Friday 5ive- July 14, 2023

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly-ish post featuring five things that caught my eye this week. We took a week off to go to Florida, I hope you didn't miss me.

1)  We were excited to see two projects completed at our home in Florida. New bookshelves were put in, along with a desk in the office, so you know I enjoyed organizing the books. The only thing that would have been better is if my my two favorite book organizers Anna and Allison were there to help. We also had a new bar area put in the kitchen, and both projects turned out so wonderful.

2)  Our JetBlue plane from JFK to Florida was called Bear Force One, with the Boston Bruins logo and colors. I'm not a hockey fan, but I know a few Bruins fans so I sent them a  photo.

3) I was on my own for dinner a couple nights this week and when I was debating what to have, an article from CNN popped on my phone about "Girl Dinner". Apparently when women are having dinner on their own at home, pulling out fruit, cheese and crackers for dinner is the latest fad. So I picked up burrata, some grapes and pineapple and added some crackers and proscuitto from my neighborhood Italian grocery store and had a lovely little dinner. Girl Dinner will on my regular rotation- no cooking is involved and in this heat that is a good thing. 

4) I ended up spending an extra two days on Florida due to flight cancellations so I made the best of it by catching up on the last season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime. All I can say is Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino know how to wrap up a show. They gave us a glimpse into the future for all the characters and Alex Borstein (Susie) and Rachel Brosnahan (Midge) put on a tour-de-force of acting in the last few episodes that stunned me. If they don't get all the awards, there is no justice. If you've never watched this series, do yourself a favor and watch it now. I loved Midge's Joan Rivers-like NYC massive apartment, a nice tip of the hat to Joan.

5) I read some terrific books lately. Kelly Rimmer's WWII novel, The Paris Agent, tells the story of ordinary British people who became spies to save the world from the Nazis. It is intense and so gripping. My five-star review can be found here. 

Speaking of spies, Beatriz Williams' novel, The Beach at Summerly, also has at its core a spy story,but this one is set in the Cold War and with Russians. Emelia's parents have been caretakers for a wealthy New England's summer family home on Winthrop Island on the Long Island Sound. She and her siblings grew up with the sons of the family, and Emilia had a crush on one of the boys. After WWII, the boys' widowed Aunt Olive comes to stay with her young children, and Emilia ends up taking care of the children and growing close to Olive. Her relationship with Olive brings her to the attention of FBI agent Sumner Fox who is looking for someone who is passing along information to the Russians. This one is for fans of the late, great TV show The Americans. I love how Williams' ties this book into her previous terrific novel, Our Woman in Moscow. 

I also read Isabel Allende's debut novel, The House of the Spirits. This one was my July Blind Date With a Book -Banned Book Club edition gifted to me by my wonderful daughter-in-law Anna. I can't believe I never read this book before! It's an epic family story, set in an unnamed South American country. Esteban Trueba works hard to build a life of wealth and privilege for his family. He is tough, and sometime violent. Esteban loves his ethereal wife Clara, who is able to connect to the spirits of those who have passed on. Their daughter Blanca falls in love with a man her father forbids her to see, a man whose politics are the complete opposite of Esteban's. As Esteban's political power grows, Blanca grows further apart from her father. Blanca's daughter Alba is the light of Esteban's eye, but as she grows up, she sees the world in a different light than her grandfather and wants to change things in her increasingly volatile country. Written in 1985, ostensibly about Chile, this book resonates with much that is happening right now in the United States. This book is one of the best I have ever read, it has earned a permanent place on my Staff Recommends shelf at the Book Cellar. 

Have a safe, healthy week- stay cool.

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

Published by Graydon House ISBN 9781525826689

Trade paperback, $18.99, 352 pages

As Kelly Rimmer's fascinating novel The Paris Agent opens, four women who are British spies in 1944 were captured by Nazi forces and are now on a train being transferred somewhere unknown.

Flash forward to 1970 Britain where Charlotte and her father Noah are grieving the death of Charlotte's mother, Noah's wife. Charlotte believes that her father was a plane mechanic during WWII, and she is stunned to discover that Noah was actually a top secret SOE spy operative in France during the war.

Noah has been disconsolate lately; he wants to track down the man Remy who helped him when he suffered a serious head injury during the war. He has memory loss from that time and he believes that Remy can help fill in the gaps. 

Charlotte finds a professor who is working on a history of the SOE operatives. Perhaps he can find Remy for them, but Noah seems reluctant, even more so when it appears that there was a double agent working for the Nazis who endangered the lives of SOE operatives.

As the story moves back to 1944, we meet two female spies- Chloe and Fleur- as they narrate their stories of how they came to be spies for the British government and the dangerous missions they undertook. Rimmer writes an incredibly tense scene as Chloe and Noah's mission to destroy a Nazi weapons factory is detailed. It's a real nail-biter.

These brave heroes put their lives on the line for the safety of others back home, knowing they could be captured or killed. Those who came home often wanted to put that part of their behind them or were forever haunted by it. Noah was able to put it behind him until he could no longer do so.

I was pulled deep into this story, and although at first it is difficult to keep the characters straight because they use their spy names and real names interchangeably (a chart in the beginning of the book would have been helpful), I could not put this book down.

The characters are so well drawn, we feel deeply for them when they face unspeakable danger and as we draw closer to discovering their fates, I found my heart racing. If you are a fan of WWII novels, like Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, you'll want to read The Paris Agent.

Thanks to TLC Tour for putting me on Kelly Rimmer's tour. The rest of her stops are here:

TLC review tour schedule:

Monday, June 26th: @poisedpen 

Tuesday, June 27th: @nobookmark_noproblem

Wednesday, June 28th: @marensreads 

Thursday, June 29th: @andrea.c.lowry.reads 

Thursday, June 29th: @readthisandsteep and Read This and Steep

Friday, June 30th: @mrs._lauras_lit 

Monday, July 3rd: @wendysbookclub

Wednesday, July 5th: @megsbookclub

Thursday, July 6th: @laurasnextchapter 

Friday, July 7th: Bookchickdi

Saturday, July 8th: @addictedtobooks86

Monday, July 10th: @page_appropriate 

Tuesday, July 11th: Helen’s Book Blog

Wednesday, July 12th: @bigskybooks

Friday,  July 14th: @diveintoagoodbook

Monday, July 17th: @charliegirl.loves2read

Wednesday, July 19th: @finding_joyathome

Friday, July 21st: Girl Who Reads

Friday, July 21st: Books Cooks Looks

Monday, July 24th: @nurse_bookie

Wednesday, July 26th: @subakka.bookstuff and Subakka.bookstuff

Friday, July 28th: Eliot’s Eats

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
Published by Graydon House Books ISBN 9781488056413
Trade paperback, $16.99, 352 pages

Kelly Rimmer's novel  Truths I Never Told You tells the story of the Walsh family, preparing to take their beloved patriarch Patrick to a long term care facility where they can better care for his dementia. Tim, at 42 the eldest, is a orthopaedic surgeon. Jeremy, 41 is a professor, and his twin sister Ruth runs the family construction business. Beth at 40 is the youngest, a psychologist who has new baby.

Beth is having a difficult time with postpartum depression. Her loving husband Hunter has tried to help her, and her siblings have begun to notice the problem as well. The family has a tradition of Sunday dinner at their father's home, which now must be cleaned out and prepared to be sold.

When Beth goes into the attic of the family home to clean it out, she is shocked by what she finds. Her meticulous father's attic is filled to the brim with trash, and with paintings apparently done by her father. She also finds letters written by her mother, who died in a car accident when Beth was a baby. But the dates on the letters don't match up with the date that she was told her mother died.

Interspersed with Beth's story are the letters written by her mother Grace. The letters show that Grace also suffered from severe postpartum depression, which lasted almost an entire year after the birth of each baby. Her depression grew worse with each subsequent child, and after giving birth to four children in three years, she was in desperate straits.

The loving father that the Walsh children know doesn't match up with the man that Grace wrote about in her letters. That Patrick was rarely home, going to the bar with friends and spending what little money they had on alcohol. Unbeknown to Grace, Patrick frequently borrowed money from her parents, who did not like Patrick at all.

Beth tries to find out what the truth is behind this new information about their parents, and what she uncovers could turn their family upside down.

Truths I Never Told You is an emotional, riveting story. I come from a family with siblings born close together, and I found that aspect of the story so well done. The family dinners and the sibling relationships just feel so authentic. Rimmer also deals with the devastating issue of postpartum depression in a compassionate and honest manner, and we learn a lot about how women in the 1950s had such little control over their lives.

The book is pegged as towards fans of Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah, and having read books by both of those authors, I would agree wholeheartedly. I give Truths I Never Told You my highest recommendation.

 Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Spring Reads Blog Tour.

Friday 5ive- March 20, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention during the week. Welcome to spring! I can't believe how drastically the world has changed in just a week, especially here in New York City. It's been a week of staying in touch by FaceTime and What's App with loved ones who live elsewhere, and hoping everyone stays smart and safe.

1)  Our doggie photo of the week is of these two cutie pie basset hounds. I see them frequently in the neighborhood, and even though we are all supposed to stay inside, these doggies gotta walk (or ride).

2)  Since Governor Cuomo announced that all restaurants must go to Pickup or Delivery only, every restaurant in our neighborhood has a sign like this one in the window of Bare Burger. People are not ordering out as they normally would, but if this goes on a long time, I hope that people will get tired of cooking and order in. I feel so badly for restaurant owners and workers, it's a tough business in the best of times. There are so many people out of work.

3)  Our local CBS NY News Channel 2 has had a difficult time with this COVID-19. They had staffers infected, and many of the on-air anchors had to self-quarantine. Our local news feed was anchored by people in Boston and Los Angeles. Many of you probably saw that the CBS Morning Show came from Washington DC and now they are in Stephen Colbert's NYC studio. Last night, the local 5pm news was anchored by Maurice DuBois and Kristine Johnson from the sidewalk in front of their building. Their scripts were on their cell phones. 

 4)  We've all been watching the news non-stop- daily press conferences by Governor Cuomo, Mayor DeBlasio and from the White House team. At night I have to have something lighter, so I have turned to old standbys Seinfeld reruns at 11pm on WPIX, and I'm so glad I have new episodes of Brooklyn Nine-Nine to add to my reruns of the show on my DVR. The standout episodes this season include "Captain Kim" and "Debbie", featuring SNL's Vanessa Bayer. She also has a role on this year's Will & Grace as Friday, Karen's assistant. I decree that Bayer must play every supporting comedic role on TV.  

5)  Since the Book Cellar is closed because the NYPL is closed, I have more time to read. I finished RaeAnne Thayne's The Sea Glass Cottage, abouth three generations of women. The young grandmother (53 years old) fell off a ladder at her garden center, so her 29 year-old daughter comes home to help out. The 15 year-old granddaughter, who was raised by her grandmother, read her deceased mother's teenage diary and now wants to find her father. Thayne writes the three generations so well, I was intrigued by all three women's stories. My review publishes tomorrow. 

The Sea Glass Cottage

Actress Kristen Johnston became famous on TV's 3rd Rock From the Sun, but she also had a terrible alcohol and drug addiction. While she was in London getting ready to open in a play, her stomach literally burst open because of her abuse, nearly killing her. She writes about this in her memoir guts. It is harrowing and honest. 

guts

I just started Kelly Rimmer's novel Truths I Never Told You, told from two perspectives- a mother of four children who has severe postpartum and her daughter Beth, who is also secretly suffering with it while she and her siblings are all dealing with putting their father in a nursing home. I can tell already that I'm going to really like this one, my full review will post on April 6th. 

Truths I Never Told You

Stay safe everyone, and stay healthy. Please be kind to those who are working in grocery stores and pharmacies, and caring for people in hospitals and nursing homes.