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Book of the Month
Cost: $16.99/month
Ships To: United States.
Coupon Code: “30TOTE” to get 30% off a 3-month Book of the Month membership PLUS a free Book of the Month tote bag or “READ5” to try one month for just $5.
Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription service. Each month their panel of Judges selects a limited number of exceptional books to offer to their members. They announce their New Selections on the first of the month, and members have six days to decide which book (or books) they would like to receive. They ship books to all of their members at the same time, so members can read and participate in their discussion forum as a group.
Book of the Month ships via USPS on the 6th day of each month. I received my package early for review purposes.
So excited! Just like last month, Book of the Month actually sent me all of this month’s selections, but I am going to do my main “review” on the book I am planning on starting first.
My August 2016 Book of the Month selection was as follows:
~Siracusa: by Delia Ephron (Amazon Price: $17.04): I recently got a Kindle Paperwhite (which I love), but I have to admit, there is just something about actually cracking into a “real” book. I have gotten a few chapters into this one and I am hooked. Each chapter is narrated by one of the book’s four main characters from their point of view. I am hoping to finish this up in the next few days!
From Book of the Month Judge Kim Hubbard:
“Travel rocks your perspective,” says Finn, one of five characters vacationing together in this delicious new novel. That’s putting it mildly: by the time Finn, his wife Taylor, their daughter Snow and their friends Lizzie and Michael are back home in the U.S. , their worlds will be turned upside down. This much is clear from the outset, so half the fun here is trying to predict what deceit could be lurking as the vacationers sun, drink and quarrel in Siracusa, a down-at-the-heels seaside town on the eastern coast of Sicily.
The novel is a stew of domestic intrigue. Will Lizzie, a New York magazine writer with dwindling assignments, rekindle her romance with Finn, the grizzled Maine restaurateur? Will Finn’s wife Taylor, the frosty privileged beauty from NYC’s Upper East Side, even notice? Could Michael, Lizzie’s successful-author husband, be harboring secrets of his own? And what’s the deal with nearly-silent 10-year-old Snow, who’s constantly glued to her smothering mom and exudes an obscure air of menace?
Told rashomon-style, with chapters alternating among the four adults’ viewpoints, the story moves at a satisfying clip. But it’s more than suspense that makes the book such a treat. Delia Ephron, a playwright and screenwriter as well as a novelist, excels at spritely dialogue and has a keen eye for the pleasures and pitfalls of long marriages. Her observations on that score are hilarious. “I joke that sex is rhubarb,” Taylor confides at one point. “Something I forget I like and then I taste it and remember, I like this, but then I forget all over again.”
The violent denouement, when it comes, feels both shocking and utterly believable. Knocked off balance by their foreign surroundings, the characters fall prey to their darker impulses, and the consequences aren’t pretty. You’ll finish Siracusa with a delighted shiver, a hankering for gelato–and no desire to plan a double-date vacation anytime soon.
~Bonus Item: This month had a bonus wine koozie. I have never seem one of these before and am THRILLED to learn they exist. This with a glass of wine + your book outside? Perfect!
August Book of the Month Selections
In addition to the book above, the remaining August selections are as follows:
★ Circling the Sun by Paula McLain – selected by Allison Williams from the HBO comedy-drama series Girls (Amazon Price: $17.19)
★ All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood (Amazon Price: $20.69)
★ Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (Amazon Price: $14.99)
★ The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware (Amazon Price: $15.60)
What do you think of Book of the Month? Which of the selections interests you most this month?
Coupon Codes
New Book of the Month customers can use one of the following coupon codes with a new subscription purchase:
~ “30TOTE” to get 30% off a 3-month Book of the Month membership PLUS a free Book of the Month tote bag.
~ “READ5” to try one month for just $5.