Friday 5ive- February 5, 2021

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. New York City got hit with the massive snowstorm that blanketed much of the Northeast, and we got 15 inches of snow. The city shut down for two days, but then it was right back to normal.

1)  Walking around the neighborhood, I saw this sign in front of a liquor store. It's spot-on.

2) We found a new appetizer, made right here in New York City and available for purchase online. Pizza Cupcakes are mini bread bowls filled with mozzarella cheese and pizza sauce. There are two flavors- Margherita and Pepperoni, and they are quite tasty. We found them just in time for Super Bowl Sunday, and if you like Pizza Bagel Bites, this is your next new snack. You can order them here.

3)  One of the best books I have read in a long time is Nancy Johnson's novel, The Kindest Lie, (my review here), and I listened to her in conversation with Zibby Owens on her podcast, Moms Don't Have Time to Read. It was a fascinating conversation, and since Nancy was a TV news reporter for over a decade, she is a great communicator. If you take my recommendation and read The Kindest Lie, follow it up with this podcast episode to get a deeper dive into the book. 

4)  I watched the Netflix movie, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the film version of the brilliant August Wilson play of the same name. Viola Davis shows why she is one of the best actors of her generation as she ferociously tears into the role of real life 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey. Chadwick Boseman gives the best performance of his short life as a trumpet player yearning to become a star in his own right. The film is set in Chicago at a recording studio, and was deservedly nominated this week for both multiple Golden Globe and Screen Actors' Guild awards. 

5) It's been a week for nonfiction. Buffalo native Laura Pedersen (whose book Buffalo Gal about growing up in Buffalo in the 1970s made me laugh so hard) has a book of essays out.  A Theory of Everything Else is both hilarious (with more funny stories about growing up in Buffalo) and philosophical as she tackles the subjects of the importance of art, women in history, religion and more. It made me laugh and think. My full review will follow next week. 

I also started a collection of essays, Moms Don't Have Time To- A Quarantine Anthology, edited by Zibby Owens (see #3 above).  Owens collected original essays from 60 authors who appeared on her podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read, about things that have helped and hindered people during quarantine. The sections are READ, WORK OUT, EAT, HAVE SEX and BREATHE. The essays are short, something you can dip in and out of, from authors like Chris Bohjalian, Gretchen Rubin, Wendy Walker and more, and are relatable to what we have all been going through. Proceeds of the book go to the Susan Felice Owens Program for COVID-19 Vaccine Research at Mount Sinai Health System. Susan was Zibby's mother-in-law who died from COVID-19 a month after caring for her own mother who passed away from the disease. The book launch is scheduled for February 16th, with 50 authors in attendance on Zoom. More information on that is here. 

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

Friday 5ive- January 22, 2021

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

This week it was all about the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the 46th President of the United States.

1)  I decided that I really need to up my coat game after seeing all the beautiful coats at the inauguration. All of the former first ladies- Hillary Clinton, Laura Bush and Michelle Obama- looked stunning, as did our new Vice-President Kamala Harris and new First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. As I looked in my closet, filled with various shades of NYC black coats, it made me long for something colorful and lovely. Here is a link to an article from Insider.com about the stylish coats worn that day (and Bernie Sanders functional outerwear). 

2) The highlight of the inauguration was Amanda Gorman's stirring reading of her poem,  The Hill We Climb. I saw a story on CBS This Morning about her last April, and I was instantly enchanted and impressed by her. This is the story here. I know we will be hearing from this remarkable young woman for years to come. (Her inaugural coat and headband were gorgeous too.) 

3)  I joined a Zoom with Zibby Owens, host of the podcast Moms Don't Have Time To Read, interviewing author Jane L. Rosen about her wonderful book, Eliza Starts A Rumor. (My review is here.) The novel tells the story of Eliza an empty-nester mom who runs a Facebook moms group in her Hudson Valley home. When a new Facebook moms group becomes more popular because they have more controversial and intimate postings, Eliza anonymously posts a rumor on her own message board that creates an uproar. It's a terrific book about female friendship, and the discussion was interesting as well. You can watch Zibby interview Jane about Eliza Starts A Rumor here.    

4) I watched the fantastic movie, One Night In Miami, on Amazon Prime this week. The movie, directed by Regina King (one of the best actresses of her generation), is based on a play by Kemp Power. It is a fictionalized account of the night Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) defeated Sonny Liston, and then spent the evening with Malcolm X, NFL superstar Jim Brown, and singer Sam Cooke. It's a powerful piece, about life for these four famous black men in America. King does an impressive job directing, and the performances by the four actors, Eli Goree (Ali), Aldis Hodge (Jim Brown), Leslie Odom Jr. (Sam Cooke) and Kingsley Ben-Adir (Malcom X) are riveting, particularly Ben-Adir and Odom, who have been on many awards lists for their performances. This is a must-see movie, and you can never go wrong when Leslie Odom Jr. gets to sing.

5) I read one book this week, and it was a remarkable one. Nancy Johnson's debut novel The Kindest Lie, tells the story of Ruth, a young Black Yale-educated engineer married to Xavier, a Pepsi executive, living in Chicago. When Xavier tells Ruth he wants to start a family, Ruth has to face an incident from her past. When she was seventeen years old, she gave birth to a baby boy. Her grandmother gave the baby up for adoption, and Ruth soon left for Yale without looking back. 

Now Ruth wants answers to what happened to her baby, so she heads home to the Indiana town and her grandmother and her older brother. She becomes attached to Midnight, an eleven year old white boy who lives with his grandmother after his mother died giving birth to his baby sister. 

It's a heartbreaking, brilliantly written novel, one that tackles race, class, and small town life that depends on one industry and what happens when that industry goes away. I think many people can relate to this story, and the characters in it.  There are many children being raised by their grandparents for several reasons. People make decisions that seem right at the time, and Johnson allows us see each side of the story here. The Kindest Lie will end up on as one the best books of the year for me, and I can't wait to see what Johnson writes next. READ THIS BOOK.

Stay safe and socially distant, wash your hands, and wear a mask. We'll get through this together.