Welcome to February!

I didn’t get as much reading in as I wanted in January, but it was certainly a quality-over-quantity month.

First, we did something that I really enjoyed. The adaptation of His & Hers by Alice Feeney was set to hit Netflix in the middle of the month. So my wife, daughter and I decided to read the book, then when we travelled up to see my daughter at university a bit later in the month, we’d bunker in the hotel room and watch the adaptation.

The timing couldn’t have been better. She goes to university in Toronto, and they got hit with an incredible snowstorm. So it just made complete sense to stay in the hotel room all day and binge it, with brief breaks to find an open restaurant/bar for a meal, and discuss what we had seen so far.

It was an interesting adaptation. I thought the book was excellent. It’s the story of a murder, and two potentially different stories. There were a lot of twists in it. It lost me a bit near the end, but it was saved with an ending that made everything I had read in the final act make sense. Great thriller.

The adaptation was very good in terms of an adaptation, the problem is that both the book and the TV show rely on twist after twist after twist. And if you know the twist? They don’t have the same effect. Instead of being shocked that a character dies, you’re watching the episode knowing how it’s going to end.

So, as an adaptation, it was very well done. And I’m a big fan of Jon Bernthal. But in terms of enjoyment? A bit dull, to be honest. I feel that if a thriller is going to be adapted, it should rely more on a big twist halfway through the book/movie, rather than lots of little twists.

I read Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy. I absolutely loved this book and rated it 9/10 on the Book Notification podcast. It’s the story of a team attempting to reintroduce wolves to Scotland.

A quick side note to that: I grew up in Scotland. When I was about 8 years old, I’d stay overnight at my grandparents’ home. They had a big forest behind their back garden.

I always wanted to go into those woods, but they’d never let me. When I asked why, they told me there were a pack of wolves in there. As someone who always had a nose to a book, I knew the general fear of wolves and so stayed far away from those woods. Even when I am back over in Scotland, I go for a run, and I carry a spray with me just in case I bump into any wolves.

It wasn’t until I read this book that I learned two interesting facts. The first is that wolves haven’t existed in Scotland for over 250 years. The second is that my grandparents were bold-faced liars!

Anyway, it’s a superb book. One that has sat with me weeks after, and I always think about what a joy it was to read. I’ll certainly be reading more of Charlotte.

I finished Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Ended up considering it average at best. I just felt the ending was quite weak.

I read Dear Debbie, the new thriller by Freida McFadden. This is about a married female advice columnist who – well, decides to pay back all who have wronged her and her family. It was an easy and fast read, but it wasn’t a good read.

Far-fetched, unrealistic characters and actions, and I kept waiting for there to be some sort of “trigger” for the reason this housewife reacted this way after many years. But it never happened. Not one I would recommend.

I’ve started reading Misery by Stephen King. Honestly, I am aching to watch the movie again since it’s been a while, but I decided to read the adaptation first. The first 25% is a bit of a struggle to get through, to be honest, but it’s starting to pick up now.

I didn’t listen to anything this month. I have a few audiobooks on the go, such as Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney, and Gwendy’s Final Task by King and Richard Chizmar.

The problem is I can’t get into a routine. I usually listen to audiobooks while running long distances. On non-running days, I go for nice long walks where I get them in.

However, the weather here is brutal at the moment. It’s ranging from -20 to -40 Celsius, and it is constantly snowing. This has caused me to stay in and run/walk on the treadmill instead, and I struggle to listen to audiobooks on it. I much prefer watching TV or playing video games as I find the time goes faster.

I tried listening while I work, but it’s just too distracting.

The thing is, I don’t want to just write off these months by listening to audiobooks. I don’t want to be a fair-weather listener; I need to figure out a way to incorporate audiobooks. What I am hoping to do in February is find some boring data-entry-style work that I can do at night, barely paying attention, while getting an hour of audiobook in.

I enjoyed the reader mailbag answers this month, in response to my question of how many bookstores you visited last year. So many of you were stunned when you thought about it and realized you hadn’t been in any. It’s a weird feeling to realize that.

Here’s a good one; I had an e-mail from an author last month, furious that we had listed the year they were born, and threatening to sue if I didn’t remove it. Now this had been public information in the past, which is why we had it listed. I would have been happy to remove it without the silly lawsuit threat, of course.

Anyway, once I removed it, they replied, saying how careful they are not to let their information out there and that it is “private personal information,” etc. Fair enough. The internet can be a nasty place, with many people pretending to be others. The less data on you, the better.

Except two days ago, I happened to notice that the author had conducted a fresh interview with one of those mass-book interview websites that ask the same cookie-cutter questions.

The first was “What is your name?” The second was “When were you born?” AND SHE ACTUALLY ANSWERED. After threatening a freaking lawsuit just weeks prior, she’s out there sharing her birthdate willy-nilly.,

Some people.

We’ve launched a neat new feature at our sister site Book Notification, called Care’s Book Loot. I work with our social media manager. Care to share some really cool book-related items, merchandise, and finds, such as book fridge magnets, an author clock, t-shirts, and more.

We archive them all here, so check that out.

And if you ever want to support the work I do – as I do get quite a few people asking – the best way is to sign up at Book Notification, which is free, but then join the Page Turners Club.

It’s $4.99 a month or $49.99 for the year, which gives you an ad-free experience, access to exclusive contests, and a couple of other features. The sites share the same database, so support also helps keep Order of Books updated. But don’t worry – I know how many people’s finances are, and I don’t expect anything. That’s been my mission statement from day one: that all user features will always be free.

Of course, Book Notification is a much more feature-rich site with over 20x as many authors audited and listed, but I’ll always keep Order of Books around, so don’t worry about that. I love doing these newsletters because I consider you all friends, and it’s great to be able to write about reading as if I am writing to my friends.

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:

Rollande from Ottawa, ON
Jerry H. from Chattanooga, TN
Nanci McC from Salt Lake City, UT
Chip R. from Wheaton, IL
Donna M. from Arroyo Grande, CA

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

I’ve lost the expensive new audiobook Mum got for Christmas. I’ll probably never hear the end of it.

Why do proofreaders regularly vomit?

Typos make them [sic].

There are no books at my children’s new pre-school, just e-readers. It’s a kindlegarten.

The first rule of Write Club is that you do not chit-chat, gossip, discuss, mention or allude to Write Club.

No, that’s Thesaurus Club.

I’m starting as a junior reviser for the new Oxford English Dictionary tomorrow, so I rang them this morning to check that I’d be starting at nine. “Absolutely not”, said my boss, “you’ll be starting at Aardvark”.

(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! 

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald: This one was recommended by John, after I mentioned that I had stockpiled a lot of time-travel-related books last month. Here’s what he wrote:

“Man, have I got a recco for you! The book is titled “Time After Time”,by Lisa Grunwald. Set against the backdrop of the magnificent Grand Central Station, it’s based on the legend of a woman who disappeared in Grand Central many, many years ago. Grunwald brings the Terminal to life beautifully. She also asks the compelling question of How Long we would stay in one place, for Love. (I’m paraphrasing the blurb, but it’s so accurate!)”

“There are no laboratories or Dark Holes or anything. It’s a Love Story, without veering into “Chick Lit”. A woman would understand this book immediately, and a Plodding Guy like me would recognize the Protagonist very quickly.”

“If you have time, read this book. Since I’ve read it, I’ve never visited Grand Central without taking a good, careful look all around, smile on my face, and wonder how close I am to People I’d like to meet.”

I haven’t read this one yet. I’ll be in New York in June for the World Cup, and plan on reading it before I visit there so I can go to Grand Central and experience that too.

Killers Of A Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn: I recommended this one back in March 2023, but I always get a lot of recommendation requests for it, so I thought I would mention it again. Judy summarized it back then:

“I just finished a book I would like to recommend. It just jumped in my hands at the library. It is Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn. It turned out to almost be a comedy. Four 60-year-old ladies trying to figure out who is trying to kill them and why.”

Deanna just wrote a sequel to it last year, Kills Well with Others and Joyce wrote in to recommend the series with this great review:

“Ever find a book by an author you’ve never noticed before but fall in love with the preview (enough to actually purchase the ebook)? That’s me with Deanna Raybourn and Killers of a Certain Age.So far, I’ve read it on a 9 hour plane ride, re-read it 6 months later and enjoyed it even more. Then the sequel came out and I re-read the original book first to make sure I remembered all the bits and pieces (this is what you do when you’ve passed the age of 78) before purchasing the sequel Kills Well With Others. Both books were well worth the considerable investment. The author’s sense of humor and sarcasm induce smiles and giggles which makes reading about pre-planned cold blooded ways to bring bloody justice by four females of a certain age very entertaining reading. Strongly recommended.”

Welcome to Cottonmouth by Jay S. Bell: Jay is a debut author who wrote this in July of last year. This spy thriller is getting a lot of good reviews, and Joshua Hood gave it a strong recommendation.

Karen wrote in to mention it, saying it was great, with a lot of quirky characters and action.

The U.S. government’s “retired” spies don’t get pensions and golf; they get quietly tucked away in a deep-woods Texas town called Cottonmouth, packed with broken operatives and watched like a secret that can’t leak. But when two women fleeing a brutal criminal crash into Devlin Mahoney’s carefully controlled little world, the whole place is forced into motion, and he has to decide whether to follow orders or do the right thing.

Nora Kelly Series by Preston & Child: The Pendergast series by that epic duo has been recommended a lot in this newsletter over the years, but not so much this series, which saw its 6th entry last year.

Keith wrote in to recommend it after listening to the first audiobook. Here’s what he wrote:

“”Thunderhead” is a series starter from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, read by Scott Brick(!) Archaeologist Nora Kelly is drifting between projects, unable to complete her analysis of the finds and therefore unable to publish – a career death knell for a non-tenured assistant professor. Then, a letter written by her long dead father is found near the abandoned family ranch. Clues in the letter point Nora to a fabled Anasazi holy city lost in the red rock canyons of southern Utah. Predictably, others are after the letter, and they are willing to kill for it. After surviving an assault by this group, Nora is convinced of the letter’s authenticity. Soon, Nora assembles an expedition and they’re off to the races. Great story and performance!”

Mosquito Bowl by Buzz Bissinger: The author of Friday Night Lights, Michael wrote in to recommend this instant NYT Bestseller.

College football’s biggest stars didn’t just enlist in WWII, a bunch of them became Marines and ended up crammed onto a Pacific island, where the trash talk between regiments sparked a full-on football game in the dirt and coral on Christmas Eve 1944: the legendary “Mosquito Bowl.”

Months later, many of those same players would be thrown into the nightmare of Okinawa, turning this wild, unbelievable game into a gut-punch true story about brotherhood, courage, and the sudden end of innocence.

February Book Of The Month

Antihero by Gregg Hurwitz: This is one of the most popular series by Order of Books readers. If you’re a fan of ‘lone badasses’ like Jack Reacher and Gabriel Allon, be sure to check out Orphan X.

The 11th full-length novel by Gregg Hurwitz, “Antihero”, releases on February 10th.

In the latest thriller, Orphan X races to save a kidnapped woman and hunt her attackers, but this time Evan has to deliver justice without killing anyone—while enemies close in from every side.

10 More Notable Books Releasing in February

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!

Images, jokes, etc. We’ll take it all!

Your Thoughts!

Last month, I asked you how often you visited a bookstore in 2025. The answers are later in the newsletter.

This month I am asking:

Did/Do You Ever Lend Your Physical Books to Friends/Family?

I mean, you know the issue with that, right? You lend a book, get it back, and the spine is cracked, the pages are turned. I’ve even seen Cheeto dust on people’s books!

I’m e-reader exclusive now, but when I read physical, I… sucked it up, and lent books.

Even if my pristine copy of Day Before Midnight by Stephen Hunter comes back looking like it went through the washing machine, or The Partner came back with a quick “sorry my dog got to it” apology – I didn’t mind. I had shared a great book with someone. I always felt that was more important.

Although I can be a bit picky. Replay by Ken Grimwood is my all-time favourite book, and I want everyone to read it. Rather than buy one copy to lend and get back, I bought a bunch. One is just for me, and the others I hand out to people and tell them to share with their friends when they are done.

How about you? Did/Do You Ever Lend Your Physical Books to Friends/Family?

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 February 2026 Newsletter

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