Front Porch Book Club Podcast

Grab your book and iced tea and join the Front Porch Book Club, your no-commitment, casual, and eclectic podcast about books. We examine the relationship between characters, the worlds they live in, and what that means to us.

Latest Episode

127: The Midnight Show

127: The Midnight Show

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,...

127: The Midnight Show

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 season premiere of The Midnight Show (sort of like a Saturday Night Live sketch show) and explore how funny women, then and now, are commodified or dismissed. She also wants to evaluate how the comedy world contributed to the unsolved death of one of the show’s breakout stars, Lillian Martin. We really liked the format of the book and know the authors had a great time placing the contradictory narratives sequentially, highlighting the complexity of the characters’ perspectives.

We conclude the episode with Nancy’s quiz for Linny about first cast of Saturday Night Live. Linny then turns the tables with her own questions. We also learn about Linny’s first speaking role in her acting gigs.

The Midnight Show book cover
Front Porch Book Club
127: The Midnight Show
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About Front Porch Book Club

I honestly was blown away by the deep dive Nancy and Linny did into SPARKS LIKE STARS and really appreciated the personal perspectives they brought.

Nadia Hashimi, Author

Every month the Front Porch Book Club features two episodes on our selected book. In the first episode Linda and Nancy introduce the book and discuss their thoughts. In the second episode, Linda and Nancy are joined by the author or an expert to delve deeper into the book. Our book selections are eclectic: fiction, autobiography, history, memoir, investigative journalism, and classics. They are books that give us insights into how we may be more intentional, creative, and loving.

Recent Episodes

100: 100th Episode Retrospective

100: 100th Episode Retrospective

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...

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99: Black Woods, Blue Sky

99: Black Woods, Blue Sky

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...

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98: The Storm We Made

98: The Storm We Made

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...

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97: The Mighty Red

97: The Mighty Red

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...

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Meet The Hosts

Linny and Nancy with iced tea

Growing up, Nancy always had her nose in a book. She never remembers not loving to read books. Linda, on the other hand, hated libraries and spent her childhood trying to lure Nancy away from books into some other activity that she thought would be way more fun. That’s right – we’re sisters. Nancy was more of an introvert and Linda was more of an extrovert. But, somewhere along the way, Linda started loving books and Nancy started loving talking about books. Nancy is a recovering academic in Nebraska who writes and Linda is a licensed counselor in Pennsylvania.

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