Friday 5ive- May 19, 2023

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

1) Mother's Day was Sunday, I hope you all had a lovely day. We had dinner at my son and daughter-in-law's, and my charming and talented daughter-in-law made us a delicious dinner that is a family favorite from way back- Mr. Food's Oregano Chicken. I put the recipe in a cookbook that I gave both our sons for Christmas one year and it makes me happy to know that they use it. I hope it makes them smile as much as I did when I wrote it. I also received some beautiful flowers with a very heartfelt card with meaningful sentiments that I will keep forever. All in all, a great way Mother's Day!

2) I am a big Bruce Springsteen fan and a Peloton rider so I was excited to take my favorite instructor Jenn Sherman's Bruce Springsteen series 45 minute ride. The playlist was fantastic- No Surrender, Thunder Road, Tenth Avenue Freezeout and  Hungry Heart were the highlights- and the energy and enthusiasm of the riders and Jenn made this ride a bookmarked one for me. I will be taking this one frequently. 

3) I enjoy listening to the Smartless podcast hosted by Will Arnett, Jason Bateman, and Sean Hayes. The three friends are hilarious and they have interesting guests. This week it was Paul Anka, who happens to be Jason Bateman's father-in-law. Anka was fascinating as he recalled his 60+ year career beginning when he had his first hit song at the age of 15- "Diana". He told stories about his days of hanging the 40 year-old Rat Packers- Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.- when he just a teenager. Anka also introduced the Beatles to their soon-to-be American managers in the early 1960s after he saw them perform in Europe when he lived in Italy. It was a great discussion and if you want to hear all about the early days of the Vegas mob, find this podcast and downoad it. 

4) I watched the Hulu documentary about Brooke Shields titled Pretty Baby. Brooke Shields has been part of the American consciousness since the 1970s and this documentary was so well done. The title comes from the controversial movie of the same name featuring a 12 year-old Brooke playing a young girl works as a prostitute in 1917 New Orleans. It goes through her entire career- the ups and downs, like her Calvin Klein ad (also controversial), the movies like Endless Love and Blue Lagoon and her TV show Suddenly Susan. Her personal life kept her in the news as well- attending college at Princeton, her relationship with Michael Jackson, her stormy marriage to tennis superstar Andre Agassi- for her entire life. It is her relationship with her single mother Terri that drives her life. Terri was the ultimate stage mother, driving Brooke's career. Terri was also an alcoholic, and Brooke is brutally honest about what that was like. She loved her mother, but they had a complicated relationship. Seeing how people, mostly men, used this woman from a very early age, is something to be reckoned with as a society. It's a thought-provoking and heartbreaking documentary and I found it powerful. 

5) I've been looking forward to reading J. Ryan Stradal's new book, Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club and I happily dug in this week. Stradal sets his books (Great Kitchens of the Midwest, The Lager Queen of Minnesota) in Minnesota, and that alone makes his books unique. This begins with Betty dragging her young daughter Florence from one unfortunate living situation to another. When they meet a kind man named Floyd in a coffee shop, he offers them a place to live and a job on the property where he owns a supper club in a small town. Betty takes to the club and Floyd right away. Young Florence befriends Archie, who lives in another small cabin on the property, and spends her evenings playing cards with Floyd and Archie. Floyd marries Betty, and as Florence grows up she works at the supper club and sees her dreams for her life slipping away. I found the concept of the supper clubs so interesting. The supper club is the hub of small towns and Saturday is the night when everyone goes there for dinner. The book spans four generations of women in Betty's family, and what they owe themselves and their family forms the basis for this wonderful book that I tried to savor as long as I could as I didn't want it to end. I highly recommend it. 

Have a  safe, happy week. Until next time.

Friday 5ive- September 4, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a weekly blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. I can't believe that it is September already, and yet this year seems to have lasted about five years. Does that make sense?

1)  While we were upstate, we ate at a fantastic Mexican restaurant, Armadillo, in Kingston NY. I had a frozen margarita, which was frosty cold and refreshing. For my entree, I chose the Taco Platter special, which is two tacos (I chose chicken) and a delicious side of refried black beans and rice. It was some of the best Mexican food I've had, and I highly recommend it. They space their tables more than socially distant,a nd they have a Taco Trailer in the parking lot for atmosphere. If you find yourself up that way, make this a stop. 

2)  Like the rest of the world, I was shocked and saddened by the death of actor Chadwick Boseman. He died at the age of 43 of colon cancer, which he had for four years, and his loss affected so many people, especially young children who saw him as their first Black superhero on screen in Black Panther. I first saw him as Jackie Robinson in 42, which the Paramount channel showed on Monday night. It's such a powerful performance that led him to stardom. 

3) I found a new podcast that I'm enjoying, it's called Smartless, hosted by friends Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes, three very funny actors. Each week, one of the three invites a guest who is a surprise to the other two and they have a free-wheeling discussion. There are seven episodes up so far, with people like Kamala Harris, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and my favorite so far, Melissa McCarthy. It's funny, irreverent and relevant. 

4)  This week BookReporter.com celebrated its 24th anniversary with a special Zoom featuring nine of their fantastic team of book reviewers talking about the books they loved most. It was an interesting discussion led by Carol Fitzgerald, the founder of Book Reporter. You can watch it on YouTube, and if you don't get their weekly newsletter on Fridays, you don't know what you're missing. 

5) I got in lots of reading this week. Ella Berman's novel, The Comeback, is about a young actress whose life has been destroyed by the man who was her mentor. It's a very strong first person narration, and it was a Read With Jenna pick for August. 

Historical fiction fans will love Jennie Fields' Atomic Love, about a female scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project and three years later is asked by the FBI to spy on her former lover, a fellow scientist they believe is a Russian spy. I could not put this one down. 

In addition to being a fantastic mystery writer, Laura Lippman writes wonderful essays, and she has a new book out, My Life As A Villainess, filled with her smart, crisp essays about life as an older mother, her first job as a reporter in Waco, Texas, and how the first few hundred pages of the seminal TV show, The Wire, ended up on her computer. (PS- she's great on Twitter too.)

Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets team up for a romance novel, Chance of A Lifetime, that's The Good Place meets Outlander, about Liam, an Irish thief from 1844 who falls in love with Cora, the daughter of a wealthy man. Cut to present day when Liam is summoned by two angels to return to Earth to help Cora fall in love with Finn, the man she was fated to be with in 1844 when Liam came along and messed up the plan. Cora has lived many lives since 1844, but she has never fallen in love with Finn, which is her destiny. Can Liam fix this? It's the first book in a new series, Providence Falls. My full review publishes on September 14th. 

Stay safe, socially distant, wear a mask and wash your hands everyone. We'll see you next week.