I should have been sewing I know but I've managed to get my hands on the last two Earthsea novels - Stories of Earthsea and The Other Wind.  Once again I'm hooked.  
I've never been able to get into Harry Potter.  I started reading the first one but I found it too predictable and it just didn't grab me.  But these are different.  I can quote from a review by Nicholas Lezard, "Rowling can type but Le Guin can write." (The Guardian, 2002).  I couldn't agree more.  Stories of Earthsea is a collection of short stories that flesh out the Earthsea history.  We learn how the Island of Roke became the centre for the teaching of magic, how wizards decided on celibacy as a prerequisite for practising their art and how women are sidelined and become unimportant.  The final story, Dragonfly, tells of a young woman who challenges this male hierachy and the results of this challenge, setting the stage for The Other Wind.
The Other Wind brings in all the characters from the previous books plus two new ones, the Kargish princess, Seserakh and
Alder, who  provides the catalyst for the plot.  His dreams of his wife calling to him from the Land of the Dead is utimately affecting them all and all of Earthsea.  Much of the story is told from the viewpoint of Alder and of Tenar of the Ring who are caught up in the whirl of events.  Magic and spells have less effect than in previous books.  Most characters have to delve into their own strengths and overcome their shortcomings for the challenges to be met - as in all good fantasies.  But the analogies for our  own lives are strong.  There is veiled comment on mankind's own dogmas and practices and the resolution of the story is not in black or white but rather infinite shades of colour.
I simply loved this book.  Although the action moves fairly fast as in YA fiction, there is so much to ponder and the characters are so strongly drawn and developed that it feels like a much longer book.  I read it twice and will probably read it again before it has to go back.
I would love dedicated Fantasy fans to read this series and comment on it for me so I could understand how it fits into the overall genre.  I'm  just too much of a fan.

I'm making an effort to read more books and I stumbled onto this series quite by accident.  I've never been a great fan of Fantasy but I have been enjoying Miyazaki's anime DVDs and thought I might read Howl's Moving Castle.  Alas the school library was not forthcoming but they did have two of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea stories, which Miyazaki's son has turned into an anime.  I haven't seen this one but I thought the books might be interesting.

The school library had only the second and third in the series but I started reading there.  I was quickly riveted by The Tomb of Atuan.  It's suggested as Young Adult and is not long but so much is packed into its pages; such an environment is created, such characters drawn!  The central character, Arha (Tenar) is compelling and beautifully drawn.  Not having read the first book, I took a while to realise that Sparrowhawk was the hero of the series, but the relationship between the two characters was logically developed and very sympathetic.  It was such a satisfying read!

It took me a bit longer to get into The Farthest Shore.  I found it harder to empathise with Arren and Sparrowhawk/Ged is older and has less vitality.  But the story drew me on and once we got to the western isles and met the dragons, I was hooked.  The end of this book is so very intense and dark and powerful, I could understand that the author thought that she'd told all the story. 

I knew however that she had written more and I was determined to read the first book, A Wizard of Earthsea.  So I had to rejoin the State Library (how I'd lapsed!) so I could order it in. So it was with great anticipation that I started reading.  I won't say that I was disappointed but ... well, I thought there was something lacking.  I've had to think hard why I didn't enjoy it with the same intensity as the other two - the ingredients are there -  the building of suspense, the flawed characters, the vividly realised world.  The story however is more of a narration than the other two books.  In Tomb and Farthest Shore we see Ged through the eyes of the other main character and their shared experiences guide both the story and the action.  In Wizard the observing character only comes at the end of the book and the rest is like a description of Ged's deeds.  We never get close to him or really understand his character; only his pride is obvious and while it is his overwhelming character trait and the cause of his rise and fall and subsequent quest, he doesn't seem to have other  human qualities.  Perhaps that's the point of the story?  I don't know.  In Atuan he seems far more human and compassionate and while his power is immense it shows its limits.

So then I came to Tehanu.  It was written many years later and as Ursula Le Guin herself says, women's lib came in between!  The story is told from Tenar's viewpoint and focuses on her relationship with Ged, now having lost all his powers, and Therru, the mutilated child she is raising.  It is not a children's book in any real form.  The characters are strongly drawn and the action proceeds at a steady pace.  The magic is no longer the driving force.  The main characters have to deal with their lives as humans do - there are no spells to save them - except perhaps at the end.  It is a story about people learning to adjust to their new lives and status and finding new strengths within themselves.  There are no great voyages and no new lands and peoples to cope with.  It is all drawn on a smaller domestic scale, but nontheless, vividly coloured.  The imagery is masterful and the conclusion unexpected and wonderful.  I found it an enthralling book.

So now I have to wait and order Stories of Earthsea and The Other Wind.  How I hope there will be some dragons!

Almost by accident I've created this journal.  I already have a blog so what will I use this for?  I admire the way Shannon uses her live journal.  I admire her facility with words.  I admire the way she can read and review so many books.  I just love the way that my children constantly outdo me.

So here I am, 61 years old but still feeling mostly like I'm in my thirties - though I no longer have that responsibility for all those lovely children.  And I have to confess.  I've become a book wimp!

As a child - a short sighted child - I could read fluently before I turned 4 years old.  And read I did.  I devoured children's literature at an enormous rate.  I constantly read.  At birthday parties I would read their presents while they played party games!  In class, I could read the whole book while the class laboured over its reading aloud in turns.  I read the whole of the British history textbook while the class struggled to understand the feudal system.  A lot of it, I know, was of the ilk of Enid Blyton but that was children's literature of the fifties.  As life developed and I became a teacher, I would spent the first week of the school holidays, mentally exhausted, sitting on the floor reading trashy novels.  I read my way through most of Barbara Cartland and Lucilla Andrews.  The first really was trash, the second quite well written but far less prolific.  I delighted in Georgette Heyer and for a while read a lot of historical fiction but eventually I found myself reading biographies and books on historical periods and very little in the way of fiction.  I've found more satisfaction in hearing the voice of the subject than in the voice of most authors.

So now I have more time to read and I've come to face an uncomfortable fact.  I can't read angst.  I hate being manipulated and forced to read graphic details and agonising events.  I know I'm an emotional - an over-emotional Sagittarian and I will still howl my eyes out if I read the last chapters of Lassie Come Home or The Cat Who Went to Heaven.  But I just can't get involved in novels that force me into areas that I don't want to re-visit.  I know that these things can or could happen but I'm over that.

So I'm trying to find some books that I want to read and that I will enjoy.  I want to read of people developing, like Valancy in the Blue Castle.  I enjoy journeys of body and soul.  I don't like too much melodrama and wordiness.  If anyone ever reads this but me, are there any recommendations?