September 2019 Newsletter
Hi all and welcome to September!
Always a great time for us readers I feel. The next 2-3 months has over 15 books coming out by authors on my “blindly buy” list. Always nice not to have to think about what to read next and it’s going to be a good time.
My apologies for the slight delay in the newsletter this month. It ended up being a hectic end of the month for me. My wife was able to get some time off work so we took the kids and made an impromptu trip to Scotland.
Impromptu trips are always fun. Especially when it’s going to visit family. It was fun messaging me mum and sister on the Thursday and asking them their weekend plans then informing them we’d be flying over there on the Sunday.
It was a great time and a very busy time. I’ve mentioned it before but it’s so nice going back to Scotland visiting my family. When I lived there I really didn’t do much. Even when I went back there by myself in June for a week, I didn’t go out other than for some family related matters, and to see old friends at a pub.
With the family it’s totally different and we did a lot this time. The highlight was a trek up north where we went out on a boat on Loch Ness. We spent some time in Inverness and also went to Aviemore. If you’re in Scotland and never went to Landmark Forest Adventure Park be sure to do so! So fun.
The best part of that trip however? My brother in law was driving and isn’t much of a talker, so he listened to a Harry Potter audiobook while I read the entire drive! (In between looking out at the beautiful scenery of course).
Anyway I returned home to a lot of work as I didn’t do much while away. The end/beginning of the month is always a busy time for me as well. On top of that I had a friend visiting from Turkey and so spent some time with him. Plus it was the last weekend for the kids going back to school so we wanted to remain busy. Safe to say I’ve been pretty overwhelmed.
Still have another few busy days ahead of me too. After sending this newsletter out I’ll be heading to Toronto to participate in a live fantasy football draft prior to tonights kickoff. Then home on the red eye on Saturday, where I’m off out fishing with a friend. Then a hike with the family, followed by NFL Week 1 on Sunday.
So if you e-mail me after I send out this newsletter and you don’t get a reply for a few days – that’s why! I’ll probably get back in routine by Monday and get my inbox cleared then.
I didn’t read as much as I wanted this month but I still went through quite a few books. Two of them are in the “Recommended” books section below.
My mum recommended I read Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. It’s one of those psychological thrillers and it was an interesting one. It was different in the sense that the “big twist” was revealed at about 60-70% of the book, as opposed to saving it until the end. Then we got to see how everything played out. Quite a change and I’ve added Lisa to my list of authors to read more of. It’s about a young girl who goes missing and whose dead body shows up about 15 years later. Then the mother meets a man whose daughter is the spitting image of the girl who went missing.
I dropped everything to read the latest “Spider Shepherd” novel – Short Range. Stephen Leather never disappoints and this was another excellent one. If you’re into the more “spy thriller” type genre, then be sure to read that series.
I’m curious if we have any Pike Logan fans out there, and your thoughts on the series if so. I was in the mood for a “badass” series along the likes of Rapp, Gray Man etc. Thought I’d give the series a try. However the first book opened up a bit too – “actiony” – for lack of a better term; and I ended up not finishing it.
It just felt like too much was happening too soon and was wondering if the series settles down or not, or if it is more on the Jericho Quinn level of insanity.
Still in the mood, I decided to give the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor another try. I tried that series many years ago. Read three books in it and I think I enjoyed it – but just didn’t read more. I restarted it with The Lions of Lucerne. It was okay. I felt the action scenes were lacking, and the descriptions really didn’t help you picture the places too well. However I’m up for continuing the series as I know it’s a highly regarded series by many.
Alright that’s it for me. We’ve got a new section this month as suggested to me by reader Joan K. She had stumbled upon a new author and suggested we have a section dedicated to new authors discovered by the readers.
I’m very happy to give new authors a spot in this newsletter and I always enjoy when I introduce new authors to you and get a lot of positive feedback about them. It makes my day when I continually get e-mails thanking me for my recommendation of Nick Petrie for example.
So be sure to read that section, the rules within and then submit some new authors to me for possible inclusion!
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 Takka from Greer, SC and Anna from Las Vegas, NV. 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 Man from Taured by Bryan Alaspa.
This one is based on the urban legend where a man showed up at a Japanese airport. His passport said he was from Taured, which is a country that doesn’t exist. Airport officials are baffled. They take him to stay in a hotel for the night. Then when they go into retrieve him the next day, he and all his possessions have disappeared.
This was an interesting one to read. I’m not big into sci-fi but I do enjoy parallel timelines and all that jazz – the type of content Blake Crouch has written recently. It seemed like that was what the book was about. However it took a turn at the halfway mark into the type of story I normally wouldn’t read. I ended up being invested enough that I finished it and actually thoroughly enjoyed it. Something different – and well worth reading in my opinion. Details on Bryan and his books. If you read it let me know your thoughts. I believe it’s currently available via Kindle Unlimited.
The One by John Marrs
John Marrs quickly became one of my favourite thriller writers last year, and he continues to knock them out of the park.
Someone has discovered that within our DNA, there is a gene that matches you with one other person in the world. They are your perfect match and you belong with them. They have opened a dating service where you can find “the one”.
This book follows the stories of a few different people who try the service. I don’t want to say too much but if you enjoy thrillers, be sure to pick up The One by John Marrs.
Harry Hole Series by Jo Nesbo
I’ve recommended this series before but it’s well worth recommending again. This is a series of crime fiction novels by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo.
Harry Hole is a hardened detective who works the streets of Oslo. In it, he sets to stop murderers, bank robbers, gangsters and more. Excellent series.
Book of the Month:
Lethal Agent by Kyle Mills (Mitch Rapp series)
“Mitch Rapp” is back. Kyle Mills has to be applauded for the job he has done following the untimely passing of Vince Flynn, and I’m hoping it continues in Lethal Agent.
ISIS are on the prowl while the USA is distracted by a toxic presidential election. They’ve kidnapped a French microbiologist who is manufacturing anthrax for them, and they’ve recruited a Mexican drug cartel to take it across the border.
Of course one man isn’t distracted, and that man is Mitch Rapp.
New Author Spotlight
This month we feature the author Tony Kent, as submitted by Joan M. Thanks Joan!
Tony is an Irish author out of London. He has started the Killer Intent series with the first book called Killer Intent. The book sees an attempted assassination that sets off a dangerous chain events that causes a level of chaos that could take down the government. A dark and deadly conspiracy is taking place in real time and it brings three strangers together: Joe Dempsey, a deadly military intelligence officer; Sarah Truman, a CNN reporter determined to get her headline; and Michael Devlin, a Belfast-born criminal barrister; to work together to stop the plot.
Killer Intent was listed on the Crime Time Best of the Year 2018 list.
For more details on this author and book, click here.
Each month we feature one new author as recommended by you, the readers. If you have suggestions for an author to feature in this section, please reply or e-mail site@orderofbooks.com. Only rule is that their first book can’t be more than 18 months old.
Audiobook Area:
Written by Norma
Hey There Rhaspberry. Re: being an audiobook fan! We too IE my husband ‘n me…we listen from our CD player in the truck whilst doing the 3-hr drive to visit the gr’kids. I’d forgotten new vehicles no longer have the players! I really don’t know what we would do then? Help anyone?
We would never ever listen to another James Patterson unabridged…it was so tedious with the reader doing all these odd accents to differentiate the characters. It got rather laughable and confusing and oh so boring, we finally turned it off. Mind you, we’re not Patterson fans.
We search for and buy used audio books that fit our reading tastes…. Sue Grafton (read by Judy Kaye), Ngaio Marsh (read by Anton Lesser who himself is a very well-known Brit actor), David Baldacci (read by Ron McLarty) just to name a few. Oh and don’t forget the Michael Connelly books featuring his protagonist Harry Bosch. And, being Canadian…we have all the Stuart McLean CDs (humor, short stories with memorable characters).
Currently we have 10 “books” to go! Used ones in our favored genre are not that easy to find.
We have a lot of audiobook fans and invite book listeners to write their own column every month. Want to discuss audiobooks or a favourite narrator? Hit reply and write and we’ll feature your column in a future newsletter!