Front Porch Book Club

We're dropping this episode a week earlier than usual since Nancy is heading to Boulder. And, we can't wait to introduce you to James McBride's recent novel - THE HEAVEN AND EARTH GROCERY STORE. This is a book about community and relationships, good and bad, in 1920s-30s Pottstown, Pennsylvania. We meet and grow to love the "outcast" people who live in the Chicken Hill neighborhood. These are the...

Allegra Goodman, author of ISOLA joins us on the front porch. Allegra is the author of seven novels. ISOLA was a Reese’s Book Club selection. Her novel SAM was a Read With Jenna Book Club selection. KAATERSKILL FALLS was a National Book Award finalist. THE CHALK ARTIST was winner of the Massachusetts Book Award. Her other books include INTUITION, THE COOKBOOK COLLECTOR, and PARADISE PARK. Allegra...

ISOLA, a brand-new novel by Allegra Goodman, takes us to Renaissance France and into the life of Marguerite, a child heir to a fortune. Unfortunately for Marguerite, her deceased parents' choice for her guardian means her life does not unfold as one of prosperity and gentility. Instead, her guardian fritters away her wealth on his desire to settle New France (i.e., Canada). Marguerite is caught up...

We are so excited to interview Eowyn Ivey about her latest book, BLACK WOODS, BLUE SKY. Eowyn was raised in Alaska and continues to live there with her husband and two daughters. Her debut novel, THE SNOW CHILD, has sold more than a million copies worldwide and is a New York Times bestseller published in more than 25 languages and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Our book, BLACK WOODS, BLUE...

It's our 100th episode and this is an episode with a lot of laughter. To celebrate we reminisce about why we decided to start the podcast. Nancy and Linny have VERY different reasons! We laugh about some of our early missteps and nervousness. Nancy quizzes Linny about some of the statistics about the podcast. Linny has her own curveball quiz question for Nancy. Nancy and Linny talk about what they...

Black Woods, Blue Sky is set in contemporary Alaska where Birdie, a 26-year-old mom, is trying to forge a life for herself and her 6-year-old daughter, Emaleen, in a small town. When Arthur, a local misfit who spends most of his time alone in his remote cabin, starts frequenting the roadside lodge where Birdie works as a waitress, they strike up an unlikely relationship. And then things get strang...

In THE STORM WE MADE, Cecily, an ordinary Malayan housewife, beguiled by a Japanese propaganda that Asians should rule Asia, becomes a secret agent for the Japanese in 1935. Ten years later, suffering under Japanese oppression, she and her children (aged 7 to 17) try to survive the consequences of her deception. Told from the perspectives of Cecily and each of her three children, the novel plunges...

Nancy is excited that we are reviewing a Louise Erdrich book, THE MIGHTY RED, her latest novel, published last year. Nancy read Erdrich's book, THE BINGO PALACE, a number of years ago (it was published in 1994) and really loved it. THE MIGHTY RED is a New York Times bestseller, A Read with Jenna book club pick, and a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction. Erdrich is a contemporary American aut...

We talk with John Janovy, Jr., author of our February book, Life Lessons from a Parasite . John is one of the world's preeminent experts on parasites, a best-selling author, and an artist. In this fun and wide-ranging conversation, we discuss parasites, of course, but we also talk about what it means to be a decent human being, how to evaluate ideas and words we're exposed to, how the Vietnam War...

Our book for January is Life Lessons from a Parasite by John Janovy, Jr. John is one of the world's pre-eminent parasitologists. In his book we learn all about parasites -- the minuscule life forms that live inside other organisms. We learn about the scientists that study them. And, we are introduced to how theories about parasites and infections help us understand how infected words and ideas bec...

James Clear's bestselling book, Atomic Habit s, tells us that tiny changes can yield remarkable results. Clear writes, "The quality of our lives often depends on the quality of our habits. With the same habits, you'll end up with the same results. But with better habits, anything is possible." Linny and Nancy discuss their initial attempts to implement what they learned from this book. Not surpris...

Welcome 2025! In January we choose books that are about goal setting and achieving success and being the you, you want to be. Our book this month is Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear. This book is designed to reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits--wheth...

It’s our last episode of the year. We talk about the progress we’ve made on our personal goals for 2024. Upon reviewing them, we feel like we have experienced growth and also adopted some unexpected goals for the year. We discuss our podcast highlights from 2024, discussing our non-fiction, fiction, and children’s book selections. We talk about how inviting authors and experts to join us helped de...

It's December and that means we're reviewing a children's book. For 2024, it's The King Penguin written and illustrated by Vanessa Roeder. This beautifully and fancifully illustrated book explores what happens when King Penguin Percival becomes too selfish and is booted out of his penguin colony. It's a story that demonstrates the importance of apologizing when you've done wrong. Young school-age...

Dr. Terryl Hallquist, Thornton Wilder scholar and Ann Patchett fan, joins us to discuss Patchett's newest novel, Tom Lake . Tom Lake centers around a pivotal summer Lara spent in a summer stock theatre company where she performed her signature role of Emily in Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN. There she meets two men who will change her life. She falls in love with the soon-to-be famous actor Peter Duke...

Ann Patchett's 2023 novel, Tom Lake , explores the permeability between past and present. While they are picking cherries to try to save the crop since the normal large migrant laborer crew is absent due to COVID, Lara's adult daughters ask their mom to tell them the story of how she once dated the famous actor, Peter Duke. In retelling parts of her story, we learn about Lara's evolving notions of...

Penn State Berks professor, Dr. Thomas Jay Lynn, joins us on the front porch to discuss Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart . Tom's book, Chinua Achebe and the Politics of Narration: Envisioning Language , has been called "a notable contribution to Achebe studies." Tom takes us deep into the world of Things Fall Apart and highlights important and lasting contributions Achebe made to world literature...

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart is the oldest book we've discussed on the front porch; it was published in 1958 just as the European colonization of Africa was being dismantled. The book's setting is the beginning of colonization in the 1880's in what is now Nigeria, but was then Igboland. Achebe immerses us deeply into the culture of the Igbo people through the eyes of the esteemed, but highly...

Picking up where Patrick Radden Keefe’s book Empire of Pain left off, journalist Aneri Pattani brings us up to date with the latest developments for Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. Aneri is KFF Health News' award-winning senior correspondent. For the past two years, Aneri has been following the opioid settlement and the use of settlement funds. In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that...

In this investigative non-fiction book, Patrick Radden Keefe reveals the role of the Sackler family in the prescription opioid epidemic that has decimated communities and families since the 1990s. Empire of Pain is an unflinching and horrifying account of how the Sacklers, aware of the drug's addictiveness, pushed Oxycontin through clever marketing to doctors, willful manipulation of the FDA appro...

We wanted to learn more about mystery as a genre after reading Richard Osman's The Thursday Murder Club . Lucky for us, Dr. Karen Roggenkamp, professor of Literature and Languages at Texas A & M-Commerce, was available to stop by the Front Porch to talk about mysteries, crime, and mayhem. Karen helps us examine why mysteries are so popular and how the conventions of genre fiction were used in...

Murder comes to the Front Porch. But don't worry... this is a cozy murder, so we aren't too concerned that unsavory characters are killed. We are introduced to the members of The Thursday Murder Club: four seniors living in a retirement community who try to stay sharp by solving unsolved murders. But then, murder comes to their retirement home and they are faced with trying to identify the murdere...

Linny and Nancy delve into commentary about Achilles and Patroclus, the main characters in Madeline Miller's retelling of the Iliad in her novel, The Song of Achilles . Miller was inspired to write this book to better understand Achilles' terrible rage when hearing of the death of his friend, Patroclus. Miller writes a story of a loving relationship, but this interpretation is by no means new or u...

This debut novel by Madeline Miller retells the ancient story of Homer's epic poem, The Iliad . This vivid reinterpretation is told from the viewpoint of Petroclus, a minor but pivotal character in The Iliad , but one who is Achilles' close companion. Through Petroclus' eyes we see Achilles grow from gifted boy to the greatest warrior of his generation. But Achilles must balance his goddess-mother...

Award-winning author Anne Boyd Rioux tells us all about Louisa May Alcott's novel, Little Women . Anne is just the guest because she wrote the nonfiction book Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters. Little Women inspired Anne Napolitano in her writing of Hello Beautiful , our June book. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discover how Little Women's themes are sti...