September's First Read choices

 (This new Blogger layout has odd colours in the post-writing page - very hard to see the text entry area. )

Amazon's First Read options for September:

• Thriller - The Unspoken
• Book club fiction - Millicent Glenn's Last Wish
• Domestic Suspense - This Secret Thing (how is "domestic suspense" different?)
• Literary Fiction - A Single Swallow
  
• Humorous Nonfiction - Welcome to the United States of Anxiety
• Romantic Comedy - Room-maid
• Supernatural thriller - the Haunting of H. G. Wells
• Picture book - The Monster on the Block

Not interested in Thrillers or Suspense, although the H.G. Wells looks closer to SF/Fantasy, and the library has a copy of United States of Anxiety, Roommaid, and The Haunting of H.G. Wells, so those are out of contention.  Millicent Glenn's Last Wish looks kind of interesting, but I think A Single Swallow is the winner this month. 

Also - the extension for Chrome and Firefox called "Library Extension" is very handy.  If you're on an Amazon or Goodreads listing page for a book, it'll check your local library catalog to see if it's available there. 

Pandemic entertainment - Baywatch

 The Samsung pandemic TV came with an added perk - Samsung has streaming channels for their TVs.  I knew there was a Bob Ross channel, and the Jack Hanna channel, but until I hit the wrong button on the remote, I didn't know there was a channel that was nothing but Baywatch, 24 hours a day.  And they happened to be showing my favorite season - the first, non-syndication, NBC season with Parker Stevenson.  So I watched for a w hile.  Then I found out that Amazon Prime currently includes Baywatch (but not Baywatch Nights or Baywatch Hawaii), so I've spent the last few days watching the whole first season again - including the first TV movie, where a few people have different names.  

Now I'm watching the beginning of season 2.  No mention at all of Parker Stevenson's character or his sudden disappearance, after being a co-star for the whole first season. Erika Eleniak still has very Brooke-Shields eyebrows.  Richard Jaeckel is back as a different character, after dying in the Panic at Malibu Pier movie.  And Andrea Thompson is doing a 2-episode appearance which I'd forgotten about. 

I was reading an article last week about Baywatch, when I was trying to find out if the first season was available on DVD or not (answer: sort of, if you get an international release, or buy all the syndication seasons that included 2 episodes each of the original).  The writer's notion is that women watched it for the strong female characters and their storylines.  I'm not sure I agree; I think most people, male and female, watch for the scenery, both the natural kind and the human kind.