Summer Culture Preview: Books

In this Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019 photo, Susan Steinberger, left, and her husband Mark, right, read books atop a dune platform in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River, N.J.

Jordan Lauf, producer for All Of It and its book club, "Get Lit with All Of It," shares some of the new on-or-off the beach reads.
She highlights these great summer books:

Memory Piece by Lisa Ko (This month's Get Lit selection - the event is Tuesday, May 28!)

The Ministry of Time by Kuh-lane Bradley

In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon (out June 11th)

[music]

Brian Lehrer: It's Brian Lehrer on WNYC, and we will end today's show, as we've been ending all the shows during this membership drive, with our summer fun series. So far, most of what we've talked about in terms of summer arts and culture previews are things happening around town. Today, it's going to be about summer books, that wonderful culture that you can carry with you to the beach or to the couch. We're lucky enough to be joined by WNYC's own Jordan Lauf, a producer for All Of It, and its book club Get Lit With All Of It. Hey, Jordan. Welcome back to this show.

Jordan Lauf: Thanks so much for having me, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: let's start with the Get Lit With All Of It book event coming up. It's going to be Tuesday, hosted by you. What's the book and where can people find out about the event?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, the book is Memory Piece by Lisa Ko. It's a New York-based story, which is always great if you're looking to get in the mood, support our city here. It's about three friends trying to make their dreams come true in New York. It starts all the way in the '80s. One friend is a performance artist, one is a coder, another is a community activist fighting gentrification. Then the plot takes you all the way from the 1980s up through this futuristic, I would say, dystopian version of our city in 2040.

You get to really see how the city changes from the '80s to the '90s to the dot-com boom and burst, and then all the way to 2040.

The event, as you mentioned, is on Tuesday at 6:00 PM. It's at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library and people can still get their tickets. They're free. You can go to wnyc.org/getlit to go reserve your tickets.

Brian Lehrer: Another book out now that you flag for us that you want to talk about is The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. This is a fun time travel romance, but the catch is that the characters who are traveling through time are coming to present day. This is about a man named Graham Gore, who is a real historical figure from the failed Franklin Expedition. If people watch the AMC Show, The Terror, they might know what I'm talking about. It was a polar expedition in the 1700s looking for a northwest passage. He is pulled into modern-day London through a government agency.

He's assigned this woman who is going to be his bridge to the modern day, who's going to teach him about 21st century, help him discover things like Spotify. They end up falling in love, but there's a thriller element as well because why has the government requested that this man be pulled into the future and what's going on? It's got everything you want. It's got romance, it's got thrills, it's got a little bit of history. It's a great read.

Brian Lehrer: Another book of local interest, to be sure, for a lot of our listeners is Long Island by Colm Tóibín. Follow-up to the earlier book on the West End of Long Island called Brooklyn.

Jordan Lauf: That's right. People might be fans of the movie Brooklyn, or the novel Brooklyn. That was about an Irish immigrant named Eilis, who was choosing between an Italian plumber named Tony and a guy back in Ireland named Jim. She chooses Tony, spoiler alert. Now, in this new one, Long Island, they're in their '40s and Eilis learns that her husband Tony has had an affair. This happens on the very first page, so it's not a spoiler.

The woman he's had an affair with is pregnant and that when the baby is born, the husband is going to drop the baby off on Eilis doorstep. Eilis says, "No thank you. I'm going to go back to Ireland while I figure out what is going on with my marriage." There she reconnects with that old flame Jim, but he himself has gotten in a new relationship. There are love triangles abound. It's a really great read.

Brian Lehrer: This is such a great list you've brought us, Jordan, so many novels to choose from and it's always great to curl up with a book one place or another, in the summer, any time of year, but I don't know, summer reads, right? Maybe another one to talk about next is Nicola Yoon's, One of Our Kind, because Yoon is a writer of young adult romance novels generally, but now an adult feature.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. This is, I believe, her first adult novel. This is set in a newly planned utopian community for Black Americans in California. It's called Liberty. Our protagonist moves there with her husband. As with all utopias, usually, things aren't exactly as they seem. She starts to learn some disturbing facts about the founder of this community and that there's something very, very wrong going on. For fans of dystopian fiction, this is a great fast-paced read for a beach.

Brian Lehrer: I'm so glad All Of It exists to cover all this fiction when we do non-fiction books all the time on this show.

Jordan Lauf: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: One that came out earlier this year, In Ascension by Martin McGuinness, but I think you've got this as a good summer read.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. For people who are really into the ocean and water science, this is a really good one. It combines sci-fi and family drama. It's about a world in which scientists have discovered a trench in the ocean that is three times deeper than the Mariana Trench. There's something very strange going on down there. We don't know exactly what it is, but whatever creature or phenomenon is happening in this trench might have implications for space travel. You've got the ocean exploration element and you've got the space travel element if you're really into sci-fi, but there's also family drama as well.

Brian Lehrer: Fun. We're going to have to leave it there because I think since it's coming up to noon, you have something to do.

Jordan Lauf: I have got a whole show to produce. That's right.

Brian Lehrer: Jordan Lauf, All Of It producer heading across the hall to her day job. Thanks a lot for telling our listeners about some summer fiction.

Jordan Lauf: Thanks so much, Brian.

Brian Lehrer: With All Of It coming up next, other All Of It producers Simon Close and L. Malik Anderson are going to preview the music expected to be released this summer. Katja Herbers, the star of the New York City-based drama series Evil, will join naturalist Kenn Kaufman, discussing his new book about the history of birding, and food writer Karla Tatiana Vasquez shares recipes and techniques for her new cookbook, The SalviSoul Cookbook: Salvadoran Recipes, and the Women Who Preserve Them. Thanks for listening to the Brian Lehrer Show today. Thanks again for all your donations during the pledge drive and stay tuned for All Of It after the latest news.

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