He tried to reconstruct the story in his mind, but it kept getting confused, bleeding into itself like watercolors.―
I’m in the Kitchen enjoying a very late evening snack of hot cider and a just-baked apple and Riverrun cheddar cheese tart. A member of our staff’s playing music by piper Kathryn Tickell and right now it’s the set of ‘The Magpie’, ‘Rothbury Road’ and ‘The Cold Shoulder’ which Memoria, our Library app, tells me was recorded at the Washington, D.C., Irish Folk Fest on the second of September, fourteen years ago.
I always enjoy Kinrowan Hall best when it’s at its quietest, which is why I’m oftimes down in the kitchen late in the evening, or walking outside just after dawn breaks. And now I see my mug needs refilling before I finish off this edition… Now let’s see what I’ve got for you…
Gary says he liked Per Pettersen’s Out Stealing Horses even better the second time around. ‘At its most basic Out Stealing Horses is a story of war-induced trauma and its generational effects on society, families and individuals. Petterson is a highly skilled writer, and the translation by Anne Born captures the story’s nuances quite well. Petterson’s spare prose style perfectly matches Trond’s dry, buttoned-up personality and the difficulties he has in coping with unfamiliar emotions and situations.’
Gary liked Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace even better than its prequel, A Memory Called Empire, which he reviewed last time. ‘With her first two novels, Arkady Martine has emerged as the author of some of the best military/political science fiction of the era. Her memorable and not always likable characters capture and hold our imaginations as they navigate a host of big meaning-of-life questions in life-or-death situations. This is space opera for the ages. I have high expectations and many questions that I hope are met in the next installment. Like, I wonder if I’m right about the kittens?’
Charles de Lint’s Yarrow: An Autumn Tale gets a loving look by Grey: ‘Cat Midhir has stopped dreaming. People assure her that it isn’t possible, that she just doesn’t remember her dreams, but Cat knows they’re wrong. Where her dreams have been, there is only heaviness and loss. For Cat, this loss means more than it would to most of us, because she is that rarest of all dreamers, a person who returns to the same dream every time she sleeps. In her dream world live her truest friends and her only source of inspiration for the books and stories that have won her acclaim in her waking life…’
Jennifer loves the new Daniel Pinkwater from Tachyon, Jules, Penny & the Rooster, another goofy and comforting middle-grade chapter book about the enchanted forest in Jules’ back yard. And yes, there is a magic turtle!
Leona gives an incisive review of Black Is the Colour of My True-Love’s Heart, an Ellis Peters novel: ‘Originally published in 1967, ‘this is a book of music, of silence, of words; it has love, hate, and all their analogues. Myths and facts combine to wrap the storyline in a heavy cloak of authenticity. This is a story of high passion and cool deliberation; it dances through the morals and minds of another age and gives the reader a wide window into the world of folk music and ballad-singers.’
Emma Bull’s War for The Oaks with a battle between the Fey and some of we mortal humans that is settled using music on Midsummers Eve. It also features music from Cats Laughing, or perhaps Cats Laughing plays music from the novel. I’ll need to ask Will which it is… Ahhh he says the band comes after the novel. Oh and we’ve got the trailer made for a film version of the novel didn’t happen which has some of the music in the novel. Michael has a lovingly detailed review of it here.
Steven Brust, a musician himself, brings us, in collaboration with Megan Lindholm, The Gypsy, which — well, as Robert puts it: ‘There are three brothers who have become separated. They are the Raven, the Owl, and the Dove. Or perhaps they are Raymond, Daniel, and Charlie. They are probably Baroly, Hollo, and Csucskari. One plays the fiddle, one plays tambourine, and one has a knife with a purpose.’
Down the decades, we’ve reviewed most everything Patricia McKillip has published, so it’s only fitting that we finish off this time with a review by Richard of her latest book: ‘With Dreams of Distant Shores, Patricia A. McKillip delivers something that is not quite your typical short story collection. While the point of entry is a series of shorter pieces, the collection builds to and is anchored by the lengthy novella “Something Rich and Strange”, with an essay on writing high fantasy orthogonal to the usual tropes. The book then ends with appreciation of McKillip’s work (and the stories in the collection) by Peter S. Beagle, an elegant coda to a warm, thought-provoking collection.’
Richard looks at a novel from a beloved writer: ‘Peter S. Beagle’s latest, Summerlong is an exercise in masterful, hopeful heartbreak. Deeply steeped in mythology yet relentlessly modern (if a bit sentimental), it tackles the big questions of love, compromise, dreams, and what you might do – or forgive – in the face of the sublime.’
Zina ends our book reviews with Charles de Lint’s What the Mouse Found and Other Stories: ‘Ah — two of my favorite things, paired in one slim volume. (Sorry, I’ve always wanted to use the phrase “slim volume” somewhere.) Fairy tales and Charles de Lint. The postman dropped the package through the door this afternoon. Just a bit later, here I am at my computer. I couldn’t not read it right away, could I?’
We asked a number of folk we know what is your comfort food? Is it a bowl of your mother’s fish chowder Or a warm doughnut dusted with powdered sugar? Comfort food is as individual as each of us. And here is Deborah Grabien‘s reply:
Well, it’s an odd thing: as a cook, I think all food is comfort food.
No, I’m not being difficult. It’s just that I love to cook, and I don’t cook anything I don’t also love to eat, unless I’m cooking for a large crowd. The whole thing about food is that — like air and water — it’s one of the great imperatives. Sex is brilliant, but you can go without it your entire life with no ill effects, and in fact, many do. Try going without food, air or water, though, and you’re in serious trouble.
Gary was quite taken with the DVD of The Richard Thompson Band’s Live At Celtic Connections, from that Glasgow festival in 2011. It featured a big band doing numbers from Thompson’s 2010 release Dream Attic plus a second set drawn from his 40-some-year career solo and with former wife Linda. ‘This was not an average night, with a good crowd of Glaswegians, a road-tested band and the charged atmosphere of Celtic Connections. This one is a must-have for any Thompson fan,’ Gary says.
A labor of love is how Gary describes the making of the DVD about the great jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli: A Life in the Jazz Century. The film purportedly contains all known footage of Grappelli’s partner Django Reinhardt, as well as footage of Grappelli ‘making music with the likes of Yehudi Menuhin, George Shearing, Duke Ellington and others. Many other figures from his life contribute interviews, and rare clips of Art Tatum, Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang, and Gregor and the Gregoriens are included.’
In new music, Gary had high praise for Trendafilka’s For the Olives: ‘Trendafilka is an 11-piece women’s vocal ensemble singing a repertoire based on traditional folk songs of Eastern Europe — the Balkans, the Baltics, the Caucasus, and the Eurasian Steppe — all places with rich traditions of polyphonic singing.’
From the Archives, Craig said The Saw Doctors’ first album after a long pause reflects the band members’ maturity: ‘But The Cure is not a big mope fest. As people grow and mature so should their songwriting. The same band that embraced the “Where’s the Party?” (another cut from <i>Sham</i>) attitude are now embracing concepts like fatherhood (“Your Guitar”), which in turn reminds them of the “Wisdom of Youth” in the form of a power ballad that contains some of the album’s best guitar work.’
David reviewed two albums featuring lots of fiddling, Lissa Schneckenburger’s Dance, and Oliver Schroer and the Stewed Tomatoes’ Freedom Row. Of the former, he says, ‘I found my feet tapping, my fingers popping as I listened. The music is subtle, essentially acoustic, just guitar and fiddle for the most part.’ And of the latter, ‘The sound is virtually seamless but the fiddle is the driver here. The music is played by a band in the same way that Duke Ellington’s Orchestra played. Duke might have played the piano but the orchestra was his main instrument, and that could be the best way to describe what happens with the Stewed Tomatoes.’
David also got a kick out of John Stewart’s Havana. ‘The songs are vintage Stewart, simple chord structures, catchy but subtle melodies, and lyrics both straitforward and honest. Stewart is singing more like recent Johnny Cash these days. A bit breathy, deep and a little wobbly…but true and captivating.’
Judith found lots to like in a various artists album with lots of guitar: Six Strings North Of The Border is an instrumental collection of tunes from Canadian guitarists. Often record companies compile showcases of their own artist, but some of the guitarists here record via Borealis and some don’t. All the selections are good, and range from Celtic to World Fusion to Old Time, plenty of variety: something for everyone.’
She also enjoyed 3 Ravens by a Scottish group: ‘Malinky’s style is contemporary traditional and carries whatever power it has in strings and bellows and flat goatskin. Though not as loud and driving as some bands (particularly those with pipes or bass) it is a solid band with great musicians and an interesting menu, and 3 Ravens is a sure bet for almost any reasonable Scottish music enthusiast.’
Later on, I was entertaining myself this afternoon by doing searches for music on the Infinite Jukebox, our Media server, and decided to see if we had anything by Procol Harum. To my considerable delight, I found a bootleg of them called Transmissions ’69 (live) though that was all I could find out about it when I went online. Delightfully, it had their “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” on it.
