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Friday, July 24, 2020

Friday 5ive- July 24, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week.  The heat continues, and it was so hot I had to read inside on a few days this week, but my buddy Otto the dog appreciated being able to nap in air conditioned comfort while I read.


1)  I ordered some bookish masks from Out of Print a few weeks ago and they arrived this week.  Every stylish book nerd needs one, don't you agree?


2)  Baseball is back, baby! We watched a few exhibtion games between the Mets and Yankees and it is so great to be able to watch the games, even if fans aren't allowed in the stadium. Fans can be part of the crowd though; many teams are selling fans the opportunity to have cardboard cutouts of themselves (or their dogs) sitting in the stands. My very funny brother Doug sent us a photoshop of my husband and I as cardboard cutouts at CitiField. At least we had good seats behind home plate.


3)  As those of us who have been cooking dinner pretty much every night since March (has it only been that long? It seems like years), it can be tedious and exhausting. Deciding what to make, ordering the groceries, cooking, cleaning up, on and on and on. This weekend, our kids made us a fabulous fish dinner. They purchased halibut steaks from Eastchester Fish Market, marinated them, grilled them to perfection with a tasty sauce, and made delicious sides of vegetable couscous, lemon roasted potatoes and fruit salad, paired it with Cakebread Chardonnay, and it was a fabulous meal. It was so good that I think they should cook every weekend. (Do you think that will work?)


4)  I'm always looking for something good to watch on TV, and I heard great things about the movie Palm Springs streaming on Hulu. Andy Samberg (whom I love on Brooklyn Nine-Nine) plays Niles who, while attending a wedding in Palm Springs, ends up in some sort ot time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. Cristin Milioti ends up in the time loop with him, and she wants to find a way out. It is funny and charming, with a great performance by J.K. Simmons as a man who is after Niles. It's got a great romance, some action, and if you are thinking that it sounds like the Bill Murray Groundhog Day, you would be right. I was smiling long after the movie ended, and I know I will watch it again and again. Samberg and Milioti have crazy good chemistry, and I hope this is the movie that breaks her out, as she gets a real chance to shine, as does Samberg.  (Note- it is R rated for a good reason. This isn't for kids.) Pair this with Lisa Grunwald's beautiful novel Time After Time for a great time loop double feature.


5)  It was yet another big week of reading, with four books finished. Jill McCorkle's Hieroglyphics tells the story of Lil and Frank, an elderly married couple whose move from Boston to North Carolina causes them to reflect on their lives. It's a poignant story, and my full review publishes on Sunday.

Seraphina Nova Glass' psychological thriller Someone's Listening tells the story of a psychologist who gets into a car accident with her husband but he disappears before the ambulance arrives. Did he run away? Is he lying dead somewhere? This is a good book for people who like to guess whodunnit. My review publishes today. 



As part of my ongoing journey to read more Black voices, I read Michele Harper's memoir The Beauty in Breaking. Michele grew up in a household where her father was violent, beating her mother and brother.  Determined to help people, Michele became an emergency room doctor. She tells her life story through the lessons she learned from patients she treated. She is as wonderful a writer as she is a doctor. 

The last book is Rules of the Road, a novel by Ciara Geraghty. When Terry discovers that her friend Iris is missing, she sets out with her father who suffers from dementia to find her. Terry finds a note that Iris wrote, saying she is going to Switzerland to a clinic to end her life. Iris has MS, and she wants to end her life on her terms. Terry and her father find Iris and the three set forth on a journey from Dublin to London to France, meeting interesting people along the way, and it changes Terry's life. My full review publishes next Friday.  


Stay safe, socially distant and cool, wear a mask, and wash your hands and we'll see you next week.




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