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Book of the Month March 2018 Review
Book of the Month is a book subscription box that sends a brand new book for as low as $10.47/month.
On the first of the month, you log into your account and choose between five different books, picked out by Book of the Month Judges. There are authors, editors and more on the judging panel. There is also one guest judge each month. You must make your selections by the 14th, or Book of the Month will pick for you. If you don't like any of the books, you can skip!
Once you make your book selection, you can add up to two books to your account for $9.99/each. Once you get your book, you can log into your account and join the discussions.
The Details:
Cost: $16.99/month, $14.99/month for a 3 month subscription and $11.99/month for a 1 year subscription.
Coupons:
- Use this link to get your 1st month for $5, just use the code FIVE.
- Gift a subscription to Book of the Month and get a free book for yourself
What's in the box? On the first of the month, you will get to select from 5 different books.
I was sent all five Book of the Month selections for review.
Each book is sent in a little blue box.
First Look
Each book is wrapped in plastic and packaged on a larger cardboard card.
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan Leigh Chen's mother committed suicide at the same moment Leigh kissed her long time crush. Leigh is have Taiwanese and ends up traveling to Taiwan to stay with her maternal grandparents to find her mother, whom she things turned into a bird when she died.
Summary: Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird. Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.
Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman—a BOTM exclusive This book is about the drama in other people's lives. Frances is one of those neighbors who knows too much about her neighbors. When an extramarital affair is exposed, Frances has to decide what she needs to do.
Summary: At any given moment in other people's houses, you can find…repressed hopes and dreams…moments of unexpected joy…someone making love on the floor to a man who is most definitely not her husband…
*record scratch* As the longtime local carpool mom, Frances Bloom is sometimes an unwilling witness to her neighbors' private lives. She knows her cousin is hiding her desire for another baby from her spouse, Bill Horton's wife is mysteriously missing, and now this…
After the shock of seeing Anne Porter in all her extramarital glory, Frances vows to stay in her own lane. But that's a notion easier said than done when Anne's husband throws her out a couple of days later. The repercussions of the affair reverberate through the four carpool families–and Frances finds herself navigating a moral minefield that could make or break a marriage.
Rainbirds by Clarissa Goenawan Ren's sister left Tokyo to live in Akakawa to teach at a local cram school. Ren has to pack up his life and head to Akakawa when his sister is violently murdered. He ends up being offered her job and thus finding out about her strange situation.
Summary: Ren Ishida has nearly completed his graduate degree at Keio University when he receives news of his sister’s violent death. Keiko was stabbed one rainy night on her way home, and there are no leads. Ren heads to Akakawa to conclude his sister’s affairs, failing to understand why she chose to turn her back on the family and Tokyo for this desolate place years ago.
But then Ren is offered Keiko’s newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local cram school and her bizarre former arrangement of free lodging at a wealthy politician’s mansion in exchange for reading to the man’s ailing wife. He accepts both, abandoning Tokyo and his crumbling relationship there in order to better understand his sister’s life and what took place the night of her death.
As Ren comes to know the eccentric local figures, from the enigmatic politician who’s boarding him to his fellow teachers and a rebellious, captivating young female student, he delves into his shared childhood with Keiko and what followed. Haunted in his dreams by a young girl who is desperately trying to tell him something, Ren realizes that Keiko Ishida kept many secrets, even from him.
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy by Nova Jacobs This book really sounds interesting. It's about an adopted granddaughter whose grandfather dies. He is a famous mathematician and he has left behind clues to track down a dangerous equations. The granddaughter is works in a bookstore and must use one of her favorite novels to sort out the clues.
Summary: The Family Fang meets The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry in this literary mystery about a struggling bookseller whose recently deceased grandfather, a famed mathematician, left behind a dangerous equation for her to track down—and protect—before others can get their hands on it.
Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling Seattle bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden.
While in Los Angeles for Isaac’s funeral, Hazel realizes she’s not the only one searching for his life’s work, and that the equation’s implications have potentially disastrous consequences for the extended Severy family, a group of dysfunctional geniuses unmoored by the sudden death of their patriarch.
As agents of an enigmatic company shadow Isaac’s favorite son—a theoretical physicist—and a long-lost cousin mysteriously reappears in Los Angeles, the equation slips further from Hazel’s grasp. She must unravel a series of maddening clues hidden by Isaac inside one of her favorite novels, drawing her ever closer to his mathematical treasure. But when her efforts fall short, she is forced to enlist the help of those with questionable motives.
Final Thought: This box had a great selection of books. I am the most excited to read Other People's Houses. If you want to subscribe to Book of the Month, use this link to get your a free month when you subscribe, just use the code YESPLZ.
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