Subscription: BookCase.Club [or click here for the Cratejoy link]
Cost: $9.99/mo + $5 shipping
What to Expect: “A selection of handpicked books based on your preferences. Boxes are shipped on the 1st of each month.”
BookCase.Club stops taking orders each month on the 26th, they ship on the 1st of the month, and bill starting on the 10th.
While poking around the BookCase.Club website, the first thing that struck me as cool was the fact that they donate books to charity for every subscriber they get. I like partnerships like that where the companies give back.
We have partnered with Books for Keeps and every month BookCase.Club will donate one children’s book for every active subscription. So not only are you receiving your own great books, you are helping send one to a child that might not otherwise have a book to read.
Books for Keeps has a simple goal: to place books in the hands of children who are least likely to have access. This program gives 12 books to every child served just in time for summer. The goal: to keep up their reading achievement outside of school.
When you sign up there are eight different options to choose from, but the Cookbooks and Military History boxes are quarterly. I got YA, though I think Strange Worlds, Thrill Seekers, and Blind Date all sound good!
Box: Teenage Dreams Case
For December there’s a nice bookmark that is very straightforward AND useful! I like it. Plus they got a makeover! New box, new info card, and a new logo.
We judge presentation here at Subscriptionista! Some of us might just buy subscription boxes FOR the actual boxes
キタ━━━(゜∀゜)━━━!!!!! [according to the all-knowing Wikipedia that emoji is for “Kitaa!!” or “it’s here!!”]
A Matter of Heart by Amy Fellner Dominy
Readers will happily sink into this emotionally grounded, contemporary young adult novel about the sudden end of one girl’s Olympic swimming dreams and the struggles she endures before realizing there are many things that define who we are.
Sixteen-year-old Abby Lipman is on track to win the state swim championships and qualify for the Olympic trials when a fainting incident at a swim meet leads to the diagnosis of a deadly heart condition. Now Abby is forced to discover who she is without the one thing that’s defined her entire life.
The back of the book makes it sound like she missed her birth control pill, but that’s not the case. I’m not sure about this one. Sports + physical trauma + heart wrenching stories are way out of my comfort zone. On the plus side, I like the cover and that it’s a hardback without a dust jacket.
I have to cover books at work, and while I enjoy covering dust jackets, I don’t like them when I read books because they fall off and rip!
Diamond Boy by Michael WIlliams
A high-stakes, harrowing adventure set in the diamond fields of Southern Africa, from the critically acclaimed author of Now Is the Time for Running.
“Diamonds for everyone.”
That’s what fifteen-year-old Patson Moyo hears when his family arrives in the Marange diamond fields. Soon Patson is working in the mines himself, hoping to find his girazi–the priceless stone that could change his life forever. But when the government’s soldiers comes to Marange, Patson’s world is shattered.
Set against the backdrop of President Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime in Zimbabwe, Diamond Boy is the story of young man who succumbs to greed but finds his way out through a transformative journey to South Africa in search of his missing sister, in search of freedom, and in search of himself.
This sounds like a tough read for me, but I actually really hate diamonds because of how they are mined and that they’re not rare or really worth anything after you initially buy them. Anyway, my personal convictions aside, this is going on my TBR [to be read] list because A. I love the cover and B. it sounds interesting. It also has a lot of reviews that say things I like, such as “tough subject, great book.”
Verdict: This box is good for discovering new-to-you books. Like November, I’m looking forward to reading one book, but will stick the other in the little free library next to my house. The YA box doesn’t seem to be very diverse so far, and after growing up mixed in the white world of books and becoming a librarian, I’m a big fan of We Need Diverse Books. I hope this box will continue to improve the outsides and insides!
Are diamonds your best friend? Or are you more into pizza? Let us know!
Click here to see other BookCase.Club reviews.
Disclosure: I was sent this box in exchange for my honest review, there are no referral links.