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

They were not afraid of making something new. They knew that creation, like faith itself, could be perilous.

But they believed that the only way to survive was to keep creating.

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

Do you love our literary therapy episodes? Well, this may we're doing it live.

I will be doing 15-minute literary therapy sessions on Tuesday, May 16, via Zoom.

We can chat together about your reading routes, book club dilemmas, and what titles to add to your TBR.

To book an appointment, you'll need to purchase a ticket from the bookshelf website at www.BookshelfThomasville.com.

There's also a link in our show notes. Tickets are $30 and $5 will go toward your future bookshelf purchase.

This would make a great Mother's Day present, or be a fun way to treat yourself this spring.

Spots may go quickly, so book or gift your appointment today. I cannot wait to be your very own Frazier Crane live and in person.

Well, on Zoom, anyway.

On to my April reading. My April reading month was significantly less prolific, I think, than my March reading month.

And that is fine. In March, I wound up reading all total, I think, 15 books, which was remarkable and super fun.

And also, quite frankly, too many books for me. They might not be too many books for you, and that's fine.

But it was a lot of books. And so this month, there was a lot of life going on, and my reading diminished significantly.

But that's okay. I'm quite happy with that. And at least one of the books, maybe two of the books I read this month are going to be in my top 10 of the year.

And so that feels like a pretty good reading month to me.

The first book that I want to talk about is actually a book that I finished at the tail end of March, but I finished it after I recorded the last episode.

And I wanted to let you know just how much I enjoyed it, because it's a debut, and I'm afraid it may not get some of the attention I think it deserves.

So that book is called The Second Ending. This is by Michelle Hoffman. It's a debut novel and a paperback original.

I think it was originally scheduled to be a hard back, but this book is releasing in paperback. And it comes out on May 30th. So you have some time to pre-order this one.

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