One of the key links between both sections are mountains – the linked chain between the past and present; between Korea and Australia. There is always, a great deal of respect for the native landowners – the Yugambeh people whose stories and artwork are present throughout the narrative.
A review of The Sense of An Ending by Julian Barnes
The Sense of an Ending is a beautifully crafted exploration of a character arc that happens too late to affect change. The motion from clever smugness to painful self-awareness is flawless. The absolute control of Barnes’ prose coupled with the philosophical power of his meditations has resulted in a book that’s as dense and powerful as it is readable.
A review of Waiting for the Apocalypse by Veronica Chater
One of the lovely parts of the story is Veronica’s language—she paints a complex picture of her family, using heavy doses of metaphorical language and lots of questioning about how her life unfolds. She is quite trapped in her lifestyle. She writes much later, looking back and many of the incidences described are all about falling away, falling down, or just not making it.
A review of Stories for Nighttime and Some for the Day by Ben Loory
Loory often ends with an invisible higher power, who seems to approve the goings-on with laughter or, in the case of the balloon, “a faint, expected pop.” What’s eerie about a balloon breaking? Nothing, if you don’t think a child is attached to it as it rises above the Stories world.
A review of George and the Big Bang by Lucy and Stephen Hawking
A book like this could spark a love of science that might last a lifetime, but even at its base level, it’s a great story. For those who are meeting George for the first time, the book is self-contained and provides enough background so that new readers won’t be perplexed. For those already a fan of the George stories, this new book won’t disappoint.
A review of Heidegger’s Glasses by Thaisa Frank
Frank gives readers a rare taste of what it was really like to be inside the Third Reich. Of course most of us have heard stories of Hitler’s quest for world domination, and unfortunately we’ve all heard stories about the death camps, but Frank’s novel falls somewhere in between. The story is more of what the officers endured on a regular basis.
Sunshine on a Cloudy Day: the anthology of Number Ones by The Temptations
Many Motown songs show mastery of that subject, as well as assertions of transcendent love, as in “You’re My Everything,” in which the singer’s high voice issuing dedication and praise may have presaged the work of the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind and Fire; and certainly musicians such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Terence Trent D’Arby, Brian McKnight, and Maxwell have found much to emulate in this assured, expressive music.
Home, and the Difficulty of Making One: The Whole Love by Wilco, featuring Jeff Tweedy
The music of Wilco on The Whole Love is easy to listen to, not abrasive, not strange. “Sunloathe” is a ballad, with piano and guitar; and the mid-tempo “Dawn on Me” reminds one of 1970s rock; while “Black Moon” could hardly be simpler, with acoustic guitar and plain vocal declarations. It is all more reassuring than some might expect; and it is good and solid work, and a pleasure—work that deserves to be heard.
Music as Memory: David Lang’s This Was Written by Hand, performed by pianist Andrew Zolinsky
David Lang, the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his work “The Little Match Girl Passion,” inspired by both Hans Christian Andersen and Bach, has created work for dance and film as well as concert performance; and Lang is joined for this album recording by the interpretive pianist Andrew Zolinsky, who has performed Lang’s work before and that of other composers, as well as appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Concerto Orchestra.
Building Sounds: Michael Gordon’s Timber, performed by Slagwerk Den Haag
Six percussionists participate in the music performance: Fedor Teunisse, the artistic leader of Slagwerk Den Haag, and Marcel Andriessen, Niels Meliefste, Pepe Garcia, Juan Martinez, and Frank Wienk. By turns, the sounds are of a pulsing rhythm, and a pecking sound that becomes lower then rises and becomes low again, and a rattling and rolling that is then ringing, a hammering that heralds, and finally something clocklike, with a quickened tempo that subsequently slows. It is fascinating.