I didn’t want to hijack Sarah’s review of The Game of Love and Death, so this is a few days after the fact, meaning you’ve probably all seen the short list already.

Surprises? Delights?

Me, I’m surprised by the lack of X, and a little about Symphony for the City of the Dead, but two nonfiction would have been even more surprising; the list cut in half and lost half across the board (one of the younger titles, one of the nonfiction, three of the YA fiction).

In terms of housekeeping here, this pulls Nimona from the should we/shouldn’t we give it a post list to the definitely getting a post pile. I haven’t read The Thing About Jellyfish or (surprise!) Most Dangerous; does either fall enough into the 12-18 territory to be worth a look for our narrow purposes?

And finally, let’s rejoice, because this is an excellent NBA pool! I can’t wait to see what they choose. My money is on Challenger Deep.