The Friday 5ive- June 14th Edition

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly recounting of things that caught my attention.

1) On my visit to the annual Book Expo, I found many treasures. I spent some time organizing my books and in keeping with the theme of Friday 5ive, I chose five books that I want to read first from the Expo.

• Angie Kim's debut novel Miracle Creek has been on many best of the summer lists, it's billed as a "literary courtroom thriller about an immigrant family and a young single mother accused of killing her autistic son." One of my favorites, Laura Lippman, blurbed it so I know I'll like it.
• Julie Satow's The Plaza is the history of NYC's iconic Plaza Hotel. I saw her on The Today Show this week with Jenna Bush Hager. We enjoy the Plaza's food hall, and I'm intrigued by the backstory of the hotel.
• Jeanine Cummins' novel American Dirt was the book everyone was talking about at the Book Expo. It's a story about a Mexican mother and her young son fleeing a drug cartel to make it to America. It's timely and Stephen King called it "an extraordinary piece of work". It publishes in January.
• I love everything Ann Patchett, from her brilliant novels to her essay collection to her marvelous Nashville bookstore, Parnassus, so it's a no-brainer that I will devour her newest novel The Dutch House, about a family and their house outside Philadelphia.
• Cara Wall's novel The Dearly Beloved tells the story of two pastors and their families in New York City. Enough said.

2) The Tony Awards were on Sunday night, and as you know, I'm a big Broadway fan. It's the one award show that is actually entertaining, where you get to see live performances from some of the most talented people working in the industry. The opening number with host James Corden and performers from the nominated shows was amazing. After seeing the performances, I put Choir Boy and winner for Best Musical Hadestown  on my list of must-sees. Oklahoma's performance was fabulous too, and I'm glad Ali Stroker won for her performance as Ado Annie- she is a knockout! 

3) On Tuesday evening I dodged the rain to go to Barnes & Noble on the Upper East Side to hear Lauren Willig talk about her fabulous new historical novel The Summer Country with author and PopSugar book columnist Brenda Janowitz. The book is terrific, set in 1816 and 1854 Barbados, and Willig drops the reader right into the setting; you'll feel like you are there as you read it. It was an interesting discussion, Willig is so smart and so funny. I'll review her book on June 20th. (Spoiler alert- I loved it!)

Lauren Willig and me at Barnes & Noble

4) There are so many interesting sights in NYC, and this one in front of Mel's Burgers on First Ave. made me laugh.

5) In this week's reading, I finished Susan Lewis' One Minute Later, about a young woman who has everything going for her and then finds out she needs a heart transplant. It's a love story with a mystery inside, and you learn about the importance of organ donation. It's a powerful story. I'm just starting Laura Lippman's The Lady in the Lake, a mystery set in 1960s Baltimore about a middle-aged housewife who leaves her husband, goes to work at a newspaper, and tries to discover who murdered a young woman. Lippman's books are always page-turners.

Lady in the Lake

I hope you had a good week and Happy Father's Day to all the terrific dads out there!