Hugo Nominations 2009

Mar 21, 2009 by donny

The Hugo Nominations are now out!  Here’s are the nominees for Best Novel:

• Anathem by Neal Stephenson (Morrow; Atlantic UK)
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury UK)
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (Tor Teen; HarperVoyager UK) – you can also download this book for free here (it’s made available for free by Doctorow himself; all his books are freely available for download)
• Saturn’s Children by Charles Stross (Ace; Orbit UK)
• Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi (Tor)

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Scalzi speaks!

Mar 19, 2009 by donny

Want to hear what an author sounds like?  Sure you do, but unfortunately I only have John Scalzi’s, and only for 12 minutes.  John Scalzi is best known for his Hugo Award-nominated science fiction novel Old Man’s War, and have written many scifi and non-fiction books.  He’s one of my recent favourites, having just finished the last book set in the Old Man’s War universe, the Last Colony.

Recently he got to recording his responses to the questions his fans have asked him via Twitter (you know, the most recent Web 2.0 tech buzzword that has people all over traditional media all a-twitter). 

Go check that out which is posted in his blog here.

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Neil Gaiman in The Colbert Report

Mar 19, 2009 by donny

Sandman author Neil Gaiman appears in The Colbert Report discussing The Graveyard Book.

Not the best interview I’ve seen, despite all the good vibes Gaiman himself was getting from having done the interview (from his blog, you see). 

Have a look see for yourself.  Original link to Colbert Nation is here.

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Books about the Good Book?

Mar 18, 2009 by donny

One of the podcasts that’s constantly in my playlist is Slate’s Political Gabfest (I don’t know why I like listening to discussions on the American political landscape.  Maybe because I like getting confused, or that I’m in love with the notion that there are places in the world where we can discuss openly, publicly and intelligently on national politics without the repercussions of being arrested, or maybe I just like intelligent discussions, or maybe I’m just like pretending to be smart.)

So anyway, in one of the shows, one of the panelists, David Plotz, mentioned (repeatedly) that he had written an interesting book called Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible, which is, well, self-explanatory.

He writes:

Everyone should read it—all of it! In fact, the less you believe, the more you should read. Let me explain why, in part by telling how reading the whole Bible has changed me.

Check out his article on Slate on the book, where it is mentioned that Good Book is a culmination of a series of blog posts he did while reading the Bible from cover to cover.

Plotz’s book isn’t the only one about the Bible in recent memory (well, as recent as 2 years ago, anyway).  A. J. Jacobs did The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible.  Amazon says:

Make no mistake: A.J. Jacobs is not a religious man. He describes himself as Jewish “in the same way the Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant.” Yet his latest work, The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, is an insightful and hilarious journey for readers of all faiths. Though no fatted calves were harmed in the making of this book, Jacobs chronicles 12 months living a remarkably strict Biblical life full of charity, chastity, and facial hair as impressive as anything found in The Lord of the Rings. Through it all, he manages to brilliantly keep things light, while avoiding the sinful eye of judgment.

Jacobs is the author of The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World, which chronicles his reading of the entire Encyclopedia Britannica, from A to Z.  I’ve read The Know-It-All, and can confirm that it’s a hilarious laugh-a-minute romp through the fabled encyclopedia, told with a keen wit.

Check them out.

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The one I missed: August Strindberg

Mar 17, 2009 by donny

In our last show I missed a couple of authors in the list of authors mentioned in the show notes.  One was PG Wodehouse, but most importantly, I wanted to know the one author that I couldn’t pronounce: Swedish author August Strindberg.  Bjorn’s suggestions are always worth checking out.

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