Welcome to episode 28 of From the Front Porch, a collection of conversations on books, small business,

and life in the South. I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in downtown

Thomasville, Georgia, and I'm joined today by my co-owner and friend Katie Chastain. Today, in light of the upcoming new 50 Shades of

Gray novel, which we both have opinions on, we are going to talk about our own literary guilty

pleasures and what we're reading right now. Before we get started, though, I do have a request. If you

are an avid listener or a friend of the

store or podcast, we would love your support. The bookshelf is competing for a Mission

Main Street grant put on by Chase Bank. It's $100,000 that we could use to beautify the store,

to increase staffing, maybe even pay off some of those pesky business loans.

So if you are interested in supporting our shop, even if you're far away, we would love your help.

We will put a link in the show notes to how you can vote for us.

We need 250 votes before, I believe, June 19th.

So we would love if you would click on over.

It's a simple voting process.

I do think need either an email address or a Facebook account,

but any and all votes will really help us get toward the next goal.

So thank you so much for your continued support of the store and of this podcast.

And I do hope if you get a chance, you will click on over through the link in the show notes.

All right, Katie.

Let's get started.

Okay, so let's talk about 50 Shades of Gray.

Okay, so full disclosure, I am the worst person to talk to about 50 shades of gray.

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