Reading 2026 - Books 17-22

 I am continuing to read but staying behind in my Goodreads Yearly Goal of 36 books. I have reached 22 books for the year but should be at 25. I have not gotten any further behind since my last post, but I have not caught up either. Regardless of the goal, here are the latest six books I have read.

The Telling (#17)

Fiction; by Ursula K. Le Guin; published in 2000; 264 pages; BJ Score 3.0 (Great)

I was perusing at the library and saw this book by Le Guin. I liked her previous book, The Dispossessed, that I read in 2025, so I decided to try another by her. This one was great too. She has written lots of books, I know I will be reading more.

It tells the story of Sutty, a Earth women sent to be an observer on the planet Aka, and her experiences of political and religious conflicts between a corporatist government and the indigenous resistance, which is centered on the traditions of storytelling, locally referred to as "the Telling" (for which the book is named).  Le Guin constructed the recent historical situation of Aka as a parallel to the history of China during the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution.

True or False (#18)

Non Fiction; by Cindy Otis; published in 2020; 320 pages; BJ Score 2.5 (Good to Great)

I enjoyed the book and the information it details and I will share this quote:

"Though billed for young adults, this is a book that every adult should read." --The Washington Post 

The Wine Dark Sea (#19)

Short Story Fiction; by Robert Aikman; pub. in 1988; 388 pages; BJ Score 2.5 (Good to Great)

A book in my collection for over 30 years I finally decided to read it. It is a group of short stories that are kind of bizarre and weird but I liked most of them. They have classified it as horror. Unlike much of today's horror, that is full of blood, monsters and melodrama, these stories achieve a quieter, more subtle and more lasting sense of disquiet. 

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (#20)

Fiction; by Stephen King; published in 1987; 463 pages; BJ Score 3.0 (Great)

Second book of many in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. It was a great read and I plan to read more from the series. It is not normal King style writing. A little more dark and a lot more swearing.

The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye (#21)

Fiction;  by David Lagercrantz; published in 2017; 347 pages; BJ Score 3.0 (Great)

This is the fifth book I have read about Lisbeth Salander. The first three, the Millennium Trilogy, was written by Stieg Larsson. After he died, David Lagercrantz wrote three more books in the, now called, the Millennium Series. There are three more after that written by Karin Smirnoff. So this was book five of nine, and it was another great read. The books are written in Swedish and I enjoy the translated English version. But just like my complaint on Russian novel translations, all the words are in English except Proper Nouns like names and places. I am getting too old to remember all those long foreign names. But I get by

The Greatest Show on Earth (#22)

Non Fiction; by Richard Dawkins; published in 2009; 470 pages; BJ Score 3.0 (Great)

This book was recommended by my friend Mac Monroe (who has since passed away), is an interesting discussion about Evolution. There are pictures and drawings and more words than I wanted to read. But I read at least 90% of it and liked what I read...