Episode 459 || Favorite Unsung Books of 2023
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie shines the spotlight on her favorite unsung books of 2023. While these books may not all be five-star reads, they deserve more airtime than they got last year. Did these books fly under your radar, too?
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My Husband by Maud Ventura
The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring
The Three of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams
This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara
Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill
Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki
The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman
Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo
If We’re Being Honest by Cat Shook
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 Colton Gentry’s Third Act by Jeff Zentner.
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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]
“My relief mitigates my pain. It’s the relief that comes when what we’ve been dreading finally happens. When we’re playing hide - and - seek and our hiding place is discovered. When a loved one we cared for deeply who’s been sick for a long time passes away. When the main character of a horror movie is caught by the monster who’s been hunting them. It’s a good thing. I have nothing left to fear, because what was bound to happen has happened. I have nothing left to fear, because the worst has happened.” - Maud Ventura, My Husband
[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 sharing my favorite “unsung” books of 2023. Now is a great time to follow The Bookshelf over on Instagram. As we kick off the new year, we’re announcing our 2024 Reader Retreat dates for spring and opening up reservations, and although our Patreon supporters and newsletter subscribers are always the first to know about events like these, following us on Instagram is a great way to ensure you don’t miss what’s coming up next. Follow us over on Instagram @bookshelftville, where you can keep up with all of our upcoming store events, behind-the-scenes shenanigans, and staff book recommendations.
Annie Jones [00:01:55] Now back to the show! Before we fully say goodbye to 2023-- although, haven't we already? Aren't we very over 2023? I wanted to look back and see what titles I wish I'd shared about more. The unsung books that have maybe possibly flown under your radar. Not all of these recommendations were like five star books for me, or even the best books of last year. We already did an episode about that. Instead, they're books I quietly and truly enjoyed. But maybe they didn't get as much playtime as books like Tom Lake or Let Us Descend. So I've come up with ten books that I reviewed, either on my Instagram account or here on From the Front Porch, but I didn't see a ton of other places books that maybe I mentioned briefly in passing, or books that I really enjoyed and talked about in person. But again, I just didn't maybe think they got the praise that they deserved. And so let's start with My Husband by Maud Ventura. My Husband released back in July of 2023. It is a short little-- I would almost call it a novella. Translated from the French. I stumbled upon it one day in the fall and really did pick it up based on the description and also on the links. So if you are trying in 2024 to read a translated work, if you're trying to read a book that is under 200 pages or something like that, you're trying to maybe hit bingo, book bingo, I think this would be a fun one to add to your TBR. It is wild. Y'all, this book is wild.
[00:03:40] I know I talked about this on my Instagram if I did not talk about it on From the Front Porch. My husband is like if Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn did not have murder. So if you want an unreliable narrator, this is the most unreliable of unreliable narrators. We have an unnamed French woman who is 40 years old. She's been married to her husband for 15 years, and she is obsessed. (capital all the letters obsessed) with her husband. She talks about how the assumption is that after you get married love fades or passion fades. And she argues that for her, her passion, her obsession, her love only got stronger. And that puppy love that is sweet and fun and a little bit angsty that I think a lot of us outgrow once we're in relationships for a long time, she never outgrows. And as a result, she is unhinged. She is an unhinged narrator who I was just appalled at her behavior. I was confused by it. It felt so much younger than her 40 years. But that's definitely the point. And she reminds me of, like, Cool Girl Amy Dunne. I asked Hunter to read this because I was like, hey, you want a book about messy people? Here is a book about some messy people. It's so short you will fly right through it. But it's basically asking the question, what if you were obsessed with your husband and you constantly were paranoid and in fear that he was going to love somebody else? That is this story in a nutshell. It felt very French. It felt very opposite of my American problems. But I think that's why I really enjoyed it. And you can't argue with the page count. It's just such an easy thing to breeze right through that it'd be fun to try. I think would be a very interesting book club conversation. I don't know why more people weren't talking about this one, because it was absolutely a wild ride and I think worth visiting if you haven't yet. So that's My Husband by Maude Ventura, released in July of 2023.
[00:06:01] Then a book that I do feel like I sung the praises of but maybe you didn't believe me-- no, I'm just kidding. I sung its praises, but it did not make my top 10 of the year, even though I really thought it might. And so I wanted to give it almost an honorable mention on today's episode. And that is The Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring. This was recommended to me by a couple of different customers after I read Empire Falls last fall. I really like when customers and friends recommend books to me because it's really fun. It's like a role reversal. But I also kind of hate when I've missed a book. Do you know what I mean? I'm a bookseller. I feel like I should be on top of things, and I can't believe I missed this book when it released. So the book was originally published in June of last year, and it came to me in the fall. And I love that I read it when I did. I thought it was a great fall book. However, it's set in 1990 and takes place over the course of an entire year, so it would be such a good book to pick up in January because the book starts on New Year's Eve as this town is about to embark, I believe, on the year 1990. It's early '90s. And the book is just all about the characters and the people who live in this small town and how they are all connected. You've got Trudy and Bev who are best friends. They've been best friends really long time, but also no spoilers, just obvious, they're also in love. And their husbands know they are in love. Or we think their husbands know they are in love and they just kind of let them be. So you've got them. You've got Nate, who's kind of like everybody loves him. He's married to his sweetheart. They are about to have their first baby.
[00:07:41] Anyway, all of these characters wind up being connected in not cheesy ways, just really interesting ways. This book is not entirely lighthearted. They're actually some really tragic, deeply meaningful parts of this book. And so I don't want you to think that it's just like, oh, quirky novel about a small town in Maine. No. This novel has quite a bit of depth, and I loved it. I read it, I think, on the plane out to Colorado. I say that to tell you that it's a very quick read. I read it very quickly because I just wanted to know what happens to these people. And I'm always propelled by a novel that takes place in a certain span of time. When I talk about that in particular with the next novel. But this book is set over the course of a year. And so I think because of my own yearly rhythms, it's easy for me to understand a book like that and understand the rhythms of a book like that. This was a paperback original when it released published by Europa Press. I thought it was outstanding. It was an Indie Next pick for June, so it wasn't entirely unsung. This wasn't entirely a hidden gem. But I will say without the help of the customer who brought it to my attention-- I would name that Michelle was one and now I can't remember the name of the other person, but there were two people who recommended it to me and maybe Kate Stoho from Bookmarks. Anyway, I'm so glad it got recommended to me because I would have missed it otherwise. And so I wanted to mention it here in case you too might have missed it. That is the Road to Dalton by Shannon Bowring.
[00:09:12] Okay, then just speaking of books that are kind of confined to a certain time frame. I wanted to recommend the three of us. This is by Ore Agbaje-Williams. It released back in May of 2023, and it's coming to paperback in February. So I wanted to go ahead and put it on your radar now. You might remember. To me, this had a very striking cover where two wine glasses or a wine glass was tucked over on a table. The premise of this one really struck me, and that's why I read it. But actually several of the books on this list are really short books. And maybe that's part of the reason I wanted to mention them here, as we kick off in a year, is because if you were like, oh no, I missed some books in 2023, these are all books that you could easily catch up and read. So The Three of Us is set in the course of one day, told in three different parts. It's told from the viewpoint of the wife, the best friend ,and the husband. And the premise of the book is relatively simple. What if your best friend hated your husband? Like really, truly hated him? And so basically, this husband isn't home from work yet, but the wife and best friend are sitting, gossiping on the couch and it comes up how much the best friend hates the husband. You can feel the tension kind of crackling immediately when the book begins. It reminded me the most of The Dinner by Herman Koch, which was a book I read years ago and really liked, Jordan read it too, where that book was set over the course of one dinner, and you could just feel the tension building, building, building until it all came to a head.
[00:10:48] That's exactly how this is kind of a setup. So the wife and best friend are sitting there lounging at home, and you start to immediately see in their gossip where the tensions are going to come up and the novel builds and builds and builds. The husband comes home from work, finds the best friend there. Now, this is a quiet novel. The Dinner is too, it's why it's the best comp I could come up with. This is not some book that, like, comes to a head with some violent acts that upends the entire novel. This book is quiet throughout. There are climactic moments, but there is no bombastic inciting event that changes the course of the whole thing. This book is about relationships, and so don't go into it-- in fact, I wonder if that might have been part of the problem. Is that people went into it thinking it was almost going to be a thriller like My Sister the Serial Killer, or something like that. So go into it knowing this is a novel about relationships and about friendships, and what happens when one person has two soulmates, when one person has loyalty to their best friend, but also to their significant other? I really like this book. I think. I hope it will find a new fan base in paperback format next month, but I wanted to bring it to your attention now. That's The Three Of Us by Ore Agbaje-Williams.
[00:12:04] Okay. Short story collections are always a tough sell, but please let me sell you this one. I wanted to recommend This Is Salvaged. This is by Vauhini Vara. This was not unsung by me. I selected it as my Shelf Subscription pick for, I believe, October 2023. It released in late September. I think part of the reason I fell in love with this book so wholeheartedly is because I had just come off reading for the very first time Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and this book I read right around that same time. I think I read it right after I finished, but it might have been vice versa. But anyway, I read them right around the same time. And so the two authors will probably always be somewhat connected in my brain. But we all know not all short story collections are created equal. They're all tough sell. Don't get me wrong. Anyway, in our bookstore, this short story collections are not often on our bestseller lists. I think they can just be intimidating to people. I think we associate them with English class or something like that. But I said last year and I'll say it again, I think short story collections can be a great answer to our fractured attention spans. And every story in This Is Salvaged is so good and so interesting. The book opens with a short story collection about two teenage girls who take the summer and wind up working accidentally on purpose at a phone sex operator situation. It doesn't become dark and grisly and weird. I mean, that is a weird premise. But it instead is a lot about one of the young women's grief and this young woman, and why she has found herself in this situation. What brought her here?
[00:13:48] In fact, a lot of the collection I think it's about sibling relationships, coming of age, being a daughter, maybe being a wife and mother. But for some reason, the daughter and sibling sister of it all really, really stuck out to me. This is just a beautiful book, and if you did not pick it up in 2023, I would encourage you to pick it up in 2024. It's rare that a short story collection has every story be so interesting. One of the other stories that sticks out to me is there's a man who is building an ark, like a replica of Noah's Ark in scripture. Anyway, really interesting characters, really interesting storytelling. There's a poignant story about a young woman and the loss of her sister. And if you do a little bit of research, you realize Vauhini Vara also has experience with that, and I think that's why she's able to write so deeply about these things. So This Is Salvaged by Vauhini Vara. It released late September, but if you missed it, pick it up now.
[00:14:52] Okay. The next few are books that I picked up thanks to or recommended to or was recommended by my fellow staff members. So first up is Kill Show. This is by Daniel Sweren-Becker. I read this book in ARC format and immediately passed it on to Olivia, who wound up picking it, I believe, as her October Shelf Subscription selection. But I wanted to mention it here because I think the fact that I read it and then Olivia read it and loved it, this is an Olivia-Annie crossover book. And in case you missed it, because you thought, oh, maybe it's too much of a thriller, or maybe it's not literary enough, if you felt like it belonged just to Olivia or just to Annie, I would encourage you to try it. The book is fascinating because it's billed as I think it's called Kill Show: A True Crime Novel. So when I first picked it up, part of the reason I picked it up was because I thought it was true crime and it wound up being kind of funny, because that's why I would have picked it up. And Olivia would have picked it up if it were fiction. And so she didn't read it because she thought it was true crime. I read it because I thought it was true crime. And then we both wound up reading and really liking it. So Kill Show is about Sarah Parcell. She's a young woman who goes missing in Maryland. Kind of one of those tragic stories that the mainstream media loves to talk about where a young white girl goes missing and what do we do about it and what attention is brought to it. But she goes missing in Maryland, and the book picks up at the 10 year anniversary of her disappearance. And, of course, now there's a podcast, there's a documentary.
[00:16:25] And so the book is told through interviews for the podcast and for the documentary. I think maybe there's also some texting interchanges or exchanges. Maybe I'm trying to think interviews, text exchanges, maybe some emails. So if you like books with kind of an unusual format, maybe something like The Appeal by Janice Hallett, I think you'll like this. And if you like books that critique our obsession, our collective obsession with true crime. And this never felt like a preachy book to me, but certainly by the end does become a little bit of a moralistic tale about the people at the center of these true crime stories that we become obsessed with are real people, and the tragedies that they have faced are real tragedies, tangible tragedies to them. And so what responsibility do we have in consuming their stories? What responsibility do we hold when telling their stories? And I think Daniel Sweren-Becker actually did a really good job of gently leading the reader there instead of kind of slapping them in the face with it, which I think can be hard to do. So the other thing, Olivia and I both really loved about this book is how short it is. And again, I know that's what a lot of these books are. A lot of these books are super short, but if you missed a book in 2023, hopefully it makes it easier to try to get to this first part of 2024 when the books are shorter. So I really like this book. I thought it was thoughtful.
[00:17:56] And also, I mean, don't get me wrong, not only is it kind of a critique of true crime, but it's also just a really well-told thriller. You want to know what happened to Sarah. You want to know while you're kind of piecing together the interviews through this documentary, you're trying to find out what happened to her because her case has remained unsolved. And so the book does a really good job of building tension and creating a suspense thriller novel that is also really memorable for what it's trying to say. And I think the writing is good. So I don't know why this was one we talked about at The Bookshelf quite a bit, but I didn't see it. I barely saw it anywhere. I felt the same way about Stealing. I do not know why that book was not in more places. I don't know why it didn't get picked up on. That book is so beautiful. And that's how I felt about Kill Show. I mean, I would not use the word beautiful to describe Kill Show, but it was a book that Olivia and I were talking about so much that I assumed it was everywhere. And then you step outside of your Bookshelf bubble and you realize, oh, no, I don't think people are talking about this one. So Kill Show by Daniel Sweren-Becker. An Olivia- Annie crossover book.
[00:19:06] Okay. And then a book that released way back in February of 2023, that's the Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill. Another book that's bordering on novella because it's so short. I read this because Keila and Erin told me to. And look, Keila and Erin are both prolific readers. Keila reads nonstop. Erin reads nonstop. I think partly because they're both devouring audiobooks while they're doing much of their online work upstairs at The Bookshelf. I'm always astounded at how many books our staff consumes at any given time. Like, they put me to shame. They read so quickly, so smartly. Is that a word that I want to use? They're very smart readers, is what I'm trying to say. Keila and Erin, later in 2023, recommended to me one of my top 10 books of the year, Shark Heart. And it's not lost on me that the other book they hand sold me in 2023 also had to do with, like, a human becoming an animal or a human who is an animal. So if you liked Shark Heart, and I think a lot of us did, then I think you should try The Crane Husband. So the Crane Husband now it reminds me of Shark Heart, but it also reminded me of The Harpy which is a book I loved by Megan Hunter that came out a few years ago. The Crane Husband is almost a fairy tale or folk tale where a woman comes home one day and she brings home a crane.
[00:20:40] And just like Shark Heart is about more than a man becoming a shark, it's about relationships. Maybe even it's about illness, mental illness, dementia, how our relationships are affected by those types of tragedies. The Crane Husband is, yes, at its face value about a woman who brings home a crane. She's dating a crane, a literal crane, and she brings the crane home to meet her daughter. But it's very clearly allegorical. And what happens when your mother brings home someone you hate or brings home someone who treats her poorly, or who abuses her, or who abuses you? So it winds up becoming this really poignant story, really well crafted, well told. Kelly Barnhill I knew that name from kid lit from children's books. She's won some awards for some children's books that she's written, and I do think she brings that sensibility here, that folklore, fairy tale storytelling capability, because that's what I felt like I was reading. I felt like I was reading a fairy tale, a dark, dark Grimm's fairy tale. Keila and Erin loved this book. I loved this book. It has a gorgeous cover. I don't know why, and maybe it's just because it released now a year ago, a year feels like forever ago in the literary world. But I really did like this book. And I think many of you, especially after reading Shark Heart, might enjoy this one too. So that's The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill. If you already read The Crane Husband, but you have not read The Harpy, please go read The Harpy as well.
[00:22:23] Okay, then let's talk about something totally different. Let's talk about Roaming. This is a graphic novel by Gillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. They are cousins. I encountered this book because of the New York Times. The New York Times did a piece about this book, I think, in their New York Times book review, talking about two cousins writing a book. And I sent the article to Ashley because I was like, should we write a book together? But it is a graphic novel. I believe one of the authors, or both of the authors have some experience in writing Kid Lit, much like Kelly Barnhill. But this is an adult graphic novel, and interestingly so, I read about it in the New York Times. And then it turns out Olivia had already ordered it for the store because she had seen it. She likes graphic novels. This one is set in New York. And Olivia lived in New York and has she has really great stories from her time in New York. And so I think that's why she picked this one up. I picked it up because of the cousin element. We both wound up reading it and really liking it. We both had some issues with the ending, and so that may be why I did not talk about it as much. I did not read a ton of graphic novels in 2023, but they are a great pick me up if you're in a reading slump. They stretch a different part of your brain, and it's just fascinating to see the talent and time that must go into a work like this. I'm always amazed by beautiful writing and beautiful storytelling. I'm amazed by people who can not only write a really good story, but craft and design and draw a really good story. I mean, it never ceases to absolutely astound me because I have none of those skills or abilities. So this one released in September 2023, but would be really great to read quarter one because it's set over school break.
[00:24:22] So these two people are best friends from high school. They haven't really seen each other since they've been freshman in college. It's spring break. They've planned this trip to New York forever, and now they meet in New York. But one of them brings another friend, and we all know that three's a crowd. I have always had trios of friends. This won't become a therapy session. I've always had trios of friends. And in adulthood I love that because having trio as friends in childhood really set me up to, knock on wood, really get my feelings hurt because inevitably in a group of three somebody might get left out. Or if two can get together and one can't. And I really think I learned those lessons early because so many of my friendships were threes, and three people can't walk down a sidewalk together, only two can. And so somebody has to walk behind or in front. And in adulthood, I'm totally comfortable with that because I had a lot of practice I think getting my feelings hurt and then recovering from hurt feelings in childhood just from a group of three. So I say that to say that Roaming brings up a lot of feelings. For Olivia, it brought up a lot of feelings of nostalgia for her time in New York. I love books set in New York because I love New York, and in my heart of hearts, I feel like I could make it there. I don't know if that's true, but I feel like I could. And so if you are a New Yorker or if you love New York, you visit New York frequently, I think you will really enjoy seeing New York through the eyes of these two young visitors who've never been there before.
[00:25:53] So Olivia loved it for The New York Factor. I liked it for The New York Factor. We both really liked that it brought up in us-- and we talked about it after we both read it. It brought up in us feelings of freshman year of college, where you're still trying to figure out who you are, and then you're trying to figure out if you can still be friends with the people who you were friends with in high school, or did you change and morph into somebody else when you became a freshman in college? Do those friendships still hold up? And then what happens when our friend groups meet? Again, this is something that I feel like we're constantly learning and relearning in adulthood. Like which of our friends can hang out with each other. You see this most often I feel like at bachelorette parties or baby showers or bridal showers, when all your friend groups all of a sudden are in the same room and you're like, this is a little weird. And so Roaming brings up all of those feelings of friendship and belonging and identity. There are moments of this book that are so cringe. It's a graphic novel, so I read it fairly quickly anyway. But part of the reason I did read it so fast is because it was so cringe in parts. I just felt the angst. I felt the embarrassment. And I didn't want to feel it anymore. I felt 18 again. And quite frankly, I don't want to feel 18 again. So roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki. I think could be a really fun book to read this spring because it's set in spring break in New York.
[00:27:12] Okay, I don't know why nobody talked about The Second Ending. The Second Ending by Michelle Hoffman, paperback original released late May, I think like May 30th of 2023. I was going to do this book as a Shelf Subscription, and then I realized it was releasing I think at the last minute. I think it was a relatively late change, but they decided to release it as a paperback original. And our Shelf Subscription program, at least for now, is hardback. And so I really loved this book, but I had to really rely on hand selling and on the podcast because it was not a Shelf Subscription title. But I really liked this book. I wonder if we feel like we don't need books like this right now, because it reminded me most of Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Partly because of the cover. I mean, the cover certainly was reminiscent of that book, but also because it's about a white woman in midlife who is second guessing everything. And so I don't know if we feel like we have enough of those stories. I like those stories. But then again, I'm a white lady approaching midlife. But I really liked this book and what I thought set it apart from something like Where'd You Go, Bernadette? And what made it really uniquely original or feel really original to me as a reader was our main character is a woman named Prudence, and Prudence was a child prodigy on the piano. And now I say she's mid-life. She is an empty nester. Her her daughters have gone off to college, and she's having a little bit of a crisis of identity because she was a child prodigy, but then she became a wife/mother. We don't really know what happened, but she really stopped playing the piano and instead wrote jingles and did some things to kind of supplement her income. But maybe did not fulfill the dreams that her family had for her as a child prodigy.
[00:29:00] And now, look, part of the reason I like this book is it's wildly funny. I don't read a ton of funny books, and I thought this book was hilarious. Now my mom read it and she liked it. So I loved it, mom liked it. I don't think she thought it was as funny as I did, so it probably depends on your sense of humor. But it feels very slapstick, like so many different things are happening. So Prudence is a former child star. She is being blackmailed throughout the book and in order to give the blackmailers what they want, she winds up applying or auditioning for a reality TV show that's basically dueling pianos. And it's like this classical pianist versus Prudence, who was like a child prodigy, and they go head to head in this reality show. So there's just a lot happening here. I can't stress this enough. There's so much happening in this book, but I felt like it was handled really well. I never felt confused. I never felt overwhelmed. I just felt really entertained. That's what it is. I felt really entertained. So if you're looking for an entertaining book that is just funny and a little bit absurdist, I think you should try this one. Because it was a paperback original, I don't know that it's going to get a second life. And so because often when hardback books are released in paperback, I feel like they get a second win. This isn't going to get that. And so pick it up for spring break. I know it's a little early to think about for spring break, but it'd be a great beach book, I think.
[00:30:28] Okay, speaking of slightly absurd books, but I will admit this one has a little more-- I don't want to say depth because I thought the second ending had some depth to it. This one is dealing more with current affairs, we'll put it that way. So if you just want to like read a book that's funny and witty and charming and interesting, do The Second Ending. If you want a book that is all of those things, but also has you raging against the world we're living in, then you should pick up Hestia Strikes a Match. This is by Christine Grillo, released in April. This book is not a perfect book, and maybe that's why it didn't get, I think, the attention it really deserved, because I think it's really clever. Is it a little bit longer than it should be? Maybe. But I liked it. I thought it was really entertaining. The premise is that Hestia is a young woman I believe in her 30s. She's dating. She's in a job she maybe doesn't like. She's facing all of the issues we all face, except it's 2023 and an American Civil War has broken out. And so Hestia is having to do all of our normal daily tasks, but America is in the middle of a civil war. And that thought exercise is so interesting. This would be a great book club book because I would argue the best book club books are not always the best written or the books most universally beloved, like they're just books that make you think this book will make you think. And sometimes, in fact, it was frustrating to me because I got annoyed thinking about something that I don't want to think about, which is what would happen if America lived in a civil war or had a next civil war, a new civil war. But the thought exercise was really interesting. And to watch Hestia try to figure out like where she's going to shop. Are her parents going to move? They live in the South, but you know, they live it. I think they live in Virginia. And like Virginia is on the cusp, which again, I. I think it's just interesting because if America did have a civil war, would it be north versus south again, like. I don't think so. Like the country is larger.
And so anyway, there's all kinds of things that you can think about historically speaking. but also as somebody who lived through the pandemic-- all of you also lived through unprecedented times during a pandemic. And I don't know about you, but many times, many days I looked around and thought, the world is ending, but I am still here just packaging books. It really felt like we were living at the end of the world. And I told Jordan at that time, I remember distinctly because we like a lot of movies like Seeking a Friend For the End of the World. Great Steve Carell movie. We like a lot of movies like that and thought exercises like that. And so we've often had this conversation, like, what would we do at the end of the world? Like, would we would we holed up in our house, we don't have supplies? Who would we become? And I looked at Jordan one day during the pandemic and was like, well, I guess we know what we would do at the end of the world. And that is we would just keep doing this. He was working from home, but he would “go to work” every day. I would go to work every day. And so there was something really interesting about watching Hestia date, have dinner with her parents, try to figure out if she was going to stay in this job, all while around her the world is crashing down. And so maybe that's why some people didn't want to read this book was because they were being reminded too much of of pandemic days. But I found it somewhat cathartic and enjoyable. Very entertaining. Again, could have been a smidge shorter, but I really liked this book, and I'm not sure other than the reasons I've mentioned why it flew under the radar. So that's Hestia Strikes A Match by Christine Grillo. You know what I meant to say? So I was wondering if Hestia Strikes A Match. Might make a good audiobook. But you know what really makes a good audiobook? Is The Three Of Us, the book by Ore Williams. That could be a really good audiobook.
Okay, last book, last but not least. And I did. Man, I did my darndest to talk about this book, but I'm going to talk about it again. Uh, it was almost in my top ten of 2023. It is, if we're being honest, by Cat Shook. This released in April 2023. It's one of the first books I read last year that I thought, oh yes, a book that I like, like, like, oh, this was enjoyable. If you like Emma Straub, I don't know why you haven't read this book. Now, if you like Emma Straub, because you like New York, I get it. But honestly, as much as I am someone who loves New York, not everything takes place in New York. And so the fact that somebody wrote a really great dysfunctional family story set in the South, yes, please. I love this book. It's a debut novel. I believe Cat Shook now lives in New York, but she grew up, I believe, in Georgia or in and around Atlanta. And this book is set in, I believe, fictional Eulalia, Georgia. Listen, this book is fantastic, and I'm going to tell you how it opens, because then I want you to go read it. And if you listen to me talk about this on the podcast last year, but for some reason you didn't pick it up, maybe I can convince you now. So the book opens at a funeral where this whole family is trying to plan their grandfather's funeral, the patriarch's funeral. I just loved how Cat Shook introduced us to all the characters we needed to know by basically going from each person, and why they were incapable of doing the eulogy at this man's funeral.
And so you find out all of this family's quirks. So-and-so gets anxiety when he's up in front of people. He would be the natural choice, but he can't public speaking. So he's out. So-and-so his wife is beloved. She's the family matriarch, but she's too besotted by grief And so she cannot do the eulogy. So-and-so would be like she's the grandchild. It should be the person who the family counts on. But she moved away and so she's blacklisted. Anyway, so it goes through all of these different people. And then the funeral finally happens, and the eulogy is given by the grandfather or the patriarch's best friend. And it's this beautiful eulogy. Except then he breaks down in the middle of it, bursts into tears because turns out they were having an affair and they were in love with each other. And the family is just appalled. And so this book takes place over the course of a week. Another kind of bottle episode book from funeral to, I believe, family wedding, which is just very southern, very funny. I think even if you are not southern, you would enjoy this book. If you're a mid-westerner, I think there's a lot of similarities between our cultures. You would like this book. I thought this was so fun. I've mentioned Emma Straub as a but honestly, maybe also J. Ryan Stradal, where all the characters are kind of intertwined and interconnected. And it's a really loving tribute to a place because this book is about a dysfunctional family, but it's also a family in a particular place and in a particular culture and the different things this family has to grapple with by being a southern family, by being a family in the South. I love this book. I thought it was wildly entertaining, much like The Second Ending. Very funny. Laugh out loud funny. I kept my copy of this book, which is how I know I really liked it. So that's If We're Being Honest by Cat Shook. It released in April of 2023, and I'd encourage you to pick it up in 2024.
So those are 10 unsung books that I really liked, that other staffers liked in 2023. That if you are looking for, I don't know, some backlist titles to read this year if you are trying to, if you're one of those people who has FOMO and you're like, what did I miss out on last year? Maybe this list will help you have less FOMO because I've narrowed it down to ten for you. Yeah, you can find all of these books, of course, on the bookshelf website bookshelfthomasville.com. Type today's episode number in the search bar. It's episode 459. This week I'm reading Colton Gentry's third act by Jeff Zentner.
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:
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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.