Welcome to From the Front porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

Girl, every choice you make is a new tomorrow. The world's waiting to be born.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and today I'm recapping the books I read in November.

As I record this, I am sitting in my dining room. It is beautiful outside. It is the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm feeling especially grateful for listeners of From the Front porch for long distance customers and local friends of the bookshelf.

This has been as so many of you already know in your own lives, a really hard year, and saying so out loud almost feels silly at this point because you know, and I know, but that's true.

But what a bizarre year in which to own a small business, and we are so grateful at the bookshelf, I am so grateful for the ways our community, both near and far, has shown up to support us.

And so thank you so much. I know it is past Thanksgiving for those of you listening to this, but as I record it, I am thinking and reminiscing about all the ways and all the things that even in a hard year, I have to be grateful for.

So thank you for being one of those things.

I read a lot of books in November, but before we kind of dive into my November titles, I did want to let you know that I finished two books I mentioned in the October reading recap, and I finished them end of October early November.

So I didn't fully get to review them. You may have already seen my reviews on Instagram if you follow me there, but I did just want to give a brief overview of those two titles.

So the first book was Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno Garcia. You've heard me talk at length about this one because of casting call the episode we did where we cast this book, which was very fun.

You can go back and listen to it, but I did just want to let you know, if you like Gothic literature, I do think this book might be for you. Overall, it was not necessarily for me. I loved casting it.

And as is so often the case, I don't know if you all find this to be true for you, but books that I sometimes feel ambivalent about or just so so about when I discuss them with other people, often that's in a book club setting, but maybe it might also be on from the front porch.

And I discuss the books. I find myself liking them more. So I do have good memories of Mexican Gothic. And as I think we said on the casting call episode, I will never look at mushrooms the same way, but I did wind up liking it. It just wasn't my favorite book I've ever read and I think that honestly is because I'm discovering

that nature is just probably not for me. I felt similarly ambivalent about Rebecca, which is a notorious classic. And so it may just be that this genre is not not one that typically appeals to me. So Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Marino Garcia, we cast it a couple of episodes back. And I wound up liking it, though not entirely loving it.

Next up was the Saturday night ghost club by Craig Davidson, when I was recording the October reading recap. This was the book I was currently reading. I was trying, if you'll recall to finish it in time for my book club. And I did like right before 30 minutes before my book club started, I finished it.

I loved this book. I think this would be a great one to add to your seasonal reading. It does not have to be read in October at all. It is not a Halloween book or anything, but the closing scene does into Halloween. And so it wound up feeling really perfect to read around that time.

I loved the setting of this book. This book was set in Niagara Falls, which kind of had this great small town wonder years vibe to the whole story. And I actually the wonder years is a great comparison for that book in general.

It is less a kind of scary ghost story and more a coming of age friendship book. If you like things like stand by me. Now and then if you like those kinds of titles, then I think you'll really like this book. I love the way he portrayed the friendships at the heart of the book.

I love the family that was at the heart of the book. I did not really want to leave them. I found them to be, I don't know, really lovely people. And so I want to really liking this one. It kind of surprised me. I expected to like it, carry win free author of not like the movies and waiting for Tom Hanks. She had posted about this on her Instagram, which was the entire reason I picked it up. And then my book club adopted it for their book club pick for the month of October. And I just, I think I said, I don't know.

I think I settled in thinking it was going to be this great seasonal ghost story. And it kind of was, but really what it was was right up my alley, which is this coming of age friendship tale. And I love that kind of book anyway. And then this one was really well written and thoughtful.

I just really liked it. I wound up marking a lot of spots in it. My book club overall enjoyed it. It was not exactly what all of us were expecting. But I think in most cases for the better like we wound up really enjoying it.

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