Book of the Month (BOTM) is a subscription box that sends you a new hardcover book as chosen by a panel of judges every month.
Subscribers are given a choice between five different book selections which will be revealed on their site on the first of the month. The books will include a broad range of genres and offer a mix of both fiction and nonfiction titles. The Book of the Month team reviews thousands of submissions from dozens of publishers, and works closely with the BOTM judges to select exceptional books that they think members will enjoy. If you don’t like the current month’s selections, you’re free to skip with no questions asked.
Disclosure: I received this box for review purposes. I was not compensated in any way. All opinions are my own. Post may contain affiliate and/or referral links.
Subscriptions are $14.99/month with free shipping. — For a limited time, you can can get your first month for only $9.99! — Just use coupon code “SPY5” at checkout.
Let’s check out my November 2019 Book of the Month box!
The book was shipped in a small blue box with a white Book of the Month logo on top.
A peek inside!
The book itself was shrink-wrapped to a sturdy piece of cardboard to keep it from getting damaged in transit.
A short welcome booklet gave some background information about Book of the Month (it started in 1926!), and declared their emphasis on selecting early releases, fresh stories, and debut books.
November’s five selections were:
- Ninth House
by Leigh Bardugo (fiction/supernatural thriller)
- The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan (nonfiction/investigative journalism)
- Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert (fiction/rom-com)
- The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (fiction/thriller)
- The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes (historical fiction)
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan
I decided to go with The Great Pretender because I’ve always been curious (and sometimes disgusted by) the treatment/institutionalization of those with mental disorders. I remember being completely horrified by Geraldo Rivera’s report on Willowbrook (Google it!) and how awful it was to see so many people with treatable illnesses just tossed away and hidden from society.
From Amazon:
Doctors have struggled for centuries to define insanity–how do you diagnose it, how do you treat it, how do you even know what it is? In search of an answer, in the 1970s a Stanford psychologist named David Rosenhan and seven other people–sane, healthy, well-adjusted members of society–went undercover into asylums around America to test the legitimacy of psychiatry’s labels. Forced to remain inside until they’d “proven” themselves sane, all eight emerged with alarming diagnoses and even more troubling stories of their treatment. Rosenhan’s watershed study broke open the field of psychiatry, closing down institutions and changing mental health diagnosis forever.
But, as Cahalan’s explosive new research shows in this real-life detective story, very little in this saga is exactly as it seems. What really happened behind those closed asylum doors?
As depressing as it will likely be, I’m looking forward to diving in!
Book of the Month is such a great subscription for adding new hardcover titles to your reading list at an affordable price. The title I selected is currently on Amazon for $19.69, so the BOTM price is definitely a better deal. 🙂 — Remember, for a limited time you can can get your first month for only $9.99! — Just use coupon code “SPY5” at checkout.
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