The time has come once again: it’s Weekend Reading 25!
Between the continued, uminitigated spread of COVID-19 and the terrible air quality caused by wildfires, we’re approaching half a year of weekends spent inside reading here at Stately Beat Manor. With Dr. Fauci warning that those of us in the United States will likely need to “hunker down” as the pandemic worsens over the autumn and winter, it looks like we’re not going to breaking this pattern any time soon, so we encourage Beat readers to leave us some reading recommendations in the comment section!
AVERY KAPLAN: This weekend, I’ll be checking out Betty & Veronica: Vixens: Volume One by Jamie Lee Rotante, Eva Cabrera, Elaina Unger, and Rachel Deering, with covers by Fiona Staples. Then, I’ll be revisiting “In the Wilds of an Open Soil with Writer Merlin Sheldrake,” the incredible illustrated piece by Wendy Xu.
TAIMUR DAR: Instead of going through the DC Universe platform back catalogue like I normally do, I’m switching things up since it’s only just now occurring to me I can use the Libby app to actually read the prose books on my bucket list. First up, Sharing a House with the Never-Ending Man: 15 Years at Studio Ghibli by Steve Alpert, chronicling his time as the head of the international division of Studio Ghibli and its parent company Tokuma Shoten.
AJ FROST: For my birthday this year, I received both volumes of the Ice Sword Saga, an epic fantasy arc starring the one n’ only Mickey Mouse and his pal Goofy. Written by the Italian Disney Master Massimo De Vita, these books are part of Fantagraphics’ larger effort to bring the stories that European comics fans have loved for decades and translate them for an American audience. I don’t have much experience with Mickey’s Topolino stories honestly, which is why I am so excited to delve into this realm of Disneyana.
NANCY POWELL: Back-to-school shopping for kids has its benefits, especially when I’m allowed to splurge on new books for the greater good of education. So lo and behold, endcapped on a bookstore shelf was Victoria Jamieson’s and Omar Mohamed’s When Stars Are Scattered, a book that describes Mohamed’s experiences as a Somali refugee growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp. I can’t wait to read and share this with my son.
BILLY HENEHAN: As readers of The Beat’s Best of 2019 article might know, I really LOVED House of X #2, saying it was the most excited I had been in years reading an X-Men comic. At the time that House of X #2 was blowing people’s minds, Rob Liefeld tweeted about its similarities to the novel by Claire North, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August. I have had the novel sitting in my to-read pile since shortly after that. I found the book fascinating from the start. But halfway through, the novel really ramps up in terms of excitement. Highly recommended for people who enjoyed the second issue of House of X or the movie Palm Springs.
GREGORY PAUL SILBER: Kurt Vonnegut is one of my most formative influences, but I’ve only read three of his novels: Slaughterhouse-Five, Mother Night, and Breakfast of Champions, possibly my favorite prose novel. So after a conversation with The Beat’s Avery Kaplan about our mutual Vonnegut love, and specifically our excitement for Ryan North and Albert Monteys’ upcoming Slaughterhouse-Five graphic novel adaptation, I figured this might be the week I finally read another Vonnegut novel: Jailbird. I’ve had it in my possession since high school after “borrowing” it from my grandparents, and I still don’t even know what it’s about. Does Kilgore Trout go to prison? Will Vonnegut himself make another in-universe appearance? I look forward to finding out!
Been reading my Marvel Essential volumes in chronological order. Up to Essential Avengers Vol. 4 (1969-72). Good stuff by Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, and the Buscema brothers.
I’m still working my way through “March.” It’s really intense what the Civil Rights Movement endured.
I also binged on DCeased: Hope at World’s End.” I never read the original series, and was nervous about that. But the book covers the necessary back story. You wouldn’t expect a zombie apocalypse story to be about hope, but it works.
Going through my pile of unread books, I’ve started “Femme Magnifique” which is a collection of short tales about “50 Magnificent Women Who Changed the World.” It’s quite the selection of women, although I’m a bit disappointed that Dorothy Day is not in it.
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