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2009 LA Times Book Prize Finalists
Photo by ginnerobot via Flickr
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Photo by ginnerobot via Flickr
It's that time of year again. The LA Times Book Prize finalists have been announced and in just seven weeks, the hot, sweaty, excellent mess that is the Festival of Books will be in full swing once again.
Over the next month, we'll be taking a closer look at each category but before we dive headlong into debates over who should've been listed that isn't, who should win but won't, and what it all means for L.A.'s literary scene, let's take a look at the nominees in each category. Final book prizes will be awarded on April 23rd.
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LA Times Book Prizes
Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction
An Elegy for Easterly by Petina Gappah
Tinkers by Paul Harding
American Rust by Philipp Meyer
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells TowerGraphic Novel
Luba (A Love and Rockets Book) by Gilbert Hernandez
GoGo Monster by Taiyo Matsumoto
Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5: Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe by Bryan Lee O'Malley
Footnotes in Gaza by Joe Sacco
Fiction
Heroic Measures by Jill Ciment
The Man in the Wooden Hat by Jane Gardam
Blame by Michelle Huneven
A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert
A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias
Current Interest
Columbine by Dave Cullen
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The Strength in What Remains by Tracy Kidder
The Healing of America: The Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Healthcare by T.R. Reid
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn
Young Adult Literature
The Rise and Fall of Senator Joe McCarthy by James Cross Giblin
The Lost Conspiracy by Frances Hardinge
Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith by Deborah Heiligman
Marching for Freedom: Walk Together Children and Don't You Grow Weary by Elizabeth Patridge
Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan
Biography
The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR's Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey
Dorthea Lange: A Life Beyond Limits by Linda Gordon
Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth Century Skeptic by Michael Scammell
Louis D. Brandeis: A Life by Melvin Urofsky
The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Kenneth Whyte
Mystery/Thriller
Bury Me Deep by Megan Abbott
The Hidden Man by David Ellis
Black Water Rising by Attica Locke
A Darker Domain by Val McDermid
The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville
Poetry
Apocalyptic Swing by Gabrielle Calvocoressi
Dearest Creature by Amy Gerstler
What the Right Hand Knows by Tom Healy
Practical Water by Brenda Hillman
}Open Interval{ by Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
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Science & Technology
The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak
The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom by Graham Farmelo
Cold: Adventures in the Worlds' Frozen Places by Bill Streever
Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science by Carol Kaesuk Yoon
History
Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line by Martha A. Sandweiss
Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950 - 1963 by Kevin Starr
Lynching and Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890 - 1940 by Amy Louise Wood
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic 1789 - 1815 by Gordon S. Wood
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