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!

Friday 5ive- March 19, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. This week was always a big celebration week back in my Catholic School days- we had St. Patrick's Day on March 17th (there was a large Irish population in my city and our principal was Sister Walter Anne O'Malley) and St. Joseph's Day is celebrated on March 19th. (The nuns at our school were Sisters of St. Joseph).

1) I made a new recipe from the New York Times this week- Skillet Hot Honey Chicken with Hardy Greens. It was so easy and quick to make, and since we don't like hot, I used a very mild pepper. You can use whatever pepper you like. We like bone-in thighs, and the crispy skin with the honey/apple cider vinegar sauce on the greens (we used romaine lettuce) was delicious. We paired it with salt potatoes. It's a great weeknight quick dinner and the recipe is here.

2) We made a trip to Wine Geeks in Armonk on Saturday. It's housed in a converted gas station, and the interior keeps that look with stacked metal shelving for the wine. I really liked the unique look of the shop, and we had a nice chat with the knowledgeable and friendly store owners Derek and Carol Todd. They had a well curated selection of wine and spirits, and if you ever find yourself in Westchester County, stop by.

3)  I did three book Zooms this week. On Adriana Trigiani's Tuesday edition of AdrianaInk's Facebook Live this week, she hosted two funny ladies -Laraine Newman from the original Saturday Night Live cast, (talking about her Audible.com original book, May You Live In Interesting Times about New York City in the 1970s and her time at SNL) and Susie Essman, (who plays the foul-mouthed and most popular character Susie Greene on Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm). All three of these ladies are so interesting, the conversation could have gone on all night.

On Wednesday, I listened to Pamela Klinger-Horn interview Lauren Willig (Band of Sisters), Kate Quinn (The Rose Code) and Elizabeth Wetmore (Valentine) about their historical fiction books. All three women's books deal with women working together to deal with difficult situations- Band of Sisters is about Smith College alumni helping French villagers in WWI, The Rose Code shares the story of three women working at Bletchley Park in London during WWII attempting to decode German war communications, and Valentine deals with the aftermath of a vicious attack on a young Mexican teenager and the effect that had on her and other women in Odessa, Texas in the 1970s. I loved all three books, and the discussion was enlightening.

Thursday's Zoom was a discussion with Michael J. Fox talking about his memoir (that deals with living  with Parkinson's Disease) No Time Like The Future with his friend mystery writer Harlan Coben, talking about his book Win (a book that will surely keep you up at night to finish). The men have been friends for years, so the conversation was easy and both men's books would make good gifts. Maybe they will write a book together about golf someday. (My husband would like that.)

4) We finally got around to watching the comedy Ted Lasso on AppleTV+. This is the show we all need during the pandemic! Ted Lasso (played by Jason Sudeikis, who is winning all the awards for his fabulous perfomance) is a small college American football coach who is hired to coach a Premier soccer team in England, even though he knows NOTHING about soccer. The female owner of the team, brilliantly played by Hannah Waddingham, wants to decimate her ex-husband's team that she won in her divorce. It is such a happy show that will put a smile on your face, filled with hilarious laughs and Ted Lasso is a guileless, sweet character. The writing is pitch-perfect and the acting by all is wonderful. If you don't have AppleTV+, you can get a free 7 day trial- you can watch all 10 half-hour episodes in seven days then cancel. Trust me, after all the serial killer documentaries you have been watching, you need this.

5) I read two books this week. The first is Silence Is A Sense by Layla AlAmmar, about a 24 year-old Syrian refugee in Great Britain. She spends her days looking into the windows of her neighbors in her apartament complex. The trauma she suffered during her escape from Syria and her journey across Europe have caused her to not speak, which most people take to mean that she is deaf. It's a stunning book, and I've never read a book that put me more into the head of a character as this one. My full review is here.

You always know what you're getting in a RaeAnne Thayne book, and her new novel gives us characters to root for in a beautiful setting, and a situation some can relate to in The Path to Sunshine Cove.  Jess travels the country helping people downsize and organize their home and when she ends up in her sister Rachel's town, they have a chance to repair their broken relationship. Rachel's Instagram life is not as beautiful as it seems though, as she deals with her young son's diagnosis on the spectrum, two young daughters, and a husband busy building his career as a construction company owner. The sisters have yet to deal with the tragedy that took their parents years ago, will they let that tear them further apart or bring them together? My full review publishes Tuesday. 

Stay safe and socially distant, wear a mask, wash your hands and get the vaccine when it's your turn. We are getting so close to getting back to good times, can you feel it?

This post was shared with The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader's Weekend Cooking posts.