music clip of the day

Here—with a shout-out to my nephew Chris Balmes (who sent me this news [and frequently seems to display astonishingly good taste for one so young])—is gospel singer Marie Knight, who died this week in New York at the age of 89.

“Up Above My Head” (she sang on Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s 1947 “hit” recording)

Talking about this and that (singing, too)

New York Times obit.

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lagniappe

reading table

Just finished Zeitoun, Dave Eggers’ intimate look at New Orleans just before, during, and after Katrina, through the eyes of one man and his family, which recently got a rave in the New York Times Book Review. Four-word review: moves quickly, deeply moving.

*****

Recently read Colm Toibin’s novel Brooklyn, which tells the story of a young woman who, in the 1950s, emigrates, reluctantly, from Ireland to America. One of the quietest novels—I mean that as a compliment—I’ve ever read. (Novelist Claire Messud’s thoughtful essay-review in the New York Review of Books is well worth reading.)