Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Does anyone participate in the fairly newish "Kindle First" program on Amazon? They offer four soon-to-be-released books, and you can choose one of them for free, pre-release.

I'm having trouble choosing this month :p. Actually, last month, too. Husband chose last month. This month, neither of us are getting a strong vibe off any of the four:

Kindle First

March selections -

Women's fiction: Hidden, by Catherine McKenzie

Mystery: The Seventh Child, by Erik Valeur, K.E. Semmel (Translator)

Supernatural Thriller: The Bird Eater, by Ania Ahlborn

Thriller: Mickey Outside, by David Lender





I guess I'm *leaning* towards the mystery. But it's 642 pages, and I'm a bit tired of very long books, atm. Hmmmmm ...

I've read another book by Ania Ahlborn (Seed) and it while it wasn't an outright slasher type horror, it was pretty gory.

uck. don't love gory :p
thx, melanti :)

Do you get both a Kindle First book and a Lending Library book with prime? Or just one? I've never been able to figure that out. (Been considering getting prime myself...)

Lending Library is part of prime.
Kindle First is new, just 4 months old, maybe? or 3 months? I think ... anyway, I only became aware of it 3-ish months ago. It's for anyone with a Kindle, you don't have to have a Prime Membership.

Kindle First lets you own a copy of the ebook, pre-release.
Lending Library lets you borrow one copy of a book particpating in the lending library. But you don't own it (ie, it doesn't stay in your own library). You can keep it for as long as you need to, but you have to return it before you can borrow another.

Both are limited to a maximum of one per month.

oops. I should have checked before I posted. Sorry, they're both for Prime Members only :(.

Duh. Not sure why I thought Kindle First was for anyone who owned a kindle ...

The other bits are right. One per month. One is own, one is borrow. Sorry, Melanti.

You get free streaming videos of participating titles, too, with Prime. Plus free 2-day shipping, of course.

Anyone with a Kindle can participate, but it isn't free though it's discounted to $2. With the way it's worded, for non-prime members, I've never been sure if getting the Kindle First counted as that month's Lending Library choice or not.

Thanks for the info!
So it's another free book - making it 2/month... Not sure that really sways me though, considering I haven't seen much I really wanted on the Kindle First lists so far.

I really ought to do another 30 day trial of Prime just in case it goes up in price like the news keeps claiming it's going to.

ahhhh, Kindle First for non-prime members too, but discounted. Thx for that. (I was telling someone else about the program last night, I'll relay the info, as I gave them bad info last night :p).

Price hike, huh? Didn't know that. Mine renewed in December, so I guess I don't have to worry about it until next year. Check out the streaming library, too. That's also included (although it doesn't include all titles available in streaming video, same as Lending Library doesn't include all ebook titles).

Supposedly, yes... But that's just speculation on the newspapers' parts. Amazon is typically closed mouthed about anything involving money and subscription rates but the papers assume Amazon will soon raise prime prices to break even with the raising shipping costs.

I did the free trial a little over a year ago and enjoyed all the perks like streaming and the free book. I didn't get it cause at the time you only had to buy $25 worth to get the free shipping for non-prime members and that was pretty easy. They've raised that to $35 now, so it's probably worth another look.

ahh, didn't know about the raise to $35! interesting.
thx for all the good info, Melanti :)

I didn't read my March selection yet (I ended up choosing Mickey Outside), but here's April's Kindle First selections:

Historical Fiction - I Am Livia, by Phyllis T. Smith

Young Adult - Killing Ruby Rose, by Jessie Humphries

Romance - Home to Stay, by Terri Osburn

Thriller - Plaster City, by Johnny Shaw




I was deciding between Plaster City and I Am Livia, but went with Plaster City

I'm eyeing I Am Livia. May not read it right away but it sounds like it could be good.

Still dithering on whether to continue the Amazon Prime past the free trial, but I found a good series in the lending library that I'd like to finish reading and the books are all $6 each so I'm leaning towards keeping it...

Melanti wrote: "I'm eyeing I Am Livia. May not read it right away but it sounds like it could be good.

Still dithering on whether to continue the Amazon Prime past the free trial, but I found a g..."


Oh! I meant to tell you, Melanti. After you mentioned the price going up for Prime, sure enough, just a few days later, I got notification that at the next renewal (December for me), it would be $99.

Sometimes the gloom and doom newspapers are right!

Melanti wrote: "Sometimes the gloom and doom newspapers are right!"

ayup! :/

I have downloaded a book through Kindle First every month since I first started using a Kindle in January, but I haven't read any of them yet! I figure it never hurts to download the free book though and have it available if I ever whittle down my TBR list. ;-)

Christine wrote: "I have downloaded a book through Kindle First every month since I first started using a Kindle in January, but I haven't read any of them yet! I figure it never hurts to download the free book tho..."


Me too! Agree :).
I chose Timebound, and Silent Echo previously. I can't recall if there was another one before that or not.

New selections for May :)

Action Adventure - Dragon's Triangle, by Christine Kling

General Fiction - Chasing the Sun: A Novel, by Natalia Sylvester

Contemporary Romance - From the Moment We Met (A St. Helena Vineyard Novel), by Marina Adair

Crime Thriller - Moving Day: A Thriller, by Jonathan Stone

New for June!

Literary Fiction - The Fracking King: A Novel by James Browning

Thriller - Supreme Justice by Max Allan Collins

Romance - One Lavender Ribbon by Heather Burch

Fantasy - Artful by Ali Smith

On the day after local elections/primary day in many US states (Maine included, but also Virginia, where US House Majority Leader Eric Cantor just unexpectedly lost his primary race!), political appeals, so I'm leaning towards Supreme Justice.

But, then again, the Fantasy twist on Oliver Twist (heh, punny, unintentionally), the Artful title, ALSO appeals, as I like Fantasy AND classics :D.

hmmmm. What to do, what to do? :p

Actually, the Fracking title appeals as well!

Hm. I wonder if I remember enough of Oliver Twist to "get" Artful?

Melanti wrote: "Hm. I wonder if I remember enough of Oliver Twist to "get" Artful?"

I was wondering that too, Melanti! heh