Another Award: The Man Booker Prize

Hilary Mantel  won the 2012 Man Booker Prize with her novel, Bring Up The Bodies , becoming the first British author to win twice. She picked up the prestigious award - and £50,000 ($80,500) in prize money at the London ceremony this week.

Bring Up The Bodies, Mantel's 13th novel, is the sequel to 2009's Wolf Hall, for which she also won the Booker. Set in 1535, it traces the efforts of Thomas Cromwell, chief Minister to Henry VIII, to keep the peace during the the final days of Anne Boleyn. If you like historical fiction, these two books are terrific.

The prize, launched in 1969, aims to promote the finest in fiction by rewarding the best novel of the year written by a citizen of the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Last year's winner was Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes.