Episode 600 || Reading Recap: September

Episode 600 || Reading Recap: September
From the Front Porch

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in September. You get 10% off your books when you order your the September Reading Recap Bundle, which features a bundle of some of Annie’s favorite books she read this month.

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 600), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:

September Reading Recap Bundle - $81

  • The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires

  • The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins

  • The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff

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 listening to Trust Fall by Lynn Painter (September 29th, 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...Beth, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, Joseph Shorter IV, Kimberly, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stephanie Dean, Gene Queens and Wendi Jenkins.

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]

"My entire life's assignment is to ask questions. Why else are we even here?" 

  • Katherine Stockett, The Calamity Club . 

[as music plays out]

[00:00:38] 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 in September. If you like my book reviews here on the podcast, 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 these monthly reading recap episodes. The private Instagram is just a place apart 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 those five-star books each month from The Bookshelf. There's a quarterly newsletter option, too, this year for the social media-averse.

[00:01:41] This is the last time to join before we switch gears and start talking about 2027. So for more information and to sign up for the 2026 group, visit anniebjoneswrites.com/fivestar-book-club. There's a link in the show notes. Guys, this is episode 600. You might not know that. I don't know how you would know that unless I told you, but it is episode 600 of From the Front Porch. And perhaps today's episode should have been some kind of milestone episode, some kind of honoring of this passing, some kind of celebration of the hours, so many hours of work that go into this podcast. But instead, it's just a reading recap. Just a reading recap episode of the books I read in September. But it is the 600th episode, and I cannot believe it. I could not have imagined back in 2013 that I would still be podcasting 13 years later. If I think about it too much, it is too much. It is a lot of content. It is a lot of my voice. It is a lot of my opinions out in the world, and that always makes me feel a little scratchy. But it's also a privilege to get to talk with you every week, although it's a little one-sided. But to get to share every week new books, old books I love, books I'm confused by, books I want to talk more about.

[00:03:12] The conversations I've gotten to have on the podcast over the years have been such a gift, and it is a privilege. And who knows how long we'll keep doing this thing? 600 more episodes sounds like a promise I am not willing to make. But here's to the next episodes of From the Front Porch, and if you have been around-- I don't think anybody's been around since episode one. That would probably just be Susie Butterworth, and I don't even think she listens anymore. So I don't think anybody's been around since episode one, but I know a lot of you have been around for a long time, and I want to thank you for that, and thank you for your support of From the Front Porch, Conquer a Classic, and of course, The Bookshelf. So thanks for listening for 600 episodes.

[00:03:54] All right, let's dive in. Back to normal. First up, Hollywood Ending. This is by John Green. I am delighted to say we got an ARC of this book, which I was not expecting. And I assume this is true for other bookstores, but typically we don't get ARCs or galleys of really popular, highly anticipated books. I think the publisher has the assumption we probably do, which is, "This book is going to sell itself. They don't need a copy of this." But Olivia received a copy of Hollywood Ending. And the reason I am outing Olivia is because on the printed ARC, her name is on every page. Her name is watermarked on every page, and I assume this was the publisher's way of ensuring that these ARCs did not get out into the general public. What a fascinating move, and I would assume an expensive one, but I don't know. Maybe not. So the ARC I read literally had Olivia's name watermarked on every page. But that's okay because the book was excellent, and it was relatively easy to ignore the watermark. I did not realize, but I am a John Green completionist. I have read everything he's written, and I have really liked everything he has written.

[00:05:00] I've talked recently about Turtles All the Way Down. I think, as I have compared, you'll hear me later talk about Switzy by Emma Cline, and how Turtles All the Way Down weirdly reminded me a bit of Switzy. But recently we've all fallen in love, I think, with John Green's nonfiction and his deep dive into tuberculosis. I think he got a lot of us through the pandemic with The Anthropocene Reviewed and his reflections on everyday life phenomena. So I really like John Green, and so I was predisposed to liking this book, but I really did love it. And if you were on pins and needles because this is his adult fiction debut, so he's been doing nonfiction for the last couple years, then previously, of course, he was most recognizable as a young adult author for Looking for Alaska, perhaps most famously, The Fault in Our Stars. So this is his adult debut. I think he will retain those young adult fans. First of all, those young adult fans are like me, and they're fully into adulthood now. And so he will retain those readers. But I actually think young adult readers, this is, to me, this was pretty accessible to them as well. There is maybe a slight romantic plot line, though that is not the point of this book.

[00:06:12] The book is about Kai and Juniper. They meet on the film set of a movie called Andy Warhol Never Gets Old. Great title. Would love to see that film. And the book is really a look into filmmaking and artistry. There are some really beautiful lines about art and artist and what it takes to make great works of art. I really like this in a world that is moving toward the inhuman, and in a world that is moving toward the more efficient, the better. It's no surprise that he would have deeper things to say about art, artist, and artistry as it relates specifically to filmmaking, but of course, I think you could apply those lessons to plenty of mediums. Weirdly, this book most reminded me of perhaps obviously, Tomorrow and Tomorrow. So Tomorrow and Tomorrow is to video games as Hollywood Ending is to film. But also very much reminded me of Jennette McCurdy's best-selling memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died, and this is why I think this could have crossover YA appeal. Publishers frequently want there to be crossover YA appeal; and as a bookseller, I can tell you that is often not true. I think this one actually is. I think a young adult reader could read this. But the characters at the heart of the book are young adults entering the film world. I think one of them is a child star, and then one of them, I think is not.

[00:07:38] I read this at the beginning of the month. There is a lot about what do we lose when we cast children in film? Is it worth the cost? Is it worth their sacrifice? Gosh, I read another book right around the Jennette McCurdy memoir coming out. Let me think about the title Okay. It was by Sarah Polley, who I knew from L.M. Montgomery adaptations. Oh, what was that show called? Not Anne of Avonlea, something like that. Anyway, she wrote a book called Run Towards the Danger, which was also a memoir. So I do think John Green has, I assume on purpose, paid homage to these child stars, and I wonder partly if that's because his films have been cast with teenage actors and actresses and if he is maybe reckoning with that a little bit in this book. So as I said, there's maybe a slight romantic element, but it's really about the making of this movie, Andy Warhol Never Gets Old. There's a dash of Taylor Jenkins Reid in this book, in my opinion, where you're learning the behind the scenes or the inside baseball to how a thing gets made and gets created. I loved this. I believe, I'm looking at when this episode releases. Okay, this week, this book came out into the world, so you can order it now. I think it is very easily readable.

[00:08:57] I want to say I gave this five stars. I loved it. I had no complaints, except maybe it could've been longer, which is not something I often say, but I think I'm going to say it twice in this episode. I think this could've been longer. I would've actually liked more with these characters. But one thing I think young adult literature is good at is being a snapshot, a picture in time, senior year of high school, or that great summer between junior and senior year, or whatever. And so I do wonder if John Green's sensibilities wanted this to be a snapshot rather than some kind of epic. This book does not span decades like I think it could have, but instead functions as a snapshot. A relatively compact period of time. I loved it. The cover's great. The writing is great. If you like John Green, you will like this book. If you don't like John Green, I have questions. I got questions, though everybody's entitled to their opinion. But then you probably wouldn't like this would be my guess. But I think this is great. I think people will be talking about it this fall. Maybe this shouldn't matter, but I do think I like John Green as a human, and I want to support his work. So Hollywood Ending by John Green, five stars, out this week, loved it. I think it's great.

[00:10:11] Olivia asked if she would like this, and I don't think that she would. Keila, Kendall, Erin, I think all of those readers on staff would enjoy Hollywood Ending. Actually, I don't know if she listens to this podcast, but our former staffer Caroline loved John Green. We've had a couple Carolines work at The Bookshelf, but our former staffer Caroline loved John Green, and she will love this, and I think be delighted by it. Next up, by another beloved author, is The Thoroughbreds by Ellen Hildebrand. So perhaps if you've been listening to this podcast for the last couple years, you know that I have kind of gone all in on Ellen Hildebrand. And I'm not maybe a super fan. I don't know if I would qualify as a Hilderbabe, though I'd like to think I do. But this is her latest, and it is a sequel to The Academy which released last year. I should say The Thoroughbreds by Ellen Hildebrand and Shelby Cunningham because she did co-write these with her daughter. I'm going to assume because her daughter attended boarding school, that what Shelby Cunningham offered was storytelling, content, maybe even the lingo of a younger generation. And then Elin Hilderbrand maybe turned that into the story. So here's what I'll say about The Thoroughbreds: loved it, highly recommend. You need to read The Academy first. That's not always true, but in this case it absolutely is true. This is not just a companion novel like Wreck and Sandwich.

[00:11:31] This is you need to read The Academy first, and then you can read its sequel, The Thoroughbreds. So read The Academy. It's out in paperback now. It was fantastic. Set junior year at fictional Tiffin Academy, based in New England. I said last year when I read The Academy that this was a fantastic contribution to the boarding school canon of literature. I stand by that because Olivia and I were discussing fairly recently that a lot of boarding school books are dark in nature, which is fine with both me and Olivia. But it was really nice to just read a boarding school book set over the course of a year. Some stuff happens. Some of it's dark, but most of it's not. There's a little bit of romance, a little bit of intrigue, a little bit of mystery, but it was just good. I just liked it. How nice to just like something. And so this is the sequel, and guess what? More of the same only now it's senior year. And so the students that you got to know in the first book are back. I have a feeling that one question I'm going to be asked, because The Academy released last year, and so I think what most readers will ask is, "Do I need to remember details from The Academy?" And this is where television is sometimes more helpful, which is we get a recap before season two starts we get a season one recap.

[00:12:46] There is no recap. I will say Elin Hilderbrand does a good job of setting the stage. Hunter and I often talk about sometimes you just have to read a few pages and get your bearings and trust that the author's going to lead you where she wants you to go. I did not reread The Academy. Do I think you would have a good time rereading The Academy and then reading Thoroughbreds? Yes, and if I was not a bookseller, that is what I would've done. If I was just a lay reader, I would pick up The Academy, read it, remember it, enjoy it, fall in love with those characters again because it's a good time, and then I'd read The Academy. So if you've got time to spare this fall, do both. If you don't, and you read The Academy last year, you'll be fine. Trust Elin Hilderbrand. She'll give you the deets. She'll give you the details you need to know to get your bearings. The people you love are back. Now it's senior year, so it's a little bit less about a student trying to fit in and find her way in the elite world, and it's more about college entrances and acceptances and a new moneyed kind of influencer coming to campus.

[00:13:50] These books read like teen drama, and so I cannot stress this enough. If you've gone down the rabbit hole of, Sterling Point, Crew Girl, and you are a middle-aged lady; first of all, I see you. I like you. Good for you. Second of all, these books are for you. Olivia was baffled the other day because we were talking about these, and she said, "So wait a minute, the characters are in high school, but these aren't young adult?" And I said, "Correct. These are adult novels." Would I hand sell these to a high schooler? A junior or senior, probably yeah. I think these do have crossover appeal. Moms, do your own work. Moms and dads, not just moms, dads, caregivers of all kinds, you guys will have to be the judge of that. But I think I would feel comfortable selling this to a junior or senior. There is sexual content, but if your kid is watching The Summer I Turned Pretty, then to me this is fine. This is equivalent. If your teen is watching those things, and you're watching them together, you guys could read these together, which would be kind of cute. A lot of teenagers I know are reading Colleen Hoover, and I'd rather sell them this. Anyway, I think this has young adult crossover appeal, but these are adult books. And because Olivia's "Why aren't these classified as YA?" And again, I think there's crossover appeal, but these are adult books.

[00:14:57] There are adult characters in these books. You don't just get the student's perspective. You also get the perspective of the admin, the teachers, the professors. And so I really liked that part. This makes me want to go to boarding school. And look, I always wanted to go to boarding school. It's all I ever wanted. If I could ever teach at a boarding school, if there are any boarding school headmistresses or headmasters listening to this, I'd love to chat. I feel like I could come be a guest professor. I've recorded 600 podcast episodes so maybe we could do a podcast curriculum. I don't know. But I love these books. I don't own them because I have read them on my Kindle, and I will be rectifying that this week. I would like to own both of these because I think they're re-readable. That is The Academy, and then The Thoroughbreds, its sequel, which released earlier this month.

[00:15:39] A book that I read but is not out yet, but is coming out so very soon, is The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford this is by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. She wrote The Heads of the Colored People, which I did not read, but now I would like to because guess what? This is fantastic. This is five stars. Would not be surprised, in fact, I will be disappointed, if this is not up for some kind of award. This is fantastic. So this releases October 6th. The book is set in 1920s Oklahoma. It is about a loathed bootlegger named Richard Milford. It's not really about him, though. He's dead. The book opens, Richard Milford, the kind of mysterious figure who is a bootlegger and a womanizer living in this small Black town in Oklahoma in the 1920s is found dead, and now no one's sure who to blame. Was this a lynching because he's a bootlegger? Was this one of his many wives because he has his own almost compound commune where he has various women who are wives and caregivers to him in some way, shape, or form? Basically, everybody has a reason to hate Richard, and we got to figure out how or why he died. This book is, first of all, quite short. I would almost argue it could qualify as a novella. I need to see the printed copy, because I listened to this, and it is a wonderfully done audiobook narrated by Kevin Free, Kamali Minter, and Adenrele Ojo. The narration is fantastic. But I think I would classify this perhaps as a novella. It's definitely a short novel.

[00:17:20] The audiobook was between four and five hours, so pretty short. And it is told from the perspective of each of the four wives. So they each get a chapter, and then in between, there are chapters narrated from the perspective of the town, the neighborhood, the community. So, of course, this immediately reminded me of The Mothers, which I have loved for years, by Brit Bennett, where different sections of that book were narrated by the church mothers. That is kind of the format here. Each wife of Richard Milford gets the chance to share her own story and her own relationship to Richard. Not all of them are romantic in nature. Sometimes it's the woman who has cared for his house. It's the teacher of his children, et cetera. I think you get a pretty full picture of who Richard is, but you also get this really full and rich picture of who each of these women are, and you get this great picture of who the neighborhood is. And to me, this is my favorite kind of historical fiction. I would never qualify it. At The Bookshelf, we don't have a separate historical fiction section. That would be insanely hard to do. But certainly, this is historical fiction. It's set in the 1920s, 1930s, but it doesn't feel like that's the point. But you get this very I don't know, thorough, rich picture of a time and a place and a people. I loved this. Five stars. Outstanding. Can you tell I had a great reading month? This is The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, out on October 6th. Great in audiobook.

[00:18:57] Sorry, that was a long pause because I was like, "What happened here?" Because the truth is, I didn't read a ton of books this month. And I think I'm remembering that if you follow The Bookshelf, if you follow Newsday Tuesday, you hear me and Olivia talk about new books every week. And she had sold me on this thriller called The Secret Dinner I believe that's what it was, translated from the Portuguese into English. And I did not finish that book. And you can go back on Patreon, and it's free. They're free to the public right now. You can go back and watch the Newsday Tuesday episode. But I was like, "Why did I not read very much this month?" And it's because I started some things and didn't finish, and that's what Annie's Five Star Reads is for. So I'm going to focus on what I did finish, which is, after I put down The Secret Dinner, I chose to read The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett.

[00:19:46] And the reason I'm saying it like that is because I had no intention of reading this book. Zero intention. I read The Help when it came out years ago, and I liked The Help. I did. I'd like to think that now if I read The Help, I could read it with a more educated eye, and I could wish perhaps for more nuance there particularly in its treatment of white saviorism and the Black characters. But I liked The Help when it came out. When I saw Katheryn Stockett was writing a new book though, I wasn't super interested mostly because The Help came out forever ago. And this is how I feel about the new sequel to The Time Traveler's Wife. It's how I feel about the sequel to Big Little Lies. I don't know. By the time a second book comes out, it takes me a minute to buy in. This is even true of Brit Bennett because I look back and I loved The Mothers, and then I was so nervous when The Vanishing Half came out. And I got an early copy of that book, and it sat on my shelf unread for months because I was so scared to read it, and then I loved it. Five stars. Go read Brit Bennett's back list. But I really had no interest in reading this one. We did not receive an ARC, and I did not download the e-galley. I don't even know if the e-galley was available to us because I just thought this will probably sell on its own. She wrote The Help. And I didn't even look up what it was about. Again, I knew that it would sell, especially here in the South. And then, y'all, it just keeps selling. It flies off of our shelves.

[00:21:10] And when copies arrived at our store, you can see a page count in a publisher catalog. But I don't really always pay attention to that. When this book came in, my mom wanted to read this book so badly and she came to the store, and she saw the page count, and she said, "Absolutely not." And I respect that. I think she's going to read it now. So I especially then was not going to read this book. But it kept selling, and one day I was working at The Bookshelf; it was a Saturday, and I had an errand to run, and I wasn't going to go home first. And I asked Kendall, I said, "What should I read? I just need to take something from the store." And she said, "Why don't you try Calamity Club?" And I thought, "You're right." We had already sold a couple copies that day, and I thought, "Everybody keeps talking about this. Members of my book club keep talking about it. Let me give it a go." Y'all, I loved it. I loved it. I thought it was worth the page count. Interestingly, hear me out, could have been longer, or some of it could have been edited and then a longer ending. That was my only qualm with this book, is I do have a little bit of an issue with how things were wrapped up. But I'm not going to talk about that. No spoilers. This book is about Birdie and Meg. It alternates chapter to chapter between their two voices. Birdie is a single woman. Her father has died.

[00:22:19] Her mother is down on her luck. We are in the Depression in Mississippi, 1930s. And she is sent to, I believe, Jackson, Mississippi or to the bigger city, to go find her sister, because her sister has married wealthy. And so it is Birdie's responsibility to go to her sister and ask for money for the family. And instead, when Birdie arrives, she realizes her sister's marriage is not quite what it seems, and she winds up staying longer than she intends. So that's Birdie. I loved Birdie's chapters. I love Birdie. Her storyline resonated with me, where she's comfortable with who she is, but other people aren't. And she is trying to do right by her family, but it feels like there's an obstacle at every turn. That's Birdie. Meg is a young girl living in an orphan's home in Mississippi. It is horribly run by these, I'm using air quotes, "Christian women" who find it their calling to, air quotes, "take care of these children." Her chapters are also very well told. Everybody keeps raving about the audiobook. The audiobook is fantastic. Did I want to listen to 29 hours or whatever it is? No, I did not. It was so much faster to read this book because this book is so readable. Olivia and I talk often about short chapters. The chapters in this book are so short, and this is so easy to read. You just fall into it. So I can recommend the audiobook. I listened to probably two hours of the audiobook one day while I was working at the store. But for me, the print edition was easier. But the narration is great.

[00:23:53] You get a very distinct feel of these two narrators, these two women. Birdie, who is grown, and then Meg, who is younger and then the way that their lives surprisingly intersect. I knew nothing going into this book, and I would argue that's the best way to go into this particular one. I laughed with delight when I figured out what the book was about and where The Calamity Club gets its name. But I knew nothing about this, and I think that's the best way to go in. I don't know if you'll be able to go in knowing nothing because this book has been out a while. But I thought it was great. I had a couple of qualms, especially after talking to some friends about this one. This would be a great book club book. One of my friends rightfully pointed out how maybe a couple of the side characters in this book were treated. I think those are fair criticisms. But I think this is one that could be worth reading and discussing in a group. And good news is probably a lot of people you know have already read it, so it'd be easy to have those conversations. I really liked this one. It was a pleasant surprise for me. That is The Calamity Club by Katherine Stockett. Next, I picked up The Three Graces of Pearl Street. This is by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins. It's a debut novel. I don't know how this found its way to me. I received an ARC, and I don't know if the publisher sent it to me. Elizabeth, are you listening? Somehow Elizabeth might have sent this to us. I don't know. But I was talking about this book on a Newsday Tuesday, and I sold it to myself, which sometimes happens. Isn't that great?

[00:25:16] Isn't that great, that I'm so good at my job that I can sell myself on books? So I had this ARC, but it did not make its way to the top of my pile, mostly because there are so many books releasing this fall and it's very hard to keep up. We're already receiving spring ARCs. I'm already being set up with spring appointments, which makes my head want to spin. So this one just never made its way to the top of my stack until I was talking about it on Newsday Tuesday during its release week. And I thought, "This sounds pretty good. Let me go home and give it a go." And I loved it. It's great. Feelgood novel, very much in the vein of Gilmore Girls, and since we're all starting our Gilmore Girls re-watch around this time how great? Here's a book. Here's a book that will also satiate that hunger. So the book is from the perspectives of three generations of Italian American women, Graziella, Grace, and Ella. Did you catch that? Graziella, Grace, and Ella, which very much reminds me of Lorelai and Rory. We're naming girls after the women in the family. Anyway, Graziella, Grace, and Ella. Graziella is a 90-something-year-old former nun who, gasp, runs away with a postal worker and instead becomes just a very vibrant member of this Italian American neighborhood in New York City, or outside of New York City. I'm sorry.

[00:26:34] Probably some New Yorker is reading this listening to this and is so incensed. I think this book is set on Long Island. I'm so sorry. Anyway, I cannot be sure. How about in, around, outside of New York City? Grace is her daughter. She is middle-aged. Probably for me, Grace's storyline is what I wanted more of or more out of. The thing that you should know about Grace is she is a professor, she's going through a painful divorce, and she's perimenopausal. And that's what she's experiencing. And so sometimes I wanted more from her, but she is going through a home renovation, which is very Nancy Meyers-coded, so enjoy that. And then Ella is our Gen Z representation. She has just gone viral or gotten sort of internet famous for stopping almost a bomb threat in New York City at a thrift store where she works. I'm realizing how this sounds. It all works. It all works. The women are vibrant, interesting. Well-rounded, well-crafted. I'm trying to think. Is this character-driven? Is this plot-driven? It's not like it's some deep character study. I definitely kept reading. Here's what you want to know.

[00:27:41] Ella has to come back and live with her grandmother after this kind of bomb threat experience. Grace, whose home is being renovated, also has to come back. So all three of these women are living back under the same roof. If you remember me talking about Body Language, which is by Meg Howrey, it also released this September, that is a book with similar vibes, for sure. I do think that book is doing something a little bit different. This one is about three different generations. Body Language is more about the three sisters' relationships. This is about three different generations. Perhaps weirdly, it reminds me of Old Lovegood Girls, and then Returns and Exchanges, which is a book I think I talked about on my summer reading recap episode. So if you like books about families-- and there is a slight, it's not like Olivia-level mystery, but there is a slight mystery element to this book surrounding the grandmother's life. Of course, you knew I had to pick this one up because she's a former nun, so that alone was compelling for me. But I loved all these people a whole lot, and I hope this one will get some traction because it's really... I think my mom would love this book. I really do. In fact, I should save my copy's around here somewhere, and I'm going to save it for her. It was great. Good, feelgood, and what I mean by feelgood is likable characters, redemptive storytelling and enjoyable. I loved being with these Italian women. I wanted to eat their food. That is The Three Graces of Pearl Street by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins.

[00:29:11] Then on recommendation from The Bookshelf team, I listened to The Only Plane in the Sky. This is by Garrett M. Graff. Years ago, I read and highly recommended Rise and Fall, which is an excellent journalistic account of 9/11. This is an oral history of 9/11, which is very compelling. I listened to the audiobook. It was just released in a 25th anniversary edition, and here's what I will say. The audiobook is unsurprisingly outstanding because it is an oral history, so it's a full cast, and occasionally you even get the real voices. It was a little startling to me. On some occasions, you get actual voicemails or actual phone calls. I think at one point early on I was getting ready for bed, and my headphones were in, and I was listening to one of the flight attendants' calls. And that was a little bit startling, but effective. Startling but effective. I was in the 10th grade when the Twin Towers were hit, and I have obviously very distinct memories. Everybody does. But as my friend Abby is so wise about saying at some point it becomes less about you and where you were and more about what actually happened and who was directly impacted. And over the last few years, I've tried really hard to honor September 11th and the people who died on that day. And so I think one of the ways I can do that, and one of the ways Jordan and I have done that in the past, is by watching documentaries or reading books. And this one was just excellent. It's obviously heavy. Perhaps for some readers, a physical copy might be better. And I do think this is a book I would like to own. And so that is The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff. I know that this episode is coming out after September 11th. I still think this would be a valuable book to add to your personal home library, and I do think it would be worth reading even still.

[00:31:06] And then last but not least, this month I read Switzy by Emma Cline. This, again, recommended to me by Olivia and Erin. I think Olivia got both me and Erin to read this one. This is an unusual Olivia pick, I will say. I think it's very literary, longlisted for the Booker, not a stereotypical kind of mystery thriller. Instead, the book is about David. David is on a plane from New York ultimately headed towards Switzerland, but first he's stopping in London to see his daughter. And this is no spoilers, you very quickly catch on because the book is told in these almost stream-of-consciousness paragraphs and sentences, and you quickly realize that David is battling dementia, and part of the reason maybe he wants to see his daughter is before his memory totally goes. And so you are on this journey with David. Actually, now wait a minute, I'm just realizing sometimes as I talk to you. Okay, so this book actually reminds me of The Rest of Our Lives, which was a Booker finalist by Ben Markovitz. I think this one is a little bit more successful-- well, was a lot more successful for me. So I'm not saying if you... if I did not love The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovitz, but there are elements of that here where it's like a man on a journey. This feels like The Rest of Our Lives meets Vigil by George Saunders. I think this is more successful than both of those books. So I really liked Vigil, but I am in the minority. I don't think very many people liked that book.

[00:32:36] So I'm here to tell you, try Switzy because it's dealing with the same things, but I think her storytelling... And this is so different for her. She wrote The Girls and The Guest, both of which are different from each other and both of which are very different from this. This book, you are entirely in David's head. Like I said at the top of the episode, reminds me weirdly of Turtles All the Way Down. Turtles All the Way Down, John Green wrote about a character's struggle with OCD, and by the end of that book, I really did feel physically ill. And I mean that with the highest praise. I felt like my own thoughts were spiraling. By the end of Switzy, I felt... now I'm doing crossword puzzles every night because I felt very drawn into David's world and very struck by his battle with dementia, and really the tragedy that dementia is and what it robs us from. This would be a great book club book. My friend and I wound up discussing and debating different aspects of the novel because David is obviously an unreliable narrator. And as you're reading, he's telling you things and it's very hard to know what David is telling the truth about and what he is misremembering. And so I do think this would be a great book club book. It is not a light read. This is, I think, relatively heavy in subject matter. Olivia said it did not make her sad. I was listening to the 9/11 book and then reading this, so I may have just been inundated with sadness but it did kind of make me sad. So Olivia said it didn't make her sad. It did make me a little bit sad. It made me introspective. That's the word I would use. It made me introspective. Hunter read this and loved it. My friend read this and loved it. Olivia read it and loved it. Erin is reading it now. So that is Switzy by Emma Cline, already been long-listed for the Booker. Wouldn't surprise me if we saw it in other awards conversations. And I'm very impressed by Emma Cline and her ability to change genres.

[00:34:31] Okay, those are the books I read in September. As usual with our Reading Recap episodes, we are offering a Reading Recap bundle. The September Reading Recap bundle is $81, and it includes three books: The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford, that releases on October 6th, you guys, so this whole bundle will release then will ship right before then or right on that date. The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford, The Three Graces of Pearl Street, and The Only Plane in the Sky, so you get that beautiful 25th edition or 25th anniversary edition of that book. Details and the September bundle can be purchased online through the link in our show notes, or you can go to bookshelfthomasville.com, type today's episode number, 600, into the search bar. So a bundle of three books, Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford, The Three Graces of Pearl Street, and The Only Plane in the Sky, for $81. Thank you so much for listening to this, our 600th episode, and happy reading.

[00:35:31] This week, I'm listening to Trust Fall by Lynn Painter

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:

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

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Annie Jones

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