Late in the Day by Ursula Le Guin is a poetry and prose book, encompassing Guin’s writings towards the end of her life. The book is based on nature- on subjects as vast and meaningful as the sea, to as simple as a Canada lynx walking through a forest. However, in each small poem, Guin cleanly delineates each small, but significant lesson that the natural world can teach us.
I really enjoyed this book. I haven’t read poetry and prose for quite a while, and was a little apprehensive about a book as simplistic as this one, but I was completely surprised by the implicit depth and complexity of Guin’s writing. What I found unique about Guin’s writing is not her syntax or the breadth of her expression (both of which were, by the way, incredible), but her ability to use mundane, everyday situations, common to us all, and weave them into a detailed tapestry on every subject, from society to love to life itself.
Le Guin herself passed in October of 2018, but her writing is timeless, and as meaningful (arguably more so) to our world today as it was seven years ago. The necessity of interconnectivity and harmony with the natural world becomes more pressing day by day- and Le Guin’s writing masterfully explains why and how.
-Vaidehi B.
The Distance Between Us is about 17 year old Camyen who thinks that the poor and the rich shouldn’t be together. Camyen helps her mom in their doll store. Her mother sees rich people as customers, as profit, as people who wouldn’t care at all about her well being. She grew up listening to her mom explain that rich people associating with the poor is just a game to them. Since Camyen’s father’s family didn’t help her mom when she found out she was pregnant, they both hate rich people in general.
Mission Viejo Library Teen Voice 