Episode 530 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 24
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s a Literary Therapy session! Our literary Frasier Crane, Annie, is back to answer more of your reading questions and dilemmas. If you have a question you would like Annie to answer in a future episode, you can leave us a voicemail here.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 530) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Melinda's voicemail:
Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King
Games & Rituals by Katherine Heiny (unavailable to order)
Heating & Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly (unavailable to order)
I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist
Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs by Heather Lende
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Here for It by R. Eric Thomas
You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
Jessica's voicemail:
Tim Johnston
Stuart Turton
Andy Weir
Jeff Vandermeer
Peng Shepherd
Devolution by Max Brooks
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch
The Fold by Peter Clines (unavailable to order)
How to Live Safely in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu
Emily St. John Mandel
Hailey's voicemail:
The Women by Kristin Hannah
The Last Love Note by Emma Grey
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Brood by Jackie Polzin (unavailable to order)
Forty Rooms by Olga Grushin (unavailable to order)
The Wedding People by Alison Espach
Shark Heart by Emily Habeck
In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout
Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
Talia's voicemail:
Lady MacBeth by Ava Reid
Hide by Kiersten White
Lucy, Undying by Kiersten White
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, Tiktok, 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 listening to Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry.
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] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“It’s okay to let yourself change, to let an environment change you, a city change you, a season change you. You are who you are, and also it’s okay to love one thing and then another.” - Shauna Niequist, I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet [as music fades out] I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, it’s time for an episode of Literary Therapy. If you like my monthly book reviews here on the podcast, you might be interested in joining my private Instagram account, Annie’s Five-Star Books. For $50 for the year, you can become a part of my bookish community online. Through the private Instagram account, you’ll get access to my book reviews, backlist and frontlist titles. I host my monthly Instagram story Q&As and share about the books I start but never finish. If you follow me personally online, you’ve seen my reviews for years, and of course, From the Front Porch listeners will always have access to my free monthly Reading Recap episodes. The private Instagram is a place — separate from The Bookshelf — where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five-Star Book Club members can also choose if they want to order my five-star reads each month from The Bookshelf. For more information or to sign up for the 2025 group, it’s never too late, visit https://anniebjoneswrites.com/fivestar-book-club. (There’s also a link in the shownotes.)
[00:01:57] Now, back to the show. If you are new to From the Front Porch, every once in a while, I dive into the metaphorical mailbag and peruse your readerly hangups and bookish conundrums like a literary Frasier Crane, tackling your issues on air. If you have your own readerly riddle you'd like me to solve in a future episode, you can leave me a voicemail at the From the Front Porch website. That's from thefrontporchpodcast.com/contact. As always, there's a link in the show notes too. Just scroll until you see the orange button on that page that says START RECORDING; click or tap there, and voila! I’d love to hear from you. First up, we have this message from Melinda.
Melinda [00:02:44] Hi, Annie. This is Melinda. I live in Southampton, New Jersey, and I am in a serious postpartum book slump. I'm wondering if you have recommendations for either essay collections or short story collections that are easy to digest. Typically, I like Annie books, like literary fiction, but I don't have the attention span for a lot of those longer, more involved books right now. I just read I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott, and that was the perfect sweet spot for right now. Short essays, approachable, relatable. So I'm just curious if you have anything to recommend.
Annie Jones [00:03:28] Melinda, I love this question and I do have some suggestions for you. I also think it's funny because I unintentionally am bookending this episode. We're going to start with Melinda's question about a postpartum reading life and reading in pieces and parts. And then we're going to end the episode with a message, a voicemail from my friend Christina, who is actually pregnant as well. And she wants to talk about what her reading life could look like in new motherhood. So we're kind of bookending this episode with these two types of questions. But first up, Melinda, the good news for you is that there are so many good essay collections and short story collections out there. And I'm always quick to recommend essays and short stories to not only new moms, but busy women, busy men, people who have a lot going on. I think short stories get a bad rap. We've talked about that before From the Front Porch a little bit. I think in a recent episode with Olivia and Erin, we talked about poetry and short stories and how a lot of people maybe are intimidated by them because of negative perhaps experiences in English classes growing up in high school or in college. But I actually think short stories and essays are such a great solution to the attention span problem no matter what is causing the attention-span problem, whether you're postpartum, whether you are living through a pandemic or a national crisis, or you've got your own personal crises going on. I think short stories and essays are a great way to keep your reading life going in the middle of difficult seasons.
[00:05:06] So I have a couple of old standbys that I've probably recommended on this show many times before, but I also have a few new recommendations. One of the newest is Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld. This is Curtis Sittenfeld's latest short story collection. I adore her. I think maybe I'm a completionist of her work. I need to look that up exactly. But this is her new short story collection. And I tell you what, not a dud among them. Every short story is great. Every short storey held my attention. They ended with just enough ambiguity. If you're a reader who prefers a bow at the end, some of the stories provide that bow. There is a short story that is a sequel perhaps to Sittenfeld's novel Prep, but I do not think you have to have read Prep to enjoy that short story. I think your appreciation of that story will be enhanced if you have read Prep, but I don't think you have to. So, Show Don't Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld is a new favorite collection. And Melinda, you mentioned that you're an Annie reader. This is not always the case, as we'll see with some other books I'm going to recommend this episode, but all of them are Annie approved. So these are all books that I think are like just literary fiction enough, if that's your vibe. But I also acknowledge that in your current season, literary and fiction may not be hitting right for you. And certainly I have found myself in that position in recent months. So I think Show Don't Tell is really well written. Each story is well composed, but also they are interesting enough where they hook you from the first page and you will be able to pick these up and put them down pretty easily.
[00:06:45] Five Tuesdays in Winter by Lily King is another longtime favorite short story collection of mine. And just because the title has winter in it doesn't mean it's just a wintry book. You could even skip that story if you wanted, if seasonal reading is more your thing. But I love Lily King. And again, I think each of those stories, there's not really a dud among them. Show Don't Tell and Five Tuesdays in Winter were both shelf subscription selections for me as well. Because every so often I do read a short story collection that I think is worth including as a shelf subscription, even though some readers are reluctant to try them. Another favorite author is Katherine Heiny. She's written fiction and short stories. So she's written novels and short story collections, but she has a fairly recent collection called Games and Rituals. This was a five-star book for me. I absolutely loved it. I thought it was witty and charming, and her characters are always really memorable. So I think she would be another short story writer to try if you haven't already. I know that I mentioned this book, every so often on this show, probably enough where people are like, okay, Annie, we get it.
[00:07:53] But if you are in a reading slump of any kind, or if you're struggling to read a full entire book, I cannot recommend Heating and Cooling by Beth Ann Fennelly enough. This is a collection of micro essays, so some of them are literally a sentence, some of them are a paragraph. But what she is able to do, I think the format is so original. I rarely, if ever, see anything like this. And I just had to mention it because I do think if you're in the throes of postpartum life or if you are in the middle of a difficult season, this would still be a way to keep your reading up. And even though you might be picking books up and putting them down, this is one you could probably read straight through if you were so inclined, because it's so little. In fact, I want to say I picked this as a shelf subscription and then I may have gotten some feedback that it was too small. It was too small and maybe people felt like they weren't quite getting their money's worth for shelf subscriptions. I can't remember if I made that up or if I actually received that criticism, but I love Heating and Cooling and I always recommend it to folks who maybe are trying to get back into some form of reading rhythm and reading life.
[00:09:08] Well, I guess Heating and Cooling is non-fiction, but Show Don't Tell, Five Tuesdays in Winter, and Games and Rituals are all short stories. And then Heating and Cooling is kind of this micro memoir. Now I'm going to move into essays, which I have been thinking about this a lot lately because of my own book and my own books release and where I wanted my book to sit on a shelf, who I wanted in my book, to sit alongside. And so this is something I've been thinking about a lot recently. So I think if you have not read, I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet by Shauna Niequist. I think you would love that. It's in the same realm as Mary Laura Philpott, where it feels extremely relatable, very readable, short chapters, so you can read these in the middle of the rest of your harried days. A deep backlist title that I have mentioned fairly recently because of my own book is Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs. This is by Heather Lende. This is the book that I read. It's really less a collection of essays and more memoir, but it feels like essays. Anyway, this is the book that I read several years ago and I thought, I think I could write a book like that. Heather Lende was an obituary writer-- maybe she still is an obituary writer out of rural Alaska. And I read this book and immediately just fell in love with her storytelling. Because of her journalism background, I think she just writes really great feature story as well. And the book reads a little bit like that. So again, it lends itself to being able to pick it up and put it down.
[00:10:51] I would always be remiss if I did not mention our Eric Thomas, particularly his collection of essays that released during the pandemic called Here for It. I found him to be extremely funny, extremely relatable. The Book of Delights by Ross Gay and then his subsequent books. I think one is called literally The Book of More Delights and then one is call Insighting Joy. And then last but not least, You Could Make this Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith. I think any of these should be able to get you through the next few weeks and months as you're trying to find your sea legs, your reading legs, as you try to find reading legs in a postpartum existence. And even if you are listening to this and you aren't postpartum, if you're just trying to live through day to day life and you find yourself struggling to pay attention, or to sit down and focus, I think any of these books would be a great option for you. Because again, I think maybe a lot of us too are hesitant to read short stories because we love binging a book or we love the feeling we get when we read a book in one sitting or we loved the sense of accomplishment we get when we finish a book. Maybe there are some readers for whom those descriptions apply. But short stories and essays really are great because you don't have to read them straight through. And in fact, I think some authors wish you wouldn't read them straight through, but would just enjoy one at a time. And so if you need permission to read a book, one chapter, one section, one story at a time, let's give you that permission.
Jessica [00:12:24] Hi Annie, it's Jessica from Chicago. I hope you're doing well. I need some literary therapy and I know you can help me out. Slowly but surely, I am turning my husband into a regular reader. He's gone from reading a few books a year to a few books a month. This brings me endless joy, but now he's asking me for suggestions on what to read next and I'm at a bit of a loss. We don't read very similarly, so I need your help. Some of the books and authors he's enjoyed recently are Blake Crouch, John Mars. He likes plot-driven books, but not mysteries or thrillers. He leans more towards sci-fi, dystopian, and similar genres. He's also liked Vox by Christina Dalcher. I hope I'm saying that right. I have him reading Kindred by Octavia Butler right now. The jury's still out on that. So hopefully based on those books and genres, you can give me some recommendations for him.
Annie Jones [00:13:31] Hi Jessica, I'm going to give you some recommendations. I do also want to mention that this is not the first time we've had a wife make a plea on behalf of her husband. Last literary therapy episode, which I'll put a link in the show notes, a listener named Lauren had a similar dilemma. Now it wasn't entirely the same. Her husband read differently from yours, but you might want to go back and listen to that episode or at least that particular segment of that episode to get some more ideas. But I thought a lot about this question and admittedly sometimes I get questions where I'm like, am I qualified or would another bookshelf staffer be better at this? I.e. Would Olivia be better this? But part of the role of bookseller is being able to recommend books across a wide range of genres, even if they aren't our genres. So I try to tap into my expertise as a bookseller and what I would hand sell someone who came into the store with this same kind of dilemma. I should be able to hand sell a book. If I'm doing my job well, I should able to hands sell a to almost anybody. So Jessica, you know from listening to this podcast, I'm not a huge sci-fi reader, but I am the occasional sci-Fi reader. And then I used that plus Olivia's previous recommendations, some of her shelf subscription titles, and then also some of our customer favorites because we do have a sci-fi section at the store, and we do have readers like your husband who shop with us. And so I tried to think about what we've hand sold them.
[00:14:59] So I'm going to start with the names of some authors. Now, the first one I'm going to name is Tim Johnston. He is beloved by me and Olivia. He does lend himself more toward the suspense thriller, which it sounds like your husband is maybe a little less enthusiastic about, but I think his writing, his style of writing, the propulsiveness of it, even the nature writing, the writing about the natural world, I think your husband might like. And all of Tim Johnson's books, like once you pick them up, you can't put them down. And I think that's really what is key for a reluctant reader or somebody who's just engaging with books, maybe for the first time in adulthood. It's almost like when we get a kid in the store and we get them started on a series. And part of the reason we get them started in a series is because what we want is to keep the keep the reader's momentum going. And so I do think Tim Johnson would be a good author to try. Obviously, and of course, Andy Weir, who you may have already given a go, but if he likes Blake Crouch, I think Andy Weir is always who we recommend in store. Stuart Turton, who is a favorite of Olivia's, writes a lot of post-apocalyptic or otherworldly kind of fiction, while also being pretty deeply rooted in reality.
[00:16:21] There is a local author who has far beyond a local readership base, but we do really well with Jeff Vandermeer's books. You might recognize him from, I believe, the first book is called Annihilation, and it was made into a movie. He is fantastic. And again, much like we do with our younger readers, your husband might be interested because it's a trilogy. And so if he liked one, he would have more to read. And in fact, a new fourth book was just released. So that's Jeff Vandermeer. That trilogy is called the Southern Reach Trilogy. Olivia also loves Peng Shepard. You've probably heard her talk about them before on the show. So those are some go-to authors I would try. And then as far as some specific book titles, well, one other author-- and Jessica, you'll have to be the judge of this because I think this could be hit or miss. But one other author I did want to mention is Emily St. John Mandel. It's not just Station 11, it's her more recent books that do feel like they have dipped their toe more in the sci-fi realm. Now, she is to me, pretty literary fiction. And I know your husband likes a plot-driven book. And I don't always find Emily St. John Mandel’s books to be necessarily plot- driven. I'm going to throw her name out there just in case. So she's another author you might want to try.
[00:17:41] And then as far as specific books go, I'm going to suggest Devolution by Max Brooks. Max Brooks is most known for his World War Z kind of zombie book. This is different from that. This was an Olivia shelf subscription. It deals a little bit with the concept of Bigfoot. There's a mystery at the heart, but it's not a suspense thriller. I would categorize it as a sci-fi adventure or sci-fi thriller, sci-fi suspense, which is what I would call Blake Crouch's books. Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. This is another Olivia favorite. The Ferryman by Justin Cronin. You've heard Olivia talk about this one before. The Gone World, The Fold, and then How to Safely Live in a Science Fiction Universe by Charles Yu. Okay, so those are all in the show notes, but I'm going to quickly run through them again. Devolution by Max Brooks. Light from Uncommon Stars, The Ferryman, The Gone World, The Fold, and How to Safely Live in a Science Fiction Universe. So all of those are in the show notes. The good news is you can treat this kind of like a puzzle. You've already had the best success, which is you've gotten your husband reading, which is worth celebrating and that's really fun. And then now you can kind of treat it like a puzzle, you both can, to figure out what do you really like. And I think that's really fun to be able to work together to figure out, okay, what books work for me, what don't. You can even maybe start to work on his book words, like we've talked about, like Kendra Adachi, the lazy genius has referenced before. Like what are some of his book words? What are some of his go-to descriptions that really work for him? So I think this can be really fun, a fun project for y'all to work on together. Those are some authors and books that I think might be his next read.
Hailey [00:19:36] Hi Annie, my name is Hailey and I'm from Missoula, Montana and now live in Queenstown, New Zealand. I would really appreciate your literary advice on a life transition I'm currently in. My husband and I have been through five years of so far unsuccessful fertility treatment and I am looking for some book recommendations, fiction or non-fiction, with themes around purpose and meaning. My favorite book last year was The Women by Kristin Hannah. I loved the arc of that story, the main character's mental health journey, and the patriotic theme. Thank you for your help. I adore your podcast, and I can't wait to read your book this year.
Annie Jones [00:20:19] Hi, Hailey. First of all, what a delight to get a message from an international listener. And second of all just thinking of you as you and your husband navigate this tricky, somewhat probably disheartening season. And so I tried to pick books. I did mostly fiction. In fact, I'm looking at my list. Yes, I chose mostly fiction, I tried to think about your love of The Women. But I also tried to think about your current season of life. And so I think a lot of these will work for you, though you will have to decide, of course, which topics you might be currently sensitive about, topics that maybe you don't necessarily want to read about. And I'll try to explain what I mean by that. So first up is The Last Love Note by Emma Grey. This was actually the first book I immediately thought of while listening to your voicemail. And maybe part of it is that Emma Grey is an Australian author, which I know is different from New Zealand. I know that's different. I know it's different, but I immediately thought of her because The Last Love Note to me was such a poignant read that was dealing with a woman who was trying to figure out what was supposed to happen next. I really thought the writing was great. I don't think the cover is good. I don' think the covers does the book itself a service. The cover makes it seem like it's this beachy, adventure rom-com or something, and I don't find that to be the case for this book at all. I think the book has quite a bit of heft to it. So that is The Last Love Note by Emma Grey.
[00:21:53] I also thought of Brood by Jackie Polzin. It's been a long time since I've talked about Brood on this podcast, but I adored that book. In fact, if I were to make-- which maybe I should-- a list of my favorite books of the last decade or last five years, I think this would be on it. It does deal a little bit with the idea of infertility. And so again, you may have to pick and choose what works for you and what doesn't in this current season. But basically the main character-- and I'm smiling while talking about it because I just loved it so much, the main character decides to raise chickens. And you of course can tell why she's trying to do that. You the reader get the sense of what void she's trying to fill. But the realizations that she comes to are really beautiful. And gosh, I recommended that book. I think it was a shelf subscription pick. I recommended the book for a long time. I just love it. Department of Speculation by Jenny Offill. This book is definitely marriage-centric and about a marriage and how marriage can navigate different seasons. It is unusual. It's unusually written. It's unexpected. I certainly would put it in the literary fiction category. It's not necessarily plot-driven, but I really liked it. And I certainly think it's dealing with those themes of purpose and meaning and what comes next.
[00:23:12] Forty Rooms by Olga Grushin, again, it's been a long time since I've recommended this one, but I adored this book when it came out. It almost reads like connected short stories, but each chapter is a different room in a woman's life. And so one room might be her childhood bedroom. Another room might be her dorm room or her art class. And so it's a beautiful homage to me of womanhood and beyond motherhood. So really looking at a woman's life and all that it can hold and all that it encompasses. Okay, then I would recommend The Wedding People by Alison Espach. Now this starts dark, but turns funny. There is maybe a slight relationship or a slight connection to infertility or pregnancy loss. But that's not what this book is about. This book is a about a woman who is in midlife or approaching midlife and is trying to figure out what on earth she's supposed to be doing and she is grappling with that. The book is extremely redemptive and hopeful. I thought it was very funny. I just can't recommend this book enough. Shark Heart by Emily Habeck might be an unusual recommendation here, but I loved this book. Many people on our staff read and loved this book. And again, I think it's dealing with caregiving, with marriage. It's really a love story. It's a marriage story and the lengths we'll go when we love somebody.
[00:24:44] Almost any Elizabeth Strout book, I think could fit in this category, but I always recommend folks start with Olive Again, which perhaps is an unusual seeming recommendation since it is technically a sequel to Olive Kittredge. I personally would not start with Olive Kittridge. I would start with Olive Again. And then Dinosaurs by Lydia Millett, the main character is a male and this man has just moved into a new house and his relationship with his neighbors and his neighbor's kids bring out a new sense of purpose and meaning in his life. The only non-fiction book I've included for you, Hailey, is a book that I read years ago when I very first moved to Thomasville called In Praise of Slowness. This is by Carl Honore. I have not reread this, so it's been probably 12 or 13 years since I picked this one up, but I devoured it when I first moved here. We may have even done an early, early podcast episode about this book. But I really liked the idea, especially once we moved to a small town, of moving through life slowly and with intention. And I've read a lot of books that have covered this same territory since then. But I think if that is something you are thinking as you try to decide maybe the next steps for your life or for your decision-making or for your marriage or for where you live, I think this could be an interesting book to attempt. It's non-fiction, but I found it very readable, really easy to read. I underlined a lot. There's just a lot of practical, I don't know, tips or suggestions for slowing down and living a life of purpose and intention by trying to live a slower life, a slower existence. So those are some recommendations for you. I hope they might work. I'd love to hear if any of them do.
Talia [00:26:36] Hi Annie, my name is Talia and I'm from Tallahassee, Florida. My reading dilemma is this. I recently read Hunger Stone by Kat Dunn and it was such an excellent read for me, from the storytelling to the beautifully constructed sentences and descriptions, that it's kind of put me in a bit of a physical reading slump. The physical books that I am picking up are not gripping me the way that Hunger Stone did. I am currently listening to The Favorites by Layne Fargo. And I'm finding that I am devouring it, but I'd love to be able to sit with eyes to pages again and not have my mind wander back to Hunger Stone. I'd appreciate any recommendations that could get me back into physical reads. Thanks so much.
Annie Jones [00:27:22] Talia from Tallahassee, hello. I love when I know who the voice message is from, when I can put a face with a name. Okay, so when I do this, when I listen to folks' voicemails, I type up some brief notes. And the brief note I wrote down for your message, Talia, was what to do when a book leaves you hungover, because that's what you're describing. I call that a book hungover. When you read a book and you love it so much that now you don't really know what to start next. And so I have a couple of recommendations for you, and I hope it's okay, I'm really going to approach this question more philosophically, because I think this happens to a lot of us when we read a really good book. Probably the most recent time this happened to me was I finished Susan Choi's Flashlight, which releases in June. It was a long book, as I recall, I read it on my Kindle and so I can't remember the exact page count, but it was a longer type of book. I had felt really immersed in those characters, and I finished it, and by nature of my job and my work, and just my life and enjoyment as a reader, I immediately picked up another book, like immediately dove into something else and it did not work for me. It did not work for me. And what I have learned over the years is, well, I've learned a few things. The first is to switch up formats, which you have done.
[00:28:51] So, if you finished reading a physical book that you really loved, or you finished reading an e-book that you really love, try the next book in a different format. So for you, you've done that in audiobook. You've listened to The Favorites, which is totally different in genre, but perhaps more importantly, and I think probably the reason it's working so well for you is because you are listening to it. You are choosing to engage in a different type of format. Because I think really what we're getting at here is you just finished a book you loved and you're not ready to move on. And first of all, I think that's okay. I don't think we have to. I don' think we need to rush into the next book. I know we might want to because a lot of us, me included, feel like our best selves, most like ourselves, when we have a book that we're currently engaged with and reading. But you are. You're engaged with the favorites. You're listening to an audiobook. So I would kind of say, don't rush into anything, but when you're ready, switch up formats, which again, you're working on. Then I think you can go two ways. I think, you can switch up genres, which is what I normally do, or you can lean in.
[00:29:59] So I'm going to go back to my own example. When I finished Flashlight, I immediately tried to pick up another work of literary fiction, which was dumb of me. I should not have done that. And I immediately was like, I'm not ready for this. And it was not that the book was not good because I since have gone on to finish it, but my headspace was not right. I was not ready to move on from the characters I had encountered in Flashlight. That's really what it was about. I wasn't done with those people yet. And so instead, I picked up Yiyun Li's memoir, which is a lot about grief and the loss of her two sons. That was totally different from Flashlight, completely different. It was short chapters, it was a little bit stream of consciousness, it's non-fiction memoir. Pretty much as different from Flashlight as I could have gotten. Flashlight was long, it was in depth, it was dysfunctional family fiction, but really far beyond that, incredibly literary. And so Yiyun Li's memoir was perfect because it was still well written. Because I do think we can do ourselves a disservice when we go from one well-written book to a less well-written book. I'm trying to remember, I used to give an example on this podcast all the time about a particular book, and I want to say it was like a thriller or a romance novel. Oh, I know what it was. Okay. Years ago, I read Station 11 for the first time, and immediately after reading Station 11, I started The Royal We. And what a mistake that was, and what a disservice I did The Royal We.
[00:31:33] So we can go too far when we switch up genres and sometimes do a disservice to the book or to the genre itself if we mix it up too much. And so, what I appreciated about following up Flashlight with the Yiyun Li memoir is that I knew I was going to get quality writing. So, I wasn't going to be disappointed because the writing failed or the writing wasn't great. Because I think that's really what we're trying to prevent is this feeling of disappointment when we pick up a book that's not as good as the one we just finished. Yiyun Li's memoir is just as good and just as beautifully told a as Flashlight, but it's just a totally different genre. So same quality, but different genre, so that's one way you can go. Switch up your genres. The other direction you can go is to totally lean in. And I don't mean at all to read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In. What I mean is lean fully into the book and the genre that you just finished. Do a deep dive. So you just finish Hunger Stone, which if folks are not familiar with Hunger Stone, it's a sapphic kind of romance, it's a feminist reworking of Carmilla, which is the queer novella that inspired Dracula. So as weird as it sounds, have you read Dracula? Have you read Carmilla? Like, could you do just a deep dive and totally immerse yourself into that world? That would be one way you could go to kind of let Hunger Stone lead you down a path.
[00:33:01] So I'm trying to think in my own reading life when I've done something like this, but it would be like finishing a book like Whalefall, for example, and then you immediately following it up with A Marriage at Sea, which is a book that comes out this summer and it's a true story about a shipwreck. So it's different from Whalefall, but kind of deep diving into this idea of a survival story at sea. And so is there a way in which you can kind of create an immersive experience for yourself? You finished Hunger Stone, so now you're going to read Dracula. Then you're going to read Carmilla. That's one option. Or you can just stick to the genre itself, which is maybe like feminist retellings. So recently there's a new book out called Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid. I think that could really work well for you. I think about the book Lucy Undying, which is by Kirsten White, who wrote the book Hide, maybe even Hide would work for you. But really sticking to these feminist re-tellings, re-imaginings, and see where that takes you. So that's the other thing you could do.
[00:34:07] So when a book leaves you hungover, so if we're taking Talia's question and we're trying to make the response accessible for all of us, the first thing you try is to switch up formats, which Talia, you did. You started reading the favorites, you started listening to it on audiobook format. So switch up format. Then maybe try switching up genres, which again, you really did. The Favorites is totally different from Hunger Stone. And this is the thing that I don't think you've tried yet, and it's why I want to suggest it, or you can lean in and just, again, create almost a curriculum for yourself, or an immersive experience for yourself that says, okay, what did I like about Hunger Stone? Did I like the romance aspect? Did I that it was a feminist retelling? Did I the horror story elements? What did I about it? And then how can you carry those threads into your next book selections? So those are some suggestions for you. Again, Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, Lucy Undying by Kirsten White or Hide by Lucy White, or of course, Dracula, Carmilla, et cetera. So, Talia, those are my suggestions for you. I hope something works for you
Angela [00:35:21] Hey y'all, this is Angela from Louisiana, and this year I'm really trying to make a concerted effort to read more internationally and read books from authors in other countries specifically. So I was wondering if you guys knew of a resource where you could look up and see if popular authors in others countries have English translations. I don't know if that's something that exists as like a database, but I figured if anyone would know, it would be y'all. So thank you so much and happy reading.
Annie Jones [00:35:58] Okay, Angela, I appreciate the faith that you have in us. And at first I was like, yes, I can do this for her. I am sure I know where I can point her. And now I really don't know. Now I'm not sure. So here's what I'll tell you. In the show notes, I've put some links for finding international or translated titles. The first is the translation database that is provided by Publishers Weekly. I don't think you have to pay for this, but it's hard for me to know because I do pay for Publishers Weekly access and so I couldn't figure out if only I could see that or if you also could see it. But the translated database or the database through Publishes Weekly is basically it tracks all the original publications of fiction and poetry published in the U.S. In English translation. So it has 10 years of data. It can tell you what books are available, from which countries and languages, published by which publishers and more. So that sounds like it's most likely what you're looking for, I think. So that link is in the show notes. But I did then start to think-- because I've thought about this for my own reading life, I'm not great about reading world literature. I'm great about reading works in translation. And perhaps there are other listeners who want to improve in that area as well.
[00:37:15] So the two resources I think are great are the New York Public Library has a world literature and translation site, and it's where they give their recommendations for 25 essential titles that have been translated into the English. And so it's a great list. It includes books like Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, Fever Dream. Anyway, a lot of books that maybe I'm familiar with, but I haven't read yet. So I think that's a great list if you're just looking for a list. And then I also think the Booker Prize website is extremely helpful for this. They give recommendations for the best translated fiction, and I think they even do it by year. And so I think that could be a really helpful resource as well. So it's not necessarily a database. The Bookers website and the New York Public Library site, those aren't necessarily databases, but they are places where if you're listening to this episode and you're like, yeah, I need to read more translated fiction or even translated non-fiction. These would be places where I think you could start and get some good ideas for what to read next. And then if you're looking for the database itself, maybe, Angela, the one I've provided from Publishers Weekly is what you're looking for, so check that out.
Cristina [00:38:28] Hi, Annie, this is Cristina from Asheville, North Carolina. First of all, happy book release month. At least at the time of this recording, it is your book release months, so very excited for you. My literary conundrum is related to kind of a new season that I'm entering into of motherhood. We are expecting our first child in early June, and there are so many good books by some of my favorite authors that are being released over the next few months and I feel like I'm already having some FOMO about how I'm going to make time to read them all, just knowing that my reading life is probably going to be changing over the next few months, both with just my time and energy being a little more limited. And so I'm just curious if you have any tips for how to prioritize reading the books I really want to read. Also just wondering if you have any thoughts about how you anticipate doing that as you also prepare to enter into a new season of motherhood. Thanks so much.
Annie Jones [00:39:30] Hi, Cristina. We are both preparing for motherhood at the same time. And maybe even by the time this episode comes out, we will already be living it, I do not know. But I wanted to talk about this question because it is one I've thought a little bit about. And I'll tell you again, kind of like I did with Talia, I want to answer first philosophically, which is one of the things I'm telling myself over and over again in this current life season is to hold things loosely. And I'm applying it to everything. I'm apply it to everything. At the time of this recording, I'm applied it to my book coming out into the world. I'm applying it to the book tour, which I assume will happen maybe by the time this episode releases, it will have happened. Or maybe it didn't, because maybe I gave birth. I don't know. I can't predict the future, but I am trying desperately to repeat to myself over and over again, hold things loosely. For me, and there may be others who feel differently about this, and well there will be people who think differently about it, and this is fine. But I am holding my expectations for motherhood loosely. I'm holding my birth plan loosely. I'm using air quotes, birth plan, lol.
[00:40:44] I am holding my ideas about breastfeeding very loosely. There is nothing I am clinging tightly to right now except the Lord. But genuinely, in all seriousness, I am trying so desperately to not have too many expectations of how I want things to go or how I think things are going to go. And so that includes my postpartum reading life. I am desperately reading. I'm doing a lot of things desperately. I've used that adverb a lot, and I think that's because it's true. I'm desperately trying to read for shelf subscriptions as far as I can possibly go. I think I've got books picked through September because again I don't know what my brain is going to feel like. I don't know what I'm going to feel like. I also know reading is something I have clung to my whole life and I don't think that will change in motherhood. What might change is how I approach it. What might change is the quantity of books I am reading, the format in which I am reading. But if my brain could survive the pandemic as a small business owner, or if my rain and my reading life could survive pregnancy and birthing a book into the world, then I'm going to trust that my brain and my reading life will be able to handle postpartum and a new baby. So that there's also a hope I'm clinging to, but I am trying to be practical. And for me, because I read for work, reading things that I know I need to read, I'm trying to go ahead and read those now.
[00:42:23] I'm doing fall catalogs now. I'm try my best to do that work in advance because I don't know what the next few months hold. Here are some things I'm considering doing for my reading life in preparation for or during those early months of motherhood. First up, I am going to make a list of the things that I want to read. I'm trying to be realistic about that. So for me, it might not be like I don't know that literary fiction will be the way my brain wants to go in June. So instead, what are some fun summer books? What are some fund beach reads? I've not yet read Annabelle Monaghan's latest. I'm so excited about it, didn't get an ARC of it. And I didn't even complain about that because I thought, you know what, I'm going to let that be a potentially postpartum book because I think that could be a really fun memory. Reading Annabelle Monaghan's work. She's an author I really love, and I suspect her book will be compulsively readable. So making a list of things like that that could be feel-good fiction, could be a rom-com, could be something that I could finish quickly that would make me feel good, that would make feel like my "normal self".
[00:43:38] So have a list of things you want to read. Keep it on your phone. And the reason I say have a list, I've told Jordan, for example, that I'm holding my feelings about breastfeeding quite loosely. I've seen a lot. I'm 39 years old. I've seen a lot and so I'm trying to hold my expectations for that aspect of motherhood very loosely. And I want to be very willing to pivot to whatever I need to do if needed. And I have looked Jordan Jones in the eyeballs and I have said, "No matter how I feel, no matter what hormonal state I am in, in the week's postpartum, hear me now. I want you to help me make the decision that is best for me and best for our baby after he is born." Meaning I wanted Jordan to be privy to that aspect of my brain. So the reason I say have a list-- I'm sorry I'm comparing books to breastfeeding, I don't even know who I am anymore. But I think you should have a least so that postpartum of Christina still has something like evidence. Still has proof of who you were and what you wanted. Even if you might look at that list and think, "I don't want to read any of that right now," but at least you have a list to go off of instead of arriving postpartum and looking around and being like, "I'm not in the mood for anything. I don't want to read anything." At least a list or a stack from the library or a stock of unread books from your shelf, it would have given you a little bit of prep work and a little bit of grounding in a season that might be disruptive.
[00:45:10] Along that line, so not only have a list, but I would have a literal book stack. So just like the nursery is, I assume, going to be filled with baby books for your new little one, I would suggest having a stack of books for you. And listen, other moms may be like, don't be ridiculous, you can't pick up a book while you are holding a baby or while you feeding a baby or whatever. We'll talk about formats in a second. But I would say have a stack. Remember the advice or the books that I recommended at the top of the episode to Melinda, maybe have a stack of books like that in the nursery so that they're easily accessible to you. They're pick up and put downable. I think about my favorite books to gift to people postpartum, The Moth collections, Point of Beauty is one. Anyway, I think having those in the nurseries so it's not just children's books available to you, but it's your own books available you. And by the way, there's nothing wrong with reading out loud adult books to your baby. By adult books, I mean grownup books. Please don't read adult books your baby. You could read a Moth short story or a Curtis Sittenfeld short story out loud. And I think that would be lovely and fine.
[00:46:22] Okay, and then my other two recommendations, and this is based on what I've heard from other moms, is download audio books. Have audio books ready to go. And then purchase or consider an eReader. This is something I never would have considered and last year I bought one for my job and for my work. This is still not my preferred way to read. It is not my preference, but I can certainly see how in the wee hours of the morning (and this has already been true on the handful of nights I've not been able to sleep) how having a Kindle or having an eReader is extremely helpful because you can read it with one hand. You can set how bright the light is. And so I could see how a Kindle or an eReader could be a game changer for postpartum reading. And so if you don't yet have an eReader, and maybe you've been reluctant to adopt an eReader, I was too, and again, still not my favorite way to read. But I'm already thinking, okay, maybe that's how I read the new Katherine Center. Maybe that's I read the new Annabelle Monaghan. Trying to have my Kindle with easy to read, low key-- I mean, that doesn't mean those books won't have depth. Of course, they will. But I foresee those being easier to read than a new work, a new tome, a new literary fiction tome. I don't know that that's what my brain is going to have space for.
[00:47:46] And just like I said to have a stack of books in your nursery, I would also have books in all your cozy spots. Proximity, I think, is key. So have a couple of books on your nightstand. Have a couple books on your end table. Have a couple books next to your recliner. I think, again, just accessibility, holding things loosely, lowering your expectations while also having a hopeful list of things you'd like to read. I'm trying to be realistic about what state my brain will be in, but I also am really looking forward to, what if I get to read, yes, the new Annabel Monaghan, or what if i get to a fun beach read? I have another book that I'm really hoping to read that I bought last year while we were in Europe. It's called At the Pond, and it's Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies' Pond. It just feels like a summer book to me, and I think it's one I could pick up and put down. So that's going to go in my stack. That's going to on my list. And so, yeah, I think having a list, having a literal book stack, putting books in cozy places, downloading audio books, and considering the purchase of an eReader. Those are things that I would suggest. Those are the things that I'm going to try. And then holding things loosely and also knowing you're still you. And I think you'll still want to read, and I think I'll still want to read and it's just a matter of what works. So I'm thinking of you, Cristina.
[00:49:13] And those are all the questions we have time for today. Thank you so much to those of you who left thoughtful voicemails. I have a backlog that I will also work my way through in an upcoming episode of Literary Therapy. But if you listened to today's episode and you thought to yourself, wait, I had a question after all. Well, I would love to hear from you. You can go to fromthefrontporchpodcast.com/contact to leave me a voicemail for any upcoming literary therapy episode.
[00:49:46] This week, I'm listening to Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry.
[00:49:48] 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:
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