Hi everyone and welcome to halfway through June!

I love reading so much. It felt like I had an epiphany this month. I was sitting on my front porch, reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

It’s not the type of novel I read too often; so it can be a real treat going into such a different type of genre. There’s so much to the book from the sci-fi elements to all of the complicated science etc. I stopped reading for a bit just to sit back and think about how much I was enjoying myself. How much I loved being taken to this fictional world involving the potential end of humanity, and one man’s adventure to stop it from happening.

Reading is just so great and I’m so glad it was instilled in me at an early age. I love seeing my kids read as well. My daughter got hooked on the Maze Runner movies for example, and when she found out they were based on books she was immediately wanting to read them all. Love to see that.

My point to all that is – man – I LOVE reading so much.

As for the book itself – loved it! Just a thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and educational read. Andy does a great job of writing about advanced science methods yet breaking it down in a way that isn’t condescending. Highly recommend this one.

I’ve started One Second After by William R. Forstchen. This was one of those books that – due to everything that has happened in the last 15 months – gained a lot of popularity. My inbox was flooded with recommendations for it.

When that happens I often don’t start the book right away; it feels like there is just too much hype for it. Instead, it floats around at the top of my “to read” list until I’m in the mood for it.

Going from a space adventure one day, to a world where people are dealing with an EMP attack the next.  After that it will be a time travel book.  Love reading!

I finished the first Inspector Gamache novel. As a joke – which I stated immediately after making this statement – I referred to Louise as a “true hidden gem” and “a little known author:” in the monthly newsletter. Hilariously I still had a few people e-mail me admonishing me for referring to her like that. Our readers take Gamache seriously 🙂

I enjoyed it a lot. It felt a step above a cozy mystery to me but that’s not a bad thing; it’s a different pace and style from what I normally read and I’m looking forward to more. I’ll be listening to the 2nd one soon.

I had a discussion with a friend last week about abridged vs unabridged when it came to audiobooks. I told him I could never, ever listen to abridged audiobooks as it would drive me nuts thinking I was missing out on part of the story.

I’m almost ready to retract that statement after starting Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz. It’s been a long time since I read Koontz but the plot for this one sounded interesting. It’s about a child being born at the same time his grandfather dies, and just before his grandfather dies he makes predictions about the child’s life – including five dates that will be catastrophic for him.

The first 60 minutes of the book were just about the childbirth / passing. In excruciating detail and taking from every possible perspective. I knew Koontz was like that but to hear it being narrated is something else entirely.

I listen to audiobooks while out running and after 2 hours I had to tap out. Not saying it’s a bad book; just not the type of book you can listen to while exercising. Audio wise I’ve started Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. The fast-paced standalone thrillers are much better when running – I really zone out listening to them.

I’m not going to dive into it – but if you’re a fan of fantasy/science fiction, go check out the author Don Ehrenhaft. If his books sound like something you’re into (he sells via his website in ebook format) give one a buy. They’re only $2 each and it’d just be a really nice thing to do.

Each month we give away 5 prizes to 5 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:

Janet from Wasilla, AK
Renni from Clementon, NJ
Anne from Ashland, OH
Ingrid from Toronto, ON
Kathleen from Courtenay, BC

All 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 3-5 book or series 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!

Liz Carlyle Series by Stella Rimington
Stella Rimington was the first Director-General of MI5 in the UK.  She has taken her knowledge from that role and her work in the Security Service to write a very popular spy thriller series.

It’s the Liz Carlyle series which began in 2004.  The first novel is At Risk.  Liz is an MI5 officer and they find out there are some “invisibles” in the UK – terrorists who are able to move across borders unnoticed and are not identified.

Excellent spy thriller series.  Check it out.

Time and Again Jack Finney

I mention the book Replay by Ken Grimwood a LOT in these newsletters. It IS my favourite book of all time after all.

Scott e-mailed in to say that he also loved it, but wanted to give a recommendation for Time And Again. I haven’t read it yet but it’s next on my list. Here’s what Scott wrote:

” In my humble opinion, the “Holy Bible” of time travel books is “Time and Again” by Jack Finney. I was given this book to read back in 1972, and fell in love with it. Just for fun I reread it every other year or so, and it is always a wonderful book to read. Over the years since then I have recommended it to everyone and anyone looking for a good book to read. Out of my pocket, I have bought countless copies of the book and given them to people whom I thought might enjoy the book as much as I have.

Right from that first reading of the book, I have always been envious of what Simon Morley was given the opportunity to be able to do. If I was approached with that wild crazy chance, I would be on it in a heartbeat. Let’s go!”

Let’s go indeed – straight over to the Jack Finney page to order a copy!

The Circle Series by Ted Dekker
Jane wrote in to recommend The Circle series by Ted Dekker.

This was initially written as a trilogy although 5 years later, Ted released Green which he primarily wrote at the initial time.

The first book in the series is Black and it features a man called Thomas Hunter. He lived in Denver, Colorado and is knocked unconscious. He wakes up in a very odd world full of black trees, and is attacked by bats. He becomes unconscious again and then wakes up back in Colorado. Every time he goes to sleep, he wakes up in the other world.

A great series. For more details see our Ted Dekker page.

June Charities:

While I appreciate all offers of donations to show your appreciation for the site and newsletter, I’d much rather you do that by supporting some great causes. Each month I pick a few select charities broken down by our most popular countries that you can support instead. Thanks! And please note you’re not restricted to the country you reside in of course – pick any you wish to support!

USA: National Center for Transgender Equality

UK: Stonewall

Canada: Canadian Centre for Gender + Sexual Diversity

Australia: Pride Foundation Australia

WHAT PEOPLE ARE READING

I asked readers on our Facebook page what they were currently reading Here are the responses:

Random Top 10 of the Month

10 Most Popular Authors in 2013

This month I thought I’d pick a random year and list the top 10 most popular authors from that period. 2013 is the year I went with.

Also for reference, I will put where they are in the popularity charts for 2021 so far.

  1. Brad Thor (#50)
  2. David Baldacci (#3)
  3. Camilla Lackberg (#189)
  4. Daniel Silva (#29)
  5. John Grisham (#35)
  6. Karin Slaughter (#44)
  7. Louise Penny (#1)
  8. Sylvia Day (#877)
  9. James Patterson (#10)
  10. Linwood Barclay (#117)

Your Thoughts:

This month I am asking:

What’s a good book to incite discussion? The ideal book for a book club?

Thinking of all the books I’ve recommended over the years and gifted to people – I’m going to go with my personal favourite: Replay by Ken Grimwood.

It’s my all-time favourite book and I have gifted it to everyone I know. It’s the story of Jeff Winston, a 43 year old who dies. Then suddenly he wakes up and it’s 25 years ago and he is back in college and he gets to replay his life all over again.

There is just so much to this book. Grimwood covers everything. It’s a great book to discuss for so many reasons – one of which is what you would do if put in that same situation.

Last year, I met my accountant for lunch and to go over my corporate taxes. I also gave him a copy of the book. About a month later he called me up and said “We have to go to lunch”. I was worried there was some sort of issue with my taxes and asked why. “Because I just finished that book you gave me and we need to talk about it!”

What books would you suggest? What thought provoking books are there out there that are great to discuss afterwards?

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. Five people will also randomly win a $25 gift certificate to Amazon.

Book Notification
Order of Books » Newsletter » June 2021 Mid-Month Newsletter

2 Responses to “June 2021 Mid-Month Newsletter”

  1. Kim Glossip: 3 years ago

    A request… countless times I run my finger down the book series, counting titles to arrive at the number in the series. Could you add a number to the lists???? Thanks for considering it. I’ve used your site for years – it’s truly essential – and send people to it all the time.

    Kim Glossip

    Reply

    • Graeme: 3 years ago

      Oh yes that is one of those things I really wished I had added at the beginning of the site. A big change like that – still possible and in the works. Hopefully later this year.

      Reply

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