You occasionally run across a book that you think would make a great modern tv show or romantic comedy movie. For 2025, personally it’s Blood, Bones, and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton which is a love letter to NYC Jewish theater/restaurants combined with Italian cooking tourism by one of their top chefs who grew up as a theater kid to run her own place: Prune. The bisexual female Jewish lead gets married for a decade to an Italian Catholic aristocrat lawyer and his lovely family after some creative backstory and girlfriends makes for funny antics. It’s messy, complicated, and interesting mixing both modern and conservative worlds and generations colliding in a major city and Italian countryside. There’s these little gems of characters that any actor could really shine their heart in and 100% tourist cannon fodder. You’d need an attractive Italian lead though in their late 40s or early 50s…or someone willing to play one. The bones of a great screenplay. 3-4 major locations? theater, restaurant, Italian countryside home, and NYC apartment. You could expand based on budget if people were willing to make cameos, but great gem. Maybe some Netflix film director will pick it up and have fun with it.
It’s a nice break from the garden as we’ve had a week of rain so while the plants are loving it, nothing fun to report. What are you reading?