The Birthday of the World: And Other Stories

Where's this book been?
by Ursula K. Le Guin | Science Fiction & Fantasy |
ISBN: 0066212537 Global Overview for this book
Registered by wingGoryDetailswing of Nashua, New Hampshire USA on 10/6/2018
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3 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by wingGoryDetailswing from Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Saturday, October 6, 2018
I got this ex-library hardcover from Better World Books during a recent book-binge. It includes several stories set in le Guin's "Hainish" universe, and some that are not; the author provides notes about each story up front. Among my favorites:

"Coming of Age in Karhide" directly addresses the unusual gender-transition setup mentioned in Left Hand of Darkness.

"Unchosen Love" deals with a civilization whose sexual relationships involve careful matching of four people, with strict rules about where each comes from. But that's just the background for the story, which features a man who's in the same culture but is visiting a remote community where the rules are the same but the personalities are very, very different. He falls hard for another man, but when the other proposes a pair of women with which to make up the requisite four-person marriage, he's... rather stressed out. It takes some kindly advice from an unexpected quarter to help the lovers on their way. The story has Le Guin's poetic style, romantic moods, and intricate world-building, and is my favorite in this collection.

"Paradises Lost" is set on a generation ship, but focuses on the intermediate generations rather than those who left Earth or those who will reach the new planet while still young. The closely-monitored society on board the ship - these passengers do not go into cold sleep, but live and procreate and die while the ship crosses interstellar space - seems pleasant enough, but as time passes and a religious cult arises, there's a schism between those who believe that the journey is all and those who still hope to reach landfall and create a new community.

[There's a TV Tropes page on the Hainish universe, with some entertaining tidbits.]

Journal Entry 2 by wingGoryDetailswing at Nashua, New Hampshire USA on Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Released 5 yrs ago (10/10/2018 UTC) at Nashua, New Hampshire USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm adding this to the Anthology Assortment bookbox, which will be on its way to its next stop soon. Hope someone enjoys it!

*** Released for the 2018 Tick Tock release challenge. ***

Journal Entry 3 by BOOKWORMINUSALL at Mesa, Arizona USA on Monday, October 29, 2018
Chosen from emmejo's Anthology Bookbox...THANK YOU!!! ; )
https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/554204

From Amazon...

For more than four decades, Ursula K. Le Guin has enthralled readers with her imagination, clarity, and moral vision. The recipient of numerous literary prizes, including the National Book Award, the Kafka Award, and five Hugo and five Nebula Awards, this renowned writer has, in each story and novel, created a provocative, ever-evolving universe filled with diverse worlds and rich characters reminiscent of our earthly selves. Now, in The Birthday of the World, this gifted artist returns to these worlds in eight brilliant short works, including a never-before-published novella, each of which probes the essence of humanity.

Here are stories that explore complex social interactions and troublesome issues of gender and sex; that define and defy notions of personal relationships and of society itself; that examine loyalty, survival, and introversion; that bring to light the vicissitudes of slavery and the meaning of transformation, religion, and history.

The first six tales in this spectacular volume are set in the author's signature world of the Ekumen, "my pseudo-coherent universe with holes in the elbows," as Le Guin describes it -- a world made familiar in her award-winning novel The Left Hand of Darkness. The seventh, title story was hailed by Publishers Weekly as "remarkable . . . a standout." The final offering in the collection, Paradises Lost, is a mesmerizing novella of space exploration and the pursuit of happiness.

In her foreword, Ursula K. Le Guin writes, "to create difference-to establish strangeness-then to let the fiery arc of human emotion leap and close the gap: this acrobatics of the imagination fascinates and satisfies me as no other." In The Birthday of the World, this gifted literary acrobat exhibits a dazzling array of skills that will fascinate and satisfy us all.

Journal Entry 4 by BOOKWORMINUSALL at Mesa, Arizona USA on Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Reserved for booklady331's Already Book Crossed Bookbox (ABC VBB) Round 19

Journal Entry 5 by BOOKWORMINUSALL at Mesa, Arizona USA on Tuesday, February 4, 2020
No one selected this book reserved for booklady331's Already Book Crossed Bookbox (ABC VBB) Round 19, so I've removed it from the list.

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A Birthday Group RABCK, and a Multiple Challenge Release for:

booklady331's 2021 KTM (Keep Them Moving) Challenge
https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/23/572377

Davros-10 2021 Science Fiction Release Challenge
https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/23/572478

HaPpY BiRtHdAy, My Dear BC Friend!!! 😊 Hope your day finds you enJOYing the things that deLIGHT you the most, and that you have some time for PLEAsure reading...not the kind of bills, medical reports and junk mail. I have chosen to SURPRISE you with this PSEUDO “Wild Things” aka not one creature is the actual protagonist book, instead of letting it join into your current travelling WILD THINGS Bookbox. EnJOY!!!💖❌⭕

Released 2 yrs ago (6/12/2021 UTC) at Oppem's Birthday Group RABCK, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- USA

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

TO THE FINDER OF THIS BOOK:

HELLO...WELCOME to BOOKCROSSING...and CONGRATULATIONS!


You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BOOKCROSSING http://www.bookcrossing.com/about. Maybe you'll even decide to make a journal entry on this book, possibly listing me...BOOKWORMINUSALL...as the one who referred you. We want to make the whole world a library! You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free!). Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend, or even set it free "in the wild" for someone else to find as you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels - you'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your email address), it's fun, it's free, and it's spam-free...all thanks to our dedicated totally AWESOME BOOKCROSSING MANAGEMENT http://www.bookcrossing.com/management, and SUPPORT TEAMS!!!

HAPPY READING! : )

Journal Entry 7 by wingerishkigalwing at Salt Lake City, Utah USA on Thursday, July 29, 2021
First, let me say how excited I am to see this book to put on my TBR pile as I have loved LeGuin for many decades!!! Thank you so much for a most amazing and incredible box
 Yes I got into it it was just more and more and more! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!

Next, some apologies and explanation: the box arrived just as I was leaving for an extended trip down to Little Big Medicine Sundance. (although much smaller than usual, the dance was incredibly powerful this year). After the dance, I was feeling so so much better than before that I decided to take longer than usual coming home and explore some byways where I’ve never been ;-)
And that meant I had minimal time to get everything done before surgery. One of the things I did do was open this box
. But as you know since this is the first journal, that was as far as I got. Lol. I still don’t have book in hand book in hand, but we went to water my plants ( I’ve been staying at my daughter’s) and I put BCID numbers in notes, so I can at least get some of them acknowledged.

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