Episode 585 || Shop Dad Recommends
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie is joined by her actual dad and The Bookshelf’s Shop Dad, Chris! Annie and Chris chat about his reading life and some of his favorite books in honor of Father’s Day. These books are perfect for giving to your own dad or anyone who’s been there for you like a dad.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 585) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
The Man No One Believed: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders by Joshua Sharpe
A Killer Wedding by Joan O'Leary
Daikon by Samuel Hawley
Running Deep by Tom Clavin
James by Percival Everett
Bone Valley: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida by Gilbert King
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmond Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon
So Far Gone by Jess Walter
Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra
All Carry by Gene Wojciechowski
The Fourth Branch: How State Government Can Save Our Union by Daniel Squadron
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page. Shop Dad is reading Homeschooled by Stefan Merrill Block.
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.
Transcript:
Annie Jones: [squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
The men were fighting a losing battle unless sea pressure on the sub was decreased, and the only way to do that was to be closer to the surface. It was a rock and a hard place decision for O'Kane: risk being destroyed by depth charges or drown.
- Tom Clavin, Running Deep
[as music fades out]
I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, I'm chatting with shop dad, and literal dad, Chris, about his favorite recent reads and books for your own fathers and father figures. Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? Spread the word by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. 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, then tell us what you think. Here's a recent review. "I love this podcast and how Annie manages to address the book needs in an ageless manner. There is something here for people in various life stages, and that's not always the case with book reviewers. What I'd like to see coming up is some narrative non-fiction choices. For example, I loved Seabiscuit, The Boys in the Boat, and Destiny of the Republic. Truth is sometimes more illuminating and entertaining than fiction."
Well, I hope this listener is here today, or maybe the reviewer was my own father, because I bet we'll have some non-fiction recs for you today. Thank you so much to all of the reviewers who've left kind words and thoughtful reviews of our show. We're so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends. Thanks for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore too. Shop dad is actually my literal dad, and for the last couple of years, he's been picking books as part of our Shelf Subscription program. He doesn't appear on the podcast quite as often as Shop Mom, but we like to do these annual episodes in honor of Father's Day, which can be a tough holiday for book-buying if our in-store customers are any indication. Welcome back to the show, Dad.
[00:02:24] Chris: Well, thank you very much.
[00:02:25] Annie Jones: I'm so glad you're here. Last time you were here, you said we didn't laugh enough.
[00:02:30] Chris: Well, maybe but I would like to know, how much do I have to pay in order to get on the podcast as much as Shop Mom?
[00:02:37] Annie Jones: Listen, you're in good company because Jordan also only comes on once a year, so you really just leave the people wanting more this way.
[00:02:43] Chris: I probably can't come more often than I do because my reading is not nearly as prolific as Shop Mom.
[00:02:51] Annie Jones: She has become quite the reader.
[00:02:53] Chris: Yeah. She has.
[00:02:54] Annie Jones: You read a lot too, though. And now, so a couple years ago you were reading every month for Shelf Subscriptions.
[00:03:01] Chris: Whew, that was a job. I didn't get paid enough for that.
[00:03:03] Annie Jones: It is a job. You know what, thank you. Say that a little louder for the people in the back. It is a job to pick a book every month for listeners, for long- distance customers and readers. So now you pick, what, once a quarter?
[00:03:17] Chris: Once a quarter, except Dad's Day came along and so I had to read another one.
[00:03:23] Annie Jones: Father's Day kind of messes with the schedule. But you select four times a year now, but you read beyond four books a year, and that's really why you wanted to stop reading one book every month.
[00:03:34] Chris: It's helped me expand and read some things that I just want to read, so by not having to do a Shelf Subscription every month.
[00:03:43] Annie Jones: Yeah. And I'm sure that has been helpful. Okay, if you had to describe maybe not just your Shelf Subscriptions, but your personal reading tastes. Like when we talk about Shop Mom, we know she hates the phrase PG books. She doesn't like that. She's offended. She says she likes redemptive stories, so stories that are hopeful.
[00:04:02] Chris: Did she come up with that or did you?
[00:04:03] Annie Jones: I don't remember. So how would you describe your books and the books that you like, your reading tastes?
[00:04:09] Chris: Non-redemptive.
[00:04:12] Annie Jones: Terrible people doing terrible stuff.
[00:04:14] Chris: No, I'm just kidding. We're trying to laugh.
[00:04:16] Annie Jones: Yes, we're trying to laugh more.
[00:04:18] Chris And the studio audience is laughing along with us.
[00:04:21] Annie Jones: I'm sure they are in their cars.
[00:04:24] Chris: I do a lot of like an equal balance between nonfiction and fiction. I love historical nonfiction historical fiction. We got one on our list for this time that is a kind of a historical fiction. So that's probably the genres that I tend to nest in.
[00:04:44] Annie Jones: I think you actually read more fiction than other men I know. So Jordan mostly reads nonfiction and Chet reads mostly nonfiction.
[00:04:53] Chris: Yeah, your brother doesn't read much fiction to my dismay because I wish he'd just read some for fun. Yeah. But I do read quite a bit of fiction. I find it fascinating that authors can come up with these wild stories that entertain us.
[00:05:08] Annie Jones: Yeah, all from their imagination. I think for men fiction generally, I'm speaking generally because of the customers we see in the store, but generally men gravitate towards historical nonfiction, history, which is great and fine, but I do think there's something to be said for fiction for all of us. And I wish men read a little bit more of it.
[00:05:29] Chris: Yes. I, and I, we'll have some fiction books on today's list too that will be of interest, I think, to some of your listeners.
[00:05:38] Annie Jones: Okay. So let's get started. Where do you want to start today? What book do you want to start with?
[00:05:42] Chris: I just want to start with this because you loaned me this book.
[00:05:46] Annie Jones: Listen, you have to tell listeners. Mom and Dad are the only podcast guests who come armed with props. They bring their physical books as if there's anybody to show that to.
[00:05:56] Chris: I want to be able to show it to the studio audience. If you can't see in the back, just raise your hand.
[00:06:04] Annie Jones: You and Mom bring a literal book stack. We used to have a preacher at our old church who would pull stuff out of brown paper bags, and his name was Jim Hollingsworth, and it does feel like we're paying homage to Jim Hollingsworth. Yeah.
[00:06:17] Chris: My paper bag podcast.
[00:06:18] Annie Jones: Yeah, that's a great title for a podcast actually. Okay, so you're showing us a copy
[00:06:23] Chris: I'm showing you Pastoral Song by James Rebanks. Okay. It's been out for a long time. But you loaned me this book, and I never got around to really reading it until this past year.
[00:06:35] Annie Jones: Oh. You've had that a long time.
[00:06:37] Chris: Yeah, I love this book.
[00:06:38] Annie Jones: I knew you would.
[00:06:40] Chris: And this is another one of those nonfictions, it's almost like a memoir of his time as a farmer, in the United Kingdom, yes. And he focuses a lot on the antithesis to industrial farming. And he doesn't lay claim to the fact that industrial farming is something we just got to completely get rid of, because we're not going to be able to do that. But for people and for farmers and landowners who can grow things grow food and other things, even animals on their land that more sustainably, he's all for that. And he does a great job providing you with such a a great language of the picture that you just imagine his farm looking like and those around him. And so it was a very good read.
[00:07:31] Annie Jones: And you just read it this year. I did loan this to you forever ago.
[00:07:34] Chris: Yeah, it was a long time.
[00:07:36] Annie Jones: May 2021.
[00:07:37] Chris: Yeah, and it was just kind of set on my to-be-read list for a long time.
[00:07:40] Annie Jones: But you liked it.
[00:07:41] Chris: And so as a matter of fact since I don't have to read a Shelf Subscription per month, it opened up this possibility for me.
[00:07:50] Annie Jones: I do wish this was a show and tell podcast, because my trademark of marking books by tearing pages is now something my whole family does. Which people hate, by the way.
[00:07:59] Chris: Yeah, no, they probably hate that. But it's a great way to do it, because, when the book is closed, you can't see underlines.
[00:08:03] Annie Jones: That's correct.
[00:08:04] Chris: But I can look on that edge and say, "Oh, I was impressed by that sentence or that paragraph."
[00:08:08] Annie Jones: Yes, and you marked quite a few in this book.
[00:08:11] Chris: I did.
[00:08:11] Annie Jones: But I see that you and I treat our books similarly, because you've got torn pages, and I think I also saw a coffee stain in there.
[00:08:17] Chris: Yeah, does Mom tear her pages?
[00:08:19] Annie Jones: She does tear her pages. You're welcome, everyone, the chaos. Look, but see, Hunter hates. Hunter doesn't even crack the spines of his book. So when he sees my books that have water stains, and yours had a coffee stain, he hates that.
[00:08:34] Chris: Oh, come on, Hunter, I know you're going to listen to this. Tear your book pages.
[00:08:38] Annie Jones: Yeah, I think he'll feel good when he does. Okay, so that was Pastoral Song by James Rebanks. All right, that was nonfiction.
[00:08:46] Chris: Nonfiction.
[00:08:46] Annie Jones: What you got next?
[00:08:47] Chris: Okay. So another nonfiction, The Man No One Believed.
[00:08:53] Annie Jones: Okay. I was curious about this book.
[00:08:55] Chris: Yeah, this is the untold story of the Georgia church murders. The author is Joshua Sharp. All right, so this is The Man Who No One Believed: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders. Joshua Sharp is the author. And these murders occurred in Georgia in 1985. The couple that was murdered name was Harold and Thelma Swain at a Black church in Camden County, Georgia. And a person by the name of Dennis Perry was arrested and convicted on just little to no evidence. And this book is about that injustice and how this author, through investigative journalism, really brought about the overturning of his conviction.
[00:09:42] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:09:42] Chris: Dennis Perry was eventually released, and as recently as, I think, December 2024, another suspect was arrested.
[00:09:51] Annie Jones: Oh, really? Okay. So because the book isn't old. This came out just recently-ish. And so it sounds like maybe the case is then ongoing, but after the overturning. So I can trace my interest in the Innocence Project, that kind of thing, back to my work at the Florida Bar and being able to witness... I attended a claims bill hearing where one of these wrongfully convicted men was trying to get money from the state to "reimburse" him for his time spent behind bars. And so I then became really interested in the Innocence Project. We read Picking Cotton as a Thomas County One Book program. So did you have an interest in this kind of thing?
[00:10:37] Chris: I don't know. Maybe it's because of the influence of my children as much as anything. But I have also picked up on a number of things that have occurred in our history, and I'm talking about pre-Civil Rights time, 1950s- maybe even before the 1950s through now, where people have been wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted. And thank goodness for the journalists that want to take up these stories, some of which are just providing the information that has already occurred in book form. But some, like this gentleman Joshua Sharp, actually was instrumental in changing the outcome for that wrongfully accused person. But this happened in South Georgia. Camden County's over there somewhere, I think, near Brunswick.
[00:11:33] Annie Jones: Okay. I wondered where this was.
[00:11:34] Chris: The couple that was killed was Black. The Dennis Perry, the person accused, was white. They depicted it as a racist crime. And I think that the person that has been arrested for it after Dennis Perry was released is also White. So it's a fascinating story, and it's interesting that it talks about the good old boy network in the law enforcement in that area and how they just picked up on a person that they felt like couldn't properly justify himself for whatever reason. They said, "Okay, this is our guy."
[00:12:08] Annie Jones: They just need a fall guy.
[00:12:10] Chris: We can get this one off the books pretty quick. But the inner workings, and as I recall the story, and this one goes... this was the first one that I read after the last time I appeared up here on the podcast.
[00:12:22] Annie Jones: Okay. So you read this a long time ago.
[00:12:24] Chris: Yeah. This is a long time ago, so I'm just re-remembering some things. They brought in somebody from the outside, FBI or somebody who was not part of the good old boy network. And in spite of his efforts they were able to convict wrongfully this other person. But this guy, this person who was brought in and the author worked very closely together to bring some information to light that just reversed everything.
[00:12:51] Annie Jones: This sounds great, and I'm a little surprised it didn't do better for us locally because of the setting.
[00:12:56] Chris: Because of the setting and because of the geographical location.
[00:12:59] Annie Jones: So that is The Man No One Believed: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders by Joshua Sharp. What's up next? What you got next?
[00:13:08] Chris: Okay, the next one is a fiction book entitled A Killer Wedding by Joan O'Leary. This is a mystery novel. This is another one that goes back to actually in late 2025. Christine, the protagonist in this book, is a journalist. And she has been assigned to cover a lavish wedding at an Irish castle. And the mother of the groom was found dead prior to the actual wedding. And this kind of forced Christine, along with a local law enforcement person who developed attractions for each other, they worked together to eventually solve the murder. This book really blends humor with suspense, and some people have compared it to The Devil Wears Prada and The White Lotus. Anyway, this released in late 2025. A really good fiction.
[00:14:09] Annie Jones: This was a little bit outside your genre.
[00:14:11] Chris: So much.
[00:14:12] Annie Jones: Why'd you pick this one up? Were you picking for Shelf Subscription, or did Olivia read this?
[00:14:18] Chris: This was not a Shelf Subscription. This one my recollection is that it appeared in my bag of ARCs.
[00:14:26] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:14:26] Chris: That probably was given to me to pick for a future Shelf Subscription. And I picked it up, and I have read it following The Man Who No One Believed just because I needed something to read.
[00:14:39] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:14:40] Chris: And yeah, this one grabbed me because it's not one that you'd think that I would read.
[00:14:45] Annie Jones: No, I wouldn't have guessed it really. But I do like a thriller when I'm in a reading slump or something because they're fast, and you can get through them pretty quickly. But that one sounds fun for a murder.
[00:14:57] Chris: Yeah, I really enjoyed it. And I would encourage all septuagenarian men out there to broaden your horizons if you're not a fiction writer, and order a fiction book from your favorite independent bookstore.
[00:15:09] Annie Jones: Yeah. If not your favorite, at least The Bookshelf. At least order them from us. Yeah, okay, that sounds good. What's up next?
[00:15:17] Chris: Okay, another fiction. Really fascinating fiction by Samuel Hawley, entitled Daikon.
[00:15:26] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:15:27] Chris: D-A-I-K-O-N.
[00:15:29] Annie Jones: All right.
[00:15:30] Chris: And this is a historical fiction set in the final days of World War II. The story explores an alternate history where Japan recovers a third undetonated US atomic bomb.
[00:15:46] Annie Jones: Okay, that's interesting.
[00:15:47] Chris: The story is really fascinating. And it's very historically accurate. If I remember the details correctly, there actually was a third atomic bomb but it never was transported anywhere. This author here kind of picks up on that actual historic fact.
[00:16:08] Annie Jones: That's fun.
[00:16:09] Chris: And makes it a part of a fascinating story. The premise is that a B-29 carrying a third atomic bomb crashes in Japan. Actually crashes into the country of Japan, and the Japanese military recovers it and they grab this physicist to figure out how that they can use it. But a lot of the protagonists and a lot of the characters, are Japanese-type people. They have Japanese names. It was spellbounding for me, so I would highly recommend this one.
[00:16:40] Annie Jones: That does sound really good. And I do like an alternate history. I do like to imagine different possibilities if one thing had gone differently or something like that.
[00:16:49] Chris: Yeah.
[00:16:49] Annie Jones: That sounds good.
[00:16:50] Chris: It explores honor and duty and love and survival in the face of war. And it kind of contrasts Japanese and American perspectives.
[00:16:59] Annie Jones: Yes. Which I think would be valuable
[00:17:03] Chris: And that's very interesting.
[00:17:04] Annie Jones: Yeah. Okay, that sounds great. That sounds like one I would be interested in actually.
[00:17:11] Chris: Okay. A really good nonfiction, Running Deep by Tom Clavin.
[00:17:18] Annie Jones: This was the quote.
[00:17:19] Chris: That quote was from this book.
[00:17:20] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:17:21] Chris: This was for a Shelf Subscription, I believe, and as a matter of fact--
[00:17:27] Annie Jones: Wait, we have it ladies and gentlemen.
[00:17:31] Chris: Okay. I'm showing the book to the studio audience. Running Deep. I loaned this book to my brother-in-law.
[00:17:36] Annie Jones: Oh, to Uncle Keith?
[00:17:37] Chris: Uncle Keith. And he loved it. Matter of fact he started it... we met in Mississippi
[00:17:42] Annie Jones: Oh yeah, Laurel
[00:17:43] Chris: Laurel, Mississippi and I gave it to him there, and he started there,. And he said he had a hard time putting it down as well.
[00:17:49] Annie Jones: That's good.
[00:17:49] Chris: I couldn't help but pick up this book because Tom Clavin, I read another one of his books. Bandit Heaven.
[00:17:57] Annie Jones: Oh yeah. I remember that.
[00:17:59] Chris: Oh, boy, it was really such a good... so also nonfiction. But I think he's got to be one of the foremost writers of nonfiction currently.
[00:18:07] Annie Jones: I'll have to remember that when we sell in store.
[00:18:10] Chris: Yeah. So I immediately knew that Running Deep would be my November Shelf Subscription.
[00:18:15] Annie Jones: Okay, so this was from last year.
[00:18:17] Chris: Yeah. And I found it fascinating because there's so many facts in this book about World War II submarines. This is the setting, World War II. And learned that when you served on a submarine during this time period, and it may still be this way, I'm not sure, it was called the Silent Service. The focus, though, in this particular narrative is on the most successful of all submarines in World War II. And the name of that boat was the USS Tang. And of course the captain is the primary figure his name was Richard O'Kane, Captain Richard H. O'Kane, and he was the captain of this. They called the submarines boats, not ships. So the captain of the USS Tang was the captain from the time it left where it was built at Mare Island in the Mare Island Shipyard in Vallejo California. And it was put into service in January 1943. And he was the captain of that boat until its fateful end, October 25th, 1944. I'm not going to give any spoilers here because if you know about the history of the USS Tang, then it's unbelievable because this was the deadliest submarine in World War II. It put down more tonnage of enemy ships than any other US submarine. But its end is a story in itself.
[00:19:48] Annie Jones: Okay. I just finished a book that comes out in July called The Half Life, and it's about post-Vietnam- oh, no, I think Vietnam is slowly coming to an end. But it's set on the island of Sardinia, outside of Italy, but it's all about submarine, this naval base that had submarine warfare, and I learned a lot about submarine. It's fascinating.
[00:20:11] Chris: It really is.
[00:20:12] Annie Jones: I could never-
[00:20:13] Chris: Can you imagine?
[00:20:14] Annie Jones: Np, I could never have done it. I absolutely could not. It gives me the heebie-jeebs just to think about.
[00:20:20] Chris: Yeah. It's an extraordinary read. And without giving anything away, the crew many of the crew survived.
[00:20:28] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:20:29] Chris: But they were picked up by the Japanese and placed in prisoner of war camps.
[00:20:32] Annie Jones: Oh, wow.
[00:20:32] Chris: And so the author was able to interview some people who were familiar with survivors. And I don't know which would be worse, trying to live on a submarine underwater in unbelievable amounts of time, or having to survive prisoner of war camp. I'm sure that would be worse. But anyway, it's a really great nonfiction, Running Deep by Tom Clavin.
[00:20:56] Annie Jones: Great. That sounds really good. Good Father's Day book. He's got a literal list he's checking off.
[00:21:03] Chris: Okay. Another book that you gave me.
[00:21:05] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:21:06] Chris: James.
[00:21:08] Annie Jones: By Percival Everett.
[00:21:10] Chris: When I shut this book up at the very end, mom was in the front porch swing. I took it out there, threw it on the bench, and I said, "Best book of all time." I love this book. This is what is just, what would you call it, a re-imagining of the Tom Sawyer book from the standpoint of Jim the slave. And, oh man, the way the books ends with finally somebody asking him his name.
[00:21:34] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:21:35] Chris: And he just says, "James."
[00:21:37] Annie Jones: Yeah. It's so good. I like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I read it in school. I do wish now, though, they would ask students to read both because I think it would be really something to read... I did not reread Huckleberry Finn before reading James, but I think if you're in high school it would be so good to read Huckleberry Finn and then to read James. I like these books that kind of reimagine the characters that are pushed to the side or we only get a glimpse of. I loved this book. I knew you would. I'm glad you did.
[00:22:09] Chris: Yeah, I really did. And I don't know what else Percival Everett has written, but I'd be drawn to it.
[00:22:13] Annie Jones: Oh, he's written a lot, and I would be, too. This is the only one of his I've read. Hunter has read a lot of him. But I would like to read more as well because he's a great storyteller.
[00:22:22] Chris: Maybe you can get your schoolteacher brother to see if he couldn't influence the administration to say, "We need to get kids to read these books side by side."
[00:22:30] Annie Jones: Maybe I can. We'll see what happens.
[00:22:32] Chris: You have influence with him.
[00:22:33] Annie Jones: I don't know. I don't know anymore. Okay
[00:22:38] Chris: Ready to move on?
[00:22:39] Annie Jones: Ready to move on.
[00:22:40] Chris: Okay. Another great nonfiction Bone Valley. This is a book by Gilbert King. Another really good nonfiction writer. Maybe he's written some other, some novels. I'm not sure.
[00:22:45] Annie Jones: I think he mostly sticks to nonfiction if I'm not mistaken.
[00:22:40] Chris: The research. Bone Valley, a true story of injustice and redemption in the heart of Florida, and that's what drew me to this book. Number one, because of the name Gilbert King. Yeah. Number two, Central Florida, where I grew up. This takes place pretty much in Polk County. And it's not one of those books about racial injustice. This is all about white crime on white crime.
[00:23:19] Annie Jones: Which is a little different. Gilbert King has written other books that focus on racial injustice. Have you read Devil in the Grove?
[00:23:20] Chris: Yes.
[00:23:22] Annie Jones: Yes. Devil in the Grove, which is so good. So I have listened to half of this book. I've listened to half of it, and I feel like I just need to finish it. I wish I'd read the physical copy, and I think I would've finished more. It is so well-researched.
[00:23:37] Chris: So this is about the wrongful conviction of, again it's fascinating how many wrongful convictions--
[00:23:42] Annie Jones: And terrifying.
[00:23:43] Chris: It's terrifying. Wrongful conviction of Leo Schofield for his wife's myrtle, murder in 1987. So explores judicial corruption, systemic flaws, and the search for justice. This takes place over three decades. This guy was imprisoned for 30 some odd years. And the amount of corruption within the judicial system in that particular circuit in that particular county--
[00:24:11] Annie Jones: Infuriating.
[00:24:12] Chris: It's hard. It's just hard. I had to put it down sometimes to just to take a walk or to go... If I'd had a punching bag, I probably would've punched it. Yeah. Because it's just so infuriating.
[00:24:27] Annie Jones: I think that's why I stopped. It's really good. It's excellent reporting. I didn't realize he had a podcast, so I guess he turned it into a podcast and the podcast became a book, or I don't know if it was vice versa. But anyway, I'm listening to the audiobook, but I think I made it halfway through and you are bogged down by the depth of corruption and incompetence and you're glad for people like him.
[00:24:52] Chris: Yes the whole idea of retaining some supposed amount of power, personal power, whatever it was. In this case, the state attorney that can be... It was about personal power and just no regard for the life of another person.
[00:25:08] Annie Jones: This was excellent. Again, kind of wish it had done better for us in store. It's a great book.
[00:25:14] Chris: Yeah, it was apparently an expansion of his podcast, but he really dives deep into the case and I'm not sure whether or not when the book ended if they had another suspect in.
[00:25:29] Annie Jones: I do think they had another suspect, but I don't know if they had him in custody or I can't remember and I haven't finished. Yeah. But they did have another suspect who sounded like he really was a good fit for the crime. But I don't know if he's been tried or not.
[00:25:40] Chris: I think the other aspect of a lot of these kinds of books is that it's the economically deprived kinds of people that end up being in many cases the focus and they get the blame.
[00:25:55] Annie Jones: And they don't have the money for the type of legal attention they need. Okay.
[00:26:02] Chris: I'd recommend Bone Valley.
[00:26:03] Annie Jones: All right.
[00:26:04] Chris: Somebody you said you read on your opening that wanted some nonfiction recommendations.
[00:26:08] Annie Jones: I think we're getting them. They're narrative nonfiction.
[00:26:11] Chris: But back to fiction for Beartown.
[00:26:13] Annie Jones: I love Beartown. I loaned this to you, I think
[00:26:16] Chris: I think you did. Yeah.
[00:26:17] Annie Jones: because You read Fredrik Backman, My Friends?
[00:26:22] Chris: I did.
[00:26:23] Annie Jones: Okay. So you read that, was a Shelf Subscription.
[00:26:25] Chris: That was in our previous my last time on the podcast, we talked about My Friends.
[00:26:29] Annie Jones: Yes. So I think after knowing you liked that one, I loaned you Beartown.
[00:26:33] Chris: Beartown came before My Friends.
[00:26:34] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:26:35] Chris: Yeah, Fredrik Backman, this was another one of those that sometimes you just kind of just cringe and get aggravated.
[00:26:45] Annie Jones: Because all about this hockey team and that makes a big difference in their town and in their community.
[00:26:51] Chris: Yeah, and not only the team, but the parents of the team members and how they wanted to keep things close and the rape of a young girl basically is part of the story. And just he did a very good job with imagination and describing. I couldn't ever totally figure out where this was set, but sometimes I came to the conclusion that it was set somewhere over in maybe Northern Europe.
[00:27:18] Annie Jones: Yes, because he is. He's Swedish.
[00:27:22] Chris: Yeah.
[00:27:22] Annie Jones: So he's Swedish, so all of his books-- I'm trying to think if they're translated or if he also writes in English. I should know that and I don't. But anyway I think that's what I thought was interesting was that even in a different part of the world, sports-- and I love sports. I love sports teams, but that culture of protection over prized players and their behavior getting ignored, their wrong behavior getting ignored, I was intrigued that could happen elsewhere as well. We fear that in the South all the time.
[00:27:55] Chris: I think that the part of the issue that led up to this culture of protecting the identity and the futures of these hockey players, in this particular culture this was kind of like a minor league setting. And some of these kids would have the opportunity to go to a more glamorous thing. And I think justice was served in the end.
[00:28:21] Annie Jones: Yeah. There's either a pair of novels or a trilogy, and I've not read the other ones. So if you liked Beartown, so you might want to read those other ones too. I can't wait to hear about this next one because we could not keep this in stock at Christmas.
[00:28:35] Chris: Really?
[00:28:36] Annie Jones: Oh my gosh, we sold out all the time. It was the nonfiction book of Christmas.
[00:28:41] Chris: I can see why. We're talking about The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon. But most people know of the Edmund Fitzgerald by some other way.
[00:28:58] Annie Jones: A song.
[00:28:58] Chris: A song.
[00:28:59] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:29:02] Chris: 1975, I believe it was a hit song.
[00:29:06] Annie Jones: Which is weird to think about that there was a hit song about a shipwreck. Like what were you guys doing in the '70s?
[00:29:17] Chris: I was in college.
[00:29:18] Annie Jones: It seems like a weird subject for a hit song. Who sang the song?
[00:29:25] Chris: Gordon Lightfoot 1975. The story around how this song, Gordon Lightfoot apparently was really struggling at the time. Struggling in more ways than one. And I won't give any spoiler alerts here because you will want to read this book. But he developed an interest in the story of this ship. All kinds of and many ships sailed the Great Lakes because of the industrial ports throughout all of the Great Lakes. And these were very large vessels. And these lakes, the Great Lakes are very large lakes. And so when they have storms, they are Very terrible storms. And the idea, again, trying the almighty dollar was the primary reason why this particular accident happened and why many more happened on the Great Lakes. It's not just this one, but this one became very famous. Maybe it's because of Gordon Lightfoot's song, I don't know. But the story about how it became a hit is equally interesting.
[00:30:44] Annie Jones: And it's in the book too?
[00:30:46] Chris: Yes, it's in the book. I will just share this. That he wrote this song, and it's just a bunch of verses. It's just telling the story and it's a fairly long song. So he didn't think that it would ever become a hit because it's too long for a typical hit. And so he brought his musicians together, and they were in a recording studio, and they were set to record an album for him. But he says, "Before we get started, I just want to do this." And these guys had not practiced. They hadn't practiced it at all. But they turned on the recording. He started singing his song. They joined in with him, of course, with just basses and guitars and strumming the chords and whatever. And that very first recording was what became the hit.
[00:31:38] Annie Jones: I didn't know that.
[00:31:39] Chris: They tried it over and over again several times to see if they could get it better, but the very first recording without any rehearsal at all was the recording that became the hit for Gordon Lightfoot.
[00:31:50] Annie Jones: I had no idea.
[00:31:51] Chris: So that's almost, I don't know, just spiritual that it happened that way.
[00:31:55] Annie Jones: Anyway. I would really like to read this one. So it became a New York Times bestseller almost instantly and we sold. Sometimes a book like this comes out, it's a Norton press, so I just thought, "Oh, the only people who will be interested in this are people who live up near the Great Lakes," and I was wrong about that.
[00:32:12] Chris: Probably because of the song.
[00:32:13] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:32:14] Chris: And these ships are just so big, and it goes into the design of these kinds of this one. When it came off shipbuilding, it was supposed to be unbreakable like the Titanic or something Yeah. So I think that it's a good read for anybody, but if you're my age you'll find this fascinating because you know the song.
[00:32:44] Annie Jones: Good recommendation. Okay, what's next?
[00:32:49] Chris: Okay. Maybe you can help me with this one.
[00:32:52] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:32:52] Chris: Because I don't know what happened to my copy. So Far Gone.
[00:32:55] Annie Jones: Oh, I loved this book.
[00:32:57] Chris: Yeah. I do remember that I loved it. I couldn't put it down. Jess Walter.
[00:33:01] Annie Jones: Yeah. I wonder if you read this first or if I read this first.
[00:33:05] Chris: I think you read it first.
[00:33:06] Annie Jones: So this one was about a man living estranged from his family, living on his own, like out in the woods, and then his daughter's kids show up because his daughter has married a kind of right-wing Neo-Nazi-esque, maybe survivalist kind of person. And somehow his grandkids show up on his doorstep. He doesn't really even know he has grandkids, and now he wants to go find and save his daughter. It's something like that. It wasn't long. It was a short book, and it felt like it was dealing maybe with our political moment, but also about family dynamics, and it felt like there was almost a road trip element because he's trying to go find his daughter, and he's trying to interact with his grandkids. I liked this.
[00:33:54] Chris: And they ended up on this compound.
[00:33:57] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:33:57] Chris: To try to recover the kids because they had been taken by their stepfather.
[00:34:01] Annie Jones: That's what it was. His daughter shows that's what it is. I think his daughter shows up on his doorstep and asks him to help her get her kids. I think that's right. I liked this one a lot. I thought it never felt too heavy-handed and a good story about a father-daughter, I think.
[00:34:16] Chris: Yeah, he was the grandfather of the kids.
[00:34:18] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:34:19] Chris: Yeah, fiction book that's really good. I wish I had it. My copy, I must have given you the book.
[00:34:25] Annie Jones: Yeah. Maybe I have it. I don't know. Maybe.
[00:34:27] Chris: I gave it back to you. I don't remember. But I couldn't go back and review that one for the podcast, but I do remember I really liked it.
[00:34:34] Annie Jones: Yeah, I did too. That was another book that didn't get the praise I thought it deserved, so that was So Far Gone. Okay, next up, what'd you read?
[00:34:42] Chris: Okay. I picked this book up kind of between reads too called Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra. It's fiction.
[00:34:49] Annie Jones: This is an Olivia favorite.
[00:34:51] Chris: Yeah, she was the one that recommended it to me. And it was a very good read. This book takes place in some very wintry mountain area where there's lots and lots of snow. There's a father who is so involved in his attempt to earn prestige and money and power that he's kind of ignored to some degree his son. But the guy's wife, the child's mother, she has trained him because of trips into the backwoods during the winter. She trained him to survive in case he ever needed it. And he did need it.
[00:35:36] Annie Jones: He needs it, yep.
[00:35:38] Chris: So there's murder involved. There's murder of more than one person. There's the idea of landslides, snow.
[00:35:45] Annie Jones: Yeah, there's a big Avalanche. I read this too, and I felt like I learned a lot about backwoods survival in the winter. And you've got a spunky kid protagonist. He's not spunky, but he's a kid, but he's probably older than his age would suggest from the things he's lived through.
[00:36:01] Chris: His mother taught him well. He wants a relationship with his father so badly, and that's why he's on this trek with him. But the father has also invited these businesspeople along, and so he's more concerned about impressing the businesspeople than he is about... and but you get glimpses of how much the son wants a relationship with his father. But the son eventually is the hero and finds out that his dad has got a bad side.
[00:36:31] Annie Jones: Yeah. I loved this book.
[00:36:32] Chris: You read it too.
[00:36:33] Annie Jones: Yeah. I liked it a lot because I liked her first book, Tracy Sierra, she wrote a thriller that I loved that was, like, about a burglary in the middle of the night. She's a great writer, and this was her new one. And so Olivia read it and liked it, so then I did too. All right, last one.
[00:36:48] Chris: Next to last one.
[00:36:49] Annie Jones: Oh, next to last one.
[00:36:50] Chris: Unless you want me to talk about my Shelf Subscription I just finished and I don't know that people have actually... They haven't received these yet, right?
[00:36:58] Annie Jones: No, but you can talk about it.
[00:36:59] Chris: Okay.
[00:37:00] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:37:00] Chris: The next to last one.
[00:37:01] Annie Jones: Next to last one.
[00:37:02] Chris: So this was a Shelf Subscription.
[00:37:04] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:37:05] Chris: The title of the book is All Carry by Gene Wojciechowski.
[00:37:09] Annie Jones: Did you look that up?
[00:37:10] Chris: And I probably didn't pronounce that right, but I knew when I picked this must've been a book that was just of several that you had given me to choose from for April.
[00:37:23] Annie Jones: Yes, it was. But I knew.
[00:37:25] Chris: But maybe you knew, I don't know. But this is certainly the one that drew me because of the title, I knew immediately what All Carry means. And, of course, the title has it also on a golf tee. But in golf there's a term called all carry. That means that, hey, if you're going to hit this shot it, and you're thinking that it's 150 yards, 150 yards is all carry. In other words, don't hit it short or you're going to be in the water, you're going to be in the sand. In other words, there's some sort of danger as far as it relates to your score between you and your target. And that distance is called all carry. Don't hit it short.
[00:38:04] Annie Jones: Okay. Interesting.
[00:38:05] Chris: So this book is fiction, and it is a fascinating imagination of what could happen if a set of clubs that had been designed and built for one of the world's greatest golfers, Jack Nicholas, somehow ended up in a garage sale somewhere. And a young man decides to buy them because the guy that lives at the house is recommending them so strongly to him. He says, "These clubs will change your life."
[00:38:37] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:38:38] Chris: The clubs didn't end up changing the young man's life from a golf perspective, but they ended up changing the young man's life from the perspective of his relationship with his father who actually ended up using the clubs, and indeed they had magical powers.
[00:38:55] Annie Jones: Oh, okay.
[00:38:56] Chris: Long story short, the guy that the father that starts using his clubs ends up playing so well that he got an invitation to the Masters at the end.
[00:39:06] Annie Jones: Oh, wow.
[00:39:08] Chris: So the whole last third of the book is about his invitation to the Masters. He had entered another tournament previous to that. He was basically a journalist. He was like a TV golf show host.
[00:39:20] Annie Jones: Okay.
[00:39:21] Chris: Or he was one of those people that interviewed players at golf courses. He was a fair golfer in his own right, but when he picked these clubs up, he became unbelievable. And these were old clubs. And can I read the quote that I chose for you?
[00:39:35] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:39:42] Chris: Riley teed up the second ball, took a practice swing. The MacGregor club head looked ridiculously small compared to the Pings, and then he found the same target line as before. The breeze freshened gently toward him. When the club connected with the ball, Hardway flinched involuntarily. There was cracking, thunderous sound to it. Moments earlier, the ball had laid inert in the palm of a tree, and then in a matter of seconds it was transported 400 yards away.
[00:40:16] Annie Jones: That's so good.
[00:40:17] Chris: Now, a couple of explanations. MacGregor was a golf brand back in the day. And these clubs were so old the club head of the driver was pretty small. Nowadays, they're up around that big. Studio audience, can you see I'm raising up these fingers. And then the term Hardway was the caddy's nickname.
[00:40:36] Annie Jones: Oh, okay. He's who flinched.
[00:40:39] Chris: So great book about golf. And I'm telling you, if you're not a golfer, it doesn't matter. You will enjoy this book. I lent it to a guy that I play golf with.
[00:40:51] Annie Jones: Did you?
[00:40:52] Chris: And as a matter of fact, he's the guy that took me to the Masters this year.
[00:40:56] Annie Jones: Fun.
[00:40:56] Chris: He's got tickets, been going to the Masters for 50 years. He grew up in Augusta, Georgia. A great person to host you to go to the Masters. So I got to go to the first round of the Masters this year, a bucket list experience. Anyway, I'd loaned this book to him, and he's got a Masters memorabilia room that would rival pretty much any Masters museum
[00:41:21] Annie Jones: Oh, wow.
[00:41:22] Chris: That's how long he's been going and looking. He worked at the Masters as a kid. When we went to the Masters, I saw all these high school age kids. They employ high schooler. They're not volunteers. They're actually paid to work at the Masters. He was one of those back in the day.
[00:41:37] Annie Jones: Oh, cool.
[00:41:37] Chris: And so anyway, loaning him this book I knew that either he'd think all the references to the Masters was bogus or silly. But no, he said, "I could not put this book down."
[00:41:49] Annie Jones: Oh, good. And I think this is the book-- isn't this the one that you got the postcard from the listener? Yes.
[00:41:55] Chris: Yes. I got a postcard.
[00:41:56] Annie Jones: And so even if you think this isn't for you, it's just really good storytelling.
[00:42:02] Chris: Yeah. You can see how much more detailed I can give a description of a book when I've just read it.
[00:42:08] Annie Jones: When you've read it recently.
[00:42:09] Chris: So maybe we need to do this more. Monthly
[00:42:13] Annie Jones: Monthly. How many books do you read a month? We'll see.
[00:42:16] Chris: One.
[00:42:16] Annie Jones: No. There you go. Okay, and your last book that you just finished.
[00:42:21] Chris: And bringing that to mind, your Aunt Nina she has read like, what? 56,000 pages already this year.
[00:42:28] Annie Jones: Yeah, she keeps track of her pages, which I think is fun.
[00:42:32] Chris: You need to have her on.
[00:42:33] Annie Jones: That'd be hilarious. I should. It'd be very fun.
[00:42:38] Chris: Last one I just read because it's also a a Shelf Subscription for Father's Day, it's called The Fourth Branch, a nonfiction read. This is by Don Daniel Squadron. He is a former New York State legislator. And his premise is that people should be paying much more attention to their state elections especially as it relates to the state's legislatures. This is where many of the things happen in the state legislatures that eventually are going to happen or affect what goes on at the federal level. So it's a really good read. He he goes into a lot of detail about why he believes this, but he also goes into detail about the structure of state legislatures. And every state in the union except one has a bicameral legislature, two houses, a senate and a house. They may be called something different, but there's two houses except for one. You know which one it is?
[00:43:42] Annie Jones: Minnesota.
[00:43:43] Chris: Nope. One more guess.
[00:43:45] Annie Jones: Alaska.
[00:43:46] Chris: No.
[00:43:47] Annie Jones: What is it?
[00:43:47] Chris: Nebraska.
[00:43:48] Annie Jones: Nebraska?
[00:43:49] Chris: Nebraska has a unicameral legislature.
[00:43:52] Annie Jones: So what does that mean? No senate, no house?
[00:43:54] Chris: They just have one.
[00:43:55] Annie Jones: I did not know that.
[00:43:58] Chris: So anyway, the details here gives you some look at how states are set up differently, and even though they may have a bicameral legislature, they're also set up differently in terms of how business is conducted and how things get passed. So anyway, as a state legislator from New York, he has a lot of background and he is also the co-founder of The States Project, which he eventually started devoting full time to which is one of those groups that helps people with their elections, with their funding, with their developing of campaign issues and things. I enjoyed it. I didn't think I would like it that much, but of the ones that I was given as a possibility for...
[00:44:42] Annie Jones: Shelf Subscriptions for June.
[00:44:43] Chris: Yeah, this is for June.
[00:44:44] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:44:45] Chris: They will like this one very much. Sarah Jessica Parker wrote the forward. I
[00:44:49] Annie Jones: I am fascinated by that. I like Sarah Jessica Parker, but that is wild.
[00:44:53] Chris: Yeah. I thought, "Wait a minute, is this the Sarah Jessica Parker that I'm familiar with?" And it is.
[00:44:58] Annie Jones: And it is. I am curious about this one. I think it could be good, too. Publishers are putting out a lot of books for the 250th anniversary of America, and so America's founding, so I do think this could be one. And we grew up in Tallahassee, or I grew up in Tallahassee and the state legislature is a big deal there. Jordan now works there. But it was a part of our lives growing up. The cycles of the legislature
[00:45:21] Chris: I'd be interested in knowing what Jordan would think of this book. He listens to a lot of books. I don't know if it's available in...
[00:45:27] Annie Jones: it will be.
[00:45:28] Chris: It will be. I definitely would like to know what he thinks of this book.
[00:45:32] Annie Jones: Okay. Dad, that was a lot of books. Good job.
[00:45:35] Chris: It was a lot of books.
[00:45:36] Annie Jones: So if you want to shop, Shop Dad's selection, we have two ways that you can read more like Shop Dad first. His reads have their own home on our store website. You can go to bookshelfthomasville.com/collections/shop/-/-dad/reads, or you can just go to the homepage and click featured, and you can see Shop Dad's page. Did you know that?
[00:45:59] Chris: I did not know that.
[00:46:00] Annie Jones: There you go. You can also purchase our revolving Shelf Subscription and receive selections from Shop Dad, Shop Mom, Nancy, and Olivia. You heard Dad talk about multiple of his Shelf Subscription selections today including the upcoming The Fourth Branch. It's great for the adventurous or eclectic reader. Just visit bookshelfthomasville.com, click Shelf Subscriptions at the top of the page. You can also search for today's number in today's episode number in the search bar of the store website. Today's episode is 585, and find all of the books Dad talked about listed there today. This week I'm reading This Book Made Me Think of You by Libby Page. Dad, what are you reading? Oh, I'm
[00:46:41] Chris: I'm reading Homeschool by Stefan Merrill Block. I just started it and I think it's going to be a good read.
[00:46:49] Annie Jones: It is good. I liked it. I read it too.