Episode 524 || April New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia are sharing the April 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 524), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie's books:
Passion Project by London Sperry (4/8)
When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris (4/15)
Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones (4/22)
Olivia's books:
Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake (4/1)
Midnight in Soap Lake by Matthew Sullivan (4/15)
The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner (4/29)
Erin's books:
A Change of Habit by Sister Monica Clare (4/29)
The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner (4/29)
The Eights by Joanna Miller (4/15)
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 Annie is reading Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green. Olivia is reading Candle Island by Lauren Wolk. Erin is listening to Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.
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] “This life is one that I didn’t feel worthy of, but I now know I am. It’s not too good to be true. It’s just true.” - London Sperry, Passion Project [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 April. 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 keep our indie bookstore in business. And if you like what you hear, one way you can financially support us through Patreon. Last year, we read the classic American novel Lonesome Dove with over 1,000 Patreon supporters, and earlier this year we kicked off our 2025 reading of Don Quixote. A far different, but equally memorable experience thus far. For $5 a month, you can access our monthly Conquer a Classic recaps, as well as our Porch Visits episodes which are monthly live Q&As on Zoom 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, everybody.
Erin [00:01:57] Hello.
Olivia [00:01:58] Hello.
Annie [00:01:59] We're back, it's April.
Erin [00:02:00] Yay.
Olivia [00:02:01] Woo.
Annie [00:02:01] We're making it.
Erin [00:02:05] I don't know about you guys, but April this year, because of the exciting-- we've got Annie's book coming out, it feels like Christmas is happening in April for us at the store. A little bit. Which is exciting.
Annie [00:02:17] Is it exciting, Erin?
Erin [00:02:18] It is. It's exciting. Look at my face.
Annie [00:02:22] Is it exciting? Is it Manic?
Erin [00:02:23] It's a little of both.
Annie [00:02:23] Olivia and I looked at each other in a meeting yesterday and it occurred to us by the time this episode comes out, we will have already done Word of South because Word of South is early this year. And we're grateful it's early. Like we do not want Word of South to have been on the same weekend as Indie Books Today, Rose Show, and Annie's book release. But it's also early. So it's catching us off guard. April is always full and this year it feels like we're pushing it to its limits.
Olivia [00:02:56] We absolutely are. Also, it just feels like quarter one is never ending.
Annie [00:03:03] Never ending. So long.
Olivia [00:03:05] I talked to a parent and they were just like, February, why was that month so long?
Annie [00:03:11] And it is the shortest month, it should have flown by. But I think even while I was recording the intro to this episode, I was like, oh my gosh, last time I was coughing every other sentence, I had to mute myself. I was so sick for so long in February. And now we're here. It's April. There's pollen in the air.
Erin [00:03:33] There's Claritin in our veins.
Annie [00:03:35] But by Rose Show, we should be feeling great. Honestly, by Rose Show, we should feel so much better.
Olivia [00:03:43] Those roses better soak up all that pollen. I don't know if that's how that works, but...
Erin [00:03:46] I don't think so. [Crosstalk]. Maybe they'll attract bees, which will get the pollen.
Annie [00:03:54] Yeah, it has to do with bees. I read a story in Storytime yesterday. Actually, I don't know if y'all will read the same books I read, but I read this book called All the Colors of Spring or something. It's not like amazing. I was just trying to find spring books and save the Easter books for April. Anyway, so I was reading this book, Colors of Spring, and it's all about this granddad and grandson who are gardening together. And like orange is the color of grandpa's garden shed, et cetera. I probably have it memorized now because I read it four times [inaudible]. But anyway, one of them I asked them like, what does spring remind you of? Flowers, blah, blah. And the grandfather and the grandson have planted these flowers. And one little girl was like, why would you do that? They die. and I looked at her and I was like, I mean, they do, but they're so pretty while they're here. I was, like, how can I impart wisdom upon this child to tell her that it's worth the planting of the flowers even though they die? Anyway, it got real existential.
Olivia [00:04:55] You had another class where you asked that question and the one kid was-- like, what reminds you of spring? And he was like tornadoes. That child is from a very particular part of the United States.
Annie [00:05:09] Yeah, and not entirely wrong. Somebody said tornadoes, rain. And I was like, yeah, I mean, I was looking for flowers, Easter, bunnies. Instead, I got death and tornadoes. It's fine.
Erin [00:05:28] The kids are doing great.
Annie [00:05:29] They're okay, everybody. Okay, so we are here to talk about April releases. We are coming to you a week later because we had some scheduling issues with March Madness, but we know y'all love that episode, so we hope that it's okay that we've delayed a few things. So we're coming to kind of middle of the month instead of beginning of the months. But as we go through these April books, do keep in mind Erin has made browsing the podcast book selections so easy. You can go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type episode 524 into the search bar and you'll see all of today's books listed, ready for you to pre-order or purchase. You can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and get 10% off your order of today’s titles. Are y'all ready?
Olivia [00:06:12] Yes.
Erin [00:06:13] I'm ready.
Annie [00:06:14] Okay. My first book is the one I led the episode with. It is Passion Project by London Sperry. This came out this week. Listen, I love a good rom-com, but the truth is I do find them few and far between. Like, there's an abundance of romances and romantic comedies in the publishing world, but it does feel like you kind of have to dig. I have to take to find the ones that I like. I may be in the minority there because I'm actually not maybe what you would call a romance reader. So I did want to highlight this one because I really did like it. This is a paperback original. Last year, one of my favorite rom-coms I read was called Summer Fridays. I still stand by that book. I think it would be a fantastic one to try this year if you didn't try it last year. But there is a slight infidelity plotline in that book that I think was a deterrent to a lot of readers. So I'm here to tell you if you liked or wanted to like Summer Fridays, I think you will really like Passion Project because it's basically Summer Fridays but without the infidelity plotline. So I think readers of that will really like this book. So our main characters are Bennett and Henry. The other thing that I think London Sperry handles so well here is Bennett struggles with her mental health, with anxiety. And in some books, especially fiction, I feel like it can feel like a-- what did we used to call that in the 90s? Like a TV special.
Erin [00:07:46] Like an after-school special.
Annie [00:07:49] Yes, an after-school special. That's what it can feel like. And, instead, I felt like the way London Sperry handles this character is so realistic. And it's just like this is something that's part of Bennett's life. She deals with it. She works through it. But I loved how it was handled. So that is something I think worth pointing out. But Bennett is set to meet Henry on a blind date. She shows up to the blind date, she gets very nervous. She decides she wants to back out. I believe perhaps maybe she throws up in the bathroom. She hides in the bathrooms. She's very nervous. Anyway, but he's still there when she comes out. And so they wind up developing this friendship because Bennett expresses that she doesn't really have any passion. Not only in dating or romance, but also just in her life. She doesn't really care about her job. She doesn't have a hobby. Even her friendships are kind of hit or miss. And so Henry takes it upon himself to help Bennett and to befriend her and they're going to figure out what her passion is. And so they embark on this series of adventures, vignettes throughout the book as she tries to discover what she's passionate about. I love a rom-com that is rooted in friendship that has good chemistry, that's relatively closed door. This ticked a lot of boxes for me and I flew through it. I just thought it was fun. So if you're looking for a good spring rom-com, I actually think this one would be lovely. This is Passion Project by London Sperry. It came out this week and it's a paperback.
Erin [00:09:25] That sounds so good.
Annie [00:09:26] It was really cute.
Olivia [00:09:29] Okay, my next book is not cute. Surprise to no one. This came out two weeks ago on April 1st. It's Gifted and Talented, the new book by Olivie Blake. I really, really like Olivie Blake. I've read a couple things by her and I've liked them all. I do always think she has struggled in the past with balance between character-driven and plot-driven, where she wants so much to do both at the same time. And then I picked up this one because I was just like I just really like her. And she does do a good magical realism fantasy book. And she just nailed it. The balance was absolutely perfect. The book takes place in five days. So when you're thinking about it, not a lot can happen. And it all revolves around the death of the father of this family of three children. Very succession-esque. If you will.
Erin [00:10:27] The plot reminds me of like Succession meets Umbrella Academy, sort of, if anyone's ever seen that.
Olivia [00:10:32] Yeah, she took a lot of inspiration from Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, which I also really love. And I can see bits and pieces of that mixed in as well. But to me this was like-- I don't want to spoil Succession for people.
Erin [00:10:49] I think at this point if they haven't watched it, it's okay.
Olivia [00:10:53] Right. Fair game.
Annie [00:10:54] Yeah, they can fast forward.
Olivia [00:10:55] It is like the episode and the following episodes after Logan dies. And you're just like what?
Erin [00:11:03] I haven't seen it. I'm not going to watch it.
Olivia [00:11:08] We all know it was coming.
Annie [00:11:09] Yeah, it was coming.
Olivia [00:11:10] And this father owns a giant company. I think it's called Magic Tech, if I'm not mistaken. But it's like one of those conglomerates where they own so many different smaller entities and he's run it for years. And so when he passes away, the big question is, who did he appoint to take over as CEO? And then you meet the three kids. You meet them all on the moment they're finding out that their father has passed away, all in various stages of what's happening in their current life. The youngest daughter, I think her name is Elid. I wish I had listened to the audiobook so I could know the actual pronunciation of it. But she used to be a ballerina, had huge injury and had to step away from dance and now her father took her under her wing and she runs like their social media and marketing. Which everyone just like looks at her with pity because they're just like you have nothing going on in your life, you can't get past this sort of thing. She's very outcast from her other two siblings. Then you have the middle child, Arthur, who he is a failing politician-- currently failing. He's in a race to hold some sort of government seat and all you know is that he is losing terribly and he knows it, the world knows it, and so his life is just like-- he's a mess.
Annie [00:12:32] That is Succession adjacent.
Olivia [00:12:35] Yes, it really is. I thought about it the whole time I was reading. And then the eldest daughter Meredith she never expresses emotions besides negative emotions. She started this app that was supposed to make people happy. The app is now under a point of contention because she then sold it to her father's rival company, and now her ex-boyfriend turned journalist is investigating it because he thinks she's a fraud. So all three of these children are failing at different aspects of their life. They also all have like magical properties that they can use, some to their hindrance, some they used incorrectly. Like Meredith used it to her advantage and now it's backfiring a bit. Arthur, he'll be on stage talking in front of a crowd and then the electricity will just go out. Not helpful to his campaign, as you can imagine. And then the youngest sibling, she keeps bringing up apocalyptic events. Like she's about to be in a plane crash and all these locusts come out and help guide the plane down. Like all of these big things keep happening and they know it's tied around the turmoil that their family is facing in the moment. But you see them at their worst, and then at their double worst because now their father has died, they're all back in their family home and they're trying to figure out who's going to take over the company. It was so well done, I loved it, it's long.
Erin [00:14:06] I was going to say because the audio book is like 20 hours long, so I was wondering how long the book is.
Olivia [00:14:13] I think it was worth every page. I really, really liked it. I thought she did amazing.
Annie [00:14:19] Is this your favorite of hers?
Olivia [00:14:21] Yes, by far.
Annie [00:14:24] Okay that's good to know.
Olivia [00:14:26] Yeah, It's Gifted and Talented. Get it now.
Erin [00:14:28] I have the ALC and I'm going to maybe save that one for like a time when I don't have any other books to listen to or read.
Olivia [00:14:36] It's one of those where don't read it alongside something else. Like, invest your time in it.
Erin [00:14:41] Read the only one.
Olivia [00:14:42] Yeah, because there's both a lot happening and not a lot happening. But you also want every second with those characters because you're just like, man, these people are so messed up. Just like in Succession.
Annie [00:14:55] I was about to say, read it when you need to feel better about yourself.
Olivia [00:14:59] Exactly.
Erin [00:15:01] Okay. My first book, I actually heard about through one of our beloved customers, Meg Cranshaw. She had ordered it and it's called A Change of Habit by Sister Monica Clare. It comes out April 29th at the end of the month. Listen, Annie, this is right up your alley.
Annie [00:15:17] I'm so excited. It's on the Literary First Look guide. I'm pumped about it.
Erin [00:15:22] The cover is so fun. It is like a dress and then on the other side, it is like the non-habit. But it's not like [Inaudible]. There's no school children involved or gangsters or whatever is going on. [Inaudible]. Greatest movies ever.
Annie [00:15:40] That'd be fine with me.
Erin [00:15:43] But it is a memoir for her name was Claudette Powell. She actually grew up in Rome, Georgia, which for us is about three or four hours away. I've been there before. She had a very tumultuous childhood. Her family was very poor. Her father was abusive and sort of absent for much of her life. And so for her I think she saw a book when she was like seven about nuns and just sort of grabbed onto that idea of safety, of protection. And so, for her being a nun was always a goal of hers, but of course she grew up in a very Baptist family, very Southern family, and being a none was considered almost akin to mental illness. Like, why would you want to go be a nun? That's crazy. So she thinks, okay, I've got to grow up. I've gotten to be a wife. I got to be mother, got to do all these things. And so she also finds that comedy is something that-- she doesn't have beauty, but she feels like she has comedy and she's funny. So she decides to move to Los Angeles and make her way as a comedian, as a writer for comic shows. She becomes part of the Groundlings, which is this fascinating. She performs in the Groundlings with people like Cheri Oteri, Jennifer Coolidge, these very big names. She has several chapters about that, but ultimately everyone else starts finding success around her and she just stays where she's at. She can't seem to really get into it.
[00:17:09] And so she finds herself poor in LA, not doing what she wants to do with that dream of being a nun still alive, but she can see how to get there. And so she ends up just getting married just because she thinks, well, this is the next thing to do and this guy seems okay. And, obviously, as we probably know, it's not a great marriage. He's not a great guy. And at the resolution of that marriage, when it ends, she feels like she's at rock bottom. So she starts to seek out that dream again of being a nun. And what I loved about this book is the nitty-gritty. Like how does one go about being a nun? And you think you just, Maria Von Trapp style, just show up at a nunnery, they accept you, you play the guitar and all is well. It's much more difficult, which I found really fascinating, but she does connect eventually with these sisters, the sisterhood. I guess it's a nunnery in New Jersey. And so she ends up going there, but it's a really long process to become a nun. You have to be free of debt. At least that's their rule. You have to be free of debt before you become a nun. It takes her years to pay off the debt before she can be a part of it. And so I'm like three fourths of the way through, so I'm not finished with this book yet.
[00:18:29] But what I do know is that when she finally goes in there and becomes a nun, it's very hard for her. As you can imagine, it is very silent. There's not a lot of talking. There's not a lot of praise and affirmation like you're doing a great job. It's a lot of like you're not doing that well. And she starts to think, why am I even doing this? Like, why did I come here? I'm not good at this. I don't want to be doing this anymore. But I think the rest of the book, it's about to turn around where she's really going to connect with these nuns. She's really going to find herself and find that this is a place she loves. And so for me it's a beautiful memoir about someone's spirituality, someone growing up poor and really finding themselves as an adult through a lot of hardships. But for me, like I said, I like that nitty-gritty of like, gosh, what does it really take to become a nun? And it's not just as glamorous as the movies and books make it seem. That it's actually a really difficult process to go through. And it really refines like what it is you want to do with your life when you go through that. So if you love a good memoir, if you love hearing about the nitty-gritty of the spirituality and or if you'd just like a good Southern sort of rags to riches memoir, I highly recommend this. It's Called a Change of Habit by sister Monica Clare. Comes out April 29th.
Annie [00:19:53] Are you listening to it or did you download it?
Erin [00:19:55] I downloaded it, yeah.
Annie [00:19:57] Okay. That was my only holdup- was trying to figure out the best way for me to read it, but maybe I'll just suck it up and download the e-book because I'm really excited about that one. Okay, my next book is When the Harvest Comes. This is by Denne Michelle Norris. She is the editor-in-chief of Electric Literature. So if you're big in Bookstagram or the internet aspect of publishing, bookselling, and you follow Lit Hub, Electric Literature, Book Riot, things like that, you'll be familiar with her work. This is her debut novel. I'm probably a little over halfway through this one right now. It is divided thus far into two sections. So the first section is about Davis and Everett and their wedding. And I do think Davis kind of functions as our main character. He is a young gay black man who is engaged to a little bit older white guy, and they are getting married, I want to say, on Martha's Vineyard. So the first half of the book is set at this wedding weekend, which so I immediately was hooked into it. Everett and Davis clearly love each other.
[00:21:06] Everett's family they remind me of the Kennedys or something like that. He has this rather idyllic family who has accepted him, and they are thrilled to throw the sweating. Davis's family is not present. And so Davis is very eager to adopt Everett's family as his own. During the wedding weekend, this is not a spoiler, but his sister Olivia does wind up showing up and in fact tries to reconcile with Davis and agrees to walk him down the aisle. They have had a good relationship over the last few years, but they just don't keep in touch because she continues to be in touch with their father and Davis does not. Davis is estranged from his father, who's a Baptist pastor or a reverend in the black community. And he and Davis have been estranged mostly due to his sexuality and the decisions that Davis has made that his father does not understand, and the parts of Davis's life that his father just doesn't even begin to compute with him. So, anyway, they are estranged, but Olivia is not, which then has put a wedge between Olivia and Davis. So the book is really from Davis’, Everett's, and Olivia's perspectives.
[00:22:20] And while they are at this wedding weekend, again, this is not a spoiler, but Davis and Olivia realize that their father has died in a car accident. And what then unspools in the next half of the book is the aftermath of that. So what happens when this person who helped raise you, who loved you until it felt like maybe he didn't, what happens when he dies before you get any type of closure or reconciliation? And how does that impact Davis and his marriage? Does it start to drive a wedge? Grief can sometimes drive a wage between you and the people you love because you are just totally overshadowed by it. All the while Davis is also a young musician. And so I really actually loved how the author wrote about his relationship to the viola and to artistry and creativity. This book is so much about human sexuality, gender identity.
[00:23:15] There's this really memorable scene where Davis is getting ready for his wedding day and he's known in his musical performances he wears jumpsuits. That's like his kind of calling card, I guess. And so he's going to wear a jumpsuit on his wedding day, but he also has a dress in the back of his closet. And his friends who are there with him are like, oh my gosh, wear the dress. And there's all this inner turmoil with Davis of trying to figure out which side of himself is he going to present to the world. I found it to be very poignant. It is relatively sexually explicit, so I just said that Passion Project is closed door. I would say this book is open door; although, it's literary fiction. So for some reason, when sex scenes appear in literary fiction to me, they're not the main impetus of the book. And so I don't know if that will bother readers or not, because this is not a romance novel. This is literary fiction about Davis, Everett, and Olivia and the fallout from the death of Davis's father. I can't believe this is a debut. She's doing a lot of different things that all managed to work pretty well together. Like I said, about gender, sex, love, acceptance, dysfunctional family literature, certainly, but with much deeper undercurrents. This is When the Harvest Comes by Denne Michelle Norris, out next week on April 15th.
Olivia [00:24:36] A lot of father deaths in this episode.
Annie [00:24:38] Yes, lots of daddy issues in this episode of From the Front Porch.
Olivia [00:24:42] No spoiler alert, but more to come.
Erin [00:24:46] Yeah. And I was like, my next book also has a father death, I hate to say.
Olivia [00:24:50] My last book does. Okay, my next book doesn't, so that's good. This is Midnight in Soap Lake by Matthew and Sullivan. It comes out April 15th, so next week. And I almost didn't pick this book up, but I did see a ton of indie book sellers reviewing it and really liking it. One of a mystery lover writer that I love. Mystery writer.
Annie [00:25:15] A mystery lover that you like?
Olivia [00:25:19] Let me try that again. Stuart Turton blurbed this book and part of that was what made me pick it up because I almost didn't. The description of it, you're just kind of like what is this book? Is it a mystery? Is it a small town sort of book? Is it a horror novel? Because they comped it to like Stephen King. And I was like, okay, I don't hate Stephen King, so I'll give it a shot. And I thought this book was so good. I absolutely loved it. I'm not going to do any better at describing this plot than the back of it does for you. What I will say, it's one of those books where a woman starts to investigate a current crime and all of these small town hidden secrets, unsolved mysteries start to get solved alongside it. To me, it felt very akin to Distant Sons by Tim Johnston-- maybe a little bit louder than that. That book was very, very quiet, very subdued for what it was. This one is not as subdued. But this is about a girl, Abigail, who moves to a town called Soap Lake with her newly husband. They just got married like a couple months ago. He's a scientist and he's there to study the lake in Soap Lake. I believe it's called Soaps Lake. But I did not read this book like maybe a month or two ago. So that feels pretty [crosstalk].
Erin [00:26:49] What a surprise it would be if it wasn't Soap Lake.
Olivia [00:26:52] Yeah, I'm now really hoping that it is. There are entities to this lake that have had healing properties for people. And so scientists go there to study the lake and no one has really figured out what's going on. Her husband is set on figuring it out, but then shortly thereafter they move to Soap Lake, he's called away on like this research assignment up in like Scotland or somewhere Again, I read this book like over a month ago. And so now she is just by herself in this town that she didn't actually want to move to. That's a rather quirky town, very small, tight knit. They're known for having the world's biggest lava lamp that they never actually finished building. So it's just the base of the lava lamp, but they advertise it as being there. Also, apparently Soap Lake is like a real town that Matthew Sullivan visited. Yeah, it's a real town. And their whole thing is like I believe that one day the lava lamp will get built.
Annie [00:27:55] I want that for them.
Olivia [00:27:56] They're so excited for this lava lamp and it's just the base. But a part of this town is also this lore of this monster called Tree Top. And when you start to learn about Tree Top, you're like this is probably one of those tactics that like got passed down story wise for like children who are a bit rambunctious and get into trouble. And they're like TreeTop will come for you sort of thing. But TreeTop, for a long time now, maybe longer than an average human life, has actually been killing people. And so she witnesses TreeTop when she's down in her husband's science lab of their basement and he's looking at her through the window. And she, as a rational adult is just like, I know this can't be true. Like there's no monster here. This is real life. Somebody is playing a prank on me of some sort.
[00:28:50] And the next day she runs into this kid in the desert who's this very young child, covered in blood that's not his own. And she finds out that it's his mother's blood. And now she's like, what happened to this woman? And which leads her into trying to figure out what happened to everything else in this town. It was just really, really well done. And maybe the first two chapters won't grab you right away, but the more characters that he adds into it, the more interested you become because they're just so interesting. And a lot of them just feel like such real people that you would meet and find in a small town. But that's Midnight in Soap Lake. It was just really, really good. It's one of those books where you're just like, should I pick this up? And you should pick it up.
Annie [00:29:38] Let us help you. You should pick that up.
Erin [00:29:40] Those are the best kind when you're like, I don't know, I'll just give this a shot. And it ends up being so good.
Annie [00:29:43] Yeah, lowering expectations.
Erin [00:29:48] My next book is The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner. It comes on April 29th. Again, I'm about halfway through this. You guys, it's been a hard time getting through books. It's not the book's fault. It's me. But I loved The Lost Apothecary. I feel like it was one of the first books I read as a bookseller here at The Bookshelf. So I think it was in 2021- it must have been. But she has written several books since, like The London Séance Society. I want to say there was another one. I can't remember, but she's-- no, that's it.
Olivia [00:30:21] No, it's just those two.
Erin [00:30:21] So she's been very prolific. One every year or so. And this one reminded me a lot of if you liked The Lost Apothecary, I think you will also like this one because it has the same format. And I didn't read The London Séance Society, but I know in The Lost Apothecary. There was a historical timeline with a strong female heroine, and then there was a modern day timeline with a female heroin who is looking into some things that then tie into this historical timeline. And that is what is happening here in this book. The modern day time line is based on Haven Ambrose. She's a-- what's the word? She's like I call it a nautical archeologist. She goes down to shipwrecks and figures out what happened and tries to find artifacts and things like that. So she's like an archeologist, but for the ocean.
Annie [00:31:16] Fascinating.
Erin [00:31:17] It is fascinating. This book will make you want to probably do a deep dive if you are a deep diver.
Olivia [00:31:22] Literally?
Annie [00:31:22] Pun intended.
Erin [00:31:26] I see what you did there. And her father was one before her, and so he obviously ignited that passion in her, but he has recently, as I'm sorry to say, has recently passed away. But so she's obviously more passionate about it. And one of his biggest dreams there are these waters right off the coast of Positano, Italy on the Amalfi coast, and that was one of his dreams-- there's like this really famous wreckage there that everyone's been trying to get to, and that she's going to take up that dream of his and go and do it herself. But as you know, as something's going to happen, which is when she gets there, strange things start happening with the water. There's storms when there wasn't supposed to be storms. A boat sinks when there was no reason that the boat should be sinking. And she starts to wonder what's going on, and so of course she starts research what happened in the past of this town. And we know because we're also reading the historical timeline which is there's a young woman named Mari, she's a young woman who's part of like I'll call them a coven.
[00:32:40] I don't think they would call themselves witches, but I think what they do is sort of witchcrafty so we'll call them a coven. And they possess strong magical powers that are passed on to the females and their family. And these powers allow them to manipulate the water. So they go into the water and they can make currents and they can make waves and they can make the water hot or cold or whatever they can manipulate it. And in this time there was apparently a lot of pirating; so they use these powers to disturb the waters enough around their area that it makes a water barrier where pirates can't get in because it's not friendly to boats. So because of their powers, their town finds a lot of financial success because the pirates are not coming in and stealing all their things. And it's a place of safety because the people are safe there from the pirates, but of course, everyone in the area doesn't know that these women are doing that and they're considered like outcast for doing-- the people that do know about it, it's considered to be witchcraft and people didn't like that back in the day. That's where I'm at now. It's where the two points are starting to converge of Haven finding out what happened in Mari's past. Mari's also wants to leave this town because she has a fiancé that has taken like a job on a boat with two of the most powerful crime brothers in this Italy, in this area, and so she's trying to free him from that job. And so there's a lot going on but again it reminds me a lot of The Lost Apothecary because there's women in very oppressive historical timelines, and then there's females in this current timeline which are trying to uncover the secrets of the past. So that's The Amalfi Curse, and it comes out April 29th.
Annie [00:34:35] Nancy really liked The Lost Apothecary. It might have been a Shelf Subscription for her. So maybe if listeners liked that, maybe they'll like this one.
Erin [00:34:44] I think so.
Annie [00:34:45] Okay, my last book. Listen, I thought a lot about this. I looked at a list. I looked a list of books coming out in April and I was like--
Olivia [00:34:52] And you're like what's good?
Annie [00:34:53] I feel like it would be dumb.
Erin [00:34:55] Anything good coming out in April 22nd maybe?
Annie [00:34:58] I feel it would dumb. And you know what publishers, I didn't get a copy of Emily Henry's new book. So we're going to talk about Annie B. Jones's Ordinary Time.
Olivia [00:35:10] They are all here behind me.
Annie [00:35:10] In all seriousness we are super excited. Yeah they're literally in Olivia's office. I talked to Keila yesterday about signing copies but hopefully by the time this episode comes out all those books are going to be signed and ready to ship out. But I don't know, if you're new around here or if I haven't done my job well, you may not know that I have written a memoir in essays called Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put. It releases on April 22nd. And things are feeling really real. Now I was able to travel to McDonough, Georgia, to do a little book event as part of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. And they had a group of authors there a couple weeks ago, so I was able to do that. Once this episode is out into the world, and as of this recording, book tour stuff is finalized and that announcement has been made. So things are definitely ramping up. It is so odd to be on this side of publishing rather than solely the bookseller side. It's been super interesting, but it has been very weird to go from bookselling to then writing, and now trying to market and sell a book that you wrote. It's very weird.
Erin [00:36:30] Surreal.
Annie [00:36:31] Yeah, super surreal. But here is what I will say. It is a memoir. When I talked to the group of booksellers in McDonough, what I told them, what I wanted for this book is what want for every book as a bookseller; which is I just want the right book to find the right person. And so it doesn't necessarily mean, oh, it becomes a New York Times bestseller. Our job at The Bookshelf is to just hand-sell the right books to the right persons. And so if you are wondering is Ordinary Time for me, here is what I will tell you. Here are some comp titles. So I believe that this book is like Mary Laura Philpott's I Miss You When I Blink, maybe even like her more recent book, Bomb Shelter. I've read it out loud multiple times now. I know that it poignant and earnest. I hope it is funny. I think it is funny, laugh out loud funny, in at least a couple of different places. And so I would also say, if you like Eric Thomas's Here For It or his essay collections, I hope that you might find these enjoyable. Deep in the backlist, I read this book years ago, before I think I was even a bookseller, there is a book by Heather Lind called Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs. And Heather Lind is an obituary writer living in rural Alaska. and this is all about her life in small town Alaska and what it was like to move there and to be a part of this quirky cast of characters.
[00:37:52] I hope that I have done service to what it has been like to plant myself in the rural South, which is not something I really ever wanted or thought I would do. And so I hope that I write lovingly and tenderly and funnily about what that experience has been. So if you like books like that, I also think we fought so hard for this book-- the irony of course now being that I have a child coming out in June. But we fought hard for an April release date. And part of the reason I fought really hard for that April release day was because of Indie Bookstore Day. And it was also because I do think-- and I wouldn't say this if it wasn't true, I really do think this would be a great Mother's Day graduation gift. My brother teaches high school seniors, and he and I often talk about the pressure to be extraordinary and the pressure to do something big. I thought that was just a millennial pressure, but I actually think it is a pressure put on Gen Z as well, that they're going to be like the world changers. And now we're also talking about, I think, Generation Alpha.
[00:38:58] Anyway, and I just want people to read this book and know, no, you can just live your quiet, ordinary small town existence. And I believe that is interesting and I believe it matters. And so part of the reason we fought for this book to release in April was because I really hoped that maybe a high school or college grad might receive some encouragement from it and might think, oh, okay, like I don' have to move to the big city. I don't have to that thing that I really thought. I, Annie B. Jones, Annie Sue Butterworth really did think I would be a failure if I didn't get to go to New York and be the journalist I'd always dreamed of. And so I would love to take that pressure off of the next generation of people that, no, you don't have to do that. And, in fact, you can live a really deep, meaningful existence in a small place. And so that is what ordinary time is all about. It is a memoir, an essay, so it is deeply personal. Again, I have read it out loud now and forgot just how personal it is.
Erin [00:40:01] You're like who wrote this in here? Oh, it was me.
Annie [00:40:04] Super fun. When Erin Moon was here, I pulled her aside and I was like, do you wish you'd written fiction? Do you think that would have been easier? Which of course it wouldn't have, but there's a part of me that thought, if I had written fiction, would I feel as exposed as I currently do? I feel very exposed. I've written on the internet for a long time, but I still consider myself a relatively private person. And now it's out there, man, for anybody who wants to read it to read. So it is deeply personal, but it is my hope that you might read at least an essay or two and think, yeah, me too. Because that is my favorite kind of reading experience when I feel like, oh, yeah, I've been waiting for somebody to say that. So that is Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put, releases on April 22nd.
Olivia [00:40:57] I feel like we should have closed out with that one. I'm not going to lie to you.
Annie [00:41:01] Sorry guys.
Erin [00:41:02] I honestly had the thought. We usually go Annie, Olivia, me, and I almost suggested, why don't we do it the opposite? That way you get to go last and we can all just say great job, end of podcast.
Annie [00:41:14] It's just one of the many books releasing in April.
Olivia [00:41:18] It's totally casual.
Annie [00:41:20] Yeah, just tucked right in with everything else.
Erin [00:41:24] We're just so thrilled for you. Watching you get to this point it's been It's so lovely for us as your team members to see the success for you and we're just very excited. Everyone, be kind, be gentle and read this book.
Annie [00:41:42] Yes, be Kind. Be gentle. Yes. Well, it's truly I wrote the store newsletter this week. I don't know when it will release, but I sent it to Caroline today. But one of the things I talked about was, I mean, this book is only possible because you all gave me the space to write it. Like last year, last winter, especially being able to carve out actual time and space to think and to write was crucial. Publishing is so hard to break into. it would not be possible without The Bookshelf without From the Front Porch, without-- I hate to sound like PBS, but without listeners like you.
Erin [00:42:20] Exactly. No, truly.
Annie [00:42:22] It's totally possible because of The Bookshelf team and because of The Bookshelf community. I do write about The Bookshelf in the book and I hope I did service to her and to our team. I hope people enjoy reading about it.
Erin [00:42:36] Absolutely. All right, Olivia, on to some more father death after that?
Olivia [00:42:41] After that brief interlude, we are now back to father deaths.
Annie [00:42:45] Great. No daddy issues in my book, I'm pleased to report. Chris Butterworth is also relieved.
Erin [00:42:53] Alive and well.
Olivia [00:42:56] Okay. My next book is middle grade. It's The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner, who you might know from the History Smasher series. She has written other fiction, middle grade novels besides that. One was like Breakout, which was also really good. That was like back in 2018. But I think the History Smashers really put her on the map. We sell that constantly here. This is out the end of April. It's April 29th. And it was one of those books where the publisher kept pushing on me and I was like, sure, why not? I'll give it a shot. And I'm so glad I did because it was one of these middle grade stories where you're just like, I could cry. I'm not going to because I'm a not a crier. But if I were, I think I might, you know?
Erin [00:43:42] I can feel that there could be tears involved here.
Olivia [00:43:44] Yeah, I think people could cry at this in a good cathartic sort of way.
Erin [00:43:49] You need that sometimes.
Olivia [00:43:50] Yeah. This is about a kid I completely forgot his name. Finn Connolly. And he is about to fail seventh grade. He's been through quite a bit. The pandemic hit. He's in New York, like outside the city of New York. He recently lost his father. And so to pass seventh grade, he has to write I think it's like 20 poems on a hero. And his whole thing is like his father got famous because he was a part of the FDNY when 9/11 happened and there's a famous picture of him being a hero. But Finn has struggled with this because since then his father has maybe not acted like a hero in his own life. And there's just a lot of pressure put on people who peak like that, and he saw his father go through that. And then he lost his father, and so he's going through a bit. He had an emotional moment where he maybe very possibly vandalized a headstone in a local cemetery and then got caught for it.
Annie [00:44:54] Oh, Finn.
Olivia [00:44:55] The poor kid. What he didn't realize was this was a head stone of like a legendary local mountain climber. She was well known of climbing all 46 high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains, and then she would write letters to people encouraging them to do the same, sharing her story on that mountain and they would write back to theirs. And she was just one of those people who was just she wanted people to experience it like she did. So instead of getting in trouble with the cops and whatnot, her daughter has now asked Finn to in the three months of his summer vacation, along with writing 20 poems about a hero, he now has to climb all 46 high peaks.
Erin [00:45:39] Wow.
Annie [00:45:41] Just a small little task.
Olivia [00:45:43] Just a tiny little prep task. Some of them are back to back, so you can do like three in a day. It's a lot of work, but it's doable. She also asked that he brings her dog with him because it was her mother's dog and he loves the mountains. And so she gets volunteers from people who have also done the 46 peaks and they alternate who goes with him on different peaks. And so he gets pieces of their stories. His grandmother runs a bakery, and so he makes a cookie for every mountain that he climbs. It's just one of those sweet stories where a lot of it is written in prose. You'll get a couple of his poems that he wrote for his English class for the summer. And then some of it is the letters that this woman would write to hikers, because he did find that his father was also climbing the mountains. And so he found a box of letters that the woman so happens-- the headstone that he kicked over, that woman, was writing letters back to his father when he was struggling to finish all these peaks. And now it's like cathartic, because now he's like, well, now I'm finishing them for my father. It's just one of those really beautiful stories. One of those great middle grade reads. And because it's written in all the different formats, it really does fly by. I think I read this in one sitting. But you find such a sweet spot for Finn. He's a good kid. He's just going through a lot, you know?
Annie [00:47:11] Yeah, he's been through a lot.
Olivia [00:47:13] Yeah. That's The Trouble with Heroes.
Annie [00:47:16] Did y'all ever read Joan Bauer?
Olivia [00:47:20] Yes.
Annie [00:47:20] Okay, I assume she may now be deceased. Olivia, we read her for forever young adult because she wrote Thwonk.
Olivia [00:47:28] Okay. [Inaudible].
Annie [00:47:31] But she wrote other things that had a bit more depth than Thwonk did.
Olivia [00:47:37] What?
Annie [00:47:38] Yeah, there was one called Backwater that I really loved. Anyway, but it kind of makes me want to revisit. I'm intrigued by this book because it sounds like a Joan Bauer book and I really liked her back in the day.
Olivia [00:47:50] Maybe it's like a Sharon Creech sort of vibe?
Annie [00:47:54] Yeah.
Olivia [00:47:55] It also made me want to hike a mountain and then I was like, Olivia, you do not thrive in nature.
Annie [00:48:03] Maybe in the colder weather there wouldn't be bugs.
Olivia [00:48:06] No, I can do nature in cold weather. Snow, my best friend.
Annie [00:48:11] Yeah, don a hat, gloves, and climb a peak in December.
Erin [00:48:15] Or three.
Olivia [00:48:16] Leslie would go with me. She'd love it.
Annie [00:48:19] Yeah. She'd thrive.
Erin [00:48:21] Every time I go to REI with Leslie I'm like, I can do this. I'm an outdoors person. All I need is some gear. I've got this.
Annie [00:48:30] It's like Lorelai Gilmore has the fly-fishing outfit, like the clothes. We can do this.
Erin [00:48:37] If you have it, the clothes are half the battle. Okay. My last book is called The Eight by Joanna Miller. It's coming out April 29th. I have not read this one yet. I'm eager to crack into it. I have downloaded it. I'm ready to read it. I love the cover. I love the whole thing. But it's a historical fiction novel, and it follows four of the first women who were allowed to matriculate at Oxford University in 1920 after the first world war. And it was the first time they'd allowed women at Oxford for like, I think, 1000 years. That sounds wrong. Maybe 100. How old was Oxford? I don't know.
Annie [00:49:16] No. Because Oxford's like from the 14th century. No, I think it literally is.
Erin [00:49:19] Okay. Maybe no, but that's not so crazy for 1000 years.
Annie [00:49:22] I went to a restaurant there that was 1000 years old. Yeah, it's wild over there.
Erin [00:49:28] It blows my mind.
Annie [00:49:28] It's wild, over there. No wonder America we're just hanging on by a thread over here. We've not lasted long enough.
Erin [00:49:33] We're still little babies.
Olivia [00:49:33] We're still learning.
Annie [00:49:36] We're in the toddler stage.
Erin [00:49:37] We can't comprehend buildings that are 1000 years old. So, anyway, yeah. It follows four of them and they're fictional. These women are assigned to live in hall eight, hence the nickname for The Eights. There's Beatrice. She is an imposing daughter of a suffragette. There's Mary Ann. She's the daughter of an English vicar. There's Dora who lost a brother and a fiancé during World War I, so she is struggling. And then there's Otto Line, they call her Otto, who is a wealthy female who is defying her family's expectations of her and desires by going to college. So as you can imagine, being some of the first women there in a really long time, they face a lot of opposition from both their counterparts and their professors. And just in general, culturally, when women are not expected to be, they would prefer that women do other things besides going to college. They do experience a lot of opposition, but as I can tell, it does a good job of including a lot historical information. So if you love historical fiction for the real facts and the real places that authors put these characters in, I think that you will find that this does a great job of this while also giving a lot of character-driven information about these fictional women and how they stand in for the types of women that you might encounter in this time period and the struggles they experience as they try to find love. And then also they're still dealing with the war, this world war that the world has been through, and how is that impacting the workforce, the university sector, their personal lives and things like that. Again i haven't read this yet, but I do think a lot of people-- I would say it tends towards the PG, PG-13. So, of course, if you're a Susie reader and you love historical fiction, I think you would really enjoy this one. And I'm so excited to start it. So it's called The Eights by Joanna Miller. It comes out April 29th.
Annie [00:51:41] I'm legitimately excited for this. I can be hit or miss on historical fiction, or at least that's what I claim on this podcast. But I love an Oxford setting, and I feel like we don't get as many books set in Oxford as you would think we would get. I don't know. When you go over there, you realize the deep and lasting impact the World Wars had on the walls. We were able to tour Magdalen college, which is where C.S. Lewis taught. And there's just these dedications everywhere to the students who were lost during the Great War and World War II. They lost an entire generation of young men, which makes me wonder if that's why Oxford started to accept women, which I'm sure the novel will address. But, anyway, I am looking forward to that one. And I do think Susie would probably appreciate it. Well, if you read Becoming Mrs. Lewis, which is also set in and around Oxford, or Natalie Jenner, she's another historical fiction writer where I think a lot of her books maybe you'll like this one. The publisher is excited about this, too. I remember them highlighting this one, so I'm excited to read The Eights.
Erin [00:52:48] Me too.
Annie [00:52:49] Okay. As we discussed at the beginning of this week's episode, these are our April new releases that we are super excited about. You can go to bookshelfthomasville.com, type episode 524 into the search bar, you'll see all of today's books listed there. If you would like 10% off, use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout, and you'll get 10% off your order of today’s books. This week, I'm reading Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:53:18] I'm Reading Candle Island by Lauren Wolk.
Annie [00:53:21] And Erin, what are you reading?
Erin [00:53:22] I'm listening to Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.
[00:53:23] 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:
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Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
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Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins
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