Awards! The 2011 Nebulas were handed out last weekend. Jo Walton won the Novel category for Among Others; please click here for the full list (including nominees). In a category close to my heart, Jane Lovering has won the overall Romantic Novel of the Year for Please Don’t Stop the Music.
- Parents of 2 – 6 year-olds: have you found Magic Town yet? A website devoted to stories and books for young children, including Elmer the Patchwork Elephant, Superfairies and Aliens Love Underpants.
- Interview! The Guardian has a lengthy interview/overview with Alan Hollinghurst (The Stranger’s Child). They also have a shorter interview with smash debut author Chad Harbach (The Art of Fielding).
- A California judge will release a supposedly violent criminal on the condition that he reads for at least one hour a day and writes book reports on what he’s reading for another half hour that day. Good idea or just plain silly? And what books should a supposed criminal read to mend his ways?
Lists! An absolutely inspiring list of 10 picture books (beyond Oh, The Places You’ll Go!) to give to the coming school/college graduate in your life. I want to read all of them *now*! I do think Neil Gaiman’s Instructions is missing, though. If, on the other hand, you still have a school-bound person in your life, the Guardian has 10 Alternative Teen Reading List Choices for you. The Observer also has their 10 Best Historical Novels (although I think they’ll generally be found in the regular Fiction section than the Historical Fiction section in our stores 
).
- How fast do YOU read? Apparently I read 462 words a minute – crow about how much you beat me by in the comments!
- R. I. P. Mexican author Carlos Fuentes died last week, aged 83. Obituaries can be found here, here, and here.
- Quiz! Although not your usual one, but 10 great questions any Austen afficionado will have to think long and hard about. Time to reread them, methinks.
- And finally: These are your kids on books. Love it! Thanks Rick for the tip. Via huffingtonpost.com:
