Friday 5ive- March 4, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-(ish) blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week.

1)  After a two year hiatus, I made my way back to Broadway. I went to see Moulin Rouge, which won the Tony Award last year for Best Musical. I loved the movie it was based on, and the show followed the movie pretty faithfully. Aaron Tveit, in his Tony winning performance, is wonderful as Christian, the penniless songwriter in love with Satine, the star of the Moulin Rouge. The songs (all pop songs) and choreography of the show is fantastic, with lots of energy, and it was a great way to come back to Broadway.

2)  I made a delicious new recipe- Skillet Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie from Food & Wine. I am not the biggest pot pie fan, mostly because I don't like the thick crust, and this recipe calls for no crust. You put the filling of chicken (I used shredded rotisserie chicken) and vegetables with the sauce you make in a skillet, and top it with thick slices of buttered white bread. My husband and I really enjoyed this dish, and the recipe will in our dinner rotation.  

Photo from Food & Wine- Stephanie Foley

3) The Today Show 's Jenna Bush Hager celebrated three years of her Read With Jenna book club on Read Across America Day on March 2nd on the Plaza. Twelve authors came to the show and and all 37 books that Jenna has chosen as her monthly reads were lined up on tables. Jenna mentioned that it looked like a Scholastic Book Fair and that is exactly the vibe I felt! I only wish we could have shopped for the books with money that our parents gave us. (The 2000 books were donated to the community of Newburgh, NY). I got to talk to a few of the authors, and tell them how much I loved their books (J. Courtney Sullivan, whose Saints For All Occasions is frequently found on my Staff Recommends cart at the Book Cellar, and Matteo Askaripour, whose Black Buck is a stunning debut novel).

The authors!

Matteo Askaripour

4)  I was glad to see The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is back on Amazon Prime for its fourth season. There is something comforting about traveling back to 1960's New York City to catch up with Miriam, who at the end of last season lost her chance to go on a world tour with singer Shy Baldwin after she made a joke that hit too close to home for him. Miriam and Susie have to pick up the pieces and regroup. The Wonder Wheel scene in episode one is brilliantly directed and edited, and I can't wait to see more of Miriam's gorgeous dresses and hats.  It's a fantastic ensemble of actors, led by Rachel Brosnahan and Alex Borstein as Miriam and Susie. 

5)  I read a lot of books since my last post. Elena Medel, a Spanish poet, wrrte her debut novel,The Wonders, about two working class women in Madrid and how difficult life choices are for women especially when money is scarce. It's a fantastic book, a great read for Women's History Month, and my full review is here.

Another fabulous book is Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez, a novel about Olga, a successful wedding planner of Puerto Rican descent in Brooklyn, her brother Prieto, a popular Congressman, and how they deal with their revolutionary mother who left them as children, gentrification in their neighborhood, a secret Prieto is hiding, and the impending doom of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rico. The writing is amazing, and you learn so much about the history of Puerto Rico. This will be one of my favorite books this year. 

Two of the books I read deal with unique protagonists. In Nita Prose's The Maid, Molly is a maid at a fancy hotel in London. She loves her job and is very good at it, but her people skills are lacking. When she discovers the dead body of a guest, Molly finds herself a suspect because she befriended the young wife of the dead man. Molly is an unforgettable character, and the story combines a puzzzling mystery with a charming cast of characters. It is a Good Morning America book club pick and destined to be a movie starring Florence Pugh. 

Weike Wang's novel  Joan is Okay also features a character who loves her job and lacks social skills. Joan is a doctor in a busy New York City hospital. She is dedicated to her work, rarely taking a day off, and when her father dies, she goes to China for the funeral returning in a two days. Her dedication earns her a promotion at work, much to the dismay of her coworkers and her brother and mother who think she needs to find a husband and start a family. The book takes place just before the pandemic hits in New York, and I liked the look at a doctor's world in busy New York City. It's a more interior book than The Maid, really getting into the mind and life of Joan. 

The last book I read is Jacqueline Winspear's latest Maisie Dobbs mystery, A Sunlit Weapon. Private investigator Maisie Dobbs is tasked with investigating the death of a female aviatrix, who, while delivering a fighter plane in England during WWII, is shot down. In the same area, a Black American GI is found tied up in a barn, his white friend missing, presumed dead. Maisie must discover why someone shot down the airplane and what happened to the missing GI. This is a classic Maisie Dobbs mystery, where we get fascinating tidbits of history (American GIs providing physical labor for British farmers, women aviatrix flying planes to the men at the front, racism in the American ranks) combined with Maisie's team (investigator Billy, Maisie's American husband Mark, her young adopted daughter among others). I am concerned with a bit of foreshadowing information thrown in that may portend something not good in the future for Maisie, and I would have loved to have read more about the women pilots. Fans of Maisie Dobbs will be pleased. 

Have a safe week everyone.