The Costa Book Awards

The latest winner of the Costa first novel prize is Emma Healy for Elizabeth is Missing. Ali Smith also won in the best novel category for How to be Both; more details are here.

20 British Novels To Consider

The Telegraph has assembled a list of what they think may be the 20 best British novels ever written. They include both well-known classics (Middlemarch, Mrs. Dalloway), slightly less famous novels (A Dance to the Music of Time, What Maisie Knew), and some you may never have heard of, such as Muriel Spark's The Girls of Slender Means. You can read the article and view readers' comments here.

San Francisco Chronicle's Best of 2014

The San Francisco Chronicle's 100 recommended books of 2014 is now online.

Washington Post Best of 2014

The Washington Post has a number of year-end booklists on their website. In addition to their top 10 book choices, they also have a top 50 fiction, top 5 science fiction and romance, as well as their pick of the best 5 audiobooks of the year and 50 notable works on nonfiction.

Telegraph Picks of 2014

The Telegraph has a very short list of their favorite of 2014. Among their choices: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Bark by Lorrie Moore, Dear Thief by Samantha Harvey, and Limonov by novelist Emmanuel Carrere, available in English and the original French.

New York Times Critics' Picks

Now on the New York Times website: the favorite books of 2014 of Michiko Kakutani, Janet Maslin and Dwight Garner.

Folio Prize Longlist

This years Folio Prize longlist has been announced. Over 80 titles, including some of the best reviewed American, Canadian, British and Australian novels of the year, are included; you can see the full list here.

The IMPAC Nominees

The longlist for this year's IMPAC Dublin Award is impressive; over 130 books from different nations are included. At least two novels from Bay Area authors are under consideration; And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and The Circle by Dave Eggers. You can see all the nominees here.

Guardian Best Fiction of 2014

The Guardian has published their list of the best novels of 2014. Among the standouts were Peter Carey's Amnesia, Ian McEwan's The Children Act, Colm Toibin's Nora Webster and Marilynne Robinson's Lila.

In Memoriam: P D James

Phyllis Dorothy James has passed away at the age of 94. In addition to the popular Inspector Dalgliesh mysteries, adapted for television, she also made forays into science fiction (Children of Men) and literary sequels (Death Comes to Pemberly). An appreciation of her life and work can be found at the Guardian.

Who Is Elena Ferrante?

Elena Ferrante is an enigma. The Italian novelist is highly respected and has an American fan base which includes Zadie Smith, Jhumpa Lahiri and Claire Messud, but nothing is publicly known about her, and many people believe she may not exist. SFPL owns several of her books in English and Italian; you can learn more about this literary puzzle at the Guardian.

L Magazine's Books for Fall

New York's L Magazine has an article discussing books they are looking forward to this autumn. Their picks include Some Luck by Jane Smiley, Marilynn Robinson's Lila and Eimear McBride's new book, which has won several major awards.  You can find the list here.

Telegraph Book Recommendations

The Telegraph maintains a list, recompiled every week, of what their reviewers consider the best books of the year.  You can find the list here.

Books for the Beach

The Guardian has started a blog discussing ideal books to take with you to the beach this summer.  Most are contemporary titles, with a few classics thrown in. Their latest recommendation is The Snack Thief by Italian mystery writer Andrea Camilleri. You can look at the ongoing list (and commentary on the choices) here.

The Hugo Award

This year's Hugo Award for science fiction has been awarded to Ann Leckie.  Her novel Ancillary Justice has also won a Nebula; finalists included Parasite by Mira Grant and Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross.You can see the full list here.

Overdrive In Other Languages

A reminder that Overdrive offers ebooks in languages besides English. At present, you can borrow titles in Spanish, Russian, and Chinese.

Reading Suggestions: The Year So Far

The Guardian recently asked readers what they believed were the best books of early 2014, then listed the top ten.  The choices were interesting, starting with J K Rowling's new crime novel (The Silkworm), an analysis of modern economics (Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century), a book about one writer's love of a classic Victorian novel (published in the US as My Life in Middlemarch), a collection of short stories by Lydia Davis (Can't and Won't) and even a novel about an author's wives (Mrs. Hemingway).  You can find the article here.

Novels Set In Africa

The book editors at the Telegraph assembled a list of their favorite novels set in Africa.  A number of them are by African authors who deserve to be better know, including Children of Gebelawi by Nobel Prize laureate Naguib Mahfouz, Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb Salih, Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Hisham Matar's In the Country of Men. Some titles are available as ebooks and in other languages; the full article is here.

Mystery Writers Of Note: Donna Leon

Guido Brunetti is a happy man. He has a wonderful wife, two well-adjusted kids, eats well and loves Venice, the city where he lives and serves as a police inspector. Still, his life is not perfect; his boss is an idiot, his children can't find work and he begins to suspect that the Italian justice system is more effective at protecting the guilty than the innocent. Brunetti is the protagonist of over twenty mystery novels by Donna Leon;  some are available as ebooks as well. 

Willful Behavior will also be the first choice of the new Golden Gate Valley Mystery Book Club this September. Please consider joining us!

Publisher Weekly's Fall Picks

Publisher's Weekly has assembled a list of some of the most anticipated books of this fall.  A few of them can already be reserved, including new releases by David Mitchell, Marlon James, Marilynne Robinson and Hilary Mantel. You can view the whole list here.