Episode 559 || Staff's Favorite Books of the Year

From the Front Porch

The Bookshelf Thomasville

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

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week on From the Front Porch, The Bookshelf staff share their favorite books of 2025! To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 559) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app: Olivia: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy Erin: Life, & Death, & Giants by Ron Rindo Keila: Water Moon by Samantha Soto Yambao Kyndall: Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley 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 A Beautiful Year by Diana Butler Bass. 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. Books do not find value when they are written.
0:26.6	They find value when they are read.
0:29.6	Every book here is both worthless and priceless at the same time.
0:34.6	It depends on who you ask.
0:40.1	Samantha Soto Yambau, Watermoon.
0:45.8	I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. And as is tradition as we close out the year, I wanted you to hear
0:50.5	directly from the bookshelf staff members about their favorite books of 2025. Before we begin, I wanted to let you know that Annie's five-star books will be continuing
0:59.9	on Instagram in 26. If you're new here for $50 a year, you can become a part of my bookish
1:06.1	community online. Through my private Instagram account, you'll get access to my book reviews
1:10.7	and my monthly Instagram story Q&A get access to my book reviews and my
1:11.4	monthly Instagram story Q&A's where I share about the books I start but never finish, and I offer
1:16.8	other book recommendations too. If you follow me personally on Instagram, you've seen my reviews for years,
1:22.7	and of course, from the front porch listeners will always have access to my monthly reading recap
1:27.1	episodes.
1:28.2	The private Instagram is simply a place where I've become more detailed with my reviews,
1:32.2	and five-star book club members can also choose if they want any of my five-star reads
1:35.8	mail to them each month from the bookshelf. If you're giving up social media, like a lot of
1:40.3	people I know, no worries this year, or in 2026, rather, there will be a newsletter
1:46.1	component where you can have all of the reviews emailed to you directly in your inbox
1:50.7	quarterly.
1:51.8	Again, so you won't get emails all the time from me, but quarterly emails so you can get a recap
1:56.1	of all the books I've reviewed on Instagram.
	...

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