Ask a Bookseller: ‘Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better About the World’

On The Thread’s Ask a Bookseller series, we talk to independent booksellers all over the country to find out what books they’re most excited about right now.

For the next few weeks, Ask a Bookseller will feature books of hope and connection. Independent booksellers across the country have recommended titles that span the realms of fiction and nonfiction, celebrating connections with others. 

Elizabeth Bluemle of The Flying Pig Bookstore in Shelburne, Vt., recommends a book of very short essays by Vermont author, Thomas Christopher Green. Author of the international bestselling novel “The Headmaster’s Wife,” he, like many, found himself grounded at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The result: He wrote “Notes from the Porch: Tiny True Stories to Make You Feel Better About the World.”  

Elizabeth wondered if the short stories told in the book might live up to the title but said “they really do.”  

“They are little stories about human connection. Some of them are funny. Some of them are little drops of beauty. Some of them leave you bemused.” 

“It doesn’t feel old-fashioned because they do happen in the modern world. There's nothing saccharine about the stories, which sometimes you can tip into with an inspiring book.” 

This book portrays “life at a human pace. And it does make you feel good about the world. It reminds you that we do have these connections and that our communities, our neighbors, our friends and family, are kind of the foundation of what makes us human. It is really those connections that we love that help us through the hard times.”