Friday 5ive- June 16, 2023

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

1)  Monday evening I attended a book talk with Fiona Davis in conversation with Susie Orman Schnall at Rizzoli Bookstore. Fiona was there to launch the publication of her newest historical fiction 

The Spectacular. The book is set in 1956 New York City at Radio City Music Hall. Marion is a young dancer who becomes one of the famous Rockettes. She teams up with a psychiatrist who is helping the police in their search for the Big Apple Bomber. Fiona Davis has carved out an interesting niche for herself- she sets her novels in famous New York City buildings. (The Lions of Fifth Avenue was set in the New York Public Library main branch, Magnolia Palace was set in the Frick Museum.) She does an incredible amount of research for her novels, and for this one she interviewed Rockettes from the 1950s, two of whom were sitting in the audience. The discussion was fascinating and now I can't wait to read The Spectacular. (Side note- I got to meet Amy Poeppel, who is one of my most favorite authors, and tell her how much I love her books. The Sweet Spot is her current novel, and Limelight is my favorite. Do yourself a favor and read all of her books. They are full of humor and heart, and she was as lovely as I hoped she'd be.) 

Susie Orman Shnall and Fiona Davis

2) I continued my Tony Award-winning shows roundup with Good Night, Oscar. Sean Hayes (of the TV show Will & Grace and the podcast Smartless) won the Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play on Sunday. He portrays Oscar Levant, a raconteur and brilliant classical composer and pianist, who made frequent appearances on the Tonight Show with Jack Paar in the 1950s and 60s. He also had a serious mental illness. In the play, Oscar's wife June helps his "escape" from the hospital where she had him committed to make an appearance with Jack Paar on The Tonight Show. Oscar is accompanied by an unwitting orderly who did not know where they were going, and Jack Paar did not know Oscar was in the hospital. I did not even recognize Sean Hayes, he looks so different and his voice was unrecognizeable. He becomes Oscar Levant before our very eyes. The show is filled with Levant's witticisms and cutting remarks that had the audience laughing out loud. The show ends with Hayes playing George Gershwin's jazz/classical masterpiece Rhapsody in Blue, a 7 1/2 minute song. It is as if Hayes was possessed by Levan's spirit as he plays and the audience jumped to their feet in applause when he finished. It is a virtuoso performance, one of the best I've seen and Hayes clearly deserved that Tony Award. The show is a limited run, so if you get to NYC soon, go see this one. 

Good Night, Oscar set

3) I made fried eggs for breakfast the other morning, and two of the eggs had double yolks. Is that like seeing two double rainbows? Should I have played the lottery that day?

4)  Speaking of Fiona Davis, she was a guest on Adriana Trigiani's Adriana Ink Facebook Live this week, talking about The Spectacular so if you didn't make it to Rizzoli, you can still hear Fiona speak about her book. Helen Ellis, another of my favorite authors, was on as well that day talking about her book, Kiss Me in the Coral Lounge: Intimate Confessions of a Happy Marriage  which I cannot stop
raving about. I was so happy to get my copy of the book this week so I can re-read it and read all the hilarious parts out loud to my husband. You can listen to the discussion here, and there are seven more (!) authors on that day's chat. 

5) I read a delightful novel this week- Matthew Norman's Charm City Rocks. Set in Baltimore, Billy is a single dad to high school senior Caleb, whom he shares custody with his former girlfriend Robyn. Billy teaches music to young people and lives over  Charm City Rocks, a music store. As he and Caleb watch a documentary on rock and roll of the 1990s, he admits to a crush on Margot, drummer for a popular all-female band who scored big and then imploded on live TV. Caleb does something crazy that brings Margot to Baltimore in the hopes that his Dad will tell Margot of his crush. Things don't go as planned. The story is wonderful, and the characters are good people. I always enjoy Matthew Norman's novels, going back to his debut Domestic Violets because his characters are so interesting and his books have heart and humor. My favorite scene is the car scene with Robyn and Lawson, Margot's former movie star husband. That scene was fabulous! If you liked Taylor Jenkins Reid's Daisy Jones & the Six, but wished it was a little lighter, you'll love Charm City Rocks. 

Have a safe and healthy week, and Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there. I know a lot of them!

Friday 5ive- April 29, 2022

The Friday 5ive is back after a long hiatus. I've been away on Fridays for awhile so I have a lot to cover.

1)  I had a big birthday earlier this month, and the celebrations went on for a long time and all were lovely. My kids came over for dinner, and my husband ordered a fabulous chocolate peanut butter cake from 

We Take the Cake, bakery in Miami. He said he knew I secretly loved chocolate and peanut butter, but that is not a well-kept secret- everyone who knows me is aware of that. We all loved the cake, it tasted just like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. The next night we went to dinner at Ocean's Prime and I ordered the Deviled Eggs with Caviar on top. They were delicious, and I graciously shared them with my sons and husband. 

2)  Monday night I was awakened at 3am by loud explosions. It sounded like fireworks right outside my window, and when I opened the window blinds, that is exactly what I saw. It only lasted a few minutes, and the fireworks didn't travel very high, not even above the high rise across the street. There was a lot of chatter on the Nextdoor Neighbors website, with people not believing it was fireworks, but I saw it with my own eyes, and the next day my friend sent me a photo from the street that confirmed it. So there.

3) I am so glad that in-person book events are back! On  Monday night, Adriana Trigiani was in conversation with the charming Willie Geist talking about her fabulous new novel, The Good Left Undone, at the gorgeous Rizzoli Bookstore. (My rave review of the book is here.) Willie Geist started off by saying that interviewing Adriana is like lighting the fuse on a firework- just light it and she's off. (I wonder if Willie has an alibi for later that night....) The standing room-only crowd enjoyed hearing about the wedding that Adriana crashed in Scotland that led her to write the fictional story of the Cabrelli family in Tuscany. The Cabrellis have been gem cutters and designers for generations, and Trigiani told of taking a gemology class at Christie's auction house in New York that helped with her research. 

Adriana covered a lot of ground in this freewheeling discussion and we learned so many fun facts, such as 

1) Adriana had a mad crush on Orson Wells

2) St. Bernard of Clairvaux was not a handsome man

3) Adriana didn't know you could buy Sweet & Low in a store. Her grandmother would take the packets from the restaurant tables and put them in her purse. Her grandmother passed away in 1987 and they still have Sweet & Low packets from her stash.

4) Elizabeth Taylor had size 11 shoes. You never saw her feet in any of her movies.

Yes, the evening was filled with laughs, fascinating information about the creation of The Good Left Undone, and it was so great to see so many people I haven't seen in a long time. It was like the good old days. I even got to meet author Jane L. Rosen, whose terrific novel Eliza Starts A Rumor I sent as Christmas gifts two years ago. I'm looking forward to reading her upcoming novel, A Shoe Story, publishing in June. I can't wait to go to more in-person book events in the future. 

4)  I binge-watched season two of Bridgerton on Netflix, and I have to agree with my friends- season two was better than season one! Season one was all about the sexy with the Duke and Daphne, and season two was about the slow burn romance between Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma. We watched with bated breath as Anthony and Kate fought their mutual attraction as Anthony was to marry Kate's younger sister. Once again we had gorgeous costumes and jewelry (those tiaras!), beautiful scenery, and Queen Charlotte. I love how they deepened the family relationships, we really got to know the Bridgerton family and their friends and frienemies. I can't wait for season three. 

5)  I've read some terrific books. The first one is a true crime book, which is not a genre I normally read. Kathryn Miles' Trailed, about her investigation into the murders of two young women in Shenandoah National Park in 1996 had me riveted. Miles takes us through the missteps into the investigation, the arrest of a suspect whom she doesn't believe is guilty, and the lives of the two young women cut short by a brutal act. My full review is here. 

Jessica Anya Blau's novel, Mary Jane, comes out in paperback, and I loved this one. Mary Jane lives a sheltered life with her straightlaced parents in 1970s Baltimore. Mary Jane doesn't have many friends, sings in the church choir, and helps her mother cook dinner in order to learn how to be a good housewife. She gets a summer job babysitting for the precocious child of their neighbors, who are decidedly more progressive in their lifestyle. They wander around the house nearly naked, and don't cook meals for their daughter, subsisting on fast food and cereal. When a rock star and his famous singer/actress wife come to stay to be treated in secret by the father, a psychiatrist, Mary Jane is mesmerized by everything going on this household. Blau absolutely nails what it feels like to be a fourteen year-old girl in this wonderful novel, a perfect summer read. 

Next week, I'll share my visit to Boston. Stay safe and healthy all!