RE: Eagle Time Reading List
10-30-2017, 05:54 AM
I finished In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware, the other day. The back cover compares it to Gone Girl and The Girl on the Train, so I picked it up for a psychological thriller fix. I was somewhat underwhelmed. It kept me hooked enough, which was good, but I didn't actually believe in any of the characters, and something seemed forced or off about the writing.
In ecology books, I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing. It's pretty philosophically heady at some points, which could be a turn-off for some people; the subtitle is "On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins." I love it though! The title mushroom is the Matsutake, and she follows its supply chain from the Pacific Northwest to Japan, taking a lot of interest in Indochinese refugees who become matsutake foragers. The next section of the book is more about ecology and the mushroom itself.
I've got an Ursula K. Le Guin book that I really like, called Malafrena. It's about a fictional European country in the 1820's or 30's. The main character is a young radical who is passionate about revolution, nationalism, representative government, all those things that Romantics dedicated their lives to with a lack of irony that's unthinkable today. I imagine Le Guin had a lot of fun writing it. It's taking me a while to read cause of how slow it goes - it seems only fit for savoring.
I'm on the side of "Earthsea is great." Le Guin writes fantasy and sci-fi where the world and characters are everything and it never seems like events were shoehorned to fit some preconceived plot. I don't think I've ever read anything by her that I actively disliked. My personal favorite is the short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea." It's the title story of its collection, which is kind of a grab bag of random stuff until you reach the last three stories.
In ecology books, I'm currently reading The Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing. It's pretty philosophically heady at some points, which could be a turn-off for some people; the subtitle is "On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins." I love it though! The title mushroom is the Matsutake, and she follows its supply chain from the Pacific Northwest to Japan, taking a lot of interest in Indochinese refugees who become matsutake foragers. The next section of the book is more about ecology and the mushroom itself.
I've got an Ursula K. Le Guin book that I really like, called Malafrena. It's about a fictional European country in the 1820's or 30's. The main character is a young radical who is passionate about revolution, nationalism, representative government, all those things that Romantics dedicated their lives to with a lack of irony that's unthinkable today. I imagine Le Guin had a lot of fun writing it. It's taking me a while to read cause of how slow it goes - it seems only fit for savoring.
I'm on the side of "Earthsea is great." Le Guin writes fantasy and sci-fi where the world and characters are everything and it never seems like events were shoehorned to fit some preconceived plot. I don't think I've ever read anything by her that I actively disliked. My personal favorite is the short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea." It's the title story of its collection, which is kind of a grab bag of random stuff until you reach the last three stories.