Hi Socks! Hey, I'm still making a recipe of yours, except that I cannot for the life of me remember which one it is right now LOL. I'm sure it will come back to me. (I did think the film was a bit too long and dragged a bit, but overall, we both loved it.) I'd like to say that I'm happy that you KT folks discuss movies! I can't seem to find anyplace else to get some recommendations and talk about them and the film forum here on GW is pretty dead. We try to see all or most, of the Oscar nominated films each year and it makes the Academy Awards kind of fun for us to watch.

Thanks for posting the list. The only one I've read is The Invention of Hugo Cabret, which was brilliant. Selznick also illustrated The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins. I've at least heard of all the Non-Fiction, but I'm really surprised that not a single Fiction finalist is familiar. Hmmm, I guessed I'm not as plugged into the publishing world as I thought. By the way, Hugo Cabret is a great book for reluctant or novice readers. It looks like a huge tome, but it is easy reading and quite a lot of the story is told through illustrations. And the story is a page turner. At the end of the book, Selznick writes about the inspiration for the story, which is fascinating in itself.

Now that my brain has emerged from lockdown dullness, I have been reading Hugo nominees as fast as I can. I have just started on the final novel*, and am about halfway through the short stories. I have not yet read the other short form fiction - novellas and novelettes. I'll vote on them if I get to them. Here is my opinion so far of the novels, always the most important category for me. The City in the Middle of the Night, by Charlie Jane Anders (Tor; Titan) It turns out that I read this book months ago, and had completely forgotten it. Guess I'm not going to vote for it. The Light Brigade, by Kameron Hurley (Saga; Angry Robot UK) Military SF in a future ruled by some very nasty tyrant corporations. I found it to be very well done, a complex net skillfully woven, and resolved to sense by the end. So far I am considering it and one other. A Memory Called Empire, by Arkady Martine (Tor; Tor UK) This is the other one I liked a lot, complicated political infighting and plotting in a future empire. I love this stuff. Again, very well done. Middlegame, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing) I began this book and very quickly disliked it enough that I did not finish it. If I were a professional critic I would have to push myself to read on to the end, but I am not. Definitely not voting for it. The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook; Orbit UK) I enjoyed, but did not love, this novel. An interesting but not compelling story. Both The Light Brigade and A Memory Called Empire engaged me to the point I could not put them down. This one did not. But the author was also nominated for the short story award and so far I like her short story the best. I do like her writing. Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (Tor.com Publishing) Hated it. Think Gormenghast with necromancers. If we were required to rank them (we can if we want to), I would place this one dead last. * Since I first posted this, I read as much of Gideon as I could stand, and knowing I would never vote for it, quit.

Sounds about right, Frieda. Lumpers and separators can be found in many other areas of human thought as well. Just look at biological classification! It's a constant pull and tug there. I guess one reason to separate in fiction would be liking one sort and not another, and wanting to clarify why that is so. Personally I like SF and much fantasy, but usually not either magical realism or horror though exceptions do occur. I tend to dislike horror because it scares me for real, not for fun. I do not enjoy being scared. I hate roller coasters for much the same reason. I dislike magical realism because it seems to me that it breaks the contract of a world with consistent internal rules that exists between the reader and the writer. I find it to be a cheat if you establish a realistic word and suddenly it isn't a realistic world anymore, often with no justification. But as I wrote above, exceptions do happen. For example, I simply loved Peace Like a River by Lief Enger, a clear example of magical realism. So go figure. As for good entry level books into SF&F I do find them from time to time. Years ago I used to recommend Frank Herbert's Dune (and not any of its sequels which all were quite dreadful). I still love it, but it may feel dated now - it's 50 years old and the part of the world it was based on (the Middle East) has changed a great deal in that time. A couple of decades ago I would recommend Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card or Connie Willis's Doomsday Book. Be aware that a lot of people are seriously put off by Card's personal beliefs, though those are not expressed in this particular book. I can't think of a reason not to like Doomsday Book. I still love it. It is one of my all time favorite novels. As for the recent Hugos, there are definitely some good writers there. Not sure they would all be easy entry into an unfamiliar genre. I'm thinking in particular about N.K. Jemisin. She is a highly skilled writer but her landscapes can feel obscure. I enjoy her work but would not start there. If you find you do enjoy science fiction you will want to read her books eventually. Sometimes humor can be the gateway. For me it has to be clever humor, and wry is even better, never slapstick which I despise. That is probably why I like the Murderbot series by Martha Wells. There is one on the latest Hugo list, but don't start with that one. You really do need to read them in order since they tell a continuous, if episodic, story. The first one is called All Systems Red. It is a very short book, really a novella, though the books get longer after a while. The main character is a security robot (a "murderbot") whose controlling governor stops working, but she is clever enough that she pretends she still has to obey. She regards humanity with a jaundiced eye, but finds herself slowly developing something like affection for certain humans, much to her dismay. I simply adore them. Another writer I am enjoying these days is T. Kingfisher. She is a fantasy writer while the Murderbot series is straight up science fiction, but the same intelligent humor is present. Her heroines tend to be women of a certain age, not lovely young things trembling with dew, and I like that, too. She first presented the world she developed with a duology, the Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine. You could read them together as a single story or just skip to the next books Swordheart, Paladin's Grace, and Paladin's Strength. I like them all. She has also written couple of horror novels which I found creepy rather than outright scary (and that's okay by me). She also writes children's and young adult books, but the ones I listed are intended for adults. If you decide to try them, I'd love to hear your thoughts.