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Book of the Month May 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.
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What's in the box? On the first of the month, you will get to select from 5 different books.
I was sent all the books for review this month.
Each book is sent in a little blue box.
First Look
Each book is wrapped in plastic and packaged on a larger cardboard card.
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center Margaret has a new job and a fiance, when tragedy hits. It's not clear what happens, the story follows what happens next.
Summary: Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she’s worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment.
In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect.
Still Lives by Maria Hummel Kim Lord is an artist who is premiering a large art show. The show is portraits of her as the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, and Nicole Brown Simpson. She never shows up for her premier and everyone is considered a suspect.
Summary: Kim Lord is an avant-garde figure, feminist icon, and agent provocateur in the L.A. art scene. Her groundbreaking new exhibition Still Lives is comprised of self-portraits depicting herself as famous, murdered women―the Black Dahlia, Chandra Levy, Nicole Brown Simpson, among many others―and the works are as compelling as they are disturbing, implicating a culture that is too accustomed to violence against women.
As the city’s richest art patrons pour into the Rocque Museum’s opening night, all the staff, including editor Maggie Richter, hope the event will be enough to save the historic institution’s flailing finances. Except Kim Lord never shows up to her own gala. Fear mounts as the hours and days drag on and Lord remains missing. Suspicion falls on the up-and-coming gallerist Greg Shaw Ferguson, who happens to be Maggie’s ex. A rogue’s gallery of eccentric art world figures could also have motive for the act, and as Maggie gets drawn into her own investigation of Lord’s disappearance, she’ll come to suspect all of those closest to her.
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy This book is probably the first book I am going to read. This book is about a group of mothers called, the May Mothers. The May Mothers are a group of mother's who had babies in May. They all go out one evening when one baby goes missing. I love a good mystery novel, so I really want to read this one.
Summary: They call themselves the May Mothers—a group of new moms whose babies were born in the same month. Twice a week, they get together in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for some much-needed adult time.
When the women go out for drinks at the hip neighborhood bar, they want a fun break from their daily routine. But on this hot Fourth of July night, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is taken from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but her fellow May Mothers insisted everything would be fine. Now he is missing. What follows is a heart-pounding race to find Midas, during which secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are destroyed.
Small Country by Gaël Faye This book is about a 10-year-old Gabriel who lives a happy life. Everything is wonderful when Burundi and Rwanda are bombed.
Summary: Burundi, 1992. For ten-year-old Gabriel, life in his comfortable expatriate neighborhood of Bujumbura with his French father, Rwandan mother and little sister Ana, is something close to paradise.
These are carefree days of laughter and adventure – sneaking Supermatch cigarettes and gorging on stolen mangoes – as he and his mischievous gang of friends transform their tiny cul-de-sac into their kingdom.
But dark clouds are gathering over this small country, and soon their peaceful existence will shatter when Burundi, and neighboring Rwanda, are brutally hit by civil war and genocide.
A novel of extraordinary power and beauty, Small Country describes an end of innocence as seen through the eyes of a child caught in the maelstrom of history. Shot through with shadows and light, tragedy and humor, it is a stirring tribute not only to a dark chapter in Africa’s past, but also to the bright days that preceded it.
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner Romy Hall is serving time in prison and this book explores her life. I like Orange is the New Black, so I think this book will also be interesting.
Summary It’s 2003 and Romy Hall is at the start of two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility, deep in California’s Central Valley. Outside is the world from which she has been severed: the San Francisco of her youth and her young son, Jackson. Inside is a new reality: thousands of women hustling for the bare essentials needed to survive; the bluffing and pageantry and casual acts of violence by guards and prisoners alike; and the deadpan absurdities of institutional living, which Kushner evokes with great humor and precision.
Stunning and unsentimental, The Mars Room demonstrates new levels of mastery and depth in Kushner’s work. It is audacious and tragic, propulsive and yet beautifully refined. As James Wood said in The New Yorker, her fiction “succeeds because it is so full of vibrantly different stories and histories, all of them particular, all of them brilliantly alive.”
Final Thought: I enjoy exploring new books with Book of the Month. You can select your favorite book each month, or skip! I think I am going to read The Perfect Mother first. If you want to subscribe to Book of the Month, use this link to get a free month when you subscribe, just use the code YESPLZ.
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