Front Porch Book Club

It’s July, so we have a great beach read! It’s a new novel by debut author Lindsay Goldstein. In GAP YEAR, within one evening Jane’s marriage has suddenly ended and her daughter has gone off to Spain for a Gap Year. With the dissolution of her marriage, Jane makes a spontaneous decision to take a gap year of her own and accomplish her lifelong dream of climbing Cotopaxi, the Ecuadoran volcano, and...

Our first co-author interview! We meet Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne, the funny and thoughtful authors of THE MIDNIGHT SHOW. These two have great writing chemistry that s evident on the page and in our discussion. They have co-written three previous novels and are also independent authors. We discuss how they came to write together and how their co-writing has evolved over four books. We're th...

Our book this month is called THE MIDNIGHT SHOW and it was written by two authors: Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne. This isn’t a typical novel: the entire book is of the memos, interviews, old news articles, emails, voice mails, and transcripts that our lead character, Madeline Cohen accumulates. Madeline is a writer for Rolling Stone magazine. She pitches a story that will look back to 1980 to the...

This episode we interview Jane Park about her debut novel, INHERITANCE. Jane is a second-generation Korean-Canadian writer. She was born in Edmonton, Alberta, lived in New York City for over a decade, and now lives in Calgary, Alberta. INHERITANCE is her debut novel. Linny was excited to identify the similarities of Jane’s life and that of her leading character in INHERITANCE, Anne. In INHERITANCE...

In INHERITANCE, a debut novel by Jane Park, we meet Anne Kim, a successful New York attorney. Anne has returned home to the Canadian prairie to bury her father. Memories of her upbringing as a second-generation Korean immigrant start to crowd Anne, but she finds little help from her mother and brother. Her mother wants her to forget the past. Her brother, dealing with substance abuse issues, wants...

KATE SCHATZ joins us on the front porch for a rollicking and deeply felt conversation about her novel, WHERE THE GIRLS WERE. She's the New York Times-bestselling author of the RAD WOMEN book series; the novel WHERE THE GIRLS WERE; the 33 ⅓ BOOK RID OF ME: A STORY; and DO THE WORK: AN ANTI-RACIST ACTIVITY BOOK, co-written with “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell. Kate tells us WHERE THE G...

Today we’re reviewing the book, WHERE THE GIRLS WERE by Kate Schatz. This book is set in 1968 San Francisco. Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Phillips, whose nickname is Baker, is a high school senior. She’s set to be her school’s valedictorian, she plans to go to Stanford for college and become a famous journalist, and probably live in Paris along the way. But then, her older and more free-wheeling c...

We loved interviewing Debra Curtis about her debut novel book, LAWS OF LOVE AND LOGIC. Debra is fresh from her appearance on the Today Show and a dinner honoring her thrown by Jenna Bush Hager. Debra tells us the idea of writing a novel snuck up on her in her 50s. The story of these two sisters, Lily and Jane, was influenced by Debra’s experience as a sister and as the mother of twin sisters. The...

Our book this month has JUST been released. In fact, the publisher shared an Advanced Reader Copy with us so we could review it as it’s being released. The book is LAWS OF LOVE AND LOGIC by Debra Curtis. Dutiful and romantic, Lily Webb is growing up in Rhode Island in 1976 and is in love with her high school football star boyfriend. There are two huge events which alter the course of Lily’s charme...

In a heartfelt conversation in this episode, author Quế Mai shared her inspiring journey as a writer and the powerful themes explored in her novel, DUST CHILD. The discussion illuminated the significance of reclaiming narratives that have long been silenced, particularly the stories of Vietnamese women during and after the Vietnam War. Quế Mai’s passion for storytelling was ignited in her childhoo...

Dr. Bryan Denny joins us to further our understanding of emotional regulation research, particularly research that combines traditional diagnostic approaches with neurobiology. Bryan is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University and Director of the Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. Bryan 's research is a fascinating com...

DUST CHILD, by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, catapults us into the interconnecting lives of those caught in the brutality of the Vietnam War. We meet Dan, an American who is returning with his wife to the country where he was a young GI fifty years earlier. We are transported back in time and meet two Vietnamese sisters during the Vietnam War. We meet Fong, an Amerasian man born from a Vietnamese woman and...

A new year means a Front Porch Book Club book that will help us think about who we want to be in 2026 and give us some idea of how to become that person! This year, we chose SHIFT: MANAGING YOUR EMOTIONS -- SO THEY DON'T MANAGE YOU by Ethan Kross. The book was published just last year in February of 2025, and it was an instant national bestseller. It was one of Oprah's daily best self-help books f...

Today we interview Lois Lowry about her book, THE GIVER. Lois Lowry has written more than 20 books for young adults and is a two-time Newbery Medal winner. Lowry was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, elementary school in Carlisle, PA, and attended junior high school in Tokyo, Japan. Lowry attended Brown University and majored in writing. She left school at 19, got married, and had four children before her...

It’s December, so we are continuing on with our tradition of doing a kid’s book, but this year, the kids are a little older. This is more like a young adult novel. Our book is THE GIVER written by Lois Lowry. It became an instant classic when it was published in 1993. That year, Lowry won the Newbery Award which is given by the American Library Association to the author of the most distinguished c...

This is a short, catch-up episode of the Front Porch Book Club. Nancy admits that she ran out of time finding a guest for Crazy Rich Asians. Kevin Kwan was unavailable (!) as were a number of the experts Nancy contacted. Instead, we catch-up on what is going on in our lives. Linny tells Nancy all about her latest paid extra gig, a feature film, based on a documentary about a Washington, D.C. man w...

This month we’re talking about CRAZY RICH ASIANS by Kevin Kwan. This book was published in 2013. This is basically a romantic comedy. In fact, a movie of the same name was released in 2018 based on this book. CRAZY RICH ASIANS is the first book in a trilogy, with the other books being CHINA RICH GIRLFRIEND and RICH PEOPLE PROBLEMS. Rachel is an economics prof and her boyfriend Nick is a history pr...

Today we interview Dr. Taiwo Bello about the historical and contemporary contexts of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. Nancy loves this interview because neither she nor Linda knew anything about the Biafran War. Linny likes that we then talk about lessons we can learn so we don’t repeat those mistakes. Taiwo Bello is an Assistant Professor of African History and an affiliate facult...

This month we’re reading HALF OF A YELLOW SUN by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Listeners might remember Episode 88 when our guest to discuss Chinua Achebe’s THINGS FALL ABOUT, Dr. Thomas Jay Lynn, mentioned one of his favorite books about Africa was HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. We made a note of that, and here we are! Chinua Achebe’s THINGS FALL apart was one of Linny’s favorite books we’ve read. So, she was...

Today we interview Dr. Ted Hamann about EDUCATED, a memoir by Tara Westover. Ted is the Charles Bessey professor of teaching, learning and teacher education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Ted is an anthropologist of education with a primary scholarly focus on the interface between education policy and practice. He is author/editor of 14 books/monographs/journal special issues and has publi...

Our September book, EDUCATED, is a memoir by Tara Westover. The youngest of seven children, Tara recounts her experience growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, living mostly in isolation with her family, no formal education, not much money, and few ties to the surrounding community. Against all odds, Tara decides to follow the example of an estranged brother who has gone to college. He...

We chat with Laura Rudacille, author of this month's book, CATCHING STARS. She is an author and event speaker, specializing in women’s enrichment.  Laura has written five novels and contributed inspirational articles to four publications. She’s a licensed cosmetologist and salon owner in York, Pennsylvania. Yes, that’s where Linny lives! For ten years, Laura served as choreographer for a local hig...

It’s the summer of great beach reads on the Front Porch! This month we travel to Chincoteague Island. And, Linny this very next weekend is, in real life, on her way to the shore right near Chincoteague! But, in our book this month, CATCHING STARS, Lindy Colton tries to forget her violent father by leaving her beloved mom and their home on Chincoteague Island to chase her dream of becoming a famous...

In this episode, we’re discussing a brand-new book titled I WILL BLOSSOM ANYWAY by Disha Bose. This is a book about a young expat, Durga, who has moved from her native Calcutta, India to Ireland. Durga comes from an educated, middle-class family that observes traditional Indian ways, including “arranged” marriages. Durga is anxious to escape what she thinks of as the confines of her family and lea...

Today we interview Erica Slason about THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE, by James McBride, and its setting in Pottstown, PA. Erica Slason joined the Historical Society of Montgomery County as archivist in 2022. Pottstown is in Montgomery County. Erica has written about the historical Pottstown portrayed in THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE. We visit with Erica about the Pottstown portrayed by Ja...