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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.

Spring Preview 2021

The arrival of spring signals the end of our Spring Preview contests. Many thanks to all who entered --- and a big congratulations to all our winners! You can see the winners here, and below are the books that we believe you’ll be talking about over the next few months.

Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End

Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, 30 years later, Vincent is being released. Duchess is a 13-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. When trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

March 2021

WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker is one of my favorite new books. Set in both California and Montana, the plot revolves around 13-year-old Duchess Radley and a fortysomething sheriff named Walk, both of whom have tons of baggage between them. Duchess is rebellious, tough and fiercely protective of her brother, Robin; she calls herself an outlaw. Duchess’ mother, Star, has substance abuse issues and harbors a lot of guilt over the death of her sister, Sissy.

Week of April 11, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of April 11th include THE HUSBANDS by Chandler Baker, a smart, sharp and timely novel that imagines a world where the burden of the “second shift” is equally shared --- and what it might take to get there; Chris Whitaker's WE BEGIN AT THE END, an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families --- the ones we are born into and the ones we create; A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN, a literary master class courtesy of George Saunders on what makes great stories work and what they can tell us about ourselves --- and our world today; THIS CLOSE TO OKAY by Leesa Cross-Smith, a powerful, vibrant novel about the life-changing weekend shared between two strangers; and RUBY FALLS, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s nail-biting tale of a fragile young actress, the new husband she barely knows, and her growing suspicion that the secrets he harbors may eclipse her own.