Episode 577 || From the Front Porch Live from Reader Retreat
This week on From the Front Porch, we have a special treat: a recording of our live show from The Bookshelf’s March 2026 Reader Retreat! In this episode, Annie and Hunter engage in an abbreviated March Madness debate and play the Newlywed Game with help from Ashley. Enjoy!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 577), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
The Liar's Club by Mary Karr vs. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara vs. The Goldfinch by Donna Tart
Edinburgh by Alexander Chee vs. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Fates & Furies by Lauren Groff vs. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates vs. Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
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.
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...Ashley Ferrell, Beth, Cammy Tidwell, Gene Queens, Jammie Treadwell, Joseph Shorter IV, Kimberly, Linda Lee Drozt, Nicole Marsee, Stephanie Dean, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
Annie Jones [00:00:01] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.
Ashley [00:00:24] Good evening, good evening, everybody. Thank you so much for coming to [inaudible]. Thank you. Woo! That's cool. My name is Ashley. I'm a [inaudible] former Bookshelf staffer and a family member of Annie B. Jones, and that gives me the privilege and honor of introducing our panel. So, welcome to From the Front Porch Live. From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast hosted by the book show's owner, Annie B Jones. It's been in production since 2014 with nearly 500 episodes to date, with a variety of co-hosts and guests including authors, local business owners, bookshelf staffers. The show averages 10,000 downloads an episode with large pockets of listeners in Texas, California, Minnesota, Georgia, and Florida. Many of them are in this room. In 2024, From the Front Porch reach a milestone of three million downloads thanks to listeners like you.
[00:01:28] Tonight, Annie will be joined by me and her friend, our friend, [inaudible] Hunter McLendon. Hunter McLendon, also known as Shelf by Shelf on Instagram, is a writer and book pimp who [inaudible] currently lives in Philadelphia. His book taste was heavily influenced by his South Georgia upbringing, with many of his favorite books being those in the Southern Gothic genre. He also enjoys reading memoirs, sad girl books, and literary fiction. He was recently accepted into a novel revision fellowship at Stony Brook, we're going to be part of it. [Applause]. He'll be finishing up his latest project, an autobiographical novel titled 34% of the Story is a lie. And now, your host, Annie B. Jones. Annie B Jones owns The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in downtown Thomasville, Georgia, where she and her husband Jordan have lived since 2013. A Tallahassee native, Annie began living for Kathleen Kelly Dream as the manager of The Bookshelf in Tallahassee. And in 2013, she took over operations of the flagship store in Thomasville. Annie was previously featured as one of Southern Living Magazine's 50 innovators change in the South and she is forever grateful to be able to run the Bookshelf and host bookish conversations each week on From the Front Porch. Her book Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put, released last April, and the paperback comes out next month.
Annie Jones [00:03:00] Thank you, Ashley. I could think of no one better to introduce us this evening. Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. We are thrilled that y'all are here tonight. Thanks for being here. And thank you for being here.
Hunter [00:03:16] So real quick, the paperback edition, do you have a new essay?
Annie Jones [00:03:21] I do. Thank you. Are you my publicist? Yes, there are two new essays and Sam is on the cover. So actually we got paperback copies delivered last week, I think. And it was very funny because we opened the box. I was so excited to show Isaac as if he cares. And I handed the book to him and he was holding it. He was about to put it in his mouth. And then Sam took it and pranced around the room. It was like he knew he was-- Sam is my dog. Sam knew he's on the covered. It was hilarious.
Hunter [00:03:47] That is so precious.
Annie Jones [00:03:48] But yes, there were two new essay and a letter to the reader. I did get the paperback edition, and they did put my signature in the book as a signing of a letter. But it's too justified right. So when you see it, just know I would have moved it over. I opened it and I was like just a little bit [inaudible]. So anyway, yes, it releases April 22nd. And if you are local or semi-local I will be doing a signing at the Bookshelf on Independent Bookstore Day. So I would love to sign your copy whether it's hardback or paperback.
Hunter [00:04:22] Well, now I have to buy a paperback, too, just to have you sign, like, another [inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:04:26] Yeah. Please do. We'd love for you to do that. Okay, so if you are a repeat retreat attendee or a repeat From the Front Porch live attendee, we are changing up formats a little bit because for the last several appearances, the last several ones of these we've done, we've had a guest author. But tonight, it's just us. And honestly, it has been just us before, and as some other listeners said, it's just us most of the time. I mean, an author is rare. That is not something we do on From the Front Porch regularly. And in fact, when we have an author here, we have to kind of tweak format. So today, in honor of my favorite time of year, March Madness, and in homage to our most popular episode series, which is March Madness, with non-reader Jordan Jones. Just a little slight shade. So I decided it would be fun for me and Hunter to talk about our favorite books, March Madness style. So I have done the seeding. Instead of Olivia doing the pairings, I have done the pairing. We're going to debate, and we're going to see which one of our favorite books kind of is the top.
[00:05:34] So I'm going to walk you through the titles. Then Ashley's going to kind of keep track of where we land and which book kind of makes it forward. And so here are the book titles we're going to discuss. And I want to know if you think they're accurate, because I did this without your insight. So I pitted a book of yours versus a book of mine. So we're going to do The Liars Club by Mary Karr versus The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. We're going to do A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara versus The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Edinburgh by Alexander Chee versus Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff versus Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I did my job. Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates versus Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. Okay, what do you think?
Hunter [00:06:28] Okay, here's the thing. It's so funny because some of these books I love, I feel like as much as--
Annie Jones [00:06:33] Yes, we love both. That's the challenge. That is our madness hunter.
Hunter [00:06:39] There's at least one of these where I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't know. But I know these are all books that I love. So like, very good job. These are some of my top 10 books of all time.
Annie Jones [00:06:46] Okay, so let's debate. I pitted two memoirs against each other first. So let's talk The Liars Club by Mary Karr versus The Year of Magical Thinking by John Didion. Tell us about Liars' Club because I still haven't [inaudible].
Hunter [00:06:58] That's not true!
Annie Jones [00:06:59] It isn't?
Hunter [00:06:59] No, you've read the Liars Club! We did a bunch of stuff about it!
Annie Jones [00:07:03] When did I read it?
Hunter [00:07:07] It's been since pre-pandemic.
Annie Jones [00:07:09] Well, that's a different one.
Hunter [00:07:13] And you really liked it.
Annie Jones [00:07:14] Did I like? Should I try it again?
Hunter [00:07:17] You said, you were like, "Oh my gosh, it's like your childhood."
Annie Jones [00:07:21] My childhood?
Hunter [00:07:22] Mine!
[00:07:22] Okay. I think I need to reread it, I guess? Should it move forward if I can't even remember?
Hunter [00:07:30] You gave it five stars.
Annie Jones [00:07:34] I feel like I do not have any memory of this.
Hunter [00:07:37] So, The Liars Club is about Mary Karr's very young upbringing in Texas and the book begins with her forming this memory that she has, like she's like looking back in this time where she can't remember what happened except for there were a bunch of like police officers in her house and a doctor was inspecting her and you know that her mom had a nervous breakdown but you don't know exactly what happened and this book is kind of her trying to discover that in the writing of it and it's like a very like Phoebe Buffay vibe of like it's really hard Scrabble but she's very funny. And I can't believe you don't remember any of this.
Annie Jones [00:08:23] I don't remember this at all. Are you sure?
Hunter [00:08:25] Yes! I remember recording it with you.
Annie Jones [00:08:28] I'm going to go back in the archives.
Hunter [00:08:30] You should!
Annie Jones [00:08:32] I don't remember this. What year did this come out?
Hunter [00:08:34] The book. 1995.
Annie Jones [00:08:36] Yeah, was it love it or loathe it?
Hunter [00:08:44] It was a backlist. Backlist book club.
Annie Jones [00:08:45] It was a backlist book club. Did we read it with somebody?
Hunter [00:08:47] No, it's just you and me. Yeah, and you loved it. Listen, she loved it so much. She loved it probably more than Year of Magical Thinking.
Annie Jones [00:09:01] Okay, I truly don't remember reading that book because I feel like even recently you're like I can't believe you still haven't read that Mary Karr book.
Hunter [00:09:07] [Inaudible] Catholicism.
Annie Jones [00:09:13] I did read Liar's Club. Okay, I do remember that. Okay, I'm going to pitch Year of Magical Thinking, which you have read. Year of Magical thinking to me is the grief memoir. Now, I think Yi-Yun Li when she wrote, what was that book? Things in Nature, Merely Grow. When she wrote that, she kind of insinuated that maybe she didn't love the grief memoir as a genre. But I think grief memoirs are extremely powerful and helpful for those of us navigating grief and also for those maybe who are, I don't know, concerned about future grief. So I find myself drawn to that genre. But to me, Joan Didion does it best. So this is her memoir about the loss of her husband. And I frequently will say on From the Front Porch and in my regular life that I don't always remember the characters in a book, the major plot points in a book, but if I love a book I will remember how a book made me feel. And I will remember where I read it. So I have a distinct memory of being in this coffee shop in Birmingham, Alabama, and I had bought this book. It's a thin little book and I just devoured it. And I was tearful and trying not to be tearful publicly because I thought this concept of magical thinking is essentially her imagination imagining her husband still alive and her husband's still in the room with her. So I think it's very powerful and I'm always impressed with somebody can tell such a beautiful story in such a sparse amount number of pages.
Hunter [00:10:51] Yeah, I do love that book, but I still can't believe-- one more thing about Mary Karr, her voice is so strong and so great. She has this open letter to her son that opens and it says, any way I tell this story is a lie. So I ask that you disconnect the device in your head that repeats at intervals how ancient avid I am. And I think that it's such a good...
Annie Jones [00:11:13] It's so good. You memorized it.
Hunter [00:11:14] Yeah, I'm not going to record the whole thing, but I have it all memorized.
Annie Jones [00:11:18] Okay, so now I don't know what should move forward because part of me is like I didn't remember Liars' Club so Magical Thinking Should move forward.
Hunter [00:11:24] Listen, you loved that last page of Liars' Club . You cried. You did cry. Go back!
Annie Jones [00:11:30] Go back and listen to that episode.
Ashley [00:11:33] Do we enlist the help of the people?
Annie Jones [00:11:34] Should we?
Ashley [00:11:36] Mayble.
Annie Jones [00:11:36] Alright, that's a good idea. Alright, so, The Liars' Club by Mary Karr. Let's hear some applause for that one. [Applause]. Okay, and now the Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. [Applause].
Hunter [00:11:51] I love the pity applause that I get. People are like let's give him a round of applause.
Annie Jones [00:11:58] Okay, this one though, this should be easier, we both read and loved inaudible]. Okay, so A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, which I kind of pegged as your book, and then The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt for my book.
Hunter [00:12:12] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:12:12] Alright, so what do you think? You talk about A Little Life.
Hunter [00:12:16] Yeah, so a little life is this... Actually, when Annie first pitched it to me, she said, "This is like sex in the city, except for four men in New York." And that is really accurate. That was your pitch to me. And that's really accurate for the first 40 pages.
Annie Jones [00:12:33] Did I recommend this to you?
Hunter [00:12:35] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:12:37] Wow! Our friendship is a blur.
Hunter [00:12:40] You recommended it 11 years ago.
Annie Jones [00:12:41] Okay.
Hunter [00:12:42] Yeah, and I actually--
Annie Jones [00:12:44] I kind of thought you sold it to me, but no.
Hunter [00:12:46] No, you came with it to me and I loved it. And then I came back and you were like, isn't it great? And I was like, yeah, it's much more sad than you led me to believe.
Annie Jones [00:12:54] Well, and the internet hates it.
Hunter [00:12:55] Yeah, the internet does hate it, but it is a really beautiful, beautiful book about male friendship. And I think that a lot of people mostly remember it for how it's considered like trauma porn because it really is focusing so much on this one man and this like horrific life that he has led. But I think it does something really beautiful where it shows that no matter how like distraught and upset and overwhelmed a person can be that people will still show up for them. Especially when men have like a smaller emotional tool kit, they don't always know the words to say, they still find ways to like show up for each other and really make something powerful happen.
Annie Jones [00:13:36] I think our friendship can be encapsulated in the fact that I took a book about trauma porn and was like it's Sex and the City. You'll love it. I feel like that's probably why we get along. But I read this really traumatic book and I was like but it's for friends in New York. It's not fun. If you've never read it, it is wonderful. Fun isn't the word I'd probably use except with you. You're going to have a blast.
Hunter [00:13:57] Yeah
Annie Jones [00:13:58] Okay, and then the Goldfinch you made me read and so I think we did read that as a Backlist Book Club. I do have it and then we went and saw the movie together. And so I read the Gold Finch. I had loved Donna Tartt's The Secret History, which is beloved at the Bookshelf. It's one of Olivia's favorite books. It's one of my favorite books. A lot of us on staff have read that one and really liked it. But I had not read the Goldfinch. I think once I started bookselling I became really daunted by thick books. I think it's because I'm trying to read so many frontlist titles and I'm trying to read so many new books and the more pages there are the fewer books you can read. It's math. And so, anyway, but the Goldfinch, the kind of opening scene, which to me is just seared in my brain, is where this young man goes to a museum and he's looking at the Goldfinch painting and then a bomb goes off and that kind of sets the story in motion. And I think I had been told I think some readers find it maybe boring or slow. I did not find it that way at all. I mean, I flew through that book. It does not feel as long as it is. And so I loved The Goldfinch. If you, Hunter, have to pick between The Goldfinch and A Little Life, what are you picking?
Hunter [00:15:12] This is so hard.
Annie Jones [00:15:13] I know. Welcome. Again, this is what we do. This is March Madness. It's hard.
Hunter [00:15:17] I have read both of these books three times and which let me tell you, talk about like if you're not depressed, it's a great way to jump into it. The thing is that A Little Life is seared into my brain and it was the first book I think like helped me process a lot of things that I've been through but the Goldfinch helped me process a lot of grief that I'd been through later on. And I also always think about because the opening line of the Goldfinches is "While in Amsterdam, I drove to my mother for the first time in years," and the way that he writes about his mom is beautiful. Oh gosh. A Little Life that would probably be-- okay, I'll do A Little Life.
Annie Jones [00:15:58] That would be your personal...
Hunter [00:16:00] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:16:00] Okay, so let's open it up. Let's see. Round of applause if you would move forward A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. [Applause] Okay, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. [Applause].
Hunter [00:16:14] I'm out of this.
Annie Jones [00:16:14] Okay, alright, we'll move forward The Goldfinch. Then did you know we're going to pit these against each other? Did you know that this is how it works?
Hunter [00:16:20] Okay, wait.
Annie Jones [00:16:21] Then we'll do the Year of Magical Thinking versus the Goldfinch. Did you know that this is in the brackets?
Hunter [00:16:27] Okay.
Annie Jones [00:16:27] Okay, so now this will be interesting because I have not read Edinburgh.
Hunter [00:16:34] No, yeah, you haven't.
Annie Jones [00:16:37] Edinburgh by Alexander Chee, which you talk about all the time, versus Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, which I feel like I cannot talk about on any given day. Okay.
Hunter [00:16:47] And you know they're friends.
Annie Jones [00:16:51] Yes.
Hunter [00:16:51] So, Edinburgh, which is actually funny, Edinburgh was initially-- Hanya Yanagihara who wrote A Little Life, she was working at Riverhead as an acquiring editor, and she wanted to acquire Edinburgh, and they said no. And so, he ended up going to an independent press for a while, which was fascinating. And then she wrote A little Life, which are very similar in some ways. But Edinburgh is about this boy named Fee. Who joins a boy's choir when he's like probably 11, 12, and it turns out that the man who runs the choir is a pedophile. And it's about all these boys who were faced with this trauma. And the first part of the book is kind of dealing with all this, but then it jumps forward in time to adulthood, and is about Fee as an adult and how he's reckoning with his own trauma while also facing up to what is happening with everyone else. But it's surprising that this book is so optimistic and hopeful and tender and it never feels like it's like shoving you like with a knife. It feels like it is guiding you along and kind of helping you understand how you could ever recover from something so terrifying and awful and I think that that's such a skill that he has.
Annie Jones [00:18:11] Isn't listening to him talk about books amazing? You're brilliant. You are brilliant. Okay, so Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is one of my favorite books of all time. It is about this minister who is on his deathbed and the entire book is him thinking back on his life. And we're going to talk about Crossing to Safety in a minute. But every so often there's just a book about what I would call maybe an ordinary existence that I find really moving. And I also am frequently looking for books where the author writes about faith in an authentic way. Not in maybe what we would call a Christian fiction or Christian nonfiction kind of way, but in just a realistic faith is a part of this man's life, this character's life. And then his relationship with his son. It is very much a father-son kind of story I love Marilynne Robinson, and I really respect how she writes about faith especially fiction. I know she's written some essays and things like that, but I love her fiction. So this is Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
Hunter [00:19:11] I'm not making my case any better, but I will say I re-read Gilead last year, and the whole thing it's basically written like in a letter to his son. And I re-read that-- oh my gosh, I am about to cry. It was so moving. I was like I want to boohoo cry. Both books are great. But book made me boohoo-cry.
Annie Jones [00:19:36] I re-read it a few years ago because I don't often reread. I think you re-read a lot. I do not often re-read, but I re-read Gilead a few years ago and some of the writing is just stunning.
Hunter [00:19:47] This moment where she talks about light within light like a candle light within likethe early sunlight. Beautiful. Yeah
Annie Jones [00:19:56] Okay, this will be... I don't know. Edinburgh by Alexander Chee. No, never read it. Okay, all right. And Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. [Applause] Okay, now this could your chance.
Hunter [00:20:14] I don't know.
Annie Jones [00:20:16] Fates and Furies by Lauren Grof versus Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. I think this will be interesting.
Hunter [00:20:24] Yeah, so Fates and Furies is if you are familiar at all with Gone Girl, it is like the literary Gone Girl in some ways. It's split into two parts, Fates, and Furies. Fates focuses on the husband's perspective of this marriage. And Lauren Groff says this whenever she talks about the books, I think it's okay to say that this is a book about a pretty successful marriage for the most part. And the first half is focusing on the husband and you have this really specific idea of what this marriage is. And she takes these little bracketed sections. If anyone's ever read To the Lighthouse, there's a section called time passes and in time passes it's like a 20-page section that's describing the decay of this house, but in bracketed section it's describing the ways that the different characters are living and dying very briefly and it kind of sweeps past that. But in Fate and Furies she does almost the opposite where she takes these bracketed sections and has this god's eye view that pulls out and comments on the marriage.
[00:21:25] And something that is so beautiful about this book is that you have this very clear idea of how this man views this marriage and then the second half. It doesn't even tell the same story. It still carries through the timeline. It doesn't like repeat the same stuff. But the second half with the wife's point of view truly reshapes and reconfigures everything you know about the marriage- not in a way to say that it's bad or worse or anything, just to say that like two people can have completely different lived experiences while living under the same roof. I will also just say there is a thing that is talked about in both sections where he talks about the way that he proposes to her and how her answer is like-- He says that she says like, yes, yes, joyfully. And when she recounts it, she says, sure. But truly the way that little thread is pulled throughout the book is so beautiful.
Annie Jones [00:22:22] I mean, it's genius. I mean how she wrote it. Is that your first Lauren Groff or?
Hunter [00:22:27] That was the first one I read. Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:22:29] Because I feel like that showcases her work so powerfully. I also love that book. And I did you sell me that to maybe?
Hunter [00:22:36] I bought it the day it came out. Maybe you had read it, but we hadn't talked about it yet. But I will also say there was this one line that-- oh gosh, now I can't even remember. They're fighting because he's trying to write an opera and she wants him to come home for Thanksgiving. And so he's trying to like pitch why he should stay. And she's quiet on the phone and the line says, "She said nothing, eloquently." And I think that's such a great line.
Annie Jones [00:23:08] So good. Does it make you mad?
Hunter [00:23:10] Yes, it does. I was like, well, I can't do that.
Annie Jones [00:23:12] Yeah, it's the kind of line that makes you mad. Okay, so Olivia does such a brilliant job when we do March Madness episodes with Jordan of like pairing these so well. So I did try my best to mimic her. So Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, which you read maybe as part-- did you read as part of your national book award project? That's right. Wait. See. Do you forget that you read Project to Safety?
Hunter [00:23:34] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:23:34] How the tables have turned. Okay, fascinating. All right, no judgment. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, in my mind, it is a book about a marriage. And on From the Front Porch, we frequently get asked, okay, Annie, you love all these books about these broken, not great marriages. Where are the quality books about good marriages? And the truth is, there aren't many, in my opinion. But I think Crossing the Safety is one. And it's about two couples. You kind of meet them at the University, I believe, in Wisconsin. It's very much a Midwest book. It's much rooted in that. But, anyway, it's these two couples, and it follows them, again, much like Gilead, kind of just through their ordinary lives. This is not a loud book. There's no kind of turning point. It's just two couples in their friendship decades long, and then their marriages that decades long. So that is Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. All right, so Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. [Applause]. Crossing Safety by Wallace Stegner. [Applause].
Annie Jones [00:24:43] That was it, but you guys should read Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner. Okay, and then Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates versus Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout.
Hunter [00:24:54] Which these [inaudible] are completely different, like...
Annie Jones [00:24:56] But they're ladies!
Hunter [00:25:01] Okay, this is one that I have convinced a lot of people of, so I feel really confident in it. Blonde is a fictionalized biography of Marilyn Monroe. It is a very stylized book, but the book opens with this section, special delivery, and it's death on a bicycle delivering itself to Marilyn Monroe. And so it's starting with her death and then you and then it goes right into her like early childhood like her infancy and how her mom's like hiding her in a drawer. And it kind of carries through her entire life up until her death. But to me it is the equivalent of are the American Anna Karenina of this great tragedy of a woman truly struggling through everything to try to persevere. And she does not write her as some ditzy little thing. She writes her as this really brilliant, beautiful woman who is a poet and who is a true artist and who kind of outsmarts a lot of people around her, but she's so clever that people don't really catch it. And she has these two complete different parts of her. She is Norma Jean, which is like this like poor girl who was struggling and abused and she's trying to overcome. You have Marilyn, who is this really carefully sculpted image, and she plays with that really well. And even though it's 700 pages, nothing feels excessive to me, unless it is intentionally so.
Annie Jones [00:26:35] Wasn't this like a terrible Netflix adaptation or something?
Hunter [00:26:40] Okay, yes. Here's the thing, if you watch the movie, don't watch it as a movie, watch it as a illustrations of the novel. Because I don't think we need to like look at it as...
Annie Jones [00:26:54] Okay, so just ignore the film adaptation. Okay. So Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. I knew one of his favorite authors is Joyce Carol Oates. So I was like, what is your favorite? Which I had guessed correct. But I wanted to pit it against an Elizabeth Strout book because I love all of her books, but people frequently wonder where to start and my unpopular opinion is that I think you should start with Olive Again. I think Olive Kittredge can be hard. Short stories, again, feel like a higher degree of difficulty for some reason, at least as a bookseller when I'm trying to hand sell them. But Olive Again is all about Olive Kittredge. She lives in Maine. And she is kind of this curmudgeonly woman who lives in this town, but it's not just about Olive, it's about all of her relationships. If you like books about an older protagonist, I find a deep kinship with Olive and who she is, even as she maybe says things that I wouldn't say or does things that I wouldn't do. But I fell in love with her through-- I feel like Elizabeth's Strout through all of her books they always kind of come back to Olive Again. And I feel like you get this well rounded picture of who she is, the more books you read by her. So that is Olive again by Elizabeth Strout. All right. So, Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates, [Applause] and then Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout. [Applause].
Hunter [00:28:26] I just have to say my mom is in the audience giving those tepid applause towards my face.
Annie Jones [00:28:33] She's showing her support.
Hunter [00:28:34] Very quietly, yeah. It's fine. I'm not her.
Annie Jones [00:28:41] Okay. Do you know what we're voting against?
Ashley [00:28:43] We did five.
Annie Jones [00:28:45] Five pairings. So that's why I did that last one. I lost it out. Do you have one you want to pit against that last?
Hunter [00:28:54] Against that one? Yeah, I do.
Annie Jones [00:28:57] All right. We've got one more pairing then. Do it quick.
Hunter [00:29:00] Okay. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Which I think if we call, I know we all in the room lived through this pandemic, you always have very unsettlingly accurate representation of what it feels like to be living through a pandemic. And I think that Annie I remember you and I both read and you recommended this to me. And you said it is the first time that you ever, while reading a book like an apocalyptic type book, looked up and we're kind of just like shaken about the ripple of like where we were.
Annie Jones [00:29:35] Because it's a post-apocalyptic novel, but it's really about art. And that's really what about art survival. I mean, but she wraps it in this really fantastic plot. Yeah, how dare you? Okay, so Station Eleven versus The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which is one of my favorite books as well. And I had not read it until we read it together for was that Backlist Book Club as well?
Hunter [00:30:03] It was Backlist Book Club.
Annie Jones [00:30:04] Okay, and it's one of my brother's favorite books, and so I finally read it and I could not wait to call him and be like oh you were right. But speaking of mother-son stories, it's a fantastic father-son story about survival. And to me I think if you read lonesome dove and loved it, then I think I should read the road by Cormac McCarthy. To me they are kindreds. I feel like The Road is dark, but also it's not. I thought it was really beautiful. So this will be interesting. Okay. So Station Eleven. [Applause]. What is that book slides in and then wins it all? Okay. Versus The Road by Cormac McCarthy. [Applause].
Hunter [00:30:50] Okay, I will say that in The Road's defense, I read that book, I think, five or six times before we read it. And every single time I read it, I hated it. And then I read with Annie, and for the first time I stopped seeing myself as the son and I saw myself as a father. And it completely shifted the way that I experienced that book. And I know people hate that, they're like why do you keep reading these books you hate? It's because sometimes you're not finding it at the right time. And when you do...
Annie Jones [00:31:15] Its the season. Totally agree.
Ashley [00:31:19] All right. Next up, do you want me to read all three pairings?
Annie Jones [00:31:23] Yeah, three pair and then we're going to vote. All right. So we've got The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion versus the Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. We have Gilead by Marilynne Robinson versus Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff. And then we have Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout versus Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandela.
Annie Jones [00:31:45] Okay, so Year of Magical Thinking versus The Goldfinch, is that right? Did I do that right.
Ashley [00:31:52] Yes.
Annie Jones [00:31:53] Okay, Year of Magical Thinking. The Gold Finch by Donna Tartt. Are you keeping track of that? Okay. And then Gilead by Marilynne Robinson versus Fate and Furies. So Gilead. Fates and Furies. Okay next.
Ashley [00:32:22] Olive Again versus Station Eleven.
Annie Jones [00:32:25] Olive Again vs Station Eleven. All right, so who we got?
Ashley [00:32:34] That's three now. [Inaudible].
Annie Jones [00:32:39] We didn't. That's all right.
Hunter [00:32:40] It's okay.
Ashley [00:32:41] Can we just put all three against each other?
Annie Jones [00:32:42] Yeah, put all the three.
Ashley [00:32:43] All right. The Goldfinch.
Annie Jones [00:32:45] Jordan is furious. Jordan is like [inaudible]. You know what he would say? This is Bush League. That's what he'll say. He'll be like, Annie, that was Bush League, you should [inaudible]. Okay.
Ashley [00:32:58] Okay, we have Goldfinch, Fate and Furies, and Station Eleven.
Annie Jones [00:33:01] God, those are really good.
Hunter [00:33:02] Those are good, yeah.
Annie Jones [00:33:03] Okay, Goldfinch. [Applause] Okay. Wow, Donna. Don't come here. Okay, we don't know what's coming. We're going to save ourselves. Alright, Fates and Furies.
Annie Jones [00:33:19] All right, a whopping three. Wow, okay. Station Eleven. [Applause].
Hunter [00:33:25] Wow. Look at that! Listen. Last minute entry.
Annie Jones [00:33:27] Last minute entry, impressive.
Hunter [00:33:30] I know the people.
Annie Jones [00:33:32] They're like a 16 seed. It's an upset. It's sports. Okay, so now before we get to your questions Hunter and I are going to play the newlywed game, but with books. Don't you guys worry, we're staying on theme. So Ashley is going to read a question that then we will have to answer, right?
Ashley [00:34:01] So you're going to answer Hunter's favorite book of all time.
Annie Jones [00:34:06] That's right.
Hunter [00:34:08] But I also write it down.
Annie Jones [00:34:09] That's right. First we have to read one at a time. So Hunter's favorite book of all time. He writes an answer and I write one.
Ashley [00:34:15] Hunter's favorite book of all time. This is great audio content.
Hunter [00:34:25] Cool. ASMR. I'm very curious to see what like... Okay, this is hard.
Annie Jones [00:34:29] Ready?
Ashley [00:34:30] Three, two, one.
Annie Jones [00:34:35] Fates and Furies. For the audience at home, Fate and Furies. All right.
Ashley [00:34:44] Next up Annie's favorite book of all time.
Annie Jones [00:34:47] To that maybe I know you better than you know me.
Ashley [00:34:51] That was fast. Ready?
Annie Jones [00:34:53] No!
Ashley [00:34:55] Do you think it's on this list.
Annie Jones [00:34:56] No! Don't take it!
Ashley [00:34:58] I don't know! Don't yell at me!
Hunter [00:35:01] I think I'm wrong. I think I'm wrong
Annie Jones [00:35:03] Ready? Three, two, one.
Hunter [00:35:06] I had a feeling.
Annie Jones [00:35:07] I told you.
Hunter [00:35:07] I know, I knew it was one of the... Okay, would you say that's not a bad guess?
Annie Jones [00:35:10] Okay, I said Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. You said-- a great guess-- Little Women by Louis May Alcott.
Hunter [00:35:16] I almost said Killian, but then I thought, I was like, oh, of all time, I don't know. Ugh! All right. I'm disappointed in myself.
Ashley [00:35:24] Not mad, just disappointed. Alright, Hunter's favorite author. There's two answers.
Hunter [00:35:35] What do you think there is?
Annie Jones [00:35:35] I don't think there is.
Hunter [00:35:40] Those are two, yeah, those are a few, but yeah.
Annie Jones [00:35:42] I had a hard time. I knew that. I told you it was going to be me.
Ashley [00:35:49] My other answer was Alexander Chee.
Hunter [00:35:51] That is a good one.
Ashley [00:35:52] Or would it be Alexander Chee or Joyce Carol Oates? Who would be number two?
Hunter [00:35:56] Oh gosh, we can't go into this right, this has to go.
Annie Jones [00:35:58] Okay, but Lauren Groff for the audience.
Hunter [00:36:01] Yes.
Ashley [00:36:01] Okay, Annie's favorite author. Annie B Jones.
Hunter [00:36:10] Well, now I'm like, well, I don't know.
Ashley [00:36:14] I don't know if I know this.
Hunter [00:36:17] I don't know what to do.
Annie Jones [00:36:18] For tonight.
Ashley [00:36:20] For tonight. Three, two, one.
Hunter [00:36:22] Okay. Marilyn Robinson, I got it right. I know her better than you.
Annie Jones [00:36:32] Okay, ready?
Annie Jones [00:36:33] Yes.
Ashley [00:36:33] The longest book hunters ever read.
Hunter [00:36:36] Oh, well, actually, I'll be shocked.
Annie Jones [00:36:39] Shocked.
Ashley [00:36:41] Three, two, one. Infinite Justice?
Annie Jones [00:36:45] The Bible. He said the Bible [Inaudible].
Hunter [00:36:51] My version of it.
Annie Jones [00:36:51] You already got it.
Hunter [00:36:56] I will say Infinite Justice is a really good guess because that book, it is not longer than the Bible, but it will take you longer than the Bible.
Annie Jones [00:37:03] I think it's longer than some versions of the Bible.
Ashley [00:37:06] Okay, the longest book Annie's ever read.
Annie Jones [00:37:10] Oh, no. I forgot I had to answer this.
Ashley [00:37:14] Okay, just say the Bible! Three, two, one.
Annie Jones [00:37:19] It's the Bible.
Ashley [00:37:30] To the audience, it’s the Bible. Have both of you read the whole Bible all the way?
Hunter [00:37:32] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:37:33] Multiple times. [Inaudible]
Hunter [00:37:37] No, let me tell you, I had the audio book which was my granny saying, "In the beginning," every morning for like the whole year.
Ashley [00:37:50] All right, Hunter's favorite reading spot.
Annie Jones [00:37:56] The Bookshelf. I put a place.
Hunter [00:38:00] You put a place?
Annie Jones [00:38:03] It's okay if we get it wrong. I'm just guessing.
Hunter [00:38:10] Let's see. Okay.
Ashley [00:38:11] Three, two, one.
Annie Jones [00:38:12] The beach.
Hunter [00:38:13] Oh, that is so good. I put a setting.
Annie Jones [00:38:15] A setting? That's a non-answer.
Hunter [00:38:17] No, because a beach is a setting. But you know what? The beach is such a good one.
Annie Jones [00:38:23] You love reading at the beach.
Hunter [00:38:23] Yes, here's the problem. I like to pose with books at the beach, and so I do like to read at the beach. It's such a peaceful thing. That's so good.
Ashley [00:38:33] All right, Annie's favorite reading spot.
Annie Jones [00:38:36] So who won that round?
Ashley [00:38:39] Nobody won that round. Three, two, one. Anywhere outside. The beach.
Hunter [00:38:45] The beach. Yeah, sure.
Annie Jones [00:38:47] We'll take it.
Ashley [00:38:47] Does that count?
Annie Jones [00:38:48] Yeah, we'll let is fly. Okay, this is our last two, a book that changed Hunter's life as a teen.
Ashley [00:38:58] The trio are writing furiously. Ready? Three, two, one. White oleander.
Hunter [00:39:06] You are so good at this! Oh my gosh! We would get divorced so fast.
Annie Jones [00:39:14] It won't be my fault.
Ashley [00:39:16] All right, last one a book that changed Annie's life as a teen. Writing before I can even finish the question.
Hunter [00:39:24] I don't think this is the accurate answer, but...
Ashley [00:39:36] All right, three, two, one.
Annie Jones [00:39:38] The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. It changed my life!
Hunter [00:39:53] I almost chose-- what is that other Louisa May Alcott...
Annie Jones [00:39:58] Old Fashioned Girl.
Hunter [00:39:58] I almost chose that one.
Annie Jones [00:39:59] An Old Fashioned girl would be choice number two.
Hunter [00:40:01] Okay, well, there we go. I give up.
Annie Jones [00:40:05] What'd you put?
Hunter [00:40:06] I wrote Little Women because I was like it'll be one answer.
Annie Jones [00:40:09] As an eight-year-old, yes. But as a teen, An Old-fashioned Girl would have been right.
Hunter [00:40:15] Yeah.
Annie Jones [00:40:16] But no, it was [inaudible]. I was very cool. Thank you guys so much for being here. Thank you to Hunter and to Ashley tonight. And thank you everybody for coming tonight. We are so grateful for your continued support of From the Front Porch and the Bookshelf. We're so glad you're here. Thank you.
Hunter [00:40:39] Every day is a winding road.
Annie Jones [00:40:41] We did it!
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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