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Kudos for making it through the week, reader. Let’s kick this weekend off with a round-up of the week’s best.
Having grown up on a reading list comprised mostly of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, I think humor writers don’t get enough credit. It takes skill to make people laugh with nothing but the words you put to paper.
Plus, comedies are a great way to explore meaningful and thought-provoking themes. Humor can get people who wouldn’t otherwise let their guard down to think about issues in a new light. Not only can funny SFF novels entertain readers, but they can be life-changing. The Discworld series, from Vimes’ Boots Theory of Economics to its sage advice on living in a chaotic and strange world, is evidence enough of that.
Since we’re on the subject of fantastical books, the manga The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store Vol. 1 by Tsuchika Nishimura is out today. It looks to be a cozy sort of story about working retail with animal clients. Another fab graphic novel out today is Jen Wang’s nature-focused YA release, titled Ash’s Cabin. If you want your YA more terrifying, there’s The Dark We Know by Wen-yi Lee, which follows bisexual art student Isadora Chang.
Switching gears a bit, historical fiction lovers have the sprawling, India-set The Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao to look forward to, while fans of Nigerian family sagas will appreciate Born in a House of Glass by Chinenye Emezie.
As for the books below, there’s a dark academia thriller, a cozy romantasy, a real and raw memoir, and a glittering West African mythology-inspired fantasy I’ve been looking forward to for a while now.
The Hugo Awards are one of the biggest — and most controversial — sci-fi and fantasy awards. Last year, when the Hugos were hosted in China, several works were disqualified for political reasons. This year, almost 10% of the votes — representing tens of thousands of dollars in memberships — were disqualified when they were found to be part of a fraudulent campaign for one nominee. Now that those “obviously fake names” have been weeded out, though, we have our winners for this year’s Hugo, Lodestar, and Astounding Awards.
It’s worth noting that the Astounding Award for Best New Writer went to Xiran Jay Zhao, whose eligibility was extended at the request of Dell Magazine, the sponsor of the award. Zhao was one of the authors unfairly disqualified last year. Also, congratulations to Naomi Kritzer, who won both the Best Short Story and Best Novelette categories!
As has been tradition every year, Barack Obama shared his summer reading list on social media this week. The list showcases his usual mix of fiction and nonfiction, and it shows off an interest in both books that have been popular and some that are lesser-known. His 2024 list is one of the longer reading lists in recent years, and it includes a twist on an American literary classic, a memoir about growing up and loving basketball, a twisty mystery that several big book clubs have selected to read, and more.
When it comes to fiction, we still see Obama’s preference for literary realism–though he does include a genre-bendy work of time travel, romance, and spy thriller. His preferences for nonfiction include politics and history, as well as memoir and a book by a giant of American literature that explores the book of Genesis.