December First Reads

 December's choices 

• True Crime - The Amish Wife
• Romance - The last phone Booth in Manhattan
  
• Police Procedural - The Lies You Wrote
• Women's Fiction - Olivia Strauss is Running Out Of Time
• Military Sci Fi - Scorpio
• Psychological Thriller - Sleeping with Friends 
• Historical Fiction - Split 
• Crime Thriller - The Seventh Girl 
• Short Memoir - Two Women Walk Into a Bar

So, no kid's book this month.  Nope to the short read,  and to the thriller/crime books.  Split looks good, and I may need a translated book for next year's Read Harder.

November First Reads

 November's First Reads

1. Night Owl (thriller)
2. When We Were Enemies (hist fict)
3. Pleae Tell Me (psych thriller)
4. Never Meant to Stay (romance)
5. Salt & Broom (hist fantasyy)
6. The Last Caretaker (book club fic)
7. Same time next year (short story)
8. Daughters of Block Island (suspense)
9. Leave it ToUs (womans fiction)
10. Simon says Good Night (picture book)

 Leaving out the short story and anything thriller,s uspense, or romance, cuts down the choices.  I went with Salt & Broom - I like fantasy, and it's a retelling of Jane Eyre.  I've never read Jane Eyre, but my son has read it four times, and highly recommends it.  

October First Reads

 October is another two-book month.  

Choices:

• The Spy Coast (thriller)
• The Lover (short story)
• Lights Out (suspense)
• The Village Healer's Book of Cures (Gothic historical fiction)
• Recipe for Second Chances (romance)
• All the Little Raindrops (psych thriller)
• House Moms (contemporary fiction)
• City People (domestic drama)
• The Rise (short crime fiction)
• THe Night Raven (middle grade fiction)

The short stories are last choice just because of the price.  Taking out most of the horror/thrillers and stuff, I'm left with The Night Raven, and I guess All the Little Raindrops.  

September's First Reads

 September books: 

• Woke Up Like This (coming-of-age romance)
• Just Stay Away (Thriller)
• The Witch's Lens (Historical fiction)
• Penelope in Retrograde (women's fiction)
• These Still Black Waters (suspense)
• A Night at the Tropicana (short story)
• Fortune (Domestic drama)
• The Heartbreak Years (memoir)
• Deadlands (Speculative fiction)

Scratch the suspense, thriller, short story, and probaby the domestic drama.   After reading the descriptions, looks like The Witch's Lens is the most interesting one, but the bar is pretty low here. 

August first Reads

 For August:

• Hist Fict - Don't Foreget to Write
• Women's Fiction - Starfish Sisters
• Suspense - Salthouse Place
• Domestic Suspense - The Shallows
• Thriller - Malibu Burning
• Book club fiction - Morning in this Broken World
• Short Read Family  Drama - The Scenic Route
• Sci Fi - Androne
• Police Procedural - Redemption

 One of the suspense books mentions a cult, the other one is about a vicious murder.  Nope.  Also not interested in arson & wildfires, or feisty widows, or a 43 page novel about van life.  Or a "kidnapping thriller" novel, although it might be interesting if the library gets a copy.  The Most interesting ones are Don't Forget to Write and Androne - and since the library is getting Androne, I'm getting Don't Forget to Write.  

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July First Reads

 July is once again a two-book month.

1. Thriller - What Never Happened
2. Romance - In the Likely Event
3. Hist Fic - Sing Wild Bird Sing
4. Fantasy - the Hanging City
5. Family Drama - The Way Life Should Be 
6. Thriller - To Die For
7. Women's Fic - There's No Coming Back From This 
8. Self-Help - It Will All Work Out (Kevin Hart)
9. Hist Crime - Broadway Butterfly
10. MIddle Grades - Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup

 So, the thrillers are right out, including the historical crime (a Roaring 20s true-crime), and the fantasy.  Ended up with The Way Life Should Be and There's No Coming Back From This, and will suggest that the library buy Batu and the Search for the Golden Cup (which I ended up buying thanks to a Kindle Rewards bonus offer).

June First Reads

 June's choices:

• The Better Half - book club fiction
• Black River - police procedural
• The Life She Wanted - historical fiction
• Lighthouse Burning - crime fiction
• La Vie According to Rose - women's fiction
• A Place For Us - memoir
• Doomsday Match - supernatural thriller
• Call the Canaries Home - family drama
  
• Role Playing - romantic comedy

Interesting, no picture book this month.  The library has copies of 3, 5, 6, and 9 already, and none of the drama/thriller/police books sound good, so I put holds on 3, 5, and 9, and went with The Better Half for my book this month. 

 

May First Reads

 First Reads choices for May

• Thriller: A Killer's Game
• Historical fiction: Light on Farallon Island
• True Crime: Don't Say a thing
• Short story - Golden Hills
• Historical Fantasy - A Thousand REipes for Revenge
• Psych Thriller: The silent Bride
• Woman's Fiction: The Road Towards Home
• Suspense: You look Beautiful Tonight

Just at first glance, the thrillers, suspense, and short story are probably not making the cut.  The short story is only $1.99 regular price, but it does look interesting if the library has access to it. 

 So, the choice is A Thousand Recipes for Revenge.

March First Reads

 This month's choices:

1. Mystery - I'll Stop the world

2. Historical fiction - A girl called Samson

3 Thriller - All He Has Left

4.  Book club fiction - The rise and Fall of Ava Arcana 

5. Police procedural - Hollow Beasts

6. Women's Ficiton - Half Way to You

7. Domestic suspense - The forgetting

8. Science Fiction - House of Gold

After looking at the descriptions, it's down to #1 (a time travel romance mystery) or #8 (science fiction). The library owns copies of #1 already, so #8 it is.

February First Reads

 Short on details for this one, but since all the books except two were suspense/thrillers, and there wasn't a picture book, I ended up with a YA romance about teens on a temple tour in India. 

January 2023 First Reads

 January is again a  2-book month, with 10 to choose from, and this month there's no picture book.

• Thriller - No Home For Killers
• Gothic Historical - Witch of Tin Mountain
• Romance - the Chemistry of Love
• Domestic suspense - Someone Else's Life
• Memoir - Movie Star (Jessica Simpson)
• Historical fiction - Night Angels
• Sci fi - Meru
• Memoir - Feral
• Book club fiction - The Direction of the Wind
• Disaster drama - The Fires

The thriller, romanse, suspense, and memoir are probably No right off the bat. Went through the others, and ended up with Night Angels and Meru.  Might suggest the library get Direction of the Wind and Feral.