Civil war between the Targaryens rages as the third season of this Game of Thrones prequel begins. It will open big, with the Battle of the Gullet. The massive naval battle between the blockading fleet of House Velaryon and the Triarchy promises to be one of the largest and bloodiest the Thrones franchise has seen, requiring a reported four years to bring to the screen. In the absence of his brother, Aegon, the sadistic Aemond Targaryen seizes the Iron Throne, but expect a quick challenge from Rhaenyra and the Blacks, who will wage an assault on King’s Landing.
Sunday, June 21, at 9 p.m., HBO and HBO Max 

by Ann Patchett

“Is there a place in serious literature for kind, happy characters and kind, happy stories?” asked Helen Schulman in The New York Times. Ann Patchett’s “intimate and entertaining” 10th novel “makes the strong case that there is.” The tale begins in high suspense, with 53-year-old Daphne and her husband, Jonathan, seemingly being stalked while visiting New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. But the stranger trailing them turns out to be Eddie, Daphne’s beloved former stepfather. She hasn’t seen him in over 40 years, and their chance reencounter brings her to tears. As the two reconnect over weeks, then months, fans of Patchett’s past novels will “wait in vain for the terror of Bel Canto or the thrills of State of Wonder,” said Ron Charles in his Substack newsletter. Instead, Whistler is “that loveliest of summer gifts, a story of reconciliation, of old affections renewed, of a family’s circumference enlarged.”

A novel both “radiantly intelligent” and “emotionally wrenching,” Whistler is “the exquisite production of an author working at the height of her powers,” said Priscilla Gilman in The Boston Globe. Patchett’s masterfully constructed story intertwines two timelines. In the present, Eddie, a book editor, charms everyone in Daphne’s circle, including her mom, who divorced him decades earlier. The other story thread reveals the cause of the family split: a car crash in which Eddie was in the driver’s seat and both he and 9-year-old Daphne were nearly killed. The two storylines are “intertwined in a way that builds tension, deepens character, and allows for unexpected discoveries,” including why the novel is named Whistler. And even when the characters grapple with heavy subjects, “Patchett’s touch is light, her humor delightful, her empathy generous and vibrant.” Without a doubt, the book is “a magnificent achievement” and “I think it’s her best novel yet.

To me, Whistler is “top-shelf comfort food, the literary equivalent of pricey ice cream,” said Beejay Silcox in The Guardian. Although “we almost care about these vanilla-bean people,” and almost care about their floral arrangements and champagne brunches, it’s “all so neat” and so untouched by lingering sorrows that it “often reads like a gratitude journal.” But there’s “a sly wit and sagacity” to Patchett’s writing that here has been “honed to perfection,” said Leigh Haber in the Los Angeles Times. As it explores family trauma and life’s transitory nature, Whistler proves “sweet but never sentimental, infinitely wise and suffused with love,” and it’s clear that some of its heft owes to Patchett drawing on events from her own life. “I don’t recommend consuming Whistler in one enormous gulp. I dipped in and out, savoring scenes, reflecting on them, occasionally shedding a tear. In other words, I didn’t want it to end.”

The soul singer who elevated Disney songs

Peabo Bryson was known as the “voice of love” for good reason. The soul singer’s silky-smooth tenor paired well with women’s voices, and he recorded hit duets with performers such as Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, and Celine Dion. After releasing more than a dozen R&B albums in the 1970s and ’80s and becoming a staple of adult contemporary radio, Bryson reached a new audience of children in the early 1990s when he lent his buttery vocals to two Disney films. With Dion, he sang “Beauty and the Beast” on the soundtrack for the eponymous 1991 musical. And his “A Whole New World,” a duet with Regina Belle for 1992’s Aladdin, went to No. 1, the first song from an animated film to do so. It was a long-awaited recognition. “We are people who came up through the ranks and paid our dues and managed to survive,” Bryson said of R&B singers. “But we don’t get played on MTV, and I think there’s something wrong about that.” 

Born in Greenville, S.C., Robert Peapo Bryson started singing professionally at age 14, doing backup for a local band and performing as Peabo because the band couldn’t pronounce his French West Indian name. Bryson released his first solo album in 1976 and “went on to dominate the soul and R&B charts for nearly two decades,” said The New York Times. With songs exploring “complex relationships and passionate love” he attracted a loyal fandom. While his “remarkable reserves of technical ability” got him noticed as an R&B singer, said Rolling Stone, it wasn’t until the 1980s that he began releasing the “towering ballads” that brought him global success. His “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” a 1983 duet with Roberta Flack, was a million-selling international single, while 1984’s “If Ever You’re in My Arms Again” reached No. 1 on Billboard’s adult contemporary chart. A year later he sang the theme song for the hit soap One Life to Live, and in 1991 he topped the R&B/Hip-Hop charts with his album Can You Stop the Rain.

Then came Bryson’s short run as “the definitive voice of Disney duets,” said the Los Angeles Times, for which he earned back-to-back Grammys in 1993 and ’94. Although musical tastes were by then moving on, he had no interest in pop or rock but continued releasing R&B albums until 2018, and he performed live as recently as March. “I don’t feel the need to chronicle my accolades to anyone,” Bryson said in 2018. “But if someone were to stop and do the research, there’s nobody like me.”