Good Reads / Community Library Notes
No Time to Spare
Ursula Le Guin
Review by Priscilla Comen
No Time to Spare
Ursula Le Guin
Review by Priscilla Comen
No Time to Spare by Ursula Le Guin is a delightful collection of essays from Le Guin’s life, feelings, and philosophy of being in one’s eighties. From the importance of respect for young and old, to choosing a cat, (she has a tuxedo cat) she is witty, smart, and a fine writer. She talks about the over-use of swear words these days in books and in films, and the lie that “ninety is the new seventy.”
If you are aging honestly and gracefully you will love this book. If you are young, you might recommend it to your parents or grand-parents and read it yourself in several years. Author Le Guin talks about writing; the difference between story and plot. She compares two books she read that were different; one told a story about the black “help” in southern homes, the other was a fully realized plot about a woman taken advantage of for science. Knowing the difference between them, she liked both.
A chapter on uniforms shows us the crisp, sharp uniforms of army and navy men in the 1940s, and the sloppy “camo” clothes of today’s wars. Le Guin tells us vegetables may feel pain when we pull them out of the ground, throw them into boiling water while still alive, and often chew on them when raw. How do we know?
She talks about belief vs. fact, and the fact of evolution vs. belief in God. A person can “believe” in both, accepting the fact, believing in the other.
Le Guin’s book of essays is thought-provoking, promising to be remembered with a smile for a long time. Find it on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.
If you are aging honestly and gracefully you will love this book. If you are young, you might recommend it to your parents or grand-parents and read it yourself in several years. Author Le Guin talks about writing; the difference between story and plot. She compares two books she read that were different; one told a story about the black “help” in southern homes, the other was a fully realized plot about a woman taken advantage of for science. Knowing the difference between them, she liked both.
A chapter on uniforms shows us the crisp, sharp uniforms of army and navy men in the 1940s, and the sloppy “camo” clothes of today’s wars. Le Guin tells us vegetables may feel pain when we pull them out of the ground, throw them into boiling water while still alive, and often chew on them when raw. How do we know?
She talks about belief vs. fact, and the fact of evolution vs. belief in God. A person can “believe” in both, accepting the fact, believing in the other.
Le Guin’s book of essays is thought-provoking, promising to be remembered with a smile for a long time. Find it on the new non-fiction shelf of your Mendocino Community Library.