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Recent Posts
- What’s New for the 16th of August: Deborah Grabien’s music criticism essays; new Americana and jazz, and some music for the Dog Days of Summer
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Midsomer Strangeness
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Contradances
- What’s New for the 26th of July: Witches in fiction, both books and film; an Americana reissue and some music on a smoky theme
- A Kinrowan Estate story: chicken pot pieces
- What’s New for the 19th of July: Charles de Lint’s Ottawa novels with a quote from Drink Down the Moon, Gary’s review of Nordic fiddle music, It’s Michele Walther and Irina Behrendt playing Aaron Copland’s ‘Hoe Down’ from his Rodeo album
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Midsomer Odd Things
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Library and Its Librarian
- What’s New for the Fifth of July: Remembering Jane Yolen; some new Americana and jazz music; Fishing Blues
- A Kinrowan Estate Story: Recursive Loops
- What’s New for June 21: Jennifer Stevenson’s ‘Solstice’
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Turkish Coffee
- What’s New for the 7th of June: Foxes in literature, live Balkan music, comforting jazz, Americana jazz, and wonderfully weird fusion jazz; and John Fogerty live
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Bloodied Kings
- What’s New for the 24th of May: Gary’s Review of Elizabeth Bear’s White Space novels, iain’s review of the Lonely Signal Burns novellas by her, she reading her own story, ‘The Chains That You Refuse’, and I see Gary has some tasty music reviews fir us as well
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Our Greensward
- What’s New for the 10th of May: books reviewed by Jennifer Stevenson, music by Teddy Thompson, Americana music from all over, and some live music from John Fogerty
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Walk
- What’s New for the 26th of April: the nature of Stories; some new and newish SF, plus new world, jazz, folk and Americana music
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Spring Day
- What’s New for the 12th of April: Some new and recent SF; new Americana, Norwegian folk rock and jazz; and thoughts on War For The Oaks
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Unified Theory of Libraries (A Letter to Anna)
- What’s New for the 29th of March: Beer and spirits, in song and text, some new Scandinavian fiddle music and jazz flute music, and more
- A Kinrowan Estate story: A Ghostly Librarian
- What’s New for the 15th of March: some DeLint stories for early spring; lots of polskas, Serbian folk rock, progressive jazz, and Nordic music from the archives
- A Kinrowan Estate story: Hedge Witches
- What’s New for the 1st of March: Emma Bull’s War for The Oaks, Rosanne Cash’s ‘Runaway Train’, Johnny Cash at San Quentin, plus new Americana and jazz music
- A Kinrorwan Estate story: Cranachanh
- What’s New for the 15th of February: Some Seanan McGuire fantasy, Alison Bechdel’s latest, Pamela Dean’s Tam Lin; Nordic sounds, old time, Americana and Tex-Mex music
- What’s New for the 1st of February: Kage Baker retrospective; new Americana, Buddhist chants and Finnish songs, new and reissued jazz, and more
Category Archives: Books
Ernest Hogan’s Smoking Mirror Blues
Reality is the only game worth playing. — Smokey Espejo in Smoking Mirror Blues. If you think Emma Bull’s conception of the loa and the post-collapse city they created in Bone Dance was weird, consider that in Ernest Hogan’s Smoking … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Aztec mthology, Day of the Dead, Los Angeles, Science Giction
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Alan Moore and Bill Baker’s Alan Moore’s Exit Interview
The main draw of Alan Moore’s Exit Interview comes from the fact that Moore dishes, at great length, on where exactly his relationship with DC Comics went sour. To a lesser extent, Moore talks about upcoming projects, the origins of British comics … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Alan Moore
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Sharyn McCrumb’s Ghost Riders
Andrea penned this review. Ghost Riders is the latest novel in Sharyn McCrumb’s “Ballad Series.” Ghost Riders is different from the others in the series in that there is no mystery (in the “mystery novel” sense of the word) to … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged American Civial War, Appalachian culture, mystery
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Ian McDonald’s Ares Express
You will know whether you will love or hate Ares Express long before you have finished the first chapter. The litmus test is very simple: what is your reaction to the name of the main character. If you find Sweetness … Continue reading
Steven Brust’s To Reign in Hell
William P. Simmons wrote this review. Satan, Lucifer, Old Scratch: no matter what you call him, the Devil has been a central character in Western literature since the first man rebelled and the first heart broke. Liar, tempter, and stealer of … Continue reading
Charles de Lint’s Forests of the Heart
El lobo pierde los dientes mas no las mientes (The wolf loses his teeth, not his nature). — Mexican-American proverb quoted in this novel. Some novels are so good, so interesting, that they bear repeated readings over a period of time. … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Irish mythology, Southwest desert mythology, urban fantasy
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Kevin McDermott’s Elephant House or, the Home of Edward Gorey
Anyone who has watched the Mystery! series on the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the past 20 years or so is familiar with one small portion of the works of Edward Gorey. It was Gorey’s artwork that was used … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Edward Gorey
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Ian McDonald’s King of Morning, Queen of Day
Today, I picked up King of Morning, Queen of Day again just to refresh my memory before writing this review. After all, it doesn’t do to refer to a book’s main character as Jennifer if her name is actually Jessica. … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged fantasy, Ireland, Irish mythology
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Deborah A. Symonds’s Weep Not For Me
This has not been an easy book to review, for several reasons. First of all, we must consider the full title, and the subject matter: Weep Not For Me: Women, Ballads, and Infanticide in Early Modern Scotland. That’s right, Deborah … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Child Ballads, infantcide, Scottish ballads, Scottish culture, Scottish history, Tam Lin
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Taj Mahal’s Taj Mahal: Autobiography of a Bluesman
Born in New York, Henry Saint Clair Fredericks has been known as Taj Mahal for most of his sixty years. The original Taj Mahal is an icon of beauty and remembrance representing love and amazing craftsmanship which stands outside of … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged blues, folk music, rock and roll, Taj Mahal
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