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End-of-the-Year Contest 2021

Congratulations to the winners of our 2021 End-of-the-Year Contest! One Grand Prize winner received all 44 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2021, while 11 others won a selection of four of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2021's Bets On books.

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Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to 12-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family and himself. Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own.

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William Kent Krueger, author of Lightning Strike

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to 12-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family and himself. Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own.

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Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger

September 2021

William Kent Krueger’s ORDINARY GRACE and THIS TENDER LAND are such favorite books of mine. They have details that are memorable, which is the sign of a gifted writer. So when I heard that Kent was writing a prequel to his Cork O’Connor series, which is set in Tamarack County, Minnesota, I was intrigued. LIGHTNING STRIKE takes readers back to the youth of a beloved character with a backstory that is pitch perfect. Readers will connect with the Cork they have come to know and love, and embrace the story of his youth.

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Week of July 4, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of July 4th include LIGHTNING STRIKE, a powerful prequel to William Kent Krueger's acclaimed Cork O’Connor series, which is about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever; SILVERVIEW, the last completed novel by John le Carré, who turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past 60 years --- the secret world itself; COUNT THE WAYS by Joyce Maynard, a mesmerizing story of a family, from the hopeful early days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce and the costly aftermath that ripples through all their lives; and Hayley Mills' fascinating memoir, FOREVER YOUNG, in which the iconic actress shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young.

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