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.