Episode 578 || Literary Therapy, Vol. 27

From the Front Porch

The Bookshelf Thomasville

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

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2026

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on From the Front Porch, it’s a Literary Therapy session! Our literary Frasier Crane, Annie, is back to answer more of your reading questions and dilemmas. If you have a question you would like Annie to answer in a future episode, you can leave us a voicemail here. To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 578) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app. Anonymous Voicemail: Celestial Lights by Cecile Pin (backordered) Love by the Book by Jessica George Ordinary People by Diana Evans At the Pond by Margaret Drabble Anonymous Voicemail: Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler The Reservation by Rebecca Kauffman This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman So Old, So Young by Grant Ginder Before I Forget by Tory Henwood Hoen The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell Caroline Theo of Golden by Allen Levi Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevins The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Jeanette Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan Time of the Child by Niall Williams Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor Gilead by Marilynne Robinson The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon A Place at the Table by Susan Rebecca White Ordinary Time by Catherine Rentzenbrink Empire Falls by Richard Russo Tales of a Country Parish by Colin Heber-Percy Even After Everything by Stephanie Duncan Smith The Irrational Season by Madeline L'Engle and Graham Greene Trudy The Mothers by Brit Bennett This Is Where I Leave You byJonathan Tropper Flight by Lynn Steger Strong Commonwealth by Ann Patchett Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane Mercury by Amy Jo Burns Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson Like Family by Erin White Family Trust by Kathy Wang 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, Tiktok, 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 listening to Judy Blume by Mark Oppenheimer. 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...Ashley Ferrell, Beth, Cammy Tidwell, Gene Queens, Jammie Treadwell, Joseph Shorter IV, Kimberly, Linda Lee Drozt, Nicole Marsee, Stephanie Dean, and Wendi Jenkins.

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. It's not so bad when it finally happens.
0:26.6	You think the world is going to collapse around you, but it doesn't.
0:31.6	You can see yourself clearly again.
0:33.6	You realize that the fear was the worst thing.
0:41.2	Diana Evans Ordinary People
0:43.0	I'm Annie Jones, owner of the bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown
0:50.4	Thomasville, Georgia, and this week it's time for an episode of literary therapy.
0:56.7	If you are a new or newish listener of From the Front Porch, you might not realize that we are a
1:01.7	production of the bookshelf, a small independently owned bookstore in rural South Georgia.
1:07.0	By listening to our show and recommending it to your friends, you're helping keep our indie bookstore
1:11.9	in business. And if you like what you hear, one way you can financially support us is through Patreon.
1:18.3	Last year, we read the classic work Don Quixote together, and this year we're switching gears a bit,
1:24.6	with varied degrees of success, to read The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor.
1:30.1	For $5 a month, you can access our monthly Conquer-A-Classic Recap episodes, as well as our
1:36.2	porch visits, a monthly live Q&A where we talk about everything from pop culture to nail
1:41.7	polish to what books you should take on your next vacation.
1:45.6	To learn more about our various Patreon tiers and benefits, just visit patreon.com
1:51.6	forward slash from the front porch. Now, back to the show.
1:57.6	If you're new to From the Front Porch, every once in a while, I dive into the metaphorical mailbag and peruse your readerly hang-ups and bookish conundrums like a literary Fraser Crane, tackling your issues on air.
2:11.0	If you have your own readerly riddle you'd like me to solve in a future episode, you can leave me a voicemail at the From the Front Porch website.
2:18.6	That's from the front porch podcast.com forward slash contact. There's a link in the show notes too.
2:25.1	You'll just scroll until you see an orange button on that page that says start recording,
	...

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