The Australian bush is vividly described as the team goes on their little quest, taking the reader through swimming holes, caves and Eucalyptus forests. Children will love little Pirate best of all, conjuring up the little barking bird in their imaginations – which makes a nice change from the video screens and televisions that tend to take over the modern household.
Interview with Mayra Calvani
The author of How To Turn Your Book Club Into a Spectacular Event talks about her latest book, about book clubs and their benefits, about why writing for middle-grade readers is so much fun, her darker talents, and lots more.
The Abundance of Your House: Spoon’s Transference
Spoon has become one of the most engaging and significant bands of its era; and Spoon’s Transference, a very good album, is one informed by loneliness—and makes loneliness less damning, more understandable, the beginning of a true relationship.
Modern Mythologies: Galactic’s Ya-Ka-May
Daily life as a celebration is the atmosphere the musicians wanted to capture; and they have done that in Ya-Ka-May—National Public Radio’s music critic Ken Tucker called Ya-Ka-May an extremely thoughtful party album. It is the spirit of New Orleans, the spirit that keeps its residents joyful despite difficulties, loyal in the face of other options, and full of memory as they walk the streets of faraway towns.
Natural Correspondences in Art: Silver Pony by Cassandra Wilson
Standards challenge the singer to match or surpass those who have come before (and Streisand’s version of “Lover Come Back to Me,” both frantic and erotic, is in my head), but Cassandra Wilson reflects on the lyrics as she sings—registering relish and regret—and improvises a bit of wordless wildness toward the end of “Lover Come to Back to Me,” making it hers. It is a good beginning for her album Silver Pony, which collects live and studio performances of old and new songs, some of which she has helped to write.
The Storyteller, Live at Dizzy’s Club, by Randy Weston and his African Rhythms Sextet
The work of jazz musician Randy Weston has great authority, and in it light notes are balanced—or haunted—by dark chords; and there is jostling energy and yearning horns and a shuffling beat within stark arrangements: there is majesty, depth, and pleasure.
Privileged Intimacies: The Conformist by Doveman, featuring Thomas Bartlett
Boys can be as cruel when nonchalant as they are when intense. “Of your body now I’ve had my fill,” Bartlett declares in “Angel’s Share,” a song that admits that paradise is accidental and does not last. “If the story’s broken, well it’s easy to mend. If you don’t love her, you can always pretend,” claims Bartlett, in a song (“The Burgundy Stain”) that acknowledges that evidence of the truth will linger despite denials. Some girls move as swiftly, as selfishly, as certain boys.
Dreams, Pleasures, Rhythms: Melt White by Brass Bed
Sometimes the simple things take courage: it can take courage to cry or to smile, especially if others are pretending to have no feelings at all. It also takes a certain strength to identify an ideal and remain committed to it, especially if it is an old ideal in a time of changing values, when decadent indulgences reign. I thought of that after listening to Brass Bed, and finding myself remembering the Beatles and the Beach Boys and the dreamy popular music that followed those two groups in different forms through the decades.
Modern Folk Wisdom in Music: Horace Trahan, Keep Walking
Horace Trahan, like the singers Marc Broussard and Dege Legg, sounds like a soul forcing its fire through a body and out of a mouth. Trahan, who name-checks the Beastie Boys and Duran Duran and Judas Priest, wanted his traditional music to bear some relation to the contemporary world (“I love all kinds of music.”).
A review of Speaking Volumes conversations with remarkable writers by Ramona Koval
Always Koval begins the process by establishing a sense of safety and trust in the author which leads to a tremendous intimacy and honesty on the part of the interviewee. Every interview is a pleasure, full of insight and wisdom. This is a delightful book that bridges the gap between author and reader.