Tipping Point: Our picks and pans
BOOK TIP
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah
Kristin Hannah, the author of "The Nightingale," has written another bestselling work of historical fiction, this one set in Texas during the devastating drought of the 1930s. The main character of Elsa (who could be nicknamed Elsa, Plain and Tall) is someone who loves but rarely if ever seems to be loved in return, whether by her parents, her husband or her daughter. She is a hard worker, though, helping to run the family farm that sinks deeper into Dust Bowl despair. Eventually, she heads to California, where she is dismissed as an "Okie," struggles against extreme poverty, and ends up living in a tent alongside other migrants. The research that Hannah obviously did makes for intriguing reading about the era. But the humans in the story tend to feel like cardboard characters.
— Kristina Dorsey
DISC TIP
Graz
Nils Frahm
One of those young-ish European keyboard sorcerers whose roots are in Chopin and Debussy as well as Steve Reich, Brian Eno and a host of electronic minimalists, Frahm continues to impress — even though "Graz" is only surfacing 12 years after it was recorded live in the Mumuth Concert Hall at the University of Music and Performing Arts as part of the thesis "Conversations for Piano and Room." Look, I don't know much about piano composition and I can't read music, but Frahm summons beauty, melody, tension and resolution in consistently fresh fashion. And, apparently, he was doing it even in 2009.
— Rick Koster
MOVIE TIP
Minari
Watching the gentle, warmhearted "Minari" feels like getting a hug. The characters might go through struggles, but the overwhelming atmosphere is of familial love and community support. The story is inspired by writer-director Lee Isaac Chung's real life. A Korean immigrant family moves to Arkansas to fulfill the father's dream of starting a farm. His wife loathes the experience, the wilderness and the mobile home they move into. But the kids find nature to explore and friends to make. The arrival of the wife's hot-ticket mother (played by scene-stealing Youn Yuh-Jung) changes things up, as she bonds with her grandson (adorable Alan S. Kim). "Minari" is up for a number of Oscars, including Best Picture, best supporting actress for Youn Yuh-Jung, best actor for Steven Yeun as the father, and Chung for writing and directing.
— Kristina Dorsey
Stories that may interest you
How women invented book clubs, revolutionizing reading and their own lives
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the first American reading circles — a precursor to book clubs — required little more than a thirst for literature and a desire to discuss it with like-minded women.
In a Latin genre dominated by men, reggaeton's Karol G takes aim at the top
"It's so much fun being the bad girl," Karol G says.
Father/son rap duo Justus Preech offer positive hip-hop
Father/son rap duo Justus Preech offer positive hip-hop on two CD releases
Once, she was known as Mad Maxine. Now she's taking readers inside the wrestling ring.
Jeannine Mjoseth's first journalism job was profiling residents for an in-house newspaper at a 16,000-person retirement home in Florida. She was surprised at how full and interesting their lives had been. But it bothered her that she didn't have the time or space to really do those lives...
READER COMMENTS