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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, JANUARY 19, 1998 | Salon Magazine, one of the Web's leading content sites, announced the recipients of the second annual Salon Magazine Book Awards. Co-sponsored by Borders Books & Music, the awards honor the authors and publishers of the ten most outstanding books published in the U.S. in 1997.

The winners of the 1997 Salon Magazine Book Awards are:

Fiction:
- "Alias Grace" by Margaret Atwood (Doubleday)
- "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier (Atlantic Monthly Press)
- "Because They Wanted To" by Mary Gaitskill (Simon & Schuster)
- "Mason & Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon (Henry Holt)
- "The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink (Pantheon)

Nonfiction:
- "How Proust Can Change Your Life" by Alain de Botton (Pantheon)
- "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman (Farrar Straus & Giroux)
- "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer (Villard)
- "Echoes of a Native Land" by Serge Schmemann (Knopf)
- "Close to the Machine" by Ellen Ullman (City Lights Books)

"It was a terrific year for books, especially fiction," said Salon Senior Editor Laura Miller. "What can you say about a year in which the novels that don't make your top ten include titles by Cynthia Ozick, Don DeLillo and Haruki Murakami? We suffered from an embarrassment of riches and this list was very difficult to whittle down."

Salon's Book Award coverage includes an overview of the books selected, as well as excerpts from each winning title.

Corporate sponsors also participating in the Salon Magazine Book Awards include Mercedes-Benz, America Online, WebTV Networks Inc. and Skyy Vodka.

Since its inception in November 1995, Salon has provided the literary community with daily book reviews, author interviews, essays and excerpts. In just the past month, Salon has published interviews with Gore Vidal, Russell Banks, Haruki Murakami, Mark Leyner, Allan Gurganus and Doris Lessing. Additionally, Salon has featured discussions in its reader forum (Table Talk) with respected authors such as Garrison Keillor, Elizabeth McCracken, Jane Hamilton, Galway Kinnell, Joyce Carol Oates, Carol Shields and Erica Jong through its Classic Book Group.

Salon is an interactive magazine of books, arts, travel and ideas. Salon features original writing by respected thinkers on topics ranging from literature and entertainment to technology and politics. Salon's Table Talk reader forum is the second most popular forum on the Internet. Salon syndicates its content to newspapers through United Feature Syndicate. Salon Magazine can also be accessed via AOL keyword Salon Magazine.

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