The Friday 5ive- June 7, 2019 Edition

Last week there was no Friday 5ive- I attended the Book Expo at the Javits Center in NYC (I'll have some upcoming posts on that next week). But I'm back this week with five things that caught my attention.

Just Ask

1) Book Expo is an annual conference for book publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors, bloggers and more. It's a lot of fun catching up with friends and seeing what's coming up in the world of books. This year the main speaker was Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who spoke about her children's book Just Ask: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You, illustrated by Rafael Lopez, who interviewed her. She likes to walk through the audience, touching people on the shoulder and I was one of the lucky ones- she held my hand! Her talk was inspiring and moving, and she is quite funny too.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor at Book Expo- Photo by Steve Kagan

2) On Saturday, my daughter-in-law's parents were visiting from Catalonia, and we took them up to Woodstock, a little town in upstate New York. (Yes, the famous 1969 music festival was named after the town even though it was held in nearby Bethel.) We had a lovely lunch at Shindig, recommended by my sister-in-law, and then we walked up and down the main street. There's lots to look at in town, so many interesting people and signs. We hit up the weekend Flea Market where my son scored a pristine copy of Bruce Springsteen's album Born in the USA, which is 35 years old this week. (Yikes, that makes me old, I remember going to see him in concert in Buffalo for that album.)

A birdhouse in front of a B&B in Woodstock

The Blues Brothers guarding the entrance to a shop in Woodstock

3) On Tuesday I attended a Lifetime TV Book Club discussion for their initial movie in their Books to Screen series, Adriana Trigiani's Very Valentine. We got to see a screening of the movie, and the star of the movie Kelen Coleman made a surprise appearance! She is so lovely, very down-to-earth and funny. She is exactly who I pictured as Valentine Roncalli. The book discussion was aired as a Facebook Live and you can see it below. Adriana Trigiani was the perfect host for the discusssion and she was hilarious as always. We had a delicious lunch with desserts made by Rossella Rago from Cooking With Nonna. Her ricotta cookies were fabulous. Don't miss Very Valentine 's premiere Saturday, June 8th at 8pm on Lifetime, the movie is wonderful, with great performances- and Jacqueline Bissett is Teodora. It's got romance, beautiful scenery, laughs, a few tears, and it's just heartwarming. 

Adriana Trigiani, Rossella Rago, Kelen Coleman

4) Billions is winding up its current season on Showtime, and I liked this season much better than last year. You never  know where it is going, and the writing is superb. Damien Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff, Asia Kate Dillon, and my favorite, David Costabile, are all amazing in their roles. My husband and I are happy that Below Deck- Mediterranean in back on Bravo. It's a reality show about the crew of a luxury yacht and we so enjoy watching how a ship like that operates. Captain Sandy is not taking any nonsense this season, and Chef Mila seems to be struggling in episode one (did she really microwave the steaks????).

5) I didn't have much time for reading this week- I re-read Very Valentine for the book club discussion, and I had forgotten how much I love this book. It was one of the first books I reviewed when I started my blog ten years ago. (Has it been ten years already?) I'm also halfway through The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames. It's the story of young woman (Stella) who grows up in Italy and moves to Hartford, Connecticut just as WWII breaks out. During her lifetime she has come close to death seven or eight times. It's intriguing so far, and you learn a lot about life in rural Italy in the 1930s.

Stella Fortuna

I hope you had a great week and enjoy the weekend!