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End-of-the-Year Contest 2023

Congratulations to the winners of our 2023 End-of-the-Year Contest! One reader received all 44 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2023, while 11 others won four of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2023's Bets On selections.

If you would like to know more about these books, be sure to check out this video and podcast where Carol talks about each of her 44 picks.

Angie Kim, author of Happiness Falls

Mia, the irreverent, hyperanalytical 20-year-old daughter of a biracial Korean American family in Virginia, has an explanation for everything --- which is why she isn’t initially concerned when her father and younger brother, Eugene, don’t return from a walk in a nearby park. They must have lost their phone. Or stopped for an errand somewhere. But by the time Mia’s brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak. What follows is both a ticking-clock investigation into the whereabouts of a father and an emotionally rich portrait of a family whose most personal secrets just may be at the heart of his disappearance.

Happiness Falls by Angie Kim

September 2023

HAPPINESS FALLS by Angie Kim is a beautiful, poignant family story with a mystery layered inside it. Fourteen-year-old Eugene has Angelman syndrome. While he smiles and laughs, he cannot verbalize, so his loved ones have been dealing with these challenges. His father, Adam, has assumed the role of house husband and his caretaker. As the book opens, Eugene and Adam have been out hiking in a suburban park and are late coming home. When only Eugene appears at the door, he is very disconcerted and has blood caked under his fingernails and on his clothing. He is agitated and takes to his room to jump and make the sounds that he uses to soothe himself in these circumstances.

Week of May 6, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of May 6th include THE BREAKAWAY by Jennifer Weiner, a warmhearted and empowering novel about love, family, friendship, secrets and a life-changing journey; THE GUEST, a stunning novel from Emma Cline in which a young woman pretends to be someone she isn’t; Megan Abbott's BEWARE THE WOMAN, a harrowing psychological thriller that offers a nightmarish glimpse at every pregnant woman’s fears about their vulnerabilities; LITTLE MONSTERS by Adrienne Brodeur, a riveting novel about Cape Cod, complicated families and long-buried secrets; Angie Kim's HAPPINESS FALLS, an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another; and CAMERA GIRL by Carl Sferrazza Anthony, an illuminating biography of the young Jackie Bouvier Kennedy that covers her formative adventures abroad in Paris; her life as a writer and photographer at a Washington, DC, newspaper; and her romance with a dashing, charismatic Massachusetts congressman who shared her intellectual passion.