Here’s what some of our staff considers required reading.

Claudia Marshall, co-host of City Folk Morning

Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl
You don't have to be a New Yorker OR a foodie to delight in the latest memoir of the former food czar at the New York Times. But if you are a New York foodie, you'll be in heaven. Reichl's memoir unmasks the critic's secrets, punctures the New York Times’ pomposity, and dishes about the city's most posh eateries.

The Hot Kid, by Elmore Leonard
The books of author Elmore Leonard transcend the mystery/crime genre and transport the readers to darkly funny places packed with colorful characters and plenty of action. His latest is set in the Depression-era dust bowl and is among his very best. Spring for the hardcover and haul it to the beach. You won't even hear the kids screaming.

Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Birdsong by David Rothenberg.
It’s more philosophy than science, more music than ornithology. You will never hear birds the same way. Rothenberg also plays music with birds, and his companion CD "Why Birds Sing" (sold separately) tells a equally compelling story.

Ruth Reichl and Elmore Leonard are both among Claudia's guests on City Folk Morning in the month of July.

Julianne Welby, co-host of City Folk Morning

Let It Rain Coffee By Angie Cruz
This is a novel set in Washington Heights by a young, up-and-coming author who's being compared to Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Pete Fornatale, host of Mixed Bag

The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue by Robert Klein
There's only one have-to-have, must-read, soon-to-be-number-one bestseller in the Bronx this summer: A memoir by Robert Klein.
PS. "No talking... and in the event of a nuclear holocaust... No talking!"

John Platt, host of City Folk Sunday Breakfast

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto
The title says it all. This is the rarely told, but eminently readable story of the first European settlements on Manhattan in the early 1600’s, before the English took over (and wrote history their way). It is Shorto’s intriguing thesis that much of present-day New York’s wide open, entrepreneurial character stems directly from the 17th century Dutch culture of religious tolerance and free trade, as opposed to the rigid theocracy of the Pilgrims and Puritans who settled New England.

Kathleen Biggins, host of A Thousand Welcomes

Twins of Tribeca, by Rachel Pine
A VERY thinly veiled account of the doings and undoings at Miramax, written by a former publicist for the movie studio.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I've been meaning to read this modern-day classic. I have a feeling it just may take me 100 years to read it. It's my summer challenge.

The Adventure of English: The Biography of a Language, by Melvyn Bragg
Once an English major, always an English major.

Rich Conaty, host of The Big Broadcast

The Orientalist by Tom Reiss
1929 by Frederick Turner
Don’t Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang by Ellen Poulsen

I'm a bouncer, rarely sticking with one book very long. But there are three I've resolved to finish. At the moment, I'm working on The Orientalist, the true story of a Jewish immigrant (from Baku) who reinvented himself as a Muslim prince, and became a celebrated author in fascist Europe. I want to get back to Frederick Turner's 1929, a novelized account of the life of Jazz Age cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. Then it will be on to Don't Call Us Molls: Women of the John Dillinger Gang. None of these are much of a stretch. In fact, two of the authors, Reiss and Poulsen, are "Big Broadcast" listeners. And we're using 1929 as a membership "thank you."

Dianne Harms, Membership Director

As a transplanted Iowan, I am a New Yorker by choice, and my summer reading list is evidence of my commitment to bringing myself up to speed on all that is New York. Just a few highlights:

New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times, edited by Constance Rosenblum
Downtown by Pete Hammill
Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
Sex in the City by Candace Bushnell
Manhattan Nocturne by Colin Harrison

Tara Anderson, Assistant Program Director

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert Caro
The longer I live in New York, the more I want to know about how it became the city it is today. I feel like this book is virtually a requirement for New York City citizenship. The only problem is that it’s too heavy to carry on the subway!

Rabbit is Rich/Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
I’ve just discovered Updike in the last couple of years (thanks, Dad!) and I am amazed at his precision and his insight. I read the first two Rabbit novels (Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux) last year, so it’s time to see how the story ends.

Shari Rosen Ascher, Director of Corporate Underwriting Sales

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
I am just about to start The Kite Runner, and I can’t wait. My mother and sister have been raving about it for so long.

Laura Fedele, Web Director

If you got this far in an article about books, you must be enough of a reader that I can do this in paragraph form...

I like big, think books in the summertime. I remember reading Gone with the Wind the summer after 4th grade, I think it took me a month — and I caught the bug of sinking into a long story in a dreamy way, when there's part of your brain endlessly plotting how to steal away time for the next chapter. Plus it keeps my mind off the heat. First on my list (don't laugh) will be the new Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (by J.K. Rowling, in case you've been living under a rock), which I'm hoping will be even thicker than book 5. (Geek!) I'll just say that if you were at one point a pre-teen girl with her nose in a book and a little too much know-it-all-ness for her own good, there's a hero for you in this series. Go Hermione!

To counteract the compulsion of wanting to stop 10-year-olds on the street to dish about that first choice, I plan to get further into the books of Canadian author Robertson Davies. He's got three - count 'em, three! - trilogies of novels, which perfectly suit my quest for a big story. I read The Cornish Trilogy on my last vacation, leaving me with The Deptford Trllogy and The Salterton Trilogy next. That first series was full of witty people talking about philosophy and digging up dreaded secrets about dead relatives, so I have high hopes for the others.