Please join our live discussion thread: your chance to share anything cultural you’ve been enjoying over the past month, and also recommendations on a specific theme. It’s a great resource if you’re after some tips for things to read, watch or listen to.
This month, we’re joined by co-owner of one of New York’s iconic independent bookshops, Greenlight Bookstore, Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo. I’m really excited to know her tips on the best books about New York as well as some inspiring spots in the city.
Alongside my questions for Jessica, I’d love to know:
What have you loved reading / watching / seeing / listening to over November?
On the theme of NEW YORK: Where do you love in the Big Apple? What books / films / music / art have proved to be reliable travelling companions for you?
The live typing event takes place TODAY at 1.30-2pm, but if that time doesn’t work for you, please feel free to add your contribution whenever you like.
My first tip for a great New York book is this one:
I read this at school and it made such an impact on me. It was so different to anything else I’d read before, and made me see that classics can be utterly new as well as timeless. Have you read it? What would you recommend? Please join the discussion and tell me!
Anyone who is late to this On Our Reading Radar, please feel free to post your comment anytime. We'd love to know what you've loved reading recently and anything you'd recommend about New York.
Barnaby at Eland Publishing here, we have just received a copy of Mina Benson Hubbard, Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador, which two other well informed readers had already recommended to us....
Hopping on this thread very late. One of my favorite November reads happens to be a New York book: "Speedboat" by Renata Adler -- oh, I love this book! Adler's quick, broken syntax and polyvocality bring the city to life on the page. Other (not New York) books I have loved recently are "Kairos" by Jenny Erpenbeck, "August Blue" by Deborah Levy, and "Take What You Need" by Idra Novey. Strong, memorable characters and beautiful prose :)
a bit late to this thread but highly recommend "This is New York" by E.B White, yes the same White who wrote the much loved children's classic "Charlotte's Web," a gem of a book.
Thanks Susana - this is fascinating! I've just looked it up, and think the title is in fact HERE IS NEW YORK - (This is New York is a beautiful, but rather different children's book illustrated by Sasek). Thanks so much for your recommendation.
My latest enjoyable New York read is Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. It's an enjoyable romp of a crime story with a loveable rogue as the main character and several larger-than-life baddies. A really good lighter read to follow on from my book club read of Under the Greenwood Tree. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
I would start with Toppings bookshop on Blenheim Place, 5 minutes walk from the famous city centre Princes Street. This is a marvellous warren of a shop with thousands of books. After that a walk down into into Georgian Edinburgh through the stunning New Town into a "village" called Stockbridge. Approx 20 minutes walk from Toppings. There is Golden Hare Books, a carefully curated bookshop. Stockbridge also has some wonderfully well stocked charity bookshops. Happy holiday!
Can I ask a question of your readers? I'm spending a week in Edinburgh in early January and I've never been before -- any bookish spots I should make sure to visit?
Always a fun question! I'm reading ahead on galleys for 2024; I read Leslie Jamison's memoir Splinters, which is wrenching and so beautifully written, and Hari Kunzru's forthcoming novel Blue Ruin, about the art scene in London and rich folks quarantining in upstate NYC in the pandemic.
I also read Sigrid Nunez novel The Vulnerables, which is another great contemporary New York novel, narrated by an elderly but brilliant woman during the pandemic... her voice is so unique.
Jessica - To an outsider, New York seems to have a really vibrant books scene. Where are some spots - aside from Greenlight (of course!) - to hang out with fellow book-lovers? Are there any venues or literary festivals you’d recommend? I love it that you found your New York feet in the Three Lives & Co bookstore
Absolutely! The Brooklyn Book Festival in late September / early October is fantastic -- so many great writers converge for panels, readings, etc., and it's all free. Greenlight is one of hundreds of book vendors that set up outdoors in front of Brooklyn's Borough Hall for the day. And the weeks before and after that event are especially full of literary events!
There are also some iconic reading series that are worth looking up: KGB Bar has an amazing poetry series, Franklin Park in Brooklyn has a great reading series, and Sunny's Bar in Red Hook does as well. (I rarely get to go to them because I'm always hosting at my own store though!)
I love Teju Cole's Open City -- it's a meandering novel of a Nigerian man wandering in New York, a great reflection on the myriad communities and hidden corners of the city now.
And I haven't read it but Fleishman Is In Trouble is set in NYC and has been much beloved -- a story of a businessman behaving badly, though much more than that.
No! I much preferred this one. It captured something so vital about mega cities and the tightrope their residents walk between dazzling opportunity and devastating isolation. A bit like A Little Life (but better, I think!)
Jessica - How about some great New York books or films set earlier on? Are there any great historical books – fiction or non-fiction – set in New York? The Golden Hill by Francis Spufford was a huge hit over here.
I am a passionate fan of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin -- it's set in a slightly fantastical version of late 19th century New York, full of snow and epic romance and chase scenes and sleigh rides upstate. Perfect for this time of year!
This came by email from John, who asked me if I'd read Fanny Burney's Letters & Journals. He says:
It occurs to me that, like Patti, she was a young woman writer at the centre of the urban creative scene, in her case in 18C London, who knew everybody and wrote movingly about the death of her mentor (Dr Johnson).
A cheeky question for Jessica (since I'm really asking you to figure out my Christmas shopping list for me) but... Do you have a book recommendation for my nephew Ivo, who's 25, a Brit studying creative writing in New York and struggling to hold on to his visa/come to terms with the fact that he may have to leave the city of his dreams. (I bought him the New York Trilogy for Christmas last year, so what next?!)
Ooh that's a tough one. There's a great anthology called Goodbye to All That (named after a Joan Didion essay about being perpetually ready to leave New York, but never leaving), that's a lot of great writers on loving and leaving the city. (And a companion volume, Never Can Say Goodbye!)
Hello Jessica, it's not a book, but did you see the film Past Lives? I can't not think of it when I think of Brooklyn. It was one of the best films I've seen this year (or any year!). Two childhood friends reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life. I think Patti Smith would approve :-)
OMG YES!! I saw it recently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music -- whew, what an emotional ride, though so understated. Great city locales too, including Brooklyn Bridge Park and Jane's Carousel, which I love to visit with my kid!
Jessica - here's my first question asking for some specific New York tips:
We felt that Just Kids very much celebrated New York’s creative and artistic spirit in the 1960s-70s. Are there any other great books or films that capture this moment in time?
Thinking about this, there are a ton of books I love about New York in the 1970s (though forgive me I don't know which are in print in the UK!). For one, City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg is an amazing, epic story set in the famous blackouts of 1977.
I also really love Colson Whitehead's new books Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto, set (obviously) in Harlem in the 1970s -- they're like supersmart crime capers or 1970s Blaxploitation films, just unutterably cool and funny and dark.
I grew up in California, and moved to New York to attend NYU as an undergraduate... it was a steep cultural learning curve! :) I wish I could remember the first book I read, that's a good question... but I remember the first bookstore I went to, which was the iconic Three Lives & Co. in the West Village, where I later worked for years.
Jessica - As you spotted, the November pick for Emily’s Walking Book Club was Just Kids by Patti Smith. Most of us loved it, even though many of us we were reading it over the pond. What sort of reception has the book had in New York? And has reading it changed your – or your fellow booksellers’ – experience of the city?
I remember when that book was published here, back in 2010 I guess -- it was HUGE. And Patti Smith is a former bookseller (she worked at Scribner's, which is now gone) so she really gets the bookstore side of things, and she was all over the place doing events, signing stock, talking with staff -- she was great. I think we still have a big poster of that book up at Greenlight!
We later hosted an event with her and she is just the best -- not every celebrity, whether literary or musical, is great to work with, but she always was. And then she treated us to a surprise rendition of "Because the Night" at the end of the reading, with her guitarist Lenny who had been secretly waiting in the wings!
Jessica - Greenlight Bookstore is a mecca for all Brooklyn book lovers. For the walking book clubbers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little bit about what makes it such a special place?
Thanks for the kind words Emily! I think what makes Greenlight special is its community, both geographical and literary. We're in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn (just got voted one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world by Time Out!), which has been a cultural hub for nearly a century -- think Richard Wright, Spike Lee, and more recently Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer Egan, and others live and work here.
I founded the bookstore with a partner in 2009, and before that I had worked in other NYC bookstores doing events, so we've always had a strong events program -- we're lucky that so many authors pass through Brooklyn, and we're able to host readings three or four nights a week.
And of course our staff are always brilliant creative folks, who read both deeply and widely -- I'm always learning something from the booksellers who work at the store, and from our customers too!
I love that you've all been reading Just Kids -- it's such a great New York story and Patti Smith is a mensch. She's a former bookseller too so all booksellers love her! :)
Hello Emily, Alfie and anyone else present! A quick note on Just Kids and specifically, Robert Mapplethorpe... The British Film Institute now have a film about Robert available to rent on their website: 'Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures', described as 'an unflinching and sometimes graphic account of the life, art and legacy of the legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe'. I haven't watched it yet, but it looks fantastic.
Possibly the opposite end of the literary spectrum to Auster but... when I think New York, I always think of the children's book Eloise (she lived in the Plaza Hotel of course!)
I'm looking forward to hearing recommendations from Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Brooklyn's independent Greenlight Bookstore. She'll be joining us shortly - Jessica say hi when you're here!
Apologies if I am a little slow at typing today: Alfie (who some of you met in the webcast - HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5sU81Ty498&t=9s ) is very fond of weighing down my right arm with his long whippet head while I work....
Anyone who is late to this On Our Reading Radar, please feel free to post your comment anytime. We'd love to know what you've loved reading recently and anything you'd recommend about New York.
Barnaby at Eland Publishing here, we have just received a copy of Mina Benson Hubbard, Woman's Way Through Unknown Labrador, which two other well informed readers had already recommended to us....
Hopping on this thread very late. One of my favorite November reads happens to be a New York book: "Speedboat" by Renata Adler -- oh, I love this book! Adler's quick, broken syntax and polyvocality bring the city to life on the page. Other (not New York) books I have loved recently are "Kairos" by Jenny Erpenbeck, "August Blue" by Deborah Levy, and "Take What You Need" by Idra Novey. Strong, memorable characters and beautiful prose :)
Amazing recommendations thank you so much... Never too late to hop on the thread!
Some seasonal recommendations from Sarah via WhatsApp:
Wintering by Katherine May - easy and fun to read too.
Winter in the Air by Sylvia Townsend Warner - a cosy read: well-constructed and beautifully written. It's perfect for one sitting.
a bit late to this thread but highly recommend "This is New York" by E.B White, yes the same White who wrote the much loved children's classic "Charlotte's Web," a gem of a book.
Thanks Susana - this is fascinating! I've just looked it up, and think the title is in fact HERE IS NEW YORK - (This is New York is a beautiful, but rather different children's book illustrated by Sasek). Thanks so much for your recommendation.
Ah Here is New York! Of course. Thanks! Hope you're well and hi from Mexico xx
I've just scrolled down to see my NY recommendation has been mentioned already, so here's another one. Bonfire of the Vanities, of course.
Thank you Penny - wonderful to have your recommendations. And now Colson Whitehead has a double rec, we know it's a must-read!
My latest enjoyable New York read is Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. It's an enjoyable romp of a crime story with a loveable rogue as the main character and several larger-than-life baddies. A really good lighter read to follow on from my book club read of Under the Greenwood Tree. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
Here is a poem I wrote about a trip to New York, you can listen to me read it on YouTube by pressing this link: https://youtu.be/hN9lNB2S7mM?si=1wDrUjKQaqa9iZqc
Thanks for sharing!
Thanks to christine who just emailed this:
Just spotted that this exhibition is on in London till 20 Jan. I haven’t seen it yet
Robert Mapplethorpe: Subject Object Image
The aesthetic power of Mapplethorpe’s photography cannot be denied.
Alison Jacques Gallery, London, until 20 January
I would start with Toppings bookshop on Blenheim Place, 5 minutes walk from the famous city centre Princes Street. This is a marvellous warren of a shop with thousands of books. After that a walk down into into Georgian Edinburgh through the stunning New Town into a "village" called Stockbridge. Approx 20 minutes walk from Toppings. There is Golden Hare Books, a carefully curated bookshop. Stockbridge also has some wonderfully well stocked charity bookshops. Happy holiday!
Wow claire an Edinburgh literary tour - I’ll make sure jessica sees this, thanks for sharing!
Thank you also to Sarah, Hattie, Celia and Pat for joining and for everyone who sent me their tips by email / instagram.
Jessica - thank you so much for joining us and sharing your expertise. I've come away feeling excited about some New York reading inspiration!
Can I ask a question of your readers? I'm spending a week in Edinburgh in early January and I've never been before -- any bookish spots I should make sure to visit?
You should definitely drop in on Kate at Tills Bookshop https://www.tillsbookshop.co.uk/
Yes thanks for asking!
It's a wrap!
Right - it's 2pm our time. 9am Jessica's time...
I've been reading like a maniac to decide on our first books of 2024 ...
Looking forward to sharing the final selection with the group next week....
I also discovered that the only thing better than reading is ... reading with a puppy on your lap!
Jessica - This doesn’t have to be do to with New York: What have you, or others at Greenlight, been enjoying over the past month?
Always a fun question! I'm reading ahead on galleys for 2024; I read Leslie Jamison's memoir Splinters, which is wrenching and so beautifully written, and Hari Kunzru's forthcoming novel Blue Ruin, about the art scene in London and rich folks quarantining in upstate NYC in the pandemic.
I also read Sigrid Nunez novel The Vulnerables, which is another great contemporary New York novel, narrated by an elderly but brilliant woman during the pandemic... her voice is so unique.
It sounds like the pandemic is becoming a popular subject now? Begun in Elizabeth Barton's Lucy by the Sea!
I wonder if there's a set time-lag for writing about what's going on.... I'm not quite sure I can face years of pandemic projects!
Oops...I mean 'Elizabeth Strout'!
These all sound wonderful, thank you!
Julie recommends these two:
Two books I enjoyed set in NYC, Stories from the Tenants Downstairs: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59366136-stories-from-the-tenants-downstairs?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=w4dLeyLEsB&rank=1
and Behold the Dreamers:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35259724-behold-the-dreamers
Both telling immigrant stories.
Jessica - To an outsider, New York seems to have a really vibrant books scene. Where are some spots - aside from Greenlight (of course!) - to hang out with fellow book-lovers? Are there any venues or literary festivals you’d recommend? I love it that you found your New York feet in the Three Lives & Co bookstore
Absolutely! The Brooklyn Book Festival in late September / early October is fantastic -- so many great writers converge for panels, readings, etc., and it's all free. Greenlight is one of hundreds of book vendors that set up outdoors in front of Brooklyn's Borough Hall for the day. And the weeks before and after that event are especially full of literary events!
There are also some iconic reading series that are worth looking up: KGB Bar has an amazing poetry series, Franklin Park in Brooklyn has a great reading series, and Sunny's Bar in Red Hook does as well. (I rarely get to go to them because I'm always hosting at my own store though!)
Not New York but I’ve really enjoyed reading Olive Kitteridge recently
A great book. I was really interested to see how it crosses the short story - novel genre boundaries. Thanks for sharing Sarah.
And Jessica - What are some good books that explore the New York of today?
I love Teju Cole's Open City -- it's a meandering novel of a Nigerian man wandering in New York, a great reflection on the myriad communities and hidden corners of the city now.
And I haven't read it but Fleishman Is In Trouble is set in NYC and has been much beloved -- a story of a businessman behaving badly, though much more than that.
Yes it's been by my bed for ages, I just haven't quite got to it. People really love it and love the TV adaptation too.
Oooh thanks - I've heard great things about this one.
Oh, and I just remembered another wonderful book about New York's soul - the lonely city, by Olivia Laing!
Yes this was huge! Although I personally preferred her way less hip To the River about walking along the River Ouse...
No! I much preferred this one. It captured something so vital about mega cities and the tightrope their residents walk between dazzling opportunity and devastating isolation. A bit like A Little Life (but better, I think!)
Could A Little Life be another good NY rec?
Maybe. But I felt like it failed to really penetrate the city's soul. Would be interested to hear Jessica's thoughts though!
Jessica - How about some great New York books or films set earlier on? Are there any great historical books – fiction or non-fiction – set in New York? The Golden Hill by Francis Spufford was a huge hit over here.
I am a passionate fan of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin -- it's set in a slightly fantastical version of late 19th century New York, full of snow and epic romance and chase scenes and sleigh rides upstate. Perfect for this time of year!
I'm reading Joan Didion s Play it as it Lays.1970s America but a different sort of scene.
Hello Pat - thanks for joining and for sharing this recommendation.
This came by email from John, who asked me if I'd read Fanny Burney's Letters & Journals. He says:
It occurs to me that, like Patti, she was a young woman writer at the centre of the urban creative scene, in her case in 18C London, who knew everybody and wrote movingly about the death of her mentor (Dr Johnson).
A cheeky question for Jessica (since I'm really asking you to figure out my Christmas shopping list for me) but... Do you have a book recommendation for my nephew Ivo, who's 25, a Brit studying creative writing in New York and struggling to hold on to his visa/come to terms with the fact that he may have to leave the city of his dreams. (I bought him the New York Trilogy for Christmas last year, so what next?!)
Ooh that's a tough one. There's a great anthology called Goodbye to All That (named after a Joan Didion essay about being perpetually ready to leave New York, but never leaving), that's a lot of great writers on loving and leaving the city. (And a companion volume, Never Can Say Goodbye!)
Fantastic! Thank you!
Hello Jessica, it's not a book, but did you see the film Past Lives? I can't not think of it when I think of Brooklyn. It was one of the best films I've seen this year (or any year!). Two childhood friends reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life. I think Patti Smith would approve :-)
OMG YES!! I saw it recently at the Brooklyn Academy of Music -- whew, what an emotional ride, though so understated. Great city locales too, including Brooklyn Bridge Park and Jane's Carousel, which I love to visit with my kid!
Fantastic! You've now just made me want to watch it all over again!
Jessica - here's my first question asking for some specific New York tips:
We felt that Just Kids very much celebrated New York’s creative and artistic spirit in the 1960s-70s. Are there any other great books or films that capture this moment in time?
Thinking about this, there are a ton of books I love about New York in the 1970s (though forgive me I don't know which are in print in the UK!). For one, City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg is an amazing, epic story set in the famous blackouts of 1977.
I also really love Colson Whitehead's new books Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto, set (obviously) in Harlem in the 1970s -- they're like supersmart crime capers or 1970s Blaxploitation films, just unutterably cool and funny and dark.
Hello jessica - I have a question: have you always lived in New York? Can you remember the first book you read in the city? Thank you!
Nice question!
I grew up in California, and moved to New York to attend NYU as an undergraduate... it was a steep cultural learning curve! :) I wish I could remember the first book I read, that's a good question... but I remember the first bookstore I went to, which was the iconic Three Lives & Co. in the West Village, where I later worked for years.
I love the way NY is such a place for people to come together. I think that comes across really well in the Patti Smith book.
I do remember reading Paul Auster's New York Trilogy, as Emily mentioned, and being profoundly affected by it!
Glad it wasn't just me!
Jessica - As you spotted, the November pick for Emily’s Walking Book Club was Just Kids by Patti Smith. Most of us loved it, even though many of us we were reading it over the pond. What sort of reception has the book had in New York? And has reading it changed your – or your fellow booksellers’ – experience of the city?
I remember when that book was published here, back in 2010 I guess -- it was HUGE. And Patti Smith is a former bookseller (she worked at Scribner's, which is now gone) so she really gets the bookstore side of things, and she was all over the place doing events, signing stock, talking with staff -- she was great. I think we still have a big poster of that book up at Greenlight!
Ah I'm so glad to hear this. I would have gone completely weak-kneed if she'd come into the bookstore when I was working in one.
We later hosted an event with her and she is just the best -- not every celebrity, whether literary or musical, is great to work with, but she always was. And then she treated us to a surprise rendition of "Because the Night" at the end of the reading, with her guitarist Lenny who had been secretly waiting in the wings!
By the way, I recently saw that 50% of our 2,500 community are based in America!!
I'm expecting some pilgrimages to Greenlight from you guys ...!
Jessica - Greenlight Bookstore is a mecca for all Brooklyn book lovers. For the walking book clubbers who aren’t familiar with you, could you tell us a little bit about what makes it such a special place?
Thanks for the kind words Emily! I think what makes Greenlight special is its community, both geographical and literary. We're in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn (just got voted one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world by Time Out!), which has been a cultural hub for nearly a century -- think Richard Wright, Spike Lee, and more recently Jhumpa Lahiri, Jennifer Egan, and others live and work here.
I founded the bookstore with a partner in 2009, and before that I had worked in other NYC bookstores doing events, so we've always had a strong events program -- we're lucky that so many authors pass through Brooklyn, and we're able to host readings three or four nights a week.
And of course our staff are always brilliant creative folks, who read both deeply and widely -- I'm always learning something from the booksellers who work at the store, and from our customers too!
That's LOADS! Lucky Brooklynites.
Ah that's interesting. We discussed Jhumpa Lahiri's work not too long ago - she also loves Rome - another great neighbourhood!
I'm going to be asking Jessica a few questions. Please feel free to add your own questions and also any other comments / tips as we go....
I love that you've all been reading Just Kids -- it's such a great New York story and Patti Smith is a mensch. She's a former bookseller too so all booksellers love her! :)
Hello Emily, Alfie and anyone else present! A quick note on Just Kids and specifically, Robert Mapplethorpe... The British Film Institute now have a film about Robert available to rent on their website: 'Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures', described as 'an unflinching and sometimes graphic account of the life, art and legacy of the legendary photographer Robert Mapplethorpe'. I haven't watched it yet, but it looks fantastic.
Hello Celia, thanks so much for joining.
Wonderful to have this tip, thank you.
Hi Emily and all! Sorry I'm late -- it's 8:30 AM in Brooklyn!
Hello and welcome Jessica - thanks for joining especially so early in the morning!
Hope you have a good New York cup of coffee at the ready
Yes, definitely coffee! :)
Possibly the opposite end of the literary spectrum to Auster but... when I think New York, I always think of the children's book Eloise (she lived in the Plaza Hotel of course!)
Hi Hattie! Yes - the ideal place to live as realised by Eloise and also Kevin in Home Alone...
While we're getting going, here are a few tips people have emailed / Instagrammed in:
The lovely Manderley Press recommends their recent publication Letters from New York by Helen Hanff (of Charing Cross Road fame...): https://www.manderleypress.com/shop/p/letterfromnewyork
Hello Emily - excited for today’s thread. I loved last month with Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Hi Sarah, lovely to see you on here.
I'm looking forward to hearing recommendations from Jessica Stockton-Bagnulo of Brooklyn's independent Greenlight Bookstore. She'll be joining us shortly - Jessica say hi when you're here!
Apologies if I am a little slow at typing today: Alfie (who some of you met in the webcast - HERE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5sU81Ty498&t=9s ) is very fond of weighing down my right arm with his long whippet head while I work....
Hello walking / reading / typing book clubbers - I'm a few minutes early.
Please say hello when you get here.