Fondly remembered this month...

Reviews of four tomes ideal for your coffee table – and for perusing during holiday downtime

Music was an all-consuming escape. Now, every song he writes is a love song At 16, I was just starting to take writing seriously. I became obsessed with lyricism and writing lines and my heroes were a

THE PICK OF THE BEST AUDIO ON DEMAND

2025 has been a breakthrough year for soul gospel sensations ANNIE & THE CALDWELLS . A major new album, the patronage of David Byrne and ecstatic live shows have expanded their base beyond West Point, Mississippi to the global stage. Catching up with the Southern matriarch, her husband, daughters and goddaughter in Nashville, Stephen Deusner hears how their mission to spread joy to their audiences is the culmination of a lifelong dream. “I have to smile and tell God thank you because He could have chosen anybody to do this.”

ONE OF THE MOST GRIMLY FUNNY POEMS OF the past century is Philip Larkin’s “This Be the Verse,” with its opening salvo about how our parents invariably mess us up. Larkin used a saltier word for “mess,