In Episode 28, Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA and Co-Host of the From the Front Porch podcast, joins me to talk about owning a bookstore…and answer listener questions! Plus, bonus new release recommendations!
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Highlights
- Annie’s business strategy to grow The Bookshelf.
- The original mission of the From the Front Porch podcast that was never filled.
- Where Annie spends most of her time as a bookstore owner (rather than a bookseller).
- Annie’s best advice for small business owners.
- What would surprise people about owning a bookstore.
- How Annie and her staff select what books to buy for the store…and The Bookshelf’s “store reading taste.”
- The “Annie” and “Thomasville” Reading Taste Venn Diagram.
- The book that’s selling like hotcakes that Annie is surprised to see sell like hotcakes.
- How books make it onto the front tables at certain bookstores (and how this works at The Bookshelf).
- What happened when Annie set a goal to read 100 books in one year.
- Annie’s favorite news sources.
- Bonus upcoming releases Annie is excited about.
- How Annie decides which ARC’s to read.
- Annie’s advice for where to start with Jane Austen.
Annie’s Book Recommendations
Two OLD Books She Loves
- Delancey by Molly Wizenberg | Buy from Amazon [28:04]
- Frances and Bernard by Carlene Bauer | Buy from Amazon [29:51]
Two NEW Books She Loves
- Fleishman is in Trouble
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner | Buy from Amazon [31:21]
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead | Buy from Amazon [34:35]
One Book She DIDN’T Love
- My Oxford Year
Three NEW RELEASES She’s Excited About
- Inland
- The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames (Release Date: August 27) | Buy from Amazon
[43:12] (My Review)
- Red at the Bone
Other Books Mentioned
- Fire Sermon
by Jamie Quatro | Buy from Amazon
[13:01]
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [16:04]
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr | Buy from Amazon [16:47]
- We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [17:47]
- Daisy Jones & the Six
- The Misfortune of Marion Palm
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead | Buy from Amazon [34:55]
- Educated
by Tara Westover (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [38:46]
- Me Before You by JoJo Moyes (My Review) | Buy from Amazon [40:30]
- The Tiger’s Wife
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- Ordinary People
- The Mothers
[46:33]
- From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
- Pride & Prejudice
Other Links
- The Bookshelf in Thomasville, GA
- From the Front Porch Podcast
- The Daily Podcast
- Pantsuit Politics Podcast
- Jake Tapper on Twitter
- The Tampa Bay Times article on The Dozier School (there are a lot of articles in this series)
- Hunter (@shelfbyshelf on Instagram)
- The Popcast
- Lizzie Bennett Diaries YouTube series
About Annie
Annie B. Jones owns The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in downtown Thomasville, Georgia, where she and her husband Jordan have lived since 2013. A Tallahassee, Florida, native, Annie graduated summa cum laude with her degree in journalism from the Great Books Honors College at Faulkner University before becoming a writer and editor for The Florida Bar News and Journal.
In 2012, she began living her Kathleen Kelly-dream as the manager of The Bookshelf in Tallahassee, and in 2013, she took over operations of the flagship store in Thomasville. Annie was featured as one of Southern Living magazine’s 50 innovators changing the South; The Bookshelf was listed in the top ten of the 2016 Independent Small Business of the Year Awards, and in 2017, it was named Small Business of the Year by the Thomasville-Thomas County Chamber of Commerce.
Annie currently co-hosts From the Front Porch, a weekly podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.
Next Episode
We’re now back to weekly episodes!
The first Mini Episode…featuring Katie of @katieneedsabiggerbookshelf (airing Wednesday, September 11).
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What’s your favorite independent bookstore?
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Jan
What a great episode – so interesting! Two of my favorite podcasters in the same episode
She’s wrong that no one will agree with her on Crawdads ! It’s my most liked and commented on review on Goodreads so there are lots of us I 100% agree with her, although she liked it more than me, ha.
I also loved Nickel Boys, although loved seems the wrong word….I appreciated it and gave it 5 stars.
I couldn’t get through Pride and Prejudice until I tried audio. The formal English tripped me up. But then on a friend’s recommendation I listened to it on audio and LOVED it. The wit and humor came though on audio in a way that was hard for me to pick up in print. Jane Austen is brilliant and her books are a sly commentary on the times, which I love.
I have several books Annie mentioned and also added several titles to my tbr. Thanks!
Sarah Dickinson
The language in P&P is what I’m nervous about! You know how I feel about intricate language 🙂 And I’d say the same about Nickel Boys…totally appreciated it, but love is the wrong word. But for me, I can’t give 5 stars to a book I can’t say I loved.
Jan
I’m the same way with language but for some reason the audio helped. And I read it with a group, which helped, since we discussed it as we read.
I should have been clearer…I meant that saying I “loved” a book seems frivolous with a book that deals with such a horrific true historical event. I thought it was well-written and absorbing, and it has continued to weigh on my mind, and for that, it makes it a 5 star read for me. I need an emotional connection.