May We Suggest ...
DIDI WOOD:
Wake by Lisa McMann. A fantastic young-adult novel with adult appeal. McMann's spare, mesmerizing prose animates this tale of a 17-year-old girl who gets sucked into other people's dreams. If you enjoy this one, you'll be as thrilled as I to know that a sequel is on the way.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and After You'd Gone by Maggie O'Farrell. A friend happened to pick up the former from a bookstore clearance table, and I happened to remember to pick up a copy for myself, and wow! another author to add to my list of favorites. In both novels, O'Farrell navigates smoothly through different times and perspectives, illuminating the relationships among family members and lovers while doling out pieces to a puzzle. My Lover's Lover is next on my list.
The Center of Everything by Laura Moriarty. A wonderful coming-of-age novel that I never would have found if not for a friend's casual recommendation. (I wonder how many other fantastic books I'm missing.)
DAVID SHAPIRO:
Our editor-on-sabbatical Sean McKlusky turned us on a few issues ago to Pandora Internet Radio (www.pandora.com), a unique service that creates custom stations for you based on tonal analysis of the music you like.
You give it a few artists and songs to start with, and it finds and plays others like them. You can tweak your station by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down to each selection.
I put it to the test by creating a station consisting only of acoustic music with female vocals, which I called "Folk Chicks." It took some fiddling to get it right and it occasionally veers off course to make sure I don't really crave male rockers wailing on Stratocasters, but mostly it gives me exactly what I desire.
I like the way it combines the familiarity of your own music collection with the serendipity of new songs and artists you discover on radio.
So my recommendations here are three Folk Chicks I either discovered or got to know a lot better on Pandora:
California singer-songwriter Kate Wolf died in 1986 at age 44 from leukemia, but she left behind a large body of poetic writings performed with a rich, earthy voice. Given her passing at such a young age, some of the titles are heartbreaking - "Unfinished Life," "Although I've Gone Away," "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." But her work reflects boundless optimism that brings me back to her CDs again and again. The best way to get to know Wolf is to buy one of her anthologies. Give Yourself to Love features live performances, Gold in California is her best studio work and Weaver of Visions: The Kate Wolf Anthology combines live and studio recordings.
Kate Rusby is an English folksinger with the vocal purity, if not the range, of the young Joan Baez. She works mainly in traditional songs or originals done in traditional English-Celtic styles, but is also known for the occasional killer cover of more contemporary tunes such as "You Belong To Me," "Our Town" or "Village Green Preservation Society." Her two most recent CDs, Awkward Annie and The Girl Who Couldn't Fly are a good representation of her work.
Christine Lavin is kind of the Weird Al of the folk scene with a biting sense of humor that hits on contemporary culture and topical matters as she gets in touch with her inner bitch (one of her CD titles). She's been around for awhile and has released a lot of funny albums, but Future Fossils and Folkzinger are a good introduction.