Hugo Award nominations! It's a verrrrrry interesting ballot this year for several reasons. Lots of first-timers. Fan Writer category has no straight white men. The entire Wheel of Time series is up for Best Novel. A blog post nominated for Best Related Work. The "Time" xkcd nominated for Best Graphic Story.

Aaaaand then there's Larry Correia and Vox Day, but. Still. Change is in the air.

Still loving Night Circus. Oh my God this chapter about Night Circus fandom. Oh my God.

I loved that chapter. That was a good chapter.

I'm so pleased Ancillary Justice got nominated. It's such a weird, smart, surprising book. I liked the plot, and the themes, and found the characters both sympathetic and occasionally alienating. And I loved the way the pronoun use challenged my cultural expectations of gender.

I'm also super-pleased Liz Bourke, Kameron Hurley, Foz Meadows, and Abigail Nussbaum got nominated for fan Hugos. They're all brilliant writers, although I think pound-for-pound, Abigail's probably the best of them as a critic: her reviews are really sharp and insightful.

In other news, I finished my reread of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell yesterday. Such an unusual book, so amazingly-written. And it's rather sly, really, because while the book is officially about the two white English gentlemen magicians, it's the people with less official social power who actually bring about the change in the world--the black footman, the unmarried girl of good family, the homeless vagrant covered with tattoos, the lank-haired and disturbingly-knowledgeable servant.

Plus, the footnotes are awesome.

Agreed on all points, Consuela. So much on that ballot to be happy about.

I'm so pleased Ancillary Justice got nominated. It's such a weird, smart, surprising book. I liked the plot, and the themes, and found the characters both sympathetic and occasionally alienating. And I loved the way the pronoun use challenged my cultural expectations of gender.

Oh, I loved this book too! The plot could have been stronger at the end, but only because the rest of the book was so good, I was expecting a payoff to match.

Has anyone here read Jo Walton's Farthing? I'm about 2/3 through and enjoying it, though I don't think it's as strong or as absorbing as Among Others. But I'm starting to wonder, is absolutely *everyone* in this book gay or bisexual? David, Hugh, Mark Normanby, Tibs, probably Inspector Carmichael, and now Lady Eversley and Sukey? I mean, it's starting to strain credulity just the tiniest bit.

I really liked the Farthing books. Some of what you mention will become clearer.

Speaking of good books, I just finished The Last Policeman and its sequel, Countdown City, by Ben Winters, and they are so good I feel like grabbing strangers by the lapels and urging them to read them.

The Last Policeman is a pre-apocalyptic police procedural. I believe Mr. Winters dominates this particular genre. It is six months before an asteroid will hit the earth, and civilization is crumbling. Suicide is rampant. Every day people walk away from their lives to pursue things they always wanted to do (He makes "bucket list" a verb.) or try to prepare for doomsday. In the face of this, our hero, newly minted police detective Hank Palace, doggedly investigates an apparent suicide that he thinks could be murder. In Countdown City, he takes on what everyone thinks is a fool's errand: looking for a friend's missing husband. While both books are tightly plotted mysteries, they're also meditations on civilization and values. They are, as one reviewer said, "oddly uplifting," largely because of the characters who follow their own moral compasses regardless of the gales around them. They are also written in lovely spare prose that makes every word count.

Those books are on my list because they sound right up my alley.

I am reading this article on Salon about a romance novel "canon". [link] The slide show of the canon describes a book as A "Regency romance with beautifully broken people and some seriously steamy sex." I thought Regencies, by their nature, had less explicit sex? Has that changed?

Also, it reminded me that I loved Jennifer Crusie's books so much I wish I could go back in time and read them again for the first time.