Episode 594 || What Would Rory Gilmore Read?
This week on From the Front Porch, Annie is speculating what Rory Gilmore (from WB/CW show Gilmore Girls) might read now, in 2026. If she walked into The Bookshelf, what books would Annie put into her hands? Or what books do we sell that she’s already read and loved? Dysfunctional family lit? Reimaginings of her favorite classics? Books about quirky small towns and their inhabitants? Here’s what Annie came up with:
To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 594), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:
James by Percival Everett
SPQR by Mary Beard
Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
Audition by Katie Kitamura
From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.
A full transcript of today’s episode can be found below.
Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.
This week, Annie is reading The Last Days of Vic and Coco (March 2, 2027) by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
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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]
“It occurs to me that I've been wrong about something. I always assumed that age and experience weather you, make you more resilient, but that's not true. It's the opposite.”
-Tom Rockma, The Imperfectionists.
[as music fades out]
I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week we're continuing our new occasional podcast series where I imagine what books I might hand sell to our favorite authors and fictional characters. This week, I'm recommending books for Rory Gilmore. If you like my book reviews here on From the Front Porch, you might be interested in joining my private Instagram account, Annie's Five-Star Books. For $50 for the 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 our free monthly reading recap episodes.
[00:01:37] The private Instagram is simply 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 store. There's a quarterly newsletter option for the social media-averse, too. For more information or to sign up for the 2026 group, visit anniebjoneswrites.com/five-star-book-club. There's a link in the show notes, and it's never too late to join. Last year, during one of our Patreon Porch Visits-- that's a plug, join Patreon-- podcast listener Courtney asked me what books I would recommend to my beloved March sisters. I loved the question and the resulting thought exercise so much, I decided I needed to try my hand at selecting books for other fictional characters and authors I love. So in January, I had some recommendations for Jane Austen, and in April I recommended titles for all four of the March sisters. This week, as we pretend fall is on the horizon, I'm turning to Rory Gilmore, a beloved, if controversial, figure from the WB/CW show Gilmore Girls.
[00:02:51] Did I love introverted Rory and see a kinship with her in my teens? Yes, absolutely. As an adult, do I find her a tad insipid, incapable of making independent adult decisions? Also, yes, absolutely. Though I guess, of course, it depends on the episode. All of us get a little bit more complicated as we age. Perhaps Rory Gilmore, though fictional, is no different. Rory is bookish in her teens, pretty famously carrying a book with her wherever she goes, and as a result, there are literally dozens upon dozens of Rory Gilmore reading lists on the internet, many of them capturing each book Rory read or referenced on the series. This is not that list. This is not that list. If you came here for a list of classical books that Rory read on the television show Gilmore Girls, I am so sorry this is not the list for you. Instead, I'm speculating what Rory might read now in 2026. If she walked into The Bookshelf, what books would I put in her hands? Or what books do we sell that she's already read and loved? Is she into dysfunctional family lit, re-imaginings of her favorite classics, books about quirky small towns and their inhabitants?
[00:04:04] So here's what I came up with. Here's what I would hand sell or talk to Rory Gilmore about if she came into The Bookshelf. And as we discuss, I'm going to reference different episodes, and also I'm going to give you some insight into where I think Rory Gilmore might be today because we're about the same age, and I have some thoughts. The first book I would put into her hands is James by Percival Everett. This is, of course, the Pulitzer Prize-winning book from 2025, the retelling of Huckleberry Finn. As we all know, Rory references Huckleberry Finn in her valedictory speech. That's season three, episode 22, Those Are Strings. And I think she's a big fan of Mark Twain. That's not the only book of his she references over the course of the series. And this entire book is told from Jim's perspective. If-- this is important-- Rory's a literature teacher at Chilton, and I believe in my heart of hearts she probably is, she's added this to the curriculum, guaranteed. Despite pushback from... I don't know. Do we think Headmaster Charleston's dead? Anyway, she might have gotten some pushback, but I believe she's added James by Percival Everett to the curriculum, and if she hasn't, I'm going to hand sell it to her. I really do think Rory reads so many works of classic lit.
[00:05:21] If you do go look at those very long lists of the books she read as a teen or as a young adult, she's a very diverse reader. She doesn't just read classics, but a lot of what she reads are from the 19th century or Shakespeare, which we'll get to in a minute. It feels like she reads a lot of traditionally classic lit. And so I think Rory might be a little bit eye-rolly about some retellings or reimaginings, but I think this one she really appreciated. And again, I suspect she would add this to the curriculum at Chilton for the students to read alongside Huckleberry Finn, and they could do a compare, contrast exercise, which I think would be genius. So James by Percival Everett is one I would either hand sell her or we would talk about and kind of bond over. I really do think reworkings of classical literature are something that would find their way to her reading list.
[00:06:15] Next on her stack I would put SPQR! A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard. Because respectfully, men aren't the only people who think about the Roman Empire. I believe Rory would devour this history of Ancient Rome as told by classicist Mary Beard. Here's what I'm imagining. I'm imagining she inherited Richard Gilmore's collection of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, but I don't think she's been able to read it, either out of grief or boredom. It's a very long series. So I think this would get her closer to her deceased grandfather. I think it would bring her and Richard have this special bond. But it's written by a woman classicist, which I think she would appreciate, and I think then she would try to convince Lorelai to read it, but Lorelai would not bite. And if she has already read this book, then I would also hand sell her The Odyssey, but the translation by Emily Wilson. And again, I think so often in Gilmore Girls, Rory is telling Lorelai about a book she should read or she's buying her a book. We should do maybe another episode on What Would Lorelai Read, because I actually do think Lorelai is really well-read, just in a totally different way from Rory. I think Rory skews more curriculum.
[00:07:30] Rory would love a curriculum. And I think she probably stayed in school a while, and SPQR would be at the top of her reading list, and maybe she just hasn't gotten to it yet. Again, maybe the grief over the loss of her grandfather has prevented her from reading the books he bequeathed her. But this way she gets the history of Ancient Rome, but she doesn't have to read the very giant series that's probably currently, I don't know, lining the walls of her apartment. So we've got a reimagining of a work of classic lit. We've got a history of the ancient world, and next we're going to do A Shakespeare reference. I would try to hand sell her Hag-Seed. This is by Margaret Atwood. It published in October of 2016. It's considered a modern retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest, and it was actually, I think this is fascinating, this book was commissioned by Random House as part of its Hogarth Shakespeare series, along with A Winter's Tale.
[00:08:28] Do you guys remember A Winter's Tale? So anyway, A Winter's Tale, Hag-Seed, they were part of this Hogarth Shakespeare series. Hag-Seed was also on the long list for the 2017 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction. Rory reads a lot of Shakespeare, not just at Chilton, but I think for fun. When you look at these lists, it's a lot of Shakespeare. And of course, she famously performed the great death scene in Romeo and Juliet with her nemesis, Paris, and I'd like to think she's probably back at Chilton teaching some of Shakespeare's works herself. She's probably already read Hamnet. She and Lorelai, I predict, went to see the movie, which Rory loved and Lorelai hated, only because it made her too sad. So I would put this back list title into her hands. I could also hand sell her Lady Macbeth. This is a recent book by Ava Reid. I think it came out in 2025. But I also am afraid she'd be put off by how far it deviates from the original story. I think in her heart of hearts, Rory is a purist and a little bit of a snob. And so I don't think that she would love the fun lighthearted re-imaginings. You will not see a single romance novel on this list. And maybe that's naive of me.
[00:09:39] Maybe Rory is deep diving into the world of Fourth Wing, but I honestly don't think so. She reads widely in the series, but also there are clearly things she does not read. She's a timeless reader, not a timely reader. And so I don't think every re-imagining or retelling would work for her, but I think she respects Margaret Atwood. In this version, of course, Alexis Bledel does not exist, only Rory Gilmore, and so we don't have to worry about the fact that Alexis Bledel was actually in A Handmaid's Tale. We're not going to go there. Our worlds are not colliding. We're pretending Alexis Bledel does not exist. So I think she respects Margaret Atwood, and so she would happily read Hag-Seed. But I'm not sure she would read Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid, or if she did, I think she'd pan it a little bit. I think she prides herself on being a highbrow literary fan. And you know what? Good for her. Good for her. Okay, so we've got James, SPQR, Hag-Seed. And then those other books there's a chance she's read them already, right? It's when a customer comes into the store and they're really well-read, and we have to find a new book for them that they've never heard of, and it's an impossibility almost. It's a challenge. We don't look at it as an impossibility. We look at it as a challenge. So it's a challenge because we're trying to find a book they have not read or they have not heard of.
[00:11:03] I think Rory would be that person. I think Rory likes to browse a bookstore on her own. She doesn't like to bother anybody, and she wants to just serendipitously stumble upon something I think she would love this next book, and it is deep into the backlist, so I don't think she's read it. It is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rockman. This was published way back in 2011. It's a debut novel set in Rome, and it follows the lives of the employees, the workers, the staff writers, the editors at this English language newspaper in Rome. Rory might be a lit teacher at Chilton, but she really wanted to be a journalist. And listen, I get this because she graduated in what? 2007, 2008. The journalism that Rory saw when she watched All the President's Men with Lorelai no longer exists. That world is gone. That world of journalism is dead. And so I think Rory had to switch career paths. We saw her a little bit aimless in the new kind of seasonal series that I admittedly only watched once. And so we see her a little bit aimless. She doesn't quite know what to do with her life.
[00:12:15] I think she's a writer, but I think mostly she's a lit teacher, and I think she had to leave this kind of journalistic part of herself behind. As a result, she loves journalism movies, and she loves journalism books that take place inside that world. I think she would love this book. I loved this book. So again, this is a debut novel set in Rome. It follows the lives of the staffers at this English language newspaper. And it is really, at least in my memory, told in short stories and vignettes from a different member of the paper. So it's not a straight narrative. Instead, I think it reads more like a collection of connected short stories. Now, it's not sold as that. I looked everywhere on the website. I still own this book, too. But it definitely feels like different perspectives, almost like The Reservation by Rebecca Kaufman or something like that.
[00:13:10] So this paper has been around for 50-plus years. It was founded by kind of this mysterious millionaire, and now the staff's personal dramas seem more important than the daily headlines. And so we get Kathleen, she's the editor-in-chief. She has an open marriage, and there's been a betrayal. Arthur is the obituary writer who's gotten a little bit lazy, but something has now happened in his life that has made him refocus. Abby is the financial officer, and turns out that the job cuts she's having to make and her love life are intertwined. There's a Parisian freelancer, a Cairo stringer who's been manipulated by a war correspondent. Every journalism stereotype feels like it's in this book, but handled so well and with care. Now, it is a bit of a time capsule, but I think Rory would appreciate this. It was published in 2011, and it's kind of this print era of news turning to the digital age. You're not going to read about AI in this book. You're not going to read about the things that plague modern journalism, but you are going to read about this period in time when we were trying to decide, are we going to get the paper edition of this newspaper or are we going to go to their website?
[00:14:25] It was the start of the death of a certain kind of journalism. So I think Rory will love this book, and I do not think she has read it because she would have been probably in grad school or a recent grad school graduate, and maybe reading for fun was not something she had done a lot of. Plus, Rory never reads a ton of modern fiction. That's why her coming to The Bookshelf would be so fun. And so I think this would not have been on her radar in 2011. I think she'll be delighted to discover it in 2026. That is The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. So James by Percival Everett, that's the classic retelling of Huckleberry Finn. SPQR by Mary Beard, which is this pretty accessible, I wanted to make that clear, history of ancient Rome. This did very well at The Bookshelf when it was published in 2015, and it still is a backlist title we keep mostly. I think we have mostly kept it on our history shelves. Then Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood, which is the Shakespeare reimagining, and now The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman.
[00:15:27] I would also try to hand sell her The Book of Goose. This is by Yiyun Li. I loved this book. It released in 2022. It's a friendship story that reads like a work of classic lit, and I believe with my whole heart that Rory Gilmore was an early adopter of Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan Quartet. I think she's already read all those. I think she watched the HBO adaptation with Lorelai. And so, to me, The Book of Goose is similar in tone and storytelling. It's a thick book, but I was hooked from the first page, and it's about Agnes and Fabienne. They are childhood best friends. Agnes is an adult. She receives news that Fabienne has died, and she's living in America, far away from the French countryside where they were both raised. And Agnes is now, as an adult, looking back on her childhood adventures with Fabienne. And what's so great about their friendship when they meet is that one of them is more of a rule follower, a little bit more demure, obedient, and then the other loves really dark, kind of sinister things. And they bond as they begin writing a story together in the hopes that it will get them out of their small French town. And, of course, we know that Agnes has made it out. She's living in America, but Fabienne died close to home in France. And so what happened to those two young girls as they became women?
[00:16:55] How did their lives maybe split apart and then come back together? Yiyun Li does such a beautiful job because even talking about this book now, I feel like I'm in the French countryside in rural France. The book starts there. It also goes to Paris. There's a boarding school element, and then there's the quiet American home where Agnes lives very far away from her past. I loved this book. It felt-- I think the publisher uses the word haunting, and I actually think that's accurate. It's not just this feel-good story about these two friends. It's not like the old Love Good Girls or something like that. Instead, it very much does feel like My Brilliant Friend, where you've got these darker elements at play. Yiyun Li is an amazing storyteller. I cannot believe the wide range of storytelling she does. But I think Rory would really like this, and I doubt she's read it. So that is The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li.
[00:17:45] Okay. Then I would go to a work of translated fiction. This is Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri. This released in 2021. Now, I did look at all the lists and I never saw it anywhere. But I'm confident Rory read and loved The Interpreter of Maladies. So I wouldn't hand sell her that because I'm going to assume she's already read it. But I do think she would like reading Lahiri in novel format. She wrote this book in Italian first, is my understanding, and then she translated it to the English, which what a flex that you could write a book in a different language and then translate it yourself. Truly amazing. But anyway, I think Rory would really like this book because, again, I do think one of Rory's personality traits is that she doesn't always fully know what to do with herself. She's not always content. And so this is a novel where in the course of one year, there's an unnamed narrator. I know that Rory Gilmore loves an unnamed narrator. An unnamed narrator is in an unnamed city. She's in midlife, and she realizes she's lost her way. And so she travels the streets around her house, parks, piazzas, museums, stores, coffee bars, trying to feel less alone.
[00:19:01] So there's a train station. There's a pool. She comes across people who she has worked with, who maybe she's just acquaintances with, but they have these passing relationships. And so here's why I think Rory would like this. When we last see Rory, which is just a handful of years ago, she's a little bit aimless. She's a little bit lost. But there are people who bring her back to herself. I think she still very much relies on Lorelai, and I believe Emily Gilmore. I have no reason to believe Emily Gilmore has died, and so Emily Gilmore is alive and well. And I think Rory returns home, and I think part of the reason she picked Chilton is she likes being close to home, and then she travels when she wants to be taken out of herself. So I think this unnamed narrator who kind of wanders through the streets trying to figure out who she is, I think that would really resonate with Rory. And Rory is in midlife. So this novel is perfectly timed because Rory is also in her early 40s, and I think she's still probably figuring out who she is.
[00:20:02] My understanding is this unnamed narrator also has maybe lost some people she's loved. And so at this point in her life, Rory has too. Again, I think Rory is a bit of a literary snob, and I say that with love. I think she likes literary fiction. I think she likes translated works. I think she likes the Booker Prize. You know what I'm saying? And so I think she would really like Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri And then in that same vein, along those same lines, maybe a little bit more accessible, but I think Rory would love Audition. This is by Katie Kitamura. No, I have still not read this, okay? But I'm going to. I'm going to. Friend of the podcast, Hunter, loved this book, has not stopped raving about it since it released. It came out in paperback early this spring, so I think this would be a super easy hand sell. There is no way Rory leaves a bookstore without spending at least 100 bucks. It's why we love her. And so I think she'd add this paperback happily to the top of her stack. This is maybe unlike Book of Goose; this is a more tightly told story. It's a family drama. It almost reads like a thriller. You've got two people who meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She's an accomplished actress who's rehearsing for her upcoming premiere. He's an attractive young man, young enough to be her son. But who is he to her? Who is she to him?
[00:21:25] This is a very well-constructed novel. You've got two competing narratives, and unpacking who we wind up plaguing in our own lives every day, partner, parent, et cetera. This was also shortlisted for the Booker Prize. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in I think 2026. And so I think this book is on-- is it on Rory's radar? It's hard for me to know how much time Rory spends in backlist and in rediscovering classic works versus how much modern reading she does, but I'm going to say she's at least heard of this. Because I do think Lorelai and Rory compare notes, and they talk about books that they've read and loved, and I actually think that this is one they legitimately could share back and forth. I for sure think Rory tries to get Lorelai to read SPQR, but I think this is the book they actually read and discuss together. Again, this is a book that deals with a woman's identity and who she is, again, particularly in almost like cusp of middle age. And so I think that those types of themes are something Rory really is gravitating to in this season of her life.
[00:22:41] So when a customer comes into the bookstore, and they ask us for a book rec, and we give them a stack of books, it generally is about three to six books, and then they pick what they want, and then I put away the rest. So here is Rory's book stack. James by Percival Everett. Maybe she needs a classroom copy if she's already read it. SPQR by Mary Beard. Hag- Seed by Margaret Atwood. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. That's the book about the newspaper in Rome. The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li. Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri, and Audition by Katie Kitamura. Honestly, I feel really good. Honestly, I feel really good about this list. I feel like I did a great job. Rory, if you're listening, these are the books that I think you would read and love and want to add to your bookshelves that are undoubtedly absolutely overflowing. And if you too want to read like Rory Gilmore, you can find all of these books on the store website. That is Bookshelfthomasill.com. You can use today's episode number, 594, to find all of today's books on the site.
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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