Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. It's the last day of June???? How is that possible???
1) One great thing about living where we do in New York City is that come July, we can see all the various fireworks displays that go off nightly from now until July 4th. Last night was the beginning, at first I thought it was someone working on the apartment above us and then I realized it was fireworks.
2) We went back home for the wedding of our dear friend and former neighbor's daughter. It was such a beautiful ceremony and it was great to catch up with all my good friends and dance the night away. We also celebrated four family birthdays- my older son, mom, nephew, and his wife all have birthdays this week so it was a good week to be home. We were able to have a cookout with charcoal-grilled hamburgers, a rare treat for those of us who live in NYC. My brother did a great job with the burgers, they were delicious, and my Tarragon Potato Salad (thanks to Ina Garten) was a hit. The recipe is here.
3) Carol Fitzgerald of the Book Reporter Network hosted a "Bookacccino Live Summer Reading Event" where she shared titles of upcoming summer books. She covered a lot of ground in just an hour, and there were so many books that I want to read. Laura Lippman's Prom Mom, Ann Patchett's Tom Lake, and Beatriz Williams' The Beach at Summerly top the list for me. You can watch the presentation on YouTube here. 
4) We watched the entire second season of The Bear on Hulu this week and wow, was it fabulous! The premise this season is that Carmy and the team is preparing to open a fine dining restaurant in the former The Beef restaurant that belonged to his deceased brother. We see members of the team as they learn how to work in a fine dining restaurant and each person gets an episode highlighting their journey. My favorite episode is "Forks", which shows Ritchie's story. You really get a feel for all that goes into running a restaurant, and the final episode of the season had me on the edge of my seat as they open the restaurant for family and friends night. This is a must-watch. 
5) I read Shaun Bythell's The Diary of a Bookseller on the recommendation of one of my fellow volunteers at the Book Cellar. Shaun owns and operates The Bookshop, a used bookstore in Wigtown, a small town in Scotland, and he tells the story in true diary form. Each day he has an entry sharing the days' customer count, the amount of money in the till at the end of the day and what happened that day. He shares stories of customers (some nice, some not so much) and as someone who runs a used bookstore, I could relate to so much of his story. He has a dry sense of humor and I found myself laughing out loud many times. The funniest interactions are between Shaun and his employee Nicki, who is a real trip. You don't have to work in a bookstore to appreciate this book, but if you've ever worked in retail, you'll enjoy. 
I hope you have a safe, healthy, happy 4th of July. Until next time.
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