Unlikely Destinations by Tony and Maureen Wheeler

The Lonely Planet books over the years have been our guide posts, starting with our trip around the world 27 years ago. We used to joke about the gringo trail of people who would go eat oatmeal in Penang where Tony ate oatmeal. Aside from our snarky comments, the Wheeler books provided a fresh way to look at traveling for young people shouldering back packs and looking for cheap and interesting travels to unique places. So our traveling grew up with the Wheelers. Alas, the book is a bit of a plodder. Nonetheless it was worth a skim to read how long it took them to turn a profit, the challenges they had with each other and raising their traveling kids. I would have liked to hear more about their adventures traveling than the type of computers they bought as the business expanded. They are giving back with their foundation to the people in countries where they have travelled. A nice touch!

The Earthsea Wizard by Ursula Le Guin

This was my second time reading this book. Ursula Le Guin was coming to read from it at our community center. I realized all of a sudden that this was the book that J.K Rowling had used as a model for her Harry Potter books. It is about a boy wizard who has no mother and goes off to wizard school where he unleases a shadow (in his youthful pride to show how powerful he is to a rival) that haunts and taunts him through out the book. Ursula Le Guin's reading was wonderful. She is a tiny 78 year old person. She wanted to write about a boy wizard "Ged" because growing up she only read about old men with flowing white beards. Ged's good friend Vetch from school helps him on his journey and Ged spends time at Vetch's house and quite likes his sister (sound familiar?) In the end after going from island to island, conquering a few dragons, and venturing out to sea where none has ever gone, Ged conquers the shadow and good once again triumphs over evil. This is a pretty simple story but nicely written with many sequels, which I have not read. Le Guin makes all her characters in this book dark skinned. The Earthsea world is full of islands with funny names. Names are important to Le Guin who makes them up and only uses them if they feel right. Le Guin says it was not until the fourth book in this series that she found her feminist perspective and stopped trying to be a man writer. It was very touching to see many of the audience members tell her how deeply influenced they had been by her books. I hate to think of books disappearing from our interior lives!