Powell's Books Indispensable is a book subscription box by the iconic bookstore in Portland, Oregon.
Every 6-8 weeks, subscribers will receive another box of expertly curated new books with a focus on indie publishers. Note that this subscription raised its prices somewhat recently. Here's what they said:
Dear valued Indiespensable subscriber,
As the curators of Indiespensable, we place the highest importance on offering unique, collectible books along with additional value that exceeds the amount we charge per installment.
Since we launched the program in 2008, we have maintained our commitment to these high standards. Unfortunately, the cost of books, slipcases, and shipping has climbed significantly. We must regrettably recover some of those cost increases in order to continue providing the same value and quality you expect from the Indiespensable program.
Effective with Volume 66, Borne by Jeff VanderMeer, our new volume price will be $44.95.
Thank you for your continued commitment to Indiespensable. We hope to bring you many more wonderful volumes in the future.
Sincerely,
The Indiespensable team
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
About Powell's Indiespensable Book Subscription
The Subscription Box: Powell's Books Indiespensable
The Cost: $44.95 a shipment (every 6-8 weeks) + free US shipping
The Products: Thoughtfully curated new books, with an interest in indie authors, plus fun extras
Ships to: Shipping is free in the US and $12.00 per package outside the US.
Powell's Indiespensable Volume 72 featuring Census by Jesse Ball
Each box comes with a small booklet of information about the author. I appreciate the context and depth this gives the reading experience.
Census by Jesse Ball - Retail Value $25.99 (Found here for $19.65)
First, a note on value! The retail value I found above is for the regular hardcover version of the book being sold in stores. This version, which comes with a hard, custom sleeve and an inner page signed by the author, is likely valued differently. My guess is that it might be slightly more expensive, but I can't say for sure.
I found this book to be a moving, human look at the nature of the country. It's quiet and somewhat reserved in its storytelling, letting the emotion and weight of certain moments soak through on their own.
Book Summary on Amazon:
NAMED ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2018 BY
The New York Times • The Chicago Reader • Nylon • The Boston Globe • The Huffington Post • The Rumpus • The AV Club • Southern Living • The Millions • Buzzfeed
A powerful and moving new novel from an award-winning, acclaimed author: in the wake of a devastating revelation, a father and son journey north across a tapestry of towns
When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn’t have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son—a son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son.
Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach “Z,” the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son?
Mysterious and evocative, Census is a novel about free will, grief, the power of memory, and the ferocity of parental love, from one of our most captivating young writers.
Your Duck Is My Duck: Stories Advance Reader's Edition from Uncorrected Proofs by Deborah Eisenberg - Buy the hardcover here for $22.68
This one was a hard book to value since it's an uncorrected proof. The version that is currently available is a hardcover that retails for $26.99. I suspect the sale price I found it listed for is probably closer to what a true paperback version of the book would come in at. But again, it's hard to tell.
The writing in this book seemed lush compared to Census. The stories have a surprising wit about them (not necessarily humor, but sharpness) that I liked. I was also intrigued by the diversity of characters the author addressed through her short stories, and the honesty with which she inhabited them.
Book Summary on Amazon:
A much-anticipated collection of uncannily observant short stories from one of the great American masters of the form
Deborah Eisenberg’s brutally funny, unsettling, and shrewdly perceptive stories have been captivating readers for decades. Exquisitely distilled meditations on the state of the Western world and the course of individual lives, they combine uneasiness, a magical glimmer, and comedy, in a manner that is uniquely candid and profoundly moving.
In Your Duck is My Duck, her first new collection since 2006, Eisenberg presents us with characters swimming or drowning in a disintegrating environment – among them, some former Hollywood actors, an entitled young man who falls into an unlikely love affair with a human rights worker on a mysterious quest, a woman whose face illustrates her family’s history, a girl receiving treatment for an inexplicable psychological affliction, and a politically conscious puppeteer.
With her finely tuned ear for dialogue and description, Eisenberg is at her pitch-perfect best in this fascinating collection, her deepest and most adventurous work yet.
Set of 2 Powell's Scout Logo Notebooks - Buy a 3 Pack for $9.95 here
These little 3.5" x 5" notebooks are just the kind of thing I like to drop into my pocket before heading out for the day. (I'm big on listmaking, either for fun or function.) Their thicker brown kraft-like covers and scout-badge-inspired designs give them a rustic feel. I only got two notebooks, secured together by a giant rubber band, but it looks like they typically come in sets of 3, according to Powell's site.
The Verdict: I liked everything I received in this month's box, though I wish the value of the box was easier to wrap my head around. Using the two values I could find for each book, the value is there—they alone add up to $48.67. And it could be that the featured book, given its sleeve and autograph, is worth more than is listed. I guess I'm just suspicious, as I'm betting the uncorrected paperback proof I got is also probably worth less than the closest price I found for it (which was for a corrected officially published hardcover version). The experience of getting expert-curated books to read, as well as extras like the notebooks and more importantly, the little booklet of author information, is really nice, but I can see it feeling expensive given the ease of finding books on sale, etc.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? Yes! Sign up now to get the box!
Value Breakdown: This box cost $44.95, including free shipping. Because it was tricky to nail down an accurate price for the items in this edition of the box, I'll just say that the average cost I paid per item, given the price of the box, was $14.98.
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