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Recent Posts
- A Kinrowan Estate story: puppeteers, and their puppets
- 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
Category Archives: Books
Patricia A. McKillip’s The Tower at Stony Wood
Patricia A. McKillip seems to write two kinds of novels. On the one hand, she has produced what I can only call thoughtful adventure stories, such as Riddle-Master. On the other are what I call the “mystery” stories — not … Continue reading
Gregory Maguire’s Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Laurie Thayer contributed this review. When Iris Fisher’s English father is suddenly murdered by his neighbors, Iris’s Dutch mother Margarethe gathers up her daughters (Iris has an elder sister, Ruth) and flees back to her homeland. She hopes to take … Continue reading
Gregory Maguire’s Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Marian McHugh contributed this review. Have you ever wondered about what happened in the Land of Oz before that do-gooder Dorothy and her dog Toto came on the scene and saved the world? Well, Gregory Maguire did, and he took … Continue reading
Jean A. Boyd’s The Jazz of the Southwest
For about 20 years, from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, Western swing was one of the most popular types of music in America. At its peak in the late 1940s, the biggest of them all, Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, was … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Americana music, Jazz music
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Rick Kennedy and Randy McNutt’s Little Labels—Big Sound
Some of the most important and influential American music has been put out by small independent labels. And it’s no accident that it’s also some of the best and most authentic American music, from Delta and Chicago blues to bebop … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Americana music, blues music, Jazz music, rock and roll
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Brian Froud and Terry Jones’ Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Journal
Not to be confused with Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, the Journal was inspired by the same material. Written by Terry Jones (of Monty Python and Labyrinth fame), and illustrated by Brian Froud, the Journal gives us a year’s worth … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Brian Froud, fantasy
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Brian Mansfield and Gray Graff, editors’ MusicHound Country: The Essential Album Guide
This is a very thorough, well researched, readable and useful reference book. If you’re a music junkie like me, and you like anything that could conceivably be called country music, you could probably spend many happy hours thumbing through MusicHound … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged Americana music
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Those troublesome Irish: Three books on Irish rebellions
If you wanted to take a short course in the history of Irish rebellion — a subject as old as a peat bog and as contemporary as today’s news — you could do much worse than to read these three … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged historical fiction, Irish history, nonfiction
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Craig Morrison’s Go Cat Go! Rockabilly Music and its Makers
Rockabilly music is a curious creature. It is one of the most vibrant and durable musical styles ever to be born in America, but it’s more popular in Europe than in its homeland. It’s difficult to define, but everybody knows … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged nonfiction, rock and roll
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Marjorie Sandor’s The Night Gardener: A Search for Home
Redemption through art has become a cliche, as though anyone’s life could be explained and atoned for by the writing of a song, painting of a picture, or telling of a story. Marjorie Sandor, in this collection of stories and … Continue reading
Posted in Books
Tagged nonfiction
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