Books 36-38: a handful of good reads
Book 36: Powers (Annals of the Western Shore)
by Ursula K. Le Guin
(I review the first two books of this trilogy here.)
Powers is set in a different location along the Western Shore than the first two books of the trilogy. Young Gav and his sister grow up as slaves in a powerful house of a powerful city-state. He thinks he knows what his future will hold, but of course, he doesn't. A journey will eventually take him many places. When I was finished, I had the thought that the book was like poetry - full of images and tales, moving a stirring, but in the end only a snippet that leaves you with much to ponder.
This book, like the others in the YA trilogy, is a wonderful coming of age novel, and like much Le Guin, turns the expected on its head by telling the story from the slaves', not the owners', point of view.
Book 37: The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest
edited by Ellen Datlow
I very much enjoyed this anthology. The stories' common thread was an element of a wild or mysterious forest, but the authors took that element in extremely different directions. The author list included some of my favorite fantasy authors, and some I whose other work I now want to explore.
Book 38: The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
This is a well-written (and well-recorded, if you get it on CD - I love the two voices that are used) story of an extremely famous, elderly writer who has always kept her past a secret ... and the young bibliophile biographer that the writer hires to hear the story of the past for the first time. The story moves back and forth from present day to the past, from the two women talking in the old library of the writer's house to an exploration of the house where she grew up. I don't want to say more and give anything away, but I enjoyed it.
(Note: there is some sexual violence in both Powers and The Thirteenth Tale.)
by Ursula K. Le Guin
(I review the first two books of this trilogy here.)
Powers is set in a different location along the Western Shore than the first two books of the trilogy. Young Gav and his sister grow up as slaves in a powerful house of a powerful city-state. He thinks he knows what his future will hold, but of course, he doesn't. A journey will eventually take him many places. When I was finished, I had the thought that the book was like poetry - full of images and tales, moving a stirring, but in the end only a snippet that leaves you with much to ponder.
This book, like the others in the YA trilogy, is a wonderful coming of age novel, and like much Le Guin, turns the expected on its head by telling the story from the slaves', not the owners', point of view.
Book 37: The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest
edited by Ellen Datlow
I very much enjoyed this anthology. The stories' common thread was an element of a wild or mysterious forest, but the authors took that element in extremely different directions. The author list included some of my favorite fantasy authors, and some I whose other work I now want to explore.
Book 38: The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield
This is a well-written (and well-recorded, if you get it on CD - I love the two voices that are used) story of an extremely famous, elderly writer who has always kept her past a secret ... and the young bibliophile biographer that the writer hires to hear the story of the past for the first time. The story moves back and forth from present day to the past, from the two women talking in the old library of the writer's house to an exploration of the house where she grew up. I don't want to say more and give anything away, but I enjoyed it.
(Note: there is some sexual violence in both Powers and The Thirteenth Tale.)