Earlier this year, the Daily News and the Los Angeles Times were arguing about whether Los Angeles or New York City is the best place to be a writer.

This is a silly argument in the 21st Century in the middle of an economic downturn. Most writers can’t even afford to live in these cities anymore. We are all dedicated to one of the least lucrative careers in the world, and it is downright reckless to argue that we should live in two of the most expensive cities in the country.

After years writing for GalleyCat, I know this for certain: Writers live everywhere.

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Journalist and author Katherine Boo has won the New York Public Library’s 2013 Helen Bernstein Book Award for Behind The Beautiful Forevers.

The $15,000 award goes to “journalists whose books have brought clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies.” Boo had this comment as she received the award:

Consistently, the recipients of this award make the argument through their work that you can’t just complain or accept that the American public don’t give a damn about genocide in Rwanda or ruined lives in the inner city … What this award symbolizes to me is that as a journalist working in the field, you have to report harder and work harder, until you make the American public give a damn. That’s what good writing with a capital ‘W’ is. Over the years, the Library has honored some bad-ass women, and has always honored hard-core, fierce reporting.

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The finalists for the 33rd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize have been revealed, and we’ve collected free samples of all their books below–some of the best books released in 2012. Here’s more about the awards:

“The winners of the L.A. Times book prizes will be announced at an awards ceremony April 19, the evening before the L.A. Times Festival of Books, April 20-21. Held on USC’s campus in Bovard Auditorium, the awards are open to the public; tickets will be made available in late March.”

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The iBookstore editors at Apple have picked The Dog Stars by Peter Heller as the novel of the year.

In addition, they picked Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo as the best nonfiction book of the year.  Fashion by DK Publishing won the best multi-touch book of year award and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green was named the best young adult novel of the year.

Junot Diaz, Dave Eggers, and Louise Erdrich led the list of fiction finalists for the National Book Awards this year.

Follow the links below to read free samples of the finalists in every category–who is your favorite?

The finalists were announced on MSNBC this year, a new twist for the prestigious award. The winners will be revealed at a gala ceremony on November 14 in New York City at Cipriani Wall Street.

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Today Amazon editors revealed their picks for the best books of the year so far. The top ten books on the list were all published by the Big Six publishers–no Amazon Publishing, indie presses or self-published titles.

The editors also picked their top ten books in all the popular categories: biographies & memoirs, business & investing, cookbooks, food & wine, crafts, hobbies & home, literature & fiction, mystery & thrillers, nonfiction, romance, science fiction & fantasy, comics & graphic novels, and teens,  middle grade and picture books for kids.

Here’s more from Amazon: “Customers can also enter the Best Books of the Year So Far Sweepstakes on the Amazon.com Books Facebook page through July 23 for a chance to win one of 10 Kindle Fire devices, each accompanied by a $100 Amazon.com Gift Card. There is no purchase necessary to enter. Must be a legal resident of the 50 United States or D.C., 18 or over. Learn more [here] and enter for a chance to win.”

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What book are you most excited about this year? Share your most anticipated book at the 2012 books hashtag on Twitter.

On New Hampshire Public Radio’s Word of Mouth show today, this GalleyCat editor shared the books he’s looking forward to this year. Our list follows below…

Over at The Millions, you can explore a much longer list of upcoming books. If you want to add your own book to our list, just follow our Facebook Your New or Upcoming Book page.

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