From the Bookshelf of Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge…

The Left Hand of Darkness

Ursula K. Le Guin

Start date: January 25, 2018

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Jul 28, 2021 Loretta rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy

This book was...not quite what I was expecting. In the first half in particular, I had some real moments of "what...but I thought Le Guin was this strong feminist...what is all this gender essentialism bullshit?" And I kinda wish she had found a way to call the androgyne/hermaphrodite (?) people of Geffen something other than "he", but my 21st centry eyes have gotten used to "they" as an option; and I can well imagine that just was not available when this book was written and published.

But, by ...more

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Dec 16, 2017 Ruth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bookclub

Read it twice. More like 4.5 the second time, but rounding up. Elegant, stately prose surrounding intellectually rigorous explorations of other-ness.

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Dec 21, 2018 Kate rated it it was ok

Shelves: book-riot-2018

I read this for Book Riot Read Harder. Seeing the listing here in Goodreads that it is the 4th book in the cycle might explain why I didn’t like it. I could see many of the themes that could be fascinating to discuss (gender, faith, patriotism, fate, etc) but I just didn’t have enough to hold onto on the book. I think I either needed more of an introduction (perhaps that was in the first three books?) or to just accept I’m not much of an abstract reader. I enjoyed the section of the book where t ...more

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