2012 Nebula Award Nominees: Novel

The Nebula Awards, founded in 1965, are given annually - voted on, and presented by, active members of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. The 48th Nebula Awards Weekend is happening in May 2013 - get started now checking out the books nominated for best science fiction or fantasy novel published in English or translated into English and released in the United States or on the internet during the past year! You can find a list of past winners on their website.

 

 

Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed
Three superheroes in the Crescent Moon Kingdoms bound together by a series of magical murders must work together in a race against time to prevent a sorcerer's plot from destroying the world.  For fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Jim Butcher.

 

 

 

Ironskin by Tina Connolly
Connolly borrows freely from Jane Eyre in this compelling fantasy story of fey-cursed Jane Eliot, doomed to wear an iron mask or "ironskin".  Jane becomes governess to Dorie, whom she suspects carries the same curse, and falls in love with her father, Edward Rochart.  For fans of Kate Elliott and Karen Marie Moning.

 

 

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin
In a city where Gatherers harvest the magic of the sleeping mind and use it to judge the corrupt, Ehiru, the most famous of the city's Gatherers, learns that he must protect the woman he was sent to kill or watch the city be devoured by forbidden magic.  For fans of Elizabeth Moon and Guy Gavriel Kay.
 

 

 

The Drowning Girl by Caitlín R. Kiernan
India Morgan Phelps-Imp to her friends-is schizophrenic. Struggling with her perceptions of reality, Imp must uncover the truth about her encounters with creatures out of myth-or from something far, far stranger. For fans of Patricia A. McKillip and Mercedes Lackey.

 

 

Glamour in Glass by Mary Robinette Kowal
Kowal's sequel to the first Jane Ellsworth novel, Shades of Milk and Honey, is set in a Regency England redolent with magic. Newly married Jane and her husband travel to Belgium on a trip to test Jane's skills as a glamourist, but the return of Napoleon and a hint of espionage get in the way. For fans of Patricia C. Wrede and Susan Krinard.

 

 

2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson

The year is 2312. Scientific and technological advances have opened gateways to an extraordinary future. Earth is no longer humanity's only home; new habitats have been created throughout the solar system on moons, planets, and in between. But in this year, 2312, a sequence of events will force humanity to confront its past, its present, and its future.  For fans of Poul Anderson and Orson Scott Card.

 

 

Some content, including readalikes, were suggested by the eResource NoveList Plus, which can help you find new books based and also can show you all the books in a series, all the books by a certain author, as well as brief biographies of authors. Access to this eResource is free with your valid library card!  Visit the Books and Literature subject guide to find links to NoveList Plus and more!

Featured Author: Nnedi Okorafor

Nnedi Okorafor was born in the United States to two Igbo (Nigerian) immigrant parents.  Okorafor lists her greatest influences as Octavia Butler, Stephen King, Philip Pullman, Tove Jansson, Hayao Miyazaki, and Ngugi wa Thiong'o, but Nigeria is her muse, "where many of her stories take place, either literally or figuratively".  Okorafor's writings are also filled with flora and fauna, since, as a youth, she thought she might become an entomologist. She has won the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, and been nominated for many other awards and commendations, including the Andre Norton Award and the Nebula Award. Ursula K. Le Guin and Diana Wynne Jones count themselves among Nnedi Okorafor's fans!

 



 

Zahrah the Windseeker

Zahrah, a timid thirteen-year-old girl, undertakes a dangerous quest into the Forbidden Greeny Jungle to seek the antidote for her best friend after he is bitten by a snake, and finds knowledge, courage, and hidden powers along the way. Fantasy fiction for juvenile readers.

 

 

Akata Witch 

Twelve-year-old Sunny Nwazue, an American-born albino child of Nigerian parents, moves with her family back to Nigeria, where she learns that she has latent magical powers which she and three similarly gifted friends use to catch a serial killer.  Fantasy/paranormal fiction for juvenile readers.

 

 

Who Fears Death

Born into post-apocalyptic Africa to a mother whose entire tribe was slaughtered, Onyesonwu (the name means "who fears death") is tutored by a shaman and discovers that her magical destiny is to end the genocide of her people. Fantasy fiction for adult readers.

 

She is also has a short story featured in the young adult collection Life on Mars: Tales from the New Frontier - An Original Science Fiction Anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan. You can read more of her short stories online on her website, The Wahala Zone.

Armchair Adventures: Voyages Around the World

Some days, don't you just want to get away from it all?  Well, for those of us without imminent travel plans, here's a few armchair travel titles to help you get away from it all...or to help you get inspired to take a long, long vacation!

Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's History-Making Race around the World by Matthew Goodman

The Man Who Cycled the World by Mark Beaumont [eBook only in our catalog]

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, The High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe by Glynis Ridley

Wild Romance: A Victorian Story of a Marriage, a Trial, and a Self-Made Woman by Chloë Schama

The Lost Girls: Three Friends, Four Continents, One Unconventional Detour Around the World by Jennifer Baggett

Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride by Peter Zheutlin

The Scent Trail: How One Woman's Quest for the Perfect Perfume Took Her Around the World by Celia Lyttelton

Adventures of a Continental Drifter: An Around-the-World Excursion into Weirdness, Danger, Lust, and the Perils of Street Food by Elliott Hester

Fair Wind and Plenty of It: A Modern-Day Tall Ship Adventure by Rigel Crockett



Feeling inspired?  Consider consulting the books below before you go!


Life is a Trip: The Transformative Magic of Travel by Judith Fein

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel by Rolf Potts

First-Time Around the World

Featured Author: Mary Roach

Author Mary Roach counts freelance copy editor, part-time PR person for the San Francisco Zoo, and columnist for Salon.com on her curriculum vitae.  She has also written articles for National Geographic, Wired, Outside, and New Scientist magazines, but as she says on her website, "I mostly write books these days."  Her first book, Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, grew out of her Salon column - "sort of a reported humor column, wherein I covered things like...amputee bowling leagues and the question of how much food it takes to burst a human stomach."  She claims to have no hobbies but enjoys "bird-watching--though the hours don't agree with me--backpacking, thrift stores, overseas supermarkets, Scrabble, mangoes and that late-night 'Animal Planet' show about horrific animals..."  Mary Roach's books have been called "irreverent romps", "informative", "breezy", "droll", and are recommended for "trivia whizzes, and anyone out for a good laugh"[Book News], but "not for the queasy", as she goes into vivid detail about biological functions.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Respectful and serious yet entertaining, this history of cadavers past and present features visits to morticians, forensic scientists, and medical schools.

 

 

 

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife

Mary Roach, always game to experiment for her book research, goes to medium school, undergoes electromagnetic waves to her brain to see if it helps her to see ghosts, examines a piece of alleged ectoplasm at Cambridge University, and more!

 

 

 

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

The author discusses what science is doing to make the bedroom a more satisfying place.

 

 

 

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

Explores the strange universe of space travel and life without gravity.  The author previews space travel without leaving earth, thanks to space agencies' startlingly bizarre space simulations.

Mary Roach has also written the foreword to Science Ink: Tattoos of the Science Obsessed by Carl Zimmer.

Recycling, Upcycling, & Salvage for Fun, Profit, & Practicality!

Reduce, reuse, recycle, is the catchphrase of environmentalists, but another phrase we hear a lot lately is "upcycling", also referred to as "trash into treasure" - Upcycle magazine defines this process as "taking an item that is no longer needed or wanted and giving it new life as something that is either useful or creative". Don't just throw away your plastics, junk mail, electronics, old clothes  - use your rescued resources to make something! If you are a craft-oriented person looking for a new hobby (or an activity to do with your kids) that's easy on your wallet and good for the planet, consider taking advantage of upcycling ideas from the library catalog.

Cool Odds and Ends Projects: Creative Ways to Upcycle Your Trash into Treasure by Pam Scheunemann

Cool Plastic Projects: Creative Ways to Upcycle Your Trash into Treasure by Pam Scheunemann

Trash-to-Treasure Papermaking: Make Your Own Recycled Paper from Newspapers & Magazines, Can & Bottle Labels, Discarded Gift Wrap, Old Phone Books, Junk Mail, Comic Books, and More-- by Arnold E. Grummer

Reinvention: Sewing with Rescued Materials by Maya Donenfeld

Recycled Home: Transform Your Home Using Salvaged Materials by Rebecca Proctor

Upcycling Celebrations: A Use-What-You-Have Guide to Decorating, Gift-Giving & Entertaining by Danny Seo

Puppet Play: 20 Puppet Projects Made with Recycling Mittens, Towels, Socks, and More! by Diana Schoenbrun [eBook only in our catalog]

Unscrewed: Salvage and Reuse Motors, Gears, Switches, and More from Your Old Electronics by Ed Sobey [eBook only in our catalog]

Salvage Secrets: Transforming Reclaimed Materials into Design Concepts by Joanne Palmisano

Make It!: Don't Throw It Away...Create Something Amazing! by Jane Bull

Cut-Up Couture by Koko Yamase

The Life of a Bowerbird: Creating Beautiful Interiors with the Things You Collect by Sibella Court

Unbored: The Essential Field Guide to Serious Fun by Joshua Glenn & Elizabeth Foy Larsen

Plastic-Free: How I Kicked the Plastic Habit and How You Can Too by Beth Terry

Featured Author: Bee Wilson

Bee Wilson is a British food writer, author, and historian, the daughter of writer A.N. Wilson and Shakespearean scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones. Wilson's food histories have been admired by Nigella Lawson, Claudia Roden, and Marion Nestle; her books have been called "mind-opening", "surprising", "mouth-watering", and "completely reliable".  Her distinguished career includes a Ph.D. from Cambridge, food critic for the New Statesman, a weekly food column in the Sunday Telegraph's Stella magazine, and three time winner of the Guild of Food Writers' Food Journalist of the Year.  You can read several of her articles (such as "The Capital of Gluttony", "Queen-Size Appetite", and several book reviews) via the Literary Reference Center, accessible with your valid library card through our Books and Literature subject guide, or check out her website for more information.  If you're intrigued by food history, try one of her books from our catalog:

Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, From Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee
A history of food adulteration in Britain and the U.S., including illegal ingredients, the substitution of cheap ingredients, and legal adulteration with chemical additives, resulting in "food products" such as Velveeta.
 

 

 

Sandwich: A Global History [eBook only in our catalog]
From the invention of the sandwich by John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, to the present day, Wilson's book examines how the sandwich has evolved and different kinds of sandwiches eaten throughout the world.
 

 

 

Consider the Fork: A History of How We Cook and Eat
A history of eating through the perspective of kitchen technology - how we prepare, serve, and consume our food - across different eras and cultures.

Why? How? What?: Books That Try to Provide Answers about Everyday Culture

We are curious people.  Curiosity killed the cat and we want to know what the cat wanted to know!  It's not just learning about big issues or trading gossip, either - sometimes here at abcreads we find ourselves asking, "Why did I use that turn of phrase? How did people start doing that? What do my habits say about me?"  In that vein, we've compiled this list of books that ask why, how, what about commonplace activities and ideas, such as driving, shopping, what we say, what we own, and getting annoyed.

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us by James W. Pennebaker

Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You by Sam Gosling

Incognito: The Secret Lives of Brains by David M. Eagleman

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall

The Things that Matter: What Seven Classic Novels Have to Say About the Stages of Life by Edward Mendelson

The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live by Roman Krznaric [eBook only in our catalog]

Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us by Joe Palca and Flora Lichtman

Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us: Customer Service and What It Reveals About Our World and Our Lives by Emily Yellin

Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (And What It Says About Us) by Tom Vanderbilt

That's Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion by Rachel Herz

The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (And Why They Are So Good For You) by Simon Laham

Culturematic: How Reality TV, John Cheever, a Pie Lab, Julia Child, Fantasy Football, Burning Man, the Ford Fiesta Movement, Rube Goldberg, NFL Films, Wordle, Two and a Half Men, a 10,000 Year Symphony, and ROFLcon Memes Will Help You Create and Execute Breakthrough Ideas by Grant McCracken

Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhill

Visit Sunny Chernobyl: And Other Adventures in the World's Most Polluted Places by Andrew Blackwell