Episode 596 || Reading Recap: Summer

Episode 596 || Reading Recap: Summer
From the Front Porch

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved this summer. You get 10% off your books when you order your Summer Reading Recap bundle, which features Annie’s favorite books she read this summer.

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 596), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:

Summer Reading Recap Bundle - $81

  • Returns and Exchanges by Kayla Rae Whitaker

  • Wasp’s Nest by Kat Stoddard

  • The Amateur by Chris Bohjilihan

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 Switzy by Emma Cline (September 8th, 2026).

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:

Annie Jones: Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

There was no retreating into the comfort of not knowing. My old certainties had dissolved like sugar in water. 

-Christina Baker Kline, The Foursome

[00:00:39] I'm Annie B. Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm recapping the best books I read this summer. If you like my book reviews here on the podcast, you might be interested in joining my private Instagram account, Annie's Five - Books. For $50 a year, you can become a part of my bookish community online. Through the private Instagram account, you'll get access to my book reviews, backlist, and frontlist titles. I host monthly Instagram story Q&As and share about the books I start but never finish. If you follow me personally online, you've seen my reviews for years, and of course, From the Front Porch listeners will always have access to these free monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place separate from The Bookshelf where I get to be more detailed with my reviews, and Five Star Book Club members can also choose if they want to order my five-star selections each month from The Bookshelf. There's a quarterly newsletter option this year, too, for the social media averse. For more information or to sign up for the 2026 group, visit anniebjoneswrites.com/five-star-book-club. There's also a link in the show notes.

[00:01:55] Now, back to the show So typically, every month I record one of these episodes and I recap whatever books I have read and finished that month. But we took a little break for the summer, and I thank listeners for sticking with us across the summer. It's just a weird time at The Bookshelf. Yes, things are slower pace, but also things pick up in terms of traveling, spending time with family and friends, and so recording and batch recording during the summer is hard and so we did our summer readings series, which I hope you enjoyed, and then I just did not record. I don't think I've recorded a reading recap episode since May. So I have a lot to catch up on. I am not going to review all of the books I read this summer. What I will tell you is I had a great reading summer. I used my summer reading menu that I created for myself to guide my reading habits. I didn't check off everything on that list. That's not what that list is for. It's more for if or when I was in a reading slump, I could go back to that list and pick up a book that I had set aside an intention to read earlier in the summer. But I had a great June, and then I had a really great start to July because I was sick. I had tonsil stones. You've heard me talk about them before. You're probably sick of me talking about them. But because I had tonsil stones, I was with it enough to enjoy reading, but I really couldn't do much of anything else, so I actually had a great start to my reading in July. But June was an awesome month, and I thought what I would do today to play some catch-up is review some of my favorite books I read this summer.

[00:03:33] Some of them are very summery, and so they may not work for you this fall. Others of them I do think you could carry with you into this new season if you are a seasonal reader, which some of you might not even be seasonal readers, so maybe that doesn't matter to you. Anyway, these are not all of the books I read this summer. You can find all of the books I read this summer on my private Instagram account. But these are either the best or my favorite books that I read this summer, curated specifically for this episode, and then next month, in September, I will recap the books I read in September, and we'll get back into that monthly rhythm. To kick us off, I do want to start with the book I quoted at the top of the episode, which is The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline. I have really forced this book on people because I don't quite know why it's not hitting. And I say it's not hitting... We've done okay with it at The Bookshelf. I think in part because, again, I'm shoving it into people's hands. But typically, historical fiction does really well. We sell a lot of historical fiction. I think historical fiction does decent on Instagram or Bookstagram, whatever. But I don't know if the title of this one is setting people back or if the premise is weird. I don't understand what's weird about the premise. It's history. I don't know. History is weird. I don't know what to tell you. The current culture is weird.

[00:04:51] So let me tell you about this one because I really think you should read it. First of all, it is great in audiobook format. I listened to this one. It was narrated by Marin Ireland, who I think does a lot of audiobooks and I happen to really like her as an audiobook narrator. So I downloaded this audiobook, and I'm so glad I did. So if you have been on the fence about this one, perhaps try it in audiobook format through Libro.fm. The book is about Chang and Eng Butler. Chang and Eng were conjoined twins living in the 1800s. In this case, or in this part of their history that the book covers, they are living in North Carolina. And Chang and Eng, real-life conjoined twins, married real-life sisters, Sarah and Adelaide. The book is told from the perspective of the quieter sister, Sarah. And Christina Baker Kline has really created such a rich narrative about the inner workings of Sarah's mind and what would lead someone to participate in a marriage like this? So Chang and Eng are conjoined twins, and that means they are together all the time. There are obviously questions that you might have about literal intimacy, and this book does cover that. But what was far more interesting to me was the kind of metaphorical intimacy of a marriage, the unspoken intimacy of a marriage.

[00:06:19] So the fact that Sarah can never talk to one twin without the other twin being in the room. So the fact that Sarah never gets one-on-one time with her husband. And sure, does that open up some interesting questions about relationships and romantic relationships and sexual relationships? Yes. But to me it was also really interesting that you don't really have the privacy to develop a secret language that a marriage often has. So I loved this. I thought it was so well-crafted. Christina Baker Kline is related to Chang and Eng and these sisters. It goes back in her family history. She has clearly done a ton of research. There's a fantastic author's note that kind of describes why she wrote this book and why she wrote it the way that she did. Typically, I will tell you that author's notes, I think, should be read at the front end of the book. I liked that this one was after so save it for the end if you can. I fell in love with Sarah and found myself really feeling for her. This also takes place in an interesting time in American history. So Chang and Eng were kind of famous on the circus circuit. So because they were conjoined twins, they were a sideshow act in the 19th century. And when they moved to North Carolina in 1839, they are celebrities. And, in fact, there is still a Chang and Eng Museum in Mount Airy, North Carolina, which is where they lived, which is also the site of fictional Mayberry from The Andy Griffith Show.

[00:07:56] There's just so much. And I have been to Mount Airy, and now I'm like, "I need to go back and do the Chang and Eng Museum." I think it would be fascinating to go visit. So they arrive on the scene in 1839, 1840, which, of course, is pre-Civil War. So the book covers their lives in the South, their accumulation and enslavement of people, and how they reconciled that considering they themselves were outcasts. Not only were they conjoined twins, but they also interracially married. Chang and Eng were from what was then Siam, I think is how you pronounce it. It's where we get the phrase Siamese twins, which I don't think we use anymore. Anyway, so they were immigrants, and then married white women. And so their own marriage was fraught, and their own relationship with their fellow North Carolinian was fraught, and yet they chose to enslave people and accumulate quite a bit of wealth through enslavement and through property ownership. The whole thing I think is masterfully done, and I'm not quite sure why it's not getting the buzz. I think it's really excellent. Audiobook is great. But just in terms of historical fiction, what a breath of fresh air in the genre. This is about a period in history that I have not read a ton about. Maybe March by Geraldine Brooks is something that could be comped to this.

[00:09:14] I loved it. I loved the choices she made about the narration, and how the story got told and who told it. Also, I'm going to give you guys a fun fact that will only matter to maybe 5% of the audience. But I had a podcast listener reach out after I read this, and she said, "Did you know former Florida CFO Alex Sink is a descendant of Chang and Eng?" And I had no idea. So if you are a fellow Floridian-- and not only am I a fellow Floridian, but my husband works in government. I actually worked for an organization for which Alex Sink was kind of the head. I found that fascinating. So maybe you will too. Maybe 5% of the audience will find that interesting. My mind was blown because, of course you know this, Christina Baker Kline is a descendant, but Chang and Eng, and Sarah and Adelaide had multiple children. And so, anyway, I found this whole story very well told, very well researched, incredibly easy to read, and then excellent in audiobook format as well. I did hand sell this one to the women in my book club, and I am pleased to tell you that I think two or three of them read it and loved it. So I'm not alone in my feelings on this one. So that is The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline, which I believe I finished back in May.

[00:10:33] Also in May, I had the opportunity to go to New York. It was supposed to be-- gosh, I can't even remember. It was at the end of May and it was supposed to be fun. And as I recall, it was fun, but it rained the whole time, and that is what I do remember about that trip. It literally rained from the moment we got off the plane until the moment we left. I think it kept raining after we left, and it was Memorial Day weekend, and Memorial Day weekend doesn't feel like it should be rainy, but it definitely was. So we went to a bookstore, because what else are you going to do? McNally Jackson is probably-- aside from Sweet Pickle Books, I think it is my favorite New York bookstore. I don't know. Don't quote me on that. I'm not 100% sure, but I really like McNally Jackson. We visited the one near 30 Rock, so whatever that one's called. I don't know. Guys, what do I know? I live in the deep rural South. I went and visited the one near Rockefeller Center. So while I was there, I happened to pick up a small translated work. I loved the cover. The book is called Garden by the Sea by Mercè Rodoreda. This is a gorgeous cover. You'll have to Google it, but it's essentially the outline of a man, and then it's covered in this floral motif. Apparently, Mercè Rodoreda was a prolific 20th century novelist, but I had never heard of her. I'd never heard of her, never read her, and so I truly just picked this one up based on the cover and based on the fact that it was featured on one of their tables.

[00:11:53] I believe it was their customer favorites table, which was another reason I was drawn to it because I thought, "Oh, that's interesting." I'm always curious what staffers are reading and what customers are reading. So I picked up Garden by the Sea. It is translated from the Catalan. It's thin, but it's sparse, quiet, really beautiful, narrated by the gardener of a Spanish villa. And so his position allows him to quietly observe the lives of the wealthy inhabitants of the villa over the course of six summers. So this does feel like a summer book. So if you are a seasonal reader, I do think this one should be read during the summer. Of course, if you're in the South, technically, I feel like the summer lasts until at least October so you've got time. So the unnamed narrator is the gardener, and he quietly observes over the course of six summers the people who live in and visit this villa. It's set in the 1920s. It reminds me of almost an F. Scott Fitzgerald kind of story, like the lives of these wealthy people, but told from the perspective of a person who might be considered, quote, "The help." And so you can feel tension quietly building at the novel's midway point, and I think that's even alluded to on the back cover, is that something happens that kind of changes the course of this summer.

[00:13:08] I would argue the action on this one is relatively limited, and that is not a diss. That is a compliment. I think bombastic things mostly happen in American literature. I'm not an expert in translated lit. I don't read a ton of European or even UK literature. I guess I do read some Irish and British works, but whenever I do, I'm always struck by how quiet they are compared maybe to American literature. So there is quiet tension and action is pretty limited, but some things do happen that kind of set the novel on a course. I really loved my reading experience. I like that it was thin. I believe each section or each chapter was set in one summer. And I like that the story is being told by kind of an outsider, by somebody who just gets to peer in on these wealthy people who may or may not give him the time of day. So that is Garden by the Sea by Merce Rodoreda. To me, I know I said F. Scott Fitzgerald, but also The Book of Goose. If you liked The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li, then I think you would like this one. Garden by the Sea by Merce Rodoreda.

[00:14:20] Then I picked up another book, and I'm trying to champion books that I feel have not gotten enough buzz, particularly this summer. So The Fervent Whites by De'Shawn Charles Winslow felt like such an easy summer thriller to throw in your beach bag, and I didn't see anybody talking about this book. I didn't see anybody talking about it. So this could work if you're a spooky season reader. It is suspenseful. It is about James and Ella White. They were once convicted murderers. Now they have been declared innocent, and instead of disappearing quietly into the night, which may be what I would suggest, they have decided to move back to their small town. The small town is called Fervent. And, yeah, they decide to remake a home for themselves in Fervent, despite the fact that their neighbors are all quite suspicious of them, including two best friends, Syl and Fate. Of their neighbors, they are in particularly reluctant to greet the couple with open arms. Syl never approved of the Whites. The Whites are a white couple. Syl is Black. Syl never approved of the Whites' adoption of their Black son. And then Fate, her best friend, happened to testify against the couple during their trial. So they are very wary of the Whites moving back to town, and they're particularly wary because they feel like they might have targets on their back. So tensions are high as Syl and Fate try to determine if their instincts about the Whites were right all along. This one is so short and that's what's so great about it. Is I feel like it's exactly the right length.

[00:15:53] There's not a sentence out of place in this one, and it feels-- did you hear me literally take a deep breath? It feels like you can't catch your breath while reading it because it moves at such a quick pace. I guess my go-to comp for books like this is always The Dinner, if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time. But to me, it is the best comp for these books, where there's an underlying source of tension, and it's not like a ton of murdery things happen. Something's going to give and something's going to blow. And I think The Dinner is the best representation of that type of book, and that is what The Fervent Whites is, where it's not maybe an entirely plot-driven, propulsive mystery thriller. It would be on the quieter end of the spectrum. But because it's so short and tensions are high, you do want to keep reading, and you want to know what happens, and you especially become attached to Syl and Fate and their best friendship. I really like this. I don't know why more people aren't talking about it. It's irritating to me. So this is The Fervent Whites by De'Shawn Charles Winslow. Again, if you're a seasonal reader, this will work for you during spooky season. I think I read The Fervent Whites in June.

[00:17:05] Also in June and maybe into July, I listened to The Land and Its People by David Sedaris. Y'all, I have talked about this somewhere, but it couldn't have been this podcast, or was it? Must have been on my Instagram account. This is my favorite David Sedaris in years. He is most famous for his humorous essays. Think in the last couple of years he's published his diaries, which I definitely have copies of. I'm looking at one right now. But this is a return to the format that made him famous, and whenever anybody asks me for a funny book recommendation, that's always a hard ask, by the way. I don't know why. But at least for me it can be a hard ask. But I think David Sedaris is laugh-out-loud funny. And Hunter and I think Ashley read this one. Other people, we've talked about it, and we're like, "What is it about him?" And particularly this version of him. Erin read it. That's who it was. Erin at The Bookshelf also read it, and we think it's just that he is totally fearless. And I don't know if it's his age and as he's getting older he just doesn't give a crap, and so he is willing to write in ways that I think modern writers are self-protective. And generally, I'm not passing an overall judgment, I'm just saying as a reader sometimes I wish writers would be a little bit more bold and a little bit more willing to be unlikable. David Sedaris is not entirely likable. Y'all, neither is... Who was I talking about? I was talking about Stanley Tucci's latest with a friend and it might have been one of you dear listeners. I don't remember, but somebody came to me and said, "Ooh, I didn't really like Stanley Tucci's latest because it felt like he was name-dropping." Guys, if I'm reading a celebrity memoir, I want them to name-drop. It's why I'm here. And I think I saw that there was a criticism of the latest David Sedaris because he did a house tour for The New York Times, and somebody was like, "Man, he's no longer a man of the people. He's just rich and owns really expensive art."

[00:19:04] Like he's famous. I don't know what to tell you. So I don't know. I think we're expecting a little too much out of our writers and our artists. This book is great. It is laugh-out-loud funny. The audiobook is fantastic because he narrates, and if you're not familiar with David Sedaris, he really took off after performing one of his stories. I think it eventually became part of the Holidays on Ice collection, and he performed it on This American Life with Ira Glass. So that is where he got his start. Now, of course, that was, oh my gosh, probably 30 years ago. I don't know. It was a long time ago. And so he is a fantastic storyteller, and the audiobook is performed, and so there is a live audience, which definitely makes it feel like you're listening to a podcast. So I highly recommend consuming this one in audiobook. That being said, unpopular opinion I discovered on the internet, I loved the cover of this one, and I will be buying a copy because I want it to sit on my shelves. I think it's great. Got a great cover. But truly, the audiobook experience cannot be beat because of the live audience component. Sedaris' confidence and his honesty are on full display. There were maybe a couple of essays that I thought to myself, "Oh, maybe I didn't need that." But for the most part, a pretty remarkably edited collection. Again, maybe two of the essays didn't hit the way the others did, but even when I was talking about this one with my friend, an essay that didn't work for her totally worked for me.

[00:20:26] So I think overall, the collection just works, and then it just might vary on which ones you like more than the others, if that makes sense. So well-rounded collection, return to the format that made him famous. Very funny essays. If you have never read him before, there are a couple of excerpts from this collection in The New Yorker. There's one about his marriage to his longtime partner, Hugh. I think that was featured in The New Yorker. Anyway, you could go read him in The New Yorker, see if you like his sensibilities, see if you like his storytelling, and then get the collection either in audiobook format and/or, I say and because I'm going to want the printed one. But and/or get the physical copy. But that would be my recommendation to you. There have been excerpts of these in The New York Times. Fantastic. Absolutely loved. Five stars. Also, at the tail end, I'm just looking to see. All of these were in June. June was a great month. So also in June, I picked up on the recommendation of a friend. I think my friend RuthAnn recommended Returns & Exchanges. This is by Kayla Rae Whitaker. I am so glad RuthAnn recommended this to me because I had not seen it anywhere except a publisher offered to send me I couldn't get the ARCs in time. That's what it was. The ARCs were not available for The Fervent Whites and this book Returns and Exchanges. And so the publisher said, "I'll send you finished copies if you want." And I was like, "Oh, that would be fantastic." So they mailed me a finished copy of The Fervent Whites and a finished copy of Returns and Exchanges.

[00:21:51] So RuthAnn posted about this, and I thought, "Wait a minute. It's a pretty recognizable cover. It's a deep red. It's got a plastic shopping bag on the front." And so I moved this one to the top of my TBR. I'm not sure why I haven't seen this more places. Maybe it's sold well in Southern stores because the author is, I believe, a Kentuckian. But this is just the kind of book I love. It's about a family and a place and a business, and all the ways a family can grow, change, and maybe implode. So it's about the Baker-Taylor family. Fran, Fred, and their two kids, and then the discount store that they run in Kentucky. And by discount store, I guess kind of a Walmart. And so this is like a small-scale local chain in Kentucky, and the book takes place over the course of decades. And Fran is really the brains behind the business. She's got the business sensibilities, and then Fred's the man. Fred's the man. And I want to be fair to Fred. He's not terrible at his job or anything like that. It's just Fran is behind the scenes pulling all the strings, and then he's more the face of the company. So this is a lot about entrepreneurship, business, the pressures of business, and then really how it affects their nuclear family. And again, because the book takes place over decades, you get insight into how the business changed Fran, how it changed Fred, and then how it changed their two kids. Also, of course, family secrets are hidden and kept secret, but not for long. The more the family kind of gets out into the public, the more success the business has, the more their secrets are likely to unravel in the public eye. This is great. This is a really good book. It reminded me most of Family of Origin by C.J. Hauser and Marrying the Ketchups, which I believe is by Jennifer Close. That one was all about a restaurant family.

[00:23:44] There's even a J. Ryan Strudle, I think. Somebody did DM me how to pronounce his name, and I think it was Stradal. There is a J. Ryan Stradal sensibility to this book, too. Maybe it's a little less feel-good, little less feel-good than those, I love dysfunctional family lit. I thought the business stuff might stress me out. It didn't. I thought it was very well-handled and interesting. And again, interesting to watch a business start as this kind of one-off small town store and then eventually grow. And then, of course, almost because you get to watch it over decades, almost like the mall has fallen into disrepair. It's fallen out of the zeitgeist. What happens when discount stores fall out of the zeitgeist? And anyway, I loved this. I thought it was so well-told, well-structured, great character development, but really good plot development, too. Really good plot points that keep the story moving along. That is Returns and Exchanges by Kayla Rae Whitaker, also has a really great, striking cover. This would be great for fall reading, by the way. So you're not too late. You haven't missed out. Again, don't know why this one didn't get more buzz. But it's not too late to add it to your TBR now. Then I just need a thriller. Listen, we all need beach books, we all need thrillers. Olivia is a fantastic recommender of thrillers and suspense novels, and she had been talking a lot about Night Objects by Ellie Raphael.

[00:25:08] So I think I bought this. Where was I? I bought this on Olivia's recommendation. Did I buy it for myself? No, I think I bought it at a bookstore. Where? I could not tell you, but I did buy it. And again, this is a book that were it not for Olivia, so were it not for our hand-selling expertise, I don't think I would've seen it very many places. So allow me to join Olivia in singing its praises. She read and loved it months ago, loved it months ago, so I'm a little behind. But again, great for fall. You're not too late. When I was coming off of a-- There's a difference between a slump and a slog. At the end of June into July, I was in a slog. That's what it was. I was in a slog. I was in a slump at the end of July. That means I wasn't reading anything. When you're in a slog, you're reading, but it's just taking you a long time. There's a difference, slump versus slog. So I was in a slog, and I picked this one up because I thought a thriller is normally a book that I can finish pretty quickly, and it might get me back in my rhythm. So books were taking me forever to finish. I decided to pick this one up. If you need a thriller this fall, allow me to hand sell you this. Night Objects is about Lennie. Lennie's a teenager who finds herself at an elite boarding school in the Pacific Northwest after the tragic death of her mother. We knew something happened to Lennie while she was at boarding school.

[00:26:28] There are time jumps and flashbacks in the narration. We don't know what. And I've heard Olivia hand sell a book this way pretty recently. The novel I guess is about what happened, but I started to see the writing on the wall for what happened. It took its time though. It wasn't totally predictable. But once I started to see what was ahead, I still wanted to keep reading because it's about the after effects of that. So this one I think Olivia comped it to God of the Woods, which I do think is accurate. There's a book I just read that isn't even a thriller. The Amateur which I'm going to talk about. I think I'm going to talk about it today. Let me scroll down in my notes. Yes, I am. Okay, so this one, Night Objects, feels like God of the Woods meets The Amateur. So you've got a female narrator, Linny, who's looking back at what happened to her. And the pacing of this book is perfect. Plus, the Pacific Northwest setting is fantastic, and the book gets its title from this obsession that Linny and her mom had with tracking the stars and astronomy, and I thought that made the story really beautiful. And it's not often I feel like we can describe a thriller as beautiful, but I thought this one was. So Night Objects by Ellie Raphael, recommended for months by Olivia. I finally picked it up this summer and loved it, and I think you guys will too.

[00:27:48] Then a backlist title. This is fun, and I did want to talk about this because I do think it would be a great time to read it as we are in back to school season, but I was on a trip with some friends to hear Ann Patchett in conversation with Lauren Groff, and this is what I love. I was traveling with a totally different group of people than I normally travel with. It was one of my local dear friends and then her friends, and so we all stayed in an Airbnb together. And I do love this about adulthood, that you're not just stuck in your own friend groups, like the beauty of being a grownup. And maybe modern high school is different from circa 2003, 2004. But I feel like you can kind of jump from group to group, and you can engage with people who you maybe previously did not have a relationship with. Anyway, I say all that to say I was in a conversation with these women, and one of them mentioned she had worked with the deaf population, and I can't remember if it was as a translator or in a school setting. Anyway, and I said, "Oh, did you ever read True Biz by Sara Novic?" And she said, "Yes, I did, and I loved it." And she said, "The audiobook is great because you can hear them signing in the book." And so that was literally the only prompt I needed, because occasionally, I read a lot of frontlist titles and a lot of pre-list. Like I'm reading so far in advance, I'm reading pre-frontlist titles. But she happened to catch me at a time where I could literally... I think I drove myself on this trip, and so I literally had that conversation and the next day, on the drive home, downloaded the book to Libro.fm.

[00:29:26] So True Biz by Sara Novic. The audiobook is narrated by Lisa Flanagan and Kaleo Griffith. It is fantastic. I'm going to tell you one qualm, but first I'm going to tell you what I loved about it. So this book is about a school for the deaf, and it's written by a woman who I think has ties to the deaf population, like if you read her author's note. But this is about a school for the deaf and its many inhabitants. To me, it was like The Academy by Ellen Hildebrand meets the movie CODA. So you get the perspective of teachers, students, the headmistress, parents. There's a slight mystery element, so the book opens where a couple of students from the school have gone missing, and now it's the headmistress' responsibility of detectives, of parents, to figure out where these kids are. And then you flash back to the kids and their lives on this campus. Some kids are deaf kids who were born to deaf parents. Some kids are deaf who were born to hearing parents. And it's really interesting to read about the different facets of the deaf community and where they stand on things like cochlear implants and things like that. So I felt like I learned a lot, but it never felt preachy. It just felt, I don't know, realistic, interesting. It felt like a boarding school book. Honestly, it felt like a campus novel, and it's a well-told campus novel. The audiobook absolutely was fantastic because you really do... I'm going to try to do it in the microphone.

[00:30:50] Can you hear? You could hear the hands signing in the book whenever someone was signing, and I thought that was so cool. I thought it was so well done. So this book wound up being either four or four and a half stars for me because I can't tell. I loved this book. I loved this book. And then I was sitting at my desk paying bills, and all of a sudden the book ended, and I thought, "Wait, what?" And I rewound it multiple times And I cannot believe how this book ended. And this is the bummer to reading a backlist title. I'm years late, but I could not believe how this book ended, and so that was my only qualm. It docked it. I can't remember, either a star or a half star for me. But great fall reading, boarding school book, campus novel, a unique take on the campus novel. But just like in The Academy where you get different perspectives, this one you also get different perspectives. I loved the head... I'm going to call her a headmistress, but now I'm like is that even the appropriate term? Like calling a flight attendant a stewardess. The head of the school. We'll just call her head of the school. The head of the school's perspective was really interesting to me because, of course, she's trying to handle operations of the school and trying to move the school in a positive direction when some people believe deaf students should be integrated into, for example, like public school systems. Anyway, fascinating. Loved it all. Thought it was great. The ending is weird. So that is True Biz by Sara Novic, and the audiobook is fantastic.

[00:32:22] Then when I reviewed this one on Instagram, I said, "Right book, right time," because next I read and loved Wasp's Nest by Kat Stoddard. I read a lot of summer books back in April and May, like Down with the Shipmans, The Shampoo Effect. I read all those books before you guys did, and that is not a flex because it's kind of a bummer. It's a bummer to read books in a different season than when they were intended to be read. So I had started Wasp's Nest as an e-galley on my Kindle. Wasp's Nest was described by the publisher as being a re-imagining of the classic movie, The Philadelphia Story. Now, let me go ahead and help everybody because one of our listeners was like, "Annie, you have talked about The Philadelphia Story for years, and I always thought you were talking about the movie with Tom Hanks." Guys, no. The Philadelphia Story stars Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. Icons, one and all. Okay? Then the movie Philadelphia stars Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks. Also icons, but a very different vibe, okay? Very different vibe. So today Wasp's Nest is a re-imagining of the black-and-white movie, The Philadelphia Story, which is like this not slapstick, but a screwball rom-com with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart. Okay, so just to clarify that. I started this on my Kindle back in May, and promptly put it down. I don't know, guys. It wasn't working for me. I was like, "This is nothing like the movie." Splat. And put it down. And then I was on a Newsday Tuesday. Shout-out to our Newsday Tuesday videos that Olivia and I have been doing every Tuesday this summer.

[00:34:08] I think we're going to continue them into fall. You can catch them live, Tuesdays at 1:00 on Instagram, or later on Patreon for free so you don't even have to pay. You don't even have to be on Patreon to get access to these. That's just where they live because we needed a place for them to live. Anyway, we were on one of those, and we were hand-selling new releases for the week, and I talked about this one, and I basically hand-sold it to myself. Because it's not very long, and I thought, "What am I doing? This sounds like something I should really like." If you're not familiar with The Philadelphia Story, I'm going to talk to you about this version, okay? So all the characters' names are going to be from Wasp's Nest. In Wasp's Nest, Tess is a socialite about to embark on her second marriage when her ex-husband shows up for the wedding festivities, alongside, in this case, his new boyfriend, who's an aspiring writer. Okay? So it's a love triangle. You got it? It's a love triangle. Chaos ensues. Lots of people are in love or have feelings for lots of other people. This is so great. I wound up loving this. It's just the right length. The book moves along at a fast clip because it's over the course of a wedding weekend. Bonus, the wedding weekend takes place in October, so this is a great summer to fall book. It feels summery because it's on the coast, but also the weather, and you'll get this sense as you read it, but the weather is definitely October. And so if you are a fan of The Philadelphia Story, hooray, hurrah, you'll love this. If you are unfamiliar with The Philadelphia Story, great, you'll like this too.

[00:35:43] This is not a romance novel, okay? This is not a romance book, but if you like shenanigans and dysfunctional friend stories, you'll like this. If you liked The Shampoo Effect, what are you doing? You should read this. I liked The Shampoo Effect. The characters were real unlikable to me. Wasp's Nest, the characters are unlikable, but it's short and you also do like them. Or at least feel sorry for them because you're like, "You guys are really going through something." Setting is great. Plotting is great. Meaning the pacing is great. Storytelling is really fun. I loved it. I'm trying to think what else I would compare it to. One, because the ex-husband is this artist figure. In the original, Katharine Hepburn plays a socialite. Her first husband is Cary Grant, and then Jimmy Stewart is a newspaper reporter covering the wedding. God, it's so good. You guys, go watch the movie and then read Wasp's Nest. That's your homework. Watch the movie and then read Wasp's Nest. You're welcome. Wasp's Nest is by Kat Stoddard. Great cover, excellent for fall reading. Yeah, thoroughly enjoyed.

[00:36:54] My last book of the summer was The Amateur by Chris Bohjilihan. I've always wanted to know how to pronounce his name, and did you guys know I could Google it? And so his name is Bohjilihan. I've never read him before. I am 90% sure about that. If I've read him, it's a backlist title from a long time ago. So this is his latest. I started reading it on my Kindle in May. Are you sensing a pattern? Which is here's what happens when you're reading on a Kindle, at least for me. I don't know about for you, but when I'm reading on my Kindle, it's like I can just bounce, I can flit from thing to thing. I can bounce from book to book. I don't have to commit because there's a bajillion books at my fingertips, and if I don't like one, I can move to another, and I don't really like that. It feels like I can't quite focus, and maybe that's because a Kindle is like holding a phone or something like that. I don't know. I think there's something psychological about it. Anyway, I started The Amateur, read 47%. That's a high percentage to read and then not keep reading. Does the middle lag? A friend of mine also read this, and she thought it did lag in the middle. I will say I think I was reading this, and I was looking for a Shelf Subscription, and I decided to go a different direction. So I put this down, and then in August, I was in a reading slump. Remember slog versus slump? Now I'm in a reading slump, and I wasn't reading anything, couldn't finish anything, and I took to Instagram to get some help, and then I solved the problem myself, which is very Annie B. Jones-coded.

[00:38:24] And so I went to Libro.fm, and I saw that Melora Hardin, who is from The Office, The Bold Type, she narrates The Amateur, and I thought let me try this. Devoured it, loved it. So audiobook, highly recommend. However, I also think you could enjoy this one in print format. Let me tell you the premise. So the book is narrated in audiobook format by Melora Hardin, but she is embodying the voice of Mira. Mira is narrating this story. She is an adult. She's a writer. She's published multiple novels, written plays, and she is telling us the story of her adolescence particularly the incident that changed the course of her life. When she was, I want to say 16, 17, she was at the driving range at her local country club. She was well on her way to being a member of the LPGA, and she hits a golf ball on the driving range, it goes through the net, and it hits the head of a young caddie named Kenny. Kenny is her classmate. He instantly dies, and this disrupts the course of Mira's life, and of course, changes the lives of Kenny's family. I'm not sure how this one is being billed. It feels like maybe we're seeing it on thriller lists. No way, no how. This is not a thriller. There is a slight courtroom drama element because ultimately Mira has to, of course, go to potentially civil trial, but there's also some speculation that she might face criminal charges as well. So if you are interested in the justice system, which I am, there's a lot of interesting insight into the courtroom and into legal practices. This was one of those books that I kept telling Jordan about it with every kind of section I finished. So to me, great for book clubs. Lent itself to conversation.

[00:40:14] I relayed this one frequently to Jordan because I thought the thought exercise was so fascinating. And sad. The book is sad. It is most like Play World, if you remember that book that came out last January. I loved that book. Because I think it's set in the modern day. Mira is talking to us as a modern writer, but she grew up in the '70s, and so there is a slight historical fiction element, and lots of crappy things happen to Mira. And some of it is of her own choosing, but also she's a kid. And so it's really interesting to unpack how Mira's life was shaped by this one horrible incident. I loved this. I thought it was really well told. Great in audiobook format, but I think would be equally compelling in print format, and a nice departure. It's not a romance. It's not a genre book. It's not a thriller. It's not a suspense. I guess the most accurate descriptor is it's a coming-of-age story, which is why I want to compare it to Play World. That's what it felt like to me. So that was my last book of the summer.

[00:41:15] And again, that's one that could take you into fall. Which brings me to those are some of the best books I read this summer. As usual, we are offering a Reading Recap bundle, and so I wanted to include books that would take you from summer into fall. So for this August or late summer reading recap, the bundle is $81, and it includes three hardback books: Returns and Exchanges, that's the discount store dysfunctional family book called Returns and Exchanges by Karla Ray Whitaker; Wasp's Nest, that's the retelling, reimagining of the Philadelphia story by Kat Stoddard, set over a wedding weekend in October; and The Amateur, which is a coming-of-age story set in the '70s and today about a young woman named Mira. The whole bundle can be found through the link in our show notes, or you can go and type today's episode number, that's 596, into the search bar at Bookshelfthomasville.com, and you can find all the books I talked about on today's episode.

[00:42:15] This week, I'm reading Switzy by Emma Cline

[00:42:24] Annie Jones: From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website:

bookshelfthomasville.com

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

fromthefrontporchpodcast.com 

Special thanks to Studio D Podcast Production for production of From the Front Porch and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.

Our Executive Producers of today’s episode are…

Cammy Tidwell, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Stephanie Dean, Ashley Ferrell, Gene Queens, Beth, Jammie Treadwell…

Executive Producers (Read Their Own Names): Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins

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

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Annie Jones

a weekly conversational podcast on books, small business, and life in the South