First Line Friday #60
Today’s First Line Friday I received in a PageHabit quarterly Fiction box. The post abut that unboxing is here. I love PageHabit and wish I could afford it more often! Those author annotations are what sell me on that box. This first line has me wondering so much!:
Bernadette had been dead two weeks when her sisters showed up in Doyle’s living room asking for the statue back.
Since their mother’s death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children—all his children—safe.
Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you’ve never even met. As in her bestselling novel Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.
PageHabit Quarterly Fiction Unboxing
Today I am sharing my ‘unboxing’ of the PageHabit Quarterly Fiction box. I received it last week and really enjoyed it. PageHabit offers two Quarterly boxes, Fiction and YA. I had planned on getting one of quarterly boxes at some point, and when I found out who the featured author was, I jumped to get it. The book was one I was wanting to get anyways, and with the author annotations, I felt this was the box to get. I previously did a ‘unboxing’ of a PageHabit monthly mystery box here.
A little about the PageHabit Quarterly boxes:
Types of boxes:
Literary Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
Cost per box: $49.99
Shipping costs:
US $7.99
Canada $19.99
International $29.99
**There is sales tax charged for residents of California and Idaho because PageHabit’s headquarters is in Los Angeles and a distribution center is in Idaho.
What comes in the box????
– A brand new release, annotated by the author
– A letter from the author
– A bookmark
– Bookish goodies selected by the author
– A donation to support children’s literacy around the world
– Two additional books handpicked by the featured author
**Even better is that the featured book has handwritten annotations written by the author! They are throughout the novel which can enhance the reading experience!!!
For July, PageHabit is working with the Nyarweng Foundation to provide reading materials to the South Sudan. You can see some information about the South Sudan below:
The featured author for this Quarterly Fiction box is…. Gin Phillips!!
I was very excited to get this book plate which us signed by the author and a bookmark.
Here is the letter she wrote where she talks about her novel and her choices for this Quarterly box:
Paper clips were included in the box. They can be used as bookmarks or whatever you see they are needed for.
One of the books that Gin selected for the box was Island of the Blue Dolphins! I was excited about this book as I loved it when I was in school and I remember staying up WAY past my bedtime to watch a movie it was based on. This novel is referenced in her new novel and deals with a young girl surviving on her own.
The next book selected by Gin is Run. This novel follows two families whose lives intersect after a car accident.
Here is the new hardback novel written by Gin that was the sole reason I selected this box.:
The zoo is nearly empty as Joan and her four-year-old son soak up the last few moments of playtime. They are happy, and the day has been close to perfect. But what Joan sees as she hustles her son toward the exit gate minutes before closing time sends her sprinting back into the zoo, her child in her arms. And for the next three hours—the entire scope of the novel—she keeps on running.
Joan’s intimate knowledge of her son and of the zoo itself—the hidden pathways and under-renovation exhibits, the best spots on the carousel and overstocked snack machines—is all that keeps them a step ahead of danger.
A masterful thrill ride and an exploration of motherhood itself—from its tender moments of grace to its savage power—Fierce Kingdom asks where the boundary is between our animal instinct to survive and our human duty to protect one another. For whom should a mother risk her life?
This not a super long novel at 285 pages, it seems like it will be a quick read and I look forward to reading it!
There are many annotations throughout this novel and I can not wait for my experience reading it to become enhanced even more!
Under the book was one more surprise goodie, which I admit was my favorite after the book: A tote bag featuring the book title!! 
I highly recommend PageHabit and their boxes. The author annotations add so much and the fact that part of your purchase is used for a donation to help literacy somewhere in the world is even better. You can help spread literacy and the love of books.
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PageHabit Unboxing
Last week I did a live ‘unboxing’ of a PageHabit box over on the Bookies Facebook page. Many thanks to the folks at PageHabit for sending me this box! PageHabit is a book subscription service that offers both monthly and quarterly boxes and both will be discussed. Their website is here.
There are two types of boxes you can subscribe to at PageHabit:
Monthly at $29.99 a month
Quarterly $49.99
Shipping costs:
Monthly:
US $4.99
Canada $14.99
International $19.99
Quarterly
US $7.99
Canada $19.99
International $29.99
**There is sales tax charged for residents of California and Idaho because PageHabit’s headquarters is in Los Angeles and a distribution center is in Idaho.
What is the difference in the boxes?
Monthly:
There are six different genre choices for the monthly box:
Literary Fiction
Mystery
Young Adult Fiction
Romance
Fantasy
Historical Fiction
Quarterly:
Literary Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
What comes in the box????
– A brand new release, annotated by the author
– A written letter from the author
– A bookmark
– Bookish goodies
– A donation to support children’s literacy around the world
Quarterly boxes are curated by the featured author and include all of the above, and then more:
– Two additional books handpicked by the featured author
– Bookish goodies selected by the author
**Even better is that the featured book has handwritten annotations written by the author! They are throughout the novel which can enhance the reading experience!!!
When you subscribe, you also get a membership with access to an online community which has members from around the world. There is also access to exclusive author content, including live chats with authors.
***The pictures below and my live video were of the monthly mystery box for June.***
If you would like to watch the unboxing from Bookies, here is a link to the video: https://www.facebook.com/Bookiesfan/videos/1584499511562548/
Here is the box! The cats were as anxious to get into it as I was!
For June, Page Habit is partnering with Books for Africa, the Lumwana International School, and Holy Cross Convent School. They hope to bring 20,000 books to Zambia. This card talks about Zambia and more including the other chosen books for the other genres.
First up were some sticky notes and a bookmark! The bookmark says “ Never put off till tomorrow the book you can read today” Holbrook Jackson. The back side of the book mark says PageHabit.
There was also a very cute pouch that says “So many books, so little time” Frank Zappa. I agree with this completely and loved this pouch!
There was also this adorable little pin shaped like a book that says Read More. I didn’t realize that it was book shaped while I was doing the unboxing. It is adorable!!!
There was also a three page letter from the author!
It’s time for the main event- the book!!!!
On the cover of the book was the first note from the author: Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan. I had never heard of this book and this will be a new to me author. Reading the description I am glad this was the book they chose. This is the debut novel for this author.
When a bookshop patron commits suicide, his favorite store clerk must unravel the puzzle he left behind in this fiendishly clever debut novel from an award-winning short story writer.
Lydia Smith lives her life hiding in plain sight. A clerk at the Bright Ideas bookstore, she keeps a meticulously crafted existence among her beloved books, eccentric colleagues, and the BookFrogs—the lost and lonely regulars who spend every day marauding the store’s overwhelmed shelves.
But when Joey Molina, a young, beguiling BookFrog, kills himself in the bookstore’s upper room, Lydia’s life comes unglued. Always Joey’s favorite bookseller, Lydia has been bequeathed his meager worldly possessions. Trinkets and books; the detritus of a lonely, uncared for man. But when Lydia flips through his books she finds them defaced in ways both disturbing and inexplicable. They reveal the psyche of a young man on the verge of an emotional reckoning. And they seem to contain a hidden message. What did Joey know? And what does it have to do with Lydia?
As Lydia untangles the mystery of Joey’s suicide, she unearths a long buried memory from her own violent childhood. Details from that one bloody night begin to circle back. Her distant father returns to the fold, along with an obsessive local cop, and the Hammerman, a murderer who came into Lydia’s life long ago and, as she soon discovers, never completely left. Bedazzling, addictive, and wildly clever, Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore is a heart-pounding mystery that perfectly captures the intellect and eccentricity of the bookstore milieu and will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Here are annotations throughout the book! I cannot wait to read this and get the enhanced experience with these post-it notes from the author!
I really enjoyed this unboxing. There was cute stuff that I enjoyed. PageHabit has a really unique twist with the subscription boxes with the letter and annotations throughout the book written by the author himself! It will be like the author is going on the reading journey with you! I do hope to get a quarterly box at some point to see what that is like.
Again, thank you so much PageHabit for sending me this monthly mystery box!
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