Past week has been big in the world of books, literary awards

This past week has been a big week in the world of books, especially when it comes to literary awards for the year’s best novels.

“A Visit from the Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction during a ceremony Monday of last week in New York City.
The other finalists in the Fiction category were “The Privileges” by Jonathan Dee and “The Surrendered” by Chang-rae Lee.

I recently read “A Visit from the Goon Squad” because it won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Best Novel, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the reading audience. Egan has written a number of other novels, and I’m looking forward to reading those when I get the chance.

“The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack” by Mark Hoder received the 2010 Philip K. Dick Award.

Other finalists for the award were “Yarn” by Jon Armstrong, “Chill” by Elizabeth Bear, “The Reapers are the Angels” by Alden Bell, “Song of Scarabaeus” by Sara Creasy, “State of Decay” by James Knapp and “Harmony” by Project Itoh, translated by Alexander O. Smith.

The Philip K. Dick Award, which is named after one of the most influential sci-fi writers of all time, is presented annually with the support of the Philip K. Dick Trust “for distinguished science fiction published in paperback original form in the United States.” Most of Dick’s books, which included “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, aka, “Blade Runner,” were published as paperback originals.

The winners of this year’s British Science Fiction Association Awards were announced on Tuesday, and “The Dervish House” by Ian McDonald won this year’s BSFA Award for Best Novel.

Other finalists for the BSFA Best Novel Award this year included “The Windup Girl” by Paolo Bacigalupi, “Zoo City” by Lauren Beukes, “The Restoration Game” by Ken Macleod and “Lightborn” by Tricia Sullivan.

Past winners of this prestigious award include “Rendezvous with Rama” by Arthur C. Clarke and “A Scanner Darkly” by Philip K. Dick.

Today (Thursday), the Mystery Writers of America will announce this year’s slate of Edgar Allan Poe Award winners.

This year’s nominees for Best Novel include "Caught" by Harlan Coben, "Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter" by Tom Franklin, "Faithful Place" by Tana French, "The Queen of Patpong" by Timothy Hallinan, "The Lock Artist" by Steve Hamilton and "I'd Know You Anywhere" by Laura Lippman.

As you might have guessed, the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, commonly referred to as “The Edgars,” are named after the famous horror writer, Edgar Allan Poe. Poe, who is best known for his horror stories, is also considered the father of the modern mystery-detective novel because of his popular tales involving the detective C. Auguste Dupin. The Edgars aim to honor the best in mystery fiction, non-fiction, television, film and theatre from the previous year.

In the end, if you’re looking for a good, entertaining book to read, you probably won’t go wrong in selecting any of those mentioned above.