What we’re about
This is a book club for readers of current sci-fi / fantasy books. The list of books (at least initially) will be the nominees for the current year's Hugo and Nebula Awards, which are the big mainstream (?) awards for the genre.
For example, the 2022 Nebula Nominees:
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Spear by Nicola Griffith
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Babel by R. F. Kuang (Winner)
Nona the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler
And the Hugo Finalists for 2022:
A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within, by Becky Chambers
Light From Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki
A Master of Djinn, by P. Djèlí Clark
Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir
She Who Became the Sun, by Shelley Parker-Chan
12 books from 2022. Some books are definitely sci-fi, with aliens and portals in space. Many are fantasy, with various magical powers in the present day or the distant past. So not all rocket ships and laser beams. Smart octopuses and an AI character in the present day. Uncommon Stars defies description, but it has a soul-stealing violin teacher, her trans student, and spacefaring family running a doughnut shop in LA. She Who Became is set in middle ages China. Djinn finds us in an alternate present day steampunk Cairo (sort of).
2023 Hugos include Legends & Lattes, Nona the Ninth, and Nettle & Bone, but there's also:
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Kaiju Preservation Society, by John Scalzi
The Spare Man, by Mary Robinette Kowal
I've never hosted a book club. We can decide how we want to organize. I expect that we will meet every now and then (monthly?) face to face. First step will be to get a little group and then self-organize so it works for us.
We can talk about how to handle books from a series, like The Galaxy, and the Ground Within and Desolation Called Peace. We will meet in 510 (I'm in Alameda), though you're welcome if you want to come in from 925, 408, or 415.