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

She had known nothing at all of the natural world when she was raised in the city, and yet felt herself very wise in its ways.

And now, after having faced it in all her extremity, and after having learned so much, she sensed how deep her ignorance ran and felt dizzy by all that remained to be learned.

Lauren Groff, The Vaster Wilds

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia.

This week, I'm joined by my cousin and friend Ashley Sherlock to go off the shelf as we talk about what we're reading, watching, listening to, and buying this fall.

September is a big month for the bookshelf and for Thomasville. This month, we're helping the Thomas County Library relaunch our area one book program.

For 10 years, the Thomas County Library has hosted South Georgia's first and only one book program, where our entire community reads the same book together and celebrates that book with a variety of literary events.

This year, we're reading You're Not Listening, What You're Missing, and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy, and our celebration of Murphy's book will culminate in a visit from the author at the Thomas County Board of Education Auditorium on Thursday, September 28th.

Tickets are $10 and can be found in store at the bookshelf or online at OneBookThomasCounty.org.

You have plenty of time to get tickets and to read You're Not Listening along with us, so grab your copy at the bookshelf, the library, or read along with us from far away by snagging a copy at your own library or local indie or shop with us online.

Visit OneBookThomasCounty.org for more details about this year's events. We hope to see you there.

Now, back to the show. Hi, Ashley. Hello, man. It's been a long time.

It really has. I mean, an entire quarter since we've done this, but also maybe that same amount of time since I have seen you in person.

I think we saw each other. I wanted Caroline, our cousin, your sister, my cousin. She plans these get together with us every month, and I think we did one in July, but I don't think we did one in August, and I think that's why we're thrown off.

We definitely missed August. We had we had a good strike. We really did, but then once you once you miss it, it feels like you've missed a lot.

Yes. So this will be a real in real time ketchup. If you are new to the podcast, Ashley is a former bookshelf staffer, and she'll still pop in the shop from time to time.

She and I run the store. What is that holiday open house together? So you'll see her at the shop. She also runs her own.

What a communications firm. What do you call that? What do you call what you do? No, please don't call me a firm.

I think we should. I think we should. A one person firm. She runs a communications firm.

It's a content. You totally could, but it's content management slash creative direction. There we go.

So that's what she does in her air quotes spare time. We'll put a link in the show notes if you want more info.

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