As the weather grows colder and the days much shorter I read more. Right now I’m re-reading Charles de Lint’s Forests of The Heart, one of the novels in his Newford series, as I think it’s his best novel of the many he’s written. I’ve actually worn out more than one hardcover edition with repeated readings!
Before I start these notes, I think I’ll wander down to the Estate kitchen for a slice of just baked apple cake which is always deliciously moist because it’s made with our own cider and it definitely offers comfort as the weather turns nasty. Mrs. Ware serves it with a dollop of sour cream, German style I assume.
Speaking of Estate food as we so often do here, our Head Gardener, has something to tell us about a Punjabi meal:
It was a deceptively simple meal that Chandra, one of my staff, prepared with the help of Mrs. Ware and her Kitchen staff: tandoori chicken with rice, naan and roti, samosas and, of course, the wonderful side dishes that had been prepared several weeks before and stored in the Kitchen cooler for this meal so the spices in them could reach their full flavor.
Now let’s see what we’ve got for you this outing . . .
Jazz originated in the African American communities in the States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, but it has since become global music with a living tradition, so it’s fitting that we start off this edition with a review of global jazz by Gary which reflects that history:
One of the things I like most about jazz is that it has become a truly global musical language. Here are three jazz discs I’ve been enjoying a lot this season. The musicians are from all over the world. There’s Anat Cohen, who is based in New York but is Israeli born and raised and currently playing mostly Brazilian music; and the Enrico Rava Quartet from Italy, playing all originals by Rava, a master of jazz trumpet; and the Kari Ikonen piano trio from Finland (and Armenia) playing everything from Armenian folk tunes to Finnish takes on the tango to a John Coltrane cover.
The life of a touring musician who’s not a headliner is generally not an easy one: endless hours travelling, appalling pay and often truly wretched accommodations and food. Kristin Hersh wrote a memoir centering around her on again/off again friendship and collaboration with Vic Chestnutt while touring with him through the U.S., the U.K. and much of Europe. Chestnutt, paralysed from the neck down, was at the best of times, as our reviewer Gary notes “a prickly and mercurial person.” Hersh writes candidly about the difficulties of dealing with Chustnutt and her own schizophrenia and bipolar issues. Gary’s review of Don’t Suck, Don’t Die — Giving Up Vic Chesnutt is an interesting read indeed.
Deep End Sessions, Volume Two from Jesse Milnes and Emilly Miller was a pleasant surprise for Gary:
A married couple who make music together, Jesse Milnes and Emily Miller of West Virginia are steeped in old-time traditions. Both can play solid fiddle or guitar, and they specialize in Appalachian-style close harmonies. Talk about a winning combination! This disc took me by surprise when it came over the transom but it’s quickly become a favorite for the unpretentious yet highly professional style this couple brings to the music.
I’m not alone in terms re-reading. Lisa reviews Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great: Re-Reading the Classics of Fantasy and SF, a book about reading (and re-reading) really good books:
Jo Walton, aside from being the author of Among Others, and the Small Change series (Farthing, Ha’ Penny and Half a Crown), has been engaging in online conversations about really good books since UseNet, at least. When Tor decided to create Tor.com as a place to talk about books, founding editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden prevailed upon Jo Walton to contribute essays about books she was re-reading.
Jo Walton’s What Makes This Book So Great is the second book of columns from the Tor.com website to be turned into a book. The first was Kage Baker’s Ancient Rockets: Treasures and Trainwrecks of the Silent Screen.
Lisa also reviews Laura Anne Gilman’s Silver On The Road (a book Lisa is already planning on re-reading):
Silver On The Road, the first of Gilman’s Devil’s West series, has surpassed [Gilman’s] own previous efforts for world building, and that is no small task. Like Emma Bull’s Territory, Silver on the Road is an example of what many are calling “weird West,” that is, it’s a Western with fantasy elements.
Elsewhere
Given Gary’s review of Kristin Hersh’s Don’t Suck, Don’t Die — Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, readers might be interested in reading Hersh’s tribut page to Vic Chestnutt.
From The Guardian, a discovery of a map of Middle Earth hand-annotated by Tolkien, and used by cartographer/illustrator Pauline Baynes:
The map was found loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the document while she worked.
Nerds of a Feather interviews Elizabeth Bear, a favorite of ours at The Green Man Review. Bear admits that she too is a re-reader, and recommends six books to read. We’ll be reviewing Bear’s Karen Memory, a Weird West adventure from Tor in the very near future.
Celticist Kari Sperring has an interesting post at Strange Horizons about Evangeline Walton, best known for turning the medieval Welsh mabinogi four fantasy novels. In Matrilines: Evangeline Walton: The Woman Who Defined a Genre Sperring notes:
The publication of her four Mabinogi novels marked the start of the so-called “Celtic” fantasy boom. A lot of good writers have subsequently written in that idiom. But very few have her lightness of touch with the material and her ability to retain and enhance its flavour without introducing inappropriate modernisms (such as liberated Celtic warrior women). She did not mix Welsh, Irish, and Breton materials willy-nilly and without care for their differences—which are many. She wrote female characters with depth and agency within their own contexts, which to my eyes is a more profoundly feminist act than inserting kick-ass heroines and Westernized ideas of female strength.
The Green Man Review’s Kimberly Bates writes about Walton’s Mabinogi Quartet and other Mabinogi-inspired works.
Let’s finish off with a story read by master storyteller Catherynne Valente, The Tea Maid and The Tailor’, from The Orphan’s Tales. Valente’s an amazingly prolific writer with two new books, the just released Radiance (Tor) and the soon to be released Six-Gun Snow White (Saga).
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