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 June 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".
Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga - Retail Value $13.95 (Found here for $11.29)
The first book is by a Zimbabwean author who tells the story of women's life in post-colonial Africa. The writing is anything but flowery, but I was struck by the emotion and imagery that it conjured nonetheless. It's wrenching and beautiful at the same time. I don't read enough African authors, so I appreciated getting this contemporary work in the box.
Book Summary on Amazon:
A modern classic in the African literary canon and voted in the Top Ten Africa’s 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, this novel brings to the politics of decolonization theory the energy of women’s rights. An extraordinarily well-crafted work, this book is a work of vision. Through its deft negotiation of race, class, gender and cultural change, it dramatizes the ‘nervousness’ of the ‘postcolonial’ conditions that bedevil us still. In Tambu and the women of her family, we African women see ourselves, whether at home or displaced, doing daily battle with our changing world with a mixture of tenacity, bewilderment and grace.
Barley Patch by Gerald Murnane - Retail Value $14.95 (found here for $8.34)
The next paperback in the box is this work by an Australian author. It's sort of a meta look at writing, where the author himself delves into a memoir that soon expands into a web of stories that blur the lines between fiction and reality. It feels suuuper literary, thanks to the imaginative imagery and unexpected concept, but in that way that takes me back to my blissful days as an English major.
Book Summary from Giramondo Publishing:
Gerald Murnane is regarded by many as Australia’s most innovative writer of fiction. Barley Patch is his first new work in fourteen years, written after a period in which he had thought he would never write fiction again.
The book begins with the question, ‘Must I write?’ What follows is both a chronicle of the images that have endured in the author’s mind, and an exploration of their nature. The clarity of the images is extraordinary, as is their range, from Mandrake the Magician to the bachelor uncle kicked in the ‘stones’ as a child, from the country cousin’s doll’s house to the mysterious woman who lets her hair down, from the soldier beetle who winks messages from God to the racehorses that run forever in the author’s mind, beyond the grasslands, to the place where the characters of fiction dwell before they come into existence in books.
Art Print by Marion Dessan
This box also included a postcard-sized art card by a Luxembourgian artist with autism. To be honest, the art isn't exactly my aesthetic, but I do love the idea of an artist from a traditionally marginalized group getting exposure. Plus, the print isn't just a computer print-out tossed in the box. The back is stamped with the print number! This is a cool, unexpected extra in the box.
The Verdict: My favorite thing about Boxwalla is their dedication to connecting readers to lesser-represented communities, cultures, and artists. I've been actively trying to expand the kind of media I take in, specifically in terms of trying to expose myself to different voices. And I always feel like I'm a little more in touch with the world at large when I work my way through this thoughtfully curated subscription box!
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: The items for which I could find retail values totaled $28.90 (so, not counting the art print). This box costs $29.95 + free shipping, which means that each of the 3 items in the box has an average cost of $9.98.
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