How's this for a tangible book prize? Charles Rappleye, formerly of the LA Weekly, won the $50,000 George Washington Book Prize, "honoring the most important new book about America's founding era," for Sons of Providence: The Brown Brothers, The Slave Trade, and The American Revolution.

Also:

• To promote Michael Connelly's newest Harry Bosch mystery, The Overlook, the website at publisher Hachette has a trivia game that lets you test your knowledge of Los Angeles. A hook of the book is that all the action occurs within the area contained in one Thomas Brothers map page.
• Times writer Scott Martelle's forthcoming Blood Passion isn't due out for two months, but an advanced-reading copy sent to book review and assignment editors popped up for sale on eBay. As he says, his book is used before it's even new.
• Los Angeles Noir is reviewed by Daniel A. Olivas today in a guest stint at The Elegant Variation.

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