Episode 536 || Best Books of the Year (So Far) with Hunter Mclendon

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie and Hunter discuss the best books of 2025 (so far)!

To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search episode 536) or download and shop on The Bookshelf’s official app:

Annie's books:

First five-star read: Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld

Most surprising: Blessings and Disasters by Alexis Okeowo (releases August 5th)
Least favorite: Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
Next on your TBR: The Girls Who Grew Big by Leila Mottley, The Names by Florence Knapp
Most anticipated fall release: Same by Hannah Rosenberg (releases October 21st), Heart the Lover by Lily King (releases October 7th)

Annie's Top Ten (So Far):
1. Tilt by Emma Pattee
2. Flashlight by Susan Choi
3. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans
4. Things in Nature Merely Grow by Yiyun Li
5. Show Don’t Tell by Curtis Sittenfeld
6. Memorial Days by Geraldine Brooks
7. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
8. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
9. Lucky Night by Eliza Kennedy

10. Playworld by Adam Ross

Hunter's books:

First five-star read: Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
Most surprising: Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino
Least favorite: When The Harvest Comes by Denne Michele Norris
Next on your TBR: Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica Stanley

Hunter's Top Ten (So Far):

1 Audition by Katie Kitamura
2. Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones
3. Mothers and Sons by Adam Haslett
4. Alligator Tears by Edgar Gomez
5. Among Friends by Hal Ebbott
6. The Wilderness by Angela Flourney (releases September 16th)
7. Open Heaven by Sean Hewitt
8. The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett
9. Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico
10. Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino

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 reading A Change of Habit by Sister Monica Clare. Hunter is reading The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong.

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...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.