The weekend has arrived and it’s brought Weekend Reading 205! What are you planning on paging through this weekend? Be sure and give us a shout-out in the comment section or over on social media and let us know!
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’m checking out Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl. I adored Pessl’s two previous novels, Special Topics in Calamity Physics and especially Night Film. However, I missed this YA release (in May 2020, I was pretty distracted). Fortunately, the announcement that’s Pessl’s next novel, DARKLY, will arrive in November 2024 has also put Neverworld Wake onto my radar, and I’ll be excited to catch up on it this weekend. Then as far as comics go, I have to pay my respects to today’s stoner holiday. To that end, I’ll be re-reading some Simon Hanselmann comics; Megahex is pretty much guaranteed, Amsterdam and other stories is pretty likely, and maybe I’ll round it out with the Werewolf Jones and SonsⓇ Deluxe Summer Annual, co-created by Josh Pettinger.
TAIMUR DAR: Just when I thought I made a dent in my weekly comics read pile, it’s now grown because of all the great stuff being published. At the top of the pile is Uncanny Valley #1 from writer Tony Fleecs and artist Dave Wachter. Other highlights include Gargoyles: Quest, Nightwing, World’s Finest, and many more!
DEAN SIMONS: I recently picked up Gamaran [tr. ‘Gama’s Uprising’] by Yosuke Nakamaru; translated by Aiko Funabashi, and I. Have. Been. Hooked! A talented kid from a lesser known sword school in 18th century Japan is hired by a lordling to participate in a battle royale of fighters using all kinds of weapons and martial arts techniques. This shonen manga gets right to the action and is fun as hell.
BILLY HENEHAN: My oldest kid and I have been reading our way through the Dog Man series by Dav Pilkey. While we wait for our next installment in the series to arrive from Brooklyn Public LIbrary, I’m reading Smile by Raina Telgemeier. Scholastic is dominating my household reading the way it dominated Bookscan in 2023.
KRISTINA ELYSE BUTKE: I’m reading two wildly different manga this weekend. First up is Cosmetic Playlover Volume 5 by Sachi Narashima. It’s a BL about two beauty consultants-turned-lovers who maintain a friendly competitive streak with each other at work. Their relationship started off really rocky, but over the volumes they’ve developed a truly loving partnership. I’ve enjoyed seeing their relationship grow over time! Next up I’m reading volume 3 of The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren. This is a spooky, tragic story about Yoshiki, who is best friends with Hikaru. Hikaru went missing in the mountains and came back…although Yoshiki realizes it’s not really Hikaru who has returned. There are all sorts of strange things going on in their mountain village, and Yoshiki struggles to come to grips with that, plus the loss of his friend, who looks like Hiraku, sounds like Hikaru…but isn’t HIkaru at all. This is an engaging story and I can’t wait to dive into the third volume.
You can peruse the 204 previous entries in The Beat’s Weekend Reading archive by clicking here.
