No Time to Spare

From acclaimed author Ursula K. Le Guin, a collection of thoughts - always adroit, often acerbic - on aging, belief, the state of literature, and the state of the nation.

Best known for her speculative fiction, most notably the Earthsea saga, Ursula K. Le Guin was prolific in multiple genres, and unapologetic about it. At 81, she decided to try her hand at blogging, though she loathed the term ("it sounds like a sodden tree trunk in a bog"). No Time to Spare presents the best of Le Guin's blog: sharp-eyed, big-hearted, idiosyncratic and highly enjoyable.

Both Le Guin's eye for detail and her dry wit are on full display here. On the craft of writing, she has said, "Words are my matter--my stuff. Words are my skein of yarn, my lump of wet clay, my block of uncarved wood."