Friday 5ive- August 5, 2022

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly post featuring five things that caught my attention this week. It really is the Dog Days of Summer, this heat is crazy, even for August.

1) The Beach Club Book Club had our annual meeting at the beach club of one of our members. We read Adriana Trigiani's epic family novel, The Good Left Undone, and had a lovely luncheon. Our discussion of the book led us to talk about our own families, and the things we don't know about them but would like to.  Matelda, the protagonist of the novel, would have been pleased with us as one of the best quotes from the book is "Families are only as strong as their stories".  

Our host Kerry and her sister Kathy shared that their grandmother worked in vaudeville. She showed us photos and letters, and they even have a poster featuring their grandmother hanging on their wall. It was fascinating. We talked about the things our families have handed down, and many of those are family recipes, which we share in books, on printed tea towels, and wall hangings. Our desserts kept with the theme, with Italian cookies, cannolis and sfoglia (a nod to the Italian characters) and Scottish shortbread (in honor of Matelda's father, Scottish seaman John Lawrie McVicars).

Mary Beth printed two quotes from the book to inspire us, and she brought prosecco to toast to Matelda before we adjourned. Kerry even gave us each a lovely pin with our initials on it to commemorate Matelda's family business,  designing and creating jewelry. It was the perfect ending to another delightful Beach Club Book Club meeting.

Toasting to Matelda and Adriana Trigiani

Two of our favorite quotes from the book

Italian and Scottish-themed desserts

A jeweled initial pin was gifted to remember our discussion 

2)  As I was doing my laundry at 6:30am, it occured to me how much we depend on our phones for everything. The laundry room in our building now has an app (Hercules Mobile) that allows you to pay for your laundry without having to use a laundry card. You can start the washer and dryer with the app, refill the app with your credit card (and not have to worry if I have $20 in cash to refill the card), and the app will notify your phone when your laundry is done. It is also supposed to give a room status update so you can know if there any machines available for use, but this has not been working as of late. 

And speaking of a card I no longer need, you can use your phone to pay for subway rides. Every subway station now has Omni pay, so you can open your Apple wallet or credit card and tap and pay for your rides. This is all very convenient, as I hate digging around for cards in my wallet. However if I lose my phone, well I guess I won't be able to do laundry or go anywhere. 

When the app works, this is a great feature

3) I saw on our local news this morning that certain branches of the New York Public Library will be having a Dance Party on Saturday, August 6th. The Webster branch where the bookstore I volunteer is located is not on this list, however we at the Book Cellar will be having an all-day Dance Party while we sell books. Shall it be Disco, 70s, or 80s music tomorrow?

4)  I binge watched all eight episodes of the wonderful Uncoupled  on Netflix this week. Neil Patrick Harris is amazing as an almost-50 year old gay man who, on the night he throws a huge surprise 50th birthday party for his boyfriend of 17 years, discovers his boyfriend has moved out of their apartment. He is completely shell-shocked and turns to his friends (the fantastic Brooks Ashmanskas as an artgallery owner, Marcia Gay Harden as an Upper East Side divorcee, and Tisha Campell as his partner at a real estate firm) for help. Now that he is back in the dating scene, he finds it's a different story now that he is not in his twenties. If you liked Sex and the City, you'll love this. (It's created by Darren Star who did SATC.) It's poignant and funny and the New York setting is breathtaking. 

5) It was another busy week, but I managed to I read two books. Katie Gutierrez's novel, More Than You'll Ever Know, is one that true crime fans will want to read. Cassie writes about true crime for a website, something that she wishes paid better. When she comes across a newspaper story about a woman who was married to two men at the same time- one in Laredo, Texas, one in Mexico City- and one of the husbands killed the other one nearly thirty years ago, she wants to find out more. Lore was married to Fabian and they have twin sons. Lore has a good job at a bank, and she travels to Mexico for work frequently. Fabian's decorative ironwork business runs into problems as a recession decimates his business. He moves from Laredo to Austin to try and save the business while Lore remains home with their teenage sons. When she meets Andres in Mexico City, she is entranced by him and falls in love. How she ends up married to two men at the same time intrigues Cassie who manages to get Lore to agree to tell her story so Cassie can write a book about her. Gutierrez writes a compelling story, and she puts the reader inside the heads of these two intriguing women. It's a fascinating character study as well as a mystery, and the truth of what exactly happened the night of the murder consumes Cassie, as well as the reader. See if you can guess the ending. (Bonus- you'll be able to practice your high school Spanish.)

Jean Meltzer's new novel, Mr. Perfect on Paper, tells the story of Dana Rabinowitz, a third generation matchmaker. She updates her family's business when she creates the succcessful J-Mate, an app for Jewish people looking for a marriage mate. Dara has General Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and one of the only things that calms her is listening to a police and fire scanner app. When Dara and her bubbe (grandmother), 90 year-old Miriam, appear on Good News, a national afternoon show with a small audience, Miriam embarasses Dara by sharing a list Dara made called Mr. Perfect on Paper.  The list is an extremely detailed description of the perfect man for Dara. Their segment goes viral much to Dara's dismay. The host of Good News, handsome single dad Chris Steadfast, decides that the only way to keep his show from being cancelled is to set Dara up on dates to find Mr. Perfect. Dara reluctantly agrees, knowing the publicity will help her company. Dara dealing with her GAD elevates this romantic novel, and as someone who isn't very familiar with Judiasm, I appreciated learning about the history and culture. (I also liked Meltzer's first novel, The Matzah Ball.) My full review posts on Tuesday.

Have a safe, healthy, cool week. Don't forget, you can support independent bookstores (including the Book Cellar) by buying books on Bookshop.org.

You can find this post and other food-related posts on Weekend Cooking at The Adventures of An Intrepid Reader.  

A Look At Fall Non-Fiction

Reprinted from the Citizen: 

Last month’s Book Report covered the great fall fiction books that were publishing. This month’s column will focus on nonfiction releases for those who prefer a dose of reality.

Funny seems to the be the tone this fall as several people best known for their humor have written memoirs. At the Book Expo America (BEA) in New York City this past May, four funny people appeared there to amuse the crowd with a taste of their books.

Neil Patrick Harris takes a unique approach in his memoir “Choose Your Own Autobiography”. His book is based on the series of children’s books, “Choose Your Own Adventure”, popular in the 1980s. At the end of each chapter of Harris’ life story, you can choose what you think should happen next, and then turn to the appropriate page.

I read a sample chapter at BEA, and it’s very funny and makes his book standout in a crowded field, with Harris’ goofy sense of humor on good display. The book publishes October 14^th, and you can read an excerpt at http://nphbook.com. 

Martin Short made two appearances at BEA, and he stole the show from his panel cohorts. Short’s memoir “I Must Say- My Life As A Humble Comedy Legend” covers his five-decade career, starting with SCTV, through Saturday Night Live, in movies like “The Three Amigos” and “Father of The Bride”, as well as his personal life, filled with way too much loss. Short is a comic genius and this book is sure to be brilliant. It publishes on November 4th.

Martin Short

One of Short’s costars on “SCTV” was Andrea Martin, who has created a new career as a Tony-winning actress (“Pippin”). Her memoir “Lady Parts” published a few weeks ago and is getting rave reviews. Told in a series of essays, Martin covers her career on TV and in film (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), famous people she has worked with, motherhood, relationships, and chimps in tutus, as only she can.

Andrea Martin

Short also appeared in discussion at BEA with actress/comedienne Amy Poehler, whose book “Yes, Please” promises to continue in the successful vein of books by Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling.  

Her book is billed as a collection of “stories, thoughts, ideas, lists and haikus” from her days growing up in Boston, working on “Saturday Night Live”, in Hollywood and being a mom to two little boys. It publishes on October 28^th, , and many people are excited about this one. 

Amy Poehler

Actress/Writer/Director Lena Dunham of HBO’s “Girls” appeared at BEA to talk about her upcoming book “Not That Kind of Girl” and she had the crowd in the palm of her hand as she discussed her book.  She is smart, funny, fearless and very outspoken. Her book of essays published last week, and you can find more information at http://lenadunham.com. 

On the serious side, there are some standouts as well. Jeff Hobbs’ book “The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace” tells the story of a young African-American man raised in crime-ridden Newark who ends up at Yale University.

His father was in prison, his mother brought him to the library, and the dichotomy of that life continued to haunt him as he got an academic scholarship to Yale, but once he got there, became one of the biggest drug dealers on campus.

Hobbs was Peace’s roommate, and his book explores the difficulty of trying to live a decent life in America. It touches on motherhood, crime, race, class, education, family and friendship. It has garnered great praise from many reviewers. 

Robert Peace

“A Deadly Wandering”, by Pulitzer Prize winner Matt Rictel, discusses the dangers and the science behind inattention as it relates to texting-while-driving. He examines it through the case of Reggie Shaw, a Utah college student who kills two scientists on their way to work.

The crash not only killed two men, but it destroyed Shaw as well. Rictel takes us through the accident, the investigation, the trial, and finally, the redemption of Shaw, who goes on an obsessive series of speeches across the country to prevent this tragedy from happening again. This is a tough but fantastic read.

A Deadly Wandering

And finally, Syracuse University basketball coach Jim Boeheim’s book “Bleeding Orange- 50 Years of Blind Referees, Screaming Fans, Beasts of the East and Syracuse Orange”, written with Jack McCallum, publishes November 4^th. A book signing with Boeheim will be held at Downtown Books & Coffee in Auburn on November 13^th at 7pm. Be sure to get a signed copy for the basketball fan in your life. More info can be found at http://downtownbooksandcoffee.com.

Jim Boeheim