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Summer Reading 2015

Summer is here! At Bookreporter.com, this means it's time for us to share some great summer book picks with our Summer Reading Feature. While our series of 24-hour contests have ended, we encourage you to take a look at our featured titles for some sizzling summer reading ideas.

- Click here to see the winners of our 2015 Summer Reading Contests.

End-of-the-Year Contest 2014

Congratulations to the winners of our 2014 End-of-the-Year Contest! One Grand Prize winner received all 32 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2014, while 32 others won a copy of one of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2014's Bets On selections.

Holiday Cheer 2014

At Bookreporter.com, we've been celebrating the holiday season in style with our Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature. As our gift to you, we've been spotlighting a book and giving five lucky readers a chance to win it.

Although the contests have ended, we encourage you to take a look at this year's featured titles. These are books you'll want to read during the holidays --- and throughout the new year as well!

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal

August 2014

I am not sure how I missed Laura Lane McNeal’s debut novel, DOLLBABY, when it was published in early July, but I am glad I caught up to it now. Set in New Orleans during the summer of ’64 when the Civil Rights movement was infiltrating the South, it’s a page-turner. The book opens with Ibby Bell (her real name is Liberty Alice Bell) being dropped off at the home of her wildly eccentric grandmother, Fannie, by her mom, Vidrine. Ibby’s dad died in an accident a few months ago, one that Ibby witnessed, and thus it’s far easier for Vidrine to hand her off than raise her. Just before she drives off, she hands Ibby an urn filled with her father’s ashes --- you know, the perfect hostess gift when you arrive at your grandmother’s house.

Week of June 22, 2015

Releases for the week of June 22nd include DARING: MY PASSAGES, a chronicle of Gail Sheehy's trials and triumphs as a groundbreaking “girl” journalist in the 1960s, to iconic guide for women and men seeking to have it all, to one of the premier political profilers of modern times; DANCING FISH AND AMMONITES, a memoir by Penelope Lively, who offers a glimpse into her influences and formative years, as well as a view of what life looks like from the vantage point of 80 years; and DOLLBABY, Laura Lane McNeal's big-hearted coming-of-age debut set in civil rights-era New Orleans --- a novel of Southern eccentricity and secrets.

Dollbaby by Laura Lane McNeal

When Ibby Bell’s father dies unexpectedly in the summer of 1964, her mother unceremoniously deposits Ibby with her eccentric grandmother Fannie and throws in her father’s urn for good measure. Fannie’s New Orleans house is like no place Ibby has ever been --- and Fannie, who has a tendency to end up in the local asylum --- is like no one she has ever met. Fortunately, Fannie’s black cook, Queenie, and her smart-mouthed daughter, Dollbaby, take it upon themselves to initiate Ibby into the ways of the South, both its grand traditions and its darkest secrets.

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