The NY Pops 27th Birthday Gala at Carnegie Hall

I had the pleasure of attending the New York Pops 27th Birthday Gala, The Best Is Yet To Come: Celebrating The Legacy of Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall on May 3rd.

Former Daily News columnist Liz Smith hosted the evening, and after a few comedic attempts to seat herself on a very high chair, she told a few stories about Frank Sinatra.

The opening number was a rousing rendition of New York, New York from the film On The Town that Sinatra starred in. Jesse Tyler Ferguson of TV's Modern Family, Michael Urie of TV's Ugly Betty and John Tartaglia from Broadway's Shrek gave a spirited and exuberant performance. It was a wonderful start to the show.

Handsome Cheyenne Jackson, from Broadway's Finian's Rainbow and TV's 30 Rock walked the center aisle singing Luck Be A Lady. His smooth style and beautiful voice showed why men and women adore him.

Fan favorite Steve Tyrell sang one of my favorites The Way You Look Tonight and then was joined by Hilary Swindal for a duet of Fly Me to the Moon.

Norm Lewis from Broadway's Sondheim on Sondheim and Little Mermaid was smooth as silk in his rendition of Don't Worry 'Bout Me.

Broadway star Michael Cerveris came on stage to sing High Hopes with some special guests, Bad Habit, a group of four young instrumentalists and fourteen members of the Ronald McDonald Choir, all children from Ronald McDonald House. Their music touched the entire audience and resulted in a well deserved standing ovation.

Montego Glover, who received a Tony nomination today for her performance in Memphis belted out a fantastic version of The Best Is Yet to Come. She also looked amazing in a fuschia form-fitting gown.

After Frank Sinatra Jr. performed, looking so much like his father in his later years, he conducted the Pops in Yellow: Laughter, a work commissioned by his father and conducted by him on an album.

Keith Roberts and Tony nominated Karine Plantadit danced to One For My Baby from the Tywla Tharp Broadway show Come Fly Away. I guarantee they sold some tickets to their show that night with their hot dance number.

Michael Feinstein blew everyone away with For Once In My Life, and led the cast in The Theme from New York, New York, featuring middle school students performing with the Pops, and the Young People's Chorus of New York City.

The New York Pops put on a fantastic show, and most people tapped their feet or swayed in their seats. Sinatra's music is the music of America, and it was a joy to hear such incredible performers bring it to life.

I did see a few celebrities in attendance. SNL's Rachel Dratch, looking so beautiful, sat behind me. Behind her was Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet, who plays Cam, to Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Mitchell on the show. He was with Jesse's lovely mother. I was able to speak with both of them, and Jesse's Mom beamed when I told her how much my sons and I love her son's performance on the show. Eric was a really great guy, offering to take a picture with me.

Legacy of a False Promise

Margaret Fuchs Singer was thirteen years old when her college law professor father was asked to testify before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee regarding Communists working in the federal government. She did not know that both her parents used to be members of the Communist party.

Legacy of a False Promise: A Daughter's Reckoning is her recounting of that period of her life. Sometimes books such as this tend to be not so well written, and a bit dry, but Fuchs writes a powerful, interesting story of her search for the truth about her parents.

Fuchs' parents worked in the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s while members of the Communist party. While they believed in their cause, they still kept their politics hidden from their employers, something that I found intriguing. Singer writes

My father did not see in his Party membership a conflict of loyalties or a threat to the United States, but, instead, a way to participate in the nation's economic and social recovery.(p. 117)

That seems to me like a rationalization. If you believe you are truly doing good, you wouldn't have to hide your beliefs.

The Fuchs attended meetings, recruited other Communist Party members as federal employees, and reported back to a man higher up in the Party. When they became discouraged by events in Russia, they left the party. While they thought they had left it behind, when the government held hearings before Congress in the 1950s, Herbert Fuchs was called as a witness.

The government wanted Fuchs to name other Communists who worked in the federal government, but he did not want to betray his former friends. His employer, American University, promised him that he could keep his job if he cooperated. He was told that his wife would be called to testify if he did not cooperate.

With the memory of the execution of accused Russian spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg fresh in his mind, Fuchs reluctantly appeared before the Committee and gave them the information they asked for, to protect his wife, his children and his job. He agonized over the decision, but felt he had no choice.

The dean of American University reneged on his promise and forced Fuchs out of his job. Many people felt that Fuchs was a traitor to his country, and others felt that he betrayed his friends by naming names. It was a no-win situation for Fuchs.

Singer vividly brings to life that time period in our history through her family's story. Her description of what it felt like as teenage girl, so confused by what was going on, her relationships with her family, and the fallout from her father's decision are heartfelt.

As an adult, Singer works to find out the truth about her parents, seeking out documents and people who can help her. She is conflicted about this, even fearful about what she may find, but can't come to terms with what happened to her family until the truth is known.

Legacy of a Promise will appeal to many different readers; fans of history and politics, as well as those who like personal stories about family and a search for identity.

Rating 4 of 5 stars
Thanks to Robyn at Carol Fass Publicity & public Relations for providing me with a copy of this book.

The Friday 56

It's time for The Friday 56, where we share a sentence from the closest book to us.
Join in the fun!~

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to to Storytime with Tonya and Friends at http://storytimewithtonya.blogspot.com/
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

My book is Carol Burnett's This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection
(She's being chased by a mugger.)

My heart jumped up into my throat as I started to walk faster and faster. So did he. I turned the corner. He turned the corner.

OK, I'll tell you that she scared him away with her Tarzan yell, as only Carol could do.

An American Childhood Gone, Well Wrong

Jason Mulgrew has a popular blog entitled Everything is Wrong With Me: 30, Bipolar and Hungry. He writes humorously about his life and reading his posts about the NCAA tourney, hanging out in bars, living in NYC, it reminds you of pretty much most guys you know in that age group.

Mulgrew is now a published author, which for the slacker that he describes himself as, is quite an accomplishment. Everything is Wrong Me: A Memoir of an American Childhood Gone, Well, Wrong appeals to anyone who grew up in a (slightly) dysfunctional family, which would be, like, all of us.

The photo on the cover is of Mulgrew as a young boy wearing a brown pinstriped suit, looking like he is ready to attend the Republican National Convention. Don't let the cover fool you (although you will laugh out loud at it!) There are many photos of Mulgrew and his family sprinkled throughout the book, it's like looking through a family photo album, with humorous asides from Mulgrew accompanying them.

Mulgrew grew up in an Irish working class neighborhood in Philadelphia. His parents play a big role in this memoir, particularly his longshoreman father, who worked hard, drank hard and got into many fights. His father loomed large in his life, even though he didn't live with the family for extended periods. (And surprisingly, it wasn't because he was in jail.)

Irish-Catholics will appreciate his description of his baptism party.

The interpretation of "big Irish Catholic party" varies, but basically there's a prayer at the beginning and then a lot of drinking until people fall down. Also there's some crying and singing involved and usually one relative will try to punch another. Then comes the falling down. Welcome to every family christening, birthday party, graduation and wedding I've ever been to.

Mulgrew tells stories of his childhood, many of the memories supplied by his Mom and Dad. Mulgrew uses footnotes as funny asides at the bottom of the pages to further explain the insanity. One of the funniest stories involves Mulgrew's scheme to sell fireworks not only to make some money, but to move up on the coolness scale. It's a genius idea, making good money until Mulgrew's partner, his pal David, decides to stop at home for a Lunchable and gets caught by his mom. It's the age-old story: a great career derailed by a Lunchable.

The book is filled with usual guy stuff- guns, alcohol, trucks, girls, running from the cops. Its universality is its appeal, along with Mulgrew's genial style of conversational writing. It will make a funny audiobook.

The best story of the book happens after Mulgrew has finally turned in his manuscript for the book after missing many deadlines. His father says to him, "Did I ever tell you how I was arrested for attempted murder?" The story that follows is fabulous, and it fits that his dad wouldn't tell him until the book was done.

While this book isn't for everyone, it would make a good gift for your brother, your funny uncle, or anyone who likes FX TV's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Rating 3.5 stars of 5

Thanks to Harper Perennial for providing a copy of this book

If the Goldman Sachs hearings were fiction...

Watching the Congressional hearings into Goldman Sachs made me appreciate the prescience of Adam Haslett's brilliant novel, Union Atlantic.

Written in the year before the economic collapse of 2009, Haslett's novel features a young gun investment banker, Doug Fanning, whom we first meet in 1988 when he is stationed on a US naval ship that is escorting Kuwaiti tankers through the Straits of Hormuz. Fanning sees an unidentified plane on his radar, and alerts his commander. A decision is made to fire upon the plane and 290 people lost their lives as their Iranian Airbus passenger jet was shot down by the Americans.

The incident gets covered up, as well as the fact that Fanning failed to tell his commander that the jet was ascending, not descending as the commander was told. This incident and its aftermath leads Fanning to become the kind of man who later sets in motion a financial disaster that threatens the U.S. banking system.

Fanning becomes a big success as an investment banker at Union Atlantic. He takes risks there as well, and as long as he produces big profits for the bank and in turn himself, he can cut all the corners he likes. His boss is willfully ignorant of Fanning's schemes.

When Fanning builds a huge McMansion next to property owned by Charlotte Graves, he underestimates her. The land was owned by her grandfather, and Charlotte believes his house is obscene. Charlotte, a retired teacher, is eccentric, slipping into insanity. She believes that her two dogs are the incarnated Malcolm X and Cotton Mather, and they frequently share their conflicting advice with Charlotte.

Charlotte ends up tutoring Nate, a teenage boy whose father recently committed suicide. Nate and his mother are barely existing together. He breaks into Fanning's home, and ends up in a dangerous sexual relationship with Fanning. Fanning wants Nate to help get Charlotte off his back, and he is willing to use Nate's vulnerability to get what he wants.

When a colleague working for Fanning runs a scheme that unravels, Charlotte brother Henry Graves, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, becomes involved in trying to keep this from ruining the entire entangled U. S. economy. (Hank Paulson, anyone?)

How Haslett weaves these stories together is a wonder. He doesn't write this novel, he crafts it. It took me along time to read this book because I frequently reread passages, they were that beautiful. Of Nate realizing that Charlotte needed him, he writes

These last many months the intuition of others' needs had become Nate's second nature, as if his father's going had cut him a pair of new, lidless eyes that couldn't help but see into a person such as this: marooned and specter-driven.

His characters are vivid and complex. Nate is flailing about, wanting to be loved and willing to debase himself to do it. Charlotte is a genius, bordering on insane, and Fanning is amoral, sinking further into the morass.

It is astonishing that a fiction writer created this dialogue in 2008, when Henry the NY Fed Chair says to the CEO of Union Atlantic

"Let me start by saying that if you or your board is under the impression that Union Atlantic is too big to fail, you're mistaken. There's no question here of a bailout. If you go under, the markets will take a hit, but with enough liquidity in the system we can cut you loose. I hope you understand that." This, of course, was a bluff. Henry has already begun receiving calls from the Treasury Department.

This novel is one of the best books I have read this decade. The story is relevant and the characters are powerful. Haslett is a true craftsmen. If you like good fiction, this is a book you must read.

Rating 5 of 5 stars

Thanks to Doubleday for providing a copy of this book for review.

Broadway.com | Stephen Sondheim Honored with a Star-Filled Gala at City Center

Broadway.com | Stephen Sondheim Honored with a Star-Filled Gala at City Center

I was lucky enough to get to see this celebration of Stephen Sondheim. So many highlights! Mia Farrow told a sweet story about Steve giving his goddaughter (Mia's daughter) a thesaurus for her 5th birthday. She in turn gave Steve a penny wrapped in toilet paper, which he promised not to spend in one place. Joanna Gleason sang from "Into the Woods", B.D. Wong sang from "Pacific Overtures", Len Cariou, Michael Cerveris and Alexander Germignani sang from "Sweeney Todd", Debra Monk's hilarious rendition of the Gun Song from "Assassins", Alexander Hanson, Len Cariou and Catherine Zeta-Jones sang from "A Little Night Music", (Catherine also sang the iconic "Send in the Clowns" beautifully and she looked fabulous), Donna Murphy sang from "Passion", Nathan Lane sang from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum", Raul Esparza brought down the house with "Being Alive" from Company, and the great Angela Lansbury sang "Liaisons" from "A Little Night Music". Julie Andrews even sent a recorded message with her signing. We haven't heard her sing in so long, it was beautiful. What a glorious night!

The Queen of Palmyra

The Queen of Palmyra, the debut novel by Minrose Gwin, will find a welcome audience in fans of Kathryn Stockett's The Help.

Both books are set in Mississippi in the 1960s, and deal with the changing relationship between blacks and whites. While The Help is told from the viewpoint of four narrators, The Queen of Palmyra is told by twelve-year-old Florence Forrest.

Florence is the daughter of Win, a burial insurance salesman who also happens to be a rabid Klansman. Her mother Martha drinks to excess, and bakes cakes out their tiny home to bring in some cash to this poor household. Martha despises Win's racism, and her attitude is not appreciated by Win or the small minded people in their town.

Flo spends much of her time at her maternal grandparents, in the company of Zenie, the maid. Because Martha drank so much, Flo spent a lot of time with Zenie, even going home with Zenie when she finished work.

Zenie's young, beautiful, smart niece Eva comes to stay during her summer break from college. Eva is of a younger generation, and she has different ideas about her place in life. She gets a job selling burial insurance policies, which causes conflicts with Win. These conflicts turn dangerous, and Eva is attacked.

When she won't back down and leave town, race relations come to a boil. Zenie and her husband Ray fear for Eva, and for themselves, as the Klansmen become bolder in spreading their violence and hatred.

Because Flo is a young girl, she doesn't completely understand what is going on. She loves Zenie and Eva, and her parents, and as children are want to do, speaks her mind. She can't reconcile why people she loves can't get along.

The author does a good job describing the atmosphere in this small town at the time, and the scene where Win takes his daughter to a Klan meeting is frightening and veers into creepy as Win puts his daughter in a robe and hood, and various men try to grope her. It is very disturbing.

I also thought that the complicated relationship between Zenie, Ray and Flo was well done. Zenie and Ray were frequently exasperated at having to care for a white girl who had been abandoned by her mother. While The Klan was terrorizing the black community, Flo would show up at their doorstep and not understand why she was not welcome.

The novel is filled with tension- between Win and Martha, Martha and her parents, blacks and whites, Zenie and Eva. The characters are believeable, people just struggling to live life as best they can under the circumstances. Some succeed (Zenie) but for others, life is too difficult (Martha).

Having Flo narrate the novel echoes Scout, the narrator of the classic To Kill a Mockingbird, but that also has it drawbacks. Questions go unanswered, such as why Flo did not attend school, and what happened to them during the year she and her family "disappeared". I found that not knowing these things distracted me.

The Queen of Palmyra is a dark book, but it gives the reader a real look at the what life was like at that time in small town Mississippi. The turbulent relationship between blacks and whites, and between a young daughter who just wanted the love of her very different parents is hard to look at, and yet it gives the reader a real sense of empathy.

Rating 3.5 of 5 stars
Thanks to Harper Perennial for providing a copy of this book.

Sean Hayes is perfection in PROMISES, PROMISES

Sean Hayes (Jack from TV's Will & Grace) shines in his Broadway debut of the musical revival Promises, Promises. As the curtain rises, he is seated onstage at his desk, eating his lunch, a lonely office worker circa 1962.

Chuck Baxter is a single guy, looking to impress his boss and work his way up the ladder at Consolidated Life. He has no friends, and a crush on Fran, the cute little blonde who doesn't know his name and works in the cafeteria, played by the incomparable Kristin Chenoweth.

But Chuck's biggest asset is that he lives in an apartment on the Upper West Side, a place where the married horndogs at Consolidated Life want to take their girlfriends for an hour or two before going home to the wife. Reluctantly, Chuck gets dragged into this arrangement, promised a big promotion by the upper management types who use his apartment.

When the big boss, well played by Tony Goldwyn, gets wind of this, he tells Chuck to dump the other guys and just let him bring his girlfriend there in exchange for a promotion. Chuck agrees, but is heartbroken when he discovers the boss's girl is his beloved-from-afar Fran.

Hayes' comic timing is perfection, and he excels at the physical comedy. The scene where he tries to sit in a modern chair in the boss's office is genius, and his comic asides to the audience make everyone feel an important part of the show.

The second act opens with the highlight of the show- a Christmas Eve bar scene between a drunken, heartsick Chuck and Marge McDougall, a blowsy widow, brilliantly played by Broadway vet Katie Finneran. Finneran and Hayes' drunken, flirtatious repartee leads to a hilarious dance scene, and Hayes could barely contain his laughter during the scene. It reminded me of Tim Conway cracking up his costars on The Carol Burnett Show, and the audience ate it up.

Another Broadway vet, Dick Latessa, turns in a fine performance as Chuck's neighbor, a doctor. Latessa, Finneran, and Hayes all have razor-sharp comedic timing in their scene in Chuck's apartment.

Chenoweth has a less comedic role, but the chance to hear her sing such Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic songs as "I Say a Little Prayer", "A House Is Not a Home" and "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" gave me chills. Her lovely voice is so pure, I had goosebumps.

Surprisingly, Hayes has a sweet singing voice too, and he shines in the quieter songs, especially the duets with Chenoweth. The choreography by Rob Ashford, and the dancers add a vibrant note to this production.

Promises, Promises is a charming, funny, retro musical that surprisingly has some relevance in today's society, with it's storyline about men who cheat on their wives (Tiger, Jesse, and the rest). Hayes' charismatic performance ensures that he will not just be known as Jack McFarlyne for the rest of his long career.

If you are headed to NYC and want to see a fun, charming musical, don't miss Promises, Promises.

AuburnPub.com - When science takes the high road

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, an amazing true story.

Valerie Harper is LOOPED

Long before anyone ever heard of Lindsay Lohan, there was Tallulah Bankhead. Bankhead was a rowdy, bawdy actress who worked on stage, screen and television from the 1920s through her last role in the camp TV show Batman.

Bankhead loved her drink, took pills, partied all night and cursed like a sailor. One of her last films was 1965's Die! Die! My Darling, which was an ironic name for a film starring Tallulah Bankhead since she called everyone she met "Dahling'".

To complete the film, Bankhead to attend a looping session, where she would go to a recording studio and 'loop' dialogue, that is record dialogue for the film that for some reason or another did not sound right on the film soundtrack.

That disastrous recording session was itself being recorded and became the basis for the stage show, Looped, written by Matthew Lombardo and starring Valerie Harper, best known as TV's "Rhoda" from The Mary Tyler Moore Show, now on Broadway.

Harper is the perfect Bankhead from the moment she barrels through the studio door, hours late and a little tipsy. Brian Hutchison plays the hapless film editor who has the misfortune of being the one left behind to shepherd Bankhead through what should be a few minute project, looping one line of dialogue, but thanks to Bankhead, it turns into a day-long process.

Harper captures the bigger-than-life essence of Bankhead, the party girl who is getting too old for this stuff, yet she carries on. Hutchison's performance of Danny, the exasperated editor who seems melancholy, is full of facial tics. I saw Hutchison in last year's Exit the King, where he was the dim palace guard, and he used the same facial tics to excellent advantage for that role. In this role, however, it seemed a bit off-putting. The only other character in the play is a sound engineer played by Michael Mulhern to good comic effect.

The first act is mostly comedic, filled with the great one-liners Tallulah Bankhead was famous for. When asked why she called everyone 'Dahling', she said "because all my life I've been bad at remembering people's names. Once I introduced a friend of mine as 'Martini'. Her name was actually 'Olive'." Another is "Cocaine isn't habit forming; I should know, I've been using it for years!"

While the first act is very funny, the second act is more emotional and better. The audience finds out why Danny is so sad, and Tallulah becomes a more realized, fully dimensional character.

I wouldn't pay full price for Looped, but if you get discount tickets at TKTS, Playbill.com or Theatermania.com, I would recommend the show. Harper is absolutely fantastic, and she brings Tallulah Bankhead to glorious life on stage.

Jackie Collins strikes again!

Just as you can't eat one potato chip when you open a bag of Lay's Chips, you can't stop turning the pages when you open a Jackie Collins book.

In her latest novel, Poor Little Bitch Girl, Collins once again writes a page-turner of a novel filled with sex, friendship, a kidnapping, a murder mystery, and characters whose lives are on a collision course. And again, she succeeds in getting the reader's attention and keeping it.

This novel is a perfect beach read, just in time for spring breakers to head south or on a cruise. Denver Jones, a hard-charging LA lawyer meets up again with former high school classmates Annabelle Maestro and Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous. Annabelle's movie star mother is murdered and Denver is on her movie star father's defense team. No one in LA knows that Annabelle and her boyfriend run a high end escort service in New York.

Bobby is the son of Collins' most popular recurring character, Lucky Santangelo, who makes a welcome cameo appearance in the novel. Another high school friend of Denver's, Carolyn, is a personal assistant to a senator with whom she is having an affair. When Carolyn goes missing, Denver and Bobby team up to help find her.

The plot races at whiplash speed, yet Collins manages to create characters who are interesting. Denver is a favorite, falling for the handsome Bobby and having a torrid affair with an artist she meets in NYC and a Mario Lopez-like TV entertainment show host. (When it rains, it pours for Collins' female protagonists and sex.) Bobby is a chip off the old Lucky block, a hard-working, handsome, rich, good guy- every girl's dream.

One fun aspect of Collins books is figuring out which real life rich and famous people are thinly veiled as characters. I also liked that this book has less graphic violence against women than in earlier Collins novels.

And as always there is lots of sex in the book. Smart men might pick up a copy as a gift for their wives or girlfriends. Just make sure you are there when they finish it a few hours after they start it!

Rating 4 of 5 stars

THE GIN CLOSET

Leslie Jamison's debut novel, The Gin Closet, opens with Stella, a twenty-something woman working for an inspirational writer who treats her horribly. She is dating a married man who also treats her badly. Stella has been caring for her beloved grandmother, who is in failing health.

After a bad fall, her grandmother calls for Matilda, a name Stella does not know. Stella asks her mother about the name, and her cold, methodical mother matter-of-factly confirms the fact that Stella has an aunt. Tilly has been estranged from her family for over thirty years.

With her life stagnating, Stella decides to go to Nevada to find Tilly and tell her of her mother's passing. Although her mother has told her that Tilly was a wild teenager, heavily into drugs, alcohol and men, Stella was shocked when she found a drunken Tilly living in a filthy trailer filled with trash.

Stella moves in with Tilly and tries to help her get her life on track. She learns about Tilly's son, Abe, born to Tilly when she was working as prostitute, and raised by Abe's father. Abe wants his mother to come live with him in San Francisco, and Stella goes along too.

Abe, Tilly and Stella form a family of their own, albeit one that is tenuous at best. Stella works at a Bed & Breakfast, and Abe gets a Tilly a job at the bank where he works. The reader pulls for these people to make a family life that works, but reality soon intercedes.

Jamison paints a brutally honest portrait of a woman in crisis. Tilly is a tragic, memorable character, and her struggle to maintain her sobriety and fit in with 'decent' society is so real and sad. Anyone who has dealt with alcoholism in their own family will no doubt recognize this battle.

Tilly had built a wall around herself, and Jamison has the perfect line to describe Tilly's life.

Tilly told me once about the experience of giving birth. She said she screamed louder than she'd known was possible. "it was the first time I really heard my own voice," she said. "I wanted it to keep on hurting forever."

The book is also about the damage of keeping secrets. After Tilly reveals one that changed her life forever, the reader has to wonder how different her life would have been if she felt she could have told someone. Would her mother and sister have believed her? Would they have helped her? If she had found her own voice as a child, would she still have been banished from her family?

The Gin Closet is not an easy book to read; it will hurt your heart. But it will also make you more empathetic to people in your lives, people you feel don't live up to your expectations. Jamison made a wise decision to alternate narrators, Tilly and Stella, allowing the reader insight into two fascinating characters.

Rating 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Caitlin from Free Press Publicity and Simon & Schuster for providing me a copy of the book for review.

Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge

If there is one publisher who has her finger on the pulse of what is hot, it is Amy Einhorn of Amy Einhorn Books imprint from Putnam. One of her first books was Kathryn Stockett'sThe Help , which I read on my Kindle last winter on vacation in the Bahamas. I got a sunburn reading the book on beach because I couldn't put it down!

THE HELP is a legitimate phenomenon, and ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY reported that Steven Spielberg has optioned the book for a feature film. Diana Joseph's I'm Sorry You Feel That Way: The Astonishing True Story of a Daughter, Sister, Slut, Wife, Mother and Friend to Man and Dog was funny and moving. My review here:
Link


This year's sensation is Sarah Blake's The Postmistress, another home run now on the best seller lists, and a book that bloggers are all talking about. I'm halfway through and it is leaving me breathless.

Beth Fish Reads is sponsoring the Amy Einhorn Perpetual Challenge. Readers and bloggers will read through all the Amy Einhorn titles (there are fifteen so far), and comment on them.

I got to meet Amy Einhorn and Sarah Blake at a book reading last night at Barnes & Noble 86th St. in NYC, and I felt like I was going backstage at a Springsteen concert; they are rock stars of the literary world. They are lovely, smart and talented ladies.

This is a fabulous challenge and if you would like to join, click on the link here:

Link


Look for more of my reviews of Amy Einhorn titles in the weeks and months ahead. Happy reading!

The Friday 56

Here's a fun meme from Storytime with Tonya and Friends called The Friday 56.

Rules:
* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence (plus one or two others if you like) along with these instructions on your blog or (if you do not have your own blog) in the comments section of this blog.
*Post a link along with your post back to this blog and to Storytime with Tonya and Friends at http://storytimewithtonya.blogspot.com/
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.


My book is Jackie Collins's Poor Little Bitch Girl

Senator Stoneman and his lovely wife, Carolyn. Mrs. Gregory Stoneman. Carolyn Stoneman. They all sounded so perfect. She was ecstatic.

C'mon- it's Jackie Collins. You know it's going to be a fun, sexy read.

MAKING TOAST- A FAMILY STORY

The worst pain a person can feel is the death of a child. Roger and Ginny Rosenblatt's 38-year-old daughter Amy, a doctor and mother of three young children, died on her home treadmill of an asymptomatic heart condition.

Roger and Ginny left their home on Long Island and moved to Bethesda, Maryland to live and care for son-in-law Harris, and their three grandchildren: six-year-old Jessie, four-year-old Sammy and eighteen-month-old James, called Bubbies.

Rosenblatt's memoir paints a portrait of the beautiful daughter they lost. He describes her as "a very clear person, even as a small child, knowing intuitively what plain good sense a particular situation required. " She was "both self-confident and selfless, (and) when she faced you there could be no doubt you were the only thing on her mind."

While her clarity sometimes caused her to be brusque with her brothers Carl and John, it also "contributed to her kindness". Rosenblatt tells of a time when Amy was six-years-old, and a friend got carsick in the backseat of his car. The other two friends in the car moved away from the sick girl, but Amy moved closer to comfort her sick friend.

Roger and Ginny were thrown back into a world of caring for young children. Roger is in awe of his wife, who jumps right in and with boundless energy helps with homework, makes school lunches, comforts a crying baby, and attends soccer games with the moms and dads of her grandkids' friends.

He writes of her selflessness, and in what I think is the saddest sentence in the book, Ginny states, "I am leading Amy's life", she says in despair, yet comfort too." It breaks her heart when she eats dinner alone with her son-in-law, knowing that it should be his wife, her daughter, there listening to him talk about his day.

Roger bonds with a man he hires to turn his garage into a playroom for the grandkids when the man's college-aged son dies. Men generally don't share deep feelings with other men, and this relationship is moving. He also hears from so many other people who have suffered a similar loss, and it surprises him how many people there are in the same situation.

After a year passes, Roger and Ginny wonder if their son-in-law still wants them to stay. There is no question that they are where they need and want to be, and they sincerely wish for their son-in-law to someday find a new woman, knowing that he "will choose well".

Making Toast puts me in mind of Calvin Trillin's memoir about his wife, About Alice. Both books are slim, yet Rosenblatt, like Trillin, paints a full portrait of a special person he loves with carefully chosen words. It's about coping with unexpected loss, raging against the unfairness of it, while at the same time carrying on the day-to-day living that must continue. Roger and Ginny's tribute to their daughter's legacy is to step into her life and care for her family. Their story will touch (and sometimes break) your heart.

Rating 4 of 5 stars

Thanks to Kayleigh from Harper Collins for providing me with a copy for review

GAME CHANGE plays for keeps

I have been drawn back into old episodes of The West Wing on Bravo TV weekdays mornings at 8am. It's a great way to pass time while on the treadmill, I get so engrossed that before I know it, an hour has disappeared.

Anyone who loved The West Wing will want to read Game Change- Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin and the Race of a Lifetime by political reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.

Now that some time has passed and election fatigue is over, (and with all of the stunning events that have plagued this country in the past year, it seems like the election was years ago) it is time for an analysis of that historic election.

The authors spoke to many people on the inside of the presidential campaigns, and their insights are fascinating. This book is written in such a compelling manner, it reads more like a page-turning fiction book. And honestly, how many people just ten years ago could have predicted an African-American candidate would come out of nowhere to defeat a controversial former First Lady for the Democratic nomination and then win the Presidency?

One of the main themes of the book is that people who run for president have big egos. Obviously, you would have to have a big ego to believe that you should be the leader of the free world. Barack Obama's ego is on display when he whines that John Grisham's non-fiction book, An Innocent Man publishes on the same days as his, thus bumping him to second on the best seller list. "But I want to be number one" he whines.

When Hillary Clinton is deciding whether she should run for president, it is her husband Bill who clarifies for her, asking her a question that, reading this book, I had to wonder whether the other candidates asked themselves

You have to ask yourself one question, he replied. Of all the people running, would I be the best president? If you can answer yes, then you need to run. If you're not sure, then you need to think more about it, and if the answer is no, then don't do it.

Reading this book, I got the impression that some of the people working on these campaigns asked a different question: Can I get this person elected? Not whether this person is the most qualified, but the most electable; an important distinction in my mind.

John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth fare poorly in this book. Edwards' behavior is most appalling. When Edwards' affair with Rielle Hunter begins to become common knowledge in his inner circle, he rips into a young, idealistic staffer, blaming the 27-year-old man for leaking the information. Edwards has the utter gall to scream at the young man "Why didn't you come to me like a (expletive deleted) man and tell me to stop (expletive deleted) her?" He actually blames this aide for not stopping him from committing adultery! That one incident alone tells more about Edwards lack of character than any other.

This book's account of Sarah Palin's rise to national prominence differs greatly from her Going Rogue. She is depicted as being in way over her head as a Vice-Presidential candidate. The campaign's attempts to bring her up to speed on subjects she needed to know for interviews and her debate with Joe Biden are disturbing. She wrote out flash cards to help her learn, and the stack was so big, it was overwhelming her. It reminds me of a college student cramming for a final when she never attended the class during the year.

There is so much crammed into this book, political junkies will be in heaven. It is also must-reading for anyone who is engaged in current events, and it puts into question whether the complicated primary process in its current form is the best way to elect the most important office in the land.

Rating 4.5 of 5 stars

A View From the Bridge

The Broadway revival of A View from the Bridge is playing for a few more weeks, and if you have the opportunity to see it, you owe it to yourself to see this powerful production of the classic Arthur Miller play.

Liev Schreiber plays the lead role of Eddie Carbone, a dockhand in Brooklyn who works hard and comes home to his loving wife Beatrice and his 17 year-old niece, Catherine, whom he and his wife have raised since the death of her mother.

As the play begins, Eddie is a happy guy; he stands tall and proud, he smiles frequently. He brings news home that two cousins of his wife have arrived from Italy. They are in the country illegally, and will be staying with the Carbones and working on the docks with Eddie. Many families had relatives from back home staying with them; it was something everyone in the neighborhood knew about. People went to great lengths to protect their families from the immigration officials.

Eddie becomes unnerved by Catherine's burgeoning romance with one of the cousins. Catherine loves her uncle, but she is growing into a young woman, and Beatrice is becoming concerned with Eddie's reluctance to let Catherine grow up.

Liev Schreiber is a fantastic actor, and while you are watching the play, you believe he is Eddie, not an actor portraying Eddie. As he becomes more discontent, his posture physically changes. He no longer stands proud, he slumps his shoulders and walks with his head hung low. A shadow falls across his face, and you can see anger and jealousy eating away at his very core. He makes you feel Eddie's growing despair.

Jessica Hecht is stunning as Beatrice. As the action unfolds, her face registers her anguish as she realizes that her husband cares too much for their niece. She tries her best to get Catherine out into the world to save her marriage and her husband from something sinister. I have seen Hecht mostly in comedic roles (Friends, Seinfeld guest spots), and I can't wait to see her in more dramas.

Scarlett Johansson plays Catherine in her first Broadway production. Although she is older than the 17-year-old Catherine, she imbues the character with the energy and innocence of a teenager. She is all bounce and puppy-like in her desire to please her Uncle Eddie, and she shows delight as her romantic feelings grow for Rodolpho. The role requires an actress to show a range of emotions, and Johannson does that well.

Morgan Spector plays the role of Rodolpho and his charismatic performance is winning. I hope to see him in another big role on Broadway soon.

A View From the Bridge is a strong, emotional play, one of Miller's best, and although the audience knows what will happen, the production does well building the sense of foreboding and dread. Come Tony nomination time, I would be surprised if Schreiber and Hecht are not nominated.

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.

A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell

Despite the bad publicity of a few memoirs by people who were later determined to be less than truthful, the genre is still flourishing. I recently reviewed The Kids Are All Right, the story of the four Welch siblings, who were left orphaned after their father's death in a car accident and their mother's death by cancer a short time later.

The four siblings took turns writing about their memories in short, one and two page sections. It has been said that each child in a family grows up with different parents, and their story illustrates that point.

Kevin Sampsell's memoir A Common Pornography is written in a similar style. His one-and-two page mini-essays read like diary entries. Reading them is like sitting with Sampsell while he is looking at a family photo album, each page a picture triggering a memory. The pictures add up to a life lived in a family that is deeply troubled.

Sampsell has two older half-brothers who were pretty much out of the house by the time he could remember. His half-sister spent ten years in a psychiatric hospital, and while there gave birth to a child who was taken from her. She later married an abusive man who pimped her out for sex to other men. She again got pregnant and again gave up her baby. She was impregnated once more, this time by her stepfather, Kevin's father.

Two other brothers lived with Kevin, one of whom was black. Matt was the product of an affair that Kevin's mother had with an African man when she and Kevin's father had been estranged. Kevin describes a beautiful story Matt told him about going to Africa and meeting his father's relatives. He had several mannerisms of his father, and they were mesmerized by this young man who looked and acted so much like their deceased relative.

Out of this sad, violent, strange family, Kevin managed to grow up. His stories of loneliness, isolation and attempts to connect with girls are heartbreaking, and yet familiar to many. His description of working at a donut shop and the friends he made there had me flashing back to my first job working at a movie theater.

His stories about his his father's funeral and the feelings it triggers in him and his siblings almost hurt to read. His brother Mark, the one who stayed behind to care for his ill father, seems almost totally unable to function as an adult. Following the funeral, Kevin's mother attempts to share all of the secrets that she had been keeping, answers to questions the children were never allowed to ask.

A Common Pornography is heartbreakingly sad, speared with humor, yet above all it is honest. Sampsell speaks truth to the difficulty of finding oneself in this lonely world, made all the more frightening by the horrible dysfunction he grew up in. It is not for everyone, there is rough language and tough situations, and it is not written like a conventional memoir, but many will find it comforting to know that there are people out there who share their struggles.

Rating 3.5 stars of 5

Thanks to Harper Perennial for providing me with a copy for review.

The Marriage Ref a sure-fire TV hit!

I was lucky enough to get to attend the tapings of a sneak preview and the first episode of a new NBC show, The Marriage Ref, starring comedian Tom Papa and executive produced by Jerry Seinfeld.

The premise of the show is that married couples have the same fight over and over again. What if there were a referee who could decide who the winner of the fight is? That's where Tom Papa comes in. He is hilarious, and this show should deservedly make him a star. He has a winning personality and comes across well on this show.

Couples are videotaped in their homes, fighting about the things we all fight about. (One observation: people are a little nuts about their pets. I know, I know, I was too when I had a dog, but not to this extent.) After the video, Tom asks a panel of three who should win the argument. On the premiere episode, the panelists were Jerry Seinfeld, Kelly Ripa and Alec Baldwin.

The panelists were quite humorous, Alec Baldwin in particular was an audience favorite. He seemed to take his role seriously, but he has a wicked sense of humor that fans of 30 Rock well know. His comments were funny and dead-on. All of the panelists meshed well together, and it was great to see Jerry Seinfeld back on TV. As anyone who saw Curb Your Enthusiasm this past season knows, he has not lost his comedic touch; if anything, he has sharpened his wit.

Legendary sportscaster Marv Albert has a role on the show, and he plays it deadpan for laughs. The Today Show's Natalie Morales is the "Just the Facts" person, whom Tom goes to for interesting facts that shed light on the argument. While Natalie is gorgeous, she doesn't have much to do here, and it is the one part of the show that needs work. She's a smart lady, and her talent seems wasted here. Hopefully as the weeks go on, this part will work better.

Comedian Joey Kola, a veteran at warming up audiences (The Rosie O'Donnell Show, Martha Stewart), got the crowd revved up and ready to go for the show. This is his forte, and his cat impression is one that won't be forgotten for a long time. Tom Papa said that it is one of the funniest bits he had ever heard, and I agree.

I think that everyone who is married will identify with The Marriage Ref. The arguments I saw were relatable, and the couples seemed natural. The couples are seen live via satellite to get the results from the ref, and this part of the show is really funny. Fighting over a mean dog, where to park the husband's motorcycle, a Mariah Carey obsession- it's all funny and it's all real. Watch it with your spouse; it's sure to spark conversation and laughs. Even better, invite your married couple friends over for a Marriage Ref party; you'll all have a blast!

I think The Marriage Ref will be a HUGE hit for NBC, and they sure can use it now. The sneak peek will run on February 28th , following the Olympics closing ceremony on NBC, then it moves to its regular time slot of Thursdays at 10pm on March 4th. If you need a good laugh (who doesn't?), don't miss The Marriage Ref.

Win THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY

Gaby at Starting Fresh is giving away a copy of THE LITTLE GIANT OF ABERDEEN COUNTY. It looks like a wonderful read, and you can enter by following the link here:

http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/2009/12/book-giveaway-of-little-giant-of.html

AuburnPub.com - ‘Lit,' Karr's latest memoir, fascinting

Mary Karr's remarkable memoir Lit.

AuburnPub.com - New releases out for Christmas

AuburnPub.com - New releases out for Christmas

Signed by the author

Signed by the author

Posted using ShareThis

AuburnPub.com - Family tragedies a moving memoir

AuburnPub.com - Family tragedies a moving memoir
The Kids Are Alright is a fantastic memoir written by four siblings who lost their parents within a year of each other and ended up split apart.

Meeting Regis Philbin

Is there anyone who doesn't know who Regis Philbin is? He and his lovely wife Joy, who looks fabulous, have recorded a CD of duets titled Just You. Just Me..

They held a CD signing at Barnes and Noble Lincoln Triangle in NYC on November 30, the day before Regis goes into the hospital to have hip replacement surgery. The crowd was told that Regis and Joy would not be speaking, just signing the CD and leaving. But the moment Regis and Joy arrived, it was clear that they would spend time with their fans.

They were so gracious, and Regis poked fun at the sparse crowd (maybe 75 people showed up), but he gave those people a great show. He talked about how the CD came about. He harkened all the way back to his childhood and his love of Bing Crosby. He listened to Bing on the radio, and wanted to become Bing when he grew up.

He told of graduating from Notre Dame and how he decided to tell his parents that he wanted to become a singer, after they put him through college. He brought them into a room on graduation day at Notre Dame and sang "Pennies from Heaven". He said that his Italian mother had tears running down her face, and his Irish father was making a fist in anger. A classic Regis story told in his inimitable style!

Then he moved on to his career meeting Joey Bishop, working as the announcer on his show and getting to sing "Pennies from Heaven" to Bing Crosby when he appeared on Joey's show. His love and admiration for Bing is genuine.

Joy told how she played piano as a girl and loved singers like Sarah Vaughn and Edye Gorme. Regis also pointed out his neighbors and good friends Alan and Arlene Alda who showed up to support Regis and Joy. I got to meet Alan and told him how much I enjoyed his books and how my son loved his portrayal of Arnie Vinick on "The West Wing". I forgot to tell him he wrote, directed and starred in one of all-time favorite movies "The Four Seasons"!

Regis and Joy were so kind to everyone as they signed CDs and even personalized them. I told them that they are such good examples of married life and Regis gave me one of his patented looks- it was priceless! I wished him well on his surgery tomorrow and was on my way.

Meeting Regis was one of the high points of NYC life. He was just as he is on TV, so funny and genuine, and I felt like I was watching him doing host chat as he talked about how he came to record his CD. Enjoy the pictures!

BURN THE FLOOR tears it up

Fans of Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance can't miss Broadway's Burn the Floor, a two hour non-stop salute to dance playing on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre.

I saw a preview of the show at Bryant Park's weekly Broadway series in August. The energy from the dancers on the small stage was contagious. After seeing that, I put it on my must-see list of shows.

Burn the Floor has eighteen dancers from all over the world, plus two dancers from either Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance. (Pasha and Anya performed when I saw the show.) Singers Ricky Rojas and Rebecca Tapia add an extra bit of spice to the show.

The show is divided into four sections, Inspirations, Things That Swing, The Latin Quarter and Contemporary. I liked the Latin Quarter best, with Tanguera my favorite performance, although Proud Mary from the Contemporary set was a close second.

The waltzes were so lovely and delicate, like the dancers were floating on air, and the Latin dances tore up the stage with their high octane energy. The dancers dance down the aisle of the theater, and I saw a older woman who ached to join them. This theater should install seat belts to keep the audience from jumping up because it is that difficult to not want to join in the fun.

The show is non-stop and these dancers go all-out. Giselle Peacock was a standout performer, not an easy task among all of the talented dancers on that stage. If you want something that will wake you up and make you want to run out and sign up at Arthur Murray, run over to Burn the Floor before the show ends in January.

Hugh Jackman & Daniel Craig...swoon

Sometimes big stars in Broadway shows don't translate into success. That is not the case with Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig in A Steady Rain, a two character play by Chicago playwright Keith Huff.

Jackman and Craig play two Chicago cops, best friends forever. Craig's Joey is a single, alcoholic, lonely guy. Jackman's Denny is married with kids, the kind of guy who always seems to be taking care of everyone around him.

The characters tell their story about an incident the author based on a true story of two Chicago cops who unknowingly returned a young Vietnamese boy they found on the streets to serial killer Jeffrey Dahlmer, who claimed to be related to the boy. Dahlmer later killed the boy.

The actors are both quite good in their roles, and both characters are not what they appear to be in the beginning. Their friendship and partnership change during the course of the play, which is a tight 90 minute show. The audience slowly learns the truth about these two men, as events spiral out of their control.

This is more an actor's play than a writer's play, set up to showcase two fine performers, who more than give the audience their money's worth. Their Chicago accents are perfect, and I was there at a matinee during preview performances when a cell phone rang during the show and Craig, in character, told the person to go ahead and answer the phone, we'd wait. This happened at more than one show, and someone actually videoed Jackman yelling at someone and it ended up on YouTube. It's a clever way to deal with this problem which I have seen repeatedly at Broadway shows. Even more annoying are the people who leave the phones on vibrate- WE CAN STILL HEAR IT- TURN IT OFF!

Now that I have that off my chest, go see A Steady Rain for the strong performances by two of Hollywood's hunkiest leading men. They are not difficult to stare at for an hour and a half.

Harry Connick Jr. Sings Love Songs

Bloomingdales hosted Harry Connick Jr. as they revealed their holiday windows for 2009. The set up was, let's say interesting, as they had people standing on 3rd Ave., with traffic zooming by. I don't think the rush hour drivers appreciated two lanes of traffic being closed off.

People waited in the street and across the street on the sidewalk. The manager of the Bloomingdales store introduced three contemporary ballet dancers who performed a dance to U2's "Vertigo". I don't attend the ballet much, but the dance didn't do much for me.

Then the manager came back to introduce Harry Connick Jr., who wasn't there yet. The first rule of emceeing an event- make sure the performer is ready to take the stage before you introduce him.

Finally, out came Harry Connick Jr., who joked about his dressing room in the personal shopper's area and the fact that Bloomingdales won't give him a discount. I really enjoy his snarky sense of humor- he's as funny as he is a good singer.

Connick opened up with a jazzy version of The Carpenter's "Close to You", which is fantastic. He segued into the Beatles' "And I Love Her", which I remember singing at my cousin Bonnie's wedding. (FYI- Connick sings it better than me). He also performed "Mona Lisa", Elton John's "Your Song" and my favorite "The Way You Look Tonight", all accompanied by a 15 piece orchestra. The songs are from his new CD, "Your Songs", which has lots of great songs, including my wedding song "Can't Help Falling In Love With You". This is a terrific wedding song CD.

The first 50 people who bought his new CD got to meet Connick and get it autographed, and I was lucky number 24. He's a very handsome man, and he was nice enough to pose for a photo with a mom and her young daughter who were in line ahead of me. "Your Songs" would make a wonderful Christmas gift for someone you love, and if you know of a bride and groom heading for the altar, it would be perfect.

Love, Loss and What I Wore

Love, Loss and What I Wore is a show written by sisters Nora and Delia Ephron. Five actresses sit in chairs on the small stage and read stories told in women's voices about clothes and how it relates to their lives.

While waiting for the show to start, the music played was fabulous- all songs about clothes. Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors", Prince's "Raspberry Beret", Bruce Springsteen's "Girls in Their Summer Clothes"; it made me want to create a new playlist for my IPod.

The five actresses on the stage the day I saw it were Mary Louise Wilson, Lisa Joyce, Mary Birdsong, Tyne Daly and Jane Lynch. Lynch (GLEE, 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, ROLE MODELS) got the loudest applause when she took the stage. I'm so glad that she is getting the recognition she deserves; she is one of the funniest actresses working today.

Tyne Daly looks fabulous and she is fantastic. I would pay to listen to her read the phone book. She works so well with the others, they all worked like a well oiled machine.

Many of the stories were so relatable- the one on bra fittings, the one about a great pair of boots, why we always wear black. The audience laughed with recognition.

Some of the stories were funny, some poignant. Tyne Daly read one that sounded like it was Rosie O'Donnell's story (Rosie is listed as a story contributor). A young girl recalls that when her mother died, her father took the children on a trip to Belfast, Ireland. When the family returned home, all of her mother's clothes were gone from the closet.

The young teen girl recounts seeing her new stepmother wearing a maroon velour zip bathrobe, and she remembered that her deceased mother had the same robe in electric blue. When she told her stepmother that her mother had the same robe, the stepmother never wore it again.

Tyne Daly also read a story about purses and how women carry their lives around in them. I recognized myself in that one for sure. I can never find anything in my purse, even though I have everything in there (just in case the world ends and I am caught outside of my home).

The cast of the show rotates every few weeks, and it's a good one to take in with your girlfriends or sisters or mother. It may even make you want to clean out your closet and remember all of the great clothes that bring back strong memories. Nora and Delia Ephron did a terrific job putting these stories together.

Harlan Coben kept me up for hours last night

I should know better than to start a Harlan Coben book ten minutes before the World Series game between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. Thinking I could start Long Lost and then put the book down while I watched the game was foolish.

Once Coben gets his hooks into you, you're stuck. His tightly crafted story keeps you turning the pages until you finish the book and realize that not only has three hours flown by, but so has the baseball game.

But during those three hours, the reader is captivated. Long Lost is the newest entry in Coben's Myron Bolitar series, but if you haven't read any of his other Myron books, you will still be able to enjoy the story without being lost.

Bolitar is a sports/entertainment agent in New York City. He receives a phone call from a woman he had a torrid affair with ten years ago, asking him to join her in Paris. Although memories might make any man run for the first available flight, Myron is involved with a single mom who lost her husband in 9/11.

Myron and his loyal best friend/multimillionaire Win (think Bruce Wayne/Batman) are forced into a fight with a bully of a middle school basketball coach (anyone who has ever been involved in youth athletics will recognize the type). The coach humiliated Myron's girlfriend's son in front of a gym full of people, and when Myron calls him out on it, violence follows.

Myron's girlfriend tells him that she is moving to Arizona, and when word comes down that the coach and his buddies are cops and Myron and Win could be in serious legal trouble for the beating they gave them, Myron decides that a trip to Paris is a good idea.

Nothing is ever easy in Myron's life, so naturally his trip to Paris is fraught with danger. Terese, his long lost love, has brought him to Paris to help her find her ex-husband, whom she believes is in trouble.

Terese's ex-husband is murdered, and she becomes a suspect. While Myron tries to help her clear her name, he runs afoul of Paris law enforcement, and somehow Homeland Security, Israeli Mossad, and Interpol become involved. Add in some weird kind of cult, genetic disease, and the possibility that Terese's daughter whom she believed she killed in a car crash years ago may still be alive, and you've got yourself a barn burner of a story.

The great thing about Coben's books is that you never know where he is taking you. You can try to figure out where it is all going, but he always manages to surprise the reader in the end. You find yourself literally holding your breath as you read, and when you get to the end, you can finally let it out. Sometimes I'm surprised that I don't pass out from lack of oxygen before I finish reading.

His characters are well drawn, and Myron is one of the classic good guys in comtemporary fiction. His relationship with his parents is touching, and he and Win make one of the best buddy teams around.

One section of the book particularly interested me- Myron makes a visit to a doctor at the Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Center in New York, and I was so excited when I read that because my husband has a connection to the center. It was such a cool shout-out!

I give Long Lost my highest recommendation. If you are looking a thriller with terrific characters, a fun sense of humor (his one-liners are hysterical)and one that will keep you turning the pages, pick this one up. Then get busy with the rest of the Myron Bolitar novels.

Rating 4.5 of 5 stars