Indiespensable Subscription #57

The Indiespensable subscription is Powell’s subscription club. Boxes ship out every 6-8 weeks at a cost of $39.95 per box including shipping. The website advertises these boxes as featuring “the best new books with special attention to independent publishers.” The boxes include a signed first edition, a booklet that explains the items, and a few extra goodies. I started the service in October 15. Last week I received my third box. Here’s what we got this month and my review:

1. A signed first edition of Mr. SplitFoot by Samantha Hunt. Mr. Splitfoot is Samantha Hunt’s third book and has been described as a contemporary gothic novel.  I had already started reading a galley of this book so I was thrilled to get the signed copy. I finished it yesterday and I’ll be posting the review early next week.

2. An Advanced Reader’s Copy of Fever at Dawn by Péter Gárdos. This book has been getting some buzz in the literary community and has been on my radar for a little while. Nine publishers fought over the right to be the book’s publisher and Doubleday book came out as the winner. The author is the award-winning Hungarian film and theatre director, Péter Gárdos. The novel was inspired by the post-holocaust love story of Péter’s parents. After his father’s death, Gárdos’ mother gave him a packet of letters written between his parents in the months following the Holocaust. He used these letters as the inspiration to write this novel, a process that took him over 10 years to write. I am very excited to read this book.

3. A salted sea caramel, milk chocolate bar from Tony’s Chocolonely. I had never heard of this chocolate before but I did a little research. The company prides itself on producing 100% slave free chocolate. Turns out that many of the world’s largest chocolate companies buy their cocoa from plantations that use child slavery. Tony’s chocoloney was born out of an effort to expose other companies use of slave labor and to create a slave free chocolate. They also happened to have produced a delicious chocolate that didn’t last very long in our house. You can buy their chocolates and check out their website here.

The Verdict? I’m am now thoroughly convinced that Powell’s staff has been reading my mind. Could this box have been a better fit for me? I had been looking forward to reading Mr. Splitfoot since it came out and I tore through it in two days. I’ve also had my eye on Gárdos’ book. Finally, salted caramel chocolate may well be my favorite thing in the whole world. I pretty much inhaled the chocolate bar despite my best efforts to try and eat it very slowly. This box was a definite 10/10 for me.

So what do you think of this service? Do love it as much as I do, or would you pass? The downside is that the subscription service is usually full. To get a subscription you need to get on the waiting list. It took me about 2-3 months to go from the waiting list to subscription. You can find out more about the club here.