How did Donald Trump bring out the poet and John Lifco, the actor and author and poet

will be here to discuss his new collection, Dumpty, the Age of Trump in Verse.

What happens when you introduce dark magic into the famous secret societies at Yale?

The Bardugo will be here to talk about her best-selling fantasy novel, The Ninth House.

Alexander Altow will give us an update from the publishing world.

Plus, we'll talk about what we and the wider world are reading.

This is the Book Review Podcast from The New York Times.

I'm Pamela Paul.

John Lifco joins us now.

He is obviously an actor and an author.

His most recent book is a book of poetry called Dumpty.

John, thanks for being here.

Wonderful to be here.

Before we even start with questions, let's hear one of these poems.

All right, I can read you one of my favorites.

It's one of the more oblique ones.

It's called The Ostrich's Lament.

The Manifort trial was a terrible shock to me and my Eastern South African flock.

For years, we'd been bred for our feathers and meat,

and dusty enclosures and god-awful heat.

Ungainingly and ugly, we'd suffered such scorn that most of us

wished that we'd never been born.

...