Friday 5ive- July 22, 2022

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

It's been a scorcher of a week, temperature-wise, thanks goodness for air conditioning.

1) As one of the many wine clubs we belong to, PlumpJack Winery hosted a special Zoom cooking class with Truffle Shuffle on Saturday evening. The Truffle Shuffle chef walked us all through cooking a Crispy Skin Duck a 'lOrange with roasted parsnips. We received a two bottles of PlumpJack wine- a 2020 Odette Reserve Chardonnay to drink while we cooked, and a 2019 PumpJack Merlot to enjoy with our duck. We also received a box with the duck, parsnips and everything else we needed to make dinner. I've never cooked duck before and I have to say, we enjoyed it a great deal and I would definitely make it again. (The parsnips did not turn as well- luckily we had some leftover salt potatoes I fried up.)

2) I went to a Broadway show this week. I've been wanting to see POTUS, a comedic play about seven women surrounding a disaster of a President. The cast is absolutely first-rate, with the always amazing Julie White playing the Chief of Staff who is constantly putting out fires and actually the brains behind the operation. (The running gag is that she should President, but it is not a joke it is reality.) She and Rachel Dratch (who plays a mousy secretary trying to find her power) both earned well-deserved Tony nominations for their roles. Vanessa Williams plays the accomplished First Lady who also should be President, she definitely plays to her strengths in this role. Suzy Nakamura is also stellar in her role as Press Secretary and has some of the funniest lines in the play. The real revelation is Julianne Hough who more than holds her own with this strong cast in her Broadway debut. I laughed through the entire show, and there are more than a few lines that are thought-provoking and earned thunderous applause from the full house. The show closes in August, so go see it if you can. ( I also liked the Signature Cocktails available, although if I had purchased one before the show, I would have fallen asleep.)

3) Peloton riders got a big surprise last Friday. After she performed live on The Today Show plaza to celebrate the drop of her album Special, Lizzo showed up at the Peloton studio in NYC to take the live Lizzo spin class. Not only did she take the ride with everyone in the class and instructors Robin Arzón and Jess Simms, she sang every song throughout the 30 minute class and she brought along background dancers. It was such a cool thing to do, and it was a blast. I'm not sure Peloton tops that ride- maybe Bruce Springsteen shows up for ride and sings???

4) I wanted something light to watch on TV after the heaviness of Better Call Saul and The Old Man, so we watched Jerry & Marge Go Large, starring Bryan Cranston and Annette Benning. It's based on a true story of a small town Midwest middle-aged couple who figure out that there is a flaw in a popular lottery game. If you play enough games, you are guaranteed to win money. Cranston and Benning are charming as the couple looking for something to do together now that Jerry is retired from his line manager's job at the local plant. Jerry and Marge form a corporation with people in the town and everyone shares in the wealth, to the total tune of $27 million. (You may have seen the 60 Minutes story a few years back.) If you need a feel-good movie and have Paramount+, this one will make you smile.

5) I read two books this week. The first was The Desperate Hours by Vanity Fair writer Marie Brenner. Brenner looks at the beginning of the COVID pandemic through the eyes of doctors, nurses, administrators and more at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospitals in New York City. I live almost across the street from New York-Presbyterian and so I had a special interest in this well-researched, well-written, totally immersive book. Brenner puts the reader right in the midst of the hospital where decisions are being made quickly without much information available about COVID. What impresses me most is the dedication of doctors, nurses, aides and maintenance staff who showed compassion and courage in dealing with so many people who were dying around them. It reminded me of Sheri Fink's Five Days At Memorial, about a hospital caught up in Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The Desperate Hours is destined to go down as one of the most important books written about COVID. It will be one of my Most Compelling Books of 2022. 

I also read Madeline Martin's historical novel The Librarian Spy, about a Library of Congress librarian recruited to work as a spy in Lisbon, Portugal during WWII. I haven't read any books set in Lisbon, so this one intrigued me, and of course I can't resist a librarian as the main character. (My full review can be found July 26th) . If you liked Kristin Hannah's  The Nightingale  and Jessica Shattuck's The Women in the Castle, this one is for you. 

Have a safe, healthy, and  cool week.

Friday 5ive- March 12, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. This week marks the one year anniversary of the pandemic lockdown here in NYC. Last year on March 12th when Dorothy and I locked the door to the Book Cellar, the nonprofit used bookstore where we work that supports New York Public Library branches, we had no idea what would happen in a year. But hope is on the horizon if we stay vigilant, and everyone gets their vaccine when it's their turn.

1)  St. Patrick's Day is next week, and we always celebrate with corned beef and cabbage, a favorite meal of my sons. I decorated a bookshelf with some green books and books by favorite Irish authors.  It makes a good March Zoom background.

2)  I received my 8th medal for my virtual Camino de Santiago (Way of St. James) ride on the Conqueror Challenge. It was a 481 mile ride from France to Spain, and the postcards highlighting sights of interest I received for this one were fascinating. Next up is a 750 mile Boston to Bar Harbor ride, a three month ride.

3)  It was a week of Zooms. We had a family Zoom for my mother-in-law's birthday, filled with lovely flowers, festive balloons, pretty cupcakes decorated like flowers, and gifts galore for the beautiful birthday lady. It was nice to have so many grandchildren participate.

After the birthday Zoom, we had a family wine Zoom with a very informative and entertaining person from Stag's Leap Cellars Winery in Napa Valley. Terri gave us background on the winery and the wines we tasted were excellent, a good time was had by all. The Fay Cabernet Sauvignon was my favorite.

On Monday, the Facebook group Peloton Moms Book Group hosted a talk with author Kristin Hannah, whose new novel, The Four Winds, which debuted at number one on the New York Times fiction bestseller list. The book tells the story of Elsa, who with her teenage daughter Loreda and young son leave their family farm on the Texas panhandle when the Dust Bowl storms and Great Depression decimate their farm. They flee to California only to fight horrible living conditions, discrimination, and farm owners who take advantage of the refugees, to try and make a life. It was a fascinating discussion, and we learned all about Hannah's research and writing process. My full review of her best book yet publishes Sunday in the Auburn Citizen and online at auburnpub.com. (Hint- I gave it a rave review.)

Our wines from Stag's Leap Cellars

4) We watched a terrifc documentary on Apple TV+ this week- Boys State. The documentary, about a program where 1,100 young men from all over Texas come together to create a democratic government of their own. They split into two groups- Nationalists and Federalists, decide on party platforms, and elect representatives. The film focuses heavily on the race for Governor, and the candidates they highlight are such interesting young men, after watching this documentary you know that you will be seeing them as future leaders. The film won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize. 

5) On the book front, I finished Kate Quinn's WWII novel The Rose Code,  a 626 page book that flew by.  Three women who work at Bletchley Park outside London are trying to break the German communication codes and one stumbles upon a spy. It continues Quinn's WWII brilliant novels (The Alice Network and The Huntress) about women who did more than their part for the war effort.

 

Speaking of WWII, I started Jacqueline Winspear's newest Maisie Dobbs novel, The Consequences of Fear. We're up to 1941 in this popular mystery series, and private investigator and psychologist Maisie is now assisting the SOE (Special Operations Executive) British spy agency by assessing candidates psychological state of mind before they can work with the French resistance. Maisie and her able investigator Billy are also working on the case of young boy who witnessed a murder. I'm halfway through and as always, it's great to visit Maisie's world and the friends and family we've come to know over 16 novels. It publishes on March 23rd.

Stay safe and socially distant, wash your hands, wear a mask, and get a vaccine when it's your turn. We're getting so close to beating this, I can feel it. I hope you do too.

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

 

Friday 5ive- December 11, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. It's been all about Christmas this week- mailing our Christmas cards, and wrapping gifts. 

1) In February our local Papyrus store was closing, so I popped in to see what they had left and found these terrific Christmas cards with a New York City theme. One is of St. Patrick's Cathedral, where we have spent time at masses there, and the other is Yankee Stadium, where we have also spent a lot of time at and jokingly refer to as "the Cathedral of Baseball." I got them 70% off, a great deal, and even better, I remembered where I put them seven months ago when I needed to send them out this week.

2)  This year I placed a big Christmas gift order order with Bookshop.org (it's like Amazon for independent bookstores). I chose my books, placed my order, and my books arrived in time for me to wrap them and send them out this week. On Bookshop.org, the books ship from a warehouse, but you can designate a specific bookstore you would like to receive your portion of the sale. They have raised over $9 million for independent bookstores since the pandemic began, and my local bookstore received a nice chunk of money from my purchase. Here are some of the books I ordered, wrapped and ready to go. You can order digital gift cards too if you need last minute gifts. Who doesn't want a book for the holidays?

3) On Saturday I received my medal and t-shirt from the 4th virtual bike race I completed- Manhattan to Montauk 180 Mile Challenge. This one was fun because two of my friends joined in, one biking, one running. Doing these challenges is a great way to keep me on track and on the bike everyday. Race number 5- Winter Quest, The Snow Belt Challenge- is next. We have to bike 300 miles, the distance between Niagara and Albany, the snow belt in New York State, between December 1st and February 28th. The link is here if you want to join. Thank goodness for Peloton, because it's too cold to bike outside.

4)  Last night I watched a special on NBC- One Night Only- The Best of Broadway, a salute to Broadway shows that we miss so much. There were wonderful performances from Broadway shows, including Jersey Boys, Ain't Too Proud to Beg, and Mean Girls. The highlights for me were "All That Jazz" from Chicago, a searing performance of "You Oughta Know" from Jagged Little Pill, and surprisingly gorgeous performance of "Oh, What A Beautiful Morning" from Oklahoma sung by country artist Brett Eldridge. The show was a fundraiser for Broadway Cares, and since they missed their annual red bucket fundraiser this year, I donated the $20 I usually put in the bucket after a Broadway show. You can help here if you wish, and watch it on NBC.com if you missed it. 

5) I got back to reading this week, with three stellar books. The first is Christina Baker Kline's historical novel, The Exiles, about women prisoners in England in the 1860s sent on a convict ship to serve their sentence in Australia. It's powerful and the twist in the middle is a stunner. I love how she writes a different book every time out. If you liked her novel The Orphan Train, read this one. 

The second book is a fascinating novel, The Talented Miss Farwell, by Emily Gray Tedrowe. Becky Farwell is the comptroller of a small midwest town with a fascination for the art world. She invents a new persona, Reba, for her forays into the art scene, buying and selling artworks by up and coming artists. The only problem is that she uses money she stole from her town to do it. Tedrowe took her inspiration from a real life event and I was sucked right into this book from page one. I could not put it down. It's gripping, and somehow you like this character. The title is an homage to Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley.

Continuing my quest to read more Christmas-themed books this year, I picked up Christina Lauren's 

In A Holidaze. At an annual Christmas vacation in Colorado, where four families have gathered for twenty years, Maelyn makes out with Theo, someone she has known since she was a child. The only problem is that she pines for his brother Andrew, who sees them kissing. On the way to the airport to return home, the car Maelyn is in is hit by a truck. When Maelyn wakes up, she isn't in the hospital- she is on the airplane with her family on the way to their annual holiday. Maelyn finds herself reliving the entire vacation. Can she fix things this time? It's a sweet, charming, romantic tale, and a great way to wind down from hectic holiday chores. 

 

I hope you are all safe and healthy- wash your hands, wear a mask and stay socially distant.