September 2018 Newsletter
Hi everyone and welcome to September!
Today is September 6th, National Read a Book Day! Which in my opinion should be a public holiday. Everyone has to take the day off from work and read a book from the moment they wake up till they time they go to bed. I mean most of us do that anyway so we might as well get recognized for it!
Apologies for the delay in the newsletter this month. I was at the cottage for the last week of August and I didn’t get the chance to do any of my usual “end of the month” work on getting it ready to go. Then I returned from the cottage with a pretty nasty bug. Being sick and already having a backlog of work caused me to prioritize a tad and unfortunately it meant the newsletter had to wait a few days.
Of course I was able to use both opportunities to do a lot of reading. The highlight of my reading at the cottage was the Brilliance Trilogy written by Marcus Sakey. That’s going to be my top recommendation later in the newsletter. It’s funny because I’m not a big sci-fi guy but this year my favourite books are that trilogy, and also Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
I guess those books aren’t true sci-fi and are more “lite” sci-fi but either way – if you’ve enjoyed those books and have more to recommend, feel free to send them my way!
Cool side story about that – I guess Marcus Sakey came up with the idea of the Brilliance series on a camping trip with Blake Crouch – who also came up with the Pines series on the same camping trip. Having read both series I just have to sit back and wonder how many shrooms were consumed that trip!
While sick and browsing my Kindle I decided to give the Harry Bosch series a try. I’m sure that series needs no introduction. I’d actually tried to read it many years ago after I had read the Reacher series for the first time and was looking for something new. I gave up halfway through The Black Echo, first book in the series as to be honest I found it rather dull and by the numbers.
Well giving it another try I have to say I felt the same way for the most part. However I stuck it out and I was rewarded with an EXCELLENT ending. I mean this was one of the most enjoyable and satisfactory endings I’ve read in this type of book in awhile.
It was so good that I immediately jumped into the second book in the series, The Black Ice. I’m hoping I stick with the series as not only does it give me a LOT to read through over the next little while, I know it’s a very popular series with our readers so it’s always nice to get into a book series that you guys like.
For the Harry Potter fans – reader Bev.B sent me an e-mail letting me know about Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. It’s by Eliezer Yudkowsky and it appears to be fan fiction approved by JK. However they’re not allowed to make money from it so it’s trickier to get. She was able to get it on the open library – available at openlibrary.com. It’s also at http://www.hpmor.com/ for those interested.
Hope you all had a great Summer and thanks as always for the correspondence. It’s always so nice getting to chat to fellow book lovers even if it means my list of books to read grows and grows. Quick note that I’ve started being more active on our Facebook page beyond just posting any new additions. I’ve been doing little questions once a week so be sure to check that out if you are on Facebook. Just added one.
Quick note I’m off to Toronto for the weekend so I won’t be able to reply to e-mails unless urgent until Monday.
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 Nicki H from Tauranga, New Zealand and Diane K from Aurora, CO. 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!
Brilliance by Marcus Sakey: The first novel in the Brilliance trilogy by Marcus Sakey. In a world where one percent of people are born “brilliant”. A girl who can read peoples minds. A man who can see patterns in the stock market to make over $300 billion. A woman who can “walk through walls”. Most of them are good but some are bad and insert Nick Cooper – a brilliant himself who is hunting down all the brilliant terrorists. I can’t recommend this Edgar Award nominee series enough. It’s not for everyone but I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend checking it out.
The Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman: I mentioned above that I’d started reading the Harry Bosch series and it caused me to go back to an old notepad I had with a list of potential series to read that I compiled about a decade ago. One of those was the Alex Delaware series by Jonathan Kellerman. It made me think that I used to hear of that series all the time but really over the last few years I barely hear about it even though it’s still going strong. Anyway it’s a serious I’m yet to read and if you haven’t, why not give it a try? Start with the first book in the series, When The Bough Breaks. It’s an Anthony and Edgar award winning novel and I’m looking forward to getting into the series soon.
An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena: This was our recommended book of the month in August to purchase, and after reading it I just have to give it an additional recommendation here. Shari is one of the best when it comes to thrillers and this one didn’t disappointed. I devoured it in one day. I kept trying to put it down but nope. If you’re a fan of Agatha Christie etc and the whole whodunit type books then this is solid and with a satisfactory ending. And if you read it and enjoyed it, be sure to read The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House by the same author.
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: My black lab Abba turns 17 this month. It’s getting to that time. Anyway it made me think of books I love featuring a dog. One book I read every year is Shadow the Sheepdog by Enid Blyton but that one is a kids book I read when I was 8 and have personal memories from so there’s a bit of bias there. However I wanted to advise The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. An incredible book written from the perspective of a dog on the eve of his life. A beautiful story and one that all dog lovers need to read.
September 2018 Book Of The Month
Cass Green is a standalone thriller author that I really like and I can’t wait to read Don’t You Cry which comes out today!
I loved In A Cottage In A Wood by Cass and this new psychological thriller has one of those descriptions that just has you aching to dive in.
Nina is on a blind date and almost dies. A waitress saves her life. Later that night however Nina opens her door to find the waitress pointing a gun at her. Then the waitresses brother shows up with a stolen newborn baby and covered in blood.
A very interesting premise and one that already has me curious.
(The Top 10 Other Upcoming Books section will be back next month. Just been under severe time constraints lately)
Your Thoughts:
Last month I asked you if you were going to write a book, what would it be about? Your feedback is later in the newsletter.
This month I am asking: what books or book series have you went back and read multiple times?
I thought of this while reading “Tall Order”, the 15th book in the Spider Shepherd series of novels. This is a book series that I love. Not just the stories but the characters involved. I mean in the latest book the main character is stuck behind a desk for the majority of it yet I still absolutely loved it due to the other cast of characters.
It’s a book series I’ve already read through twice and while reading that one I was thinking “I could really read through this again”.
There’s quite a lot of books and book series I read multiple times. There’s something nice about going back to a book that you know is going to give you pleasure. The Rapp and Reacher series I’ve read 3-4 times. I’ve read all of the early John Grisham novels countless times. Actually while I know it’s not too popular I’ve probably read The King of Torts about 10 times. Just something about that book I love and I can fly through it in a couple of hours.
We all have days where we’re feeling down. Sometimes it’s nice to revisit a world that we know is going to provide us pleasure.
What about you? What books or book series do you go back and revisit? And hey if you don’t – feel free to write in too and mention that.
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.