If Hawking and Mlodinow are proved to be utterly wrong within the next decade, then I’m sure that, being the consummate scientists that they are, they will thrill to the answer and accede to those that will have used their theories to step up to the next level. In the meantime, I’m all for cracking the champers and toasting the multiverse. There’s so much more to love.
A review of Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
Winter Garden is a novel with many layers. Hannah uses a fanciful fairy tale as the link between a mother and her daughters—this is the key that will unlock the secrets that have been hiding in Nina and Meredith’s mother’s past for decades.
A review of Being Light by Helen Smith
Without a doubt, Smith is a master storyteller. A novel with this jig-saw structure couldn’t possibly work without skill. To make such absurdities as fly-away castles and alien abductions so utterly believable is a testament to Smith’s talent. In less experienced hands this story would have been a farce.
A review of Pirate: The Barking Kookabura by Adrian Plitzco
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.