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Alison Stewart: This is All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. You have less than two weeks left to finish our Summer Reading Challenge. I believe in you listeners. If you've already finished the challenge, you can now head to wnyc.org/summerreading to fill out the form and tell us what you read, and we'll send you a special prize. If you're still looking for some inspiration for that final book, don't worry. We have you covered. As a reminder, you need to read at least four books in any of the seven categories, one book per category. The categories are: a classic you've been meaning to get to, [dings] something by a debut novelist, [dings] a book recommended by a friend, [dings] a book about or set in New York,[dings] a book translated from another language, [dings] a book being turned into a tv series or movie, [dings] a book you heard about on All of It. [dings] Today we're going to focus on one category, a book about or set in New York, and joining me now to discuss some of her favorite books is All of It and Get Lit producer, Jordan Lauf, hi.

Jordan Lauf: Hello.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, want to hear from you as well. What is your favorite book about or set in New York? What do you think is the best New York City novel or maybe you want to recommend a new book about or set in the Big Apple. Give us a call, 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Jordan, to clarify, what counts as a New York in this category? What counts as New York?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, so for today's segment, for the purposes of our conversation, we're just going to talk about books set here in New York City, the five boroughs, but for the category in general, I'm counting any book set in the great state of New York. For example, Gary Shteyngart's Our Country Friends. That's a book about a group of New Yorkers who moved to the Hudson Valley and get up to all sorts of shenanigans during the pandemic. That would certainly count in this category even though we're only talking about New York City books today.

Alison Stewart: What do you think makes a New York City novel a New York City novel?

Jordan Lauf: My favorite part about New York City novels is how they capture a certain moment in time in New York City history. Reading Edith Wharton feels like you're time traveling to a New York that feels unrecognizable to me today, but almost feels like a representation of a city past. I think what's interesting about modern New York fiction is a lot of it is focused on the issues that I think people today really care about, about rising rent prices and trying to struggle as a young person coming out of college and trying to make it here. Work/life balance, class issues, racism, all of those things are very much a part of modern contemporary New York fiction. It's all the issues we care about today.

Alison Stewart: I love the book The Alienist. I love it for all the details about old New York. Let's take a call. Will is calling from Brooklyn. Hi, Will. Thanks for calling All of It.

Will: Hi. How you doing?

Alison Stewart: Doing great. What are you reading?

Will: I read a lot. I actually write book reviews. I thought this was a sleeper choice, but I thought Joseph O'Neill's Netherland, which was published in 2008, really caught something about the post-911 mood and tone of the city. There was a drifty displacement on the part of the protagonist. I think that we were all a little drifty and displaced as we absorbed the shock of what had happened. I also thought it was very New York that the city was big enough for him to find something kind of weird and offbeat-- which was South Asian people playing cricket- that this guy could latch onto. From that, he got his keel back on an even setting.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much. Let's talk to Sally from the Upper West Side. Hi, Sally. Thanks for calling All of It.

Sally: [clears throat] I'm no child, that's for sure, but my favorite book about New York has always been Stuart Little by EB White. I probably read it or had it read to me when I was five or six. I read it maybe every two or three years. It is so magical. It's got humor. It's got whimsy, and it's got such wonderful common sense as well. There's a lot in it for adults, and it's a fun book to read to a child as well.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for your recommendation. Let's talk to Stacy in Brooklyn. Hi, Stacy. Thanks for calling All of It.

Stacy: Oh, just a clarification that I'm in New Jersey.

Alison Stewart: That's okay.

Stacy: I loved The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. Have you read that?

Alison Stewart: Oh, yes. You have a lot of time to read that, actually. [laughs]

Jordan Lauf: Yes, that's a big one. I don't know if you'd get in under the two week mark on that one, but it is really good.

Stacy: They tried to make a movie, but it didn't translate as well, but the book is just magical of New York. You just feel like you're right there in the Met and all over, really.

Alison Stewart: Thanks so much for calling in, Jordan. Let's get to some of your classics. Let's start first with Pulitzer Prize for fiction, Edith Wharton. What do you think?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, so she became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. That's awesome. She was really writing about the perils of upper-class society in New York for women at the tail end of the Gilded Age. Our engineer Juliana is actually currently reading The House of Mirth, and she says, "There is no mirth in The House of Mirth," which is true. It is a really tragic story about a woman named Lily Bart, who is slowly pushed to the margins of New York high society.

Alison Stewart: She looks so sad.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, it's a sad one. I can see Juliana shaking her head in the studio. There's also The Age of Innocence, another classic about divorce and a love triangle. If maybe you're fan of the Gilded Age show, if you want to immerse yourself in that time period, any Edith Wharton is going to really do the trick.

Alison Stewart: Another one, which fans of Get Lit will recognize, Passing by Nella Larsen. It's from the perspective of a Black woman. Tell a little more about it.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, so this is a story about two women who were childhood friends. It is published in 1929. It's set in Harlem. One of the women reconnects with her friend years later to find that her friend is passing for white. She's a Black woman who is light-skinned enough to pass for white, and she's married to a white man who has no idea of his wife's heritage and background, and things go from there. It's a slim novel, so again, if you're looking to really fit it in under the wire, it's a really impactful book for how sparse the pages are.

Alison Stewart: This year, we're celebrating the 100th birthday of James Baldwin. Which of his books would you recommend?

Jordan Lauf: I would really recommend Another Country for the New York feel. That's another one set in Harlem. It's about a bisexual drummer who becomes entangled with a white woman and then the fallout of that relationship. Something that I find so special about Baldwin as I've been reflecting at this anniversary, is that he was really able to put himself in the shoes of so many different characters. He's not just writing from one perspective. He's writing about women and white people and Black people and gay people and straight people. Really, regardless of race and gender and sexuality, even financial status, he can get in the minds of all of those characters in such a profound way.

Alison Stewart: We've got a text. 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn stands the test of time,' that's from Caroline. Slaves of New York by Tama Janowicz. Where else are you going to find a book set where the price of an apartment is the main factor in personal relationships? Let's talk to Craig. Hey, Craig, thanks for calling in.

Craig: How you doing? I don't even know if the book is still in print. It's called Waterworks by EL Doctoro. Takes place in the 19th century New York, and it's a weird situation that this man goes into. It's gritty people in good jobs as a policeman. How New York is changing for the worse, but for the better at the same time with industrialism coming to New York. It was just very interesting how the city becomes part of the book.

Alison Stewart: Craig, thanks a lot. You have a good voice, good for radio. Let's talk to Sharon calling as well. Hi, Sharon. Thanks for calling All of It.

Sharon: Hello, can you hear me?

Alison Stewart: Yes, you're on.

Sharon: Okay, good. My book is by a patient of mine. I'm a dental hygienist, and it's called My Mrs. Brown by William Norwich. It's about a woman living in a very small town in upstate New England, never married, no family. She works at, I think, like a Salvation Army type of place or a thrift store. The only rich woman in her town passes away and has a huge estate. All the big estate houses from Manhattan come out to take care of her estate. This woman is part of it because they're going to thrift some of her things. She has a love affair with the woman's clothing, in particular, one of the dresses. It inspires her to come into Manhattan by herself, which she's never done, and have a whole love affair and change her life because of this dress of Mrs. Brown.

Alison Stewart: Love the story. Thank you so much for calling in. We've got Jordan Lauf in studios. She's All of It and Get Lit producer. We are talking about the summer reading challenge and we're taking your calls. What's your favorite book about New York about or set in New York 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Let's move on to some modern recommendations. What's your first recommendation?

Jordan Lauf: Let's do it. Yes, so one of my favorite novels set in New York that was published in the last few years is My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Otessa Moshfey. For those who are familiar with her work, she is a little gross. It's a little grotesque.

Alison Stewart: Okay. I read this. This is one of the first books I could read again after my surgery. I thought, "Oh, this will be good."

Jordan Lauf: No.

Alison Stewart: It's not about rest and relaxation, let's just say. [laughs]

Jordan Lauf: No, no. I mean, it is in the sense that this woman puts herself in a coma.

Alison Stewart: Yes, that's it.

Jordan Lauf: Basically, it's about a disaffected, bored, and depressed young woman in New York City in the early 2000s. She should have everything she wants. She's got a great job. She's got a boyfriend. She's got a beautiful apartment. For some reason, she just can't motivate to do anything. She's so depressed that she starts self-medicating herself into this coma-like state and hibernating in her apartment, and things take a turn from there. I think it's Moshfeh's best use of her grotesque nastiness for a purpose and for commentary. It's a slice of New York in the year 2000, so it's just before 911. I think it's an interesting time period for this novel to take place.

Alison Stewart: Up next, you're recommending a Get Lit book from a few years ago, Luster by Raven Lalani.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, so this one is set partially in New York and partially in the New Jersey suburbs. It's about a struggling Bushwick artist. I'm sure some of our listeners might be able to relate to that feeling. She's a young Black woman who becomes entangled with a white couple who are in an open marriage, and their child, who all live in the New Jersey suburbs. She ends up living there with them. It's a book that really encapsulates the difficulties of finding your voice and your path in this city when your financial means are not unlimited and you're sort of struggling to find yourself.

Alison Stewart: There you go. Let's get a couple of texts in here. 'A Hazard of New Fortunes, William Dean Howells, set in 1890s New York. Just Finished the Assistance by Camille Perry, young woman taking on corporate greed in New York City in the background. I went to a bar called Superfine in Brooklyn after it was recommended to me in the book."

Jordan Lauf: Oh, fun.

Alison Stewart: Yes, let's check in Colleen. Colleen, thanks for calling in.

Colleen: Hello, I am calling from Sunnyside, New York. I work in children's publishing, so I have a bit of a bias. My favorite book about New York is The Mixed Up Files from The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, about children who run away from Greenwich, Connecticut and spend the night in the Metropolitan Museum.

Jordan Lauf: That was a favorite of mine as a kid, too. It used to make me want to hide in the museum at night so no one could find me. I would want to sleep on one of those giant four-poster vintage beds. Sounds awesome.

Alison Stewart: Someone wanted to text at us to say the form is not publicly viewable, but it has been fixed. It's now working again.

Jordan Lauf: I am sure that our excellent producer Zach has fixed it, so it should be working.

Alison Stewart: Zach.

Jordan Lauf: That link again, if you need it, is wnyc.org dot/summerreading. Zach, thank you so much for fixing it. It should work now.

Alison Stewart: You are recommending Severance by Ling Ma?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. This is not connected to the AppleTV series, so don't get confused, but it is also a workplace commentary, like the series. It's set in an alternate version of New York City, where the country has been overtaken by something called the Shen fever pandemic. This was published before 2020, just a heads up. What this fever does is it causes people to keep repeating routines compulsively until they die. If you get stuck in a work routine, that's just what you're doing until your body runs out. Our protagonist works in publishing, and she's there as the city collapses around her. It's a lot of observations, again, about our work-life culture, our work-life balance, and this dystopian vision of the city.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Gina. Hi, Gina. Thanks for calling All of It.

Gina: Hi, Alison. I love your show. Thank you for taking my call. My favorite book about New York City-- and I just started rereading it again in the last week- is Let the Great World Spin by Colin McCann. It starts with an amazing description of the Man on Wire walk between the World Trade Center towers by Philippe Petit. Then it goes on to get into these amazing characters, two of which are brothers who were born in Ireland and emigrated to New York. It's really a magical book.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for calling in. Time and Again by Jack Finney is getting a lot of play. All right, it's the 50th anniversary of The Power Broker by Robert Moses.

Jordan Lauf: It is.

Alison Stewart: Where do you stand on this? In two weeks? What do you think?

Jordan Lauf: In two weeks? I mean, if you just want to sleep, eat, read, breathe Robert Moses, then go for it. It is, I believe, over a thousand pages long, so it would be an immense challenge. If you have a lot of time on your hands, it's a great time to do it. It is the 50th anniversary. There's a lot of content out there that's like a read along or podcast you can listen to to help you get motivated. I believe in our readers. If someone out there manages to read The Power Broker in two weeks, I would like you to let us know. Please tag us on social@allofitwnyc. Email me, tweet me. I don't know. I would love to see evidence that could be accomplished.

Alison Stewart: You're a big baseball fan. Everybody knows that around here. Any books you'd like to recommend in particular?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, so I'm a baseball fan because my dad grew up a Yankee fan. He grew up going to what he called the Bronx Zoo. Yankee Stadium in the '70s was referred to as the Bronx Zoo because it was so nuts. This book is titled, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning:1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle For The Soul of a City. It goes into the tumultuous history of New York and that year, from the mayoral race between Ed Koch and Mario Cuomo to the fights between Reggie Jackson and manager Billy Martin to the blackout of that year. It's not just about baseball. It's also about our city's history in that year.

Alison Stewart: Okay, Peter, you've got 15 seconds. What do you say?

Peter: Hi, A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich. It's about a kid growing up in a poor part of the Bronx and dealing with drugs and getting out of there. I also love A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for calling in.

Jordan Lauf: Nice.

Alison Stewart: Hey, Jordan, thanks for all of the suggestions. Jordan's our All of It and Get Lit producer. You want to shout out the website one more time for summer reading?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Wnyc.org/summerreading. You've got two weeks. I believe in you.

Alison Stewart: Coming up on tomorrow's show, actor and now director Zoe Kravitz. She's behind the camera for the new thriller Blink Twice. Yes, I watched part of it through my fingers. Zoe Kravitz joins me to discuss. I'm Allison Stewart. I appreciate you listening and I appreciate you. I will meet you back here next time.

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