October 2016 Newsletter
Hey Readers –
Welcome to October!
Last month I mentioned that Harlan Coben had a new book coming out in the Myron Bolitar series, and that I’d never read any of the Bolitar series – even though Cobens standalone novels are some of my favourite books ever.
So I decided what the heck – time to give the Bolitar series a chance.
And I’m hooked.
It’s such a great feeling reading the first book in a series and absolutely LOVING it knowing that there are so many more books in the series to go through. I’ve already read 6 of the books in the Bolitar series and as of this writing am halfway through the 7th.
Win may be one of my favourite characters in any book ever. Holy crap do I love everything involving him. It’s the type of book series where I’ll pick up my Kindle and reading it while waiting for bread to toast or something – any free seconds I get I spend reading it.
If you haven’t read that series yet, I highly recommend dropping everything and starting the Myron Bolitar series today.
Looking forward to some good feedback from you guys this month on the question of the month. It’s about gifting books – especially helpful with Christmas coming up. Check it out a little bit later in the newsletter.
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 Eileen from Illinois and our $25 gift certificate winner is Terri from British Columbia. Both of you have been e-mailed. If you haven’t received an e-mail check your junk mail folder!
Graeme
OrderOfBooks.com
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. Feel free to e-mail suggestions to site@orderofbooks.com.
Angels & Demons: In case you missed it – Dan Brown announced a new book the Robert Langdon series – Origin. It’s currently scheduled to come out September 2017.
If you haven’t read the series then now’s your chance. A lot of people seem to think Da Vinci Code is first in the list but it’s not – it’s Angels & Demons.
Birdman: I haven’t personally read it, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about Mo Hayder and her Jack Caffrey series of books. The first book in the series is Birdman. 5 women are all murdered and dumped by a sexual serial killer, and detective inspector Jack Caffrey is on the case.
New York Dead: One of the most popular book series on our site is the Stone Barrington series by Stuart Woods. Started back in 1991 with New York Dead it’s still going strong today with a new book coming out later this month.
Book of the Month:
I was naturally skeptical when Kyle Mills took over the Mitch Rapp series of books following Vince Flynns passing. His first book – The Survivor – was pretty darn good with a lot more action than usual. However the blueprint had already been set on that one by Flynn who was working on it before his untimely passing.
It’ll be interesting to see how the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series is, and hopefully Mills can do the job.
Question of the Month:
Last month I asked a nice simple question – what was the worst book you ever read? The feedback is posted later in the newsletter.
Here’s the question this month – What books are you giving for gifts this year?
It was my mums birthday in September. She loves books and I always buy her a book for her birthday and for Christmas. It can be quite a challenge because I’m generally always looking for a standalone novel and one that she hasn’t read, and I feel she’ll like. Popular books such as Gone Girl and Girl on a Train have been past gifts. I’ll also use opportunities like this to introduce someone to a new author such as Harlan Coben or Linwood Barclay.
This time around I bought Before the Fall by Noah Hawley for her. I felt this was a great book as a gift as it hits all the checkmarks for me – easy to read, a page turner, thrilling, a standalone novel etc.
What about you? What books have you given as a gift recently? Or what books are you planning on giving for Christmas?
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.
10 Notable Books Coming Out in October 2016:
Here are some of the more notable books coming out in October This is based on how popular the character or author are at our website:
The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan
The Trespasser(Dublin Murder Squad) by Tana French.
Honor by Jay Crownover.
Escape Clause (Virgil Flowers) by John Sandford.
The Whistler by John Grisham.
The Obsidian Chamber(Pendergast) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.
Night Watch by Iris Johansen.
Order To Kill (Mitch Rapp) by Kyle Mills.
Hide and Seek by M.J. Arlidge.
Sex, Lies and Serious Money(Stone Barrington) by Stuart Woods.
Reader Mailbag:
Thanks for all the feedback you sent in last month in regard to the worst book you ever read.
Each month one random submitter wins a $25 gift certificate for Amazon. This months winner is Caroline who wrote:
I hate to confess to what is probably a major league sin for a book lover, but the worst book I ever read (and have never gotten over) is the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Since it is written in the “vernacular of the day” it was so doggone hard to read, but I had too as it was assigned reading 50 years ago in my high school (and to this day, I still haven’t recovered!) Please don’t judge me too harshly.
I also thought I’d share this e-mail from Phyllis. The idea behind the worst book you ever read was, as mentioned last month, because I was reading Gray Mountain by John Grisham and thought it was absolutely terrible. Phyllis wrote in:
I think I may be calm enough to write this now. I’m going to have to take issue with you over your review of a book you didn’t finish, Gray Mountain. Yes, John Grisham has a bee under his bonnet with that book, and the folks of Appalachia are glad he has it. You have NO idea what strip mining, mountaintop removal or whatever other term big coal is using to try and make their desecration more palatable, has done. I invite you to do a google search of mountaintop removal, then click on images. If you want to see why I’m upset, click on West Virginia. I have to live what was done to my home state. What you won’t realize in some of those photos, are that family cemeteries were also blasted to kingdom come, in the name of greed. You may not care about blowing up beautiful mountains, but some of us do. You do a disservice to your readers to characterize John Grisham’s book in such a dismissive way. I personally would have preferred it if you had just kept it to yourself.
For those wondering – I forced myself to finish Gray Mountain. It actually picked up a bit halfway through the book but the quality dropped dramatically again. Regardless of whether a book is based on real life situations or strong issues, if it’s a work of fiction featuring boring and unlikeable characters and a flat story I’m going to call it like I see it: Gray Mountain sucked.
For all the feedback, see the reader mailbag here.