June Group Read: Ursula K. Le Guin

Ursula K. Le Guin was, in my opinion, one of our greatest writers and, sadly, we lost her this year. But she had such a long and prolific career that we have so much of her writing available to us to continue to enjoy and learn from. In June, please join us in reading a book or story by Le Guin in her memory. While she may have been most well known for writing science fiction and fantasy, she also produced literary fiction, children's books, nonfiction, short stories, and poetry. Please share with us what you are reading and your thoughts on her writing.

I will be reading what I think was Le Guin's last book, a collection of essays: No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters.

I'll also be working on No Time to Spare, which is on my Kindle. I reread all the Earthsea books earlier this year when she died.

I am looking forward to The Farthest Shore, the final volume in her Earthsea Cycle.

I'm not into sci-fi that much, but I may read her book about writing, Steering the Craft. I think I would try Searoad if it were available in the library. If I get to Knoxville, I may pick it up at the library there.

>2 sturlington: There is no hope of that one becoming available by the end of the month. Long wait list! (at least electronically) It is on the shelf at one of my libraries though, so maybe I'll pop in and get it next week.

>5 thornton37814: If you like historical fiction, you may try Lavinia.

I've put The Found and the Lost on hold.

I have The Left Hand of Darkness sitting on my shelves, has been for a couple years, might go ahead and get it read for this month.

:)

A friend loaned me The Lathe of Heaven ages ago, and it's high time I got to it so that I can return it to them!

>9 whitewavedarling: oh, I liked that one!

The mention of The Left Hand of Darkness got to me, so I reread it.

This is certainly one of my favourite science fiction books. I suspect because of the anthropology she builds into so many of her works.

She comes by it honestly. One book I reread several times while growing up was Ishi in two worlds by her mother.

Book #89 No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin (240 pp.)

This is the final collection of blog posts by Le Guin, published before her death earlier this year. I did not find it as powerful or thought-provoking as Words are My Matter but Le Guin is always worth reading if only for her use of language, and the posts about Pard, her cat, are definitely entertaining.

I've started City of Illusions, an early short novel from 1967. Interesting so far.

I finished Steering the Craft. Comments on my thread.

I finished A wizard of Earthsea which didn't really wow me.

I just finished the third volume in the Eathsea Cycle, The Farthest Shore. These books seem to have less action and less emotion than the fantasies that are written today but I did enjoy this trilogy, finding them a throughtful and intelligent read. I think Le Guin puts a lot of her own philosophy into the books.

I love this line from the introduction to the first story in The Found and the Lost:
...' I get very bored with adventure stories; often it seems that the more action there is, the less happens. Obviously my interest is in what goes on inside.'

This first story Vaster than Empires and More Slow is a good example of one with not a lot of action, but a lot happening.

I've misplaced my choice for this challenge, argh.

>17 MarthaJeanne: Most of the stories are in the Ecumen universe, many in one small piece of it. I was enjoying it, but going slowly as these are billed as novellas - they are quite long. The hardcover is over 800 pages. I ran out of time, and am now 4th in line to borrow again. So in a month or so I'll get it again.

I read No Time to Spare: Thinking About What Matters

This is not a collection of essays but rather a collection of posts from Le Guin's blog, and as such, they lack the sense of polish or significance that an essay might impart. But they do showcase the precision of language that makes Le Guin such a satisfying writer, and there are several gems in here. As in her other nonfiction, Le Guin seems to be at her most insightful when discussing literature and women. One of my favorite selections, for instance, combined the two in an examination of the yin and yang of utopian/dystopian fiction. I also greatly appreciated her insights into Homer. Toward the end, the writing becomes more poetic, introspective, and--as I was reading this in honor of Le Guin's life and her impact on me as a reader--bittersweet. One essay on soft-boiled eggs almost brought me to tears. An uneven collection, but certainly a worthwhile one.

>19 MarthaJeanne: Got it back. Finished it. I didn't much care for the Earthsea stories, but liked the final one, Paradises Lost.

> I'm now enjoying No Time to Spare. I like the comparison between The Help and The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. I gave both books four stars, but suspect that Le Guin is right about their respective merits. As she says, "How come I couldn't stop reading either of them?"