Midsummer Day's Dream

In search of a new season to conquer (after a long run of successful A Winter's Solstice recordings), Windham Hill took aim at summer in 1997. The first Summer Solstice disc isn't exactly top-down cruising music; it's more of a back-porch soundtrack suitable for watching fireflies or for mulling the fading light of a languid summer's day. A few pieces (violinist Tracy Silverman's take on Vivaldi; pianist Liz Story's "The Promise") feel a bit weighty for the theme here, but the disc is well stocked with compensatory highlights. Among them are the intelligent, softly propulsive melody strung together by Paul McCandless (oboe) and bassist Michael Manring ("In Our Jasmine Days"); David Arkenstone's twinkling, mandolin-centered dance in the sun ("Companions"); some classic Will Ackerman ("Incondizionatamente") on parlor guitar; a charming, slowly unfolding melody found in "Summer Star" by harpist Lisa Lynne; Story's lovely, ruminating "Out of Time"; a sunny frolic on harmonica by George Winston; and a hushed, jazz-inclined medley of Beach Boys tunes by pianist Philip Aaberg and guitarist Scott Mathews. –Terry Wood

Classical Music from Sci-Fi Films is a compilation album. Contains music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, V for Vendetta, Face/Off, and more.

Classical Music from Sci-Fi Films is a compilation album. Contains music from 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, V for Vendetta, Face/Off, and more.

No, we're not talking Bonnie Prince Charlie here. The title character of Giles Foden's debut novel, The Last King of Scotland, is none other than Idi Amin, the former dictator of Uganda. Told from the viewpoint of Nicholas Garrigan, Amin's personal physician, the novel chronicles the hell that was Uganda in the 1970s. Garrigan, the only son of a Scots Presbyterian minister, finds himself far away from Fossiemuir when he accepts a post with the Ministry of Health in Uganda…