Episode 552 || From the Front Porch Live with Amy Poeppel
This week on From the Front Porch, we have a special treat: a recording of our live show from The Bookshelf’s October Reader Retreat! In this episode, Annie, Hunter, and Ashley are joined by extra-special author guest Amy Poeppel, our Reader Retreat featured author, to do a snake draft of literary and pop culture homes. Enjoy!
To purchase Amy’s books, stop by the store or visit our website:
Thank you to this week’s sponsor, Discover Thomasville. Gracefully tucked within the storied Red Hills of South Georgia, Thomasville curates a distinguished Downtown experience that meanders along several blocks of our iconic red brick streets. Here, bespoke boutiques, master craftsmen, coveted antique art purveyors, and celebrated culinary artisans converge in harmony with the cultural richness of the Pebble Hill Plantation art tour and the tranquil allure of Birdsong Nature Center. Here, you Discover the Soul of the South. Here, you Discover Thomasville. Learn more by visiting thomasvillega.com/news.
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 and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing]
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South. I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today we're bringing you a live episode of From the Front Porch. We recorded this episode at our recent Fall Reader Retreat. Our special guests were Hunter McClendon, Ashley Sherlock, and author Amy Poeppel. I have loved Amy's books for quite some time, so it was a joy to have her at Reader Retreat, if you've never read her books. My favorite might be musical chairs. Although, certainly that could be affected by the fact that I read it during peak pandemic. It was an immense comfort to me during a very stressful time. But Amy's books have been a light and yeah, a comfort. And it was a wonderful treat to have her at reader retreat and to interview her and then to have on the podcast. When it came time to decide how we wanted to do the format of our live show, we stuck with the fantasy draft format that we've used in previous episodes. And this time we talked about the feeling of home, and specifically homes in pop culture, books, literature, movies, TV, et cetera. And we had a blast with this one. I think it was also really meaningful to have Amy, who has homes in a couple of different states, different countries even, Hunter, who's recently moved to Philly, and Ashley, who has recently moved to North Carolina, and then me, someone who stays quite notoriously. And so it was really fun to talk through the idea of home and then what homes in pop culture we find ourselves drawn towards. So I hope you enjoy this live podcast recording. I know the audio might be a little, perhaps not what we're accustomed to in terms of quality, but I hope the content and subject matter helps you stick around. Thanks for listening and we'll see y'all next week.
[00:02:17] Welcome to From the Front Porch a conversational podcast about books small business and life in the South. I always forget to do that when we do this live. It's really important. As Ashley mentioned, I am joined tonight by Amy and Hunter. We are going to have a conversation around some of the themes of Amy's most recent book, Far and Away. And so normally on From the Front Porch, it's me, in my house alone. And sometimes Hunter will join, sometimes Ashley will join. But having essentially kind of a panel of four is new and different. So for the past couple of live podcasts, what we've done is a fantasy draft. Also, now that I'm in fantasy football, this means even more. I'm very into fantasy football, but don't ask me what ranking I am. It's not good. So we decided we would do a fantasy draft about homes. And so we're going to have, I think, a fun time discussing pop culture in literary homes. But before we do that, a little bit about the theme of home, because that's what comes up in Far and Away over and over again. If you have not read it yet, one of perhaps the major plot points is this house swap, like in maybe the movie The Holiday or something like that, between two homes, one in Texas and one in Germany, and chaos ensues. And so I want to talk about finding home wherever we are. I want ask our lovely guest tonight, what is home to you? Hunter, I think about you moving from the deep South to now Philly, which is not only up North, but it is a much bigger city than where you grew up. And so, I want to talk about what places feel like home to you, especially now that maybe you're a transplant.
Hunter Mclendon [00:03:57] Yeah, it's funny, I was calculating it in my head and I've lived in over 30 like, home, houses, apartments, whatever, in my life. Which feels significant for somebody who's only 32.
Annie Jones [00:04:08] It's a lot.
Hunter Mclendon [00:04:09] Yeah, but I think that it so funny because y'all know how it's like home is where the heart is type thing, but, yes, for me home is people. I know it's so cheesy, but home is like when Annie and I record for Conquer a Classic, I have this moment where my brain kind of walks in and goes, oh, this is home, or every morning whenever I talk to my granny on the phone and she prays for me to have a good day, I'm like, oh this is home. It's these moments that tell my brain that I'm in this safe space of what is comforting to me. And so that is what is for me.
Annie Jones [00:04:43] Less geographical and more [crosstalk].
Hunter Mclendon [00:04:46] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:04:47] And then Amy, when I was reading about you and getting ready to have this conversation like we talked about earlier today, you have homes in a couple of different places and you travel a lot. So what is home to you?
Amy Poeppel [00:04:59] So home is definitely, I agree with you completely, it's my people, it's my family, it is my friends. My problem is that I go places and I picture myself there. It's almost like a psychological problem that I have. And often they're nice places, but even here I could walk around town and I'm like, oh, I can just have like a little house with a little porch. I'd be so happy here. And then I go to anywhere in Germany and I am like, oh, I could learn German. It doesn't work. We all figure that out. But I could see places and I could just see myself there and I build this little life for myself in my head, and I remember there was--
Annie Jones [00:05:41] I mean, I do that.
Amy Poeppel [00:05:42] Is that normal?
Annie Jones [00:05:43] Yeah.
Amy Poeppel [00:05:43] Oh, good. I have friends in my...
Annie Jones [00:05:45] Maybe it's the reader in us a little bit that you can imagine.
Amy Poeppel [00:05:47] That you can picture this. So there's a few places where I've been, Mill Valley, California is one of them, where I just remember saying to my husband, you can just leave me here, I'll be just fine. Because I can just imagine the whole life. So my problem is that I like a lot of different places, and it's not enough for me necessarily just to spend three days there, I want to settle in and get comfortable.
Hunter Mclendon [00:06:11] I think it's also this thing where like I know that like when I went to Montreal a couple years ago--
Amy Poeppel [00:06:15] I see myself there.
Hunter Mclendon [00:06:18] I went like a coffee shop and I got pastries and I guess like whatever and I think that there's these little things that you do, these habits that you build up in your life like going to a coffee shop or going to a bookstore or whatever and those things are things you register doing with at home and so when you do it somewhere else, that familiarity kind of maybe locks in and make sure you feel like I don't know
Annie Jones [00:06:38] Definitely. No, I think that. And we went to New England last weekend for a wedding and I very much do this. Everywhere my husband and I travel, I'm like, should we move? And then I wrote this book about staying. And I was like, should our next book be about leaving? And so I do this all the time. But recently what I've thought is, well, what if this is home base? But when I went to New England, I was like, oh, I had great memories of Ashley and I going there a couple of falls ago and how important that trip was to me. I went to the same coffee shop we went to. And so it felt like, oh, I get to return to this kind of-- they're almost sacred places to me like where maybe I had a really fun conversation. There was a sports bar that you and I went to that I think about all the time. Which that may not be what your memory of that trip is.
Ashley Sherlock [00:07:26] I remember it.
Annie Jones [00:07:27] But I loved it so much. It served Coke. And I was like Coca-Cola. And there are these places where I think, well, if Thomasville is my home base, maybe there are other places. And then there is a quote, it's hanging in our son's nursery, it says, "The brave find a home in every land." And I love that. I like the feeling that you can be comfortable in multiple places. If you're comfortable here, maybe you could be comfortable anywhere. Far and Away, I think, will naturally draw comparisons to maybe the most famous bits of house swap, pop culture- which is the holiday. So I feel like we need to just talk a little bit about the holiday because I hate the holiday. I don't know.
Amy Poeppel [00:08:11] It's okay.
Annie Jones [00:08:19] It's one of my mom's favorite movies. I don't know, it's not for me, but I like the house swap idea, I've even got, is it houseswap.com? There's something you can do where you can swap your house, and I have really been tempted by that idea.
Hunter Mclendon [00:08:32] Is it like because of Jack Black?
Annie Jones [00:08:34] No.
Amy Poeppel [00:08:36] It's because of Cameron Diaz's Jude Law's chemistry and you don't believe it.
Annie Jones [00:08:41] Yes. Listen, this might be not a popular opinion and I think she's probably a lovely person. I don't love Cameron Diaz.
Hunter Mclendon [00:08:48] Okay, did you watch being John Malkovich?
Annie Jones [00:08:51] No.
Hunter Mclendon [00:08:51] See. You have to watch the one where she actually was good.
Annie Jones [00:08:55] Right, I missed that one. I do like [inaudible]. I like the napkin face he does.
Amy Poeppel [00:09:02] I was meh on the napkin face. A little cringe. The napkin face was a little...
Annie Jones [00:09:08] I don't know. To me it's also not a good rom-com, in my opinion. Maybe it's a fine movie. It's not a good rom-com.
Hunter Mclendon [00:09:14] I'm actually so shocked, but I've only watched it once and I was kind of like [inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:09:21] It's not a comfort movie for me. It's a comfort for my mom. So what made you decide to do a house swap? What made you decided to tackle that trope or that bit of pop culture?
Amy Poeppel [00:09:31] I think what I did like about the movie, I had problems with the movie too. I didn't buy the chemistry between those two and that's a big problem because that's a huge part of the movie. I thought he was kind of adorable and I think I liked her story line but I simply didn't buy it that they were actually...
Annie Jones [00:09:50] And it had nothing to do with how they look. It had everything to do with their actual like banter. Chemistry.
Amy Poeppel [00:09:55] Correct. Totally with you. But what I loved was the contrast in places. And the second thing that I loved, was the getting accidentally super-entwined in somebody else's life. Their neighbors, the packages that come. The people who shop [crosstalk]. So the idea of meeting somebody that the other person has a completely different relationship with, that was what I loved about it.
Annie Jones [00:10:23] And that, to be fair then, I find that in Far and Away. You totally get this Texas-- we talked about it earlier today in our book conversation. This fish out of water element where this Texas woman finds herself in Germany, this German woman that finds herself in this sprawling Texas home, yeah.
Amy Poeppel [00:10:40] Yeah, just even like the idea of like a swimming pool in every backyard in Texas and just thinking to myself, wow, that would be weird for them to go from apartment life to like a pool in your backyard. And which character would love that and which character would somehow not adapt to it well. We were also talking earlier about how travel can be so eye opening and it can make you grow so much, I think, to just be a fish out of water, to be in a place that you're uncomfortable. And I just thought it would be a lot of fun to see what happened to these characters in these completely different places.
Annie Jones [00:11:18] When is a moment when you have felt most a fish out of water?
Amy Poeppel [00:11:23] Living in Germany with my kids in a school where I didn't feel like I fed it. When you have kids, you have your parent group. You meet the parents at the school and I didn't think they liked me. And I didn't know how to win them over. I'm a people pleaser and I'm like man these women, tough audience. I just had a really hard time. So, yeah, that was tricky. And then just weird things like I was in my apartment, I dropped the kids off at school and I am back in the apartment and the doorbell rings and I open the door and it's my kid and I was like what are you doing here and how did you get here? Well, they canceled school today because the teacher was sick. So school's still happening, but my class was canceled. So I came home. I'm like, by yourself? He was like six. And he just walked home. And stuff like that. I'd stopped a kid on the street when we first moved there, because it was this little itty bitty four-year-old with a big backpack walking down the street alone. I was like, oh my gosh, lost child. I roll down the window. He ignores me. I get out of the car. I'm, like, excuse me. Are you okay? I was the problem. I freaked him out. He started running down the sidewalk. I'm like, are you okay? So there were a lot of moments where I just felt like I'm doing the wrong thing, I'm saying the wrong things, my jokes aren't landing, just that awful feeling. But I think it enriches you. The discomfort is enriching. I think we should all be uncomfortable sometimes.
Annie Jones [00:12:55] I talked to you hunter about your move. But actually you also moved recently and it's still in the South, but Florida and North Carolina, those are different things. When have you most felt as a fish out of water? Is it in your move or you travel a lot, too? Do you find yourself feeling like that in travel?
Ashley Sherlock [00:13:15] I feel less like that when I travel, but more like that when I moved because there was pressure when I moved. I needed to find my people. Whereas, if I'm traveling, I can just make it up. I'm never going to see any of these people again, right? Of course, that's hard.
Annie Jones [00:13:31] Yeah. You give a new version of yourself, obviously.
Hunter Mclendon [00:13:36] It's so funny that you said it, because I'm really bad at traveling because I always think like what if I become really good friends with these people and then they start to judge me, and then they don't want to be my friend when I live here. Hank and I traveled to Tennessee for his birthday, and I didn't know where we would find our luggage because it had gone somewhere. And he goes let's just go ask. And I was like ask somebody? Why would you do that? I was shocked that somebody would ask somebody something like that they would never see again. So, yeah.
Annie Jones [00:14:06] So is travel more anxiety-inducing for you than it did?
Hunter Mclendon [00:14:11] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:14:11] I love it. I'm curious, would you swap houses with somebody? You wrote a book about-- you both would. Those big nods. Would you?
Amy Poeppel [00:14:19] No.
Annie Jones [00:14:23] I think I would.
Amy Poeppel [00:14:26] First of all, I can't stand the idea of somebody being in my house. That's a huge problem. I'd have to literally pack up so much stuff. That would be hard for me. And I don't mind those so much than not knowing what I'm getting myself into. I'm okay really the other way around.
Annie Jones [00:14:42] It's having me in your space. Well, that's interesting. Because even though we were talking about home being like an emotional center or something like that, I agree with that. And it's kind of about who your people are. I will say I also really love my home. I love my place. Tonight when I go home, oh, it's going to feel so good. It feels so good when I go to my house.
Hunter Mclendon [00:15:02] If I lived in your house, it would also be my favorite.
Annie Jones [00:15:06] It doesn't feel like we were talking earlier today, it feels like my place, I guess, and I'm very much like, I don't know, classy tchotchkes? Like, meaning it's got all my cool stuff from my travels and my--
Hunter Mclendon [00:15:21] You're a good nester.
Annie Jones [00:15:22] Thank you so much.
Amy Poeppel [00:15:23] I always tell my kids they're not allowed to even form an opinion about a place until they've been there for a year. That's like my rule for them. I'm like you can't even say I hate it here. Just wait a year. At the end of the year then you can start saying how is this sitting with me? Am I fitting in here? Is this a good thing for me or is this not working? I feel like you get that rule when you move.
Annie Jones [00:15:43] First year does not count.
Amy Poeppel [00:15:45] First year does not count, I agree.
Annie Jones [00:15:46] It's too much of flux. There's too much uncertainty.
Amy Poeppel [00:15:52] Yes, too much that's new and you just can't judge it yet because you're not used to it. So you have to live there for a year and then also I think it's really important to leave and come back. Leave the new place for a weekend and come and return to it and then see do I feel like I'm going home or do I not want to be here anymore? Like it's telling.
Annie Jones [00:16:09] You have lived in Philly now for about a year. A little over a year now. Yeah, do you agree that the first year doesn't count?
Hunter Mclendon [00:16:20] Yeah. My first year definitely didn't count, I was like everything was in flux. I do think that this point I've traveled back here several times now it's like I always end up to see you. It's funny because I feel like I'm coming home to see you, my family, but then I do think that the first year I just cried every time. But now that it's been a little over a year, I'm like, okay, I certainly feel settled. I know what restaurants I like I know which venues I enjoy going to, which bookstores I like.
Annie Jones [00:16:51] Yeah, like your spots.
Hunter Mclendon [00:16:52] Yeah, and you settle in.
Amy Poeppel [00:16:55] In your routines, right?
Hunter Mclendon [00:16:56] Yeah, I think if you don't have a routine nothing's going to feel great. But it takes a long time to like establish that.
Annie Jones [00:17:02] Yeah, to establish who you are in this new spot. So before we go into our fantasy draft, I am curious. I made this list. These were pop culture homes and I ran it by The Bookshelf staffers, but this was definitely Annie B. Jones' wish list, some places she could pick up if she lived in these pop culture houses. But when you think of homes in books, in movies, in TV shows, what is the home that comes to mind? Like, whether it's, I think about Hunter, when you and I read Middlemarch, and maybe just even the community in that book. When I say a famous literary home or a pop culture house, what pops up in your brain?
Amy Poeppel [00:17:43] So I will say two pop-ups in my brain, and of course these two because they are totally related. The Brownstone and Moonstruck.
Annie Jones [00:17:51] Oh, yes.
Amy Poeppel [00:17:53] I love that brownstone. I need to renovate it, but I love the fact that it's a corner brownstone and it's just spacious and lots of molding and awesome stuff. And then the house in Pineapple Street. The brownstone in Pineapple Street. And that intrigued me because it's the idea of a place, a home and maybe you want to renovate it but you can't. I don't know if you remember the main character was like, oh, I think I'll change the curtains. And the mother-in-law who had given them the house was like darling you can change anything you want but not the curtains. Like don't touch the curtains. Everything she wanted to do she was like but not that. So having to live with someone else's stuff I just think is really interesting.
Annie Jones [00:18:34] And you then wrote about a brownstone.
Amy Poeppel [00:18:37] Yes. Sweet Spot.
Annie Jones [00:18:39] What about you?
Hunter Mclendon [00:18:42] When I first saw it, I was like, oh, I love the different places that foster child went to in [inaudible]. But I don't think that counts. But I guess that like what is something that-- it's something I don't even know if I like think about houses.
Annie Jones [00:18:56] Interesting. Maybe it's because you moved so much. I mean, truly.
Hunter Mclendon [00:19:00] Yeah, I do think that there have been places like there have been like things that-- I will say when I read Swamplandia like a decade ago, I love that book, but I think that I grew up a bit like around here and I think that a lot of my family who lived in-- oh my gosh, where is it at? St. Mark's. A lot of them lived in these houses on stilts that were crumbling. And snakes would fall in. And it felt very similar. And so when I read Swamplandia, I was like, oh yes, this is what I like.
Annie Jones [00:19:34] Yeah, well, it's not familiar and she wrote about Florida so well, which not everybody does. What about you? Pop Culture House?
Ashley Sherlock [00:19:41] Did not think this question was going to come to me, but why can I only think of Little House on the Prairie? Does that count?
Amy Poeppel [00:19:50] Yeah, it does. It really does.
Annie Jones [00:19:53] Listen, we should accept Hunter and I are barely here because we are really mourning Diane [inaudible]. We're having a hard time, but I do immediately think it's the Father of the Bride house, which we got to see in person a couple summers ago when we went to LA, and it's just wonderful in person. And there's a house here in Thomasville that looks like the Father of the Bride house, and every time I drive by it or walk by it, I think, oh, Annie and her dad playing basketball. Like, I don't know, that house to me-- and Nancy Meyers just does a great job.
Amy Poeppel [00:20:23] Something's got to give.
Hunter Mclendon [00:20:25] It's complicated. The kitchen. I'm going to be a cook now.
Annie Jones [00:20:30] Right.. That's the thing houses can do. They feel aspirational. You say, if I had a kitchen, I would cook. I'd do it. Like you feel like you would. Okay, so that brings us to the list. Alright. So, Ashley is going to be our moderator. Can you remind us how the snake draft works? So we're going to do a snake draft. We will start with whoever's birthday is next. Well, whose birthday is it next?
Annie Jones [00:20:59] You just had yours. Yeah. When is your birthday?
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:01] June.
Annie Jones [00:21:02] Oh, sweet.
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:02] So Annie's going to be first. So that means we will go in order of Annie, Amy, Hunter, and then back to Amy, and then Annie. We're just going to keep sending it back and forth, right?
Amy Poeppel [00:21:11] I don't remember. Yes, sure.
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:12] Close enough. And then do you want me to read off the list?
Annie Jones [00:21:16] Yes, read the list.
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:17] So they're going to choosing from a specific list of houses.
Annie Jones [00:21:20] And y'all are going to pay attention because you vote at the end of this. You vote for whose line up is the best.
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:25] Yeah. So we have the orchard house from Little Women. The Father of the Bride house, the Home Alone house, Kathleen Kelly's apartment in You've Got Mail, the house in the Family Stone, Monica's apartment in Friends, the cousin's beach house in The Summer I Turned Pretty, the cottage from The Holiday, Nick Parker's Napa vineyard in the the Parent Trap, Laura Lai's house in Gilmore Girls, Green Gables from Ann of Green Gable's and Emily Cooper's Parisian apartment.
Annie Jones [00:21:53] Okay. And how many do we each get? I made this up.
Ashley Sherlock [00:21:56] You should each get four.
Annie Jones [00:22:02] Okay. All right. And I go first.
Ashley Sherlock [00:22:04] You go first and then Amy and then Hunter.
Annie Jones [00:22:06] Well, as it should be, I am taking Kathleen Kelly's apartment in You've Got Mail. I couldn't not. Listen, I saw that movie when I was 13. It's what made me want to own my own bookstore. But also it's the daisies. It's the piano with the sign when she closes her store and she brings home the shopper on the corner sign playing on the piano. It is the quilt on the bed. It was the fact that she rearranged her furniture after she sells her store. I don't know if you've noticed that, but she does. Her bedroom is totally different. It's a little kitchen and the bases, the bottom of the base at the top of the refrigerator. I love it. And all I ever want is for my-- I mean, I feel that way about Monica's apartment too, but all I even want is for my home to look as lived in and as comfortable. I am not a fan of stark. I want it to look like I think you mentioned earlier like you want to walk into somebody's house and be like, oh, this is Amy's house. I want you to walk in and you knew that was Katherine's apartment and I love it so much I wish I could live in it. So that's my draft there.
Amy Poeppel [00:23:07] Okay, well, I'm going to throw a curveball here because I'm going to go-- I mean are you kidding, I am going to go with the Napa Valley vineyard.
Annie Jones [00:23:19] Does it come with the car?
Hunter Mclendon [00:23:23] And Chessy?
Annie Jones [00:23:23] Yeah, and Chessy more importantly.
Amy Poeppel [00:23:24] No, I definitely want the big property with I can make my own wine and great weather all the time and I can just see myself there because that's what I do. A little stark. It's a little [inaudible] but I'm going [crosstalk] Yeah. I'm going to mess it up.
Annie Jones [00:23:47] That's a good thing.
Hunter Mclendon [00:23:48] Well, now that my thing was taken, that's fine. I'm not feeling attacked. I'll go with Lorelai's house in Gilmor Girls because I love how it just-- I can tell that it probably sounds a little bit creaky when they go up and down the stairs. I'm sure that it smells lovely with the different perfumes that they probably spray on but also the food that they keep on warming up. The textures are just very there for me. And I love that it feels like a home that two people who really love each other have a really complicated relationship with. I just can feel their relationship is it's just kind of like hooked into the house.
Annie Jones [00:24:29] Well, I think that's even why in the later seasons, I don't remember what season it is, but when Luke moves in, poor guy, and they renovate and the house is never the same. I prefer it pre-renovation.
Hunter Mclendon [00:24:40] Well, yeah, we should clear up like this is what Laurence had like free [inaudible]. So, that's fine.
Annie Jones [00:24:46] I actually think Hunter gets to go twice, if I remember right.
Ashley Sherlock [00:24:49] Yep.
Hunter Mclendon [00:24:50] Do I? Oh, good.
Annie Jones [00:24:52] I think that's the park. I think that's the park of being last.
Hunter Mclendon [00:24:54] That's right. As it should be
Amy Poeppel [00:24:58] He's going to take mine. He's going to take my pick.
Hunter Mclendon [00:25:01] Let me see. You know what? Wait, I'm going to take too long. Okay, Actually, I'll do Monica's apartment in Friends.
Annie Jones [00:25:10] Because your friends like me. I should never have said it.
Hunter Mclendon [00:25:18] I thought that's a really cute apartment and I remember watching Friends when I was very little. And I thought that was how it looked. I didn't realize that the big city existed outside of the apartment. I just assumed that was what the big city was. And so I thought everyone would frequent there. And so, I remember whenever I first dreamed of going to Broadway at 7, I thought I cannot wait to live in New York, and I thought New York was that apartment specifically. And I don't know. I don't have friends, and I don't socialize, but I used to dream of basically being like the Phoebe under the table. And so that is how I, yeah, I think that's like, it's a place where unexpected friendships like [crosstalk].
Annie Jones [00:26:03] Yeah, because being a Monica don't make sense. Being a Monica don't make sense. But then I love that that apartment is the home base. Like that is where they all come to congregate. It was always the mismatched dining chairs for me. And when we got married I painted all of our chairs different colors because I was like this is what adulthood looks like. It's mismatched dining and chairs. And it was. I loved it. Fine, you get it.
Ashley Sherlock [00:26:29] Amy, your turn.
Amy Poeppel [00:26:33] Oh, my gosh. Okay, well, this is a no-brainer for me because I am going to go with the Parisian apartment.
Annie Jones [00:26:40] Oh, is it the Parisian location?
Amy Poeppel [00:26:42] No, it's the apartment, too, because I don't need much. Just a cool walk up, because this is going to go so well with my Napa vineyard, you know? Just like her. And I just don't need much. I just need a little staircase to climb up and I have my bed and my kitchen and my cookie friends who stop by.
Annie Jones [00:27:01] Yeah, you don't even need much!
Amy Poeppel [00:27:02] No, we just go out and have croissants.
Hunter Mclendon [00:27:06] This is Emily in Paris, right?
Annie Jones [00:27:07] Yes.
Hunter Mclendon [00:27:08] Okay, I thought so.
Annie Jones [00:27:09] Yes, you don't know her last name because she rarely, yeah. [Crosstalk]. Yeah. Okay, I will take the house of the Family Stone. So speaking of Diane, yes, I love that house. In my heart, I do feel like I was made for me New England. Why live in the deep South? It's so hot. This weekend was lovely, but we rarely get seasons. Or it feels like our seasons are so short, except for summer, which lasts forever. And just again, going back to the lived-in quality of that house and how it looks in the snow and all the adult children coming back and celebrating, and the kitchen and the coffee pot. Like who would refill the coffee pot? And the sister having the attic bedroom I don't know I love it all. They've got a great front porch. It's a perfect house for Christmas. [Crosstalk]. This is just really great in my mind. I thought it was--
Amy Poeppel [00:28:11] She died?
Annie Jones [00:28:13] She did.
Ashley Sherlock [00:28:13] Spoiler.
Annie Jones [00:28:15] Yeah, she did. But I watch it every Christmas. I love that movie. Oh, it's so good.
Amy Poeppel [00:28:19] Yeah. It's so good.
Annie Jones [00:28:20] So that would be mine.
Ashley Sherlock [00:28:21] You get to go again.
Annie Jones [00:28:22] Oh, that's right. All right, wait a minute. I am going to take Green Gables from Ann of Green Gables. This is one that I'm picking for the location. So we've got to visit Prince Edward Island a few years ago and Jordan, I think, planned that trip as a gift to me like thinking that it would-- and it was, it was for me, I've wanted to go there since I was a kid. I loved the Anne books. But then, I will never forget, when we finally got there and we were driving around, Jordan was like, this is the most beautiful place I've ever been. And he fell in love with it because it's just this beautiful melding of beach and farmland and interestingly it's way up in Canada Nova Scotia, but it's got the same red clay dirt that I feel like we have down here. I adored it up there. And great lobster. I love a lobster. You hate lobster. I love a lobster. And so I would, that would be--
Female Speaker [00:29:16] It's too much work.
Annie Jones [00:29:16] You think it's too much work?
Female Speaker [00:29:17] It's too much work.
Annie Jones [00:29:18] Oh, I love it. I think in another life maybe I will own a bookstore and I could just like tend my land. I don't know. If I threw my phone into the ocean and just minding my own business, working with my hands in Canada, I think I could do that. That sounds fun. [Crosstalk].
Ashley Sherlock [00:29:47] It does. That would be mine.
Amy Poeppel [00:29:48] Okay. All right. So, where are we? What is left? I am going to go with-- I'm trying to think of what's going to go well with my...
Annie Jones [00:29:57] You're doing a smart job of like strategically. My houses are all over the place, you can't even like them.
Amy Poeppel [00:30:03] I think I'm just going to go with my gut here. Wait, did someone take the Father of the Bride?
Hunter Mclendon [00:30:09] No.
Amy Poeppel [00:30:10] I'll take the Father of the Bride.
Annie Jones [00:30:13] It's right near Napa, right?
Amy Poeppel [00:30:14] Yeah, but it's not too much in the same part, neck of the woods. Where were they?
Annie Jones [00:30:19] They were in Pasadena or Palisades. Where is that? Palisades. Pasadena? It's where the road [crosstalk].
Amy Poeppel [00:30:27] Did I already say it? If I said it, does it mean it's too late if I already said it?
Annie Jones [00:30:32] No, you can do whatever you want. The rules are lax here.
Amy Poeppel [00:30:33] No, I'm going to take the Father of the Bride house. I'm going to do Taylor Swift with the basketball hoop, and the husband and... It's a beautiful house.
Annie Jones [00:30:47] Yeah, it is a beautiful.
Amy Poeppel [00:30:48] It's really beautiful house. I was thinking we could just pick it up and put it in New England. But that's okay. I'll just go heavy on the output. It's a nice place. Like you said.
Annie Jones [00:30:55] And then again there is that weather out there. It's wonderful always. You never have to worry about it.
Amy Poeppel [00:31:03] Perfect. I'm very happy with my real estate choices.
Hunter Mclendon [00:31:05] It's kind of funny, but I feel like having the two of us here can be really polarizing depending on people's perspective of the author.
Annie Jones [00:31:12] Yeah, that's what we're really about to find out.
Hunter Mclendon [00:31:15] Okay, so I think that I'm going to go with the orchid house in Little Women.
Annie Jones [00:31:20] Dang it, I think you're just picking stuff to fight me.
Hunter Mclendon [00:31:23] I'm not! I think you and I are just like, listen, I got the sticker that says, like, I'm an Amy leader, but I'm also-- I always aspire to be you, so like...
Annie Jones [00:31:32] It's fine. You picked my houses.
Hunter Mclendon [00:31:34] I can't help, but listen, I also like-- you and I both love Little Women. Like, you love it more than I do. Like, I do love [inaudible]. But anyway, but I think that that place is so gorgeous.
Annie Jones [00:31:51] It is gorgeous.
Hunter Mclendon [00:31:52] I don't know what I would do there except for like I guess die in a good way.
Annie Jones [00:31:59] You don't have to die [crosstalk].
Hunter Mclendon [00:32:03] Here's the thing, I would love to write in a like a joke kind of way and then somebody dies. And I would die there someday, do you know what I mean? I'd live out two lives.
Annie Jones [00:32:15] No. Okay, wait. Okay, you're going to have to go again.
Hunter Mclendon [00:32:20] Oh, yes. Okay.
Annie Jones [00:32:21] You've got a pin over there. I'm losing track.
Hunter Mclendon [00:32:22] I'm sorry.
Amy Poeppel [00:32:23] I am too.
Hunter Mclendon [00:32:24] Okay, then what's left is the Home Alone house, the cousin’s beach house, and the Summer I Turned Pretty, and the cottage from the Holiday. And I will go with the cottage from the holiday because I think that that place is so cute and cozy.
Annie Jones [00:32:39] I feel like I've done this wrong. You've picked favorite houses and you've been more strategic and that was smart. Like, she's done [inaudible] and you have too and my houses are weird.
Hunter Mclendon [00:32:50] No, you're making such good choices.
Amy Poeppel [00:32:53] We will all visit Annie in her houses, right?
Annie Jones [00:32:57] This is why I don't own real estate. I can't. I should not be trusted. Fine, okay, so you got the cottage.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:04] I got the cottage.
Annie Jones [00:33:04] That's in England, right? I'm coming to visit.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:08] Yeah!
Amy Poeppel [00:33:10] He doesn't have much room for guests.
Annie Jones [00:33:12] But that's okay [crosstalk].
Amy Poeppel [00:33:14] You're going to hit your head on the ceiling.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:16] That's okay though, listen, I have those leaves. Like the leaves outside. Like, I've always loved you, Jo, like I have it all.
Annie Jones [00:33:25] No, you just picked that.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:26] Oh, I'm sorry, I saw the last one.
Annie Jones [00:33:30] We're worried about your height in this cottage.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:33] That's right! Oh yeah, that's right. Sorry, I already got lost where I was at. The cottage, yes. I have so many houses, it's so hard to keep up.
Annie Jones [00:33:38] That's why you're confused. The orchid house isn't in London.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:41] No, I know. That's why I got confused. I was like, okay. I love London. Uh, cup of tea?
Amy Poeppel [00:33:50] You're going to have a little dog, you can walk to town, drive on the wrong side of the road, you know.
Hunter Mclendon [00:33:57] Could you imagine? Wait, hold on. Could you imagine?
Annie Jones [00:34:02] Yeah, I can picture it. I love it, oh my goodness. I think you and I would just do so well together. And I have children in this life that I'll find them. And I will have a cozy, I'll have a fire and I'll have the throw and I'm just like, brr, where's my lover and my children? Like, it's great. This is a really solid [crosstalk].
Amy Poeppel [00:34:22] By the way, you're getting two houses because Jude Law's house in that movie is outstanding. He has a great house, so you just scored nice.
Annie Jones [00:34:32] I know what you're going to pick.
Amy Poeppel [00:34:34] I know you do. I feel like being like the character in the book I'm reading right now just gives up everything to the other person always. That's like part of his-- I'm reading it but I don't know the name of it. It's by Robert Isaac. Hasn't come out yet. [Inaudible] like next year. But his personality trait is that if he thinks you're going to maybe want that seat, he will go sit in that seat because he just doesn't want... So I'm really tempted. I'm going to take the whole room down, but I want a budget to redecorate. It's so 90s. It is going to need a lot of money. I'm going to have to do pretty much a full gut.
Annie Jones [00:35:18] But listen, you do get Chicago, which is fun.
Amy Poeppel [00:35:21] Sure.
Annie Jones [00:35:22] Right there in Midwest.
Amy Poeppel [00:35:23] Yeah. I like Chicago. I lived there for one year. And at the end of the year, I decided that I really liked it. No, I left for other-- it was a one-year gig. But I really liked it. And I can entertain. And I can set up characters in the windows and go like this. And y'all will think I have so many friends. I want you to have a beach house.
Annie Jones [00:35:46] That's really generous.
Amy Poeppel [00:35:47] I really want you to have this.
Annie Jones [00:35:47] I don't know if any author has ever allowed me to have something. I would pick cousin's beach house because it is the best part of the Summer I Turned Pretty. And I will fight you on that. It is not Delhi and Conrad and whoever. It is the beach house.
Hunter Mclendon [00:36:02] I just love that you're giving me dagger eyes as you say it.
Annie Jones [00:36:05] You know she's pissed. You know why? Because did you guys see, there was a great edit, I don't know if it was a YouTube or a TikTok or what, but it was that final scene of The Summer I Turned Pretty, but it was to the tune of Succession. And it was like it was really about Belly wanting the beach house, and listen, she got it. She did what she needed to do. But there is something about that. Again, it's New England, it is Nancy Meyers, it's hydrangeas in the yard. You walk outside the beach. I'm convinced that I would be such a healthy person physically, emotionally, if I could just look out my window and see the ocean. Yeah, I think I would just immediately drop my blood pressure. I would be the most Zen Ringo version of myself if I got some of that.
Amy Poeppel [00:36:54] I'm just saying though, I know Easter is coming.
Annie Jones [00:36:57] Okay, do you think I can handle it? Because I feel like back down the hatches, like, I can do that. Again, we don't need power, just cozy blankets. [Inaudible] it'll be fine. Yeah.
Amy Poeppel [00:37:09] Thank you so much.
Annie Jones [00:37:10] You're welcome. Okay, did we get them all? I think we got them all. Okay, so now should we each-- do you want to recap Ashley?
Ashley Sherlock [00:37:18] Yeah, I'll recap and then after that we can vote.
Annie Jones [00:37:21] So be listening up because you're going to vote for your favorite ensemble. Yes, that's right.
Ashley Sherlock [00:37:25] All right, so Hunter has the Orchard House from Little Women, Monica's apartment in Friends, the cottage from The Holiday, and Lorelai's house in Gilmore Girls.
Annie Jones [00:37:36] Wow, you scored. You're swaying the crowd.
Amy Poeppel [00:37:39] I didn't do too bad either. I got a lot of head shakes on the Home Alone house.
Annie Jones [00:37:46] If you can afford the Home Alone house you can afford to renovate it.
Amy Poeppel [00:37:49] I can sell it and buy something else.
Ashley Sherlock [00:37:52] That's not the game. That's not the game. Okay. All right Amy's picks are the Father of the Bride house, the Home Alone house, Nick Parker's Napa Vineyard in the Parent Trap, and Emily Cooper's Parisian apartment.
Annie Jones [00:38:03] I mean, your locations are great. Good locations.
Ashley Sherlock [00:38:07] All right and Annie's choices are Kathleen Kelly's apartment in You've Got Mail, the house and the Family S. The cousin's beach house in The Summer I Turned Pretty, and Green Gables from Anne of Green of Gables.
Annie Jones [00:38:17] That's not bad.
Amy Poeppel [00:38:19] That's really pretty good.
Annie Jones [00:38:20] There's no losers. Now, who picked these houses? She did a great job.
Ashley Sherlock [00:38:25] Okay. So please vote with your applause for Hunter. [Applause] Okay, and Amy. [Applause] Annie B. Jones. [Applause]. Okay.
Hunter Mclendon [00:38:44] Okay, Jordan's like half of this woo-hooing, so.
Annie Jones [00:38:48] Wait, who was it though? I think it was a tie.
Ashley Sherlock [00:38:53] It feels like a three-way tie. How can we break this? Should we do it again?
Amy Poeppel [00:38:59] We can each select now one from our set that we already have and make them for one of them.
Annie Jones [00:39:06] Oh, like it's just one house to hold them all? Okay.
Amy Poeppel [00:39:10] I forgot what I got.
Annie Jones [00:39:14] Okay, I'll start. I'm just like at Katherine's apartment. That's what I'm going with. That's what I would take.
Amy Poeppel [00:39:21] I'm going to go with the Napa Vineyard.
Hunter Mclendon [00:39:26] I'll go with Lorelai's house in Gilmore Girls.
Ashley Sherlock [00:39:30] Okay, let's try this again. Lorelai's house in Gilmore Girls. [Applause]
Hunter Mclendon [00:39:34] I knew it! I knew this was going to be a mistake.
Annie Jones [00:39:39] Two people for Hunter.
Ashley Sherlock [00:39:42] Nick Parker's Napa Vineyard. [Applause]. Kathleen Kelly's Apartment. [Applause].
Amy Poeppel [00:39:53] You are all invited for my new-- what do you call it? My new wine will be out and you are all welcome to come.
Annie Jones [00:40:08] Okay, thank you. That was delightful. If only any of that could come true I'd feel so good. I got my life decisions.
Amy Poeppel [00:40:14] This wasn't real?
Annie Jones [00:40:16] I know. We didn't get real estate. I did think it would be a funny, like, little thing to put in Reader Retreaters' tote bags. It would be like Zillow listings for Thomasville houses, a partner with a local real estate agent. I feel good about that.
Ashley Sherlock [00:40:28] Okay, so it's time for questions. And if you've got some here in person, I have some to read off, but before that, if anybody would like to raise your hand, we have something special for the first one to two people, one to two brave people, if you would like ask any of the panel something [inaudible].
Audience question [00:40:49] Amy, I read your first book, Far and Away. I've been hearing about you and you were on my to-be-read list for years, but when Far and Away came out I read it and I loved it, and I recently went back and read Small Admissions, and I loved it too, so now you're my new favorite author. What should I read next, and what order should I bring them in?
Amy Poeppel [00:41:13] I think you should read Musical Chairs next just because it's kind of closest to my heart. It's about the hometown that I live in, and the house in that book is my house. The castle in that book, we call it the castle, is my friend's house. And it's just about adult children moving back home. That seems to be happening a lot these days. So, yeah, and it's about music, but it's really about people.
Audience question [00:41:42] Okay. Thank you. And after that?
Amy Poeppel [00:41:44] Oh, and after that, wait, so did you read the Sweet Spot?
Audience question [00:41:49] No.
Amy Poeppel [00:41:50] Read the Sweet Spot. And the Sweet Spot is maybe going to be a motion picture. We shall see, fingers crossed. But the script has been written, Amazon has bought it, now we're just waiting to see if they actually approve moving on to the next step. So that would be really fun. Yeah. So you did read Far and Away, right?
Annie Jones [00:42:16] Yes, she read Far And Away.
Annie Jones [00:42:23] Thank you for buying our prizes. Which was so nice. What a host fest.
Amy Poeppel [00:42:34] We have a house like mine in Napa Valley. Sorry, did I interrupt?
Annie Jones [00:42:35] No, no, no. You're all good. Okay, any other questions before I move on to what you guys have already asked on our little loop?
Ashley Sherlock [00:42:43] We have another prize.
Annie Jones [00:42:44] We do have another prize? Oh, there we go.
Amy Poeppel [00:42:54] Where's Wendy?
Annie Jones [00:42:55] She's watching the Georgia game.
Amy Poeppel [00:42:56] Can you believe though that I noticed who was this?
Annie Jones [00:42:59] Yeah, that's the person. Sorry. Go ahead Lisa.
Audience question [00:43:06] Okay, so thinking about homes and the different homes you live in, I kind of thought, well, what's your favorite home? I don't know if most people live over 13 years like I do, but what's the favorite part of your favorite home?
Annie Jones [00:43:20] In real life?
Audience question [00:43:22] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:43:23] Like where we've lived, like what's our favorite part of our home?
Audience question [00:43:25] Yeah. What's your homiest home?
Annie Jones [00:43:28] I'll start. And I wrote about it in ordinary time, but it's my parents front porch swing. The house that my parents still own is where we moved when I was 10 and I love that house. I would be very sad when my parents decide to move, but its really the porch and the swing. And when I was having a bad day, or when a girl had been mea;, or I don't know, life felt hard or heavy, my mom, we would sit on the front porch swing; and the creak of that swing, there's something about it. So that to me is the homiest of all in my brain.
Amy Poeppel [00:44:03] Kent, Connecticut. Which is crazy because I got shipped off to boarding school there and I hated it. And then I sort of accidentally ended up in the same town like 30 years later, which is just crazy. But I moved there from Texas. I went to boarding there from Texas and I've never seen leaves and hills like that. Texas is really flat and I just remember thinking in my teenage misery I hate my life the way teenagers think and I love this place. I really love this place. And my screened in porch like especially like in the spring when the peepers come out and these noises that are just like, as I mentioned in musical chairs, it's just every horny amphibian out there. And just that's my happy place. Yeah, especially if my kids are around.
Hunter Mclendon [00:44:57] I think this is going to be very revealing of me as a person, but when I was very little, the first place I ever lived in was with my granny. We lived in this little trailer in Wigan, and at one point she had to rent it out for different reasons, and when we came back it had been destroyed. But when we came back my granny had always been this person who knew how to make everything a little bit magical and kind of like hide a little of the bad thoughts. And they had taken out the bathtub and so we had this like large container that I typically put toys in and she would boil water on the stove and bring it and fill up this tub for me to take a bath in. And I don't know why, but that is something that like every time I think about feeling like really complex sometimes I'll take baths and I'll kind of get back into this moment of like [inaudible] will be playing in the bedroom, like I'm right outside, I can hear that. And so it's like this thing where like I would just be like in my toy bin and I'm like taking these baths. And it sounds like so like hokey pokey, but it was like such a very like special thing to like-- and even now when I think about it like it takes a lot of work to boil enough water to like carry it back and forth in the kitchen to like...
Annie Jones [00:46:10] That's an act of love.
Hunter Mclendon [00:46:11] And it is and that's something that like brings me a lot of love. It makes me think it's like a very beautiful part of like my top of my mind.
Amy Poeppel [00:46:17] You were cared for. That was being cared for.
Annie Jones [00:46:22] That was a good question. Oh, she gets a prize. You have a question?
Ashley Sherlock [00:46:37] Yeah, we've got a few lightning round questions. Annie, we'll start with you. What literary home would you want to live in, either from our list tonight or otherwise?
Annie Jones [00:46:48] I think it really is, I mean, I'll cheat a little bit, but it's either Green Gables or orchard house. Like, to me, I think that's because I read them as a child. It's those books that you read when you're a kid. But there was something about... I think, too, just Green Gables and the description of the house and the neighbors and the community there that kind of helped raise Anne. And they were so proud of her as she grew up and older. She kind of won them over. So I guess it really is Green Gable's or orchard house a little bit.
Amy Poeppel [00:47:21] I'm going to go with the beach house in Sandwiched just because it was so homey and not fancy and just perfect for family and the dinners on the porch and I just I love that feeling I just love that... But I will also take Mr. Rochester's-- what was it called again? Or, last night I dreamt, I went to Mandarin.
Annie Jones [00:47:49] Mandarin was born here and I was like, is that creepy?
Amy Poeppel [00:47:52] Yeah, but either of those two big stone houses like I wouldn't mind one of those either
Annie Jones [00:47:59] Wait, what was your first?
Amy Poeppel [00:48:02] The beach house from Sandwiched.
Annie Jones [00:48:03] What was I going to say about that? So one of my favorite things in literature is when there's like a family house. Like I think about the Paper Palace, like this house that they returned to. I think one of the favorite details in Sandwich is that that's a house they rent every year. They don't own it. I finally was like, oh, something attainable. I could rent the same house every year. It's too late for me. I mean, we don't have a family compound on Marla's vineyard, but I could rent the same beach house every year at St. George Island or whatever.
Amy Poeppel [00:48:33] And then you don't have to worry about the nor'easter.
Annie Jones [00:48:35] Exactly.
Amy Poeppel [00:48:36] That's not my problem.
Annie Jones [00:48:37] That's right. Not my problem, yeah.
Hunter Mclendon [00:48:39] Like, this is not going to make any sense because I know it's not accurate, but every time I read Telltale Heart, I always imagined my great-grandma's house. And so in my head this is like the first thing that always comes to mind. I'm like, oh, yes I love that. I love the home [crosstalk].
Ashley Sherlock [00:49:00] Okay, this one is a two-part question. Amy, we'll start with you since you haven't gone first yet tonight.
Amy Poeppel [00:49:05] I love going second.
Ashley Sherlock [00:49:08] What book best describes your childhood and your current adult life?
Amy Poeppel [00:49:13] Oh my gosh. That feel hard.
Annie Jones [00:49:14] I think we're asking for two different books.
Amy Poeppel [00:49:18] Yikes, okay, so best describes my childhood? [Inaudible]. Something southern. I'm trying to think of what southern story. When I think of the Little House books were so sensual. That was when I was a re-reader. I re- read those books so many times that when I think of like my childhood, that's what I associate with my childhood. Because I read them as I age and then I just would start over and read them again. And in terms of my adult, I feel like Sandwiched is sort of that sandwiched, I've lived that, right? Like taking care of kids and taking care of parents like at the same time. And so, yeah, maybe I would pick those.
Annie Jones [00:50:20] Well, that's tough. I think for adulthood I would do I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Lauren Philpott. That essay collection, again, I just read it and felt so seen and understood. For childhood, we lived childhood together. I'm just trying to think what would be a book that has a well-- Okay, Harriet the Spy, somebody mentioned her earlier today, but my brother and I would play stuff like that all the time, where we would spy on people, I would keep it in my little journal, that kind of stuff, so maybe Harriet the Spy. That's so funny.
Hunter Mclendon [00:50:57] No, it's not. I think my current adult life right now there's this book that just came out called Middle Spoon by Alejandro Valera. I feel that's a very accurate depiction of my life where it's been at the last year and throughout adulthood. And the way that whenever I used to try to explain my childhood to people, I tended to get the two books. One was White Oleander by Janet Fitch and the other was A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. [Inaudible] I think the Middle Spoon is much lighter and funnier and more rom-com and definitely think that's a really good book to add on to my life choices.
Ashley Sherlock [00:51:45] Okay, similarly, I guess Hunter, we'll start with you. When you reflect on your reading life, what books shaped you?
Hunter Mclendon [00:51:51] Well, White Oleander definitely. I also think that Mary Poppins definitely made me assume that I would have some like fairy godmother type thing come down and like teach me a lesson. I also think that Anne of Green Gables was definitely something else. A lot of these like Ellen Hopkins books about like these teenagers doing like terrible things. And everything that was dealing with like, either spirited, like Little Women, or like Anne of Green Gables, anything like that was definitely one side of it, and the other half was people doing really illegal things at very young ages. And I think that's really shaped who I am as a person.
Amy Poeppel [00:52:38] What was the question again?
Annie Jones [00:52:40] When you reflect on your reading life, what books shaped you?
Amy Poeppel [00:52:45] First, I'll say that rather than a book, there was a summer that I spent where it was my reading summer. It was like a summer where I literally remember being in a house with my family and everybody had brought books and they kind of all ended up on the coffee table. And that was sort of like the library for the summer. And I remember thinking, wow, I'm reading a lot. And reading very mature books. I think I was maybe 13 or 14. And I remember reading The Slave by Isaac Bashevis Singer. I just remember really pushing myself to read the stuff my parents were reading. Certainly books like Forever, like any Judy Bloom turned me into a reader. But then I read a book by Kay Gibbons, North Carolina author who has just kind of disappeared. She had some sort of a mental health crisis. She was winning awards when she was like first writing books and she's written a bunch and I recommend literally every single one of her books- Kay Gibbons. But she wrote a book called Ellen Foster that has stuck with me. The voice in that book has stuck me through my entire life. Have any of you read it? Isn't it beautiful? It's this tiny book and it's this very voicey book from the perspective of a young girl. And that's another book I've read so many times and recommended to so many people. You'll read it in a day and it will stay with you.
Annie Jones [00:54:14] I frequently say I love Little Women, but it's actually an old-fashioned girl by Louise May Alcott that was a book that I just loved as a kid and I have reread it since and I definitely think it shaped me. Sometimes when you go back and read books from your childhood, don't you think did I borrow that from-- like I thought that was my personality trait, but did I copy that from... In the last couple years Jordan and I read together from the mixed up files of [crosstalk] and all of a sudden that's a book where there's an older sister to a younger brother, I believe, and I thought, oh, did I accidentally become her? Like, I thought that was a unique personality trait. Maybe I was just copying these characters. And then in adulthood, it's the work of Marilynne Robinson. I think that Jess is completely-- I mean, what I wouldn't give to write like her? But how she writes about people. Similar to maybe Elizabeth Strout. I think those are the two.
Hunter Mclendon [00:55:10] Okay, but I have to say, and I think I said this to you whenever I was reading like the first round of your essays when you were doing your proposal, like there are so many moments where I feel like you do kind of reach that level. I'm telling you, the essay about like when staying means leaving. Like that was a moment where I thought, oh, I always like basking in your wisdom. This is something I enjoy. That's why I love being your friend. But that was the moment where I read that essay 11 or 12 times now, and every single time I'm like, oh my gosh, genius.
Annie Jones [00:55:41] That's high praise. That's the dream.
Ashley Sherlock [00:55:46] Okay, two questions left. Annie and Hunter, I think this one is more for you. Amy, feel free to jump in. What is your favorite of the conquered classics?
Hunter Mclendon [00:55:55] Yeah, I already know what yours is.
Annie Jones [00:55:58] Lonesome Dove.
Hunter Mclendon [00:55:58] Yeah, okay.
Annie Jones [00:56:01] [Inaudible] Lonesome dove.
Hunter Mclendon [00:56:01] Okay, Lonesome Dove is probably my number one, however, if Anna Karenina had ended on book seven, I think I'd have been like number one. Love it. But then all of a sudden, it's like, what are we doing? Levin's here again. Like, what now? Like, I don't get it.
Annie Jones [00:56:20] Again. I love him though. I believe that that was one of the most fun experiences because we did that one in 2020. We did not understand what was happening.
Amy Poeppel [00:56:31] Which one? Anna Karenina?
Annie Jones [00:56:32] Yeah. We did Anna Karenina, that was our first one. So we did and we didn't know when we decided to conquer a classic that year that the pandemic was forthcoming. And that was my bucket list white whale book and so I do have fond memories of that experience.
Hunter Mclendon [00:56:46] Well, and I the entire time trying to like be like, oh, Anna Karenina is definitely Carrie Bradshaw. And then you make the point about how Kitty and Levin were Jim and Pam in The Office. And I feel like that is like a really accurate description of that book
Annie Jones [00:57:02] Maybe that's all you need to know about it pretty enough.
Hunter Mclendon [00:57:04] Do you have a favorite classic that you like?
Amy Poeppel [00:57:06] Beloved. That was a book I was scared to read because I'm not smart enough to read this book and I not only had to read it; I had to teach it. So I was teaching 12th grade AP Lit and I remember they were like okay we're going to do Beloved. I remember just thinking I'm not equipped. I can't do it. And I ended up loving that book, loving the language and just being so excited to make students love that book as much as I did. And it has just stayed with me for-- it is so painful. I mean, it's a painful book, but it's so beautiful.
Ashley Sherlock [00:57:46] Okay, last question, and I'm going to tell you something after I ask it. If you were an English professor, what three books would you definitely have on the curriculum? Fun fact, I was homeschooled for like two years and Annie was my English teacher. So she actually did this.
Amy Poeppel [00:58:08] Can we do one, two, three, use the three books?
Annie Jones [00:58:10] Yeah, the question is three books.
Amy Poeppel [00:58:12] So can we do one, two, three, one, two, three?
Annie Jones [00:58:11] I'll start. I'll say Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward. I would put that on the curriculum for sure.
Amy Poeppel [00:58:19] Okay, and I'm just going to put Beloved for sure on the curriculum.
Annie Jones [00:58:28] I got mine.
Hunter Mclendon [00:58:30] Do it. Do it.
Annie Jones [00:58:31] Yeah, I got it.
Hunter Mclendon [00:58:33] Yeah, you go.
Annie Jones [00:58:34] Okay, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, and Complete Stories by Clare Boylan.
Amy Poeppel [00:58:43] I'm going to add a Streetcar named Desire by Tennessee Williams just because I think we've got to get a play in there and I would put in one of Kay Gibbons' books or Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.
Hunter Mclendon [00:59:04] It's so funny because when I first saw this I actually thought about Savage the Borns and Gilead and I was [inaudible]. It's fine, you're getting payback. That's true though. I know this is not going to surprise you. I think that I would include Fates and Furies. I just think Laura Groff is such a genius to me and I think the book is something that's--
Annie Jones [00:59:25] It'd be fun to talk about it in the class.
Hunter Mclendon [00:59:27] Yeah, and I don't want to steal Beloved, so I think that I might go with Sula, which I think is such a fun thing. It's fun, but it is a really interesting book to read. And I think maybe my third book might be-- and this is like more current stuff I guess, but I think my third one would be Edinburgh by Alexander Chee, because I think it's a nearly perfect book, and there is not a single sentence in there that is not just imaginable.
Annie Jones [00:59:53] That was a good question.
Amy Poeppel [00:59:54] Good question, yeah.
Ashley Sherlock [00:59:55] That's everything I have.
Annie Jones [00:59:57] Thank you guys so much. Thank you to my wonderful co-host this evening, thank you. [Applause] Thank you everybody for coming to From the Front Live. We have copies of Amy Poeppel's books and she will sign them for you. So if you want to stick around and grab a copy of the book and get them signed, you can love that. Caroline, any other announcements before we depart?
[01:01:00] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website:
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:
Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…
Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Gene Queens, Beth, Jammie Treadwell…
Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins
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