This is the second of post recapping a presentation from the 2013 North American Discworld Convention--"From L-Space to E-Space"--the best YA speculative fiction for fans of Terry Pratchett, and how to find more of books to read on line. The first post lists the books us panelists recommended; this post is Useful Links that will lead to even more books!
The Cybils Awards are given by panels of bloggers each year to the best books in various categories, and the shortlists generated by these awards are, I promise, excellent one-stop shopping for a reader looking for everything from picture books and apps (less relevant, but still) to the YA sci fi/fantasy we love! Look for the shortlists/finalists in the column to the right.
The Enchanted Inkpot is a group blog of middle grade and YA fantasy writers, and a great place to find new books!
YALSA (the Young Adult Library Services Association) is a great place to go for YA reviews.
Kirkus Reviews not only has access to past reviews, but for books coming soon as well, and in addition to the reviews, there are good blogs there too.
And speaking of blogs, there are tons and tons of great blogs out there full of book reviews, and you could spend weeks visiting them all. My co-presenters, Tanita (Finding Wonderland) and Sheila (Wands and Worlds), and I all have hundreds of reviews at our blogs, and Tanita and I have sidebars with blogs we ourselves like. If you want to start exploring on your own, at Grasping for the Wind, you'll find a massive list of sci fi/fantasy book bloggers.
There seems to be less blogging going on over in the UK, and it can be hard to stay on top of the new releases of sci fi and fantasy over there.
That being said, here are some good blogs-- Mr Ripleys Enchanted Books, Bart's Bookshelf, and An Awfully Big Blog Adventure.
And some other good UK sites--
The Bookbag is a UK collection of book reviews--lots of good browsing.
UKYA --"celebrating YA fiction by UK authors." Lots of speculative fiction!
The Kelpies page at Floris Books--classic and contemporary children's books set in Scotland, with a lot of fantasy
The Waterstones annual children's book awards--here's 2013
I hope this is helpful! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or comments.
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Here's a question that might be off-topic, but: What do you do to (how do you) avoid overwhelm with all the options, all the re-reading of beloveds, favorite authors, old and new books?
ReplyDeleteI freeze up, and I don't want to, because even as my mind glazes over I'm thinking, "What a waste of time; I could be reading!"
That is a hard one! When I am utterly overwhelmed by new to me books, I do the re-reading of beloveds thing, or else I read non-fiction (with non-fiction, there's no emotional investment, or pressure to become uttelry absorbed--one can dip in and out easily).
DeleteBut I kind of wish I didn't have such a large physical tbr pile...it Looks at me...