Episode 568 | The Bookshelf Recommends: 831 Stories

Welcome to From the Front Porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. Because I think it's a good reminder that the passions of young girls are worth nurturing. no matter how frivolous they may seem. Alexandra Romanoff, big fan. I'm Annie Jones, owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week I'm switching formats a bit to chat about romance novels and how romantic fiction company 831 Stories is changing the game, at least from our perspective. I'm joined today by Marketing and Events Manager Caroline and Inventory Coordinator Kendall to chat all about these fun topics. Do you love listening to From the Front Porch every week? Spread the word by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see Write a Review, and then tell us what you think. Here's a recent review from Shelby. Warm and welcoming. This podcast feels so welcoming for everyone and every type of reader. This podcast not only gives me wonderful book recommendations of every genre, but also inspires me to shop my local indie bookshops. I'm up in North Carolina, the same town as Bookmarks, and now have Thomasville, Georgia on my list of places to visit. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Shelby, and to all of the reviewers who've left kind words and thoughtful reviews for our show. We are so grateful. Anytime you share from the front porch with your friends, thanks for spreading the word about our podcast and our bookstore. Now, back to the show. So typically, we do these Annie Recommends episodes every, I don't know, few weeks or so, every couple months or so, and they consist of these mini-reviews for a stack of selections in one particular genre. But this week, we're switching up formats a little bit by talking through some books by 831 Stories, which is a romantic fiction company co-founded by Claire Meiser and Erica Cirillo. Their first book, Big Fan, was released in September 2024, and since then they've published six other romance novellas with more on the way. There's one already, I think it will be out by the time this episode drops. So I've been intrigued by the company and its offerings since Big Fan's release. I'll talk more about Big Fan later. And one day in the store, I overheard Caroline and Kendall chatting about the company too. So I thought I'd have them on to discuss their feelings about the romance genre as a whole, and then 831's kind of unique publishing model. Caroline is our marketing and events manager at The Bookshelf. If you follow us on Instagram or attend a Bookshelf event, like a reader retreat, you have seen Caroline's magic for yourself. Hi, Caroline. Hi, Annie. Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to have you here. I'm so excited to be here. I've been on From the Front Porch in voice memo form, but this is the first time actually being a guest. So I feel a little nervous, but it's a welcoming space. So I'm excited. I'm excited to be here. I'm so excited. It's so weird because we at the bookshelf talk to each other all the time, but not everybody who is a listener or long distance customer hears your voices like I hear your voices. So Kendall is our inventory coordinator. She is the face of the bookshelf to our local clientele in particular, and she makes sure we keep your favorite books in stock. Hi, Kendall. Hey, guys. So excited to be here. It's going to be really fun. Kendall, were you on before? Did you say you'd been on the show one other time? Yes, I've been on once. I think it was over a year ago, if I'm not mistaken. I think I was still in college. Okay. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's been a bit, but I'm excited to be back. Look at her now, all grown up. Here we go. Okay, so Kendall, I am going to start today's conversation with you because in my mind, and I want to know if you think this is accurate, but for some reason, in my mind, you are the bookshelf's resident romance reader. That's kind of my unofficial title for you in my brain. Is that true? Is that an accurate description of who you are and what you do? How did that happen? How did you become our romance guru? I take that title with pride. I love romance. I love being the bookshelf's resident romance reader. I feel like I got into romance when I started getting back into reading, actually. So that was when I started college around like 2020. I think a lot of people got back into reading in 2020. But I discovered kind of Jenny Han's YA romances, To All the Boys I've Loved Before, Summer I Turned Pretty. and those books really just got me back into reading. And since then, I just hold romance as such a special place in my heart and in my reading life. I just think romance is the best. Personally, I think it's super accessible and a really easy way to get back into reading. And I also just think romance is really for the character-driven reader, in my opinion. And I will die on that hill. I think that you're reading a romance you you see the ending from a mile away you know what you're getting when you when you read a romance but yeah you know you get to follow these characters and watch them grow over the course of the book and I think that is why I personally love romance is because you get to grow with these characters as you're reading and that's just I love reading books like that yeah that's such a good I've never thought about that because we frequently talk on from the front porch about plot driven readers versus character driven readers and I've never thought that romance really does fall into the character-driven category, but I think you're absolutely right because you totally know. I mean, if you read or watch a rom-com, like, you know the direction it's going, what sets a good rom-com apart, well, for me, what sets a good rom-com apart is always the banter. But the banter comes from that chemistry, that character development. So that's so interesting. I think you're totally right. Okay. But interestingly, Caroline, you're a fun person to have on this particular episode. Because unlike Kendall, in my mind, Kendall is a romance reader. Kendall has some romance books on her staff shelf, as I recall. She and I have talked about Emily Henry, Lynn Painter, etc. I would not necessarily peg you as a romance reader, though no shade is meant by that comment. I generally associate you with the higher brow literature that braces our shelves. So I'm so curious, would you consider your romance reader? Like, am I totally off base? And did 831 Stories and their particular brand of romance change your mind as a reader? Yes, absolutely. No, you're right. And it is funny that this is my first podcast episode. You know, this is like baby. Baby's first from the front porch. And it's about a genre that I don't, I'm actually not really a romance reader at all. So this is funny that this is my introduction. Yeah, this is your introduction to the wider world. But I think that as we discuss more, I think listeners will see why I'm here. And I thought about it too, because typically I love literary fiction. You and I have a lot in common, a lot of favorites in common. My favorite from last year was Flashlight that I read. Like that was probably my number one. I've also been making a concerted effort to get into more nonfiction. So I've been reading a lot more nonfiction. I love poetry. Caroline is a poet. I do want to pause here and say that Caroline is a poet with a book coming out in March. So I just want to get that out there. So stay tuned. I'll have more. It feels very surreal, but I'll have more. You'll be seeing some things about it. I love poetry. I love nonfiction. I also love like hybrid genre books. I like books that are not easily categorized where an author is really incorporating memoir and fiction and auto fiction and creative nonfiction and essay, I love a good essay collection too. So I wouldn't say that I'm a romance reader, although I really like romance. I mean, I really, I love, I've put it to Kindle this way before, a lot of romance books I'm not interested in reading, but if they were made into a movie, I would be watching that so fast. Yeah. Yeah. I get that. I mean, I think that some stories I feel like I'm not necessarily – it's not what I go to for reading. But it is absolutely what I go to when I want a fun movie to watch at the end of the morning. Well, yeah. I don't – I guess just based on our conversations, I wouldn't describe you necessarily as a comfort or escapist reader. But you might be a comfort, escapist watcher. Yeah, yeah. I think that is very true. When it comes to TV and movies, I love, like, one of my favorite movies ever is While You Were Sleeping with Sandra Bullock. That's so good. It's so fabulous. I mean, from childhood watching that, I love While You Were Sleeping. I love You've Got Mail. Who doesn't love You've Got Mail? Yeah. I love, like, that genre. One of my favorite movies ever is The Princess Diaries. Oh, God. So good, you guys. So good. I'm sorry. That's cinema. To me, that's a great movie. I love the sisterhood of the traveling pants. Yeah. That's what I like to watch. And so I'm a very different watcher than I am reader. That's fascinating. So my journey to romance reading has been a little bit different. And I think it was, it would have been September of last year because it was right before our last silent reading hour last year, which by the way, we have one February 18th at 6 PM. Tickets are available now whenever this is coming out. I'm not sure. Look at her doing her job. Marketing events, baby. Hey, and you know what? I make the show notes and I'm going to link it. but we would love for you to join. And so I at that time, like most people, my brain is very full. I was having such a hard time concentrating on the books that I typically gravitate toward. I was having, I just was so out of sorts and it just, because of everything, I fill in the blank. I don't have to explain why I was feeling that. And I was like, okay. And I was talking to Kindle and she was telling me about, you were talking about Big Fan, which was the one that you had read at that point. And you were like, it's like 200 pages. You're like, I think you might like it. I think you might like this kind of book. So I went over to silent reading and we had brought set piece by Lana Schwartz. And I, I had not brought my book from home and I'm working the event, but there's quiet time in the middle where I'm not really having to work necessarily. I'm not having to be on. And so I picked it up and just started reading it. And I was like, oh, this is the bag of delicious elevated microwave popcorn that I am desiring deeply right now. This is what this is what I, this is exactly what I needed. And it was just charming and funny and sexy from the beginning. And I was like, oh, this is, this is what I, this is perfect. And I, it was 200 pages and I read it in like two days. And I think, I think that's key, right? Like I think Kendall and I both have read, you know, and I'll give an exception to maybe Emily Henry, because I think she does a really good job. And I'm never like, oh, I wish that was shorter with Emily Henry. Emily Henry's books can always be longer in my opinion. Yeah, I think she does a good job But there are lots of romance novels where frequently and this is true of movies too lately but where I like this could be 30 minutes shorter This could be 50 pages shorter And so that is one of the things I like about 831 stories is they're all, I mean, I think technically they're novellas. They're not, they're more like snippets. They're more like tastings. They're not necessarily, you don't have to read it over the course of a week. You can digest it like you would microwave popcorn. Like it's just there to enjoy and then be done. So I do want to talk. I think the day that I heard you guys talking about 831, we were specifically, I think y'all were specifically talking about just the look of them. Because for a long time, you know, I think it would be, and listen, I do, I should, I hate caveating things, but I will put a caveat here that I like to read romance books. I am not a romance reader. I would not classify my friend Kimberly. I would classify her as a romance reader. I am not necessarily a romance reader, nor am I an expert on the genre. So I would like to be very upfront with like, we are lay readers and booksellers talking about this. But, you know, we don't work at the ripped bodice. We don't like this is, we are a different. And all respect to the ripped bodice, by the way. Yes, all respect. But I do want to clarify. That's good clarification. We are different. And so what I mean by that is what I'm about to kind of do the history of the romance novel, but please, please don't quote me that this is the history of the romance novel. But from my perspective, for a long time, we had like Fabio on the cover of a mass market paperback. And it was like a shirtless male, you know, and that's what a romance novel in my brain looked like. And then when I became a bookseller in 2012, 2013, we were just starting to see maybe the increase in young adults where you might have like a real person on the cover. I do think about like the Jenny Han books. And then it's like, I don't know, maybe 2018, we started to see what I call like animated or cartoon illustrated rom-com covers. and one of the things as a bookseller that is hard about that style of cover to me is a grandmotherly type figure might come in and think this is a clean pg book for my grandchild because look the cover is a cartoon the amount of children that have walked up with books that i have to be like i have to look at the mom and be like do you know what's in here no no no uh and so let's go ya let's go over there. So that has been a struggle. And then it's like all of a sudden, 831 shows up with these very kind of abstract graphic covers that really give you no indication of what's going on inside. They're checkerboards, they're striped covers. I mean, they look beautiful on a shelf. I guess I'm curious, Kendall, you're on the floor. You see customers. are they gravitating toward those covers? Like they do stand out to me as a bookseller. Do they stand out to the average consumer? I want to say yes, because especially when, first of all, like you said, they're short, so they're tiny. So I think when you're walking into the romance section in our store, there's a lot of, like you said, 300, 400 page romance books. And when you see just this solid color, short little book, people are gravitating to pick that up because it's different. It's not what we've been seeing since 2018. It's something fresh. It's something new. And at least for me, especially when I first saw it, I immediately picked it up and read the back of it because I was like, what is this? This is so pretty and different. And I do think, I think people are gravitating towards them more, I would say. Well, and especially this is something I do feel like I have more expertise to offer on, but the price point, I mean, we are watching as booksellers. The prices of books continue to go up. A hardback book, you know, when I started bookselling was $25 and now it's, you know, it's 30, $32. And so to snag a little paperback, people are much more inclined to pick that up and own it because it's a low investment. It's low risk, low cost. Caroline, you're our marketing and events manager. I think you have a marketing brain. you and I kind of, I think that's what our careers have been, or at least my career was prior to book selling. And so from a marketing perspective, what do you think about those covers and just how they are different maybe from the rest of what we're seeing out of romance publishing? Oh, absolutely. I could talk about this for a long time, so I'm going to try to keep it brief, which is why I've been like jotting down my notes as you guys have been talking. I could say a lot about it because I will say there's one, the problem that y'all named, which is that, oh, a cartoon, cute cartoon on the cover, then icebreaker should be great for my 12 year old, which is a real scenario that happened. A woman came up to me, it was a busy Christmas season and she's like, my daughter, she's 12. And of course, 12 year olds like romance, by the way, which is fine. A 12 year old, when I was 12, I wanted to, you know, I liked romance and, you know, all of that. But she says, what about this one? And I was like, oh, that's not what you want. I know it looks like what you want, but it isn't. Right. So that, I think this, it looks sophisticated. It looks sophisticated. Oh, that's a good word. I wouldn't mistake this for a book for tweens or teens necessarily or for children at all. I wouldn't say that this is for children because there's no, it's just graphic. It's not, there are no figures on it. And I would just say, you know, most books for children is going to have animals or people. I think that that's really smart. another thing it's the thing that we joke about with the rom-com genre is that you know they they all look quite similar you know they have similar smiles it's the same thing we talk about with historical fiction woman with her back turned yeah you know and so it's not unique to the romance genre that they have these covers that are very similar to one another and they do that because it's like oh if you liked you let's make it look like where the crawdads sing so that i think it's It's all about making a book, everybody. And trying to trigger in your mind, remind you of that thing that you already bought and enjoyed. And so that you're more likely to buy and enjoy this one. But this one is interesting because what they decided to do is make their books look like their other books. So they're doing the same thing. They're creating a visual language as well, but it's their visual language alone. and it stands out so much next to any other book that's probably similar and could be just as good of a story, just as good writing, just as good characters, but it is going to stand out in a way because it doesn't have that same sort of visual language. And I think that that's really powerful. And it made me even want to check it out more too. I've also spoken to customers in the store who are like, I like romance, but I feel kind of silly holding this book. Okay, this is what I was almost wondering because 831, to me, this probably sounds like somebody from Podunk, Georgia, but it feels very New York. And yeah, I am from Podunk, Georgia. I am from here. So here we are. But the brand itself feels very big city. Cosmopolitan. And they are thinking, surely they are thinking, what looks good reading it on the subway? I mean, sure, reading it on the train. Like surely they are thinking about that. And even though we don't want to say that we care what other people think about us when we read, we do. I mean, I think there have been times I'll never forget. I was reading at a I was reading Solo Reading Lunch, the book by Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married. Is that the name of that book? Yes. And I and somebody passed by and they were like, wow, brave to be reading that in public. And I was like, is it like, yes, I feel like it's just black and white cover. But I guess, I guess how to stay married is risky looking. But my my point is, Caroline, like, I do think there is maybe not shame, but maybe a slight embarrassment. Maybe you feel a little silly because you're walking around with a and I don't think every reader does. But I think there might be some readers who might think, oh, I don't necessarily want to walk around with this book with Fabio on the cover, but I'll walk around with this very chic looking, you said sophisticated, which I think is a great word, elegant comes to mind. Like this very art, it looks like a little work of art. And never underestimate, I think in a lot of our brains from childhood is the collectability of something. And why not collect all six of these? Gotta catch them all. Like gotta have each one of them on my shelf. And how beautiful that'll look on your shelf. Together. And you know, another thing too is a part of, I think another thing that they're tapping into in a really clever way is that there is a sort of stigma or snootiness around the genre of like looking down your nose at romance, which I also think is misguided because there are so many really smart, well-written romance books. There's smart, well-written books in every genre. And even in, God forbid, genre fiction or trade fiction, you know, there's excellent writers doing interesting and good work. And I think what they've tapped into is that elevating that to show people that this genre is also elegant and elevated and well-written. and that they're doing that through the visual style, showing people that that is true of the genre as a whole. Yeah. It's that it deserves this treatment, this visual treatment, and this type of marketing and this type of commitment and sort of serious attention. And I think that that's something that they also convey with the graphic design. Yeah. Yeah. So not only do they have this very distinct looking brand, which if you're listening to this, obviously podcasting until recently, not a visual platform. And so go to the, we'll link to the 831 website in our show notes, but you can kind of see what we're talking about if you're not familiar with the brand like we are. But it is just, there is very consistent branding throughout, which kind of leads me to their overall marketing strategy, which I wanted to brainstorm. Do you mind if I share, can we share our ages really quick? Because I think this is kind of interesting. Okay. So as of this recording, I'm 39, but on the cusp. Oh, on the cusp of 40. Kendall, how old are you? I am 24 on the cusp as well of 25. That's right. 25. That's a milestone birthday to me. And then Caroline, how old are you? And I am just 31. I'm not on the cusp yet. I think I'm just plain 31. You're just here, live in the 30s, live in your early 30s. So I do think that will be interesting as we talk about, like keeping our ages in mind, as we talk about some of their marketing strategies. There's a great NPR story we'll link to in the show notes that covered the release, I believe, of Erika Wernick's 831 release where they threw her a party and it was like karaoke because that was what the characters in the book did. So it was a karaoke party. So they're really leaning into building a world around their romance novels. So I noticed in the back of – oh, gosh. I can't remember which one it was. Maybe it was Big Fan. But in the back of one of the books or maybe all of them there a QR code And I do feel a little grouchy about a QR code But again I on the cusp of 40 Here we are But if you scanned the QR code you got for example a bonus chapter a playlist I believe in one of the books, there's this great rugby shirt that's like described in detail. And they sell the rugby shirt. And so on the one hand, there was part of me that was like, oh, this feels icky. I mean, full disclosure. Like there was a part of me that was like, this is like capitalism. This is a bit much. Yeah, a bit much. And then I thought, this is genius. This is so smart. There are key chains. There are baseball caps. There are t-shirts. So I'm curious. I'll start, Kendall, with you, like, not to let you be representative of your entire generation. But, like, does this feel icky to you? Or does this feel like, no, I want that key chain. I want that baseball cap. How does the QR code and the money aspect of like, here, I sold you this book. Now I also am going to sell you all the merch, all the excess. Yeah. I immediately am obsessed, personally. So I read Big Fan. And that was the first 831 I read. And immediately I went on their Instagram, followed 831 because also their Instagram, impeccable. like the marketing very all of their marketing across the board their website their books everything all so cohesive it works so well and then I went on their website and they have a shirt that says um everyone reads romance novels and I immediately want it I want to own it and then I'm scrolling they have a shirt from the band in big fan yes if they're selling a shirt for the band And to me, that is such smart marketing because I love owning physical meat, like physical things for the media that I love. If I see a movie, I want a shirt that has to do with the movie. And what's great about their merch is that it's very low key too. Like you're not going to know what the shirt is unless you've read Big Fan. Right. It's almost like a, what is that? It's a biblical reference, but like it's this idea that you'll only know if you've also read the thing that I've read. Yeah. Yeah. And I love it. I don't even, because I just want it all. I'm scrolling, I'm reading the book, and now I feel connected to these characters and I want to own the things that these characters have. And it's not even things that you would think of. Some of the things on the website are, say, a vase or there's a pasta kit because some of the characters in the books make pasta together. It's very unique in a way I've never seen other authors do or anything like this. I've never seen publishers do it. So this is the difference. I think we at the bookshelf talk all the time about how publishers are like a year behind. So Taylor Swift goes on an Eris tour. Two years later, we get an abundance of Taylor Swift books. And so publishing just by nature is kind of behind. 831, I think, is on time. And what I mean is already sellers on Etsy, I think about my friend Lauren who owns Bookshelf Tease, like they were already creating merch around The Summer I Turned Pretty or around an Emily Henry book. They weren't Emily Henry's publisher selling it. They were fans like we are, only they were monetizing it, right? And so I think 831 to my mind is the first publisher or company that I've seen understand what bookstagrammers, what the consumer already wants, and they're capitalizing on it. Like I think there were individual makers who were doing this, but 831 feels like the first publishing company that was doing it. Yeah, I was going to say too, they feel like they are specifically marketing to a brand of women that are already bought into romance. They're not trying to sell you a romance. They're not trying to sell you to get you to read their book. Their branding is for women that like to read romance because they're immediately getting you invested in so much that you want to buy their shirts because they know that you already love romance. So maybe you would want to buy a shirt. you know i don't know i just think it's so genius too and i i've always said to me they feel like the a24 of like yeah that's interesting romance novels or books in general they're just doing something so unique and individualistic that i have not seen in the genre well i love it and they i think they understand fandom culture fan culture because you know as much as i was like oh at first I was like, oh, a QR code. This is, I don't know if I like this. This is kind of icky. But when you put Kindle that you like to own content or you like to, I think about every t-shirt I own, every t-shirt I own means something. It's either got, it's either got sister Jean on the back or Greta Gerwig on the front. Like, like I've got, I got that new sweatshirt for Christmas that says heartbreak feels good in a place like this. And I wear it with pride. And we love AMC. Yeah. So I do think you're right. I think there's a similarity there. So that's kind of to me then the consumer perspective or even the bookseller perspective. From a marketing perspective, Caroline, how do you see this kind of monetization of the book? Like this almost world, almost like Disney built world. Truly. Like that's what they're doing. I think it's, well, I think it's so brilliant. I think like you, I felt a little conflicted at first because it was like, this is not something that, well, it was outside of my reading anyways, you know? And so then it was just like, but it is a whole experience. And I think in the experience of the book, it goes beyond the pages. And that's the thing that is so interesting. So it's happening digitally. It's also happening with their events. They do quite a lot of events. And mostly they're doing that in larger, you know, cosmopolitan areas, which makes sense, of course. But they are really creating an experience for readers, an experience of reading a book, because why shouldn't the experience of reading a book be like the experience of going to see a movie that now we have a shared lexicon of quotes and inside jokes and all of these things? And like Kendall was saying, the merchandise reflects the visual sensibilities of the books themselves. Because you might just be wearing a T-shirt for a band called Mischief. If I saw you passing on the street, I wouldn't necessarily know it was a fictional band. Yeah. Because it looks so, it's realist in a way. In a way that is really, that feels really comfy and really, really fun. And so I think that it's so interesting. Well, and when I got to the end of set piece, I, of course, scanned the QR code. Yeah. And I went and then was able to read like an epilogue, like a bonus chapter. So it isn't also just merchandise. It's also, it felt like almost like logging on to like a fan fiction website and you get like a little extra delicious bite of the same characters. I think that's totally what they're doing. And I read it. It was great. And I got a little bit more of those characters. I think, yeah, even if you don't want the merch, I for sure scanned the QR code because I wanted the play. I love a playlist. So I like, okay, you created a playlist. I want a playlist. And I like, you know, when we first took over the bookshelf, when Jordan and I took over the bookshelf, we met with kind of this business consultant who's in our family. And I was asking for advice because honestly, shock, but buying a bookstore is like not a super financially savvy decision. And so one piece of advice he gave us was, well, people want experiences. And so if you want to make the bookshelf profitable or more profitable, think about experiences. And I think we are seeing that play out not only in our store, but just in the culture at large. People want, you mentioned silent reading hour, people want to get together and read books. People want to be in a book club. People want to sit at a bar and talk about the book they just read or Kendall and I often talk about going to the theater and the joy of going to the movie theater. And so I think creating almost this world building element where, okay, you liked that book. Well, now you can buy the t-shirt, you can listen to the playlist, you can read a bonus chapter and learn about the side characters or whatever. I think it is genius. I will be curious to see if publishing at large takes notice. And if we start to see the other kind of publishing companies mimic this in any way because publishing companies are quite good at mimicking things. And so it'll be interesting to see if the larger publishing companies pay attention to this. One thing I wanted to mention to you all is not only do they seem to be borrowing from elements of maybe fan fiction or maybe world building from like, I don't know, Marvel or something like that. It seems like they're really paying attention to those types of things. When you go to their website and listen, I have been this close to doing it. You can buy a membership and the membership I saw that. The membership gets you the copies of the books as they release. It also gives you like access to all of that bonus content. And there's a part of me, I want to say some of that stuff gave me the ick because, oh, it made me feel like, oh, capitalism run amok. Full disclosure, sometimes it gives me the ick because I'm jealous because I'm like, oh, that's freaking genius. It's such a good idea. That's so annoying. Because you've also now essentially kind of sort of copied what booksellers are doing. Like, oh, we've bundled your books. Oh, we've created a membership model. We've created a Patreon model. Like, they're doing all of that. Self-subscription model. Yeah, they're doing all of that from their hub. I thought that was genius because you, like, order the books and you get a tote and goodness knows I love a tote bag. Love a tote bag. We love free stuff. And people love a New Yorker tote. They love a poetry magazine tote. Yes. And they're also doing that. And I think that it's something that they've picked up on that I do think other publishers, I think it would do them well to also mimic, which is that they're tapping into what we talk about in the store, which is sidelines. Yeah. You know? Yes. It's not just the book. It's also from just like a profitability standpoint, making the experience and the gift items, you know, a part of the model, a part of the business model, which is very savvy. Yeah. So that they can, I mean, we know, right? The books are not profitable. Yeah, they're not. Nobody knows that better than publishers. Yeah. And so if you want to keep publishing books, the solution might be, well, you also might have to sell a baseball cap or two in order to keep the books coming. Yeah. Okay. So we've talked kind of through the company as a whole. I do want to talk about books. So in these episodes, I will typically feature maybe a stack of five. We're going to do three books. So each of us picked our favorite 831. and speaking of bundles and capitalism run a buck, we will sell you our bundle of three favorites. So this is perfect for Valentine reading. You can find the bundle online at bookshelfthomasville.com. Today's episode number is 568. So I'll get us kicked off. I'm gonna say that my favorite, and I've read, gosh, three or four of these now. And the very thing that I love about them, sometimes I also, sometimes I actually do wish they were longer. Sometimes I wish that I was getting a little bit more story. So so far my favorite is their first book which is Big Fan by Alexandra Romanov And it not surprising to me that this is one that maybe we also tried collectively to hand sell Caroline because never forget and this is what I love about this book it is a rom that deals with universal basic income. And I was reading it thinking, wow, this book and the way that it handles politics, I think is really savvy and interesting. This book was everything I wanted. do you remember the idea of you which was supposed to be like was that like harry styles fan fiction essentially yes it was it wasn't okay yes yes indeed it was okay and then was ann hathaway in the movie i'm putting right this is all the same thing okay i watched the movie never read the book but okay i did okay movies it's okay it's like i could i might re-watch it i don't know but i read the book so that i could watch the movie because ann hathaway princess the princess diaries of it all. We love her. Yeah, I did that, but did not love it. Instead, I love this. One of my favorite tropes is famous person loves a normal person or falls in love with a normal person. And in this book, Maya is a political strategist. Her life is a little bit of a mess. Charlie is a former boy band member, and he's ready to embark on a more adult career. Maya once ran the boy band's fan club. And so they think she's the perfect person to help jumpstart his new aspirations. I thought this was the idea of you meets the hopefuls. It handled everything very well. It's sexy. It's steamy, but also didn't totally feel like, you know, I had to bury my head, you know, under the covers because I out of mortification. And so like it's open door, but not aggressively open door, I guess is what I'll say. And maybe again, that's because of the links. Like I felt like, oh, it's the perfect amount of time to spend with these people. I love this one. And again, a romance novel with universal basic income as a major plot point. Sign me up. I really liked this one. And I felt like what a great way to kick off, to kind of let people know this is what you can expect from our slate of titles. So Big Fan by Alexandra Romanoff is still my favorite one of theirs. Caroline, what about you? Mine is Set Piece by Lana Schwartz. And like yours, it's also a celebrity normal person romance, which I really love. I think that the cover references Notting Hill. So for fans of Notting Hill, which I love that movie. Again, I love a rom-com movie. I love a romantic movie. I've seen most of the big heavy hitters. This one follows Jack and CJ. So Jack Felgate is a kind of emerging actor. He's just been on this sort of, he just kind of wrote his stars rising and he has just been on this sort of steamy Bridgerton type TV show with a very famous scene in it that everyone really remembers like the scene, you know? And so he is getting recognized. So he is out in LA with his, one of his childhood friends. I think it's like a high school friend. And it's his friend's bachelor party. And they're doing a bar crawl. They're partying, hanging out. And he is just starting to get recognized, having this experience for the first time. He's been acting, but he's starting to, whoa, wait, it's really happening. And so he goes into this bar and this group of women ambush him. And so the bartender working, CJ, sort of saves him. She kind of rescues him from these very avid fans. He's having this experience for the first time. And so then the two of them sort of, it's like, you know, she closes down the bar. It's late at night. And then it's just the two of them. And so they, you know, they hit it off. And then that's that. It's sort of a one night stand. And it's also pretty, I would say, open door, but not like, like you were saying, I think the way you described it is good. It sounds similar to big fan in the sense that it is open door. It's steamy, but it doesn't feel excessive. Like it's not these, you know, super long, many page. These scenes don't take up a lot of pages. So that's that. And then there's a time jump forward and they end up, he's now a big star. He's starring, he's one of the lead roles in a great Gatsby adaptation. And she is a production designer on this film. And so they, their paths cross again, things are really different in their lives. And although they're working together, they decide to give it a try. And I love like the camaraderie on set, like getting a peek into that niche industry and how people relate to each other. You know, a book where you really dive into that kind of specific industry and the camaraderie within it. And also that the tension in this book is not like, oh, the paparazzi saw us together and I can't handle the fame. That's not the tension or the conflict in their relationship. it takes a kind of different and fresher turn, which I thought was, I'm not going to spoil it. I like that too. It's really nice. I forgot that I read this one, but yes, I read this one and I liked that the conflict wasn't what I expected that it was going to be. It wasn't because you would expect it to be like the normal person's like, whoa, I can't handle fame because they work in the same industry just in different capacities. So that is not the conflict. Their conflict in their relationship is something else. And I like that they chose a different conflict to sort of drive them apart and then bring them back together. Okay, Kendall, what is your favorite 831 story that you've read so far? My favorite is Hardly Strangers by A.C. Robinson. It is also a famous person, normal person. Listen, what can we say? We love it on the show. Yeah, so basically it's about, it takes place basically over the course of one night, which I love books like that. Oh, I do too. And so you follow our female main character, Shara. She is just getting out of a relationship and she's going to this bar to go on a first date for the first time since getting out of this huge relationship. And on the off chance, she meets this man called Max, who is not supposed to be her first date. And Max is the lead singer of an Irish punk rock band. So I can create that image for you. And they end up kind of having this chance encounter that completely turns the whole night on its head. And you follow them throughout the night, kind of getting to know each other and growing this connection with each other. And it is just, it oozes coolness in ways I cannot describe. It is also so vulnerable because the novel is basically just them the whole time. There's not really many other characters in it. So you're just kind of following their connection with one another. And I found out the author is actually a poet. So you can kind of see her prose throughout the writing. It's very beautiful. And yeah, I finished it and I immediately wanted more of them. Shara's kind of this more shy, independent, slightly avoidant woman. And Max is kind of this confident, charismatic, goofy, alluring guy. And it just works so well with their personalities. and yeah, I loved it. I would probably compare it most to, I recently read Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley, which was my favorite book of last year. It kind of has that same vibe to it. It's kind of, I don't want to say gritty, like gritty sounds too intense, but more just deeper in a way. And then I'd also compare it, the book also compares it to the movie Before Sunrise. That's what I was going to ask because of the timeline. Yes, it kind of has that time, that tight timeline and also just like a chance encounter, like running into this guy at the bar. Like she never expected to see him there. So yeah, that one is my favorite. It's guys, it's so good. I can't stop thinking about it, truly. Okay, good. But I need, listen, I think I've been pretty clear about this, but Nora Goes Off Script is one of my favorite rom-coms of the last, I don't know, I don't know, five to 10 years. Like I reread it multiple times. I just felt like it handled that trope so very well. But I love a book that kind of gets me invested in the two people and makes me care about the two leads. I'll also put a plug in here because I am very excited to read it. But I think by the time this episode comes out, the book will be out. But it's not out yet. And I didn't get an ARC or anything. But it's called Rooting Interest, I believe. And it's like a WNBA adjacent queer romance. And I – listen, you know me and basketball. So I am very excited. March Madness, can we come? Yeah, exactly. And so I'm very excited to see. And I'm intrigued that it feels like maybe they're dealing with similar tropes, but they're also adding maybe a political element or a Hollywood element or a sports element. Like, I think they're being really smart and savvy with what books they're publishing and when they're publishing. I think they're very aware of what the reader wants and what the trends are saying, which is impressive. So those are the three. Those are our top three of these 831 stories. We are selling them in a bundle, or you can find them on the website, bookshelfthomasville.com. You can search for episode 568. Thank you guys for coming on today. Thank you so much. It was so fun. Thank you. This week, I'm reading The Reservation by Rebecca Kaufman. Caroline, what are you reading? I'm reading Comedic Timing by Upasana Bharath, which is another 831 stories. And Kendall, what are you reading? I'm reading Phoebe Behrman's Gonna Lose It by Brooke Averick. shelf thomasville.com a full transcript of today's podcast episode can be found at from the front porch podcast.com special thanks to studio d podcast production for production of from the front porch and for our theme music which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our thursday conversations our executive producers of today's episode are cammy tidwell Thank you all for your support of From the Front Porch. If you'd like to support From the Front Porch, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your input helps us make the show even better and helps us reach new listeners. All you have to do is open up the podcast app on your phone. look for From the Front Porch, scroll down until you see Write a Review, and tell us what you think. Or if you're so inclined, support us over on Patreon, where we have three levels of support. 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