Apollo's Angels

First things first. I'm still in the process of learning my way around Blogger, so you may see a few things change over the next week or so. I don't think Blogger is as intuitive or streamlined as Wordpress, but already I'm super happy with the ease of adding HTML and widgets. I didn't want to spend the money to self-host my Wordpress site, and if I'm being honest, I was jealous of the GFC following. I felt like I was getting left behind. Now that I've joined the party, I'm feeling relieved.

That said, I'm exhausted after staying up waaaay too late last night trying to figure out how to point my domain to a new DNS host and then route traffic to this blog and not the old one. I think I've got it set now, and I tried to pass a message along to the few subscribers I knew about (and had) to try and ease the transition. I definitely wanted to get the new blog going ASAP so it would be less of a hassle for the fewest number of people. Phew! I think we got there.

Anyway, on to books. Today I was very excited to receive this well reviewed nonfiction work:

This book, written by a former ballerina and historian, discusses the history of ballet from the time of Louis XIV to the present. It also happened to make the New York Times' Ten Best list for 2010. 

I'm a sucker for good nonfiction, and this one has earned such high praise that it is kind of hard to ignore. As a former ballet student, I love that I have a full history of ballet in one book. It covers all of the major techniques (French, Italian, Russian, Danish) and includes an epilogue where the author, Jennifer Homans, declares ballet a dying art. 

If that proves to be true, it will be a major cultural loss. Dance is unique in its expression through movement and form. It creates pictures with the human body, put to some of the most beautiful music ever written. It teaches interpretation of music in a completely kinetic way, something that I am still grateful to have learned. Had I been blessed with more flexibility and joint stability, I would be dancing even today. 

I know this will be the kind of book I pick up from time to time and read a few chapters from before putting it back on the shelf. I need to digest it piece by piece instead of trying to rush my way through. Although it's neither YA nor fiction, I wanted to share my excitement of getting this book in the mail today. I'm a proud mama to this little baby.