Episode 601 || New Release Rundown: October

Episode 601 || New Release Rundown: October
From the Front Porch

This week on From the Front Porch, it’s a New Release Rundown! Annie, Erin, and Olivia share the October releases they’re excited about to help you build your TBR. When you purchase or preorder any of the books they talk about, enter the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout for 10% off your order!

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 601), or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:

Annie’s books


Olivia’s books


Erin’s books

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 Children of the Wolf by Abby Geni. Olivia is reading Murmuration
by TJ Klune (November 17th, 2026). Erin is listening to Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li (October 13th, 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] Annie Jones: Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. [music plays out]

"My faith wanes and waxes. I am no wiser than I ever was. It is only that I've seen more than I'd ever seen."

  -Sarah Perry, Death of an Ordinary Man

[as music fades out]

[00:00:39] I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. Today, I'm joined by The Bookshelf's operations manager, Olivia, and our store floor manager, Erin, to give you a rundown of our favorite new books releasing in October. Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? You can spread the word by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. 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 then tell us what you think. Here's a recent review from Booked with Brady.

"Our lives are complicated and hard enough, and there is always so much chaotic energy around us. I am grateful for a comforting podcast that never fails to wrap its arms around me like a warm hug. Annie and her crew are delightful, giving the best book recommendations and hosting the most wonderful conversations. I've been a listener for years and plan to be for many years to come. The podcast is perfect for those that enjoy a calm, comforting listening experience while also gaining a mile-long TBR list. Five stars." 

Thank you, Brady, and thank you to all of the reviewers who've left kind words and thoughtful reviews for our show. We're so grateful any time you share From the Front Porch with your friends. Thank you for spreading the word about our podcast and about our bookstore, too. Now, back to the show. Hi, guys. 

[00:02:07] Olivia: Hello.

[00:02:08] Erin: Hello.

[00:02:09] Annie Jones:  It's October-ish. We're so close. So chilly, I need a jacket. No, I don't, but I want one. Listen, we are recording this at the tail end of September. This episode will come out the very beginning of October. I believe, as you are listening to this, it is October 1st. Yes. So happy October, everyone. Happy spooky reading season. Happy it might finally start to I don't know, you guys, dip in humid? Olivia's looking at me like absolutely not.

[00:02:37] Olivia: Don't say things you can't promise.

[00:02:37] Erin: We're like the people who keep rooting for that losing sports team. We're like, "This is the year. This is the year." Too soon. " This is the year we're going to win it all."

[00:02:44] Annie Jones: And some of us are rooting for losing sports teams. My college team sucks. My fantasy team sucks.

[00:02:50] Erin:  But Joe burrow's hanging in there for you. 

[00:02:53] Annie Jones: Listen, Joe Burrow's hanging in there, but my backup quarterback out second game. Second play of the second game, just like Joe Burrow last year. I told my friends, "I think I'm a witch." I think I have powers that I can only use against myself. 

[00:03:08] Erin: Very specific powers you have there. 

[00:03:10] Annie Jones: Such specific powers. Yeah. So it's October. I do love October. I do think perhaps maybe the humidity will drop, or at least in our minds, things will start to change. And it feels like we are solidly in fall. It's also a very big release month, so as usual, we are not going to talk about all the books coming out in October. A great way to keep up with a lot of the books coming out this month, though, is by tuning in on Tuesdays at 1:00 PM on Instagram, where Olivia and I break down, I don't know, anywhere from three to nine, 10 books.

[00:03:43] Olivia:  It's the whim of the morning. 

[00:03:45] Annie Jones: That's right. And it's whatever we want to talk about. But we are doing those Newsday Tuesday videos. They are live on Instagram, and then they live, for now, on Patreon, and they're for free. So you do not have to join us on Patreon at any tier. You can just pop on over there and watch those videos. So if throughout the month you're like, "What's coming out this week?" Generally, we're trying to keep up with that over at Newsday Tuesday. So Guys, do I need to give Keila credit for posting these books to the website? Michelle? Who's doing this? 

[00:04:19] Olivia: It's a podcast, so it's Michelle. 

[00:04:21] Annie Jones: Michelle. Michelle Thank you. God, the number of times this lingo has changed this year. Thank God for Michelle. Michelle is posting all of these books on the store website, so you can browse our podcast book selection super easily. Just go to bookshelfthomasville.com. You can type episode 601 into the search bar, and you'll see all of today's books listed, ready for you to pre-order or purchase. As usual, you can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and get 10% off your order of today's books. All right, are we ready? 

[00:04:54] Erin: Yeah.

[00:04:56] Olivia:  Let's do it. 

[00:04:57] Annie Jones: All right, my first book is one I have talked about a little bit on the podcast already. It is The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford. This is by Nafissa Thompson-Spires. It releases next week on October 6th. I love this book. It is, I would argue, perhaps more novella than novel. Lengthwise, it's not too long. Audiobook, it's four or five hours. I'm going to talk about the audiobook in particular in a minute. But the book is set in 1920s Oklahoma, in an all-Black community, where a bootlegger named Richard Milford, who has no shortage of enemies has been found dead. And the town cannot figure out what has happened. Everybody has a theory about what has happened. They're speculating. There's a lot of gossip about it. And we, the reader, get the perspective of his "four wives." Some of them are his actual wives, some of them are his romantic partners, some of them are his housekeepers. But we get the perspective from basically four women in the life of Richard Milford, and we get their perspectives on who he was/is, or is/was, and what might have happened to him. And then sprinkled or alternating, so you get a wife's point of view, and then you get this lovely chapter, I think, this is great, but you get this chapter from the perspective of the community itself. So kind of the royal "we" perspective. I loved this. I did not read Nafissa Thompson-Spires' previous work that was Heads of the Colored People. I am pretty sure that was, like, a National Book Award finalist. It wouldn't shock me. Actually, they just did the long list for the National Book Award, and this wasn't on there. I don't know. Hunter's up on all those book awards. I am less this one should, in my opinion, receive some accolades. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite backlist titles of all time, The Mothers, by Brit Bennett. I did listen to the audiobook, and I think Erin did as well, so she can weigh in, but the audiobook is narrated by Kevin Free, Kamali Minter, and Adenrele Ojo, and I thought they did a fantastic job. It is a fantastic listen. I loved the audiobook experience. I felt very immersed in it. But I also loved the writing enough where I wish I'd gotten a physical copy too. So Erin, what did you think? 

[00:07:06] Erin: Oh, I loved it. I probably will get a physical copy as well to keep. I think it deserves all the awards. I'm really impressed when people can pack truly what feels like a saga into 200 something pages. It’s incredible. 

[00:07:18] Annie Jones: Yes. That's the thing, it's a very well-rounded, complete story. You get all these different perspectives. I think it is primarily character-driven, but because you want to know what happened to Richard Milford, that kind of pulls you through. So even if you're a plot-driven reader, I think you might like this. But the way that she weaves a total and complete story and multiple perspectives of that story into such a short page count is really impressive. So that is The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires.

[00:07:46] Erin: Keila also read it and loved it. If you like to read like Keila, Keila also liked this. It's not a huge time investment, so if you are just like, "I just want to read a little something over the weekend," you could do it. It's very short.

[00:07:58] Olivia: I do love a minimal time commitment. So my first book is, I think almost everyone, a lot of people should be excited about this. It's Trunk Number 3 by Allie Millington. 

[00:08:08] Erin: Yes.  It's so exciting. 

[00:08:10] Olivia: I know. Out October 20th. I love Ali Millington. I'll read whatever she writes, I believe. Her picture books. She doesn't have a ton out so far, but I do think she's becoming a consistent and prolific writer. Trunk Number 3 is right in her wheelhouse of you're going to have an object that is personified. In this case, it's a suitcase called Trunk Number 3. Of course. And she's a grumpy trunk. She's happy staying closed in this dusty old shop. So sweet. I know. But then one day a little boy named Cleo steals her because he wants to run away because of problems at home where he just doesn't feel like he's in the right place. He feels like he keeps messing up and doing the wrong things, and so he's ready to just run away. As a child thinks that they could, which they won't

[00:09:07] Erin: how many times did you try to run away as a child? 

[00:09:10] Olivia: I think one time I made it to the end of the block, and then I was like "what am I doing?" 

[00:09:13] Erin: I don't have money or a car or identification or anything. 

[00:09:18] Olivia: But kids, they get upset and they do things. So Cleo steals this suitcase, takes it home, starts realizing everything you might need to run away that he has none of. And so he just angrily writes a note and slips it in this suitcase. He puts popcorn in it the first time. He was hiding it, so he puts popcorn, and he thought that would be his road trip snack. 

[00:09:41] Erin: It's a good snack.

[00:09:42] Olivia: Yeah. It's a good snack. Won't fill you up.

[00:09:44] Erin: No.

[00:09:44] Olivia: So Cleo puts some popcorn in there, and then the next time he opens it, the popcorn's gone, and in its place is a bunny. And then the next time he opens it, there's a note, and it's just "Hey, I see you've taken my bunny. I would like it back." And now Cleo's just "What's going on with this suitcase?" So he writes a note back in the suitcase, and that's how the correspondence starts. 

[00:10:11] Erin: Okay. 

[00:10:12] Olivia: So then you have back where the suitcase was from. It's called the Repertorium, and this little girl, Earl Grey, lives there with her adopted father.

[00:10:22] Erin: Great name. 

[00:10:23] Olivia: Yeah. And the Repertorium is this place where it's a library of forgotten items, where any time you touch one of the forgotten items, it brings you to a memory from that item. So they have it categorized: happy memories, thoughtful moments, peaceful moments, scary. And so you can just go in there and experience different moments. But the Repertorium is on its last leg because no one really goes there, and now they're running out of funding. So Earl Grey has her own issues, and through the correspondence with Cleo, they both come to terms with what they're dealing with and working with, and they find this friendship and some answers to some of the questions that they had about their life. It's very quintessentially Allie Millington, where you just have a big heart behind all of this that's happening, where you also have this quirky character. Earl Grey is hilarious and has no idea how the real world works. But you love her for it. It was so sweet. I've loved every second in that book. Ali is great. I will read whatever she writes. 

[00:11:27] Erin: She does such a good job of mixing a little bit of sadness and hard emotions, but it always ends up happy, I feel like. It always is heartwarming; would you say that's true probably? 

[00:11:37] Olivia: Oh, yeah.

[00:11:37] Erin: Yeah.

[00:11:37] Olivia: I feel like that's the middle-grade genre. At least a lot of what I read. Where it's like it has to be a little bit sad for it to feel realistic and for it to pull people in. But it's middle grade, so you always have a nice bow, even if it's not perfect, and you always have a happy ending.

[00:11:54] Erin: Yeah. My first book is Partita by Barbara Kingsolver. It comes out next Tuesday, October the 6th. I wasn't sure if I wanted to talk about this, and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to read this because the past few Barbara Kingsolver’s I've shied away from I think both for their length and their content. But I really used to read a lot of her books 20 years ago, 15 years ago. I used to read all of her books actually. So I really like her writing. But it's been the length that has put me off of her last few books. So this one I'm very excited about because I think I wrote it's 352 pages, which is still not short, but it's not 600 pages or 550 pages. It's like Demon Copperhead. So I am really excited about this one. It is about a character named Livia Cable. She grew up in rural Tennessee. So we're back in the Appalachian roots that Barbara writes so well about. But she's a music prodigy, and in this small town it makes her stand out in an uncomfortable way. Not like in a cool you've got talent way, but like a look at that weirdo who only is good at the piano kind of way. Isn't that's what people say? Piano weirdo. 

[00:13:00] Olivia: Hear them use that term all the time. 

[00:13:02] Erin: All the time. Maybe in rural Appalachian Tennessee they do. Who knows? Shout out if you're from there. So she and her brother Cyrus, they live with their mother who is angry and possibly abusive. Again, I haven't read this one. I wasn't able to get an ARC for this. 

[00:13:18] Annie Jones: You can't. 

[00:13:19] Erin: I haven't read it yet. I know. 

[00:13:19] Annie Jones: No one did.

[00:13:21] Erin: Okay, it makes me feel better.

[00:13:21] Annie Jones: And if you did, don't tell us. We're going to be mad. 

[00:13:23] Erin: It'd be funny if I was like, "Oh, I got one right here." No, I was not able to read this ahead of time. I'm so excited about it. But so her but her brother commits suicide when she is 11, so she feels abandoned because now she's left without that protection, without that solidarity in the face of this hard relationship with her mother. So we meet her in the beginning of the book. She's an adult. We come to understand pretty quickly that something happened to her that ended her music career. Something happened to her hand and she's unable to play like she used to, but she still teaches piano lessons. She's married to a dairy farmer and just has this good life. She's built a good life for herself. But she receives a phone call from a college flame this very passionate man who she met when she was a union organizer, and so they had this really flame relationship in college, and we don't really know why it flamed out. But she gets a call from him and he says, "I'd love to see you again, and you have a week to decide what you're going to do. Are you going to see me or are we going to put this to bed?" So during that week, you get a lot of back and forth between her childhood, memories of her childhood, chapters about her music career, chapters about her college experience and her fling with this man. So it's got a lot going on. From what I understand, there's even structure the way Barbara has laid out the chapters is the structure of a musical like a movement. There's different movements in a symphony. Oh my gosh, I wish I knew these words. Believe it or not, I was a music major for one year. 

[00:14:55] Annie Jones: We can’t all be classic musicians. 

[00:14:57] Erin: This is not paying off now, but not coming back to me now. So I think if you are a music nerd or you really understand this, I think the book will mean a lot more to you. You'll understand that some movements are supposed to be happy, and some movements are sad, and that's the way that the chapters are structured. But I do think if you don't know that, you can still read this. I think what you need to know gets explained to you. So if that puts you off of this book, I don't think that should. I think you should still dive into this one. It's been comped to Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, or maybe Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. So I think this is a very tight family drama with enough other stuff going on that it will be very interesting to a lot of people. So I'm very excited to read it, as is almost everyone else. So I feel like that's cheating by saying that. This is not a hidden gem. This is just a great book coming out next week, Partita by Barbara Kingsolver.

[00:15:51] Annie Jones: I can't wait to read it. I am peeved we didn't get an ARC, but it's fine. It'll be one of those that maybe it'll come out on a Newsday Tuesday, and I'll look at Olivia and be like, "I'm going to take this home." 

[00:16:00] Erin: Yeah, I’m taking this home with me. 

[00:16:02] Annie Jones: Yeah, so hopefully I'll get to read this one, because it sounds so good.

[00:16:07] Erin: It does. 

[00:16:07] Annie Jones: Okay, my next book is Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry. It is out next week as well. I have already talked about this one a couple different places, so I'll keep it short, but I love Sarah Perry. She is a fantastic writer out of Great Britain. She wrote The Essex Serpent, which I read and loved; Enlightenment, which I am looking at right now on my TBR cart. It's been there for a couple years. It's fine. I'll get to it. Sometimes. Listen, I haven't gotten rid of it because I am determined to read it. I like her a lot because she weaves these really great stories that tie in faith and doubt, and so I am used to her as a fiction writer. And when I was scrolling through Edelweiss placing our fall order, I saw this book by her, and I got really excited, and then I thought, "Memoir, nonfiction?" I was very confused. But Sarah and her husband lived down the street from her father-in-law, David, and they spent a lot of time together. Sarah and her husband don't have children. They weren't even caregivers, really. David was in quite good health. But they just spent a lot of time as a trio and had this really lovely, beautiful relationship. And this is no spoilers, literally it's in the title, David gets sick and he dies pretty quickly. And so the book is about what it was like for Sarah, and to some extent her husband, but really for Sarah, to all of a sudden be thrust into this role as caregiver. Or if not caregiver, to have to walk alongside someone as they move towards death. And I thought it was just a gorgeous reflection on aging, on an aging body, on how fast and how slow death can be. I think if anybody who has lost someone or who has been up close to watch somebody go through this process, I don't know, I thought about the few weeks, months I spent watching my grandmother in hospice care and things like that. And so I was deeply moved by this book. The writing is stellar. And I'm irritated because I read this on my Kindle and so I will be buying a copy, but there was a section that I read out loud to Jordan because it was unlike anything I'd ever read before, and it was so beautiful. And Jordan was not moved to tears because again Les Mis is about all that does it for him. But he was very moved. He was like, "Oh, that's beautiful writing." She is just a fantastic writer, and who knew, in both fiction and nonfiction. So this has already been long-listed for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. It wouldn't shock me if it might be among some other award rumblings. Would I categorize it as a grief book? Certainly could sit alongside Joan Didion, Year of Magical Thinking, CS Lewis Grief Observed. But it's also more about death. So honestly, the book that it reminded me most of is When Breath Becomes Air, which came out several years ago, which was just, again, gorgeous reflection on end of life told from the perspective of the person living it. I like this. I think it's a beautiful tribute to David and to just an ordinary person who lived ordinarily and then died ordinarily, and how much like birth, there is no such thing as an ordinary death. There is no such thing. And so I loved it. Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry, out October 6th. One of my favorite books of the year by far. 

[00:19:21] Olivia: I just feel like we should have ended on that note. 

[00:19:23] Annie Jones: Sorry, guys.

[00:19:24] Erin: Where do you go from there? You're like, "Yeah. My next book is eighth grade."

[00:19:32] Annie Jones: Your next book is about magic. 

[00:19:35] Olivia: All right, let me reel everybody back in. 

[00:19:39] Erin: Wipe your tears away. Let's go. 

[00:19:41] Olivia: Yeah. Sorry for this sharp turn, everybody. My next book is Brittle Magic by Kate O’Shaughnessy . It's out October 20th. All my books are out at the end of the month. October, man. I do feel like Kate O’Shaughnessy doesn't get enough shout-out and credit for her children's books. They sell so little here, which makes me so sad because they are so good and they are on par with an Ally Millington and a Kate DiCamillo. She's excellent. And for the most part, a lot of her books do take place in the South which is great, too. So this one is her first book that has any element of magic in it. All of her other ones are realistic. One of them is about a kid who escapes a cult. 

[00:20:24] Annie Jones: Invested. I'm in it. I'm into it now. 

[00:20:27] Olivia: I know. Apparently, parents don't like getting their kids books where they've escaped a cult. It's weird, but we move forward. This is about the Brittle family. Each member of the Brittle family has their own special magic that they can do. For instance, Shiloh is the character we follow. Her older sister can grow pumpkins and fruits the size of a house. Her mom does creative little sugar work, so she owns a bakery, but the sugar work that she does moves. She can make a carousel go around. It's little oddball pieces of magic like that. And how they know what their magic will be is before they're born, the night before their birth, their mom gets a dream of what their magic talent will be. So she knows, but on the night of Shiloh's birth she's a twin with her brother, she only dreamt of her brother's dream magic, not Shiloh. So Shiloh has grown up in this big family and not known her magical talent.

[00:21:29] Erin: It's like Coco.

[00:21:29] Annie Jones: Coco. 

[00:21:30] Erin: Coco? 

[00:21:31] Olivia: Encanto.

[00:21:31] Annie Jones: Encanto? 

[00:21:33] Erin: Encanto. Encanto, thank you. I was like, "What's the other..." 

[00:21:36] Annie Jones: We both got it wrong. 

[00:21:36] Erin: Sorry. Okay. But I love that premise.

[00:21:41] Olivia: It is very much like Encanto except the only thing is Shiloh does end up getting magic, but she finds out how to get her talent because she goes to her aunt whose talent is you pick a pickle, and from that pickle she can hold it and she can give you a fortune. 

[00:21:57] Annie Jones: Honestly, great. A pickle fortune. Would love to be a pickle fortune teller. Yeah. 

[00:22:03] Olivia: Let's replace fortune cookies with pickle fortunes immediately. 

[00:22:05] Annie Jones: Genius.

[00:22:06] Olivia: I thought you guys would appreciate that part. And Aunt Dee doesn't do this for any family members, for obvious reasons. But Shiloh is in the dumps about everything. They're about to do a big family reunion, so Aunt Dee is "I'll throw you a bone. Throw you a pickle." And, so Shiloh, through her pickle, learns that the way to find out what her magical talent is through what happened to her older brother who died before she was born, and they don't talk about him. His bedroom has stayed locked. His mother has not told anyone what his magical talent was. Their dad doesn't even know, and so now she kind of has to poke around into some family secrets and sadness to figure out what her talent is. And that is where Kate O'Shaughnessy and Allie Millington have in common, is there is going to be that moment of sadness and just troubles that they have to go through to get to the end, but it's always so well done. This is probably one of her more almost sillier books, I would say. But her other three before this were very deep, I would say, but really well done. Her writing is excellent. I loved Brittle Magic. It's not my favorite by her. I would say Lonely Heart of Maybelle Lane is. That was, like, her very first one. But this one is just as excellent, and maybe even good for a younger crowd, too, than her other books. So that is Brittle Magic by Kate O'Shaughnessy. 

[00:23:32] Erin: That sounds lovely, and what a perfect time. I love books with magic around spooky time. It's perfect in October. It is perfect. Okay, here I go on my string. I'm talking about books that everybody already knows about but I want to talk about them. 

[00:23:44] Annie Jones: If we didn't talk about them, guess what? Somebody would say something. Somebody would be like why didn't you talk about partita?

[00:23:47] Erin: I'm talking about them because I truly think these are going to be my favorite books of October. I'm talking about Peck & Peck by Bonnie Gormus. It comes out October the 13th. This is one of my most anticipated books. Now, I've heard rumblings that it's not as good, but I deny that. I deny that, and I will see for myself whether it's good.

[00:24:06] Olivia:  Also, who's getting the ARC? 

[00:24:08] Erin: I don't know. 

[00:24:10] Olivia: Yet again.

[00:24:10] Annie Jones: Guys, I did get an ARC of this. It's on my Kindle. 

[00:24:12] Olivia: Okay. I'm glad someone did. 

[00:24:14] Annie Jones: It's right over here. Listen, I struggle with sophomore novels. I get scared. I kept that Britt Bennett Vanishing Half forever. But people also had qualms with Lessons in Chemistry, and I loved that book.

[00:24:24] Erin: Yes. I remember. And Lessons in Chemistry was a slow build. It did not really take off, I feel like, until maybe a month or two after the book came out. 

[00:24:34] Annie Jones:  It was like The Correspondent.

[00:24:36] Erin: Yes. It just grew and grew and then we just could not sell. We were selling so many of it. And then of course with the TV show and everything, I am excited about this. I'll ignore the naysayers, but I think this book is for you if you ever watched an '80s or a '90s office movie, and the character worked at some sort of literary job in New York City, and you were like, "I love this," then this book is for you because it is truly, I think, a love letter to the literary places, the literary things. The main character of this book is a young man named Butter Gray.

[00:25:10] Annie Jones: Is he related to Earl Gray? 

[00:25:10] Erin: Maybe. Maybe older brother. 

[00:25:12] Olivia: Oh my gosh, maybe it's her long lost father.

[00:25:18] Erin: But he is a young man who has these-- again, from what I've heard, haven't read this book you guys, very excited about it though. But from what I've heard, he has these parents that are so well-written and such good characters, especially the mother, whose name is Rainy Gray, and she is a person who loves fonts and typefaces. These are her passions. These are the things she's excited about. And he grows up in search of purpose. He was born a twin, and the twin did not make it at birth, so he's also grappling his whole life with how do you live as a twin who isn't-- who you're not really a twin. Your twin is not there, but your identity is that you were born a twin. So he's searching for his purpose, for the meaning of his name because this book is a lot about names and how your name can affect you, and how your name can set your future. But he goes to work basically as an adult with the disapproval of his parents. He goes to work at a sort of a secretive literary journal called Peck & Peck. That's the place where he works. And a lot of people are talking about the building where this journal is set, like the offices of this building, of this journal is almost a character in itself. It's a love letter to New York architecture, and New York these office spaces that people would work in, and these older, beautiful buildings. The building itself is almost a character in this way. You know right off the bat that there's some sort of mystery. You meet Batter, and he has been in prison, and so you're like, "Why is he in prison?" Let's figure out what's happening there. So there is a lot going on. The bottom line is not to go in expecting Lessons in Chemistry. I do think there's going to be some similarities. Some of the touch points that I think are going to be similar are the banter that Bonnie is so good at writing, like the banter that we see and the monologues that we see in Lessons in Chemistry and that quick sort of wit I think you'll see that as well in this book. Well-written characters that you will remember, you will also see them in this book. And also just vivid descriptions, like I was talking about, of the time, of the era, of the place, which I think she was good about writing that in Lessons in Chemistry as well. You really felt that time period, and you felt the restraints, and even the clothing, and you could feel it all when you read that book. So that's what I'm looking forward to in this. Again, it is not Lessons in Chemistry. Don't go into it expecting that. But I do think you will see some of the hallmarks of Bonnie's writing in this book too, and I'm just excited to see where this character goes. So that's Peck & Peck by Bonnie Garmus. Comes out October 13th.

[00:27:50] Annie Jones: I am going to read this one, because I love all the things that you mentioned. So I am excited. It's got a great autumnal cover too. 

[00:27:56] Erin: Yes. 

[00:27:58] Annie Jones: My last book is Bad Words. This is by Rioghnach Robinson. It comes out, again, October 6th. So all of my books come out at the top of the month, so you can read all my books, and then you can read all Olivia's at the end. Again, this is a book I've already talked about a couple different places, but I love this. I think you're going to see it quite a few places. It's a romance, and I think that's what publishers are really going to bill it as. But to me, it's just great fiction. It's Yellowface meets Beach Read. Our two main characters are Selina and Parker. Parker is a writer. His first book received rave reviews. It was going to be a big deal. He got a big advance for it, and then the night before it came out he got a scathing review written by Selina, and the book flopped. It completely impacted sales. And so now he's written his second book, and he's very nervous. He got a much smaller advance. It's from a different public- Like, he is... Basically, his career was affected by Selina's review. So now he's got a second book coming out, and of course, Selina's editor has assigned her to write the review because it got a lot of clicks, got a lot of attention. So she writes another not great review of Parker's next book. And so the whole book is not only, of course, enemies to lovers and what happens when two people who hate each other maybe fall in love. Of course, it's about that. So while it is a romance novel, to me, what it is really about is criticism versus art. And what role an artist, an author, a writer plays in culture, and then what role a critic plays in culture, and actually how the two affect one another, and how the two, for better or worse, work alongside each other. Both of their careers are dependent upon the other. It's a fantastic romance. It's a well-written love story. I think fans of Emily Henry will really will like this. My favorite Emily Henry book is Beach Read, and I think I like it because of the way it talks about publishing and writing. And so I think if you like books that are set in the publishing world, if you like the television show Younger, I think you will like this because I think it's a very realistic portrayal of the book industry and about professional critics, and then critics like us that are on this podcast, or Bookstagrammers, or whatever, and the kind of the role that type of critic is playing. Anyway, I really love this one. Again, I think it could be a lot of places. Wouldn't shock me if it was, like, a GMA pick or a Jenna pick. Very accessible. Very fun. I loved it. So that is Bad Words by Rioghnach Robinson. 

[00:30:26] Olivia: Did she actually not like his books? 

[00:30:29] Annie Jones: Correct

[00:30:31] Olivia: okay. Oof, that's hard to then turn around and fall in love.

[00:30:33] Annie Jones: Yes, it is, and I thought it was really realistic. I think it's a very well-written love story. That would be tough. Might be tough. 

[00:30:42] Olivia: Yeah. You got to respect the other person's work. My last book is The Killing of a Chestnut Tree by Oliver K Langmead. This is out the very end of October 27th, which is great because I do think this is a really great actually November book than October. This is super short. It's 180 pages. It was so quick. I remember starting it on my e-reader, and then I looked down at one point and they were like, "30 minutes to the end of the book," and I was like that's the size book that I need going into the rest of this year.

[00:31:15] Annie Jones: Correct. Yeah. 

[00:31:16] Olivia: This is like a Sherlock Holmes and Watson take, but if they were gay and in love. Which is right up my alley of what I want with everything. 

[00:31:27] Annie Jones: That sounds like just what Olivia wants. 

[00:31:29] Olivia: So it's about Havelock Harper is the Sherlock character, and then Major Sebastian Wright is the Watson character. And just like in that duo, the Watson writes all their mysteries down and documents them, but what goes out to the public isn't necessarily what they keep written. They do not tell the public about their relationship together at all, so no one really knows about that. At the start of this book, we meet a character who's coming to them with a mystery in hopes that they will help them solve. And so he goes to their house and tells them what's going on. He's a night watchman, and he keeps finding these flower petals all over the place, and the guy who works with him and that man are trying to figure out what's going on together. And so Havelock is basically just "I'll take your case." And then after the guy leaves, he turns to Sebastian and he's like, "I already know what happened." So then you go to the part two, and part two is they have sent that night watchman the manuscript of The Killing of a Chestnut Tree, which is the murder of the Duke of Farleigh. And the night watchman's "I'm not sure why you sent me this because this has nothing to do with the mystery that I brought to you." So the Duke of Farleigh is a tree, and he got chopped down in this tiny little town called Farleigh which is buried in the forest. And Havelock and Sebastian go there. They did not know it was a tree before they arrived there, so they are shocked to learn that it's a tree that they are sure figuring out. And so they look around. As they're, like, there longer and longer, they start to realize these trees have words written in their branches and the bark, which for a moment you're just like, "Oh no, is this fantastical?" And it is not. The way they wrap everything together, it's not. Because I would've been disappointed, and probably wouldn't have been talking about this book anymore. But they figure out what's going on with the tree. It takes two parts of the book. The town is very fascinating, and the way Havelock and Sebastian work is very akin to Sherlock and Watson, but also unique because they have this relationship. And they do keep referencing a past case that really knocked them down. I'm not sure what happened, but I know that it took a toll on both of them, and this moment in Farleigh kind of rekindles everything that's happening between them. So then at the end of the book, after the Duke of Farleigh mystery, you get the night watchman finishing and he's reading it with the guy who's figuring out the flower petal thing and they realize together why they got sent this manuscript. It was really interesting the way it was all done. Where it was almost two very separate mysteries in one. But the middle section where you're in Farleigh takes you completely out. I forgot about that first part happening because you're so immersed in what's going on in that town with that forest. I absolutely loved it. I saw today that they're doing a second one. I will be reading it. They're just so fun to pick up because it's so short, and it's such a good mystery to read. The relationship between them really is not a big part of the book at all. It's mostly what's happening in the mysteries, and if you like the way Sherlock solves cases, then you will like The Killing of a Chestnut Tree. It was great. 

[00:35:03] Annie Jones: That sounds really fun. 

[00:35:06] Olivia: It was great. 

[00:35:06] Erin: It has a really good striking cover, too. I always like a book with a good cover. It's got the tree, like- The 

[00:35:12] Annie Jones: The cover's pretty.  Feels very cozy. 

[00:35:14] Erin: Okay, I guess I'm going. My next book, now listen, this is a middle grade book, so this is normally Olivia's purview to talk about these types of books, but I saw it. It's called This Is a Door by Daniel Nayeri. It comes out October 27th. His book, everyone probably knows he wrote a very popular book called Everything Sad Is Untrue, which we still sell copies of it now. It came out a while back and it's still really popular. Which did you guys know? I did not know this, but that phrase, everything sad is untrue, originates from Lord of the Rings. Maybe Jordan knew that.

[00:35:49] Annie Jones:  Jordan knew that because he saw me reading it and he was like "oh."

[00:35:52] Erin: Yeah, I did not know that. I thought, "Where is that phrase?" Because I've seen that a lot and I thought, "Let me look up the origins," and it comes from Lord of the Rings, which I love that. But this one intrigued me. I will say I am reading it on my Kindle and I will talk about this later, but don't read it on a Kindle. You can't. The formatting is almost impossible to read, and the reason is which I will tell you later. So I'm having a hard time getting through it, so I'm excited to hold a physical copy in my hand and read it that way. But this book follows a young boy who's 12. His name is Nothing the Younger. His mother died in childbirth. His father abandoned him. And so he's basically just been taken under the wing of this widow in town named Nana. And I think they actually say it's set in a country far away in a time long ago. So you're just supposed to understand it's not in this current time and it's somewhere far away. So he's been taking care of this older woman. As he got older, he's just doing jobs for people in the city to help out make money and things like that. He has this dog, he has a companion dog whose name is Poppy, which, what a great name, and in the very first chapter he meets a mouse named Momo, and the dog talks and the mouse talks. So if you're not ready for a talking animal book, this is not for you. But he basically is trying to find his life purpose, and Nana says, " you're never going to know your life's purpose unless you go find your father and you figure out what your name should've been." Again, we're back to names and life purpose and things like that, but so he goes on this journey. I just love the way that Daniel has taken this true hero's journey we've seen for thousands of years even from the Odyssey to other things. And he's condensed it down and made it so accessible for young people, for late elementary all the way through adulthood, made this so welcoming. And we watch people call this kid Ing for short, I-N-G, just short for nothing. So Ing goes on a journey. He goes through the land of the dead. He goes on a quest with a prince to try to kill some sort of dragon-ish type creature. He takes up as an apprentice to a moonlighter. So it is a true fun hero's journey, and what makes it hard to read on Kindle is that Daniel plays around with where the words are on the page. So if he talks about somebody falling, the words are going to be shaped like someone's falling. If he talks about something being on the floor, the text will be on the floor, and the text spirals so it's incredibly hard to read on a Kindle. I don't even know why I'm trying. But I'm trying to get the story, get through it. It's doesn't have any pictures, but he's really painted such vivid pictures with the way that he even chooses the font and the way that it lays. And so I'm so excited to see this in person. Again, has a beautiful cover. But there's just one quote I want to read because as I was reading, I thought, "This is a really beautiful quote." It says, "Sometimes a person will sacrifice their own dreams to feed their family, and that is noble. Sometimes a person will say they're sacrificing for their family, but really they're just hiding from their dreams, and that is a shame. It seemed to the boy named Nothing that it would take wisdom to know which is which, and that both could be true. I just thought that was such a beautiful quote.

[00:39:02] Annie Jones: God, he's such a good writer.

[00:39:03] Erin: Daniel does it so well. So I'm so excited. This comes out October 27th. It's called This Is a Door by Daniel Nayeri. 

[00:39:10] Annie Jones: Those are the books that we are previewing for October. You can find all of them on bookshelfthomasville.com. Don't forget you can use the code NEWRELEASEPLEASE at checkout and get 10% off your order of today's titles. And follow along on Instagram, watch our Newsday Tuesday reviews if you want to know what else is releasing this month. This week I'm reading Children of the World by Abby Jenny. Olivia, what are you reading?

[00:39:34] Erin:  I'm reading Murmuration by TJ Klune. 

[00:39:38] Annie Jones: And Erin, what are you reading? 

[00:39:40] Erin: I'm listening to Music Against the Night by Yiyun Li

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

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Annie Jones

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