Welcome to January, and welcome to 2026!

I hope everyone had a good holiday season and New Year’s Eve. And if you didn’t? Who cares! It’s a fresh year, a fresh start, and a whole new year ahead of us with many new books on the horizon by our favourite authors.

I can’t wait!

Loved the reader mailbag last month, as you have a lot of cool book merchandise. I ended up buying about 8 different book-themed t-shirts for myself for Christmas. I’ll try to grab a picture of it all for next month.

I read Assassin’s Anonymous by Rob Hart. I was a bit skeptical of this one; I loved The Warehouse and The Paradox Hotel by Rob, but this one was outside of that sci-fi/dystopian genre, and the plot seemed a bit… odd.

It was about a recovered assassin, the best in the game, who attends AA meetings. Not those AA meetings; these are for other reformed assassins. It’s been almost a year since his last kill – when he finds himself under siege by mysterious assailants tied to the past he left behind. How can he take them out in this “kill or be killed” situation, when he can’t actually kill?

I ended up loving this book. It was enjoyable, full of action, and some great storyline twists. It was a little too “cute” in the final act with the twists, but overall, a thoroughly entertaining read I’d recommend. I found myself emotionally involved with the protagonist.

The fight scenes were fantastic too. I feel many writers lack skill in that area (that’s one problem I have with the recent Reacher novels), but Rob Hart did a fantastic job of it.

Two re-reads after that: Still Life by Louise Penny, and The Housemaid by Freida McFadden.

I listened to Still Life a couple of years ago. I really enjoyed it, but I decided to read the book series instead. I listen to audiobooks primarily while running, and while these aren’t cozy mysteries, they still have a cozy feel, which doesn’t really get the heart pumping.

So when I had the chance, I made it the book club pick for our podcast, I Care About Books, and it gave me the chance to re-read it, and hopefully read the rest in the Gamache series.

You can listen/watch the podcast for my thoughts.

I also re-read The Housemaid due to the adaptation coming out. I read it when it came out a few years ago, and my daughter read it too. When the movie trailer came out, we sat down to watch it together, all excited, and I was aghast to realise I had forgotten practically everything in the book. I wasn’t recognising any of the scenes!

So I re-read that the day before we went to see the adaptation when it released in the theatres. I thought it was an incredible adaptation. At Book Notification, one thing we’re going to set up in the New Year is the ability to rate how good an adaptation was out of 5. Not how good the movie was, but how good it was as an adaptation. I’d give this one 5/5.

I still felt on the Freida kick, so I read The Surrogate Mother, one of the few standalones by her I had yet to read. It’s about a couple who hire a surrogate mother, but she isn’t as she seems. Overall, I enjoyed it and read it in two sittings over a few hours, as it was a hard one to put down.

The final act was a bit disappointing, as it became quite far-fetched and featured some misplaced humour. It also relied heavily on a very naive protagonist, which is always a bit off-putting. However, it had some solid twists to it and was a solid thriller.

As a New Year’s Resolution, I decided to start reading one non-fiction book per month. I’ve started Skyfaring by Mark Vanhoenacker, which is a part memoir, part diary by a Boeing 747 Pilot.

I spent some time researching books which are basically “light time-travel sci-fi” and came up with a list of about 50 books within that category. It’s one of my favourite areas of reading. Books such as 11/22/63 by King, Replay by Grimwood, Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, etc.

So expect a lot of mentions of that kind of book over the next 12 months. I decided to start with Taylor Jenkins Reid, who is very popular on #BookTok. I started Maybe in Another Life, the story of a woman who moves back to the city she grew up in and reacquaints herself with an old flame at a party.

At the end of the night, he asks her to stay out with him. The story then splits here, covering her decision if she stays, and if she leaves. Two different scenarios or universes, basically.

I am enjoying it – at the 80% mark at the moment. Easy to read. Enjoying the characters. One issue I am having is that, at times, it felt like the author was writing/speaking, not the character. Very long monologues during a conversation that really stand out. The type of speech people would love to give in their head, but doesn’t come out anywhere near as naturally.

I listened to Animal Farm, written, of course, by George Orwell. I’d read this one many years ago in high school, but I enjoyed it so much more this time around.

I’m not sure if it’s just because I’m much older, more cynical, and thus it hits me more. Or if it was just the narrator, Ralph Cosham’s performance. But this was one of the best reading experiences of 2025 for me.

I next listened to Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard T. Chizmar, and am now listening to the follow-up, Gwendy’s Magic Feather. Loved the first one. The second one, I am halfway through and it’s okay so far, but I prefer the first by a large margin at the moment.

Does anyone have any short audiobook recommendations? That’s my current kick; 3-5 hours would be ideal. Just something I am really into at the moment.

We just sent out the December 2025 Recap for our sister site Book Notification. It was incredible writing that, and seeing everything that we accomplished there in the past year.

From 63,139 authors to 95,000. A public book calendar. Podcasts. Customizable Printing. Book Clubs, and so much more. And we have a lot of cool things planned for 2026. Check it out.

Each month, we give away 5 $25 Amazon gift certificates to random subscribers.

To win, all you have to do is be a subscriber. Nothing more! When we click “Publish,” we take a list of all our subscribers, put them into a random draw, and those are the winners.

Our winners this month are:

Cita S. from Scottsdale, AZ
Sharon K. from San Antonio, TX
LaRue B. from Austin, TX
ReenieD. from Greenfield, MA
Steven H. from Watertown, NY

All of you have been e-mailed. If you don’t see anything, check your junk folder or contact me.

So it goes.

Graeme

OrderOfBooks.com

Jokes of the Month

Did you hear that Harry Potter was jumped by a gang of youths who stole his phone and wallet?
Yes, he was muggled.

What did the headlouse in Robinson Crusoe’s hair say to the other headlouse in Robinson Crusoe’s hair?
“I’m off now, see you on Friday.”

Dr Frankenstein: “I took the Bride of Frankenstein to the Caribbean last week.
Igor: “Jamaica?”
Dr. Frankenstein: “Yes”

How can you tell I’ve been eating breadsticks over this joke book?
All the jokes are a bit crumby.

Customer: “Have you got that new book about groundhogs?”
Bookseller: “I’m afraid it hasn’t come out yet.”

(Jokes from The Book of Book Jokes by Alex Johnson)

Book Recommendations

In this section, I give 3-5 random book recommendations from readers of the newsletter. They can be old books, they can be new. Feel free to e-mail suggestions to me. Just hit reply. If you wish to add a description for the book around the same size as the ones below that’d be great too! 

Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy: Okay – this one HAS to be good. First, Vince made it his December 2025 pick for the I Care About Books podcast, and then just a couple of weeks later, PBS Book Readers made it their January 2026 pick.

If you want to keep up on book club picks, we’ve got the best resource on the planet, BTW!

In this book, Biologist Inti Flynn leads a wolf reintroduction in the Scottish Highlands, but a death forces her to protect the wolves while uncovering violence and suspicion.

I’ll be reading this early January. Read along with me, then send in your feedback, and we’ll chat about it on the podcast.

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen: I wanted to throw in one book from my research into time-travel lite sci-fi, and I’m such a fan of this book cover that I decided to go with this one.

It was a Goodreads Choice semifinalist and appeared on many Best Books of 2019 lists.

A stranded time-travel spy living a quiet suburban life must break every rule of time travel to save his teenage daughter before history erases her.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry: This LA Times Book Prize Winner I spotted as one of the top-rated posts on a Reddit thread about a book so good it will make his 13-hour flight – pardon the pun – fly by.

Four strangers thrown together during India’s 1975 State of Emergency form a fragile found family as political brutality closes in, turning their shared apartment into a fight for dignity and survival.

Gabriel Dax Series by William Boyd: In the first book, a haunted travel writer is pulled into Cold War espionage after a Congo assignment, becoming the pawn of a mesmerizing MI6 handler as his globe-trotting life turns into a dangerous spiral of betrayal, obsession, and personal revelation.

Keith actually wrote in to recommend the second book in the series as well. Here’s what he wrote:

The Predicament is a recent release by author William Boyd, narrated by George Blagden. Famous travel author and part-time spy Gabriel Dax has the perfect cover for visiting exotic places. He’s also been recruited by Russian intelligence, and his MI-6 bosses decided to run him as a “triple agent”. If Gabriel’s life wasn’t already complicated enough, he is seconded to the CIA and coerced into observing (and maybe instigating) assassinations and coups in 1963 Guatemala. This is Gabriel’s first glimpse behind the curtain hiding a wider conspiracy involving United Fruit, the CIA, and various other bad actors. Thoroughly enjoyable! 8.5/10

Teleport Series by Joshua T. Calvert: Keith wrote in to recommend this one, after listening to the first book.

“Teleport” by Joshua T. Calvert, read by Eric Altheide.  An oil drilling team discovers an alien artifact buried for centuries below Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela.  The object is transported to an abandoned ICBM launch facility in Wyoming and an international team of scientists is assigned to investigate. 

Then, a mixture of curiosity and dumb luck leads to the discovery that the object is a teleportation device – one that is linked to others of its kind across the Universe.  Calvert is an excellent writer and Altheide delivers a great performance.  8.5/10

January Book Of The Month

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston: It’s an incredible month for books, and it’s hard to pick just one.

I’ve gone with Anatomy Of An Alibi because I read First Lie Wins by Ashley in 2024, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating a new one by her. It was one of my top 5 books of 2024, and if you haven’t read it, be sure to.

In her latest thriller, two women swap identities for one night to expose a controlling husband’s secrets, but when he turns up murdered the next morning, only one of them can prove where she was.

It releases on January 13th, 2026.

10 More Notable Books Releasing in January

Brought to you by BookNotification.com where you can get updated on all the upcoming books by your favourite authors with your own personalized calendar!

Pictures of the Month

Thanks to Carla.

Send in your own to site@orderofbooks.com or by replying!

New Content Added to OrderOfBooks.com

Your Thoughts!

Last month, I asked you what book merchandise you own. The answers are later in the newsletter.

This month I am asking:

How often did you visit a bookstore in 2025?

Is it a regular thing? A rarity? Do you read on your e-reader or rely on the library? And what type of bookstore – large chain or local? New books or used?

I used to love visiting bookstores and discovering new books. Unfortunately, I’m so dialed into books these days due to my websites; however, it’s mostly lost its appeal.

I visited bookstores probably just 6 times this year. Twice was to buy gifts for people, and that was supporting a local bookstore here.

The other four times were visiting Indigo, the biggest retailer in Canada, with my daughter. She loves to go in, browse, and buy books. I’d browse as well, then after 5 minutes head to the local cafe, pull out my Kindle, and wait for her to be done!

Oh – I did visit The Mysterious Bookshop in New York. That was more of a tourism visit, but it was really cool.

What about you? How often did you visit a bookstore in 2025? Feel free to tell me all about your visits to them.

E-mail us your feedback to site@OrderOfBooks.com or just reply to this e-mail, and we’ll pick the best comments and feature it in next month’s newsletter. Five people will also randomly win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.

Reader Mailbag!

Click here to read.

Book Notification
Order of Books » Newsletter » OrderOfBooks January 2026 Newsletter

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