May 2017 Newsletter
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Quite an interesting reading month for me. I spent the entire month reading non-fiction books – mainly biographies. They were good but last night I had had enough of them. Opened up my Kindle and picked up where I left off on Alex Berensons fantastic John Wells series.
After reading for a few minutes I had to stop reading and simply reflect. There’s just something amazing about being able to enter a new world of fiction – new places, new people, new stories etc. It’s so cool just being able to enter a world like that. Also being able to reacquaint yourself with the characters that you love.
I had planned to read Stephen Kings It last month but I never got around to it. I started to read it but I didn’t have a lot of time for reading and King is the sort of author where you really want to dedicate hours and hours of reading to. Very hard to just pick it up and read for a few minutes then put it down(which is what a lot of my reading can be). I probably won’t have that much time until Summer so I’ll put it on the back burner for now.
We added a whole host of new authors and series to our new website BookSeries.org. We also added a much requested feature which was on each authors and series printable options – a checklist box on each one. Then if you want to print it off and check off if you’ve read it or own it etc you can do that with ease.
Finally over there we interviewed the author Art Taylor. I had never read any of his books however we had him listed and he e-mailed me with a brief correction. I ended up asking him for an interview and it was a great one – Art had some really great answers.
I read his book On the Road with Del and Louise and absolutely loved it. he won multiple awards for it and he actually just won an Agatha Award on the weekend for another story.
Big congrats to Art and you can read the interview here.
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 P. Shoup from the USA and our $25 gift certificate winner is P. Klick from California. Both of you have been e-mailed. If you don’t see anything, check your junk folder or contact me.
Gift Certificate Changes:
As I mentioned above, Each month we give away 2 prizes. 1st prize is a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate, and 2nd prize is a $25 Amazon gift certificate. We also give out $25 to a random reader who responded to the reader mailbag that month, for a total of $100.
I’m making some changes. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now and this months reader mailbag confirmed it for me. I absolutely LOVE the fact that people take time to write responses to the reader mailbag topic and it’s amazing how much people write.
So the new changes taking place from next month on – there will be 4 Gift certificates handed out each month – all for $25. Two random subscriber will receive a $25 certificate and then TWO people who respond to the reader mailbag will be given a $25 gift certificate. They will all be picked completely randomly.
This month I’m going to give two people who submitted to the reader mailbag gift certificates too.
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!
On the Road with Del and Louise by Art Taylor: After the interview with Art I read this one and thoroughly enjoyed it. Art is a short story writer however he changed things up with this one. It’s 6 short stories which contribute to the larger narrative arc and makes it a novel-length story. It was fantastic and this mystery writer showed he can write more than just mysteries here. Del is a criminal who robs convenience stores, and Louis was a holdup victim who ends up becoming his lover and accomplice. Read more about Art Taylor.
The Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill: This is the first book in the Dr. Siri Paiboun series which has over 10 books in it. It takes place in Laos in 1975 where the 72 year old Paiboun is given the job as national coroner despite no training. Very entertaining book series and the characters are great. There’s a mystery to it too but the world it’s set in and the characters are the best thing about the book. Read more
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins: Very few authors have debuted like Paula Hawkins. Her book The Girl on the Train was an incredible seller and also spawned a movie. Paula is now back with her second book Into the Water which is released May 2nd. It’s another thriller where two people turn up dead at the bottom of a river, and this dredges up historic secrets long submerged. I generally enjoyed Girl on the Train, and I’m looking forward to this one. More details.
Book of the Month:
Nora Roberts is an incredible author and she is back at the end of May with a new suspense novel – Come Sundown.
I’ve always enjoyed the standalone novels Nora writes and so I’m very excited about this one which takes place in Montana at a resort. A bartender leaves the resort one night and his battered body is discovered later on in the snow. Then another body turns up and suddenly we’ve got a real mystery on her hands.
Nora has written an incredible amount of books and you can see all of them listed here.
Your Thoughts:
Last month I asked you about book series you like to re-read. The feedback is later in the newsletter.
This month I want to ask What are the WORST book to movie adaptations you’ve read/seen? And why?
Obviously Jack Reacher will be mentioned by quite a few people due to the casting.
One of the worst for me was Filth by Irvine Welsh. It’s one of my favourite books of all time and I’ve read it about 20 times. After the successful transition of Trainspotting I was so excited for this one – and man, was it bad. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it just wasn’t close to the book at all and I was completely bored during it.
Another one was The Maze Runner. Not that the movie was bad however a massive plot point in the books was the telepathic bond between Thomas and Teresa. It’s possible it wouldn’t have transitioned well to the big screen but I felt it was a big factor in the relationship and bond between the two and was disappointed it didn’t make it.
What about you? What do you think are the worst book to movie adaptations? And why?
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.