A particularly good choice

Contact Music reviews the album Lines by The Unthanks deeming it 'excellent' and giving it 4 out of 5 stars.

The final album, 'Emily Brontë', is possibly the most remarkable. Recorded at Emily's home, The Parsonage in Haworth, West Yorkshire, out of the house's visiting hours, it covers nine tracks and takes its inspiration from Brontë's poetry. In a seemingly recurrent theme across the ages, Brontë pleads that we should love the earth again on 'Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee'. The Unthanks convey a despondency in the performance that aptly characterises the mood of the verse. 'High Waving Heather' is more of a celebration, skilfully set by high keys and high vocals that conjures up the moonlit night. There is a recurrent theme in 'The Night Is Darkening Around Me', 'Deep Deep Down In The Silent Grave' and 'O Evening Why'. Here, as with the trilogy's title track, 'Lines', Brontë muses on death. The source for the album's longest track is a gently undulating epic, re-imagining the poem in song form. Each of the tracks was recorded on Brontë's, now restored, cabinet piano with McNally taking the utmost care to play it "very gently."
If you had to pick three subjects that would be a good fit for the Unthanks then these three chosen here would have surely made nearly everyone's shortlist, with the work of Emily Brontë being a particularly good choice. The Unthanks have yet again demonstrated their unique talent at bringing to life historical material and giving it a voice. The sympathetic treatment of the work, the understanding of it and the ability to bring it all together as a whole is inspirational and the voices, well, you won't find a better pair of complementary vocals anywhere. (Andrew Lockwood)

Sydsvenskan (Sweden) reviews it too, giving it also 4 out of 5... erm... horses.

De fristående delarna ägnas varsitt fenomen i brittisk historia. Först Lillian Bilocca, som i slutet av 1960-talet stred för fiskarnas rättigheter, därefter första världskriget, slutligen Emily Brontë vars dikter de tonsatt. Dessa ingår också i en ljudguidad tur på Brontë Parsonage-museet i Yorkshire.
Brontë-plattan triggar omedelbart fantasin, med ljud av vindpinade hedar, kretsande fåglar och en dörr som stängs. Snabba steg uppför en trappa för oss till en isolerad familj som oupphörligen skapar. Pianot tar stor plats i ljudbilden, vilket skapar en ännu större känsla av borgerlighet och slutna salonger. Med varsamma händer skapar trion både åminnelse och magi. (Sarah Kittel) (Translation)

The Washington Post looks at how several independent bookstores 'compete' with Amazon. Here's the strategy of one of them:

Independent booksellers know that authenticity will help them stand out in a crowded field. At One More Page, an eight-year-old bookstore in East Falls Church, “We’re not shy about expressing our personalities,” says store book buyer Lelia Nebeker. This comes through in a variety of ways: its Boozy Booksellers YouTube series, which finds Nebeker and store events coordinator Rebecca Speas acting silly and enjoying drinks while chatting with authors on camera; its in-store book recommendations, such as Lyndsay Faye’s “Jane Steele,” which reimagines Jane Eyre as a serial killer (“murder and feminism — that covers us,” Nebeker says, laughing); and its book clubs, including the Romance Roundtables, which pair wine tastings and Q&As with contemporary romance authors. “We want to make romance seem a little more accessible, and destigmatize it from being a guilty pleasure.” (The next roundtable is March 1.)

Wall Street Journal has an obituary of Diana Athill:

Ms. Rhys in 1957 promised to send Ms. Athill the novel that would become “Wide Sargasso Sea” within six to nine months. It took nine years. The author's excuses included leaking pipes and mice in her kitchen. When the manuscript was finally ready, Ms. Athill traveled to the English village of Cheriton Fitzpaine to collect it from Ms. Rhys in an unheated shack. Though the book's success didn't make Ms. Rhys wealthy, it pulled her out of poverty. (James R. Hagerty)

A contributor to Women's Voices for Change uses a Jane Eyre analogy to discuss different political views in a marriage.

When I met him, more than thirty  years ago, I assumed that having chosen politics as his life’s work, he cared deeply about it, and he did. He loved the intensity and challenge of it. But I learned in time he didn’t care all that much about the issues.
Reader, I married him, as Jane Eyre wrote about Mr. Rochester in the eponymous novel. But I discovered that my husband, while not blind like Jane’s, was not seeing the world as I did. (Cecilia M. Ford)

The Dark Destroyer from the quiz show The Chase delighted the audience with his own version of Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights, as shared by Metro.

After becoming inspired by one of the questions as he went head-to-head with today’s contestants, the loved quizmaster couldn’t resist shooting his shot and took his moment to perform Wuthering Heights. The result was…let’s just say a unique experience for everyone watching.
Busting into the now iconically high-pitched chorus of Wuthering Heights, Shaun gave it his all for his momentary musical break. We got to give it to him…he wasn’t far off. (Tilly Pearce)

Check out the clip here.

WGBH interviews Carol, a local music student whose EP is coming out soon.

Lily: That’s awesome. Where do you find influence for your music? Do you have any artists that come to mind? C: I think it changes so much, it’s so fluid for me. I definitely think female artists. I’m not afraid to listen to female artists of any genre, just because I think their voice is so important, and there are so many hidden meanings and amazing perspectives that have been in music for years and years and years, and if you really listen to it you can really see all of the highlights. That’s really important to me. Specifically, I’ve listened to Kate Bush. I love her, and I always do Kate Bush karaoke. I love to sing “Wuthering Heights” in my bathroom in the shower. I’m influenced by every woman of any genre, though. (Lily Doolin)

Londonist reviews Norris and Parker: Burn the Witch at Soho Theatre.

At Soho Theatre, they materialise at 10pm — teutonic techno witches pumping phallic broomsticks and, in no uncertain terms, demanding the audience's sperm.
Don't worry though, it gets far more libidinous. A stretched out gothic yarn sees Emily Brontë career into League of Gentlemen, as their characters scale the mucky heights of Phallus Ridge. (Will Noble)

This month's featured treasure from the Brontë Parsonage Museum over at The Sisters's Room is Patrick's annotated copy of Modern Domestic Medicine. Brain Magic discuss Charlotte Brontë on their latest podcast.