Book of the Month Subscription Review + 50% Off Coupon – Nov 2015

Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription box. Each month, 5 curators pick out their favorite new hardcover books, and you can choose which one you want to receive on the first of the month.

They are currently having an amazing deal on 3-month subscriptions (deal details below), so I had to sign up. (Plus I love book subscriptions so I probably would have signed up for this one with or without a deal!)

My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).

The Subscription Box: Book of the Month

The Cost: $16.99 a month ($8.99 a month with 12-month subscription).

The Product: Subscribers get to pick from a selection of hardcover books each month.

Ships to: US Only

Check out all of my Book of the Month reviews!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wish list!

For November, subscribers picked from the following 5 books:

Also – current subscribers got the opportunity to fill out a survey for an additional book of their choice at no cost this month, so that’s why this box has two books.

First up:

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson – Retail Value $27.95 (On Amazon for $17.78)

Book Summary from Amazon:

Now a New York Times bestseller and from the author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world’s most underappreciated forces: shame.

‘It’s about the terror, isn’t it?’

‘The terror of what?’ I said.

‘The terror of being found out.’

For the past three years, Jon Ronson has travelled the world meeting recipients of high-profile public shamings. The shamed are people like us – people who, say, made a joke on social media that came out badly, or made a mistake at work. Once their transgression is revealed, collective outrage circles with the force of a hurricane and the next thing they know they’re being torn apart by an angry mob, jeered at, demonized, sometimes even fired from their job.

A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with our voice? We are mercilessly finding people’s faults. We are defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.

Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it.

And each book is selected by a judge – this book comes with a letter from guest judge Joel Stein. I like that he describes this as the opposite of a self-help book. I’m only just a few chapters in, but I’m already engrossed!

And here is my bonus pick for completing the survey:

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes – Retail Value $27.95 (On Amazon for $17.58)

Book summary from Amazon:

A fresh, honest, and darkly funny debut collection about family, friends, and lovers, and the flaws that make us most human.

Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves.

In “Desert Hearts,” a woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. In “Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,” a woman realizes she much prefers the company of her pit bull—and herself—to the neurotic foreign fling who won’t decamp from her apartment. In “How Am I Supposed to Talk to You?” a daughter hauls a suitcase of lingerie to Mexico for her flighty, estranged mother to resell there, wondering whether her personal mission—to come out—is worth the same effort. And in “Barbara the Slut,” a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high school’s toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes.

With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, Barbara the Slut is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.

I normally don’t read short stories (no good reason, just don’t), so I thought a free bonus book was the right opportunity to give a short story collection a try!

Verdict: I’m happy with my selection this month. I’ve seen So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed on so many recommended book lists, and I finally have my own copy!

I’m also very pleased with the value of my Book of the Month subscription so far – I still can’t believe I got this book for only $6.99!

What do you think of the Book of the Month subscription? Which box did you pick this month? (FYI – if you sign up for Book of the Month now, your first book selection month will be in December).