My First OwlCrate! June 2014

OwlCrate is a bookish subscription box that I've been wanting to subscribe to for a few months now. They send you one box with a YA book and a couple of bookish things that all go with the monthly theme. They have different plans that you can get: monthly, three month, and six month. The prices do vary, depending on what plan you get. With a few events that have been going on, I was finally able to let myself buy one! I got a six month subscription. The monthly rate is $29.99. The three month plan is $86.98. And the six month plan is $167.94. All prices are plus shipping. And with that, you are charged either every month, every three months, or every six months. I will try to link as many items as I can.

On the top, there is always a card with the month's theme and where all the things are from. This month's theme is Make It Out Alive. If you don't want to read the back of the card right off so you won't spoil the box for yourself, you don't have to read it first. I know I didn't. It's way more fun to pull out the stuff and then look at the card after. Even though I wouldn't want to live in a swamp, this card is still pretty.

The first thing I pulled out was this bathbomb and it smells so good! It's a Divergent inspired bath bomb from Fizzy Fairy Apothecary that has a little charm in it that will determine your faction. Or you could end up with a Divergent charm! Cannot wait to take a bath and put it to use and find out which one I received! This bath bomb is an OwlCrate exclusive.

Next thing I found was the little flair pin that always goes with the theme. I couldn't help but notice that he matched the little guy on the card. I will be putting him on my Slytherin lanyard that I wear to work. I could always use more flair.

This thing is so heavy for a magnet! It says "Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be." It was inspired by An Ember in the Ashes from Little Inklings Design. I haven't read this particular book but maybe I'll pick it up one day now because I really like this quote. This is another OwlCrate exclusive.

This awesome patch is from Laserbrain Patch Co. It took me a minute to recognize that the design is inspired by Lois Lowry's The Giver since it's been so long since I've read the book. But  love the design of it and it's perfect for that book. The red of the apple is a beautiful shade of red, too. Don't know what I'm going to put this on but I'm sure I'll find something for it.

The second I saw this, I instantly thought of a friend of mine from Washington. She is obsessed with zombies and this would be perfect for her. This comes from Archie McPhee and it will definitely get tried out at least tonight. I usually don't like anything on my head when I go to bed (I can't even wear my hair tied up), so we shall see how wearing this goes. But it should be helpful by blocking sunlight since I know work so late into the night and sleep in in the mornings.

There is also a book mark with quotes on both sides. This one is from Sarah J Maas' A Court of Wings and Ruin (ACOWAR, I do believe it gets shortened down to) and says: "You do not fear...You do not falter. You do not yield."

The other side is also from Sarah J Maas' ACOWAR: "Remember that you are a wolf. An you cannot be caged." This beautiful book mark is from Hey Atlas Creative. I do believe this is an OwlCrate exclusive as well.

This month was definitely a good month for me to start my OwlCrate subscription! They had not one but two books in this month's box. New World Rising by Jennifer Wilson has been published by Of Tomes Publishing, who worked with OwlCrate for the second book. This cover is beautiful and my favorite color. Phoenix has been living by her dying mother's last words: To be strong and survive. She lives outside of the Walls, outside of the Sanctuary. It's more of a drawn out death sentence. The Tribes run the city of Tartarus and their motto is, "Join or die." This seems like something I would have loved in my early 20's but I'm still excited to pick it up.

And finally, we have this month's book! Reading the description, it has a Lord of the Flies feel. And because the show Lost was based of of Lord of the Flies, it has a bit of that vibe as well. Kayla Olson's The Sandcastle Empire is definitely something that I would have loved after reading Lord of the Flies. LotF was my favorite book in high school. The cover is an OwlCrate exclusive cover, as well. The differences are supposed to be subtle. This one follows Eden, who had an easy life. Until the revolution. She has lost everything to the Wolfpack, the group now in power. She refuses to die by their hands while imprisoned. She has the coordinates to the only neutral place left in the world. Finally she makes it to the island and finds others who are resistant to the Wolfpack. It isn't long before one of her new friends gets lost in the forest. In searching the forest of the Sanctuary, they find it covered in lethal traps and there may be an enemy worse than the one they left behind. I'm intrigued by this and I'm hoping that I'll be able to get to it soon.

OwlCrate always includes a signed book plate and a letter from the author as well. I think it a nice touch and cannot wait to put the book plate in the book. Makes me wish I had a better signature since I have such horrible handwriting.

They also included stickers! I like stickers. And based off of the description of this month's book, these are perfect for it. I'll have to find somewhere good for these.

And finally, they include a card for next month's theme. Looks like it's going to be "wanderlust." It makes me thing of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. On the back of the card, iit says that in the July box, it will include an officially licensed item from Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I loved the movie, so I can't wait to see what it in the box!

Of all the things in this month's box, the bath bomb has to be my favorite. I'm so excited to use it. All of this month's stuff is pretty awesome, I must admit. Feel free to leave comments below if you get OwlCrate (and what your favorite item/s is/are), if you've read either book, or just wanna say hi!

Your kindred bookmate,

Cassie

Birthday book haul!

My birthday is the at the beginning of the month of June. I figured I would treat myself to some books and ended up buying 11 from Thrift Books, most of which were plays. And a good friend that I met at work ended up buying me two more for my birthday as well. I'll start with the two from my friend and then go into the Thrift Book order:

House of Furies by Madeleine Roux was the bigger of the two books that she got me. This one looks like it's a YA thriller kind of a book. 17 year old Louisa leaves a scary boarding school and finds work as a maid in a boarding house. After her arrival, she realizes that the owner of Coldthistle  House gives his guests more than a roof over their heads during their stays with him. Eventually, she begins to fear for a young man named Lee, who she thinks is kind and good but can't be sure who to trust in the house filled with confusion and mistrust. I've been looking for a good thriller This is definitely something I'm excited to pick up when I've finished the three I'm currently working on finishing. I've read her Asylum trilogy, which wasn't a bad series. Her writing was easy to follow. The Asylum books I was able to whip through in a couple of days for the trilogy and the bind of of the prequel novellas. Each of the novellas were quick reads as well. Due to the size of this book, I doubt it will take me as little time to read this particular book than it did for all four of the other books I have of hers. But I may be able to knock it out during a nice summer day at some point in the next couple of months.

It has been years since I picked up a Nora Roberts book. I remember the entertainment value I liked about the books I've read of hers. Dark Witch is the start of  the Cousins O'Dwyer trilogy. Depending on how well I like book one, I'll pick up the other two books. This book follows Iona Sheehan. Her grandmother tells her to go to Ireland to find the devotion and acceptance that she doesn't get from her parents. Once in County Mayo in Ireland, she stays with her cousins, Branna and Connor O'Dwyer. Iona finds a job at a stable, where she meets the owner. Boyle McGrath is all of her fantasies in one man. But of course, it wouldn't be a Nora Roberts book if they didn't fall in love. But of course nothing is what it seems and Iona's family tree has been wound around by an ancient evil and must be fought for. Nora Roberts books have always been a guilty pleasure book that I don't admit to too terribly often but today is one of the days I'll admit to it. Like the previous book, depending on how well I like this book will determine if I buy the other two books to finish the trilogy. I probably will since I do like to finish a series. Only one series have I ever been tempted to not finish and I'm still working on trying to finish that one up.

Now for the Thrift Books order! This is the one sad book in the order. Survivors: True Stories of Children in the Holocaust by Allan Zullo tells the stories of nine children's experiences with the Holocaust. They each made their way through this horror that was this time and had their lives changed forever just because they were Jewish children. Some of them made escape into the unknown or disguised their true identities. Many were witness to the horrors that this people were subjected to. I've had a fascination with this time frame for years. Probably ever since the eighth grade. The one thing that I can't understand is how anyone  could subject one person to something like this, let alone a whole group of people. And to include children and those who couldn't take care of themselves. I just hope that we can learn from this and never have this piece of history never repeat itself in the future.

The cover alone of this book just about breaks my heart. The child has a look of sadness on his that no child should ever have to know. Let alone an adult. Going through what they went through is something no one should ever have to.

I do believe I've already mentioned my love of retellings here on this blog. This one is an Alice in Wonderland retelling. In this one, Alice's friend Ada comes over to visit Alice but comes a moment too late -- Alice has just gone down the rabbit hole. Ada goes down after her, determined to find her friend and bring Alice home. Ada brings her own apprehensions with her as she goes through Wonderland and meets the cast we're familiar with from the original book Alice in Wonderland. The friend who bought me the first two books mentioned in this post is obsessed with Alice in Wonderland and will most likely end up borrowing this beautiful copy of After Alice by Gregory MaGuire. I absolutely loved his Wicked Years series, which is a Wizard of Oz retelling starting with Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (which I'm almost done rereading). I've also read one or two of his non Wicked Years books but have yet to read this one. But this is definitely something I'm interested to see how MaGuire retells this story. I've read both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. I've also seen at least four movie adaptations of the books. Each of the movie adaptions have combined the books in different ways. This will be a nice addition to add to my collection.

Gregory MaGuire's Lost is one of the few books of his that I haven't gotten around to reading yet. It definitely seems to have more adult themes to it. This one looks like it could be a Christmas Carol retelling with some Jack the Ripper information in there. The main character, Winifred Rudge, is haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Upon her arrival in London, her old friend/stepcousin John Comestor has apparently disappeared and a ghostly presence has taken over her great great grandfather's place. Winnie begins investigating. Everyone seems against her as she tries to find out if this spirit is the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge or the ghostly remains of Jack the Ripper. This is going to be an interesting version of London to delve into. I will have to pick this one up soon. I'm currently reading The Diary of Jack the Ripper: The Discovery, The Investigation, The Authentication, The Debate by Shirley Harrison and Lost would fit right in after reading that. There is a chance that this book could end up being my least favorite book by MaGuire or it could tie for first with the Wicked Years books. It's going to have to be amazing to compete with that series, however.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory MaGuire is one of his books that I borrowed from the library at least once while I was in my early 20's still. I'm looking forward to rereading this now that I'm in my late 20's (which is still hard to admit since my birthday just happened). I remember vaguely liking this book. This one is a Cinderella retelling. It follows Iris in 17th century Holland, She is swept from the streets of Haarlem, and her story is intertwined with that of Clara (who is Cinderella in this story). Iris seeks out the secrets of her new family and the truth of her old life. This was a very close second to the first book in the Wicked Years. I remember having a very hard time putting this book down when I read it all those years ago. I think I was 22 or so when I read this. Maybe a little younger. It's been at least five years since I read it. If I'm lucky, I'll enjoy it all the more now that I'm a little older when reading this. I've never been able to the having a stepsister part but I've met people that have turned into family, That's as close as it is going to get any time soon to immediate step family. This is definitely another book I'm super excited to be getting into for a second reading.

Now we get to the plays! Every play in today's haul is from William Shakespeare. I think just about everyone is familiar with the story of Romeo and Juliet. Two young lovers from families who are in a blood feud with each other are determined to be together and get married. Every time a Montague or Capulet dies, the respective family calls for the death of one in the other family. And if the two lovers were to be found out by her family, they wouldn't hesitate to kill young Romeo. I read this as a freshman in high school at the age of the 14. I don't remember liking it too terribly much at that point but the teacher that I had at that point didn't really bring it alive much. This copy you can tell is definitely a used copy. There is handwriting all over it and there are tabs sticking out of the edges. Hopefully all of the notes throughout the book will be helpful in figuring out what exactly is going on with the story since it's written in old English. If I remember correctly, there is a good insult or two in this play as well. The one that comes vividly to mind is the part about biting one's thumb at someone as way of insult. Probably a good thing that's not a thing today (the biting of one's thumb part).

MacBeth is the only other Shakespearean play that I remember reading in high school. This one was read in junior year at 16. The Witches prophecy that MacBeth, a nobleman, will be king. He tells this to his wife and they descend into evil as Scotland is turned upside down. This play was my favorite out of the two that we had read while in high school. There was more action and kept you on your toes more than Romeo and Juliet did. At least for me there was. Hopefully I maintain that thought while reading this play. I can't remember if this was the other copy that had notes written into it or not but one other copy had notes as well. The Witches were my favorite characters out of the whole play. The way they spoke was the best part. And I always think of the Fates from the Disney version of Hercules when I think of the Witches. It makes reading this play so much more entertaining to put them in the Witches' place. And when Lady MacBeth killed herself, my thought initially was, "Seriously?" But it is what it is. This may be a play that gets put on the back burner for a little bit while I get through some of the other books that I have. My pile of books that need to be read is getting huge!

I had no clue about Much Ado About Nothing when I purchased this. Honestly, didn't even bother reading the description until writing this post. Might as well be honest, no? GoodReads explains it better than I can: "The action is set in Sicily, where Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, has recently defeated his half-brother, the bastard Don John, in a military engagement. Apparently reconciled, they return to the capital, Messina, as guests of the Governor, Leonato. There Count Claudio, a young nobleman serving in Don Pedro's army, falls in love with Hero, Leonato's daughter, whom Don Pedro woos on his behalf. The play's central plot shows how Don John maliciously deceives Claudio into believing that Hero has taken a lover on the eve of her marriage, causing Claudio to repudiate her publicly, at the altar." Just reading it makes it seem like modern day television. Who doesn't love a good drama, whether it be several hundred years ago or today? This one is going to be another one that will take some time to get to due to the ever growing TBR pile that just doesn't seem like it ever wants to stop growing. And there are still more books that I want to buy yet!

This one seems like another one of his dramas. The Tempest follows Prospero and his daughter Miranda. He is the exiled Duke of Milan and lives on a remote island. He plots to put Miranda in her rightful place, using illusion and deceit to do so. The tempest brings in Prospero's brother and the king of Naples, Alonso. While Anthony, his brother, and the King are there, he shows the King how low his brother is and gets Miranda married to Alonso's son, Ferdinand. This may be one of the first plays of Shakespeare's that I will pick up this summer instead of putting it off. I'm interested to see how Prospero's mind works to get his daughter married to the Prince. I don't know how well I'll like this one. This one is also the last play that Shakespeare wrote. Looking over some of the reviews on GoodReads, it appears that Prospero may have even manipulated his daughter Miranda. Doesn't seem like a fatherly thing to do.

This one is another one that I am going into knowing nothing other than the title and that Shakespeare wrote it. I feel like The Comedy of Errors is one that isn't talked about very much anymore. Let alone what it's supposed to be about. I'm hoping just by the title alone that there will be some humor to this particular play. I love this cover, though, out of all the plays I bought. Partly because it's green and that's my favorite color. This one will be towards the beginning of the plays that I read from him as well. I plan on getting to most, if not all, of the Shakespearean plays that I've bought this time around. And besides, I could use a good laugh. Life has been way too serious lately. A laugh a day keeps the blues away. Or so they say.

Almost done!A Midsummer Night's Dream seems like it's a bit of a romantic nightmare.Demetrius and Lysander want to marry Hermia. Hermia wants Lysander. Daddy wants Hermia to marry Demetrius. Helena wants Demetrius. Lysander and Hermia run off together. Demetrius pursues them. Helena pursues Demetrius.In the forest, Obera and Titania, king and queen of the faeries, are having a fight. Things happen from there. This could be a really funny play. It sounds almost like a modern day rom-com. The idea had to come from someone. Why not from this play? I have been wanting to read this one for years, since I was probably about 13 years old. It's only taken me 15 years to get my hands on it to read. Definitely something I am going to have to read this summer. I cannot wait. Rom-com stuff isn't something I usually read but I'm more than happy to give this play a shot and see if it is as funny as it sounds.

Last but not lease is The Taming of the Shrew. This is supposed to be a comedy about Lucentio and Petruchio and the sisters the meet in Padua. Lucentio falls in love with and wants to marry Bianca, the younger of the two sisters. However, she cannot marry until her older sister Katherine marries. Petruchio agrees to marry Katherine only for the dowry he'll get from doing so against Katherine's wishes. Hilarity is supposed to ensue from the battle of the sexes from there. The battle of the sexes that seems to be another tale that has lasted through the ages. I'm hoping to get a good laugh out of this play as well. I've gone through I don't know how many serious books this year and some laughter will do me some good.

Oddly enough, this one was the only play that I had managed to buy in hardcover. I hadn't even noticed that it was going to be a hardcover instead of paperback like all of the others. At least it won't be a heavy book to hold.

Let me know if you've read any of these in the comments so we can discuss them! I'm always looking to talk about books with people.

Kindred bookmate,
Cassie