WSJ+

My husband and I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal. A few years ago they invited subscribers to sign up for WSJ+. This was a free new service offering premium perks like special tours or events, sometimes special goods like wine at a discount. Also, the chance to enter once a month to win a free trip to places like Napa Valley, Mexican resort, etc. 

This past year I have been getting free ebooks. Once a month, 3 titles are offered, with the subscriber being able to download one free book. This is how I added Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz, the book I read on my cruise, to my ipad. To access the books on a device rather than on my pc, I had to download the Book Shout app. There are a few free books on this app, and many for a fee. It is not a Wall Street Journal product; WSJ just has an agreement with them so they can offer the free books. Anybody can sign up for and use Book Shout. A special sign-in procedure is used to get the free Wall Street Journal book.
Another downloaded book from WSJ+ was The Boys in the Cave by Matt Gutman, a book about the rescue of the Thailand boys. You can see these are fairly recent publications.

As I thought back on my perusal of the WSJ+ offers, I began to wonder if the little mystery bonsai might have been something I saw and on a whim clicked yes as part of this service. The address information would already be in the Wall Street Journal data base. I have a vague recollection that I did say yes to one of the offers other than the books (which only come in an email with link). 

The brain cells are not as sharp as they once were. Sometimes a vague partial memory surfaces, but in this case not enough to really know the origin of the bonsai. It might have been a "bonus" for ordering on Amazon or from the various companies from which I ordered Christmas gifts. There was a lot going on in November, December, and January.