So glad you are enjoying it and so sorry I didn't see your comment from last month until today! The other books in the series are good to decent, but Lonesome Dove is at an entirely other level.

Catch-22 is one of the books that changed my entire perspective on life. I grew up in a small-town and was fairly sheltered, so reading that at 17 was eye-opening. I've never gone back to it just because I don't know if I want to diminish the experience I had reading it for the first time. I'll be curious what you…

Ahh Pinter, where the punctuation and the pauses are more important than the words. I guess he's writing completely sub-textual plays? Meta-textualism?

Work reading has pushed aside any pleasure reading lately, but I want to give a shout-out to Miller and others for a great discussion about Tehanu last month in the book thread. I was vacationing without wi-fi so only got to read it after the fact. It was awesome, and why I like the book readers at the AVClub so much.

Sorry for the long wait to reply! Lonesome Dove was written first, the other books were written as a prequel and a sequel to Dove, so it stands alone. I like the other books in the "series" but Lonesome dove is by far the best.

Well as an actual Librarian, I don't just play one in my profile, I'll be trying that technique in my own Library. Maybe I'll just "accidentally" check LeGuin novels out to students who are checking out other books.

If you liked Team of Rivals, you might also like Founding Brothers. It completely changed my view of US culture and the US government and in some ways made me appreciate even more that our country actually exists.

You won't regret it. I'm not a huge fan of westerns, but Lonesome Dove is a great book. One of the few giant, long books that I wish would keep going.

I took your recommendation from before and got a version that included her essay about the backlash. It is interesting because if you love LeGuin, where she went with the story doesn't seem strange or divergent. It fits what she likes to write about it and even fits the path the Earthsea novels were taking. Each novel…

And that might be why I love her, that and the fact that she simply writes unbelievably beautiful prose. I haven't read all of her stuff but the belief that change in society is inevitable and important in order for individuals to thrive seems to be a pretty prominent theme. Also like @disqus_hde7I14XwM:disqus…

I know you didn't ask for recommendations, but seriously also consider giving him Wizard of Earthsea as well. I think ten would be a good age for the first book in the Earthsea triology, the other books might move a bit too slow for a 10 year old.

Was that your first Atwood? Handmaid's Tale was the first one I ever read (in my early 20s) and I was kind of blown away by it. I really enjoy a lot of her other work as well, especially The Blind Assassin and the first two books of the Maddaddam Trilogy, i haven't read the third one yet.

I had no idea the last novel was coming out so soon! So exciting!

I was just thinking the same thing. And knowing where the story is going will make the second read so very different from the first.

I finally finished the fourth Earthsea Book, Tehanu, which was fantastic. My favorite of the series. I'd love to teach an entire class based on the book as an introduction to feminist thought. Just a really, really fantastic read: richer, deeper, more thought provoking, and more beautiful than the first three. Highly…

Are you my husband? Seriously this post could be written by my husband. If you are not my husband, you would obviously get a long very well.

Le Guin is fantastic. I just started reading her and honestly think she is one of the best writers from the past 50 years. Yes her stuff is "genre," but she writes beautifully. Even if you don't necessarily "like" what she writes, you can't deny how well she writes.

I've literally just finished that section, so I guess I get to see if I think it gets a lot worse. I know a lot of people hate the end. This makes me really want to read the books. I was surprised by how quickly I became invested in the show and if the books are even better that makes me really excited.

I believe it! She basically became my favorite writer overnight. I took a lot of American Lit classes, and not once was I asked to read her. I can't figure out why she isn't more a part of the canon. Is it because she wrote science fiction? Well so did Vonnegut, and I read a lot of him. Hell I even read Johnathan…

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