It's that time of year when science fiction and fantasy books, short stories, graphic novels, dramatic presentations, and more have been nominated for the two largest of the genre awards, the Hugo and the Nebula.

The Hugo Awards are nominated and voted on by members of WorldCon. A member of WorldCon is anyone who's registered to attend the next WorldCon, or someone who's paid a membership fee just to be able to vote and not attend the con. As such, the Hugos can be considered a fan award. But it's a rather expensive proposition to be able to vote, so it's definitely a subset of the fan community.

This year the Hugo nominees for Best Novel are: * Anathem by Neal Stephenson * The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman * Little Brother by Cory Doctorow * Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross * Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi The Graveyard Book also just won this year's Newbery Award. You can find it and Little Brother in the Teen Room. (And don't let your age stop you from reading them! I highly recommend both.) The others can be found in the science fiction and fantasy alcoves in the back of the main floor. Here are the Hugo nominees in the other categories.

The Nebula Awards are nominated and voted on by the members of SFWA. To qualify as a member of SFWA, a writer has to meet certain professional publication requirements. This then is the award given by the pro's to their peers.

The Nebula nominees for Best Novel this year are: * Brasyl, Ian McDonald * Cauldron, Jack McDevitt * Little Brother, Cory Doctorow * Making Money, Terry Pratchett * Powers, Ursula K. Le Guin * Superpowers, David J. Schwartz Powers, and of course, Little Brother again, can be found in the Teen Room. Brasyl is in Fiction. The other two can be found in the science fiction and fantasy alcoves. You can check here for the full list of Nebula nominees, including the other categories.

Who would you vote for?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

If you're looking for a book with Mexican flavor, I just finished reading Flora Segunda : being the magickal mishaps of a girl of spirit, her glass-gazing sidekick, two ominous butlers (one blue), a house with eleven thousand rooms, and a red dog by Ysabeau Wilce, which was on the Tiptree honor list last year. This year, the sequel, Flora's Dare is. You can find both of these in the teen room.

But what is the Tiptree?

The James Tiptree, Jr. Literary Award is "an annual literary prize for science fiction or fantasy that expands or explores our understanding of gender". It's named after James Tiptree, Jr, which was one of Alice Sheldon's pen names. Unlike the Nebula and the Hugo, this award is decided by a panel of judges, though anyone may recommend a book or story for consideration.

This year the winners of the award are:

The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. I borrowed this through interlibrary loan and read it over the weekend. It's very good, but ends on a horrible cliffhanger! The next book won't be published until September. This is a young adult book, but, again, don't let that stop you from reading it. Surely it says something about the quality of YA books that they keep winning non-YA specific awards.

Filter House by Nisi Shawl. This is a collection of short stories and I'm still in the process of reading it. A 'collection', by the way, differs from an 'anthology' in that it's a book of short stories by one author, instead of short stories by multiple authors.

You can find what the judges thought of these works and the honor's list for this year on The Tiptree Award website. The library has a number of the books and series on the list, if you'd like to read them.

I also highly recommend the three Tiptree Award anthologies. Past winning and shortlisted short stories are compiled along with excerpts from the novel winners and essays by big names such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Joanna Russ. The library has all of them.

The James Tiptree Award Anthology 1

The James Tiptree Award Anthology 2

The James Tiptree Award Anthology 3

And when you're done reading those, you can check out James Tiptree Jr. : The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon, by Julie Phillips

Happy reading!

Yes, I know the Olympics are still a few weeks away. I'm talking about the gold medal in young adult literature also referred to as the Printz Award. This award created to honor Michael L. Printz, a school media specialist from the mid-west, celebrates the cream of the crop of books written for teens in the previous year. Think the Newbery Award but for older readers.

This year's committee of nine librarians selected Going Bovine by Libba Bray. This title is a departure from her previous historical/magical books you may be more familiar with (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, and A Sweet Far Thing). This story will instead take you on a twisted road trip with a sixteen year old diagnosed with mad cow disease. While elements of the supernatural realm may appear, you will not be led on any Victorian adventures by curious and determined teenage girls.

You can learn more about previous winners as well as honorable mentions at the award's page on YALSA's website (Young Adult Library Services division of the American Library Association).