Let’s talk about the Amazon First Reads November 2024 selections because they are really good. If you’re not familiar with the Amazon First Reads program it’s where editors provide early access to an upcoming selection of Kindle books before they’re officially released. You get to choose one title from this selection and download it to your Kindle to enjoy. This service is included with an Amazon Prime membership allowing you to download one book onto your Kindle for free. For those who are not Prime members, you can purchase a book from this selection for $1.99 and have it downloaded onto your Kindle.
This month they have an intriguing selection of books to choose from. So, let’s discuss these books and I’ll share which one I’m going to be downloading this month and adding to my never-ending TBR.
Amazon First Reads November 2024 Selections
The Answer Is No by Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman is an author that I have my eye on. I’ve seen so many people on social media and YouTube share their appreciation and enjoyment of his work. He’s been characterized as providing a unique insight to the standard ordinary situations we encounter in regular life. And I’m a fan of this type of writing style. This title is an Amazon Original short story and it may be the perfect introduction to Backman’s work.
Amazon Synopsis
In a hilarious short story from New York Times bestselling author Fredrik Backman, the absurdities of modern life cause one man’s solitary world to spin suddenly, and comically, out of control.
Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone?
Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.
Told in Fredrik Backman’s singular witty style with sharply drawn characters and relatable antics, The Answer Is No is a laugh-out-loud portrait of a man struggling to keep to himself in a world that won’t leave him alone.
The Silent Watcher by Victor Methos
The next selection is a legal thriller by another new to me author Victor Methos. This is one of the reasons why I appreciate the Amazon First Reads program so much is that it exposes me to authors I haven’t heard of and that otherwise would escape my notice allowing me to diversify my reading. The synopsis for this story sounds very intriguing so I will have to keep my eye out for it when it’s released.
Amazon Synopsis:
The bestselling author of A Killer’s Wife delivers a haunting legal thriller, plunging the reader headlong into the search for a deadly stalker—and a quest to bring a young victim peace.
Far from the neon glare of the Vegas Strip, attorney Piper Danes walks away from a hotshot law firm to work as a guardian ad litem (GAL). Piper was once a vulnerable youth herself, and a GAL gave her hope when she needed it most. Now she’s committed to paying it forward.
Her latest case is unlike any other: fifteen-year-old Sophie Grace is the sole survivor of a gruesome family murder. Teaming up with the formidable Judge Hope Dawson and enigmatic Detective Lazarus Holloway, Piper delves into a world more sinister than she could have imagined.
Their hunt for the truth leads to a serial killer known only as “the Creeper,” a predator who hides in the shadows. But as the team inches closer to unveiling the murderer, they find themselves in the crosshairs. Trapped in a web of lies, Piper will do anything to protect Sophie and stop the killer…before she becomes his next victim.
White Mulberry by Rosa Kwon Easton
I’ve been developing a deep appreciation and respect for historical fiction and have been exploring this genre more especially when they are books written by BIPOC and minority authors. This selection definitely captured my attention as it dives into Asian history and culture. Which is something that I’m not as knowledgeable about and I’d like to increase that knowledge and awareness. I’m very interested in checking this out when it’s released next month.
Amazon Synopsis
“A beautiful and deeply researched novel…If you loved Pachinko, you’ll love White Mulberry.” —Lisa See, New York Times bestselling author of The Island of Sea Women
Inspired by the life of Easton’s grandmother, White Mulberry is a rich, deeply moving portrait of a young Korean woman in 1930s Japan who is torn between two worlds and must reclaim her true identity to provide a future for her family.
1928, Japan-occupied Korea. Eleven-year-old Miyoung has dreams too big for her tiny farming village near Pyongyang: to become a teacher, to avoid an arranged marriage, to write her own future. When she is offered the chance to live with her older sister in Japan and continue her education, she is elated, even though it means leaving her sick mother—and her very name—behind.
In Kyoto, anti-Korean sentiment is rising every day, and Miyoung quickly realizes she must pass as Japanese if she expects to survive. Her Japanese name, Miyoko, helps her find a new calling as a nurse, but as the years go by, she fears that her true self is slipping away. She seeks solace in a Korean church group and, within it, finds something she never expected: a romance with an activist that reignites her sense of purpose and gives her a cherished son.
As war looms on a new front and Miyoung feels the constraints of her adopted home tighten, she is faced with a choice that will change her life—and the lives of those she loves—forever.
Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick
I enjoy hard-hitting fiction titles that address complex issues such as divorce and redefining yourself during middle age. And if this synopsis is any indicator this is definitely one of those books that celebrate the strength and resilience of women as they come into their own and embrace who they are unequivocally and authentically.
Amazon Synopsis
From a USA Today bestselling author comes a poignant, funny, and heartfelt novel about a wife and mother grabbing hold of a second chance she never saw coming.
Vivian Quackenbush enjoys a typical life. She has winesday evenings with her two best friends. Her son is in college. She and her husband, Mitch, are planning the next move for their empty-nester future. But to Vivian’s blindsided surprise…not together.
After nearly twenty-five years of marriage, Mitch wants a divorce. He confesses that he doesn’t love her anymore. He never even liked her chicken salad! Brutal. What is Vivian to do but channel her anger, frustration, and pain into a video she posts online. Ill advised? Perhaps. Cathartic? Absolutely. Overnight, Vivian goes viral. Millions of views and counting—to Mitch’s fury, her son’s embarrassment, her mother’s support, and the media’s delight. For Vivian, it’s a moment of truth: hide or lean into it. Vivian 2.0 chooses to lean—maybe even toward the younger single father next door.
Now Vivian is wondering where she goes from here. She’s discovering that somewhere in her trending if upended life, she’ll have to figure out who she really wants to be.
The Broken Places by Mia Sheridan
Mia Sheridan is another author that I’ve had my eye on. Currently, I have her novel All The Little Raindrops in my Kindle library and looking forward to giving it a read. However, when it comes to this title while the premise sounds intriguing I don’t know if it’s the right flavor for me. I’ll keep my eye out for this one and maybe it’ll find it’s way into my TBR pile. We’ll see.
Amazon Synopsis:
In this twisted journey into the shadows of the Golden Gate, an inspector and an FBI agent must track down the source of an unknown drug, but their attraction and their own secrets keep getting in the way.
The streets of San Francisco aren’t as sunny as the city pretends they are. Inspector Lennon Gray has learned this the hard way, and it’s starting to wear on her. When a new case plunges her into the depths of the transient community, Lennon must once again face ugly truths about humanity.
Her new partner makes things a little easier, though.
Agent Ambrose Mars is charming—innocent, somehow, despite his own hard years in the field. The combination leaves Lennon fascinated and disturbed at the same time, and she’s even more drawn to him for it.
As they investigate the hallucinogenic drug that’s forcing homeless citizens into bizarre and dangerous role-plays, Lennon and Ambrose find their relationship intensified with every new twist. But when these revelations begin to uncover secrets she wasn’t prepared to know, Lennon will have to decide how much more she can take…before something important is taken from her.
I Think We’ve Been Here by Suzy Krause
Ok so, this book sounds like it’s a quirky, weird time and I’m kinda here for it. It’s depicted as one of those books that provide a refreshing take on life and how to manage the inevitable twists and turns that are thrown at us as we navigate living in a chaotic world. And, I think we all could stand to read a book like this at this current time.
Amazon Synopsis:
With the end of the world predicted, reality bends in an unexpectedly quirky novel about human connection and the meaning of life and death by the bestselling author of Sorry I Missed You.
Marlen and Hilda Jorgensen’s family has received two significant pieces of news: one, Marlen has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Two, a cosmic blast is set to render humanity extinct within a matter of months. It seems the coming Christmas on their Saskatchewan farm could be their last.
Preparing for the inevitable, they navigate the time they have left together. Marlen and Hilda have channeled their energy into improbably prophetic works of art. Hilda’s elderly father receives a longed-for visitor from his past. Hilda’s teenaged nephew goes missing, and his mother refuses to believe the world is ending. All the while, Hilda’s daughter struggles to find her way home from Berlin with the help of an oddly familiar stranger. For everyone, there’s an unsettling feeling that this unprecedented reality is something they remember.
As the planet holds its collective breath to see what happens next amid chaos, denial, acceptance, and hope, this one family determines to live every moment as if it’s their last. Because, well, it just might be.
Trial by Ambush: Murder, Injustice, and the Truth about the Case of Barbara Graham by Marcia Clark
I’m such a True Crime junkie. I don’t know if it’s the ex-psychology major in me but I really want to understand what makes criminals tick and what choices and decisions lead up to them making such vicious and violent acts. However, this story seems a little different. It comes across as more of a villain origin story and I don’t know I think I’m here for it. Definitely adding to my Want To Read list on Goodreads.
Amazon Synopsis:
In this dramatic true account about the power of sensationalized crime, one woman’s case is exposed for its sexism, flagrant disregard for the truth, and, ultimately, the dangers posed by an unbridled prosecution.
Unwanted and neglected from birth, Barbara Graham had to overcome the odds just to survive. Her beauty was both a blessing and a curse—offering her too many options of all the wrong kind. Her innate sensitivity left her vulnerable to the harsh realities of the street, where she was left to fend for herself before she reached double digits. Her record of petty crimes spoke to a life that constantly teetered on the brink of disaster.
But in 1953, a catastrophic twist of fate would catapult her out of obscurity and into the headlines.
When a robbery spiraled out of control and escalated into a brutal murder, Barbara became the centerpiece of a media circus. Her beauty enraptured the press, and they were quick to portray her as a villainous femme fatale despite abundant evidence to the contrary—a fiction the prosecution eagerly promoted.
The frenzy of public interest and willful distortion paved a treacherous path for Barbara Graham. In Trial by Ambush, author and criminal lawyer Marcia Clark investigates the case exposing the fallacies in the demonizing picture they painted and the critical evidence that was never revealed.
Floreana by Midge Raymond
I don’t know what it was about this title. Perhaps it’s the name that it’s set in the Gálagapos island or that it deals with a torrid affair and the consequences of that relationship as the protagonist comes to learn more about past incidents and how they mirror her current emotions and mental state. It sounds gripping and I just knew this was going to be my Amazon First Reads pick for this month. I’m super excited to be able to dive into this story and uncover its secrets.
Amazon Synopsis:
On the Galápagos Islands, the lives of two women—a century apart—converge in the most startling ways in a historical novel of desperate love, secrets, and deception by the author of My Last Continent.
After ten years away to build a family, Mallory returns to Floreana Island in the Galápagos, and to Gavin, the mentor with whom she had a long-ago affair. Their project is to build nests to revive the vulnerable penguin population. But Mallory doesn’t dare tell Gavin why she’s really come back. Then she discovers old journals hidden in a lava cave—confessions of another woman who needed to disappear.
In 1929, Dore Strauch left the life she knew to create a new one with the man she loved. On remote Floreana they’re beholden to no one but each other. Until the arrival of strangers, settlers in their paradise. Suddenly, Dore realizes that it’s no longer the refuge she imagined. And that amid the island’s fragile beauty, people can do the most terrible things.
A gripping reimagining of a true story, Floreana intertwines the emotional journeys of two women bound by dark secrets, the want of escape, and the lengths to which they’ll go to find their place in the world.
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Mirror Me by Lisa Williamson Rosenberg
This title sounds like the perfect psychological thriller and I’ve already added it to my Want to Read on Goodreads. The premise sounds deliciously compelling giving off the perfect unreliable narrator vibes. I love reading thrillers that have unreliable narrators especially when they’re well executed because they are usually a wild and thrilling ride. Looking forward to reading this title soon.
Amazon Synopsis:
A psychiatric patient’s desperate search for answers reveals peculiar memories and unexpected connections in a twisty and mind-bending novel of love, family, betrayal, and secrets.
Eddie Asher arrives at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Hospital panicked that he may have murdered his brother’s fiancée, Lucy, with whom he shared a profound kinship. He can’t imagine doing such a terrible thing, but Eddie hasn’t been himself lately.
Eddie’s anxiety is nothing new to Pär, the one Eddie calls his Other, who protects Eddie from truths he’s too sensitive to face. Or so Pär says. Troubled by Pär’s increasing sway over his life, Eddie seeks out Dr. Richard Montgomery, a specialist in dissociative identities. The psychiatrist is Eddie’s best chance for piecing together the puzzle of what really happened to Lucy and to understanding his inexplicable memories of another man’s life. But Montgomery’s methods trigger a kaleidoscope of memories that Pär can’t contain, bringing Eddie closer to an unimaginable truth about his identity.
These are all the titles for the November Amazon First Reads. I believe the selections for this month are really diverse and very interesting. So, if you’re a Prime Member and want to get first dibs on new releases this is the perfect oppurtunity to do so.
Which book are you the most interested in choosing for your Amazon First Read? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time happy reading!!
