Five on Friday - August 4, 2023

Friday is here! It's a special day at our house - it's our daughter-in-law's birthday! Happy birthday, Kayla! From the moment Kayla became a part of our family, she has filled our hearts with happiness and love. We are so very lucky that she's a part of our lives!

Now, on to my five for this week ~

1.  Tom Lake by Ann Pachett

Ann Pachett's newest book was released this week and it went straight on my to-be-read list!  It also went straight to being Reese's book club selection.  If your plan is to grab the audiobook, you'll hear Meryl Streep reading.  What's the book about?  Here's the summary from Amazon ~

In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew.

Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today.

2.  National Mustard Day

Saturday is National Mustard Day! There are so many variations of mustard - dijon, ground, yellow, spicy. A few "lucky" people are going to be able to try the limited edition Mustard Skittles. Personally, I could go my whole lifetime and not be sad if I didn't taste a mustard-flavored Skittle! Would you like to try it?

3.  Keyboard Shortcuts

This handy, laminated keyboard shortcuts guide is the perfect reference to have around when you're working on the computer. It's a 2-page quick reference guide that provides 209 keyboard shortcuts for Windows 11 and 10. The laminated finish will keep it looking great for a long time too. Get one for yourself - you won't be sorry!

4.  The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

The best-seller book The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is playing out in a series on Amazon Prime starting this week. Three episodes dropped yesterday with another four still to come. Sigourney Weaver stars in the show and early reviews say she's done a great job. Here's the summary of the show ~

After losing her parents to a mysterious fire, nine-year-old Alice Hart is raised by her grandmother June on a flower farm where she learns there are secrets within secrets. But years on, an unearthed betrayal sees Alice forced to face her past.

5.  How true is this...

Now it's on to the weekend!  We are headed to my hometown for the community homecoming, Old Settlers.  It will be a little bittersweet this year without my dad there.  For decades you would have found him behind the deep fryer frying up fish for the fish sandwiches.  I'm still looking forward to seeing friends and being with the rest of my family.  Hope your weekend is wonderful!  See you back next week!