Stranger than fiction? Annie Jacobsen's Area 51: An Uncensored History is a meticulously documented and fascinating history of Area 51 and U.S. black ops -- despite the questionable claims about the Russians and Roswell.

One might suspect that Mythopoeic Society awards finalists' works would all be elves and orcs, dwarves and goblins and gnomes and whatnot. But that's not necessarily the case.

There are many revelations in Area 51: an Uncensored History about U.S. nuclear testing and overhead surveillance technology, among others. So it's a shame that everyone gets caught up in the rather dubious Roswell claim the book makes.

Chester Brown's Paying For It: A Comic-Strip Memoir About Being a John sounds interesting for both sociological and seedy reasons. On the possibly-maybe pile it goes.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) announced this past weekend this year's Nebula Awards ... er, rather, this year's Nebula awards for books that came out last year ... wait, what?

Artist Jeffrey Catherine Jones died last week on May 19, age 67. You may not recognize her name, but if you read fantasy and science fiction at all -- particularly the classics from the 1970s -- you almost certainly will recognize her art.

Where does the muse speak? On Io9 essays by Nick Mamatas and Kim Newman --- authors of Starve Better and Anno Dracula, respectively -- discuss the impetus behind their work.