BoxWalla is a subscription box company dedicated to sharing uncommon food, books, films, and green beauty items, and they curate bi-monthly boxes for each of those categories. Subscribe to one or more, and add or switch interests at any time.
BoxWalla is run by a couple of self-declared "aesthetes" with a keen eye for meaningful details. Even the package is a sustainable, handmade box made from paper!
This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)
This review is of the Boxwalla Book subscription, which is $29.95 every other month.
About the Boxwalla Book Subscription Box
The Subscription Box: BoxWalla Book
The Cost: $29.95 every other month + free US shipping
The Products: Thoughtfully curated literature by prospective Nobel laureates from around the world.
Ships to: US (for free) and international locations
Boxwalla Book Subscription Box April 2018 Review
Here's a note from the box's curators. I love the context they provide for their selections. This month's theme is "Women About Women".
Her Mother's Mother's Mother & Her Daughters by Maria Jose Silveira - Retail Value $16.95 (Found here for $13.35)
At first, I was confused as to why this "novel" had a table of contents. As it turns out, this book is one cohesive story—the story of modern Brazil, starting at the moment the Portuguese arrive—told through the individual stories of its women. There's joy and splendor and tragedy and cruelty. Some elements slip into the stories so easily that they catch you off guard—colonization, the influx of slavery, brutality... you watch as these things fluctuate between being shocking to normal from generation to generation. It's a fascinating, captivating, eye-opening look at a culture's history.
Book Summary on Amazon
Spanning 500 years of Brazilian history, Her Mother's Mother's Mother and Her Daughters chronicles a family of women, beginning in 1500 with the birth of Inaiá, daughter of a Tupiniquim warrior, and ending in 2001 with Inaiá's distant descendent, Maria Flor. As each new daughter takes the place of her mother, and the mothers before her, Maria José Silveira's captivating, cinematic prose takes us through the formation of the country itself, as well as through the roles, customs, challenges, and intrigues of the women within it.
Subversive and refreshing, Silveira blends great storytelling with personal politics to critique the machismo, authoritarianism, and abuses of power prevalent in Brazilian culture.
It's a delicate subject, the family story is complicated, and not everything was wine and roses. There was, of course, much happiness and love, many battles and accomplishments, great feats―after all, the women here helped to build this country from nearly nothing. But there were also stories of insanity, or murderesses, and not a few sorrows and tragedies. Great disappointments. A good many of them.
Maria José Silveira is the author of ten novels, including the prize-winning Her Mother's Mother's Mother and Her Daughters, the film rights to which were sold to TV Globo.
Eric M. B. Becker is editor of Words Without Borders and an award-winning journalist and literary translator. He received a PEN/Heim Translation grant for his work on Mia Couto, and has also translated works by Lygia Fagundes Telles, Noemi Jaffe, and others.
The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail - Retail Value $16.95 (Found here for $14.04)
This book is not for the faint of heart. These non-fiction accounts of real Iraqi women who suffered under Daesh (better known as ISIS in the States) are harrowing as all get out. It's incredible thinking of what they've endured. It's also incredible learning about the ordinary people who used whatever knowledge and bravery they could muster to save lives. These stories felt so important, especially for their lessons on standing up to hate with hope and love.
The Verdict: These books from Boxwalla were sooo powerful. Call me biased, but I love reading stories about women, especially women from different cultures than my own. It's fascinating if not downright heart-wrenching learning about what women have endured and overcome throughout history. And what they continue to endure in present day! While these books weren't the casual weekend read I might've been hoping for, they did engage, educate, and move me in beautiful, powerful ways.
To Wrap Up:
Can you still get this box if you sign up today? No. Sign up here to get the next box!
Value Breakdown: This box cost me $29.95, and I received products worth a total retail value of $33.90. That means I paid, proportionally, about the following for each item:
- Her Mother's Mother's Mother & Her Daughters - $14.98
- The Beekeeper - $14.98
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