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Good evening my dear online friends. First, I hope you are all doing well, I deeply do. I have been absent lately due to working 70h/week and preparing my admission into a PhD, things I will willingly discuss here with you all as soon as I get a normal –for me – life rhythm again. For now, I will leave you to all of your questions, which I would love to apologize for as you know that I consider you all as my online friends and think I owe you transparency. Nonetheless, I know you will all understand and we will soon get to communicate regularly again.
For now, I would love to share with you a book box I discovered last month and I have loved so very much. As of lately, I have not read as much due to all that fascinating work, and thus when Angélique from Joya Books asked me whether or not I wanted to receive her box, I saw it like an opportunity to get back to taking the quality time I need to read. Thus, I obviously accepted.
*The books are available in French and English, you will understand through the following post how interesting the concept is for a bilingual reader like me.
A double-concept
I loved her concept as she created a book box designed specifically for people wanting to read English books but who can’t always access it – English-speaking people living in France who do not necessarily find the books they want in French book shops for instance. Thus, you can have access directly in your mail box to books in a language you would not find just by walking into your local bookstore. Moreover, as you can’t necessarily have great advice when it comes to English books while living in a non-English-speaking country, Angélique’s recommendations allow you to know exactly what to read. Having access to books is indeed not enough in my opinion: when I go to a bookstore, I love getting to talk about the books with the owner.
Moreover and as if that concept was not great enough, Angélique offers a way to pick books I find particularly interesting as you get two books at once and the second one is chosen by the author of the first one. That means that you get a quite famous book recommendations and a second book that is less famous but a favorite of the author who wrote the first one. Is not it the funniest way to make recommendations and a great way to break the distance between the author and the reader while getting to know an author’s tastes and new author at once?
The Winter Box
In the “Winter Box”, I personally got:
- The novel Red at the bone by Jacqueline Woodson.
- Her secret book recommendation
- A piece of chocolate
- Herbal tea
- A bookmark and a matching card that explains the choice of Jacqueline Woodson
In the box, you do not “only” get two books but a total relaxed moment – which is exactly what I needed in that extremely productive time. That is what I lack in some book boxes: when you get a book box, you do not only want books, you want a reading mood.
I could potentially review the first book of the box, but I choose not to as I am pretty sure I would potentially spoil the second one to those who would love to get the box and be as surprised as I have been. To me, this concept is a little bit like being able to pursue a book after you’ve finished it by getting into the author’s perspective on literature. Who has never felt sad after finishing an extremely great book? This box is a way to cope with the sadness and get directly into another book that is different enough not to get boring but similar enough to make you continue the reading session as if it had never really stopped.
I am pretty positive that you will have understood how in love with the Joya Books boxes I am. I love the concept for both its core ideas – the English books delivered to your place & the author-based recommendation. I really advise my fellow Frenchies to have a look at Angélique’s website and Instagram to see how interesting the concept behind the company is. On that note I wish you the best for the month to come as I can’t promise I will be back that soon – I want to come back “for good”, not to make quick appearances and I know you will get my point. If you need advice or anything, please reach out: I do not publish for now, but I definitely answer emails.
Take great care,
The English-speaking Frenchie 