New Reading Lists to Envy

It has been a while since I've posted about books I'm envying!

There are so many award lists out there right now - finalists, long lists, nominees - I haven't caught up.  I may never catch up.  But I can try!

I currently have my eye on:

The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction - awarded March 26, 2012
Founded by writers in 1980, the PEN/Faulkner Foundation brings together American writers and readers in a wide variety of programs to promote a love of literature.  The foundation is named for William Faulkner, who used his Nobel Prize funds to create an award for young writers, and PEN, the international writers’ organization.

2012 Nominees, which I'm almost done with:

• Russell Banks for Lost Memory of Skin (my review here)
• Don DeLillo for The Angel Esmeralda: Nine Stories (my review in GoodReads)
• Anita Desai for The Artist of Disappearance (currently reading)
• Steven Millhauser for We Others: New and Selected Stories (on its way to me)
• Julie Otsuka for The Buddha in the Attic (my review here)

I've enjoyed the nominees for PEN/Faulkner, although I didn't re-read the Otsuka, which was also on the National Book Award list earlier this year.  Once I finish the last two, I'll write a post about all five.

Nebula Awards - awarded May 20, 2012 Science fiction and fantasy awards in a wide number of categories.

• Among Others by Jo Walton
• Embassytown by China Miéville
• Firebird by Jack McDevitt
• God’s War by Kameron Hurley
• Mechanique by Genevieve Valentine
• The Kingdom of Gods by N.K. Jemisin (read my review in GoodReads)

I always try to read all the nominees in short story, novelette, novella, and novel for the Nebula Awards.  This year I'll be listening to the short stories in audio, with the hopes of doing a podcast devoted to them on SFF Audio.

Check out the listing of links to free MP3s of all the short stories that my friend Tamahome put together!

Orange Prize Long List - shortlist April 17, awarded May 30
Officially this isn't announced until tomorrow, but it is already tomorrow in the UK, and since I was involved with the Orange Prize Project in January, I've kept my finger more on the pulse of this award.  Despite the controversy surrounding the award (is it disparaging to have an award just for women? etc.), I usually find the nominees are very good, unlike some of the other categories where I have a few I just can't understand.  Of course, this long list includes Lord of Misrule, which I really disliked when it was the winner of the National Book Award in 2010.  The award seems to go back rather far in time, if it is including books from 2010, but I might not understand the parameters.

I'm not sure if I'll read all of the long list, at least not in time for the shortlist announcement (a little over a month from now, and I'm sure some titles aren't available in the states).  But I've read a few already!

Let's take a look:

• Island of Wings by Karin Altenberg
• On the Floor by Aifric Campbell 
• The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen 
• The Sealed Letter by Emma Donoghue 
• Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (hmm, this is at least its third nomination, guess I can finally read it)
• The Forgotten Waltz by Anne Enright 
• The Flying Man by Roopa Farooki 
• Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (my crotchety review here)
• Painter of Silence by Georgina Harding
• Gillespie and I by Jane Harris
• The Translation of the Bones by Francesca Kay
• The Blue Book by A.L. Kenned
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (my review on SFF Audio)
• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 
• Foreign Bodies by Cynthia Ozick
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• There but for the by Ali Smith (my review)
• The Pink Hotel by Anna Stothard
• Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
• The Submission by Amy Waldman (not read yet, but definitely in the top 10 of 2011 according to my list crunching)