like most short story collections, this was a mixed bag for me, but ursula k. le guin’s writing is beautiful and i vibe with a lot of her themes, so i’m glad i read it, and i’m definitely looking forward to reading more of her work.

favorite stories: unlocking the air / the diary of the rose / direction of the road / gwilan’s harp / may’s lion / sleepwalkers. i also really enjoyed “brothers and sisters” and “a week in the country”—the orsinian tales manage to capture a very specific eastern/central european atmosphere that just hits in a way i can’t quite articulate—but i don’t know if i’d call them favorites since they did feel a bit meandering as i was reading them. they do stand out (in a good way) when i think about the collection as a whole though.