Los Angeles Times Book Prize ろさんぜるす・たいむず ぶっくしょう
Edition 38 (2017)
Winners
13 peopleLaura Dassow Walls's Henry David Thoreau: A Life reinterprets Thoreau's life and thought through the contexts of naturalism and the history of science. It broadens the familiar image of Thoreau and presents him as a writer, thinker, and observer of nature.
A biography that rereads Thoreau through naturalism and intellectual history.
Benjamin Taylor's The Hue and Cry at Our House: A Year Remembered is a memoir that traces family and personal memory through the year around Kennedy's assassination. Beginning with childhood experience, it quietly layers family life, loss, and the atmosphere of an era.
A memoir that follows one year around the Kennedy assassination.
Nancy MacLean's Democracy in Chains traces the influence of radical free-market thought on American politics. It examines the relationship between democracy, capitalism, and policymaking with strong historical depth.
A historical study of how radical free-market thinking reshaped democracy.
Mohsin Hamid's Exit West is an allegorical novel about fleeing a city consumed by war. Using the fantastical device of magical doors, it explores migration, refuge, and the changing shape of love and community.
An allegorical novel about escape through magical doors.
Leslie Stein's Present is a lyrical graphic work that moves through New York City and memory. The present-day life of a bartender overlaps with younger memories, and everyday moments connect in a loose, flowing structure.
A lyrical graphic work tracing the city and memory.
Dan Egan's The Death and Life of the Great Lakes is a nonfiction study of the environmental history and crisis of the Great Lakes. It follows the effects of invasive species, pollution, and development policy while asking what the waterways' future might hold.
A nonfiction account of the environmental history and crisis of the Great Lakes.
Joyce Carol Oates's A Book of American Martyrs is a novel about violence shaped by religion and politics. Through two opposing families, it portrays the fracture lines of an American society in which convictions collide.
A story of two families caught in violence shaped by religion and politics.
Patricia Smith's Incendiary Art: Poems is a poetry collection that looks sharply at historical violence and personal loss. It burns images of violence against Black bodies and the grief of mothers into the page through multiple forms and forceful language.
A poetry collection that sears violence and loss into memory.
Robert Sapolsky's Behave is a sweeping book that investigates the biological foundations of human behavior. Connecting hormones, the brain, evolution, and social environment, it asks why people move toward both good and bad actions.
A major work on the biology behind human behavior.
Jason Reynolds's Long Way Down is a novel in verse about a boy who takes a one-minute elevator ride on his way to revenge after his brother is killed. Through a chain of brief encounters, it brings the cycle of violence and the weight of feeling into focus.
A novel in verse built around a one-minute elevator ride toward revenge.
Glory Edim's Innovator's Award honored her work building the Well-Read Black Girl community and broadening diversity in publishing. The recognition centered on community-building around reading, not on a single new book.
A special award recognizing the founder of Well-Read Black Girl.
John Rechy's Robert Kirsch Award is a lifetime achievement honor recognizing his long career across gay and Chicano literature. It celebrates his whole literary legacy, not a single book, especially his portrayals of people living on the margins of city life.
A lifetime achievement honor for a writer central to gay and Chicano literature.