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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It from WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Yesterday marked the first official day of summer, which means it's officially time for summer reading, and listeners, we have some book announcements to make. Get Lit with All Of It is going on summer vacation. As we prepare for a packed fall slate of exciting new titles with big authors, it doesn't mean that we don't have some special summer literary content planned for you.

Join us for All Of It’s Summer School. This summer, we will be reading two classics, New York based books, one in July and one in August. We invite you to dust off your bookshelf or check out your local bookstore and/or library, and join us to discuss each work on the radio with an expert, and there'll be a little bit of homework and a chance to participate on air. It's like summer school, but fun.

Our July selection is James Baldwin's Landmark 1962 novel, Another Country. The book is set in the intense heat that can only be felt in the peak of a New York summer. It follows Rufus Scott, a jazz musician from Harlem, who is immersed in the Bohemian Manhattan scene of the late 1950s. Set your calendar for July 13th when we will be discussing Another Country with professor and James Baldwin, expert Rich Blint. Look out on our social media over the next month where you'll see prompts, discussion questions to think about, and little nuggets of information about the book. Join us for All Of It’s Summer School as we read James Baldwin's Another Country. We'll be discussing it, taking your questions and hearing your thoughts on July 13th.

With that in mind, we can also talk about some newer books you can pick up this summer. Whether your idea of a great vacation book is a 500-page tome or a 200-page thriller, we have some summer reading recommendations for you, courtesy of All Of It, and Get Lit with All Of It producer Jordan Lauf. Hi Jordan.

Jordan Lauf: Hello.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, we want to hear from you. What books are you most excited to read this summer? What's a book you've read recently that you loved and want to shout out? We're seeking all of your book recommendations for this summer as we give you some of ours. Our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can also text to that number and we can let you know at the end of the segment. We're going to put everyone's suggestions, including Jordan's, up on our website later today.

Let's get involved. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. You can text us or call us. We're going to crowd source a big summer reading list. The summer, always big name authors put out releases. Our first one we're going to talk about is two time Pulitzer Prize winner and former Get Lit with All Of It author Colson Whitehead. It's a new book, but it's a sequel to his last book, right?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, exactly. This one's called Crook Manifesto. It comes out on July 18th and it's the sequel to his jewelry heist book, Harlem Shuffle. I think when people think about Colson Whitehead, a lot of the time they think about his two Pulitzer Prize novels, it’s Underground Railroad, that's The Nickel Boys, and those are really serious heavy books. This one is different. It's a great summer read. They're really fun. They're set here in New York.

This one, the second one sees our protagonist, Ray Carney, who had been involved in this life of crime before. He's hung up his hat on that he thinks, “Okay, I'm going back to the straight edge,” except then his daughter really, really wants Jackson 5 tickets. She's dying to see them in Madison Square Garden. He can't get ahold of any tickets, so he decides to make a deal with this crooked white cop who says, "Oh, I can get you these tickets, but it might cost you a little bit," and so it drags him back into this life of crime and he gets back involved.

It's a really fun read and Whitehead's really a master of genre as well. It's not just the serious historical stuff. He can do fun and crime capers really well too.

Alison Stewart: That's Crook Manifesto by Colson Whitehead. Another legend, Ann Patchett has a new one out titled Tom Lake. When Will Anne's book be released?

Jordan Lauf: That one comes out on August 1st. I'm really excited for this one. Ann Patchett is really one of our best storytellers. This one is a story within a story. It's a mom who is quarantining with her daughters during the COVID 19 pandemic, and they all learn that this one big actor, very famous actor has died. That prompts them to ask their mother about her past dating this actor, because it turns out that their mother had a brief career in Hollywood. She starred in one big movie, and then she gave up her acting career, but during that time, she dated this person.

She goes into the story of how she became an actor, why she gave up acting after one big role and her relationship with this very famous man. It has the past and present intertwining. It's always interesting for me to see how our greatest writers are tackling the pandemic, whether they decide to include it in their writing at all, or they just skip over it or go as far away as they can, so I'm very interested to see how she tackles the pandemic in this book.

Alison Stewart: I also love about Ann, Ann has got such a breadth of writing that she does. I remember she was on our show to talk about her kids' book Lambslide.

Jordan Lauf: Oh, yes, yes. Delightful. Yes, she can tackle any kind of book really. She's just is a really versatile writer and I find that her books, they often have a court like almost fairytale storytelling quality to them, which I really like.

Alison Stewart: That one is called Tom Lake by Anne Patchett. Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, his first novel since Deacon King Kong, which was right about the time when the pandemic started. Sometimes he's in New York, but this one's set in Pennsylvania?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, exactly. This one comes out on August 8th, Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. It is set in a Black and Jewish neighborhood in Pennsylvania called Chicken Hill. It’s about a couple, a Jewish couple who run a grocery store and how they and their community come together to protect a young deaf Black boy who the state at the time, this is set in the early 20th century, the state comes and wants to have him institutionalized and the community comes together to protect him.

There's also another mystery running at the same time. You jump forward in time and learn that in 1972, a human skeleton has been found in this community buried, so there's also the mystery of who does the skeleton belong to? How did it get there? I just think that James McBride is so good at ensemble work. All of his characters are very vividly portrayed. There are often lots of them, but they're all really memorable. No one really fades into the background.

I really liked this quote from Kirkus, which I think sums it up. In a star review of the book, they said, "If it's possible for America to have a poet laureate, why can't James McBride be its storyteller-in-chief?” I think that's right.

Alison Stewart: I’d vote for that.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, me too.

Alison Stewart: I’d vote for that. Let's talk to Kevin from Morris Plains, New Jersey. Hey Kevin, thanks for calling All Of It.

Kevin: You're very welcome, Alison. Just another shout out for Colson. In the wintertime, I finished Harlem Shuffle, fantastic read, looking forward to reading the sequel. I'm currently reading his first one about the elevator inspectors, so don't give me any spoilers. The one I really wanted to give a shout out on for summertime is Sag Harbor, which I had gone out to Sag Harbor a lot in a certain part of my life and it is so real. His book is just so real, so I wanted to give that one a little push.

Alison Stewart: Thanks so much for calling. Actually, I went to Sag Harbor for the first time a few weeks ago thinking about Colson Whitehead, so you were in my head Kevin. We've got Soul Boom from Rainn Wilson. Someone has texted that. Someone also texted Flamer, who we just had the author of Flamer on the air, Mike Curato. Summer reading, The Ditch Digger's Daughter is another one that someone is recommending. Folks, we want to hear your recommendations.

What are you most excited to read this summer or maybe even reread? What's a book you've read lately that you loved? We're seeking book recommendations for this summer. Our phone number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. You can call in and shout it out or you can send us a text. If you send us a text, tell us a little bit about why you like the book. That's always helpful too, so we can get people interested.

All right. Jordan Lauf is with us. She is our Get Lit with All Of It producer. She has assembled quite a great list of books to read this summer. In August, a new book is coming from Elizabeth Acevedo, which combines magic and a family story. It is titled Family Lore. She's a big YA person, right?

Jordan Lauf: Yes. She's written quite a few YA novels and also poetry, but this is her first novel for adults. It comes out on August 1st, and this one tells the story of a Dominican-American family who have a matriarch who has this really magical special ability or maybe a curse, I don't know, that she's able to predict the exact day that someone will die. I mean, I don't think I would want to know that information, but I guess she does. The story kicks off because this woman organizes a living wake for herself and so gathers her family together, but it's a little bit unclear whether she's predicted that she is about to die or whether someone else in the family is about to die. That all comes to the surface throughout the course in the novel.

Alison Stewart: That is Family Lore by Elizabeth Acevedo. Okay, some people really like romance. Some people get a little itchy when you say romance novel, but you have found a few that I think our audience will like. They'll be okay with romance. Emily Henry, the book is titled Happy Place. She also wrote Beach Read and Book Lovers. What is the setup? What is the romance of Happy Place?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, this is a bit of a classic, if we're pretending to be in love, will we actually fall in love story with a bit of a twist. This one is about a couple who have been together for a long time and they've broken up just before their yearly summer vacation with their best friends at a house in Maine. They decide rather than telling everybody and ruining the- -vacation, we're going to just pretend that we haven't broken up yet.” It's about a couple who spends this vacation pretending that they're still in love but will the fake romance maybe reignite something in their relationship? I don't know. I guess you'll have to read to find out. That one's out already. If you're a fan of romance, Emily Henry is the new queen.

Alison Stewart: I love the name of this one. It's called Couplets by Maggie Millner. The title gives us a sense that we can expect something a little different from this romance novel.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, and I have to say, I have rarely been recommended a book more than this one. So many people have told me to pick this one up. It's also about queer relationship, so Pride Month, happy Pride. It's also great because it's only 102 pages because as the title indicates, this is a book written in poems and couplets. It's a romance novel in poetry about a woman who lives in Brooklyn with her boyfriend but she has these fantasies of romances with women and ends up getting involved with a woman that she meets at a bar, having an affair and it goes from there.

The couplets are really nice and lovely. A lot of them rhyme, which is fun. It’s always fun to have a book that rhymes. Again, it's only 102 pages, so you can just slip it right in your beach bag and take it with you on the go.

Alison Stewart: I don't want to put you on the spot, but do you have the book with you, yes?

Jordan Lauf: I do.

Alison Stewart: Can you read it for me?

Jordan Lauf: Here is from the beginning of Couplets by Maggie Millner. "All my life I've shown up late, but when I do, I compensate for my delay. I laugh and preen and carry on as if I had been present all along. I stayed in utero, for instance, two weeks after I was due, then came out so decisively and fast, I couldn't breathe. I spent my first night on earth alone in a tent flush full of oxygen. The event from which my dad believes have sprung like fires all my weird anxieties."

Alison Stewart: That's Couplets by Maggie Millner. Let's talk to Chloe. Hey Chloe, thanks for calling All Of It.

Chloe: Hi, thanks for taking my call.

Alison Stewart: What would you suggest we read?

Chloe: I loved The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. She won the National Book Award for this in 2022.

Alison Stewart: Tell our listeners what it's about.

Chloe: It's a mix of characters and their plots. They're all related by living in this one apartment building called The Rabbit Hutch. It just follows a couple of the characters and the problems begins and ends with a stabbing.

Alison Stewart: Oh, I hope things are okay where you are, Chloe. [chuckles] Let's talk to Kit from Bayville. Hey, Kit, thanks for calling All Of It.

Kit: Hey Alison, thanks for taking my call. First of all, I have to give a shout-out to my husband who introduced me to this book. It's called The Eyes and The Impossible. I apologize, I don't know the author because he played it for me on a six-hour car ride on audiobook, but it's told from a dog's perspective. If you are a dog owner as I am, you need to listen to this book because the dog Josiah had absolutely no concept of human time. I'm sure that's the way most dogs think.

Alison Stewart: First of all, it's by Dave Eggers, we did a little googling, and the second is, what's your dog's name?

Kit: My dog's name is Sadie. Sadie thinks if you leave for five minutes, you're never coming back.

Alison Stewart: Oh, Sadie, what kind of dog is Sadie?

Kit: [laughs] Honestly, this was such a funny, heartbreaking-- it had all the emotions, it had all the feels. I've recommended it to everybody I know.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for calling in. We got text that says The Power Broker in honor of editor Robert Gottlieb's passing. Given the ample beach time you may have, it's the perfect time to dive into this unparalleled history of both planner Robert Moses and New York. That is from Jesse. Thank you, Jesse. We've got Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard someone is recommending. Also, try to read The Postcard by Anne Berest in the original French. I love historical fiction and I'm a Francophile. Thank you for texting in.

Let's continue with your list, Jordan. Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess. I hope I'm saying that right. Kirkus reviews of your last recommendation says, “A hot book on a hot topic well worth reading and arguing about.” Why will people argue about this book?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, I think this is a book about a relationship that some people might have some issues with. This is a story of Jess and Josh. They work together at Goldman Sachs. That's where they meet again and fall in love. They had actually met before they knew each other in college and they were enemies. I wouldn't even say frienemies. I would say they were debate partners maybe. Jess is Black, Josh is white. Josh leans a little bit more conservative than Jess, and they would get into arguments about things like affirmative action, and economics, and all kinds of stuff.

When they work together at Goldman Sachs, all that falls to the side, they fall in love until the 2016 election comes around. Then they find themselves in a predicament, I think probably more than a couple of our listeners have found themselves in, which is, “I love somebody whose politics I really don't agree with. Can we overcome that? Can we get past that?” Can Josh see Jess’ point of view, or are we going to have to walk away from this? It is a romance that has a love story at the center, but it's also very topical.

Alison Stewart: That's Everything's Fine by Cecilia Rabess. We'll have more of our summer reading with Get Lit with All Of It producer Jordan Lauf. We have some thrillers, some crime novels, as well as some memoirs to suggest. We'll take more of your recommendations as well. The number's 212-433-9692, 221-2433-WNYC. Call or text us what you want to shout out, a book that you've been reading or excited to read this summer. We'll be back after a quick break.

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Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Joining me is All Of It and Get Lit with All Of It producer Jordan Lauf with some summer book recommendations. We're asking for yours as well. Joanne texted us, "I read Why Fathers Cry at Night. I heard Kwame Alexander's interview on your station, bought the book, good read, read it for Father's Day on Juneteenth. I liked it because it showed authenticity, vulnerability, and transparency. That coming from a man and a father and someone who is Black was refreshing and hopeful." It's a lovely comment. Thank you, Joanne, for texting.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear. I'm not a big reader, but into chapter four already, the writer keeps my attention and makes me interested to learn and try the suggestions. He writes like he's speaking to me and turns himself as a narrator into a nonfiction character in a unique style that makes me feel like we're really having a conversation. I believe we actually had James Clear on to talk about that book. You might want to google that interview after you finish reading the book.

All right, Jordan, we're into crime novels and thrillers. You have one that if you're flying anywhere, maybe not on the plane, you want to read this one. It's called Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 by T.J. Newman.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, if you're on a plane, I wouldn't recommend this one, but maybe on the beach would be a good place to read it. The thing I really like about T.J Newman, I read her first one as well, Falling, is that she is actually a former flight attendant turned novelist. What's cool about her thriller set on planes is that she really knows the ins and outs of how airplanes work, what pilots get up to, flight attendants, and their jobs. She's just really good at setting a thriller on a flight, considering she knows everything there is to know about working on a plane.

This one is about a plane that has a mechanical issue, an explosion, and crashes into the ocean. Some people do die immediately, unfortunately, but other people survive as part of the plane sinks into the ocean about 200 feet deep. We follow a man and his daughter who have survived this crash. They're stuck on a plane in the ocean, and they have to figure out are they going to try to swim out somehow, is someone going to come find them? It's maybe hitting a little close to home for people following the news right now, so there's that. It's a little bit eerie actually. She's a really compelling writer and I love that she has this background in planes and flying.

Alison Stewart: We had her on the air for Falling, right?

Jordan Lauf: We did. We had her on for Falling, yes. She wrote that I believe a lot on cocktail napkins while she was working as a flight attendant in between.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Lorraine on line one. Hi Lorraine. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Lorraine: Hi. Thanks for taking my call. I'd like to recommend an author. His name is Chester Himes, H-I-M-E-S. For people who like Colson Whitehead's Harlem Shuffle, this author was writing years ago in Harlem and it's crime and tongue in cheek. I don't have the list of his novels in front of me, but I do highly-- very amusing.

Alison Stewart: Chester Himes. Love the shout-out. Thank you, Lorraine, for calling in. We've got a text from Emma, Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Historical fiction, plus romance, plus mystery, plus one of the rare good queer books I've read. I could not put it down!!! Let's get to more on your list. We've got Happiness Falls by Angie Kim. You're recommending two books from Angie Kim.

Jordan Lauf: Yes, I actually thought Angie Kim's debut novel Miracle Creek from a couple of years ago went completely under the radar, and I don't know why. I thought it was excellent. That one is a murder mystery about how a boy with autism died during a rare oxygen treatment gone wrong. It's hard to describe it any more than that, but that one really gets into issues of disability and race, and I think this new one will do similar things.

This one's titled Happiness Falls. It comes out August 29th. This is about a Korean husband and father who goes missing. He was out with his son and his son returns with bloody clothes, but the son has a rare condition that renders him nonverbal. He's not able to speak, so he isn't able to communicate to the family what has gone on, where the father is, and why he's covered in blood.

The family has to try to put the pieces together and find their missing father. I just think Angie, Kim's a really great writer and I've been seeing starred reviews across the board for this one.

Alison Stewart: Also, on your list is All The Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby, which I have in my hands, and we're going to talk about that on the air in a couple of weeks. We'll let people tune in for that one about the first Black sheriff in a Virginia County, solving a serial killer, finding a serial killer. Let's go to memoirs. How To Stay Married by Harrison Scott Key. That title alone, How To Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told. Why is it insane?

Jordan Lauf: It really is an insane love story. This one came out on June 13th. I genuinely laughed out loud reading this, and I rarely do that. In a book, I think his writing is so funny. It tells the true story, it's a memoir, of Harrison and his wife. Harrison learns that his wife has been having a many-year affair. This isn't a spoiler. It's the beginning of the book, a multiple-year affair with a neighbor and a friend, and they decide, "Okay, you know what? We're going to try to work through this. We're going to try to stay married. We're going to try to come back from this," but the story takes a lot of twists and turns from there.

Let's just say the person that this woman has had an affair with, doesn't really want to go quietly into the night. He's not really ready to let it go, but it's one of those stories that you can guess by the title, it has a happy ending. They're still together, they're still married, they've worked it out. You get to see all the kinds of ins and outs of what happened into trying to save that marriage. It's actually a really moving story as well as a really funny one.

Alison Stewart: You also have Pageboy, which is a very much anticipated memoir from actor Elliot Page. Full disclosure, we tried really hard to make this a Get Lit book.

Jordan Lauf: We did.

Alison Stewart: We should say that out loud. We tried really hard. You should read it anyway. Of course

Jordan Lauf: We did. Yes, exactly. This one is about Elliot's journey. Obviously, he is an actor who came out as trans in recent years. It's about his story and his coming out story. I'll also say for fans of celebrity memoirs with a little bit of juicy gossip, there is some of that in this book. He's been talking a little bit about some celebrities that he's had romantic relationships with in the past that maybe we weren't aware of. I think it's a great read for pride. It's definitely a memoir with something to say. If you like a little bit of celebrity gossip, there's that for you too.

Alison Stewart: Let's talk to Eric on line Six. Hi Eric. Thanks for calling All Of It.

Eric: Hi, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to suggest a classic, The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. It's the first in the Discworld series that I'd only recently been introduced to. It's beloved worldwide. I think it's only recently being discovered in the States but it's a hilarious fantasy novel in a world that is the shape of a disc. I've been enjoying it so much, so I just wanted more people to read it.

Alison Stewart: Thank you for calling in, Eric. We've got Paper Palace. The characters are full, raw and flawed. The story is rich and the life choices imperfect. A bit of romance, a lot of family drama, bouncing nimbly over generations and histories, resonates, loved it. Someone else said, "I'd like to recommend Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.

I love it because the book is about an elderly custodian at an aquarium who develops a friendship with an octopus. Part of the story is told from the octopus' perspective, it's touching and marvelous storytelling." That's from Tuvi. Thank you Tuvi, so much for writing in. I probably have time for one more book. It's dealer's choice Jordan, which book do you want to talk about?

Jordan Lauf: Yes, I actually want to talk about a book called The Talk. It's a graphic book. It's something I've been getting more recently into is graphic books. I think that's also a great summer read. Sometimes if you're a little tired, you're on the beach, you don't want to look at a big paragraph of text, you can pick up a graphic book. This one is by Darrin Bell. It's a memoir. It comes out on June-- or came out on June 6th. Bell has won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning so he really knows his stuff.

The art is stunning in this book, and it's a memoir about his life as a young Black boy and how the trajectory of his life was shaped by the talk that he had with his mother when he was young, which a lot of our listeners I'm sure are familiar with. He wanted to have a realistic looking water gun, and his mother had to explain to him why a young Black boy can't be seen with that kind of toy.

The art is really stunning for the most part. It's muted colors, but he has these bright flashes of color in strategic places, like the lights of cop cars are really bright for example. The art is lovely. It's a really moving story. I just think if you want a book that has something to say but also is a beautiful art piece, this is a good one to invest in.

Alison Stewart: Real quick. Ann from Montrose, you've got 20 seconds

Ann: Operation Storm King. It's set in the Hudson River Valley. It's both an adventure of a West Point woman cadet who's fighting for the respect that she deserves. Also, an attempted kidnapping of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, right here in the Hudson River Valley, up and down Hyde Park, West Point, Top Cottage the Hudson River. It's an exciting story. It's called Operation Storm King and it's just terrific by Elliot Summers, Operation Storm King.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much. Thanks to Jordan Lauf, our Get Lit with All Of It producer for putting together this terrific comprehensive list. We'll have Jordan's recommendations on our website as well as the ones for people who have called in and texted in. Jordan, thanks a lot. Good job.

Jordan Lauf: Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: We'll meet you back here tomorrow.

 

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