Episode 593 || August 2026 New Release Rundown
This week on From the Front Porch, it’s a New Release Rundown! Annie and Erin share the August releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 584), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
Annie’s books
Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon (August 6th, 2026)
A Tender Age by Chang-Rae Lee (August 11th, 2026)
Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias (August 25th, 2026)
Erin’s books
Etna by Paul Yoon
Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty
Kitten by Stacey Yu
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 Wasp’s Nest by Kat Stoddard. Erin is listening to Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman.
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...Joseph Shorter IV, Beth, Jammie Treadwell, Kimberly, Gene Queens, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins and Cammy Tidwell.
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]
“I felt sorry for the cars that weren't chosen just because they were uglier, even though they cost less. If I became rich enough to take cars, I would rent the one nobody wanted.”
- Stacey Yu, Kitten
[as music fades out]
I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today I'm joined by The Bookshelf's floor manager, Erin, to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in August. Have you heard the news? Yesterday we announced on Instagram the current iteration of our Shelf Subscription program is coming to a close at the end of 2026. And instead of drowning in our sorrows, we are celebrating the success of 10 years of Shelf Subscriptions. This month, you can purchase a one-time only four-month Shelf Subscription. Your purchase will include the last four months of our staff selections. You choose if you want my picks or a revolving subscription, plus you'll get a tote bag commemorating 10 years. If you want a curated selection of the best books of the fall landing on your doorstep, purchase a four-month subscription before the end of August. Your first book will be delivered in September, along with the tote bag. And don't worry, we have plenty of fun new programming in store for 2027, and Erin's audiobook subscription is continuing into the new year. Now's just the time to say job well done to our monthly hardback subscription service. We can't wait to share with you what's next. Visit bookshelfthomasville.com and click on Shelf Subscriptions to purchase a four-month subscription today. Hi, Erin.
[00:02:11] Erin: Hi, how are you?
[00:02:13] Annie Jones: I'm so good. This is going to be so fun. We did do this last year without Olivia because she was on maternity leave.
[00:02:19] Erin: Yeah.
[00:02:19] Annie Jones: Olivia is out of the country, I think is what... I don't know. I never want to divulge people's vacations. That's not fair. But she is on vacation.
[00:02:27] Erin: She's just not in Thomasville. Yeah.
[00:02:28] Annie Jones: Yeah, she's on vacation, not in Thomasville, and so we are going to record in her stead today. Don't forget, listeners, as we go through these new releases for August, you can keep in mind that The Bookshelf team has made browsing our podcast book selections so easy. Just go to bookshelfthomasville.com and type episode 593 into the search bar, and you'll see all of today's books listed, ready for you to pre-order or purchase. You can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout to get 10% off your order of all of today's titles Okay. Erin, how is your reading life and how are-- you just posted a lot of reviews to Instagram.
[00:03:11] Erin: Yes, I get really behind on posting them to Instagram. I am consistently reading, but I don't know if you're the same way, but I'm usually listening to an audiobook, reading a e-galley, and also maybe sometimes working on a physical book at the same time. And so I usually end up finishing them at the same time, which makes it look like I'm just reading all of these books. But really, it took me a month and a half to finish all of them. And this podcast recording snuck up on me because we took a little break.
[00:03:40] Annie Jones: We did.
[00:03:40] Erin: And I was just mood reading and I just didn't read anything for August yet, but we have some great books to talk about.
[00:03:47] Annie Jones: There are some good books coming out in August, but I will say August is...
[00:03:51] Erin: Yeah.
[00:03:52] Annie Jones: This is good for me to note, too, just as I look ahead to 2027 and what I want From the Front Porch to look like and how many episodes we record and when we take little breaks, because honestly, August is a good month. There are good books. We're going to talk about a lot of them. But August also feels like a nebulous in-between month. And I think that's how it feels for me as a person, too. It's not quite summer anymore-- at least locally. The kids will have gone back to school. But it's still a bajillion degrees outside, so it feels summery.
[00:04:23] Erin: Yeah. It's not fall.
[00:04:23] Annie Jones: It's not fall. So it's this weird month, and I have expressed that I have trouble with the month of August in general, but I think even in publishing it feels that way a little bit. I have noticed when I go through the fall catalog, it's almost like publishers don't know where August releases should go. Should they have been in the summer catalog or should they have been in the fall catalog? It's like publishers don't know either. And so it's this weird in-between where we're not quite doing the big fall releases, but we're also no longer doing a ton of beachy rom-coms. It's a weird season.
[00:04:53] Erin: I know, and I felt that as I was looking for books. I thought, "Wow." Not that it was hard to find them, but it was just all over the place.
[00:05:01] Annie Jones: They were all over the place.
[00:05:03] Erin: Some of them feel a little darker, like they're ready for fall. Some of them feel-- one of them literally of mine has people in a pool on the cover. And I'm like, "Are we still doing this?"
[00:05:13] Annie Jones: Are we still doing that? And then I was baffled, I told this to the staff yesterday, I look forward to a Riley Sager book every year. And his new one, which is called The Unknown, releases in August. And I'm not going to talk about it today, but I thought, "I expect that in July." And the fact that it's releasing in August... And then Kyndall wisely said she wondered if they were trying to capitalize on spooky season, because it's a slightly more, supernatural kind of book, or so it seems. And so maybe it's trying to get closer to October. But anyway, it threw me off because I thought, "Wait a minute," Riley Sager is a summer book in my mind. And so the fact that it was releasing in August, I don't know, and there were a few books like that where I thought, "Is this where you belong?"
[00:05:58] Erin: I'm not going to talk about it today, but Jillian McAllister, one of my favorite authors, has a new book coming out in August, and it's coming out in hardcover and paperback simultaneously. I have feelings.
[00:06:06] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:06:06] Erin: But I was just like, oh, it took me by surprise because it didn't feel like it'd gotten enough fanfare, enough notice that it was coming out.
[00:06:13] Annie Jones: Because I think August books don't. I feel like generally the book-selling world, the publishing world, we're all looking ahead to fall, to Barbara Kingsolver, these big books coming out. And so I think August kind of gets hidden and swept under the rug. I do want to say, I am going to go on the record about this, the simultaneous publishing of hardbacks and paperbacks, I do not understand as a business owner how that is cost-efficient in any way. Pick, just pick. I don't even care which one. Just pick.
[00:06:38] Erin: We'll carry whatever you choose. Yes. Just pick one.
[00:06:41] Annie Jones: But then to put the onus on me, the buyer is so irritating because some of our customers will want the hardback edition of something, and then some of them will prefer paperbacks, so then it's do we stock both? That feels wasteful of space. Anyway, I'm ready for that trend to die. I just want them to pick. And if you want to do something cheaper because books have gotten more expensive, just do the paperback. I don't care.
[00:07:00] Erin: Yeah.
[00:07:00] Annie Jones: Just publish a paperback original, but please stop doing both, I beg of you. No publisher is listening to this.
[00:07:06] Erin: It makes it hard on us to choose what to stock, you have to think about what customers are going to want and that's difficult because like you said, they want both. So it's hard to know what to do.
[00:07:15] Annie Jones: Oh, so frustrating to me. That happened in the catalog a lot this time and that was annoying. Okay, so I have three books. I will kick us off with one that I have read. I've not read all of these, but I have read this one. This is Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon. It released this past Tuesday. Everything That Is Beautiful, first of all, has a gorgeous cover. I think my friend Kimberly, our customer Kimberly, she pre-ordered this book. I do not think Kimberly will like this book, but Kimberly was like, " It doesn't matter to me." She bought it because the cover is so pretty. It's so beautiful. It's got this stained glass. So it's a really gorgeous cover. But Everything That Is Beautiful I think might already be out in the UK, I suspect. So this is very much an Irish book. It is set in Ireland. It is about the Foley family. They're this famous family in this small town in Ireland, and they're famous because the men in the family are famous hurlers. And hurling is a sport I had never heard of. This book was definitely one of those books that made me go down a little rabbit trail, trying to figure out what hurling is, and I am going to try again. A kind listener did inform me I was pronouncing it incorrectly. But I am going to say, so when men hurl, they do hurling. Women play the same thing, but it's called camogie.
[00:08:31] Erin: Okay.
[00:08:32] Annie Jones: Camogie.
[00:08:33] Erin: What does it involve? what do they do?
[00:08:35] Annie Jones: What is the other sport they play over there? It looks like a mix between rugby and something else. That's what it looks like, but there is a stick. It's rugby, field hockey adjacent. That's what it looks like.
[00:08:46] Erin: There's a ball and a stick.
[00:08:49] Annie Jones: Yeah, there's definitely a stick. I do know that much. There's definitely a stick. That's important. But I was fascinated because I'd never heard of it, but apparently it's kind of this heritage-type sport. Meaning it's been around and it's only played in certain areas and pockets. Almost like a part of their ancestral history or something. So anyway, this book really does talk so much about the sport. It reminds me of Beartown in a way, of how Beartown is hockey. Everything That is Beautiful is hurling. And so the book is about the Foley family. The males in that family typically participate in hurling, and this is important. It's like a community sport. It's not like pro versus amateur. It's like you're all amateurs and you play as a neighborhood or as a community. So it's almost like if Wesley and Jordan and Walt and other men in the community were all to play soccer here at McIntyre Park. Like it's not college athletes they're all rooting for. It's not like FSU does hurling and we all go support it. It's
[00:09:50] Erin: It's just the townsmen are a part of it.
[00:09:52] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:09:52] Erin: Women, too?
[00:09:53] Annie Jones: Yes. No, I guess it's just men. And then the women do the camogie.
[00:09:56] Erin: Okay.
[00:09:56] Annie Jones: Or, gosh, I'm sorry guys, I did Google it. And I even wrote the pronunciation down here phonetically so I would know. But somebody inevitably is going to be like, "That wasn't correct."
[00:10:03] Erin: Will be like, "Ew."
[00:10:04] Annie Jones: That's not correct. But anyway, the whole point is that the Foley family are these loud, fun men and women. Like the matriarch and one of the sisters, but they're all this kind of very memorable family living in Ireland. And then their next door neighbor, Neama, has always wanted to be one of them. She's raised by a single mom, and she always has looked over at her neighbors almost enviously. Like they've got this big family that she loves. And so the story is told from the perspective of Neama; Kate, who is one of the Foley sisters; and then Helen, who's the matriarch of the Foley family. And what unfolds is you've got this family wedding about to take place, and the book isn't necessarily set just over the weekend, it's in the days and weeks leading up to the wedding, and you're trying to figure out what happened to the Foley family. The patriarch has died. Neama no longer seems super invested in the family, even though you know she has a deep, rich history with them. And so, anyway, I believe that it's best to go in knowing almost nothing. I think I read this on my Kindle, if I'm not mistaken. And I was just looking for an August release for like a Shelf Subscription option. I think I'll go ahead and spoil, people may already know, but this is my August Shelf Subscription selection. And so I picked this because it's this beautiful Irish setting, this very memorable family. Then, of course, there is a sport involved, which I always do really like. But there's family secrets, and you kind of want to know what happened. Beartown is a great comp. Graham Norton books are a good comp. I loved this book. I thought it was really beautiful. It is called Everything That Is Beautiful by Louise Nealon. And she wrote something else that was like a finalist maybe for an award of some kind. Anyway, this is her latest. It released this week. It is my August Shelf Subscription. I highly recommend it.
[00:11:55] Erin: I'm going to read that for sure.
[00:11:56] Annie Jones: I think you'll like it.
[00:11:57] Erin: You sold me. The cover was already beautiful, but it sounds like something I would really love.
[00:12:01] Annie Jones: I think you'd like it. Yeah. It would definitely be part of our overlap.
[00:12:03] Erin: Yeah. Okay. My first book is called Etna by Paul Yoon. It just came out this past Tuesday. And it made me laugh because, right now as we record this, The Odyssey is really big. We're selling a lot of copies of it. It's getting a lot of attention. So if you go see the movie and you read the book and you're looking for just another journey, why not this book? Because it's only slightly above 200 pages, so you can get through it way faster than The Odyssey. And the narrator is a dog named Etna and everyone on The Bookshelf knows that I love a good book with a animal as the narrator.
[00:12:39] Annie Jones: Yes, an unusual narrator.
[00:12:42] Erin: Or as a point of view from an animal. But he is basically born as a puppy in this little seaside farm, and someone shows up one day and takes him away and conscripts him into service as a war dog. So he's trained how to sniff out mines, he's trained how to attack people, and honestly, the first part of his war service is almost like the first chapter. So by the time you get done with that, he's done with the war. The war is over in this country. They don't ever tell you where it is or when it is, but we're supposed to understand it's just present time in some unidentified country. And so he is done, and he decides everyone is packing up to go home, and they're looking at him thinking we don't need him anymore. And he hears them talking about that. So he decides maybe I'm going to go look for my home. I'm going to see if I can make it home. So he leaves in the middle of the night, and the rest of the story, which I am in the middle of reading this right now, and I'm enjoying it so much, but he slips away. And along the way, he meets both other animals and people who are trying to deal with the aftermath of war. So some people are looking for loved ones, and he helps them with that. Some people are looking for healing and actually rebuilding their bodies, rebuilding their homes after the war. He meets a couple who takes in refugees from the war. And just as he's going home, he's seeing how the war has really changed his country. And so somebody described it as like Homeward Bound.
[00:14:14] Annie Jones: Yes, that's what it sounds like.
[00:14:15] Erin: Plus The Road like by Cormac McCarthy.
[00:14:18] Annie Jones: Listen, that sounds great. It really is. I love both of those things.
[00:14:20] Erin: Honestly, and it is sad. Because you're seeing it through his eyes, and maybe he doesn't understand everything. But what we know as humans and as readers what's going on. And the way that we see it through his eyes it's both sad and sweet and hopeful. Again, I don't know if he makes it home. Keila told me, "You better read this book and then tell me if something bad happens to this dog or I'm not going to read it." And I said, "Okay, I'll let you know." So warning, I don't know what happens to the dog yet. But it it's so good, and I love it's a new perspective on what feels like a little bit of historical fiction, but it's through the eyes of a different narrator that we don't often see. So it's called Etna by Paul Yoon, and it came out this past Tuesday.
[00:15:03] Annie Jones: That sounds really good. Again, I legitimately like Homeward Bound and The Road, so sounds like it'd be perfect. Okay, my next one is a book that I have not read, but our friend Hunter has read, and he loved it. And I found the ARC at The Bookshelf, so I am moving it to the top of my TBR. It is A Tender Age by Chang-Rae Lee. They were a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and so this is their latest. It's a story that's being billed as a coming-of-age tale, like a Huckleberry Finn or Holden Caulfield, but instead this is a Korean American young man. And he, at home, has this relationship with his working class parents who love him. They take good care of him. Outside of his home, he is part of this group of kids who play baseball and they're scrappy, like making a home and a name for themselves. They play on the playground together, and they get in and out of trouble. But then the summer he turns 11, he becomes enmeshed in a series of events that reverberates beyond himself and his family. So he's lived kind of this... I almost picture something like The Sandlot, like talking about '90s movies. He lives this kind of stereotypical childhood where he loves his parents, he's close with his parents, but then when he's with his friends, they get into, I think, not deep trouble, but just like they’re a little mischievous. Yeah, innocent trouble. Yeah. But then this summer comes, and something really changes for their family and for him.
[00:16:32] And so it reminds me a little bit of some of the books I feel like you and I have read, where an immigrant family is kind of having to grapple with the behaviors or decisions of the younger generation and how it impacts the parents, how it impacts the child. So this is about a family and a community trying to achieve the American dream, a young person who's just on the cusp of adulthood, and like I think about, I don't know, my goddaughter just turned 11, and there is something about that 11, 12-year-old, like, where you're not quite... You're a kid, but also you're on the cusp of becoming something more. Anyway, I love I think about the book Play World that came out a couple of years ago. I love a book with a teenage or young adult protagonist, but that is an adult novel. This is not a young adult novel. This is an adult novel. But we get to see everything through the eyes of the young protagonist. And so I am curious about this. Oh, my gosh, you know another book I should have talked about today that I've actually... Wait a minute. Is it too late? I read half of The Amateur by Chris Boylehan. Yes. I read half of that.
[00:17:41] Erin: I saw that.
[00:17:41] Annie Jones: That releases in August. Yeah. Anyway, I could have talked about that book. But that is a similar kind of book where something happens during that summer that changes the lives of, in that case, the young woman protagonist. And so, anyway, if those themes are of interest to you, if Play World, The Amateur, even something like Huck Finn or Holden Caulfield, if these deeply memorable young protagonists, if that is something you really enjoy reading, then I think you will like A Tender Age by Chang-Rae Lee. I did ask Hunter if I would like this book, especially once I found the physical ARC at the store, and he said, "Yes, I actually think this book is dealing with all the themes that you look for in a book." So I do think this is a pretty Annie book, and then Hunter really loved it as well. So that is A Tender Age by Chang-Rae Lee.
[00:18:25] Erin: That sounds really good too. I did see that. And the cover is also striking. Yeah.
[00:18:28] Annie Jones: Yeah. The cover's great.
[00:18:29] Erin: I love it. I love a good cover. It really does draw you in sometimes.
[00:18:33] Annie Jones: It does.
[00:18:34] Erin: Speaking of great covers, I don't know, this one I'm going to talk about it's called Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty. It has a great cover. It's got a young couple actually kissing in a pool in a sort of watercolor way.
[00:18:46] Annie Jones: I saw this. Yes. It is really pretty.
[00:18:48] Erin: And I actually think that this got a Kirkus Star, which I always find that Kirkus-- not always, but their stars tend to line up with some of the books that I've enjoyed. So this one is about a teenager named Nora. She's a quiet, bookish girl, and they have just moved to St. Petersburg, Florida from Missouri because her mother has passed away. And she meets a fellow classmate, a member of the swim team, a quiet boy himself, named Leonard. They fall hard for each other. And it's a very sweet romance high school romance. But Leonard's father is against it because he has plans for Leonard. He wants Leonard to go to an Ivy League school, and he doesn't want him to get stuck here in St. Petersburg, Florida with a girlfriend who just moved here and is of no consequence to him. So as teenagers do, this is a little more than innocent trouble, he ends up signing up for the Army to get back at his father.
[00:19:44] Annie Jones: Leonard, no.
[00:19:45] Erin: I know. Leonard, don't do it. There's better reasons to sign up for the Army. And I don't think this is too much of a spoiler, because it feels like it's in the blurb. But she becomes pregnant and they have a baby, and she is basically sent away to an unwed mother's home. And this is all taking place in the 1950s, so just to give you a time perspective there. And of course she is not given a choice except to give up her baby for adoption, so she does. And I don't want give away the whole plot, but after she gets out, she ends up falling in love with someone else just out of convenience. I don't know what happens to Leonard. I have not read this yet. I probably will once I get time. But the rest of the book, I think, is her trying to find who she is, and especially in this time period where her power is, what she's allowed to do, who she's allowed to be. And also I do believe there will be a search for sort of the truth about what happened to the child she gave away. And it sounds like a story that has... there's some flashbacks to her time in the unwed mother's home which I think are not dark, I don't think, but sad and probably hard to read. But I do think that this story sort of bends towards redemption and towards hope. If you like historical fiction, but also maybe historical fiction where the female's story is towards the front and the historical part is towards the back. I think you would like this. It's called Sunlight Finds You by Laura Moriarty. It came out August 4th.
[00:21:18] Annie Jones: That actually sounds very much like a Nancy book. Do you know what I mean? I think she would like it. It sounds like a Nancy Shelf Subscription.
[00:21:25] Erin: It does. Absolutely.
[00:21:27] Annie Jones: Okay. Listen, I made a list of books I wanted to talk about today, and I can't believe The Amateur wasn't on there because I'm halfway through it. I was reading it on my Kindle, and I read half and then something happened. Or it's very long, and so I was like, "Oh"- and then I put it down. And because I don't have a physical copy laying around in there, I totally forgot about it
[00:21:45] Erin: Yes. I have a lot of half-read Kindle books that then I go back and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, why did I not finish this?" I loved this.
[00:21:50] Annie Jones: Yeah. So, anyway, I had a lot of books that I was trying to narrow it down, but I could not resist talking about this book. So this next one is called-- let me see if I can do it, Crocodilopolis. It is by John Manuel Arias. This came across... Where did I see this? I saw it in the catalog. I got an email about it, and then one other place. It has a very striking, gorgeous cover with a crocodile on the front. Yeah.
[00:22:16] Erin: I haven't even seen it. That's Crazy.
[00:22:20] Annie Jones: Because this is a smaller either imprint or press. I think it might be a larger publisher, but a smaller imprint. Anyway, but their marketing team has done a good job because I got an email about it, and the reason I am so curious about it, it is being billed as a modern Cain and Abel story. And so I am immediately like okay.
[00:22:39] Erin: I saw that in your notes. And I was like, "I'm in."
[00:22:42] Annie Jones: Okay, let me get in on this. Okay. So John Manuel Arias wrote Where There Was Fire, which I have not read, but apparently it was a national bestseller. I am not familiar with it. But this is a story of sibling rivalry, family secrets, and then the fate of a nation. So there is a powerful, cold-blooded politician in Costa Rica named Seth, but now he's living in exile in DC, and his younger brother, Osario, is to blame. So Osario is back in Costa Rica. Seth is trying to make a name for himself in DC. They were born into this corrupt political dynasty, raised on a coffee estate, and both of the brothers were, like, destined for something great. But then a scandal sent them onto different paths. And so Seth believes that Osario is the reason he has been sent into exile, and so he must pay. And so Seth decides the only way to get his revenge is to go back home to Costa Rica and feed his brother to the infamous river of crocodiles from their childhood.
[00:23:42] Erin: Sure, that's the only logical choice.
[00:23:44] Annie Jones: Sure. Revenge blinds us all.
[00:23:46] Erin: Yes.
[00:23:46] Annie Jones: So, anyway, I think it alternates between Seth's kind of murder plot and then memories of how they were raised on this coffee estate, and maybe then slowly unspooling all the scandals and the secrets and why these brothers have landed on different paths. So it's weaving together Biblical myth, and then it says it's got the soapy wit of a telenovela. Crocodilopolis, y'all, doesn't it sound good?
[00:24:12] Erin: It does sound really good.
[00:24:13] Annie Jones: Sounds so good. So this comes out August 25th. Again, being billed as a Cain and Abel retelling. To me, I also wondered, I guess I thought about C.J. Hauser's Family of Origin, though that book is not murder-y, but it is a sibling book. And then I thought, of course, of Count of Monte Cristo or something like that that's this epic revenge story. I am curious about this. I did download the e-galley. I wish I had a physical galley. If a publisher is listening to this, I'd love a physical copy. But I am very curious about this book because, the description sounds wonderful and sounds very much right up my alley. And it doesn't have a ton of reviews on Goodreads. Goodreads is always tricky, right? Because it depends on how many people have actually reviewed it. But right now it's sitting at 4.5 on Goodreads which is quite high. And it's 352 pages. So, to me, 350 is starting to get long. But it also sounds like there's a lot happening in the story. I also wonder if it will deal some with Costa Rican politics and things like that. I'd be curious about that. But then the fact that it also is being billed as a telenovela, I don't know. I just thought, okay, this sounds-
[00:25:18] Erin: I'm so curious. You'll have to let me know
[00:25:20] Annie Jones: Is this dark and intense? But then he's also about to feed his brothers to the crocodile, which sounds vaguely humorous. So it doesn't. Well I would not want to get eaten by a crocodile, but it sounds like a slightly humorous murder plot. It's not like he hired a hit man to go kill his brother- which seems like that would have been weird.
[00:25:36] Erin: He's going to do it. And also telenovelas do sometimes have a touch of the absurd. Because it's like a soap opera.
[00:25:42] Annie Jones: That's right, slightly absurd. So anyway, that's all I know about this book, and there were other books I could have talked about that I knew more about. But I'll be honest, this one has intrigued me every which way. So it is Crocodilopolis by John Manuel Arias. It releases August 25th.
[00:25:59] Erin: That sounds incredible. I'm about to talk about a different book and also I'm like, so many animals in this.
[00:26:05] Annie Jones: I was about to say, I actually think, I saw which one you're talking about.
[00:26:07] And I actually think weirdly these two ending books are perfectly paired with one another.
[00:26:12] Erin: Yes. I started with a dog, you gave me a crocodile, and now we're going to a book actually just called Kitten by Stacy Yu. It came out August the 4th. I did panic a little bit because usually the quote that you use at the top of the episode is something that you've read.
[00:26:29] Annie Jones: Yes.
[00:26:30] Erin: And I went, "Oh, she used a quote from Kitten. Oh no is she talking about Kitten too?"
[00:26:35] Annie Jones: No, I was waiting for your books because I was like, "I've already used a quote from Everything That Is Beautiful. So we'll use one of yours."
[00:26:42] Erin: I love that quote.
[00:26:43] Annie Jones: And listen, and Kitten, I can't wait to hear you talk about this. I cannot decide about this book. I cannot decide if it sounds brilliant and fun, or if it sounds weird, so please tell us.
[00:26:52] Erin: I was trying to describe it to Kendall this morning because I also have not read it. But I read a lot about it. I've looked at reviews and all that about it. I don't really know how to describe it, and that's why I'm so curious about it. Because it could go two ways, right? But it's about Katie. She is, I believe, the child of Chinese immigrants living in Manhattan. She's like on her last paycheck, has just been let go from her job, doesn't really have a lot going for her. Finds it hard to fit in Manhattan, and she can't move back in with her family. She and her mom have a complicated relationship. And she has a boyfriend named James who is very rich, and is all that she has going for her right now, in other words, in her life. And he decides, "Hey, let's go to stay at my parents' seaside house for a few weeks," and of course she says yes. And he's cat-sitting for his parents, so he brings the family cat named Silver. Just thinking about the cover of this book has a little cut-out window with the eyes of the cat. It's so evocative. But so he brings along the family cat, and you're like, "Okay." And then the book just says that basically Katie's affection and interest in the cat grows, and I'm hoping it's not like a weird affection. I'm like, I don't know which way this is going to go. But it just sounds like her connection with the cat. The cat becomes the friend that Katie doesn't have in this world. And she finds the sort of unconditional love, so to speak, of a cat. It allows her to start thinking about her life, thinking about who she is, and about the past trauma that she's experienced. But she becomes obsessed with this cat.
[00:28:30] Annie Jones: Yeah.
[00:28:30] Erin: I'm so curious about this.
[00:28:31] Annie Jones: Do you remember Sky Daddy? Did we talk about Sky Daddy?
[00:28:33] Erin: Yes. Okay. I don't know that we've ever talked about it here, but we talked about it a lot before.
[00:28:38] Annie Jones: Yes. Okay, because this is one of those books where it's like what direction is this going to go? Because she really becomes obsessed with the cat. It doesn't feel like, I don't know, like a feel-good. And even the cover doesn't imply this feel-good... like one of those books translated from the Japanese, where the cat is like the main character. Instead, this is girl like personifies the kitten in a very weird way. Yeah. I cannot figure it out.
[00:29:01] Erin: And so you hear me say it here, I cannot promise that this book does not take a weird turn. I apologize. On our next episode, I will apologize if it does.
[00:29:09] Annie Jones: Oh.
[00:29:11] Erin: But I do. I am so fascinated to see I'm just intrigued by this book. I do think it's this author's first book. I think it's a debut novel, and a lot of the reviews are like, "This is like weird girl lit," but it also doesn't--
[00:29:23] Annie Jones: Yeah, it's like that weird, sad girl.
[00:29:26] Erin: Yes. A weird, sad girl, but also it doesn't necessarily neatly fit into that box either. So I'm really curious to see where this goes. But I love the quote you picked. I'm curious to see how James fits into this picture with the cat, and the parents, and Katie. So it came out this past Tuesday. You can pick it up now and order it. It's called Kitten by Stacy Yu, and it's out now.
[00:29:47] Annie Jones: You should pick it up anyway. The cover really it almost feels like-- you're right, it's very evocative. It almost feels like a National Portrait Gallery of the kitten. The cover, and it's got as I recall, like this royal blue.
[00:29:59] Erin: Yes, this blue, and it's got like little like beaded frame around the opening of the... Yeah.
[00:30:05] Annie Jones: Yeah. Anyway, I read a couple years ago, Worry. Like I don't know, is it Gen Z now? It's not millennial I don't think, but it's like sad Gen Z girl lit. Where it's somebody in their young 20s trying to figure out who they are. But I think the addition of a kitten who becomes her companion is fascinating. So I am so curious about this. And after you read Crocodilopolis, you can...
[00:30:27] Erin: Move on.
[00:30:27] Annie Jones: Yeah, just move to the next animal.
[00:30:30] Erin: We did say August was a weird month of reading, and I think you can tell from our picks that is true.
[00:30:35] Annie Jones: It really runs the gamut. I'm just looking back at our choices, and I'm like, okay, we've got coming of age, we've got dysfunctional family story, we've got revenge tale, road trip novel, but from the perspective of a dog. Historical fiction, cats, crocodiles, bears. Oh my. Okay. So all of these are available on the store website, bookshelfthomaswell.com. Today's episode is episode 593. You can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE, and it'll get 10% off your order of today's titles. I do think there is something here for just about everybody.
[00:31:08] Erin: Yeah. Everybody.
[00:31:10] Annie Jones: This week I'm reading Wasp's Nest by Kat Stoddard. Erin, what are you reading?
[00:31:16] Erin: This week I'm listening to Carl's Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman.
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:
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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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