This is a raw and gut-wrenching book of short stories about youth gangs, based on true events Ellison saw while doing “undercover” research. He is a brilliant writer and really brings this scene to life. For someone from a middle class background, it is incredibly sad and frightening to know that this sort of gang activity truly goes on out there. This is one of those books that everyone should read, because it is an intimate description of a part of our world that is too often ignored.

A well-researched and well-written account of all the changes in our society that are working against young people and negatively affecting our chances of buying homes, becoming financially stable, saving enough for retirement, etc. This was actually rather depressing, overall, but I think it’s extremely important to know what we’re up against.

I was particularly interested in the catch-22 of the marriage question. It is financially difficult for most people of our generation to even think about getting married, having a family, owning a home, paying off 2 sets of student loans, etc., and yet people who don’t get married are not able to put away enough money to retire on, over 70% of the time, because the state of our economy makes it almost necessary to have 2 incomes in order to attain the middle-class American dream.

I was afraid that A Thousand Splendid Suns, Hosseini’s second book, would not live up to Kite Runner, his first. However, this worked me just as much as that one, if not more, because he centers the story on female characters this time. I almost literally could not put this down. It is a beautiful, sad, and immensely disturbing insight into the lives of two women living in Afghanistan over the last decade. I would reccommend this to everyone and anyone. I think the whole world needs to read this book.

It felt so good to get so much reading accomplished this month. 11 books! Not to mention the new cast albums that I listened to, thanks to my local library. And a reasonable range, too, though leaning heavily to science-fiction. I have to give myself a pat on the back for this. Now let’s see if I can do better in June! ;-)

It was absolutely worth wading through the first book in this trilogy (Gregory Benford’s Foundation’s Fear) to get to this one. Greg Bear steers the trilogy back to something much more Asimov-ian, and shows his own skill and ingenuity in the process. Here were the characters I missed so much while forcing myself to read the first book of the trilogy, and it was truly wonderful to see them again. Unfortunately, there are enough references to the first book that it was probably necessary to read that first, but once you make it to this one, you won’t be disappointed. I could almost believe I was reading original Asimov. This was beautifully done.

From listening to this cast recording, I get the impression the writers were trying to create a cute, fun, colorful 50’s musical like Hairspray based on some great music. I’ve never been a huge Elvis fan, but I do like some of his music, and I am certain that whatever All Shook Up is, it isn’t his music. It’s pretty much a massacre of all the Elvis songs you can think of. Even if you’re not a purist, these renditions are pretty bad. It took quite a few sittings to even get through the whole album, and from what I can tell, the cheesy story that goes along with the bad music isn’t any improvement. What I really want to know is, if it completely bombed on Broadway, why are all the community theatre’s on Long Island producing it, and worse, why do I have to do a lighting design for it this summer? :-(

Orson Scott Card’s Enderverse books never cease to amaze me; Most series drop off in quality after the first few books, but these have been consistently wonderful all through. I cried at the end of this one, like the sap I am, and I’m anxiously awaiting the next.

What was I doing last month? Clearly not consuming, that’s what. I think I was working a lot, and I guess the one book I did consume is pretty serious, but then again, I finished consuming it on 4/1, so that doesn’t really even count as something I read in April. Bleh.

Sarah Waters’s newest novel, set in 1940s London, is wonderfully researched and written with tremendous insight. It is the beautifully crafted, heart-wrenching tale of how five lives intertwine in interesting and unexpected ways. It shows the horros of war, while also exploring the relationships that can spring up among people from the strangest of situations and chance happenings.

The story is told backwards, starting in 1947 and ending in 1941, so the relationships and stories of the characters become clearer as more of their past is revealed. My only complaint is that I felt somewhat unfulfilled at the ending, wanting to know what happened after 1947, but only because her style is so captivating and the story so interesting that I didn’t want it to be over. Sarah Waters is a master of her craft.

If you’re trying to read the series chronologically, this actually comes after Prelude to Foundation. I was confused and thought it came at the end of the series, after Foundation and Earth, and now I’m going back and reading Prelude, and I realize I was wrong.

Anyway, this is the fascinating story of how Hari Seldon fought to establish his foundation and to bring psychohistory to fruition in the face of a dying empire. It is sad but poignant, and brilliantly ties in elements from all of Asimov’s related series.

I only wish there was a book that bridged the gap between this and Foundation.

(I just found out that other authors have filled in the gap with Foundation’s Friends and then a whole Second Foundation Trilogy! I can’t imagine it being as good, but I’m going to give it a try.)