June 2016 Newsletter
Growing up, my mum owned a lot of books including all of the V.C. Andrews books in the Dollanganger series. You know – Flowers in the Attic etc. Despite getting hooked on reading at a young age they never interested me. Maybe I thought they were “for girls” or something.
At 16 i moved from Scotland to Canada to live with my dad. He had a decent sized collection of books and I’d read through a lot of them randomly. He also owned the same V.C. Andrews books but again I never touched them. Never even gave them a second thought.
I met my future wife when I was in my early 20s. She wasn’t a big reader but of course she owned that entire V.C. Andrews collection. They were her childhood favourites. Yet I had no interest in reading them.
Well fast forward until this month – my mum is visiting from Scotland. We’re browsing through Shomi(Canadian alternative to Netflix) and we see Flowers in the Attic(The 2014 Remake). Immediately both my wife and mum were yelling that they wanted to see that. Well suddenly I found the inspiration – “I have to read the book first!”. There’s just something so fun about reading a book then seeing it come to life, and I devoured it in 2 days.
A very good book and glad I read it – because oh man was the movie garbage. But I was still able to enjoy it thanks to reading the book first. Just so funny what can inspire you to read a book sometimes. And yay – yet ANOTHER author to add to my list.
I’m actually going to discipline myself when it comes to reading as I’m a bit all over the place. This year I started reading Gregg Hurwitz novels – and I’ve now read my 4th book by him, the Survivor, and really enjoyed it. So I’m going to go through every single one of his books before I touch another author.
Each month we give away 2 prizes. 1st prize is a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate, and 2nd prize is a $25 Amazon gift certificate.
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 $50 gift certificate winner is Jenise from Tulsa, and our $25 gift certificate winner is Tracy from Greenville, TX . Both of you have been e-mailed. If you haven’t received an e-mail check your junk mail folder!
Book Recommendations:
In this section I give 3 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. Last month in the reader mailbag, we asked people what authors they blindly buy. Based on that, we’re going to be listing books from some of those authors this month.
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Killing Floor: You’ve most likely heard of the character Jack Reacher, and this is the story that started it all back in 1997. It won the Anthony Award and Barry award for “Best First Novel” and almost 20 years later, it still stands up today.
It’s an excellent book, a great introduction to Jack Reacher and a really, really good story. More details.
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Black Echo: The first novel in the Harry Bosch series by Michael Connelly and a series that everyone has to read. It features maverick LAPD Homicide Detective Harry Bosch. A body is discovered in a drain pipe but this is personal – it’s someone that Bosch knew from Vietnam. One of the most popular detective series of all time. More details.
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The Kill Artist: The first book in the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva. A former Israeli intelligence operative and also art restorer, Allon is dragged back into the game for one last killing spree. Of course with 15 books in the series already, I expect it won’t be the last killing spree! More details.
June 2016 Book of the Month:
June 2016 Book Of The Month
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The latest book in the Scot Harvath series written by Brad Thor comes out in June.
The United States decides it has to do something dramatic due to all the terrorism occurring in Europe. They need something special. They need something big. They need something deniable.
They need Scot Harvath.
Your Thoughts:
Holy moley was your feedback amazing last month. I asked what authors are on your blindly buy list and you were just incredible with the feedback with over 400 authors listed in your e-mails.
The feedback is posted later in the newsletter.
This months question is about how you keep up to date with new books.
Here’s the situation: you have authors you like. Lee Child, James Patterson, Michael Connelly – whomever. They’re on your “blindly buy” list.
How do you know when they are releasing a new book?
Via social media? A website? Their mailing list? An app? I’d love to know. I personally have a spreadsheet with a list of my favourite authors. Once a month I access it and then check Amazon to see if they have any new books and add in the title of it and the date so I know when it’s coming out. Sometimes I’ll also hear about it via a mailing list or social media.
How do you do it?
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.
Top 10 Books Coming June 2016:
10 Notable Books Coming Out In June 2016
Here are some of the more notable books coming out in June This is based on how popular the character or author are at our website:
End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy) by Stephen King
Bay of Sighs by Nora Roberts (Guardians Trilogy)
Foreign Agent (Scot Harvath) by Brad Thor
Here’s to Us by Elin Hilderbrand
Dishonorable Intentions – new Stone Barrington
Ink and Bone by Lisa Unger
The Emperor’s Revenge by Clive Cussler
The House of Secrets by Brad Meltzer
The Killing Game by Nancy Bush
Reader Mailbag:
What an awesome response we got last month with over 400 authors listed on your “blindly buy” lists and out of those, 256 unique authors. I am blown away and wish I could give you ALL gift certificates!
I obviously can’t list all of them, but I’m going to list the Top 18 authors by how often they were mentioned and if they’re on OrderOfBooks.com link to them. (And if they’re not on there – you can be damn sure they’ve been bumped up the priority list). Basically if you’re looking for a new author – try one of these!
Lee Child 18
Michael Connelly 15
John Sandford 10
Daniel Silva 8
James Patterson 8
David Baldacci 7
Harlan Coben 7
Craig Johnson 6
James Lee Burke 6
Louise Penny 6
Sue Grafton 6
Brad Thor 5
Stephen King 5
C.J. Box 4
Clive Cussler 4
Preston & Child 4
Karin Slaughter 4
Robert Crais 4
Each month one random submitter wins a $25 gift certificate for Amazon. This months winner is Pam B whose e-mail will be the first listed on the feedback page. Thanks again to everyone who wrote in.
Hi Graeme, so it’s late Saturday night and I’ve just settled in bed to read before I fall asleep. I picked up book one of the Brad Parks series at the library yesterday and decided to check your site to make sure I had all of his books in my spreadsheet. I happened on the June 2016 newsletter and the “blindly buy” question. Very interesting results! I am actually amazed that so many of my favorite authors are on that list. Matter of fact, only 2 of the top 18 are a bit unfamiliar to me (I have bought a CJ Box book, just haven’t read it yet, and Craig Johnson (again, book has been bought, just not read yet). I was particularly surprised (and pleased) to see that many of your female readers like the rather intense crime dramas that I’m so keen on. I was afraid I was a bit weird in that regard, but apparently not! I admit I’m a bit surprised that Nelson DeMille and his John Corey character didn’t make the list. Ditto Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp and Richard Montanari’s Balzano and Byrne series. All 3 authors are definite buys, no questions asked, for me. Oh, and Ken Follett!!! Golly, I have been a voracious reader all of my life, and I can’t even imagine a life without books. I truly grieve for people who don’t enjoy reading.
I read all the V.C. Andrews books when i was in my teens and they were definitely very good.
I read the V.C. Andrews books when I was in my 20s and felt creepy after I had read them. I do not like the books and would never recommend them. BTW, I understand the Andrews passed away and the books are now written by a variety of authors. I can pass judgement on the movie because I would never waste my time. This is true of most of the tv movies made from books that I love. Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown write excellent books but the movies are horrible.