**The Art of Book Selection: A Conversation with Karina from Al Crate**

As we sat down to talk about Al Crate, the popular book subscription box service, it was clear that Karina, its owner, was passionate about bringing readers together through literature. When asked how she and her team select books for each box, Karina explained that they want to find titles that will resonate with their audience. "If a book doesn't feel right, or if it's just not capturing your interest, that one gets put aside," she said. "We're looking for books that are going to spark conversation and connection among our readers."

The selection process is a deliberate and time-consuming one, with Karina and her team taking up to six months to choose books for each box. They have a system in place where they review new releases within a month of shipping the box, ensuring that each book is always published within about a month of when it arrives at subscribers' doorsteps. The added bonus? Each book comes with a letter from the author, making every box a unique and special experience.

Inside each Al Crate box, readers can expect to find three to five items that match the theme of the book. These might include jewelry, bath bombs, pencil cases, or notebooks – all sorts of fun and functional items that complement the literary selection. Karina's enthusiasm for these little extras was evident as she showed off her own favorite items from previous boxes.

One of the most popular themes in Al Crate has been books with unique and quirky items to match. For example, the September box featured a book called "The Three Dark Browns," which Karina had a personal fondness for. Another standout theme was the March "Writers Block" box, which showcased some really creative and interesting items.

As we chatted about Al Crate, it became clear that Karina is not only passionate about books but also loves to share her own interests with her audience. When asked what she likes to do besides running a book subscription service, Karina revealed that she's an avid traveler and enjoys attending book festivals. She also confessed to being a bit of a homebody, preferring to spend time with friends over exploring new places.

For fans of Karina's favorite books, there are some interesting reveals. It turns out that she has two all-time favorites: "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close." Both books have had a lasting impact on her as a reader, and she highly recommends them to anyone who hasn't already discovered them.

As we wrapped up our conversation with Karina, I asked about some of the highlights from this year's reading experiences. She revealed that one book in particular – "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson – had really stood out to her as a favorite. With its unique blend of LGBT sci-fi elements, it was clear why this book had captured Karina's heart.

The final question I had for Karina was about upcoming books from Al Crate, which she couldn't discuss in detail due to the surprise nature of the releases. However, I did get to see some exclusive links to check out her channel and learn more about Al Crate.

**About Al Crate**

If you're interested in learning more about Al Crate or would like to sign up for their subscription service, be sure to check out Karina's YouTube channel for updates and behind-the-scenes peeks into the world of book selection. With new boxes shipped every month, there's always something new to discover.

**Book Recommendations**

For readers looking for a quick introduction to Al Crate, here are some book recommendations from Karina's own reading list:

* "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky

* "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

* "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson

These books have all been praised for their unique storytelling, engaging characters, and thought-provoking themes. Whether you're a fan of coming-of-age stories, sci-fi, or just great literature in general, these titles are sure to be on your radar.

**Stay Connected**

Want to stay up-to-date with the latest news from Al Crate and Karina's channel? Be sure to follow her YouTube channel for behind-the-scenes peeks into book selection and more.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello everyone I am here at yest with Karina right hello with Karina the owner of Al crate if you don't know what Al crate is they are a monthly ya book box where each month they have a theme and sent out a recently released y book with a whole bunch of different goodies and I so graciously asked Karina to come on my channel to answer some few questions about alate and let's just get on to it so what inspired you to start alate was it like a long Affair that you thought of or was it like something you woke up in the middle night you're like I want to start a book box so basically how it started is Robert my partner and and I have kind of wanted to start our own business for a while um and we kind of just decided one day like now is the time we need to come up with an idea um and it started out as like a kind of Boutique website for bookworms and then we thought that it might be fun to offer it in the subscription box format and it kind of just took off from there it felt really natural putting it all together we kind of came up with the whole concept and everything in a week that's awesome so it was originally started like a boutique so just like you were just going to like socks and not socks you know like all the Bookworm and stuff yeah just kind of like handmade trinkets for bookworms monthly book box came out of that so what inspired the name alate like what made you think of Al the name so once we knew that we were going to be sending books out we wanted it to kind of reference Harry Potter obviously delivery by Owl so we just it didn't take too long to come up with the name we came up with like a couple different ideas and that one just kind of sounded fun to us right I love the name Aline I love your little logo and everything it's so it's so adorable so um how do you go about picking a theme for month and you know with that a book and all the things in the box like what comes first like do you pick the theme or do you pick the book so the book definitely comes first um I'll receive maybe like 20 different early manuscripts of books like publishing in a given month and kind of just read through them and if they don't capture our attention we just kind of set them aside and once we've picked the book that's when we kind of think of themes that would work for it and and close from there do you read like the whole manuscript or just like no how you do that I can barely read four books in a month well if a book like if it's not you know if anything feels off about it or if it's just not capturing like my interest then that one just gets put aside so we know that that's not going to be a book that we're going to choose right um so yeah kind of probably out of like 20 maybe we'll like settle on five to read the whole way through awesome yeah and then you so you get the book then you pick the theme that kind of coincides with the book yeah exactly awesome and then all the stuff inside it so how far in advance do you have to pick out the book CU I know it's probably pretty far to yeah so now um like I've just finished putting together the April box for next year oh that's what how many months ahead is that like six seven about it's about six wow I bet that's real tedious too to pick out yeah it's yeah it's fun though and like we need to pick them in advance so that everybody has time to make the items to go inside the box and stuff can you tell us what can we expect in each box like just a general idea of roughly so if anybody's like new to outree yeah for sure so every box comes with a brand new ya book that's always published within about a month of when we ship the box out um and the book always comes with a letter from the author as well and then it kind of we have like three to five different little items that'll go inside um that match the theme so they'll be like jewelry um yes I'm wearing mine it's my favorite ver yeah so we'll do jewelry we'll do kind of like random stuff like we've done like bath bombs pencil cases notebooks like all sorts of things what has been your favorite box you put out of Fara that's probably like the super hardest question ever picking between babies oh my gosh yes what is your favorite child um so I really liked our September box like just the past was that the three dark Browns one oh I love oh my gosh that book too yeah it was good I love awesome um I also really liked the March writers block box that was kind of like a an interesting theme to work within awesome um yeah the the boxes that kind of have really unique items stick out to me so like the bath bomb was like a kind of a fun one that we in September you probably like that too cuz that was the Raven cycle that's your favorite so we know about you as k the owner of Al crate but could you tell us a little bit about yourself like what are your hobbies besides breathing so right now like since starting Al crate it's pretty much my only hobby but no time for but uh yeah I like traveling a lot and Al crate's great because now we get to travel to book festivals and we always kind of make a point to see the city that we're in as well that's awesome um what else do I like you like Halloween a lot too right I love yes I've hav't noticed in your Instagram October is just a month of celebrations and just your happy month is everything am yeah I just kind of like hanging out with my friends pretty much a home body I me too me too I think a lot of people are so what is your favorite book of all time that you ever read do you have one in particular well or series you can say too there's like two that are kind of tied there's The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is just kind of a book that I found at a really young age that I just needed and stuck with me over the years um and then Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which is a book by Jonathan saffron F I think that's how you say his last name was horrible but I've heard about it awesome really good one yeah awesome so what is what about this year have there what have been some of your favorite books you've read this year so it's been interesting cuz right now I'm reading books that are publishing next year that's true you're getting a most of them are going to be in owl crate so I can't really talk about them but one book that I read this year that I loved was we are the ants by Sha David Hutchinson okay so that's kind of like a really interesting like LGBT sci-fi mix and it was very very good is this the one that has the braak ren cover yeah okay I've heard about that I've heard about that the covers like I've heard that's awesome that's all the questions I have for you so I will leave all the links down below for you to check out Al crate as well as Karina and yeah thank you so much for coming on my channel I'm letting ask all these questions hi everybody oh I can't wait for Mid December cuz I got flowers and all my weatherhello everyone I am here at yest with Karina right hello with Karina the owner of Al crate if you don't know what Al crate is they are a monthly ya book box where each month they have a theme and sent out a recently released y book with a whole bunch of different goodies and I so graciously asked Karina to come on my channel to answer some few questions about alate and let's just get on to it so what inspired you to start alate was it like a long Affair that you thought of or was it like something you woke up in the middle night you're like I want to start a book box so basically how it started is Robert my partner and and I have kind of wanted to start our own business for a while um and we kind of just decided one day like now is the time we need to come up with an idea um and it started out as like a kind of Boutique website for bookworms and then we thought that it might be fun to offer it in the subscription box format and it kind of just took off from there it felt really natural putting it all together we kind of came up with the whole concept and everything in a week that's awesome so it was originally started like a boutique so just like you were just going to like socks and not socks you know like all the Bookworm and stuff yeah just kind of like handmade trinkets for bookworms monthly book box came out of that so what inspired the name alate like what made you think of Al the name so once we knew that we were going to be sending books out we wanted it to kind of reference Harry Potter obviously delivery by Owl so we just it didn't take too long to come up with the name we came up with like a couple different ideas and that one just kind of sounded fun to us right I love the name Aline I love your little logo and everything it's so it's so adorable so um how do you go about picking a theme for month and you know with that a book and all the things in the box like what comes first like do you pick the theme or do you pick the book so the book definitely comes first um I'll receive maybe like 20 different early manuscripts of books like publishing in a given month and kind of just read through them and if they don't capture our attention we just kind of set them aside and once we've picked the book that's when we kind of think of themes that would work for it and and close from there do you read like the whole manuscript or just like no how you do that I can barely read four books in a month well if a book like if it's not you know if anything feels off about it or if it's just not capturing like my interest then that one just gets put aside so we know that that's not going to be a book that we're going to choose right um so yeah kind of probably out of like 20 maybe we'll like settle on five to read the whole way through awesome yeah and then you so you get the book then you pick the theme that kind of coincides with the book yeah exactly awesome and then all the stuff inside it so how far in advance do you have to pick out the book CU I know it's probably pretty far to yeah so now um like I've just finished putting together the April box for next year oh that's what how many months ahead is that like six seven about it's about six wow I bet that's real tedious too to pick out yeah it's yeah it's fun though and like we need to pick them in advance so that everybody has time to make the items to go inside the box and stuff can you tell us what can we expect in each box like just a general idea of roughly so if anybody's like new to outree yeah for sure so every box comes with a brand new ya book that's always published within about a month of when we ship the box out um and the book always comes with a letter from the author as well and then it kind of we have like three to five different little items that'll go inside um that match the theme so they'll be like jewelry um yes I'm wearing mine it's my favorite ver yeah so we'll do jewelry we'll do kind of like random stuff like we've done like bath bombs pencil cases notebooks like all sorts of things what has been your favorite box you put out of Fara that's probably like the super hardest question ever picking between babies oh my gosh yes what is your favorite child um so I really liked our September box like just the past was that the three dark Browns one oh I love oh my gosh that book too yeah it was good I love awesome um I also really liked the March writers block box that was kind of like a an interesting theme to work within awesome um yeah the the boxes that kind of have really unique items stick out to me so like the bath bomb was like a kind of a fun one that we in September you probably like that too cuz that was the Raven cycle that's your favorite so we know about you as k the owner of Al crate but could you tell us a little bit about yourself like what are your hobbies besides breathing so right now like since starting Al crate it's pretty much my only hobby but no time for but uh yeah I like traveling a lot and Al crate's great because now we get to travel to book festivals and we always kind of make a point to see the city that we're in as well that's awesome um what else do I like you like Halloween a lot too right I love yes I've hav't noticed in your Instagram October is just a month of celebrations and just your happy month is everything am yeah I just kind of like hanging out with my friends pretty much a home body I me too me too I think a lot of people are so what is your favorite book of all time that you ever read do you have one in particular well or series you can say too there's like two that are kind of tied there's The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is just kind of a book that I found at a really young age that I just needed and stuck with me over the years um and then Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close which is a book by Jonathan saffron F I think that's how you say his last name was horrible but I've heard about it awesome really good one yeah awesome so what is what about this year have there what have been some of your favorite books you've read this year so it's been interesting cuz right now I'm reading books that are publishing next year that's true you're getting a most of them are going to be in owl crate so I can't really talk about them but one book that I read this year that I loved was we are the ants by Sha David Hutchinson okay so that's kind of like a really interesting like LGBT sci-fi mix and it was very very good is this the one that has the braak ren cover yeah okay I've heard about that I've heard about that the covers like I've heard that's awesome that's all the questions I have for you so I will leave all the links down below for you to check out Al crate as well as Karina and yeah thank you so much for coming on my channel I'm letting ask all these questions hi everybody oh I can't wait for Mid December cuz I got flowers and all my weather\n"