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
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...
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 to survive the consequences of her deception. Told from the perspectives of Cecily and each of her three children, the novel plunges us into horrific settings with only bad choices to be made. THE STORM WE MADE by debut author Vanessa Chan is one of a relatively few Western novels that tells a World War II story from the perspective of the colonized rather than the colonizer or liberator.
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
89: Tom Lake
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...
88: Dr. Thomas Jay Lynn
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...
87: Things Fall Apart
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...
86: Aneri Pattani
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...
Meet The Hosts
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.