Book of the Month September 2016 Subscription Box Review #2 + 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.

Book of the Month Club has a new deal – try just one month for just $5 with code READ5!

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Here were 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! Note you can add on extra selections inexpensively!

 The second small box contained two books.

Lots of reading ahead of me!

I decided to start with Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue first and end with A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.

Dear Reader –

Behold this book and all it contains – such stuff as dreams are made of:

– hope and despair
– joy and heartbreak
– comedy and tragedy
– luck and fate< >All rendered with grace, humor, empathy and with extraordinary prose.
I hope you love it -<
Cynthia

Behold the Dreamers By Imbolo Mbue – Judge: Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney ($17.40 on Amazon)

I decided to read it first because of the judge’s letter.

A compulsively readable debut novel about marriage, immigration, class, race, and the trapdoors in the American Dream—the unforgettable story of a young Cameroonian couple making a new life in New York just as the Great Recession upends the economy

Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son. In the fall of 2007, Jende can hardly believe his luck when he lands a job as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers. Clark demands punctuality, discretion, and loyalty—and Jende is eager to please. Clark’s wife, Cindy, even offers Neni temporary work at the Edwardses’ summer home in the Hamptons. With these opportunities, Jende and Neni can at last gain a foothold in America and imagine a brighter future.

However, the world of great power and privilege conceals troubling secrets, and soon Jende and Neni notice cracks in their employers’ façades.

When the financial world is rocked by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the Jongas are desperate to keep Jende’s job—even as their marriage threatens to fall apart. As all four lives are dramatically upended, Jende and Neni are forced to make an impossible choice.

Behold the Dreamers is written by Imbolo Mbue  who is a native of Lime, Cameroon and has been a resident of the United States for over a decade. What I most enjoyed about the novel was the observations made of Cameroon and American culture, race, and socioecomical status. I was rooting for Neni to become a pharmacist and wondered how she felt with where her life took her while her husband, Jende, ultimately lived the dream.

Dear Reader –

Did you read Amor Towles’ Rules of Civility? If so you know what a treat you are in for with his second novel, A Gentlemen in Moscow, in which the ever-elegant County Rostov is held under house arrest in The Hotel Metropol just as the The Russia Revolution is underway. And if you haven’t read Rules? Well, have a double feature in store. I can’t recommend this novel high enough.

XOXO Leigh Harber

A Gentleman in Moscow By Amor Towles – Judge: Leigh Harbor ($16.20 on Amazon – released on September 6, 2016!)

I saved a Gentleman in Moscow for last because it is over 460 pages long. Every page captivated me.

He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel

“Towles’s greatest narrative effect is not the moments of wonder and synchronicity but the generous transformation of these peripheral workers, over the course of decades, into confidants, equals and, finally, friends.  With them around, a life sentence in these gilded halls might make Rostov the luckiest man in Russia.” –The New York Times Book Review

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

“And the intrigue! … [A Gentleman in Moscow] is laced with sparkling threads (they will tie up) and tokens (they will matter): special keys, secret compartments, gold coins, vials of coveted liquid, old-fashioned pistols, duels and scars, hidden assignations (discreet and smoky), stolen passports, a ruby necklace, mysterious letters on elegant hotel stationery… a luscious stage set, backdrop for a downright Casablanca-like drama.” – The San Francisco Chronicle

I have not read Rules of Civility and am unable to compare his first book against his second novel. A Gentleman in Moscow is a beautifully written novel that takes you through thirty years of turmoil in Russia without ever leaving the Hotel Metropol. Count Alexander Rostov lives a full life in spite of his circumstances. The words transport you to his world where you can see, hear, and smell everything he is experiencing. A Gentleman in Moscow is a delightful read and one that I would reread for the details that I missed the first time around

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. Both books are books that I would have eventually read and was enriching to read them now. It made me think of immigrants’ plights while seeking a better life. Count Rostov’s elegance and dignity remained me once I completed the book.

There were no issues with the spine or loose pages even when both books traveled in a tote bag.  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. 

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

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