Glommable Glombox #1: A Review and Unboxing

I'm lucky enough to have won a Glombox from Glommable at Glommable.com, and it just arrived, so I thought I'd do an unboxing post. If you aren't familiar with the website (or the new box), they're both focused on the intersection of books and pop culture, with a mix of high-brow and low-brow, and all that's in between. The box felt like it was curated by Rory Gilmore and Mindy Lahiri. The card enclosed inside the top of the box explained both the website and the rationale for its contents pretty well, although it didn't adequately explain that this isn't actually a subscription box, but is instead a sweepstakes, of which there were 10 winners, but I dug around a little bit for that info. You can see the card nestled inside the box atop the turquoise tissue paper that concealed all of the other contents. I particularly love the humor and snark with which the card was written.

That's a pretty strange decision, and I wonder why Glommable won't be offering a subscription option for these, since I predict there will be a demand for them. Each of the prize boxes' contents was valued at $100 USD. Fortunately for you readers, though, most of these items are available for purchase at your favorite bookstore, so let's get to unpacking!

Once I opened the tissue paper, the first fun little trinket in the box was a card explaining Mabel, Glommable's mascot. Attached was an enamel pin featuring her charmingly strange little likeness, pictured below. You can see how all of the Glombox's contents are nestled atop colorful little blue paper shreds, which would've been charming and fun... except that they were a dark sky blue, and the tissue paper was a teal/turquoise color, so they actually clashed with each other. Also, I think Mabel is cute, but since I have absolutely no use for enamel pins whatsoever, I have no idea what I'm going to do with her. ...suggestions?

Once I moved the top layer of paper shreds aside, I discovered this glossy sheet of silly photobooth-style photos of Anna Kendrick wearing the outfit she wore on the cover of her recently published memoir, Scrappy Little Nobody. Stuck through the one square not featuring a photo of Kendrick is another enamel pin, this one decorated with the words 'scrappy little nobody'. Though I've truly enjoyed some of Kendrick's performances, I have actually already read Scrappy Little Nobody, and I can't say I cared for it much. In fact, I didn't post a review because I disliked it too much to finish the book. That's okay, though. Sometimes, a person who is a solid stage performer has talent or charisma that doesn't translate to the page, and I felt that was the case with Kendrick.

So, of course, the next item was a hardback copy of Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick.

But, this one is autographed. I'm sure that, if I were a bigger fan of the book, or of Kendrick in general, there would've been some *squee*ing happening at this point.

Underneath that, There was a copy of Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. I love that book! In fact, I love it so much that I already own it.... I've followed the blog forever, and I really enjoy Allie Brosh's honesty about mental illness--the way she writes about her own struggles with Anxiety and Depression is both hilarious and somehow helpful to readers who might be dealing with similar issues. Also, I love that her lack of what traditional art scholars may call "talent" with drawing (aka, the people she draws look like the people I'm able to draw), doesn't hold her back from telling completely entertaining stories about her life. I wish, instead of including two extra items (the enamel pin and the photos) themed on Scrappy Little Nobody, Glommable had chosen to add some Hyperbole and a Half swag... as long as it wasn't yet another enamel pin!

However, I was thrilled to see that the next item was a copy of The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae, because this is actually on my TBR list! Also, as a diverse book blogger, I'm excited because it means I've got another #ownvoices title by a diverse author on my shelf. Expect a review sometime soon. (I had to put one of the other books back inside the box underneath it because those pesky little paper shreds kept obscuring the cover when I tried to take a picture and the book was sinking into them like a very small child in the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese.)

The next title I unearthed was You're Never Weird On The Internet (almost) by Felicia Day. I don't have much of a frame of reference for this book--actually, it was the only item in the box that I wasn't familiar with in one way or another)--so I had a pretty neutral reaction when I pulled it out. A memoir with a bonus chapter included and a foreward by Joss Whedon piqued my interest, though, so this one has been added to my TBR to read and review. Have any of you guys read it? What are your thoughts?

Just when I thought I'd reached the bottom of the Glombox, I moved all of the blue paper shreds of doom (TM) aside to discover that there was one last surprise... a Pusheen coloring book!

This was a nice addition to the box because it was the only book-like thing included that had the sole purpose of frivolity, with no serious element at all. But, I found myself wishing that the Glombox curators had included a little Pusheen goody, like maybe a pen, or a sheet of stickers instead of the Kendrick photos or one of those tiresome enamel pins that also have no actual use.

Here's my favorite page from the coloring book:

(I actually saw some memo pads with this design on them on an endcap in the stationery section in B&N, but I couldn't afford them, so I had to drag myself away.) That makes me extra pumped that this coloring book, and this particular design, was included in the box. I'm thinking of framing this page and hanging it in my closet for a little inspiration when I'm getting dressed and I have trouble deciding how fancy to be. Now, here's a question for you: I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow. Do you guys think the dress code is merely kind of fancy, or actually super fancy? I mean, do I need to be tracking down a unicorn before I show up there tomorrow?

Ultimately, I'm super grateful to have won a Glombox, and it definitely motivated me to check out Glommable.com, which is a website I'd heard about a time or two in passing previously, but wasn't on my radar much before. I have no idea why they aren't offering this as a subscription, unless the sweepstakes is merely a test run before they start a subscription service (which could be a smart way to do things). 

Overall, I enjoyed the contents of the box. They struck a good balance between high culture and low culture/serious and humorous. I would've enjoyed a more cohesive theme, and I would've liked if they stayed away from those seemingly purposeless enamel pins entirely. As someone who loves to send care packages, I was particularly taken with the size and shape of the box (it was a very attractive square-topped box with a lid that tucked into the front and folded upward from a hinged back). I felt the presentation could've been a little better--maybe fancier?--by simply attaching the explanation card to the inside of the box lid, choosing tissue paper and paper shred packing materials that matched or coordinated with each other, and maybe having one other decorative element within the packaging itself. I also would've liked to see a little more diversity amongst the authors whose works were included within the box. Since that is such a selling point, and a hot-button issue in both publishing and pop culture today, it surprises me that the Glommable curators would be so tone-deaf on this point. Still, this is their first crack at the whole Glombox thing, and there's always the next box!

Book Review of Crazy Is My Superpower by AJ Mendez Brooks

I might just be the only person who read Crazy Is My Superpower by AJ Mendez Brooks without knowing from the outset that she was a professional wrestler. Actually, I had never heard of her before. I simply enjoy books in the memoir/autobiography genre, I wanted to read something by someone who was living with mental illness, and I liked the cover design, so I requested a free review copy from Blogging For Books. Then, I found out she was a Latinx nerd who grew up in poverty. Now, that is intersectionality. I was hooked. But, speaking of the cover design, I think it is really fun and attention-grabbing. It reminds me of comic book art.

One of the things I enjoyed about this book is that Mendez Brooks has a great voice... it is very authentic and casual. I felt like we were chillin' on her couch, playing video games and scratching her dog behind the ears. Reading this book was more like having a conversation with one of my guy friends than picking up a typical memoir. Also, Mendez Brooks doesn't shy away from difficult and painful subjects, nor does she attempt to make light of them. She also admits when she made bad choices, and takes responsibility for them. She has a winning attitude, and a personality that shines through from the first chapter, making her readers want to root for her, which is a key ingredient in any successful memoir. She also has the sense of humor of that girl down the hall in my dorm that all the guys used to love hanging out with because she'd win their burping contests.

Crazy Is My Superpower unpacks child poverty, domestic violence, homelessness and vagrant living, the realities of having teen parents (and one parent with severe mental illness), sibling relationships, academics, social issues at school, personal style, love of video games and dogs, respect, how women are treated in the professional wrestling industry, persistence, and so many more relevant issues. The writing quality is spotty, with some passages being so profound and wonderfully written that I had to stop and reread them many times because they bowled me over with their excellence, and others being so preachy, cheesy, or simply bad that I found myself rolling my eyes. Crazy Is My Superpower certainly could've used an editor with tighter reins on the project, since Mendez Brooks is a celebrity author, not a career writer, 

However, Mendez Brooks brought an unquestionable level of honesty to the table, no matter what issue she was discussing or painful childhood memory she was recounting at that moment on the page. The comics of her at each stage of life designed to introduce each chapter were one of my favorite parts of the book, and I looked forward to starting a new chapter just to see another one. The fact that I have literally zero interest in wrestling and had never heard of Mendez Brooks before picking up this book didn't keep me from enjoying it in the slightest. 

Of course, I'd recommend Crazy Is My Superpower to fans of Mendez Brooks and female wrestlers (or just wrestling in general), but I'd also recommend it to people who have an interest in memoirs about mental illness or child poverty, as well, and to teens who like non-fiction in general, as I think Mendez Brooks' conversational tone, candor, and inability to shy away from difficult topics will be most appreciated by that audience. Crazy Is My Superpower by AJ Mendez Brooks comes out today.

Book Review of Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death, and Redemption in an American Prison by Shaka Senghor

While I'm not Black, male, or possessed of a criminal record, the topic of Writing My Wrongs by Shaka Senghor is a very personal one to me. A member of my immediate family went to prison on felony charges when I was in elementary school, and was gone for what felt like half a lifetime. In Writing My Wrongs, Senghor describes a life on the street in which he had many things working against him. An unstable home, abuse, and choosing to leave that environment as a teenager led him to live on his own. After quickly learning that his lack of even a high school diploma would make it impossible to support himself independently, Senghor was offered a chance to get into drug dealing on the lowest level, and he took it. His autobiography is the story of what happened next.

For those of us who have never been incarcerated, we can only gather secondhand information about what it is actually like. Senghor has one word which sums up the experience eloquently: dehumanizing. There are things this book does not do well. After reading it, I still cannot explain why anyone would choose to tell a story like this in such a fragmented, out-of-order way, with no cohesive timeline for the narrative. Every time I reached a new chapter, I longed to re-order all of them so that I could read chronologically, which I felt would've made more sense, and also helped me understand Senghor's journey through the underbelly of Detroit's east side in the 1980s and the American Prison System. Also, there were several small inconsistencies within the narrative. They didn't discredit Senghor's message, but they were frustrating and distracting, and I felt they would've been easily caught and fixed by an editor who was a bit more on-the-ball.

Ultimately, though, Writing My Wrongs is a book with much to offer. Senghor speaks from a population which has traditionally been ignored. Senghor spent a total of nineteen years in prison, seven of which were in solitary. How many books have been published by writers who have committed multiple violent felonies? I don't have the statistics, but I read widely, and I've only heard of a handful. He offers up his own life as an example of how easy it is to make bad choices. Senghor freely admits that he isn't perfect, and he is eager to point out where his thinking was flawed. More than anything, desire to be a good person, a decent role model, and a positive father figure came from this book in waves. Writing My Wrongs both gives an important perspective on the failings of the U.S. Justice System, and a personal look at a life partially wasted. Though the writing itself isn't artful, it is compelling, honest, and important.

I don't usually include other links with my book reviews, but this is a short informative video about Mass Incarceration in the US, and I feel it sets the stage nicely for Senghor's story. Thank you to Blogging For Books for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.