Friday Favorites~a weekly series where we share our favorite books, decor, fashion finds, recipes, podcasts, articles and more.
FRIDAY FAVORITES NO. 632
Good morning friends! How was your week? It was a hot sunny and busy week here. Honestly, I am starting to sound like a broken record. It has been an unusually busy few weeks and every week there seems to be more and more on the calendar. I think life is like that, sometimes we are incredibly busy and sometimes there is a lull.
Sunday is Easter, do you have plans? Are you hosting? Traveling? Or staying put at home. We are in town and celebrating with family.
As always, I have lots to share so let’s get to all of our Friday Favorites!
FOOD
A beautiful spring Nicoise Salad that is perfect for your Easter brunch, lunch or dinner.
This artichoke gouda tart would be scrumptious for Easter brunch.
Home rolls are one of my favorite things to eat at holiday dinners. This year I might try to make these Homemade Lion House rolls with honey butter.Â
Easter inspired coconut cotton tail martini!Â
LINKS TO READ+WATCH+LISTEN
Are the ads on your phone helping or hurting you?
Family Estrangement: How to Understand, Heal and Rebuild
Do you need cocoa free chocolate?
Is it finally safe to ditch your phone case? I put it to the test
You May Need More of This Vitamin To Prevent Memory Loss, Study Finds
Why the quaint paintings of Thomas Kinkade divided the US
Make an easy cabbage flower arrangement for the holidays.
The most beautiful under-the-radar tulip fields in the world.
Dire wolves have been brought back from extinction using DNA.
Independent bookselling expanded again in 2022, with new and diverse stores opening nationwide
25 Easy High-Protein Breakfasts You’ll Want To Make Forever
BOOKS
Every Time We Say Goodbye
In 1955, Vivien Lowry is facing the greatest challenge of her life. Her latest play, the only female-authored play on the London stage that season, has opened in the West End to rapturous applause from the audience. The reviewers, however, are not as impressed as the playgoers and their savage notices not only shut down the play but ruin Lowry’s last chance for a dramatic career. With her future in London not looking bright, at the suggestion of her friend, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien takes a job in as a script doctor on a major film shooting in Rome’s Cinecitta Studios. There she finds a vibrant movie making scene filled with rising stars, acclaimed directors, and famous actors in a country that is torn between its past and its potentially bright future, between the liberation of the post-war cinema and the restrictions of the Catholic Church that permeates the very soul of Italy.
As Vivien tries to forge a new future for herself, she also must face the long-buried truth of the recent World War and the mystery of what really happened to her deceased fiancé.
The Library Thief
1896. After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence’s father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame—and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester.
Intercepting her father’s latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield’s library is old and full of secrets—but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife.
Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realizes with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield’s wife—which may hold the clue to her fate…
Evocative, arresting and tightly plotted, The Library Thief is at once a propulsive Gothic mystery and a striking exploration of race, gender and self-discovery in Victorian England.
The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club
It is the summer of 1919 and Constance Haverhill is without prospects. Now that all the men have returned from the front, she has been asked to give up her cottage and her job at the estate she helped run during the war. While she looks for a position as a bookkeeper or—horror—a governess, she’s sent as a lady’s companion to an old family friend who is convalescing at a seaside hotel. Despite having only weeks to find a permanent home, Constance is swept up in the social whirl of Hazelbourne-on-Sea after she rescues the local baronet’s daughter, Poppy Wirrall, from a social faux pas.
Poppy wears trousers, operates a taxi and delivery service to employ local women, and runs a ladies’ motorcycle club (to which she plans to add flying lessons). She and her friends enthusiastically welcome Constance into their circle. And then there is Harris, Poppy’s recalcitrant but handsome brother—a fighter pilot recently wounded in battle—who warms in Constance’s presence. But things are more complicated than they seem in this sunny pocket of English high society. As the country prepares to celebrate its hard-won peace, Constance and the women of the club are forced to confront the fact that the freedoms they gained during the war are being revoked.
MORE BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
If you have already read these books or missed something I have featured before on the blog check out My Bookshop on Amazon.Â
SHOPPING~OUTFIT OF THE DAY
If you don’t like to wear shorts, a skirt is the next best thing! It is comfortable, and easy to accessorize. You can wear it with a t-shirt, a sweater or a blouse. This week I paired a classic white skirt with a fun summer t-shirt, a pair of green sandals that I seem to be drawn to as I have shared them twice already and a wicker tote and sunglasses.Â
What do you think? How do you like to wear your summer skirts?
Outfit Details~Click the Photos
UNTIL TOMORROW
Tell me something that made you smile this week!
I will tell you what made me smile, two baby bunnies in my neighbors garden and the 5 little birds that just hatched in the nest on my wreath.
I hope you enjoyed the recipes, links and books I discovered this week on Friday Favorites. Thank you for spending part of your day with me, your time is valuable and I am grateful that you spend a little of each day with me. Â Have a wonderful weekend.
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Don’t forget that Kim, Juliet and I will be back tomorrow on Weekend Meanderings!
If you have missed a Friday Favorites post you can find them all here.
This post contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.Â
On My Radar~Spring Dresses
What made me smile you ask? Our neighbors finally took down their Christmas “decorations” for lack of a better word. Really they tossed everything into a metal bucket on their “front stoop” – the elegant front porch went away a LONG time ago.
Looking forward to moving very very very soon.
This comment made me laugh because we have a pile of rolls of carpet that the contractor has to pick up sitting on our porch. Thankfully you can’t see it unless you come to the door.
Hopefully it won’t take your neighbors 5 months to move the decorations off the porch.
I hope that you have a wonderful Easter.
(smile) Well, I can assure you, sadly, they will in fact stay right where they landed!
Hence our pending move.
A peaceful Easter to you and yours.
I always enjoy your book recommendations, Elizabeth! Thank you for another lovely Friday Favorites! There is a little robin in our garden who keeps sitting in the tree and watching Into our kitchen window. He/she really makes me smile!
Thank you April! I love the story of the little robin sitting in the window! That would make me smile too.
Happy Easter.