Linny and Nancy recount the fun sister time they had together the week before recording this episode. Our book today, RETURNS AND EXCHANGES by Kayla Rae Whitaker, is a national best-seller, just released in May. This is the sweeping story of one Kentucky family’s tragicomic rise and fall throughout the 1980s. It explores love and marriage, parents and children, and the perils of mixing family with business. The plot revolves around parents Fred and Fran, they are the family behind the discount store chain, Baker-Taylor, that is expanding rapidly across the South and Midwest United States. This novel has a lot of retail business strategy in it! Nancy, with her MBA, liked the business aspects! Even though Fran and Fred are co-owners, Fred likes to think he’s the mastermind behind the success of the business, but pretty early on, we understand it’s Fran that really understands the business, but let’s Fred believe he’s in charge. Her role is sort of the “mom” of the organization, which diminishes what she really does. The family values façade of the chain, and the family, starts to crack pretty early. One early plot twist is Fran unexpectedly falls in love with Wendy, a cashier at Baker-Taylor’s. Nancy’s HR side was pretty uncomfortable with this, but it set up all kinds of great conflict in the novel: secretiveness, some children knowing/others not, Fred not even imagining it, economic differentials, breakups/makeups, “family values” at stake. Linda was uncomfortable with the power differential. Both note that Fran and Wendy aren’t the only inappropriate hookups happening. Two sons (Josiah and Benny) fall for the same accountant at their headquarters. Aunt Lucy and Phil Keckley, two Board of Directors have a decades-long affair. Fred and his secretary Pammy seem a little too close for comfort. Nancy likes the stories of Fred and Fran’s four children: -Josiah: oldest. Is heir apparent but hates the stores. Is shamed into working there for a year. Almost marries, but leaves and becomes an attorney. -Sam: artistic but has mental health challenges. -Benny: loves the stores, especially devoted to his mom. -Birdie: youngest, basketball star. Linda really loved Sam’s mental health journey. She also loved watching Birdie grow up into an understanding of herself and how to survive in the family. Nancy also really liked Birdie’s story. Both Linda and Nancy enjoyed the Epilogue where several years have passed following the cataclysmic events of the story’s end. In our next episode, we’ll welcome Kayla Rae Whitaker to the front porch to talk more about her book, RETURNS AND EXCHANGES.