The award-winners keep coming.   Here are the picks for the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes announced on April 19th.  In the Fiction category, Bill Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain, which also won this year's National Book Critics Circle Award, took the honors.

For all the fans of Willa Cather's works, here is an interesting article entitled "10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Willa Cather" that appeared in Publishers Weekly. It discusses some of the revelations that come to light in the newly released book The Selected Letters of Willa Cather edited by Andrew Jewell and Janis Strout.

While it may seem early to pick the best books of the year, BookPage has selected 20 titles as the best of 2013 so far.   Included in the list is Me Before You by JoJo Moyes, which is one of my personal favorites from this year's new releases (Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski),
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Every ten years, Granta, the London-based literary magazine, selects a list of 20 authors who they cite as "The Best of Young British Novelists."  In order to qualify, an author must be under 40 years of age. The fourth iteration of this list of novelists has just been selected by Granta.

The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced yesterday.   After not awarding a winner in the Fiction category last year, the judges have selected The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson as this year's recipient.
Other finalists in this category were What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank by Nathan Englander and The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey.

Though Jim and Bob Burgess are both lawyers living in New York City, the legacy of their Maine childhoods and of the circumstances of their father's death remain.   Their sister Susan has never left the small town where they were raised, and when her teenage soon is accused of a possible bias crime involved Somali immigrants, the brothers are called to her aid.  Jim is a high profile lawyer whose success is legendary in the town.  But as the present crisis unfolds, the complicated dynamics among the siblings and their own spouses and offspring are revealed.  While Strout's characters are all flawed human beings, sometimes frustratingly so, the strength of this novel lies in their journeys toward self-awareness and in their efforts to reconcile the legacy of the past with their present lives.  (Submitted by Adult Services Librarian Dorothy Pawlowski.)

Looking for a thriller to read.  Checkout this list of nominees for the 2013 Thriller Awards that will be awarded in July by the International Thriller Writers.