This is one of my favorite posts of the year. The moment I get to reveal all the books you have shared with me. Thank you to everyone who sent in pics of your First Book, the response was incredible. Books came in from Scotland, Australia, Canada, and all over the United States. We went over 100 pictures sent in this year.
*If you sent me a picture and do not see it here please let me know. Pics come in from Facebook, email, and text, and try as I do, I could have possibly missed something. Also – every year a few pics trickle in late so if you are reading this and did not turn in your first book, however, wish to – you certainly can as I update again tonight and repost tomorrow and additions. You can email me pics at sdechantal@gmail.com
Under the pics I have listed the book titles as well as a few fun facts – I will identify the authors in the pictures (see if you can find them – there are 13!) as well as what book shows up most frequently for this year’s collection.
- World Enough and Time by Christian McEwan
- Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Charles Blow
- Piece of My Heart by Mary Higgins Clark (two picks!)
- The Paris Library by Jante Skeslien Charles
- Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick
- The Stranger In The Mirror by Liv Constantine (Author Heather Gudenkauf’s choice 2nd group)
- The Irish Princess by Karen Harper
- Blue Sky Kingdom by Bruce Kirkby
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore
- The Book Of Last Names by Kristin Harmel
- Knot In My Backyard by Mary Marks
- The Saint Patrick’s Day Hero by Doug Mayfield
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- The Forgotten Daughter by Joanna Goodman
- New Arrivals at Hedgehog Hollow by Jessica Redland
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman (Four picks!)
- A Promised Land by Barack Obama (*Five! One is from Author Kelly Harm Wimmer – 8th group)
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
- The Return by Nicholas Sparks
- You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood
- Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts (Author Lorna Landvik’s choice 1st group)
- Pie Academy by Ken Haedrich
- Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Author Julie Schumacher’s choice 1st group)
- Dark Witch by Nora Roberts
- The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (three picks!)
- The Home Edit Life by Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin
- Blessed and Unstoppable by Billy Alsbrooks
- All The Devils Are Here by Louise Penny (three picks!)
- In Order To Live by Yeonmi Park
- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Stamped: Racism, Activism and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X Kendi American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins
- The New Girl by Daniel Silva
Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell
Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
Three Women Disappear by James Patterson (two picks) - The Boy Who Followed His Father into Auschwitz by Jeremy Dronfield
- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
- The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson
- Murder With Oolong Tea by Karen Rose Smith
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Optimize Your BNB by Danny Rusteen
- The Ascent by Ronald Malfi
- On The Rez by Ian Frazier
- Perestrokia in Paris by Jane Smiley (Author Jenna Blum’s choice, 3rd group)
- The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore (three pics!)
- Undiscovered Country by Lin Enger
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Author Cary Griffith’s choice on his knee lol 4th group)
- Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (Author Randy Susan Meyers choice, 4th group)
- To Tell You The Truth by Gilly MacMillan (Author Kaira Rouda’s choice, 4th group)
- Our Last Goodbye by Shirley Dickson
- Dakota Born by Debbie Macomber
- Master and Commander by Patrick O’Brian
- Marion Lane and The Midnight Murder by TA Willburg
- One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus
- Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webber
- Lunch With Lucy by Sherry Stewart Deutschmann
- Six Weeks To Live by Catherine McKenzie (Author Barbara Claypole White’s choice, 4th group)
- The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye
- The Other Mrs. by Mary Kubica (Author Kristina McMorris’s choice, 4th group)
- Code Girls by Liza Mundy
- Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
- Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
- Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt
- The Lifetimes when Jesus and Buddha Knew Each Other by Gary Renard
- Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
- Hadley and Grace by Suzanne Redfearn (Author Jill Hannah Anderson’s choice, 5th group)
- Dominicana by Angie Cruz
- The Witch Elm by Tana French (Author Lenore Appelhan’s choice, 5th group)
- The Book Collectors by Delphine Minoui
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E Harrow
- HUMANS by Brandon Stanton
- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
- As Death Draws Near by Anna Lee Huber
- Think Like A Monk by Jay Shetty
- Conjure Women by Afia Atakora
- Being The Supervet by Noel Fitzpatrick
- RODHAM by Curtis Sittenfeld (Two picks! on of which is Author Nadia Hashimi, 8th Group)
- Revolver Road by Christi Daugherty
- Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas by Adam Kay
- Middlegame by Seanan McGuire
- Wu-Tang by RZA
- A Gentleman’s Murder by Christopher Huang
- The ONE by John Marrs
- Tide and Punishment by Bree Baker
- White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo
- Fable by Adrienne Young
- The Duke Who Didn’t by Courtney Milan
- Good Dogs Dont Make It To The South Pole by Hans Olav Thyvold
- The Switch by Beth O’Leary
- The Harbinger II by Johnathan Cahn
- The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See
- The Cinderella Ballet Mystery by Carolyn Keene
- PULP by Ed Brubaker
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick
- Blowback by Brad Thor
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
- Conceal, Don’t Feel by Jen Calonita
- Caste, The Origin of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
- The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton
- Crazy Stupid Bromance by Lyssa kay Adams
- Beneath A Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan
- Dream Big by Bob Goff
- Not My Boy by Kelly Simmons
- The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
- Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
- The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
- Malorie by Josh Malerman
- The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis
- Sula by Toni Morrison
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling
- Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
That was a lot of fun! I love seeing what everyone is planning to read first this year! Did you find me and my pick? I’m pretty well disguised! Promised land by Barack Obama takes the lead with 5 people selecting this as their first read. Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People comes in second! Thanks again, everyone. Hopefully, you find a few interesting reads out of this group to add to your own list. I know I did.
Happy New Year!
~Sheila
Book Journey 
Oh, you are definitely disguised! I want to read The Midnight Library. Here’s mine: MY FIRST BOOK OF 2021
LOL, yeah I was going to do a “do-over on that pic as I took it about a week ago while cleaning around the house and then decided meh… all good 🙂
WOW!!
Love all the collages and the list of books.
THANK YOU, Sheila.
FANTASTIC JOB as always.
Happy New Year of Reading!!
I know right? Makes my heart sore a bit to see everyone remember as well as new people join in.
Thanks, Sheila!
All of my GR friends who’ve read The Midnight Library have loved it. I hope you do as well.
Happy New Year!
I am excited – I work today and will dig in later 🙂
What an incredible job you’ve done Sheila. You made 2021 special already for so many book lovers, thank you and have a Happy New Year.
Thanks Diane. I love to see what everyone chooses! Happy New Year!
Wow! What a great grouping of different books! I love the ones that end up being the most chosen! Thanks so much for continuing the First Book Tradition! Here’s my post sharing previous years First Books as well: https://www.sincerelystacie.com/2021/01/first-book-of-2021/
I found a few that I need to read from here 😉 Thanks Stacie!
This post does so much for me…offers a wonderful start to the new year…inspires me to see what other wonderful books are out there…reminds me of all my friends in this fabulous book community we share. Thank you, Sheila.
Awe, thank you Deb, for a girl that stayed up to 2 am working on this, that makes me smile. That’s the way I feel about it as well. We do have a great community.
I loved Midnight Library and I think you will too! Thanks so much for putting all this together. I can imagine the work involved. You are awesome.
I am excited to start it!
I enjoy this list very and noted that I read 2 of them. Mary Marks book. I have enjoyed all the books in this series. I am ready to read the next one in the series. I have also read, THE LIBRARY OF THE LOST AND FOUND and like very much. It is out of my reading group. Thanks for doing this first of year.
Hi Betty, thank you and Happy New Year!
Oh Betty Louise I just found her books so I have quite a few to read and so looking forward to them.
I really like them so enjoy them.
Betty Louise I will, just finished the one I chose #2 and I have #3 here after a break with another book.
This is great! Thank you so much for hosting this Sheila! Now, I’m off to check out all the books people are reading. Happy New Year!
Yeah, this booklist will be one I am taking into account. As I linked them on Goodreads I started tagging the ones I wanted to read.
Wonderful Shelia!! Loved seeing so many “familiar” faces (yes, I see you).
LOL thanks Nise! I like seeing all the faces too 🙂
Love it! Thank you for putting this together! I missed 2019’s First Book collage, but otherwise have joined you since 2015. 💕
Very cool! I plan to write about where this initially came from in tomorrow mornings post
I love this and am so glad you continue to do it every year! It’s so fun seeing familiar and new faces and I love that so many authors are now participating! Happy New Year my friend!!! xo
Thank you! As much as I wish I was more consistent about writing about books like I used to, I just get too busy to keep up – this is one of the things that pulls me back as I love the connections and it starts the discussions churning again. 🙂
Happy New Year!
Thank you for doing this every year. It’s so much fun to see everyone’s First Book and I love seeing some of my favorites in people’s photos.
It really is fun Helen, I enjoy it too 🙂
Looks Good! I like seeing all the books & faces from all over the world. Great job! Happy New Year.
Thank you Susan! It is so wonderful to see people strong as ever connecting over books.
So many good looking books.
This is a great selection.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Thanks, Linda – I agree I added many to the TBR. Happy New Year!
wonderful! that’s so much fun.
It really is! I love seeing what people choose. It is a HUGE decision for me to choose that coveted first book spot – I love to see what people choose – old favorites, new to them, coveted guilty pleasure… .its all good!
I’m so glad you did this again this year! It’s always so fun to see what everyone else is reading and what they picked for their first book!
Thank you Katherine! I agree!
Happy New Year and thanks for doing this again in 2021, it is such fun. I enjoyed The Midnight Library in 2020, its different but it just seemed to work.
Hi Kathryn – Happy New year! I am excited about the book!
Love it! I wrote a post about it, and my One Word for 2021. https://www.truebookaddict.com/2021/01/hello-2021-first-book-of-year-oneword.html
Happy New Year, Sheila! ❤
Thanks Michelle! I’m posting about my word today 🙂
I checked a few times and I don’t think I made it in. I sent it early and you responded back but I swear I don’t see it.
Ti can you send it again please? So sorry – gah. I was using two different lap tops and thought I had them all transferred to the same one. I will update as soon as you send it – I went through my emails and I have the 2019 one. How did you send it to me? I am looking for it too!
Found it and updated 🙂
What a work of love you put into this post every year. Thank you for creating this yearly event. I have fun being a part of it. Hugs and Happy New Year!
I found you….great photo. 🙂
You are very well hidden. Love how you have the book spine showing, 🙂
The collages look terrific, Sheila….thanks.
CONGRATS on this year having the most participants. 🙂