Okay, I’m a bit late to the party here, but when browsing Book Fox I came across the nominees for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Here are the two titles I’m really, really rooting for:
The Second Coming of Mavala Shikongo, by Peter Orner (nominated in the fiction category) – Beautiful, thoughtful, engaging, and utterly unique, without a doubt on my top 5 books of the year list

Mary, by Janis Cooke Newman (nominated in the first fiction category) – Before Newman’s historical novel about Mary Todd Lincoln came out, I knew and enjoyed her travel writing, as well as her memoir, The Russian Word for Snow. The success of this novel, and its nomination for the LA Times prize, is a big coup for the small independent San Francisco publisher, MacAdam/Cage (they published my first novel, Dream of the Blue Room).

Both Janice and Peter also happen to be interesting, fun, nice people (oh, yes, I know that word “nice” is so out of vogue, but they are) in addition to wonderful storytellers…buy these books!