Welcome to episode 44 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 beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

And today I'm joined by a very special guest, New York Times bestselling author, Gretchen Rubin,

stopped by the podcast this week. We chatted about her book The Happiness Project

and its selection as our one book 2015 for Thomas County. Later in the episode, I also

chat with executive director of the Thomas County, Thomasville Chamber of Commerce, Lauren

Bassford. Lauren and I are both on the One Book Thomas County Committee, so we'll be sharing

all of the details about One Book 2015. Before we get started, let me just remind you that if you

are new to the area or new to listening to the podcast, you can find full details about One Book Thomas

County at www.1.1bookthomas County.org. The bookshelf proudly partners with the Thomas County

Public Library to bring this event to town every year. And I hope that if you are locally listening,

you will find your way to the website and to some of our events.

And even if you're a friend from afar, maybe you can take some of the ideas that we've implemented here in Thomasville and take them into your own communities.

Let's go ahead and get started.

Hi, Gretchen.

Hello.

Welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me today.

Oh, I'm so happy to be talking to you.

Thomas County is very excited to see you come to our neck of the woods in just a few weeks.

And I kind of wanted to give people a preview of what we can expect when we see you in person.

Your last few books have really kind of set you apart, I think, as an expert on happiness

...