April 2018 Newsletter
Welcome to the April Newsletter and Happy Easter!
It’s so great that Easter falls on April Fools Day. Every Easter my kids wake up to a trail of chocolate eggs that lead them to the living room where all the wonderful chocolate and other gifts from the Easter Bunny await.
This Easter, they will be waking up in about 30 minutes to a trail that leads them to a box full of wrapped grapes. The plastic eggs we usually use to contain candy will instead have broccoli in it. And their traditional gifts will be toothpaste and vitamins. Oh and then after we reveal it’s all a prank we’ll tell them where we stored all of the Easter candy the bunny left, and when we go to get it we’ll discover the dog “ate it all” for one last prank.
Can’t wait!
I finally read Ready Player One. I’ve been meaning to read it forever and wanted to get it done before the movie. I enjoyed it. It was a bit different than what I expected – I’d heard stuff about it being a cult classic that only “80s kids” would get. Well I’m an 80s kid but I mean Cline explained everything – really over explained it all – so even if you were born this decade you’d probably get it all. Still enjoyable though and if you liked that book, I’ve recommended another one a bit further down in the newsletter.
I went to see the movie on Wednesday and I have to say I absolutely LOVED it. I can see it being a movie where people have strong feelings either for or against it. My wife read the book as well and she wasn’t a fan of it or the changes. However I felt Spielberg did an amazing job at bringing this book to the big screen and to the mainstream.
It’s vastly different from the book but I don’t mind that. I always enjoy seeing someones own take on a book. I’m actually going to go see it again and that’s something I have NEVER did in my life before. Although part of that is I saw it in 2D and want to experience it in iMax 3d. Hopefully all you book lovers enjoy the movie and props to the trailers for keeping that scene/quest out so it was a complete surprise. I was going nuts for that.
On our sister site BookSeries.org, I had the opportunity to interview Amber Anthony, which is actually a duo of writers. That’s something that’s always fascinated me – the whole writing together thing, so it was a fun interview to conduct. Click here to read the interview.
I signed up for Kindle Unlimited recently. There was a few new books I wanted to read and they were all on Amazon “free” with Kindle Unlimited so I figured I’d give it a try. Quite cool actually and it’s a neat feeling when you go to purchase/pre-order a book and see that it’s on Kindle Unlimited.
Other than that I mostly read Standalone thrillers. I read Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris, her new one. I actually had to go to great lengths to read that as it isn’t available till June in Canada and I really enjoyed her and couldn’t wait. So I had to get my sister, who lives in Scotland, to buy the book and immediately ship it to me express for a ridiculous fee. Was it worth it? Probably not to be honest. I figured out the big “twist” about 50% of the way through the book and it just meant I spent the rest of the book thinking how stupid the main character was for not figuring it out ha. Worst thing is I read some reviews of it afterwards and someone wrote “It was the same twist as _______ except not as well done” and of course that blank line represents a book that I haven’t read yet but was planning to. Ugh.
I also read While You Were Sleeping by Kathryn Croft. First book I’ve read by her and really enjoyed it. She has many more thrillers so looking forward to that.
If I’m slow at responding to any e-mails over the next week it’s because I’m off to my favourite city in the USA, New Orleans, this week. Can’t wait! Nothing like just being able to switch off for a couple of days and hit up streets like Bourbon & Frenchmen till all hours. Hilariously the thing I’m looking forward to the most is my wife can’t handle the partying as well as me – so while she sleeps it off for an extra few hours each day, I’ll have some peace and quiet to catch up on some reading!
Each month we give away 2 prizes to 2 random subscribers of $25 each in the form of Amazon gift certificates. To win all you have to do is be a subscriber. Nothing more! When we go to hit “Publish” we take a list of all of our subscribers, throw them into a random draw and those are the winners.
Our winners this month are Rick from Phoenix, AZ(e-mail starts with i) and Mindy from Tipp City, OH. Both of you have been e-mailed. If you don’t see anything, check your junk folder or contact me.
Book Recommendations:
In this section I give 4-5 random book recommendations. They can be old books, they can be new. But either way – I recommend you read them if the type of genre they are in appeals to you. Feel free to e-mail suggestions to site@orderofbooks.com as many of the suggestions each month are from our readers. If you wish to add a description for the book around the same size as the ones below that’d be great too!
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson: If you’ve read Ready Player One and are looking for more in that genre, then really the best choice by far is Snow Crash. Stephenson is an incredible author and this is an award winning book which is so well written. In the real world, Hiro Protagonist (yes that’s the main characters name) is a pizza delivery driver but in the virtual reallity world he is a super hacker, a warrior prince looking to strike down an evil villain who has unleashed a new computer virus. Just a great book and highly recommended. I had read it years ago and always see it on the list of books to read if you enjoyed Ready Player One.
Red Rising by Pierce Brown: This is the first book in the Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown. It takes place on Mars and it’s generally considered “Hunger Game for Adults”. It was a very enjoyable book and was rumoured to be made into a movie however the Divergent series failing has probably killed that off. Either way it’s a great series. The whole start of it feels a bit “Hunger Gamesy” but by the 2nd part of the book it picks up its own identity and that’s where it thrives. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews on this one and I’d say it’s worth trying if you like that sort of thing.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate: Thanks to Joni H from Rock Falls, IL for submitting this one. She said: I never thought I would recommend a “single” book and say it was better than any other, but I just finished “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate. This one is fiction, but based on the reality of children taken to be sold for adoption from the 20’s to 50’s. I could not read it fast enough. It had me in tears, and definitely reflecting on what is important in life… If this isn’t your thing, your wife may love it! (This is different even for me… I normally love Linwood Barclay, Joseph Finder, James Patterson, etc.). I have to admit this didn’t seem like my type of book but I read it a couple of months ago and I was captivated by it. Wingate is an incredibly talented writer. If you haven’t read it yet, read it!
The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian: This is an excellent book which is hitting all the bestseller lists. Cassandra Bowden is a flight attendant who parties too hard – binge drinking and getting blackout drunk. She wakes up one morning unable to remember the night before and realizes she’s in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, and with a dead man in the bed. She’s scared of being accused of murdering him when she is sure she couldn’t have, and attempts to lie her way out of it. This is a real absorbing read and a solid book. Highly recommended.
Book of the Month: The 17th Suspect
The Women’s Murder Club is back with the 17th book in the series, the 17th Suspect.
This is a series I personally stopped reading a few years ago but it’s still one of the most popular series by our visitors.
This one focuses on Lindsay and Yuki. Yuki is trying a case which involves a male rape victim, and Lindsay is dealing with a serial shooter in San Francisco.
It’s getting a lot of good reviews from people who got advanced copies and if you’re a Women’s Murder Club fan you’ll most likely enjoy this book. Pre-order it now.
10 Other Notable Books Coming Out:
The Fallen by David Baldacci (Amos Decker/Memory Man Series)
Twisted Prey by John Sandford (Prey Series)
Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts (Standalone)
The Sixth Day by Catherine Coulter (Brit in the FBI Series)
The Knowledge by Martha Grimes (Richard Jury Mysteries)
Shoot First by Stuart Woods (Stone Barrington)
Cave of Bones by Anne Hillerman (Leaphortn, Chee & Manuelito)
The Cutting Edge by Jeffery Deaver (Lincoln Rhyme Series)
Macbeth by Jo Nesbo (Hogarth Shakespeare)
Why Kill the Innocent by C.S. Harris (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery)
Reader Mailbag:
Favourite autobiographies/biographies. Read it here.