Friday 5ive- May 5, 2023

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

It's hard to fathom that it's May already, and we've had enough April/May showers to last us for awhile.

1)  On a recent Tuesday while volunteering at the Book Cellar, we were surprised when nearly a dozen distinguished people in suits stopped by. It turns out the former president of the Dominican Republic was in town in his current position as President of United Nations Associations at the United Nations. Leonel Fernández was shopping for books to stock the Juan Bosch Library, a huge public library in Santo Domingo. He and his team picked out dozens of books about Hollywood films, current events, politics, and art. It was such a pleasure to speak with him, hear about his library, and share our story about the Book Cellar, a nonprofit bookstore staffed by volunteers who raise needed funds for the branch libraries of the New York Public Library. He was impressed that we have raised over $1 million in 19 years of existence. You never know who you'll meet at the Book Cellar. 

2)  Speaking of the Book Cellar, my fellow volunteers threw me a birthday luncheon recently. My friend and fellow book lover Allison gave me a plant, and I am proud that I have kept it not only alive but thriving thanks to the water globe she put in it.  (I have not always been successful with plants, so this is a big deal.) You fill the globe with water, turn it upside in the soil and it waters itself. I have named the plant Maisie in honor of Maisie Dobbs, the main character in Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs historical mystery series, a series of books Allison and I adore. 

3) There are some authors who I will wait (im)patiently for their next book, and Mary Beth Keane is tops on that list. Her newest book, The Half Moon, published this week and my preorder copy of the book arrived yesterday. I have read all of her novels, from The Walking People to Fever to Ask Again, Yes and now The Half Moon. Her latest tells the story of Malcolm and Jess, a married couple who are struggling with infertility, which has crushed them emotionally and financially. Malcolm has a chance to purchase the Half Moon,  the bar where he has worked for 24 years, but the bar business is difficult and he makes a decision that could lead to the end of his marriage. It's a beautifully rendered novel with gorgeous writing, and Keane creates characters that you root for to make it in this tough world. I give it my highest recoemmendation and a full review will be in my Book Report column on auburnpub.com on Sunday.

4) If you are a Broadway fan, and you Apple TV+, the second season of Schmigadoon should be on your list. This season Josh and Melissa (played to perfection by Keegan-Michael Key and Cecily Strong) ,while looking for Schimadoon, wind up in Schimicago, where the 1970-ish Broadway musicals are a lot darker than they were in the sunny 1950s-1960s of Schimagadoon. Some of Broadway's most talented performers return, like Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Aaron Tvevit, Jane Krakowski and Patrick Page. Ariana Debose's knockout performance of Over and Done in the last episode is a stunner, and Titus Burgess as the Narrator is fantastic. The songs are memorable and clever and I can't recommend this highly enough. A standing ovation from me. 

5) Circling back to my birthday gifts, my lovely daughter-in-law Anna not only organized and cooked my birthday luncheon at the Book Cellar, she also got me the best gift- a year's worth of Blind Date With A Book- Banned Book Edition. My first book was April and it is SOLD, a young adult novel by Patirica McCormick. It tells the story of Lakshmi, a 13 year-old girl from an impoverished Nepalese family who ends up working as a sex slave in a brothel. She and her family were led to believe that Lakshmi would be going to work as a maid. The story is told from Lakshmi's point of view in one page diary-like pieces. It's powerful and heartbreaking, it shows the strength of the human spirit, and I can see how it was a National Awards finalist. I can't wait for my May book, Jonathan Evison's Lawn Boy. 

Have a safe and healthy week, until next time.

Friday 5ive- October 21, 2022

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

1) Sunday was a beautiful day in NYC so we took a walk through Central Park. It was so good to see the park filled with people, and it seemed like everyone was celebrating a birthday, we ran into mutliple celebrations..

2) The Center for Fiction hosted a discussion between Silas House, about his book Lark Ascending, and one of my favorite authors, Barbara Kingsolver, about her novel Demon Copperhead. I read an early copy of Demon Copperhead, and it is Kingsolver's best book yet, a contemporary retelling of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. Her young protagonist deals with a mother who is an addict, living in a broken foster care system, poverty and the beginnings of the opioid crisis in Appalachia. I haven't read Silas House's book yet, but it sounds fascinating. It's a dystopian story about a young man who leaves the United States for Ireland, seeking refuge from devastating fires and political persecution  where he walks across the country with a dog he finds. The discussion was fascinating about two epic books, and what it means to be a writer from Appalachia. I watched it on YouTube, but I wish I had been there in person.

3) I love getting book mail, and this week I received my Stories & Suspects box filled with fantastic mystery books from Bantam. It features the new book from Susan Elia MacNeal, Mother Daughter Traitor Spy, about a mother-daughter duo living in Los Angeles during WWII who end up spying on people involved in the Nazi movement for the US government. It has a lot of resonance for events happening today. It also has a new crime drama  by William Landay (I liked his Defending Jacob), a psychological suspense from Catherine Steadman (The Family Game- a Book of the Month selection for October), a locked room mystery by Jilly Gagnon (All Dressed Up), and their Buzz Pick, a debut novel from Erin E. Adams titled Jackal about missing girls in a Rust Belt town. The box was sponored by Tony's Chocolonely, one of my favorite chocolate treats.

4) Stanley Tucci's Searching for Italy is back on Sunday nights on CNN, and we are enjoying traveling to the different regions of Italy. The first few episodes took us Calabria, Sardinia and Puglia and we've seen a lot of seafood dishes this season. 

5)  I adore Mary Beth Keane's books, and her upcoming 2023 novel, The Half Moon, is wonderful. Malcolm and Jess are a happy couple living in Gillam, a small town a hour upstate from New York City. Jess desperately wants a baby, and after several expensive and emotionally draining IVF tries doesn't undertstand why Malcolm is willing to give up on their dream. Malcolm's dream is to own the Half Moon, a bar he has worked in for years. They are at a crossroads, and the novel explores how that came to be and where it is headed. It is  phenomenal, I read it a little bit at a time because I did not want this fantastic book to end. I wanted to stay with Malcolm and Jess forever. 

Have a great, safe, healthy week.

June Books From Book Expo

I spent some time organizing my books from the Book Expo, and this year I organized them by the month they publish. It's going to make it so much easier to read the books as they publish so I can keep current with my reviews.

The June books  are all about family, and I've read three of them so far.

Mary Beth Keane's third novel, Ask Again, Yes is one of my favorite books of the year. Keane writes so beautifully in her story of two Irish families who live next door to each other. A tragedy tears them apart and years later it still reverberates through the families. My full review is here, but suffice to say, you must read this book.

Jean Kwok's book Searching for Sylvie Lee is also a family drama and wonderfully written as well. Sylvie Lee leaves her home in NYC to go to the Netherlands to visit her dying grandmother. When she disappears, her younger sister Amy goes to the Netherlands to find out what happened. Family secrets are revealed, and the story is told from Sylvie, Amy, and their Chinese immigrant mother's point of view. Jenna Bush Hager chose it as her Today Show June Book Club pick, and Jean will be on Today with Hoda and Jenna on Friday, June 28th.

Jennifer Weiner's Mrs. Everything tells the story of two sisters' lives, from their childhood in the 1950s through the current day. It's really the story of women in America through those years and it's her best book yet, I just inhaled it. It debuted at number two on the NY Times bestseller list last week.

I'm starting Elin Hilderbrand's Summer of '69, which I have heard great things about. It's her first novel set in a different time period and it's about the Levin family and what happens to them during that historic year.  She signed books at the Book Expo, and gave out Corona beers. I wish I liked beer, it looked refreshing.

Grant Ginder's Honestly, We Meant Well is a family story about a Classics professor who finds that her perfect husband is cheating on her and her college-bound son's life is a mess. She takes them to Greece for a month to fix things and it sounds like a good summer read, funny and heartfelt.

Claire Lombardo's novel, The Most Fun We Ever Had follows Marilyn and David and their four adult daughters. One of the daughters gave birth to a son and gave him up for a closed adoption fifteen years ago, but he reappears in their life. Lombardo is being compared to Celeste Ng and Elizabeth Strout, high praise indeed.

Eloisa James' fourth novel in her Wildes of Lindow Castle series is Say No to the Duke, and it continues the story of the Wilde family, with this story focusing on young Lady Betsy Wilde who loses a billiards game and bet to Lord James Roden and now must spend the night with him. I really enjoyed the first three books in the series, the first historical romances I have read in a long time, and I'm looking forward to this one as well.

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
Published by Scribner ISBN 9781982106980
Hardcover, $27, 390 pages

I read Mary Beth Keane's first novel The Walking People about the Irish immigrants in New York City who spent their days digging the subway tunnels. Her second novel, Fever, recounted the story of the Irish immigrant who became known as Typhoid Mary and was quarantined on an island off of New York City, and it is an astonishing piece of literature.

So I was excited to hear that she has written a third novel, Ask Again, Yes, which is also about Irish immigrants. Two young Irish cops, Francis Gleeson and Brian Stanhope, join the police force at the same time in 1970s New York City. They also end up moving next door to each other in a commuter town in upstate New York and start their families.

Francis and his wife Lena have three daughters, the youngest one Kate the same age as Brian and his wife Anne's son Peter. Lena attempts to befriend Anne, but Anne keeps to herself and Lena has her hands full with her three girls. Francis prefers to keep his distance from his former partner Brian, but the reader doesn't know why.

Soon it becomes clear that Anne has mental health issues, and Brian seems ill-equipped to handle them. Peter and Kate become closer, but Peter hides his mother's outbursts from Kate. A terrible tragedy devastates both families, and Peter moves away.

Peter's life becomes very different, and he falls out of touch with Kate, but she is never off his mind. We see what happens as they grow into adults, and come to terms with their feelings for each other.

Keane's novels fill the reader with all kinds of emotions, and never more so than in Ask Again, Yes. You feel like these characters are so real, so full of humanity, and you care deeply for them. My favorite character is Peter's uncle George, who does his best to help his nephew navigate a new life, even though he himself is young and not a parent. I just fell in love with George. ( I got to meet Mary Beth Keane recently at the Book Expo and I told her how much I adored George and she said she loved him too.)

Mary Beth Keane at Book Expo

The characters face problems that befall many- mental health issues, alcoholism, serious illness- and they draw strength from their family relationships. They are not perfect, they stumble and fall, and one main character just had me so full of anger. Keane's writing is just exquisite.

I can't say enough good about Ask Again, Yes except to tell you that you must read this book. It is perhaps the best book I have read this year, and one of my coworkers and I spent a long time gushing over it recently.  You know a book is great when you spend time thinking about the various characters and wondering where they are now. Mary Beth Keane can't write books fast enough for me.

Mary Beth Keane will be at Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca today June 13th speaking about her book.

My review of Fever is here.

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!

Weekend Cooking- Fever by Mary Beth Keane

Fever by Mary Beth Keane
Published by Scribner ISBN 9781451693416
Hardcover, $26, 320 pages

March is Women's History Month and St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17th, so this Weekend Cooking post combines the two with a review of Mary Beth Keane's novel Fever, a fictional story about the infamous Typhoid Mary, an Irish immigrant who was blamed for the deaths of over twenty people from typhoid in New York City in the early years of the twentieth century.

Keane did a great deal of research on Mary Mallon, an Irish immigrant who became a cook for wealthy families in New York City. Her website contains an amazing time line of events with photos and information about the real Mary Mallon. It can found here.

Mary is an intriguing woman; she lives with, but does not marry, Alfred Briehof, a German immigrant with a drinking problem. Mary and Alfred love each other deeply, but Alfred's drinking and inability to hold a job creates friction in their relationship.

When several members of a family whom Mary cooks for die from typhoid fever, Dr. George Soper investigates and is determined to find Mary, whom he believes may be a carrier of the disease even though she exhibits no symptoms of typhoid herself. He finds Mary working for another family, and she is detained in an exciting passage of the novel.

Mary ends up quarantined on North Brother Island, where she is forced to live alone, even though she herself is not ill. The isolation wears greatly on her, and she despises Dr. Soper. Her only friend is a male gardener who brings her meals and newspapers, and has a bit of a crush on her.

But Mary misses her old life, and especially Alfred. She wonders how he is doing, who is caring for him and if she will ever be able to leave the island. She finds a lawyer willing to represent her and he works to get Mary released, all while Mary becomes tabloid headlines.

This is a fascinating novel, mostly because Mary is a remarkable character. She is tough, imposing and independent and her unconventional life with Alfred and her manner made her suspect in many people's eyes.

"If she had been the type of woman who saved her money, or gave it to someone who needed it more, a neighbor with children, perhaps, or the church, if she'd been a married woman who handed every dollar over to her husband, or better yet a married woman who didn't have earnings because she was taken up with the care of her own home, she'd never be in the situation she was in. She couldn't prove it, but it was the truth nonetheless."

The best historical fiction immerses the reader into a different place and time, and Fever does just that. You can see, smell, hear and taste New York City at the turn of the century. You get such a feel for  immigrant life, and if you enjoy food, the descriptions of Mary's cooking will indulge your senses.

"Back in her own silent kitchen, she cleared off the cluttered table and used it to prep. She filled the pot with water. She rubbed the small pork tenderloin she'd purchased half-price with plenty of salt and pepper, a bit of nutmeg she grated, a pinch of cinnamon, a dash of sugar, a teaspoon's worth of onion powder she measured with cupped hand."

Mary Mallon's story is so compelling and Keane tells it beautifully. It's the perfect novel to kick off Women's History Month.

rating 5 of 5

My review of Mary Beth Keane's The Walking People.

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

Another tale of Irish immigration

Like Brooklyn by Colm Toibin, The Walking People, the debut novel from Mary Beth Keane, deals with the story of Irish immigrants. Whereas Brooklyn recounted a few years in the life of Irish immigrant Eilis Lacey, The Walking People looks at the total life experience of Michael and Greta Ward, who came to New York City in the early 1960's.

The prologue of the book opens in 2007, as we watch the last day at work for Michael Ward. He has been a sandhog, digging tunnels underground in New York City for 35 years. It has been a physically difficult job, he has suffered hearing loss, and was nearly killed in a bad accident years ago. Now it is loss of memory that he is battling.

The book begins in 1956, in Ballyroan, Ireland, a rural area bordering a river that has lost much of its population over the years. The Cahill family struggles to earn a meager living, and to avoid starvation, father James Cahill and his three sons illegally catch and sell salmon from the river.

Johanna and Greta Cahill are the sisters. Johanna is anxious to get to a bigger city to live, and eventually sets her sights on going to New York City when she meets a woman visiting Ballyroan from New York.

Greta is as shy as Johanna is determined, but eventually they make the trip overseas with Michael Ward, a young man who is a traveller, also known as gypsies.

The book started slow for me, recounting too much of their life in Ireland. While I did find the description of Irish life interesting, it went on too long for my taste. The book sparks to life when the three arrived in New York City and began to build their lives.

The author took great care in crafting characters that the reader cares about, particularly Greta. Keane's vividly describes Greta as looking like a goose-

Lily noticed Greta peering over at her, peering with that look she had so often, her features drawn together in a clump at the center of her face, her neck stuck out ahead of the rest of her body. Greta the Goose, as children often called her.

It's a strong visual that perfectly places Greta's character in the reader's mind.

She clearly did a great deal of research on the lives that immigrants led, and her description of life in 1960's New York City fascinated me. I could see all of the places she described in my mind, feel the heat of the summer, smell the ethnic food from the delis.

Part III of the book consists of letters that young Greta sends home to her mother, along with letters that Michael sends to his father. It is one of the strongest sections of the book, recounted in the first person, and brings the reader right into the minds of these young immigrants, trying to be strong for their family, but clearly missing them as well.

I enjoyed reading of Greta's job at Bloomingdales, and Keane gives the reader an intimate look at how people coming from another land with no money and few skills applicable to city life work to build a life for themselves and their children.

There is an aura of suspense as Michael, Greta and Johanna keep a secret from their family, one that is destined to have repercussions for a long time. At its core, this is a story of how people form a family, and the strength that it takes to come to a new country and build a life. Watching Greta grow from a scared little girl to a strong woman, working in a big city and raising a family with her husband, touched my heart. It is a wonderful read, and fans of Maeve Binchy and Alice McDermott will enjoy it.

Rating 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to BookBrowse.com for providing me with a copy of this book.