Books in April

I finished off Heinlein in April with two collections: Expanded Universe and Off the Main Sequence. Expanded Universe is an apt title; it contains some non-SF Heinlein stories and tons of nonfiction pieces which I found very interesting. It was a nice way to wrap him up, to listen to him talk directly rather than through story. He occasionally comes off a bit curmudgeonly, particularly when he hits on the age-old "kids these days have it so easy" type arguments (although his piece on how to get a college degree without actually having to do any work or even learn anything was sharp and amusing). His story about going by the curtain to Cold War Russia was interesting as well. Off the Main Sequence largely collected stories I had already read, but I really appreciated the way this book was put together, with citations under the titles of where and when each story was orginally printed. I love that sort of information, but most anthologies either make you dig through the fine print on the copyright page to find it or leave it out entirely.


My Opposite of That ended up being Nick Hornby, largely because my brother handed me a stack of his novels and said "read these". Since I've already seen About a Boy and High Fidelity, he just loaned me the ones which haven't yet been made into movies. I liked the female protag in How to be Good (and parts of that book were almost painfully familiar), and his YA story of teenage pregnancy Slam was a good read. I like Hornby's way of avoiding the obvious mega-happy endings (although I think with Slam he could have gone a bit more bittersweet; it all worked out a shade to nicely in the end). But my fave of the three was far and away A Long Way Down, about four people who meet when they all go up to the roof of the same building on New Year's Eve intending to kill themselves. I understand a movie is already in the works ; it will be interesting to see how they cast it, and if they manage to get the tone right.


I also read the latest from Neil Gaiman, Odd and the Frost Giants, which took about half an afternoon. It reminded me of George RR Martin's The Ice Dragon which I read last year; ostensibly for children (younger than YA), but the language is too lush to miss just because it's for kids. (Actually my favorite Gaiman book is arguably The Wolves in the Walls, which is a picture book, so I read much younger than YA). I of course loved the use Norse gods. It was a nice way to spend an hour and change.

I also read a couple of sumo books, The Big Book of Sumo by Mina Hall and The Joy of Sumo by David Benjamin. Research for the WIP. If you're looking for a book on sumo as an art form, pick up Mina Hall's; if you are interested sumo purely as sport, go for Benjamin's. Both were full of useful information for my purposes.

The last book was another one I finished off in an afternoon, Bellydancing by Keti Sharif. Another of my too numerous interests. I was looking for a book that would help me differentiate which sorts of dances come from which regions originally, and this book does a beautitful job of that. Plus it also breaks down different dances by the four elements, so I can do my own Avatar: The Last Airbender at home where I control the elements through dance rather than kung fu. Cool!