Singing Sisters
Angels of Detroit, Tasty Trio, First Aid Kit, Madison Keys, Ship Sighting
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This issue includes singing sister duos, a novel set in the ruins of Detroit, three meals on the go, a pair of Swedish sisters, the American who won the Australian Open, and a coastal cruise. I hope you like the picks and pics.
Kieran and Sommer dressed for the NFC Championship Game matchup we expected but were denied. The Super Bowl will be a rematch between the Eagles and Chiefs from two years ago. Barb knitted an Eagles hat for our daughter-on-law Cristi, a Philly native who will be rooting hard for her team. On the other side, Barb’s cousins in Kansas City will be supporting the Chiefs as they seek a three-peat. One of these years, our Lions will make it, right?
I booked our second house concert for this year. Caroline Cotter will perform in our home on November 7, 2025, exactly five months after our June 7 show with DuPont Phillips. We plan to catch Caroline’s show in nearby Ojai on February 8.
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Fave Five 121: Singing Sisters
Motown and Mexico (Angels of Detroit), Tasty Trio (East Beach Tacos, Mandarin Palace, La Baguette), Swedish Söderbergs (First Aid Kit), Australian Achievement (Madison Keys), and a Ship Sighting.
Fave Five List: Female Folk Sister Duos
Last week I featured female folk duos, excluding sisters. As promised, here are 11 pairs of sisters.
Burns Sisters
First Aid Kit (this week’s Marvelous Musicians)
The Smith Sisters
Wiggins Sisters
The Bowmans
The Staves
Cassie and Maggie
The Webb Sisters
Lily & Madeleine
The Simon Sisters (Carly and Lucy)
Book Best Bet
Angels of Detroit by Christopher Hebert
This book elicited both great praise from reviewers and harsh criticism from readers. I have mixed feelings. The characters are varied and interesting and the writing is richly textured. But the plot fizzles out with a strange conclusion in Mexico. After 419 pages, I had hoped for a better ending to wrap up both the plot and the characters.
Some aspects of Detroit are recognizable (a tower like the Ren Cen, a market like Eastern Market, stadiums like Comerica Park and Ford Field). But it is not really very specific to Detroit, and reviews from Detroit readers were extremely negative.
From Amazon: Once an example of American industrial might, Detroit has gone bankrupt, its streets dark, its storefronts vacant. Miles of city blocks lie empty, saplings growing through the cracked foundations of abandoned buildings.
In razor-sharp, beguiling prose, Angels of Detroit draws us into the lives of multiple characters struggling to define their futures in this desolate landscape: a scrappy group of activists trying to save the city with placards and protests; a curious child who knows the blighted city as her own personal playground; an elderly great-grandmother eking out a community garden in an oil-soaked patch of dirt; a carpenter with an explosive idea of how to give the city a new start; a confused idealist who has stumbled into debt to a human trafficker; a weary corporate executive who believes she is doing right by the city she remembers at its prime—each of their desires is distinct, and their visions for a better city are on a collision course.
In this propulsive, masterfully plotted epic, an urban wasteland whose history is plagued with riots and unrest is reimagined as an ambiguous new frontier--a site of tenacity and possible hope. Driven by struggle and suspense, and shot through with a startling empathy, Christopher Hebert's magnificent second novel unspools an American story for our time.
Christopher Hebert
The author of the novels Angels of Detroit (Bloomsbury, 2016) and The Boiling Season (HarperCollins, 2012). He is also co-editor of Stories of Nation: Fictions, Politics, and the American Experience (UT Press, 2017). His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in such publications as the Guardian, Narrative, Interview, and the Millions. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and is a former senior editor for the University of Michigan Press. Currently he lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Tennessee.
Angels of Detroit author captures Motor City's complexity by Ellen Piligian of The Detroit Free Press
That it took Christopher Hebert 16 years to complete his second novel is a testament to the complexities of Detroit — as well as Hebert’s dedication to portraying the city with honesty and integrity. Angels of Detroit is an epic told through a diverse group of characters, all trying to redefine themselves in a struggling city. The book has garnered praise for its prose, but it is also rich with plot.
The more than 14 intermingled characters range from a reflective female executive who grew up in Detroit to a group of activists protesting her company as they try to save the city; from a shady drifter squatting in an abandoned home to an elderly matriarch who’s planting a community garden while watching over her great-granddaughter, who sees the city as her playground.
Restaurant Recommendations
Tasty Trio
A lunch near East Beach, an early dinner with the grandsons, and a not-so-quick lunch in Palm Desert.
East Beach Tacos 226 S. Milpas St. Santa Barbara, CA, 93103
I stopped here for three unusual tacos after a walk along the waterfront.
Ahi Poke: raw ahi tuna, napa cabbage, marinated red onion, chili flakes, sesame seeds, wasabi aioli, wonton shell
Spicy Crispy Shrimp: tempura shrimp, curly endive, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli, lime vinaigrette, corn tortilla
Grilled Shrimp: shrimp, letteuce, pico de gallo, tomatillo sauce, queso fresco, corn tortilla
Mandarin Palace 3955 State St, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
I took Noah and Julian here for an early dinner before the Lions-Commanders game. Julian loved the sweet and sour chicken and white rice, but Noah wouldn’t try it. When my soup arrived, he asked for the “noodles” and proceeded to eat all of the wontons that I cut up for him.
Won-Ton (aka noodle) Soup
La Baguette Vietnamese Sandwiches 34580 Monterey Ave Unit 106, Palm Desert, CA 92211
This was the last stop Barb and I made on our way from Tucson to Santa Barbara in December. It took a long time before the banh mi sandwich we shared was ready, but it was decent.
Ham (Cha): Homemade bread, pork pate, garlic mayo, cucumber, jalapenos, pickled carrot & daikon, cilantro, and homemade ham
Marvelous Musicians
I created this playlist on July 8, 2020, but I don't recall how I first heard the duo. It could have been in a TV show or podcast.
From Wikipedia: First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo consisting of the sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, born in 1990 and 1993, respectively. When performing live, they are today accompanied by a drummer, a guitarist and a keyboard player. In 2008, they gained some Internet popularity for their cover of the Fleet Foxes' song "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song". Rolling Stone magazine chose their song "Emmylou" as the number 10 "Single of the Year" in 2012. They have released four albums, four EPs and several singles. Klara chose the name for their band at age 13 by looking through a dictionary. She found the term "first aid kit" and thought it best described what she wanted her music to be.
My Silver Lining
Emmylou
Wolf
My Playlist
Sports Star
Madison won her first slam title by defeating the top 2 seeds in the semifinal and final. She will turn 30 next month; I am impressed by her accomplishment at this age and by her good works. She founded Kindness Wins to promote kindness to youth, kindness to self, and kindness to others in times of struggle,
Madison Keys wins her first Grand Slam title at Australian Open by caring a little bit less by Steve Tignor
She went out and, 14 years after her quest began, won her first major, in the most dramatic and well-earned way possible. In the semis and the final, she beat the two top-ranked players in the world, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka, back-to-back, 7-6 in the third and 7-5 in the third.
“I feel like finally letting go of that kind of internal talk that I had just gave me the ability to actually go out and play some really good tennis to actually win a Grand Slam,” she said after beating Sabalenka 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.
It was fitting, and maybe a little extra nerve-wracking, that Keys’ biggest win would come against the opponent who had handed her perhaps her most painful defeat. Two years ago at the US Open, she led Sabalenka 6-0, 5-3 in the US Open semifinals, only to lose in a final-set tiebreaker. Keys said it taken a long time to “heal” from that defeat at her home Slam.
From Wikipedia: Madison Keys (born February 17, 1995 in Rock Island, Illinois) is an American professional tennis player. She has been ranked as high as world No. 7 by the WTA, achieved on October 10, 2016 and again on January 27, 2025. Keys has won ten WTA Tour-level titles, including a major title at the 2025 Australian Open. She was also a major finalist at the 2017 US Open.
Keys was inspired to start playing tennis after watching Venus Williams at Wimbledon on TV. Originally from the Quad Cities, she moved to Florida to train at the Evert Tennis Academy. Keys turned professional on her 14th birthday, becoming one of the youngest players to win a WTA Tour level match a few months later. Keys first entered the top 100 of the WTA rankings in 2013 at the age of 17. She had her first breakthrough at a major in early 2015 when she reached the semifinals of the Australian Open as a teenager.
Known for a fast serve and one of the most powerful forehands in the game, Keys has used her aggressive playing style to become one of the leaders of her generation of American tennis, alongside Sloane Stephens, CoCo Vandeweghe, and Sofia Kenin. She debuted in the top 10 of the WTA rankings in 2016, becoming the first American woman to realize this milestone since Serena Williams 17 years earlier. When Keys and Stephens faced off against each other in the 2017 US Open final, they became the first American women other than the Williams sisters to contest a major singles final since 2005. Keys has had success on all surfaces, winning at least one title on each and having reached at least the quarterfinals of all four majors.
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Madison Keys Highlights - Australian Open 2025 Final
Picture Pun
At home we can see a deer out of our window. Here, a cruise ship.
