Friday 5ive- June 5, 2020

Welcome to the Friday 5ive, a blog post about five things that caught my attention this week. This week seems like a year, doesn't it? New York City has dealt with COVID, and we seem to be on the back side of it thank goodness. This week has seen daily peaceful protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers, and looting and mayhem at night by people taking advantage of a horrible situation. Now NYC is under a nightly curfew. Things seem to be calmer as the week moves on.

1) Every week I purchase a book online from an independent bookstore- I've bought books from Books Are Magic and The BookMark Shoppe in Brooklyn, Astoria Book Shop in Queens, Book Revue on Long Island, The Rivers' End Bookstore in Oswego, and Oblong Books and Music in Rhinebeck. This week I bought a book from The Lit.Bar, a black-owned bookstore in the Bronx. If you want to do something constructive, make a purchase from a black-owned bookstore, restaurant or business. It's a simple way to show your support. BuzzFeed put together a list here.


2)  My husband and I stopped at this little deli in Port Ewen to get some sandwiches for lunch. It's such a cute shop, like something you'd see in Mayberry. They have delicious sandwiches, and one entire wall is covered with a list of their specialty sandwiches, like The Dugout, The Texan, and High 5. They have a comic book rack and a baseball card display. I haven't seen one of those in years. I also saw a two hams sitting in the back, fresh out of the oven and ready to be sliced. If you ever find yourself in Port Ewen in the Hudson Valley, stop in.

Sandwich Wall

Comic Book Rack

Baseball Card Display

3)  Now that the weather has turned warm, restaurants in our neighborhood are setting up tables just inside their doors and selling adult beverages to go. Oda House, a Georgian (Russia, not US) restaurant up the street from us just set up a table to sell drinks and dumplings to go. It's sort of like a street fair atmosphere.

4)  My friend Kelly told me about a virtual bike race, Summer Around the Finger Lakes. You can virtually ride, walk or paddle your way around the 11 Finger Lakes in or around your home, and eventually you will build up enough miles to go around all the lakes. You submit your results from June 1- September 30, and you get a medal for each lake you traverse. My two sons and I signed up, and we now when we ride our Peletons, we get credit for the rides. So far it's been a blast, and I've recruited my nieces too. 

5) I finished two books this week- Molly Fader's The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season (my review is here) and Kimberly Belle's Stranger in the Lake (my review here. The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season is about a young woman who brings her daughter to her aunt's cherry orchard in Michigan, on the run from someone. Aunt Peg has a secret too, and it's a wonderful book about family, and a balm to escape these troubled weeks. 

Anyone who liked The Girl on the Train and Gone Girl will want to put Stranger in the Lake on their summer reading list. A young woman discovers a dead body drowned under the dock near her and her husband's home, in the same spot where his first wife drowned four years ago. Is her husband a killer? 

I just started Britt Bennett's The Vanishing Half, about two light-skinned black twin sisters who leave their small town home in Louisiana in 1954. One sister leaves her sister behind to start her own life living as a white woman, and the other returns home with a daughter. I am tearing through this book, it is so fantastic and beautifully written. I can't wait to finish it. 

I hope you all stay safe and healthy.

The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader

The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader
Published by Graydon House ISBN 9781525804557
Trade paperback, $17.99, 320 pages

Sometimes you read a book and the characters and storyline just touch your heart. Molly Fader's newest novel, The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season, is one of those.

As the novel opens, Hope is on the run with her 10 year-old daughter Tink, who refuses to speak. We know that something bad happened because Hope is hiding a black eye behind her sunglasses. She arrives unannounced at the orchard home of her late mother's sister Peg very late in the evening.

Peg greets the car that has pulled onto her property with her shotgun. She has no idea that Hope is coming. Peg is a taciturn, closed off woman. It's been many years since she has seen Hope, so long ago that Hope doesn't remember ever visiting.

Peg feeds Hope and Tink, and puts them up in her farmhouse. She can see that something happened to Hope, but she doesn't push Hope to tell her.  Having Hope show up has undone something in Peg. It's clear that she too has a secret that she is hiding, something to do with the time that Hope was at her home years ago.

It's cherry season, so Peg has Hope and Tink help her harvest the cherries, along with Abel, a young man who left the army, came home and bought some of Peg's land. Abel suffered from PTSD and recognizes some of those same symptoms in Hope. He begins to have feelings for Hope, and enjoys Tink's company too.

As the four work together in the orchard, slowly Hope begins to trust Peg and Abel, and opens up a little about her reason for running. She also learns more about her mother's past life, things that may be painful for her and for Peg.

I loved watching Hope's journey to build something for her and Tink, and I found life on Peg's farm so interesting. But it is Peg who really stole my heart. She made a decision years ago that cost her everything she loved, and to see her open her heart back up was so rewarding.

When the world outside can seem so overwhelming, a book like The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season can bring much needed comfort. I highly recommend it, and if you like cherries (I do!), there are a few cherry recipes at the end to try. (The Chocolate Cherry Brioche is calling my name.)

Thanks to Harlequin for putting me on their Summer Reads Blog Tour.