How Do You Choose What To Read? (and MAY B Winner!)

The winner of MAY B, as chosen by Random.org, is Melissa Sarno. Congratulations Melissa! Email me your address and I'll get it to you ASAP.

Last week I went to book club. I LOVE book club, mostly because it's the only time all month when I get to be with my friends and without my (very lovely) children. We read SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson and, unsurprisingly, everyone liked it and we had a great discussion.

Most of the women in the group a major readers. While we chatting I thought I'd ask them how they choose which books to buy. I was especially interested to hear about how the kindle users picked one book over another.

This is what I got from the discussion.

-They choose books with a lot of positive reviews.

-They buy books that friends have recommended.

-They choose books priced over $8.00 or free classics. One of the women said that she steers away from anything with a low price ($0.99 to $2.99) because "it's usually a sign that the book will be awful." She said her time is too valuable to waste on a $0.99 eBook.

-They don't look at who publishes the book and don't care if it's self published, small press published, or big press published.

Now granted, this group probably doesn't represent the average Kindle reader, but I thought their answers were interesting, especially in light of the self publishing/$0.99 eBook boom.

How do you choose what to read? What matters most to you (price, publisher, reviews, cover, etc.)?

I'm Back (for today) and MAY B Giveaway

Hello friends!

Today, I have some good news, some less good news, and some VERY good news.

The good news: I finished my book.

The less good news: It still needs some editing and I'm not coming back to blogging land until it's done.

The VERY good news: I'm back today to give something away!

This:

I had the very great privilege to read this novel several years ago, before Caroline began submitting to agents. Yup, I'm that lucky.

There are some novels I love because the author tells a great story. There are other novels I love because the writing is brilliant. MAY B has both brilliant writing and an engrossing story. I love it so much.

Here's the description from Goodreads:

I've known it since last night:
It's been too long to expect them to return.
Something's happened.

May is helping out on a neighbor's Kansas prairie homestead—just until Christmas, says Pa. She wants to contribute, but it's hard to be separated from her family by 15 long, unfamiliar miles. Then the unthinkable happens: May is abandoned. Trapped in a tiny snow-covered sod house, isolated from family and neighbors, May must prepare for the oncoming winter. While fighting to survive, May's memories of her struggles with reading at school come back to haunt her. But she's determined to find her way home again. Caroline Starr Rose's fast-paced novel, written in beautiful and riveting verse, gives readers a strong new heroine to love.

I know you'll love it as much as I do. To celebrate May B's release I'm going to send one blog reader a copy. All you have to do is follow this blog and leave a comment on this post. I'll choose a winner Monday, January 16th.

Congratulations on your debut, Caroline! I hope it's a wonderful day.