Episode 446 || Spooky Book Flights
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie, Olivia, and Packaging/Shelf Subscription Coordinator Keila create Spooky Book Flights! Book flights are a stack of three books curated around a certain theme or topic. Today, they’re choosing books with eerie vibes to help you celebrate the season.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website (you can type “episode 446” into the search bar and tap enter to find the books mentioned in this episode):
Annie's Spooky Book Flight - $83.98
Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon
Olivia's Spooky Book Flight - $75.98
Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher
Cold People by Tom Rob Smith
Mister Magic by Kiersten White
Keila's Spooky Book Flight - $74.00
The September House by Carissa Orlando
A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia! If it’s time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we’re exactly what you’re looking for! You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There’s no better getaway than Thomasville! Whether you live close by or are passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia – it’s worth the trip! Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
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 Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Olivia is reading The Professor by Lauren Nossett. Keila is reading Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.
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...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O’Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.
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]
“They will call you hysterical no matter how much dignity you have. So you might as well do whatever the hell you want.” ― Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women
[as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I’m discussing spooky book flights with Bookshelf Operations Manager Olivia Schaffer and Shelf Subscription and Packaging Coordinator Keila Cone. Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? Spread the word by leaving a review on Apple podcasts. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think.
Here’s a recent review from Kristen: Refreshing podcast Absolutely love this podcast! I find myself waiting with anticipation each week for the next episode. Annie and her variety of guests and hosts offer honest & thoughtful insights on all things books. It’s sweet, charming, refreshing and all around lovely. I truly feel like I’m sitting on a front porch, sipping tea, listening to friends discussing their latest reads. Keep it coming!
Thank you, Kristen, and thank you to all of the reviewers who’ve left kind words and thoughtful reviews about the show. We’re so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends; thanks for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore.
Annie Jones [00:01:34] Now back to the show. Hi, guys.
Keila [00:01:51] Hi.
Olivia [00:01:51] Hello.
Annie Jones [00:01:52] Hello. We are here. We're here to talk about spooky books. So Olivia is back on the show and then Keila. Welcome back.
Keila [00:02:01] I'm really excited.
Annie Jones [00:02:02] We're so glad to have you. Was the last time you were here for spooky reads?
Keila [00:02:06] I think so. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:02:08] It's like your annual tradition.
Keila [00:02:11] It's my favorite tradition.
Annie Jones [00:02:12] It's your favorite time of year, right? This is your favorite time of year, right? I'm not making that up
Keila [00:02:17] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:02:19] You are our resident spooky expert, so it felt right to bring you in back for today's episode. If you are a new listener, we occasionally do these book flight episodes where we pair a few books together on a theme. Everything we're going to be talking about today is spooky, though various definitions of that word. Olivia I know Kayla and I love scary movies and stuff this time of year, but you stick to books, is that right?
Olivia [00:02:45] Yeah. I don't do scary movies. It's the visualization of it. I don't really picture a lot in my head as I'm reading, so it's fine. But I don't want to see something scary happening. I also don't want to read true crime. That is also not my go to. I don't want to know it's actually real. I would rather be fictionalize.
Keila [00:03:09] That makes sense.
Annie Jones [00:03:10] Yeah, I get that. I even struggled with this category a little bit because I was like, well, I wanted it to be spooky. But then I thought, but I do really like suspenseful things. And so that's kind of the word that I kept coming back to. But we're going to talk about it today. True crime is a little complicated as are all the things we like and enjoy.
Olivia [00:03:30] Yeah. We like a good gray area.
Annie Jones [00:03:37] Okay, so here's how this is going to work. I'll kick us off. We'll each do round robin like we do for our new release episodes, Then at the end we'll give a recap of each of our flights. As a listener, you are encouraged to kind of DIY and make your own book flights if you want. You can go to the Bookshelf website and type 446 into the search bar where Erin has each of our book flights listed and then also the books in that book flights. You can create your own flight if you want. Let's get started. I'll go first. My book flight theme, other than being spooky reads, is "Is true crime problematic? How can we fix it?"
Olivia [00:04:15] What an Annie theme.
Keila [00:04:17] But how can we fix this? How can we fix true crime?
Annie Jones [00:04:20] Super fun category. Definitely on brand. Look, Olivia and I both read the first book in my book flight. It released this month.
Olivia [00:04:32] I think the beginning of this month on the third.
Annie Jones [00:04:36] Yes. Right. Okay. So my first book is Kill Show. This is by Daniel Sweren-Becker. Part of what I immediately like about this book is as much as I love this time of year, as much as I love seasonal reading, spooky reading, I also have to acknowledge that this is the time of year when we get really busy at the Bookshelf, and so it feels like I can't focus on very much like my brain is going a million miles a minute in different directions. And what I really liked immediately about Kill Show is how thin it is. So it is a short book that on the front says Kill Show: A True Crime Novel. And at first when I started reading this, it read very much like true crime. I kept having to flip to the front of the book to remind myself, Oh, this is fiction. This isn't real. This is about the fictional disappearance of a young woman named Sara. And the entire book is told through interviews as a podcast and true crime documentary kind of goes back and looks at the disappearance of Sara decades prior. So what I like about this is as somebody who grew up watching and maybe this is my obsession with suspenseful and occasional true crime things now is I grew up watching Dateline. Like, I grew up watching Dateline on Friday nights, and I like that this is showing the after effects of something like that, the consequences of something like that. What happens when the nation or a part of the nation becomes obsessed with a case, in this case, a missing young woman, and then years later kind of delves into the obsession and what really happened to her family, to her friends, and the ripple effects of her disappearance.
[00:06:15] But not only her disappearance, but the obsession with her disappearance. This book is really enjoyable to me as a fictional kind of suspenseful whodunit thriller. But I also think Daniel Sweren-Becker is trying to teach us a lesson. I don't think he beats us over the head with it. I don't think it's too in-your-face like some of these books can get. But I think he is quietly trying to show us like, hey, there are some consequences to your obsession with true crime podcasts or documentaries or things like that. And I appreciate that because I still do occasionally find myself drawn to that genre, and I sometimes want to investigate why that is. And I think this book does a good job of it. It most reminded me of another book that Olivia and I both liked called The Appeal, which was told in kind of this epistolary emails, text messages, that kind of format, which again lends to really quick reading. So if you're looking for a book that is going to jump start spooky season, I think this would be a good one because of the format, because of the length and because of the storytelling and subject matter. So that is Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker. The first in my "Is true crime problematic" book flight.
Olivia [00:07:31] You forgot the last part. How can we fix it?
Keila [00:07:34] That's important.
Annie Jones [00:07:37] Is true crime problematic, how can we fix it? That's correct. And that's a really important part. My my one woman quest.
Olivia [00:07:44] Here she goes again. My favorite part of Kill Show is that I didn't pick it up because I saw a true crime. You picked it up because you saw true crime on the cover of it. And then you're like, but it's a novel. And I was like, Oh, okay.
Annie Jones [00:07:59] Yes, totally.
Olivia [00:08:00] And then I picked it.
Annie Jones [00:08:01] Yeah, I picked it up thinking it was going to be like investigative journalism. And then when it wasn't, I really enjoyed it. I liked it, but I thought, oh, maybe Olivia will like this. And you were hesitant. And then I quickly explained, but it's fiction. And you were like, oh, okay.
Olivia [00:08:15] Yeah. Oh, okay. But hyper realistic? great.
Annie Jones [00:08:21] But it didn't really happen though.
Keila [00:08:26] Okay. My book flight, I have deemed this "The things that probably should not have come to life. Spooky reads." That's all.
Annie Jones [00:08:35] That's good. I love it.
Olivia [00:08:36] We'll get to the probably later on, but this one for sure come to life. My first book is Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher. I think I talked about new releases when this came out like a year or two ago now-- a year ago, for sure. I love this author. First of, Hero: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World. And then this was his second book not related to that one. And it's set on this little island off the coast of Scotland. They called it like a Scottish Isle. So that's my assumption.
Annie Jones [00:09:07] I think that's right.
Olivia [00:09:08] It feels same
Annie Jones [00:09:08] Yeah, I think you intuited that correctly.
Olivia [00:09:12] Geography is not like my thing thing. But the whole book is set over the course of 24 hours, which I love and I know Annie loves as well because it just sets up for this like fast paced plot. And the characters are all super vivid. They just want this quiet life on this tiny little remote island that's pretty disconnected from a lot of Internet, TV news, that kind of thing. But one day someone hits this old statue with their boat and in doing so, they didn't realize that they activated this really ancient waterborne curse. And so all these things start happening, but you get it from different points of views of different people on the island. So while some people are like actively dealing with what's going on, other people have yet to find out that this is happening on the island. So the suspense in this book is just so well done. You're just on the edge of your seat the entire time. And the characters are not only dealing with like their everyday life, but like some past and like some secrets that are now coming to Earth as well. It was really well done. I really like this author Steve Fletcher. I think he's great and he knows how to write a good story. So that's Dead Water.
Annie Jones [00:10:29] That sounds really fun. Years ago I read a totally different but I read The Essex Serpent, which was kind of like about this mysterious creature, and it wound up going perhaps in like a more literary direction than in really being about the creature itself. But I love books set kind of in Scotland. I don't know. I've never been there. So it feels very romantic in my mind, like on the Moors kind of thing. Like I just feel like I can picture it in my head.
Olivia [00:10:56] Yeah. I wouldn't have known that it was set in Scotland. I think the curse had to do with some Scottish history, if I'm not mistaken. Like is Viking the wrong era person?
Annie Jones [00:11:10] I feel like Vikings are somewhere else.
Olivia [00:11:12] Are they Iceland?
Annie Jones [00:11:12] No.
Keila [00:11:15] Nordic. They're something.
Olivia [00:11:19] I shouldn't have asked this question, I'm so sorry everyone.
Annie Jones [00:11:23] People are yelling into their phones, or the radio in their car.
Olivia [00:11:29] But if they didn't say the Scottish isle, I wouldn't have known it was Scotland. But it is set in this humid, small island.
Annie Jones [00:11:38] Like a small town.
Olivia [00:11:39] Yes, that is very felt in the novel.
Annie Jones [00:11:44] All right. Okay, Keila, what's your book flight?
Keila [00:11:47] Okay, so my book flight is kind of like a spooky meal. You have your appetizer, the entree that you're looking forward to the most and your little dessert at the end.
Annie Jones [00:12:01] I love it.
Keila [00:12:01] Fresh from all the spooky books. But my first book is September House by Carissa Orlando. It's a haunted house book. I love haunted house books. But Margaret and her husband move into their dream home, a large Victorian mansion. And it's like a really low price, like suspiciously low. They move in and they soon find out why, and it's because it's haunted and the walls start to drip blood. The ghosts of the former inhabitants show up there screaming. My favorite is Fredricka. She's just this chill ghost who is like serving tea. She just likes to drink tea. She does have an ax in her head, but it's okay we can look past that. But that's not a spoiler. But there's also something very sinister about the basement. Like they have it boarded up. They are like, we're not going in there. And one day her husband's like, I can't take this anymore. I've got to go. So he leaves and he doesn't tell them. And their adult daughter has been trying to reach him. And she's like, mom, I can't find dad. I can't get a hold of them. And she comes to the house at the worst possible time. And it's in September when the house is at-- like the hauntings are at the highest. Like, they're really going crazy and having haunting parties, which kind of sounds fun. I'm not going to lie. So she's convinced her dad is missing and she doesn't know that the house is haunted because she never lived there. And her mom's like, no, don't come. And so, eventually, this mother and daughter have to come together and work together to find out what actually happened to the husband and her dad. So that house has a lot of secrets. There's a lot of history. It was really, really interesting and so well done. And I loved it. It was so much fun.
Annie Jones [00:14:02] Okay. How does this compare to-- years ago I read Mexican Gothic. Spoiler, fast forward. I'm about to talk about Mexican Gothic. Didn't that house have a fungus or a mold?
Keila [00:14:17] It did. Yeah, it was mushrooms.
Annie Jones [00:14:21] Yes. Mushrooms. So how does this compare to something like that.
Keila [00:14:31] It's very different because the Mexican Gothic was very atmospheric. And this one, the house is almost a character of its own, but it doesn't feel as unsettling. It doesn't have that feeling of dread as much as Mexican Gothic did. I mean, it is creepy. And you're like, yeah, the walls are dripping with blood. And that is an unsettling feeling. I mean, I'd be really weirded out if that started happening. But it's just a very different feel. It's more like in your face.
Annie Jones [00:15:05] I think I might prefer that. We've talked about this before. I do think I struggle with Gothic literature in general. I don't think that's my vibe. And so Mexican Gothic, I wound up not loving. I think the story was good, but I think I might prefer, like, in-your-face blood on the walls. I mean, if we're going to go there.
Keila [00:15:24] In your face. Blood on the walls. On your face.
Annie Jones [00:15:32] I am curious for both of you, if there was a home that was ridiculously inexpensive and you begged your realtor to kind of tell you, and they were like, oh, well, there are rumors that this was haunted. Or even at minimum, they were like, oh, somebody died in this house. Would you still buy the house?
Keila [00:15:53] Well, I'd call exorcist, but I don't know if I would actually. Okay. I mean, yes, I would love to live in a haunted house, but deep down actually, no.
Olivia [00:16:08] Yeah, I think I'd buy it. I don't believe in ghosts, so that wouldn't concern me. And someone having died in it beforehand, I'm kind of like most houses for resale I'm sure someone has died in.
Annie Jones [00:16:19] Violent death?
Keila [00:16:21] Well, it happens.
Olivia [00:16:23] Possibly happened. Their dead.
Annie Jones [00:16:26] I don't know. I have thought about this. Jordan and I talk about this all the time. Like, would we buy a house that like... No, absolutely not. I believe houses have bad juju.
Keila [00:16:37] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:16:38] No, I believe houses, like people, carry things with them. And so I think you can feel when a house was not the happy house. Like, I think you can tell.
Keila [00:16:48] Do you believe in ghosts?
Olivia [00:16:49] I don't
Annie Jones [00:16:50] I don't know. I've not thought about it much. I don't think so. I'd like to be scared. Like, one time I was driving downtown Montgomery, Alabama, and I could swear there was a figure on the front porch, and I made Jordan turn the car around. But then we never saw anything. I like to be scared, like to think, oh, my gosh, there's a ghost. But I don't know that I really believe in ghosts. But I do believe in bad juju.
Keila [00:17:15] It's like the Bigfoot.
Annie Jones [00:17:17] Yeah, that I do believe in. Maybe not those literal like axe in your head or like nearly [inaudible] or like Moaning Myrtle or something. I don't know if I believe in ghosts, but I definitely believe in bad vibes.
Keila [00:17:28] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:17:31] Okay, well, back to my real life terrors [inaudible]. Okay. The next book I want to talk about is a book that also recently released, but I read it a few months ago. And I'm glad I read it kind of on my own. I was so curious about it. It is Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. You might recognize Jessica Knoll from the book Luckiest Girl Alive. She has written several super popular thriller suspense novels, and I hadn't really loved any of them. But this one came in in the mail at the Bookshelf. And I realized it was fiction based on the crimes Ted Bundy committed, particularly in Tallahassee at the FSU sorority house. And I grew up in Tallahassee. I think we've probably talked about this before, maybe on the last spooky podcast episode, but I think everybody has like a crime or a murder that happened in their hometown that they think about a lot. Honestly, I could name you three in Tallahassee that I feel like I grew up hearing about, or even one that happened in my adulthood. And this is definitely one of them. My mom came of age in the seventies, so I was super curious how this was going to be handled. We've gotten a lot of Ted Bundy content over the last few years. I believe Zac Efron played Ted Bundy. I think we got a documentary. And a lot of those really play up Ted Bundy's like handsome charm, he was so smart, how did he get away with this because he infamously escaped prison? All of these things.
[00:19:16] So I think Jessica Knoll really intended to correct some of the modern conversation around Ted Bundy. And I think for the most part, she succeeded. I think this is the best book she's written. I actually thought the storytelling was excellent like of her suspense novels. I think this is the best one as a Tallahassee resident, as somebody who grew up knowing about this story, whose mom very much was terrified by Ted Bundy. I was also curious if this would be able to be held in a not sensational way. So I think Jessica Knoll really did a good job of centering the victims voices. We have two women at the heart of the story, Pamela and Tina. It's obviously set in the seventies. I couldn't tell, maybe I need to do more Googling, but it seems like Jessica Knoll probably really did visit Tallahassee and do a lot of research. It feels very realistic to Tallahassee like she really did drive around and identify the landmarks. One of the things that became a pet peeve for me as a reader, but other readers might I think have appreciated, is that Jessica Knoll never names Ted Bundy. And that's kind of the thing. Even on the back of the book, you never really see his name. Instead, she kind of I think in an effort to center the victims, she never comes out and names who he is.
[00:20:40] I don't know if that worked for me or not, because you know who it is. You immediately start reading and you know who this book is about. But do I think she did a good job of finally maybe putting to rest some of the rumors that Ted Bundy was some criminal wunderkind, like mastermind, like he was so handsome, he was so charming, he could get away with anything. And I think she really did kind of dig deep into that and reframed that in an important way and instead really framed all of the women he victimized were bright young women with beautiful futures ahead of them. And why did he pick them? And so, anyway, I think that this book is worth trying. I know some of my Tallahassee friends were a little hesitant to read this one, and I totally understand why. But I think for the most part, Jessica Knoll did what she set out to do. And if you don't have any qualms about reading true crime or fictionalized true crime, then this one is a very well-written part of the genre, addition to the genre. So that's Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll. Ashley, listen to this one because Sutton Foster narrates it, which we were like, that is a fascinating choice. Was it good audiobook Keila?
Keila [00:21:54] It was really good.
Annie Jones [00:21:55] So, anyway, it might be worth listening to as well.
Olivia [00:21:57] I think that's where I draw my line on fictionalized true crime. Because that might be a little ethereal for me.
Annie Jones [00:22:05] Well, yeah, because it is real. It's not like Kill Show. Kill Show is fictional. I mean, it could be real, but, Kill Show is totally fictional. But this, to me, is more of a true crime novel than Sill show, because it really was like a real crime and a real criminal and very real victims. And so you want to make sure they're not being re-victimized by this storytelling.
Keila [00:22:30] That's what I liked, that she didn't name him. Because I really like that aspect of it, that she didn't name Ted Bundy because in so much true crime it feels like they're glorified. And Ted Bundy was not attractive at all. I mean, they're lying. They've got to be lying.
Annie Jones [00:22:51] I think it's probably by comparison or something like. Do you know what I mean?
Keila [00:22:56] Compared to like...
Annie Jones [00:22:58] Like if you're only looking at serial killers.
Keila [00:23:01] Yeah. I really felt like she did a good job giving a name to the victims and their stories and not focusing on him.
Olivia [00:23:09] That was a really good pairing, Annie. Great job.
Keila [00:23:10] That's really good.
Annie Jones [00:23:13] Thank you. Thank you so much. Is true crime problematic? I don't know. Let's fix it.
Keila [00:23:18] Probably.
Olivia [00:23:18] Probably.
Annie Jones [00:23:21] Let's try something.
Keila [00:23:23] Okay, well, back to things that probably should not have come alive. We move on to Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. I read this one I think at the beginning of this year, and it was excellent. It reads like a movie. I really want HBO to pick it up and do like a mini series on it, or just make it a whole series. I'd watch a whole series. I feel like other people would too. This is about the world when it is technically like aliens that come down, but it's not like don't dwell on the alien part of this description in this book. So aliens come down and they give everyone on Earth this ultimatum, make it to an Antarctica in the next 30 days or cease to live. I didn't know of a nice way to put that.
Annie Jones [00:24:08] Did the aliens put it nicely? Were the aliens nice about it or they were like "Or cease to live."
Olivia [00:24:17] You're going to expire.
Keila [00:24:20] They were nice about it. I tried to be. It didn't work. So you follow a set of characters. There's three parts to it and you follow those three characters paths as they make their way to Antarctica. And then at the same time, after they make it to Antarctica, it fast forwards I think 20 to 30 years where humans have now colonized Antarctica. They used a lot of the places that we already have scientific basis on as their starting points and moved forward. But it was it was really interesting because you got to see countries and cities determine who was worthy of making it to Antarctica in the first place. And that was sad but also fascinating. But then you move forward and after they have started colonizing, the one Antarctica base starts playing around with mixing human DNA with different animal DNA, specifically animals who are suited to be in cold weather, because at this point we can't survive on Antarctica, there's no way. And they have so far, but they're running out of resources because no one who leaves Antarctica ever comes back. So they're pretty much like this is all we got. We have the remainder of the ships that are just like left abandoned at the coast. And then we have ice and rock. And so they start mixing human DNA with animal DNA and they start creating this like whole new species of human, which is where we get to the probably should not come alive aspect of this because honestly, guys, I don't know. Maybe this was a great idea. Maybe this new human species is actually where we're headed. And that's probably a smart thing to do so that we can continue building our civilization. Because if we're space bound, like we do need to alter some parts of us. Anyway, back to the book.
Olivia [00:26:27] Okay.
Keila [00:26:33] Anyway, so this book deals with the people who are now like these higher species of humans kind of starting their take over of the human race because they're just like, well, we're suited for this, but you guys aren't. So you need us to survive here, but why do we need you? You offer us nothing. And you see this in multiple perspectives, and it's so well done. I slowed myself down while reading this book because I just wanted it to keep going and going and going. It was so good.
Annie Jones [00:27:02] It sounds like a really good X-Files episode to me.
Keila [00:27:07] It would be such a good X-Files episode. Yes, it deserves more than a 30 minute episode.
Annie Jones [00:27:13] Okay. I want to know because now I'm confused. So I've got to go back to one of my publisher orders and order Cold People because I had it confused to paperback edition because the paperback is coming out next year. I had it confused with some book that you read where you were furious and you got to the end and you were like, they never told me.
Olivia [00:27:34] Oh, the Thing in the Snow. It made me so mad.
Keila [00:27:41] That book was-- oh.
Annie Jones [00:27:44] Okay. So I had those titles. I had cold people and the thing in the snow confused.
Olivia [00:27:48] Did you read it?
Keila [00:27:49] I was very excited for that. But, yeah, I didn't finish it because you were so mad about [inaudible] and I just couldn't get through it.
Olivia [00:27:58] I was so mad about it. And, listen, maybe it was just like I was smarter than I was. That's very possible. Maybe I missed something in the book. But if you're going to name the book, The Thing in The Snow, and then you don't start investigating the thing in the snow until the very last page, I have an issue.
Annie Jones [00:28:16] I feel like that is fair, but it does feel like the set you up to know what the thing in the snow was.
Olivia [00:28:25] Anyway, it's Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. It's excellent.
Annie Jones [00:28:29] Okay, it does sound good.
Keila [00:28:31] So my second book is the thing you anticipate. Like your little entree anticipate. Because I've been looking forward to this book for a while. It is A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. It takes place in the same world as The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, one of my all time favorite books. Not just one of my all time favorite spooky books, but one of my all time favorite books in the world. So it takes place 60 years after the events of The Haunting of Hill House. And so history does what it does and it repeats itself. Polly is a playwright and she decides the best thing to help the actress get into character for her new play is to rent out a beautiful old mansion, and they all come and stay. And in true hill house fashion, crazy things start happening. One of the things I love most about the Haunting of Hill House is the first page and how unsettling and beautifully written it was. And it just grips you immediately. And I haven't finished this. I'm currently reading it and I am in love with it already. Like I'm annotating it and it will definitely be up on my shelf with The Haunting of Hill House. But the prologue of this, I read it and it was like Shirley Jackson wrote it and so it was beautiful. I just love it so much and I can't wait to see how this is going to play out and what's going to happen and if it's going to have the same like feeling of dread that The Haunting of Hill House did. And I need Mike Flanagan to read it and I need him to decide to make a show about it because I got to see it with the same characters as The haunting of Hill House. Like, they come back.
Annie Jones [00:30:28] You've already written it.
Keila [00:30:29] I'm planning. Let me get this number and we'll talk. We'll plan.
Annie Jones [00:30:34] Has Elizabeth handwritten anything else? Is this her first book she's written? I just recognized her name.
Keila [00:30:41] She wrote Hokuloa Road.
Annie Jones [00:30:49] Okay. I don't know. Just feel like it's in her name before. Well, that sounds like a book that was absolutely made for you. Like somebody in a lab was like, how can we get Keila to handsell this book? And it sounds like Elizabeth Hand handwrote it. Okay. The last book in my book flight is a little just ever so slightly different in that it's not trying to be true crime. It's not based on a true crime. But I think the things that Jessica Knoll was trying to do in Bright Young Women, I think, Clemence Michallon (it's French) I think she was also trying to do. And so The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon, this book I read it on a whim this summer. I don't know how you guys feel, but I love reading books in advance. I love reading advance reader copies. But there's also something about like occasionally picking up a book at The Bookshelf or when I'm out of town in another bookstore, and just reading it because I want to and alongside the rest of the world instead of in advance. I don't know. I bought the Quiet Tenant and it was just nice to read a book because I wanted to. And so, anyway, this is a French author who wanted to write a book in English. That's not a translation. She's French, but decided to write in English, which I cannot get over. And it's about a serial killer, but it's not really about the serial killer is about his victims and the women in his life. So the book is narrated in three women's voices his daughter, his girlfriend, and then the victim he still is keeping at the start of the book in the shed in the back of his home.
[00:32:27] So it very much reminded me of Emma Donoghue's Room, which was a book I loved, actually really loved the movie, too. But you get her perspective. And just like Keila was saying, a book that kind of starts and immediately fills you with dread or fills you with anticipation, this book started and I immediately was like, okay, I'm in it. Because you know that this young woman is in this shed and you want her desperately to get out. And no spoilers, but the man moves and buys a new home. And when he buys a new home, really as his M.O. has been previously, he should kill the woman in the shed. But she through some savvy brilliance, she winds up convincing him to take her with him. And so he winds up keeping her in a room in the new house he's bought. Is this implausible? Slightly. You do feel like this feels like not real or not something that could really happen. But he keeps her in a room in the house and then continues to go out in his community. And you, the reader, know in the community he's like beloved and everybody loves him and loves his daughter.
[00:33:39] And, anyway, the book is about the three women who deal the most directly with him. And instead of him-- I think his name's Adrien. Instead of Adrien becoming the center of the story, the women are the center of the story. And that's why it reminded me, and I thought it would be a good read along with bright young women. It also reminded me a little bit of notes on an execution, which I read years ago by Daniel Kukafka. I know not everybody loved that book, and some people had criticisms about that book. I loved it and I thought it was really thoughtful. Again, kind of trying to take these killers that for whatever reason, we become obsessed with, particularly in America, and we wind up remembering their names but not the names of their victims. And so I think a lot of these fiction writers are trying to grapple with that. So the Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon. I think that's how you pronounce it. I'm not really sure, but I really liked this book. I absolutely flew through it. It's deeply unsettling and interesting. And I think if you're looking for a sinister kind of suspenseful read, that should be on your list.
Keila [00:34:52] So is it a spoiler if-- does the daughter in your life know about this girl?
Annie Jones [00:34:59] They do not. That's no spoilers. They don't at first. And we'll leave it at that.
Keila [00:35:06] Okay. I have some questions later.
Annie Jones [00:35:09] Yes, I did at first too. I was like, this just isn't realistic. But as the book goes, I think she does a pretty good job of helping you suspend your disbelief and adding in like some realistic foils like his daughter and the girlfriend.
Olivia [00:35:27] I do want to read that one. It does sound really good and right up my alley.
Annie Jones [00:35:31] It was good. It was so fast too. You really do fly through it.
Olivia [00:35:34] Yeah, maybe I'll do December read. Okay. My last one is one I talked about recently on here. It's Mr. Magic by Kiersten White. I love Kiersten White. I think she's excellent. And this one was, well, I think one of my favorites by her. I really like Hide, but I really liked Mr. Magic because it was super creepy. This is about a children's show that it created like a cult around it when it was being filmed a while back. And it was these children, I think there was five or six of them, and they would be in this all black room and this man named Mr. Magic would kind of guide them through these like imaginary scenarios that they would create and the show would just appear before them. No one knew how it was made. No one ever saw Mr. Magic's face. Parents loved Mr. Magic because he would step in if the kids got unruly and just kind of like whisper in their ears and like [crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:36:39] So creepy.
Olivia [00:36:41] But then 30 years later, they're getting all of these children back together because the show is ended abruptly after a fire happened on the studio. And one of the girls was taken away by her father. They got all of the kids back together because there's going to be a podcast recorded about it. And so they all came back to the Mr. Magic House and they all start recording this podcast and they start finding out a lot about Mr. Magic because there is no evidence left of Mr. Magic happening. No one can find videos of it, like YouTube has nothing. And so everyone is kind of like, was this in my head or was it not? Everyone who listens to the podcast might remember my reference to Out of the Box.
Keila [00:37:28] I like that show.
Annie Jones [00:37:29] That's right.
Olivia [00:37:30] And Dylan knew because he added the music.
Annie Jones [00:37:33] Dylan knew. Thank goodness for our producer, Dylan.
Olivia [00:37:38] Made me feel not crazy, but I just thought this was so, so creepy and so good. Mr. Magic is the character that should probably not come alive in this book, if you were curious. That felt obvious but needed to be said.
Annie Jones [00:37:57] That's such a good theme for a trio of books.
Olivia [00:38:00] Thank you. I thought it was really fun.
Keila [00:38:04] It was really good. I loved it.
Annie Jones [00:38:07] Yeah, it was great.
Olivia [00:38:07] It was great. And the cover is amazing.
Annie Jones [00:38:10] The cover is fun.
Keila [00:38:12] Okay, so for my last book, I have very different from my first two. It's the desert. It's a romcom. It's My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine Okay. It's very out of my genre. But you know what? We're going with it. So Cassie has been evicted from her homes and is searching on Craigslist for a new place. She's having financial trouble, and she finds a very cheap room in a very good neighborhood. It's like $200 a month in this really nice part of Chicago. And she gets there because she's desperate and she takes it and she meets her ridiculously attractive roommate. And she's like, this guy's really attractive, but there's something off. Something's weird about him. Like, why is he sleeping all day and he's working at night? She thinks he might be a drug dealer or a pimp or something. Well, I said, I don't know if I could say pimp on the podcast. Anyways, so his name is Frederick Fitzwilliam. I love him so much. He is constantly overdressed. But, anyways, eventually she finds out, and we know from the title, that he's a vampire and he's so dumb. He doesn't know how everything works. He's in the modern world, but he doesn't even know how the internet works. He doesn't cook. He doesn't know how to. He doesn't know what parts to get. There's like this really cute scene where he goes to get pots and pans for her to cook and he calls her and he's like, do you like sauce? Because everybody is obsessed with these saucepans. I'm going to get you. And she's thinking he's joking. And he's like, I'm going to get some sauce pan. You seem to really like sauce. And so he comes back with way too many sauce pans. It's just fun. It's lighthearted. I laughed out loud, which takes a lot for me in a book I feel like. I feel like it's hard to make people laugh out loud in a book, but this one I did. And I've been shoving this down everyone's throat because I just loved it. I love Frederick. He's like a little puppy dog.
Annie Jones [00:40:35] Is this like the romcom version of Southern Book Clubs Guide to Slaying Vampire? What was the name of that book that we all read?
Keila [00:40:43] Southern--
Annie Jones [00:40:44] I got it.
Keila [00:40:45] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:40:45] Is it like that at all, or is it not sinister at all?
Keila [00:40:49] Well, okay, there might be a little bit of sinisterness, but not from Frederick.
Annie Jones [00:40:55] Okay. Interesting.
Keila [00:40:57] Because he's just sweet.
Annie Jones [00:41:01] The Fitzwilliam part, that's great. Yeah.
Keila [00:41:03] Yeah. Frederick Fitzwilliam. Yeah.
Olivia [00:41:05] Also, what a great vampire name.
Keila [00:41:07] It's great. I don't know if this is confirmed. I did find out it is Fanfiction.
Annie Jones [00:41:15] Mulder and Scully.
Olivia [00:41:16] Fitzwilliam Darcy. Twilight.
Keila [00:41:19] No Kylo Ren and Craig from Star Wars.
Annie Jones [00:41:24] Interesting.
Keila [00:41:26] And so is that book, Forget me Not, that I read.
Olivia [00:41:29] Is that Kylo Ren?
Keila [00:41:29] Another rom com. Yeah.
Olivia [00:41:32] People really like Kylo.
Annie Jones [00:41:33] Fanfiction is having a moment.
Keila [00:41:35] It really is, Annie. We know.
Olivia [00:41:38] But they're really doing a spin on the whole Kylo Ren and what's her face situation. That feels very out of place, a vampire and a regular girl.
Keila [00:41:47] The lay low. Yeah it did feel really weird. I was shocked because I didn't get those facts at all. Like, I would have never guessed, but I guess it's like the grumpy sunshine type of trope.
Annie Jones [00:41:59] I was about to say, just like inspired by, I guess.
Keila [00:42:03] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:42:03] I'm going to read this. You have convinced me you've been to hand selling it for, I don't know, the couple of weeks since you finished it, so I'm going to take it home. I was just trying to get through. I looked at Keila and I was like, I have to finish September. I have to finish this awful month. And then I can read something fun and slightly spooky, so I am going to read that. It does sound fun. Okay, so just to recap, my book flight is true crime problematic? How can we fix it? Is Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker, which is told through fictional interviews and letters and texts and things all about a young woman's disappearance and the impact of it. Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll which is a thriller suspense book based on the crimes Ted Bundy committed at Florida State at the sorority house, and then The Quiet Tenant by Clemence Michallon about three women who all are related to or in close proximity to a serial killer. I won't lie, that's a pretty great book fight. I'm pretty proud of it.
Keila [00:43:06] It's really good. I also think it's like the darkest book flight you've ever given.
Annie Jones [00:43:14] It's so dark. Well, first of all, I knew we were recording this week, I had it on my calendar, but yesterday was when I was like, oh, right, we're recording. What's my books going to be? And I thought, I haven't read any suspense books this year. That's honestly what I thought. And then I looked and I was like, no, I've read a lot of suspense books this year. But then when I looked, the theme just kind of came together and I did think to myself, Annie, are you okay? You doing okay? I don't know.
Olivia [00:43:42] She's doing great. She's really analyzing true crime.
Keila [00:43:46] I really had to fight the urge to do that. Michael Jackson song, Annie, are you okay?
Annie Jones [00:43:50] Oh, Keila, My whole childhood is wrapped up in my entire, I think, sixth or seventh grade year and me being like, I'm fine. I did not know it was a song. And it was great. Finally realized it was a song. It was like, oh, okay, that makes more sense.
Olivia [00:44:09] It's just that people were asking you [inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:44:12] Yes, I was so frustrated. I was like, I'm fine. I was a child.
Olivia [00:44:18] Yeah. My book flight is things that probably should not have come alive. It is Dead Water by C.A Fletcher, Cold People by Tom Rob Smith and Mr. Magic by Kiersten White.
Annie Jones [00:44:31] I think if mine is the most sinister I've done, I think yours is the most otherworldly.
Olivia [00:44:37] I think so too.
Annie Jones [00:44:38] Yeah. Like not fantastical, but sci-fi.
Keila [00:44:43] So mine is a spooky meal. I got September House by Carissa Orlando. A Haunting on the Hill by Elizabeth Hand. And My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine.
Annie Jones [00:44:57] Very fun. As I said at the top of the episode, all of the book flights we've created are available for purchase on the Bookshelf website. That's Bookshelfthomasville.com, and each individual book is listed there as well. In case you're a DIY reader who wants to create their own flight, just go to Bookshelfthomasville.com and type 446 into the search bar. Thank you, guys.
Keila [00:45:19] Thanks.
Olivia [00:45:19] Thank you.
Annie Jones [00:45:25] This week, what I am reading is brought to you by Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia. If it's time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we are exactly what you're looking for. You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There's no better getaway than Thomasville. Whether you live close by or are just passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia. It's worth the trip. Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com. This past weekend, we hosted our first ever, I think, actually Fall Reader Retreat, so we got to host readers in Thomasville during the fall season. Yes, it's still a little bit warm here. I'd be lying if I said it was chilly. However, there is not as much humidity. The sky is bluer and you do not sweat walking from shop to shop. And I'll be honest, I kind of only want to do Fall Reader Retreats from now on. It was so fun, so festive, and really was just a delight to welcome readers to Thomasville, where they got to, you know, walk around downtown, go to Sweet Grass, George and Louise shop at Firefly. Kathy Shoes, South Life, just got the whole Thomasville experience. That's one of my favorite parts about reader retreats, is showcasing this beautiful town, and it is admittedly easiest to showcase when the weather is beautiful because downtown Thomasville is so walkable. And so to get to host people in the fall was just really fun. So if you have been waiting to visit Thomasville, I think now is a wonderful time to plan your visit. October and November are full of fun, city-wide events like our downtown trick or treating and Holiday Open House. So visit ThomasvilleGa to plan your trip.
[00:47:12] This week I'm reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:47:17] I'm reading The Professor by Lauren Nossett.
Annie Jones [00:47:20] Keila, What are you reading?
Keila [00:47:22] I'm reading Fort Wayne by Rebecca Yarros.
Annie Jones [00:47:26] Well, thank you again to our sponsor Visit Thomasville. Plan Your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com.
Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: bookshelfthomasville.com A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle Carl, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stacy Laue, Chanta Combs, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson, Susan Hulings Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to: patreon.com/fromthefrontporch We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.