July 2018 Newsletter
Welcome to the first newsletter of Summer!
Hope everyone is having a good Summer thus far. I’m up at the cottage right now. It’s nice as the last couple of years we have brought up the kids friends with them for the whole trip.
While that means much less “family” time the kids have a lot more fun, plus it gives me time to sit back and do what I do best – READ.
I usually fly through a book a day while here. It’s great. I always stick with those standalone thrillers and I start one in the morning then my Kindle is always within an arms length throughout the day and I just read a chapter at a time while BBQing, doing the campfire etc.
It’s perfect. So far this trip I’ve read Say Nothing and Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks (both great!), and The Girl with No Past by Kathryn Croft. The Croft one wasn’t that great but I really did enjoy both Parks ones.
I received a lot of great e-mail feedback after I talked about authors whose first book I enjoyed in a series, but anything after that first book was a disappointment. I think that’ll be a mailbag topic very soon.
Anyway I don’t want to spend too much time on my laptop here so let’s dive into this months newsletter so I can get back to 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 Don W. from Santee, CA and John K. from Sterling, CO. Both of you have been e-mailed. If you don’t see anything, check your junk folder or contact me.
Graeme
OrderOfBooks.com
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!
Beach Music by Pat Conroy: Most people are aware of Pat Conroy due to the novels The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini however Pat has written some more incredible novels that are worth reading. One of those is Beach Music. It’s about Jack McCall, a Southener living abroad who is scarred by tragedy and betrayal following his wifes suicide. Just an amazing novel and if you’ve never read a Conroy novel, also an excellent introduction to him.
The Breach by Patrick Lee: Honestly this is one of those books where people either love or hate. If anything I find the concept of the book is better than the book itself. It’s an interesting plot well worth reading. It’s the first in the Travis Chase series. Travis has just came out of prison and discovers plane wreckage which is more than what it seems. There’s a secret agency who control a breach in space-time and on the plane there’s a portal that randomly spits out advanced technological items. Like I said it’s one of those books where I felt the concept itself was better than the execution but it’s a neat read.
The Thomas Littlejohn series by George Bellairs: This series began in 1941 with Littlejohn on Leave and are crime fiction. They’re full of strong plots, strong characters, scandal, intrigue, and humour featuring the intelligent and compassionate Inspector Littlejohn.
These are very enjoyable books and were written all the way through until 1980, with the final book in the series “An Old Man Dies”. A classic series.
The Stormlights Archives series by Brandon Sanderson: If you are an epic fantasy fan then surely you have been reading this incredible series by Brandon Sanderson. If not? Then stop what you’re doing and check it out! Sanderson has written many great series but everyone agrees that Stormlight Archives is probably the pinnacle of his work. It begins with The Way of Kings and Brandon plans it to be a 10 book series.
Book of the Month: The Other Woman by Daniel Silva
There’s probably quite a few of our readers who are counting the days down until July 17th, 2018.
Other than Jack Reacher, the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva is our most popular book series on the site.
In The Other Woman, a mysterious Frenchwoman is working on a very dangerous memoir. One where she’s going to reveal a Russian mole who has been inserted into the heart of the West. Insert Gabriel Allon who attempts to unravel the conspiracy, and go up against the Russians in one final epic showdown. Pre-order now / More Details.
Your Thoughts:
Last month I asked you what books you would recommend for a book club. Your feedback is later in the newsletter.
This month I am asking: after reading all the books in a series by an author, how do you discover new authors/series to read?
I mean there are a lot of methods out there to discover new authors but not all of them are reliable. I remember spending hours updating my Goodreads profile for example and reviewing all my books hoping for solid recommendations then was extremely disappointed in what they provided. Plus it’s hard to get reliable reviews on that site these days as so many people rating a book 5 stars are ones who have gotten free copies of the book and feel obligated. (For reference I’ve never once received free books for running the website/newsletter and turn authors down when they ask me – preferring instead to purchase the books).
I used to follow authors recommendations on other authors but I felt they were not that reliable. Some were friends of the authors so you weren’t getting authentic recommendations, then you have people like Stephen King who seem to like every single book ever printed!
For me personally, I do the following:
Use Google. Search for “If you like Harlan Coben” and odds are I’ll be able to find numerous lists on websites with suggestions. Personally I prefer forum threads to actual websites however as you seem to get more authentic replies.
Use Amazons “Customers who bought this item also bought” section. I feel you’re generally able to get reliable listings on there as people have actually paid money for the books. I’ll also look at the quantity of reviews to get an idea of how many people have read it.
I relied heavily on #2 on that list when I got on my whole “standalone thriller” kick last Summer. I actually spent about 3-4 hours one night just going through book after book. For every 1 book I’d find I’d then find about 10 more in the “who bought this item also bought” section ha. It was just never ending and I think I left the site with about 100 new books purchased.
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 months newsletter.
I’m a fan of Ann Swinfen. I do very much enjoy the Oxford Medieval Mysteries books, and have re read them, I enjoyed them that much.
Ann Swinfen is a good historical fiction writer. She does her research and then creates a believable plot and story around it. In the first book in the series, the feeling of how it must have been to have survived the Black Death which killed 30-50% of the people of England (and most of Europe) is made so believable and real……People had lived through a terrible time, which in that era they had no way to understand what it was, or why it left….meanwhile, whole villages had been wiped out. Everyone had lost family members and friends. THAT is the background of the series. It is not made depressing…..it is just real basis for these peoples’ lives.
Don’t forget her other series: The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez….there are several books, the first one, which starts in 1586, is “The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez”.
They are also very well researched and quite good.
She has also written some stand-alone historical fiction such as “This Rough Ocean” set during the Cromwell period when the king of England has been overthrown….it is based on a true story of events in her husband’s family. I enjoyed it a lot.