5 November 2003

My Favorite Books
by Nancy Kress
www.sff.net/people/nankress/

Nancy Kress is the author of 22 books, most recently Nothing Human (Golden Gryphon Press, 2003). She won a 2003 Campbell Award for Probability Space, the concluding novel of a trilogy; her short fiction has garnered her three Nebulas and a Hugo. Kress is the monthly "Fiction" columnist for Writer's Digest magazine.

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. An amazing novel that manages to present both sides of anarchy, both sides of an admirable character, both sides of genius, without easy answers or simple evasions.

Brain Plague by Joan Slonczewski. This microbiologist translates her technical knowledge into a story that is speculative, complex, and funny hard SF.

Passage by Connie Willis. Willis takes on death, in terms literal, emotional, scientific, and imaginative. A tour-de-force.

The Glasswright's Apprentice by Mindy Klasky. Fantasy that is fresh, unsentimental, and passionate.

China Mountain Zhang by Maureen McHugh. The best coming-of-age SF novel I have ever read, in one of the best realized futures.

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler. Not SF but I love it because its characters are so heart-breakingly human in pursuit of the ideal family none of us ever gets.