November 2017 Newsletter
Hi all,
Welcome to November! I’ve been looking forward to this month. I’m heading to Wisconsin on Saturday to see the Green Bay Packers vs Detroit Lions, and then Guns N’ Roses the night after that. However the best part of the trip? On the flight home I get to read the new Jack Reacher book! And co-incidentally it takes place in Wisconsin. I’m hearing a LOT of good things about it so after a couple of poor outings lately from Reacher – I’m hyped!
What a great month it was for the reader mailbag. I asked where you buy books these days or where you get books from and the response was amazing. I really do appreciate the time you take writing to me and this month only instead of 2 $25 gift certificates, I’m giving away 4. You have no idea how much I appreciate the feedback.
Reading wise for me I read the new Mitch Rapp novel by Kyle Mills. It’s amazing what a great job Kyle has did taking over Vince Flynn. Other than a bit more action I honestly can’t tell the difference. Full credit to Mills for that – he’s doing an incredible job.
That got me in the mood for spy thrillers and I ended up re-reading the Gray Man series by Mark Greaney. This is one of my favourite spy thrillers series ever and even on a re-read it’s just as enjoyable – sometimes moreso, knowing so much more about the Gray Man. If you’ve never read it but are a fan of spy thrillers, be sure to!
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 Judy R. from Ocana, FL and Ray H. from Leicester, England. 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!
The Searcher by Simon Toyne: The first book(of two so far) in the Solomon Creed series by Simon Toyne. Creed is a mysterious amnesiac albino who must save a lost soul in a small Arizona Town called Redemption. Solomon just shows up there one day and the sheriff stumbles upon him while speeding towards a plane crash. Solomon believes he must be there for a reason which is to save a man who he has never met – a man who was just buried that morning.
In The Woods by Tana French: The first book in the Dublin Murder Squad series – it won numerous awards for Best First Novel – an Anthony, Barry, Edgar and Macavity. There are 6 in the series. It’s an impressive series which is part psychological thriller, part police procedural, part mystery and part gothic romance! Read the first novel in this award winning series – In The Woods – and you won’t be disappointed.
Cover Her Face by P.D. James: I’ve always found “locked room mysteries” a fun genre to read and Cover Her Face, the first in the Adam Dalgliesh series, is a great one. It’s your usual type of book – a housemaid is murdered and policeman Adam Dalgliesh needs to find the killer with a houseful of suspects to choose from. James always did a great job at these mysteries – never really leads you in the wrong direction and Dalgliesh is an observer for large parts of it much like yourself.
10 Underappreciated Series on OrderOfBooks.com
This month I thought I would look at the traffic this year and look for book series that get decent traffic – but are low on the list. So below the Top 100 series or characters pages visited.
These are series which are great but just aren’t getting as much traffic as they should on the site. Maybe you will be able to find a series here to read outside the usual popular book series.
Pike Logan (If you like Reacher you’ll like Logan)
Inspector Erlendur (Great crime fiction)
Callahan Garrity (Mystery novels by Mary Kay Andrews)
Jack Frost (Where the TV show “A Touch of Frost” came from)
Nick Heller (Another “if you like Reacher” one – I LOVE this series)
Witcher (Fantasy novels which brought us the video games!)
Tea Shop Mysteries (Great cozy mysteries by Laura Childs)
Deathlands (Post-apocalyptic action-adventure sci-fi!)
Logan McRae (Tartan noir)
Court “Gray Man” Gentry (Why is this so low 🙁 )
November 2017 Book of the Month:
Sorry Jack Reacher but unless people are living under a rock, they know your next book is out this month. So I’m going with Artemis by Andy Weir.
Andy wrote The Martian which was an incredible story and he is back with Artemis. Artemis is the first and only city on the moon and life is tough if you’re an eccentric billionaire or rich tourist. It features criminal Jazz Bashara, who sees the chance to commit the perfect crime.
To be honest a lot of the early reviews are…..underwhelming. Hopefully that’s just because people went into it expecting too much. Either way I’ve already got it pre-ordered. More details.
Your Thoughts:
Last month I asked you where you bought your books. The feedback is later in the newsletter.
This month I am asking: what short stories do you recommend?
This is based off last month when I mentioned I read the short story I’m Not Sam by Jack Ketchum with my wife. We decided to start reading more short stories together and I thought that along with my own research, I’d open it up to the readers to see their thoughts.
It can be a standalone short story, part of an anthology, an episodic novel or even a collection of short stories. A few examples that I’d personally recommend:
– I’m Not Sam by Jack Ketchum.
– The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
– Different Seasons by Stephen King.
What short stories would you recommend?
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.
Reader Mailbag:
Read last months reader mailbag here.