And also the hot topics of 80 years ago. While Rebecca Makkai won best novel for The Great Believers, “Julia Boyd won the History prize for chronicling the Nazi party’s ascent to power in Travelers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism 1919-1945, a project that relied heavily on nearly century-old pieces of paper. ‘For anyone out there who has a box of letters in their attic and is thinking of throwing it out, don’t. Please,’ Boyd said.” – Los Angeles Times