March Book of the Month

Book of the Month is starting to become one of my favorite subscriptions. I love having new releases on my radar - it's not something I'd paid attention to before! I'd gotten so used to the books I knew I loved and to trudging through my high fantasy series that I'd stopped noticing new literature.

This month's selections weren't as wildly appealing to me as February's, but that was just fine; I considered skipping, but decided instead to pick one new book and a couple from my wishlist that 1) has the longest waitlist at the Nashville Public Library and 2) isn't even available at the library, and is retailing for more on Amazon.

The new book I chose is Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, which was released on March 7th.

When Nadia and Saeed fall in love in a distant unnamed city, they are just like any other young couple. But soon bullets begin to fly, fighter jets streak the sky, and curfews fall. As the spell of violence spreads, they flee their country, leaving behind their loved ones. Early in Exit West, the author Mohsin Hamid explains that geography is destiny, and in the case of his two young lovers, geography dictates that they must leave. Hamid offers up a fantastical device to deliver his refugees to places: they pass through magic doors. Rather than unmooring the story from reality, this device, as well as a few other fantastical touches, makes the book more poignant and focused, pointing our attention to the emotions of exile rather than the mechanics. Surrounded by other refugees, Nadia and Saeed try to establish their places in the world, putting up different responses to their circumstances. The result is a novel that is personal, not pedantic, an intimate human story about an experience shared by countless people of the world, one that most Americans just witness on television. --Chris Schluep , The Amazon Book Review

My other two choices were $9.99 add-ons with my subscription, both of which were released in Summer 2016: Sci-fi thriller Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood, which I'm honestly nervous about reading. It contains a love story between an abused teen raised around meth labs and an adult man, so I may not get through it (this could also be why the book isn't currently available at the library!).

You can use this link to get your first three months with Book of the Month for $10 a month (vs. the standard $16)!