And the Nebula Awards Go To…

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more.

The 2024 Nebula Awards Winners

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) announced the winners of the 2024 Nebula Awards, recognizing outstanding science fiction and fantasy, at the Nebula Awards Conference over the weekend. The winners include: Someone You Can Build a Nest In by John Wiswell (Novel), The Dragonfly Gambit by A.D. Sui (Novella), “Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being” by A.W. Prihandita (Novelette), “Why Don’t We Just Kill the Kid in the Omelas Hole” by Isabel J. Kim (Short Story). Self-published works really are taking off–Vanessa Ricci-Thode’s self-published novel, The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts, won the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction. In a category that is not wanting for options, that’s no small thing! The Nebulas are voted on and presented by full, senior, and associate SFWA members. You can find the full list of winners here.

No More Book Poisonings, Huzzah!

TIL that publishers used to mix arsenic with copper to produce vivid green book covers. While risk of exposure among the general population of readers is low, libraries have had to separate out green books that might include the toxin, which is an irritant and can result in more serious symptoms. Thanks to the good scientists at University of St. Andrews, historians, researchers, archivists, librarians, and what have you won’t need to consult a doctor if they happen to lick a finger to turn that page. A joint effort from the university’s various schools of science resulted in a portable tool that can detect that Oz-worthy emerald green. Considering that “the University of Bielefeld, along with several other German universities, isolated 60,000 books as a precautionary measure last year,” conservator and project instigator Erica Kotze’s point about how acting on behalf of public safety has also meant restricting access to the information within suspect books is well taken. “This means that the books which have been tested and found not to contain the pigment can remain available to users,” said Kotze.

A Big List of Queer Love Stories for Your Reading List

I love a big list of books and when it’s a big list of LGBTQ+ books for Pride, expect me to take the bait. Rolling Stone curated a selection of the all-time best queer love stories to read for Pride or any month. These are not all romance novels, as in books with HEAs, but you will find familiar names and titles from the world of romance, like A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall, among classics, buzzy books, genre and literary titles. A couple standouts are Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo and When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore. I won’t spoil the number one pick but it’s a good one, though the list overall is lacking in diversity especially considering the broadness of love stories as a category, and the intro was a touch dismissive of the romance genre where it didn’t have to be. This list didn’t wow me, but you can certainly use it to catch up on some popular classic and contemporary queer fiction.

Get Thee to an Indie Bookstore

I love going to an indie bookstore, and reading about why my colleague Vanessa loves a trip to her local bookshops made me want to cut work and peruse the shelves myself. If you needed an excuse to get yourself to the nearest indie, our Read Harder Challenge has you covered with a task asking you to read a staff pick from an indie bookstore. If you can’t make it out to your local shop or need more options, you can find a list of staff picks from Portland, OR indies here.