Welcome to episode 34 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 today, I'll be recapping the books I read in July.

Before we get started, I wanted to thank you listeners for ranking and

reviewing us on iTunes. Every time you do that, it helps spread the word about the bookshelf and the

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review us. You can do that by accessing the podcast app on your iPhone or by going to the link to iTunes that we will provide you in the show notes today.

So July has been a long month, but not a great reading month.

Normally I try to read a couple of books a week, ending up with about eight or nine books a month,

sometimes more, sometimes less.

This month I have only read four books.

I will admit to starting, I started eight books, and somehow these are the only four I have finished this month.

I don't know whether to blame the oppressive southern heat and humidity

or if I've just been too busy watching things in my Netflix queue. But I haven't read very

many books, but the books I have read I have really enjoyed. So I thought I would just walk

you all through those as I typically do at the end of every month. I will also warn you that I am choosing to record this late on a Wednesday afternoon

from my office at the bookshelf, so things might get a little weird.

So that being said, the first book I read in July was Kitchens of the Great Midwest.

That book is written by Jay Ryan, and I believe his last name is

Stradell, S-T-R-A-D-A-L, if you're at home and taking notes. Kitchens of the Great Midwest just

released the last week in July, but I was able to get my hands on an advanced reader copy.

This is a book that kept kind, kind of coming up when I

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