The second World Book Night USA is set for April 23, 2013, and today the organizers released the list of 30 titles to be given away. It's a wide and varied list, from award winners to classics to beloved more modest titles: Tina Fey's "Bossypants," Mark Twain's "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court," Jesmyn Ward's "Salvage the Bones," Timothy Egan's "The Worst Hard Time," his award-winning nonfiction account of the Dust Bowl. Last year two Minnesota authors made the list--Kate DiCamillo and Leif Enger. This time around, none from Minnesota, but two western Wisconsin writers are representing our part of the country: Michael Perry of New Auburn, Wis., with his much-loved first book, "Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One at a Time," and Neil Gaiman with "Good Omens," which he wrote with Terry Pratchett.

World Book Night is a nonprofit venture to get good books into the hands of people--any people, all people, random people. Half a million titles will be handed out on April 23, and if you would like to volunteer to give books away, you can sign up online at the World Book Night USA website.

Here's the full list of 2013 titles:

The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (Anchor Books/Random House)
City of Thieves, David Benioff (Plume/Penguin Book Group)
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks)
My Antonia, Willa Cather (public domain; edition tbd)
Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier (Plume/Penguin Book Group)


The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (Vintage/Random House) - also in Spanish
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho (HarperOne/HarperCollins) - also in Spanish
The Language of Flowers, Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Ballantine Books/Random House)
The Worst Hard Time, Timothy Egan (Mariner Books/HoughtonMifflinHarcourt)
Bossypants, Tina Fey (Regan Arthur/Back Bay Books)


Still Alice, Lisa Genova (Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster)
Looking for Alaska, John Green (Speak/Penguin Book Group)
Playing for Pizza, John Grisham (Dell/Random House)
Mudbound, Hillary Jordan (Algonquin Books/Workman Publishing)
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster (Yearling/Random House)

Michael Perry.


Moneyball, Michael Lewis (W.W. Norton)
The Tender Bar, J.R. Moehringer (Hyperion)
Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosley (Washington Square Press/Simon & Schuster)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life, James Patterson (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)
Population: 485, Michael Perry (HarperPerennial/HarperCollins)


Good Omens, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman (HarperTorch/HarperCollins)
The Lightning Thief, Rick Riordan (Disney)
Montana Sky, Nora Roberts (Jove/Penguin Book Group)
Look Again, Lisa Scottoline (St. Martin's)
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (Back Bay Books/Little, Brown)


The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Alexander McCall Smith (Anchor Books/Random House)
Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith (Tin House Books)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain (public domain; edition tbd)
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury)
Favorite American Poems; Large Print edition, various authors (Dover)