359 || February New Release Rundown
In today’s episode of From the Front Porch, Annie and Olivia are discussing their favorite newly released titles of the month and highlighting books you’ll want to add to your TBR list!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our new website:
Mutual:
Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘em Dead by Elle Cosimano
Annie's List:
Other People’s Clothes by Calla Henkel
Black Girls Must Be Magic by Jayne Allen
What the Fireflies Knew by Kai Harris
Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson
Cost of Living by Emily Maloney
Cherish Farrah by Bethany C. Morrow
Good Enough by Kate Bowler and Jessica Richie
This Here Flesh by Cole Arthur Riley
The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka
Olivia’s List
The Appeal by Janice Hallett
The Boy Who Met a Whale by Nizrana Farook
The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang
Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocomb
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance by Lisa Yee
Out of a Jar by Deborah Marceno
The Verifiers by Jane Pek
Other Books Mentioned:
Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett (back-ordered)
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison (back-ordered)
So Many Beginnings by Bethany C. Morrow
The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris
No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler
Everything Happens for a Reason by Kate Bowler (printing on-demand only)
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 at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. Olivia is reading The Verifiers by Jane Pek.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on iTunes. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff’s weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter, follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic, and receive free media mail shipping on all your online book orders. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Libro.FM:
Libro.fm lets you purchase audiobooks directly from your favorite local bookstore (Like The Bookshelf). You can pick from more than 215,000 audiobooks, and you'll get the same audiobooks at the same price as the largest audiobook company out there (you know the name). But you’ll be part of a different story -- one that supports community. All you need is a smart phone and the free Libro.fm app.
Right now, if you sign up for a new membership, you will get 2 audiobooks for the price of one. All you have to do is enter FRONTPORCH at checkout or follow this link:
Flodesk:
Do you receive a weekly or monthly newsletter from one of your favorite brands? Like maybe From the Front Porch (Or The Bookshelf)... Did you ever wonder, ‘how do they make such gorgeous emails?’
Flodesk is an email marketing service provider that's built for creators, by creators, and it’s easy to use. We’ve been using it for a couple of years now, and I personally love it. And right now you can get 50% off your Flodesk subscription by going to:
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the south.
[00:00:24] Blessed are you who hold hope with an open hand, you who try not to fix your gaze on times far horizon or get drunk on what might yet be. And blessed are you who avoid walking too far down memory lane, getting stuck wondering if that was as good as it gets? If you've peeked or feeling resentful about all that has disappointed before. Blessed are you who know that sometimes you need to stay right here, at least for a minute. Kate Bowler, Good Enough.
[00:00:56] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And this week, we're back with our monthly series New Release Rundown. I'm joined by The Bookshelf's floor manager, Olivia Schaffer, to talk through the books were most excited about for February. Throughout the year, we'll feature other bookshelf staffers and friends in these monthly, bookish chats designed to beef up your TBR. And as a bonus for podcast listeners, if you purchase or preorder any of the books Olivia and I talk about on today's episode, you can enter "New release please" at checkout for 10 percent off your order. Just go to bookshelfthomasville.com and enter "New release please" at checkout for 10 percent off your order. Hi, Olivia.
Olivia [00:01:40] Hey.
Annie Jones [00:01:42] Are you excited to talk about books?
Olivia [00:01:45] I am. It feels like it's been a little while.
Annie Jones [00:01:47] I just looked, and it looks like we last recorded one of these in November because December is such a weird publishing month, so it really has been a minute.
Olivia [00:01:56] Yeah. Okay, that makes sense.
Annie Jones [00:01:59] Well, you earlier this week we’re talking about reading for this episode, and I kept thinking, why? When are we recording? And truly until yesterday, I was all discombobulated because we've been like on a little podcast break, but episodes have still been running because, like, we recorded in advance. Anyway, I was all turned upside down, and until yesterday late afternoon, I thought I was recording a different episode today. And I was like, this is why Olivia kept talking about reading for new release rundown. Because I kept thinking, wow, she's really ahead of the game. You were right on time.
Olivia [00:02:38] You know, I wish I was a little bit more ahead of the game because it actually feels like February there's a lot of good books coming out.
Annie Jones [00:02:44] There were. It was actually kind of hard to narrow down. I think you and I potentially have like a mutualable. You know how Knox and Jamie from the Popcast do? What do they do? Like mutual greenlights. I feel like we have a mutual new release that we're excited about, so I thought we could start with that first and talk about Finlay Donovan.
Olivia [00:03:05] Yes, absolutely, because I just went back and read the new synopsis for the second one.
Annie Jones [00:03:10] Yes, this book released February 1st, and I have not read it yet. Have you read this and are you going to read this?
Olivia [00:03:17] No, I had not planned on reading it because I loved Finlay Donovan, he's killing it, but I loved exactly where I left it. And I was like, I don't think I need more. And then I read this synopsis and I was like, "Ooh, but do I need more Finlay?"
Annie Jones [00:03:34] This is so funny because I think I told you, I've read that book on your recommendation. Read it like over the summer, loved it, and I never finish a book and think I'm ready for more. Like, I never do that. I never am interested in a series. Really, probably of the staffers, you are interested in the series even if you don't always get to do it because of bookselling. I have no interest in the series until now. And I am so excited to have something to look forward to and read. And then one of our podcast listeners, Bridget, she has already read this, and she said it was so good and that she liked it even better than Finlay Donovan the first book.
Olivia [00:04:14] Interesting. Yeah. I think I might have to read it.
Annie Jones [00:04:18] So if you're not familiar, Finlay Donovan -- what was the first one called?
Olivia [00:04:22] Is killing it. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It.
Annie Jones [00:04:24] Okay. That came out last year. It's now out in paperback. It could be a great time to pick it up. And then the new one is called Finlay Donovan Knocks Him Dead. Basically, Finlay is a messy mom, accidental hit woman. Is that what you want to say?
Olivia [00:04:41] Yeah. I always just call her an accidental hit woman.
Annie Jones [00:04:44] Okay. Yeah, it's a very funny premise that she is a writer and somebody overhears her talking about her books, and she then gets hired to put a hit out on a person. I don't know the language for putting out. It's a [Inaudible].
Olivia [00:05:01] It was like a murder. She got like a murder for hire.
Annie Jones [00:05:05] Yes, that's right. And she so --
Olivia [00:05:07] And then she accidentally did it.
Annie Jones [00:05:09] And she's so bad at it.
Olivia [00:05:11] She's terrible.
Annie Jones [00:05:11] Like, I think Elle Cosimano, who writes these books, like there's such a fine line between Finlay kind of being an idiot and then Finlay being a convincing, interesting protagonist. And she teeters that line. Because there were parts of Finlay Donovan book one where I was like, "How is this woman who writes mysteries for a living so bad at this? But I think that's the funny part.
Olivia [00:05:33] Yeah, because he would be like if I were to go out and solve a real mystery, I would be terrible at it. Absolutely terrible.
Annie Jones [00:05:41] I don't know Olivia. Give yourself some credit. I think you could solve a crime.
Olivia [00:05:46] I just felt like Finlay was like the best and worst of all of us. Like, she was a hot mess but she pulled it together when she needed to, kind of, you know. Like that's where all we're at.
Annie Jones [00:06:00] She did. Yes. In my opinion, this is where mysteries and good romantic comedies overlap. Any good mystery or romantic comedy needs a wide cast of characters that are the main character, the protagonist, friends or family who are equally as interesting as the main character. And I think this book delivered that like, we get some really interesting sort of maybe romantic interest. We also get my favorite is her babysitter who helps her take care of her kids. I adored that character. And so I'm very excited to kind of reenter this world.
Olivia [00:06:34] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:06:34] Okay, so that is Finlay Donovan Knock Him Dead. That's by Elle Cosimano. It came out on February 1st. Okay, are you ready? We're going to alternate this go around. So my first one is Other People's Clothes. This is by Calla Henkel. It came out on February 1st. This is a debut novel that was recommended by one of my publisher reps, like they sent me a copy. I am very curious about it for all kinds of reasons. So it is set in late 2000s Berlin. And the author, Calla Henkel, is actually an American writer living in Berlin. So it's set in late 2000s Berlin, and there are two friends who are obsessed with the Amanda Knox trial. Are you familiar with Amanda Knox?
Olivia [00:07:19] Only because I had Keeley explain it to me.
Annie Jones [00:07:22] Oh, of course. Keeley. I love it. Of course.
Olivia [00:07:25] I'm a true crime junkie.
Annie Jones [00:07:29] Yes. So Amanda Knox was accused of murdering her roommate while studying abroad in Italy. So this book is kind of set during that trial. But where I find the overlap to be interesting is that Zoe, one of our main characters, she is studying abroad and her best friend is murdered, which to me just sounds like the Amanda Knox story. And so Zoe chooses then to leave and study abroad in Berlin where she befriends another young woman and they, you know, are living it up in Berlin as study abroad students. And then they realized their neighbor. They think their neighbor is kind of spying on them, observing them and trying to write a book. And so there are real -- I have not read this one, but it sounds so interesting because it sounds a little bit like Bitter Orange or Social Creature. Do you remember us reading Social Creature?
Olivia [00:08:23] Yes, what a wild ride that was?
Annie Jones [00:08:25] So this sounds kind of similar where you've got these two young women, one of their friends has been murdered, now they're living it up in Berlin, enjoying the nightclub scene stuff like that. But then they're purposefully doing things that will make their lives interesting for their neighbor to write about and then things go sour. It's literary fiction. It sounds like if Bitter Orange met Social Creature. Like it just sounds like they're very similar elements. There's this true crime-ish element because of the kind of similarities with the Amanda Knox story and the Amanda Knox trial. So I'm very curious about this one. It's a debut. It is called Other People's Clothes, and it was out on February 1st.
Olivia [00:09:10] My next book is actually out in January, but I want to talk about it because just from the cover, I don't think it's what people would normally just grab and pick up, but it's so good. It was out January 25th and it's called The Appeal by Janice Hallett, and this is her debut novel which she's never written before which is mind boggling because I will let you know, apparently, she had no spreadsheet for this at all. And when I get into the plot, you'll understand why this is crazy to me. This is an epistolary novel. It's written mostly in emails and then some texting exchange, but it's about this theater troupe. And one of them gets murdered and all of them are suspects. And you see, they're like emails leading up to this big play.
[00:10:00] But while this is happening, the director of the theater troupe, his grandchild gets diagnosed with cancer and he starts to have this campaign to fund raise money to buy her the drugs that she needs for her chemotherapy, her treatment. But you start to realize that there's a couple like red flags sparking up here and there that maybe he is being conned for money, or maybe he is conning someone for money, and the situation's just weird. It's just a little off. And then the personalities you get in this theater troupe, as someone who I believe was theater adjacent and also myself was theater adjacent, it is so well done. The personalities are just like, oh my gosh, I knew those people.
Annie Jones [00:10:47] Yeah.
Olivia [00:10:50] It is crazy, but you get all these emails from these different people. She has like a character list for you to flip back and forth through. But I actually slowed myself down while reading this one because there's a couple of breaks where you get these texts in exchange from the two women who are also going through these emails to try to figure out who the murderer is. They start to point out different clues that they found, and then you start to realize that like, oh, maybe that was not what I picked up on. And then you go back and search for it and you're like, oh. So I slowed myself down so I could see if I could catch what they were catching while it was happening. But it was so much fun, like PG Agatha Christie style murder mystery. It was great.
Annie Jones [00:11:32] I'm excited about this one because you raved about it. And interestingly, when Mary Catherine posted the new released Tuesday picture, including this title, this was the book that people were talking about in the comments. Like, this was a book that people were like, "Oh, this was really popular in the UK." Or, "Oh, I read this and loved it." So I really want to read this. I'm thinking about taking it home this weekend.
Olivia [00:11:53] It was just really fun.
Annie Jones [00:11:54] My next one, I'm not going to talk too much at length about, but I did just want to make people aware that the sequel to Black Girls Must Die Exhausted is called Black Girls Must Be Magic. It's by Jane Allen, and it released on February 1st. This is a series of paperback originals. I think it's going to be a trilogy, but I could be wrong about that. But my understanding was it was going to be a trilogy of three books featuring Tabitha, who's this 30-something woman who's navigating some fertility issues, struggling to find work-life balance, navigating familial relationships and the challenges of being a black woman in America. I read the first couple of chapters of Black Girls Must Die Exhausted and really liked what I read. It reminded me a little bit of Lisa Cross Smith vibes, maybe slightly less literary. So if you're looking for commercial fiction about a young black woman kind of navigating her early 30s and life in America, I think you might enjoy this trilogy. The sequel is out now. It's called Black Girls Must Be Magic.
Olivia [00:12:59] My next one is a children's book, I would say anywhere, like ages eight to 12, but it's The Boy Who Met a Whale by Nizrana Farook. And it was out February 1st. But this is a really, really, beautifully and well-done book. It was just so much fun, and I was worried that it would get a little bit heavy at points, but it never did, which was really great for a children's book. Very rational.
Annie Jones [00:13:23] Yes, it is.
Olivia [00:13:25] But it was just like a pirate type adventure. So it set off the coast of Sri Lanka and you follow these two twins and they're going down to the water one morning because the one twin, the little boy, likes watching the sea turtles when they come lay their eggs and then go back off into the ocean. And then he finds this little little dinghy boat like up on the shore, and he finds this boy inside the boat. And so they help the boy to get to a safe place. And then they find out he has this treasure map and he's trying to get to this treasure before these pirates who mutinied on the ship that he was on come and get the map from him. So they set off on this adventure. They meet a whale. Obviously, it's in the title, but still a very fun event to happen. It was just a really fun adventure.
Annie Jones [00:14:17] Oh, that's nice. I feel like adventure stories without a heavier element are hard to find right now, especially for kids. My next one is called What the Fireflies Knew. This is by Kai Harris. It came out on February 1st. This is debut fiction, and there is this newish imprint called Tiny Reparations Books. And I'm intrigued by it because it's an imprint that was founded by Phoebe Robinson. I don't normally pay a ton of attention to imprints, sometimes I try to so that I can realize which imprints I like the best or which ones I'm drawn to. But I thought this one was interesting because of who founded it. And she founded like a television production company of the same name. So Tiny Reparation Books was primarily putting out nonfiction or essay collections.
[00:15:03] This is the debut fiction choice for this imprint. It is set over one summer in Michigan, and it is told through the eyes of 11-year-old KB. And KB is a young black girl who's been sent to live with her grandfather. Her older sibling comes with her. And so it's kind of this summer story of life after a traumatic event. And the narration reminds me a little bit of something like Rabbit Cake. And then the other comparisons that are being drawn to it, I think because of maybe the nature writing outdoorsy spirit of the book because it's set during the summer in Michigan. It's been compared a little bit to Where the Crawdads Sing, which I'm very curious about because so many local customers read and loved Where the Crawdads Sing, which was obviously set in the south. This is set -- what would you call Michigan? The Upper Midwest. Would you call Michigan the Midwest?
Olivia [00:15:56] The Midwest. Yeah. Because it has that little... You know.
Annie Jones [00:15:58] Yeah, it's got that mitten. So anyway, I am very curious about this. This is on my TBR list. I love a debut and I especially love a debut with a children's narrator. So I like adult fiction that has a child who's kind of narrating the story. Rabbit Cake is one of my favorite books of the last 10 years. And so the narration of KB kind of reminds me of that kind of precocious, funny, childlike humor and also wisdom. And so I'm excited about this one. It is called What the Fireflies Knew, and it was out on February 1st.
Olivia [00:16:36] My next book is The Family Chao by Lan Samantha Chang, and this is out. This is already out February 1st. First off, the cover is gorgeous.
Annie Jones [00:16:46] Great cover.
Olivia [00:16:47] If you pick it up on that alone, you've already made a great choice. But secondly, I ran through this plot summary like super fast with Walt last night, and he just kept looking at me like, what? He was blown away. So I won't give as many spoilers as they did for Walt because I knew he wasn't going to read it. But, essentially, this is about three brothers who come home for Christmas. Their parents own this Chinese food restaurant, it's somewhere in the Midwest. I want to say like Wisconsin.
Annie Jones [00:17:20] I think it's Wisconsin. Yeah that's right.
Olivia [00:17:22] Yeah. And, essentially, they come home because their mother has asked them all to come home. They don't normally come home for Christmas because there's a lot of family tension and issues there. But they come home because their mother is a part of this new Buddhist convent. She's like moved out of their house into this convent, and they're giving out fortunes before Christmas Day. And so she wants each of the boys to receive their fortune. And then that night the family dog runs away and all these stuff happens. And you're kind of left just watching these brothers try to reunite, but also cope through everything and not judge each other, but also judge each other.
[00:18:06] The first part was like a little bit slower plot wise, I think it was more character driven, which is like the Annie portion of the book. And then you go to the second half where like now -- and this is not a spoiler, but the dad is found dead in the freezer of the Chinese food restaurant. No one knows who does it. Everyone suspects the older brother because they have a lot of tension issues. But then the whole suspense and murder mystery part starts to unfold in the second part. So it was like the perfect crossover of an Annie and Olivia. It was so good. Well, this is a spoiler, but for those who are worried about the dog out there, it is still alive.
Annie Jones [00:18:49] So don't put that out there.
Olivia [00:18:51] Throwing it out there.
Annie Jones [00:18:51] I started this out this weekend because you talked about it as an Annie-Olivia crossover, so I brought home my ARC and I'm really liking it so far. I really like it.
Olivia [00:19:00] Yeah. The relationship between the three brothers is super intriguing.
Annie Jones [00:19:05] Yes.My next one is another debut. This is called Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson, out on February 1st. This book has already been purchased as a TV show. I think it's going to be a Hulu series. It is about estranged siblings Byron and Benny. Their mother has died in California. They travel home to, you know, take care of all of the fallout from when a family member dies. They're trying to follow up with her will and clean up her family home, etc. And then they discover that she has left behind two things. She's left behind a cake or the recipe for a traditional Caribbean black cake, and she's left behind a voice recording. And this is no spoilers, but the voice recording is essentially her telling the story of a young woman who flees an island and swims to another country because she has been accused of murder in her home country, and she tells it as a story. My understanding is that it winds up potentially being her story, although that is just kind of alluded to in the in the blurbs.
[00:20:16] I want to read this so badly. I did not receive an ARC so I am anxiously awaiting it like everyone else, because it sounds like this dysfunctional family story grappling because it's got these two siblings who are trying to process the loss of their mom, but also kind of come together to figure out what did she mean by leaving this voice recording? Like, what are they supposed to do with this information? Why did she leave them this cake and this recipe for this cake? What does it have to do with anything? So I love books about -- I don't know what this says about me. I love books about grief. I love books about families kind of overcoming tragedy. I like sibling stories. This one sounds like it's going to scratch a lot of my itches to use a gross metaphor. And so I'm very curious about it. It is called Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkerson. It was out on February 1st.
Olivia [00:21:08] I really want to know what a black cake is now.
Annie Jones [00:21:11] I googled it and it looks really good.
Olivia [00:21:14] Is it chocolate?
Annie Jones [00:21:15] Yes, it's chocolate. It's like a traditional Caribbean cake, apparently frequently passed down through the generations. You can find recipes online, but it looks delicious. It almost looks like, I don't know, somebody is probably going to be like, "Annie, it's nothing like that," but it looks like a devil's food cake or something, like really rich dark chocolate.
Olivia [00:21:31] Okay. I was going to say because you can get like super dark cocoa powder that looks black when you bake it.
Annie Jones [00:21:38] I didn't read the recipes. I just looked at pictures. But that's what it looks like.
Olivia [00:21:49] Cool. Okay. My next book is The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocomb. I believe this is his debut novel as well. I want to say this.
Annie Jones [00:21:56] Yes. Lots of debuts this month.
Olivia [00:21:58] Yeah, and good debuts. That's what I've been noticing. Like every debut that I've read so far I’m like, "Well, they nailed that."
Annie Jones [00:22:08] Done. Check it off your list.
Olivia [00:22:10] Also on top of that, I'm pretty sure this author is also like a violinist. Like a real violinist.
Annie Jones [00:22:16] Yeah, he's like a classical musician because my dad read this and loved it. And, yeah, it's not like he's just a good writer. He's also like as if it wasn't enough. Yeah.
Olivia [00:22:30] So, anyway, this book is about a man, Ray McMillan, who grew up very poor in North Carolina. But the one thing that he always loved was music, and he was kind of like besides his grandfather, he was the only one in the family who took on that love and continued it and wanted to do it for a living. So his grandmother gifts him his grandfather's violin. And it's in this really old I think it's like an alligator skin case that's just really tattered up. And he has to get the violin like redone a lot to make it usable and whatnot. But then he finds out that this violin is like one of the original Stradivarius violins, which are immensely famous and it's worth millions of dollars. And he is just such a good violinist that he ends up almost being like a prodigy type figure of the violin industry. So he is going to this big competition and he's preparing for it. He keeps his violin on him 24/7. Like the case has a lock on it. Because he knows if I lose this, this is everything. And then he loses it. Well, to his credit, it gets stolen. I'm making him out to seem something he's not.
Annie Jones [00:23:55] Irresponsible?
Olivia [00:23:57] Yeah. It gets stolen from him. And this huge investigation starts to happen because the family that was like the slave owners of his grandfather start to claim that it was actually their violin. And there is like all this stuff happening, but he's just trying to get his violin back before this competition. It was so well done. The way he talks about playing the violin and the music that comes from it was -- I don't think I've ever read it and written like that. You just could really feel like how much he also loves -- the author, loves and appreciates this type of music. It was so good. I think I read it in almost one sitting because you just get absorbed into it.
Annie Jones [00:24:38] Yeah, you came to the store raving about it. My dad read and loved it. You know who I'm curious if they read it I want to know? Kate, who used to work at The Bookshelf. I don't know if she read it. Because she's a musicologist and she lives in North Carolina and I just wondered if she would enjoy this one. It sounds really good, and it sounds like the author kind of weaves his own expertise into it which I always find fascinating. I am very interested in this essay collection. It is called Cost of Living. It's by Emily Maloney. This is a book about navigating kind of both sides of our health care system. There was a collection of essays that came out a few years ago called the Empathy Exams. That's what this book kind of sounds a lot like to me.
[00:25:20] There are some content warnings, I think, for this book, because Emily tried to kill herself when she was 19 years old and she was released from the hospital but then was left with lots of exorbitant hospital bills. And I don't think we often talk about the literal cost of hospital stays, particularly mental health hospital stays and how you have to not only navigate your own mental health and advocating for yourself, but you also have to advocate things like paying the bills. And so, anyway, she writes about that personal experience. She ultimately becomes an emergency room technician. And so she writes these essays not only about being a patient in the health care system and navigating, yes, paying the bills, advocating for her own mental health.
[00:26:09] But she also is writing about being on the other side of the health care industry where she is a caregiver and she is somebody who is working in an emergency room and sees a lot of things. And what does that look like? So the essays range cover all of her personal experience, but they range from patient to caregiver, which I think is really interesting and would be especially interesting to read right now when I think a lot of people, maybe for the first time, are having to navigate the ins and outs of health care and hospital stays and insurance. And what does all of that look like and what does it look like from both perspectives, from the patient and from the caregiver? So I'm very curious about this book. It is called Cost of Living, which I think is a very clever title, and it's by Emily Maloney. It was out on February 8th.
Olivia [00:27:00] Awesome. My next book, I'm going back to middle grade novels and this is this is already out on February 1st. So far this book is in my favorite that I've read this year. I love it so much.
Annie Jones [00:27:13] Oh wow. Okay. High praise.
Olivia [00:27:15] Yeah, but this is Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee. And it's about Maizy Chen and how she goes to stay with her grandparents in last chance Minnesota. And basically because her grandfather has fallen ill and her mother has like a rough relationship with her grandparents or with her parents, Maizy's grandparents, so she finally goes home to go stay the summer with them. They kind of help out, see what they can do medical wise to help with their grandparents. But their grandparents own this Chinese food restaurant. In this book, you get to meet some of the customers that go to their restaurant regularly and the assumptions that maybe you put on them immediately, but then find out are false later on. So there's a lot of like what could be deemed as like heavy lesson learning in this book. But the way Lisa Yee has crafted it, it never felt like, "Oh, I'm supposed to learn that about people right now."
[00:28:15] It was just so well done in the way she told the story. Because Maizy ends up spending a lot of time with her grandpa who can't go into the restaurant anymore. So she's almost like his little babysitter. And while doing so, she'll let go sneak out and buy him lunch from this hot dog shop that his best friend owns. But they didn't talk for like years because her grandfather cheated at poker one time.
Annie Jones [00:28:42] Oh fun.
Olivia [00:28:43] So she'll sneak him hot dogs for lunch when he's not supposed to have it. And then he'll reward her with a story about her great grandfather and how he immigrated here and ended up in Last Chance, Minnesota. But there's also like this history of the paper sons of these Chinese immigrants who would come here claiming that they were the relatives of someone who already lived here just so they could legally be here. And so a lot of them ended up working at her grandparents restaurant, and so she starts to find their family members now and like piece together where they ended up after leaving their grandparents restaurant. It was so good. The chapters are like maybe at max four to five pages long, but most of them are like a page and a half, two pages, which I think is why it never felt like heavy on morals because you're moving on so quickly and so much is happening. But Maizy is just like this adorable character that you can't help but love, and so is her grandpa. It was such a good story.
Annie Jones [00:29:53] Oh, it sounds charming. And I love books about grandparents and grandkids.
Olivia [00:29:58] Yeah. She takes over writing the fortunes for the fortune cookies in the restaurant, but she writes them right before they give them to them. So she'll watch them eat and then see like, oh, maybe they need to learn this lesson, or maybe they need to hear this compliment today.
Annie Jones [00:30:15] Oh my God.
Olivia [00:30:16] And so she starts this little like fortune-telling revolution. It's adorable. I can't speak highly enough about it.
Annie Jones [00:30:23] Oh my gosh. Okay, I might have to read that one. My next one is a book that I actually think you might be interested in, and so if I finish the ARC I'll bring it back to The Bookshelf. It's called Cherish Farrah. It's by Bethany C. Morrow. I brought this home because you might recognize Bethany Morrow's name from the Little Women remix called So Many Beginnings, which was probably one of my favorite historical fiction titles I read last year. I loved that book so much. It was a Y.A. kind of reconfiguration of the story of Little Women set up kind of late Civil War, post-Civil War era about a black family in America. So I picked this one up. This is totally different. This is called Cherish Farrah, and it's a horror story. So it's an adult novel, and I see it being described as like a suspense, but I think based on the description and based on the tone of what I've read so far, to me, it would be more horror than suspense thriller.
[00:31:24] Now, I could be wrong about that. But there are a lot of comparisons being made -- although this happens a lot with publishers, but there are a lot of comparisons being made to get out. To me, it sounds like the book The Other Black Girl that came out last year that I think you really liked. So, anyway, this is about a young woman named Farrah. She's 17 years old. She lives in like a predominantly white kind of country club esque community. She has one other black girl who's her friend. There's like one other black girl in this community. Her name is Cherish. Cherish is a black girl, but she has been adopted by a wealthy white family, so she lives kind of this upper crust white American lifestyle, and Farrah frequently kind of makes fun of her for it, teases her for it. And the book begins with Farrah -- that Farrah and Cherish have been friends for a really long time, but Farrah asks to live with Cherish's family.
[00:32:16] Like, something has happened in her own family and so she asks to live with Cherish and her white parents. And Farrah begins kind of ingratiating herself and kind of conforming herself, I guess, to fit into this family. And I've not gotten very far, but like all that I've read so far there is just this underlying sense of dread because you just know this isn't going to end well. And it's talking a lot obviously about race, but also about class in America and then about the complications of friendship. I am very curious how this turns out and what the sense of dread I feel turns into. Because I definitely feel the suspense but I don't know yet where it is leading. So this is called Cherish Farrah. It's by Bethany C. Morrow. Completely different from her previous work So Many Beginnings. But equally, thus far, equally well written and interesting and compelling. Cherish Farrah by Bethany Morrow out on February 8th.
Olivia [00:33:15] That sounds right up my alley.
Annie Jones [00:33:18] Yes, I said I'll have it literally here for you. So I will bring it back.
Olivia [00:33:21] I'll will take it. My next one is a picture book that is out on February 8th. But this is not a sequel, but just a continuation of her original picture book, In a jar. It's by Deborah Marcero. I believe we sent it out as a picture book shelf subscription when it did come out. You might remember the cover.
Annie Jones [00:33:46] Yes. Yes. I wondered if this was her.
Olivia [00:33:50] It's gorgeous. Every illustration in this book is like absolutely gorgeous.
Annie Jones [00:33:53] It's beautiful.
Olivia [00:33:54] And my mother, if you're listening, I believe you did buy it. So don't worry.
Annie Jones [00:33:59] I think she did.
Olivia [00:34:00] I think so. But like in the first one, you meet Llewellyn, this little rabbit who likes collecting things in his jars, and then he meets this friend who also does the same thing, but she moves away, but they find they can collect things together even when apart. Now, when we meet Llewellyn, instead of like collecting things, he's putting his emotions into jars because he just feels them so heavily and so much. And then he feels like he's either overexcited and kids don't like that or he's too angry, and grown-ups are getting frustrated with him. So he just puts his emotions into these jars and puts them in the closet. And then the closet fills up, the emotions all burst out, and Llewellyn just kind of realizes that he can feel these emotions and that's okay. And he learns to, like, have the courage to kind of embrace every emotion, that he can feel happy and sad at the same time and worried and excited at the same time. And that's that's okay as long as he, like, embraces it fully and then he can move forward. It was, again, so well done. A lesson that I think maybe a lot of kids could use even if they don't realize it. Just that like it's okay to have those emotions.
Annie Jones [00:35:16] A lot of grown-ups could use that too.
Olivia [00:35:20] Yeah. But it's the same type of illustrations. It's gorgeous, just like the first one.
Annie Jones [00:35:25] My next book is Good Enough. This is co-written by Kate Bowler. I started with an excerpt from this book at the top of the episode. It's co-written by Kate Bowler and then her podcast producer, Jessica Richie. So they wrote this book together. It is a collection of -- I think the title literally says 40-ish reflections. So 40 or more reflections. And it's all about kind of making sense of the messiness of life. And as of this recording, we are smack dab in season three of a pandemic. I am not amused with season three. Felt like I really handled season one and season two pretty well, but feel like season three is kicking my butt a little bit. And so I like this idea that this is a collection. And Kate Bowler is a professor of divinity at Duke University, and she is writing from primarily Christian perspective. So keep that in mind. But her book No Care for Being Human and Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved, I think can be enjoyed by people on all sides and spectrums of the spirituality spectrum.
[00:36:30] So she is writing from a Christian perspective, but I do think her her writing is enjoyable no matter kind of where you find yourself. I like that this is going to be like little snippets, blessings, kind of daily reflection. So it's not something you have to read all in one sitting. I devoured No Care for Being Human in I'm pretty sure two or three hours. And so I kind of like the idea that I could sit with Kate Bowler and Jessica Ritchie's words for a little bit and just read an excerpt every day. This releases on February 15th. I love the blessings that I've seen Kate Bowler post on Instagram. You can follow her on Instagram if you're curious about kind of what her writing style looks like and what this book might look like. It is called Good Enough. It's by Kate Bowler and Jessica Ritchie out on February 15th.
Olivia [00:37:12] Not to ignore the book you just talked about, but I really liked referring to this year as season three.
Annie Jones [00:37:17] The season three of this. And Jordan and I saw some Instagram. I think it was joy the baker, I don't know if you follow her. She's a delight. She was like, "We're in the middle of a panini," and panin is now the only way Jordan and I talk about the pandemic. Like, we're in season three of a panini and we are at our wit's end.
Olivia [00:37:38] Yeah. Well, it's like when you're watching a TV show and they get to the third season, you're like, someone forgot to create content for this.
Annie Jones [00:37:45] Yes, that's what it feels like. It feels like, you know what, we persevered season one and two, that was all about adrenaline. It was all about pivoting. And now what's season three about? Like hiding in a hole in my bedroom?
Olivia [00:37:56] We are just repeating.
Annie Jones [00:37:57] Yeah, we've repeated the plot elements from season one.
Olivia [00:38:01] Yeah, we're done. We move forward now.
Annie Jones [00:38:02] Yeah.
Olivia [00:38:04] Okay, my next book is -- I think this is new for me because my reading life has changed because this is going monthly now, but I am reading a paperback release. It's called The Verifiers by Jane Peck, and it's out on February 22nd and I am loving it. Absolutely loving it. But this is about a girl named Claudia who works at this company Verocity. And they do basically like fact checking on people, on matchmaking websites. So like clients come to them and they're like, "Hey, I've been seeing this person. I don't know if they're fully telling the truth. Can you look into it?" And so they do. They like detective work follow these people around and figure out if they're lying.
Annie Jones [00:38:44] That sounds like a fun game.
Olivia [00:38:45] Right?
Annie Jones [00:38:46] Yeah.
Olivia [00:38:46] Claudia got the job because she played this online murder mystery game, and she solved it so quickly that the head, the CEO of Voracity, was like, you're hired. That's how she got the job. So they get this client who the first guy she has them look into. It's just that they have weird conversations of veracity is basically just like, I don't know, like, we can't really disprove anything because he hasn't given much like personal information. And then she's like, all right, well, there's a second guy. So they look into the second guy and they find some stuff that he was lying about. But then the client goes missing and her sister turns up and she was like, "Hey, you met with my sister, who used my name as an alias to get you to look into these two guys and now I want to know why."
Annie Jones [00:39:37] Interesting.
Olivia [00:39:39] It's so good. And then in between all of this, you see Claudia's life because she's the youngest of three kids and they had like a complicated family history. But like being the youngest, I felt so seen through Claudia's world. was just like, "Oh, it was just so well done." And the conversations that she has with her older brother and sister, I was laughing aloud and I don't do that at books. They were just so genuine. And so like, yes, this is exactly how siblings treat each other with no regard for feelings, just like calling it as you see it. It was. It was so good. It is so good.
Annie Jones [00:40:21] It sounds really good. And I like that you're being able -- because we're often reaching for shelf subscriptions, we don't often get to read paperback originals, but I kind of like that you found one.
Olivia [00:40:30] I know, and it's really good. I believe it's her debut novel again.
Annie Jones [00:40:34] My next one is called This Here Flesh. This is by Cole Arthur Riley. I follow Cole's Instagram account called @blackliturgies. I highly recommend it . Again, if you are a Christian, if you're spiritual, she just writes these beautiful prayers. These beautiful liturgies often from the perspective -- always from the perspective of a black person. But she's also dealing with the fraught nature of air quotes, "racial reconciliation" injustice in our world. She just writes so, so, beautifully. So she's got this Instagram called black liturgies. And then now she has an essay collection out called This Here Flesh. So this is not like -- if you recall last fall, I love this book called Prayers for the People, and it was by Terry Stokes. He had a great Instagram account. That book is literally Terry's prayers. Like it is literally just the Instagram account, you know, in book form. This is very different.
[00:41:31] This is not black liturgies in book form. This is actually Cole Arthur Riley's personal story about kind of growing up in America, growing up black in America, what that experience was like. And it's personal essays and stories alongside more spiritual reflections. So it kind of reads like an intimate kind of coming of age story. I have loved what I've read so far. You talked about Family Chao having this gorgeous cover. If we're just selling books based on covers, this cover is so beautiful. It's got like this gold element. It's just gorgeous. And I'm really excited to get to read more of Cole Arthur Riley because I feel like I've seen their experiences and their writings on Instagram, but that's a pretty narrow format. And to now get to see their writing on full display and to get to see their personal essays and their personal story, I think it's going to be really gratifying and interesting. It is called This Here flesh by Cole Arthur Riley, out on February 22nd.
Olivia [00:42:30] My last book is The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart, and it's out on February 22nd. And this one is by the author of The Warehouse, which I read last year, I want to say. And I thought Jamie Golden did too, but I could be mistaken.
Annie Jones [00:42:49] Was that just last year?
Olivia [00:42:51] I thought so. No. Was it?
Annie Jones [00:42:55] I feel like you read that book forever ago. And if that was last year, I am going to lose it because that will mean... I'm looking it up. Is it called The Warehouse?
Olivia [00:43:06] The Warehouse. Basically, that one's about like if Amazon took over the world what it would look like, and it was nuts.
Annie Jones [00:43:16] You loved it. It came out August 2019.
Olivia [00:43:19] Okay. All right. Thanks.
Annie Jones [00:43:22] We're fine. Time means nothing.
Olivia [00:43:28] Again, the past two years have been two days.
Annie Jones [00:43:31] It's really compressed.
Olivia [00:43:33] Yeah. So this one is again right up my alley. Rob Hart must have looked into my dreams. But this is about the Paradox Hotel, which is this like time travel hotel for the ultra wealthy society. They go here to like time travel and attend these fancy parties all the time. And so they're head security guard -- I don't know if it is male or female or between, I'm not sure. The name is just January Cole, so we're going to go with the pronoun they for now. But they found a dead body in one of the hotel rooms, but the door was locked. So no one knows how they got in, like a very classic murder mystery set up, but only January can see the body. No one else can see this body. And right as she finds the body is when all these important super elite guests start showing up because the hotel is about to privatize time travel with the US government. So she's there like, obviously, this is all connected in some way, but they don't know how because as they're trying to solve this mystery, their mind is is basically losing it because of how much time travel. If anyone else reads time travel books like I do, they know it can really mess with one's mind.
Annie Jones [00:44:57] The logistics of time travel really mess with you.
Olivia [00:45:04] It's crazy. So I'm pretty excited about this, but I'm definitely going to pick it up and read it.
Annie Jones [00:45:08] It does sound like it was literally made in a lab for you.
Olivia [00:45:11] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:45:14] My last book is called The Swimmers. This is by a Julie Otsuka. It comes out on February 22nd. This book sounds so weird. It's going to sound weird. It is so good. And I don't even -- I can't quite put my finger on why it is good, except that it's beautifully written and just so unusual. So the book is called The Swimmers. It is about a group of recreational swimmers, and a crack appears at the bottom of their public pool. And so they don't get to -- they all kind of become obsessed. They don't get to swim in the pool like they have been doing for the last weeks, months, years. And so the first half of this relatively short book is really about the swimmers. And nobody is really the main character. It's just kind of about this collective group. And then you get little glimpses at each of their personalities and what the crack in the bottom of the pool brings out of each of their personalities.
[00:46:13] Then the second half of the book does take one of those swimmers who swims and has been swimming for years, but partially at her old age swims to help with her dementia. And so the second half of the book is about this woman and her daughter or granddaughter caring for her. So like the first half is this kind of interesting, almost short story weirdly or like novella about these recreational swimmers. And then the second half is about one of those swimmers and her dementia and then her daughter or granddaughter caring for her. And so it's a lot about caregiving, end of life. This book is so profoundly beautiful and unique and odd. The only thing that I was like, "What does this remind me of," was it reminded me a little bit of the book Brood, which, if ya'll recall, was relatively short in length, was about a woman who raises chickens. She goes unnamed, like the narrator, goes unnamed.
[00:47:09] Then you realize the book isn't really about chickens, it's really about her struggles with infertility and motherhood. And that is how The Swimmers is a book about swimmers. But then it's really a book about caregiving and loss and grief. So I adore this book. It is out on February 22nd. You could finish it in an afternoon if you really put your mind to it. Like it's not very long, but it packs a punch. Like, there is so much happening here that I really love. So that is The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka, and that's it. Those are the books for February. We did it.
Olivia [00:47:44] Yeah, lots of good ones.
Annie Jones [00:47:45] So many good ones. So if you were listening to this and there was a title you were interested in purchasing, you can go to the link in our show notes or just visit bookshelfthomasville.com. And at checkout just enter the code "New release please." you get 10 percent off your order. All of that information can be found in the show notes. Thank you, Olivia.
Olivia [00:48:04] Thank you.
Annie Jones [00:48:05] This week, I'm reading The Many Daughters of Afong Moy by Jamie Ford. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:48:11] I am finishing up The Verifiers by Jane Pek.
Annie Jones [00:48:17] From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf daily happenings on Instagram @bookshelftville. And all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website:
[00:48:34] bookshelfthomasville.com.
[00:48:37] A full transcript of today's episode can be found at:.
[00:48:40] fromthefrontporchpodcast.com.
[00:48:43] 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.
[00:49:00] If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, leave us 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 up From the Front Porch, scroll until you see, "Write a Review" and tell us what you think.
[00:49:18] Or, if you're so inclined, support us for $5 a month on Patreon, where you can follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic and as I participate in live video Q&A is in our monthly lunch break sessions. Just go to:
[00:49:31] Patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
[00:49:35] We're so grateful for you and we look forward to meeting back here next week.