Episode 554 || November 2025 New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s another New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia share the November releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 554) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
How About Now by Kate Baer
Like Family by Erin O. White
Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel
With Friends Like These by Alissa Lee
The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex
59 Minutes by Holly Seddon
Helm by Sarah Hall
The Tortoise’s Tale by Kendra Coulter
Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn
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.
This week, Annie is reading Journey Towards Morning by Victoria Safford. Olivia is reading The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. Erin is reading The Tortoise’s Tale by Kendra Coulter.
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:
Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business and life in the South.
“Had a journal ever in all modern history been filled?” -Erin O. White, Like Family.
I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today, I'm joined once again by The Bookshelf's operations manager. Welcome back from maternity leave, Olivia. And are you ready for this? Bookshelf floor manager, Erin, to give you a rundown of our favorite new books, Releasing in November. So much fun stuff just in a little intro. If you are a new or newish listener, you might not realize or remember that From the Front Porch is a production of The Bookshelf, a small, independently owned bookstore in rural South Georgia. By listening to our show and recommending it to your friends, you're helping keep our indie bookstore in business. And if you like what you hear, one way you can financially support us is through Patreon.
[00:01:19] This year, we've been conquering the classic novel Don Quixote. We have just finished up, we are wrapping up now, getting ready to announce our really exciting plan for 2026. For $5 a month, you can access our monthly Conquer a Classic recaps, including back episodes, like when we did Lonesome Dove or Middlemarch or Count of Monte Cristo. Plus, you can get our Porch Visits, monthly live Q&As where we talk about everything from pop culture to nail polish to what books you should take on your next vacation. To learn more about our Patreon tiers and benefits, visit patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. You can also gift Patreon memberships, which is something I want to mention as we approach the last month of the year, and that you can be done on patreon.com/fromthefrontporch/gift. Now, back to the show. Hi guys.
Olivia [00:02:16] Hello.
Erin [00:02:16] Hello
Annie Jones [00:02:18] Olivia, welcome back.
Olivia [00:02:20] I'm back everyone. And almost alive.
Annie Jones [00:02:26] I do want to just give listeners the vibe. The vibe is Q4. We are smack dab in the middle of Q4. We're not quite making Q4 money yet, but we're doing Q4 business. And we got two new moms, Erin, Thespian Erin who's over here doing a play. She's got a new role at The Bookshelf, floor manager, plus maybe she's still doing online manager. Everything's great. We're doing fine.
Olivia [00:02:57] No one's sick at all.
Annie Jones [00:03:02] No one has caught their child's illness. Everybody feels great, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, we're all good.
Erin [00:03:11] I got one of those. I got one out of the four. That's good.
Olivia [00:03:15] Feeling physically well in case you were wondering.
Annie Jones [00:03:17] Which one of these in light today?
Erin [00:03:20] It's physically.
Annie Jones [00:03:21] I literally looked in the mirror today and I said, all you have to do is record podcasts. Just record podcasts, just one problem at a time, one day at a time.
Olivia [00:03:32] It's like Chris Driedger when he got food poisoning. Just record podcasts.
Annie Jones [00:03:39] Also I love this about Rob Lowe, there's a moment in the West Wing where it's like one of the first episodes and he just says, wake up. Like he tells himself wake up and it's very Chris Driedger coded. So he's always been the same. Okay, we have November new release books to talk with you all about today. Three books a piece, that's how we do these episodes. Keep in mind Erin has made browsing-- Erin and Olivia.
Erin [00:04:06] Olivia this time.
Olivia [00:04:09] Who's doing that these days?
Annie Jones [00:04:12] You know what? In January, we'll have this all real smooth, everybody.
Olivia [00:04:15] Yeah. And it won't be Erin or Olivia.
Annie Jones [00:04:18] Right. It'll be somebody. Somebody is going to have made browsing the podcast book selections so easy. You can go to bookshelfthomasville.com, type episode 554 into the search bar, and you'll see all of today's books listed, ready for you to preorder or purchase. Use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and get 10% off your order of today's titles. Okay, so I'm going to kick us off with a book that released this past Tuesday, highly anticipated by me and I think a lot of other folks. I think we did a lot pre-orders of this one. How About Now by Kate Baer. You might recognize Kate Baer from her very popular Instagram account and her three previous works of poetry: And Yet, What Kind of Woman, and I Hope This Finds You Well. We were talking off air a little bit about the days of running The Bookshelf through the pandemic because there's something about 2025 that feels like we've gone back in time a little. But one of the books that really I do think saved us during the pandemic in terms of sales was What Kind of Woman, which was Kate Baer's first poetry collection.
[00:05:25] I love Kate Bear. I actually followed her before she was a published poet. I do not know how I came across her. I don't know if she had a blog back in the day. I'm not sure. But I have followed her online for quite some time. I love her work. Her poetry to me is accessible, which is not a bad word, everybody. Poetry, I want to be accessible. This collection was released in both hardback and paperback formats, but as my friend Kimberly said, "We want the paperback because then all of our books match." And so I do love that these are paperback original collections of poetry. I own all of them and all of them are about friendship, motherhood, middle-aged, coming-of-age, girlhood, grief. I love them. I love her poetry. If you like Lindsay Rush a bit much or the newly released Same by Hannah Rosenberg, then I think you will love Kate Baer. I have always said her poetry collections are great gifts. They always release around this time of year, October, November. And so to me, they're perfect, relatively inexpensive paperbacks that you could gift your cousin, your sister-in-law, your book club members. Buy five, wrap them up and you're done. I just highly recommend her and I recommend following her on Instagram. She also has great taste in books. So be sure to follow along with her book recommendations and her poetry. That is How About Now by Kate Baer, released this week.
Olivia [00:06:51] Okay, my first book back at the swing of things in the podcast I'm very excited about, it's called With Friends Like These by Alyssa Lee, also just released this past Tuesday. I picked this up on a whim because also it was short and sweet and that's what I needed at the moment because who can read with a three-month-old at home? If you can, let me know.
Annie Jones [00:07:13] Let me know how you're doing that.
Olivia [00:07:14] Especially if it's not audio books. I love you, Libro.fm. I can't do it. I have no idea what's happening. Anyways, With Friends Like These is this group of college friends, which is why I picked this up because I love a good group of college friends. Annie, you might like this one.
Annie Jones [00:07:29] Okay, good.
Olivia [00:07:30] And they were all in the same sorority house, and the sorority house started this game way back in the day. They called the circus, but really it's like a killing game, but with water guns. I feel like I had to say that.
Annie Jones [00:07:43] Like Mafia or something?
Olivia [00:07:45] I've never played that.
Erin [00:07:49] I love when we find out things about Olivia's life. It's just like when she drops a tidbit.
Olivia [00:07:54] Should I have played Mafia?
Annie Jones [00:07:56] I don't know. Have you not? I'm kind of surprised. Especially, you went to quirky colleges. I went to a small little college. There definitely was a game of Mafia at some point.
Olivia [00:08:05] Okay. Well, wrong group of friends.
Annie Jones [00:08:10] The more you know.
Olivia [00:08:12] So basically, the starting group, they meet in this big round table and they all have their own little token. And everyone gets a name, like a hit name of one person in that group. And they have to, (you guys can't see me, but I'm air quoting) "kill" that person with a water gun. And it's the honor system. If you get hit, you get hit, you're out. No matter where on your you get hit, no matter how much water, you're out. And then that person who hit you takes your token and takes your hit and it's like the last man standing sort of game. So now these women are in their forties and one of them is like, I'm done. We're calling it quits. This will be the last game. That was the path that they made.
Annie Jones [00:08:57] They've been playing this game the whole time?
Olivia [00:09:01] Every January 1st, the first week of January, the last man standing on January 7th is the winner.
Annie Jones [00:09:08] What's the prize?
Olivia [00:09:11] Glory? I don't know. Except this year because their pact was as soon as one person is like, I'm done, then they play one last round. And they all when they were young put money into a pot which then someone put into a savings account. So now this pot of money is nearly a million dollars and it's winner takes all. And they're all in New York City and they're like all best friends. And there goes the game. And it was so fun and it was so good. I really liked it.
Annie Jones [00:09:46] I think I would like this one.
Olivia [00:09:48] And again, because it's set in like a week, it's a tight timeline, which I know people love. I also really enjoy that. There's only five or six remaining women, so it's not too many to keep track of. It was really fun. I liked it a lot.
Erin [00:10:05] It sounds like it. It sounds like I would like that too. It sounds like innocent fun. Like no one's actually being killed.
Olivia [00:10:12] Well, someone did happen to die in their college days when this happened. And they do break into each other’s houses.
Erin [00:10:22] A little breaking and entering.
Olivia [00:10:23] Possibly coerce each other's children to like...
Annie Jones [00:10:27] Just a little light coercion.
Erin [00:10:30] Just a little light coercion between friends, you know?
Olivia [00:10:36] Exactly.
Erin [00:10:36] My first book-- now listen, I've got two weird books today. I'm just going to go ahead and tell you that, but I'm very excited about them. The first one is called Helm by Sarah Hall. It came out this past Tuesday. Helm is a wind. Helm is a weather wind. You basically are reading the book for-- and I haven't finished this one yet, but I am about halfway through. You get the point of view of the wind as it's watching the earth's happenings. And so you truly are getting it from like when it's watching the earth being born. Like, oh, there's a there's a new volcano. There's some land. Almost from the beginning of time. And then you have the point of view of the wind as it goes through different time periods of the earth. It starts with a very primitive hunting group of people and it's got this lady named Nae Nae and she sees the wind as like a creature, almost of a myth or like a god type of thing. And then there's a medieval astrologer, then there is a Victorian meteorologist, and then there is the scientist in the modern era. And they all see Helm as a different thing. Some of them see it as a challenge, some of them as evil. Like the modern scientist she sees Helm as a harbinger of climate change and of pollution and things to come.
[00:12:03] And so there are characters besides the wind. It's not like you're just reading a book about the wind, watching people for arrows. But what I love about it is that the character of Helm is itself a wonderful character. I don't know if it's a he or she. I don't want to gender it, it's just wind. But Helm it's irreverent, it's playful, it's funny. I found myself laughing out loud at some of the things. And it's just beautiful writing. A lot of it is beautiful nature writing because you are talking about nature, a good part of this book. So if you can accept that wind is the main character and you can get past that, then you will find beautiful writing, you will find an innovative way of looking at history through the eyes of a weather phenomenon. I think that's an innovative thing I haven't seen before. I haven't really seen someone play with that type of storytelling before. If you like these types of thing, it received a Kirkus Star review. So I think that's always a good stamp of approval for books.
[00:13:12] The cover is gorgeous. It's like a green cover with a very-- it almost looks like a Victorian woman on the front fighting with an umbrella against the wind. So this book was already out in the U.K. And I think it's just now releasing in America. And so this is one that I'm trying to think like who would want to read this? Who would you want to give it to? I mean, I like it. I think if you are okay again with an odd main character and you like looking at history throughout the years and find it's a very character driven book, then you will like this one. It's called Helm by Sarah Hall. It came out this past Tuesday.
Annie Jones [00:13:49] I looked this one up for fall literary first look and was so intrigued by it. How long is it, Erin?
Erin [00:13:55] I usually put the page count, I think it's about-- I don't know, I could look at it. It's not super long. I think a slimmer book.
Annie Jones [00:14:03] Okay. Because I think if it's a slimmer book, I could totally... It sounds like now if it is a tome, I might be less interested. But I am curious about this one myself. Did you ever read anything by Sarah Perry?
Erin [00:14:16] Her name sounds familiar.
Annie Jones [00:14:18] Essex Serpent. Enlightenment.
Erin [00:14:20] No, I don't know what you're talking about.
Annie Jones [00:14:22] I think I have it here. Anyway, it's sounds like folks who like her might like this one.
Olivia [00:14:28] It's 368 pages.
Erin [00:14:29] Okay, thank you. So a little longer than I thought, but still not very long.
Annie Jones [00:14:32] But that's doable.
Olivia [00:14:34] Yeah, not 400.
Annie Jones [00:14:35] Yeah, just under. Just gets in under the wire. Okay, I might have to add that one to my TBR as well. Okay, next up for me is Like Family. This book I believe it also released this week. This is by Erin O. White. It is a debut novel. I read this a few weeks ago and really liked it. It's got a great autumnal cover, very reminiscent of Sandwich by Catherine Newman or the new one coming out by her, which I'm very much anticipating called Wrecked. Yeah, it just has this great autumnal cover. It's set in upstate New York. You've got three couples. Jordan and I love the show Four Seasons that came out earlier this year with Tina Fey, Steve Carell. We I think watched it three times. We love it. I know it was not loved by everyone, but we loved it. If you liked that, I think you will for sure like this. It's three couples, they're all kind of interconnected in one way or another. Some of them are related to each other, and then a couple of the couples are just really dear friends. But one of the people who is kind of an acquaintance or adjacent to each of these three couples in a different way passes away. It's not nefarious, it's not dark or murder, (it might be in an Olivia book) it's just he is dead. And now these three different couples and their families all have maybe a different way they're affected by his death.
[00:16:06] That to me plays such a small minor role in the book. To me, it's really about how these three couples interact, raise their children, and handle different things headed their way. If you liked the book The Irish Goodbye, which released earlier this year, to me this is very much in the same vein. If you liked Flight by Lynn Steiger Strong, I think that you will like this book. It's very dysfunctional family, dysfunctional friendships. I also thought if you love an Emma Straub book, you will for sure like this. I also really liked its portrayal of a queer relationship and the way that they raise their children and deal with their personal identities in their marriage. One of the women in the book is kind of grappling with her gender identity and trying to figure out not just issues of pronouns, but issues of physical appearance and things like that. I thought that was handled with a deft hand. I really liked this one. The couples are all super interesting and different. It feels very upstate New York, but you could probably see these couples in Brooklyn. Like that's very much the vibe, which is why I say for fans of Emma Straub. I liked this one a lot. Again, good if you just want an autumnal. It's set in the fall. It might even be set in and around Thanksgiving. So if you want a book that really speaks to the season, I think you'll like this. It is called Like Family by Erin O. White.
Erin [00:17:29] And the cover is very autumnal. It's so pretty.
Olivia [00:17:33] Okay, and then if you're looking for a little bit of murderly death, if you're like me and you want a good murder--
Annie Jones [00:17:43] You need some murder.
Olivia [00:17:46] Tis the season, no?
Erin [00:17:48] It is.
Olivia [00:17:49] My next book is called The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex. I believe that's how you say her last name. I meant to look it up. I apologize, Emma. This is out next week on the 11th. And I liked this book the longer that I read that, which sounds bad, but if you know me, I need a good reason for a murder to happen. And I didn't think this was good enough at first. And then by the end I was like, yeah. This is good. You should probably kill him. Anyways, this is about a woman named Bertie who has been waiting 20 years for this man, I forget his name, to be released from jail because he was convicted of killing her younger sister. She has waited 20 years to get her revenge and kill him. So the day of his release, she wakes up, she takes her kids to school, and she packs her bag. She gets her gun and she goes and stalks him until she can find a good moment to shoot him.
Erin [00:18:55] Wow!
Olivia [00:18:56] Which at first I'm just like why are you ruining your whole great family life for this? But then you start to get the other side of the story of her growing up, her and her sister's relationship, how they met this boy, what he did to the family and that sort of thing, which was very interesting because you also get his perspective. And that did change the story quite a bit. I thought it was really well done. I think for people who enjoyed Chris Whitaker's work, I think that has the same sort of atmospheric setting where it's not necessarily like small town, but it is dark. Everything feels foggy, if you will.
Erin [00:19:39] That's a great way to describe it.
Olivia [00:19:41] Yeah. And everyone has a chip on their shoulder for some reason, and we're finding out why and what makes them tick. It was really, really well done. It also got a starred review from Kirkus.
Annie Jones [00:19:55] That sounds good.
Erin [00:19:56] It does sound good.
Olivia [00:19:58] It was good. And again, the premise lost me a little bit because I was like don't do this. It's like watching someone get murdered and be like I could be a cop. But by the end you do understand where she's coming from and why she's doing this and why she's taking these actions. That was The Sunshine Man by Emma Stonex. It was so good.
Erin [00:20:19] I don't want you to spoil anything, but what does sunshine have to do with it? Will we find out in the book?
Olivia [00:20:23] You do find out in the book. To be fair, I don't know why they called that the title.
Erin [00:20:32] No offense to the publisher or the author.
Olivia [00:20:35] We probably could have come up with something different, but I am not an author or a publisher or an editor or a publicist. I'm just the bookseller.
Erin [00:20:45] I'm just curious if that played into the plot at all.
Olivia [00:20:47] It does, very, ever so slightly does play into the plot.
Erin [00:20:50] And you know what, we're not here to judge anyone.
Annie Jones [00:20:53] That's right, good for them.
Erin [00:20:56] Okay, well, I told you I had two weird books today, and this is the second one, but I'm loving this one. I'm about three/fourths of the way through this one. It's called The Tortoise's Tale by Kendra Coulter. It also came out this past Tuesday, November 4th. This is another interesting book with an unusual main character and a point of view. This book follows, as the title suggests, a tortoise from the point of the tortoise. And so you follow the tortoises from hatching where they end up eventually on this lush, Southern California estate. And so there's a gardener that this tortoise befriends named Takeo and this tortoise is so-- you fall in love. I'll talk about that later. You fall love in love with this tortoise. Which is why I keep reading because I'm fascinated by it. Because the tortoise knows some things obviously, but it's also curious about itself. And the owner of this estate has a niece and a nephew that come to live there for a while. And the boy starts getting tutored by this tutor that lives there. And so the tortoise is curious about life and everything. So it kind of walks over and like sits there while they're doing the lessons and loves to find out more about the world, about itself, about just language in general.
[00:22:19] And the niece of the owner, his name is Lucy, she's not allowed to tutor because this was back in the time where girls were sort of like just sit there and learn how to set a table, and then the boy gets to be tutored. But she's curious about the world too. And she befriends the tortoise, who she names Magic. And so she and the tortoises become friends. And because he's on this estate-- actually the tortoise is a girl, I'm so sorry. But since the tortoise, she and Lucy get to be friends and they're together over the years as the girls visits this estate. And then as the estate changes hands to another owner, the new owner starts bringing in a lot of musicians and the tortoise learns to fall in love with jazz. As I'm describing it, I'm like, this is insane. But it's such a good book because I didn't read remarkably bright creatures or things like that. But I think if you love those types of books where an animal is sort of the main character and it's personified and it has human feelings and qualities, then this is such a heartwarming book about seeing the world and seeing life through the eyes of this observer who is this tortoise. And you find out a lot about nature in the meantime. I'm enthralled with this book. I'm loving it and can't wait to finish it. It's called The Tortoise's Tale by Kendra Coulter.
Olivia [00:23:49] It feels like maybe like Perestroika in Paris.
Annie Jones [00:23:52] That's what I was going to say.
Erin [00:23:54] I did not read that one, but I have heard that would be a very good comp, yes.
Annie Jones [00:23:58] Which did really well for us. I do think this time of year, we're all looking for comfort and quiet. I want to revisit the book that came out earlier this year called Raising Hair, which I think Meg from Meg's Reading Room posted a lot about, but it kind of sounds similar where it kind of is quiet and peaceful and getting to look at the world through somebody else's and the animal’s eyes.
Erin [00:24:24] Exactly.
Olivia [00:24:25] So, listeners, we provide you comfort in familial deaths, murder, and talking tortoises.
Erin [00:24:31] Yeah, the tortoise does not talk. There's nothing talking about it.
Annie Jones [00:24:36] A silent tortoise. Erin, are you listening to it or?
Erin [00:24:40] No, I'm reading it. Yeah, online in e-galley.
Annie Jones [00:24:43] Just wondered what the tortoise's perspective would sound like.
Erin [00:24:47] I didn't think about that! Oh gosh, I should try to find it on Audiobook.
Annie Jones [00:24:51] I don't know that I loved Remarkably Right Creatures like everybody else loved it, but I did like it. But I loved the narration of the octopus was by Michael Urie. And I loved that. So I'll be curious to see what the audio version sounds like.
Erin [00:25:08] Yeah, me too.
Annie Jones [00:25:08] Okay, my last book is one I have not read. And I'm going to be honest about that because I am a little mad that the publisher didn't send me a copy of this. I do take it personally. This book also came out this week. It is Light Breakers by Aja Gabel. If you've been following us for a long time, you will know that I was a huge fan and big proponent of The Ensemble, which was Aja Gabel's debut novel that came out in 2018. We've even done a backlist feature on that book on the podcast. We carried it in the store. We may still carry it, but we carried it for a longtime. I love this book. And now she has finally come out with her sophomore novel. I will say this covers a lot of territory. This book covers a lotta territory, which makes me nervous. But it has gotten good reviews so far. So the book is about light breakers, it's about Maya and Noah. Maya is an artist. Noah is a scientist; he's a quantum physicist. And they have this really happy, lovely marriage. But there is kind of this shadow, which is Serena was Noah's-- so Noah was married previously, and the child he had with his first wife was Serena, and she died before she turned four. So Olivia I think this will be appealing to you, though I do not know if it's mystery enough for you. I don't know because the publisher didn't send me a copy.
Olivia [00:26:26] I wonder if she's upset.
Annie Jones [00:26:30] But when Noah is invited by the Janus Project to unravel secrets of time travel. He's super excited because he obviously has this thing in his past that he would like to go back in time and not necessarily correct- at least revisit. So deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in a dangerous experiment that might result in him being able to see Serena again. In the meantime, Maya goes on her own journey to the past by revisiting Japan and a person who she had had this romantic relationship. So as they each grow with these different things from their past, they have to decide are they going to come back together? Is their relationship going to survive these experiments? I don't know. The premise sounds a little bit Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. If you liked the movie Past Lives, which I loved that movie, sounds a bit like that. And then of course there's a time travel element to witch I really like when it's done well. This has been years, but I really did love The Time Traveler's Wife way back in the day, the movie about time. So I don't know, I feel like maybe this could cover some of that territory. I trust Aja Gabel. I loved the characters she created in The Ensemble. So I am, all jokes aside, anxious to read this one. The cover is beautiful; this will be one of those books that I bring home this week because I would want to own it anyway. That is Lightbreakers by Aja Gabel. It's one of my most anticipated books of this fall.
Olivia [00:27:57] I mean, you had me at time travel and dangerous experiment.
Erin [00:28:00] Me too.
Annie Jones [00:28:01] In the heart of the Texas desert? I'm curious.
Olivia [00:28:03] That didn't get me.
Annie Jones [00:28:04] The heat of the Texas desert, that's not appealing to you?
Olivia [00:28:09] Deserts? I don't know. I feel stranded. I don't like it.
Erin [00:28:12] Too many weird bugs in it.
Annie Jones [00:28:13] I was about to say I would not want to live in the desert, no thank you.
Olivia [00:28:21] So many weird bugs. Not for me.
Annie Jones [00:28:22] Actually, I don't want to go off on a tangent too much, but Olivia, I was curious because we were recording this. I did not know this was a thing, but I sent an email to my editor of my book this week and I got an automatic response, like an away message, and it was like, "I'm celebrating back to the future day, and so I'll be responding to emails tomorrow." Because October 21st is like the day that shows up in the Back to the Future movies. Anyway, I wondered you as a time travel person, do you enjoy Back to the Future? I was like, I wonder if Olivia likes those movies or if she thinks they're dumb.
Olivia [00:28:54] I think they're fun. It's not one of my like I'm going to rewatch this again and again.
Annie Jones [00:29:00] I didn't know there were people who celebrated the day.
Olivia [00:29:03] I didn't know that either. There is like a couple theories with time travel and like that's one of them. Sorry.
Annie Jones [00:29:13] That's why I was like will she able to have fun with this movie or will she be more like, now wait, pause, I'm not sure this is accurate.
Olivia [00:29:21] It's not accurate, but it's fun. It's fun, yeah.
Annie Jones [00:29:24] They are really fun. Yeah. Okay. I was just curious. I just thought it was such a funny email to get back from my editor like I'm celebrating back to the future day. I literally Googled it. I was like is this a real thing? And it is a real thing.
Olivia [00:29:36] It's a weird thing to take off work for, though.
Erin [00:29:41] I love that his book came out. His Future Boy came out yesterday. Well, as we're recording this, so sorry, but it did come out on the 21st of October.
Annie Jones [00:29:51] Oh my gosh, he planned that.
Erin [00:29:52] I know, don't you love that?
Annie Jones [00:29:54] I like him. I do like him. Did you guys watch that documentary about him? Oh my gosh, I wept. The one on Apple TV. It's so good, so well done. Okay, sorry, that was my digression. Go ahead.
Olivia [00:30:07] Fun digression. My next one is 59 Minutes by Holly Seddon. It's out November 18th. And this is for all fans of like T.J Newman. T.J Newman, in my opinion, specifically the second one where they're trapped in an airplane at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Annie Jones [00:30:33] That was a good one.
Olivia [00:30:34] That was a good one. I mean they're all good.
Annie Jones [00:30:37] She didn't do one this year, did she?
Olivia [00:30:39] She didn't, no.
Erin [00:30:40] That's what's wrong with this year.
Olivia [00:30:42] I know, but here you go, you can read this one and it gives same vibes.
Erin [00:30:47] Same vibes. I read it too. It's good.
Olivia [00:30:50] It is one of those short chapters, high octane thriller, if you will. This is everyone in South England gets the same text message and it's basically there's a nuclear missile headed your way. You have 59 minutes to take shelter.
Erin [00:31:10] See, I love that reaction.
Olivia [00:31:13] But what would you do?
Annie Jones [00:31:14] What would I do? Okay.
Olivia [00:31:17] Yeah. And so you follow three different perspectives of people who have received this message. One of them is a woman who's in the heart of where this is about to strike, the heart of the city in London. And she's just trying to make it home to her wife and her child, but then she runs into a young girl on the street and is like I have to get her home. It's my duty as a mom to also get this child home. So, she is doing that. There's a woman and her fiancé who are right outside, but outside enough that if they don't take shelter they will also die from exposure. And their whole plan gets derailed when they try to go into town to get supplies. I can't say what because you guys have to read it, right? And then there's a woman who her daughter just went to school and her daughter doesn't have a cell phone. And now this is happening and she has no way to contact her daughter. Her daughter left school, didn't tell her friend where she was going. She has no way of knowing where her daughter is, if she's headed home, if she is just out in the world while this is all going on. It was so good. It was well done. There is a pretty big plot twist at the end, like a couple actually, right in a row too. You're just like, bam, bam, bam.
Erin [00:32:40] It was the time where I had to like go back because I was like, what, did I miss something? What just happened? I had to go back and read; make sure I didn't miss something.
Annie Jones [00:32:50] Did you read the physical, e-galley or digital?
Olivia [00:32:51] I read physical.
Erin [00:32:52] I read digital.
Olivia [00:32:55] I think it's almost like a mix of like a Gillian McAllister and a T.J Newman. Because TJ Newman, it's like, this is your scenario. Now you're stuck here in this one place the whole time. Because it flips around a whole bunch. I do think there's an element of like a Gillian McAllister in there.
Erin [00:33:15] Because it jumps some time to like you do see like the future-- I didn't say who's future. I just said there is a future. There's some other people in this book. In the world that this is happening, someone lives. Could be the United States, we didn't say.
Annie Jones [00:33:38] I do think nuclear that is an interesting premise, for sure.
Olivia [00:33:43] Get your bunkers ready, everybody.
Erin [00:33:45] That's right.
Annie Jones [00:33:46] That's what I immediately thought. I was like, well, I do know-- yeah, there are some people I guess I could go.
Erin [00:33:50] Do you know some people with bunkers?
Annie Jones [00:33:52] Yeah. Well, metaphorically, yeah. Close enough.
Olivia [00:33:57] I do think we're in such a rural area that we wouldn't have too much trouble getting out of the target zone because this was headed towards the city. Yeah, that's a lot harder. The congestion immediately.
Annie Jones [00:34:10] It's the one perk to living in the middle of nowhere.
Erin [00:34:12] I think of that all the time.
Olivia [00:34:14] Also, a lot of people rely on public transportation and those bus drivers, those train conductors, they're also headed home.
Erin [00:34:21] They're not there. They're gone.
Olivia [00:34:22] Yeah, they're not waiting around for you to get your last stop.
Annie Jones [00:34:27] Yeah. Interesting. Okay.
Erin [00:34:29] All right, well...
Olivia [00:34:30] Yeah, 59 Minutes.
Erin [00:34:33] From a nuclear missile to my last book, which is called Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn, I guess. Christine Kuehn. It comes out November 25th. It is a non-fiction book that to me reads like fiction. Now I have not read it yet.
Annie Jones [00:34:49] My mom has.
Erin [00:34:51] Your mom read this.
Annie Jones [00:34:52] Yeah, she loved it.
Erin [00:34:53] I knew either Shop Dad or Shop Mom was going to love this.
Annie Jones [00:34:55] Shop Mom. Shop Mom loves it.
Erin [00:34:56] Well, that makes me happy because I'm excited to read this. I need to go. I have the e-galley. I just need to read it. But this is the first book for Christine. She's a journalist and she only learned about this part of her life story when a screenwriter approached her and said, "Hey, I'm doing some research about scripts for World War Two. Can you help me? I think you have some family." And so she started to dig into it. And found out that her father was a young boy when his family, so her grandparents and aunt and father, they were Germans who were sent to live in Honolulu, Hawaii, to spy on Pearl Harbor for the jet. They're being paid by the Japanese to spy. They were Nazi. He was a Nazi intelligence agent. This is her grandfather. And so the family moved there. They lived in a house by the water. So obviously that they could watched the comings and goings of Pearl Harbor and the father started to live lavishly and without much discretion and was seen at the Japanese embassy and things like that and so started to arouse suspicion from those around him. And his wife and his daughter were also spies but they tried to do it with a little more on the down low than father did.
[00:36:21] And so I won't spoil anything that happens, but it's sort of the story of that and then the story of how Christine's father was able to sort of leave that all behind and was able to almost escape the consequences of his family and live in a way where he put that in his past and didn't talk about it. So this is why Christine really never knew that this happened until she started to find out about it. It's only 272 pages. I feel like it will fly by. I'm excited to start from now until the end of the year is what I call my reading time, which is where I read whatever the heck I want to read. Now I don't have to read anything for work anymore, so I'm going to just start reading tons of backlist books that I've been looking forward to. So this is on my TBR. It comes out at the end of November. I think this would make a fantastic gift for the avid non-fiction readers in your life or even people who enjoy historical fiction I think would like this. Because I think even though it's not fiction, it reads like fiction. So that is called Family of Spies by Christine Kuehn. It comes out November 25th.
Annie Jones [00:37:26] And those are our November suggestions for you as you look at new releases and pre-orders. This is our last New Release Rundown episode of the year because if you work in bookselling or publishing, you know December is really not a huge publishing month and perhaps more importantly for us, we don't have time. So, we hope that you will take a minute and browse our website. Don't forget you can go to bookshelfthomasville.com, type episode 554 into the search bar and you'll see today's books listed. That code, NEWRELEASEPLEASE, gets you 10% off at checkout. This week, I'm listening to Journey Toward Morning by Victoria Safford. Olivia, what are you reading?
Olivia [00:38:15] I'm still reading The Secret of Secrets by Dan Brown. It's still really good. Again, how do you read with a baby?
Erin [00:38:23] I am still really into The Tortoise's Tale by Kendra Coulter.
[00:38:25] 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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