Shaun’s Rambles 013: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (w/ Special Guest Mareen Kincaid Speller)
Geek references + the Dominican Republic = instance classic. In this episode, Maureen Kincaid Speller joins me to discuss the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. We tackle the novel’s treatment of geekery, its exploration of masculinity, romance, and the coming-of-age narrative, and much more! I hope you enjoy it! https://media.blubrry.com/shaunsrambles/archive.org/download/ShaunsRambles013TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao/ShaunsRambles013–TheBriefWondrousLifeOfOscarWao.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
2016 WISB Awards Long List
It’s that time of year: time for me to release some kind of list of things I loved in 2015. This year is different, though. This year, I’m releasing a long list for the WISB Awards, and it is from this list that I’ll select the winners of my annual WISB awards, the jury-less, vote-less monstrosity of an award that is only of value to myself. Since I cannot include my own work on the following long list, I’ll include those works here: Best Fancast: The Skiffy and Fanty Show (Shaun Duke, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, Mike Underwood, Rachael Acks, David Annandale, and Jen Zink); Totally Pretentious (Shaun Duke and David Annandale) Best Non-Fiction Work: Speculative Fiction 2014: The Year’s Best Online Reviews, Essays, and Commentary edited by Renee Williams and Shaun Duke (Book Smugglers Publishing) If you feel there’s a glaring ommission, let me know in the comments. I haven’t read everything there is to read (obviously), and it’s likely I’ve missed a lot of really great work. Now here’s the official 2016 WISB Awards Long List:
The 2016 Hugo Awards Reading/Watching List (or, My Next Few Months)
Last month, I asked for recommendations for my annual Hugo Awards reading bonanza. A bunch of you responded with books, movies, TV shows, cookbooks, and so on. The form will remain open for the next month or so, so if you haven’t submitted anything or want to submit some more stuff, go for it! So, without further delay, here is the big massive monster list of stuff I’ll be reading or watching for the next few months:
2016 Hugo Awards Recommendations: What should I read/watch?
It’s that time again: time to ask for recommendations for the Hugo Awards. The nomination period will open up soon, and I haven’t done as much reading/watching as I would have liked this year. The only categories I feel comfortable voting in at the moment are Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form), Best Novel, and Best Podcast. That means, as always, there are a lot of gaps. So, this is your chance to let me know what you loved reading or watching this year. To make things a bit more organized, I’ve created a Google form with options for every category. You don’t have to fill the whole thing out to suggest a work. In fact, you can come back to the form as many times as you like. If you want to let me know what you loved in the comments below, you’re free to do that, too. Thanks in advance for your suggestions! Loading…
Shaun’s Rambles 011: Michael R. Underwood (Interviewing the Fans)
What makes Mike Underwood tick? What did he read when he was a kid? What inspired him to become a member of QUEST and invade the Free Worlds of the Noble and Benevolent Multidimensional Imperium? I try to get to the bottom of some of these questions in an interview with the infamous figure! I hope you enjoy it! Some useful links: http://media.blubrry.com/shaunsrambles/archive.org/download/ShaunsRambles011InterviewingTheFansMikeUnderwood/ShaunsRambles011–InterviewingTheFans–MikeUnderwood.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
Shaun’s Rambles 010: On C.L. Moore’s Judgment Night and Gender Violence
Space opera attacks! It’s been three weeks since I started teaching my space opera course, and I already have far too much to talk about! In this edition, I take a look at the first half of C.L. Moore’s Judgment Night and the interesting ways in which I and my students read gender violence into some of the early scenes. I hope you enjoy it! Some useful links: http://media.blubrry.com/shaunsrambles/archive.org/download/ShaunsRambles010OnC.L.MooresJudgmentNight/ShaunsRambles010–OnC.l.MooresJudgmentNight.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS