Famous Writers

Hmm, I read City of the Beasts by Allende. Well, the beginning, in both English and Spanish. I think it was better in Spanish. Maybe the translation messed up Kingdom of the Golden Dragon? Who knows...

Anyway, Ursula le Guin wrote a YA book called Gifts. Worst. Book. Ever. Absolutely nothing happened. It was like one massive prologue that wasn't needed. The sequel and third book in the trilogy/series have some out, but I hesitate to buy them in case they're just second and third prologues. I haven't read her other stuff, but if it's all like Gifts I definitely never will...

I have Gifts on my shelf of books to read. I usually enjoy Ursula le Guin's work. I remember first coming across the Wizard of Earthsea when I was 12 - I only had about a week to read it before all the books in our temporary school library had to be sent back, and I positively devoured it. I was totally transported into the story, and then I was desperate to find The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest Shore to finish the trilogy. The Farthest Shore scared the living daylights out of me, with all the stuff about the land of the dead.
Since then I've read a lot of her adult books, too, some of which are considered SF classics, of course. (The Dispossessed, for instance)
So do try something else, if Gifts disappointed you.

Maybe I will try the wizard of earthsea. I always wanted to read it until I read gifts. But I'll give it a try...maybe gifts just happened to be bad (IMHO)

Madeleine L'Engle's YA books are among my faves of all time. Her books for adults bored me. Of course, I was trying to read A Severed Wasp when I was in my early twenties and the characters are in their eighties so that could have had something to do with it. But I've always appreciated L'Engle's remark that she wrote for adults until she felt she was good enough to write for children. Maybe some writers are confused and think a half-assed effort is okay for kids. But not all of them.

Love, love the Earthsea trilogy. Absolutely check it out, reenkam. I was just 12-13 when I read it and I don't know how it will strike an older reader. But those were books that were both sparely written and vivid. They took on life and breath for me.

I liked Gifts, bot Voices was better...
Well, I just read Joyce Carol Oates "After the WRECK, I picked myself UP, spread my WINGS, and FLEW AWAY" (yup, that's how the title is supposed to be written) and I thought it was remarkably un-special. Had a bit of "famous name can publish anything"-feeling.