Book Award Wonderland.

• The LA Times Book Awards were announced.  Terry Pratchett's Nation*won the YA prize.  The YA runners up -- two of which I just added to my TBR list -- are at the bottom of this list.
• The Nebula Award winners, and a YA novel won in the Best Novel category!  Nice.  And Flora's Dare won the Andre Norton.  I can't believe I haven't gotten to that one yet.  I loved the first one.
• One of the winners of the Tiptree Award also a YA book(and another one I haven't read yet, damnit).  Tons of info-- including the full honors list, where there are many more YA titles -- at Gwenda's.
• The Shirley Jackson shortlist has been released, with Tender Morsels in the running for Best Novel.
• Not exactly a book award, but related: Steph Bowe at Hey, Teenager of the Year is going forward with her blog award, so stop by, vote and discover some new feeds for your reader.

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*No, I still haven't read it.  But I'm starting to feel that I should.  It's just that I haven't had a ton of luck with his books**, and I figure that he's already got a bazillion and six cheerleaders, so... you know.  I'd rather read stuff that I'm more likely to enjoy.  But maybe I've just been picking the wrong titles.

**Color of Magic (meh), Mort (really liked it -- I do love his Death character), Good Omens (pretty much loved that one, mostly for Death) and The Amazing Maurice and his What-sit (didn't finish it).

Comments

[rita]

Read the Pratchett sub-series starting with Guards! Guards! and follow the character Vimes. You will love thud when you get to it, but you'd need some backstory.

And yah, Nation was really good (although not a discworld book)

[Rosemary]

Actually, the fact that you don't care for his other books may mean you'll like Nation. (Does that make sense?) I found that I didn't care for it as much because I was expecting something along his usual lines. Personally, I've read his Wee Free Men books several times each - definitely my favorites! Never tried Amazing Maurice - it never really looked that good.

[jess]

The only other Pratchett I've read is Wee Free Men, and I was a little underwhelmed - but I LOVED Nation.

[tanita]

It took me two or three tries to get into Pratchett -- I think you'd like Tiffany from Wee Free Men. If you read no more than that and A Hat Full of Sky, I think you could call yourself well-Pratchett-ed.

I haven't yet read Nation, but that's because I'm pouting that it isn't Discworld.

[Brooke]

I second (third? fourth?) the motion on trying out the Tiffany Aching series before giving up on Pratchett.

Also, hie thee to The Knife of Never Letting Go, pronto. It's just been nominated for the Carnegie Medal as well, and the sequel is due out soon. Probably my favorite YA of last year (although it's probably a tie with Tender Morsels).

[Whitney]

Flora's Dare was fantastic, even better than the first and I /loved/ the first one. I can't wait for the last one!

And I echo the Tiffany books, although the most recent one was the weakest, in my opinion.

[Elfarran]

Pratchett's oeuvre is an acquired taste. I had to slow down and learn to read them because I am a gobbler, and you cannot gobble Pratchett. But Nation is NOT typical Pratchett. YOU MUST READ!!!!

Ahem.

Ditto the Tiffany Aching books (Wee Free Men, Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith) but AFTER NATION!!!

Elfarran

[Electric Landlady]

Yeah -- in particular I wouldn't go by just Colour of Magic. His books changed A TON after the first couple, and I am not especially fond of Rincewind. If you want more Death books, the main ones are (in order) Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, Thief of Time.

And I LOVE the Witches books. And the City Watch books. (OK, I love 'em all, I admit it...)

[Heather]

Nation was fantastic, I'm not your typical Pratchett fan. While I think you would probably like the Tiffany Aching books, I think you should also read Going Postal. It's a Discworld book but falls more under the Vimes series than the death or magic series. It's more stand alone and doesn't try so hard to be cute as do his other books.

[cheap chanel handbags]

Love the neighbor. But don‘t get caught.