Book of the Month September 2016 Subscription Box Review + Coupon

Bookspan’s Book of the Month Club is a monthly book subscription box. Each month their panel of Judges selects 5 books, which they announce on the first of the month, and members have six days to decide which book (or books) they would like to receive. All books are shipped at the same time, so members can read and participate in their discussion forums as a group. One book per month is included in the membership fee, and members can purchase up to two additional books each month for $9.99 per title. The monthly price is $16.99 per month, $11.99 per month on a year long subscription.

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Here are the choices for September!

The September 2016 Book of the Month selections were:

★The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo By Amy Schumer– selected by Guest Judge: Andy Cohen ($16.80 on Amazon)
★ Behold the Dreamers By Imbolo Mbue – Judge: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney ($17.40 on Amazon)
★The Couple Next Door By Shari Lapena – Judge: Liberty ($15.81 on Amazon)
★  A Gentleman in Moscow By Amor Towles – Judge: Leigh Harbor ($16.20 on Amazon – released on September 6, 2016!)
★All At Sea By Decca Aitkenhead– Judge: Maris Kreizman ($19.87 on Amazon)
I love to read and am ecstatic that Book of the Month kindly sent out all five September selections. There is nothing like having a great book in my hands! It would have been difficult to pick one book this month!

I selected the box containing three books as the first box to review because I see the BOTM bookmark wrapped with the top book. The remaining two selections will be in a separate review post.

It was an easy decision to start reading  The Couple Next Door By Shari Lapena right away after reading the judge’s letter.

The monthly bookmaker and the judge’s letter was included with The Couple Next Door.

What is your answer? I found it hard to answer. I am transported into the book when reading. The book becomes alive to me. Reading is an escape, a journey, an opportunity to learn more about the human psyche and travel to other places. It’s also plain fun!

Can you believe that summer is already over ?!? I know I can’t. Luckily, we have exciting thrillers like this one to keep us in the ‘beach reading’ mood a little longer!

The Couple Next Door is a blast! I may have read this faster than any other book before, because I had to know what would become of the Conti Family.

I hope you are similarly entranced!

Don’t forget to lock your doors…

Liberty

The Couple Next Door By Shari Lapena – Judge: Liberty($15.81 on Amazon)

I had to read it all in one night. I simply could not resist.

It all started at a dinner party. . . 

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors—a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives. . . 

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all—a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately focuses on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story.

Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds. Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco  soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years.

What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family—a chilling tale of  deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

Nothing graphic is described about the baby for those that are hesitant to read children in jeopardy novels. It is centered around the adults – lies, motivations, tension, and suspense. I thought I had the psychological thriller figured out until I reached a twist that changed everything. There is a superficial layer of what is happening and a deeper layer to the people and events. I absolutely hated the last few pages although it is foreshadowed throughout the book.

The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo By Amy Schumer– selected by Guest Judge: Andy Cohen ($16.80 on Amazon)

I noticed that The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo is the only book without the BOTM cover variant. I have heard of Amy Schumer but know nothing about her except she is a comedian.

The Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, writer, and star of Inside Amy Schumer and the acclaimed film Trainwreck has taken the entertainment world by storm with her winning blend of smart, satirical humor. Now, Amy Schumer has written a refreshingly candid and uproariously funny collection of (extremely) personal and observational essays.

In The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is—a woman with the courage to bare her soul to stand up for what she believes in, all while making us laugh.

Ranging from the raucous to the romantic, the heartfelt to the harrowing, this highly entertaining and universally appealing collection is the literary equivalent of a night out with your best friend—an unforgettable and fun adventure that you wish could last forever. Whether she’s experiencing lust-at-first-sight while in the airport security line, sharing her own views on love and marriage, admitting to being an introvert, or discovering her cross-fit instructor’s secret bad habit, Amy Schumer proves to be a bighearted, brave, and thoughtful storyteller that will leave you nodding your head in recognition, laughing out loud, and sobbing uncontrollably—but only because it’s over.

It’s an autobiography with humorous stories and sad stories that come from her being open and vulnerable to the reader.That part that grabbed me the most was her strong relationship with her sister and niece. I don’t know how it compares to her comedy material because I never watched her.

I don’t want to forget,” writes Decca Aikenhead in the prologue to her beautiful and devasting memoir, ALL AT SEA.

After her partner, and the father of her two sons, drowned in a freak accident in 2014, Decca set out to write about it. She was compelled to. And we are lucky enough to read the result.

As harrowing as the story may be, ALL AT SEA is a breath-taking sublimation of grief in the wake of tragedy. I hope you are as haunted by it as I am.

Maris

All At Sea By Decca Aitkenhead– Judge: Maris Kreizman ($19.87 on Amazon)

I read All at Sea last because I knew it would be a tearjearker.

On a hot, still morning on a beautiful beach in Jamaica, Decca Aitkenhead’s life changed forever. Her four-year-old son was paddling peacefully at the water’s edge when a wave pulled him out to sea. Her partner, Tony, swam out and saved their son’s life—then drowned before her eyes.
When Decca and Tony first met, a decade earlier, she was a renowned Guardian journalist profiling leading politicians of the day; he was a dreadlocked criminal with a history of drug dealing and violence. No one thought the romance would last, but it did—until the tide swept Tony away, plunging Decca into the dark chasm of random tragedy.
Exploring race and redemption, privilege and prejudice, All at Sea is a breathtakingly honest, profound, and utterly unforgettable memoir.

The surrealness of a situation that becomes an emergency is captured by Decca Aitenhead’s words. The story is emotional and yet fills in the background of both Decca and Tony. The last part of the book describes how Decca and their children adjust to life without Tony.

Book of the Month kindly sent all five selections to me which I greatly appreciate because I love to read. I always have a hard time choosing just one book! Being pushed outside of my comfort reading level is one of the things that I enjoy about the Book of the Month. It’s not often that I have an opportunity to read two different types of memoirs in the same month.

My favorite book is The Couple Next Door because I enjoy reading psychological thrillers.  I carried the books in my tote bag and noticed no issues with loose papers or binding. Book of the Month is an inexpensive way to build up your reading library of favorite genres or to push yourself into unfamiliar genres! Skip if nothing interests you. Can’t wait? Hit the ship it early button in your account by 8pm ET on the second of the month. Add on up to two extra books at $9.99 a book if you can’t decide! There’s even a discussion group.  Select a book by September 21!

What book did you pick this month? Share below and let us know!

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