It was a lovely evening of bookish folks gathered about to celebrate books and to kick-off the LA Times Festival of Books which begins today and runs through tomorrow afternoon. The awards ceremony for the Book Prizes was short and sweet, the acceptance speeches were both funny and poignant and the after-party had a full chocolate buffet, complete with ice sculptures. What more could you ask for? Ah, the winners. Here are the winners of......

Monday Will Beall presents L.A. Rex 7pm @ Book Soup Robert Alter & Jonathan Kirsch discuss The Book of Psalms with David Ulin 7pm @ Central Library Mark Schapiro signs Exposed 7pm @ Dutton's Richard King presents Spirituality in the Workplace 7pm @ Vroman's Alan Alda presents Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself 7pm @ Borders, Westwood Tuesday Bill Clinton presents Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World 2pm @ Vroman's......