Friday 5ive- January 29, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. This week we went back to Tuscany, even if only virtually.

1)  I saw Bobby Flay on the Today Show, talking about his trip to Italy. He cooked a Ragu of Beef and Red Wine with Fresh Fettucine, and  I decided to make it for dinner that night.  It reminded me of the delicious cingale (wild boar) pasta dinner we had in Montelpuciano at a favorite little restaurant of our friends and traveling companions, Osteria di Porta Al Cassero. Luckily our neighborhood Italian grocery store has fresh fettucine, and all of the other ingredients I needed. It turned out really well, but it would have been better if we had cingale instead of beef and pork.

My Ragu of Beef and Red Wine with Fresh Fettucine

2) Continuing our Tuscan theme, we did a virtual wine tasting on Thursday night with Alberto from Cortona Wine Tours. We met Alberto through AT Escapes, a NYC company who arranged our wonderful  trips to Italy in 2018 and 2019. We tasted two Brunello wines, and Alberto gave us an overview on the wineries. It was good to see him again, and we are enjoying our virtual wine tastings with family and friends. If you enjoy a good wine, a virtual wine tasting is a fun activity you can share with friends. You can find Cortona Wine Tours on Facebook, Instagram and here. 

Prepping for our wine tasting

Our wine tasting zoom with Cortona Wine Tours

3)  Following our wine Zoom, I jumped on a Zoom hosted by the New York Public Library. Amber Ruffin, a writer/performer on Late Night With Seth Meyers on NBC and host of the Peacock show, The Amber Ruffin Show, and her sister Lacey Lamar were in conversation with Alison Stewart about their book, You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories About Racism.  Amber and Lacey grew up in Omaha, where Lacey still resides. The book is filled with true stories of things that people have said to Lacey. The one story that Amber likes best is when Lacey was cashing one of her checks that feature  different photos of historical Black figures on them. The clerk looked at the check and said to Lacey- "How great is that- you have your own picture on the check. How did you do that?" The picture was of Harriet Tubman, and Amber told us, that yes, it is that famous photo of Harriet Tubman that was on the check. 

Lacey said that the book's stories came from a binder she kept of things that people said to her. She has enough for a binder. Alison asked her if people's attitudes changed when Obama was elected, and Lacey said yes, that some white people she worked with were angry when that happened. They said that America was going to hell. When Trump was elected, it became worse. She said overnight it changed, people told her that their leader was elected, and their behavior became egregious. I just received my signed copy of their book from Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, and my review will publish in the next few weeks.

4)  We watched Da 5 Bloods movie on Netflix this week. Spike Lee directed this critically acclaimed story of four Black Vietnam Vets who return to Vietnam to find the remains of their buddy who died in battle- and to find the gold bars they found and buried there. It's an astonishing film, the cinematography is stunning, and the performances by Delroy Lindo, Norm Lewis, Isaiah Whitlock Jr., and Clark Peters as the four returning vets and Chadwick Boseman as their dead friend, are fantastic. The film just won the National Board of Review Award for best film, Lee won for best director and it is well deserved and Delroy Lindo is a front runner for an Oscar nomination as best actor. I highly recommend this film. You can watch the trailer here. 

5) I read three books this week. I read two books in a new WWI spy series by Kelly Oliver. We meet Fiona Figg, a file clerk for Room 40, the British spy agency. Fiona is plucked to get information on a South African big game hunter and newspaper reporter to discover if he is a German spy. While undercover as a male doctor, Fiona deals with agents, double agents, and a dead countess in Betrayal at Ravenswick. In the second book, High Treason at the Grand Hotel, Fiona is sent to Paris to continue her mission. Here she gets involved with real-life people like Mata Hari and and infamous serial killer. Both books are good reads for those who enjoy the Maisie Dobbs and Maggie Hope historical mystery series. My review of both books are here. 

I'm almost finished with Melanie Chartoff's memoir Odd Woman Out- Exposure in Essays and Stories.  I remember Melanie Chartoff from her days on ABC's late night answer to Staurday Night Live, Fridays. She was beautiful and hilarious, and she has such distinctive voice. While this memoir has a little backstage Hollywood gossip, it's her story of a life trying to hone her craft and find her authentic self. I found her stories about her family, especially her mother's heartbreaking life, most moving. She's a good writer, drawing the reader into her life, from Off-Broadway to Broadway to TV to ending up on Rugrats cartoons, where most people recognize her voice. I'll have a full review on Monday. 

Stay safe and socially distant, wear a mask, wash your hands and get a vaccine when it's your turn.

This post was shared at The Intrepid Reader.  You can more food related posts there.

Betrayal at Ravenswick and High Treason at the Grand Hotel by Kelly Oliver

Betrayal at Ravenswick by Kelly Oliver

Published by Historia ISBN 9781947915282

Trade paperback, $16.95, 240 pages

While we're all stuck inside, due both to the pandemic and hunkering down for winter, the start of a new mystery book series is a reason for joy. While readers are patiently (or impatiently) waiting for the new Maisie Dobbs book from Jacqueline Winspear and the new Maggie Hope book from Susan Elia McNeal, Kelly Oliver has written a book series for them.

Betrayal at Ravenswick is set in 1917 during WWI. Fiona Figg is a file clerk with Room 40, a war intelligence agency in England. She just discovered that her husband has been having an affair with his secretary, and he wants a divorce. 

England is attempting to get the United States to join the Allies to end the war, and haven't yet come up with a way to convince them. When Fiona gives her bosses a suggestion they haven't thought of, she becomes a part of the team. Her photographic memory makes her a valuable asset as well.

While on her first undercover assignment she dresses as a man, Dr. Vogel, who specializes in poisons and gynecological issues (an odd combination), she becomes involved in the murder of a countess while staying at the countess's family estate. 

There is no shortage of suspects, from the countess's husband, children, and the man Fiona was sent to watch, Frederick Fredericks, a South African big game hunter and newspaper reporter. Fiona has been ordered by her bosses not to get involved, stay to her assignment, but she gets involved, even having to testify at a trial in her disguise.

The mystery behind who killed the countess is intriguing, the characters interesting, (there are agents and double agents galore), and although it is a little incredulous that no one sees through Fiona's disguise as a man, if you can suspend your disbelief there, you've got a good start to a new spy series. I like that Fiona is a feminist, unhappy that even as she is now a full-fledged spy she is expected to make tea for the men at the office, and clean up the break room.

High Treason at the Grand Hotel By Kelly Oliver

Published by Historia ISBN 9781947915909

Trade paperback, 272 pages, $16.95

High Treason at the Grand Hotel picks up right where Betrayal at Ravenswick ends. In the second book, Fiona is sent to Paris to once again follow Frederick Fredericks, who is believed to have something to do with British ships being sunk by the Germans. She has been explicitly ordered by her bosses not to don any disguises this time, an order Fiona disregards.

She goes undercover as a bellboy at the Grand Hotel to gain access to Fredericks' room. She also becomes involved with notorious spy Mata Hari, and infamous serial killer Henri Desire Landru. I found Fiona's interaction with actual historical figures added a extra level of interest to the story.

Once again, a countess is murdered (countesses are not safe in Oliver's books), and Fiona finds herself surrounded by agents and double agents, with Fredericks in the middle of the action. Clifford Douglas, who works for British intelligence, pops up again here, and like Fiona, the reader finds him less insufferable in this second book than the first. He starts to grow on you as he and Fiona are becoming a team.

One of my favorite scenes takes place in a library, where Fiona retreats to dig for answers to some of her questions. Even spies know that you can find the answer to anything in the library.

I enjoyed the combination of action, a little romance, humor (Fiona having to lug people's bags all day while undercover as a bellboy), and the interesting facts that Oliver throws in the story (the US made Puerto Rico citizens to open up a new avenue for war recruits, the color mauve was created a chemist looking to extract quinine from coal tar). I look forward to reading more of Fiona Figg's upcoming exploits.

Thanks to TLC Tours for putting me on Kelly Oliver's tour.