Carole King will be honored as the MusiCares person of the year during the 2014 Grammy Awards week.

The Recording Academy announced Thursday that King will be saluted by performers Lady Gaga, the Dixie Chicks, Bette Midler, Steve Tyler, James Taylor and Jason Mraz — with more to be announced later. The fundraiser for the academy's charitable foundation will be held Jan. 24 in Los Angeles, two nights before the Grammy Awards. Previous honorees include Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Neil Young. A songwriter and performer with scores of hits from "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" to "You've Got a Friend," King has won four Grammy Awards and was honored with a lifetime achievement this year.

Big names fill Book Award finalists' list

Minnesota writer Charles Baxter was among the judges for the National Book Award long list for fiction, which was announced on Thursday. It's a rich list, filled with big names — Alice McDermott, who won the National Book Award in 1998 for "Charming Billy"; Thomas Pynchon, who won in 1974; Jhumpa Lahiri, who has won the Pulitzer Prize and whose novel is also shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and George Saunders, whose collection of stories was boldly called the best book of the year by the New York Times — in January. And then there's Anthony Marra, with a debut novel.

Here's the list: Tom Drury, "Pacific" • Elizabeth Graver, "The End of the Point" • Rachel Kushner, "The Flame Throwers" • Jhumpa Lahiri, "The Lowland" (Lahiri will be at Birchbark Books in Minneapolis on Oct. 9.) • Anthony Marra, "A Constellation of Vita Phenomena" • James McBride, "The Good Lord Bird" • Alice McDermott, "Someone" • Thomas Pynchon, "Bleeding Edge" • George Saunders, "The Tenth of December." (Saunders will kick off the Pen Pals Series in Hopkins Oct. 10-11.) • Joan Silber, "Fools." The finalists will be announced Oct. 16, and the winners will be announced Nov. 20.

extra muscle: Sons of Anarchy's Charlie Hunnam hasn't yet shot a scene as Christian Grey in Fifty Shades of Grey. But there's no telling that to impassioned fans of the S&M bestseller who already are swarming the TV show's set. The Hollywood Reporter said that extra security was hired for the 33-year-old during FX's Sept. 7 Anarchy premiere in Hollywood and that it was Fifty Shades studio Universal, not the TV network, footing the bill to protect its new leading man.

Laurie Hertzel and News Services

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