The Heart of Act Walser

The Heart of the Dragon ensemble and Chinese composer Jiang Li present this elegant union of 'East meets West'. Featuring the sophisticated Chinese xiao and the Dai nation's joyous hulusi, they seamlessly blend a range of traditional Chinese music with western drums, bass, guitar, piano and strings. The result is a beautiful amalgamation of classic Chinese heritage, Dai nation folk history and western influence.

The economy has been brutal to American workers for several decades. The chance to give one's children a better life than one's own — the promise at the heart of the American Dream — is withering away. While onlookers assume those suffering in marginalized working-class communities will instinctively rise up, the 2016 election threw into sharp relief how little we know about how the working-class translate their grievances into politics.

With Shuk, home cooks everywhere can now inhale the fragrances and taste the flavors of the vivacious culinary mash-up that is today’s Israel. The book takes you deeper into this trending cuisine, through the combined expertise of the authors, chef Einat Admony of Balaboosta and food writer Janna Gur. Admony’s long-simmered stews, herb-dominant rice pilafs, toasted-nut-studded grain salads, and of course loads of vegetable dishes—from snappy, fresh, and raw to roasted every way you can think of—will open your eyes and your palate to the complex nuances of Jewish food and culture.

SELECTED AS A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

Tomás Luis de Victoria was the greatest composer of the Spanish sixteenth-century ‘golden age’ of polyphonic music. This recording is of the six-voice Missa Dum complerentur, the five-part motet on which the Mass is based, and six further hymns and sequences including the great Popule meus, a setting of the Improperia (Reproaches) which form the heart of the liturgy for Good Friday. This is music of compelling beauty, which illustrates well Victoria’s extraordinary capacity to create through simple homophony extremely moving music of great expressiveness.