Friday 5ive- June 16, 2023

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

1)  Monday evening I attended a book talk with Fiona Davis in conversation with Susie Orman Schnall at Rizzoli Bookstore. Fiona was there to launch the publication of her newest historical fiction 

The Spectacular. The book is set in 1956 New York City at Radio City Music Hall. Marion is a young dancer who becomes one of the famous Rockettes. She teams up with a psychiatrist who is helping the police in their search for the Big Apple Bomber. Fiona Davis has carved out an interesting niche for herself- she sets her novels in famous New York City buildings. (The Lions of Fifth Avenue was set in the New York Public Library main branch, Magnolia Palace was set in the Frick Museum.) She does an incredible amount of research for her novels, and for this one she interviewed Rockettes from the 1950s, two of whom were sitting in the audience. The discussion was fascinating and now I can't wait to read The Spectacular. (Side note- I got to meet Amy Poeppel, who is one of my most favorite authors, and tell her how much I love her books. The Sweet Spot is her current novel, and Limelight is my favorite. Do yourself a favor and read all of her books. They are full of humor and heart, and she was as lovely as I hoped she'd be.) 

Susie Orman Shnall and Fiona Davis

2) I continued my Tony Award-winning shows roundup with Good Night, Oscar. Sean Hayes (of the TV show Will & Grace and the podcast Smartless) won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play on Sunday. He portrays Oscar Levant, a raconteur and brilliant classical composer and pianist, who made frequent appearances on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar in the 1950s and 60s. He also had a serious mental illness. In the play, Oscar's wife June helps his "escape" from the hospital where she had him committed to make an appearance with Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. Oscar is accompanied by an unwitting orderly who did not know where they were going, and Jack Paar did not know Oscar was in the hospital. I did not even recognize Sean Hayes, he looks so different and his voice was unrecognizeable. He becomes Oscar Levant before our very eyes. The show is filled with Levant's witticisms and cutting remarks that had the audience laughing out loud. The show ends with Hayes playing George Gershwin's jazz/classical masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, a 7 1/2 minute song. It is as if Hayes was possessed by Levan's spirit as he plays and the audience jumped to their feet in applause when he finished. It is a virtuoso performance, one of the best I've seen and Hayes clearly deserved that Tony Award. The show is a limited run, so if you get to NYC soon, go see this one. 

Good Night, Oscar set

3) I made fried eggs for breakfast the other morning, and two of the eggs had double yolks. Is that like seeing two double rainbows? Should I have played the lottery that day?

4)  Speaking of Fiona Davis, she was a guest on Adriana Trigiani's Adriana Ink Facebook Live this week, talking about The Spectacular so if you didn't make it to Rizzoli, you can still hear Fiona speak about her book. Helen Ellis, another of my favorite authors, was on as well that day talking about her book, Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessions of a Happy Marriage  which I cannot stop
raving about. I was so happy to get my copy of the book this week so I can re-read it and read all the hilarious parts out loud to my husband. You can listen to the discussion here, and there are seven more (!) authors on that day's chat. 

5) I read a delightful novel this week- Matthew Norman's Charm City Rocks. Set in Baltimore, Billy is a single dad to high school senior Caleb, whom he shares custody with his former girlfriend Robyn. Billy teaches music to young people and lives over  Charm City Rocks, a music store. As he and Caleb watch a documentary on rock and roll of the 1990s, he admits to a crush on Margot, drummer for a popular all-female band who scored big and then imploded on live TV. Caleb does something crazy that brings Margot to Baltimore in the hopes that his Dad will tell Margot of his crush. Things don't go as planned. The story is wonderful, and the characters are good people. I always enjoy Matthew Norman's novels, going back to his debut Domestic Violets because his characters are so interesting and his books have heart and humor. My favorite scene is the car scene with Robyn and Lawson, Margot's former movie star husband. That scene was fabulous! If you liked Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & the Six, but wished it was a little lighter, you'll love Charm City Rocks. 

Have a safe and healthy week, and Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there. I know a lot of them!