Book of the Month Review December 2016

Book of the Month Review December 2016

The December Book of the Month selections are AWESOME! We have 5 really great choices this month. I almost don’t know which one to start reading first. I haven’t had this problem until now. Usually there is one book that stands out from all the others, but not this month. There are three I want to start reading ASAP……actually it’s more like four.

Book of The Month Details

If you aren’t familiar with Book of the Month it is  a monthly book subscription box. Every month they release 5 new books which have been selected by their panel of Judges. Books are announced on the first of the month, and members have six days to decide which book they would like to receive. Monthly subscriptions include one book, but members can purchase up to two additional books each month for $9.99 per title.

You Will Know Me – Megan Abbott

Katie and Eric Knox have dedicated their lives to their fifteen-year-old daughter Devon, a gymnastics prodigy and Olympic hopeful. But when a violent death rocks their close-knit gymnastics community just weeks before an all-important competition, everything the Knoxes have worked so hard for feels suddenly at risk. As rumors swirl among the other parents, revealing hidden plots and allegiances, Katie tries frantically to hold her family together while also finding herself drawn, irresistibly, to the crime itself, and the dark corners it threatens to illuminate. From a writer with “exceptional gifts for making nerves jangle and skin crawl,” (Janet Maslin) You Will Know Me is a breathless rollercoaster of a novel about the desperate limits of desire, jealousy, and ambition.

I may be far from my teenage years, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a book based around the lives of teenagers. I actually find those the most interesting to read. I don’t know what it is, but I love them. This book sounds like a really good read, it’s one of my favourites out of this month’s selections.

Pull Me Under – Kelly Luce

Kelly Luce’s Pull Me Under tells the story of Rio Silvestri, who, when she was twelve years old, fatally stabbed a school bully. Rio, born Chizuru Akitani, is the Japanese American daughter of the revered violinist Hiro Akitani–a Living National Treasure in Japan and a man Rio hasn’t spoken to since she left her home country for the United States (and a new identity) after her violent crime. Her father’s death, along with a mysterious package that arrives on her doorstep in Boulder, Colorado, spurs her to return to Japan for the first time in twenty years. There she is forced to confront her past in ways she never imagined, pushing herself, her relationships with her husband and daughter, and her own sense of who she is to the brink.

This is another one I am VERY excited to read. I’m intrigued by books based on characters who have started new lives and, for one reason or another, are pulled back to their old life. And the bully aspect is so relevant to our world today; it makes the book that much more intriguing to me.

The Sun is Also A Star – Nicola Yoon

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

This month’s Judge said it perfectly “The best thing about reading YA fiction as an adult is getting to feel like a teenager again.” Maybe this is why I love reading YA fiction? Whatever the reason, this is another GREAT selection for December, and probably #3 on my reading list.

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love – Kathleen Collins

Humorous, poignant, perceptive, and full of grace, Kathleen Collins’s stories masterfully blend the quotidian and the profound in a personal, intimate way, exploring deep, far-reaching issues—race, gender, family, and sexuality—that shape the ordinary moments in our lives.

In “The Uncle,” a young girl who idolizes her handsome uncle and his beautiful wife makes a haunting discovery about their lives. In “Only Once,” a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate—and final—act of foolishness. Collins’s work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s head and heart.

I like the fact that this one is a collection of short stories. Sometimes I don’t want to commit to an entire book.

Swimming Lessons – Claire Fuller

Ingrid Coleman writes letters to her husband Gil about the truth of their marriage, but instead of giving them to him, she hides each in the thousands of books he has collected over the years. When Ingrid has written her final letter she disappears from a Dorset beach, leaving behind her beautiful but dilapidated house by the sea, her husband, and her two daughters, Flora and Nan.

Twelve years after her disappearance, Gil thinks he sees Ingrid from a bookshop window, but he’s getting older and this unlikely sighting is chalked up to senility. Flora, who has never believed her mother drowned, returns home to care for her father and to try to finally discover what happened to Ingrid. But what Flora doesn’t realize is that the answers to her questions are hidden in the books that surround her. Sexy and whip-smart, Swimming Lessons holds the Coleman family up to the light, exposing the mysterious and complicated truths of a passionate and troubled marriage.

Ummm…..another amazing choice!! How good does this book sound! Such an interesting idea, the fact that the wife hides the letters and then disappears. I need to start reading this one right away!!

Book of the Month Review December 2016 – Final Thoughts

Wow!!! I am so impressed with the December Book of the Month selections! This is the best lineup of books they’ve had this year. I can’t decide which one to read first because they all sounds amazing…..this is a good problem to have. It almost makes me want to take a week off work to do nothing but read and drink tea. Can I do that? I absolutely love that they included some YA reads this month and really hope they do this more often.

XOXO