November 2018 Newsletter
Welcome to the November newsletter. Subscribe to the right on the sidebar if you aren’t a subscriber and are on desktop, or do lots of scrolling if on a mobile device!
Hope everyone had a happy Halloween. Both my kids are huge fans of that video game Fortnite, so it was a nice and easy Halloween in terms of costumes this year. We all just dressed as Fortnite characters/skins.
Had quite the e-mail correspondence the other day with an author that I have to share. An author e-mailed me a few days ago (I’ll be polite and not mention their name). Usually when I get e-mails from authors it’s asking if they can be listed on the site.
This author however was already listed on the site and they weren’t happy with that. They were e-mailing me to inform me that by listing their books, I was “violating copyright” and they were demanding I take the list down.
Now I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I’ve had an author e-mail me before who thought I was offering their books for download illegally so I thought that was just the case here. I politely explained that wasn’t the case, and all I was doing was providing a list of the authors books and that this wasn’t violating copyright in any way.
Well they e-mailed me back demanding I remove their list of books from the site. They informed me that if I did not, they’d be contacting their attorney and issuing a cease and desist order!
Now of course by simply listing an authors books I am not violating copyright in any way. However for whatever reason this author didn’t want their books listed and were very upset that they were. So if they don’t want them listed then who am I to stand in the way? I removed the list and provided reasoning as to why.
The sad thing about all this? In 2018 alone, I’ve referred over 2200 unique people to that authors page via our “If you like ___ then try _____ ” section. So on average that means over 2600 people per year who could have been introduced to this authors books and started purchasing them via our site who know won’t be. And this author has a book series that is over 15 books long too so that’s a lot of sales they’re missing out on!
Just so weird but it is what it is.
I know we’ve got lots of audio book fans out there so just in case you haven’t heard of it – be sure to download the app Libby. It’s a great ap and allows you to get audio books from your local libraries.
I had a very poor reading month. So poor that I read just TWO books. I’ve no idea what happened. First I read What She Knew by Gilly MacMillan. I added it to our recommendation section last month based on my mum telling me it was the “best book ever”. Well apologies to anyone who read it based on that because it certainly was NOT the best book ever.
Personally I found it extremely disappointing and I’m going to be vetting my mums suggestions from here on out! She’s already recommending me another one but I’ve told her I have to read it first and see!
I also read the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series, Red War. Kyle Mills continues to excel and I’m so glad he took this series over after Vince Flynns untimely passing.
Probably going to hold off on starting anything with the new Jack Reacher book out on November 5th. Haven’t been super impressed with the last few in that series but I still enjoy Lee Childs writing.
Not really too much else going on. The weather is getting cold here in Canada and we’ve already had some snow in Ontario. Looking forward to lots of days just curled up on the couch reading. I’ve got about 15 books on my “need to read this ASAP” list so hopefully I start flying through them in November.
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 Angela from Ann Arbor, MI and Helen from Verdun, QC 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!
Breakthrough series by Michael C. Grumley: An interesting book series is the Breakthrough book series by Michael C. Grumley. It starts off with “Breakthrough” which is currently free on Kindle Unlimited. It’s a series of sci-fi thrillers with 4 currently and a 5th on the way. In the first book, a nuclear sub is deep in the Caribbean Sea and has to abort the mission it is under due to mysterious circumstances. Naval investigator John Clay is looking into it and discovers a team of marine biologists who have managed to find a way to speak to dolphins. There’s a lot to this series and if you’re a fan of sci-fi, be sure to check it out.
Sean Duffy series by Adrian McKinty: This is a crime fiction series by Irish author Adrian McKinty. The series begins in the early 80s in Northern Ireland. Sean Duffy is a young Catholic detective who works for the Royal Ulster Constabulary – a largely Protestant police force. The first book in the series is The Cold, Cold Ground. Interestingly it was a series originally planned just as a trilogy but gained such popularity McKinty has continued it. The first book won the Spinetingler award and features Sean Duffy who is trying to track down a serial killer who targets homosexual males. Back in 1981 homosexuality was illegal in Northern Ireland so that makes things that much more complicated. A great novel and the series just gets better as it goes on.
Mike Bowditch series by Paul Doiron: Thanks to Eliece who, following on from our suggestion last month, said if you like the Joe Pickett series by C.J Box you’ll like this series. Mike Bowditch is also a game warden and this one takes place in Maine. So if you are a fan of the C.J. Box series try this series out. It began in 2010 with The Poacher’s Son and has had a new book every year. The first book in the series starts off with a strong story – Bowditch has to go on the hunt for a fugitive. That fugitive? His own father. His dad is the prime suspect in the murder of a local police officer and Mike has to catch him first and then help prove his innocence by finding the real killer. More details.
Clock Shop Mystery series by Julianne Holmes: I added something new to OrderOfBooks.com this month – on the sidebar, the ability to click for a “random author” or a “random series”. It’s fun discovering new authors and series that way and I decided to do it for the newsletter – and it’s given me this cozy mystery series by Julianne Holmes! There’s currently three in the series and it starts off with the Agatha Award nominee Just Killing Time. It features Ruth Clagan, an expert clockmaker. If you’re a fan of cozy mystery novels, be sure to check out this series.
Book of the Month: Past Tense by Lee Child
It’s pretty much a given that if there’s a new Reacher book coming out it’s going to be our book of the month.
Regardless of what you think of the series it’s our most popular book series by far. The plot of this one seems very interesting too. While doing his usual hitchhiking, Reacher decided to take a quick detour to a small town where his father was born.
He shows up at the city clerks office to locate the old family home and then is told “No-one called Reacher has ever lived in this town”. So now Reacher has to look into this and determine if his father ever lived there. There’s also a secondary story involving two Canadians whose car breaks down and they end up being stranded in a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere that’ll most likely cross paths with Reacher!
Early reviews are promising so let’s hope for a good one. Past Tense by Lee Child comes out November 5th, 2018. Order this book today!
10 Other Notable Books Released in November
Look Alive Twenty-Five (Stephanie Plum) by Janet Evanovich
Kingdom of the Blind (Inspector Gamache) by Louise Penny
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
Target (Alex Cross) by James Patterson
Sea of Greed (NUMA Files) by Clive Cussler
You Don’t Own Me (Under Suspicion) by Mary Higgins Clark & Alafair Burke
Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin
Leopard’s Run by Christine Feehan
Long Road to Mercy (1st in a new series) by David Baldacci
Someone To Trust (Westcott) by Mary Balogh
Wow on the author insisting on being deleted from your website! Lots of websites list book series and have links to author websites. Goodreads being a major one.