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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.

Week of September 16, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of September 16th include ASTOR, an unconventional, page-turning historical biography in which Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America --- offering a window onto the making of America itself; THE LEFTOVER WOMAN by Jean Kwok, an evocative family drama and a riveting mystery about the ferocious pull of motherhood for two very different women; ABOMINATIONS, a striking collection of essays from novelist, cultural observer and social satirist Lionel Shriver; WANDERING THROUGH LIFE, an eye-opening memoir by Donna Leon, who, in a series of vignettes full of affection, irony and good humor, narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned; and COLEMAN HILL by Kim Coleman Foote, the exhilarating story of two American families whose fates become intertwined in the wake of the Great Migration.

Jean Kwok, author of The Leftover Woman

Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth --- another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter. Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name, a high-powered career, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but also her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.

The Leftover Woman by Jean Kwok

October 2023

Jean Kwok’s THE LEFTOVER WOMAN is the story of two women and one child. In China, Jasmine Yang had a baby girl. Her husband told her the infant died, but instead he had their girl given up for adoption. The One Child Policy was in place in China, and he wanted a son, not a daughter. Jasmine later learns what happened and heads to New York to find her child. To get there, she sells her wedding ring and entrusts her safe passage to snakeheads, to whom she owes a huge financial debt.