Book of the Month is a monthly book subscription box. Each month, five curators pick out their favorite new hardcover books, and you can choose which one you want to receive on the first of the month for $14.99/month. You can also add up to two additional books for only $9.99 each. (This box was named one of the best subscriptions for avid readers in the 2022 Subscription Box Awards.)
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the editorial guidelines to learn more about how we review boxes.)
Book Selections
These are all five of the options for this month.
First Impressions
I went for something totally outside my wheelhouse this month because I have heard about some of this author's other books!
Book Summary from Amazon:
“You are the next step in human evolution.”At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.
But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.
The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.
Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.
Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?
Intimate in scale yet epic in scope, Upgrade is an intricately plotted, lightning-fast tale that charts one man’s thrilling transformation, even as it asks us to ponder the limits of our humanity—and our boundless potential.
My BOTM Pick for July
Upgrade by Blake Crouch — Retail Value $28.00 (On sale for $19.20)
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This futuristic world where people are "engaged with screens more than with our loved ones," feels utterly plausible with its synthetic proteins, drones bees delivering injections that can modify your genes, and a surveillance state that makes it impossible to hide. All of these ideas are so unsettling but somehow feel completely within the realm of possibility since they are more extreme versions of technologies we already have. The idea of what could happen if these technologies were hijacked and placed in the wrong hands is downright terrifying especially when you consider that some might want to use them to incite revenge and inflict pain on others.
As part of the GPA, it's Logan's job to crack down on the bad guys and in the first pages he is part of a raid, a task he approaches with both confidence and trepidation. And for good reason considering this is where everything changes. His body has been hacked and his DNA rewritten and altered all without any knowledge or consent and he has absolutely no control over it. The best thing he can do is get to the bottom of why he was targeted and make use of his new "upgrade" to change things for the better. The first half of the book is Logan coming to terms with these changes as he struggles to understand what it means while we are then drawn more into his back story and how he can fight to correct the mistakes that his family made in the past.
This story pushed the boundaries and has you questioning who the good guys actually are and how far things can go before ethics take a hit. It was suspenseful and thrilling, and while it used a lot of words and scientific jargon, I was still able to get the gist of what was happening. I thoroughly enjoyed this story, although at times it was violent and gruesome, it had a great mix of emotion and action.
If you picked this book this month, please let me know what you think of it!
Each month they send us a bookmark.
This month the design is a bit different with them advertising their new podcast on the back! Let me know if you've checked it out!
Value - Was This Box Worth It?
The Cost: $14.99 + free shipping
Value Breakdown:
This box costs $14.99, but the book I chose retails for $28.00, which is a discount of about $13.00.
Key Takeaways
This book was great even though it was not something I would normally be drawn to! I love that I get to try new genres each month and the discount makes it feel a bit less risky! (Yes, I could totally try the library, but books like these are always on a waitlist at my local library!)
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To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this book if you sign up today? No, but you can always choose from past picks to start your subscription or add it on!
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