July First Reads

 This month: 

1. John Grebble is Gone (thriller - bonus short read)
2. How to Ruin a Wedding (rom com)
3. No Light but the Stars (hist fict)
4. Ransom (legal thriller)
5. When She Was Ours (book club fiction (really, what is this category)
6. Oxford Detective Society (cosy fiction - their spelling)
7. Fields of Asphodel (hist fantasy)
8.  Dead Girls Tell No Tales (psych thriller)
9. A Heartbeat at my Feet (women's fiction - how is this different from book club fiction?)
10. Where Her SEcrets Lie (thriller) 

Cutting out all the thrillers is easy.  None of the rest have been ordered by the library yet, so I can't cut them down that way.  Picked Fields of Asphodel, but might recommend Oxford Detective Society and How to Ruin a Wedding to the library. 

 

 

May First Reads

 This month, we've got: 

1. Two Lives With You (women's fiction) 
2. Murder By Design (police procedural)
3. The Promise of Wonder (historical fiction)
4. The Confession Artist (serial Killer)
5. The Magic of Us (romance) 
6. The Girl in the Lake (suspense)
7. Westerly (women's fiction)
8. THe Quitters Club (contemporary fiction)

This month actually has a couple of interesting-looking books.  Library has Quitters Club and Murder By Design on order. I went with Westerly, and may have the library order Promise of Wonder at some point.  

March First Reads

 This month's choices: 

 

• The Price of Honey (psych thriller) bonus short read
• As Far As She Knew (domestic suspense)
• In the Great Quiet (historical fic)
• Yours Always (psych thriller)
• No Place to Be Single (book club fic - romance)
• What Happened Next (mystery)
• Maybe It's Fate (contemporary fic)
• The Last Labyrinth (fantasy) 
• Whispers of Ink and Starlight (book club fic - urban fantasy)

 I went with Last Labyrinth, although it may turn out to be romantasy based on the description.

First Reads February 2026

 This month's offerings: 

1. Leave It Up To Love (women's fiction - short story)
2. I Came Back For You (psych thriller)
3. The Water Women (historical fiction)
4. First Witches Club (contemporary romance)
5. No One is Safe (serial killer)
6. So Very Lucky (book club fiction)
7. Otherworldly (sci fi advednture)
8. Two Bodies are Better than One (police procedural)
9. Kissing the Sky (historical fiction)
10. Sighn Unseen (fantasy) 

I'm going with Water Women, since I'm on a historical fiction kick. 

1.  

January First Reads

 January's choices 

 

• Famous Once (women's fiction)
• Read Between the LIes (suspense)
• Land of Dreams (hist fic)
• In His Wake (thriller)
• The Epicenter of Forever (womens fic)
• The People's Library (fantasy)
• Hooked (Mystery)
• Soft Launch (coming of age)
• Blade (psych thriller)
• The Secrets Below (middle grade fic)

We get two books this month. Going with Land of Dreams and The Secrets Below.  May suggest People's Library for the library to purchase.  

December 2025 First Reads

 Oh, look, I'm not waiting until the absolute last minute!!

 

• Her Beautiful Life (Domestic suspense)
• Behind These Four Walls (suspense)
• Tea & Alchemy (fantasy)
• The Heart of Everything (book club fiction) by Marc Levy
• The Water Lies (thriller)
• Thirty, Flirty, & Forever Alone (romance)
•  The Flightless Birds of New Hope (book club fiction)

 The library has about half of these on order, and I may suggest The Heart of Everything for purchase at some point.  And I'm choosing the Flightless Birds, even though I'm still not sure what "book club fiction" really is.  

 

November First Reads

 This month's choices: 

 

• Second Son (espionage) 
• Yours for the Season (holiday romance) 
• The Lost Heiress (book club fiction) 
• Snake-eater (fantasy) 
• The Pursued (true crime) 
• Artificial Truth (psycological drama)
• Only way Out (thriller) 
• Ten Thousand Light Years from Okay (book club fiction)
• The Night Watcher (police procedural)
• The Wondrous Lives and Loves of Nella Carter (women's fiction)

 

Easy choice - Snake-Eater, because the author is T. Kingfisher and I've liked the other books I've read by them.  Also, espionage/psychodrama/thriller aren't my thing, and when did "book club fiction" become a genre?  

October First Reads

 October's options: It's a 2-book month!

 

1. What She Saw (police procedural)
2. The Night Guests by Marina Scott (hist fict)
3. 3 days, 9 months, 27 years by Scalzi (short story)
4.  Chasing Stardust (women's fiction)
5. The Fix (romantic thriller)
6. The Kidnapping of Alice Ingold by Cate Holahan (crime)
7. Best Day Ever (picture book)
8. More than Nothing (contemp romance)
9. Restoration Garden (book club fiction)
10. The Moor Witch by Jessica Khoury. (romantasy)

 I've got one on hold at the library, and am getting Chasing Stardust and the Scalzi short story.

September First Reads

 Nothing like pushing a deadline to the limit, right?  

 

• Bonus short read: Eerie Basin (horror)
• I'll Follow You (psychological suspense)
• Call of the Camino (book club fiction)
• Dating After the End of the world (romance)
• As Long As You're Mine (hist fic)
• The Last Morning (psych susp)
• A House Between Sea & Sky (magical realism)
• Wanting Daisy Dead (psych susp)
• The Distant Daughter (hist fic)

Boy, lots of psychological thrillers this month.  And not just a romance, but a zombie romance!  And three books that have dual-timeline stories.

 I ended up with Call of the Camino; it sounds interesting.  Library actually has most of these on order, except for I'll Follow You. 

 

May First Reads

 May's selections - 1 book, plus bonus short story

• Death Row (psych thriller short story)
• A Sky Full of Love (women's fiction)
• No Lie Lasts Forever (serial killer)
• The Palace At The End of the Sea (historical fiction)
• Family & Other Calamities (book club fiction)
• Baker of Lost Memories (historical fiction)
• Bald-faced Liar (psych thriller)
• Homemaker (amateur sleuth)
• Goats Afloat (picture book)

 Not in the mood for thrillers & serial killers.  Family & Baker look interesting, but the library has both on order.  Palace at the End of the Sea also looks good and isn't on order, so that's the one this month.

April First Reads

 April's choices 

• Thriller - The Undoing of Alejandro Velasco
• When Stars Align. - contemporary fiction 
• The Boomerang - thriller
• the Best We Could Hope For - historical fiction 
• Betting on Good - Womens Fiction
• Three Mothers - psycological
• Life Derailed - romance 
• The Artist of Blackberry Grange - gothic fiction
•   

Went with When Stars Align.  Best We Could Hope For and Blackberry Grange look interesting, but the library already has copies of both on order.

February first reads

 Cutting it close this month 

This month's options:

1.  Fall Risk (short read)
2. Mister Whisper (police procedural)
3. Not Quite By the Book ()Women's Fiction)
4. Grave Water Lake (thriller)
5. Something Like Fate (coming of age)
6. Missing in Fllight (action)
7. Unlikely Story romance)
8. The Warbler (gothic)
9. Name Not Taken (suspense)

I don't usually do gothic stuff, but I went with The Warbler.  The other two that looked good are already on order at the library.  

January First Reads

 Another pick-two month.  

• Rules of Fortune (family drama)
• Into The Fall (domestic thriller)
• Eleven Numbers (shsort story)
• Glamorous Notion (historical fiction)
• there's Something About Mira (romantic comedy)
• The Killing Plains (crime thriller)
• The Art of Starting Over (romance)
• Voice Like A Hyacinth (Dark fantasy)
• Some Other Time (women's fiction)
• Their Shadows Deep (historical fiction) 

Scratching the romance, thriller, and dramas cuts down the options. Ended up with Some Other Time and Something About Mira. 

November First Reads

 November's selections 

• The Silent Watcher (legal thriller)
• White Mulberry (historical fiction)
• Nobody's Perfect (women's fiction)
• The Broken Places (psych thriller)
• I Think We've Been Here Before (contemporary fiction)
• Trial by Ambush (true crime)
• Floreana (historical fiction)
• Mirror Me (suspense)

Taking out the thrillers and suspense cuts it down quickly.  It's down to White Mulberry, Nobody's Perfect, and Floreana.  The library already has White Mulberry (what's with all the Korean historical fiction lately?) and Floreana on order, so I'm getting Nobody's Perfect.  I Think . . . might be interesting, but it's also end-of-the-world which I've hit my limit on. 

September First Reads

 This month's choices:

1. When We Were Friends (short read)
2. The Anti-Heroes (Contemporary Fiction)
3. The Elias Network (espionage)
4. Remember Me Tomorrow (coming of age)
5. Hill of Secrets (historical fiction)
6. The Usual Silence (thriller)
7. The Second Shot (memoir)
8. Bad Reputation (romance)
9. Lenny Among Ghosts (middle grade)

Nope to the short read (44 pages? really??), the espionage, the "coming of age," the thriller, the Green Beret memoir.  Library has Anti-Heroes and Hill of Secrets on order, so it's either Bad Reputation or Lenny Among Ghosts. So, I'll give Bad Reputation a try. 

July 2024 First Reads

 July is another month where we pick two books.  

• Deeper than the Dead (police procedural)
• Bookstore Wedding (short story)
• Not What She Seems (suspense)
• Friends with Secrets (womens fiction)
• In Any Lifetime (spec fic)
• Nine Tailed (romantasy)
• You Shouldn't Be Here (mystery)
• Daughter of Fire (hist fic)
• Silly Boobies: a love story (picture book)

No short stories, suspense, or police thrillers.  In Any Lifetime is a multi-verse story, which is too close to itme travel and will give me a headache. Nine Tailed is on order at the library. 

So, Friends with Secrets and Daughter of Fire. 

First Reads May 2024

 May's choices

1. Girl, Missing (thriller)
2. Promise of tomorrow (Women's fiction)
3. Tiger Chair (bonus short read)
4. Let's Pretend this will work (romance)
5. Lake County (mystery)
6. Meet me On The Bridgew (book club fiction)
7. In a Dark Mirror (suspense)
8. Curious Secrets of Yesterday (contemporary fiction)
9. Hot Dog Money (non-fiction)

I don't care about college sports scandals, or suspense/crime, or this version of whatever "Women's Fiction" is.   Or romance/"divorce fiction." or a mystery/thriller about the Tampa mafia, or time-travel, coming of age romances, or a kidnapping thriller.  

So, Contemporary Fiction aka Friendship Fiction it is - The Curious Secrets of Yesterday.