Episode 591 || Summer Readings: The Half Life
This week on From the Front Porch, our Summer Readings series continues! In this series, Annie introduces you to one book you should read this summer by reading an excerpt (with permission from publishers).
Today, Annie reads a passage from Rachel Beanland’s new book The Half Life. Use code SUMMERREADINGS at checkout to get 10% off The Half Life this week.
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 591) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
The Half Life by Rachael Beanland
Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachael Beanland
The House Is on Fire by Rachael Beanland
The Women by Kristin Hannah
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
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 A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia.
If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch.
We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week.
Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Cammy Tidwell, Gene Queens, Jammie Treadwell, Joseph Shorter IV, Kimberly, Linda Lee Drozt, Nicole Marsee, Stephanie Dean, Martha, and Wendi Jenkins.
Transcript:
[squeaky porch swing] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]
“What I didn't yet understand-- what I couldn't yet understand-- was that much of what gave me away as American had nothing to do with my physical features or my clothing. It was my loping gait, my exaggerated wave, even my laugh, which was a little too loud. Small traits, all of them, but together they added up to something big and brash and also a little bit unwieldy.”
Rachel Beanland, The Half Life.
[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 back with another installment of our Summer Readings series. Have you ever wondered what The Bookshelf actually looks like? Consider following us over on Instagram at bookshelftville. We post behind-the-scenes pictures and give important updates on store hours, events, and special promotions. We’d love to see you over there!
Now, back to the show! Last spring, when I finally came to terms with the fact that I was pregnant and a baby was actually coming, I brainstormed ways to keep the podcast episodes coming throughout my maternity leave. We rarely run “reruns” on the show, and even though I’m not opposed to taking a break, I simply haven’t taken many. Last summer, though, with Olivia and I both down for the count, I knew something had to give, so we launched our Summer Readings series. I fell in love with the format, so this summer, even though I’m not pregnant and neither I nor Olivia is on maternity leave, we’re bringing the Summer Readings series back. These episodes are short and sweet — much like our traditional “Yes, Virginia” episodes — but they’ll provide you with a taste of some new summer books I think you’ll really love. Each book featured can be found on our website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com, and each week, you can receive 10% off that week’s featured title. (Use the code SUMMERREADINGS — make sure to add the “s” at checkout.)
Each week for the rest of July, I’ll tell you a little bit about a featured summer book, then read an excerpt, and close with some comp titles so you’ll know if the book is for you. (The comp titles are 10% off in the shop, too.) I hope these quieter episodes will give you a respite and a reprieve this summer, that you’ll like the feeling of being read to as much as I do. So far this month, I’ve shared excerpts from the debut rom-com, Abby Offsides, and Jesmyn Ward’s essay collection, On Witness and Respair. This week, I’m talking about a new book in a genre I don’t always love: The Half Life by Rachel Beanland, a new work of historical fiction I think would be well worth your time this summer. Listen, this book clocks in at 480 pages, so it’s by far the heftiest of the titles I’m recommending this season, and it’s not necessarily a book you’ll fly through. Instead, I think the page count is worth it, offering details and insights I might not have gotten from a shorter work. You may recognize Beanland’s name; she’s the author of Florence Adler Swims Forever, a pandemic read I loved; and The House Is on Fire, about a real-life theater fire in 1800s Richmond, Virginia. Beanland has a track record, then, for well-researched historical fiction, and The Half Life is no different; there’s a way, even, the book feels like the one she was meant to write.
In The Half Life, we’re introduced immediately to our narrator Eileen, a Navy wife telling the story of her first years of marriage to an unnamed audience. This narrative trick mostly works, and I was immediately swept up in the younger Eileen’s story: Her whirlwind romance with a Naval officer, marrying him in Charleston and immediately leaving for an Italian island off the coast of Sardinia during the Vietnam-era. The book is partly Eileen’s coming of age (including several somewhat unexpected steamy scenes) and partly an investigation of American military involvement and its repercussions for the countries who may not have asked for military intervention. I was fascinated by the details other readers might find less enjoyable: discussions about nuclear war, its environmental impact, and the role of military submarines around the globe. Beanland offers insight and information I’d never once previously considered, and the Italian setting — described beautifully thanks, I’m sure, to Beanland’s own ties to the place — offers a reprieve when the book begins to feel bogged down in detail.
[00:04:59] This is an excerpt from Rachel Beanland's The Half Life.
Tom took us directly to the Excelsior Hotel, which was an imposing four-story building that sat across the Via Amendola from the ferry terminal. "Home sweet home," he said as he pulled up to the curb. I got out of the car and stood on the empty sidewalk, staring up at my new, albeit temporary, home while the guys got our bags out of the back of the car. "Just pay for whatever you need tonight," said Tom as we made our way into a small lobby. "Tomorrow, you can go to the bursar and get your TLA." Paul had already told me that for as long as we were living out of suitcases at the Excelsior, we'd qualify for a temporary lodging allowance, which covered the hotel as well as meals and other incidentals. "Where's the bursar?" Paul asked Tom, but Tom just waved him off. "I'll show you everything tomorrow. How about I meet you back over here at oh-eight hundred hours?" Paul nodded, and Tom looked at his watch. "There's a small market around the corner, but it's probably closed right now." I looked at my own wristwatch. It was a little after three. "Don't count on anything here being open between one and four," said Tom. "That's when all the shopkeepers go home for their siesta." We said our goodbyes, and Tom turned to go, but then he stopped in the middle of the lobby and did a one-eighty. "I almost forgot," he said when he was in front of us again. "There've been a couple of protests recently." We must have stood up a little straighter because Tom rushed to reassure us. "Not a big deal," he said. "Mainly people from off the island." "What are they protesting?" I asked. "Us, the Gilmore. A bunch of left-wingers are all riled up about the nuclear reactors on the subs. They think we're going to leak nuclear waste all over the archipelago if we haven't already." Paul let out a short laugh like the very idea of a leak was not just remote but impossible. "Things have been pretty quiet here recently," said Tom. "But then all that stuff went down in Japan, and it's got a lot of Italians feeling like chumps for not doing more." "Japan?" I said, but Paul gave me a look that said, "Later." "We're telling our people to keep their heads down." "Should we not go out?" I asked, but the question didn't make sense even as I said it. After all, we'd just been at a restaurant in Palau, and Tom hadn't acted like we were breaking any rules. Tom rushed to reassure me. "You can go out, definitely. Just don't draw a lot of attention to yourself. Try to blend in. You know what I mean?" I did, but then I thought of the woman on the ferry and how I had immediately known she was an American without her ever opening her mouth. I was 5'8" with auburn hair, hazel eyes, and my Irish father's pale skin, which burned and then freckled in the sun. There was no way I'd ever be mistaken for an Italian, even if I traded in my Keds for a pair of Bruno Magli pumps. What I didn't yet understand, what I couldn't yet understand, was that much of what gave me away as American had nothing to do with my physical features or my clothing. It was my loping gait, my exaggerated wave, even my laugh, which was a little too loud. Small traits, all of them, but together they added up to something big and brash and also a little bit unwieldy.
[00:08:06] If you liked The Women, Beautiful Ruins, and Beyond the Point, I think you might enjoy Rachel Beanland's latest, The Half Life. The book released earlier this month in hardback, and you can purchase it and the comp titles from the Bookshelf website. Receive 10% off this week by using code SUMMERREADINGS. Make sure you include the S at checkout.
[00:08:27] This week, I'm reading A Private Man by Stephanie Sy-Quia.
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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