Episode 515 || New Release Rundown: February
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the November 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 515”), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie's books:
The Snowbirds by Christina Clancy (2/4)
We Would Never by Tova Mirvis (2/11)
Back After This by Linda Holmes (2/25)
Olivia's books:
The Bones Beneath My Skin by TJ Klune (2/4)
You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego (2/11)
The Enemy’s Daughter by Anne Blankman (2/18)
Erin's books:
The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict (2/11)
The Strange Case of Jane O. by Karen Thompson Walker (2/25)
Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister (2/25)
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 Isola by Allegra Goodman. Olivia is reading The Enemy's Daughter by Anne Blankman. Erin is reading Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson.
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] “Home for too long, it was easy to revert — or maybe to realize you were still who you’d once been.” - Tova Mirvis, We Would Never [as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. 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 February. 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 friends, you’re helping to keep our indie bookstore in business, and if you like what you hear, one of the ways you can financially support us through Patreon. Last year, we read the classic American novel Lonesome Dove with over 1,000 Patreon supporters, and in January, we kicked off our 2025 reading of Don Quixote. For $5 a month, you can access our monthly Conquer a Classic recaps, as well as our Porch Visits, monthly 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. Welcome back, guys.
Olivia [00:01:52] Hello.
Erin [00:01:53] Hi. Happy 2025!
Annie Jones [00:01:56] I know. It's so weird because we've definitely seen each other and there have been New Year From the Front Porch episodes. But this is our first New Release Rundown of the year. And so it does feel like we should be choosing and saying Happy New Year.
Olivia [00:02:09] I mean, it's still January for us right now, so…
Annie Jones [00:02:12] That's right. So it's never too late. These episodes, we like to preview just a couple of our favorite titles coming out this month. And so we are going to talk through February new releases. And as usual, Erin has made browsing our podcast book selections so easy, you can go to BookshelfThomasville.com, type episode 515 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed ready for you to preorder or purchase. You can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order of today's titles. Actually, quite a bit of good fun books coming out in February, I thought.
Olivia [00:02:50] I know I had to pick Erin's brain this morning as to which ones I should talk about.
Annie Jones [00:02:54] Yeah, I feel like there were months last year where I kind of had to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get my three, and this I had to eliminate some.
Olivia [00:03:03] Yes, it's an abundance of goodness. I'm excited to talk about them.
Annie Jones [00:03:07] I am, too. I'm going to kick us off with the Snow Birds. This is by Christina Clancy. It's released this week on February 4th. I picked this up partly because the cover is super colorful and eye catching. And sometimes in the doldrums of winter, you're like, oh, a pink book! What's this? So I saw it come in with the ARCs-- and I need to pass it on. I think Malory wanted it next and I need to give her my copy. But Christina Clancy is actually a historical fiction writer- or at least that's what I knew her as. She had written a book I think loosely based on like the Playboy Mansion a few summers ago. It was called Shoulder Season, and I really liked it. It was following this one woman who lived at the playboy mansion in like, I don't have the [inaudible] '60s '70s-- I can't remember exactly, but I liked that book a lot. This was a total shock. I could not believe it was the same author because this book is set in the modern era. Kim and Grant are like a long time couple. They've never been married, but they are partners. Kind of reminds me of Goldie Hawn, Kurt Russell vibes where they've been together forever. He's a professor. She's an artist photographer. Raised their little girls who are now adults.
[00:04:25] So they're empty nesters. They live in Wisconsin. And Grant is kind of at a crossroads in his career. The university where he worked has closed. And so Kim is feeling antsy and they decide they're going to be snowbirds and they're going to move to Palm Springs for the winter. And Kim is more excited about this than Grant. But once they get there, Grants drinks the Kool aid, too, and they're having a good time. But you can tell, you the reader know, well, something is amiss here in this relationship. This couple doesn't seem quite as happy maybe as they should or could be. And the book opens with Grant going on a hike in Palm Springs and he goes missing. He doesn't come home. And so what unfolds is not a straight up mystery of some kind; although, you do wonder what happened to Grant. Did he get lost on a hike? Did he potentially take his own life? Was this intentional? Was this accidental? They're not quite sure. So there's like a search party that's happening. But then all while that is happening, Kim is having flashbacks to their relationship. And so it's not an Olivia book, but there is a mystery component. But I guess what moves it into Annie territory is that then there's a lot of reflection about this relationship.
[00:05:50] So reminded me a little bit of one of my favorite books of last year, Leaving by Roxana Robinson. I also was reminded of Like Mother, Like Mother, where there's a few different storylines or character lines that you're following. And then I saw the publisher compare it to The Last Thing He Told Me, which I do think is an okay comp. I think the last thing he told me is more straightforward mystery than the Snow Birds is. But I do think if you like Laura Dave, this would be a good book to try for you. I love the Palm Springs setting in that way. It was very reminiscent of the Guncle and it makes me want to visit Palm Springs. It sounds like a good time. It sounds like a fun winter playground. And then I was like, well, we kind of have our own Palm Springs here where until last week it never snowed. Anyway, I really liked this book. I liked Kim and Grant a lot. I liked their familial relationships. I was intrigued about their partnership and their dynamic. The writing is good. Also, it's relatively short. This is not some 500 page treatise on a relationship, on an empty nester relationship. It's just a short fun (I think fun is an accurate descriptor) book about what happens when the thing that brought this couple together maybe aren't there anymore. And is their relationship worth continuing to pursue as their kids are older and they enter a new phase? So I liked it. It's called the Snow Birds. It's by Christina Clancy, out this week.
Olivia [00:07:20] All right. Well, I'm starting this year off with the best one yet so [crosstalk] everyone follows.
Annie Jones [00:07:28] How are you going to top this?
Erin [00:07:30] I guess I don't have to go after you. This is it. This is the best.
Olivia [00:07:33] We can actually just end the podcast.
Annie Jones [00:07:35] Great. Love it.
Olivia [00:07:37] My first book is The Bones Beneath My Skin, the newest book by TJ Klune. This is actually another one of his re-releases that he independently published years ago and now tour McMillan is republishing it with a new cover. This is out February 4th. And I think this might be my newest favorite, TJ Klune, which is a pretty big statement.
Erin [00:08:02] That's really big praise.
Olivia [00:08:02] Especially after last year I re-read House in the Cerulean Sea and then Somewhere Beyond the Sea. I also read All of the Wolves songs. A lot of TJ last year. I was deep in that world. But then I read this one and it was both different from what he normally does but also just so TJ. We are on a first name basis.
Erin [00:08:26] I'm surprised you're not just calling him Tij at this point.
Olivia [00:08:30] I don't know that anyone calls him Tij.
Annie Jones [00:08:33] You never know.
Olivia [00:08:34] This is true. Okay. So this is set in like 1995 and the main character is Nate Cartwright, and he has just been through so much. He recently lost his parents in a very devastating way, which is stated slowly throughout the book. He lost his job and then him and his brother are no longer speaking because of an incident way back when. All his parents left him was a lakeside cabin that they would vacation to as children, and then his father's rusty old pickup truck that is barely working. Everything else has been left to his brother. So there was an inciting incident with him and his parents that took place prior to their deaths and he's just kind of left on his own. So he moves from Washington, D.C., where he was fired from his job for another incident that you will get to in this book. Nate is a mystery, but I will not reveal because you have to read this book to find out. But you'll love him so much. You'll love him so much. And so he goes to this cabin thinking he's just going to get away. He's going to figure out his life and go from there with this rusty old pickup truck and this beaten down cabin.
[00:09:48] But when he gets there, he finds that there's already people in his cabin. There's a man who's clearly ex-military named Alex with a really big gun that he's not afraid to use. And then there is a 10-year-old chatty, eccentric little girl who goes by the name of Artemus Darth Vader-- which is the most TJ Klune thing in the world. And from there he's kind of like, well, I could leave now and just let them do whatever they need to do or I could stay here and try to figure out what's happening. And he stays and he kind of gets tangled up in their world. There's a romance plot throughout this with Alex and Nate. Artemus Darth Vader is one of my favorite children that I've met in a TJ Klune book so far. He really does write children very well. They're always hilarious. They're the comedic relief throughout the book. But Artemus especially has just such a big heart to her and there is so much depth to her. This book was so much fun. It was a supernatural thriller. I'm not going to tell you in what way it was a supernatural thriller. Well, the thriller part is pretty obvious, but the supernatural part is maybe not so much. It was just so good. It was so good. Everyone should read it as long as you like TJ Klune.
Erin [00:11:09] You said there's supernatural; is it less like magical realism and more-- because I know a lot of his books have those aspects.
Olivia [00:11:16] I think actually this is more sci-fi, magical realism. Yeah.
Erin [00:11:20] Okay. Interesting.
Olivia [00:11:22] Which I do love a good sci-fi element.
Erin [00:11:25] Who doesn't?
Annie Jones [00:11:26] I'm impressed with his backlog of writing. I didn't know that this was previously published or self-publish or whatever the case may be, because he is consistently putting out, what, like a book a year at least, I feel like. Yeah.
Olivia [00:11:43] He does still have a whole another series that he has self-published that they haven't republished. It is one of his more eccentric plotlines. I did try to read that and I got halfway through and then I did put it down and didn't pick it back up. Again, that was probably one of the few TJ's that I couldn't get through just because it was almost a little too comedic for me personally. I don't know that they will be publishing that one, but I do know that he has written a new novel that I'm assuming will be 2026 or something. If you follow him on Instagram.
Annie Jones [00:12:18] Like Olivia does.
Erin [00:12:22] Okay. My first book is called The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict. It comes out next week on February 11th. I wouldn't normally pick up a Marie Benedict. It's not that I don't like historical fiction. I read a lot. I feel like I read enough historical fiction to say that that's something I read, but I don't gravitate towards them. So I see it. I think that looks awesome, and then I read something else. But this one I picked up just because I kept seeing it everywhere and it looked fun. And if we're being honest, I needed a book that came out in March. And I like these kinds of surprises because you just think I'm reading it because it comes out in March and it turns out it was a great book, so I'm glad that I read it. It is about this crime-solving and this mystery-appreciating club made up of Dorothy Sayers and Agatha Christie and three others like well-known female mystery writers. And they are all a part of this club, this sort of boys’ club in London. I wish I could remember the time. I'm assuming it's sometime in the 20th century, like 19 something. So [inaudible] 100 years this happened.
[00:13:33] But they are part of this boys’ club of mystery writers in London, and the guys are kind of snubbing their noses at them. They look down on them, they say, well, that's great. You do your little female mysteries, but you're not really as good as us. So in an attempt to prove their worth, as well as make themselves feel better and show what they can really do, they decide to take on this cold case of a young nurse who was found murdered in France. And the authorities are just saying well, she was probably just here-- they found a syringe next to her and they said, well, she's probably just here selling drugs. Case closed. She was just a terrible person and she got murdered by a drug dealer. And these ladies are like, no, that doesn't seem right. So they band together and they go all over London and France and other places exploring this case and figuring it out. And what starts as just an attempt to make themselves feel better and prove what they can do really turns into this almost dangerous and emotional solving of a case where they get very invested personally and they really try to show that this woman was murdered and they try to find out who her murderer was and it leads them right back to London, to some people they've known before.
[00:14:47] So the best part for me of this book-- it was just a fun, straightforward mystery. And those are just great. Sometimes you just need to read it and be like, oh, they did what? And they did what? But the best part about it was the banter between these women, these female writers. They're all real life writers. So I did a little deep dive of each one of them after the book was over and saw what they wrote and when they lived and how they dressed and even things like that. Just the banter between them is fun. They're all strong women. So there was some bickering, but there was a lot of just supporting each other and having different gifts and abilities. And it was just a fun almost female friendship book besides being a mystery. And I listened to the audiobook and it was read by Bessie Carter who played Prudence Featherington on Bridgerton. So she did great voices and it was a fun listen and a fun book. If you're already a fan of Marie Benedict, you'll want to get this. But maybe if, like me, you don't normally tend to pick up a historical fiction book, I think this would be one you could-- if you need to check a bingo box somewhere or you want to get in some more historical fiction in 2025, this would be a great place to start. So it's The Queens of Crime by Marie Benedict, comes out next week.
Annie Jones [00:16:05] I like when there's a historical fiction with a twist. We talked about in Literary Lunch that so much of historical fiction is the assumption or the idea that it's going to be World War One or World War Two. And so it's fun to me to see some of these authors explore other time periods that maybe we don't know as much about.
Olivia [00:16:27] Yeah, there's no war involved.
Annie Jones [00:16:28] Or weave in a different genre. It's like a mystery thriller element because it almost sounds like this is something like Killers of a Certain Age or something like that, but set in a historical time with historical figures. I think that's really fun.
Erin [00:16:44] Yeah. And it was funny. There are parts where they put on disguises and they used different names. So there were parts that were actually laugh out loud funny to this.
Annie Jones [00:16:53] Well, that's so great. So my next one is probably a more typical mystery suspense novel. It's We Would Never by Tova Mirvis. This releases next week on February 11th. I picked this one up I want to say back in November, December, when we were at that stage where any book we finished, it felt like a miraculous event. It just felt like can I just read a book that I could finish and reach the end? And so often what I will turn to in times like that is a mystery thriller or a quick romcom or something like that. So I picked this up. I think I saw it in the ARCs pile upstairs. And immediately upon starting it I was like, wait a minute, this feels very familiar. And so part of the reason I wanted to mention on the podcast and I've mentioned it a few other places, is because I do think there will be local readers, local listeners who might particularly be interested in this one. So Tova Mirvis has obviously very much been inspired by the Dan Marel murders. Dan Markel was an FSU law professor living in Tallahassee. He was found murdered outside his home a few years ago- I want to say like 2018 or something. And turns out he was murdered by a couple of hitmen. And the mystery really dragged on and on. There are still court cases. There are still people being charged in this murder case who are still being brought to court this year.
[00:18:21] And so it wasn't a mystery that these two hitmen did it. They were kind of dumb. And so that was relatively "easy two to solve". But the question became like, well, what was the motive? Who hired these hitmen? And lots of stuff about Dan Markel's pretty contentious divorce started to come to the surface. So I say all that to say this book Torva Mirvis, which is called We Would Never, is about a woman named Hailey Gelman. Hailey is back with her daughter, living with her parents, recovering from the murder and loss of her ex-husband. They went through a contentious divorce. He has now been found murdered. She has kind of fled home with her little girl. And his murder mystery is unfolding in the news media. And all the while, Hailey is at home being doted on by her very devoted parents, her brother, who she loves. They're just clearly a super close knit, tight family. But as the book unravels, so does the family. And certainly if you're familiar with the Dan Markel case, you can see kind of what's going to happen next, and it's where the book kind of gets its title from. It's a mystery suspense book, but it is very much about why.
[00:19:41] So it's not so much the mystery of who did what; it's really a mystery of what would lead someone to do something like this? What kind of family would behave this way? I was super intrigued. I flew through it. It's quite a fast book. So I think even if you're not familiar with the Dan Markel case, it's a quick, fast-paced suspense novel that you could easily finish in a day or two. But also, if you read Young Bright Women, which was a lot about the victims in the Ted Bundy case, I think this could also be an interesting even book club conversation about fiction inspired by true crime. I think we're pretty regularly having conversations about true crime and the ethics of true crime. But I do wonder when I read a book like this, the ethics of a book like this because this book is certainly unpacking it from Hailey's point of view. So from the ex-wife's point of view, and there's not a lot of time spent with the actual victim of the murder and his family and what they must have thought. Anyway, so I thought this was super interesting. And then if you are interested in the ethics of true crime, if you're interested in the ethics of fiction inspired by true crime, I think this one is worth picking up. And it's just a fast book. I enjoyed my reading experience. It's called We Would Never by Tova Mirvis. It's out next week.
Olivia [00:21:04] A lot of stuff happens in Tallahassee.
Annie Jones [00:21:07] Listen, I started rewatching the West Wing. I don't know how far I'll get, but I was like I just need something...
Olivia [00:21:12] Is that in Tallahassee?
Erin [00:21:13] No.
Annie Jones [00:21:14] No, but in the first episode [crosstalk] two Florida State students come up to one of the characters and we are constantly laughing at how often Tallahassee is mentioned in pop culture. And I think it's because it's a fun thing to say. I think Tallahassee has a ring to it. And so it pops up all the time. And then real life things happen in Tallahassee pretty frequently. Anyway, it's a quirky place that I'm proud to call home. It shows up all kinds of places.
Erin [00:21:46] I was watching Bachelor like recap little things someone does on Instagram, and he was comparing when they're out there waiting for the rose. He said this looks like a sorority formal at FSU. And I was like why [crosstalk] FSU?
Annie Jones [00:22:02] Well, like Tina Fey's book, Bossypants, she references-- FSU especially in the 90s and 2000s had a reputation as like the number one party school. But she makes a reference; I think it's the essay where she's like writing to her child or something and she's like I hope you never get a tattoo like an FSU sorority or something like that. So just like FSU Tallahassee pop up all the time.
Erin [00:22:27] Yeah, they still have a reputation.
Olivia [00:22:30] That's funny. Although, the more you think about it, the title We Would Never is so good.
Erin [00:22:36] I love it.
Olivia [00:22:37] It's so simple but it implies so much.
Annie Jones [00:22:41] Yes.
Erin [00:22:42] It can be applied in different ways.
Annie Jones [00:22:44] The reason I'm like I don't normally say like a mystery suspense makes a good book club book because sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not, but this one I do think would because you could ask yourself how low would my family go? What would push my family to the brink? Anyway, I think the title's great and super smart.
Olivia [00:23:05] My last comment is every time in the past couple of years I have heard of a real life hit man, they have not been good at their job.
Annie Jones [00:23:12] No.
Olivia [00:23:14] And now I'm just like is the fictionalized version of a hit man inaccurate? Or these people who are doing this in real life just they're not in the right profession?
Erin [00:23:26] I feel like the ones that make the news are not doing it professionally. They're just on the fly. Like someone asks them, hey--
Olivia [00:23:36] That's a lot of money. Yes.
Erin [00:23:37] Do you want to kill someone? They're like, sure.
Olivia [00:23:40] I could do that.
Annie Jones [00:23:41] Right.
Olivia [00:23:42] And then they find out they can't.
Erin [00:23:43] They can’t- not well.
Annie Jones [00:23:46] I think the ones that we don't hear about work for the government.
Erin [00:23:49] Exactly.
Olivia [00:23:50] They're the good ones.
Erin [00:23:50] The good ones you don't hear about.
Olivia [00:23:55] Well, good job everyone. No, never mind. I take it back. My next book is called You Are Fatally Invited by Ande Pliego. It's out February 11th, and it's a debut mystery novel. I think it's a thriller. If we're really getting into like is it thriller, suspense or mystery? I think this is mystery thriller. I flew through this book, even though it was very long. Like over 60 some chapters because it was broken up into five days and each chapter is from a different character’s point of view. So there's a lot of chapters in each day. But essentially this is about this renowned anonymous author named J.R. Alister. No one has seen them. There's a lot of mystery and intrigue around who they actually are because I guess when they were first writing, they knew who this was. And then there was like maybe a mysterious death and maybe a child took over writing for them, but it's never been confirmed. But they are huge in the way that if you go to any bookstore in the world, you'll probably find a James Patterson on the shelf. This is that author in a fictional book.
[00:25:12] So they're hosting a writing retreat for these six thriller writers who all have their lives entangled in some way, mostly because they're in the writing world and it's not humongous. And so they've seen each other at conferences or they've gone on tours together, that sort of thing. But they all each have a dark secret to their life as well that this J.R. Alister knows about, but they don't know he knows and they don't know anybody else knows. A lot of secrets. And J.R. Alister has hired this former aspiring writer, her name's Milla, who she wrote a book a while ago. The book was stolen and published under somebody else's name, and since then she has not written. So she has her own revenge plot happening during this weekend because that author who stole her book is there. J.R. Alister has their own plot happening this weekend. And you go through each night. They all end with a murder mystery of some sort that the authors all have to get together and try to solve. The first night, it's this dinner with this plate of fish that they all have to find the meaning behind the fish. Like it's a riddle of some sort. So at first you're just like this is fun. I like this.
Annie Jones [00:26:27] You love a riddle.
Olivia [00:26:28] I love a riddle. The book starts with a map of the house where they're at. It's on an island, but it's like clues style where it's like this is so-and-so's room with secret passageways.
Erin [00:26:42] Well, of course.
Olivia [00:26:44] So I'm in. And so each night ends with a mystery, which only gets darker as people start dying when you don't solve the mystery.
Annie Jones [00:26:56] I see. The stakes are high.
Olivia [00:26:58] The stakes get higher and higher until a big final ending where it's kind of revealed how they know each other, who J.R. Alister really is. It was so much fun. It was a lot of fun because it did feel like Clue meets Benjamin Stevenson novel Where it is very cleverly written. I didn't feel like I had to pay like too much attention to what was what. I knew that this author was going to lead me where I needed to go. So it truly was just like a fun novel to read. But I was so impressed for this being a debut novel.
Annie Jones [00:27:31] Yeah.
Olivia [00:27:32] It was great. I loved it.
Annie Jones [00:27:34] Great character names. Speaking of great titles, that's a good title.
Olivia [00:27:37] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:27:38] It's fun.
Erin [00:27:39] And I love a locked room or locked house, locked island mystery where everyone is there with their own agenda. That's really interesting to me because it's not just like one person is inviting all these people who don't know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They're there to accomplish it.
Olivia [00:27:55] I like when they have stated that they understand that this is a trope. I don't want them to go into it and be like uh-oh we're all stuck here. It's like, no, we're going to this murder mystery island writing retreat. We know that everything about this is a big old trope.
Annie Jones [00:28:12] Yeah. It sounds like it could be for fans-- did either of y'all read over the holidays The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year?
Erin [00:28:19] Yes, that's what I was thinking about.
Annie Jones [00:28:21] Yeah. So maybe folks who liked that-- but that was obviously a holiday themed-book-- maybe this could be their next read.
Erin [00:28:29] Yeah. My second book is called The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker. It comes out February 25th. I don't know if either one of you read her. She has other books, but the one I read from her that I love was called The Age of Miracles.
Annie Jones [00:28:43] I love her. She's so good.
Erin [00:28:47] The Age of Miracles has a dystopian basically the world stops turning and so time has no construct. There's no day, there's no night. It's just night all the time. But also a family's trying to deal with that. It's such a good book. If you haven't read it, just go put it on your TBR now.
Annie Jones [00:29:05] I know Olivia you don't have time and I respect that, neither do I, but if you ever did, I actually do think you'd really like Karen Thompson Walker Both Age of Miracles and the Dreamers. I think they're fast paced. I finished Age of Miracles like it was one of those books I stayed up to midnight reading. I have distinct memories. They're fast paced, but they're kind of like post-apocalyptic a little bit. I think you'd like them.
Olivia [00:29:32] I'll add them to the pile.
Annie Jones [00:29:33] Yeah, put it on your giant stack.
Erin [00:29:36] Well, this one is a little different in that that's kind of what I went in expecting was a lot of that post-apocalyptic, dystopian feel, but it wasn't really like that. Although, there were lots of magical realism. Realism is not the right word. I would just call it they're both unreliable narrators. And I'll tell you more about that. This book it's presented as a case study done by Dr. Henry Bird. He's a psychiatrist. And Jane comes to him one day for psychiatric care. And in the middle of their session, she just gets up and leaves and he's like where did you go? And a few days later, she finds out that she's in the hospital because they call him as she put him down as a person to call. They call him and they say she's in the hospital and she's been missing for several days and doesn't remember any of it. And so you're like tell me more. What's going on here? And so she comes back to see him and this whole thing starts where she starts to come for him for care. These episodes start happening more and more, and there's like some kind of secret that she is not telling him. We get it from his perspective, and then we get some chapters from her perspective.
[00:30:46] So we know there was this traumatic thing that happened when she was in college. A boy she kind of loved jumped off of a building and she was basically accused of being the reason that he did that. And so you're wondering was she? Because from her perspective, she wasn't. But you're finding out that authority and other people are saying, well, she was and even the boy's family saying she was. So that was in her past. But during one of the episodes of this blackout and then she's walking on the street and she sees that boy, he stops her in the middle of traffic in New York City and stops her and says, "Hey, I'm Nico." He's dead, but she sees him. So there's all this magical stuff that's happening and he tells her to get out of the city. And he's like grown up. He's like a doctor now. And so she's trying to figure out, is he dead? Is he not dead? Why am I seeing him? So she's talking about all this with him. And one of the things that the psychiatrist tells her to do is-- she also has a young son, which is why this is so scary because for days she'll go missing and she's not taking care of her son. And so he tells her to start writing a journal, start writing letters to her son. And so she does.
[00:31:58] So you get a lot of secrets in those journal entries to her son that he's going to read in the future. And then, of course, you're getting it from his perspective and you really don't know until the end of the book who is telling the truth and who's not. And so it really kind of blurs the line between reality. So the whole time you're reading, you're just like, wait, does she really see him or does she not? Or is she faking it? Because the authorities start to think she's faking it and she's just a mom who wants to get away from her son and who's having a mental breakdown. And she's just leaving him for days on end. And she's like, I'm really not. I'm actually blacking out. It kind of reminds me of-- if anyone has read The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young or even the Time Traveler's Wife, there's no time travel but there is that sense of a little bit of an unreliable narrator and the person going somewhere else. And at the end, really the way it resolves it's actually kind of sweet, but there is still that otherworldly element to it. So it takes a little bit to get into it at first because it's slightly clinical, because they are like case notes. But once you get into it and you start realizing that there's all these things that are happening that you don't have answers for, I really just couldn't put it down. And it's really pretty short. I think it might be less than 300 pages. So it's kind of a short little book. So it's called The Strange Case of Jane O by Karen Thompson Walker. It comes out February 25th.
Annie Jones [00:33:23] I'm excited about that one. I think I might try it. It almost even sounds like-- I mean, not as thrillerly as The Silent Patient or Anna O. But the case study part, Anna O, I forget when it released, but she was a psychiatric patient because she stayed in a constant state of sleep. And so she was accused of murder, but she fell asleep after committing the murder and never. And there was this debate about, like, is she really asleep? Anyways, so this who's the reliable narrator played a role there too. So I'm curious about that one. And I like Karen Thompson Walker's writing.
Olivia [00:34:00] And it's beautiful in some of her letters to her son we know she's a single mother by choice and she writes a lot about motherhood and there's just love and loss. And so there are really beautiful-- even if you're like, I don't know, sounds too science fiction for me; it's really just a beautiful book about loss and how you can bring things back together. So it's good.
Annie Jones [00:34:24] Okay. My last one I'm not going to take too long with because I believe I mentioned it on my Reading Recap episode, and I know I'm going to mention it on an upcoming episode of From the Front Porch. But it is Back After This by Linda Holmes. It releases on February 25th. I wanted to include at least one romance romcom adjacent book because it is the season for that. And if you are a seasonal reader and you're looking for a new romance novel, I think you should give Linda Holmes a try. I especially like her because her books have a lot of depth to them. They go beyond the romance to me, where the main characters are really interesting and well rounded, and she's also frequently talking about something else. So Linda Holmes wrote Evie Drake Starts Over, which was a lot about starting over. It had fun baseball references. Flying Solo was perhaps more traditional women's fiction maybe than a romance, though there was a romantic element. But then in Back After This, the main character is Cecily. Cecily is a podcaster. Linda Holmes is a podcaster.
Erin [00:35:31] That's right. I forgot.
Annie Jones [00:35:33] Yeah. So she's the host of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. She also works and writes for NPR. So she brings a lot of her expertise to the table. And, listen, it had me laughing out loud. What we do here is not at all to the equivalent of what NPR does or The Ringer does. But I think if you at all are involved with podcasting, there are some really funny tidbits and super interesting tidbits about the industry and the changing tide of the industry. So Cecily is a podcast producer and she works for this podcasting company that is maybe about to go under. They're kind of financially strapped. It was this really successful startup, but the podcast wave is kind of ever changing, and so she is kind of at a dead end in her career and she had a horrible experience with an ex and she hasn't dated in a long time. And her boss, who's pretty skeezy, tells her, hey, in order to bring ad revenue, we're partnering with an Instagram influencer, a wellness influencer, a dating expert, and she's going to come on board and guide you through blind dates, and we're going to record all of it and it's going to be a show for our podcast network. And Cecily is adamant that this isn't something she wants to do, but she's realizing if she does it, it might save her job and the jobs of her friends because it might bring this podcasting network back to life.
[00:37:01] And so she's partnered up with this woman named Eliza. And here's what I love, is that Eliza so easily could have been this Instagram wellness guru stereotype, and instead Eliza is a pretty interesting character. And now we also get some insight into influencer industry and influencer culture. And she also is at the whims and mercies of an ever changing algorithm and an ever changing industry. And so she winds up becoming perhaps not quite a sympathetic character, but more sympathetic I think she would have been than in the hands of a different author. And, of course, there is a romantic element not only to the blind dates, but also perhaps Cecily comes across a date or a guy she's interested on her own outside the boundaries of the podcast she's recording. And so then there's some ethics to that. I flew through this one. I really liked it. Linda Holmes is so reliable to me. I know I'm going to like her books. Her characters are smart and witty, great banter, relatively closed door. So if you're more a PG, PG 13 reader, I think Linda Holmes would be a totally great pick for you. If you're an Annabelle Monaghan fan, you should try Linda Holmes. So this is her latest. It is called Back After This, releases on the 25th.
Erin [00:38:17] I'm so excited. I'm going to read that one. It's already on my to read list
Annie Jones [00:38:23] I think Julia Whalen might be the narrator.
Erin [00:38:25] Okay. I actually have the e-copy so I'm going to read it that way.
Annie Jones [00:38:28] Yeah, it was really fun to read. I liked it.
Olivia [00:38:32] My last one is a middle grade novel. My favorite one so far this month, which was good. There hadn't been a ton of favorite ones so far this year. And then I found this one and I was very, very happy with it. And I almost didn't pick it up because here's my complaint to Kindle-- not to our Kyndall, but to K-i-n-d-l-e. They need to add the authors on to-- like when I download them, it doesn't have the author on the little picture; it just has the title. And I wouldn't have picked this up unless I had seen the author because the author is Anne Blankman who I don't know if you guys know, but she wrote Blackbird Girls and that book has started many a conversation between me and young readers in their children's section. It's about two girls fleeing from Chernobyl. It's fascinating and so well-written. And I almost didn't pick this up until I saw that she wrote it. And I was like, she hasn't written something in years now. This is set in the beginnings of World War One, I want to say, or maybe in the middle. When was World War One?
Annie Jones [00:39:44] 1914/1918.
Olivia [00:39:52] Okay. I think this was '14 or '15.
Annie Jones [00:39:54] Okay. World War One.
Olivia [00:39:55] World War One. We shouldn't have gone into years. I'm so bad at years.
Erin [00:40:00] Me, too. I just told you my first book happened sometime between 1900 and the year 2000.
Olivia [00:40:08] History was not my strong suit growing up. But this is a little girl, Marta, and her father, who are both German, and they are traveling from New York to England because at the time Germans weren't allowed to travel on American or English boats because of everything that was happening. So they had gotten onto this boat with fake IDs and fake passports trying to pass as an American. So they just didn't talk to anybody. The boat that they got on is the Lusitania.
Annie Jones [00:40:42] No!
Olivia [00:40:43] Yeah. Perfect reaction, Annie.
Annie Jones [00:40:49] But she does love a disaster tale.
Olivia [00:40:52] Yeah. Who doesn't?
Annie Jones [00:40:55] This is great. Middle grade I was super into that. You know what I mean? Like you're into the I survived stuff and like here's an elevated I survived experience.
Olivia [00:41:05] Yeah.
Erin [00:41:06] It gives a human side to a thing that kids are learning about in school and they're like I'm learning about someone that fictionally went through this thing.
Annie Jones [00:41:12] Yeah. Okay. I'm interested now.
Olivia [00:41:15] Thank you. So was I. So they get on this boat, they're trying their best not to speak to anyone because they know their German accents will give them away. And she can do an accent that passes almost as New York, but her father cannot. Born and raised German, that's a hard accent to shake or shape into anything other than what it is. So they do find him out that he is German. And as they're taking him away down to the brig, the first torpedo hits the ship. And she is back at her room, finding their life jackets, trying to figure out where her father is and where to meet him. But the crowd of people-- I imagine the scene in the Titanic where she is trying to run backwards down the stairs, everyone's running up the stairs so she gets pushed with the crowd. And then you have the whole scene on the boat, which was so well-written because you were as stressed out as that little girl in the most middle grade fashion, mind you. Where the lifeboats on one side, because it's tilting, are too far away for people to get into. The lifeboats on the other side are now over the ship, but they're too heavy to push over. So now there's not enough lifeboats for people.
[00:42:29] She does find her dad and they have to jump into the ocean to be safe from the ship. Then we meet her again in England where she has come ashore and she's now trying to figure out how to pass as something that's not German, but try to make her way back home to her mom in Germany. And she meets this Irish family who take her in because they think she's Dutch. It could be a similar-- you never know. And then it really becomes a story about why are these nationalities so divisive in our lives when she's a good person, her father is a good person. This Irish family are good people, but she's so scared that as soon as they figure out that she's German, that they will hate her even though they've come to love her. It's such a well-done story. I'm over halfway through it now and I'm loving every second of it. Anne Blankman is just such a great historical fiction writer in the middle grade genre, of which there are many but I think she is one of the standout ones for me.
Annie Jones [00:43:33] I might read that one.
Olivia [00:43:34] That's The Enemies Daughter. It's so good.
Annie Jones [00:43:37] You my ancestry is German and they came over and landed at Ellis Island, but they came over pre-World War One, I think. But he wound up going back and forth quite a bit. Some of my family members changed their name when they came over because they didn't want it to sound too German. It's super interesting. So I might read that. That sounds good.
Erin [00:43:57] What was the name of that one again, Olivia?
Olivia [00:43:59] The Enemy's Daughter by Anne Blankman.
Erin [00:44:02] Okay. My last one is called Famous Last Words by Gillian McAllister.
Annie Jones [00:44:07] My gosh, Erin, tell me all about this, because I'm very interested.
Erin [00:44:12] Olivia, have you read this yet?
Olivia [00:44:12] No, but I will be reading it.
Erin [00:44:14] I know you're going to. Okay. Well, as always, I will try not to spoil it for you.
Olivia [00:44:21] Yean, give me the first 10 pages and then stop.
Erin [00:44:25] It comes on February 25th. But for me, Gillian is a must read. I've read all of her books. She's becoming, for me, like TJ Newman. Like you write a book, I'm going to read it and I'm going to love it. She has not disappointed me yet. I know what I'm getting into when I read one of her books, and I actually think this might be my favorite of her so far. We'll see. So there's a young mom, her name is Cam, she has a baby, like a nine month old baby. She wakes up, you find out this is the last day of her maternity leave. She's going back to work as a publishing agent. So I do love that this book has a lot of publishing and book related talk, which is really fascinating. I always love that. But her husband's name is Luke. He's a ghostwriter for a lot of really wealthy and well known people. And this is all set in London, by the way. And she wakes up and he's gone and she just thinks, okay, he went to work. I can't reach him on his phone or whatever. She doesn't worry about it, but she's little peeved. He does leave her a note, but he didn't say where he is. It's a very cryptic note and she just thinks what is that? I got to go back to work. It's crazy. So she goes back to work and the next thing she knows, there's some policemen showing up at work telling her that her husband is holding three people hostage in a warehouse. And she's like, as you can imagine, if someone showed up Annie and told you Jordan was holding three people hostage, you would be like, what?
Annie Jones [00:45:55] Is he talking to them about Myers-Briggs, because that's...
Erin [00:46:01] That's a different kind of holding hostage.
Annie Jones [00:46:03] Yeah. Is he hosting a workshop they can't get out of?
Olivia [00:46:08] Is it a chess club meeting?
Erin [00:46:09] Yes, it turns out that's it. Yes. He was just talking to them about their personality types. So she's very confused. Of course, she's like my husband is a good person. He's just a regular guy. How did he get involved in this? What's happening? And so that's happening. Of course, she's devastated. She's baffled. She's shocked. It's very public on the news everywhere. And they're saying his name and her name. So her coworkers are like, what's going on? And then there's a hostage negotiator who is called in to negotiate with him. And he's seeing the situation. He's thinking something is off here. It doesn't seem like your usual hostage situation. So he's tasked with talking to them and there's a lot of time spent on that situation. The situation resolves itself. I'm not going to spoil anything. The situation resolves itself and part of it resolving itself is that her husband goes missing. He's just gone. They don't know where he is. They never can find him. So then the book jumps forward like, I don't know, five to seven years later, and she's just trying to live her best life without her husband. She doesn't know where he is. She presumes he's dead somewhere and is trying to get all this paperwork done so that she can sell their house and do all these things and kind of move on without him.
[00:47:28] She's kind of a new boyfriend. They have a daughter. Their daughter's grown up is like seven or years old now. And so there's all that, but then things start to happen. And this whole time she's never given up the idea that her husband is a good man and it had to have been something weird. What's happening? So things start to happen in this part of the story that start to confirm that maybe it wasn't his fault. Maybe it was someone else's fault, he got mixed up on it. And then the rest of the book is all that coming to pass, like really unraveling everything and figuring out all the rest of the details. What really happened, why it happened. And that's all I'll say. So I feel like I can't tell much more because if I do, you're going to be like, oh, that's what happened. So it's a classic. I don't know if I'd call it a thriller either. Definitely suspenseful, but also it's like that feeling of how well do you know the people you love? And if you know they're good people but the situation says otherwise, how strong do you stand in that feeling of no they're a good person, I know them. And how much are you willing to fight for that? So it was so good. Honestly, I have been ignoring all other responsibilities at my house just finishing this book.
Annie Jones [00:48:52] That's how you know.
Erin [00:48:52] Laundry, dishes. Nope. I'm going to go sit on the couch and read this stuff.
Annie Jones [00:48:55] That's what you want in a thriller or really, honestly, any book right now is what I really want. She's the kind of author who sometimes I get eyerolly about a time jump.
Erin [00:49:06] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:49:07] Because sometimes I'm like, okay, cop out. Like what actually happened in the couple-- what happened right after the hostage situation? But she is somebody who has done time jumps to success before and so I trust her. I'm like, okay, I'll ride along with you. Did you read this electronically or did you listen to it?
Olivia [00:49:24] I did. I read it electronically. And they were actually speaking of time jumps, the parts are titled. Like it's got this and it's like seven years after this thing. I literally gasped because I was like, what? You can't just jump forward like that and not answer my questions. But she will. She'll take care of you as a reader.
Annie Jones [00:49:44] That's fun. Okay. That is a great, pretty diverse stack of lit that we've come up with for February. I think there are some good winners there. So if you go to the store website, again, Bookshelfthomasvill.com, you type in episode 515 into the search bar and then use code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout, you get 10% off your order of any of the books we talked about today. Thanks, guys.
Erin [00:50:08] Yeah, thanks.
Annie Jones [00:50:14] This week I'm reading Isola by Allegra Goodman. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:50:19] I'm reading The Enemy's Daughter by Anne Blankman.
Annie Jones [00:50:21] And Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:50:23] I'm reading Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson.
Annie Jones [00:50:26] I'm jealous. That's so fun.
[00:50:27] 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
Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.