Ursula K. Le Guin
Ursula LeGuin is underrepresented so far simply because I'm mostly reviewing books as I read, and I have already read many of her. Among my favorites that are not reviewed here are novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia, Always Coming Home, The Word for World is Forest and Four Ways to Forgiveness; short story collections, Orsinian Tales, Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences , The Compass Rose and Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences; and books of essays, The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction
Cheek by Jowl
This was more like a quick skim than a read when I discovered it was due and on hold by someone else. It is a book of essays about fantasy. I enjoy Le Guin's essays very much. I've read some of her other books of essays with similar subject matter, and found this one enjoyable as well as a good source of information. It mostly seems to deal with the lack of serious criticism given to fantasy since it was relegated to a status of being for children. It included a longish essay about animal tales - which made me want to read Bambi, apparently very different from the Disney version. That is the one I remember, but she also mentioned other books that I had not heard of before that sounded good. Among the books she mentioned were some by Kipling, The Jungle Book of which I've read at least part - maybe only Riki tiki tavi, Just So Stories, which I haven't and Kim which I haven't. She was decrying that these books are treated by critics/scholars as not worthy of the consideration given to his "adult" works. She especially holds Kim in high regard and I want to read it now.