Brian Laird on WNYC, and yeah, Memorial Day weekend didn't really give a speech, read, weather, did it?

But the sun is shining today, and all of it has launched its summer reading challenge for all those

adults who love tracking books all summer in their local libraries challenge and here to explain

how to participate from all the way across the hall is jordan loft producer for all of it and

its book club get lit with all of it.

Hey, Jordan.

Hey, Brian.

Thanks so much for having me.

So for people who don't know this from past years, the challenge is to read six books across six categories by the end of Labor Day weekend, 15 weeks, as I counted.

Is there a prize if you do it beyond bragging rights?

There is a prize. I can't announce yet what it will be, but yes, if you manage to finish all six

books by Labor Day weekend, we'll be sending you a little treat of some kind in the mail.

All right. So I'm just going to go down the six categories so our listeners know what they are because it's so much fun to kind of divvy it up this way.

And then, you know, you'll give some suggestions, but also people can go exploring for just the right book for them on their own.

But the categories are a book published in 2026, a book about United States history or American historical fiction.

Three, a book set in or written by an author from one of the 48 countries participating in the World Cup.

Four, a classic, that's pretty broad.

Five, a work of genre fiction in a number of categories that I'll let you go over, and category six, a book, about, or set in New York. This is so much fun.

How'd you come up with the categories? Yeah, a couple of them are categories we've had since the

beginning, like a book about or set in New York.

Pretty straightforward for us here in New York Public Radio.

Let's celebrate our city with some summer reading.

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