The National Book Award finalists announcement Wednesday morning in Savannah, Ga., contained one major surprise: The acclaimed bestselling novel by Jonathan Franzen, "Freedom," failed to make the list. Author Pat Conroy read out the five finalists in four categories -- fiction, poetry, nonfiction and young people's literature -- at Flannery O'Connor's childhood home.

L.A. Times staffers made a splash in the nonfiction category: Beijing bureau chief Barbara Demick's "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" and "Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War" by Megan K. Stack, a former Moscow bureau chief now working in the Beijing bureau, are among the finalists. They're in competition with John Dower, Justin Spring and the rock star Patti Smith for her memoir of her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe, "Just Kids."

The fiction category, which omitted Franzen, includes both the well-known and the lesser-known. Finalist Peter Carey ("Parrot and Olivier in America") has twice won the Man Booker prize, while another finalist, UC Santa Cruz professor Karen Tei Yamashita, quietly published "I Hotel," her fifth book, with the independent Coffee House Press.

Young people's literature finalists include Southern California writer Laura McNeal's "Dark Water" and the rising science fiction star Paolo Bacigalupi for his first book for young adults, "Ship Breaker." Each of the five poets is a first-time National Book Award finalist.

The complete National Book Award finalist list:

Fiction:
Peter Carey, "Parrot and Olivier in America"
Jaimy Gordon,"Lord of Misrule"
Nicole Krauss, "Great House"
Lionel Shriver, "So Much for That"
Karen Tei Yamashita, "I Hotel"

Nonfiction:
Barbara Demick, "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea"
John W. Dower, "Cultures of War: Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq"
Patti Smith, "Just Kids"
Justin Spring, "Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward"
Megan K. Stack, "Every Man in This Village Is a Liar: An Education in War"

Poetry:
Kathleen Graber, "The Eternal City"
Terrance Hayes, "Lighthead"
James Richardson, "By the Numbers"
C.D. Wright, "One with Others"
Monica Youn, "Ignatz"

Young People’s Literature:
Paolo Bacigalupi, "Ship Breaker"
Kathryn Erskine, "Mockingbird"
Laura McNeal, "Dark Water"
Walter Dean Myers, "Lockdown"
Rita Williams-Garcia, "One Crazy Summer"

The National Book Awards will be announced at a ceremony in New York on Nov. 17. At the event, Tom Wolfe will receive the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters and the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service will be presented to Joan Ganz Cooney, a founding producer of "Sesame Street."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Howard Jacobson, third from left, above, won the 2010 Man Booker Prize on Tuesday, it was announced in a ceremony in London. The Man Booker comes with a hefty $79,000 award and all but guarantees bestseller status in the United Kingdom.

The award committee publicly announces a long list and then short list in advance of the award. On Sunday, the six short-listed authors gathered with their novels for a photo. From left: Damon Gaulgut, "In a Strange Room"; Andrea Levy, "The Long Song"; Howard Jacobson, "The Finkler Question"; Peter Carey, "Parrot and Olivier in America"; Emma Donoghue, "Room"; Tom McCarthy, "C".

"I am speechless," Jacbson said as he took the stage. "Fortunately, I prepared one earlier. In 1983..." he joked. Jacobson has twice been longlisted for the Man Booker -- in 2002 and 2006 -- but has never won or made the shortlist before.

Last year, the Man Booker carried weight across the Atlantic. The prize's winner, "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel, might not seem like the kind of book that would find fans outside of the U.K. -- it's a novelized telling of the story of Thomas Cromwell, a minister who served under King Henry VIII in the early 1500s -- but it went on to both critical and commercial success in America. After getting the Man Booker prize, "Wolf Hall" went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction and become a NY Times bestseller.

Jacobson's win came as a surprise. In the days leading up to the announcement, McCarthy was considered the clear front-runner; British wagering house Ladbrokes closed bets on the prize last week after receiving about $24,000 in bets on McCarthy in a single day, more than they'd received for all the authors combined since July.

"The Finkler Question" was published in the U.S. this week by Bloomsbury USA.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: The short-listed Man Booker Prize authors with their books Sunday. Credit: Carl Court/AFP/Getty Images

What do hipsters and pornography have in common? As the saying goes, you know 'em when you see 'em. That was the joke moderator Christian Lorentzen used to kick off the eight-person discussion "Look at This F*ing Panel: A Sociological Investigation of the Hipster" Monday night at UCLA.

The panel, inpsired by one held last year at NYU by n+1 magazine, imported many of its panelists from New York. A notable exception was L.A.'s Mark Hunter, the photographer also known as the Cobrasnake. Wearing tattered denim shorts and an American-flag shirt, Hunter spoke up idealistically for hipsters as people who were inspired and creative, getting some of the night's warmest applause.

But that came later. First, the panel struggled to agree on a definition of today's hipster. As Lortentzen joked, a hipster is easier to recognize than to define -- and the eight panelists never came to a consensus.

Gavin McInnes, co-founder of Vice magazine, maintained that hipster was just the latest youth movement in the tradition of greasers, rappers, mods, hippies, punks -- all focused on music, fashion and fornication. He left the rest of the panel a little stunned -- in part because his riff on fornication seemed hard to argue with (who, apart from Christine O'Donnell, is against fornication?) and in part because he had strutted onto the stage shirtless and took his place at the panel wearing nothing more than pants and tattoos.

Is a hipster any different from a yuppie? If so, what separates them? Alexi Wasser of the blog imboycrazy.com  gave a ringing endorsement of what she called the hipster aesthetic -- "I see a dude wearing dark denim and white tennis shoes, that's great! He's a babe!" -- while decrying a negative hipster attitude. Andrea Bartz and Brenna Ehrlich of the tumbler-to-book "Stuff Hipsters Hate" (not to be confused with "Stuff White People Like" or the popular blog-to-book from which the panel name was taken) also criticized negativity and apathy within hipster culture.

Chrisopher Glazek, an assistant editor at n+1, noted that last year's panel made connections between hipsters and gentrification -- an issue perhaps more pressing in Williamsburg and other areas of Brooklyn than in Los Angeles, and one that may have been a bit lost on the young students in Westwood. Glazek tied gentrification to the phrase "white power," which set off McInnes -- who was easy to set off, frequently throwing the panel into high-key chaos -- on a riff that ended with hipster armies wearing American Apparel Brownshirts.

Mary Corey, a lecturer in UCLA's history department, finally got a chance to speak. "Hipsterism has a rich and vital history that has nothing to do with ruining Brooklyn," she said. McInnes reiterated his point that it was just another youth movement and that all youth movements were about music, fashion and fornication, even those we think of as more political. Corey was shocked. "If Angela Davis is reduced to a hairstyle --" she began.

"Who's Angela Davis?" Tao Lin interjected, scoring an easy laugh.

Lin is the author of several books, including "Shoplifting From American Apparel" and the new book "Richard Yates" (not to be confused with the actual author Richard Yates). He speaks in a slow monotone, much like comedian Steven Wright and with the culture-jamming inclinations of Andy Kaufman. Lin, who Lorentzen says has been described as "inauthentic, confusing and alienated," has a devoted hipster fan base -- there was enthusiastic applause when he spoke. (Lin also has detractors; during the Q&A, a questioner equated "Shoplifting From American Apparel" with "a literary bowel movement.")

When pressed on how he defined "hipster," Tao Lin demurred. "Like all categories, I try to stay away from it." He continued, mumbling half-finished sentences into the microphone.

McInnes jumped in. "I can't tell what you're saying!" he blurted, complaining about Lin's mannered speaking style.

"That's my trademark," Lin replied, monotonally.

Applause.

The panel moved back into intellectual territory when the question of the avant-garde was raised. Corey traced hipsters back to the beats, then back to Norman Mailer, and the ideas in his problematic essay "The White Negro," and back to the 1920s. In those periods, the things we might see as hallmarks of today's hipster -- interest in culture and progressive ideology -- were present, under different names. She was on the point of saying hipsters and the avant-garde were the same thing when the conversation was derailed -- yes, again by McInnes -- exasperated by the application of hipster to other time periods and cultural moments.

If the panel was not able to come to a consensus on the definition of hipster, it did leave the audience with this overview: A hipster is, by definition, someone 18 to 25  years old with an interest in music, fashion and fornication; with progressive ideology (there are no "tea party" hipsters); with a weakness for criticism and apathy; and with the desire to be creative and connected.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Waiting for the hipster panel at UCLA. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times

Carla Cohen, the co-founder of Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, D.C., died of cancer Monday, the bookstore announced on its website. She was 74.

Cohen founded the bookstore in 1984 with Barbara Meade, who handled the money side of things. Cohen had been an aide in the Carter administration, and Politics and Prose became known for its superb collection of books focused on current affairs.

Bill Clinton is one of the hundreds of authors who has signed books at the store; so have J.K. Rowling, Bret Easton Ellis and Salman Rushdie. Like many independent bookstores, Politics and Prose also carries fiction. In a post on the bookstore's website, Cohen's recommendations included "More Than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City" by William Julius Wilson, "My Two Polish Grandfathers" by Witold Rybczynski and Michelle Huneven's "Blame."

In June, the Washington Post reported that Politics and Prose was for sale.

"It's time for us to stop and let somebody else take over for the future," Meade told the paper. Although many independent bookstores have been struggling with the pressures of the troubled economy and changes in the publishing industry, Meade said they were doing fine. "There are no financial problems here," she said. "We make a good profit." She reported that book sales for the year were up.

"I just don't have the energy like I used to," Cohen told the paper, acknowledging her illness.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Carla Cohen at a Politics and Prose event in 2007. Credit: runneralan2004 via Flickr

Studio Proxy, a Germany company, has designed several bookshelves that "dissolve the archetypical shape of a shelf by duplication and displacement."

The shelves are called King of Siam (thanks to Apartment Therapy for spotting them).

On the one hand, the King of Siam shelf is fun. The two intersecting shelves are surprising, a little bit silly. The slanted shelf may not be best-suited for books, but something would look good there. And the intersection of the two shelf pieces creates unusual, oddly shaped nooks.

On the other hand, as someone who lives in earthquake country, it's a bit unsettling. Normally horizontal structures set at a slant  evoke "quake!" like nothing else.

Maybe that's why Studio Proxy has also created Keep It Like a Secret. It's a version of the intersecting, black-and-white double-shelf without the slant.

But if you prefer the off-balance King of Siam, also check out the company's Ikea Hacks. Collaborating with the company Hellograph, they take cheap Ikea furniture, chop it up and reassemble it into, well, innovatively designed furniture made up of cheap Ikea parts. Generally they respect the original function -- tables remain tables -- and add in a bit of trompe d'oeil.

Of course, they have an Ikea hacks bookshelf. It's a classic Ikea Billy bookcase, sliced diagonally in two in its midsection like an unlucky magician's assistant, attached out of alignment, akimbo. Another bookshelf that looks like it's been shaken by Northridge: the sequel.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Image: Studio Proxy

The Huntington's Charles Bukowski exhibit opened Saturday; the library owns both a Gutenberg Bible and the papers of the Los Angeles poet, who died in 1994. "The Huntington is perceived as a conservative institution, but it's really not," David S. Zeidberg, Avery director of the library, said at a press preview Friday.

"The 20th and 21st centuries of American literature are as important as any other century," Zeidberg said. Both he and Sue Hodson, curator of literary manuscripts at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, place Bukowski's work in a centuries-long continuum of humorous, bawdy English literature, from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Walt Whitman.

Just a few steps away from the Bukowski exhibit, selections from the library's permanent collection are on display, including the Ellesmere Chaucer, an illuminated manuscript of "The Canterbury Tales" created from 1400-1405. "There's stuff in there," Zeidberg said, pointing to the permanent collection and the Chaucer, then turning back to Bukowski, "that's in here."

The Bukowski exhibit, which is organized roughly chronologically, includes photos, letters, drafts and redrafts of his writing, first editions, original artwork, foreign translations, movie memorabilia and other ephemera, including a racing form.

"Santa Anita racetrack was his sanctuary, and this was mine," Linda Lee Bukowski, his widow, said of the Huntington. When Bukowski was gambling at the track in nearby Arcadia, she visited the library and gardens.

She arranged for his papers to come to the institution and saw the exhibit for the first time Friday.

"It's surrealistic," she said. In the foyer, in a class case, sit Bukowski's typewriter, wine glass, pens and boom box, a little dingy, arranged just as they were in his office. Linda Lee Bukowski explained that she's left his office just as it was, going in twice a year to dust. "It's like home," she said, looking at the case. "I'm walking into this room at the Huntington, and it's like home."

Charles Bukowski's first publication, in Story magazine in 1944, was titled "Aftermath of a Lengthy Rejection Slip." That theme -- of the outsider, the loser -- would continue as a thread through his work.

Bukowski was born in Germany in 1920 to an American father and German mother; the family moved to Los Angeles in 1922. The elder Bukowski was, by all accounts, harsh and abusive, and his son suffered. When Charles was a teenager, he had a terrible case of acne and was something of an outcast; he dropped out of high school. Working a series of menial jobs that took him to New Orleans and Philadelphia, he also went to the library to give himself an education. And he began writing.

Fans know the outlines of Bukowski's life because he mined it for his work. " 'Factotum' was very autobiographical," Hodson explained, pointing to a first edition on display. "As almost all of his writings were."

While he started off getting rejections from major mainstream magazines, he found acceptance in edgier upstart publications. Bukowski's poems of drinking, womanizing and trials of everyday life developed an avid following. To some, he wasn't just an outsider -- he was the outsider. In 1962, he was named Outsider of the Year by New Orleans-based Outsider magazine. The Huntington has that award on display.

When Bukowski was in his 50s and working for the U.S. Postal Service, he was approached by John Martin, a Californian who wanted to start a publishing house to print Bukowski's work. Martin promised him $100 a week if he would devote himself to writing. He agreed, and that's when his novels started: "Post Office" (1971), "Factotum" (1975), "Women" (1978) and "Ham on Rye" (1982). He wrote the script for the autobiographical film "Barfly" (1987), directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke.

Bukowski wrote more than 40 books of poetry and prose; the Poetry Foundation calls him a "cult hero." Hodson agrees.

"To read Bukowski is to understand why he can achieve that connection to people," she said. "He's a writer for the common man."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photos (from top): The entrance to the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino. Credit: Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times

Photo: The cover of Charles Bukowksi's "Longshot Poems for Broke Players," illustrated by Bukowski. Credit: Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens.

Photo: Charles Bukowski at work in 1988. Credit: Joan Levine Gannij

At the end of the calendar year, bookstores are swamped with anthologies proclaiming the "best of" writing of the year. There is, apparently, a lot of really good writing: above is just a sample of the galleys and paperbacks that came to the office. We sorted through the stacks to come up with the definitive list: the 10 Best "Best of" books of 2010.

The Best American Short Stories 2010 (Mariner Books), edited by Richard Russo. Russo writes of the pleasure and pain of his task: “Narrowing the roughly 250 stories I read to the final 20 felt like some sort of literary waterboarding.” The big names -- The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, the Atlantic, Tin House -- supply the writers who make the cut: Charles Baxter, Jennifer Egan, Ron Rash, Kevin Moffett, Steve Almond, Joshua Ferris, Lauren Groff, Wells Tower, Tea Obreht and Jim Shepherd and more.

Best European Fiction 2011 (Dalkey Archive), edited by Aleksander Hemon. Now in its second year, this anthology is a bigger challenge than the others: the pieces, excerpts and complete stories are selected because they’ve never before appeared in America; most have to be translated. “Europe” is defined broadly, to include England -- and Booker-prize winning Hilary Mantel -- and reaches as far as Turkey. There are stories from Poland, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Romania, Serbia, Ireland, Begium (both French and Flemish) Latvia, Serbo-Croatia, Albania, Austria, Belarus and more.

Best Food Writing 2010 (Da Capo Press), edited by Holly Hughes. Includes paeans to sardines, high-end  restaurants in Los Angeles, New York’s Russ & Daughters deli, homemade bread, ramen, pit-barbecued pig, locavorism. There is a short piece from Jonathan Safran Foer’s book about his choice to eat vegetarian after the birth of his son. L.A. foodies should be especially pleased; our city is a bit overrepresented. And, yes, Jonathan Gold, writing about Antojitos Carmen, the delicious East L.A. eatery that inverted the trend and went from foodcart to storefront.

The Best American Comics 2010 (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), edited by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman lays bare the difficulties in choosing the best, his troubles with the way the year is defined and his frustration at things that have been left out of previous editions -- and then delivers a tremendous selection of graphic novel excerpts and comics. This anthology includes work by Chris Ware, Theo Ellsworth, Bryan Lee O’Malley, Peter Bagge, R. Crumb, Lilli Carre, David Mazzucchelli and Jonathan Ames and Dean Haspiel, and comes in a substantial, oversized hardcover.

The Best Technology Writing 2010 (Yale University Press), edited by Julian Dibble. Includes Evan Ratliff’s “Vanish,” his chronicle of trying to go off the grid and travel stay unfindable for Wired; Clay Shirkey on the future (or not) of newspapers;  a New Yorker piece on making cheap, functional, clean-burning stoves for the developing world; Kevin Kelly on technophilia and a tweet from an astronaut orbiting in the space station.

The Best American Poetry 2010 (Scribner Poetry), edited by Amy Gerstler. Gerstler, who has contributed to The Times, writes in her introduction, “I badly want this anthology to be read not only by poetry fans, but also by famished souls who never dreamed they’d admire any text that called itself a poem.” There are poems from U.S. poet laureate W. S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, John Ashberry, Louise Gluck, John Updike, Dennis Cooper, Charles Simic, Derek Walcott, Adrienne Rich, J.E. Wei, Lynn Emanuel, Billy Collins and Terrance Hayes.

The Best Music Writing 2010 (Da Capo Press), edited by The Times’ Ann Powers. Includes John Kun on Mexican regional bands and the cellphone economy; Lola Ogunnaike on MC Dizzy Drake for Vibe; Timothy Quirk, from the defunct band Too Much Joy, writing on his website “My Hilarious Warner Bros. Royalty Statement”; Alex Ross on Marian Anderson; Greg Tate on Michael Jackson; and, ironically, Christopher Weingarten’s brilliant, profane presentation on the death of music criticism.

The Best of the Web 2010 (Dzanc Books), edited by Kathy Fish. “A man with such loneliness repels even the moon’s face in water,” from a story by Terese Svoboda, is a sentence Fish cites to show that beautiful and arresting writing can appear anywhere. This anthology celebrates the fiction and nonfiction which appears online, in smaller, adventurous publications like failbetter, >killauthor, Juked, storySouth, the Rumpus and Everyday Genius, with a healthy helping from the online outlets of literary journals.

The Best American Travel Writing 2010 (Mariner Books), edited by Bill Buford. This is travel writing imbued with a sense of the personal: Henry Alford’s failed pickup in Istanbul; Ted Genoways’ bat-seeking expedition in Surinam with his naturalist father. From National Geographic, the New Yorker, Outside, plus the unexpected (the Believer, Lapham’s Quarterly). Notable contributors include Susan Orlean, David Sedaris, Christopher Hitchens, Tom Bissell, George Packer and Ian Frazier.

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2010 (Mariner Press), edited by Dave Eggers with a student committee from the 826 centers. The anthology includes stories from major, often funny writers -- Sherman Alexie, Etgar Keret, George Saunders -- and also lists, which are non-narrative but tell a kind of story. Best American Gun Magazine Headlines, Best American Sentences on Page 50 of Books Published in 2009, Best New Patents, Best Farm Names -- they point to the silliness of best-of list-making while showing how much fun the process can be.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

MORE 10/10/10

Photos: Ten films with '10' in the title

Culture Monster: Ten masterpieces for the decaphilic

Hero Complex: The Top 10 sidekicks of all-time

Photos: Ten stars by the age of 10

24 Frames: The 10 best movies of 2010 (so far) that you might have missed

Show Tracker: TV's top 10 moments of the first 10 months of 2010

Pop & Hiss: Ten great songs about drinking (and five others about sobering up)

Ministry of Gossip: Celebrity scandals from a spicy year so far

Photo credit: Carolyn Kellogg

The 13th annual Los Angeles Latino Book and Family Festival takes place Saturday and Sunday at Cal State L.A., with panels, discussions, reading, music, dance and sessions for teachers. Founded by actor Edward James Olmos, this year's festival boasts 150 authors who will participate in the two days of panel discussions and readings.

Participating authors include Victor Villaseñor, author of the bestseller "Rain of Gold"; Gustavo Arellano, the O.C. Weekly's "Ask a Mexican" columnist and author of the book "Orange County: A Personal History"; L.A. Weekly cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz; and former L.A. Times writer Sonia Nazario, who won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing for a multi-part story about Latin American children who emigrate to the U.S. to join their parents, which became the book "Enrique's Journey."

Some panels address ideas and issues -- the effects of the Mexican revolution on the arts, feminine archetypes in Chicano history, a discussion of mural art. Others may give practical advice to literary hopefuls: how to write for children, writing from life experience, advice from editors and agents, the pros and cons of self-publishing, the basics of book promotion. There is a panel on the future of journalism, and a few different takes from Latino writers working in Hollywood.

The Los Angeles Latino Book and Family Festival runs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Gustavo Arellano, one of the authors appearing a the Latino Book and Family Festival. Credit: Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times

Jennifer Weiner, the author of, most recently, "Fly Away Home," is co-authoring a television pilot for ABC Family. If the show gets picked up, it'll be the first time Weiner has written for television.

Weiner made a splash with her first book, "Good in Bed" -- not so good for an ABC Family show. But her novel "In Her Shoes" was a perfect fit for Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette, who starred in the film version.

Weiner's pilot, according to Deadline Hollywood, is called "The Great State of Georgia." It's about "an exuberant plus-sized performer from the South and her science geek best friend who try to make headway in New York City." Weiner is co-writing the pilot with Jeff Greenstein, writer/producer of "Desperate Housewives."

Weiner was in L.A. several months ago with a secret Hollywood project in the works; now everyone who follows her on Twitter knows. That is, unless there's another secret Hollywood project still to come for the novelist.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Jennifer Weiner. Credit: Andrea Cipraini Mecchi

Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo is the winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, it was announced Friday morning. Publishing couldn't be happier -- the American Assn. of Publishers sent a release saying it "joined with publishing colleagues all over the world in cheering this morning’s announcement." PEN President Kwame Anthony Appiah, who nominated Liu, said he was "absolutely delighted."

The only thing that would be better news is if Liu were also released from Jinzhou Prison.

In December 2009, after being detained for more than a year, the Chinese literary critic and academic was sentenced, on Christmas Day, to 11 years in prison. The trial, held on Dec. 23, took place in less than three hours. In May, Liu was moved from a detention center in Beijing to Liaoning's Jinzhou Prison.

Liu had been charged with "inciting subversion of state power" for his role as an author of Charter 08, a call for increased democratic reforms and greater freedoms in China. More than 300 scholars and writers signed Charter 08, which was timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among the things, Charter 08 calls for freedom of expression:

We should make freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and academic freedom universal, thereby guaranteeing that citizens can be informed and can exercise their right of political supervision. These freedoms should be upheld by a Press Law that abolishes political restrictions on the press. The provision in the current Criminal Law that refers to "the crime of incitement to subvert state power" must be abolished. We should end the practice of viewing words as crimes.

The Peace Prize was awarded to Liu "for his long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China," said the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prize each year.

At the announcement, committee Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said, "We have a responsibility to speak when others are not able or willing to speak. I think it's very important now to look to the path that China has begun. It has become a very big power in economic as well as political terms, and it is normal that big powers should be under criticism …and debate."

The case of Liu Xiaobo goes back to 1989. A visiting scholar at Columbia University, Liu returned to China and was a key participant -- and advocate for peaceful protests -- at Tiananmen Square. He has spent a total of five years in prison -- including three in "reeducation through labor," a system of administrative detentions -- for his activities at Tiananmen Square and continued advocacy for freedoms and democracy.

PEN continues to call for Liu's release.

The organization "has always stood not only for free expression but also for cultural exchange across nations," Appiah said in a news release Friday. "We believe we all have a great deal to gain from hearing from China. A China with greater free expression will not only be better for the Chinese, it will allow her citizens -- and her government -- a louder, stronger voice in the community of nations."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: A protester holds placards in support of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo at a December 2009 demonstration at the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong. Credit: YM / EPA

This week, talk show host Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show" enter the nonfiction bestseller list with "Earth: A Visitors Guide to the Human Race" at No. 1. Stewart's show, of course, is an intelligent, satiric take on the daily news. Like his colleague Steven Colbert, he often brings authors on his show; above, in an episode from July, journalist Daniel Okrent talks about his book "Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition." This is the second book from Stewart and his team; like 2006's "America: The Book," this one promises that it includes "lots of color photos, graphs and charts." In other words, lots of satire, not too much reading strain. Stewart has eight Emmys; so far, the Pulitzer has eluded him. But give him time.

The extended hardcover and paperback bestseller lists for Oct. 10 are after the jump. Rankings are based on a weekly poll of 130 Southern California bookstores and chain results.

-- Carolyn Kellogg

The way Stieg Larsson's father tells it, there is another book in the Millennium series, which started  with "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo."  He's seen it. He's held it. Larsson's father, Erland, and brother Joakim will appear on "CBS Sunday Morning" on Sunday to tell the story of the controversial manuscript.

Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy, which also includes "The Girl Who Played With Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest," has been an international bestseller. It's the kind of success any author would welcome, and doubtless, Larsson would have continued to add to the series if he hadn't died in 2004 of a heart attack at age 50, shortly before "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was published.

"I got the e-mail from Stieg 10 days before he died where he wrote book number four is nearly finished," brother Joakim says in the Sunday interview, according to a  CBS News press release.

Larsson's family and his girlfriend of 32 years, Eva Gabrielsson, have been at odds over the author's estate. A report in our pages last year said:

When Larsson died, everyone assumed Gabrielsson would be his heir; Erland and Joakim were surprised to learn the estate was theirs by default. They say they were prepared to turn Larsson's assets over to her at the beginning, but she publicly declared she didn't want any money from them and would speak to them only through a lawyer.

After Larsson's books were published, his family says, Gabrielsson sent a letter through her attorney demanding all rights to his work, which struck them as unreasonable.

"She wanted some part of the economic rights -- no problem," Joakim said. "But she wanted all the moral rights. And for that, we have to discuss."

They are annoyed by suggestions that they've been blinded by greed over an estate estimated to be worth $20 million and counting. (No one knows, or says, for sure.)

It has long been known that there was a manuscript for a fourth book, but there have been varied reports of how long and how complete it might be. It was thought to have been on Stieg Larsson's laptop, which was in the possession of Gabrielsson, who the family wasn't communicating with. How exactly has Erland held the manuscript?

Perhaps on Sunday family members will explain what they've seen. Is the book making its way to publication? When can Americans expect to see it on shelves?

"I'm as curious as the rest of the world," Paul Bogaards, executive director of public relations at Knopf, Larsson's publisher, told The Times. "It's a subject of much speculation among Larsson readers. At some point, one hopes that there is a finality to the question about the fourth book."

Larsson's original plan for the Millennium Trilogy is said to have been a 10-book series. Rumors of outlines and titles of the remaining books have swirled. On Sunday, Joakim adds this bit to the mix: "And to make it more complicated, this book number four [is] book number five, because he thought that [it] was more fun to write than book number four."

-- Carolyn Kellogg

Photo: Author Stieg Larsson's father, Erland, left, and his brother Joakim in November 2009. Credit: Rob Schoenbaum