A lot of people have been searching for a book to make sense of the world in the last week, and 1984 by George Orwell has soared up the charts. What people looking for tips may not realise is that things don’t work out so well for the main character, despite the fact that it’s one of the best-known dystopian novels of recent times. I wanted to recommend some alternative choices from women and writers of colour whose stories will strike a chord and who deserve to be read more widely. Continue reading “When the real world is a dystopia, here’s what to read”
Tag: ursula le guin
#bookishWISHES – what would you wish for?
Holly Black’s latest book, The Darkest Part of the Forest, is out very soon from Indigo and I for one am really looking forward to it. It’s full of the dark magic we’ve come to expect – I just *wish* it was out now! In the meantime, I’ve been thinking about some of my other #bookishWISHES, and, like the fairy godmothers they are, Indigo are providing a copy of The Darkest Part of the Forest for us to give away to someone else with a fantastic bookish wish. Continue reading “#bookishWISHES – what would you wish for?”
Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin
Mr Ai has been sent to observe the inhabitants of the snow-bound planet of Winter. An androgynous people, like animals they enter phases of sexuality and can be both mother and father at different times in their lives. To Mr Ai they seem alien, unsophisticated, confusing. But during a long tortuous journey across the ice, he finds himself losing some of his progressional detachment, befriending one of their outcasts, and reaching a painful understanding of their true nature. But will he ever learn to see them as they see themselves?
Continue reading “Review: The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin”