Throughout the album, George Benson’s guitar playing is soulful and supple—the notes are clear, concentrated, and sensuous. Through his playing and the warmth of his singing—and energetic scatting—Benson, supported by the trumpet of Wynton Marsalis, makes Cole’s signature song “Unforgettable” —a composition by Irving Gordon—now Benson’s to claim. “When I Fall in Love” is a traditionally lush romantic duet, with Idina Menzel, a performer in theater, film, and television.
Out of Tenderness and Wisdom: Ramzi Aburedwan, Reflections of Palestine
Bouzouk-player Ramzi Aburedwan’s Reflections of Palestine reminds me a little of Spanish music. (Could it be that the Middle East influenced Spain? Yes.) Music is almost always a shared thing, a common treasure. I can’t say this music is calming, as it is full of detail, intensity, shifts, requiring attention—but it is enriching.
A review of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Though The Narrow Road to the Deep North is very much a novel of war, and the impact of the war experience, it is also a love story. It is perhaps the love story itself – and the many manifestations of love, as it appears in the book, that affects the transformation. Love too is a permanent force, leaving its imprint, and changing us.
A review of Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova
To explain the art of thinking, Konnikova uses the metaphor of the mind as an attic in which memories are filed away. The metaphor works well. The reader will readily understand that attics contain important and less important memories and that some places in the attic are more accessible than others. There is also the problem of remembering where one has placed certain items — memory retrieval. But there is much more to learning how to think than how one deals with memories.
A review of Propinquity by John Macgregor
One of the many virtuous attributes of the novel, is the warm and tender friendship between the characters which remain intact even after they go their separate ways after school and university. Another, is the idea of the spiritual search each character is pursuing in order to discover their own personal, ultimate Truth. Macgregor has created a witty, intelligent read, well-suited to those who love an intricate, well-managed mystery.
A review of Deep Blood by Phillip Thompson
As a reader, I like to travel along with my characters as they experience life, and change and grow from those experiences. At the beginning of the novel, Harper is a man who expresses little, and at the end of the novel, Harper is still a man who expresses little. Happiness is elusive.
A review of DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Vienna by Stephen Brook
To my way of thinking, the best way to make use of a week in Vienna is to spend one day in the city and another in the country (or outside of the Ring), and to so alternate. You’re thereby assured of a fund of memorable experiences, punctuated by the presence of coffee and cakes, cyclamens and Calvary figures, wine and wonderful scenery.
A conversation with Rosie Sultan
The author of Helen in Love talks about her new book, about her interest in Helen Keller, about the most exciting and shocking information she found during her research, about the relationship between biography and historical fiction, and more.
A review of Floats the Dark Shadow by Yves Fey
Fey, a well-travelled American author who writes historical romances under the names Taylor Chase and Gayle Feyrer, has done thorough research for Floats a Dark Shadow, not only into Parisian landmarks and locations, but also into French history, specifically, into Gilles des Rais, and into the Paris Commune (1871), which happened twenty-six years earlier than the time frame of the novel, but is still vivid in Parisians’ memories
Interview with Carolyn Holland
The author of Seeds of Transition talks about her new book, about becoming a writer, about publishing, and more.