Here are the semi-finalists for this year's Man Booker Prize.  This is the first year that American  writers are eligible for the prize and both Joshua Ferris (To Rise Again at a Decent Hour) and Karen Joy Fowler (We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves) have made the shortlist.

Here are reading recommendations from librarians from across the country for the month of July:

The New Republic's 2014 Summer Reading Guide.

Stoner by John Williams was a favorite of our Library Book Groups.  Published in 1965, this quiet novel about a college professor's life has gathered a following over the years and has survived two attempts to render it out-of-print.  An article entitled "You Should Seriously Read Stoner Right Now." was recently published in The New York Times.  We agree.

The winners of the 2014 Edgar Awards were announced last night.   The winner for Best Novel is Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.

Donna Tartt has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Goldfinch.

The winner of this year's Pen Faulkner Award is Karen Joy Fowler for We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves.

For all those fans of Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, a prequel authorized by the Mitchell estate will be published in October.  The novel is tentatively entitled Ruth's Journey and focuses on the house servant Mammy, who otherwise remained nameless.

Here's a recent staff pick. Dinaw Mengestus's All Our Names received a glowing review in The New York Times Sunday Book Review this week.

Winners of the National Book Critics Circle Awards have been announced.  The winner for fiction is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the winner for non-fiction is Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink.

For fans of literary trivia, can you name twelve books that end mid-sentence?

Do you love listening to audiobooks?  You're not alone.  The Ridgefield Library has an extensive collection of audiobooks on CD and Playaways and as downloadable audiobooks for your listening pleasure. Here's an article from The New York Times on the joys of listening to audiobooks.

What can literature tell us about love?  Here's what some writers think.

Nancy Horan's Loving Frank was a favorite of book groups.  Her just released Under the Wide and Starry Sky explores the tumultuous relationship between novelist Robert Louis Stevenson and and Fanny von de Grift, a strong-willed American artist.  Here is an interview with the author about her new book from BookPage.

If you are a fan of George Eliot's Middlemarch, you'll want to want to read Rebecca Mead's My Life in  Middlemarch.  Here's a clip from The New York Times of Mead talking about her new book.

BookPage offers some books to look forward to in the coming months:

"Most anticipated books of 2014"

The nominees for the 2014 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, which honor the best in mystery fiction and non-fiction have been announced.

The January 2014 edition of Non-Fiction News is now available to view online:

The January edition of Fiction News is now available to view online (or pick-up a copy at the Library):

For all the Sherlock Holmes fans out there.... The Guardian has published a quiz entitled "How Elementary is Your Knowledge of Sherlock Holmes."  Give it a try.

Sue Monk Kidd's The Invention of Wings has been chosen as the next selection for Oprah's Book Club 2.0.  The book won't be released until next week, but you can reserve a copy now in our catalog.