What do YOU think about this year's National Book Award winners?

On Wednesday of last week, the National Book Foundation announced the 2012 National Book Award Winners.

This year’s slate of winners, in four categories, included:

Fiction – “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich

Nonfiction – “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo

Young People’s Literature – “Goblin Secrets” by William Alexander

Poetry – “Bewilderment: New Poems and Translations” by David Ferry

These four books were selected from 1,285 books nominated for the National Book Awards, including 311 in the fiction category, 479 in nonfiction, 181 in poetry and 314 in young people’s literature.

From these books, judges narrowed them down to five finalists in each category. The non-winning finalists in each category included the following books.

Fiction:

- “This Is How You Lose Her” by Junot Diaz

- “A Hologram for the King” by Dave Eggers

- “Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk” by Ben Fountain

- “The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers

Nonfiction:

- “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956” by Anne Applebaum

- “The Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 4” by Robert A. Caro

- “The Boy Kings of Texas” by Domingo Martinez

- “House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East” by Anthony Shadid

Poetry:

- “Heavenly Bodies” by Cynthia Huntington

- “Fast Animal” by Tim Seibles

- “Night of the Republic” by Alan Shapiro

- “Meme” by Susan Wheeler

Young People’s Literature:

- “Out of Reach” by Carrie Arcos

- “Never Fall Down” by Patricia McCormick

- “Endangered” by Eliot Schrefer

- “Bomb: The Race to Build---- and Steal-- - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon” by Steve Sheinkin

Many of you will be familiar with some of the past National Book Award Winners, especially from the fiction category. Past NBA fiction winners include “From Here to Eternity” by James Jones, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison, “The World According to Garp” by John Irving, “Rabbit is Rich” by John Updike, “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “All the Pretty Horses” by Cormac McCarthy and “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier.

For more information about the National Book Foundation and the National Book Awards, visit www.nationalbook.org.