More Fall Reading

One of the things that happens when I get sick is that I read.  And then I forget to write about books until I have this really big list of them to discuss.  Sigh.  The good news is that a lot of the books I read batch easily.

 

I only checked off one of my nonfiction books since I last wrote, Africa Since 1940 by Frederick Cooper.  Holy cow, do I have some serious gaps in my education.  This was a start, but I could use to spend some quality time with a map learning what is where, among other things.  The people of Europe and the United States really need to apologize and to do some work to restore the damage we’ve done in Africa.  A lot of it is not stuff that can be fixed, but at least I’d like it if we stopped doing harm.

 

I finished revisiting L.M. Montgomery’s Anne books with Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne’s House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside.  I still feel weird about her relationship with Gilbert.  I don’t love the books like I did when I was younger, but I do very much admire the way they focus on the beauty all around in nature.  They’re worth having on the shelf, even if I don’t turn to them often.

 

My leisurely and sporadic reading (and sometimes re-reading) through the works of Ursula K. Le Guin has resulted in six more books read.  Rocannon’s World grew on me, but it was a tough slog at first.  Planet of Exile was more compelling and raised interesting ideas about adaptation and home.  City of Illusion played with similar ideas in a different way.  Throughout the three (collected in one volume), the writing is lovely, although I would say that there was technical progress from book to book.  In one of those weird bookcase gaps (for which I am tempted to blame my kids, but maybe it was my own fault), I had A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, but not The Farthest Shore.  I got a copy of that last one, but figured I would start at the beginning just to be thorough.  I still love the way that Le Guin conceives of magic.  I knew the first two better; I did not remember anything about the last one and in many ways I liked it best.  What a lovely exploration of what gives life meaning and what does not!  I am so glad I read them again.

 

T. Kingfisher’s books Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine were just as engrossing as I hoped.  I love the imagination involved and the strong characters.  Also:  so funny!  It is good to have some humor to lighten quests.

 

Then I had a Tamora Pierce orgy, which is not quite done yet.  However, I have now devoured Trickster’s Choice, Trickester’s Queen, Wild Magic, Wolf Speaker, Emperor Mage,  and The Realms of the Gods.  So much to love!  And now I want a darkling.  At the end of the last book, Pierce says in her afterword that she’s had a lot of criticism about the relationship between Daine and Numair.  She justifies it by saying she’s old for her age and he is young, but it still doesn’t sit well with me, especially since he’s her teacher.  I don’t know what to do with that and it won’t keep me from reading the rest of her work, but I needed to acknowledge that it’s a problem for me.

 

Fall total to date:  24 books

Year to date:  93 books