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Last week, I wrote about finding lots of hot chocolate and marshmallows in our pantry. So instead of waiting for a snowy day to enjoy them, I made myself a very messy cup of hot chocolate and peppermint marshmallows, and then grabbed EXILES by Jane Harper to read. I love the way Jane writes a setting, which she typically locks down before she starts on the plot.

Recently people across America have been surprising Hollywood folks. It started with the television show “Yellowstone”, which grew in what are called the C and D markets --- not the major cities on the coasts, but rather the “other places” in America. The same thing has happened with the film A Man Called Otto. It’s playing better outside of the coasts. You can see more about this in a trade article that I came across here.

No preamble…let’s get right to it!

Drum roll, please…
Congratulations to Wendy M. from La Quinta, CA, who is the Grand Prize winner in our End-of-the-Year Contest! She has won all 40 of my Bookreporter.com Bets On titles from 2022, while eight other winners are receiving a selection of five of these books. Click here to see if you are one of them!

I notified Wendy of her big win, and she's ecstatic about it: “Thank you so much! I am so looking forward to getting my prize books! Reading means the world to me, and I enjoy books more than you can ever know. I can't wait and will have someone take a picture of me with my books when they arrive!”

We all had a great break. Christmas week is the week when time does not exist! What day is it? Why did I get out of bed on the 26th at 5:30pm? Why did I eat cheesecake for breakfast? Why am I snacking throughout the day?

We spent a lot of time with family and friends over the holiday, and we hosted five really fun dinners. We finally got time to spend with neighbors who we have not socialized with for the past two years. I read three books, which is much less than I typically would do. Usually I have read books not coming out for months, and now I am maybe a week ahead. It started over the summer when my mom was ill, and I just never caught up. There are even some books from last year that I still did not get to. And I felt a lot of guilt about that. I know, guilt about not reading. But this got me thinking.