The Friday 5ive- June 7, 2019 Edition

Last week there was no Friday 5ive- I attended the Book Expo at the Javits Center in NYC (I'll have some upcoming posts on that next week). But I'm back this week with five things that caught my attention.

Just Ask

1) Book Expo is an annual conference for book publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors, bloggers and more. It's a lot of fun catching up with friends and seeing what's coming up in the world of books. This year the main speaker was Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who spoke about her children's book Just Ask: Be Different, Be Brave, Be You, illustrated by Rafael Lopez, who interviewed her. She likes to walk through the audience, touching people on the shoulder and I was one of the lucky ones- she held my hand! Her talk was inspiring and moving, and she is quite funny too.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor at Book Expo- Photo by Steve Kagan

2) On Saturday, my daughter-in-law's parents were visiting from Catalonia, and we took them up to Woodstock, a little town in upstate New York. (Yes, the famous 1969 music festival was named after the town even though it was held in nearby Bethel.) We had a lovely lunch at Shindig, recommended by my sister-in-law, and then we walked up and down the main street. There's lots to look at in town, so many interesting people and signs. We hit up the weekend Flea Market where my son scored a pristine copy of Bruce Springsteen's album Born in the USA, which is 35 years old this week. (Yikes, that makes me old, I remember going to see him in concert in Buffalo for that album.)

A birdhouse in front of a B&B in Woodstock

The Blues Brothers guarding the entrance to a shop in Woodstock

3) On Tuesday I attended a Lifetime TV Book Club discussion for their initial movie in their Books to Screen series, Adriana Trigiani's Very Valentine. We got to see a screening of the movie, and the star of the movie Kelen Coleman made a surprise appearance! She is so lovely, very down-to-earth and funny. She is exactly who I pictured as Valentine Roncalli. The book discussion was aired as a Facebook Live and you can see it below. Adriana Trigiani was the perfect host for the discusssion and she was hilarious as always. We had a delicious lunch with desserts made by Rossella Rago from Cooking With Nonna. Her ricotta cookies were fabulous. Don't miss Very Valentine 's premiere Saturday, June 8th at 8pm on Lifetime, the movie is wonderful, with great performances- and Jacqueline Bissett is Teodora. It's got romance, beautiful scenery, laughs, a few tears, and it's just heartwarming. 

Adriana Trigiani, Rossella Rago, Kelen Coleman

4) Billions is winding up its current season on Showtime, and I liked this season much better than last year. You never  know where it is going, and the writing is superb. Damien Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Maggie Siff, Asia Kate Dillon, and my favorite, David Costabile, are all amazing in their roles. My husband and I are happy that Below Deck- Mediterranean in back on Bravo. It's a reality show about the crew of a luxury yacht and we so enjoy watching how a ship like that operates. Captain Sandy is not taking any nonsense this season, and Chef Mila seems to be struggling in episode one (did she really microwave the steaks????).

5) I didn't have much time for reading this week- I re-read Very Valentine for the book club discussion, and I had forgotten how much I love this book. It was one of the first books I reviewed when I started my blog ten years ago. (Has it been ten years already?) I'm also halfway through The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames. It's the story of young woman (Stella) who grows up in Italy and moves to Hartford, Connecticut just as WWII breaks out. During her lifetime she has come close to death seven or eight times. It's intriguing so far, and you learn a lot about life in rural Italy in the 1930s.

Stella Fortuna

I hope you had a great week and enjoy the weekend!

Very Valentine- Lifetime Original Movie Tie-In Paperback With Recipes

This post is part of Beth Fish Reads' Weekend Cooking.  If you have anything related to food, cookbook reviews, novel or non-fiction book reviews, recipes, movie reviews, etc., head over to Beth Fish Reads and add your post. Or, if you want to read food related posts, head over to read what some interesting people have to say about food.

As someone who likes to read and who likes to cook, a novel that has great food references makes me happy. If there are recipes from the book at the end of the novel, I'm overjoyed.

To celebrate the premiere of the Lifetime Original Movie- Adriana Trigiani's Very Valentine, (mark your calendar for this coming Saturday, June 8th at 8pm!),the novel has been reissued, containing recipes from the Roncalli family and a bonus chapter from Trigiani's Tony's Wife.

One of my favorite things about the books in the Valentine's series is the holiday family gathering scenes. In Very Valentine, the raucous Roncalli family celebrates their traditional Christmas Eve together, and it reminds me so much of my own family holiday celebrations, with all the laughter and craziness.

There are several recipes in the book that I'm going to try, including Carol d'Amico Vechiarelli's Pork and Onions, which will pair well with Angela Anness Tomasko's Sweet Potatoes with Truffles. Add Teodoro's Limocello during cocktail hour and we've got a fabulous Friday dinner.

I've always said that the Valentine series would make a great movie, as every sense is engaged as you read the books. You can smell and taste the food, and see the gorgeous wedding shoes that Valentine and her grandmother design. Trigiani also brings alive the sights and sounds of New York City and Italy. I'm going to Italy this summer, and I will be re-reading the Valentine series before I go. I can't wait to see Valentine and her story come alive on Lifetime this Saturday.


For more information on the movie, check out Adriana Trigiani's Facebook page.

This is my review of Very Valentine, the novel.

The Friday 5ive- May 24, 2019 Edition

The Friday 5ive

This week's Friday 5ive takes us into Memorial Day weekend, and that means summer is right around the corner. These are the five things that caught my attention this week.

1) I finished one series on Netflix- Ricky Gervais' After Life, which I really liked. He plays a widower who cannot get over his grief of losing his wife. He's hostile to everyone but his young nephew George and his dog. It's six episodes and the last one is so beautifully done, but I wonder what season two will hold.
I started Dead to Me on Netflix, starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as two young widows who meet in a grief support group. (There appears to be a recurring theme here....) Christina's husband died in a hit and run, and she is obsessed with finding his killer. She is earning critical acclaim for her portrayal. I think Linda Cardellini deserves praise as well, and the secrets that are slowly revealed are whoppers. 

2) While running errands, I came across this 'Chicken Bus NY' parked on a side street. I have never seen it before, but there was a group of young women, maybe college aged, who were taking their photo in front it. Apparently it's party bus that you can rent, and if you are interested, the link to it is here.

3) I went to hear actress Kate Mulgrew speak about her newest memoir, How to Forget, about the life and deaths of her mother and father. It's brilliant, honest and emotional, and I loved this book. She read two powerful pieces from the book- one about the time her father drove her to an audition when she was fourteen, and another about a neighborhood walk she took with her mother when her mother was suffering from Alzheimer's. This one is a must-read.

4) Lifetime TV channel is beginning a Books to Screen series of movies, and the first one is an adaptation of Adriana Trigiani's fabulous Very Valentine. They are starting a national book club ahead of the movie where we can all read the book together before the movie premieres on Lifetime on Saturday, June 8th.  The first trailer for the movie looks so wonderful, and Jacqueline Bissett as Grandma is perfection. I can't wait! You can join the National Book Club here. 

5) I started and finished Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok, the story of Amy who leaves her home in New York City (where she lives with her parents) to search for her missing sister in the Netherlands. We hear the story from Amy, missing sister Sylvie, and their mother's perspective. There's a lot of family secrets going on here, and the mystery does eventually get solved. The book is on many lists of the best books of summer and deservedly so.

I'm in the middle of Mary Beth Keane's newest book, Ask Again, Yes about two NYC police officers who live next door to each other, and their son and daughter who have a relationship. I adored Keane's first two novels, The Walking People, about the men who built the NYC subways, and Fever, the fictionalized story of the woman known as Typhoid Mary, and Ask Again, Yes is shaping up to be her best one yet. This one is also on many best of the summer books lists for good reason.

Have an enjoyable holiday weekend!

The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani

The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani
Published by Harper Collins ISBN 9780062136589
Hardcover, $25.99, 352 pages

Although you may not know it from the title, The Supreme Macaroni Company by Adriana Trigiani is the third book in the saga of Valentine Roncalli, following Brava, Valentine and Very Valentine. We pick up our story on Christmas Eve as Valentine and her fiance Gianluca are headed to Christmas Eve with the raucous Roncalli family.

My favorite scene in all three books has been the family holiday dinner scene; it doesn't matter if it is Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve, these scenes are pure joy. Trigiani makes the reader feel like she is a guest, and you'll want to pull up a chair for this party.

There is Aunt Feen, who says everything that is on her mind, and that is not a good thing. When Valentine's father Dutch gets nervous, he confuses words to everyone's embarrassment. Her brother Charlie just lost his job and is getting roaring drunk. And just as Valentine has second thoughts about subjecting Gianluca to this,

"On cue, as dramatized in the biblical epics, the Israelites came pouring from out of the living room as they did during the parting of the Red Sea. In this sweet, small house, they appeared like a cast of thousands, except that unlike the people of peace, my family was arguing. They shouted. They shoved. They threw their hands in the air. "

Valentine is trying to have it all, but as most of us know, that is impossible to do all at the same time. Angelini Shoe Company, her shoe design and manufacturing business, is going great guns, until her cousin who owns the manufacturing plant in Argentina that makes her shoes decides to close her plant.

And so Valentine has to find another manufacturer, not an easy task for her labor intensive shoe creations. Thus the title of the book comes into play. The Supreme Macaroni Company is an old closed plant in the midwest that could possibly be the answer for Angelini Shoes, and I particularly enjoyed this part of the novel.

Trigiani gives the reader a look at the challenges facing small business owners, the backbone of our American economy, and I liked that her family is so involved in saving the business begun by her grandfather.

And Valentine has to balance work with family life. Gianluca left his family back in Italy to move to New York with his fiancee. He sacrificed much to make his wife happy, and is seems as if Valentine is not appreciative of this.

The author laces this novel with her trademark humor, though the reader senses something tragic lay ahead. Soon Valentine has to dig deep within herself, and allow herself to rely on those surrounding her, to make it through.

Reading Trigiani's novels is like catching up with a good friend, and I always look forward to a new novel from her. Her characters are interesting and have a sense of reality about them; they could be your friends or family. (Who wouldn't want a best friend like Gabriel?)

These novels are a treat for all of your senses. You can see the beautiful shoes she designs in your mind's eye, and smell the delicious food being prepared for Christmas Eve. They are screaming out to be put up on the big (or little) screen.

I also must mention the cover of this book. Trigiani's last novel, The Shoemaker's Wife, featured a gorgeous book cover and The Supreme Macaroni Company follows in that vein with a beautifully rich cover. What is on the outside more than matches the inside of this lovely novel that will touch your heart. This is a book to give your sister, sister-in-law or girlfriend this holiday season.

rating 5 of 5

Thanks to TLC Tours for including me on this tour. The rest of Adriana Trigiani's tour can be found here.

Adriana’s Tour Stops

Monday, November 11th: Bloggin’ ‘Bout Books

Tuesday, November 12th: Hopelessly Devoted Bibliophile

Wednesday, November 13th: Becca’s Byline

Thursday, November 14th: Kritters Ramblings

Friday, November 15th: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers

Monday, November 18th: Svetlana’s Reads and Views

Tuesday, November 19th: Peeking Between the Pages

Thursday, November 21st: Always With a Book

Monday, November 25th: Broken Teepee

Tuesday, November 26th: bookchickdi

Wednesday, November 27th: Bibliophilia, Please

Friday, November 29th: Lesa’s Book Critiques

Monday, December 2nd: Book Addict Katie

Tuesday, December 3rd: Alison’s Book Marks

Wednesday, December 4th: Ageless Pages Reviews

Thursday, December 5th: Seaside Book Corner

Friday, December 6th: Lavish Bookshelf

Monday, December 9th: Joyfully Retired

Tuesday, December 10th: A Book Geek

Wednesday, December 11th: Love at First Book

Thursday, December 12th: A Chick Who Reads

Friday, December 13th: Books and Movies

Monday, December 16th: Read Lately

Tuesday, December 17th: Lisa’s Yarns

Wednesday, December 18th: Col Reads

Thursday, December 19th: Good Girl Gone Redneck

Friday, December 20th: Drey’s Library

Monday, December 30th: red headed book child

Wednesday, January 1st: The Lost Entwife

Wednesday, January 1st: Tiffany’s Bookshelf

Tuesday, January 2nd: Book-alicious Mama

Monday, January 6th: Reflections of a Bookaholic

Tuesday, January 7th: A Bookish Way of Life

Wednesday, January 8th: Time 2 Read

Wednesday, January 8th: Stephany Writes

Thursday, January 9th: Walking With Nora

Adriana Trigiani's website is here.
She is on Facebook here and Twitter here.

An evening with Adriana Trigiani

How does one describe attending a reading with author Adriana Trigiani? You can sense the moment she walks in the room, the air becomes vibrant, and you can hear her booming voice greeting the overflow audience.

Usually at a reading, someone from the bookstore reads a short bio about the author and introduces her. Adriana strides up to the podium, gushing over the bountiful bouquet of flowers on the desk, a gift from the founders of the Barnes & Noble chain, who were represented in the audience and introduced by Adriana. (I've been to many book signings, but I've never seen flowers given to the author by the store.)

She launches into a story about her father, stops and says, "You need to introduce me, right?" to the Barnes & Noble manager, which elicits a huge laugh from the crowd. She was off and running, and we clearly did not want to stop for an introduction now.

As people came into the room, Adriana would stop and acknowledge them "Nice beret, Elaine", "How you doin' Joe?", and as three young women came in, she exclaimed "How cute are you? Get in here!" She said that they were clearly Italian girls, and they took the time to blow out and style their hair, something that Adriana did not do herself, having done her hair once that day for an appearance on "The Today Show". Once you get to certain age, and you are married, you are not going to do your hair twice in one day.

Adriana joked about her looks, saying that on her mother's side of the family, everyone looked like Armand Assante, the handsome Latin actor, and on her father's side, they all looked like a cross between Louis Prima and BB King. She said it was obvious which side she favored.

As anyone who has read any of Adriana's books knows, family is a big topic for her; she has four sisters and two brothers. She likened her family to an octopus, connected by tentacles. She joked that it took her and her sisters 35 years to figure out that if they needed to give their mother bad news, they would have their brothers do it. Their mother thought that her sons walked on water, whereas the daughters were a repository of their mother's litany of aches, pains and complaints.

Jokes about marrying an Italian man elicited many laughs. She claims that it is not in an Italian man's DNA to be faithful, and that she did not want to spend her Saturdays ironing her husband's shirt so that he would have something nice to wear when he went out later that night with his girlfriend. She said that non-Italian men are so grateful when their wives cook them a meal, but Italian men expect it. It's much easier to please a non-Italian man. (Her husband is of Scottish decent, like Jack Mac from Big Stone Gap)

Her impression of Italian women saying with a sad sigh, "Where'm I gonna go?" when asked why they don't leave their straying husbands had all of the room in stitches. I'm still laughing about it today.

Adriana told stories about her friends in the audience- an older couple who were the first people to be married at Leonard's, the reception facility featured prominently in the delightful first scene of Very Valentine, a hilarious story about her tough negotiator of an agent, which involved a phone call her agent made to a man that referred to her taking a part of his male anatomy "putting them in a ziploc bag and placing the bag on her desk", and then inviting an audience member she had met at a previous book signing to come and tell how Adriana ended up taking her and her entire family to lunch when they didn't win a contest to have lunch with Adriana.

In the Q/A section of the event, movies were a big topic. Adriana is set to direct a big screen adaptation of her Big Stone Gap novel, with Ashley Judd to play Ave Maria. The big scoop is that Very Valentine has been optioned by Lifetime TV as a movie, and although they changed the ending of the novel, I am so excited to see this movie. I can't wait to see how gorgeous the Angelini shoes look!

The funniest comment of the night came when an older woman in the audience told Adriana that she'd be "so pretty if she just fixed her hair". It was if she was channeling Adriana's grandmother!

Her readers mean a lot to Adriana. Not only does she personalize each book (and most people bought multiple books), she takes the time to speak with everyone in line. She makes a personal connection with each person, asking about family, telling people to call her, and you believe she really means it. When I told her who I was, she said that someone had sent her the review I had written for Brava, Valentine and how much she appreciated it.

If you have the chance to see Adriana in person, you MUST do it. I have not laughed so hard in a long time, and she makes everyone feel like an intimate friend. If you weren't one of her friends when you went into that room, you were definitely one when you left. If you haven't read Very Valentine or Brava, Valentine yet, go get both books. It's going to be a lousy weekend to go out, and a great weekend to stay in and read.

Her tour schedule is here: http://www.adrianatrigiani.com/dates.html

My review of Very Valentine, is here:
http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com/2009/05/love-italian-style-via-greenwich.html

I met Adriana last year at BEA:
http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com/2009/06/book-expo-of-america-part-1.html

A novel for fans of IT'S COMPLICATED and SEX & THE CITY

For full review in Auburn Citizen, click here.


With Valentine’s Day around the corner, what better way to celebrate than by curling up with a book titled BRAVA,VALENTINE by Adriana Trigiani?

The Valentine series tells the story of Valentine Roncalli, an unmarried over-30 something shoemaker who lives among her close-knit Italian family in New York City. BRAVA, VALENTINE begins right where the first novel,VERY VALENTINE left off- with Valentine’s widowed grandmother marrying the man of her dreams in beautiful Italy.

While in Italy, Valentine reunites with Gianluca, the older man she fell in love with on her last trip to Italy. Gianluca makes the leather that she uses to make her beautiful custom wedding shoes at Angelini Shoes in Greenwich Village in New York City. But for Valentine, a career woman, love is a difficult road to maneuver.

Until the recent wedding, Valentine had worked with her grandmother. Upon her retirement, Gram left her business to Valentine and Valentine’s brother, Alfred. Alfred is a good businessman, and Valentine is an artist, and the two sensibilities frequently clash, bringing up with them the residual effects of childhood familial relationships.

Trigiani comes from a close-knit Italian family herself, and she excels at the family relationships and scenes. Everyone can relate to the family dynamics that occur during weddings and family dinners, culminating with a Thanksgiving dinner that starts out with such promise and high hopes, only to disintegrate into a truth-telling, secret-spilling train wreck.

The author does terrific job creating characters whom the reader cares about. I like that Valentine doesn’t have it all figured it, that she struggles with family, career, love and friends. Even the minor characters are real and well-drawn, from June, the fabric cutter to Roberta, the new-found cousin to Pamela, the sister-in-law who doesn’t fit in.

Tough topics, such as infidelity, job loss, death and racism are also tackled in the novel; Trigiani does not shy away from the tougher things in life we all face. She also does humor very well; you will find yourself laughing out loud when Valentine and Gianluca are almost caught naked in a hotel by her young niece.

Trigiani is a very visual author. Her scenes are so detailed, and they scream out to be made into a visual medium of some type- a film or a TV miniseries. Luckily, Lifetime TV has optioned the novel for a movie; I can't wait!

She describes the shoes she creates in such detail that I had hoped to see sketches of them in the novel. Her trips to scenic Italy and Argentina, her Greenwich Village neighborhood and the extreme home makeover of Gram’s apartment above Angelini Shoes by her gay best friend Gabriel are so vividly described, the reader can picture it all so clearly in her mind.
“The living room is wallpapered in cream with a black-striped border. Gabriel has positioned his zebra-print love seats in front of the windows. He created draperies that mimic stage curtains, opulent turquoise silk drapes with black silk braid tiebacks. He used Gram’s simple black onyx-based lamps to anchor the love seats.”

Food is another important element in her novels, and I swear you can almost smell the cannolis the Roncalli sisters are stuffing for dessert. (In the paperback version of VERY VALENTINE Trigiani added a section titled “Eat and Read” containing recipes for some of the dishes in the novel- a definite incentive to buy the paperback.)

Readers must be prepared to use all of their senses when reading BRAVA, VALENTINE smelling and tasting the Italian delicacies, seeing the beautifully designed shoes, and the scenery of Italy and Argentina- it is truly a sensual experience.

Trigiani also pays tribute to music in BRAVA, VALENTINE. Gram has a collection of Frank Sinatra albums, and the author has titled each of the chapters a different Sinatra song- “It Isn’t a Dream Anymore”, “Autumn in New York”, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams” are examples. It’s a clever homage to a great Italian-American singer.

BRAVA, VALENTINE is a must-read for fans of Meryl Streep’s film “It’s Complicated” and “Sex in the City”.

Rating 4.5 of 5 stars
Thanks to HarperCollins for providing an advanced reader copy of this book for review.