Your Book Club's Reading List

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Tiffany Hanssen: It's The Brian Lehrer Show here on WNYC. I'm Tiffany Hanssen in for Brian, and now we are going to talk about book clubs. Listeners, are you in a book club? What are you reading right now? We'd love to hear it. 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Call us with what your book club is reading. Text us at that number as well. 212-433-9692. Why are we asking this question? First of all, because Jordan Lauf is sitting in the studio with me here. Jordan is a producer for WNYC's All Of It and the All Of It Book club, Get Lit. Jordan, we're asking this question as well because of an article in The Atlantic and another in The New York Times that have lamented that college students and, to a certain extent, younger people in general are having a hard time reading an entire book.

Jordan Lauf: Ah.

Tiffany Hanssen: [chuckles] There's Jordan's comment on that. In addition into that, a fact may be that many Americans in general are actually reading very little right now. Cue Jordan sighing again. YouGov poll last year found that just 54% of Americans read at least one book in 2023.

Jordan Lauf: Wow.

Tiffany Hanssen: Wait, let me say that again. 54% of Americans, so over half,-

Jordan Lauf: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: -read at least one book. They read at least one book.

Jordan Lauf: At least one.

Tiffany Hanssen: At least one, so we're going to put a positive spin there. 82% of Americans read 10 or fewer books. Still, that's like a book a month.

Jordan Lauf: That's still reading.

Tiffany Hanssen: That's not bad. Book clubs do seem to be growing in popularity. Book event listings grew 24% last year. If you listen to WNYC, you do know that All Of It has its own book club called Get Lit, as I mentioned. Now first, Jordan, there is a Get Lit event tonight. Let's start there and then we'll spool out into other book clubs.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. If you are looking for a book club to join, look no further than Get Lit with All Of It. We're a monthly book club, in case you haven't heard. Our October event is tonight at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library. It's at six o'clock. Tickets are free and there are still a couple available, but not many because we've got a really great lineup tonight. Our author is Dinaw Mengestu. We read his novel this month, Someone Like Us. We always have music at these things. Our musical guest this month is Angélique Kidjo, which is really exciting. She's an international superstar, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter. She'll be performing live.

Tiffany Hanssen: Is this a book that if someone is hearing our voices right now, they could cram it in and read the whole thing by the event tonight?

Jordan Lauf: If you have a full day to read, you actually could.

Tiffany Hanssen: Oh, good.

Jordan Lauf: It's under 300 pages and it's a pretty fast paced story. The chapters are short. There are even some pictures in there if you like a little visual stimulation.

Tiffany Hanssen: Love it.

Jordan Lauf: It's about an Ethiopian American journalist who has been living in Paris and decides to return home to find out what has happened to his father figure. I say father figure because this man named Samuel, he assumes it's his father, but no one has said explicitly like, "Hey, this is your dad." He's been in his life his whole life, but he calls him Samuel, he doesn't call him dad. He dies under these mysterious circumstances, and so this journalist, his name is Mamush, comes home to try to figure out what's happened to Samuel, and also just uncover some of the mysteries in his life that have remained elusive for him so far.

Tiffany Hanssen: No Darth Vader moment like, "I am your father."? [chuckles]

Jordan Lauf: No. He knows, but it's one of those open family secrets where mom's not exactly saying what's going on there.

Tiffany Hanssen: I should say that these are great events even if you haven't read the book, right?

Jordan Lauf: That's very true. Again, if you are interested in books but also really love music, we have live music performances every night. Angélique Kidjo is going to be amazing. It's about half book, half music. If you don't love to read but you love music, it's also a great way to see some free live performance.

Tiffany Hanssen: Jordan, we already have some folks with recommendations here. Joe in Edgewater, what is your book club reading, Joe?

Joe: Yes. This month, we just finished Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It's a whiskey/book club. Each month, we get together, we have a choice whiskey that we pick beforehand, and we just sit around and have whiskey and then talk about the book. That's what we're reading this month, sort of apropos of the season.

Tiffany Hanssen: Love it. Can you say the name again for us, Joe?

Joe: Yes. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, 1933, I think. It's a gothic novel and it's excellent.

Tiffany Hanssen: Sounds great. Thanks, Joe. Brenda in Parsippany, New Jersey. Brenda, what are you reading?

Brenda: Our book club just read James by Percival Everett, which came out in April of this year. It was based on the fact he took the character Jim from Huckleberry Finn, and the story is told from Jim's perspective. The author, Percival Everett, also was what the movie American Fiction was based on.

Tiffany Hanssen: Brenda, thanks for that. That book, Jordan, got a lot of press. A lot of press. Did you read it?

Jordan Lauf: I did read it. We had Mr. Everett on the show earlier this year to talk about it, and it was a great conversation. It's a really good book. I have to say I know I'm an English major so this is embarrassing, I have not read Huckleberry Finn. It was interesting for me.

Tiffany Hanssen: I know.

Jordan Lauf: I think you should go right now.

Tiffany Hanssen: I know.

Jordan Lauf: Did I just ruin my credibility? I'm sorry. It was interesting for me to read it not having that background.

Tiffany Hanssen: Interesting.

Jordan Lauf: If you do know that text very well, this will be an excellent and interesting and engaging read for you because it totally flips the story on its head. What I thought was most interesting about it is the code-switching that's in the novel, so definitely take a look for that. Jim, when he talks to white people, has the dialect that Mark Twain gives him in the novel. Then when he's with his family, when he's with himself, he's speaking in a completely different way. He really gets into code-switching.

Tiffany Hanssen: Interesting. That book is called James, and it's by-

Jordan Lauf: Percival Everett.

Tiffany Hanssen: Percival Everett. We heard from our listener Joe there in Edgewater about a book that he deemed worthy of the season. Let's dive in a little bit on some of the books that you think are also good. We are a day away from Halloween,-

Jordan Lauf: It's true.

Tiffany Hanssen: -so there's a little spooky air in the vibe, in the air.

Jordan Lauf: Yes.

Tiffany Hanssen: [chuckles] What have you got for us on that?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. I love spooky season. If you're looking to get in the Halloween spirit but stay here in New York, I really recommend Victor LaValle's novel The Changeling. This is a horror story that's all set here in the city. It's about a man and his wife. His wife who has just given birth to their first child starts to believe that this baby is not their baby. It's been swapped out. It's a changeling. It's not human. It's not their kid. No matter what the husband does, he can't convince his wife that it's their child. She ends up committing a very violent act and then fleeing.

The rest of the novel is this husband trying to figure out what's happened to his wife, what's happened to his child, and going through this mystical journey around New York City where there is magic and creatures and strangeness lurking around every corner. There's also a birth scene on the New York City subway, which is maybe the [chuckles] scariest part of the whole book is.

Tiffany Hanssen: That is frightening.

Jordan Lauf: I can't imagine giving birth on a stalled subway car underground. That's how it starts. If you think that's spooky enough, it gets even spookier from there. He's just a great and compelling writer. It'll keep you turning pages.

Tiffany Hanssen: Just want to read through a few of our texts here. Lisa says her book club is reading The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki. We also have here a listener who says, "The New York Public Library, shout out to the Short Reads Book Club. All books under 200 pages, well curated by a wonderful librarian. A low commitment book club." [chuckles] See, I could get behind that.

Jordan Lauf: There you go. Sometimes that's what you need is low commitment.

Tiffany Hanssen: Right. Any under 200 pages that are in your spooky list or are they all big Stephen King tomes?

Jordan Lauf: The Stephen King novel I was going to recommend actually is short. It's one of his shortest. I don't think it clocks under 200 pages, I hate to say, but it might be about 230. It's not very long. It's Pet Sematary. Stephen King devotees will know it. If you have only heard of Carrie or The Stand, I think this is a really good one to pick up. I think it's one of his scariest books and one of his saddest. It's about a family who moved to a new home, and in the backyard of their home is a pet cemetery. The reason that there is a pet cemetery is because they live on a very busy highway, so trucks and cars are coming past really quick. A lot of pets, unfortunately, bite the dust on this road.

Something really tragic happens to this family. I won't give away what. The father of the family tries to do something to reverse what has happened. The effects of that are devastating. They're terrifying. They're tremendously sad. It's been adapted a couple of times for the screen. I don't think you should watch it. I think you should read it. The power in the language and the imagery is, to me, so much stronger on the page than it is in a visual format, actually. It's a quick one. You'll read it fast, but it's a heartbreaker.

Tiffany Hanssen: We could open up a can of worms by just asking the question, is the movie better than the book? We're not going to do that.

Jordan Lauf: No.

Tiffany Hanssen: We're not going to do that. Let's go to Elizabeth in White Plains. Good afternoon, Elizabeth. Almost afternoon.

Elizabeth: Hi there. Can you hear me?

Tiffany Hanssen: We can hear you.

Elizabeth: Oh, okay. Just want to make sure. Our book club is reading a book called Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics by Stephen Greenblatt. You don't have to be an English major to read it. He does a wonderful job of describing various Shakespeare characters who were tyrannical. It's not about current politics, however, the applications are very interesting, and we just love it. We're just crazy about it. It's not very long either. It's by Stephen Greenblatt. He's written a lot of books about social issues and literature. His descriptions of Shakespeare are very good so that even if you haven't read the play, you can probably get a lot out of this book.

Tiffany Hanssen: Thank you for that, Elizabeth. Yes, we're not just spooky season. I guess you could say election season is spooky at this point, but we are also in election season. One of the books that I just ran out and ordered again was Robert Paxton, the historian. They did an interview with him in the Times about the term fascist. He's mostly known for his book on Vichy France, which I immediately went out and ordered again so that I could reread that. There are some election books that are popping up on people's reading lists too, I think, at this point.

Jordan Lauf: Definitely. We've been doing actually a whole political book series on All Of It called Get Political, a little punny there. We've covered all sorts of stuff from indigenous rights to abortion to QAnon. There's a really interesting book called The Quiet Damage. I'm going to forget the author's name now. I think it's Jesselyn Clark, about the fallout of families who have "lost a member to QAnon". She follows five different families and how that goes. I thought that was, talk about spooky season, tough reading. Not exactly lighthearted reading, but I thought that was a pretty fascinating book that came out this political season.

Tiffany Hanssen: Book clubs sometimes go back to books that have been out for a while. I'm seeing a text here too that someone is reading Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. Book clubs in general, there are no rules, let's just say that, but a lot of times, folks will go back and reread things that have been out for decades even.

Jordan Lauf: Definitely. One I was actually thinking of on that front is a book called We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. If you are looking for a book club pick that is going to keep you guys talking for the whole night long, I think that is a great one to pick. I think it's about a decade old. I read it a while ago, but it's one of those ones I think about all the time.

It is about a girl, I believe she's just going to college, who is grappling with the sudden loss of her sibling. I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that the sibling is not human. This sibling has been raised with the family in a very particular way. There's a big reveal about that. it gets into some really interesting psychological and social questions. It's a really great, meaty book club discussion book.

Tiffany Hanssen: Before we let you go, one last spooky recommendation?

Jordan Lauf: Sure. If you like a little bit of spooky atmosphere but you don't want horror, you're like, "Okay, I don't want to be up at night, but I want something a little mystical, a little spooky," I really recommend The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. It's a historical novel. It's set in medieval Spain. It's about a girl who is secretly Jewish. This is at the time of the Inquisition.

You had to hide that you were Jewish. She has these magical powers and she draws that power from Hebrew and all parts of her religious background. She gets caught up in this scheme by the king of Spain to try to help him use magic to win his wars across Europe, but she has to do it and compete in this tournament without revealing that she's Jewish.

Tiffany Hanssen: Title of the book again?

Jordan Lauf: That one is The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo. It's really good.

Tiffany Hanssen: All right. Jordan, you are going to be at the book club for All Of It tonight.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Wnyc.org/getlit. Grab your tickets.

Tiffany Hanssen: Listeners, if you've been missing Brian today, don't forget you can join him tonight at eight o'clock for a live call-in show with Brooke Gladstone, Micah Loewinger. That starts at eight o'clock. You can get your Brian fix right here on WNYC. I'm Tiffany Hanssen. Thanks so much for your company today.

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