Kicking off today’s Friday Five with some real honest talk; this morning I had the Friday Five pretty much ready to go but it was, frankly, boring. I wasn't terribly jazzed about the topic, I wasn't interested in editing it and it didn't take a genius to figure out it would be rather boring to read. So I scrapped and rebooted. The result was a heck of a lot more fun to write but admittedly lacks the usual thread of a theme. The result? Five books that right now, I really like. That's it. No bells and whistles, no erudite musings on esoteric texts that may have escaped notice the first time around. It's a reading round up, plain and simple.

LUCKY US What an absolute pleasure to spend last weekend completely absorbed in the world of Amy Bloom. As I prepared for our conversation about her amazing new memoir detailing her husband's battle with Alzheimer's and their experience with Dignitas I revisited some well-loved Bloom books and read, for the first time, others. White Houses chronicling the rapturous love story love affair of Eleanor and Hick; Come to Me with its opening story trifecta of perfection: Maine, complicated love, family saga; Away with it's circular journey across continents to find a missing daughter; enjoyable, all. But something about the fraught sisterly bond smashed to smithereens in Lucky Us kept me reading well into the night and boy, did I enjoy it.

TIME IS A MOTHER Poetry is like meditation; when I “do” it, I’m so very glad. However I have to admit, I fall out of practice from time to time. Therefore I was thrilled when an advance copy of Ocean Vuong’s forthcoming new collection (April 5) arrived on my doorstep. Poetry, like meditation, makes me sit up and pay attention. It’s difficult to skim a poem, something I have no problem doing with many novels, moving along more swiftly than I might prefer because, well, 1) it’s my job to consume lot of text and 2) life is busy and 3) there are just so very many good books to read. I was eager to see what Ocean would do with this collection because it plays in some parts like a companion piece to the devastatingly good On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous. Readers, I was not disappointed. BONUS: if you pre-order this book, we will (while supplies last) make sure you receive an exclusive signed first edition as well as a limited-edition broadside featuring a poem from Time Is a Mother.

MECCA This is the book I needed after several “I know I’m going to love this because of the reviews” or "I loved the author’s previous book so I'm going to love this one too" failures. I'm only a handful of chapters in but author Susan Straight has hooked me with an incredibly well-drawn sense of place. My love affair with an author who pays attention to setting dates back to my university days and a professor who taught a literature class on Environment with a capital E. From the moment I opened Mecca I could smell the eucalyptus and see the Southern Calfiornia landscape spreading out beneath me. I have never called California home but often imagine I would have should one single detail of my life shifted slightly. I’ll check back via social once I’ve gotten a bit further but I’m settling into this one with a sigh of relief knowing that I’ve got a compelling saga with richly drawn canyon-roaming characters ahead. 

I MUST BETRAY YOU Confession: this is my first dance with Ruta Sepetys (I know, I know, I'm late to the party). Now that we've gotten that out of the way, reading her latest novel (shelved in YA but really for anyone who loves historical fiction) showed me why the praise persists. I Must Betray You follows a young boy coerced into becoming an informant for the Romanian government by police who suggest significant rewards for his cooperation. Haunting parallels to the current global situation remind us of the roadmap history provides and may provide an interesting break from some of the more heady and academic texts that are surely important but sometimes difficult to digest. 

DESSERT CAN SAVE THE WORLD Finally, sorry/not sorry for this candy confection perfection of a recommendation. For top-level comfort reading, Christina Tosi's personal narrative should rocket to the top of your list. This is the girl boss story I want to gift to all the soon-to-be graduates eyeing an entrepreneurial or food-related path. Also, I will, going forward, be naming all appliances in my house. You'll have to pick it up the book to discover why.