The Friday 5ive- May 24, 2019 Edition

The Friday 5ive

This week's Friday 5ive takes us into Memorial Day weekend, and that means summer is right around the corner. These are the five things that caught my attention this week.

1) I finished one series on Netflix- Ricky Gervais' After Life, which I really liked. He plays a widower who cannot get over his grief of losing his wife. He's hostile to everyone but his young nephew George and his dog. It's six episodes and the last one is so beautifully done, but I wonder what season two will hold.
I started Dead to Me on Netflix, starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two young widows who meet in a grief support group. (There appears to be a recurring theme here....) Christina's husband died in a hit and run, and she is obsessed with finding his killer. She is earning critical acclaim for her portrayal. I think Linda Cardellini deserves praise as well, and the secrets that are slowly revealed are whoppers. 

2) While running errands, I came across this 'Chicken Bus NY' parked on a side street. I have never seen it before, but there was a group of young women, maybe college aged, who were taking their photo in front it. Apparently it's party bus that you can rent, and if you are interested, the link to it is here.

3) I went to hear actress Kate Mulgrew speak about her newest memoir, How to Forget, about the life and deaths of her mother and father. It's brilliant, honest and emotional, and I loved this book. She read two powerful pieces from the book- one about the time her father drove her to an audition when she was fourteen, and another about a neighborhood walk she took with her mother when her mother was suffering from Alzheimer's. This one is a must-read.

4) Lifetime TV channel is beginning a Books to Screen series of movies, and the first one is an adaptation of Adriana Trigiani's fabulous Very Valentine. They are starting a national book club ahead of the movie where we can all read the book together before the movie premieres on Lifetime on Saturday, June 8th.  The first trailer for the movie looks so wonderful, and Jacqueline Bissett as Grandma is perfection. I can't wait! You can join the National Book Club here. 

5) I started and finished Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, the story of Amy who leaves her home in New York City (where she lives with her parents) to search for her missing sister in the Netherlands. We hear the story from Amy, missing sister Sylvie, and their mother's perspective. There's a lot of family secrets going on here, and the mystery does eventually get solved. The book is on many lists of the best books of summer and deservedly so.

I'm in the middle of Mary Beth Keane's newest book, Ask Again, Yes about two NYC police officers who live next door to each other, and their son and daughter who have a relationship. I adored Keane's first two novels, The Walking People, about the men who built the NYC subways, and Fever, the fictionalized story of the woman known as Typhoid Mary, and Ask Again, Yes is shaping up to be her best one yet. This one is also on many best of the summer books lists for good reason.

Have an enjoyable holiday weekend!

Friday 5ive- May 17, 2019 edition

Friday 5ive

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, where I share five things that caught my attention this week.

1) We were in Florida until Sunday, and I love to walk the beach listening to podcasts as I kick my my feet through the Gulf of Mexico. The water was bathwater warm! I listened to Conan O'Brien's podcast- Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend- where his guest was famed biographer Robert Caro. O'Brien has been trying unsucessfully for over ten years to get Caro as a guest on his three late night TV shows. He finally landed him as a guest on his podcast, where Caro discussed his three books about Lyndon Johnson (people are anxiously awaiting his fourth and final book in the series). Caro was very funny, not really what I expected at all. He spoke at length of his intense process to get to know his subject Lyndon Johnson, which included moving from Brooklyn with his wife Irene to the small town in Texas where Johnson grew up. It was a fascinating discussion, and one that any fans of the biographies should not miss.  (I know there are many fans- those books constantly sell out at the Book Cellar where I volunteer.) You can find the link here.

2) Some of the funniest women on the planet are Saturday Night Live alums, and Amy Poehler directed some of her best pals from that show in the Netflix movie, Wine Country. Six friends go to Napa Valley wine country to celebrate one of their friend's 50th birthday and it does not go as planned. (And not in a Friday the 13th kind of way, this is a comedy after all.) Any women over the age of 40 will relate to this movies, and for me the funniest part of the movie was when they all discussed their various ailments and medications they take- double knee replacement, using a CPap machine at night, and the mutitudes of pills they take. There are so many great lines, I have to watch it again to catch everything. Besides Amy, it stars Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Emily Spivey and Paula Pell (a comedic genius) as the friends and Tina Fey is hilarious as the woman who rents her home to them. 

3) I watched the series finale of The Big Bang Theory, and even though I haven't watched the series consistently in a few years, I didn't want to miss this. It was so well done, it honored all the characters, and Sheldon's speech at the end had me teary-eyed. Bravo!

4) There is a revival of the classic Rogers & Hammerstein's musical Oklahoma! at the Circle in the Square theater on Broadway. This is a fabulous interpretation of the show, and I loved it! The stage at Circle in the Square has the the audience in a U-shaped ringing the stage which is below the audience, not above. Some audience members sit at tables on the stage, and the actors interact with them. The actors were fantastic, led by Tony-nominated for their roles Damon Daunno (Curly), whose gorgeous voice on "Oh, What A Beautiful Mornin'" set the tone for this new version. Broadway vet Mary Testa shines as Aunt Eller, the anchor of the cast. And Ali Stoker is nothing short of a revelation as Ado Annie, carousing around the stage in her wheelchair as she belts out a stunning version of "I Cain't Say No". The music sounds so fresh with the small group of musicians right on stage with the actors, I can't wait for the cast recording on June 28th. Oh, and they served the audience chili and cornbread at intermission on the stage. If you come to NYC, you've got to see Oklahoma!. Watch her sing it on Live! With Kelly and Ryan here. 

5) I read a lot of books on vacation last week- seven of them! You can get a lot of reading done on airplanes and at the beach, my favorite place to read. I read Tracy Garvis Graves' The Girl I Used to Know about a young woman who may be on the autism spectrum and her romance with a young man in college. It's an excellent, poignant book. Sonali Dev's wonderful novel Pride, Prejudice and Other Flavors, is about a talented young surgeon from a wealthy Indian family in California who tries to save the life of a young artist and falls in love with the artist's chef brother, but not before they repeatedly drive each other crazy.  Australian author Sally Hepworth's mystery The Mother-in-Law tells the story of a young woman who is suspected in the death of her mother-in-law, with whom she had a difficult relationship. I liked that the mother-in-law was a multi-faceted character.  I read two books by comedians- Craig Ferguson's terrific memoir titled Riding the Elephant, which is an essay collection that gives insight into his life and career. Pete Holmes' memoir Comedy Sex God is about his search for those three things- comedy, sex and God. Both men write so well about their search for enlightenment about life, these books are not joke-joke-joke, but so much more. The best novel I read was Lisa Grunwald's Time After Time, about a young woman killed in a tragic accident at Grand Central Station in New York in 1929. She somehow reappears at Grand Central Station, and meets and falls in love with Joe, a railroad worker. It's all a beautiful love story, and Grunwald creates this cocoon of a world for them inside Grand Central, you'll never look at that place the same again after reading this gorgeous novel. The best nonfiction book I read was Kate Mulgrew's memoir about ther parents and the last years of their lives, How To Forget. She writes so beautifully, I think she may be a better writer than an actor, and she's a darn good actor. It's such an honest portrayal of a family. I'm going to see her next week at Barnes & Noble, I'll have more then.