Ursula Le Guin is coming to town.

[LWolf]

Not my town, but the town 15 miles south of me.

She's going to be reading, speaking, and doing a workshop at our annual "Nature of Words" literary festival.

I can't attend the workshop. It's on a Friday work day that I cannot take off. I will attend her reading, though, and get a book autographed.

Which one should I get signed? ;)

[PufPuf23]

1. My Favorite is Always Coming Home

and I liked The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for the World is Forest.

[LWolf]

2. All 3 good suggestions.

I released my old copy of "left hand of darkness" through bookcrossing.com a few years ago; I wanted to share it.

I have a good copy of "Always Coming Home" I could use.

Or I could replace my old copy of "left hand." ;)

[PufPuf23]

3. The only other Le Guin book I have read is

Lathe of Heaven.

Ursula has an interesting history as her father Alfred Kroeber founded the School of Anthropology at UC Berkeley -- Kroeber Hall -- and her mother wrote the book Ishi. Alfred wrote books like The Handbook of California Indians, The Inland Whale, Yurok Myths, Karuk Myths, and numerous anthropological abstracts on California's Native Americans, most detailed about those on the far North Coast/Klamath River area. Inland Whale, and Yurok and Karuk Myths are are good reads and can be readily found at decent prices as used book books on the internet. There is a good bio about her Dad if you can find it but I can't recall the name offhand. Le Guin went to Berkeley HS concurrently with Philip K Dick and last I heard she lived in the Portland, OR area -- Powell's Books there is heaven to me!!. Ursula must be in her 80s now. I have been a (rare) book collector since my teens in the 60s and did not realize how hardcore until the internet came to me in the 90s. Two authors I have collected since a teen are PKD and Alfred Kroeber. PufPuf is the name for the Pacific Giant Salamander in Karuk and also an amphibious being in Karuk stories of creation. So reading some Le Guin was an offshoot of interest in her father and PKD.

Where is the reading going to be?

[LWolf]

4. I didn't know about her parents.

I have a copy of The Handbook of California Indians AND Ishi: Last of His Tribe" on my shelves; I've had them for years. I took some undergraduate classes dealing with California natives in the 1980s.

Thanks for teaching me something new today!

:hi:

[LWolf]

5. Update:

I was out late last night for the reading and the signing, and am groggily getting ready to manage 90 teenagers and an insane schedule today. At least it's Friday and I can sleep in tomorrow, lol.

Four diverse authors read, with Ursula reading last. I may post about at least one of the other authors in the regular book forum. It was great.

The founder of the local literary festival was a student of Le Guin's at a writer's workshop 22 years ago. She was in tears, introducing her.

Ursula herself, while a little careful on her feet, was warm, engaging, funny, and fascinating. She read some from "Lavinia," which I read last month. She said that she'd studying Latin both in high school and graduate school, but never mastered it. She always wanted to read Virgil, a poet who doesn't translate well, and when she hit her mid-70's, she decided that if she was ever going to read Virgil, she'd better go back to learning Latin. So she did, and she achieved her goal: she read The Aeneid.

She found herself fascinated with a character that never speaks in the poem, and based "Lavinia" on that character. It was fascinating to hear her talk about the way she interacts with her characters.

In the end, I got 3 books signed. One for my mom, one for my son, one for me.

What a fascinating, incredible, woman she is!