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Tiffany Hanssen: This is All Of It. I'm Tiffany Hanssen, in for Alison Stewart. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. We are grateful you're here. On today's show, we'll talk about a new exhibit at the International Center of Photography, celebrating its 50th anniversary. We'll talk with the filmmakers behind the documentary Raising Liberty Square. We'll speak with the co-creators of the new reboot of Shogun. That's the plan. Let's get started with some book recommendations from our resident reading Guru, Jordan Lauf.

Spring is one of the busiest times for publishing, which means there are tons of new and exciting books to check out in the coming weeks. Here to talk about some of the books she's been reading lately and the upcoming releases she is most excited about is All Of It Producer, Jordan Lauf, who is also the producer of Get Lit. Jordan, thanks for coming in.

Jordan Lauf: Thanks for having me, Tiffany.

Tiffany Hanssen: Listeners, we also, of course, want to hear from you. We know you have book recommendations. What's the best book you've read lately? What book would you likely recommend to our listeners? To your fellow listeners? We're looking for your recommendations. Call us 212-433-9692. That's 212-433-WNYC. You can also text us at that number. You can find us on all of the social medias @AllOfItWNYC, Jordan. All right, we have Get Lit this week.

Jordan Lauf: We do. On Wednesday, we've got our Get Lit with All Of It event. In case you haven't heard, our book this month has been The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. It is the story of a young boy who, in 1950s Florida, is sent to a horrible segregated "school" for boys. It's a reformatory, I say, "school" with lots of air quotes. It's really just an abusive, horrible place.

He learns that he can see ghosts there of boys who have died, and he gets caught in this scheme of whether he is going to hunt the ghosts as the abusive superintendent of the "school" would like or whether he's going to help the ghosts as one particular boy would like him to do. It's a tough read. It's an engaging read. If you haven't had time to check it out, you've still got a couple of days. We've got free copies available, thanks to our partners at the New York Public Library.

If you haven't gotten your tickets yet to join us, that's happening on Wednesday at 6:00 PM at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. You can get your free tickets now at wnyc.org/get lit. We've also got a great musical guest lined up. Jake Blount will be performing as well.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Tell us the title again.

Jordan Lauf: It's The Reformatory by Tananarive Due.

Tiffany Hanssen: Would you classify it as horror?

Jordan Lauf: It is horror, but I would say if horror is not your thing, it's very rooted in historical fiction.

Tiffany Hanssen: Interesting.

Jordan Lauf: I would say it's more a historical fiction novel with some fantastical elements. I wouldn't let the horror title dissuade you if you think horror is not really for you. It still is a tough read, but it's not jump scare. You're not going to be lying awake at night, I don't think worried about what's in your closet, type of work.

Tiffany Hanssen: Okay. I know I asked you for the title again, but I should add, to listeners, we will have the complete list of all of the books that we talk about today online for you at some point in a couple of days. You can look for it online at All Of It. Just look it up. We'll have all of the books from our listener recommendations as well, which leads me to say, listeners, we want your recommendations. Call us 212-433-9692 or text us 212-433-WNYC.

Okay, Jordan, moving on. Three Body Problem. It's a Sci-Fi. You've read it recently. I think there's television coming out around this, too, so let's talk about that.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. I've become an evangelist for this book. I thought that Sci-Fi was not for me. Then, I read this book, and I was like, "Okay. Maybe this is something I can get into." It is by a Chinese author, Cixin Liu. It's translated to English by Ken Liu. This is a book that is set in China's cultural revolution. The idea is that we're living in a world in which humans have figured out how to communicate with aliens, and they've sent a message, and perhaps the aliens are coming.

What are we going to do with that information? Who is going to be communicating with the aliens? Are aliens coming for good? Are they coming for ill? Do certain fractions of people actually want the aliens to come? Why might they want the aliens to come? It's got these big political and philosophical questions. It's also set mostly on Earth, which I found helpful as someone who is not a Sci-Fi expert. You're grounded in our reality. It's just that aliens are coming.

The best part of it is that there is a Netflix show coming out March 21st. It's an adaptation of the novel, and it's headed up by the creators of Game of Thrones. I was a big Game of Thrones fan, so I'm really excited for this one. It's a trilogy, so if you get really into the first one, I hear that the next two are even better, I've been told. I'm very excited to keep reading.

Tiffany Hanssen: Do we know? Does the series cover just the first of the trilogy?

Jordan Lauf: I believe the series is just the first book. Then, maybe if it gets renewed, we'll get book two and three.

Tiffany Hanssen: Well, interesting that it's coming from Game of Thrones people. That might have some influence on how that world is created.

Jordan Lauf: I think so. They proved in that series that they're good at the world-building aspect of creating a place that feels believable but has got some magical elements to it. Hopefully, they'll be able to pull that off as well.

Tiffany Hanssen: Okay. Jordan, we have a couple of recommendations. I've been reading The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. I quite like it. I was drawn to the artwork on the cover. Also, just finished a good book, The Personal Librarian. Another I recently read was Under the Skin from the Great Linda Villarosa. Three good recommendations. Listeners, we need your recommendations. Let us know. We know you're out there reading, so call us 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can also text us at that number. You can also find us on the socials @AllOfItWNYC.

All right. Jordan, moving on. Foster by Claire Keegan. This sounds like a book that's right up in my alley because you can read it in one day.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. It's under 100 pages. It's really more like a novella than a novel. The copy of it is very, very slim, but for how few words are, it packs a really big emotional punch. It's about a young girl living in Ireland whose parents drop her off with family-friends, or distant relatives. It's never exactly clear, this older couple who don't have any kids. They drop her off with them for a summer. It's about her experience there of experiencing love and care in a different way than she has before opening up. Then, I won't spoil the ending. It's so short. You'll read it, and you'll get there.

Claire Keegan writes so simply but also so poetically. If you read it and you really love it, you might like the movie adaptation, which came out a couple of years ago. It's called The Quiet Girl. That's the film adaptation of Foster by Claire Keegan. That did pretty well on the circuit, the film circuit a couple of years ago.

Tiffany Hanssen: Did you see the adaptation?

Jordan Lauf: I haven't seen that adaptation yet. I like to put some distance sometimes between reading the book and seeing the adaptation. I think if it comes too quickly, one after the other, I'm nitpicky. I'm going to give it a little while.

Tiffany Hanssen: Well, right. I was just going to say most book lovers are like, the first question is, "How was it compared to the book?" Better or worse?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. That's why I'm excited. I read Dune a couple of years ago, so when I see Dune 2 on Thursday, I'll have forgotten all the details.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes. All right. Another text here. Excited for the Moth's latest anthology called A Point of Beauty: True Stories of Holding On and Letting Go, which features stories from Elizabeth Gilbert, Lin-Manuel Miranda, et cetera, et cetera. We have a call. Let's head to Jack in Long Branch. Good morning, Jack. You've got a recommendation.

Jack: Hey, good morning. How are you?

Tiffany Hanssen: Doing great.

Jack: A year ago on this show, my partner Ann and I heard a recommendation from you for the Eyes and the Impossible by Dave Eggers. We have read it out loud to each other, not once, but twice, and it's an absolutely wonderful read for children of all ages.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Dave Eggers. Sounds good.

Jack: Yes. The narrator of the story is Johannes, a dog, and his merry band of furry friends throughout the park that they live in. It's just an absolute joy to read.

Tiffany Hanssen: Excellent. Thanks for the recommendation, Jack. I would like a merry band of furry friends.

Jordan Lauf: I certainly would. I also thought that reading aloud to each other was a lost art, so I'm really glad to hear that you guys are doing that. That warms my heart.

Tiffany Hanssen: I do love that. All right. Dave, in Jackson Heights, you have a recommendation for us?

Dave: The Third Hotel by Laura van den Berg.

Tiffany Hanssen: Tell us about it.

Dave: Well, unreliable narrator, serious topics, talking about grief and magical realism, but folded in so that it's psychologically interesting, not reaching out into fantasy. That's all I've got.

Tiffany Hanssen: Wonderful. Yes. Sounds great. All right. Thank you so much, Dave, in Jackson Heights. Some good recommendations coming in via text, Jordan. This Other Eden. Also, Cutting for Stone, The Stationary Shop. Have you read Cutting for Stone?

Jordan Lauf: I haven't, but I read his most recent one, which the name is now escaping me.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes, of course it is.

Jordan Lauf: That one was excellent, about a family who is struggling with a mysterious illness that seems to cause them to die by drowning in India. It's a beautiful book. It's long, though.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, long. The opposite of that 100-pager you were just telling us about.

Jordan Lauf: Exactly.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. You just took a trip to the Natural History Museum?

Jordan Lauf: I did. I went to the Museum of Natural History, and I looked at the dinosaurs as one does. I was like, "Dinosaurs are really cool." The room that really blew me away was the room of all the extinct giant mammals. I didn't realize how big sloths used to be. They were massive. I was standing there looking at these giant sloths, and I thought to myself, "I have to learn more about these." I feel like I got some basic dinosaur education in kindergarten, but I got nothing about the extinct mammals.

I recommend The Rise and Reign of the Mammals: A New History, from the Shadow of the Dinosaurs to Us. It's by Steve Brusatte. He also wrote a really great book about dinosaurs, which I did read. That one's great if you're into dinos. If you are interested in the giant sloths, et cetera, this is a really cool history of mammals. There's some human stuff in there, too. I also really like that he gives a history of the paleontologists who are working on this stuff as well.

Last night I was reading, and I learned that this poor guy who was a German paleontologist came to Britain during World War II to escape, got arrested, and spent the rest of World War II in an internment camp because he was wandering around with maps, and they thought, "Oh, this guy looks suspicious. He's a German guy wandering around with maps." He was just looking for some molars. He was looking for some fossils.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right.

Jordan Lauf: He continued to assemble some skeletons while in the internment camp.

Tiffany Hanssen: Wow.

Jordan Lauf: You get incredible historical details like that.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. That's a great recommendation, The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. All right. Wendy, in Springfield, welcome to All Of It. Hi, Wendy. You have a recommendation?

Wendy: Yes, I have two books.

Tiffany Hanssen: Great.

Wendy: The first is Coleman Hill: A Novel by Kim Coleman Foote. What she's done is taken her actual family, their pictures are actually on the cover, and also integrated fictional aspects. It tells the story of the traumas that her family endured when they came to the so-called "Promised Land of the North" in the 1920s, and what happens to these two interrelated families that become integrated by marriage.

The second one is another book by a Black female author, Go Back and Get It by Dionne Ford. Now, this is factual. She looks at the journey of her genealogy. She goes back to the original enslaver, which was the beginning of the branch of her family, and looks at the patterns that are also in her life. She's trying to heal from traumas that she has by going back and looking at her family tree. They're both very interesting. In some ways similar, but very different, and both very good.

Tiffany Hanssen: Great. Thanks, Wendy. Jordan, just to validate you here a little bit, going back to The Quiet Girl based on Foster by Claire Keegan. All right. A text says, "I also usually put distance between adaptations, but The Quiet Girl is perfect, so nothing to nitpick." That's what we're hearing on that. We have a recommendation for Fledgling by Octavia Butler. Very interesting. Fresh take on vampires, if vampires are your thing.

All right. Debbie, in Brookville. Good morning, Debbie.

Debbie: Good morning. I just got done reading John Boyne-- it's a sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, I don't know if you had heard of that. I know that he's also written The Heart's Invisible Furies. He's an Irish writer. This was very compelling because it's World War II-- well, it it's present day, but the father, he was a commander that that welcomed, if you will, the people from the trains into the camps. This was one of his two children. The question is, when is a monster's child culpable? How much guilt and complicity do you carry if you are 12 and this is your parent?

We all say, "Oh, we would never do that," or, "How could that happen?" This brought up, in present day, quite a lot of interesting-- I've been mulling over, and I finished it two days ago, and I just can't stop thinking about the themes.

Tiffany Hanssen: Thanks, Debbie. The follow up to The Boy in Striped Pajamas, which also has an adaptation, right?

Jordan Lauf: It does have an adaptation. Yes, that's a book I read, I think in middle school, and has really stuck with me. That sounds interesting.

Tiffany Hanssen: Jordan, let's turn to books that are coming up this spring. Jennifer Croft.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Jennifer Croft actually came on our show a couple months ago because she is an award-winning translator. She works primarily with the Polish writer, Olga Tokarczuk, who won I believe the Nobel a couple years ago, for her collection of work. Jennifer is her translator into English. I'm really excited about this one because this is Jennifer's debut novel. It's titled The Extinction of Irena Rey. It draws on her experience as a translator for the plot.

The setup of this is that eight translators who are working with one famous Polish author, so very similar to Jennifer's life, are all coming together to work on translating this woman's latest masterpiece. They're all translators in different languages, but they're coming together for this collaborative exercise, and they find that she's gone missing. It's got a mystery element to it, where they're trying to figure out what happened to this woman, but also, it's got the translation aspect, which I find really interesting, just learning about-

Tiffany Hanssen: Fascinating.

Jordan Lauf: -translation as an art.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes, it's an art.

Jordan Lauf: Totally.

Tiffany Hanssen: Yes.

Jordan Lauf: I think this one's going to be really interesting for people who are interested in learning more about translation.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, title again?

Jordan Lauf: That is The Extinction of Irena Rey by Jennifer Croft. I believe it is out March 5th.

Tiffany Hanssen: Again, listeners, we will have a complete list of books that Jordan recommends, and that all of our listeners, you recommend. Listeners, we do want your recommendations. Let us know what's exciting to you right now, what are you looking forward to? Call us, 212-433-9692. Or text us at 212-433-WNYC. We're going to take a break and come back with more book recommendations, books coming out this spring. Stay with us. I'm Tiffany Hansen, in for Alison Stewart.

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Tiffany Hanssen: This is All Of It. I'm Tiffany Hanson, in for Alison Stewart. Today, we are talking about books with All Of It producer Jordan Lauf. Jordan also produces Get Lit, which is coming up this week. Jordan, one more time, if you want info on Get Lit, what is it again, the website?

Jordan Lauf: It's wnyc.org/getlit.

Tiffany Hanssen: Well, that makes sense.

Jordan Lauf: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Listeners, we're also looking for your recommendations, book recommendations. Something coming out, something that is sitting on your nightstand right now that you're particularly excited about, some book that you read that has just stuck with you. Call us, 212-433-9692. You can also text us at that number, 212-433-WNYC.

Jordan, we have a text book recommendation, "Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver's modern-day David Copperfield, the first novel I've been able to focus on since my son was born almost two years ago," says Nina. Also, Jordan, looking across the pond, as they say, Lady Macbeth.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. I want to also just second Demon Copperhead.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, a little hear, hear?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. It's-

Tiffany Hanssen: Barbara Kingsolver. Good, good, good.

Jordan Lauf: -the best book I read in years. Also, to say that the book's title that-

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, in years?

Jordan Lauf: -I forgot-- yes -- was The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh.

Jordan Lauf: Cutting for Stones. Same author.

Tiffany Hanssen: Got it.

Jordan Lauf: Slipped my mind. I've got it now.

Tiffany Hanssen: Noted.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Okay, so Lady Macbeth. If you ever thought, "Huh, I wonder a little more what was going on with her," there's a novel for you coming out. It's called All of our Yesterdays by Joel H Morris. It's giving backstory to one of drama's most infamous characters. It's a piece of historical fiction. It's set in Scotland. If anyone read Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell, I really loved that take on Shakespeare and that story set in that historical time. I think it'll be interesting to read a piece of historical fiction based on one of his characters.

Tiffany Hanssen: A couple of things coming into the socials here. "The Fraud by Zadie Smith was just so excellent. Right now, really enjoying A Life of One's Own by Joanna Biggs. With my kids, we're enjoying Ramona's World by Beverly Cleary. Oh, Beverly. I mean, classic, right, but your head was nodding with The Fraud.

Jordan Lauf: The Fraud is great. It's actually-- I can't believe I'm admitting this, but it's the first Zadie Smith book I've ever read. I haven't read White Teeth yet, I need to, but that one is also based on a real historical event, a trial in Victorian England, in which a man claimed that he was the heir to a long-lost fortune, except he so clearly was not. This trial captivated Victorian England for years. People just got really obsessed with it. It was one of those first tabloid trial cases.

Tiffany Hanssen: Jordan, let's go to the phones. Emma, in Woodland Park, New Jersey. Good morning, Emma.

Emma: Good morning. Hi.

Tiffany Hanssen: You have a recommendation?

Emma: Yes, I do. My recommendation is, it's an older title, but I recently revisited the works of Kurt Vonnegut, and I wanted to recommend Slapstick specifically. I found it really insightful for the current time, with the message of loneliness and isolation, especially post-pandemic. It has this surreal overtone and science-fiction overtone to it, and I really enjoyed it. It really added some insight into my life.

Tiffany Hanssen: Thank you so much, Emma. Earlier, Jordan, we were talking about accessible sci-fi. We have a recommendation for The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, sci-fi time travel done in a more realistic way. I find her to be very accessible.

Jordan Lauf: I totally second that. I thought that that one was maybe her most accessible, actually, in terms of speculative fiction, sci-fi that I thought was really engaging, but you could completely wrap your head around.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. Oscar buzzy movie out American Fiction. There's an author who has a book out.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Percival Everett, who is the author behind the novel that American Fiction is based on, has a new one coming out March 19th. This one is called James and like the Lady Macbeth book that's coming out. This one explores a literary character who maybe needs a little more backstory. This one is the story of Huckleberry Finn, but instead, it's told through the eyes of the enslaved character, Jim, who travels with them on their journey. Percival's taking the spotlight away from Huckleberry Finn and giving it to Jim and telling a little more of his story. I think it's going to be an excellent piece of historical fiction.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Let's bring our listeners back in. Let's go to Edgardo in Williamsburg. Good morning, Edgardo. Welcome to All Of It.

Edgardo: Morning. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. I want to talk about my own book. It's actually called La Borinqueña. It's our first hardcover collected edition, collecting our first four graphic novels that we've been publishing for the last eight years. The first issue is actually a part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. I actually have a talk coming up on Tuesday, March 5th at the Stavros Miarchos Foundation Library. It's called The Secret Origins of Creating a Superhero.

This hardcover book is actually part of our philanthropic work that we do in Puerto Rico. So far we've awarded $200,000 in grants to nonprofits throughout the archipelago. This superhero is an original project that I created eight years ago here in [unintelligible 00:22:27] It's an opportunity to promote but also to recognize an important part of New York City's culture and heritage, the Puerto Rican community, of which I am a part of.

Tiffany Hanssen: Edgardo, thank you so much for the recommendation and the plug. We appreciate that. I saw a really funny thing on social media the other day. Jordan, this person asked their kid for a book recommendation, of course, and she said, "Who's your favorite author?" She said, "Well, besides myself." [laughs] I can appreciate that. All right. Reading Genesis. Let's talk about that one.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. I think there is a big audience out there for trying to engage with the Bible, one of our most famous texts, but historically, pretty hard to get through and hard to navigate on your own. Marilyn Robinson, who is a literary icon, and if you're familiar with her work, she writes a lot about religion and faith, and themes, works like Gilead really are centered on that. Reading Genesis is a nonfiction book from her, which is exploring Genesis first book in the Bible. It's her take, her analysis, her thoughts on this piece of Christian theology.

I think because it's coming from her, it'll be very accessible and literary, and poetic, and maybe a more philosophical engagement with that work. If you're someone who's looking to engage with the Bible in a thoughtful way, and maybe you want to start right at the beginning, right with Genesis, this one comes out March 12th and could be a really interesting place to begin.

Tiffany Hanssen: We heard from someone who's going back and reading Kurt Vonnegut, we have another text here, "I'm about to start my third reading of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. I'm obsessed. It's descriptive in how it paints a lost and violent picture, but there is redemption. Every sentence transports me to the scene." I'm going to put you on the spot. Is there anything that you have gone back to read recently that, oh, I don't know, was published decades ago, or are you really just forward-looking at this point?

Jordan Lauf: Because of my job, I tend to be a little more forward-looking, I will say. I read Anna Karenina for the first time a couple of years ago and that felt like a part of my literary-

Tiffany Hanssen: I did that too.

Jordan Lauf: -canon that was missing. It's long. It takes you a while to get through but I'm really glad that I did it. It's a really good winter read. It's in Russia, it's got the snowy scenes, the train station, all that good stuff. If you're looking for a classic to engage with, if you haven't tried Anna Karenina-- Oh, actually, I'll say Jane Eyre. Jane Eyre is a favorite that always holds up for me and I've reread that one a couple of times.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right, a couple of more texts here. Chris Miller's Chip War provides excellent insight into the memory chips that changed the world. I have a book recommendation, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry, real authentic account of his life as an addict and helps readers understand just some of what they go through. Plus, addicts are so misunderstood. Whether or not you're a fan of Friends, this is a great read.

Let's move on to something coming up in April, Jordan, The Familiar comes out April 9th, so tell us about that.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, this one's by Lee Bardugo, who is really beloved by adult fantasy lovers. I was actually at a party a couple of weeks ago and a couple of people asked me like, "Hey, have you read the new Lee Bardugo? Have you heard of it?" There's definitely excitement out there for this one. It's titled The Familiar and it's set in the golden age of the Spanish Empire.

If you're picking up a theme on my recommendations, I do love a historical novel. This one is centered on a woman who is involved in magic, has some magical abilities, and she finds herself caught up in the Spanish royal court and their machinations of empire. I think for people who maybe like RF Kuang's book, they might find this one to be a next good read.

Tiffany Hanssen: I want to make sure that we get to this. Salman Rushdie has a book coming out in April.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, it's out April 16th. It's the Knife. It's his memoir, which is talking about if you're not familiar about the terrorist attack he experienced and his recovery. I think this is obviously a story that shook the literary world. It's incredibly important, and I'm glad that he has put pen to paper on it, and will be sharing his side of the story in this way.

Tiffany Hanssen: Last but not least, more history. Eric Larson has a new book coming out in April also.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. If you're like, "Huh, what should I get my dad for Father's Day?" Try Eric Larson. Dads everywhere love Eric Larson. It's a surefire hit. His new one is titled The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War. It takes you from Lincoln's election all the way to the lead-up of the battle at Port Sumter. It's really those early days of conflict over North and South, and the breakout of the Civil War. He's just so readable and engaging if you're looking for a new history book to try out.

Tiffany Hanssen: Listeners, we've been talking book recommendations, what you're reading now, what's coming up in the spring. Fear not, we will have a list of everything that Jordan mentioned, everything that our listeners chimed in with. We'll have that on our website for you, so don't worry about that. Jordan, thanks so much for all the recommendations. We appreciate it and Get Lit coming Wednesday.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Thanks so much for having me and thanks, everyone, for your recs.

 

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