Earthsea Series

I began another classic children's fantasy series and again was not disappointed! The Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin begins with A Wizard of Earthsea and continues with The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, The Other Wind, and Tales of Earthsea. I've now finished the entire series.

LeGuin's writing style is very different from Lloyd Alexander's. I'd say his tone is almost like that of an oral storyteller while LeGuin's is a little more literary. The main character for much of the series is Sparrowhawk, a young wizard whose destiny takes him all over his world. The main theme is light vs. darkness in the depths of the human soul, but it's treatment isn't preachy. Now that I've finished the series, my early conclusions about not wanting to see any dramatizations thereof are confirmed. There's just no way they could have nearly the value - the kind of dark & personal intimacy as reading the books has. That being said, I hope the movie will draw more people to these books. Another interesting aspect is that though the books are sequential, the later books don't start right where the last one left off - or tell you much about what's happened in between the books. Very interesting.

Highly, highly recommended. Absolutely a must read for fantasy fans! I cannot praise this series enough.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima by John Hersey has become a required reading book for many high schools. I think part of that is due to its brevity, which makes it more likely that teenagers will read it. However, its subject matter - the stories of several survivors of the US bombing of Hiroshima is not light. Hersey depicts the moments before and after the bombing as well as following up on the later lives of each person depicted.

The book is not as poignant as The Diary of Anne Frank. It almost seems as though the author is waving a wild finger, pointing, saying, "look what you did!" The book really has many of the same qualities as an in-depth newspaper articles where the author remains objective. It relays the facts of what happened and the pain, but not really the horror of it. Maybe it was just me - Hersey's writings just didn't engage me emotionally. That, and I am irritated with his scolding tone in describing the lives of those survivors who didn't completely devote themselves to others and enjoyed as much of a regular life as they were able to. Of course those particular stories ended less happily than that of the woman who became a nun and the priest's story. It was if he went out of his way to say "that's not how you should grieve. See these people? They did it the right way." I found that annoying.

All that editorializing aside, I can see why the book is on many reading lists. It is one of the few books that describes the bombing of Hiroshima from the point of view of the Japanese civilians living there. Recommended, but if interested in this part of history, I'd also pick up another book that's illustrated - funny that we don't see too many pictures of the destruction wrought by the US here and so many illustrations, History Channel programs, etc... about the Nazi concentration camps. Sigh...

Grimms' Fairy Tales

The edition I read was The Annotated Brothers Grimm edited by Maria Tatar. I recall having an edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales as a kid, but I don't think I got very far with it because there weren't many pictures and the type was very tiny so all the stories could fit into a smaller volume.

As an adult with a semi-scholarly bent, I found the introduction and annotations very insightful. Each tale has a brief introductory statement to set the stage for personal contemplation. Most of the tales are pretty short, which makes it an ideal book to read during lunches or on breaks at work. The book also has references at the back if anyone wants to do further research on fantasy in children's literature, the use of fantasy and fairy tales in helping children conquer fears, etc... very interesting stuff in those annotations. There's also illustrations from various editions of the Tales, which are much appreciated! :) It's also interesting to see how children's book illustration has changed over the years!! (Pick up a copy of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and compare - very funny book by the way!!).

Highly Recommended for all readers. It's especially interesting to read the "original" versions of popular tales and the comments on them, even though we've all grown up with alternate versions of these stories that are more fleshed out. Much more violent than I remember from my childhood. Also, according to the notes, a lot of the violence was added by the Grimms even while they expunged a lot of the sexual content for their young reading audience. Weird.

The Bell Curve

I am more than halfway through this book. I'll republish after I've finally finished it. Thus far, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life by Richard J. Hernstein and Charles Murray is a very thorough meta-examination of many of the scholarly studies regarding intelligence conducted by various agencies throughout the 20th century.

Findings are clearly explained and statistical terms and methodologies are explained in text boxes in the middle of the text, but have lengthier, more thorough explanations in the Appendices. The volume also contains extensive endnotes for those of a more scholarly bent - or interested in further investigating some of their controversial findings. Thus far, I've found the book to be very thought-provoking, though I do not take this work as gospel truth. I think the purpose of the book was to generate dialog and for readers to self-examine their own position in society and the preconceived ideas we have about intelligence, social problems, and how they may - or may not - correlate. I think Hernstein and Murray have accomplished this task.

While very interesting, this book is rather lengthy and though not difficult for the educated layperson, it's not light or easy reading either. This one is a challenge, but will give you some good conversation topics for debate.

Recommended - especially for those with an interest in sociology or economics.

Peter Pan

Another children's book. They're on my mega-list of lifetime reads, so I figured I'd knock a few quick ones out of the way during the month that I moved and am prepping for Christmas and my wedding! All this aside, Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie was a fun, but very quick read. Definitely written for children, it would probably be much better as a read-aloud title for younger children (maybe 6-9 years old?). As an adult, I can see where it would be appealing to children, but isn't written at a level where "kids of all ages" can enjoy it (whereas Lloyd Alexander, J.K. Rowling, Cornelia Funke, and others don't "dumb down" their writing).

Recommended - at the very least to somewhat counter the Disney version and as a piece of our cultural heritage. :)

Prydain Series

During November I've also finally read the Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander. This series consists of The Book of Three, The Black Cauldron, The Castle of Llyr, Taran Wanderer, and The High King. These books were first recommended to me by my friend Wolf (yes, this is his real name & not some weird RenFaire thing gone awry) during the 3rd or 4th grade. I finally read them and really enjoyed them - even though they're obviously intended for younger readers.

This is a fantasy series with some relationship to Welsh mythology, but mostly focuses on growing up, maturing (not always the same as growing up), and finding one's way in the world. As I've said above, I really enjoyed this series! You won't find detailed settings or character descriptions, instead enough details are given so that the reader is able to make their own mental images of how the characters look and the settings of where they might be. What character descriptions exist are almost Homeric in nature and these descriptions are largely the same throughout the series. The characters grow and change and find both joy and grief in this satisfying series.

Very highly recommended for fantasy readers and fans of Harry Potter looking for another series to read. I am not a particularly fast reader and was able to finish each book in ax. 3 hours (some a little more, others a little less), so this is only a quick fix for readers more used to Potter-length books (e.g. it took me ax. 9-10 hours to read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix). Very enjoyable nevertheless!!

Becoming Human

I've been a little lax in posting, so am hoping to catch up a bit tonight. :) I finished reading Becoming Human: Evolution and Human Uniqueness by Ian Tattersall about three weeks ago. This book discusses aspects of human evolution and how people differ from our closest living relatives - chimpanzees, gorillas, and other living primates. The book also discusses the accomplishments of our now-extinct antecedants in a fair amount of detail.

Some of Tattersall's observations are far from original (e.g. the cave paintings at Lascaux are impressive), but others - to the typical layperson seem somewhat controversial at first glance (e.g. that chimps and gorillas can't communicate like people can and that sign language experiments have pretty much failed all around). As a layperson with (realistically) only basic knowledge about human evolution and very little knowledge about recent developments (the last 10-15 years) in anthropological research, I found this book a breath of fresh air. Tattersall challenges the body of "common knowledge" and in doing so forces the reader to confront his/her own prejudices about how humans developed and what makes us unique in the world.

Highly recommended for all laypersons with an interest in anthropology/human evolution. Anthro students used to reading journals in these fields are unlikely to find much new and will probably prefer something more technical. Very readable for the layperson, though. Very little jargon.