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This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in soho.
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Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm grateful you're here. I'm also grateful to Bridget Bergen for filling in so I could spend a few days with my family. On today's show, we'll hear about the work of a pioneering voice in the black arts movement, Betye Saar, who died last week at the age of 99. Her work took racist images and transform them into empowering images. Jane Carpenter, rock acting director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, will join us to commemorate Betye Saar's life and her art. And we'll also learn about one of her passions, which you can see here in New York at the New York Historical. And we'll hear from some actors who are in Emmy nominated shows, including Riz Ahmed, Lionel Boyce and Julianne Nicholson. That's the plan. So let's get things started with some reading about the Big Apple. It's the first week in August, plenty of time for more reading, more summer reading, I should say. Are you looking for your next book to read? How about something set right here in New York City? There are so many new books out this year that take place in the city, from a new novel about taking down a mafia boss to strangers by Belle Burdon, the memoir everyone is talking about, plus a book about or set in New York just so happens to be one of our all of It Summer Reading Challenge categories. You have until Labor Day weekend to finish. So joining me now to provide some recommendations for books you can read about our great city is all of It. And get lit producer Jordan Loff. Hi, Jordan.
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Hi, Alison.
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Hey, listeners. We want you to join in on this conversation. What's a book you recommend that's about or set in New York? Our number is 2124-3399-6922-2433. WNYC. What did you read in this category for the Summer Reading Challenge? If you are partaking in that, our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. What's a book you recommend that's about or set in New York City? So, Jordan, I've actually heard that some people have finished the Summer Reading Challenge already.
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Yes, as of this morning, about 40 people have already told me what they've read and registered for that prize. Okay, speed readers, I see you. But don't panic. You still have about a month left to finish the challenge. But if you are listening and you have finished already, you can head to wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge. That's where you can find the form to fill out what you read, let us know what books you loved, what books you didn't love, and you get to register for the all important prize. It's also a place where you can give me some feedback about the categories or about something you wish we did this year so we can take it into consideration for next summer. So that's wnyc.org summerreading challenge how is
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your own summer reading challenge going?
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So I'm not gonna lie, I was getting worried for a minute. I think every year I owe I always panic that I'm not going to finish my own challenge. But I really hit a stride by picking a great US History book. I read Destiny of the Republic by Candice Millard. That was about the assassination of President James Garfield, and I really loved that one and that got me going on a roll. And I just actually finished my own selection for the New York City book category.
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So what did you read?
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I read what I Loved by Ciri Hustvedt. It's a novel from the early 2000s, and I was inspired in part by her appearance on the show earlier this year. She has a new memoir out titled Ghost, a memoir about her relationship with the writer Paul Auster. And my colleague at the show, Kate Hines, told me that in this particular novel, Siri Husvett writes a lot about her troubled relationship with with her stepson, the Paul Auster's late son, Daniel, who, if people might know, they they can Google. But he really struggled with addiction and went through a lot of really tough things in his life. And this novel tackles that a little bit. It's the story of two couples. Both of the couples are very intellectual. There's Bill, who's a famous artist. There's Leo, who's sort of an art critic. And both of their wives are intellectuals who are doing research and writing. They become best friends. They live in lofts in soho together. They work together in the New York City art world. But despite their best efforts, tragedy ends up striking both of their children. So it's about how these two couples really try to weather the storm as bad things happen to their kids. And it's not necessarily about New York City, but there is so much New York in this novel. It's set in soho. They live in the East Village. There's a big section that's about the underground club scene of the 1990s so I really enjoyed it. Like New York was really infused into every aspect of this novel.
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Let's talk to Amanda, who's calling in from Brooklyn. Hey, Amanda, thanks for calling all of it.
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Hey.
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So I wanted to put in a plug for smaller presses and I don't know for New York City if you're looking for just recent books, but there's a book of poetry that I love called Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple by Francis Chung. And it's about growing up in Chinatown and kind of multilingual with some Spanish. And it's a wonderful book, Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple. And I also have a poetry book out that came out in March that's based in New York City and it's called New York Ironweed. It's from Fence Publishing. And I just want to shout out small presses.
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Amanda, thank you so much for calling in. This text says one of my favorites and a true trip down memory lane, Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler. We had him on the show as well. Hey, listeners, we want to know what you're reading, what you're reading a book about or set in New York. Our Phone number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. We want to know what book you're reading about this great city. My guess is all of It. And get lit producer Jordan Lof. And we're talking about this category because it's one of the all of It Summer reading challenge categories. All right, let's be clear. Set in New York City means any novel that's set here in the city, right?
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C
That's right. So this category can encompass both fiction and nonfiction. So About New York is sort of like the more nonfiction, maybe history. And Set in New York really means just any novel that's set here in the city that can count in this category.
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All right, let's start with some newer books. Maybe you listened to the show and you heard Colson Whitehead talking about his new book.
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Exactly. Colson Whitehead has finished his Harlem trilogy. The third installment is titled the Cool Machine. If you're not familiar, this series has followed a furniture dealer named Ray Carney who is also a fence. And, you know, things just happen to fall off the truck and land in his lap. And he keeps getting himself caught up in these sort of ill advised heists. In this latest one, he thinks he's sort of done with that life, but then he gets sort of pulled in for one last job. What's really fun about this series is it's all set in Harlem as Harlem Trilogy implies. And it started in the 1960s and now this final book is ending up in the 1980s. So we really get to travel through a couple of decades of Harlem through these novels. And I believe they've just been optioned for television for a limited series, the Harlem Trilogy. So we'll get to see that on screen very soon. And, you know, I think sometimes people associate Colson Whitehead with some really serious books. So it's been really fun to get to see him show that he's also a master of genre fiction and really keep people entertained with this Harlem Trilogy.
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As long as we're going down memory lane, let's talk about Last Night in Brooklyn.
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Yes. So this is a new novel by the author Xochil Gonzales. It is set in rapidly gentrifying Fort Greene in 2007, just before the financial crisis. And it's got a little bit of an inspiration from the plot of the Great Gatsby. So this novel follows Alicia, who gets caught up in the life of her neighbor who's named La Garza. She's an up and coming Puerto Rican fashion designer who throws these lavish parties. And it turns out that she is also hoping to get back together with Alicia's cousin, who is married. He's a wealthy banker. His name is Devin. He and his wife have just moved to Fort Greene, and La Garza is hoping that she can win him back. And something that I really love about Xochila Gonzalez's writing is that she's so good about crafting stories around race and class and the intersection of both of those things in New York City in particular. And this one is set, as I mentioned, in Fort Greene in a very particular time in its gentrification process. So her stories are always entertaining, but there's a lot of meat there as well.
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Let's talk to Beryl, who's calling in from the Upper west side. Hi, Beryl. Thank you for taking the time to
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call, all of it.
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Hi, a pleasure to be with you. I just finished a book central A Love Song by Stephen Wolf, and it's a personal memoir of his visits to Central park, starting with his dog. He sleeps there and then he bikes around there. And it's a combination of history of the park and a lot of information about the different sculptures, the lion, the gates. And it's just like a fascinating
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story
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and his own personal life combined with the stories about the park. And it made me really appreciate the park that much more and realize that I wasn't even aware of Many of the things he's talking about. And he also has a lot of, quote poets like, who've written about the park, including I think some Walt Whitman. I'm not sure if Walt Whitman was alive during.
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Yes.
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So anyway. But really interesting and fun.
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Thank you so much for calling in.
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That's called Central Park Love Song by Stephen Wolf. This text says, my favorite, Catcher in the Rye. Hands down, New York City is definitely a vibrant character. Let's talk to Penny from Princeton, New Jersey. Hi, Penny. Thank you so much for taking the
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time to call us.
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Good morning. Good morning. I graduated college at Rutgers in 1969, which was a fabulous year. Went to New York City. You know, we had. We put a man on the moon. We had a ticker tape parade. I was there. You know, they. The World Series was once.
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And we put a man.
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I'm sorry, I'm not talking. Well, the book that I am recommending is by Luc Sant, L U C S A N T E. It's called Low Life. And the reason I'm recommending it is that after I went to New York, I lived in midtown Manhattan. I had a wonderful time, but I sort of bypassed the real heart of New York City, which is dirty and ugly and beautiful. And this book, evidently, really, it was recommended to me. I haven't finished reading it. It's just a nostalgic view of the reality behind the scenes in New York City between 1840 and 1999.
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That sounds so interesting. Thank you so much for calling, Penny. Hey, Jordan, you have one more book, new book set in New York City. You want to recommend?
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Yeah, I recommend.
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Trying.
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Yes, I recommend trying. Livonia Chow Main by Abigail Savage Liu. This story begins with a tragic event in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in the 1970s. Two tenement buildings burned to the ground, displacing countless people and killing a resident. And the community in Brownsville is convinced that this man, Mr. Wong, is the person who burned down the buildings. The story goes from there to follow four different people who are determined to get to the bottom of what actually happened with these fires and whether Mr. Wong is actually responsible, including a journalist in the 21st century named Sadie who's investigating it for her publication, and also including Mr. Wong's own son. So that book is titled Livonia Chow Main by Abigail Savage Liu. And it came out earlier this year.
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A
We got a text here that says, I enjoyed the Doorman by Chris Pavone, which is a great guest on the show. Also, New York, a novel by Edward Rutherford. Let's take another call. This Is Ken in Rockaway Beach. Hey, Ken, thanks for taking the time to call.
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All of it.
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Ken, there you are.
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Good afternoon. Yeah. You can hear me, right?
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I hear you.
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Great.
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Okay, so I want to recommend the book. It's called Waiting for Something else by Martin.
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Called.
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It's his debut novel. It's a literary fiction. It's a hilarious romp through the restaurant industry on smith street in 2006. And basically it has to do with a straight man, the manager of the restaurant, who. Who falls in love, but not lust, with a gay man, and the trials and tribulations of seeing how a relationship and what kind of relationship could work out. It's very funny. It's almost like laugh out loud on every page. Yet it's very well written and deep. The characters are flawed and redeemable. So highly recommend.
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Thank you so much. Ken, Ida is calling from Red Bank, New Jersey. Hi, Ida. What did you read?
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I read Dominicana, which is a novel set in the 1960s. I think it's 65 by an author named Angie Cruz. And it's about this young Dominican woman who comes to the United States with her recently married husband to her. And it's just a wonderful novel about the Latina experience. Finding your strength, finding your place, finding your voice. So it's wonderful. And the author, Angie at the end asked for folks to send her pictures of Dominican families emigrating to the United States at any point. I'm Cuban. I went through the same experience, but it was really related. And I highly recommend it.
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Thank you so much for calling in, Ida. My guest is all of it and get lit producer Jordan Lof as well as you, dear listeners. And we're talking about a book set or about New York City. It's one of our categories for the all of it summer reading challenge. We are taking your recommendations. Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. W, N Y C. I want to talk about our next recommendation. It's not a new book, but it's the focus of a very special event coming up.
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Yes, this is the city we became by N.K. jemisin, a master of sci fi and fantasy. The New York Public Library, our friends over there have selected this novel as their pick for the big summer book club event. It's the first time they're doing this at the Delacorte theme theater, which is super exciting. It's happening on August 17th. And Allison, I believe you will be involved speaking with NK Jemisin.
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I will be.
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So that is very exciting for people who want to go get tickets. If you don't know about the book, it is set in New York City and a version of the city that's under threat from a very powerful force. And to deal with that threat, sort of normal New Yorkers are turned into avatars for each borough. And so basically a person becomes a kind of superhero that represents Brooklyn, one that represents queens, etc. And they have to figure out how to band together to become this force to defeat this threat that is coming to the city. So it's definitely got a sort of sci fi element to it, but it's also, I would say, very, very approachable for people who aren't necessarily sci fi readers. And it's a whole lot of fun. And we've got that big book club event coming up August 17th at the Delacorte Theatre and Alison will be there helping to host.
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We want to know what book about
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or set in New York City that
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you read and you loved. We're taking Your recommendations at 2124-3396-9221-2433.
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WNYC. We'll have more after a quick break. You're listening to all of it on wnyc. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is all of It. And get lit producer Jordan Law for
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talking about books about or set in New York City. And we are taking your recommendations. Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433 wnyc.
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I want to get into nonfiction, but
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I did want to ask this question since folks have already filled out their reading challenge completion forms. Is there a particular New York City book that seems to be popular this year?
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Yes, it's been really interesting that I've seen this one book come up again and again already from people who have finished the challenge and it's interesting to me because it's not a new book. The book that seems to be really popular this year is the Rules of Civility by Amor Toles. I actually haven't read it myself, but it's set in 1930s Manhattan and follows a 25 year old woman who suddenly finds herself thrust into New York City high society. And instead of me describing it more, I will read what Carol from New Hampshire said about the novel when she wrote in to share her reading challenge picks. Carol said, quote, a wonderful adventure. It made me nostalgic for New York City decades before my time with such strong female characters. The richly complex and flawed characters were hard to let go of at the end of the book. So that is from Carol in New Hampshire, who has finished the challenge. Congrats, Carol. But I've seen a bunch of people read the Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. So maybe you want to hop on board.
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We have texts here. Bonfire of the Vanity. Someone's recommending that Please Kill me by Legs McNeil. Basketball Diaries by Jim Carroll. That is from JC in Washington Heights.
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Let's talk to Joan from Peter Cooper Village.
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Hi Joan, thanks for calling all of it.
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Hi, thanks for doing this. It's a wonderful thing to get new information about books about New York. I was going to shout out Nora Jemison's book the City We Became, but I also wanted to mention two Edith Wharton books because I think her books are wonderful in terms of giving you a real history of New York and how the city moved from Wall street up to Midtown. So both House of Mirth and Age of Innocence are wonderful New York City books.
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Thank you so much for calling in and everybody who's listening and is trying to write these down. Don't worry, there will be transcripts made of this program. It'll be on our website by tomorrow so you can get all the books down and written. Okay.
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Let's talk about nonfiction books. Jordan Fame Sick by Lena Dunham. It's quite a memoir, that's all I'm going to say. What makes this a New York book though?
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Yeah, just besides being, you know, a juicy memoir that you've probably seen people reading on the subway. Some people might forget that Lena Dunham is a New York City kid. She was born and raised here and this memoir really recounts her return to the city after college. She works in a downtown Manhattan office with the Safdie brothers and Greta Gerwig before all of those people blew up. Clearly that worked out really well for everyone. She talks about filming her breakout feature film here Tiny Furniture. She filmed it in her parents apartment in New York. And of course she writes about creating Girls, the HBO hit series, which is very much a time capsule of a certain generation of millennial white women in New York City trying to make it here. But I'll also say that she gets vulnerable about how fame and money can change you but doesn't necessarily prevent you from having certain experiences that most 20 somethings have when they move to New York, including struggling with friends and having an ill advised fling with a man in Williamsburg. So there's a lot going on. There are a lot of New York City touch points throughout this memoir beyond the sort of glitz and glamour of being rich and Famous.
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We got a text here that says, love Deacon. King Kong by James McBride.
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Great story.
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Set in Red Hook and the various
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communities in the neighborhood and how it's
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changed, but still connected to its past.
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And James McBride makes it on your nonfiction list.
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Yes, there are tons of James McBride Novels that are set in New York that are great selections for this category, but I also really wanted to give a shout out to his first book, the Color of Water, which is a memoir. I know that people think of James McBride now primarily as a novelist, but this is a really moving memoir about his family, in particular his mother. He describes his childhood in Red Hook as one of many, many siblings, all of whom made it to college even though they were sort of struggling to get by and living in low income housing, they all made it to higher education. And James McBride's mother was a white Jewish woman who was cut out of her family after she decided to marry a black man. Even though she had this Jewish background. She came to found a church. It's a very unique and heart moving story. And like all of James McBride's writing, it's heartfelt and very funny at the same time. So I can't recommend that enough, especially if you are a fan of his novels. You should check out his memoir, the Color of Water.
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This text says, I'd like to recommend the Fact Checker by Austin Kelly. It's a comic noir novel set in New York city in the 2000s from the perspective of a New York fact checker who gets caught up in a romantic mystery involving the green market. Oh, that sounds kind of exciting. Let's talk to Nancy.
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Hey, Nancy, thank you for calling all of it.
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Hi, hi, hi, hi. I'm so thrilled. Hi. So I would like to recommend James McBride. By the way, I've read all those books, they're fabulous. But Pete Hamill, who was a very famous reporter in New York in the 60s, wrote some wonderful, wonderful novels, the best of which I think one of my favorite ever books is called Snow in August. And it takes place in Brooklyn during the Second World War between an Irish kid and a North. Hello?
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Yeah, yeah, go for it.
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Yeah, okay, sorry. An orthodox rabbi who's come from the war. It's just an unbelievably beautiful, beautiful story that takes place in Brooklyn. His other two novels that I've read, one is called Forever and the other one is called North River. My book group has read all of these as well as the James McBride and the Forever and North river take place in Manhattan, and they're just wonderful. Wonderful books. So I wanted to recommend those.
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A
Thank you so much for calling in. Let's talk to Cheryl, who's calling from Cranberry, New Jersey. Hi, Cheryl. What do you want us to read?
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I want you to read Henry Roth's Call It Sleep, which is a masterpiece. And it's set in New York City in the Lower east side at the turn of the century. And it's a real voice about what it was like to live in an immigrant community and to be poor. And there's, I think his mother was like an abortionist and all the things that women had to go through, how people had to live. He wrote that one more novel. Then he moved to Maine and became a chicken farmer and didn't publish another novel for like 60 years and then died afterwards. But it's really, really an amazing story about the Laurie side.
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Thank you so much for calling in. Okay, Jordan, the summer has been very exciting. The Knicks won the NBA champions and you've got a book for people who are Knicks fans.
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Exactly. If you want to stay in that Knicks fever that captured the city this summer, I recommend trying the book titled Blood in the Garden, the flagrant history of the 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring. It's really a history of how the 90s Knicks, you know, featuring Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Charles Oakley, Anthony Mason began this kind of new style of combative play which even caused the NBA to make some rule changes based around how they were approaching the game. But in this process of really getting scrappy, they won the love of the city. And those of us who are really tuned in to the Knicks run this year, we saw how emotional Patrick Ewing was to finally have the team get that ring. So for people who were really caught up in Knicks fever this summer and want to learn more about the history of the Knicks, I really recommend trying Blood in the Garden by Chris Herring.
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A
Let's talk to Jennifer. She's got a call out for middle aged, middle aged readers. Middle grade school readers.
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L
I should say middle grade, middle aged readers.
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That's me.
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A
Middle grade readers.
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L
I mean, you're right on both counts. I'm a middle aged reader suggesting a
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middle grade book or a series of
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L
books by a writer named Jeff Rodke. The books are called the Tapper Twins. My kids read and adored them. I read and adored them. The stories are about a set of twins who live somewhere in northern north of 42nd Street.
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They
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in my favorite book, the Tapper Twins take New York. There is a very competitive scavenger hunt that their school puts on and the kids are kind of running wild around New York in competition. And so you see New York through these kids eyes. And I think it's a really, really
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lovely
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sort of portrait of New York
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through kids eyes that are still pretty innocent though.
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They get up to lots of shenanigans.
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So if you have a child and
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you're encouraging them to maybe pick up a book, this is a really good one.
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B
I endorse the Tapper Twins. That was a great book by the way. Those books are so much fun. Thank you for calling in. Let's get to a few more of yours. Jordan. What about people who want to learn more about how the city was built?
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C
Yeah, I think they should try the Great Bridge, the Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn bridge by David McAuliffe. Most people probably know him for his biographies and revolutionary history, but he also wrote this great book, I believe it was the second book he ever wrote about the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. And it goes really in depth into the life of John Roebling, who designed the bridge, his wife who really helped take over control of things as he became increasingly ill, and Roebling's son who ended up bringing the project across the finish line. So if you're curious about city planning and architecture and the history of New York City, that's the Great bridge by David McAuliffe.
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B
And if you can pick one more nonfiction book, what would you pick?
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C
You know, I think for people who want to do a deep dive into one borough, a fun way to do it is to try the book Paradise Bronx the Life and Times of New York's Greatest Borough by Ian Frazier, longtime journalist who spent 15 years walking through every part of the Bronx as part of his research for this book. And it's a really comprehensive look at the borough from the Revolutionary War to the Yankees, going through all the different ways of immigration that have shaped the borough. And also, as you can, as you can surmise from the title, he makes the argument that the Bronx is the, quote, greatest borough, which you can, you know, read and decide if you agree with his assessment. But I think it's really fun to spend some time learning really in depth about the history and culture of one borough in particular. So that's Paradise Bronx by Ian Fraser.
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And remind people how they can sign up for our summer reading challenge.
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Yes, if you are participating and you finished, you can head to wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge that's where you can fill out your form to say what you read and register for your prize. And if you haven't finished, don't panic. You have until Labor Day weekend to finish. And there's plenty of book recommendations on that site as well for you to check out and get some inspiration. So that's wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge thanks to our
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listeners and thanks Jordan.
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Thanks, Alison.
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M
The snack wrap plus Caesar sauce equals extra crispy chicken Caesary greatness. Sounds delicious. Caesar sauce at McDonald's for a limited time.