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

There's an old saying about stories and how there are always three versions of them.

Yours, mine, and the truth.

Emily Henry, Great Big Beautiful Life.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week, it's time for March Madness.

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So fun. Annie makes listening to her fun. She's just bright and cheerful.

Even if you haven't read what she's discussing, you love that she loved it.

Thank you so much to all of the reviewers who've left kind words and thoughtful reviews for our show.

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Now, back to the show.

For years, my husband Jordan has come on the podcast every March as part of our March Madness tradition.

While the NCAA College basketball tournament unfolds, we debate the bookshelf's top 16 bestsellers of the previous year until Jordan selects one as the champion, often based solely on vibes.

If this sounds a little chaotic, that's because it is.

Hi, Jordan.

Hi.

Welcome back.

I'm glad to be back. Sully based on vibes, I don't know. There's a lot that goes on in this microchip processor of mine, and it's not just vibes. I am pretty sure that right before we came on this show, you said, now this is the one where you just tell me what all the books are about, right? Like, I don't need to look anything up. Yeah, but I process very quickly. And so when you tell me, then that's when it feeds it into the microprocessor and then we see what comes out. It really puts a lot of pressure on me, the bookseller, to remember all the details about these 16 bestsellers. Yes. Because you did absolutely nothing. Well, that's what you signed up for, though, when you owned a book store. That's what you have to hand sell them to me, basically. So if you are a new listener, if you're a new from the front of porch listener, we do this every year. Olivia has narrowed the playing field for us. She is the selection committee. She has selected the top 16. I mean, she used data.

She didn't just, you know, off the top of her head. These are our 16 bestsellers, but she

seeded them. So she put the seeds together that she thought made the most sense. So you,

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