Powell’s Books Indiespensable is a book subscription box that ships every 6 weeks. So many readers recommended this box that I had to sign up!
FYI – this subscription is currently sold out, but they open it up every month or so. (If you want an email alert when the waitlist opens, you can sign up for the MSA Powell’s Indiespensable waitlist email).
My Subscription Addiction pays for this subscription. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes).
The Subscription Box: Powell’s Books Indiespensable
The Cost: $39.95 a shipment (every 6 weeks)
The Products: Exclusive books and extras
Ships to: Worldwide
Check out all of my Powell’s Indiespensable reviews!
The box comes with a little booklet that details the items in the box, why they were chosen, and includes additional exclusives, like an interview with author:
Did You Ever Have A Family by Bill Clegg - Retail Value $26 (not counting custom slipcase) On Amazon for $14.30
Book Summary from Amazon:
The stunning debut novel from bestselling author Bill Clegg is a magnificently powerful story about a circle of people who find solace in the least likely of places as they cope with a horrific tragedy.
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke—her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor.
Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.
From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding’s caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke’s mother, the shattered outcast of the town—everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.
Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family—the ones we are born with and the ones we create.
The value for the hardcover I listed is based on the hardcover copy alone, not including the exclusive slipcase. It also doesn’t factor in that this is a signed first edition:
Tuesday Nights in 1980 by Molly Prentiss - Advanced Reader Copy (Hardcover will retail for $26)
Wow - this book isn't released until April 2016! I love getting these kind of perks with this subscription!
Book Summary from Amazon:
An intoxicating and transcendent debut novel that follows a critic, an artist, and their shared muse as they find their way—and ultimately collide—amid the ever-evolving New York City art scene of the 1980s.
Welcome to SoHo at the onset of the eighties: a gritty, quickly gentrifying playground for artists and writers looking to make it in the big city. Among them: James Bennett, a synesthetic art critic for theNew York Times whose unlikely condition enables him to describe art in profound, magical ways, and Raul Engales, an exiled Argentinian painter running from his past and the Dirty War that has enveloped his country. As the two men ascend in the downtown arts scene, dual tragedies strike, and each is faced with a loss that acutely affects his relationship to life and to art.
It is not until they are inadvertently brought together by Lucy Olliason—a small town beauty and Raul’s muse—and a young orphan boy sent mysteriously from Buenos Aires that James and Raul are able to rediscover some semblance of what they’ve lost.
As inventive as Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad and as sweeping as Meg Wolitzer’sThe Interestings, Tuesday Nights in 1980 boldly renders a complex moment when the meaning and nature of art is being all but upended, and New York City as a whole is reinventing itself. In risk-taking prose that is as powerful as it is playful, Molly Prentiss deftly explores the need for beauty, community, creation, and love in an ever-changing urban landscape.
Trailhead Coffee Roasters Sunbreak Morning Blend - Value $7?
(The size on this bag isn't marked, so for value I'm assuming it is half the size of the full-size 12 ounce version). I love when Powell's includes a Portland food item in this box. My husband is the coffee drinker in this house, and already loves just how good the bag smells, so I'm sure he'll love actually drinking it too. (He's waiting for his October Bespoke Post "Roast" box).
Verdict: I'm always happy with this subscription. I love getting exposed to new authors, plus getting a signed book, slipcase and advanced reader copy gives me the exclusivity I love in a subscription box!
What do you think of Volume 55?
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