Episode 556 || Conquer a Classic 2026 Announcement

From the Front Porch

The Bookshelf Thomasville

Arts:books, Arts, Books, Fiction, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on From the Front Porch, we announce our Conquer a Classic book club selection for 2026! We’re excited to announce A Year With Flannery – a communal exploration of Georgia author Flannery O’Connor’s short stories (and novels). Listen to learn how to join our From the Front Porch Patreon Conquer a Classic book club (you’ll also find details below). To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 556) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app: From the Front Porch Patreon Conquer a Classic 2026 Collection The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor Conquer a Classic 2026 Bundle This bundle includes The Complete Stories The Violent Bear it Away Wise Blood Mystery & Manners: Occasional Prose Now is the perfect time to join the From the Front Porch Patreon community and our Conquer a Classic Book Club. One perk of being a Patreon member is being a part of our super-popular, year-long Conquer a Classic book club! Each year, Annie and Hunter select a classic book and read it with our Patreon community over the course of the year. Our Conquer a Classic book club begins in January 2026. Your Conquer a Classic orders ship by Friday, December 12. Join our Conquer a Classic book club: Step 1. Join the Patreon here. You’ll unlock bonus episodes of the podcast where Annie and Hunter discuss Flannery’s works, plus discussion forums with other Conquer a Classic book club members. Step 2. Buy your copy of THE COMPLETE STORIES or your Conquer a Classic bundle here. Your order will include an exclusive reading guide and bookmark. Your order will ship by Friday, December 12. On Patreon, you can choose from two different tiers to join our Conquer a Classic book club: For $5/month, you get: Monthly Conquer a Classic recap episodes with Annie and Hunter for THE COMPLETE STORIES Monthly Porch Visits on Zoom with Annie For $20/month, you get: Monthly Conquer a Classic recap episodes with Annie and Hunter for THE COMPLETE STORIES Monthly Porch Visits on Zoom with Annie Quarterly book club conversations about O’Connor’s books: WISE BLOOD, THE VIOLENT BEAR IT AWAY, and MYSTERY AND MANNERS Biannual movie recap episodes with Annie and Hunter: FLANNERY (2019) and WILDCAT (2023) From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf’s daily happenings on Instagram and Facebook, and all the books from today’s episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com. A full transcript of today’s episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations. This week, Annie is reading The Midnight Show by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne. If you liked what you heard in today’s episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We’re so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.
0:08.0	In your In Yourself right now is all the place you've got.
0:28.3	Flannery O'Connor, Wiseblood.
0:32.3	I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown
0:37.0	Thomasville, Georgia,
0:38.4	and this week we're keeping things short and sweet with our 26 Conquer a Classic
0:43.3	announcement. Since 2020, Hunter McClendon and I have been leading from the front porch
0:49.1	and bookshelf fans and readers through a conquering of a classic work of literature.
0:55.7	These are the books we know we wouldn't make time for without holding each other accountable, the white whale books that have
1:00.8	been on our literal and metaphorical TBRs for far too long. These classic books also tend to be
1:06.8	titles we don't want to rush through. Hunter and I are both naturally fast readers. We tend to
1:12.6	binge our books, remembering how they make us feel, but, and I'll just speak for myself here,
1:17.9	not necessarily remembering the details that might make them special. I don't think there's
1:22.8	anything wrong with that, but I have come to think of reading slowly and deliberately as a spiritual
1:28.4	practice, a kind of in your face to a world that moves fast and is slowly ruining my attention
1:35.2	span. Each year, we take 10 months to make our way through the classic work, even if we could
1:41.4	read it faster, looking at you, Lonesome Dove, or we would otherwise
1:45.7	never finish. Probably you, Don Quixote. So in 2020, we read Anna Karenina. In 2021, Middle
1:53.5	March, 2022, Count of Monte Cristo, 2023, Bleak House, 2024, Limpsome Dove, and this year, in 2025, we officially read and conquered Don Quixote.
2:09.3	Now, for 26, we're breaking format just a little. We are conquering the complete stories by Flannery O'Connor. Every month on Patreon,
2:21.1	Hunter and I will recap between three and four short stories from O'Connor's National Book
2:25.9	Award-winning collection. All of our Patreon tiers, the five, $20, and $50 a month members,
	...

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