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Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We've been talking about my emergency brain surgery back in February. We've been talking about resilience and recovery, about near death experiences, but now let's turn from looking backward and begin looking forward. I'm so glad to be back on the air with you all, and to celebrate, I wanted to invite all of our listeners to participate in something really fun. Since Get Lit will be taking a break this summer, we want to welcome you to instead enjoy our All Of It Summer Reading Challenge.

From today until the end of Labor Day weekend, we are challenging you to read four books in a series of categories we've created to help you inspire you to pick up something new. If you sign up now to participate in the challenge, we'll send you a little prize. Plus there's a PDF form that you can print out, fill out, and keep track of your selections, and if you complete the challenge, we'll send you another prize. To find all of that information, head to wnyc.org/summerreading. To kick us off and give us some recommendations from each of the categories to help get you started, it's All Of It and Get Lit producer Jordan Lauf. Hi, Jordan.

Jordan Lauf: Hi. So glad to be back with you on this side of the mic.

Alison Stewart: [laughs] All right, so let's walk through the categories. Will you tell us what they are and why you picked them?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. I don't know if this happens to you, but sometimes with summer reading I get overwhelmed. There are so many books I could read, so many different things I could pick up. I thought it might be nice to give our listeners a little structure so you can find something that inspires you. Here are the categories. I'll read them a little slowly. First up, we've got a classic you've been meaning to get to. This is like homework for me, too. There's so many books I want to read.

Something by a debut novelist, a book recommended by a friend, a book about or set in New York, a book translated from another language, a book being turned into a tv series or movie, and a book you heard about on All Of It, our show. I hope that that list gives people some inspiration, some guidance. I'll go through some recommendations as we keep going, but I wanted to create some categories that were a little more out of the box. Not just read a biography, read a work of fiction. Give you something that might push you out of your comfort zone a little bit, but still give you a lot of room to tackle your TBR.

Those are all listed on wnyc.org/summerreading.

Alison Stewart: All right, let's take a look at the categories, starting with a classic you've been meaning to get to. What's your favorite classic?

Jordan Lauf: Okay, so I do have to say my favorite classic is Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Despite the famous line, "Reader, I married him," I found it to be an incredibly feminist book when you really read it, shockingly feminist for the time. That's what I'm recommending. If you've never read it, try it. If you have read it before, try it again. I'm also recommending that you do something that my english teacher in high school did. Shout out to Dr. Faber. She was smart to do this. She paired Jane Eyre with Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys or Rhys.

That is the story of Jane Eyre but told from the perspective of the wife who's in the attic, who in Jane Eyre, we learn a little bit about her. We know that she's from Jamaica, and there are some sort of racial undertones perhaps to that story. The way that Jean Rhys tackles it is to tell it from the perspective of this wife who's deemed crazy. She's locked in the attic, she's married to this white man, brought to England. It really challenges the colonial aspects of the novel, some of the racial aspects of the novel, and gives you a new lens through which to enter the story. I think you should read those two in tandem.

Alison Stewart: Well, what's a classic that you've been meaning to read?

Jordan Lauf: Okay. I've never read In Cold Blood-

Alison Stewart: Oh, it's good.

Jordan Lauf: - by Truman Capote. I love crime stories, and I watched Capote and the Swans, the Feud FX series, and it made me think, "Wow, I really should read his work to understand him a little better," so I'm going to pick that one up.

Alison Stewart: The next category is something by a debut novelist. You've read about a lot of debuts on the show. We did debuts in '22. What's a debut you've read for the show that really stuck with you?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. This one came out a couple years ago, 2022, actually, for our debut in 2022 series, it's called A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn. It's a difficult read. It's a violent story, but I thought it was really beautifully told. It's about a woman who is murdered, and she's Filipina. In filipino mythology, there's this creature called an Aswang that can come back and seek revenge or haunt somebody. In this book, this woman who's murdered comes back as an Aswang and she tries to find out what happened to her.

She tries to haunt this man who killed her and inform the people in her life of what's happened. Something about it just really stuck with me. I thought it was really beautifully written. The story is gruesome, but it's humanizing at the same time. I thought it didn't get enough love in the year that it came out, so I wanted to recommend it today.

Alison Stewart: What's a recent debut novel that you really loved?

Jordan Lauf: Okay, so I read also for the show The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley. It was so fun. It's a time travel romance, a little bit of Sci-Fi, a little bit of history. It's got something for everybody. Basically, the plot is that in England, they've come up with this time travel system where they can take people from the past and bring them to 21st century London. One of the people they've brought back from the past is this naval officer named Graham Gore, who died on the Franklin expedition, which if you've seen The Terror on FX or if you've read the book, you'll know a little bit about that.

It was a polar expedition that went very, very wrong. Anyway, he comes to 21st century London. He's so charming. They fall in love, but why has he been brought to England, and what is the purpose of this time travel experiment? You'll have to read to see.

Alison Stewart: Dun dun dun. You'll have to read to see. Jordan Lauf is my guest for discussing the launch of All Of It's Summer Reading Challenge taking place from now until Labor Day weekend. Head to wnyc.org/summerreading for more information. We've gotten a couple of recommendations for our what to read set in New York or about New York. This one Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by Russell Shorto, non-fiction account based on 17th century Dutch records at the New York State Archives.

Excellent description of a colony whose character presaged what the US would eventually become. Fun info about New York and surrounding areas. It's my top book recommendation for any tri state residents. Thanks for sending that in.

Jordan Lauf: Wow. We were just talking on this team about how we don't know enough about the Dutch roots of New York, so that's a really great recommendation. I'll have to add it to my list.

Alison Stewart: All right. What are you recommending?

Jordan Lauf: For this category, one of my favorites that I've read recently is The Changeling by Victor LaValle. It's a horror novel set here in Manhattan, and it starts with a birthing scene on a subway. I don't know if I can think of anything really scarier than giving birth on the subway as it's stuck underground, but that's how it starts, and it gets scarier from there. Basically, it's about this man whose wife he believes has murdered their child and disappears, and so he goes on this hunt to find her and find out what really happened to their baby. It takes you on this magical quest throughout New York.

It is New York, but it's got some magical elements. There are hidden colonies. There are mystical creatures. It was adapted also for tv, but I really just love how rooted it was in the city and adding that magical realism into it.

Alison Stewart: Okay, you have Olga Dies Dreaming, which we've done on this show.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, that's a great one. If you haven't read it, it's about a wedding planner here in New York who is Puerto Rican, and she is trying to reconnect with her mother, who left the family many years ago as part of the young lords and these activist movements, and she's trying to figure out what's going on with her and maybe reconnect. Also, if you're interested in what it's like to be a fancy wedding planner in New York, there's a lot of fun detail in there, too.

Alison Stewart: All right, what might you get to in this category?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, if I was going to pick something in this category for myself, I think I would try Forever by Pete Hamill. I have never read any Pete Hamill. I know that's like a New York literature crime. My dad read this one a few years ago. We did joke that it was Forever, the book that took him forever, because it did take him almost a whole year to read it, but he really liked it. It's about a man who's immortal, basically, and living through many decades of New York history. Maybe I'll learn more about the city as I read it.

Alison Stewart: Got a question for you. This is a good question. Are we supposed to read four books in the same category or four books total from any of the categories?

Jordan Lauf: No, that's a great question. I was trying to come up with the language to clarify this, so maybe I'll mess around with the website. Any four books in any category. Hopefully, I'm hoping that you'll do one from each, so one from New York, one from debut, one recommended by a friend. You just have to finish four in order to complete it. You're not reading four books set in New York, you're reading one set in New York, one debut novel, et cetera. If anyone has recommendations for the best way to clarify that, I'm open to them.

Alison Stewart: We got a text that says, "I just signed up for the reading challenge." Thank you.

Jordan Lauf: Thank you.

Alison Stewart: "Have never read Jane Eyre. That's on my list. For anyone who needs a classic recommendation, I want to put forward War and Peace. It's long, but very engrossing." Our next category is translated from another language. Someone sent in suggestions. I hope I get this right. Chevengur. Oh, I know. Messed that up. It's a translated russian classic by Andrei Platonov. Thank you for sending that in. When you think about translated language, why do you think it's good to read a translated language book?

Jordan Lauf: I have found I've started trying to do this for myself in the last couple years, and I find it really expands your worldview and also the styles of literature that you're used to. I think when you read English language books and western literature, you get accustomed to a certain style of storytelling, a certain style of writing. When you push yourself outside those comfort zones, you find that there's a whole other world out there of different ways to construct a sentence or convey plot and deal with character. It's also a fun way to travel through reading.

You get to visit these other countries where the books are set and feel like you're really engrossed in that culture because it's coming from them, a person who's native to that place.

Alison Stewart: Give me one good example.

Jordan Lauf: Oh. Listen, if you're deciding, this is the summer I'm going to try Haruki Murakami, I'm going to go for it. It is a hard barrier to entry. I know. I actually don't think a lot of people say, "Start with Norwegian Wood." I don't recommend that. I think you should try The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I think it's the best combination of his magical realism, so you really get his style. The thing about Norwegian Wood is it's his anti-style. I think if you want to really know what his writing is like, try The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. It's about a man who's looking for his missing cat and then ends up on this crazy, fantastical journey.

I think it is one of his more approachable, magical books, if that makes sense. The length isn't so crazy. It's not 1Q84. It's not nuts. I would try that one. I would give that a try.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk about books being turned into tv series or movies. There's a ton of them out there.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, there is a lot this summer and fall. I really like this category because I had a friend growing up whose parents said if you wanted to go see something in the movies but it was a book, you got to read the book before you can go see the movie.

Alison Stewart: That's good.

Jordan Lauf: That's like a rule I've almost taken on for myself in my life. A couple just to run through. Coming up on Apple TV, there is Lady in the Lake, which is starring Natalie Portman. You should read the book by Laura Lippman. It was our very first Get Lit.

Alison Stewart: Very first Get Lit. Yes.

Jordan Lauf: It's a Baltimore mystery about the murder of a Black bartender and the murder of a young jewish girl and a woman who's trying to figure out if these two crimes are connected in any way. There's Dark Matter, also on Apple TV plus.

Alison Stewart: That is so, so good, the series. Now I really do want to read the book.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, the book is excellent. It's about basically a man who's a version of himself from another dimension comes to try to steal his life because he's jealous of this great life he's got going on, and so he has to fight himself. The last one I'll say in that category is the Wicked movie is coming out. Everyone's really excited about the movie musical. It's a musical. It's a movie. It's also a book, you guys. It's a novel by Gregory Maguire. That's how this whole thing got started, and it's good. It's really different from the plot of the musical. It's totally different. It's darker, even, I would say.

If you're obsessed with it but you've never read the book, give it a try.

Alison Stewart: All right. Read about a book you heard on All Of It. There are so many choices.

Jordan Lauf: There are so many choices. I'll just run through a couple of my favorites that I've worked on in the last couple weeks. One was just last week we had on Emily Nussbaum for her new book, Cue the Sun, which is a history of the invention of reality tv. I learned so much about the early days of the genre, and she's also just one of our smartest tv writers, so she really puts her brain on a topic that people might look down on or say is not important.

She makes a really good case for why it's actually really critically important that we be evaluating it, especially because we had a president who was a reality tv star. If you're looking for a great thriller, One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon was excellent. It's about a utopian Black community, wealthy community in California, and a woman there who starts to worry that maybe this utopia isn't all that it seems and there's something sinister going on.

If you're looking for another work of nonfiction, I really enjoyed Trippy: The Peril and Promise of Medicinal Psychedelics by Ernesto Londono, which is a look into the future of psychiatry, how these drugs are being used, and how it could treat mental illness.

Alison Stewart: Final category is read a book by a friend because it's from your friend.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, and you can count me as a friend if you want. If you heard about it from me, count me as your friend and write it down. Say Jordan told me about it.

Alison Stewart: Reminder, head to wnyc.org/summerreading to sign up to participate in our All Of It Summer Reading Challenge and to receive a prize. You can find the form to fill out recommendations and information there. Myself, Kousha, team,

All Of It, some friends of the show are going to be doing the challenge all summer long, so look out for those segments and check out our Instagram @allofitwmyc for more recommendations. Remember, you have until the end of Labor Day weekend to finish the challenge, so go sign up. Happy reading. Happy-- Thank you for joining us, first of all.

Jordan Lauf: Thank you, and happy first show back.

Alison Stewart: Happy first show back. I'm here. I'll be here tomorrow. We'll see how this goes. I'm Alison Stewart. I appreciate you listening. I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here next time.

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