people, I think it's tempting to roll my eyes and just be like, urgh, these characters. But of course what we all enjoy about books is the ability to see life through someone else's perspective. And so, for me, this is a good way to see what it might be like if my life was nothing like it is now and it was like them and what would be the worries and the stressors and the joys of someone who's going through a life like this, who's don't know what to do with themselves and don't know where their life is going. What would that feel like? So I would say if you don't like unlikable characters, pick up this book. That sounds terrible, but it's fascinating. I love watching their friendship. I love seeing how it develops and the heightened changes throughout each stage of their life. So again it's called Early 30s by Josh Duboff comes out March 18th.
Annie Jones [00:42:49] Wonderful. That's a wide range of literature we've covered today. Yes, lots of climate fiction, but also some historical fiction. Books about cats, murder, so much territory. So as usual with these episodes, please keep in mind that Erin has made browsing the podcast book selection super easy. You can go to Bookshelfthomasville.com, just type episode 519 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed there. You can preorder or purchase. And for today's episode, you can use code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and it gets you 10% off your order of today's titles. So if any of these are appealing to you and you want to preorder them, you do get 10% off if you use that code NEWRELEASEPLEASE. This week I'm reading The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila mottley. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:43:44] I'm reading This Is Not a Game by Kelly Mullen.
Annie Jones [00:43:47] And Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:43:48] I'm listening to I've Got Questions by Erin Hicks Moon.
[00:43:48] 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, Gene Queens, Beth, Jammie Treadwell…
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins
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