Friday 5ive- July 26, 2019

Welcome to the Friday 5ive for July 25th. It was sweltering hot last weekend, thank goodness it cooled down (and that we have excellent air conditioning both at our apartment and at The Book Cellar where I volunteer.) These are five things that caught my attention this week.

1) Sunday was a scorcher but I managed to take a trip to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to attend a brunch with 60 enthusiastic readers at Cebu Bar & Bistro to hear Adriana Trigiani and Lisa Grunwald talk about writing, the creative process and Lisa's new book Time After Time, which is my favorite book of the summer. It's always good to see Adriana, and she kindly asked me to say a few words about my love for Time After Time, which I gladly did. I handed out my cards to women who asked me about my blog, so welcome new readers! I met two lovely women at my table, Reggie and Joanne, and we shared our favorite authors and books.
I also got to speak with Lisa Grunwald and her husband Steve, and they are such kind and interesting people too, I now feel like we are friends as well. Lisa's publicist at Random House, Karen Fink, took this photo of us, and I enjoyed chatting with Karen as well. Nothing is better than talking books with new people! My blog post about the day is here.

Me, Lisa Grunwald, Adriana Trigiani

2) It was a week for bookish events as two of my coworkers at the Book Cellar (Allison and Rachel) and I attended a talk about historical fiction with writers Lauren Willig, Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb at Shakespeare and Co. on the Upper East Side. The ladies were funny and interesting, talking about collaborating with other authors, how they research, and the importance of cocktails. Willig lives in our neighborhood and visits the Book Cellar, and her latest book, The Summer Country, is set in 1812 and 1854 Barbados and is a fabulous book, dropping the reader right into steamy Barbados. My review is here.
Gaynor and Webb's new book, Meet Me In Monaco is set during Grace Kelly's wedding to Prince Albert and sounds so fabulous, I can't wait to read it. My book club read Gaynor's The Memory of Violets a few years back, and we enjoyed it immensely. Her lovely Irish lilt (she lives in Ireland) is delightful too.

Hazel Gaynor, Heather Webb, Lauren Willig 

Allison and Rachel get their books signed

3) The sign of the week had me laughing out loud. The Meatball Shop has this one outside its restaurant and it perfectly encapsulates this week's heatwave.

4) Lots of us were waiting for Levain Bakery to open its new location a short 12 blocks from our apartment. They sell the most sinful cookies- Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip and Oatmeal Raisin- and I visited them on opening day to get some. I didn't even mind that it poured buckets of rain down on my head as I walked home because, you know, cookies.

5) My husband and I have been watching The Loudest Voice miniseries on Showtime, about Roger Ailes, the man who created and ran Fox News. Russell Crowe is unrecognizable and hypnotic as the bombastic, bullying and creepy Ailes, who was forced out of Fox News for sexually harassing women in his employ.

I hope you have a wonderful and cooler week.