June 2018: Ursula K. LeGuin

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June 2018: Ursula K. LeGuin

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1sweetiegherkin
mar 25, 2018, 2:10 pm

Coming up in June ... we'll be reading Ursula K. LeGuin together.

Dubbed the "Queen Mother of Science Fiction," LeGuin was a prolific writer who wrote books for all ages. Only one of her books The Dispossessed is on the list of "1001 Books to Read Before You Die."

In the past, I've read Four Ways to Forgiveness and The Left Hand of Darkness, the latter being one of her better known books. Both books are part of a loose series known as "the Hainish cycle."

There are so many choices that I'm not sure what I'll read in June, but I'm thinking I might try reading one of her books written for children just to see how that goes. Or I might continue on with the Hainish cycle.

2Yells
Redigerat: jun 4, 2018, 12:02 pm

I have a few e-books so I will start one soon - probably The Left Hand of Darkness. I discovered LeGuin last year when I read The Dispossessed. It was on the 1001 list, which was sadly the only reason I picked it up. I loved it! The world she created is fabulous.

3sweetiegherkin
jun 10, 2018, 8:30 pm

While looking at possible titles to read this month, I saw that Le Guin is the author of the Catwings series. I LOVED these books as a child (which means I was a fan of Le Guin much earlier than I realized!). My local library had the first one, so I checked it out and re-read it. Nowadays it doesn't have quite the same appeal it had for me as a young child, but it was still a short and sweet read.

4sweetiegherkin
jun 12, 2018, 8:30 pm

Also discovered another cat book by Le Guin with a child audience in mind: Cat Dreams. Super cute picture book; I plan on using it for a future storytime at the library where I work.

5sweetiegherkin
jun 26, 2018, 9:24 am

6sparemethecensor
jun 27, 2018, 9:30 pm

>2 Yells: I plan to read The Dispossessed, also because it was on the 1001 list! I just picked it up from the library.

I am pretty sure I read some LeGuin in junior high but I can't remember what it would have been. Too many years have passed.

7sparemethecensor
aug 12, 2018, 10:26 am

I have finally finished The Dispossessed. This was a very slow read for me, and I'm not sure I can articulate why. It may be that there's very little plot to the novel, and also relatively little science fiction -- this is a book of philosophy in which the other pieces are scaffolding and that made it hard to pick back up each day, in some ways.

There's a lot to chew on in this novel -- I liked engaging with the philosophical ideas about social structures, political structures, the role of women, the use of constructed language to reinforce social ideas. The subtitle "ambiguous utopia" fits well since what we are supposed to take from the different societies of the two planets is ambiguous.

8sweetiegherkin
aug 17, 2018, 9:25 am

>7 sparemethecensor: Hm, interesting. I haven't read that particular title, but that seems a fair assessment of her other scifi titles that I have read -- not a ton of scifi actually but just enough to make you think about different ways of doing things.

9sweetiegherkin
aug 18, 2018, 10:42 am

Ran across this article today talking about the screen adaptations in the works based on Le Guin novels: https://io9.gizmodo.com/every-ursula-k-le-guin-tv-and-movie-adaptation-in-the-18...