← All Of It with Alison Stewart
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This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart. Tomorrow is our May get lit with all of It Book Club event. We've been reading Ghost Town by Tom Parada. I'll be in conversation with him and those of you who have tickets tomorrow night at 6pm that's when it's happening at the New York Public Library, Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library Brands plus we'll hear a special live performance from our musical guests. They might be giants. Tickets to the in person event are sold out, but the library may release some more seats tomorrow and you can of course watch our live stream. Head to wnbc nyc.org getlit for more information. That's wnyc.org getlit we will see you tomorrow. But now let's keep the book conversation going. Today we are launching our third Annual all of It Summer Reading Challenge. That's the crowd. Last year over a thousand of you signed up to participate in the challenge from all over the country and even some locations abroad. And nearly 400 of you completed the Challenge Challenge and got a special prize. We got great feedback from listeners about how summer reading how the Summer Reading Challenge inspired them to read more like this comment from Shane in Los Angeles who wrote to us. This was my first time taking part in something like this and it was very enjoyable. I feel proud of myself for finishing and I got to read some great books. I've been meaning to get to. This gave me a solid reason to finally do it. So today we're launching our Summer Reading Challenge with some new categories. To sign up and to download the Summer Reading Challenge PDF, head to wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge that's wnyc.org summerreadingChallenge joining me now to announce the new categories and to give some of her summer reading recommendations is all of it. And get producer and summer reading maven Jordan Loft.
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Jordan, I love to be a maven. Thank you Allison. I'm so glad to be here for the third Annual Summer Reading Challenge.
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We are starting the challenge earlier this year. Does that change anything?
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It does. Yes. So last year we did five categories and you had to complete all five to complete the challenge. This year we are doing Six. We're starting a couple weeks earlier, which means we're sneaking one extra book in there. You will have to finish all six categories to qualify for a prize.
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When's the deadline to sign up?
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The deadline to sign up is July 4th. So we're giving you from basically Memorial Day weekend, we're counting it the Tuesday after through July 4th. You can head to wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge to sign up now, and you have until July 4th to do so.
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And when is the deadline gonna finish?
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Labor Day. So basically, from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend, you have your summer reading challenge all lined up. So you have to finish by Labor Day.
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So you register now. You have until July 4th to register, and then the challenge will take us through labor day, which is September 7th. So that's a good long time.
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That's a good long time. So that's why we've snuck an extra book in there. It averages out to about two books a month, which I think is really, really doable for a lot of people, depending on whether you're gonna read the Power Broker or not. That's on you.
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Last year, we got feedback from you that you want a little more interaction at the summer reading Challenge. How is that gonna happen this year? Because we listen to feedback.
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Yeah, we listen to feedback a lot of you. I asked for feedback at the end of every challenge, and almost everyone said I wanted there to be more contact from all of it. I wanted to hear from more readers. I wanted to know what other people were reading. So we've got a couple ways you can interact with us this year. So the biggest thing is we've got this great book newsletter, the Get Lit Newsletter. And all summer long, I will be sending updates about the challenge. I'll be asking readers what they're reading and putting that through the newsletter. We might even get some recommendations from authors who come on the show to feature in the newsletter. And you can subscribe to that on the same page where you sign up for the challenge. That's wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge and we also have the all of It Instagram page, which will be a great way to see what people are reading. We'll share graphics, we'll interact with our listeners, and you can follow us there at all of it. Wnyc.
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All right, listeners, we want to hear from you. What books have you been reading and loving? We are taking your summer reading challenge recommendations. Give us a call at 212-433-96922. 1, 2, 4, 3, 3. WNYC. Let's talk about these categories. The first one, which is easy.
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We.
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What is the first category?
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Yes, the first category is incredibly straightforward and we did this one last year. This category is a book published in 2026, and that can be truly any book you want as long as it was published this year. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, a graphic novel, a biography, anything at all that you want to read under the sun, as long as it has been published in 2026.
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The next category is a new one in honor of America's 250th.
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Yes. So it's the only year we can do this one. So we're gonna do it in honor of the anniversary of the revolution. This is a new category. This is a read a book about United States history or if history is not your thing, historical fiction set in America. So if you don't wanna read history, you can pick a book of historical fiction, as long as it's set anytime in the past in America. So the idea is just to immerse yourself a little bit in our nation's history, both good and bad. Whatever you want to learn more about our nation, now is a great time to do it. And this 250th.
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ANN Another category very specific to this summer, and it involves the World Cup.
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Yes. This is another one that this is the only chance we're going to get to do it. So we're doing it this summer. This category is read a book set in or written by an author from one of the 48 countries participating in the World Cup. That's a good one because America is one of the host countries this year of the World Cup. It does not happen very often. People from all over the world will be coming to our great city to watch some soccer. So we wanted to embrace the international nature of that. If you are overwhelmed by 48 countries, there is a list that we've linked to on that same page where you sign up for the summer reading challenge. So wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge you can find all of the list of the 48 countries and some recommendations to get you started.
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Another one that worked out really well. The next category.
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Yes, this is just read a classic. And I think it's the type of thing that a lot of people have aspirations to do but don't always feel motivation to get to. So it's nice to take some time this summer if you want to participate in a challenge to feel motivated to pick one of those classic novels off the shelf. That maybe you missed in high school or college and you just really feel like, I got to get around to reading Middlemarch this year. Well, now's a good time to try.
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Number five is another new one this year that is to read a work of genre fiction. Now explain what this means for people.
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Yes. So genre fiction is really anything that falls outside of just contemporary literature. So we've got a couple categories here. You can read a book in any of these categories. Only one you don't have to read in each category, but here are the fantasy, science fiction, romance, horror or mystery. Thriller. And I picked this one in part. Well, on your suggestion. Actually. Alison and I think a lot of people have gotten really into genre fiction lately. People are big romance readers or they're big sci fi readers. Or fantasies. Yeah. Because we were gonna pick one of
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them and then we said, wait a minute, there's so many different options out there now.
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Yeah. And there are some people who don't delve into genre fiction at all. So I also wann to push those people to get a little bit out of their comfort zone. But again, if romance isn't your thing, try fantasy. If you hate fantasy, try great mystery. There's lots of different options for you to choose from.
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And another familiar one, our last one
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is a book about or set in New York City. That's an oldie but a goodie. We've been doing it since the beginning. And yeah, it's Summer in the City. Let's embrace New York and read a little bit more about it. Either history or fiction.
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But there is a bonus category that we should mention.
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There is a very special bonus category. Our friends at the New York Public Library are hosting a special book club event at the Delacorte Theater in Central park in partnership with the public theater on August 17th. They are spending the whole summer promoting this one book. And the novel that they are going to promote that everyone read is N.K. jemisin's the City We Became. It's a really fun New York based sci fi book. So you could count it in any of the categories that relate to that. So New York or Sci Fi. But it's also just a special bonus category, so you should pick it up and read it. The library is offering, I believe, unlimited E copies just like they do with Get Lit. And there's gonna be all types of book club events over the summer and then Alison will be a part of the special celebration on August 17th. And you can find more information about that again@wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge we got a text
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that says I'm listening to Emma Straub's American Fantasy and demon, Copperfield by Barbara Kingsolver. And I want to listen to yesteryear, Carol Claire Burke and the correspondent Virginia Evans. Let's talk to Robin who's calling from Harlem. Hey, Robin, thanks for calling all of it.
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Hi, thanks for this great series again. I love this good reading stuff. So historic fiction that's also set in New York. One of my all time favorites, paradise Alley by Kevin Baker. It came out in 2002 and I'm not sure it's still in print, but you can certainly get it through the library. And if enough people wanted it, maybe they'd reissue it. I also want to add Call It Sleep by Henry Ross. Classic New York fiction, Lower east side immigrant life in the turn of the start of the 20th century. Beautiful, beautiful book. And then Golden Hill by Frances Spofford about colonial New York. All of these are just stunning works and they fit two categories because it's historic fiction and New York City. So there you go.
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I like the way you think. Thanks for calling, Rob.
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Doing my job for me. I love it.
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All of it is launching the Summer Reading Challenge. We now have new categories and new ways for you to get involved. To sign up and download the Summer Reading Challenge PDF, head to wnyc.org summerreadingchallenge that's WNYC Summer Summer Reading. Which is it?
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Summer reading.
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Summer Reading Challenge.
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Summer Reading Challenge. Joining me now is get lit producer and Summer Reading Challenge Khalid Jordan. Loft listeners, we do want to hear from you. What books have you been reading and loving? What are you taking to your summer rec? What are you giving? What do you, what am I saying? What do you want to add to your summer recommendations? Our number is 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC. All right, let's get some people inspired by talking about some of the books in this summer's ca. All of these new releases can fit into a book published in 2026. We should say that. First up, Ann Patchett is back with a new novel, Whistler, which is gonna be published on June 2. What is this about?
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Yes, this is Ann Patchett's new novel about a woman who runs into her elderly former stepfather at a New York City museum. They have been out of touch for a really long time because their relationship ended abruptly many years ago after a life changing event. But this run in, this accidental run in causes them to rekindle their relationship at a different, different point in their lives and go back and reexamine what happened when they were younger. And yes, this book, this can be fit into a book published in 2026 or a book about or set in New York. They've got that important run in here in New York City.
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And I finished reading it this morning, so it would go towards the challenge.
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Oh, my gosh. Well, Allison's got her first one done, so everyone else better get reading because she's got you beat already. That's very exciting. And spoiler. Ann Patchett will be joining us here on the show in just a couple weeks. So we're really excited about that. And any Ann Patchett is worth your time.
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It's so good. She's just such a beautiful writer.
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She's the best.
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Let's talk about a romance novel coming out on June 9th.
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Yes. This is by Tia Williams. She's the author of Seven Days in June, which was a big romance novel that came out a couple years ago. I know a lot of people loved that one. This is her new one called the Missed Connection. This one follows a casting agent who meets a handsome stranger on a plane where they have a connection. I think a lot of people have a, a fantasy about meeting a handsome stranger on a plane, but he sort of disappears and she doesn't have a way to connect with him. So hoping to find him again, she hires a private detective. But he's also pretty dreamy, so maybe they end up in a kind of a triangle of some kind. This sounds like the perfect book to read on a plane if you're going on a trip. It's got that, that plane romance. And it fits into genre fiction in the romance category or a book published in 2026.
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Let's talk to Carolyn, who's calling from Morningside Heights. Hi, Carolyn. Thanks for making the time to call, all of it.
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Hi.
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Hi.
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Thanks for having me on. I'd like to recommend a new novel, 2026, called Underwater by Tara Menon. And it's a beautiful story about a young woman who has lost her very dearest friend. And she is in New York and she's experiencing that loss. And what the author wants to do is really sort of find a place for grief that's about a kind of a grief that we don't always give attention to. And it's framed by the tsunami that struck Thailand and the fall of the towers in New York City. So a really, a really beautiful book. Very poignant, very touching, very human. So I think it touches the New York City category and the 2026 category as well.
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Thank you so much for calling in this says I'd like to recommend Lena Dunham's memoir, which I found really funny, endearing, as well as Bell, Burden, Strange and Tom Gignod's memoir, which is one of the best books I've read all year so far. Let's talk to Ricardo calling in from Queens. Hi, Ricardo, thanks for calling all of it. Ricardo, you there? I think we were put on hold. Let's see if we can get Ricardo back. Let's go to your next category. Jordan, you want to dive into American history. How shall we dive?
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Yes. Well, there are many different ways to. But one that I'm recommending is there's a new biography of George Washington coming out, our first president, of course. This is titled American the Life of George Washington. It is from HW Brands, who is a prolific and acclaimed biographer and is no stranger to both presidents and American history. He's written biographies of Reagan, of Ben Franklin, of fdr, of Aaron Burr. So he's really well versed in this period of history. And again, that fits in our category of reading a book about American history and also in the category of a book published in 2026. And I will say, I was in Philly this weekend. I went to the Ben Franklin Museum and his biography, that was really cool. It was so cool. And his biography of Benjamin Franklin was prominently featured. So it's not new. But if you want to pick up his biography of Benjamin Franklin, that would also count in our category of American history.
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Let's talk to Sam, who's calling in from Peekskill. Hey, Sam, thanks for calling, all of it.
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Hi, can you hear me?
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Okay.
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You sound great.
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Okay, awesome. So I'm calling saying that everyone should read this amazing graphic novel by Tess Dowler called Take the Fall. It's unique because I don't know if it's not published or self published, but if you go to her Instagram page, you can see she has like a link of where to access it. I'm so sorry. Her Instagram is like Tess Fowler Gutierrez. It's this really intense graphic novel about surviving breast cancer and the trauma of losing both of her breasts and how it kind of just brought back all the previous traumas of her youth and going through puberty and also previous sexual assault. So there is a massive trigger warning with this. It's beautifully illustrated. It is, obviously it's triggering, but it is something that I think most women can relate to, even if you haven't Been through cancer. It's really just a beautiful, beautiful memoir.
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Thank you so much for calling. Ricardo in Queens. Hey, Ricardo, can you hear us?
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Hey, yes, yes, how are you?
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I'm fine.
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You're on the air.
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Okay. My recommendation is going to be for the World Cups, you know, category. It's a Brazilian writer, Clarice Lispector, she's a Jewish Brazilian writer. And the book I'm going to recommend is the passing according to G8, the initials. She's only known the protagonist by her initials. It's an existential novel. This upper class woman who lives in a penthouse and she fired her maid. And one day she's so bored she decides she's going to go clean the maid's room. And there's a whole thing about class and race where she thinks that place must be filthy. And once she goes into the room, it is perfectly clean, nothing there bright. And there are like figures, charcoal figures drawn on the wall. And she goes insane. How did this lady transform things in my house under my nose without my permission? And then she goes to open the wardrobe and a huge bug, like a roach, water bug comes out. She's so frightened that, you know, she steps back and she falls and she bangs her head. She doesn't faint, but she is can't move. So she's actually faced like with the cockroach. And she realizes that she and the cockroach are the only two things alive in that room. So she starts thinking about her life and existence. She questions, you know, she thought of herself as good and clean and the roads and the maids feel like filthy. And then she starts questioning who's clean, who's good. It is an incredible muzzle.
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Ricardo, thank you so much for weighing in. Let's talk about the World Cup. What are some suggestions for people from the World Cup? He just gave us a really interesting one, the Passion According to gh.
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I know and I love how seriously our callers are already taking the categories. Like we just asked you to recommend a book and so many of you are already falling in with the categories. So I love that. Thank you. Our listeners always do their homework. This is a new book. One of the ones I'm going to recommend is a new book that is set in 1940s Mexico. Mexico is one of the fellow host nations along with U.S. and Canada. This is the Intrigue by Silvia Moreno Garcia. You might know her from her novel Mexican Gothic. It was a big hit. It was a get lit pick many years ago. This new one is a noir about a con artist and an entangled relationship that he develops with a woman and with her niece. This one could fit into a couple of different categories. This could fit into World Cup. It could fit into a 2026 book. It could also fit into genre fiction under thriller or mystery. So you can kind of take your pick there. It comes out July 14, and I really like how Silvia Moreno Garcia tackles different periods of Mexican history through all these different genres. She writes in horror, she writes in mystery. This is a noir. So she's really capturing a lot about that country through a lot of different lenses. And I think it's really exciting.
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We've got a book coming out in June that's set in New York City by Daniel Lavery. It's called Meeting New People.
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Yes, you might know Daniel Lavery from Dear Prudence, the advice podcast from Slate, and this is his novel that follows a 57 year old woman who lives in Brooklyn. And she realizes one day that she doesn't really have any friends. And she's determined to make a new best friend. But the problem is that there's a reason she doesn't have that many friends. She's not very likable and she's really difficult to get along with. So this story follows this woman as she, as she tries her best to sort of force someone to become her new BFF and maybe learn some lessons about herself along the way. I love that it's set in Brooklyn and this one is out on June 2, so it counts for a new book or a book about or set in New York City.
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This Neck recommendation can count both as science fiction or romance By Deb Olin Unferth.
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Yes, this is called Earth 7. It's a slim little novel, so if you're looking to get into science fiction, but you're a little intimidated by like some of the bigger tomes, you can try this new one, it's set in a future version of Earth, which has become nearly unlivable. And it's a love story between two women. One of them might be a robot. You might have to read to find out a little more. And in this version of Earth, most other people have moved to Mars or they've done this thing where you can sort of like digitally upload yourself to a, to a cloud scenario. But these two women decide to be part of the holdouts here on Earth, trying to see if they can build a society worth living, to make change, to see if there's anything they can do about the conditions here. So that one is about the people who stay and it's out on June 9th.
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I'm ready for Colson Whitehead to finish out his trilogy, his Harlem Trilogy.
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Yes.
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This summer's the big summer for Coulson.
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It is the big summer for Coulson. He is finally finishing out his Harlem trilogy. On July 21, he'll publish Cool Machine and the Harlem Trilogy. Cap started off with Harlem Shuffle and started off with this guy, Ray Carney, who is a fence. And we are now in 1980s in Harlem, and we're still following Ray. He thinks he's done with the criminal business, but then his beloved wife won't get approved for a loan for her new travel agency. He decides to do one last heist to try to help her out. And we all know how one last heist often goes. So that is the end of the Harlem Trilogy from colson Whitehead, out July 21. And that counts for a book, a new book from this year or a book about or set in New York City.
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Let me read a couple texts to you, Jordan. It says, I'd like to suggest a book titled Own a the Self Emancipated Former Slave of President George Washington. It's part of your American history. Thanks for that recommendation. Awesome. This said, I'm almost finished with the book the Devil's Chessboard by David Talbot, about the Dulles brothers, mainly Alan. I'm stunned by how he worked openly in the shadows and ran his own empire within the government. And history repeats itself. This one says Pete Hamill's Downtown. It's a good one.
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There you go. Pete Hamill, always a classic.
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Let's talk about a good, juicy thriller. What would you recommend?
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Yes, there's a new one coming out from Jessica Noel, who wrote Remarkable Young Women, which we had on the show a couple years ago. That one was about Ted Bundy and the women who were his victims. This new one is called Helpless, and I was drawn to it from the Kirkus Review, which says that the book, quote, puts the erotic back in erotic thriller. So that's exciting. This one follows a woman named Faye who reconnects with her college boyfriend and her first love, a man named Henry. Both of them are married, but they reconnect at this funeral of a beloved college professor and start again. An illicit romance. But one day, Faye wakes up and finds that she has been kidnapped and brought to Henry's remote cabin. What does he want? Why has he brought her here? Mysteries from the past start to unfold. It's gonna be twisty and turny. And that one is out July 7th. If you want A really good thriller or mystery.
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This text says Pride and Pleasure about the Schuyler Sisters is a superb history. It fills the 2026 published category and the 250th anniversary category. Brilliant insights from important women in the midst of the American Revolution. Remember that one of the sisters married Hamilton? And we did a full bio.
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We did a full bio about it and I believe it just won the Pulitzer Prize. Nonfiction. So yeah, that's a great option to pick, especially if you're looking to lean into more like New York centric history for the 250th and to learn some more about women during that period.
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This is to team all of it. I highly recommend a book that fits three categories. Wow. World Cup 2026 publication and US history of a World Cup 1950s player. It's called Death of a Soccer God by Dimitri Elias Leger. Again, listeners, if you're listening to this segment, you're thinking, I need to write this down. Don't worry, we have transcripts. They'll be up later on today or tomorrow. Okay. How about one more novel that fits in multiple categories?
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Yes. This one is a new book from our very own WNYC host Tiffany Hansen, who you've heard filling in for our show here on all of it. This is her debut novel. It's so exciting. It's titled My Name Was Jerry Sassy. It's about a country music radio station owner who was secretly a mob connected hitman for hire when he's killed. His daughter wants revenge. And there's also a priest who is a key witness to the crime. So this one can fit in the 2026 book or in the genre fiction category. And Alison, you read it and you did a book event with Tiffany.
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And the book is so good. It's just so good. I'm really proud of her.
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Oh, that's so awesome. Yeah. So our great friend Tiffany Hansen has an awesome new book out that counts for multiple categories. So that's My Name Was Jerry Sath.
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All right, remind us of all the categories one more time.
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Yes. And I am. So I just want to say again, listeners, you've embraced these categories so quickly and it makes me so happy because they were a little more complicated this year and I was a little worried, but I love it.
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People are in.
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People are in. I love to hear it. So here we go. Category number one, a book published in 2026. That's any book published this year. Category two is a book about United States history or historical fiction set in America for the 250th Category 3 is a book set in or written by an author from one of the 48 countries participating in the World Cup. Category four is a classic. Category five is a work of genre fiction in one just one of the following fantasy, sci fi, romance, horror or mystery thriller and finally a book about or set in New York City.
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And finally Jordan how do people sign up?
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You can head to wnyc.org@summer reading Challenge. You'll find the link to sign up. You will find a PDF to download if you like to write down what your selections are as some people I know like to write so you can print out a PDF. You can find the link to sign up to for the get lit newsletter. For updates you can follow us on Instagram at all of at wnyc. And finally you will find there a longer list of my recommendations to help get you started if you're really looking for inspiration and a link to the list of all 48 countries participating in the World Cup. So don't worry, you don't have to google. I've got the link there for you already and I hope people have such a fun time with these categories. I'm really excited to dive in as well.
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Thanks Jordan.
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Thanks so much and happy reading everyone. Having the right people in your corner for life's biggest milestones makes all the difference. Like a friend who's there when you're house hunting or checking out a new ride, State Farm is there too, helping you choose the coverage you need. With a State Farm agent, you know someone is there to help you along the way. And with so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help choosing a plan that fits your needs so you can continue celebrating all of life's milestones. Head to statefarm.com to get a quote Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Hi, I'm Maggie Smith, poet and host of the Slowdown.
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