As you would know if you have read any of my past Ursula K. Le Guin reviews, I’m a huge simp for her works and think she can almost do no wrong. It does then follow that I gave this book 5 stars and will rave about it to the high heavens for months on end. I picked up this essay collection after reading Space Crone last year, which featured some of the texts in this book. I will admit that I found some essays more eye-opening than others, but in all of them I found something of interest. 

If you are a writer, or want to be one, I would absolutely recommend you read this collection. It is at times a demanding read, but almost always an inspiring and uplifting one. My favourite parts were the first one, Personal Matters, and the last one, On Writing. There were great nuggets of wisdom, particularly in how she cultivates her craft through practice, her perceptions around reading and writing, and how the two feed into each other. 

For good measure, here is the list of my favourite essays in here that I recommend you check out if you want a taste of this collection but don’t feel like reading it all:
- My Libraries (on how her love of reading came to be)
- All Happy Families (on the importance of writing happy stories, how difficult it can be, and how they are perceived in society)
- Dogs, Cats and Dancers: Thoughts on Beauty (exactly just that, from youth to old age)
- A Matter of Trust (on trusting but also perfecting your craft)
- The Writer and the Character (on the writer not interfering with their characters’ work)

Definitely will be a collection I will return to, and I will be putting it in as many avid readers’ hands as I possibly can.

Ursula K. Le Guin’s reflections on her early life, literature, writing, gender, and art are equal parts witty and impactful. I was particularly moved by her unusually anthropologically-focused upbringing, her analysis of rhythm in different forms of fiction, her discussion on beauty through the lens of animals and dancers, and the abstract yet poignant way she discusses her inspirations and methods for writing. The titular wave in the mind, an excerpt from a quote of Virginia Woolf (who appears often in this work as a brilliant writer ahead of her time), is a beautiful image that captures how artists catch their inspiration. Ursula K. Le Guin’s essays capture what is clear throughout her writing; a brilliant, multifaceted artist whose view of the world leaps off the page by sheer clarity.