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In her holiday blog post, Carolyn McBride shares some family history and a cookbook that inspired her to finish writing her holiday novella, SANTA OVERBOARD, which was published this fall. When Carolyn’s mother passed away in 2019, she became the keeper of the family heirlooms and channeled this transition from daughter to family matriarch into her coming-of-middle-age novel, THE CICADA SPRING. Not surprisingly, some of the treasures she found in her mother’s house guided her in developing her latest tale of a female boat captain restoring her inner compass on a rollicking cruise of second chances.

Carolyn McBride

Carolyn McBride grew up exploring the Potomac River on her dad's Boston Whaler. Her Potomac Shores series is immersed in the places she lives and loves, from South Florida's Intracoastal Waterway to Virginia’s Occoquan River. Like Carolyn, her characters are grandmothers, mothers, wives, daughters, friends, pet lovers and boat captains. Carolyn is a former editor and columnist for National Geographic Traveler and professional copywriter. A graduate of the College of William and Mary, she is completing an MFA in fiction writing.

December 10, 2024

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 9th and December 16th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2024. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 40 books, while 10 other readers will receive four of these titles. The deadline for your entries is Friday, January 10th at noon ET.

We kick off this year’s Holiday Author Blog series with Amanda Peters, whose nationally bestselling debut novel, THE BERRY PICKERS, is now available in paperback. This Bookreporter.com Bets On pick won the 2024 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize. Her first collection of short stories, WAITING FOR THE LONG NIGHT MOON, releases on February 11th. Amanda’s grandfather passed away when she was just a teenager. One Christmas, her grandmother gifted her one of many books that he would read aloud to his family. Amanda has long cherished that book for a very special reason.

Amanda Peters

Amanda Peters is a writer of Mi’kmaq and settler ancestry. Her debut novel, THE BERRY PICKERS, was the winner of the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and the 2023 Barnes & Noble Discover Prize, and was a finalist for the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the Amazon First Novel Award.

Ariel Lawhon Book Group Event

Peter Lovesey, author of Against the Grain: A Peter Diamond Investigation

Detective Peter Diamond is taking a short holiday. His former colleague, Julie Hargreaves, has invited Diamond and his partner, Paloma, to visit the idyllic village of Baskerville. The woman who owns the village’s largest dairy farm has been convicted of manslaughter following a terrible accident in her grain silo. Julie’s ex-investigator instinct tells her there has been a miscarriage of justice and a murderer is on the loose. But Julie has been keeping secrets of her own and can’t take her inquiry any further. Diamond takes the bait. The case is a fascinating one, but maintaining his innocent tourist facade becomes harder as he closes in on his suspects. AGAINST THE GRAIN is the conclusion to the Peter Diamond series --- and Peter Lovesey’s final book.

James Patterson, author of The House of Cross: An Alex Cross Thriller

In Washington, DC, the president-elect is planning her inauguration. The list of Supreme Court candidates is highly confidential --- until it becomes evidence in Detective Alex Cross’ toughest investigation. One candidate is gunned down. A second is stabbed. A third is murdered near midnight on a city street. Cross is the FBI’s top expert in criminal behavior. For the sake of his family, his city and his country, he must put himself in the most dangerous place there is: inside the mind of a diabolical killer.

Weike Wang, author of Rental House

Keru and Nate are college sweethearts who marry despite their family differences: Keru’s strict, Chinese, immigrant parents demand perfection, while Nate’s rural, white, working-class family distrusts his intellectual ambitions and his “foreign” wife. Some years into their marriage, the couple invites their families on vacation. At a Cape Cod beach house, and later at a luxury Catskills bungalow, Keru, Nate and their giant sheepdog navigate visits from in-laws and unexpected guests, all while wondering if they have what it takes to answer the big questions: How do you cope when your spouse and your family of origin clash? How many people (and dogs) make a family? And when the pack starts to disintegrate, what can you do to shepherd everyone back together?

Cher , author of Cher: The Memoir, Part One

After more than 70 years of fighting to live her life on her own terms, Cher finally reveals her true story in intimate detail, in a two-part memoir. As a dyslexic child who dreamed of becoming famous, Cher was raised in often-chaotic circumstances, surrounded by singers, actors and a mother who inspired her in spite of their difficult relationship. With her trademark honesty and humor, CHER traces how this diamond in the rough succeeded with no plan and little confidence to become the trailblazing superstar the world has been unable to ignore for more than half a century. It follows her extraordinary beginnings through childhood to meeting and marrying Sonny Bono --- and reveals the highly complicated relationship that made them world-famous but eventually drove them apart.