Front Porch Book Club

Our book this month has JUST been released. In fact, the publisher shared an Advanced Reader Copy with us so we could review it as it’s being released. The book is LAWS OF LOVE AND LOGIC by Debra Curtis.
Dutiful and romantic, Lily Webb is growing up in Rhode Island in 1976 and is in love with her high school football star boyfriend. There are two huge events which alter the course of Lily’s charmed life. First, her wonderful, smart, science- and God loving mom, dies when Lily is in 7th grade. This impacts her and also her younger sister, Jane, who is extremely smart and also a bit of a wild child.
Second, her boyfriend gets into a fight and accidentally causes grave physical harm to another student, sending him to prison. The rest of the book is about how Lily moves forward with her life and the life that could have been.
This is Debra Curtis’ debut novel. Friend of the podcast and best-selling author of Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt, says this about the book, “At once sweeping and intimate, Laws of Love and Logic is a gorgeous meditation on roads not taken. Debra Curtis is not afraid to explore big questions about love and loss, but always with tenderness.”
This is another sister book! In this book, Lily is our main character, but her sister Jane plays a very important role in her life. They are very different characters, with Lily being much more conventional and brilliant Jane rebelling against the norms of society.
In our next episodes, we welcome the author of THE LAWS OF LOVE AND LOGIC, Debra Curtis, to the front porch.

In a heartfelt conversation in this episode, author Quế Mai shared her inspiring journey as a writer and the powerful themes explored in her novel, DUST CHILD. The discussion illuminated the significance of reclaiming narratives that have long been silenced, particularly the stories of Vietnamese women during and after the Vietnam War.
Quế Mai’s passion for storytelling was ignited in her childhood in Vietnam, where her family’s poverty during the American trade embargo. Despite being discouraged from pursuing a writing career due to danger and financial instability, and after a successful career in business, she returned to her writing aspirations, feeling a strong calling to tell the stories of Vietnam from the Vietnamese perspective, countering the often one-dimensional narratives presented in Western literature.

In her quest to document the experiences of Vietnamese affected by the war, Quế Mai drew from interviews with Vietnamese and Americans and their stories of regret, loss, and hope. In DUST CHILD she aimed to capture the complexities of love, sacrifice, and the deep scars left by war, especially from the viewpoint of women who were too often overlooked in historical accounts.
The novel’s central characters, two sisters, embody the diverse experiences of women during the war. Quế Mai noted how their contrasting personalities reflect the multifaceted nature of resilience and survival. One sister is dreamy and romantic, while the other is pragmatic and fiercely independent. Through their lives, the author illustrates how the war affected women differently, yet profoundly, showcasing their strength and vulnerability.
Quế Mai’s writing style blends poetic elements with prose, aiming to evoke the Vietnamese spirit in her storytelling. She shared that her upbringing in a culture steeped in poetry greatly influenced her writing approach. The result is a narrative that resonates emotionally, inviting readers to engage deeply with the characters and their journeys.
As a Vietnamese woman writing in English, Quế Mai faced unique challenges, including overcoming language barriers and cultural differences. However, her dedication to conveying authenticity drove her to refine her craft, ensuring that her characters' voices were genuine reflections of their experiences. She emphasized the importance of understanding the cultural context when representing characters from different backgrounds, as seen in her portrayal of Dan, an American veteran.
Quế Mai’s DUST CHILD is more than just a novel; it is a heartfelt tribute to the women of Vietnam and an exploration of the lasting impact of war on families and communities. Through her journey as a writer, she emphasizes the importance of reclaiming narratives and recognizing the humanity in every story. As we reflect on her insights, we are reminded of the power of storytelling in bridging cultures and healing wounds.

Dr. Bryan Denny joins us to further our understanding of emotional regulation research, particularly research that combines traditional diagnostic approaches with neurobiology. Bryan is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University and Director of the Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. Bryan 's research is a fascinating complement to our book this month: Ethan Kross's SHIFT: MANAGING YOUR EMOTIONS SO THEY DON’T MANAGE YOU.
Bryan's research seeks to understand the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that underlie successful and unsuccessful emotion regulation across a spectrum of healthy and clinical populations. He is interested in utilizing the results of basic investigations into these processes in order to design and examine novel interventions focused on improving real-world emotion regulation outcomes in a variety of contexts.
Bryan tells us he has always been interested in the brain and how it works, but he didn’t know a person could study that in college. He took Intro to Psych 101 from Brian Knutson, an affective neuroscientist, and switched his major. From his collegiate studies through his PhD, he became really intrigued in the application of fMRIs in understanding the brains processes in emotion regulation via brain imagining studies.
Bryan explains several emotion regulation techniques and describes situation, strategy, person contingencies and how research may help understand what strategy is helpful for who in what situation. This knowledge may help individuals, but also will help clinicians in their practice, as well.
Bryan says some people have the notion that emotions are things we can turn on or off, but a lot of research is focusing on acceptance. Bryan’s work is currently looking at psychological distancing which may be a key component of mindfulness. A psychological distancing mindset helps individuals identify their stressors in real time to help not become swept-up in emotions. You can do this for yourself, but also for others to influence their emotional state.
Bryan then tells us about the longitudinal emotion regulation research conducted by his lab, the Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (T-SCAN). He is interested in long-term interventions and has recently been focusing on populations such as caregivers of persons with dementia and also of bereaved persons.
To know what the appropriate tool is for a situation is for a person calls for more sophisticated models about how emotion and emotion regulation work. Then, delivering through clinicians and through targeted drugs, but also through education and phone nudges and other modalities could help people cope more adaptively.

DUST CHILD, by Nguyen Phan Que Mai, catapults us into the interconnecting lives of those caught in the brutality of the Vietnam War. We meet Dan, an American who is returning with his wife to the country where he was a young GI fifty years earlier. We are transported back in time and meet two Vietnamese sisters during the Vietnam War. We meet Fong, an Amerasian man born from a Vietnamese woman and a Black GI and the challenges he faces as an abandoned baby.
Nguyen Phan Que Mai based this novel on the stories she heard as she was writing her dissertation about the impact of the Vietnam War.
The novel is an international best-seller AND the One Book, One Lincoln selection for 2026.

Dr. Bryan Denny joins us to further our understanding of emotional regulation research, particularly research that combines traditional diagnostic approaches with neurobiology. Bryan is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Rice University and Director of the Translational Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Lab. Bryan 's research is a fascinating complement to our book this month: Ethan Kross's SHIFT: MANAGING YOUR EMOTIONS SO THEY DON’T MANAGE YOU.
Bryan's research seeks to understand the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that underlie successful and unsuccessful emotion regulation across a spectrum of healthy and clinical populations. He is interested in utilizing the results of basic investigations into these processes in order to design and examine novel interventions focused on improving real-world emotion regulation outcomes in a variety of contexts.
Bryan tells us what emotion regulation is and then explains some of the evidence-based techniques used to do so, citing Ethan Kross’ book and also the work of James Gross and Lisa Feldman Barrett. He compares the cognitive basis of emotional regulation to the behaviorist tradition that once dominated psychology.
Bryan tells us about his work combining cognitive research and neurobiology. Neurobiology uses technologies, such as fMRIs, to show how the brain is operating. Bryan believes there will always be a place for cognitive counseling and its techniques, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but that the addition of neuroscience opens up new ways of understanding emotions and creating interventions.
Bryan conducts longitudinal emotion regulation research at his lab, and has recently been focusing on populations such as caregivers and bereaved persons.
We loved this episode and all the information Dr. Denny shared with us. We are hopeful listeners won't be too distracted by the sometimes poor audio.