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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.

Marie Benedict, author of The Personal Librarian

In her 20s, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white --- her complexion is dark because she is African American.

Week of June 6, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of June 6th include Lauren Weisberger's WHERE THE GRASS IS GREEN AND THE GIRLS ARE PRETTY, a highly entertaining, sharply observed novel about sisters, their perfect lives...and their perfect lies; THE PERSONAL LIBRARIAN, in which Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray tell the remarkable story of J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation; THE BOMBER MAFIA, Malcolm Gladwell's riveting exploration of how technology and best intentions collide in the heat of war; THE OTHER BLACK GIRL by Zakiya Dalila Harris, an electric debut about the tension that unfurls when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of New York City book publishing; and THE TWELVE LIVES OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK, Edward White's fresh, innovative biography of the 20th century's most iconic filmmaker.

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