Episode 539 || Summer Readings: The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley

This week on From the Front Porch, we have another episode of Summer Readings! In this series, Annie introduces you to one book you should read this summer by reading an excerpt (with permission from publishers).

Today, Annie reads a passage from Leila Mottley’s new book The Girls Who Grew Big. Use code SUMMERREADINGS at checkout to get 10% off The Girls Who Grew Big and Nightcrawling this week.

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 539) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:

The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley

Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley

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 reading The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Ragan Kennedy.

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]  “Motherhood makes you lonely, but more than that, having everyone turn away from you in the moment you need them most is a betrayal that lingers like a chipped tooth, for you to drag your tongue over and remember all that was lost and wouldn't return.”  ― Leila Mottley, The Girls Who Grew Big   [as music fades out]  I’m Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, we’re back with another episode in our Summer Readings series.  Before we get started, our reminder, are you keeping up with all of The Bookshelf’s events? It’s true; summers are a little quieter in the shop — I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but it gets a little hot and humid down here — but we still have plenty going on and plenty that our team has already being scheduling for fall.  Maybe you think our events are just for locals! But even if you’re not a nearby listener or customer, we have plans in the works for you, too. From our fall Reader Retreat to our Literary First Look programs to our holiday shopping nights, we plan regularly specific events for our long-distance customers and friends.  To keep up, you have a couple of options; you can choose the one that makes the most sense for you! Follow us on Instagram, where we post regularly about in-store and virtual happenings. You can do that @Bookshelftville. Subscribe to our store newsletter, which lands in your inbox every Thursday and has a complete run-down of our shop events or check our website, which Erin keeps updated with event dates, details and tickets.  Links for all of the above are in the show notes, so there's an Instagram link, a newsletter link, and a website link. Summer may be quiet, but we are already gearing up for fall, and we want you to be a part of it. Now, back to the show.  

[00:02:21] When I found out I was pregnant, and realized it really was happening, which took a minute to settle in, I tried to brainstorm ways to keep the podcast coming to you regularly this summer. We rarely, if ever, run "reruns" on the show. And even though I'm not opposed to taking a break, we just never did, maybe ever. I honestly don't know. In the holidays, we record a little differently, but when Olivia also announced her own pregnancy and her summer due date, much like Nancy Meyers, I knew something's got to give. I could only batch record so many episodes before my own maternity leave started, whatever that maternity leaves might look like. So for July and August, we are bringing you two new podcast series. Next week, you'll hear another from the archives episode. I've recorded new introductions for three “backlist” episodes with guests I loved, and they're all perfect for summer listening.  

[00:03:19] This week, I'm back with another summer readings episode. Our first was a couple of weeks ago, all about Annabel Monaghan's new book, It's a Love Story. It's episode 537, if you haven't listened yet. Even before I recorded the audiobook for Ordinary Time, I have always tried to find ways to incorporate book narration into our episodes. I want grown-ups to be read to, too. I, quite frankly, want to be reading to. So it's why we start each episode with a book quote, why each holiday season I read, “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus”. I'm supremely aware, though, of copyright issues-- hello, husband who is an attorney. So, for this new podcast series, we received permission from publishers to read to you excerpts of some of my favorite new summer books. These episodes are short and sweet, much like our “Yes Virginia” episodes, but hopefully they will provide you with a taste of some new summer titles I really think you'll love.  

[00:04:17] Each book featured can be found on our store website that is bookshelfthomasville.com, and each week you can receive 10% off that week's featured selection. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, it's almost the equivalent of in store we have this chalkboard that says plot of the week on it, and customers come in and like to guess which book it is, or we have an end cap devoted to that particular selection for that week. So it's kind of like our plot of the week. This week, I'm previewing Leila Mottley's The Girls Who Grew Big. Listen, I was immediately drawn to this one because of its cover. Please stop what you doing and Google the cover of this book. I think we all know it's a big fat misconception that we should not judge books by their cover, especially when most of us spend our days shopping online. A cover is what most of have to go on and books have become more and more these beautiful, tangible, physical works of art. So I was drawn to this striking cover and I have also admittedly this year been reading quite a few fiction books that feature pregnancy or pregnant women. That's not necessarily intentional, I haven't gone looking for them. I don't think I'm seeking them out or if they're finding me.  

[00:05:33] A little bit of background, last summer I experienced something similar when I wound up reading, Even After Everything, which is a work of non-fiction, then Sandwich by Katherine Newman, and Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo. All of those books, and two, it was a total surprise to me, but all three of those books dealt heavily with pregnancy loss. And I was not necessarily seeking those themes out intentionally, but I definitely was paying attention because of my own life experiences last year. So I am wondering if I've been drawn to books like Tilt or like The Girls Who Grew Big because of my own pregnancy, or maybe I'm just more aware of it because I'm living it. Whatever the case, you might recognize Leila Mottley from Nightcrawling. Which I did not read although now I am going to because now I'm so curious and invested in her work. But that book took the literary world by storm. It was selected as an Oprah pick before being nominated for the Booker. And if you didn't know, Leila Mottley was 16 when she began writing that book, 20 when it was published, which is just absolutely mind boggling to me.  

[00:06:50] Aside from the gorgeous cover, The Girls Who Grew Big appealed to me because of its panhandle Florida setting. I am always on high alert for people who write about Florida without being from Florida. You can spot them from a mile away, but I'm pleased to report that Leila Mottley, who is from Oakland, California, somehow captures the Florida panhandle exactly as it is. Sticky, unbearably hot. Reminiscent of South Alabama, but also somehow its very own entity. And the girls in this book are all believable, relatable, held with tenderness even as they themselves clearly are striving so hard to be tough. These are teenagers raising children while still being, at least partially, children themselves, though they may not admit it. I fell in love with Simone, Adela, Emory. And all the girls who combine to form a village to care for their children. This is a book about girlhood and Florida and coming of age and, yes, motherhood and I loved it. It was also, it should be noted, my Shelf Subscription selection for July.  

[00:08:02] "You have to understand we're not what you think. If you're thinking me and the girls are some kind of ratchet group of reckless teen moms, you clearly haven't ever had to learn how to massage gas out of a baby's stomach before you learned the basic laws of physics. And if you think I don't make sense with all of them just because I'm white, you wouldn't believe what happens when a girl these days gets knocked up. Suddenly, it's the most important thing about you. Suddenly, you don't have green eyes or a two-bedroom shack on Willow Street or straight A's in biology. You are nothing but a young mother. Besides, Padua Beach is full of all kinds of people. I could walk two minutes and be on a street full of African-Americans, another minute, and I'd be standing in a Filipino's driveway. We coexist here. There's even a couple of other mixed babies, but Pawpaw and Grammy don't understand that because they're from a different time. A time when Jay and I couldn't hold hands on the same beach. A time where plenty of girls got pregnant younger than me and no one batted an eye as long as you were married. But it's not like that anymore. Now folks aren't shocked when we show up with swollen stomachs, they're disgusted. They think we're stealing their welfare and ruining the image of God. They think that we shouldn't have been so stupid. The smartest thing any of us did was join the girls. I didn't intend to. Set up until I was about 30 weeks long, I'd never be one of them. But then I began to feel it. The eyes shifting along the circumference of my stomach, whispers that traveled from church ladies to high school hallways, boys who no longer sought me out at the beach parties but found me in an empty room at school asking if effing would hurt the baby. Nobody got it. I was used to that though. I'd spent my whole life baking under a cruel sun and even when I felt crisp, I still knew how to suck water from damp places beyond sight. I was from Florida, after all. I could survive any summer, pretend like I was made for this harsh heat, but things changed quick. In the weeks when the pregnancy embedded and became real, one degree of heat tipped the scale and suddenly I couldn't handle the sun I was birthed beneath. I was downright dying. Felt like a tropical plant gasping for life in a drought, and I looked around and saw everybody else thriving, their leaves reaching for the sun like a toddler's outstretched hand, but I was choking. I was tired of feeling like I was hanging in the trenches of hell with the devil. That's when I really started to pay attention to the girls. They were boiling and burdened by the same air, but they'd found ways to irrigate, to stretch and assemble their own life source. They knew how to survive when you could no longer pretend you were perfect. The sun was theirs, the glory they glowed beneath."  

[00:10:51] Leila Mottley's The Girls Who Grew Big released on June 24th in hardcover format. You can purchase it as well as Mottley Nightcrawling from The Bookshelf website. Receive 10% off this week by using code SUMMERREADINGS. Make sure you include the S at checkout. Again, get 10% of The Girls who Grew big and Nightcrawling by using the code SUMMERREADINGS at checkout.  

[00:11:20] This week, I'm reading The Secret History of the Rape Kit by Ragan Kennedy.  

[00:11:20] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website: 

bookshelfthomasville.com 

A full transcript of today’s episode can be found at:  

fromthefrontporchpodcast.com  

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 Annie Jones: If you’d like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the Podcast App on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see ‘Write a Review’ and tell us what you think. 

Or, if you’re so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have 3 levels of support - Front Porch Friends, Book Club Companions, and Bookshelf Benefactors. Each level has an amazing number of benefits like bonus content, access to live events, discounts, and giveaways. Just go to:   patreon.com/fromthefrontporch 

We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. 



Caroline Weeks