Friday 5ive- August 28, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. We are slowly sliding towards Labor Day and the unofficial end to summer. Are you ready for that? Nah, me either.

1) One of my favorite people in the whole world, my friend Dorothy, gave me this lovely tote bag that she found in an independent bookstore in Vermont. I will carry it proudly around the city. #Vote

2) Speaking of literate, while walking down 74th Street, I noticed this sign in a first floor window that reads "What Are You Reading?" above a small collection of books. One of my favorite books, Mary Beth Keane's Ask Again, Yes, caught my eye, and I really wanted to knock on the window to tell this person what great literary taste she has. I also loved The Vanishing Half and just got Atomic Love. 

3) Speaking of independent bookstores, Saturday, August 29th is Indie Bookstore Day. While our own Book Cellar is still closed and can't participate, there are over 600 indie bookstores who are participating with online events and special items that you can only get on that day.. You can go to the website here to find out more about it. And even better, Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle, is our Bookstore Ambassador this year. Books + baseball = awesome! #SupportIndies

4) I watched 6 episodes of Ryan Murphy's Netflix limited series Hollywood on Sunday. Several of the performances are nominated for Emmys this year, including Holland Taylor (who is always fantastic), Broadway star Jeremy Pope, and Jim Parsons in a very un-Sheldon (Big Bang Theory) like role, who are all great. It's set in post WWII Hollywood as several young people are trying to make it as screenwriters, actors and directors. This Hollywood has its share of a dark underbelly, and it addresses sexism, racism and homophobia in a unique way. This is an adults-only series. 

5) I read three books this week. Peace Adzo Medie's debut novel, His Only Wife, is about a young woman in Ghana married to a man she barely knows who has another wife. If you liked Ayobami Adebayo's Stay With Me (one of my favorites), this is a perfect read for you. My full review publishes on September 1st.

I have not read anything by James McBride, and now that I have read his latest, Deacon King Kong, I will be looking for his backlist of books. The novel is set in Brooklyn in 1969, when a young drug dealer is shot by a church deacon and the entire community becomes involved. It is brilliantly written, with a cast of unforgettable characters. I highly recommend it. I bought this online at Loganberry Books, an independent bookstore in Ohio.

Lauren Willig's Band of Sisters doesn't publish until March of 2021, but I got to read an early copy of this fantastic historical fiction about a group of women from Smith College who, during WWI, traveled to France to help villages decimated by the Germans. The research is impeccable, and the story and characters are all based on actual events and real people. I tore through the book, astonished at what these young women did, never having heard this story before. I will be talking about this book for a long time, and Maisie Dobbs fans should put this one on their list. (And oh, that gorgeous cover!)

 

Stay safe, socially distant, wash your hands and wear a mask. See you next week!