Take a Break Wednesday!

How about a mid-week break? Sure, technically it’s a holiday in the US of A, but for the rest of you all - it’s just another Wednesday.

I thought I’d try something new here on the blog. While the blog is primarily geared toward music and artists, I thought I’d branch out a little bit.


One of the things that I enjoy doing in my spare time is reading. I’ve been known to review a book or two now and again. About two years ago, I attempted a completely different blog that was dedicated solely toward reading, but at the time it was too much work for what I was getting out of it. So now that a couple of years have passed - I still want to do something with books. That’s where posts such as today’s post come in.

So how about that mid-week break? 

As one of the perks of having an Amazon Prime membership, I am able to take advantage of what they call Kindle Firsts or First Reads. This program offers customers early access to new books across popular genres from Amazon Publishing.

Every month customers can choose one of the Kindle books selected by our editors for $1.99, or FREE for Prime members. They can also purchase hardcovers (up to 10 copies of each title) for $9.99 or less.

Amazon First Reads Kindle books can be read on any compatible Kindle device or free Kindle reading app and become part of customers’ permanent libraries.

Joining is free with no purchase obligation.

The books being offered for the month of July are:

What if Everybody Said That?
Author: Ellen Javernick
Genre: Childrens
Synopsis: What if everybody chose to be kind?
If you tell someone that they can’t play with you, there’s no harm done, right? But what if everybody said that? What if everybody forgot to be kind…and made fun of other kids’ artwork at school, or told a fib, or refused to share with a person in need? The world wouldn’t be a very nice place to live. But what if everybody thought before they spoke, so the world would be a kinder place?
With clear prose and lighthearted artwork, this companion book to the bestseller What If Everybody Did That? explores the power of words and shows kids that the things we say matter.



Whisper Me This
Author: Kerry Anne King
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Synopsis: Single mother Maisey Addington has always fallen short of her own mother’s expectations—never married, a bit adrift, wasting her high IQ on dead-end jobs. The only thing Maisey’s sure she’s gotten right is her relationship with her twelve-year-old daughter, Elle…until a phone call blows apart the precarious balance of their lives. Maisey’s mother is in a coma, and her aging father faces charges of abuse and neglect.
Back at her childhood home, Maisey must make a heartrending life-or-death decision. Her confused father has destroyed family records, including her mother’s final wishes. Searching for answers, Maisey uncovers one unspeakable secret after another when she stumbles upon a shattering truth: a twin sister named Marley.
Maisey’s obsession with solving the mystery of her sister forces her to examine her darkest memories and triggers a custody battle with Elle’s father. Will Maisey’s love for her daughter be strong enough to break a cycle of abuse and create a new beginning for them all?



The King Tides
Author: James Swain
Genre: Thriller
Synopsis: Reality and illusion blur for an ex-Navy SEAL investigating a deadly case of stalking in this page-turner that Michael Connelly calls “a hundred percent adrenaline rush disguised as a detective novel.”
Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter—every parent’s dream. And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing—their alarming obsession with Nicki.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex–Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help—his way. He’s spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty…But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents?
Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won’t be easy. Because there’s more to this case than meets the eye.



The Tenth Island
Author: Diana Marcum
Genre: Memoir
Synopsis: From a Pulitzer Prize–winning writer comes an exuberant memoir of personal loss and longing, and finding connection on the remote Azorean Islands of the Atlantic Ocean.
Reporter Diana Marcum is in crisis. A long-buried personal sadness is enfolding her—and her career is stalled—when she stumbles upon an unusual group of immigrants living in rural California. She follows them on their annual return to the remote Azorean Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, where bulls run down village streets, volcanoes are active, and the people celebrate festas to ease their saudade, a longing so deep that the Portuguese word for it can’t be fully translated.
Years later, California is in a terrible drought, the wildfires seem to never end, and Diana finds herself still dreaming of those islands and the chuva—a rain so soft you don’t notice when it begins or ends.
With her troublesome Labrador retriever, Murphy, in tow, Diana returns to the islands of her dreams only to discover that there are still things she longs for—and one of them may be a most unexpected love.



Beautiful Exiles
Author: Meg Waite Clayton
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis: From New York Times bestselling author Meg Waite Clayton comes a riveting novel based on one of the most volatile and intoxicating real-life love affairs of the twentieth century.
Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship—forged over writing, talk, and family dinners—flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War.
Martha reveres him. The very married Hemingway is taken with Martha—her beauty, her ambition, and her fearless spirit. And as Hemingway tells her, the most powerful love stories are always set against the fury of war. The risks are so much greater. They’re made for each other.
With their romance unfolding as they travel the globe, Martha establishes herself as one of the world’s foremost war correspondents, and Hemingway begins the novel that will win him the Nobel Prize for Literature. Beautiful Exiles is a stirring story of lovers and rivals, of the breathless attraction to power and fame, and of one woman—ahead of her time—claiming her own identity from the wreckage of love.



A Killer’s Mind
Author: Mike Omer
Genre: Crime Fiction
Synopsis: A chilling thriller of serial murder and dark secrets that will leave you wondering, is the past really in the past?
Three Chicago women have been found strangled, embalmed, and posed as if still alive. Doubting the findings of the local PD’s profiler, The FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate.
Zoe quickly gets off on the wrong foot with her new partner, Special Agent Tatum Gray. Zoe’s a hunter, intense and focused; Tatum’s a smug maverick with little respect for the rules. Together, they must descend into a serial killer’s psyche and untangle his twisted fantasies, or more women will die. But when the contents of three inconspicuous envelopes reveal a chilling connection to gruesome murders from Zoe’s childhood, suddenly the hunter becomes the hunted.




Did you know that Amazon Prime offers discounted memberships for qualifying customers in select U.S. government assistance programs such as holders of the EBT card?  Also, if you are a Student, you can get a 6 month free trial.

There’s also a program called Kindle Unlimited - Unlimited reading from over 1 million ebooks
And if you’d prefer to listen rather than read - you can take advantage of the Audible program.

Do you enjoy reading? What are some of the books or genres that you are reading this summer? Tell me in the comments below.